 Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu wa rahmatullahi greetings of peace I'm Indonesia's Godly upon you giving me this opportunity to welcome everybody on their behalf and also to sister Zarina who has worked extensively and tirelessly to make connections between the MCC community and the interfaith inter-connect community and also with the hub and I will end with just a short story of where I am coming from because for me interfaith work is really something I'm a product of interfaith work my father was a Muslim from Jordan and my mother was a Catholic from Mississippi actually how that happened it's a story for another day but basically she was on a Caesar Childers Pickett line he was a master's student studying in Jackson Mississippi it was a lettuce and grape, lettuce golden and grape strike at the early 70s he saw her protesting asked her what it was about and here I am today but for that reason interfaith work is very adhered to my heart because I'm a product of what happens when two people come together of different faiths and show the world that even in our differences we can find commonalities and that's what I hope and it works like this and so I'd like to just read a prayer that I thought of because one of the things is I really like to seek hope in the stories of the prophets and so I started thinking about the prophets that God has sent my time in so I said God you gave us hope when we remember the covenants of the myth, when we called out to the souls of humanity gathered on the original plane and you asked am I not your lord and we all as humanity responded by saying veda yes indeed you are our lord you gave us hope when you created our father Adam the first human being and when the angels asked you would you create one who will shed blood and spread mischief in the earth and you said I know what you do not know and by that you gave us hope by reminding us that just that there is a potential for evil in mankind there is also the potential for great hope and you gave us hope when you chose to purify the world through the flood by carrying Noah and then by carrying Noah and the believers on the ark and we remember that hope every time we see your promise in the form of a rainbow in the heavens an unstrung bow and when the believers the children of Israel lived under oppression of one of the mightiest regimes on earth you gave the believers hope not in the form of a mighty army or brute force in an infant boy who was cast into the river Nile by his mother who had hope in you you gave us hope when you sent the Messiah Jesus the son of Mary and peace be upon him and peace be upon him to remind him in kind of who they are and you gave us hope when you promised us that he will return and for his return we await hopefully and you gave us hope when you sent the light of prophethood with Muhammad peace and blessings upon him who recited your word in the Quran and teaching us that hope and fear are like two birds of a bird that we must balance to fly into your infinite mercy then as Fadi Al-Bakr Ibn Al-Arami the famous Andalusian scholar said the verse which gives us the most hope in the Quran is saying O my servants who have transgressed against themselves do not despair of the mercy of Allah indeed Allah forgives all sins indeed it is he who is the forgiving the merciful. Thank you Peace be upon you and in your bulletin the author of each is identified next to the passage they wrote and the readers and their respective faith communities are listed on the last page of your worship bulletin these readings were intentionally chosen to deepen our awareness of hope as a spiritual practice something that people of faith do every day when we live with hope we live with power the power to bring justice compassion, mercy and peace to our world we invite you to hear each selection as a message from the higher power that brings you here today may we each pay attention and be alert to a word of praise and insight that grabs us with us out into the world so that together we live with hope and together we transform the world and now let us prepare our hearts and our minds for worship by praying together the opening prayer which is printed in your bulletin your lines are in italics for the days since last we met and shared our common bond of humanity we thank you God for the heavens which declare your glory and for the earth which shows your handiwork we thank you God for our daily food and drink our home and families and our friends we thank you God for the concern of those who call us to be good stewards of the earth we thank you God for minds to think hearts to love and hands to serve we thank you God for your servants in ages past who've heard your word and proclaimed your sovereignty sovereignty we thank you God for the brave and courageous and all valiant seekers of truth, liberty and justice we thank you God for this night your spirit which finds us together in a moment of worship we thank you God for your blessing which bliss us from brokenness to wholeness from despair to hope from darkness to light and from fear to trust we thank you God amen and amen the sources of life itself I am not a very good gardener but I recently noticed that a carelessly paced brick has squashed a pansy flat part of the pansy was still peeking out from under the edge of the brick and over the next few weeks that pansy put its energies into creaky sideways around the edge of the brick pushing its short shoots into the air and sunlight and blossoming in its friendly purple and gold when I moved the brick the pansy stamp