The Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough

Music by The Occasional Singers

It’s “Bring a Friend” Sunday! What better time to introduce your friends to your religious community than on a Sunday when we’re talking about our vision for where we are going. Who we want to be determines who we are (and vice versa!)
NOTE: Daylight Savings Time Ends...Fall Back...Get an extra hour of sleep!

Religious Exploration: A Diversity day; on Aboriginal culture

Opening Words

Mark Morrison-Reed

The central task of the religious community is to unveil the bonds that bind each to all.  There is a connectedness, a relationship discovered amid the particulars of our own lives and the lives of others.  Once felt, it inspires us to act for justice.

It is the church that assures us that we are not struggling for justice on our own, but as members of a larger community.  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. 

Story for All Ages

Little Monster dreams of becoming an explorer one day, and has a conversation with Father Monster about his goals and their possible consequences. 

Reading

The Wisdom to Survive     - Wendell Berry  

Message

This afternoon, soon after the service, I’m heading to Hamilton to deliver the “Charge to the Congregation” at the service installing Rev. Victoria Ingram as their minister.   As many of you know, an installation service is the formal acknowledgement and covenant in a new relationship between minister and congregation.  It’s meant to help a ministry begin on solid footing, with a shared understanding of both obligations and gifts, one to another.  It’s a celebration. 

At an installation service, there are typically two ‘charges’ given...one to the minister, and one to the congregation, as the tasks and gifts may be somewhat different.  When I was installed as minister of this congregation, Rev. Peter Boullata, former interim minister, gave the charge to you.  He essentially gave you three pieces of advice, remember?  First, be intentional about your commitment.  Second, take pride in this Fellowship.  Third, practice hospitality.   He charged you to be the ‘living stones’ in the upbuilding up this community.

Rev. Anne Orfald charged me (appropriately so) and she chose to do so by passing along sage advice from people who have been key in my ministerial formation.  In their words, she charged me to live in the mystery in all its wonder, to love you in all your complexity, to remember my call in the midst of mundane work, to pass on my authority, though I might meet resistance in doing so, and to believe in myself and trust my joy.  (I have to say that these were important words for me to recall; I took them out of the file drawer this week and posted them on my desk.) 

I speak of such charges today because to talk about where we are going seems to contain the element of a charge...the quality of directional guideposts.  To ask ‘where are we going?’ might contain even an electrical charge...that little jolt of inspiration or vision that lights the way before us.   ‘Where are we going’ implies a journey...and the answer can be either instructions for along the way, or a map to the destination. 

Maps can be symbols of great desire.  Think of the many movies and stories where possession of the map is the object of the game.  If only we had a map.  If such a map were in our possession, it would make our work and life together easier....each time we gathered for worship or a meeting, we could pull out a well-worn map, carefully unfold it, check where we are, and chart our course.  But, as far as I know, there is no buried chest of jewels or pot of gold at the end of the Unitarian rainbow.  We’re not all that good at following maps.  We’re more likely to believe that we are not meant to reach the destination... because it is always ‘out there’...beyond us...the thing toward which we strive...as we move, it moves on ahead.

And, as Unitarians, we have no master cartographer.  We cannot walk into PetroCanada and pick up a map that definitely shows the way to the ‘ultimate’ Unitarian Fellowship.  We have no authoritarian sacred text.  Trying to figure out where a Unitarian Universalist congregation is going can be a confounding process because the power in our congregations truly is held by all the members and participants.  The democratic design of our congregational polity distributes power rather than concentrates it, which means that we each are empowered to search for meaning and direction.  In truth, we are all cartographers, which can make for a confusing and indecipherable common map. 

It makes a person wonder if we as a congregation can even have a clear common vision, which is worrisome, if you accept the words from Proverbs: “without a vision, the people perish.”  I’ve asked twice in the past week for input for today’s sermon; I’ve asked you to consider where you think we are going, or should be going, and to share your thoughts with me.  Not a person has done so.  I’m not sure what to make of that.  Perhaps you’re too busy to think about where we’re going.  Perhaps you think it’s someone else’s job to hold the vision.  Perhaps you’re confused or unclear about our direction. 

To be sure, there are many directions in our lives.  You are each probably well-consumed with one or more goals in your life...starting a business, raising a child to be a thoughtful loving person, recovering from an illness, learning a particular skill.  We choose personal goals that focus in on something that is important to us, that fuels our interest and passions, that in enjoyable.  

But in community, setting goals is somewhat different.  No one individual can make the decision for all.  Almost two years ago now, we together adopted a new long range plan, one with six specific goals.  Your Board has been paying attention to this plan, trying to assure that the projects and actions we take on are consistent with the plan.  It’s a valuable guiding document, and many people and many hours were involved in its creation.  I daresay, however, that it does not, at least in the enumeration of tasks, describe where we are going.  It’s more about what we’re going to do along the way. 

Those who have been paying attention know by now that my theology is one of journey; I believe that we are always in the process of becoming, always changing, never staying still.  I was sent a new Mary Oliver poem recently in which she writes, “Inside the river there is an unfinishable story, and you are somewhere in it, and it will never end until all ends.”[1]  This is my theology...we are all somewhere in an unfinishable story. 

So why have a destination in mind at all?  Would it be better to just give ourselves over to the current?  Well no, because another element in process theology is that we have the power to influence the direction of our becoming...we do have some control over what we allow to influence us and how we, in turn, influence the world around us.  In other words, I believe that the quality of the water is determined by our choices as we swim or float along.  We change, and the river changes as well.

