Dr. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr
"Some years ago I was introduced to a painting by a man named Watt. His painting seemed, at first, a study in contradiction primarily because the title given to the painting seemed in conflict with the scene which the canvas depicted. The painting is entitled Hope. Hope shows a woman playing a harp while seated on top of the world. Her posture would appear at first glance to be all right. What more enviable position could any of us ever hope to be in than being on top of the world with everything and everybody dancing to our music. Look closer, however, and there you will see the illusion of power gives way to the reality of pain. The world on which this woman sits, our world, is torn by war, destroyed by hate, decimated by despair, and devastated by distrust. By any artistic evaluation, the painting shows a work on the brink of destruction and, at the same time he titled the painting, Hope.
Look closer still for the harpist is sitting in rags, her clothes tattered as though she herself had been a victim of some great war. When you look closely, you see a bandage on her head with blood beginning to seep through. Scars and cuts are visible on her face, arms and legs, and the harp on which she is playing has all but one of its strings torn, ripped out and dangling down. Even her instrument has been damaged by what she has been through and she is more the classic example of quiet despair than anything else and yet, at the same time, the artist dared to entitle this painting, Hope.
If, however, when you look at this painting, all you see is despair and desperation, it is because you have only seen the horizontal dimensions and relationships, only how the woman was hooked up with the world on which she sat. Look more closely still and you will see that there is also a vertical relationship. When you look at this painting you will see the war, the hunger, and the distrust but don’t forget to look just above her head. There above the head of the woman will be some small notes of music moving playfully and joyfully toward heaven. The meaning here is that in spite of being involved in a world devastated by destruction and decimated by disease,
in spite of being in a world where famine and greed are uneasy bed partners,
in spite of being in a world where nuclear nightmare draws closer with every second;
in spite of being on a ticking time bomb with her clothes in rags, her body scared, bruised and bleeding, and her harp all but destroyed except for that one string that was left,
the woman still had the ability to hope.
These are days when for all our failure to communicate and collaborate, you have come perhaps with only one string left, but you have come here with the ability to hope.
God of our weary years
God of our silent tears
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed.
We have come over a place that with tears has been watered
We have come treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.
Out of the gloomy past, till now we come at last
Where the bright gleam of our bright star is cast!"
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The Keynote Address delivered for the Campaign for New Community: A National Dialogue on Collaborating for Successful Siting of Housing and Service Programs, November 12, 1998 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Crystal City, Virginia, by H. Beecher Hicks, Jr., Senior Minister of Metropolitan Baptist Church of Washington, D. C. All Rights Reserved. 2007
When you done all that you can..and you don't have a pot to pee in..have the audacity to hope according to Jeremiah Wright:
III. Persistence of Hope
The real lesson Hannah gives us from this chapter—the most important word God would have us hear—is how to hope when the love of God is not plainly evident. It's easy to hope when there are evidences all around of how good God is. But to have the audacity to hope when that love is not evident—you don't know where that somewhere is that my grandmother sang about, or if there will ever be that brighter day—that is a true test of a Hannah-type faith. To take the one string you have left and to have the audacity to hope—make music and praise God on and with whatever it is you've got left, even though you can't see what God is going to do—that's the real word God will have us hear from this passage and from Watt's painting.
There's a true-life illustration that demonstrates the principles portrayed so powerfully in this periscope. And I close with it. My mom and my dad used to sing a song that I've not been able to find in any of the published hymnals. It's an old song out of the black religious tradition called "Thank you, Jesus." It's a very simple song. Some of you have heard it. It's simply goes, "Thank you Jesus. I thank you Jesus. I thank you Jesus. I thank you Lord." To me they always sang that song at the strangest times—when the money got low, or when the food was running out. When I was getting in trouble, they would start singing that song. And I never understood it, because as a child it seemed to me they were thanking God that we didn't have any money, or thanking God that we had no food, or thanking God that I was making a fool out of myself as a kid.
Conclusion: Hope is What Saves Us
But I was only looking at the horizontal level. I did not understand nor could I see back then the vertical hookup that my mother and my father had. I did not know then that they were thanking him in advance for all they dared to hope he would do one day to their son, in their son, and through their son. That's why they prayed. That's why they hoped. That's why they kept on praying with no visible sign on the horizon. And I thank God I had praying parents, because now some thirty-five years later, when I look at what God has done in my life, I understand clearly why Hannah had the audacity to hope. Why my parents had the audacity to hope.
And that's why I say to you, hope is what saves us. Keep on hoping; keep on praying. God does hear and answer prayer.
Jeremiah 3:15, “And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
The Pastor who started it all: The Reverend Dr. Frederick Sampson, II
and let a woman speak, Lani Guinier, and that's the rest of the story:
"Professor Lani Guinier of Harvard Law School, who is supporting Mr. Obama, said the key distinction between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton lies in how they view their relationship to power. In doing so, Ms. Guinier, whose nomination as assistant attorney general for civil rights in 1993 was pummeled by conservative groups and aborted by the White House,[her so called friends, the Cllintons] referred to their respective biographies.
Mrs. Clinton 'is the talented lawyer serving her clients,” Ms. Guinier said. Mr. Obama is the organizer, she said, “who sees the source of his power as the ability to inspire people to mobilize.'
Referring to the possibility of the nation’s election of a historic first, a black or a woman, Mrs. Clinton said last week, 'In a way, it’s a good problem to have. But it is a problem.'"
Let's hope your azzez to the poll to vote. It's the vote..
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