Hope: Help or Hinderance?

Part of Sermon of the Month Series Subscription Service

By Sarah Movius Schurr

Headshot of Sarah Schuur, a light-skinned woman with curly hair and glasses.

Sermon

At this time of spring and renewal, Rev. Sarah Schurr looks at the idea of hope. Some say hope is a platitude that keeps us happy with the status quo. Others say hope is essential, not only our wellbeing but to inspiring our work to build a better world. Rev. Schurr is retired from the field staff of the Pacific Western Region of the UUA and served as their specialist in small congregations.

Rev. Schurr has also provided an option story about Easter and Jesus, if that fits your schedule for this month.

Suggested Chalice Lighting

By Jennifer McGlothin
As the first hint of green begins to peek through the barren ground
As that little sprig grows into a healthy stem
As that stem grows into a stalk and forms a bud
As that bud slowly opens with each new day
To form a yellow daffodil
Let us be, like that first hint of green, renewed by the warm of the sun’s rays
And ready to emerge with a new energy, ready to face the day.
We light this chalice to bring a glimmer of that warmth into our space.

Suggested Readings

  • We Hold Hope Close. Rev. Julian Soto
    In this community, we hold hope close. We don’t
    always know what comes next, but that cannot dissuade us.
    We don’t always know just what to do, but that will not mean
    that we are lost in the wilderness. We rely on the certainty
    beneath, the foundation of our values and ethics. We
    are the people who return to love like a North Star and to
    the truth that we are greater together than we are alone.
    Our hope does not live in some glimmer of an indistinct future.
    Rather, we know the way to the world of which we dream,
    and by covenant and the movement forward of one right action
    and the next, we know that one day we will arrive at home.
  • On The Brink by Leslie Takahashi
    All that we have ever loved
    And all that we have ever been
    Stands with us on the brink
    Of all that we aspire to create:
    A deeper peace,
    A larger love,
    A more embracing hope,
    A deeper joy in this life we share.

Suggested Closing Words

By Kevin Jagoe
When the candle dims,
The wax almost spent
The light turns amber like a sunset
Still it provides light
Still it provides heat
Still it can kindle new flame
And pass its glow on
And contribute to new illumination
When sunsets turn to new days
When seasons transform all
When the candle dims, all is not lost.

Hope continues, uncertain and true,
like candlelight, ready to spark again.
All is not lost.

Suggested Easter Option Reading

Easter option:
EASTER IS BREAKING
By Rev. Kathleen Rolenz
Somewhere across the world,
Easter is breaking
not the Easter we may think of,
with arms upraised and “he is risen” echoing from canyons,
but a much quieter, less dramatic Easter.
Somewhere in the world -perhaps not this day, but some day soon,
a woman and a man rise from their beds,
shaking the sleep from their eyes,
and find their children already awake and
preparing for their morning prayers
There has been no gunfire, no drug wars, no yelling or shouting or screaming,
only the quiet of the night and the peace of silence around them.
And somewhere in the world, perhaps not this morning, but soon, very soon
A soldier is packing his duffle bag,
has emptied out all his bullets,
is changing into civilian clothes,
and is coming home, for peace has long been established,
and there is no need for his presence.
And somewhere in the world, Easter dawn breaks over the earth,
not only on this day, but every day,
and the familiar pulse in our veins throbs of “peace, peace, peace.”

Suggested Hymns

  • 346 Come Sing a Song with Me
  • 95 There is More Love Somewhere
  • 108 My Life Goes on in Endless Song
  • Easter Option = #269 Lo the Day of Days is Here