Living with Commitment | The Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough

Rev. Julie Stoneberg

Today we celebrate the 100th birthday of Lotta Hitschmanova and honour her memory by considering our personal commitment to that which is of most importance to us. Are we willing to go out onto any limbs? Or make any sacrifices?

Opening Words - Sheldon W. Bennett

Here in this meeting house, this place made holy by the memories, the aspirations, the purposes and ideals of those before us, we would be inspired by their example. These were women and men of vision. These were people of spirit.

We, here today, are also people of spirit. We, too, are struck in awe before the great mystery of the cosmos. We, too, are powerfully moved by a deep concern for our world and our care for one another. The spirit moves also in us -- as a free religious community joined in a common covenant of aspiration, commitment and hope.

Source and Spirit of our lives, may we respond boldly to the call to adventure -- for justice, for love, and for joy.

These commitments bind us together. Together, now, we create a space for remembering and honouring the spirit that moves through us. Come. Let us worship

STORY FOR ALL AGES 56 Sparks Street
Have you ever heard of 56 Sparks Street?

Well, as some of you might remember, I was in Ottawa last week for a big ministers’ conference. On the last day, a few of us went to see the Parliament and the Supreme Court, and then we walked to a little restaurant for dinner. After leaving the restaurant, and walking back toward the hotel, we had the strangest experience. First one of us, and then another, started to have a weird feeling. We felt like we were near something that was important. Then someone said, “Did we pass it yet?” “Did we miss #56?”

You see, we realized that we were walking on Sparks Street, and that we were very close to an important Unitarian landmark. 56 Sparks Street. And as we got closer, we saw a plaque on the building marking the exact spot. Here’s a picture…you can pass it around. Take a close look at the plaque. It has a woman’s head on it.

Do you know who it is? Do you know what happened, and is still happening, there? Why is an address important?

Well, let me tell you a bit of the story. It all started in Prague, Czechoslovakia, almost exactly one hundred years ago. The story revolves around one woman, one very famous Unitarian whose name was Lotta Hitschmanova. Can you say that?

Lotta was born in Czechoslovakia, and after she went to France to University to become a doctor, of Philosophy, she returned home to help her father run the family factory. About the same time, the radio news was announcing a very scary warning that a new government in Germany was going to round up all the Jews in Europe and get rid of them. And, Lotta was a Jew.

Lotta was able to get away safely, and she went back to France, and she got a job as a translator. She could not afford much to eat, and there wasn’t much food to eat because it was war time, and one day she fainted from her hunger.

Luckily, some people in a white truck came to rescue Lotta; they took her back to their station and fed her. This truck had a symbol on it like this...do you recognize it?

Yes, it’s a chalice. The truck belonged to the American Unitarian aid people who had gone to Europe to help war victims. When Lotta got well, she wanted to work with them to help others.

In 1942, when she was in her early 30’s, she went to Portugal and got on a banana boat that was packed with other refugees, and she went to New York. From there, she came to Canada and began working with an organization that was helping Czech children who had lost their parents in the war.

Lotta decided to stay in Canada after the war, and she joined the Unitarian church in Ottawa (I was just there on Monday night.) Together, they founded the Canadian branch of the Unitarian Service Committee, and they established an office in downtown Ottawa. Guess where? Right. 56 Sparks Street.

Lotta became known as Dr. Lotta (she was a doctor of Philosophy, remember?) and she always wore a uniform (show pictures of Lotta) so that she would be respected and allowed to go where sometimes women had not been allowed to go before.

The Unitarian Service Committee, or the USC, became one of Canada’s first international aid organizations. Dr. Lotta advertised on the CBC Radio, asking for people to send money and supplies to their office.... Where? 56 Sparks Street. Almost everyone in Canada knew the address because they heard it so often on the radio. Listen to one of those radio spots...

One day, Dr. Lotta was called by the Governor General of Canada to be given the Order of Canada award. This is the highest award for great achievement in making a difference in the lives of others. This is a picture of the award.

