A New Season, A New Hope 

As the natural world is entering a new time of year, we hope that our human family can move forward into a new age of hope, far better than returning to so-called normality. 

Hope is very much on our minds lately. 

As I consider the title of this week's sermon, 

  "A New Season, A New Hope," 

    the Star Wars movies come to my mind. 

You know that I'm a serious fan of science fiction! 

The first movie, originally known simply as Star Wars

  was renamed, A New Hope when the "prequels" 

    were made, the films that were made 

      after the first three, 

        but that were the story of events 

          that came before. 

The concept of new hope is especially relevant

  to our considerations today. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic begins to recede, 

  we feel new hope about returning to our lives. 

In keeping with the theme of new hope, 

  generally speaking, Spring is a hopeful time. 

Farmers are planting and cultivating 

  with the hope of a bountiful harvest. 

Gardeners are caring for signs of new life 

  in the flowers and foliage that bring delight. 

In the world of health care, too, 

  there are signs of hope and new possibilities. 

In many ways, 

  something resembling normal life 

    is taking shape in many places around the world. 

At the same time, 

  we can hope for something far greater 

    than a return to some so-called normality 

      and that is truly a new hope. 

In any case, 

  whatever happens 

    as more and more openings occur, 

      the best we can hope for 

        is a kind of new normal. 

When I speak of, "the best we can hope for," 

  I mean just that. 

A new normal can be 

  far better than the old normal. 

Nostalgia would make the 

  old normal seem good 

    in ways that were not so good. 

One metaphor helps explain the old normal 

  and the way it helped produce the pandemic. 

Sometimes we say that we are all in the same boat. 

The metaphor I'm thinking of tells us

    how we are not in fact in the same boat. 

We are all in the same storm, 

  but many of us are in small, leaky boats, 

    highly subject to winds and waves, 

      while a few others are in battleships, 

        well equipped to push through in safety. 

It's a good metaphor as far as it goes, 

  and it paints a clear picture 

    of many of the problems

      the pandemic has revealed 

        in a much brighter light. 

There are front line workers 

  of nearly every social and income level 

    whose work is regarded as essential. 

Executive level workers and managers 

  in many companies 

    have been regarded as essential, 

      but their work can be done remotely and safely, 

        and they have often been encouraged 

          or even required 

            to work from home. 

Those who can stay safe 

  are the ones in the battleships. 

Within health care, 

  doctors, nurses, specialists in therapies, 

    and many others 

      have placed themselves at risk 

        in order to care for patients. 

Those who clean and disinfect 

  clinic and hospital spaces are no less vital, 

    but they are often somewhat less appreciated. 

Front line workers 

  in food preparation and distribution 

    have often been considered essential, 

      and yet their income and job security 

        have been no less at risk over the last year 

          than the times before. 

I'm only scratching the surface 

  with the few types of workers I'm speaking about, 

    but I'm sure you can see my point. 

Most of us have been in boats 

  that provide varying levels of safety. 

Often the people we need and rely upon the most 

  are the very ones who are most at risk. 

As we look forward in hope and anticipation 

  to the time in which we can begin again 

    to gather in person for worship, 

      it's truly important for us 

        to consider the people among us 

          who are most vulnerable to contagion. 

The vaccines are providing remarkable help 

  in protecting most of us from the pandemic. 

Yet the dangers are not sufficiently overcome 

  for us to regard them as negligible. 

The vaccines are effective at an extremely high level, 

  but as with most things in life, 

    they are not 100 percent reliable. 

The variants, the mutations, 

  that may be much more contagious 

    or even more likely to cause serious illness, 

      also have to be considered. 

My primary point about all this 

  is that the people in the least safe boats 

    are the ones we need to think about first. 

Some of the members 

  of our own beloved community 

    are in that kind of boat. 

Underlying conditions are sometimes  

  what places us at much higher risk. 

In fact, there are many ways for some of us 

  to have landed in a condition of higher risk, 

    but our inability to protect ourselves 

      makes it necessary for the rest of us 

        to make the effort to protect those 

          who are more vulnerable. 

There are signs of exactly this kind of care 

  for the most vulnerable people around us. 

In our beloved NIUU congregation, 

  there are many signs of the caring we need 

    especially at this time. 

I myself have been the recipient of the kind of care 

  I have needed at important times, 

    some of those times quite recently. 

I'm confident we will want to continue to give care 

  to those who need it most 

    as we make decisions 

      about gathering again in person. 

One important way we will show 

  our care for each other, I believe, 

    will be to have a hybrid form of our services. 

My hope is that we can provide 

  continuing Zoom coverage of our services 

    long after we have begun to meet in person, 

      with practical precautions, of course. 

Hybrid services and precautions will be signs 

  of our loving care for each other, 

    especially for those who are especially vulnerable. 

We can provide a good example of caring. 

Our example will be especially important 

  in our time and place because 

    there are also signs in our world

      of a retreat from caring 

        into an era of selfishness 

          and an attitude of "Me first!" 

Every choice we make, 

  whether to care or to do as we please, 

    can help move our society and our world 

      in one direction or the other. 

The message and the choice is clear for all to see. 

We can move forward into a new time 

  of loving kindness 

    toward other people and the rest of creation, 

      or we can move backward into an old normal 

        that regards self serving as a positive value. 

Spring is a Season of Nature, and it is glorious. 

Easter is a Season of the heart, 

  and it is even greater in its own way. 

You see, Easter is a sign of rebirth and renewal 

  through self giving 

    rather than self aggrandisement. 

For us in the Northern Hemisphere, 

  the Easter and Spring seasons are moving together 

    hand in hand as usual. 

No matter what, though, 

  Easter can represent for us a movement 

    toward a new normal 

      in which mutual care becomes a cultural norm. 

There are signs of this possibility everywhere, 

  even while there is intense resistance elsewhere. 

Without having to go to extremes, 

  people are finding ways to let go 

    of old stereotypes and see each other 

      as people with equal rights under law and love. 

We develop expectations 

  of what other people are or should be like, 

    but the reality of their needs and feelings is often 

      far more like our own than we have thought. 

As the saying goes 

  from Sravasti Abbey near Newport, Washington, 

    "Dropping our expectations 

      brings so much peace in the mind." 

We can learn to see each other as we really are 

  rather than the way we expect each other to be, 

    and we can also learn to care for each other 

      in ways that will bring about a true new normal 

        for our communities, states, and nations, 

          and for the planet as a whole. 

Our time of new hope can be a time of great renewal 

  of our humanity 

    with increased human kindness, 

      care for each other, 

        and especially care 

          for those who are most vulnerable among us. 

Our vulnerabilities are not only based on questions 

  of health versus disease. 

We are also vulnerable to a wide variety of social ills, 

  and our time is seeing a renewal of interest 

    in finding ways to relieve the suffering 

      of those who are most subject 

        to the consequences of the weaknesses 

          in our current forms of civilization. 

If the pandemic of COVID-19 can call our attention 

  to the weaknesses of our old ways of doing things, 

    there is truly new hope 

      that we may be able to create together 

        a new normal, 

          providing better opportunities for everyone. 

Amen. 

So may it be. 

Blessed be.