Monday, November 18, 2024

Hope

 

I was standing on duty Wednesday morning

When one of my 2nd graders showed me a treasure.

“Look,” she said, displaying a quarter with a playdoh frame.

“It says, ‘Hope.’”

And sure enough,

The quarter said hope.

 

Evidently,

The US Mint has been producing

A series of American Women Quarters

Since 2022.

In a society that increasingly carries plastic instead of cash and change,

Who knew?!

 

The idea was to feature notable women in US History.

According to Wikipedia,

“The women have made

contributions to the United States

in a wide spectrum of accomplishments and fields,

including but not limited to suffrage,

civil rights,

abolition,

government,

humanities,

science,

space,

and arts.

Most of the featured women have been from ethnic minority groups.

 

The Hope quarter recognizes Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray,

A poet, writer, activist, lawyer, Episcopal priest, and a staunch advocate for civil rights, fighting against racial and sex discrimination.

The word hope was chosen from a line in her poem “Dark Testament” that says

Hope is a song in a weary throat.
(I will put part of the larger poem at the end of this note.)

 

I ordered a Hope quarter to use as a sermon illustration yesterday morning.

I had the opportunity to preach at my dad’s church.

I spoke about hope.

 

I left the quarter at home.

But I still spoke about hope.

God’s hope.

And now I have a quarter by which to remember.

 

---

 

Dark Testament: Verse 8 by Pauli Murray

Hope is a crushed stalk
Between clenched fingers
Hope is a bird’s wing
Broken by a stone.
Hope is a word in a tuneless ditty —
A word whispered with the wind,
A dream of forty acres and a mule,
A cabin of one’s own and a moment to rest,
A name and place for one’s children
And children’s children at last . . .
Hope is a song in a weary throat.
Give me a song of hope
And a world where I can sing it.
Give me a song of faith
And a people to believe in it.
Give me a song of kindliness
And a country where I can live it.
Give me a song of hope and love
And a brown girl’s heart to hear it.

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