“The Free and Covenanted Congregation”
A Sermon for October Focus Month:
Growing Our Roots and Branches
by Reverend Charles Blustein Ortman
October 28, 2007
INDUCTION OF NEW MEMBERS:
New member installation is a special and rewarding time in the life of the congregation. It’s good for the new members to be recognized and welcomed, and important for the older members to have the opportunity to receive you into this community that together, we are becoming. While there is much commonality in what brings many of us to this faith community, our newcomers each arrive with a unique history and with a wealth of individual gifts. Today, as these individuals make their membership public, I would remind us all that joining a Unitarian Universalist congregation may seem easy because all you have to do is sign the book. But, be assured, it is a most demanding step.
Joining the congregation is a covenant really. We covenant with one another to be our best selves and to hold each other in high expectation, to engage in life fully and lovingly – loving ourselves, one another and the world. When you sign the membership book of a covenanted free religious congregation, you are not signing any list of propositions, such as make up a creed. It is, instead, to sign a promise that may sound simple—it should sound simple—but which, if you “keep covenant,” brings you into intimate companionship with others who have promised to live with all the integrity you and they can together muster, in all the years of your lives.” UU minister and scholar, Alice Blair Wesley writes, “The free church is an organization we establish and join so that we may help each other to find, over and over again… what are our own worthiest loves, and therefore, what these loves now require of us, if we would be loyal in the most meaningful sense, in what we do… in the way we live.”
And so we ask, as you sign this book, to covenant with us and to submit to the most rigorous authority in religious and spiritual matters—the authority of your own mind, heart, and conscience. We ask that you sacrifice the security of unchallenged points of view, and that you be open to change and growth. We ask that you be restless in the pursuit of human rights, social justice, and world peace. We ask you to remember that this is a community of aspiration, not a congregation that has it all figured out. Part of being human is the experience of failure, and part of being in religious community is being there—to pick each other up when we have stumbled. And we ask that you commit yourself to the service of this congregation by your participation in it - with your love, and with your resources: your talents, time and energies, your opinions, criticisms, and your hopes. And more, we ask you to financially support this bold religious venture. Together, we can continue to build a free religious community in Montclair and in northern Essex County.
We know that you were attracted to this congregation because you were already supportive of many of the things that it stands for. And we know that you are volunteering to join with us because these impulses and goals fit well with who you are already. We are happy to welcome you into the rich heritage of this congregation which is now in its 110 th year; into the rich heritage of our denominational organizations which date back over 180 years; into the tradition of heresy (a word that comes from a Greek root meaning to choose), a tradition that goes back some two thousand years; and into the heritage of a set of religious values that goes all the way back to the earliest days of human awareness. May your membership here be filled with meaning.
I would ask those of you who are becoming members to please come forward as your name is read and to sign your name into our membership book. You’ll then be welcomed with the traditional right hand of fellowship as it is presented by our President, Sabine von Aulock, by the Chair of our Connectedness Committee, Nelia Sellers, by Judy Tomlinson and by myself. Please accept the gifts of a book on Unitarian Universalism (and children’s book) and a flower from Lauren and we hope that its beauty will symbolize your membership here with us.
Act of installation: (to be read from order of service)
SONG - "Let it be a Dance"
READINGS:
The first reading is by the 19th /20th Century Indian poet and holy man, Rabindranath Tagore:
The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy though the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into…waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and death….
I feel my limbs made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.
Our second reading is from the modern-day poet, author and holy man, Wendell Berry:
We clasp the hands of those that go before us,
And the hands of those who come after us.
We enter the little circle of each other's arms
And the larger circle of lovers,
Whose hands are joined in a dance,
And the larger circle of all creatures,
Passing in and out of life,
Who move also in a dance,
To a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it
Except in fragments.
SERMON:
Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Chicago, Milton Rosenberg, said, “People are coming to church not simply to partake of the sacred, but to partake of sacred community.” I think we know his comment to be true.