was crooked but oh its flower was as glorious as those next to it this pansy chose life it experienced diversity but it chose life it experienced crippling but it chose life it could not have been blamed or falsely for giving up under the brick but it chose life the sources of hope are the sources of life itself that's why hope persists even when experience reason and knowledge all say there is no reason to hope hope does not calculate gods it is a double sided virtue it is prepared for either sunny or stormy weather to choose hope is to choose life to choose hope is to choose love but because we are immortal death is entangled with life we can choose to feed the darkness and death in our lives or we can choose to feed the brightness of hope in our lives we can worry we can deny the light we can cooperate in the killing of our spirits and the straining of our hopes until meanlessness and despair overcomes or we can choose to ally ourselves with God with his hope with the inexhaustible and very pressable life that is his the apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 8 for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor death nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God herein lies our hope hi my name is Alicia and today I'll be reading The Call of Love by Ruthie at every instant from every side resounds the call of love we're going to sky who wants to come with us we've gone to heaven we've been defensive angels and now we will go back there for there is our country and now we will go back there we are higher than heaven more noble than angels why not go beyond them our goal is a supreme majesty what has the fine pill to do with the world of dust why have you come down here take your baggage back what is this place with us to us is a sacrifice like the birds of the sea men come from the ocean the ocean of the soul like birds of the sea men come from the ocean the ocean of the soul how can this bird born from the sea make his dwelling here no we are the pearls and the bosom of the sea it is there that we dwell otherwise how could the wave succeed to the wave the vessel the wave who named am I not your lord has come it has broken the vessel of the body and when the vessel is broken the vision comes back and the union we are safe friends this is familiar to most of us I imagine so I invite you to join the vessels to pray this prayer together Lord make me an instrument of your peace where there is doubt where there is doubt where there is despair where there is power and light where there is sadness divine master grant that I may not so much seek to be in the soul as to the soul not so much to be understood as to understand not so much to be loved as to love for it is in giving that we will see it is in hardening that we are pardoned it is in dying that we will wait I see the fur of the interim minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Livermore Unitarian Universalism derives from the first parish churches from the establishment churches in Columbia and New England from the more working class Universalist churches Universalists were not so much noted for what they believed in but what they believed they didn't believe in help and there was some debate as to the exact techniques of it all but that ultimately they all believed that we would all be reabsorbed into God on the final days of judgment so that was not only do we have hope in our own salvation but hope that ultimately everyone would be saved and maybe Universalists early ecumenists and interfaith believers that everyone of all faith and places would be saved among the most celebrated early Universalists was the Reverend John Murray Harvey Chaplin to General George Washington in the American Revolution and the founding pastor of the Independent Christian Church in Gloucester, Massachusetts he wrote God's grace extends and will continue to extend to the whole family of humanity he will have compassion on the ignorant and on those who reside in far away places he is and ever will be coming unto every person and his mercy over all his works I am right happy and an opportunity of thus rendering a reason for the hope which is in me I do assure you my hope does not make me ashamed for I know it is a hope full of him or Calvary I know that God can be faithful and just in forgiving our sins and I once more declare I do believe that God will annihilate sin and save the sinner and bless his oath compel me to believe his sacred word may I always give him credit as I will be able to know and create a being but my God will lead us all unto truth that we may be all taught of God and that knowing God we may love God but we cannot know God and not love him and we cannot love God when we are not seen without loving our brother when we have seen and grateful for the patience you have exercised toward me and I close light about me wishing that God may shed it abroad as well in our harmony Good evening I am Dr. Ram Rao I was a professor of neuroscience and now I am the temple manager at the Shrava Vishnu temple in Livermore I am representing the Indian community and the temple to talk to you about hope So we all gathered here and notice that hope is weakened with an alarming rate from the human psyche People are losing hope in almost everything worthwhile and hope extinguished from the land of life Emotional forces including fear, worry, anger anxiety, rage depression all of those have encapsulated every aspect every fiber of mankind like that which I have never seen before With all hopes lost we have chosen though unconsciously