Hope causes not rest but unrest, not patience but impatience. It does not calm the unquiet heart but is itself this unquiet heart in [all of us.] Those who hope…can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it, to contradict it.
Jürgen Moltmann
The Season of Lights invites us into the dazzling darkness of the winter and its summons to move inward, rest, and be nourished by the long nights. I love this period in our multireligious communities because we acknowledge the many holidays that give meaning to this time: Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, and Kwanzaa.
Our Candlelight Christmas Eve service, like most Unitarian Universalist congregations, is our largest service of the year and a time for family and community and reconnecting with old friends and relatives we sometimes only get to visit with on special occasions. Each year, our Music Director Saunder and I select a theme for the holiday service that speaks to the state of our world and the needs of our congregation. This year, we selected The Hope of Christmas and, likewise, our monthly Soul Matters theme for December is Choosing Hope. I feel like that’s been a personal theme for me all year long as we’ve navigated a brutal year of long wars, People of Color being disappeared, corruption festering in our government, and attacks on the lives, healthcare, and rights of our Transgender siblings, to name but a few of the tragedies of 2025. I have refused to be limited or diminished by those in power who want just that of me and all of us.
Cole Arthur Riley, the author of Black Liturgies, writes: “Be careful of who you let regulate your dreaming. All dreaming is dangerous to those who benefit from our hopelessness.” Our collective unwillingness to being diminished or silenced has resulted in us making progress on many fronts as a congregation as we hold space for the flourishing of beloved community and the prophetic witness so needed in these dire times. Thank you for all that you’ve contributed and the ways you’ve helped to keep hope alive in our community and world.
To guide our congregation’s reflections on Choosing Hope this month, our friends at Soul Matters offer the following compelling questions:
- Was your childhood home full of optimism or pessimism? How has wrestling with that legacy shaped who you are today?
- Who is hope for you? Whose way of being in the world helps you believe that tomorrow will be better? What small strategy might you employ to keep their hope front and center for you?
- What might it mean for you to “be hope”? It’s one thing to believe in hope; it’s quite another to become it.
- If hope could speak, what do you think it would most want to say to you right now?
- If you could magically infect someone with hope, who would it be and why?
- Might life be inviting you to bring an old hope back to life?
- What is your cynicism protecting you from?
- We all carry within ourselves the hopes and fears of those we’ve loved. Is it time to put one of those down so you can make your path your own?
- How might surrendering an ego-driven hope for the future enable you to live more fully (and joyfully) in the here and now?
- What would happen if your hopes suddenly grew one size larger?
- Who carries hope for you when the weariness of the world wears you down? Who needs you to carry hope for them?
- What dreams have you silenced in yourself because of cynicism?
Pastoral Support is available to any members or friends of the congregation who feel they may benefit from confidential and supportive spiritual companionship. To request pastoral support, please email the Pastoral Care Team leaders at pastoralcare@uusm.org or call the church office at (310) 829-5436.
We’d love to hear more from you! If you have a joy or sorrow to share with the community in a Sunday service and in our weekly announcements, please email joysandsorrows@uusm.org or call the church office at the number above.
Happy Holidays!
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Developmental Minister
