The Shelter of Hope

Thursday, January 27, 2022

Gayle Kabaker

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INVOCATION

She Who Is Spirit, tuck and swaddle us beneath your wing. 

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PRESENTATION  

Most admirers of theologian Howard Thurman came to love and appreciate him after reading his most popular book, Jesus and the Disinherited. This is the book that many civil rights activists, including Dr. King, carried with them at all times:

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that I have heard a sermon on the meaning of religion, of Christianity, to the man who stands with his back against the wall. It is urgent that my meaning be crystal clear. The masses of men live with their backs constantly against the wall. They are the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed. What does our religion say to them?

While I do love the legacy of such an important masterwork, it’s not how Thurman captured my attention. I became intrigued with this extraordinary human when I read his autobiography, With Head and Heart. When I finished the book, I was left wanting to know even more about him. I started searching for articles and even watched his documentaries and archived interviews, and somewhere in all that searching I learned that Dr. Howard Thurman, world-traveler, social justice leader, professor, pastor, theologian and writer, was also a painter of penguins. More specifically, he was an Emperor penguin aficionado. My heart burst, and I became absolutely enthralled and smitten with Howard Thurman.

How could I not fall hard for a stargazing, justice-seeking preacher who loved to draw and paint Emperor penguins in his free-time? For Thurman, Emperor penguins were the epitome of unity, love, and unending hope:

Howard Thurman could identify with life in its numerous manifestations. A favorite interest of his was in the companionship of Emperor penguins… Howard, with eyes sparkling and voice filled with admiration, would tell how the process occurs on the ice of the Antarctic at temperatures sometimes falling 75 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.

‘No other species of penguin can withstand such bitter cold with no nest, save the icy shelf. The eggs are laid on the bird’s fleshy feet, protected from the frigid cold by the warm skins of their bellies. The roles of Mr. and Mrs. Emperor Penguin are alternately reversed. Taking his turn, Mr. Penguin stays at home on the ice where his large, thickly featured wings spread protective warmth over the eggs during incubation. Meanwhile, Mrs. Penguin is off taking her turn at gathering food for their mutual survival. Little wonder that the emperors lose fewer of their chicks than do other penguins.’

Howard found a suggestive metaphor in his tale. The dream of unity finding protection, when the storms of life were raging, in his faith that ‘underneath are the everlasting arms’ exemplified by the egg protected from the bitter cold, surrounded by the mother and father. The egg came to be significant to him as a symbol of any person’s dream. It must be sheltered and kept close to the heart during all the cold, dark experiences of life until it is hatched. Howard’s telling and retelling of the penguin story brought renewed meaning deep within his being.

Sometimes hope is hatched within our most cold and dark experiences where love is our only means of shelter. 

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LITANY

It may be dark, but God’s love, like a beam of light, guides us. 
It may grow cold, but God’s love, like wings, shelters us. 
It may feel bitter, but God’s love, like honey, sweetens us. 
The dark, the cold, and the bitter may bring us to the brink of despair,
But God’s love, like a sheltering womb for all of creation, fills us with hope. 

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EXHORTATION

Psalm 57 sung and performed by The Psalm Project

Have mercy on me, God.
Have mercy on me.
My soul has trusted in you. 
And I’ll wait in the shade of your wing
until the terror is gone.

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BENEDICTION 

May you be a light for those who dwell in darkness, sweetness for those wrapped in bitterness, and shelter for those whose spirits wander in the cold. 

Amen.