Today, I’m going to give each of you kids an award. These are Order of 56 Sparks Street awards. These are awards people who make a difference for others every day. I’ve been watching you and I know you all deserve them. I hope your award reminds you that you can accomplish great things. I hope it reminds you that you can make a difference, just like Dr. Lotta.

*RESPONSIVE READING Hearing The Call: A Tribute To Lotta Hitschmanova

To find our calling is to find the intersection between our own deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger. (Frederick Buechner)

Hunger is a terrible thing...nothing else matters but where the next meal will come from…Only when you are not hungry can you start a more normal life. (Lotta Hitschmanova)

To see reality--is to see that unless we live for each other and in and through each other, we do not really live very satisfactorily; that there can really be life only where there really is love. (Buechner)

[My dream is] that one day the world will be a good place to live, for everyone, everywhere in the world, because it can be done. There can be sufficient food grown and there can be sufficient schools for eager children…. It has been entrusted to us to make the world more liveable. It lies in our hands. (Hitschmanova)

Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me. (Buechner)

[We must] aim at one single goal: to help make this torn, crying, bleeding world of ours a peaceful shrine for everyone—whatever his or her language, background, or colour. (Hitschmanova)

Listen to your life. To find our calling...is to find that point which allows for our fullest expression even as it provides an avenue for our greatest service. (Buechner)

That’s what we’re here for: to make the world new. We know what to do: seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly, treat every person as though she were yourself. These are not complicated instructions. (Nancy Mairs)

Don’t ask [only] what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. (Howard Thurman)
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? (Mary Oliver)

MESSAGE

You know how they say that people look like their dogs? Those of you who have met my dog, Tillie, know that I don’t look anything like her. I don’t have red hair, nor am I speckled. I’m not wiry, I don’t have a curly tail, and I certainly don’t have her kind of energy. However there are many ways that Tillie and I are alike. Both of us are incredibly stubborn. We refuse to commit to anything until we are darn good and ready. And Tillie, once committed...to a squirrel, or a skateboard, or a piece of dog food wedged under a chair...is incredibly dogged in remaining committed. Just like me. Or maybe being stubborn and being committed are just two dimensions of the same energy.

In thinking about commitment over the past week, I arrived at the hypothesis that there are three basic proclivities when it comes to commitment. In the middle are the followers, those without much interest either way, but who will go along with a good leader or for a good reason. In the middle, not much is asked of us. In the middle, we follow because of peer pressure, the promise of a good time or acclamation, or maybe simply because there’s nothing better to do.

On either side of that middle ground are the two extremes... on the one hand, a lock-kneed, hard-hearted, stubborn determination to resist being duped or used or aligned with something we don’t value. I don’t want to paint this as a negative position, because it’s not. It can serve to protect us and give us time for discernment. But I do want to paint it as a ‘no’...not to the cause, but simply to the idea of committing. It is grounded in a fierce independence that resists being identified with a not-yet-integrated or accepted allegiance. Just like “to choose not to make a decision is to make a decision”, there is some commitment in this position, because it is committed to staying uncommitted. I’ve been in this place a lot.

At the other pole is the ‘yes’, the open-handed, full-out commitment to...whatever. To another person, to an idea (whether noble or misguided), to a cause (that bends the moral arc toward justice, or not), or, say, to a religious community. It can also be a ‘yes’ to taking a strong stance in opposition to something. This pole produces the energy that makes it possible to put our shoulders to the wheel or our noses to the grindstone. It is the place where we can embody our deepest values.

I don’t suppose you’d argue with a premise that says that dedication (that is, commitment) plays a huge role in the effort to bring something into being. I hope you agree with the assumption that making promises (that is, commitments) can steel our resolve and keep us on track toward a desired goal. We usually celebrate making such commitments...saying vows, speaking covenants, signing contracts, endorsing long range plans...there is power in these deeds. Power in speaking our commitments out loud, power in putting things in writing, power in naming what’s most important to us.

