Conversation #33: Deconstructing Advent : Hope

Flipped Table Theology

As we enter into the month of December, we are starting a series on "Deconstructing Advent." This month is on Deconstructing Hope. Our full team is finally back together, talking through this holiday-conversation. Several quotes were shared today:
Rue shared a quote from President Barrack Obama's inauguration speech: “Hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. Hope is the belief that destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by the men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be.”
Holly shared the famous poem line from Emily Dickinson, "Hope is a thing with feathers."
Phil shared a couple quotes on lament by Cole Arthur Riley form their book, "This Here Flesh", and a quote from Walter Brueggemann & Clover Rueter Beal.
As well as a quote by Cornel West, "The country is in deep trouble. We’ve forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. This is true at the personal level. But there’s also a political version, which has to do with what you see when you get up in the morning and look in the mirror and ask yourself whether you are simply wasting your time on the planet or spending it in an enriching manner. We need a moral prophetic minority of all colors who muster the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, and the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing, hoping to land on something. That’s the history of black folks in the past and present, and of those of us who value history and struggle. Our courage rests on a deep democratic vision of a better world that lures us and a blood-drenched hope that sustains us. This hope is not the same as optimism. Optimism adopts the role of the spectator who surveys the evidence in order to infer that things are going to get better. Yet we know that the evidence does not look good. The dominant tendencies of our day are unregulated global capitalism, racial balkanization, social breakdown, and individual depression. Hope enacts the stance of the participant who actively struggles against the evidence in order to change the deadly tides of wealth inequality, group xenophobia,

We hope you are able to find a safe, supportive community in your deconstructing because "no one deserves to deconstruct alone" as we mentioned during week 17. Our Flipped Table Theology Facebook group may be a starting place for you and we encourage anyone who is deconstructing or processing religious trauma to join.
The Flipped Table Theology Podcast is a production of The Flipped Table Collective. You can explore all of the resources, classes, events, and trainings that the Flipped Table Collective has to offer at www.flippedtablecollective.com.