Sermon- December 7, 2025

“We Choose Hope"

“This community is one of miracle makers.”

In a few weeks, it will be my four year anniversary here at UU Wellesley Hills being your minister. It’s hard to believe – some days feel like 40 years, but mostly I wonder where that time has gone?

One of the things I have learned over the past 4 years, actually one of the things you all have taught me, is that to thrive as a person, or thrive as a community, we need hope. The belief that things will get better. The belief that this program will be successful. The belief that we will all be OK.

Albert Camus writes “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger — something better, pushing right back.”

Remembering back to my first few days or weeks or months here, it was a bit of a bumpy road – for both of us. I had no idea what I was doing here, and you all had just gone through the breakup of a relationship. But I could see, unconditionally, that you still had the fight in you, even if you could not see it yourself.

Little by little, bit by bit, by surfing on that wave of hope, here we are today. Together we have built our covenant with each other, an understanding that we are all human and fall sometimes, but we reach down, always, and say “here, take my hand.”

And I have seen – especially recently – hope on your faces. Bright, sparkling, delightful hope.

So our challenge as Unitarian Universalists is how do we bring that hope into our world. How do we spread our good news in a world that desperately needs good news?

In Affirmation of Hope, Loretta Williams writes: 

“We, bearers of the dream, affirm that a new vision of hope is emerging. We pledge to work for that community in which justice will be actively present.

We affirm that there is struggle yet ahead.Yet we know that in the struggle is the hope for the future.We affirm that we are co-creators of the future, not passive pawns.

And we stand united in affirmation of our hope and vision of a just and inclusive society. We affirm the unity of all persons.”

Lately, I’ve been feeling like we’re living in an Orwellian world – what’s down is up, what’s up is down. White is black, black is white and lies are truth. And the dis and misinformation is coming at us fast and furious. So Williams words are especially meaningful in our world today. We, bearers of the dream, affirm that a new vision of hope is emerging. We pledge to work for that community in which justice will be actively present.

But hope can also be hard work! For me, hope is not something that just happens or is intuitive to my nature. Just ask Tom, as he watches me throw things at the screen while I’m watching the news! That’s why I continue to find myself returning to my faith as a UU. Returning to our covenanting with each other, in the hope of building a better and more just world. It is in these promises we make to each other that I find hope – hope that I can be a more loving person, a more forgiving person. Hope that my actions will be more just and fair. Hope that in our relationships my heart will open, and I am able to say “please come in.”

So this morning I return to our relationship – yours and mine. I look over the past 4 years and know that miracles can and do happen. I think about where we were 4 years ago, and where we are now as a community. And that fills me with tremendous hope. And that knowing gives me hope for our future. It gives me hope that our world will survive and will flourish. Because we’ve got each other. We’ve got each other’s back.

But again, this relationship between you and me, did not just happen. It took work on both of our parts. All of us had to work on building a better community, building Beloved Community here – together. And it took hope.

So as we look out on our world, let’s commit ourselves to hope. In that famous line from Desiderata by Max Ehrmann, “With all of its shams, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.”

I’d like to end this morning with a story titled “Two Frogs” by Rev. Chris Buice.

Two frogs hop (as they do) along through their day … hop (as they do) into a bucket.  This bucket happened to be half-filled with cream, which made the sides very slippery – too slippery for the frogs to climb out, too deep to jump out.  One frog began to moan and wail ‘we’ll never get out, we’re doomed!’ but the other frog quietly thought about their predicament. While he thought, he moved his legs, treading ‘water’ in the cream – ‘we’ll never get out – we’re doomed’ moaned one – and the other, paddled, and to drown out his companion, started chanting ‘keep hope alive! Keep hope alive! And he urged his despairing friend to do the same – keep hope alive, keep hope alive – around and around they swam, croaking ‘keep hope alive! Keep hope alive!’ And, after some time, the most astonishing thing happened – what do you think it was? Butter formed from the cream! As the frogs swam round and round, they churned the cream into butter, enough to climb up on and hop out of the pail, on their merry way, still chanting to themselves – keep hope alive! Keep hope alive.

So as I close in on my fourth year here with all of you, thank you for continuing to swim around in the cream until butter formed. Thank you for your resiliency and willingness to keep going, to keep hope alive. And most of all, thank you for holding our Unitarian Universalist faith so close and being willing to hold out your hand and say “here, let me help you.”

May it be so.