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A Pastoral Letter Rev. F. Russell Mitman, D.Min., Conference Minister and President Pennsylvania Southeast Conference, United Church of Christ January 21, 2009 “On this day we gathered,” President Obama said in his inaugural address, “because we have chosen hope over fear,  unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”As I listened to the address, a passage from Paul’s Letter to the Romans flashed through my mind: “. . . knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirt that has been given to us.” (Romans 5:4-5) Choosing hope over fear is not only a decision for the new President and the nation in the midst of multiple crises, it is also the Gospel choice that God holds out to our churches. Fear, fanned by the media has rendered many in our churches captive. The fear of scarcity has diminished some churches’ ministry and mission, even, in some cases, to considerations of disbanding. In other instances fear has driven a retreat into a fortress mentality that focuses the church’s attention on survival rather than on witnessing to Christ and the good news that is at the heart of the Gospel. Yet, God holds out the option of choosing the alternative reality–hope that is not an escape from tough times but hope that is born of God in the midst of tough times. Paul reminded the congregation at Rome that suffering (which was very real to those who named Christ when Caesar ruled) produces endurance, and endurance produces character that becomes the manger where hope is born. Hope is God’s gift, God’s alternative to fear and despair, that is always there, always here, always wherever the body of Christ is in this world. Tough times can be the church’s finest hour, testing our endurance, forging our character and our will to dare great things for God. Endurance is more than survival, and character is more than just putting up with whatever is. Times such as these can be our character-hours when congregations, working together, decide to choose hope over fear, unity in mission and ministry over the “but-we-can’t’s” that would want to hold us back. Inauguration day in Washington marked for many of us a new day in our national life–and in the world, for that matter. My prayer is that our churches can inaugurate a new time in their common life that opens them to the hope that God wants to birth in them. Churches are the Epiphany mangers where God wants to be born and to be made manifest in an everydayness that is consumed by fear and hopelessness. And, as Paul assured the Romans, so God assures us that “hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” God’s hope-gift is ours. The Holy Spirit pours more of it on us that we can imagine. In many ways, therefore, the choice already has been made for us, and we can say, from our own confessional perspective as Christ’s church, that “this day we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.” God in Christ has made the choice for us, and, since it is God’s gift, God’s hope will not disappoint us! To help church leaders enable congregations to make hope-choices in these tough times, your Conference staff are issuing the invitation to come to the Church House in Collegeville this coming Tuesday, January 27, at 9:30 A.M. to celebrate Epiphany eucharist together and then to be engaged in dialogue on “Making Strategic Decisions in Anxious Times.” We look forward to your presence with us. God bless you, and God bless the church, and God bless this nation and the whole world that God holds so wonderfully in God’s own hand!. In Christ,
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