to be like machines on an autopilot mode of frenzied dispositions In contrast though spontaneity joy, creativity bliss, contentment belongs to us the conscious beings and not to machines So the need of the day is to bring these qualities in us that in turn will cultivate the quality of hope We hope that we will soon be blissfully aware of our true nature as spirits and recognize that this entire world of living and non-living beings is nothing but a manifestation of duality and in Sanskrit we call that Vasudeva Kutumbakarna This entire world is one family that lives like nannies This is hope and this hope lies the fundamental essence of peace We hope that there is peace from our own eternal conflicts It's called atlantmika in Sanskrit We hope that there is peace from natural disturbances and we hope that there is peace from unexplained forces We call that atlantmika in Sanskrit This same feeling of hope radiates onwards to include all manifestations It encourages cooperation compassion and living in harmony not only among other humans but with nature as well And this is a message of hope in this form of living in this form of living This is the verse that's there in our books Asutomaa Sadgamaya We hope to see truth from ignorance Thamasomaa Jyotirgamaya We hope to see the light in me that dispels the toughness Rijyormaa Amutamgamaya We hope to see ourselves as immortal divine entities Om Jo Santhiti Hope this peace radiates in the whole sky Antarikshams Santhiti Hope this peace radiates in the vast, ethereal space everywhere Krithvishanthi Hope that this peace reigns all over the earth Aapah Santhiti Hope this peace reigns in the waters Aushadra Santhiti Vanaspataya Santhiti Hope this peace exists in all the herbs the trees, the plants and the flowers Shantihi Visveleva Hope this peace flows over the entire universe Shantir Brahma May peace be in the supreme being Shantir Sharma Shantireva Shanti Om Shanti Shanti Hope this always exists in all peace and peace alone Om Peace and Peace Om Peace They've joined me in reading together this beautiful poem by Emily Dickinson Hope is the thing with feathers and purges in the soul and it sings the tune without the words and never stops at all and it's sweetest of the tale with its bird and the stores must be storm and for the batch is a little bird and the batch is so many more I've heard it in the chillest in the chillest land and along the strangest sea yet never in strangenity in the past If I quote, in the darkest of days and focus in the brights, I do not judge the universe A small body of determined spirits fired by an unpenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement Nothing can be done without hope and confidence Even if I knew that tomorrow of the world would go to pieces I would still plant my apple tree every great dream begins with a dreamer Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world and you're feeling alone as you wait for the call that will change everything to sip your coffee it's taste and bitter sweet not knowing what the next moment will bring then you face your fears and you wipe your tears nothing gets you down for long cause you always know there is hope there's a god above above give me time ones that I love give me joy give me strength so I can face a new day there is love in a way cause there's so much at stake and it's all going round and around in your head you turn the light on half of the night is gone wish you were dreaming but you're worried instead that you realize that you're much too wise to let it get you down for long cause you always know there is hope there is love let me heal give me time with the ones that I love give me joy give me strength so I can face a new day there is hope things right control is only an illusion let's stray but come back to my conclusion there is hope there is love if there is a god give me time that I love give me joy give me strength so I can face a new day there is hope there is love I will read in your hurry 2 passages scripture psalm 27, verses 11 and 13 the Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is a stronghold of my life I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord the land of the living the 2nd passages will be reading will be Isaiah 43 verses 1 through 3a and verses 18 and 19 and there reads as such but now the says the Lord he who created you oh Jacob he who formed you oh Israel do not fear for I have redeemed you I have called you by name you are mine when you pass through the waters I will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you when you walk through fire you shall not be burned and the flames shall not consume you for I am the Lord your God the Holy One of Israel your Savior do not remember the former things or consider the things of old I am about to do a new thing now it springs forth do you not I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert I have read for you song 27 1 and 13 Isaiah 43 1 through 3a and verses 18 through 19 may God have a blessing to the readers heroes and the doers of this holy word name of the one who goes by many names Almighty God Allah Yahweh great spirit and ultimate truth it is a joy to be here to be together in this diverse community of people of different faiths and different backgrounds to celebrate thanksgiving and to commit to cultivating together as a community hope both for our individual lives and for the world I went to Santa Rosa last month I was invited to be on an interfaith pastoral care team to accompany families as they went back to see their property that had been burned to