August 23, 2026: The Power and Promise of Change

Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray

Not all change is good, but there is a power in believing in the capacity of people to make change in our lives and our world. How do we harness the lessons of history and memory that remind us change is possible?

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Sermon Text

The Power and Promise of Change

Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray

UU Church of Bloomington

August 23, 2026

PASTORAL PRAYER AND MEDITATION

Around the time of World War II, in a time of change, Unitarian Universalist Minister A. Powell Davies, wrestling with the enormity of the tragedies of his day, the world crumbling and needing renewing all at the same moment, wrote these words:

“The world we knew is passing; all things grow strange;

all but the stout heart's courage;

all but the undiminished lustre of an ancient dream -

which we shall dream again

as others have dreamed before us,

pilgrims forever of a world forever new.

And what we loved and lost

we lose to find how great a thing is loving and

the power of it to make a dream come true.

For us there is no haven or refuge;

for us there is the wilderness, wild and trackless,

where we shall build a road and sing a song.

But after us there is the Promised Land,

strong from our sorrows and shining from our joys,

our gift to those who follow us

along the road we build

singing our song.”

READING

Our reading this morning comes from the American writer and activist, Rebecca Solnit, in an essay titled, “In Praise of the Indirect, the Unpredictable, the Immeasurable, the Slow and the Subtle.”

She writes:

“I've tried to map the circuitous routes that change takes, the byways and backroads by which movements have been built and ideas have advanced, the times when no path forward exists - but, as the poet Antonio Machado famously said, ‘Walker, there is no path; the path is made by walking.’ For so many of our destinations, no straight road takes us there. The route is over mountains or through forests and beyond what we know - and it may also be through inconceivable beauty and transformation as well as peril; it may be uncharted, or steep, or take decades or centuries to traverse; we may get there through storytelling, alliance, or the appearance of some unanticipated participants. That's a declaration of difficulty and uncertainty but also of possibility that I offer as encouragement to keep going.”

SERMON The Power and Promise of Change

We continue this month with our exploration of embracing change. Last week, I shared three skills for learning to navigate change, particularly changes in our personal lives.

The first skill is letting go, which is another way of practicing acceptance. Beyond denial or resistance - embracing change requires accepting what is changing - even when it is unwanted.

The second skill is practicing deeper listening and attention - creating practices of stillness, of learning to listen to ourselves and others more fully - not just with our ears, but our hearts and our souls. This helps us accept what we cannot change; but it also helps us connect to beauty and creativity which can help us navigate change.

And finally - the third is finding a way - making a way, even when there doesn't seem to be any. And it is this skill that we dive more deeply into today.

Last Sunday, we used the metaphor of a caterpillar's metamorphosis into a

butterfly to think about the skills needed for change. But there was something I left out. Did you know that if you try to help a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis, the cocoon, if you cut or pull it open, the butterfly won't be able to fly and it will die?

The last stage of its metamorphosis requires the butterfly to struggle and push and fight its way out of the cocoon. In that process, in the struggle, fluid gets pushed through the wings and without that struggle, the wings don't develop fully. This is a good reminder that just because something is difficult, just because it is hard to do, it doesn't mean we aren't on the right path.

Last week we focused more on personal change, but there is also a lot of

change happening today that we should not embrace - for example doubling down on burning fossil fuels, doubling down on militarization and incarceration, the dismantling of democracy, human rights, privacy rights, and attacks on institutions meant to protect and expand these rights. We should not be trying to embrace these changes, right? We need to resist them.

But, resistance is not enough. We also need to be nurturing change toward a more just, equitable, and sustainable future for humanity and our planet.

Embracing change is not just about learning to navigate unwanted or unexpected change. That is one part of it. The other is recognizing that change is always possible and we have a role to play in creating the change we want to see in the world.

In Rebecca Solnit's essay that our reading came from, she quotes the Black, feminist, lesbian poet Audre Lorde, who said, “To refuse to participate in the shaping of our future is to give it up. Don't be misled into passivity either by false security (they don't mean me) or by despair (there's nothing we can do). Each of us must find our work and do it.”

This is where the power and promise of change lives - in knowing that change is always possible, always present - and we all have a role to play as participants in shaping our future.

