“Seeds of Hope” – December 31st, 2023

READING: “A Winter Blessing,” Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker

In the shadowed quiet of winter’s light
earth speaks softly
of her longing.
Because the wild places are in tears.

Come, she cries to us.
Kneel down here
on the frosty grass,
and feel the prayer buried in the ground.

Bend your ear to my heart
and listen hard.

Love this world, she whispers.
Distill peace from the snow
and water the cities
with mercy.

Weave wonder from the forest
and clothe grief
with beauty.

Rest in the rhythm of the turning year,
Trace the bending arc
Rounding the curve toward justice.
And vow anew to do no harm.

The winter trees stand watch
haloed in the last gleams of the slanting sun.
Glory sings here.
Heaven echoes the call:
Repeat the sounding joy.

Make your life an answer:
Bow.
Praise.
Rise.

In 1908, Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Church of Christian Science*, decided that planting a religion wasn’t enough. She needed to do more with her time…It was in this year, 1908, that she waded into the waters of journalism, and launched the Christian Science Monitor, or The Monitor as some of us know it, as a response to the journalism of her day. She wrote: “Looking over the newspapers of the day, one naturally reflects that it is dangerous to live, so loaded with disease seems the very air. These descriptions carry fears to many minds, to be depicted in some future time upon the body. [This] periodical…will counteract…this public nuisance; for through our paper…we shall be able to reach many homes with healing…thought.” The Monitor is not a religious-themed paper, and it reports on all the issues of the day. They support the separation of church and state. It’s won seven Pulitzer Prizes and countless other prestigious awards in journalism. Their mission today is offering news stories with qualities that unite us – qualities such as respect, resilience, fairness and hope…Their aim is to “embrace the human family…prize honesty and largeness of heart…seek practical solutions, not just page views….”

How we view the world shapes our actions, they proclaim, and “if we do not or cannot view the world through the lens of hope and love, then our actions cannot be hopeful or loving.”

I recommend visiting the Moniter’s headquarters on Mass Ave. in Boston. Upon entering you are met with these large words on the back wall: “Look high enough, and you see the heart of humanity warming and winning.” And much of this entry area is devoted to their Seeds of Hope wall–where visitors can write down on cards where they are seeing, experiencing and practicing hope, gratitude, courage, compassion, forgiveness, joy, generosity, and resilience, and hang them on the wall.

This is not an exercise in blotting out the world’s suffering or trying to make light of the horrific. It is an invitation to view the world from a more holistic lens.

We sit at the close of 2023, poised to enter 2024, and New Year’s traditions often, if I’m to be honest, leave me feeling a bit flat. I love a good calendar turn and the idea of a fresh year, but I’m done with swearing things off; resolutely banishing something or trying to make unsustainable lifestyle promises. I am also not going to enter this year girding myself as so many are. This doesn’t feel like a healthy way to begin anything, let alone live life.

How might we cast something different into the New Year? Begin it differently? How might we look high enough, so that we might also get a glimpse of the heart of humanity warming and winning?

We are going to attempt this by creating our own Seeds of Hope wall. Small seed cards and pencils will now be passed around. And I want you to take time to consider where you are seeing, experiencing, receiving, offering HOPE. Remember, these are seeds–they need not be Oak Trees of Hope. We are putting our faith in their power to become Oaks.

We are going to put this board of Hope in our welcome area for the month…maybe longer. Let’s see.

Consider where you are seeing, experiencing, receiving, offering HOPE in the world and in your lives.

Once you are done, you can come up to the board and hang it.

RITUAL BEGINS

Let us close with this wisdom teaching from historian and ferocious activist Howard Zinn:

TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

And to this, and the Hope we see and are, let us all say AMEN.

Let us close now by singing our hope with words that translate to: GRANT US PEACE. Dona Nobis Pacim #388

*After preaching this sermon, it was brought to my attention that the Christian Science church, and Mary Baker Eddy, have made open and public anti-LGBTGIA+ statements, and engaged in harmful discriminatory actions against LGBTQIA+ identified people that do not align with our Unitarian Universalist theology or values. We honor both the wisdom of the Christian Science Journal and Church, as well as condemn any belief or act that is not rooted in radical, liberational Love.