The opening reading today said that our central task, our primary direction, is to see how we are all connected, and that once we can see that, our vision will be widened, we will be inspired to act for justice, and our strength will be renewed.  With that reading as a guide, we might say that our destination is greater connection. 

So, we decide that a place of greater connection is where we are going, and then we try to get everybody in the car.  But just as it is for many individuals, as a group we are constantly hitting speed bumps and sabotaging our efforts.  It’s like the door opens on one side and a couple people get in, but then someone sneaks out the back hatch.  We struggle to learn ways to be more inclusive, and the fear sneaks in and we take two steps back.  We focus on a particular goal, and then some new project shows up on our door, and we shift our resources to work on that instead.  We get excited about a possibility, and someone, like Father Monster, pipes up with words of warning.  It’s challenging to keep ourselves together and focused. 

To know where we are going is to know what changes and choices we can best make.  Yet, I’m beginning to think that we need a different kind of map.  We have seen that it cannot be created by just one person (even the minister), nor can it be only two-dimensional.  We are also beginning to suspect that this map has no external destination.  The intersections of this map are interpersonal, teaching us what to do when we encounter one another.  The routes on this map are circular, leading us in the way of deepening.  The symbols and signposts on this map are meaning-makers, reminding us of our values and of what we most value.  Using this map, we are constantly on the move, and yet we go nowhere in particular.  I’m reminded of something pundit Forrest Gump said:  “I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time.”

We have a destiny, a destination, and yet we are somewhere in an unfinishable story.  We have the desire to move, and yet that impulse would have us become more authentically present right where we are.  We have a map, and it instructs us not in where to go, but how to be.  It is a map of a different kind. 

We attempted to imbed this different kind of map into our long range plan.  The plan contains the overall theme of stewardship, which we have defined as a chosen way of being fully in the world...the act of standing in the stream of all that is, receiving life’s gifts with gratitude, and allowing ourselves to be touched and changed; then making our very best mark on these gifts in the service of transformation and growth, and releasing them back into the common stream to benefit future generations.  So, our long range plan essentially states that we are going in the direction of more fully being right where we are, in a constant flow of receiving and giving.

It’s probably a good thing that you’re not pounding your fists on the pews, joining in some riotous chant, demanding that your leader show you the way.  Where are we going?  Where are we going?  If you were, I might then think I was supposed to give you some answers...to say the expected...to lead you on the pathway toward a treasure that would manifest in this congregation growing in size and budget and notoriety. 

Is that your idea of vision?  Honestly, I wouldn’t mind it.  I wouldn’t mind it if we had a large building of our own, where we housed community justice initiatives and spiritual deepening programs, where our religious exploration program was busting at the seams, and where we were contributing to the growth of love and high purposes through the transformation of lives.   I wouldn’t mind it at all if our values became the common social values.  I wouldn’t mind it at all if everyone in Peterborough were a Unitarian. 

But, I’m not the only one in charge, remember?  I was charged to pass on my authority, to give leadership away.  This is not just my work, but our work to do...that is, to unfold that tattered map and enter into it together.   That’s what I’m here for....just to remind you to open the map, and to do it together. 

Still, even as the one-not-in-charge, I can be a signpost, a directional arrow.  Given that task, I would make a sign, writ large, asking you to show up.  Be here. This community is not whole or vibrant without you; as Rev. Boullata charged, you, be committed. 

I would make a sign directing you to continue all the wonderful things we are doing... our commitment to our children, our wonderful and varied music program, our dedication to being a warm and welcoming congregation. 

I would make a sign that is a banner of justice...and I would instruct you to hold it high...to notice and name those places in the world where love is not present, and consistently choose to fill in those places with compassion and forgiveness.  

I would create a sign that boldly proclaims that all are welcome here, and encourage you to open wide the doors...the doors to your heart, the doors to your mind, the doors to this building...knowing full well that when the door is open, unexpected things come in.   I charge you to be prepared to welcome those unexpected visitors...be they people or ideas...and to learn from them.

I would post a notice that this is a place where we can enter fully into relationship with one another, where we can be honest and direct, where we can embrace our differences without judgment, and learn to recognize our blind sides.  I would suggest that we create and affirm a covenant of right relations that would be there to guide us when we get into troubled waters. 

I would be sure you knew the way to forgiveness and acceptance.  I would remind you that this is not easy work, and that, as it was for Little Monster, going to the stars might require us to give up what is comfortable and familiar. 

And finally, I would paint a huge billboard that announces that the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough has moved to the land of more joy.  All should know that we choose to view life and our connections with one another as an experience of abundance, one that we can relish and share, in all its complexity. 

So, the truth is, our map is really a collection of guideposts.  The truth is, we’re not GOING anywhere...we’re staying right here...together, committed, proud, open...desiring to be the best vital liberal religious community that we can be.   We’ve all gotten into the car...or onto our bicycles, or skis, or skateboards, or walking shoes...we’ve fastened our seatbelts, and we are off...bound to enjoy the beautiful ride together. 

May it be so.

Amen. 

Closing Words

Take a breath and drink in these last moments together.  Look around the room.  See reflected in these faces the truth that you are at home here, you are welcomed, you are loved, you are most worthy.   We ask where we are going, where we are bound, and I could find no better closing words than those found in the lyrics of what the Occasionals will sing in a moment...lest we forget where we are and who we are: 

Come morning, come night

Your hands and voices lift my heart;

The spirit that finds music here will sing forever in the air

Here is my home.  Here is our home.

Amen.