Upcoming Sunday Worship Services
I want to thank Laurie Hotchkiss, our new DRE, for both suggesting this morning’s story and preparing the story script for the rest of us. …
I don’t know about you but at the start of anything new my head is burning with questions just like the young carpenter in the story. I get nervous. Kids, were you nervous before the first day of school last week? Did you wonder if you’d make friends or if your teachers would like you, or if you’d do well? I always did.
Wouldn’t life be so much better if you could go to a fortune teller and get the answers to your questions?
The same thing happens for me as I anticipate Ingathering. I wonder, will we grow as a community? As individuals, will we all grow spiritually? And, of course, I always worry a little bit about canvass – will we have enough money to keep this place spiffy and be generous to other causes? Will we do important social justice work? What will the year be like?
Oh, now wait, what’s this? A crystal ball! It’s a small crystal ball, I don’t know if it’ll work…. Let me look. No, nothing in there. Oh, wait, maybe I need to put this hat on – Oh, gee, I look terrible in hats!
Yes, there’s something in here. All right, my questions is “how will it go for us this year? It says things will go very well – this year will just be the best so long as we listen to one another, work hard and live by our principles. That’s amazing! This is really neat!
All right, how about the kids in church school? Oh, yes, they’ll learn many ways to talk about what God might be like. They’ll learn to think and feel for themselves and develop their inner voice - and much more. But this will happen only if they come.
Okay, they’re going to learn, but are they going to have fun?
They’ll have tons of fun. They’ll make treasure boxes, hunt Easter eggs – they’ll be drumming and baking and eating popcorn - but only if they participate.
How about the congregation. Will the congregation grow in spirit? We will deepen in love if we become more kind and act with compassion even when it’s hard. The only things that might get in the way are lack of spiritual work and indifference.
Oh, this crystal ball is great!
Ah, I can’t help it – I have to ask…. How about money. Will we have a good canvass this year? We will support the church better than it has ever been supported providing we dig deep in our pockets and give generously.
It is so good to have a crystal ball available – I think what we can know from this is that our future is, if not in this crystal ball, at least in our own hands. We have the capacity to learn and grow and deepen and to be loving, kind, compassionate and generous. The whole nine yards. Let us go down the path in front of us together, doing the best we can, believing the very best is possible and, knowing that, we can make it so. TAKE OFF HAT
**********
At this time of year every year I ask, “What brings us to church? And we’ve learned some answers about why from the questions asked of the crystal ball. For many of us the importance of these familiar questions and a need for answers has been magnified by 9/11. Three years ago this weekend we were reeling from the events of 9/11. Weekend observances are being held across the nation as we mark the third anniversary of that event that has changed our world. Perhaps if we’d had a fortune teller we could have avoided such a tragedy – but of course there is no fortune teller and we have as yet not been able to make a world without violence and hatred come to pass.
Rabbi Irwin Kula who was interviewed after 9/11 had this to say when asked about God and the meaning of religion after that tragedy. He’s talking about God here:
"Every time I thought there was something out there
it turned into something opposed to me.
Something I have to define myself against,
whether that's God or that's a Christian or a Muslim….
And that's not my experience.
My genuine experience of life
is that there is nothing out there.
This is all there is.
And when you see the seamlessness of it all,
that's what I mean by God.
Every tradition has that.
Three times a day since I'm six years old.
I've been saying - "Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One"
It's one of our few creedal statements. The Shema. Three times a day since I'm six years old. What 9/11 really [did was] made me realize the truth of that.
The truth of that - everything is one.
Not that there's some guy hanging out there who has it all together we call one.
It IS all one.
We all know it deep down.
We've all had those experiences
whether it was looking at our child in the crib
or it's looking at our lover or looking at a mountaintop or looking at a sunset…
We've all have had those experiences where we recognize,
"Whoah! We're much more connected here.
That's what those firemen had [running into the twin towers]
They recognized - they didn't have time to think about it.
Because actually, if you think about it, you begin to create separation. They didn't think about it.
All they knew, was that they were absolutely connected.
They were absolutely connected to the 86th floor.
So that's what God is.
That's not where God is.
God isn't anywhere.
That's what we mean when we say God.
Whether we are old or young, Jewish, Christian, Muslim or Unitarian Universalist, this connectedness is the supreme insight.
Old, young, red, white or black, whether in the church school or the congregation, whether lighthearted or serious, in the peak of health or sick - We are all one.
Know that and know God.
And here we are again, gathering in, strengthening our connectedness, and celebrating community in our search to be one with all. Welcome back.