GROWING IN SPIRIT (ASSOCIATION SUNDAY)

Oct. 12, 2008  Summit UU Fellowship

Rev. Kathleen A. Green

Reading:  The Low Road  Adapted from "The Moon is Always Female", published by Alfred A. Knopf, Copyright 1980 by Marge Piercy.

What can they do to you? Whatever they want.  They can set you up, they can bust you, they can break you.  They can do anything you can't stop them from doing.  

How can you stop them?     Alone, you can fight, you can refuse, you can take what revenge you can.

But two people fighting back to back can cut through a mob.  Two people can keep each other sane, can give support, conviction, love, hope.

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 and they said no, it starts when you say We
and know you who you mean, and each day you mean one more.

     Today, we are joining with thousands of UUs, all over the country, some right now, at this very moment of the day, to recognize what is called Association Sunday.  Association Sundays are a request by the UUA for all congregations to recognize and support, both spiritually and financially, the national work of the Association.  Because our polity is one in which each congregation is completely autonomous, we are not forced to participate in this event – we choose to participate.  We choose to participate because we affirm the idea that “The people of this congregation are those who want to be part of a religious community whose minds and hearts are opening to the deeper spiritual significance of the ancient symbols, stories and texts.  Those who cannot be satisfied with either a simplistic literalism or a religion which simply fights against literalism.  Those who feel that there are many paths into the depths of the mystery in which our lives are set, even as they seek the one path most personally significant for them.  Those who resist the temptation toward exclusivity in religion.  Those who are challenged by the idea that each person has within the potential to achieve the highest.”

     Thousands of UUs across the nation simultaneously celebrating our shared commitment to this faith.  That is a pretty powerful image, isn’t it? 

     Unitarian ethicist and theologian James Luther Adams said, “By their groups you shall know them.”  So what is our group, our association, and our religion to be?  Is it a drinking fountain in a private park in a gated community, where only our selected friends and we can refresh our selves at our leisure?  Or is it an expansive, life affirming, ignorance busting, despair destroying, hope giving fountain of the waters of life, where justice rolls down and peace like an ever flowing stream that we have to paddle like mad to stay a float on and laugh with joy all the while?  Do we take our faith to the streets, to the highways and by ways, by first taking it in to our hearts singing Spirit of Life move in our hands, giving life the shape of justice?

     You may have heard about the man who was feeling ill and went to his doctor.  After listening to his complaints, the doctor went out and came back with a big bottle of pills.  I want you to take one of these in the morning with a big glass of water and another after breakfast, with a big glass of water, and the same at lunch and mid-day and dinner and in the evening before you go to bed, another pill with a big glass of water.  "But" the man stammered, "Wh...What is wrong with me Doc?”  The doctor replies, "It is obvious isn't it?  You simply are not drinking enough water.”    I encourage you to drink of the water of life from that hope giving fountain -  to drink abundantly – to grow in spirit.

     This idea and purpose of growing in spirit has long been with us as a religious community.  It has been a part of our denominational history.  It comes from the Judeo-Christian tradition that Unitarians and Universalists founded their congregations upon so many years ago.  In our worship life today, we draw from many sources, including Christian and Jewish teachings.  On this day, as a part of my 3-week prophet sermon series, we consider the Jewish teachings through the Hebrew prophets.

     A prophet is basically a person chosen or “called” to speak to people; conveying a message or teaching.  In Hebrew teachings, Prophets set the standards for the entire community.

     The Hebrew word for a prophet, navi (na VEE) comes from the term meaning "fruit of the lips," which emphasizes the prophet's role as a speaker.  The Talmud teaches that there were hundreds of thousands of prophets: twice as many as the number of people who left Egypt, which was 600,000.  Scripture identifies only 55 prophets of Israel.  I promise you we won’t consider all 55 this morning!  But I do want us to consider a few of those prophets whose lives and teachings tie into our religious values and our faith today.

     Anyone heard of Micah?  I can remember memorizing the books of the bible when I was a child in the So. Baptist Church and I loved the old testament books because the names were so intriguing to me.  I still remember that Micah comes right after Jonah – Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, Malachi!

     The purpose of writing the book of Micah, according to biblical researchers and scholars, was to express disdain for the corruptions and pretensions of Jerusalem and its leaders.  Micah recognized power as a responsibility and saw, instead of thanksgiving and acts of love and gratitude, the powerful (not just political power, but priests as well) conniving to maintain their wealth and further subjugate those of “lesser status.” 

