By: Rev. Dr. Harold Marrero
Rev. Cathy tells us that community is five minutes at a crosswalk. A wave to a neighbor. A conversation while waiting for school to let out. It is small. Ordinary. Repeated. And over time, it weaves us together.
Community is not an abstract idea. It is muscle memory. It is knowing who will show up when something happens. It is already knowing the faces behind the doors when you knock.
For those of you who are Trekkies like me, there is a new show you need to start watching as soon as possible: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
The series takes place in the years 3191 to 3195. The galaxy is recovering from an unimaginable catastrophe that took billions of lives and fractured the Federation. Worlds that once worked together turned inward. Isolation replaced cooperation. Fear narrowed vision. Planets protected their own interests and let go of the wider community that had once defined them.
Sound familiar?
Starfleet Academy in this new series is being rebuilt. Its mission is simple and radical. To train the brightest and most empathic minds from across the galaxy whose core purpose is to make life better for everyone in the Milky Way through community and connection.
In Star Trek, our neighbors are not just the people across a painted border on a map. They are beings from entirely different planets with different customs, different histories, different ways of understanding reality. Those differences are not erased. They are explored. They are engaged. They are what make the Federation strong.
The writers of Trek have always done this. They hold up a mirror to us. They show us who we are capable of becoming without preaching. They place us in a future shaped by catastrophe and ask, what kind of people will we choose to be as we rebuild?
Future historians may one day look back at the early 21st century as a great unraveling. A moment when decades of democratic progress and scientific expansion were shaken by a handful of bad actors who learned how to weaponize fear. Fear became a psychic force that undid years of sacrifice made by generations before us. Power concentrated. Cynicism spread. Isolation grew.
Across the globe, there are movements that seek to control through submission, to shrink community down to sameness, to define belonging so narrowly that most people are pushed outside the circle. That is not community. That is retreat.
And this is why I am so grateful to serve this congregation.
Because this is not retreat. This is rebuilding.
Rev. Cathy reminds us that this moment of crisis is urgent and there is so much to do, and we cannot let that urgency eclipse our care and connection with one another. Fascism feeds on isolation. It feeds on the myth of the solo hero. It feeds on the idea that you are alone.
Community interrupts that story.
This past Saturday, we hosted LGBTQ+ youth from across Miami-Dade who have been disconnected for years by politics. For the first time since COVID, they gathered again in shared space. Laughter filled rooms that had been quiet. Stories were exchanged. New friendships began.
We are partnering with Pridelines, an organization that has been serving LGBTQ+ youth for over 45 years, founded by young people who were tired of being disconnected and built a community that reflected who they were. Together, we are launching Hero Academy.
Hero Academy draws inspiration from Starfleet Academy and from the Scouts tradition. It is a youth group grounded in our UU values and in a simple truth: together, we are greater than any singular person or community.
This will be a space where young people learn social and emotional skills. Where they learn how to navigate adulthood. Where they practice leadership as teamwork. Where they experience belonging without shrinking themselves. Many of these programs once existed in our public schools. Many were cut in favor of test scores and budgets.
So we are rebuilding.
Hero Academy is our pilot for a wider vision of community. And we are not doing it alone. We are deepening partnerships. We are expanding programs. We are remembering that our holy spaces were never meant to serve only the few. Our Protestant and Universalist ancestors imagined sanctuaries that opened outward. Places where people gathered to form a collective committed to a common good.
Look at what already moves through this building. The French American School. Social justice groups. Interfaith gatherings. Music programs. LGBTQ+ youth organizations. We are not announcing who we are with slogans. We are showing who we are through partnership.
Like the Federation in Star Trek, we are forming a true alliance of like minded organizations. A network grounded in pluralism, shared values, and collective care. This is our line in the sand against fear and mistrust. This is our answer to cynicism.
Rev. Cathy tells us that when we ask how are you and really listen, we nourish community. When we build teams with different strengths, we nourish community. When we center relationships, our justice work becomes love filled and durable.
We do not wait for divine intervention from above. We take up the mantle of prophets. We speak into the wilderness. We build in the midst of uncertainty. Because in that wilderness, something else is growing. A wider circle. A braver love. A community that refuses to shrink.
Love has outlasted empires. Love has survived catastrophe. Love rebuilds academies.
So keep loving. Keep showing up. Keep forming teams. Keep expanding the circle.
Let us be that beloved community of hope for Miami-Dade. Let us be the Federation we wish to see.
And let us remember, every time we gather, every time we partner, every time we choose connection over isolation, we are already rebuilding the future.