devastation we were paired and two of us would go to a neighborhood and park and then just walk around and wait and see if anybody came back it was the first and second day of the time when the people could return to their former homes and there was really nothing recognizable in this neighborhood it was rubble and ashes the walls weren't even there to indicate exactly where the houses had been everything was level to foundations you might see a brick here and there or a broken chimney or a step or a flower pot or a dish but otherwise it was gray and destroyed we went up to people as they arrived in their cars and just introduced ourselves and said well we were there if you'd like to talk and some people did and of course there were tears and there were stories of loss and despair but the stories that remain with me are stories of hope one was the first family we visited with there was a girl I'll call her Jenny she was eight years old and she had returned with her grandparents to their home they had been at the day before but they hadn't brought the granddaughter until this next day and Jenny wanted to be there with them because her parents were divorced and she spent a lot of time with her grandparents and she even had a room in their house where she spent many nights and when Jenny arrived she didn't want to get out of the car she was crying and she covered her face because she didn't want to look and see what there was to see there and so the grandmother had just met me and she said well this woman's name is Heather and she'd be happy to talk to you Jenny and so Jenny and I crossed the street and we sat on the opposite curb and we looked out into the valley you could still see green in that direction and we talked for a while and she cried and she told me that there wouldn't be the joyous that she had known she had and loved in her grandparents house they wouldn't be there anymore for her and she was worried about her grandparents that they wouldn't be able to afford another place to live and what would happen to them and where would they go and after a while she asked all the questions she could think of and then she remembered that the day before had picked up a piece of glass that was melted with many colors in it and then hardened and she told Jenny that she would make a piece of jewelry for her out of that glass and Jenny was pleased about that and then she said oh and my grandma found my handprint that I made in Tindu garden and I gave to my grandmother as a gift she found it and she was so happy that she had it and I'm happy too and I said oh you really love your grandmother and your grandmother really loves you doesn't she and she said yes and that hasn't changed even with the fire such a simple affirmation of love and what matters and then we walked around what would be a block and came upon a couple they appeared to be taking a break at their car and they were just leaning against the car and standing there with nothing to say really until we came up and we offered to talk if they'd like to to tell us their story of what had happened and the man was very eager to tell he had a list ready in his mind to tell me all the things that he had done he'd applied to his insurance he'd applied to FEMA he found a place to live he started to get furniture and and then there was a break and then I looked at his wife next to him who was silent and I said and how are you feeling and she said look around you all of my neighbors have lost everything I feel so bad for them and I work at the hospital I'm so glad I have a job I can work at the hospital and help people I can help the people who are hurt in the fire and I can help the people who have no homes anymore and it's something to do that feels like hope what an affirmation of care caring but other people even when you've lost everything of your own love and care are really what matter I know you've been hearing about these stories of people you know in California who've suffered from the fires and we're all connected we all know someone who knows someone we've all heard stories together one minister in Santa Rosa a Fijian man was awakened in the middle of that night when the fire was coming not by a neighbor but by his brother in Fiji who called him because he saw on the internet that the neighborhoods were evacuating in Santa Rosa you want to be sure his brother was okay we are connected in our communities that we are connected around the world the tragedies that have fallen our world this fall have been monumental monumental hurricanes Harvey Irma and Maria we all know someone who knows someone who suffered and has been caught in those storms and the people in poverty in those areas for example in Puerto Rico where there still is no power we have to care about them we have to love them and perhaps you know someone outside of Mexico City someone who was hurt in that terrible earthquake that hit on September 19 killing more than 200 people or maybe you are from South Sudan or no people from there where flooding has displaced 11,000 people or you know people in Somalia where hundreds of people have been killed by terrorists some of these stories just eclipse the previous stories you know the Las Vegas shooting that killed 59 and injured hundred on October 1st and then the shooting in Texas and then in California terrorist attacks refugees on the run we are fatigued by tragedy we almost become numb and we cannot feel it anymore because it's almost normal to read these stories in the news and to see the scenes on television but we must care we must love well this