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12/21/2025 0 Comments

December 21, 2025: Filled with the Spirit

Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 7:10-16
The Gospel: Matthew 1: 18-25

What does it mean to keep going when the odds are against you? Is it courage or is it foolishness? I imagine that depends upon whom you ask. However, for many of us it is faith that allows us to keep going, to keep fighting for what we believe in, what we know is right, to do what Jesus would do.

The final sign of hope that Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams offer in The Book of Hope, is hope in the indomitable human spirit. Goodall defines this as, “that quality in us that makes us tackle what seems impossible and never give up. Despite the odds, despite the scorn or mocking of others, despite possible failure. The grit and determination to overcome personal problems, physical disability, abuse, discrimination. The inner strength and courage to pursue a goal at any cost to self in a fight for justice and for freedom. Even when it means paying the ultimate price of giving up one’s life” (144-145).

Reflecting on our Isaiah scripture, King Ahaz did not have a faith-filled indomitable human spirit. He was just 20 years old when his father King Jotham of Judah died of unknown causes as the combined forces of the northern kingdom of Israel and Aram arrived at Jerusalem in an assault aimed at forcing Judah into the Syro-Ephramite alliance and removing Ahaz as king. God sent Isaiah to tell King Ahaz to stand firm in his faith against these enemies. But Ahaz was put in a tough position - he was offered to ask for a sign from God but his faith told him not to test God, so he refused. The bigger problem was rather than trusting God that he and his kingdom would be protected during the siege, he sought help from the Assyrians putting himself in debt to them.

But the key here is that God through Isaiah offered a sign even though Ahaz did not ask for one. The sign was of a young woman giving birth to a child to be named Immanuel “God with us”. While at the time, this was seen as a reference to a child by Isaiah or Ahaz’s wife, Matthew would see this as a prophecy of the birth of Christ by the Virgin Mary.

Both Ahaz’s faith and his experience were too immature to accept what God was offering.

However, Mary and Joseph both showed a strong enough faith and the indomitable human spirit to accept the challenges that this virgin birth would bring. When the angels came to them and said, “Do not be afraid” - they weren’t. They endured the stares, the whispers, the scorn, the challenging journey to Bethlehem and the birth in humble circumstances because they had indomitable human spirits inspired by their faith.

Of course Jesus, God in human form, would show that indomitable human spirit regularly as he healed, helped, taught and saved despite what society said or thought of him.

Goodall notes that this indomitable human spirit requires the amazing human intellect, hope, determination, courage and resilience. It is like a human superpower to be positive even when surrounded by negativity, to have hope beyond the boundaries of what some might think is possible: it’s faith.

People like Chris Koch display that spirit well. Goodall notes that Koch is “a Canadian who was born with no arms and no legs —just short stumps for arms and one extremely short leg stump. He gets around on a long board—and there is virtually nothing that he can’t do. He travels on his own around the world, goes in for marathons, drives tractors—and is an excellent inspirational speaker” (151-152).

Part of the credit for his indomitable spirit and theirs goes to his parents.

“His parents never told him he couldn’t do what his brothers and sisters did,” Jane explained. “They always told him that he could do anything. They never said, ‘Oh, you can’t do that”” (152).

Goodall cites Winston Churchill as another example. “It was Churchill’s indomitable spirit and his belief in the British people that inspired them and called out their courage and their determination not to be beaten by Hitler”(152). She grew up in England during the war and understood that their armed forces weren’t ready and were much smaller than Germany’s but she remembered that “Churchill inspired people with his rousing words, saying that we would defend our island to the end, we would never give up, we would fight the enemy on the beaches and in the fields and in the hills and in the streets. We would never surrender” (153). And he backed this up with his own example going into the underground shelters and encouraging people after bombing raids.

Goodall recalled, “I was beginning to understand what people are capable of and how an indomitable determination can motivate and inspire a nation and turn what was an inevitable defeat into victory; that with courage and determination, the impossible becomes possible” (154).

In another WWII example, Norwegian teachers in Nazi-occupied Norway were told that they had to join the Nazi Teachers’ Union and teach fascist ideology. All most all 12,000 of them refused - were fired, and the schools closed. About 1000 male teachers were gathered, forced into cattle cars and sent to concentration camps. Norwegian citizens, defying orders, gave food and sang to the teachers as they were shipped out. Despite hard labor and harsh conditions, the teachers never gave up and they were eventually released and schools reopened.

