It's a Thin Line Between Hope and Despair

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Marcie Alvis Walker

Jan 11, 2022

Augustus John, Two Jamaican Women 1937

INVOCATION

Spirit, in your hands, we lay our despairing hearts.

CLOUD OF WITNESS

For as long as I can remember, I’ve learned from bible studies, bible commentaries, sermons, and even Christian podcasts, that the main difference between Leah and Rachel from the book of Genesis was that Leah was plain with “weak” or maybe even crossed eyes, but Rachel was sexy and beautiful. So naturally, as any red-blooded cisgendered man would, Jacob preferred his trophy-hot Rachel to his frumpy Leah.

But the most modern translations (and even, surprisingly, the classic King James Version) of Genesis 29:17, in which the physical appearance of both women are described, imply that Leah wasn’t unattractive at all:

and the eyes of Leah [are] tender, and Rachel has been beautiful of form and beautiful of appearance.
The Literal Standard
Leah’s eyes were delicate, but Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance.
The New King James
The eyes of Leah were exquisite, but Rachel was finely formed, a vision to grasp.
A Literary Bible: An Original Translation
Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well-favored.
The 21st Century King James
Leah’s eyes were delicate, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.
The Tree of Life
Leah’s eyes were lovely, and Rachel was graceful and beautiful.
The New Revised Standard
Leah had nice eyes, but Rachel was stunningly beautiful.
The Message
Leah had lovely eyes, but Rachel was shapely, and in every way a beauty.
The Living Bible

Apparently, the Hebrew translation is not quite clear. It could be that Leah’s eyes were noticeably different, filled with an unusual amount of gentleness or tenderness. But many of us have been led to believe that her eyes were dull, weak, and bleary. I think our westernized ideals of beauty have tainted the text, and the writer wasn’t comparing the sisters’ looks, but rather their temperament and character. What if what he meant to convey was that Leah was soulful, but Rachel was vain?

If we have indeed mishandled this part of Leah’s story, perhaps we’ve been careless with other aspects of it as well. For instance, we’ve been taught to emulate Leah’s hopefulness in her very desperate situation. But is Leah hopeful or desperate?

Once marriage-bound to both her sister and Jacob, her every act is one of desperation, from naming her children to pimping out her enslaved handmaid. In her final act, she passed down her legacy of hopelessness and desperation to her sons, who sold Rachel’s favored and good-looking son, Joseph, into slavery.

The line between hope and desperation is so very, very narrow. It’s as narrow as the line between lovely and tender-eyed, weak and delicate.

CALL & RESPONSE

Call: The veil between our hope and our despair, O Creator, is so very thin.
Response (Read Aloud): But your light filters our heart, taking away all desperation.

Call: Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you so bothered and churned up inside?
Response (Read Aloud): Despite this inner turmoil, I will practice hope again, O Compassionate One of Hope.

CANTICLE

Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise”

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

BENEDICTION

May the God of Hope sever the line between hope and despair, fill you with joy and peace.

Amen