A Message for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost - July 12, 2026
“Seeds of Hope”
Last month Linda and I went out to Chicago for my nephew's wedding. In addition to having a good visit with family, and enjoying way too much good food, we did a few touristy things: On a very hot Saturday we went downtown to the River Walk – along with a bazillion of our closest friends – and we went on an architectural boat tour on which we learned – if only fleetingly – about the architectural history of Chicago – fascinating. Really!
We also went to the newly opened Obama Presidential Center on Chicago's South Side. And... Wow!
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get into the museum proper – tickets are now booking out into next year – but we were able to tour the grounds, see many beautiful works of art, spend money in the gift shop, and go up to the 8th floor Sky Room – as you may have guessed, at the top of the building.
There was amazing artwork throughout the complex, but omn the ceiling of the Sky Room was a piece created by British artist Idris Khan and is titled Sky of Hope (I did not know until after choosing the title for this week's message). I didn't know how to describe it. Fortunately AI did:
The vaulted ceiling features thousands of overlapping, hand-stamped words radiating from the center in blue ink. The text is sourced directly from President Obama's 2015 speech at the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Alabama. The room, officially known as the Nelson Mandela Sky Room, invites visitors to sit or lie on the floor to look upward into the contemplative canopy, while also offering sweeping panoramic views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline.
You can only make out bits of words and phrases at the outer edges of the text. But on two faces of the exterior facade, partially visible through windows on the upper floors, are the following words from that 2015 speech:
“You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, ready to seize what ought to be…The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We The People.’ ‘We Shall Overcome.’ ‘Yes We Can.’ That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.”
I sat down on a bench in that room and wept... I'm sure that part of what I was feeling was nostalgia for what I believe had been a promising time in our nation's history (and just to be clear, Barak Obama was in no way a perfect leader) as well as a profound sense of what we have lost in the ensuing years. But I also felt a deep sense of hopefulness – of those words, and of that place. I felt possibility!
After I had (mostly) collected myself, we went downstairs and sat in the atrium. I happened to make eye contact with another couple sitting there, whom I had just seen upstairs (and would later see again outside). He was just beaming - ear-to-ear! “Isn't this amazing?” I said. “Never seen anything like it!” he replied. We talked for just a few moments. Ben and Carol were from New Jersey - an African American couple. And honestly I don't know that I would have interacted with them in any other context. But there was something there... “Fills me with hope!” he said... “Yes! Hope!” I echoed, and teared up again.
There's an often-told Cherokee Indian Parable...
A Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he told the young boy, "a fight between two wolves – one dark, one light.
The Dark One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego."
"The Light Wolf is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
That same fight is going on inside you grandson… and inside of every other person on the face of this earth." The grandson pondered this for a moment and then asked, "Grandfather, which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee smiled and simply said, "The one you feed".
These are difficult days. There is so much uncertainty. So much divisiveness. ICE is once again murdering innocent people in our streets. The war with Iran is re-escalating. There is no end in sight in Gaza or Ukraine. There is deep, deep distrust of “The Other”, and fear of what is or what may be coming... We are too easily lured to jump in and pile on people with whom we disagree – whether on social media or just having coffee or drinks with friends. We say things about others that we would never say to them in person.
So these are particularly good days to pay attention to the seeds we are sowing, the emotions we are feeding. Our actions are the only ones we can control. We. We the People. We Shall Overcome. Yes We Can. Only We are in charge of Us!
So let's not feed – let's not plant more seeds – of anger or greed, of arrogance or pride, of ego and selfishness. Let's feed the sources of joy and peace, of love and hope, of humility, and kindness, of generosity and compassion, of empathy and faith. Let's plant those seeds. Let's nurture those things in our world.
Hope – unencumbered, unconstrained Hope – is the only thing that can create lasting change. And the good news is that those seeds are in our hands! So let's feed Hope! Let's plant seeds of Hope – deep in the good soil all around us! The harvest will be amazing!