Who might we point to today and say, they have an indomitable human spirit? Maybe President Vladimir Zelensky as he fights for the sovereignty and safety of the Ukrainian people? Maybe the Palestinians living in tents in Gaza City who continue to have hope despite much violence and destruction, hardship and even starvation over the last two years? Maybe the migrant who persecuted and raped in her homeland walks over a thousand miles with just the hope of being let into a country where she and her children can be safe and free?

Those of us with faith have an even stronger motivation for hope, determination, courage, and resilience. We can tap into not only our own energy and hope reserves but can lean into our spiritual connection to a God who has our backs. A God who tells us to be strong in our faith and in our determined, hope-filled actions. Just as he told King Ahaz, through Isaiah in 7:4 “Take heed, be quiet, do not fear and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands” so he reminds us not to fear but to keep calm and to carry on through our own life’s challenges and to carry on in helping others with theirs for nothing is impossible with God.

When we need extra strength to fuel our hope and courage, we need only look inward for that connection to Immanuel, God with us, and to remember that we are never alone.

Jane Goodall captured that idea well in her poem “The Old Wisdom”

When the night wind makes the pine trees creak
And the pale clouds glide across the dark sky,
Go out my child, go out and seek Your soul: The Eternal I.
For all the grasses rustling at your feet
And every flaming star that glitters high Above you,
close up and meet In you: The Eternal I.
Yes, my child, go out into the world;
walk slow And silent, comprehending all,
and by and by Your soul, the Universe,
will know Itself: the Eternal I.“
Amen.

Pastor Michelle Fountain

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12/14/2025 0 Comments

December 14, 2025: Inspiring Youth

Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 35 1:10
The Gospel: Matthew 11: 1-11

It is hard to wait. John the Baptist had been waiting for Christ to come. Then, sitting in jail, he heard what Jesus was doing and he wondered, could this be him? He sent a message asking, “Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?”

It’s hard to wait for Christmas now - not just for the children but for all of us. I saw Christmas decorations in some stores before Halloween was over. Before Thanksgiving many people had decorated their homes and had every sort of inflatable from Santa to reindeer, snowmen, and even Christmas Dinosaurs on their lawns.

Some people want to sing Christmas Carols of joy celebrating Christ’s birth throughout Advent forgetting that advent means a time of waiting, preparing: a time to remember the incredible story of God as an embryo in Mary’s womb - waiting to be born and then waiting 30 years before the first miracle. There is no hurry, even though we want to hurry, there is a sacredness in the waiting. There is beauty and tranquility in preparing for the birth of God, thinking about Jesus kicking in Mary’s womb, sitting in awe that God, who could come to earth in any form, chose to come as a human embryo spending nine months in Mary’s womb then years getting his diaper changed, crying, learning, growing before he began to teach, to heal, to help, and to save.

If God could wait then so can we.

But waiting is not a stagnant thing. It is not sitting on the couch or in the pew just waiting for the days to tick off until the 24th then 25th. This period of advent, which often feels like a crazy whirlwind of shopping and card writing, cleaning and baking is actually a time for contemplation. A time to remember the Hope, Peace, Joy and Love that came into the world as a humble, helpless baby, who took his time growing - not even being heard of between infancy and the age of 12 when he was found conversing with the religious leaders in the synagogue and then not really again until the Wedding at Cana - the first miracle of turning water into wine.

If Jesus can wait and learn, and grow, then so can we.

And who in our society probably feels like they have to wait the most? The children. They wait for Christmas; they wait until they are old enough to go to school; they wait until they are old enough to play sports; they wait until they are old enough to get a phone; they wait until they are old enough to drive, they wait until they are old enough to vote. They wait, but not idly.

In fact, the power of young people is Jane Goodall’s third reason for hope in her Book of Hope written with Douglas Abrams.

Goodall says, “Children can’t escape from hearing about the climate crisis–pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss–and increasingly about our social crisies—racism, inequality, poverty. So young people are now much better equipped than we were to understand and deal with the problems we’ve created. And to understand how all these issues are interconnected” (131).

