Please click the link to watch Rev. Cynthia’s video recording of this sermon.
Unitarian Universalist minister Jane Rzepka wrote, “I grew up in one of those Unitarian fellowships in the Midwest. And that little religious community really left its mark on me.
“For one thing, the grown-ups there believed we ought to use our heads. They encouraged us to ponder the big questions of beginnings and endings and anger and love and what was before and what comes next and what helps and what hinders. They thought we were smart kids, they listened to our ideas, we believed we were good thinkers. Now of course I know that the use of reason is a cornerstone of our long religious heritage, but then I just thought it was the way we did things at the Unitarian Church.
“And then in another mode we planted daffodils, we looked at the stars, we searched for guppies, we held a worship service at the river. These days we call it spirituality I suppose or earth-centered religion, but then we called it ‘miracle’ and ‘wonder.’ And that rootedness is in my blood as a Unitarian.
“Finally, back then, we children knew that we were a part of congregation that loved us. They taught us Sunday School. They doled out the cookies at coffee hour. They chaperoned the Youth Group. They wanted to know what we would do after graduation. They wrung their hands; they clapped their hands—for us, for one another. Now we call it community; now we call it connection. But, for me, back then, it was just Unitarianism.”
I believe a spiritual community should be about celebrating together, caring for one another and serving the wider world. I think my understanding will mesh well with the UU Congregation of Somerset Hills’s mission to explore spirituality, to engage community, and to transform the world. I believe we have some folk from the Unitarian Society in East Brunswick with us this morning. Their mission statement says in part, “We provide a supportive and stimulating environment for people to explore, develop and share their own spiritual journey… and we act on values of compassion, love and service to increase forces for justice, peace and environmental sustainability through involvement in our community, nation and the world.” That too meshes with my understanding.
To celebrate or to explore spiritualty is to see the wonder in the world. One of my favorite spiritual teachers, the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, said, “People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” To me, spirituality is not believing something about God or gods, but it is experiencing the world with awe and with gratitude.
In his book, Living Buddha, Living Christ, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote, “During a conference on religion and peace, a Protestant minister came up to me toward the end of one of our meals together and said, ‘Are you a grateful person?’ I was surprised. I was eating slowly, and I thought to myself, Yes. I am a grateful person. The minister continued, ‘If you are really grateful, how can you not believe in God? God has created everything we enjoy, including the food we eat. Since you do not believe in God, you are not grateful for anything.’ I thought to myself, I feel extremely grateful for everything. Every time I touch food, whenever I see a flower, when I breathe fresh air, I always feel grateful. Why would he say I am not? I had this incident in mind many years later when I proposed to friends at Plum Village that we celebrate a Buddhist Thanksgiving Day every year. On that day, we practice real gratitude—thanking our mothers, fathers, ancestors, friends, and all beings for everything. If you meet that Protestant minister, I hope you will tell him that we are not ungrateful. We feel deeply grateful for everyone and everything.”
Touching food, seeing a flower, breathing fresh air and knowing it is miraculous. The response of thanking our families, our friends, all beings, the earth. This is celebration. This is exploring spirituality. This is what Rev. Rzepka was talking about when she wrote, “And then in another mode we planted daffodils, we looked at the stars, we searched for guppies, we held a worship service at the river. These days we call it spirituality I suppose or earth-centered religion, but then we called it ‘miracle’ and ‘wonder.’ And that rootedness is in my blood….”
Part of what our faith is about is sharing this way of being with one another and teaching this way of being to our children and others.
There are many things I have rejected from the faith of my childhood, but something I did not reject was the understanding that it is good to take time to be quiet and to listen for the holy to speak to the heart. To see with wonder a bird flying through the air, to truly enjoy the sweetness of a cherry, to respond to life with a song, all of this requires one to slow down, to stop thinking about what is next or what is past. To quote Thich Nhat Hanh one more time, “Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.”
A favorite Peter Mayer song among Unitarian Universalists is “Everything is Holy Now.” When we know that, that everything is holy, when we know that deep within our soul and in our bones how can we not celebrate?
Celebrate. Explore spirituality.
A spiritual community should also be about caring for one another, or as UUCSH’s mission puts it engaging community or as TUS puts it acting from love and compassion. Many years ago now, my father had a major heart attack. This happened on a Thursday. Immediately a member of the congregation I was then serving volunteered to lead the Sunday service so that I could go home.
When I got home, the minister and many members of my parents’ congregation were there for us. My father was not allowed too many visitors. The family went in for short amount of time by twos. The minister went in. A few close friends went in. But other people came and spent time with my family in the CCU waiting room. Some people came and brought us food. We knew people in my parents’ United Methodist church, in my brother and sister-in-law’s United Methodist Church and in my Unitarian Universalist congregation were all holding us in their prayers, their thoughts, their care. A doctor called my mother, brother, sister and me into the little family meeting room to tell us we should prepare for my father’s passing.
