-- Henry David Thoreau
Renaissance
A Sermon Delivered on November 17, 2013
By
Thom Thomas
Are you aware of the growth of Mega Churches in this Country? For those who don’t know, a Mega Church is a church that has an average weekend attendance of 2000 or more. The largest mega church in the United States is Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, where I was born, with more than 40,000 members every weekend. I have to tell you, as a church leader it is difficult not to be a little envious of numbers like that. 40,000 members show up every weekend. How do they do that? They do it by demanding 3 things of every member. First, every member is required to show up for at least one worship service every week. Every member is expected to bring in an annual quota of prospective members, and every member is expected to give one tenth of their total earnings every year, before taxes to the Church. These requirements are not negotiable. And what do they get for their investment of time and money? They get to be told that they have a guaranteed place in heaven, and that, by doing those few simple things they are doing all that God requires of them to make the world a better place.
As Unitarian Universalists, we believe that rather more is required of us to make the world a better place, and though our numbers are smaller (there are something like 350,000 UU’s in the entire world, as opposed to something like 2 billion evangelical Christians) we tend to give heavily of our time and talent to organizations that promote social justice and environmental causes. So, is that our requirement of membership, that we promote practical goodness in the world?
Don't get me wrong. Doing practical goodness in the world is important, but is that all we are doing here? Are we just a social service organization? Because, if we are solely defined by the good works we do, then where does worship come in? If my sole desire is to do good work, to try to fix the mess we have made of this planet, there are plenty of organizations I can join. In fact, like many of you, I am a member of several such organizations. I am also a proud member of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva.
This morning I want to spend a little time talking about the benefits, and the implications of membership.
If you ask our fundamentalist Christian friends why they go to church, they will tell you that they come together to worship God and to pray together.
Members of pretty much all doctrinal faiths gather regularly, and the primary stated reason for those gatherings is always worship. So, where does that leave us? Is it possible to worship if you don't have a doctrine? Well, “Worship” is sometimes narrowly understood as bowing down to some supposed deity. The etymology of the word, however, leads us to a far more significant activity. The root of “worship” is worthship, considering things of worth. “Religion” (religare) means to bind up, to reconnect. Worship is thus the central activity of religion because through worship we reconnect with worth. Worship is one of the primary ways in which individuals are encouraged and supported in their religious, spiritual and personal development. Many members of other faith traditions will describe a gathering of Unitarian Universalists as a social club, a party, a debating society, or other more colorful and perhaps less flattering terms. The truth is: any time a group of people gather together to consider the fundamental questions of existence they are engaged in worship.
Everyone here is a seeker after truth. We have struggled and are still struggling with the fundamental questions. You know those questions: "Why are we here?" which means both "how did we get here?" and "is there a purpose to our being here?" Why is the world the way it is?” and “Can I make it better?” Should I make it better? What is my responsibility to the world and to my fellow creatures?
Many of you came to this place because you were unsatisfied with the accepted answers to these questions, and because that dissatisfaction made you feel unwelcome. Many of us Found Unitarian Universalism because we were seeking, and we stayed, not because we found answers, but because we found ourselves in the company of other seekers. Being surrounded by others who don't have all the answers gives us permission to keep asking the questions. It gives us someone to bounce our answers off of, confident that we won't be ridiculed. Well ... let me correct that. It is entirely possible that our answers will be ridiculed, pretty likely that they will be argued with, and almost certain that they will be questioned, but we will not be ridiculed for proposing them. This tendency to discuss is one of the benefits of membership.
Whatever questions you have about life, the universe and everything, be sure that someone else here is struggling with the same thing. Whatever shy, incomplete answers you have so far developed, be sure that if you want to give voice to them someone here will listen, and then compare your answers to their own small truths, and in that comparison, each of you may find a slightly better truth. Of course, we don't limit ourselves to introspection in our search for truth. We tend to travel rather far and wide among the other faith traditions. In this church there are groups who are actively studying other faith traditions, and it isn't just the adults. Your church school curriculum encourages your young people to recognize and struggle with the big questions, and to define their own path through life. If you have children, you know as well as I that a religious education that focuses on inclusion and respect is another benefit of membership.
