"Seeking
Transformation in Our World:
Now is the Time"
For Association Sunday
A sermon by Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman
October 14, 2007
READINGS ANCIENT AND MODERN:
The first reading is from the Book of Matthew, Chapter 25:
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty
and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited
me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked
after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see
you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes
and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to
visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever
you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did
for me.'
The second reading is from the late Unitarian Minister and long-time
pastor of historic King's Chapel. UU in Boston Massachusetts, Daniel
Rhys Williams:
"The precious life that is in you and me is the same in all.
Rich and poor, wise and simple, strong and feeble, we are joined
together by a mystic oneness whose source we may never know, but
whose reality we can never doubt. When one suffers, we all suffer.
When one hungers for bread, we all hunger.
When one tramps the streets in search of work, we all tramp the
streets.
When one defrauds another, we are all implicated.
When one destroys a human life, we all share the guilt.
When one attains their heart's desire, we are all partners of their
joy. This mystic identity of the one with the many was divined by
Hosea, Buddha, Jesus and has been glimpsed by nearly all the great
seers and prophets of humanity.
We are our neighbor's keeper, because that neighbor is but our larger
self. Let a sense of our vital unity with all people everywhere
possess our minds and hearts.
Behold, thou shall love they neighbor as thyself, because thy neighbor
is thyself."
SERMON:
Video Presentation: "Voices of a Liberal Faith"
(Web Link: http://www.uumetrony.org/)
Questions to consider:
-Do you see someone here who resembles yourself?
-Do you see someone here who resembles someone you know?
-Do you see someone here who looks like someone that you'd like
to see here?
-Do you hear your faith being articulated in the video?
After Video: Questions to consider:
-Is this video a tool that could help you to share your faith with
your friends or with others?
-Are you willing to take one of these videos with you, share it
and bring it back?
And so we come together this morning to worship. It's a slightly
different format than many of our Sunday mornings; there is considerably
more focus on our religious association than on most of our typical
Sundays (if indeed any of them are typical!). For us, worship is
exploring our lives and exploring our world, so that we might see
more clearly the sacred links and connections that bind us together.
We come together Sunday to Sunday to worship, to find our meanings
so that we will then be able to go out in faith into those comfortable
and uncomfortable places where we find our day to day lives. We
come to worship the Spirit of Life - All Life. We come to worship,
to find in our transient lives that which connects us to what is
permanent throughout the stream of life. We come to find what binds
our individual experiences and explorations within a context that
allows us to have faith in the inherent worth and dignity of all
persons, and faith in the interdependent web of all existence and
all its beings; so that we can know more fully that what we do with
our lives matters, that what we do together matters; so that we
can know more fully that our spiritual well-being is integrally
connected with the spiritual well-being of all that is; so that
we can know that the spiritual path of integrity requires constant
vigilance searching for truth and beauty, justice and compassion;
so that when we respond to what we find, we might do so intentionally
and responsibly.
This is what Unitarian Universalists do in congregations across
the continent. This is the purpose of our Unitarian Universalist
Association: to build religious communities where people can experience,
explore and express the religious impulses that we feel and find
in our deep and meaningful work of growing our souls; so that we
might be able to build upon our faith in the unity of all things.
And why it's important for us to come together to practice our
rituals, beyond meeting our own needs - is in order to grow Unitarian
Universalism in the world. It's important for us to grow our congregations
until they're bursting at the seams. The world is longing for a
more loving way to be, and I have to believe for many of us in this
crazy, mixed up world, Unitarian Universalism is the best hope we
have to participate in getting there.
The world is full of bullies and despots and those who are only
too ready to impose their interpretation of "God's will,"
in the subjugation of others; there are others who promote misogyny,
homophobia and racism. The world is far too filled with maddening
hatred and bitterness, and with those who would stir the fires of
insanity with self-righteousness, and a call to so called moral
values that dismiss the human spirit. The world is filled with oppressors
and the oppressed are women and children, people of ethnicity and
color and disabilities and old age, members of the gay, lesbian
and transgender communities and so many others. The world is filled
with war and those who would wage war for financial benefit or merely
for the love of power.
To a very large extent, and I believe this deeply, the reason why
all these things are able to continue is because of religion and
ideas of superhuman gods, personal gods, who communicate secretly
with their followers, assuring them that they are loved and favored
above all others. The reason why these things are able to continue
is because of religion and its propensity for divisiveness and its
lack of appreciation for the unity of all things.
This world desperately needs to hear a different kind of religious
message. This world desperately needs Unitarian Universalism. The
world needs a religion that builds ritual out of meaningful observance,
builds faith out of the knowledge that we are united with everyone
and everything, and that nothing is saved unless all is saved.
The only way I know how to try to give the world what I believe
it needs is to grow Unitarian Universalism. We are here to be served
and to have our spiritual needs met. But, even more, we are here
in an attempt to grow a religious message, our salvific religious
message, in order to give the world a better loving chance.
We come to our congregations to be nourished, and so should we
be. But there is a price for that nourishment that our membership
pledges have nothing to do with. The price is putting ourselves
on the line to promote a religious faith based in the unity of all
things, within a world that is succumbing to a host of gods who
regrettably divide it.
