First Parish Unitarian UniversalistSomething More
Delivered by Rev. Cricket Potter
First Parish Unitarian Universalist - Canton
September 20, 2009
Reading
Our reading is from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Now, many folks see Paul as a curmudgeon, and they point to some harsh statements he made in his letters, statements which, by and large, have been falsely attributed to him. However, I see Paul as someone who cared deeply about the many alternative community’s he was helping to create amidst the harsh reality of Roman rule back in the first century. He cared so much that he could be off-putting at times.
This letter to the growing Christian community in Ephesus is one of my favorites from Paul. He speaks with passion about the life in the spirit of love that he wishes for these folks. In many ways, this new community is like a huge blended or extended family with its own squabbles and frustrations as people try to figure out how to be together in supportive and sustaining ways despite their differences. In fact they are a lot like us today at First Parish or any other church, figuring out how to speak and act from a spirit of love and acceptance.
Here is a medley of verses from Ephesians chapter 4 (vs. 1-2, 15, 29, 31-32):
I beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called…with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace…. Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way…. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear…. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor … be put away from you, (along) with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, (and) forgiving.
Sermon
I want to share with you an excerpt from a talk I heard at the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in 2005.
The talk was entitled “The Way Home,” and it was given by the Rev. Burton Carley who is one of our most esteemed and long-serving ministers.
I have to admit that his talk – an hour-long sermon, really, that was filled with emotional highs and lows - had me both weeping openly with the truth and poignancy of his words and then wiping away my tears as quickly as I could so that I could take notes on all that he was saying.
Here are his words:
It … occurs to me that we as a people of faith need a bridging ceremony to get us from here to there, from the places of our wandering in the wilderness, from the various journeys we are on, to arrive at a place called home together. I speak about gathering up the fragments of our scattered being where the hollow places dwell and creating out of the dust of them something whole…. I speak about the way of the Spirit that engenders life, and how life is transformation. I speak about the way home and the bridge that takes us there over the valley of the shadows where our hyphenated and separated selves seek a way out, a bridge connecting our past to the future. I want to go home but not to that distant place backward as it used to be. I speak about a new creation that is our salvation, a new creation that brings forward the useable past and secures a future, a place called home. I speak from that hollow place that desires to be filled with something more than me, that only can be fulfilled with we and that is connected to a larger reality that is not our own. It is a desire for the belonging that is home. The way home is what I hunger and thirst after.
I think that I could just stop right there and have us spend the rest of our time together this morning first in silent reflection and then in small groups sharing how Rev. Carley’s words touch each of us and what it is we each hunger or thirst for.
What he says is so prophetic and so deeply personal:
gathering up the fragments of our scattered being where the hollow places dwell;
creating out of the dust something whole;
a new creation that is our salvation – our future;
the desire to be filled with something more than me;
the desire for the belonging that is home.
For, I believe that we come here yearning for something whole and lasting.
We come here seeking a counterbalance to all that is so fragmenting and isolating in the world.
We come here wanting guidance and encouragement to become our best selves.
We yearn for that sense of home that includes community and relationship – a place where we are accepted for who we each are as individual and unique creations.
Yet, just as many of us yearn for the connectedness of community and seek something larger than ourselves to be a part of, we perhaps are unprepared for what that asks of us.
We are such a consumer society focused on our own needs that we can easily forget about what we also need to give.
And true community – the kind that nurtures and sustains and helps us find our own meaningful place in the world – is definitely a dynamic and reciprocal relationship.
We are welcomed, accepted, encouraged, nudged, companioned.
We receive in abundance,
but then we are asked to give back in abundance.
We are expected to show up, pitch in, offer our own welcoming and encouragement, and help to nurture community so that it can continue to be there for us and others.
We can’t just come to church – we need to be the church.
That takes time, patience, commitment and work – lots of it.
In my book, no home can be a home just by throwing some things and people together haphazardly just as no religious community can be a community just by people showing up occasionally for Sunday worship or an evening program and then leaving again.
We need a larger vision beyond the “me” to the “we” and a larger commitment beyond “what I need” to “what we need” and “what the larger world needs from us.”
That brings me to our Vision and Purpose as a religious community.
First Parish’s statement of Vision and Purpose is printed on the back of your order of service, and I invite you to turn to it now because I would like us to read it aloud together:
We are a caring and diverse faith community
That seeks to nurture and inspire each person’s spiritual journey
While serving others in our commitment to peace and justice.