Rebecca Solnit says that one of the important practices to keep ourselves from despair and giving up is to take the long view and remember history. For history shows us stories of long, circuitous paths of change that may have started out as inconceivable, impossible at first, but brought about significant change.

Consider all the changes that we have seen in just the lifetimes present in this room.

I am the youngest of three children. My mom had only been back to work as a nurse for a short time when she became pregnant with me. It was 1975 and she had to hide her pregnancy as long as she could because as soon as it was known, she had to be fired. That was the way it was then. I bet some women here remember a time when you couldn't get your own bank account.

Some in this community, and your parents, lived under the injustice and indignity of Jim Crow and the separate but very much unequal reality of public accommodations for Black people in the U.S.

And some of you I bet had to live part of your lives in the closet, hiding or perhaps even denying your sexuality or your understanding of your gender.

And some of you remember the days when institutions were the forced choice for people with disabilities.

To be clear, this is the very progress, the change, that is currently being rolled back. And, equally true is that enough progress still has not been made despite progress. Discrimination, hate and violence has continued to undermine freedom, opportunity and safety for women, people of color, LGBTQ+ folks, and people with disabilities.

But here is the message contained in both the words of A. Powell Davies looking at the devastation and inhumanity of the World War II period, and Rebecca Solnit commenting on our world today - that we are in the middle of the story. That change is still happening, still possible. And there is so much more for us to help write and change.

One of the ways that we as Unitarian Universalists can embrace change is continuing to nurture culture change through naming and celebrating the values that are the foundation of our tradition - values like equal human dignity; values like pluralism; values like democracy, values like a recognition of our fundamental interdependence with all of life and this planet.

This is the theological and culture work that A. Powell Davies alludes to when he writes that even in the midst of so much being lost, that an ancient dream still lives in our hearts, “which others have dreamed before us.” And, in following that dream, “we shall build a road and sing a song,” a path to a future that is “strong from our sorrows and shining from our joys.” A road that others will follow, “singing our songs.”

It echo's Antonio Machado's words, “Walker, there is no path. The path is made by walking.” And when we move together, we leave a path for others to follow and expand.

The most critical thing to remember, especially in those moments when we don't know how we will go on, when it seems like the whole world we knew is passing - is that change is still happening. That we can affect change, we already have, and we still are.

This is why we must not let despair or arguments of inevitability undermine our capacity and determination to act - to address the climate crisis, to expand human rights and liberty, and to change hearts and minds to understand that compassion and equity are what will make all our lives more sustainable. That housing, medical care, food - these are human rights and not privileges and that we can actually provide for all these needs if we choose to, and doing so will elevate all our lives and the quality of our lives.

Even now, as tragic and difficult as things are, change is still happening.

More and more people are coming to understand that life is not a zero sum game, that our neighbors are not our competitors or a threat (this includes our immigrant neighbors.) No, they are not a threat, they are our strength, our community, our safety and our vitality. We need our neighbors. We need strong communities. For we rise together, or we fall apart.

Underneath, I believe deep change is moving. More and more people are recognizing the damage that greedy, cruel, exploitive capitalist policies do to everyone - at least to the 99%. More and more people are rejecting the influence of tech billionaires on our lives and our privacy. More people are questioning the environmental impacts of Al and data centers.

People are mobilizing for change in powerful ways. We must keep it up. As Audre Lorde cautions, “To refuse to participate in the shaping of our future is to give it up.” We all have a role in shaping change. Shaping change isn't always easy, but remember the butterfly - whose capacity to fly comes through the struggle.

Don't give up. We are in the middle of the story. And, as Rebecca Solnit tells us:

“For so many of our destinations, no straight road takes us there. The route is over mountains or through forest and beyond what we know and it may also be through inconceivable beauty and transformation as well as peril; it may be uncharted, or steep, or take decades or centuries to traverse; we may get there through storytelling, alliance, or the appearance of some unanticipated participants. As Antonio Machado famously said, ‘Walker, there is no path. That path is made by walking.’”

So, may we keep on organizing for what is just and through the present struggle - build a road, make a path to a future of more love, more justice, more peace.