Our annual theme, How Shall We Live, is grounded in these convictions...that we can make choices about what’s most important to us. That we can make intentional decisions as to where we will spend our time, our money, and our passion. That we are capable of discerning what we can do to help our lives speak our values. That we have an incredible capacity as beings, to grow and learn and get better at being authentically our best selves. And, that we can choose where we will stand on this commitment scale. We are in control of when and on what issues we will stand...ambivalent or committed.

You may already know this, but I have an off-the-scale work ethic. I value productivity and accountability....in myself and in others. It sometimes confuses me that I also admire the values of just being and of simply pursuing happiness. I even have been known to aspire to these things. Even so, terms like ‘shoulder to the wheel’ or ‘nose to the grindstone’ hold no negative connotations for me. I can even mix the two...like imagining the wheel to be the wheel of happiness, or the grindstone to be the work of simply being present. Such beautiful and reflective aspirations, it seems to me, while seemingly antithetical to productivity, also require setting an intention or making a commitment. Don’t they?

So what? Why might living with commitment matter to us, to the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough?

We are known, we will be known, by our commitments...or lack thereof. The general public has a conception, however misguided, that UUs lack commitment. Take the Garrison Kiellor show last month in which he told of a football game (American football that is) between the U.U.U.U. (Unitarian Universalist United University) and Gesthemane Seminary for Bible-based Baptists. In his skit, the Unitarians are a team that stands around arguing in a huddle and then runs off in all directions...hardly a football powerhouse. The cheerleaders chant: “Give me a U -- if you want to! Give me another U -- if you're comfortable with that! Give me another U -- unless you have to get going! Give me another U -- as long as it's approved by committee!”

To make the point even more cruelly, the UUs win, and it turns out that they had bet their entire 6 million dollar endowment fund on the other team. So, both teams lost.

Keillor likes to make jokes at our expense...but to be fair, the Bible-based Baptists didn’t come across all that great either. He set up a fantasy football team based on the polemic I described earlier... one side strongly committed to ideals and to winning at all cost in the name of truth, and the other side completely averse to winning or to making any commitments at all, in the name of democracy, independence, and egalitarian inclusivity.

Seems to me we stand at both ends of this field...and along the sidelines. We’re afraid of committing ourselves to something that cannot be eternal...and caught in a bind because we believe that nothing can be. We oppose any team, or any ideology, that makes powerful claims to truth. We resist working together for our dreams because we don’t want to risk our personal autonomy or offend anyone. We listen to no coach but our own still small voice. Our wishy-washy cheers hold little inspiration. We are convinced that we are the underdog, and our voice and presence reflect that conviction. We don’t really want to win, because winning isn’t in our pantheon of values.

What might Lotta Hitschmanova’s story teach us about this? (And in case I didn’t make this clear, we’re celebrating Lotta today because it would have been her 100th birthday this week.) We can’t know her whole story, and even if I did, I couldn’t possibly share it all today. I do know that hers was just one life, and yet she was able to mobilize a whole generation of Canadians to reach out and help those in need. She was able to be a leader and represent a cause that instilled thousands to follow the call....including the people in the middle and at all extremes. She lived her conviction that she could affect change and make a difference. That I do know.

But I left some important parts. I left out the part where the US denied her entrance into that country because they had strict quotas on Jewish immigrants. I left out the part about both her parents being killed. I left out the part that tells that her signature uniform was not military-issue, but rather her own personal statement of authority and purpose. I left out the part about the sacrifices she made and the risks she took. And, I left out the part about her playing a role in establishing 105 aid organizations in 20 countries. Hers was a life of commitment that involved both sacrifice and dreams, both risks and goals achieved.