So, we show up for worship because we are seekers after truth, and worship challenges our expectations. There is another reason that members need to show up. Have you ever come to Church because you were hoping to connect with someone on a project you are working together on, or just because you smile when you see them? In that case you should be aware that there are people here today who came because they want to connect to you, because your presence makes them smile, or somehow lightens their burden. Members show up because they know they will be missed if they don’t.
If I was going to make a list of requirements for membership in anything, the first item on the list would be that you have to show up.
Another reason churches exist is to celebrate Transitions. Life is not a straight line, and it generally lacks consistency. I teach classes to businesses in change management. Here is the dirty little secret of change management. You don't manage change. Telling someone they are going to learn to manage change is like telling the captain of a ship that you are going to teach them to manage the sea. Any sailor knows that you don't manage the sea, you adapt to the challenges it throws at you. Life is like an ocean crossing. For a certain distance you sail a given bearing, and then you change your course, and then you do it again. Every life has its own unique set of challenges, but we also have some points of transition in common. We are born, we somehow transition into adolescence, we survive adolescence and pass through into young adulthood, we fall in love, we may get married, we may have children of our own and then learn that passing through those stages is completely different than guiding our children through them.
In ancient times there was such a thing as a coming of age ceremony. Most cultures in the past, and therefore most faith traditions had a way of marking these transition points. Our society at large pays very little attention to the difference between being a child and being an adult. We have a legal age of majority, but our society recognizes the transition without marking it, and does nothing to help us think our way through it. We hold naming and dedication ceremonies, our version of Christening, we celebrate marriages and we come together to memorialize those who have passed. The church is a place where we remind ourselves that we are not passing through this life alone. The word Auditorium comes from the Latin and means literally a place to be heard. When two people who love each other make a commitment to each other to love and cherish and care for each other for the rest of their lives, they want that promise to be witnessed, and at the same time they want to enlist the aid of those who bear witness, to help them carry out their promises. Churches have always been places where we celebrate our successes, make public our promises, and share our grief. Having a place to be heard is another benefit of membership.
Another reason we come together in church is that we are not all standing in the same place on Maslow’s pyramid. Many of you are already familiar with the Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs, but if you are not, then let me give you the stunningly oversimplified version here. Maslow was an American psychologist who suggested that it is not possible to focus on finding ... love, for example, if you are starving to death. He stacked basic human needs one on top of the other to form a pyramid. At the bottom, are physiologal needs, like food and shelter. Above that is the need to feel safe. Once we are fed and we feel safe, then we can look at what Maslow termed Belonging needs. We are social creatures, and if you deny us contact with our own kind, we go mad. There is a reason solitary confinement is a punishment of last resort in prisons. Above belonging needs comes Esteem needs, the need for self-respect and the respect of our fellows. Only after one has all those needs met can you begin to chase the top level, the level of Self Actualization.
None of us is certain of how stable our footing is on that pyramid. At any time we can lose our job, our home, our loved ones. We have seen a lot of that lately, and if you hang around, you will see more in the future. Another benefit of membership is that there are people in this place who stand ready to help when life hands you those lovely little surprises. When we first joined our church, my wife was forced to spend a summer in the hospital. It was an ordeal for my daughter and I, but we didn't starve, because members of our church made certain that we had food in the house. I know members here can tell similar stories. I know still others who can tell stories of the joy of being the one providing the food, or the ride, or moving the boxes, and that, too, is a privilege of membership here.
Second on my list of requirements for membership in any organization is the requirement for all members to “shoulder the burden.” People form organizations to do work that is too difficult for them to handle individually. You cannot put out a fire with a single bucket of water, but a bucket brigade can effectively fight a fire, as long as every person in the brigade is willing to hold a full bucket of water long enough to pass it to the next person in line.