Goodall’s Roots & Shoots youth groups were born from students who came to her wanting to make a difference. She recalls, “Twelve Tanzanian high school students from eight schools came to my home in Dar es Salaam. Some of them were worried about things like the destruction of the coral reefs by illegal dynamiting, and poaching animals in the national parks—why wasn’t the government clamping down on these? Others were concerned about the plight of street children, and others about the ill treatment of stray dogs and animals in the market.”

From that discussion, the Roots & Shoots Youth program was started in 1991. While there are chapters all over the world, in the U.S. alone there are 2118 groups and 63,540 participants. There are groups in all 50 states. Goodall says their main message is, “every single individual matters, has a role to play, and makes an impact on the planet–every single day. And we have a choice as to what sort of impact we will make” (114).

Their three focus areas are: helping people, animals, and the environment. To that end, chapters all over the world look at the needs in their community and choose different projects. In Tanzania, some planted trees in barren school yards to provide shade and homes for birds. In a poor school in New York City that Goodall visited, they researched the environmental problems associated with styrofoam and successfully campaigned to have it removed from their school cafeteria; on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, they cleaned up a lot and started an organic garden reconnecting the youth with their ancestral tradition of the three sisters garden of corns, beans and squash. They eventually created 12 community gardens and three farmers’ markets on the reservation. In China, Roots & Shoots students visit young cancer patients in the hospital reading stories and bringing gifts. A Roots & Shoots group in a Congolese Refugee camp created a garden and raised hens bringing much needed help, joy and a sense of purpose to the community.

“One of the most important determinants of hope in one’s life is seeing one’s agency, one’s ability to be effective,” Abrams says in the book. These children gain a sense of agency when they come up with a project in their community and see its results and that has an impact beyond the children.

Goodall tells the story of a 10-year old Chinese girl, Joy, who heard one of her talks and begged her parents to help her start a chapter of Roots & Shoots in her community. A few years later, Goodall received a letter from Joy’s mother that Joy had translated for her. In it she said, “After our children formed a Roots & Shoots group in their school, they changed how we thought. It is no exaggeration to say that most of us would never have thought to care for the environment without our kids. And we might still have the numb lifestyle, caring nothing about this planet but ourselves. Our kids used a bright way to let us have a different view of our life. I started my own change from accepting passively to actively participating after my child brought back all of the information from Roots & Shoots. I went from a consumer who was quite selfish to one who learned to cut down unnecessary buying” (128).

As a teacher and a mother, I too have learned from and been inspired by the caring, passionate activism of youth on a regular basis.

In Woodstock, two young girls Phebe and Nika Myers were worried about the lack of songbirds at their birdfeeders and they researched it, finding that encroachment into the birds’ migratory corridor was depleting their population. They started a group called Change the World Kids in 1998 that worked to help both globally and locally. They have preserved portions of a migratory corridor in Costa Rica called Bosque Para Siempre - Forever Forest that they travel to each year to plant trees and help in the local area. Their goal is to eventually preserve 300 hectares of land. Locally they have a volunteer program where people can call on them for help with everything from yard clean ups and firewood cutting and stacking to installing drywall and fixing roofs.

Both of my sons and many of my students over the years were Change the World kids and that got me involved too. I would drive them to projects when they were too young to go on their own and would participate when I could. I will never forget the gratitude of an injured farmer in Reading. We stacked his hay, cleaned his barn and did minor repairs that he could not do with a broken arm.

The kids, and I through them, learned small acts of help and kindness make a difference in the world and when added together, they truly can change it.

The Prophet Isaiah spoke of the wilderness and the dry land being glad, the desert rejoicing and blossoming, weak hands being strengthened and feeble knees becoming firm, because God is coming. His verses are words of encouragement and hope. They remind us that we are always, all of us, not just John the Baptist, preparing the way. Even, and especially, the children lead us in this way of hope on this highway of caring that is the Holy Way.

Maybe Jesus came as a baby, growing through childhood to remind us of the power of children - those who feel and see so deeply– uncluttered or bogged down by the responsibilities of supporting a family but very capable of not only seeing need but finding fresh ways to address those needs.

While we cannot cure the blind, heal the lame or restore the dead as Jesus did, we can, each of us, look around at our communities – the people, the animals, and the land—see the needs and start addressing them by building hope one meal, one shelter, one tree at a time. As Goodall said, “Only if we can understand, can we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help shall all be saved.”

God gave us the ability, Jesus gave us the example and the little and big children continue to lead us in inspiring hope. Amen.

Pastor Michelle Fountain

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