I find this to be a beautiful and clear statement of what we are called to be and do as a faith community.
It’s so clear in fact that it makes things sound simple and easy.
I will be inviting the leadership and all of us in the months ahead to reflect intentionally on this statement to consider how we are living out its tenets and where we could do better.
But for now, I invite you to look at this statement and consider the verbs.
I’m a type-A, high-energy person, so I really like verbs!
Seriously though, according to our Vision and Purpose, we are called to:
care, nurture, inspire, serve.
We can’t do this as die-hard individualists, and we can’t do this without real commitment.
We can’t just show up when we want to, reach out only to the folks we know, listen only to what we agree with, or help out only as it conveniently works into our busy schedules.
I find that Paul is saying the same thing in his letter to the folks in Ephesus.
Remember, these folks were a lot like us today – average, hard-working people trying to get by in hard times, hoping for something better and looking for that something better in this new kind of inclusive and loving community Paul is helping to nurture.
And yet, they were struggling with their own differences and the different agendas folks brought to their gatherings.
Paul knew exactly what he was saying when he asked them to step back for a minute and to remember their higher calling as people of faith:
Have patience.
Be forbearing.
Say and do what is edifying for one another.
Speak your truth in love.
Repeatedly, both in this letter and in letters to the other church communities he was encouraging throughout the Mediterranean , Paul uses the Greek verb oikodomeo which means “to build up” or “edify.”
He wants folks to see their communities as something they are building that probably needs more intention, care, and commitment than they had expected.
On a personal level, he is asking folks to be patient and kind; speak their truth in love; to build one another up.
On a broader level, he is asking them to see past their individual issues and agendas to the larger vision of building something more sustaining and meaningful than they could imagine.
What Paul wants for these folks is that new creation, that home and sense of wholeness that Rev. Carley describes.
Not always easy stuff, though!
But, it’s essential stuff for us as individuals and for any faith community to be meaningful and lasting.
As I said earlier, we can’t just show up to church.
We must be the church.
The minute I started here at First Parish in August, I sensed the huge heart of this community.
So many people care so deeply about this place and what we do here.
First Parish clearly has meant the world to a lot of you and your families.
And now, we are at a time of transition time as we consider what needs doing and then start doing it together so that you can become the best church that you can be as you look toward calling a new settled minister in the next year or so.
I, and the leadership here, will be asking you to engage with us in this discernment process.
We will also ask you to jump in and take part in the building up process.
Everyone will be asked to pitch in, give, stretch, and grow in some way.
We all will need to be patient, forbearing, and kind to one another.
We had a dedication ceremony earlier in the service to name our ideals for religious education here and to lift up the work that our volunteers and children, and really all of us, will be doing together.
We spoke of:
sharing in the responsibility of teaching and modeling our values,
offering our friendship and support,
doing our part in supporting religious education and spiritual growth,
doing our best to bring respect, cooperation, and our own questions and
answers to our time together.
We have also read our Vision and Purpose statement together and been reminded of our calling as a religious community to care for one another as we embrace our diverse backgrounds and experiences, and to support one another on the spiritual journey that leads us ultimately to reach out and serve others beyond this community.
I want to pause a minute and invite you to think back to when you first came to First Parish, whether that was just last week, or today even, or perhaps some thirty years ago.
Think about what you were seeking, what you found here.
Was it connection with other folks on the journey?
A community for your family?
A sanctuary where you felt accepted and encouraged in all your uniqueness?
A place where you found healing for your wounds?
A place where you were encouraged – even nudged - to grow?
I hope that you we can all partner together to keep moving from the “me” to the “we” here at First Parish so that we both find home here and build home together.
I pray that we can all see past the illusions of our time regarding self-sufficiency to the profound need our souls have for one another.
For, there is an undeniable grace to be found by all as we dig down deep to offer more of ourselves and in so doing receive so much more from one another.
I close now with words from Rev. Carley, words that had me and my colleagues at General Assembly both weeping and cheering:
I want (us) to be counted among those people…faithful to a vision of a better dwelling place, faithful to the power that comes from we know not where that gives us dreams to guide us home,(and) faithful to the power that stirs our imagination to reveal the way home.”
May it be so.
Amen.