is what makes us human a book published this year called a hope more powerful than the sea is this true story of a refugee i really love reading these stories because it helps me understand a little bit of what people are experiencing this is a story that takes place in the town of Daraa Syria and the woman is named Doa it was Mother's Day March 21st 2011 and Doa's family wanted to visit her grandmother's grave and honor her and read the first chapter of the Quran together and then have a meal together as a family but protesters were marching in demonstrations through the town and people were lighting fires violence swept through the city streets on the smell of smoke was everywhere they were shooting and people were dropping dead on the street they couldn't go to the cemetery they couldn't get there by April the city was under siege the family went into hiding and Doa's father lost his shop in the bombs Doa became sick and she needed to go to the doctor she was accosted by soldiers on her way to the doctor and barely made it home from the pharmacy back safely to her family Doa didn't want to abandon the revolution that she believed in she said that leaving Syria would be like taking her soul away from her but she had no other option but to leave by 2016 Syrians would become the largest displaced population in the world five million Syrians were forced to flee across borders 6.5 million were internally displaced Doa and her fiancee Basam managed to flee to the Mediterranean but the boat that they ordered was small and the water was rough and Basam was lost at sea the author writes Doa was adrift in the center of a hostile sea that had just swallowed the man she loved she was so cold she couldn't feel her feet and so thirsty her tongue had swollen in her mouth she grabbed at two infants were floating in the water beside her they had become separated from their parents Doa was so overcome with grief that if it had not been for those two tiny infant girls that she wanted to save she would have allowed the sea to consume her she made it to Crete and then to Sweden it was her belief in God and in life itself that saved her she had a hope more powerful than the sea it's hard to imagine such a flight really hard for me to imagine I went two weeks ago to Oakland where doctors without borders had a simulation where we could experience a little bit more what it would be like to be a refugee it was called forced from home it was outdoors and volunteers escorted groups of people around from one station to the other utensil on the pavement to see what it was like I was told I was to be a refugee from Syria and out of 25 cards I had to pick five cards quickly I only had a couple seconds to do it five the five things that I wanted to take with me as I was in flight well I picked a passport and water money a blanket and a cell phone but then I had to give them up as they went along because everything cost something and I had to give up what I had I got into a rubber raft and was told that 40 more people were climbing with me and then it would cost five thousand dollars to make a crossing from Turkey to Greece and then I would have to buy a life jacket but it might be a false one and if it was a cheap one it would soak up water and it wouldn't let let me float so then I would die to sea my guide from the exhibit was a nurse from Doctors Without Borders by the name of Jessica Jessica is from Indiana 75% of the time she works out of the country with Doctors Without Borders and 25% of the time she lives in Indiana where she tries to make money so that she can live and keep in apartment well on November 30th Jessica is going to death camps he developed a theory and a practice called logotherapy the premise is that when we find meaning in life to work in relationships of love or midst suffering we can go on in hope and we can help others do the same Franco's work has helped many many people come to the point where they can overcome the reality of tragedy and sadness by grieving the loss and then deciding to live beyond the grip of that loss when we find a purpose we can live with hope the hope is grounded in the struggle itself my parents accompanied Franco when he went back for the first time to one of the concentration camps where he had been imprisoned they saw him put his hands in the dust and they saw him weep he faced the reality of the horror and he grieved for his loved ones and for all six million Jews who died in the holocaust I knew Franco as a man who had a great heart and a great sense of humor he came to our home in Vienna and he laughed and he shared evenings with my family he was a survivor of tragedy who was able to help others find in their lives a reason to live with hope we come together today because in spite of everything that our world faces we want to work together for good don't we we do we want to work together for good our hope challenges us not just to live for ourselves but also to share our resources to listen to one another's stories and to figure out together how we can possibly heal the world it requires a creative act to imagine a better world and work for it we need to think like artists maybe imagine that light canvas and what we could put on it how can hope lead us into something new God says in Isaiah I am about to do a new thing now it springs forth do you not perceive it I will make the way in wilderness and rivers in the desert Howard Thurman was a great writer a black christian theologian who influenced Martin Luther King Jr Howard Thurman wrote about how in love and care we walk together