First Parish Unitarian UniversalistRoots Hold Us Close
A sermon preached by the Rev. Diane Teichert
First Parish Unitarian Universalist - Canton, MA
March 3, 2002
In past years, I've used the sermons on the Sundays during the Canvass to ask you about what is most important to you about First Parish, and what your hopes and dreams for it are. The idea, of course, was to remind you (and me, because I pledge too) of the reasons why we want to support it financially to the very best of our ability.
You might remember one of those sermons from last year-index cards were passed out and you were invited to write your responses to both those kinds of questions, which were the collected, posted for all to see during Coffee Hour, then later typed up, reviewed by the board which here is called the Parish Committee, disseminated to other committees for their consideration in making their plans, and then re-visited last fall at our Leadership Retreat as we made plans for this year.
Another of my approaches to the Canvass season, has been to articulate for you what I feel are Unitarian Universalism's saving messages, what in other words is it that we have to say that the world desperately needs to hear? The idea, of course, was to ignite your fervor, your conviction, so that First Parish would stand out among whatever other charitable causes you might support as the one that is as important for the public good and as it is for your personal good.
You might remember that sermon. It happened to be April Fool's Day, so I started with a joke: What do you get when you cross a Unitarian Universalist with a Jehovah's Witness? Someone who knocks on the door and doesn't know what to say when it opens.
What would you say, if you were out door-knocking for First Parish. I'd say we have two saving messages. The first grows out of our First Principle and Purpose (as printed on the back of your bulletin), to affirm and promote the inherent dignity of every person. It's our saving message for humans: about our interdependence in religious community and about how that mutual connection can better, even save, lives, and in particular the lives of people who would be shunned from other religions, say because of sexual identity or for refusal to subscribe to creeds they don't believe.
The saving second message grows out of the last of our Principles and Purposes, the Seventh, to affirm and promote the interdependent web of all existence of which we humans are merely one part. It is our saving message for the earth itself: we declare that the Judeo-Christian belief in human dominion has endangered the earth and all living things, and proclaim a radical realignment of human priorities recognizing our interdependence with all living things and the environment that supports it all.
So, I concluded that sermon with this: "when you ring that doorbell-ding, dong!-and the door opens, and someone peers out, just begin your spiel, "Hi! My name is.and I'm here to invite you to visit First Parish-you know the one on Washington Street with the yellow doors-where we believe being together saves lives and where what we believe about the earth can save life itself!"
Well, I'm not going to take any of those approaches in this canvass season sermon. First, I'm going to talk about new strengths and a current weakness of First Parish and how they relate to our budget. Second, I'm going to talk about the roots that hold us close here and how they relate to our pledges.
This is my fourth year as your minister. I believe First Parish has grown increasingly stronger in those years. One way we have grown stronger is in the numbers and involvement of people. Average attendance is up and more than 30 people have signed the Membership Book, and though some of these new members have since moved away, drifted apart, or in one case dropped out, most have become active participants and new leaders. They have shown up to help when needed, taught in both the adult and children's religious education programs, served on committees, ran the canvass, and even helped raise the average pledge by their increased giving. I look forward to continued membership growth, providing more and more opportunities for newcomers and long-timers to develop meaningful relationships with each other, which must after all be the key to retaining everyone.
As a result of these newcomers, those now-weary leaders who kept First Parish alive during the early and mid 1990's, through periods of ministerial turnover and congregational conflict, are increasingly able to step back and decide where they want to serve rather than feeling that they must serve everywhere they are needed. This is good.
Another way First Parish has grown is in emotional health. This is most apparent to me in the time of Sharing our Joys and Sorrows during the service. In a sermon during my first year, I observed that though a few parishioners spoke about the troubles of their siblings, parents or children, hardly anyone told of their own troubles until they could share a Joy that the trouble was over! This deprived the community of an opportunity to provide love and support when they were most needed.
Your trust and openness have increased noticeably since then. I look forward to seeing an extension of that emotional health into other kinds of communications, so that anyone who is unkindly confronted by another will feel empowered to call the confronter to a higher standard of communication commensurate with the Covenant we recite each week and the Principles and Purposes we affirm and promote.
