The Rainbow Chalice of Service
Rev. Leslie Takahashi Morris
On Friday night and early Saturday morning, this church hosted a small band of Tibetan freedom marchers you may have read about in yesterday’s paper. And for a few moments on Friday night, as the marchers were gathering and people were arriving to watch the Peak Oil film and someone else was looking for a class that was being held and I was musing on whether we would be the rain-location for a wedding, one of our Tibetan visitors turned to me and said, “You have a lot going on here.”
As I come to the end of my first
full year as your co-minister, I too am awed by all that the members of this
church do. Yes, more remains to be done
and, yes, we need to remind ourselves of Thoreau’s words when he said, “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what
you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as
you can. Tomorrow is a new day.”
This morning as we celebrate the spirit of service, I would invite you to remember those moments that have meant the most to you this year, that have touched you deeply, that have made you feel connected. If they are in short supply, let’s talk about that. And if they are abundant, relish them in this space reserved for celebrating them.
In our honoring this morning, we lift up the seven principles which are the covenant of the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association. I have had the fun reflecting on how the organized activities of this very busy church embody these principles, though since I have inevitably forgotten something, I ask for forgiveness and remind you that we believe in universal salvation and not eternal damnation. As I connect the principles and our work together, I invite you to listen, to allow yourself to be present to the deep connections they signify and, if one of the ministries noted is something you have been involved in, to allow yourself to be honored and recognized. After each principle, Scott will give us the gift of his music and we invite you to come forward to receive a ribbon or to let us know that you need one if you cannot come forward. Together the colors of the ribbons represent the rainbow chalice our children light in their worship, tying us together as a community.
Our first principle states that we covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. From the rainbow chalice, we light the red candle.
In our church this idea comes alive through the care and concern we express for one another. Care in formal ways, such as through the CareNet, our neighborhood networks of assistance, or the newer Pastoral Visitors program which offers a listening ear and a church presence and through the informal help and comfort we offer each other as members of a church family. This is the gift of those who arrange and provide child care so that parents can participate and children can build community. This is the work of our membership committee and the work of our Gay Straight Alliance and Undoing racism committees and the new Emotional Wellness ministry for ours is a faith that understands that lives come in many forms and seeks to honor their diversity while affirming the unity of their precious humanity. If this is where your ministry has been this year, we ask you not to be shy, instead to come forward and take a red ribbon as a sign of the gifts you have given. Let us reflect on our first principle.
Our second principle says that we
covenant to affirm and promote justice, equity and compassion in human
relations. We light the orange candle on
the rainbow chalice to remind us that we seek to offer
fair and kind treatment to all. Here we celebrate the work of our social action
council. It is the amazing bustle and
activity of the food pantry, the constructive theology of Habitat for Humanity,
the ministry for children done through our work with
Interfaith Action for Homeless Children and play partners, the advocacy of
Interweave and the Interfaith Gay-Straight Alliance. It is the budding promise of our work with
IMPACT—
· As we continue our journey, our third principle calls us to acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations. For our rainbow chalice, this is the yellow candle which reminds us that we should not lose that yearn to learn. Anybody who has witnessed the engaged conversations on the Thursday mornings when the Active Minds group meets would never accuse them of losing that yearn to learn. And this year, a handful of very dedicated people created a new opportunity to reflect on issues through the lens of our liberal religious values as part of the Faith in Action speaker series. And what is created each Sunday in this sanctuary space is made possible through the work of those who are worship associates, ushers, greeters, those who decorate our altar, members of the aesthetics committee, and members of our sound team which has added so much this year. We also have a little known ad hoc group of two who call themselves the candle fluffers who come in every week to replace candles so they will light and clean up the sanctuary. The adult choir, children’s choir and other special music have true gifts this year. And spiritual growth is not limited to Sunday mornings because of the efforts of those who provide the labyrinth ministry, the Buddhist Sngha, Vespers, the Christian fellowship meetings, the humanist group and Soulful Sundown.
Another kind of growth occurs when people find kindred spirits in groups such as UUppity women, twenties and thirties, and the VUUS group which is our ministry on the UVA campus.
