Darkness fades with the first hint of dawn.
Rise in the cool early morning air. The season is turning.
With each stretch, this way and that, open to compassion.
Light comes with its message of Hope for the new day.
First Gift.

There is much going on in the world:
Typhoon devastation in the Philippines;
turmoil in the Middle East.
Health Care – the current political battlefield in the U.S.,
Immigration reform, stumbling, in a nation where the
top 1% earns more money in a year than the bottom 50%,
and over 46 million people live in poverty.

At times I feel overwhelmed.
I yearn for those early morning,
just as dawn is breaking, glimpses of light.
I need to embrace that first gift,
to have my day grounded in hope.
I need to relax, take a deep breath, look out a window,
and marvel at tree and sky and water.
I need to imbue myself with wonder at
the four-footed and winged creatures that live around me.

You may not remember your first notions of hope.

I was born to Hope, in a way. She was my grandmother. She was her parents’ first child. When another daughter was born, Grace entered the world. I was born into a world Hope helped create. As her father moved his ministerial career from Methodism to Congregationalism, and on to Unitarianism, Hope grew. And when she and my grandfather moved from the East Coast to Tulsa, within a few years they helped found All Souls Unitarian Church.

Their hope for the future was in the human capacity for freedom, reason, and tolerance.

They raised three children in that church, and when one of their sons married and had three children, my sisters and I were raised there, too, in the church of Hope.

I often think back to my experience there, as we create life here, in this religious community. In a culture of Mainline Christianity peppered with revivalists, faith healers, and born again believers, Hope’s church gave me a solid grounding to question religious beliefs and to delve deeply into the human yearning for meaning.

Certainly it’s different here, now. California is not Oklahoma. The pressures on young people today are immense.

Yet, our hope is not that different. We would create here, day in and day out, a place where minds and hearts are engaged to delve deeply into matters of human concern.

Fed by our Universalist roots we can look into the eyes of every person we meet and see their life’s potential for compassion, for creating understanding out of our differences, and for uniting with others to transform ideals of justice and love into actions.

These aren’t just nice words. People here are living them. You may have gotten involved, or at least heard of the Contra Costa Interfaith Serving Community Organization, CCISCO. For years we have participated in the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program, working with other congregations to provide food and shelter to people in need of them. We will continue this good and important work. CCISCO enables us to do more. We join with twenty other religious communities to organize and act on issues such as immigration, education, and violence. Please raise your hand if you have had some involvement with CCISCO. If your hand is not raised, ask someone who raised their hand about their experience.

Here is another new way members of this church are putting their commitments to love and justice to work. Last week the Coordinating Team approved the creation of 6Cs, standing for Climate Core: A Community of Concern for Climate Change, a place of engagement, learning and action. I’ve heard they are up to eleven interested people and growing every day. Are there people here involved with the Climate Change group? Please ask them how you can get involved.

This is a place of action, and, once again, next week you are invited to participate in the Bring Your Weight In Food drive. It’s fun, and the last three years we’ve gotten very close to 10,000 pounds. How many of you have supported this food drive in past years? Please join them next week, bringing canned, non-perishable food. Bringing over 10,000 pounds is our goal. Together we can do it.

This is a place of hope, made real in our actions, a place where young people participate with elders in serving and changing the world. And, it is more.

This season we have celebrated the lives of many members who have died. Members and friends have had major surgery and other hospitalizations. I have heard story after story of compassionate caring: cards, letters, emails, phone calls, visits, food, rides to appointments, gifts of time and treasure.

We have celebrated with and supported families welcoming a new child.
All these transitions, all these threads, and more,
weaving together the fabric of community.
All this hope made real in our lives.

We are smack dab in the middle of a capital campaign. Bud Swank, our consultant, suggested a year ago, on the basis of his interviews that we establish four goals. The first three were $500,000, $750,000, and a real stretch to over $1,000,000. I wasn’t sure how we would respond.

Last spring, our Capital Campaign Leadership Team got to work, and they have done a magnificent job in making this an informative and fun campaign. We’ve drawn pictures and written about what this church means to us. We’ve created, published, and read attractive and informative materials. We’ve had forums and countless conversations. We’ve toured the grounds, visiting sacred sites and the projects that deserve our attention. We’ve conducted a treasure hunt to find important places and objects. We’ve gone a long way to meeting the fourth goal Bud Swank proposed for us: engage as many people as possible in some aspect of the campaign. Why? Because the most important goal is building community. We’re still doing this.

Last night, at the wonderful all-church dinner we celebrated community.
Board members told us something they love about this church:
We’re a base for social justice.
People greeting and talking with one another after services.
Coming forward for the story at the Time for All Ages.
Our practice of creating and sending Supercards.
Reading our Mission Statement.
Being reminded to always be ready to disarm your own heart.
The choir singing “May Sun Warm You” to one another in times of loss and grief.

The most important goal is building community.
And when we do that, what seems impossible begins to happen.

We talk about what this church means to us,
and people are invited to make lead gifts.
Generosity brews. Gifts are made.
And we just may be amazed at what goals can be achieved.

In a few minutes Jan and Patrick, our Capital Campaign Co-Chairs, will tell you where we are in relation to our financial goals, and invite your participation.

If the remaining households and some households who have already made pledges can increase their pledge 1 or 2 dollars a day through the end of the campaign December 31, 2015, we can reach our goal and complete all of our projects. This is only, at 1 dollar a day, $775.00, and at 2 dollars a day, $1550 total. Let’s do it!

In her vespers service Thursday night, community minister Sue Magidson said:
What’s driving this campaign is a deep faith
that Unitarian Universalism matters,
that this congregation makes a difference in the world,
that these aging buildings make so much possible.

≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈
It’s true: wonderful things are happening around here.
The potential for the future is great.

It is out of our gifts of hope, and our on-going commitment,
that we continue to create here a temple to unfolding truth,
a haven to hold our sorrows,
a center for celebration
and for organizing to change the communities of which we are part.

Barbara and I have already made a pledge to the capital campaign.
This morning we will give our First Gift. And, we’ll do more,
we are going to stretch to increase the amount we will give.
We hope you will join us in stretching. Not all of us are able to make a large gift, but our consultant assures us that each of us can be generous if we believe in the value of this place, this community. Make a generous gift.

Pain and even tragedy may fill our lives. But the divine gift, planted in the cosmic seed passing life from one to another, is Hope – hope that through whatever may come, typhoon or tornado or trauma, this determined life force will find a way to notice beauty and exclaim joy.

Rise early in the morning.
Look out a window into the darkness.
Notice the gift of your breathing.
Watch as the dawn slowly fills the sky.
Let the hope stir within you, that through your choices
this world will be more loving, more fair.

It is said that gratitude is the heart of spirituality.
Notice how grateful you feel.
Out of our practice of generosity gratitude is born.
It all comes back to hope and how we act to make it real.