But my father did not die from that heart attack; I think, in large part, because he was surrounded by so much love and care. After that hospitalization, whenever my father had the ability to do any little kindness for someone else, he or my mother would comment that that must be why he was still in the world. Care was to be passed on.
Community, Connection, Care. This is an important part of being a spiritual community. I know more than one person who has walked into a Unitarian Universalist congregation for the first time because of some loss in their life; a death, a divorce, a loss of a job. They are looking for a community that will offer comfort, care, loving kindness. Sometimes our congregations are able to offer that care and sometimes unfortunately we fail.
The twentieth-century Dutch Catholic priest Henri Nowen observed, “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.”
Almost always in any congregation there are those who know how to do that and lead the way. They know whose mother has just died, who is dealing with a new physical diagnosis, who just lost a job, whose son is in rehab, and they know who and what to deploy to help. They are often the leaders in care, but they can’t do it all alone. They need the rest of us to step up and make ourselves available. It takes all of us.
I am often disheartened when someone tells me they visited a UU congregation, and no one spoke to them.
I remember many years ago, visiting an African Methodist Episcopal Church with my aunt. An usher gave us bulletins, asked what brought us to the service that day, and sat us next to a regular congregant to whom they introduced us. When they found out I was a minister, I was asked to bring greetings from my congregation. It was a warm and caring welcome. I hope we do as well.
Rabbi Harold Kushner, who wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People, said, “Caring about others, running the risk of feeling, and leaving an impact on people, brings happiness.” Engage community. Care. Act from love and compassion. This is one of the tasks of a spiritual community.
Lastly, a spiritual community should serve, as UUCSH puts it, should transform the world, or as TUS says, it should increase forces for justice, peace and environmental sustainability.
Some congregations end their weekly gathering by saying, “Our worship has ended, now our service begins.” We say we “side with love” not just in our congregations, but in our wider society and world.
American anthropologist Margaret Mead’s quote has a place in the back of our hymnals: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Back when I worked for Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice in DC, a member of the UU Church of Arlington, Virginia taught me an acronym for thinking about the scope of a congregation’s social action program. The acronym is SEWAC, S-E-W-A-C. S is for service. This is having a little food pantry, volunteering at a shelter for people who are unhoused, collecting school supplies for students in need of them, things like that. E is for education. This is for educating members and friends of the congregation and members of the wider community about the issues. It might be hosting a documentary film with a discussion period or inviting in a member of a local farm workers’ association or someone from an immigrant advocacy organization to speak and take questions. W is for witness. This involves showing up at a Climate Rally or a Pride event or gun control gathering. It is being present to take a stand. A is for advocacy. This is writing to your town council member or your Congressperson or showing up and speaking at a school board meeting or going to Trenton to meet your state representative. Finally, C is for community organizing. This means connecting with others. What are the other organizations working on the same issues? What other religious communities are involved? Who are the people most affected and are they mobilized and seeking allies? SEWAC: Service, Education, Witness, Advocacy, and Community Organizing.
Section 2 of Article II of the bylaws of our Unitarian Universalist Association now begins, “As Unitarian Universalists, we covenant, congregation-to-congregation and through our Association, to support and assist one another in our ministries. We draw from our heritages of freedom, reason, hope, and courage, building on the foundation of love.
“Love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values. We are accountable to one another for doing the work of living our shared values through the spiritual discipline of Love.”
“Living our shared values through the spiritual discipline of Love.” When we know that everything is holy; when we see a flower or feel the rain with reverence, is that not love? Celebrate.
“Living our shared values through the spiritual discipline of Love.” The Dalai Lama says, “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” The thirteenth-century Persian poet Saadi said, “All people are members of the same body, created from one essence. If fate brings suffering to one member the others cannot stay at rest.” Caring for one another is fundamental to faith. It is part of a spiritual discipline of Love. Care.
“Living our shared values through the spiritual discipline of Love.” Serve. Perhaps you know the poem by Marge Piercy that says in part,
“Two people can keep each other
sane, can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organization. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fund raising party.
A dozen make a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
ten thousand, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.
“It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again after they said no,
it starts when you say We
and know who you mean,
and each day you mean one more.”
Or to quote Margaret Mead again, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
“Living our shared values through the spiritual discipline of Love,” requires us to serve. Only so can we transform the world. Only so can we increase forces for justice, peace and environmental sustainability in our communities, nation and world.
UU Minister Charles Howe has adapted these lines from T. S. Eliot: “What life have we, if we have not life together? There is no life not lived in community, and no community not lived in celebration and praise!” Celebrate, care, serve, not alone, but together, together as the beloved communities of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Somerset Hills and the Unitarian Society in East Brunswick and the wider communities of Unitarian Universalists and of all who live their values through the spiritual discipline of love.
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