· A free and responsible search for truth and meaning is the focus of our fourth principle. The green candle on the rainbow chalice tells that we are committed to grow in our ongoing search for truth and meaning. Our belief that religious growth is a lifelong process puts our religious education efforts front and center here. First our nursery where our kids learn that they belong here too. Then in our children’s program which this year offered an exciting new way to get involved with the STARS program and in our priceless youth programming which provides a space for inquiry and exploration unique in our community. Our adult religious education could not happen without those who plan and teach and take our classes. And our history committee looks for truth and meaning in our own community. Our book table provides many resources for a continued search for truth and meaning as do the boundaried and principled spaces created by our covenant groups. And the art that adorns our walls speaks its own truths.
· The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large is our fifth. The rainbow chalice’s blue candle reminds us to act out of our most treasured ideals. That is truly the ministry done by our outstanding Board of Trustees and valiant administrative and program councils which this year has continued to make our processes for being together clearer and more transparent. Those who raise our awareness of denominational concerns, through special collections and the chalice lighter program which helps other UU congregations in need. Our canvass team worked incredibly hard this year, having the very thankless task of running two canvasses to enable us to make a very needed change in a fiscal year which also took much leadership from our intrepid finance committee. And our process would not work without financial support, both long term from our endowment committee and short term through those who help us with our fundraising and fund-handling—scrip, book and yard sales, the evening of fun and fortune that is the services auction, and the daily tasks of taking the deposits. Our nominating committee works hard to make sure we have the talented and dedicated leadership we need to make any democracy function.
·
Our sixth principle names the goal of world
community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. The indigo candle reminds
all that we insist on peace and justice. The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
is our face on the international scene which this year saw many natural
disasters. In the world we inhabit
today, the UU United Nations Organization is an important watchdog for us. We have the individuals who offer to host
peace and other groups such as our Tibetan visitors who came through this
week. And we cannot be promoting world
community if we can’t build it here among ourselves and that is the work of
those who help with the special programs that give us social time together,
with PJs and pancakes and our Halloween party and the
February Frolic which will be a June Jump this year. We couldn’t do any of this without those who
support our facilities, our buildings and our grounds which not only add to our
sense of community but to the sense of community of the many groups which use
them throughout the year. Community and
communications go hand-in-hand: so many help with that—our intrepid bulletin
editor, the communications committee, our web master, and the amazing
newsletter folding crew. And imagine how
much less world peace there would be if dedicated people didn’t make coffee on
Sunday mornings. Let us now reflect on
our sixth principle.
·
Respect for the interdependent web of all
existence of which we are a part. The
final candle on the rainbow chalice is the violet one which shows that we value our interconnection to the web of life. This is the work of our environmental
concerns group, of Nature Spirit and of those who take the time to ensure that
recycling happens and that recycling actually gets to the recycling
center. And though no one was willing to
be a grounds chair this year, we have several stealth weeders
and dedicated stealth lawn mowers who keep us from discovering the
interdependent relationship between our not mowing and our neighbor’s
wrath. Interconnection is also
the goal of the
I think you can agree with our visitor that we have a lot going on here. In the Friday covenant group, we recently had a conversation about purposes and principles and how they might not cover everything we would say. In the same way, we may not have done everything we would have done together and yet what we have done is, in its own way, enough. As we draw this program year to an end and look towards the next, may we be true to the full spirit of Henry Thoreau’s words, including the last phrase which is often left off. “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
Meditation
Rev. David Takahashi Morris
Let me invite you into a time of stillness and contemplation. I invite you to settle comfortably in your seat, aware of the surface beneath you as it supports your weight, aware of the floor under your feet as it connects you to the earth below, aware of the air around you as it moves gently in and out of your body, the breath of life that sustains each of us and all of us together. As you sink into a quiet awareness of yourself in this moment, and of the living and breathing community gathered around you, I invite you to consider these thoughts about yourself, as you might answer them this morning.
First, I invite you to think about what matters to you in the world. What is one thing that touches your heart deeply this morning? It might be something you are yearning for, expecting, or fearing; it might be something that grieves you or fills you with hope. It might arise in the context of yourself alone, or of your circles of family, kinship and friendship, your church, the wider community, or the world. Whatever it is, I invite you to spend a few moments considering it, exploring its meaning for you, acknowledging its importance to you.
Now I invite you to consider what you bring to the world, including to the matter you’ve been thinking about but not limited to that context alone. In this moment, what is one gift, one talent, skill, insight, or willingness to work that you have to offer?
