September 27, 2026: Active Hope for All Ages

Susan Frederick-Gray, Stephanie Kimball and Maria Renner  

Hope is something that we need at all ages and stages of life. This all ages service will deepen our engagement of active hope no matter how old or young we are.

View the video archive of this service here:

Sermon Text

Active Hope for All Ages

Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray

UU Church of Bloomington

September 27, 2026

REFLECTION: BEGINNING IN GRATITUDE Maria Renner, Ministerial Intern

In the story (Butterflies Under Our Hats by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso), it was butterfly dust that got the people of Chelm started in this cycle. But I don't know if that would work for all of us.

Luckily, there's another way that we can enter the spiral of active hope that all of us can access, anywhere, at any time, and that is through gratitude. Joanna Macy's active hope training offers seven sentences that we can reflect on to help us move through the spiral to active hope. It begins with doing the “for-to” -

I love/l am grateful for...

I'd like to thank/I am grateful to...

That means we think about what we are grateful for, and who or what we are grateful to. Let's take a minute to do that now. You can close your eyes if you want to, or just sit quietly and let images come to mind of things, people, places, experiences, or moments that you are grateful for.

And now, think about who, or what, you are grateful to.

REFLECTION: HONORING OUR PAIN Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray

In Joanna Macy's Spiral of the Work that Reconnects, she invites us always to begin in gratitude and then move to honor our pain. In this way, we recognize that both our gratitude and our concern for the world are deeply rooted in our love and our interconnectedness and belonging with life, and all beings.

Macy's training encourages us to honor our pain for the world, knowing that we will not stop here; we will keep moving along the spiral all the way toward active hope.

But, we still make time to honor our concerns. Perhaps you are concerned about climate change, war, Al, disinformation, cruel treatment of immigrants, people of color, trans people, and non-Christians. We are concerned about these things because we love people and justice. We love truth and democracy. We love this planet and all our kin whether they are human, fish, birds, mammals, rocks, water, air, or soil. We love our children and grandchildren. If we did not love, we wouldn't be concerned.

Our third sentence starter is this: Looking at the future we're heading into, my concerns include...

Take a moment to think of one or two concerns you have.

REFLECTION: WHAT INSPIRES US? Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray

“We Come from a People Bound for Freedom” by Joan Javier-Duval

During this month, I've heard folks say they understand holding our pain and gratitude together and even how that can bring us back to gratitude. But getting from there to what Joanna Macy describes as “seeing with new eyes” or even to “active hope” - that is harder.

Macy breaks it down a little more clearly with the seven sentence starters. And the next sentence asks what inspires us. Throughout history and all over the world today there are people who have taken or are taking courageous action to right wrongs, to organize for human rights, and to protect the land and water and air, to organize for justice and democracy.

Take a moment now, to reflect quietly on the 4th question (and feel free to write it down).

What inspires me is...

Here are some more inspiring examples of people from history - adapted from the reading “We Come From a People Bound for Freedom” by UU Minister Rev. Joan Javier-Duval:

Maria: We come from a people bound for freedom determined to loosen the fetters of orthodoxy.

Susan: William Ellery Channing

Maria: William Ellery Channing declared reason and conscience to be our guides.

Susan: John Murray

Maria: John Murray faced loss after loss, including the death of his wife and their one year old son to illness, faced excommunication, and survived a shipwreck and went on to preach of God’s universal love for all humanity and help found Universalism in America.

Susan: We come from a people bound for freedom, determined to loosen the fetters of oppression and exploitation.

Maria: Eugene V. Debs

Susan: Eugene V. Debs - the Indiana native who helped organize some of the most powerful and effective worker strikes in America for better wages and safer working conditions,

Maria: We come from a people bound for freedom, determined to loosen the fetters of racism and white supremacy.

Susan: Nathan Johnson

Maria: Nathan Johnson - a Black Universalist in New Bedford, Massachusetts, who sheltered Frederick Douglass on his first night of freedom.

Susan: James Reeb

Maria: James Reeb - A white Unitarian minister from the north, who answered the call to march from Selma to Montgomery and was met with the violence of white supremacists. His death further catalyzed the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Susan: Ysaye Barnwell

Maria: Ysaye Barnwell - Founded the Jubilee Singers, the first Black-led Unitarian Universalist gospel choir.

