Hope Through a Choked Throat

Hope and optimism are not the same thing. Hope, to paraphrase a long-ago sermon point from pastor Laura Truax, “is spoken through a choked throat”. What I mean by that is that hope, at least as I understand it as a Christian, is not rooted in sunny optimism or positive thinking but rather in the shared memory of the people of God, fully embodied in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

This is not ultimately a story of triumphant empire, a bloody vanquishing of enemies, of winners and losers.

It is ultimately a story of slavery and deliverance, exile and return, death and resurrection.

It is the story of people with a boot to the neck who rise again.

It is story whispered through a choked throat.

My hope is not ultimately rooted in a Biden/Harris ticket, though I will enthusiastically cast my vote (by mail) for them in November. I will rejoice in the historic election of our first female and first person of color elected to the vice presidency. I will rejoice in the infusion of empathy, dignity, compassion, and maturity that Biden will bring back to the highest office in the land.

And while I will continue to work for peace and justice and love, their election will not do much, on its own, to heal the soul of this nation. In many ways, it will continue to reveal the divisions that Trump’s election and presidency have laid bare. It remains our work to shape a society we want to see. And damn, the deck is stacked way way against us, still.

Which brings me back to hope through a choked throat.

Without listening to that gasping, desperate testimony, that strangled insistence of humanity, American is doomed.

I hear conservative Christian friends speak all the time about how the country needs to “turn to Jesus.” Well, I agree. Because the voice of hope through a choked throat is Jesus’ voice. The voice of hope who screams, “I can’t breathe” is Jesus’ voice. The voice of hope who insists, “Say her name!” is Jesus’ voice.

Turning to these voices is an assault on optimism and positivity. It’s also called something else, something indeed Biblical: conversion.

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