Risk and sacrifice are four-letter words for UUs. They can fall into the same category as original sin, atonement, and hell, to name just a few. Know that I see this through my own personal lens, but I suspect that we can put risk and sacrifice into a conveniently closed box in part because we are in a place of relative privilege. We are, I daresay all of us, able to conceptualize life as a smorgasbord where we can pick and choose. The sacrifices we make, even those of necessity, might be difficult, but they are rarely life-threatening or dire. The risks we take are calculated to improve our positions rather than because we have no other choice.

I love to hear the choir sing, “Everything Possible”. Those lyrics say that the only measure of our words and our deeds, the only measure of our lives, the only thing that matters, is the love we leave behind. Let me put it more bluntly. In order to have a legacy of love (or whatever else we think matters) we must be committed to it enough to take risks and make sacrifices. And, the effect that a committed group of people can have, however small or underdogged that group may be, is greater than the affect of one person. Lotta didn’t do it alone.

I mean, why else should we gather? Oh I know. We gather to be comforted. We gather to have a sense of belonging. We gather to be inspired. These are all great reasons to be part of this religious community. I certainly hope you’re not here this morning because there was nothing better to do! I hope you’re here because this is the best place to be.

Here’s what my seminary friend Rev. Jan Christian, who serves the UU congregation in Ventura, CA, said in a recent sermon on commitment:

“...the point of our religion shouldn’t be to indulge our individual issues but to call us forth to something new, to give us something worthy of our commitment and our conviction and of collective action. If our religion doesn’t make a difference in our lives and in the world, what is the point? If our religion doesn’t give our children a foundation and a touchstone and the inspiration to live generous and loving lives, then why bother?”

Indeed, why bother? Commitment doesn’t matter if we don’t care that our lives matter. Commitment doesn’t matter if we don’t want our faith to make a difference in the world. Commitment doesn’t matter if we don’t want to play on a team that can champion the cause of justice and carry the banner of freedom.

But if those things matter to you, and they matter to me, then we must commit ourselves to them. We must commit our time, and our talent and our treasure to them. This faith, indeed this one little congregation, must require the commitment of each of us in the service of our mission and our potential in the world. Otherwise, why bother?

I said at the beginning of my message today that I have often stood on the ‘no’ end of the field. I am more inclined to dig in my heels and resist commitment. But what I have learned is that this habit sometimes obscures the goal. The habit of saying ‘no’ makes it harder to say ‘yes’, even when I believe in that ‘yes’ and want to support it. Saying ‘no’ makes an idol of that position. And I’m afraid that we idolize the ‘no’ too often...that we love our resistance too much. I’m afraid that we like playing on an ill-fated team. And I fear that we do this at our own peril, and at the peril of our dearly-held liberal values.

If you are a Lotta...if you know your effort matters...please live into that role and help the rest of us. Lead us. If you’re a follower, not really committed, at least follow those efforts that are most in alignment with your values. If you are better at being uncommitted, then be uncommitted to things that don’t touch your heart. Then, challenge yourself to choose just one important thing and make a commitment.

Let’s not be afraid to commit. Let’s not shy away from making the difficult choices that commitment requires. Let’s name what we need to do, and then commit ourselves to doing it. I hope that the upcoming social justice workshops will be a beginning in this effort.

We will fail. We will fall short of the goal. We won’t all receive the Order of Canada award. But we will be there for one another, and our commitment will make a difference. Norman Thomas, an American socialist and unsung Presbyterian minister of the last century, said, "I am not the champion of lost causes, but the champion of causes not yet won." We could do worse than championing causes not yet won. We may not yet have won, but let us be committed to the cause. For surely, in doing so, we shall have lived lives that matter.

So may it be.

CLOSING WORDS - Martha Kirby Capo (adapted)

Through the week ahead, the light of this chalice will abide.

It will abide until we come together again as a community of faith, joyful and free.

It will abide to combine our individual energies to spark the Fire of Commitment.

May we draw strength here, from and for each other, and like the chalice,

may we be bathed in the a commitment to social justice, equity, peace, and joy.

Amen.