Susan: We come from a people bound for freedom, determined to loosen the fetters of patriarchy.

Maria: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Susan: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper - A Black Unitarian and suffragist, she spoke to the National Women's Rights Convention, insisting to the largely white-led suffragists that Black women and men must not be ignored in the movement for equal treatment.

Maria: Sylvie Thygeson

Susan: Sylvie Thygeson - Helped to open one of the first birth control clinics in the United States, in St. Paul, Minnesota, fifty years before birth control became legal.

Maria: We come from a people bound for freedom, determined to loosen the fetters of all that dehumanizes and separates us from our dignity and sacred worth.

Susan: Martha and Waitstill Sharp

Maria: Martha and Waitstill Sharp - Worked in secret to secure passage for those persecuted by the Nazis in Europe, saving hundreds of lives.

Susan: Zach Wahls

Maria: Zach Wahls - Raised by two moms, he spoke out against lowa's attempt to ban same-sex marriage and advocated for gender equality in the Boy Scouts of America.

Susan: We continue today to be truth-tellers in our time.

Maria: We continue today to practice active hope and organize for more justice, here and now.

Both voices together: We are a people bound for freedom. We are inspired by those who came before. And today, we continue to resist injustice and create ways of being seeds for good change.

REFLECTION: HOPES FOR THE FUTURE Maria Renner, Ministerial Intern

And now, bolstered by the fact that many, many people have taken on hard tasks and faced seemingly insurmountable challenges yet managed to persevere, we dare to imagine our hopes for the future. We think about how we can complete this sentence:

Looking at the future we're heading into, what I deeply hope for is...

Take a moment to reflect on how you would complete that sentence today.

REFLECTION: WHAT PART CAN I PLAY Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray

We started with gratitude, and let ourselves be filled with feelings of love and belonging. This love brought up our concerns and pain for the world. Then we turned to stories of people who have or are taking actions, big and small, to inspire us to have the courage to name our hopes for the world.

Envisioning that hope, we ask ourselves now to consider what part we would like to play in support of that vision, completing our sixth sentence starter:

A part that I'd like to play in support of this is...

Take a moment now to write down your thoughts about what part you'd like to play.

And now, what step can you take this week toward fulfilling that role? Maybe there's something you need to learn, or a contact you need to make. Maybe you have a seed of an idea to share with a person or group. Maybe it's a phone call, a letter, or a change in your routine.

Those seven sentence starters can become a daily or weekly practice for you to do individually, or with a partner, or in a group. And you have all these sentence starters in your order of service to help you move through the spiral of active hope when you need it.

EMBODIED PRACTICE Dr. Stephanie Kimball

from How to Be Hopeful by Elin Kelsey

I invite you to sit forward in your chair, or if you are seated on the floor, cross your legs and sit up straight. Close your eyes if you wish.

Now slouch. Let your arms hang.

Imagine that you have a golden thread that goes from the base of your spine all the way up your back and out the top of your head. Take hold of the thread and, very slowly, pull your head up. When you are back in a tall seated position, let go of the string. Let yourself relax.

Now imagine a situation in which you feel truly hopeless. Find a way to express this lack of hope in your body. Where does it live? In your shoulders? In your stomach? In the tension in your neck? In the hang of your head?

Imagine you are a piece of clay. Mold yourself into an image that expresses hopelessness. Take a mental photo. What does it look like? How does it feel?

Now imagine what you will feel like when hope comes. When that situation is transformed. Move into whatever position expresses that. Slowly scan from your head to your toes to identify how you feel in different parts of your body. What emotions are arising? What is the feeling in our body of hope arriving?

Finally, go back to the position of hopelessness. Now make the journey one more time, back to your expression of hope. Notice what you did to get yourself there. Hope is a choice you will have to make over and over again. This practice can help you return to that stance and reactivate yourself in profoundly difficult moments.

ACTIVE HOPE SENTENCE STARTERS

I love/I am grateful for…

I’d like to thank/I am grateful to…

Looking to the future we’re heading into, my concerns include…
What inspires me is…

Looking at the future we’re heading into, what I deeply hope for is…

A part that I’d like to play in support of this is…

A step I will take towards this in the next week is…