Of course, Churches have other, less grand but more practical needs. These are the things that Steven Covey calls sharpening the Saw, and I call doing the dishes. A church needs to be kept clean, someone must cook food for events, and provide childcare and teach RE classes and, make coffee and well ... do the dishes. Every member of an organization brings unique gifts to that organization, and it is important that they apply those talents to the needs of the organization both great and small. One of the dreams you have for your organization is to hire someone to serve as a steward of your considerable pool of talent. Identifying your reservoir of talent, and applying it to your dreams is a vital ability. If you are looking for your mission in life, you are looking for that place where your deepest passion meets the world’s deepest need. How wonderful to have someone here to help make the introductions.
We have been discussing the privileges and benefits of membership in churches in general and in this church in particular, but there is one other that stands apart as not just a benefit, but as the central purpose of church membership. A church, any church, is ideally a place for Renaissance, or rebirth. Our evangelist friends tell us that you must be "born again" to enter into the kingdom of heaven. This concept of spiritual renewal is not unique to Christianity. Every faith tradition recognizes that our spirits take a beating as we pass through this world, and they all address the need for repair.
Heraclitus said “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” We are always in process of becoming. No one is a finished product. Church is a place where we come together to help each other become our own best selves. Every day is a new beginning, and every day we are reborn. Spider Robinson said "shared pain diminishes, shared joy increases. Thus do we refute entropy" A healthy UU church is one of the greatest bargains of all time. Where else can you bring in a pile of pain and trade it for a sack of joy? Where else can you discuss the really big questions and really talk about them without animosity? We come to church not to confirm our devotion to an unchanging set of absolute truths, but to have our truths challenged. WE come to church to examine together the persons we are in process of becoming. No matter how much it frightens us, the truth is that change is the basic stuff of life.
What is true of individuals is also true of the organizations we form together. This is where we shoulder the burden together. Over the past couple of years your long range planning team has asked you to share your stories of what is wonderful about this church, and to dream big dreams about what you would like to become. I encourage you to continue this process. Come together regularly to tell stories of gratitude for the place you have created together, and to dream in detail of the place you are in process of creating. How will you build heaven here on earth if you don't have a clear idea of what heaven looks like? Visualizing the future you want helps you to live it into reality. Over the next year, you will be changing focus, and seeking ways to make those dreams into reality. Everyone will be asked to give of your time, your talent and your treasure. This means that you will begin to have some hard conversations around money. Traditional wisdom is that Talking to a UU about money is like teaching a pig to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
I must tell you that mega churches don’t share this reticence. Tithing is a demand made of members, so that they can get their message out into the world. The gospel of Certainty is spreading. Religion and politics have begun to bleed into each other, and we are hearing politicians say things like "I will never compromise" and defining compromise as the place where those who disagree with me are forced to support my point of view. In these uncertain economic times the message of certainty is attractive. The world is changing, and this frightens us. It feels as if the ground is moving under our feet, and we get so scared that we start to cling to a past that maybe never really existed, but there are always those who will tell us that the past was a golden age, and all that is necessary for our happiness is to hold on tight to the traditional values. They point to a holy book, the Bible or the Koran or the Sayings of Chairman Mao or whatever, and they tell us “here is truth, here is safety, here is Certainty." They preach the Gospel.
Gospel means “good news.” Well, we have a gospel too, and the world needs to hear it. Ours is the gospel of “I don’t know, and neither do you and that is all right.” Ours is the gospel of “I respect your point of view, now here is what’s wrong with it.” More and more the world needs a place for uncertainty, and will need it more in the future. There must always be a place for those who comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. You have dreamed a dream of what that place ... THIS place ... will be in the future. Continue to dream. Paint a picture of the future you want most for this place. Work together to refine the vision, and make it as detailed as possible. Start with all the things this place already does well, and imagine a world where you can do more of what you already do well. Dream together of how what you love most about this church, this community, this family, can help to heal the world’s pain and meet the world’s deep need. Henry David Thoreau said “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
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