Remarks Prepared for Vigil (07212013) I need not pause to say how delighted I am to be here with you today

or how happy I am to see you out tonight Our gathering is one sparked out of necessity, for times call for togetherness Over the last two weeks we have been brought to our knees by a string of consecutive tragedies The flier promoting this assembly spoke of them; they were the deaths of friends and family members Neighbors and Acquaintances, those we knew and those we didnt know We gather here today because the weight of these recent losses have moved many to feel that our community has become blanketed by a dark cloud Yet if truth is to be told, for many people this dark cloud isnt new This dark cloud has befallen many of you long before these two weeks began. If truth is to be told, these deaths only magnified an existing condition For yes, many people here have lost loved ones, but many more have lost jobs, homes or social standing And though this gathering was brought about by the incredible number of deaths over the last two weeks We must acknowledge the tragic economic conditions many of us deal with each day To not do so would be enabling the dark cloud we seek to remove to remain in place long after these past two weeks have been claimed by the dust bin of history Many of us here today, in addition to the burden of grief brought on by the loss of a loved one, are suffering silently from the tragic condition of poverty. Each day many of us are forced to deal with the grief of disappointment as the realities of poverty dictate choices between paying a utility bill or paying for food; paying for car repairs or paying for car insurance or paying for medicine or going without. Let us not forget this grief when we talk about the overhanging dark cloud, for this is the grief of everyday life. This is the grief of poverty. Oh yes my friends, these are troubling times. When the stresses of death combine with the stresses of life and the uncertainty of an economic depression, times do indeed become turbulent. At times like these, hope seems fleeting Hope seems like a distant memory Like it is a mirage in the desert of life, so close, yet out of reach from our grasps. But hope is never really out of reach and we know this, because weve all been through bad times maybe not like these, but weve been through em And we know hope was ultimately always there

We know that at our lowest moments and our lowest times that hope has somehow been there. We know this to be true because in those moments when we thought we couldnt go on any longer hope became our guiding wind, gently pressing on our backs, guiding us through incredible valleys and over insurmountable mountains We know this to be true because in those moments we thought we would be over-run with emotion and toppled by lifes storms, hope became that stabilizing force within us, helping us stand through cascading rains and gusty winds. We know it to be true because at moments of life shattering losses, when nothing seemed to make sense, hope became our beacon of truth, helping us reassemble ourselves from the remaining debris We know hope exists, weve had to call on it before. Our challenge today is to define it; with darkness hanging over us, seeming clanging to our very persons, the light of hope appears bleak Thus to find it again, we must invoke its spirit and describe its character for hope can only dissipate darkness when you take on its form and carry its spirit to those you interact with! The text-book definition of hope is to desire with an expectation of obtaining Yet this isnt all hope is. Yes its true hope does encourage us to desire better circumstances and expect better outcomes from life; but that isnt all it does. Yes its true hope illuminates our internal optimism and orchestrates our external steadfastness but thats not all hope does Hope demands from us also. It demands that we see our lives in a realistic light. It demands that we do not bog ourselves down with lies and illusions. It demands that we see the reality of the future that is being built around us, and the past which helped to create it. In adhering to these demands we match the expectation hope brings with the obtainable goals our actions construct. This is the beauty of hope; it encourages us to rise to the challenges we face To climb the mountains we believe are insurmountable, to stand against the winds we believe will topple us and to accept the losses we believe will shatter our lives. Yes my friends, these are indeed troubling times but hope says to us, in the words of that old black spiritual, troubles dont last always! And that is my message to you today; yes the troubling tides of grief are crashing against you but hope says troubles dont last always

Yes the troubling storms of poverty have covered the bright sun of abundance but hope says troubles dont last always And yes, the troubling clouds of darkness may have cast a gloomy shadow across the land but hope says troubles dont last always Let us remember this, let us go forth with that in our hearts tonight, let us as we grieve for the loved ones weve lost remember that even as we move through the depths of grief, hope is still there with us always telling us, no matter how troubled we are trouble dont lost always!