What’s the Point?

Summit UU Fellowship   8/10/08  Rev. Kathleen A. Green

     Perhaps you’ve heard the story of Sam the atheist.  Sam and the Rabbi. Sam was a regular attendee at temple, but he was an avowed atheist.  This puzzled the Rabbi somewhat and one day the Rabbi asked,  "Sam, everybody knows you don't believe in God, but I see you here every Sabbath.  Why do you come to temple?”  Sam answered, "You know my friend Bernie?  He comes to temple to talk to God.  I come to talk to Bernie."

     If you ask people why they go to church or temple, you’ll here lots of  reasons: music; seeing friends I don’t get a chance to see at other times of the week; for my children; habit; my wife makes me; my parents make me; to talk to Bernie.  But really, what’s the point?  What is the point of getting out of bed on a Sunday morning to come here when, let’s face it, you could just as easily stay in bed with a cup of coffee and the newspaper?

     First of all, it’s good for us!  That’s right, it’s good for us.  Duke University scientists were studying elderly people and their immune systems, when they discovered that senior adults who attend worship regularly have healthier immune systems than those who don’t.  And a  UCLA study showed that college students who participate in religious activities, particularly attending worship services, have better emotional and mental health than those with no religious involvement.  Participating in regular worship attendance and other religious activities appears to boost not only spiritual health but also physical and mental health. 

     Other scientific studies held in the US and beyond show the benefits of religious practice, particularly involvement in a faith community are that people cope better.  In general, they cope with stress better, they experience greater well-being because they have more hope, they're more optimistic, they experience less depression, less anxiety, and they commit suicide less often.  They have stronger immune systems, lower blood pressure, and they live longer.  If you want to stay healthy, get out of bed on Sunday mornings and come to Summit, my friends!

     It is also important to be a part of religious community and come together in order to know for ourselves and to tell each other that we are not alone.  The tragic events that unfolded in Knoxville, Tennessee, just 2 weeks ago, remind us of that.  Such tragedy makes us acutely conscious of the beauty and fragility of our lives and those of our loved ones.  Unitarian Universalists around the world have sent love and prayers to the Tennessee Valley congregation to tell them they were not alone on that dark day and they are not alone 2 weeks later.  No, they are not alone.  At our vigil this past week, we gathered to remind ourselves in the confusion and anger and fear that we are not alone.  We gathered as a symbol of our unity with our brothers and sisters in Tennessee.

     I can’t help but wonder, as I know many of my colleagues, and perhaps even some of you wonder, if Jim Adkisson,  had not felt so desperate, if he had known he was not alone, would he have perpetrated such a horrific act?

     In our darkest moments, as well as times of great joy & triumph, we need to know for certain that we are not alone.  This is why, even as we have grown in size, we have found a way to continue our ritual of Joys & Concerns nearly every week.  It may not look the same as it did 5 or 10 years ago and it may go through changes in the future, but it will be a sacred part of our time together because it is one way that we can know and tell each other that we are not alone when we are grieving a loss, we are not alone when we are scared about a diagnosis, we are not alone when we are celebrating a birth, we are not alone when we are overjoyed with a new discovery, we are not alone when we would need each other.

     Quaker author, Parker Palmer writes, on the idea of community, “Of course, solitude is essential to our lives: there are places in the landscapes of our lives where no one can accompany us.  But because we are communal creatures who need each other’s support – and because, left to our own devices, we have an endless capacity for self-absorption and self-deception – community is equally essential to rejoining soul and role.  We need other people in whose presence we can speak our soul.”  That is the kind of community Summit strives to be – one that knows how to welcome the soul and help us hear its voice.  That is the religious community we are called to be for ourselves and each other.

    There is one more point our being together and it is stated in this morning’s centering though in your order of service:  The religious community is essential, for alone our vision is too narrow to see all that must be seen, and our strength too limited to do all that must be done.  Together, our vision widens and our strength is renewed.  Important words from retired UU minister Mark Morrison-Reed.  The point of our coming together each week is in part in order to widen our vision and renew our strength.

     You see, alone our vision is too narrow to see all that must be seen:  we need to see and hear and experience other perspectives and visions; join those visions into something larger than just the one; in order that we can see more clearly the larger canvass of life and not just what we want to see but what must be seen.  Alone our strength is too limited to do it all: we come together to work collectively; to accomplish what needs to be done. To struggle together in helping heal the world.

     Coming together on a Sunday morning, or any other time of gathering in fellowship as a community provides space and inspiration and encouragement for the vision to widen and strength to be renewed.  I can tell you it won’t happen by itself!  It takes intention.  It takes being here together.

     Not long ago, someone sent me a little anecdote about a man who one Sunday morning was refusing to get up and go to church.  He told his wife, “I don’t want to go.”  When she asked why he said “Nobody likes me and the sermons are boring.”  He wife replied  “There are people who like you  and not every sermon is boring.  Besides, you have to go – you’re the minister!” 

     We choose to get out of bed on a Sunday morning, to pull ourselves together, to get transportation, and trek here from our different homes, our individual lives of work and play; traveling the streets and highways to be together as one community.  The key word being “choose”.  We have a choice to make every week, just one of many choices we make in a day.  A choice that illustrates what is important in our life.   

     Like the question “Window or aisle?”  We’re asked at the ticket counter, or on the internet, when we purchase airline tickets.  I read a meditation once that spoke to that choice we make, window or aisle.  To choose the window means having a view that is spectacular and awe-inspiring.  But I nearly always pause to think about the choice.  I mean, what if I have to go to the restroom?  I hate to have crawl over people, or make everyone get out of their seats.  I don’t like feeling trapped.  I always pause to consider my choice, but I always choose the window.  I choose to see.  No matter the view I’m always in awe.  There is always something to see – always something I’ve never seen before.  The remarkable invitation to choose to be touched by the world is worth the trouble of making people move.  And so it is with the invitation to choose being together - experiencing the beauty and wonder of religious community rather than choosing to be complacent and take it for granted. 

     Everyone who regularly attends church of their own free will does so because they want to be part of a community.  We choose to be part of a community because we seek a sense of belonging.  And we seek belonging because we humans are makers of meaning.  There are other ways to make meaning in one’s life outside of a religious community.  But everyone within a religious community is at some level on a quest for meaning.  It is after all the 4^th of our principles and purposes that claims we covenant to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning!

     Victor Frankl was a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp. He was also a neurologist, psychiatrist, and author.   In response to the question, “What is the meaning of life?”, he said, “The meaning of life differs from [person to person], from day to day, from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.”

     We come here to make meaning of our own lives and we come here to  make meaning of the world.  Not in any general, abstract sense, but each moment of each day because we are not human beings as much as we are what my friend and colleague, Rev. Matt Tittle calls “human becomings”. Whether or not we are concerned about the existence of God or not, we come here to BEcome something better than we are now. We come here because we yearn for the world to become a better place by engaging in the issues of ultimate importance.

     What’s the point?  The point our of being together on Sunday mornings is that it’s good for us, we need to know for ourselves and to tell each other that we are not alone, and by being together we can widen our vision and renew our strength.  And we can talk to God or we can talk to Bernie!

     My friends, we’re given the choice:  window or aisle?  I will choose aisle and have no doubt that the more we get together the happier we’ll be. 

So be it.