ELCA Worship News: November 2021
“Come and open our tomorrow
for your joyful reign so near.
Take away all human sorrow;
give us hope against our fear.”
As we approach the end of one church year and the beginning of the next, the final phrase of a hymn by Jaci Maraschin encapsulates my prayer: “Give us hope against our fear.” In an October interview for the podcast “On Being,” atmospheric scientist and evangelical Christian Katharine Hayhoe shares her reasons for hope amid the immense challenges of our time. Interviewer Krista Tippett calls this hope “muscular hope” rather than a naïve optimism. Hayhoe notes that one of her favorite Scripture passages is 2 Timothy: “God has not given you a spirit of fear” (1:7). Instead, we are given a spirit of power and of love. The gifts we have been given empower us to act as agents for change in the world.
This Advent brings several reasons for hope: children can soon receive vaccinations for COVID-19, many congregations are gathering again in person, families look forward to holiday celebrations. Yet humanity grieves losses and experiences great suffering and forms of oppression, as does the planet itself. As this is being written, people from around the world, including over a dozen from the ELCA, are meeting in Glasgow for the climate change summit. How will those attending encourage all of us to have the kind of “muscular hope” needed to address climate change? For two new hymns in All Creation Sings that address this, see “Can You Feel the Seasons Turning” and “Abba, Abba, Hear Us” among others in the “Lament” and “Creation” sections. To encourage our connection to the land on which we gather, see resource links here for including land acknowledgments in worship.
Blessings as you move into this new year, living more fully into the hope and love to which we are called.
In Christ, our Hope,
Deacon Jennifer Baker-Trinity
Program Manager, Worship Resource Development