With deeply planted Hope,
Brad
Isaiah 55:10-13, Matthew 13:1-9
“Seeds of Hope”
Last month Linda and I went out to Chicago for my nephew's wedding. In addition to having a good visit with family, and enjoying way too much good food, we did a few touristy things: On a very hot Saturday we went downtown to the River Walk – along with a bazillion of our closest friends – and we went on an architectural boat tour on which we learned – if only fleetingly – about the architectural history of Chicago – fascinating. Really!
We also went to the newly opened Obama Presidential Center on Chicago's South Side. And... Wow!
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get into the museum proper – tickets are now booking out into next year – but we were able to tour the grounds, see many beautiful works of art, spend money in the gift shop, and go up to the 8th floor Sky Room – as you may have guessed, at the top of the building.
There was amazing artwork throughout the complex, but omn the ceiling of the Sky Room was a piece created by British artist Idris Khan and is titled Sky of Hope (I did not know until after choosing the title for this week's message). I didn't know how to describe it. Fortunately AI did:
The vaulted ceiling features thousands of overlapping, hand-stamped words radiating from the center in blue ink. The text is sourced directly from President Obama's 2015 speech at the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Alabama. The room, officially known as the Nelson Mandela Sky Room, invites visitors to sit or lie on the floor to look upward into the contemplative canopy, while also offering sweeping panoramic views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline.
You can only make out bits of words and phrases at the outer edges of the text. But on two faces of the exterior facade, partially visible through windows on the upper floors, are the following words from that 2015 speech:
“You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, ready to seize what ought to be…The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We The People.’ ‘We Shall Overcome.’ ‘Yes We Can.’ That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.”
I sat down on a bench in that room and wept... I'm sure that part of what I was feeling was nostalgia for what I believe had been a promising time in our nation's history (and just to be clear, Barak Obama was in no way a perfect leader) as well as a profound sense of what we have lost in the ensuing years. But I also felt a deep sense of hopefulness – of those words, and of that place. I felt possibility!
After I had (mostly) collected myself, we went downstairs and sat in the atrium. I happened to make eye contact with another couple sitting there, whom I had just seen upstairs (and would later see again outside). He was just beaming - ear-to-ear! “Isn't this amazing?” I said. “Never seen anything like it!” he replied. We talked for just a few moments. Ben and Carol were from New Jersey - an African American couple. And honestly I don't know that I would have interacted with them in any other context. But there was something there... “Fills me with hope!” he said... “Yes! Hope!” I echoed, and teared up again.
There's an often-told Cherokee Indian Parable...
A Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he told the young boy, "a fight between two wolves – one dark, one light.
The Dark One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego."
"The Light Wolf is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
That same fight is going on inside you grandson… and inside of every other person on the face of this earth." The grandson pondered this for a moment and then asked, "Grandfather, which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee smiled and simply said, "The one you feed".
These are difficult days. There is so much uncertainty. So much divisiveness. ICE is once again murdering innocent people in our streets. The war with Iran is re-escalating. There is no end in sight in Gaza or Ukraine. There is deep, deep distrust of “The Other”, and fear of what is or what may be coming... We are too easily lured to jump in and pile on people with whom we disagree – whether on social media or just having coffee or drinks with friends. We say things about others that we would never say to them in person.
So these are particularly good days to pay attention to the seeds we are sowing, the emotions we are feeding. Our actions are the only ones we can control. We. We the People. We Shall Overcome. Yes We Can. Only We are in charge of Us!
So let's not feed – let's not plant more seeds – of anger or greed, of arrogance or pride, of ego and selfishness. Let's feed the sources of joy and peace, of love and hope, of humility, and kindness, of generosity and compassion, of empathy and faith. Let's plant those seeds. Let's nurture those things in our world.
Hope – unencumbered, unconstrained Hope – is the only thing that can create lasting change. And the good news is that those seeds are in our hands! So let's feed Hope! Let's plant seeds of Hope – deep in the good soil all around us! The harvest will be amazing!
With deeply planted Hope,
Brad
Isaiah 55:10-13, Matthew 13:1-9