     Micah condemned religious practice detached from ethical performance.  His ministry was especially preoccupied with the sufferings of the common people and of the peasants in the agricultural areas who were exploited by rich and unscrupulous landed nobility" (Archer).  "Micah was the prophet of the poor and downtrodden" .... who displayed "the courageous and fearless spirit of one who is indignant over the corruption and heartlessness of inhuman rulers and time-serving religionists" (Hailey). 

     The platform upon which Micah delivers his teaching is found in the description of God’s call to justice and loving mercy.  Micah 6:8“And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  "How will the world know that I am walking humbly with my God?  They will know by the way I treat people.  Those who walk humbly with their God have a passionate concern for justice being done in society, and a deep concern to treat people lovingly and mercifully" (D. Stuart Briscoe).

       Amos is a prophet that you may not recognize by name but certainly by a key verse found in the book of Amos 5:24  Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a might stream.

     The Book of Amos is set in a time when the people of Israel have reached a low point in their devotion to YHWH - the people have become greedy and have stopped following and adhering to their values.  The wealthy elite are becoming rich at the expense of others.  Peasant farmers who once practiced subsistence farming are being forced to farm what is best for foreign trade, mostly wine and oil.

     Amos described himself as one who had 3 different occupations:  shepherd, herdsman, cultivator of sycamore figs.  "These occupations made it necessary for Amos to do a large amount of traveling to the wool and cattle markets of Israel and Judah.  In this way, he learned firsthand the military, social, and economic conditions and practices of rich and poor alike"  Amos was the stern prophet of justice and righteousness.  "Someone described Amos as 'the first Great Reformer.' He was not of the school of the prophets, who by this time were disposed to cry what the people wanted.  Amos' spirit is summed up in the one word justice" (Homer Hailey).

     I’m sensing a theme in the teachings of these Hebrew prophets.  I’m also feeling a connection with not only our values and faith, but a connection with what we are seeing, and hearing, and feeling in our own nation’s current crisis.  I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been noticing a lot of our sisters and brothers feeling beleaguered, and not unlike Elijah.

     The prophet Elijah went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary tree.  He prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough!  Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors!”

Then, as Elijah lay down and slept, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to  him, “Arise and eat.”  Then Elijah looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water.  So he ate and drank, and lay down again.  And the angel came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, or the journey will be too great for you.”  So Elijah arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the  mountain of God.

     And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, God came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

So Elijah said, “I have been very zealous for you, O God, but the children of

Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your

prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

Then God said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain, for the Spirit of God is

about to pass by.” And behold, a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces, but God was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but  God was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.  When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood  in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are  you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19)

     After reading this story of the Hebrew prophet Elijah, in my research, I came across a sermon written by Rev. Galen Guengerich of The Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City.  I was so taken with some of what he said about this story – about this prophet – that I knew I had to include Elijah, some of Rev. Guengerich’s insights, and my own interpretation with you.

     Like all great religious narratives, the story of the Hebrew prophet Elijah’s flight through the wilderness to the mountain is rich in symbol and metaphor, evocative enough that many different  interpretations are possible, yet supple enough that none of them are necessary.  The story describes a major crisis in the life and career of the prophet.  In the face of apathy on the part of the people, serious competition from the prophets of a competing god and a death threat by the queen, Elijah throws up his hands in despair.  Overwhelmed, Elijah finds himself in the wilderness, fleeing for his life.  He stops running only when he finds a cave to hole up in.

     Each of us can doubtless take this story and make it our own.  No matter the type of crisis, all of us know what it is like to feel beleaguered and overwhelmed.  We know the feeling of not being able to cope any longer.  During these times, we often feel alone and afraid.  As we wander through a wilderness of the soul, we do not know which way to turn or where to go.  We too want to crawl into a cave.