In this year, what is one way you have used the gift you have been thinking of? Were you invited, or did you step forward yourself? What individuals or community has your gift been shared with? Was it used in connection with something that touched your heart deeply?
Frederick Buechner has said that your calling is where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need. In the context of a church, this is your ministry. If this is your church, where have you been called to ministry by this congregation, by its voice and by its vision, by its story and by its identity, by your experience and by your interactions with others here? I invite you to take this thought forward from our quiet time together: Where have you been called into ministry by your church most recently? In the coming months, where will your joy, your gifts, and your own deep need intersect with the life of this church community? What might be your calling here?
Homily
Rev. David Takahashi Morris
This
is one of our favorite stories. It comes
from the
A large family lived all together in a nipa palm tree house, high off the ground in the rain forest. One day the people in the house began to quarrel about who was the most important member of the family. After a whole day of this, that night the parts of the house began to argue among themselves.
The poles that supported the house started it. First they began grumbling about which one had been driven into the ground first, but then they all agreed they were the most important because without them the whole house would be sitting in the mud.
The floor supports heard this and huffed, “Who cares about a bunch of poles if WE weren’t here to connect you and hold a house on you?”
The cross supports heard THAT and shouted, “YOU hold up the house? Without us you’d wobble and sag and tip over!”
Now the floor chimed in, “Well, without me giving people a place to walk, none of you would really amount to much. You’d just be a silly platform in the woods.” So of course the walls laughed a grumpy laugh and said, “That’s just what a FLOOR would be without us. Who’d walk on you if we weren’t here creating rooms?”
And the roof supports said to the walls, “YOU couldn’t even stand up without us to hold you together.” And the bamboo ceiling said, “I hold the walls together, not YOU.” And the palm-leaf roof sneered at everybody, “You’d all be a bunch of soggy logs without me up here keeping the rain off.”
Round and round they went, all night long. By morning they had realized that none of them could do their job without all the others. They knew that together they were all one house. They took a long breath together and let it out, whispering “None is important without the others.” When the people in the house woke up they noticed something different in the air. Somehow they didn’t feel like arguing any more either, and they began the first of many peaceful happy days.
You might think I told you that story because I’m worried that you’ll be going around the Social Hall and the Summit House lawn after the service showing off your ribbons, telling everybody why YOUR ribbon is more important than all the OTHER colors, since after all YOURS is the ministry that really makes the church worth while.
But that’s not quite it. It seemed to Leslie and me as we talked about this story that what finally convinced the parts of the house to stop arguing was the realization that even though they each had different tasks, they all had the same job. Their job was to be a house together.
That’s ultimately what we’re here to honor you for, you who’ve given the church your time, your talent, your imagination, and your energy this year. Whatever the tasks you’ve been involved in, whatever color ribbon you’re wearing, your job was to create the ministries of this church. Through you this community has cared for each other, taught each other, worshipped together, guided our children, planned, explored, supported and wondered together, stood for justice together. We have been a church—because of you, each and every one of you and all of you.
This isn’t meant to be a one-way street, though. As the volunteers who create the church’s ministries, you share the work of being the church, but you have another common task as well. As you lead children in building elephants, or sing with the choir, or change filters on the air conditioners, or organize the volunteer recognition potluck, or lead the congregation in investing financially in our future—you are connecting yourself with a spiritual community whose purpose is growing and developing your spirit, your sense of self, your gifts.
Liz, Don, and Anne have each shared in their own way how their engagement in our church’s ministries has been part of their spiritual journey. That is ultimately the purpose of the church: To guide us individually and together toward wholeness as human beings, with all that means and implies. We cannot engage our deep gladness with the world’s deep need, as Frederick Buechner said in the words of our meditation, without growing. At the same time, we cannot grow unless we dare to engage our deep gladness with the world’s deep need.
This
year, as one of your ministers, I have watched people discover the leadership
within themselves.
In visits to
In this year, as in every year I’ve been a minister, I have watched people grow—in their gifts and in their willingness to offer them, in their knowledge, in their sense of identity, and in the depth of their connection to others. That is one of the greatest joys of the ministry Leslie and I share with you—that we have the chance to invite and to nurture and just to watch as individuals discover and develop in your own ministries, your own intersection of joy and talent and purpose and need.
We honor your spirit of service, you who’ve given your gifts and talents to the church this year. We honor your growth and your grace. And we thank you.
Amen.