Sermon by Tony Perrino: Furnaces and Footwarmers
This, my friends, is a footwarmer. It is made of perforated metal, and has a wooden box and a handle for easy carrying. In 19th century New England, during cold weather, people brought these, full of hot coals, to Church.
In those days, Churches were not heated. If you wanted to be warm on Sunday morning, you had to bring your own source of heat. Churches were designed to assist in that endeavor: they had pews– with doors on them-to keep out the draft and keep in the heat. And once seated in your pew, with the door closed, you could be quite cozy, IF you had a footwarmer, full of live coals, radiating its heat into the enclosed space.
In the rugged-individualism mentality of Yankee New England, how others were coping with the cold- was not considered your concern.. Each of the pews was owned, or rented by families for their exclusive use. People paid an annual assessment, so much per pew per year, the rate varying with its location. (The front pews being the most expensive.) There was “free” seating in the “gallery” or balcony, but with no doors on the pews, it could be quite cool up there in winter.
This arrangement prevailed for many years- without controversy. And then, in Rowe, Massachusetts, in 1823, it occasioned a split in the town’s only Church.
The minister of that Church had been “called” in 1787 and served it faithfully, without any major disputes, even though, in 1821, he publicly declared, one Sunday morning, that he was a Unitarian! Perhaps the members of the Congregation had already guessed as much– since they had listened to his sermons for 34 years, but it was still a courageous admission to make, one which had split many other Churches.
Frequently, when that happened, a vote would be taken, and the majority would retain that building, while the minority (often with the minister) would leave —and begin another Church across the “Common.”
You can still see evidence of this phenomenon all over New England in small towns where, on one corner of the town Common sits “The First Congregational- Unitarian Church,” and another, glowering across the green, “The First Congregational-Trinitarian Church.” But, when the Rowe minister made his public declaration, the Congregation accepted his theology, and that Church became, and still is, a Unitarian congregation.
Two years later, however, there was a more serious split in the Congregation –when he proposed that a furnace be purchased to heat the building, so people would no longer need to bring footwarmers to church!
The proposal was eventually adopted, and the “central heating” was installed. But some members of the Congregation were so outraged that they moved down the street and built another, presumably unheated, Church.
Now I would like to believe that this was a theological, rather than a technological issue: that, when they became Unitarians, most of the members of that Congregation began to think more communally. But the records indicate that it was more likely a matter of economics which made footwarmers become quaint artifacts— reminding us of the curious ways of our religious ancestors.
But no preacher, “worth his salt,” is going to pass up such an apt metaphor for what religious community is all about-especially during the annual pledge drive!
So, I pose the issue with a question which might have been voiced by the dissidents in the Rowe Church in 1823: “Why should we contribute toward the cost of central heating, or anything else the Church decides to do, when it does not benefit us personally?”
The first answer to that question is that we join religious communities because we want to connect, caringly, with other human beings.
We may go to lectures to be enlightened, and theaters to be entertained, but we come to religious services to experience human community. For those who ask, “What about communing with God?” I suggest that you can do that in the privacy of your own home. So, I think it was symbolically significant that the advent of central heating occasioned the removal of the no longer needed doors on the pews, breaking down the isolation created by each family being in its own little box. (King’s Chapel today?)
Thus, to be a religious community means, among other things, that we do contribute toward programs which may not benefit us personally. For example, those without children help pay for our religious education program because we are a caring community, and not simply a social club.
There is a somewhat irreverent story reflecting our emphasis on community. It tells of a mountain climber who fell over the edge of a cliff one day. He grabbed hold of a vine-which kept him from a long and fatal fall. He waited there for someone to come along and help him back up. After awhile he began to grow tired, so he called out, “Is anybody up there?” A deep and sonorous voice replied, “This is God. Let go of the vine, and I’ll take care of you.” After a pause, the man called out again, “Is there anyone else up there?”
Such is our UU motivation for joining a religious community. We may, or may not, be seeking divine contact, but we are certainly seeking the sustenance of -the human contact which it affords us.