     But the important part of the Elijah story concerns what happens after the night in the cave.  God comes to Elijah and instructs him to leave the cave and stand out on the mountain.  There Elijah listens for the voice of God and Elijah expects to hear a voice  that is, well, god-like: thunderous and appropriately earth-shattering.  Such voices do come, but Elijah listens to them in vain.  According to the story, after a mighty wind, and an earthquake, and a fire, there came what is described as “a still small voice.”  When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.  The voice asked, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

     Elijah’s life as a prophet had been like most people’s lives: a mixture of ups and downs, of slim victories and narrow defeats, interspersed with long periods of mundane work and constant effort.  Yet here Elijah was, alone in the middle of the wilderness, hiding in a cave.  “Elijah, what are you doing here?”

     Rev. Guengerich’s  insight is this: whether we are lost at sea or hiding in a cave, we are always halfway to somewhere.  By the time we even think to ask where we are going, we are already halfway there.  Halfway to where?  This is the essence of the question posed to Elijah by the still small voice.  What are you doing here?  This cave is on the way to where, exactly?  The question is just as relevant when things as going well as when they are going badly.  What am I doing here? 

     We make lots of critical decisions in our lives.  But they come long before we reach the actual fork in the road.  They come as we gradually choose what kind of person we will become—we who eventually decide which fork in the road to take.  We choose the ideas we absorb, the friends we associate with, the books we read, the movies we watch, the music we listen to, the advertisements we take in, the thoughts we entertain.  Over time, these decisions, in large part, make us who we are, and most significantly, they develop the frame of reference we rely on in times of crisis.

     Our challenge from the story of the Hebrew prophet Elijah, is to become the kind of individuals who are always halfway to a place worth going.  A place of justice and hope.  Choosing daily to surround ourselves and fill ourselves with the best that we know: worthy ideas, sturdy convictions, uplifting conversations, strong friends, and beneficial surroundings – things offered by this community. 

     Today’s time of crisis and transition in our nation and in turn, the wider global community affects us all.  There is a tremendous need for strength of spirit; a strength that stems from a growth of spirit.  The words of the Hebrew prophets like Micah and Amos and Elijah speak to that growing in spirit by the struggle for justice and proclaiming hope.  We are called to live those values as a religious community with power to make a difference.  Making a difference not only in our own lives but in the lives of those hurting, voices crying out for help - a diversity of voices.

  I recently gave the invocation at Santee’s City Council meeting.  I did so last year and they actually invited me back!  I’m not sure if the same thing will happen this time around.  I reminded the council members of their call as servants to the citizens of Santee, and I asked them to listen deeply to all of the citizens -   “Listen to the voices of all ethnicities, all ages, all sexual orientations, all religious identities, all political affiliations, all economic circumstances.  Listen and then call upon their best selves to act with compassion and respect in making Santee a safe and enjoyable place to live, work, play, learn, and worship.”  Well, they didn’t throw eggs at me, so maybe I’ll be back again next year.

     We need to strengthen the bonds of common purpose among our congregations.  Even more importantly, we need to combine our resources in order to make Unitarian Universalism a stronger voice of liberal religious values in the world.

     Hundreds of congregations and thousands of individuals participating in Association Sunday will enable us to have more of an influence on our country.  Now Is the Time for our congregations to grow stronger and more effective together, because our religious values are needed to help heal our wounded world.  Because the words of the Hebrew prophets still ring true and touch our lives through crisis and beyond crisis.  Because while it may sound cliché or even impossible, this is true:  We are committed to and are ever in the process of building a land where we bind up the broken.  Building a land where the captives go free, where the oil of gladness dissolves all mourning, Oh yes, we are building a promised land that can be.

     May we always remember that “It goes on one at a time, it starts when you care to act, it starts when you do it again and they said no, it starts when you say We ,and know you who you mean, and each day you mean one more.”

May it be so.

Call to Worship    Carl Seaburg

Let there be joy in our coming together this morning.
Let there be truth heard in the words we speak
     and the songs we sing.
Let there be help and healing for our disharmony and despair.
Let there be silence for the voice within us and beyond us.
Let there be joy in our coming together.

Let us worship.

Words at the Offering

50% of the funds raised will support Lay Theological Education programs in order to Grow our Spirit.  Congregations and districts will be able to apply for grants to creat program which focus on spiritual and theological deepening.

50% of funds will be divided among Excellence in Ministry programs such as the Minister’s Association’s continuing education programs, Scholarships for promising student preparing for our ministry, and the initiative to support our ministers of color.

Anything that brings us together—inspiring us to open our hearts, hands, or minds, to forget our differences for a moment and remember we are one—is a sacrament.

Forrest Church