You do not need to see the dead rise again to feel the power of hope and the pure energy of the good news. As a kid I have always been fascinated by the uncommon meaning behind things that were normally taken for granted. Think of the grasses that grow on the roof of a house. Now we can blame it on the agents of seed dispersal. Yet it doesn’t answer the question of the difference between the soil as the proper place for plants and the roof as a row of aluminum sheets without soil. Indeed, there is something in hope that is linked to defiance. (This connects with faith too.) But it is not some kind of passive defiance. It would most times require piercing through the rock, and thriving on the roof under the most unlikely conditions. In fact, the persistence in confronting and defying all the structures of oppression constitutes a good measure of hope’s audaciousness.

I leave you with this reflection and prayer on the audacity of hope against oppression, from 2019 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity:

I’ve heard it all before! 

I’ll believe it when I see it! 

‘Things can only get better’ 

‘Audacity of hope’ 

Promises of something new! 

Good news?  

They are just bus-slogans when the poor remain poor, 

the vulnerable abused and no-one speaks out! 

Do you think I can jump up and dance

when my hands and feet are made heavy with the anger from broken promises? 

And so I stare at you, because to stare is all I can do. 

But

if ‘good news’ means 

rising up against power, 

overturning the tables down the road in the big city,

walking, talking and eating with people like us, 

going the whole way with us,

not departing when things get too tough, 

even when the suffering becomes too great to endure,

this would truly be something new. 

It would be good news fulfilled.

Then I could be tempted to trust one more time.

Prayer

God, the bringer of good news, 

forgive our lust for power  

and free us from the temptation to oppress others. 

Instil in us the determination 

to see your good news made real in us and those around us, 

as we share in the mission of your Son Jesus  

to fulfil your promise of freedom from poverty and oppression. 

We pray in his name. Amen.