One writer put it more strongly: “We deceive ourselves if we think we can be grasped by life’s meaning— before we find, and are found by —our fellow human beings. There is no sense of the holiness of existence– that does not come first through another person.” As I once put it, “The idea of God’s love– is an intellectual abstraction- until being loved by a human being- puts content into that concept.” Or, as the theologian, Martin Buber wrote, “We experience God– in the will to love.”
The second thing which must be said is that, in serving others’ needs, we achieve a richer, fuller life for ourselves. So it does benefit us personally.
It is one of those paradoxes of human existence of which Jesus spoke when he said, “Whoever would save his life shall lose it, and whoever would lose his life-shall find it .”
The truth of that observation is made more clear when you know that the original word he used for life, “psuche,“ is a word which also means breath. (breathing being the indication of life.) Thus, Jesus’ statement could be rendered, “Whoever would save his breath shall lose it,” —an obvious truth to those who have ever tried to hold their breath for very long!
I particularly like the writer, D.H. Lawrence’s phrasing of the matter:
“As we live, we are transmitters of life,
And, when we fail to transmit life,
Life fails to flow through us,
And if, as we work, we can transmit life,
Still more life rushes into us.. to compensate,
To be ready as we ripple with life through the days.
Give, and it shall be given unto you
Is still the truth about life.”
So, it is a matter of life and death (of the spirit) that we learn to give of ourselves, It is not a duty or moral obligation, but an expression of our own aliveness.. to be generous and giving. (repeat?)
But, again, there is a story that reflects the thought better than any quotation. It tells of a young boy who went into a diner one day and sat at the counter. The waitress came over and put a glass of water in front of him. “How much is an ice cream Sundae,” the boy asked. “Fifty cents,” replied the waitress. The youngster pulled a handful of coins out of his pocket. “How much is a dish of plain ice cream?” he asked. There were other people waiting at the counter, and the waitress was growing impatient. “Thirty five cents,” she said brusquely. The boy counted his coins and finally said, “I’ll have the dish of plain ice cream.” The waitress brought the ice cream and check, put them in front of the boy, and walked away. When she came back a few minutes later, the boy was gone. She looked down at the empty dish, and then swallowed hard at what she saw: there, neatly placed beside the plate, were two nickels and five pennies, her tip!
That was some time ago (the price of the ice cream should have told you that) but the waitress still keeps the seven coins-as a reminder of the dignity and self-affirmation expressed in that little boy’s generosity.
Giving IS a reflection of our aliveness. It is not an act of deprivation, but self expression, to give of ourselves to benefit others. Whether you give to this Church, or some other worthy cause, my hope is that you will find something— which will evoke such an expression of– that aliveness.
Finally, I must observe that what I have said also applies to our religious community. It, too, must reach out into the world — if it is to be fully alive.
A few years ago, a magazine pictured St. Basil’s church in Moscow and reported that the building was getting a face lifting because it was being converted into a museum! Well that’s not the first Church to become a museum instead of a living community, enhancing the world around it. Whenever a church ceases to reach out and serve life, it dies.
As Paul Carnes, a former UUA President, once put it: “We are a religious enterprise, and it doesn’t matter how inspiring our services, or how fine our buildings —unless we can give meaning and value to the lives of people.”
That is why this Church maintains programs to feed the hungry and house the homeless, why we take special offerings to support worthy local service programs, and why we, as a Congregation, speak out on social justice issues.
There’s an old joke which tells of a group of people stranded on an elevator stuck between floors. One of the persons suggested to another that he ought to do something religious.. like praying. The man replied that he didn’t know how to pray, but he could take an offering.
Well, that is meant to be funny. But I suggest that giving money, or service, to enhance the welfare of others, may be the most profoundly religious thing we do-and— a clear expression of our aliveness.
We are a religious community because we are reaching out, serving life and making a difference in the world around us.
We have come a long way from footwarmers, but the mission of our Church (and ourselves) remains the same: to generate and transmit life into the world, and thereby, experience its energy—flowing though us.
In Bertrand Russell’s words, “To be happy in this world
it is necessary to feel oneself,
not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over,
but a part of the stream of life, flowing from the first germ..
to the remote and unknown future.”
May all of you— know such happiness.
Delivered March 6, 2011
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church
Charlottesville, VA