On Sunday some of you heard me reference a special section published in last week’s New York Times, entitled “Giving.”  Though there were a few articles highlighting the potential challenges for charitable organizations due to fears of a decline in contributions by an anxious population, the majority of stories offered were about amazing ways ordinary people have found to render extraordinary service, no matter what.
      I mentioned Michael J. Fox’s foundation to find a cure and develop treatments for Parkinson’s disease. 
Another amazing ministry pairs service dogs with disabled military folks, for comfort, companionship, and assistance.
     One of my favorites (this won’t surprise you) is a program called “Walking the Walk,” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which organizes groups of teenagers from different faith traditions in groups to do service projects in the community, and meet monthly to converse about life and cultivate relationship.
      Boston Health Care for the Homeless provides a broad array of medical services, including access to a $34 million medical complex, connected to 80 clinics sponsored by the program and operated out of city shelters, racetracks, even street corners.
     In story after story, there are accounts of people who care about enriching other people’s lives, through attention to the most elemental of needs as well as to making all kinds of fine arts more accessible—people with lots or ready cash, people who start with nothing but a dream, people who find other people, and keep working, keep dreaming, keep trying (and sometimes failing, and trying, trying, again)—people all over our nation, and around the world are living out of their truest, holy human identity.
      So what are we worried about, Dear Ones?  Well, a lot, I know, and there’s much to lament about how our human family hasn’t quite grown up yet, and gets it wrong so often—ways we hurt, and shun, and forget about each other, mistrust each other, fear each other.
      But in these articles, and in you, I find all kinds of reasons not to despair, but rather to bask in real hope, real trust, real joy in who we can be, when we remember what really matters, and from whence come all things, which we can count blessed—God our Creator, Christ our Brother, Spirit our Energizer—all the dimensions of the Holy inhabit every aspect of creation, including our very human natures.
   Today, I believe, that is a very good and promising thing.
    I look forward to believing with you this Sunday, and all our days to come.

Shalom,

Sarah