This morning we’ve welcomed new members into our congregation – this congregation that we are becoming. Because we are continuously welcoming new members, we are always the congregation that we are becoming. This month we have been focusing on growing our roots and branches, growing our congregation deeper and wider. Some of you have asked, why do we need to grow in size? One answer to that question really comes out of several congregational processes held over the course of several years in which, you the congregation has consistently said – we want to grow our congregation deeper and wider. Most recently, that message was again articulated in the process that led up to our Capital Campaign. I’ve been listening to you, and this focus month on growth is really very much in response to the mandate that you have conveyed.
Another and perhaps more significant answer is because growing our congregation means that we are doing the religious work, liberal religious or otherwise, of welcoming our neighbors and even strangers, into the circle of meaning that we have and that we pursue here. This fits well into what I think is the mandate of Unitarian Universalism – to help make the world a more faithful and reasonable place by sharing our faithful and reasonable tradition with others for whom it will make a difference.
This month we have been focusing on growing our roots and branches. And so far, much of what we’ve talked about has been related to growing in size. We’ve talked quite a bit about growing our branches. We’ve talked about how the future is calling us into a conversation where our religious voice is needed to balance the public conversation that has grown too far in the direction of fundamentalism, promoting isolation and destruction. We’ve talked about how we are a part of a much larger Association: one that gives us support and resources so that we might do what we do well; one that gives us a chance on a grand scale to work towards transformation in and of the world. We’ve talked about the importance in our own lives of the Unitarian Universalist message of unity, and transformation and salvation. We’ve talked about the religious mandate to share this good news, this religious path with others, so that they might find of meaning in their lives, what we have found for ours. And so the world might be better off in the process. If you haven’t been here to hear these messages, please be sure to pick up copies of the sermons from this month on the rack out in the Narthex, or go to our website and read or listen to them there.
Today I want to use this fourth and last of our focus month sessions, to talk more about growing our roots. If we are really successful in extending that essential invitation out into the community, if we really start to grow our congregation as I know we can and as I pray we will, we will need to take great care in tending to those who are already here. We’ll need to pay attention to how we welcome and hold one another, in esteem and affection and in our covenant. We’ll need to give consideration to the structures, the programs and the spirit of our congregation. We will want to be sure to nurture the care and growth, and the relationships of each of you and of all our members for the long haul.
Rabbi George E. Odell writes about those long haul relational needs:
We need one another when we mourn and would be comforted.
We need one another when we are in trouble and afraid.
We need one another when we are in despair, in temptation, and need to be recalled to our best selves again.
We need one another when we would accomplish some great purpose, and cannot do it alone.
We need one another in the hour of success, when we look for someone to share our triumphs.
We need one another in the hour of defeat, when with encouragement we might endure, and stand again.
We need one another when we come to die, and we would have gentle hands prepare us for the journey.
All our lives we are in need, and others are in need of us.
And so we come here with our needs: that our needs by be met, and so that we might engage in the meeting the needs of others. How do we go about expressing such needs to each other? And how do we go about trying to meet them for one another? How do we go about creating the kind of community that we are capable of being, the kind of community that can hold and nurture and sustain each of us on our paths of spiritual development and service to this community and to the world? UU Theologian and historian Alice Blair Wesley says that we need to consider the “doctrine” of our free and covenanted congregation. Only she uses the word doctrine a little differently than it is often used. She writes:
“The doctrine of a free church flows from mutually shared loyalties of the members, and these loyalties are to be seen at work in everything the members do together as church people…the church is not of much use or value unless freedom is there used to explore, together, the realities of our lives we find most worthy of faithful love…the integrity of the free church comes down to our loyalty to the spirit of love at work in the hearts and minds of the local members.”