Finally, I observe spiritual growth in the parish. In a sermon in my second year here, I denounced the intolerant comments I had heard made by a few parishioners. I had heard one humanist say of a Christian, "if that's what they want, why don't they go across the street?" (In reference to the United Church of Christ). And, I'd heard one Christian say of a humanist, "why don't they just get over it?" (In reference to the anger in their rejection of their childhood religion).
So, I preached a message of open-minded, open-hearted listening to the stories that would answer those "why?" questions if only they weren't posed in such an intolerant way. Perhaps, I suggested, the Christian who likes it here likes it because we teach there are many paths to the truth and ways to know God, not just one. And perhaps the intolerant humanist needs some sympathy for the pain they suffered in the past.
In recent years, I have not heard such intolerant sentiments. I look forward to an extension of open-minded, open-hearted listening to each other's stories as we explore what it might take for First Parish to become explicitly welcoming of gay and lesbian people.
But these are areas of past and potential growth. I haven't yet addressed any areas of weakness that relate to our pledges, as promised.
There's only one to discuss today and it's hardly our fault. But it's real. Many people's lives today are stretched to the limit, and more have learned to say "no" to what they can't manage or don't enjoy. This is good and healthy. Except that churches rely on volunteers, people who say "yes."
We lost our volunteer choir director, for example, when she needed to take a paying organist job at another church. Then you voted to add a paid part-time choir director/music coordinator to our budget for the current year, an investment we've all begun to enjoy.
Certain other individuals are volunteering inordinate amounts of time fulfilling the duties of their position, but when their terms are over, it is unlikely anyone else will have that kind of time to give.
For example. This June, our current Treasurer completes his term of office. The Parish Committee concluded that the duties of that position as it has been defined up to now are so time-consuming it will be impossible to fill by a volunteer. It appointed an ad hoc committee to recommend a solution, which may well involve paying for some accounting or bookkeeping services.
Increased administrative staffing may not be a glamorous goal, and therefore not light the fire under our pledging generosity, but I am convinced that growing a healthier infrastructure is as important a new area of growth for First Parish as growth in membership numbers, or emotional and spiritual health, have been. It may not be visible to the newcomer when he or she enters the yellow doors, but it is growth that will be keenly felt by everyone who cares about the long-term viability of First Parish.
"Roots hold us close" as we sing in our meditation song so often on Sundays. Each of us longs, I think, for a place to belong, in which we can sink our roots. First Parish is such a place. Our roots grow both horizontally and vertically here; they grow out and they grow down.
They grow out in direct relation to the membership, emotional, and spiritual growth I've been describing this morning. The healthier the community, the more freely our roots spread out, connecting us in life-enriching ways with each other and with our inner selves, with who we are becoming.
They grow down because there is depth of meaning and of history in this place. Unitarian Universalism is not some kind of twenty-first, or even twentieth century, fad. We trace our history to the 18th and 19th century Unitarians and Universalists, past them to the Protestant reformation during which period our forebears were persecuted, and earlier still to the early dissidents in the Roman church. Our origins are in the Judeo-Christian heritage, rich in story and myth, ethics and morals.
But, as Unitarian Universalists, we need not accept the doctrines and creeds with which past religious leaders burdened that rich heritage, nor are we limited by or to those origins in any way. Indeed, our first reference point is the truth as each of us knows it, from our own personal and "direct experience with that transcending mystery and wonder.which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which uphold and create life." (as we say in the Sources from which we draw, also printed on the back of your bulletin). After that, we draw on a wide range of sources including the wisdom from all the world's religions, providing for our roots a very rich soil indeed.
As we think about our pledges to First Parish in the coming weeks, I plan to, and I ask you to, consider the value to you of these roots that hold us close, and the importance of necessary kinds of new growth that increased pledge income will support. Let's, too, name what is most important to us about First Parish, and our hopes and dreams for it. Oh, and don't forget Unitarian Universalism's saving messages, which I believe are truly as important for the public good as for our personal good.
Amen!