Greetings!  

  

   How was Thanksgiving? We hope it was joyful and . . . Thankful!

   Here in Ecclesiaville, seven of us gathered around the table to celebrate our first Thanksgiving as a community. Amidst all the turmoil around us and the changes we are facing, we gave thanks and talked hopefully abut the future.

   Hope. We like that term. We understand it to mean "to expect with confidence . . . to want something expecting that it will come." That's why we named the new place The Hope Center.  It is and will continue to be a place where people can get back the hope that they've had stolen from them. In fact, by the grace of God, we hope they can have High Hopes (click it, you'll see a great Sinatra video). We hope that, like the ant, they move the rubber tree plant that's been in the way of their dream of finding the acceptance and grounding they need to become more fully alive human beings.

   In what we think was Studs Terkel's best book - Hope Dies Last - the great oral historian describes a hope that is born of activisim, commitment and the determination to resist. He worried that Americans were losing that sort of hope. So, he interviewed folks beginning with oldsters like Admiral Gene La Rocque who told him "Hope in my view is a wasted emotion," and John Kenneth Galbraith who told said "there are no untrammeled hopes." But, then there was the incomparable Tom Hayden who told Studs that "I live now with one goal: to try to learn to be the kind of elder who was missing when I was a kid."

   Hayden's words rang in our ears when we read next Sunday's gospel lesson - Luke 21:25-36. Yes, it's one of those apocalyptic kind of pieces like the one we had a couple of weeks  ago, the kind that can scare you into doing the "right" thing. You can see that in the part where Jesus talks about tough times ahead, times when people will faint from fear over what's about to happen and when he says we better watch out so we're not caught short when the end comes.

   But, Jesus offers so much more. He reminds his listeners - and us - that no matter what happens, the truth of his teachings is eternal. And, he tells his listeners - and us - to live in that reality, to practice the presence of God, and to find God in the everyday. In other words, he tells us to be the kind of elders who might have been missing when we were kids. He tells us to live in hope, to expect with confidence that, no matter what, God will deliver on God's promises. He tells us to stand up, to commit ourselves, and to resist the onslaught . . . to disconnect ourselves from the insanity raging around us, to commit ourselves to a way of life that does not involve standing on lines at Midnight of Thanksgiving Day, to nonviolently resisting all the rubbish that gets between us and God . . .

   What do you find in the reading? Better yet - what are your hopes? What are you doing about them? What are you doing to make those hopes a reality? What are you doing in order to be the "elder" you always wanted?

   The other readings for the week are 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 (abound in love), Psalm 25:1-10 (make me know your ways), and Jeremiah 33:14-16 (execute justice).

   We hope that you'll share your thoughts/feeling either by dropping Steve a note [address below] or by joining us for GodTalk which meets in the second floor chapel at 85 Grand Street (aka The Brick Building), Newburgh, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening. We begin with some catch up time followed by centering music, prayer, a reading of the gospel and a no holds barred conversation. We'll be pleased to have you join our merry band (use the link below to let us know you'll be coming).