Our religious task is to step out of the isolation that is too frequently our experience in our day to day lives, and to step into the spirit of community. If we have any hope of changing the world, it will be because we have learned here in our religious laboratory, how to loyally embrace and care for one another. It’s kind of hard to practice the kind of loyalty to the spirit of love, and to do the kind of intimate and ultimate sharing that she’s talking about in a big room filled with lots of people though, isn’t it? When we join together for worship, it’s a public event. We have public worship so that we can come together as a community of communities. It is an experience that we hope will be expansive enough to provide an invitation to transformation for everyone. That means it can’t be tailored to any one, not specifically and intimately. But it must reach out in ways that engage us all, from the newcomer to the old timer, from the Christian to the atheist and to all points between and beyond.
The real work of long-term soul growing in a growing congregation is begun on Sunday and is renewed on each Sunday, but it is accomplished through long-term relationships of accountability. It’s done through the relationships formed to further the mission of the congregation. It is done in small groups of covenanted gatherings, where people come together to care about one another and to explore, experience and express their evolving lives with one another. The real work of long-term soul growing in a growing congregation is done day in and day out, in ways large and small through our loyalty to the spirit of love at work in our hearts and minds, together. It is done by holding one another in hospitality, esteem, expectation and in caring, deeply and truly caring for one another.
There are some practical aspects of what I’m talking about that I’d hold up for your consideration.
- Our retreat this weekend: Growing in the care of one another.
- Connectedness: Connect with members of the congregation by helping other members connect! We are seeking member volunteer to lead groups, to celebrate links with like-minded church goers, provide outreach support and help live our vision of reaching out to welcome everyone who wants to be a part of our community.
- Help plan and host the new member brunches,
- Participate or lead a covenant group,
- Join an adult religious education class,
- host a circle supper,
- Join David Hanley and our greeters
- Sign up at the Connectedness Table during Coffee Hour in Fletcher Hall,
- Let us know if there is another activity that would be worthwhile.
We can all be held in loving company here, if we accept the holding that is offered and if we reach out to offer that acceptance to one another. This congregation can not do the covenanted work that we call ourselves to do for you. Together though, we can create the opportunities for transformation, the opportunities for connection, the opportunities for finding meaning, the opportunities for improving our lives and our world. It is up to each of us. It is up to all of us to participate in the creation of the opportunities and in their fulfillment.
We are talking about being part of an enormous process, this growing our roots, this transformation of our lives and our world. It is a process, I trust, that will never be completed on either count. There will always be, in the evolution of being, growth waiting for our participation. By doing what we do here well, we can be better prepared for participation in that growth, wherever it might occur.
So as we come to the end of this focus month on growing our roots and branches, I have a couple of final thoughts. First, we have been holding up the idea of the growth of this congregation, so that we might begin to see ourselves and our potential for transformation more clearly. It may sound simple, and I think because it may well be, that to best fulfill that potential there are really four things that we need to do well:
- Reach out and invite those who would be well served in and by our liberal religious, transformative community;
- Be truly hospitable and welcoming of every person that we encounter here;
- Find ways of promoting and participating in building relationships here that strengthen and support our individual lives and the life of our congregation;
- Continue and strengthen the justice promoting activities of our congregation – so that we have a way of expressing our gratitude for life, and so that we might better do the work of the world that we are called to do.
And finally, “We are a liberal religious community seeking transformation in our hearts, our homes, our community and world.” Our Mission Statement declares.
And our covenant calls upon us to face the future out of the strengths of our past, and more, out of our vision for what is yet possible.
We need not be ambivalent here in knowing what it is that we owe one another. We owe each other everything for the very creation and the maintenance of this institution. And the payment for that debt is to do what it is in our power to do toward its re-creation and its future well-being.
Let us acknowledge and celebrate all of the wonderful, meaningful things we do here, and then let us commit to doing even better than we’ve done before.
Let us strive to be the antidote in a world too often poisoned by low expectations and limiting perspective.
Let us celebrate our commitments to this, our religious home, and let us ever act together to keep our covenant alive.
|