through all life's tragedies these are his words I share with you the agony of your grief the anguish of your heart finds echo in my own I know I cannot enter all you feel your bear with you the burden of your pain I can but offer what my love does give the strength of caring the warmth of one who seeks to understand the silent storm swept barrenness of so great a loss this I do in quiet ways that on your lonely path you may not walk alone we must be like the psalmist we need to find the energy find the hope of the psalmist who says I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living for we live together in community and in community with God walking beside us we never walk alone this is the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living this is our hope it empowers us to be human which is to love and care thanks be to God our kitchen has been a safety net for our neighbors indeed for over 22 years now those who don't have family to turn to help can always find support and open our kitchen people think that soup kitchens are just for the homeless but that's not the case our families that we serve are often choosing between food or utilities food or medicine and food or shelter we give them a secure source of nutrition so they can use what little resources they have left to break the cycle of poverty but something as simple as a meal we give them hope because when you're hungry nothing else matters food is one of the most basic necessities and no one should go without nutrition and it all comes down to access it's our biggest challenge for working families it's too hard to come home from work pack up the kids and haul them across town for meal sites so we offer them food to go so mom or dad can come by on the way home from work get some food and take it home with their kids and what I like about that is the kids don't need to know where the food came from as far as they're concerned they came from a restaurant we serve the community three meal programs our hot meal program is now open seven days a week this has been a goal of open heart kitchens for many years now we recognize that hunger doesn't end over the weekends now our community has access to a meal every day we have five locations two in Livermore two in Pleasanton one in Dublin our children's weekend bag lunch program benefits kids who are on the free and reduced school lunch program during the week but don't necessarily have a secure source of nutrition over the weekend every Thursday we gather a large group of volunteers together they assemble 2,500 bag lunches and we deliver them to 22 schools the kids take the lunches home so they have something to eat over the weekend we also have four sites to provide meals five days a week exclusively to seniors the meals are designed to make the special dietary means of seniors and we serve the meals in a congregate setting the sites have a restaurant field of them so the seniors come in and our staff and our volunteers try to make them feel special because they're getting out of the house that way it's as simple as three dollars a meal it's our average meal cost across all of our programs in 2016 we served over 345,000 meals we have a very small staff and the volunteer workforce of over 375 volunteers every week our volunteer family is the heart of our organization some come in every day others once a week others once a month but they all make a difference and we're always looking for new volunteers to join our team I want to thank the partners in the faith community that are here today we couldn't do what we do without you and thank you for making a difference in the lives of our neighbors and me and giving them hope leadership coordinator of Interfaith Interconnect and we are so pleased to have you to be here today Interconnect is to enrich inform others about the great diversity of faiths and cultures in our valley and that's just what we're doing today we currently have about 20 member faith groups representing several christian congregations as well as the high and new jewish, jane, muslim, Scientology, Sikh, and the utilitarian universe list we welcome all whether part of a faith group or not in addition to our annual thanksgiving service and annual hotluck peace picnic in recognition of UN faith peace Interfaith Interconnect also organizes occasional events on various topics we also hold a monthly religion chat the second Wednesday of each month except December where two individuals are able to respond to a question about how their faith views a particular topic and then afterwards people meet in small groups to discuss our January religion chat is at the hindu community center in livermore and we have someone of hindu faith and a muslim woman who will be presenting that day so we have more information about Interfaith Interconnect outside we hope you'll stop by the reception right next door after the service and talk with someone you've not met before thank you again for your presence today as we spent this evening in worship in the theme of hope not a temporary or fleeting hope that depends on circumstances but the abiding hope the knowledge that a goodness more powerful than all realities lies just beyond the veil and so let us conclude with a prayer for that hope oh god we pray that you would give us certain glasses give us glasses through which we can see in strife unright peace in destruction fields fertile for growth of that which was never there before and in division and darkness unright joy and may the god of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the spirit amen