But we do not have to put ourselves on that line all alone. We
are in the company of an association of congregations that stands
for, works for and loves the same principles that we do. And our
individual congregations can never be any stronger than is that
association. Today we celebrate and strengthen that association
through the support of Association Sunday. To that end I share this
letter with you that was written for this occasion by our UUA President
Bill Sinkford:
For many years I have drawn inspiration from the words of W.E.B.
Dubois. "Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more
convenient time...It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater
usefulness of tomorrow."
Dubois's words are a call to action. They challenge us, as Unitarian
Universalists, to ask the question: how can we fit ourselves for
the greater usefulness of tomorrow? We live in complicated times
and it is clear to me that now, more than ever, our values are needed
to help heal our wounded world. If we have the courage to work together,
we will strengthen our congregations and amplify our public voice
to increase the impact of our faith on the world around us. There
will never be a more convenient time.
Over the past three years, I have asked thousands of Unitarian
Universalists how the Association can most help our congregations.
Your responses told me consistently that Unitarian Universalists
feel urgency about growth. And that is why, at General Assembly
in June, I announced the launch of Now is the Time! A Campaign to
Grow Our Faith, with the words of W.E.B. Dubois on my mind and in
my heart. This comprehensive fundraising campaign will support the
growth of Unitarian Universalism in its many dimensions.
Now is the time to pool our resources to make ourselves known to
all those seeking a liberal religious home. Now is the time to grow
our congregations stronger and more effective. Let us summon the
courage to let the world know we are here and what we stand for.
We are better together than we ever could be alone, and so I hope
you will join me in celebrating our first Association Sunday, on
October 14th. I am asking everyone of our congregations to schedule
a special service and to contribute to Now is the Time! by taking
a special collection to support our Growth in Numbers. Funds raised
this year will go to support a national advertising and awareness
campaign, the successful settlement of ministers of color, and growth
grants offered to individual congregations. Over the following four
years, we will address Growth in Leadership, Diversity, Spirit,
and Witness, because we recognize that to become stronger, we must
grow in more than just Numbers.
Today, I want to thank every congregation for your generous contributions
to the Annual Program Fund year in and year out. Without these,
the Association simply could not function. But it is time to pool
our resources to implement the visionary growth projects which,
at least for now, cannot be undertaken with the support of our operating
budget alone. These leading-edge ideas need the support of comprehensive
campaign funds to help secure the future and vitality of our faith
community.
And we have already born witness to the successes of our regional
marketing campaigns, beginning in Kansas City, then in Houston,
in Southern California, and now in Northern California. We have
advertised our faith through direct mail, newspaper inserts, and
public radio spots, and we have learned that there are many people
out there yearning for what we have to offer, if only we show them
where to find us and welcome them with open hearts. These successes
were only made possible by the generosity of many individual Unitarian
Universalists from many congregations banded together.
As I imagine national growth projects, I am drawn back to the words
of Dubois. Though it may be hard, now is the time to transform our
faith to become as strong and influential as we can be. There will
never be more convenient time. Join me in celebrating Association
Sunday. Let us affirm our common bonds and purposes, because we
are better together.
In faith, William G. Sinkford, President of the Unitarian Universalist
Association.
Here are a couple of things I'd want you to know about the special
offering we are about to give and receive:
1. We've received notice from the UUA that "every dollar contributed
to Association Sunday will be doubled! We have been offered up to
$500,000 in matching gifts by committed Unitarian Universalists
who, like you, want Association Sunday to be a financial as well
as a spiritual success." A gift of $100 becomes $200; a gift
of $1,000 becomes $2,000 - just some moderate examples to help some
of you in your thinking.
2. Funds raised from Association Sunday will be divided as follows:
50% will go to the UUA's national awareness campaign (see the October
15 issue of TIME Magazine to find out more); 25% will support the
UUA's Diversity of Ministry project; 25% will be returned to congregations
in the form of growth grants. This last part is particularly exciting
- how will we use these funds to fuel the growth of our movement?
As Peter Morales, minister at Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden
Colorado, and the facilitator for our Leadership Retreat two weekends
from now, says:
We UUs are fond of saying that ours is a faith with the power to
transform lives and change the world. The reality, alas, is that
we have done a poor job of sharing our faith with a culture hungry
for liberal religion. Association Sunday is a modest, but important,
step. If we are going to make a difference in the lives of the spiritually
hungry and religiously homeless, and if we are going to be a force
for compassion and justice in the world, we must do so together.
We must learn to work as a true association, hand in hand, mano
en mano. I and Jefferson Unitarian Church are supporting Association
Sunday because we believe that the need is huge. Together, together,
we can make a difference.
We can make a difference. We here at the Unitarian Universalist
Congregation at Montclair, will join with UU congregations from
across the country today in doing our part as well. There are special
envelopes in your Order of Service and I invite you to give generously
at this time, NOW IS THE TIME, to support the future of Unitarian
Universalism, and thus to support the world.
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