Last November I submitted an auction item for people to bid on as we raised money for this fiscal years operating budget. Marcia Sandler won the bid and the item was for me to write a sermon on a topic she and I agreed on and it’s titled “What it takes to be a good UU?”
Right off the bat I’d say becoming aware of each day and what it brings, for example today being Father’s Day. Taking a moment to appreciate the men who are fathers and or the women who find themselves being a mother and father to their children. (I then read a Fathers Day Prayer by Rev. Kirk Loadman-Copeland: http://www.uua.org/worship/
A second awareness following Father’s Day and in an effort to be a good UU is the awareness of our connection to the universe as we approach summer solstice this week. (Kate then read a poem by Mary Oliver titled The Sun.)
What it takes to be a good UU? today … is our acute awareness of last Sunday’s massacre in Orlando and the fact that the targets were people who identified as homosexuals. The impact this is having on people across the country is an awareness we UUs cannot escape. And we are not left with just an awareness, but a good UU would make the effort to reach out to each other and to strangers who have need for love, support, connection, and compassion during the aftermath of Orlando and those needs will last quite awhile as we all grieve and mourn not only the loss of life but the loss of feeling safe wherever we go, and the loss of our celebration of how far we had come when just a year ago we were celebrating marriage equality and as a lesbian I can say we were beginning to feel like we were being embraced and not just tolerated in this country.
A good UU will educate and emerge themselves in learning how to live our principles based on the simple yet so profound and increasingly challenged value of love.
When I met with Marcia to talk about today’s topic, she shared with me that she was frustrated that it wasn’t until late in her life she discovered Unitarian Universalism when she needed this faith earlier in her life. The idea that she has traveled all over the world and never came across anyone who spoke of their faith as a UU is completely baffling to her, as it was to me when I discovered UUism in 1999.
The massacre at Pulse in Orlando brings this country to a new day for everyone but it’s distinctly a new day for UU’s who promote and affirm our principles. (All guests can find them on the back of your order of worship or in the front of the grey hymnal or www.uua.org.) The tragedy in Orlando coupled with the political climate we have created in this country has touched a deep and disturbing nerve in the psyche of humanity, and I believe the time for speaking out and speaking up and making known our faith, our religion, our congregations values of love, compassion, inherent worth and dignity, acceptance, peace, liberty, justice, and understanding our interdependence with each other — the time has come and the time is now. We can no longer be unclear about who we are and what we value and how we live those values.
To be a good UU we are being called out to get clear, articulate, expressing our faith without all the jokes or ambiguities about how UU’s beliefs are multiple choice. As a religious community we must be able to ground ourselves with strength and intention to say UU’s are a people who love and believe in love.
We do not believe in promoting hate.
We are a people who embrace diversity whether it be the diversity of ideas or religion, sexual identity, and the essence of life and liberty.
We are a people who don’t have all the answers but we do have the courage to face the questions.
We are a people who long to reach out to each other.
We are a people who long for guns to be laid down.
We are a people who feel the pain and suffering of people who are oppressed.
We are a people who have within our capabilities the ability to show compassion and empathy.
We are a people who want to be connected to those different from us because we are a people who are willing and able to change and grow and learn.
We are a people who believe the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice and we are a people who stand in solidarity with the vulnerable, the oppressed, the sick and the lonely.
We are a people who bring strength and courage to a movement for love in the world.
Who ever thought love would need to become a movement in this country?
Today is the day, now is the time, to get clear, be courageous, speak loudly that love is greater than hate. Love must prevail no matter what, no matter what. If ever there was time for RVUUF to get clear about what it means to move from and “I” church to a “we” church, the time is now. And yet, what it does take to be a good UU is YOU.
You, who’ve signed a membership book in a UU congregation where you made a covenant to live out our UU principles, it takes YOU to walk your talk.
No longer can you claim to be a UU because you agree with our values and principles. You’ve got to live them, express them, take your stand in them with the rest of us.
No longer can you sit back and watch what happens around you.
No longer can you wish things were different.
To be a good UU in todays world, no longer can you choose to NOT speak about your faith.
No longer can you resist speaking up out of fear you might hurt someone’s feelings when hate language is in the room.
No longer can you dig your heels in the sand or walk out of a room because you’ve been offended.
No longer can we live in the shadows fearful of coming out with our faith because we are in the minority.
No longer can we afford to keep our religion a secret from a world who is desperately trying to find us.
I believe UUs can skillfully and with integrity speak the values we’ve promised to live.
Marcia shared with me that when she signed the membership book she decided to put a UU bumper sticker on her car and the one she chose reads: Love is our doctrine.
Love is our doctrine, and if you don’t think it is, then I’d question your covenant to Unitarian Universalism.
Placing that UU bumper sticker on her car was a kind of coming out for Marcia and so now when she parks her car at the grocery store, she says that whatever is going on in the store, for her, it’s about a daily practice of love. Love is our doctrine.
The faiths who are creedal and who are steeped in doctrine will know exactly what we mean when we say ‘love is our doctrine’. No ambiguity or confusion or jokes can camouflage UU’s if we talk and walk the doctrine of love in todays world.
To be a good UU you can’t just believe it or think it or even agree with it, you have no choice but to live it the best you know how, no matter the circumstance or situation you find yourself in, love must trump everything else — that could be a pun but if I want to be a good UU even such a pun would cause me to go deeper than the laughter and say, I take my stand in love, that no matter what, love is stronger than hate.
The Orlando shooting is opening a wider and deeper conversation about gun control and I’m guessing among us here today there are diverse thoughts about gun control in this country, but if I want to be a good UU it will mean I have to get clear about how to speak up when the subject of guns in our society comes up, knowing I’ve promised to promote peace in the world.
Needless to say, being a UU is not easy. It is the most challenging faith I’ve ever encountered and born as a Presbyterian, and secretly wanting to be like my childhood friend who was Catholic,and briefly during a confusing time in my life I became a Southern Baptist, it wasn’t until by chance, by chance, when I discovered UUism that I realized all the other faiths I followed can’t hold a candle to the difficulty I find in living out our seven principles.
So, Marcia, as a new UU, probably the first thing you need to learn is that if you want to be a good UU you must give yourself empathy knowing you won’t do it perfectly, in fact, you’ll make mistakes daily. However, the good news about UUism is that as a covenantal faith and not a creedal faith, when you or I screw up, we get the opportunity to reconcile with those impacted by our screw ups bringing us back into covenant.
Reconciliation is probably the hardest part of being a UU because the society we live in knows very little about reconciliation. The society we live in knows a lot about punishment, judgement and shame, we know very little about reconciliation, forgiveness and grace. To be a good UU we could use a lot more learning about how to reconcile with those we feel estranged, or even with those we just disagree with. How do we stay connected when we know we disagree?
It’s hard to be a UU, and it’s even harder to be a good UU.
In closing, I’ll bring one last awareness to you today and that is that when we find ourselves wondering if coming to church on Sunday is worth it, especially if you have kids and it takes great effort to get everyone out the door, or if you don’t drive and you have to ask someone to bring you here, or if you just don’t want to make the effort today. I remind you that Unitarian Universalism is not a religion of one. It is a religion that requires you and me to show up into each others lives so we can be stronger than we are alone. And when we are together we experience a connection that expands and reaches through time, place and history, it’s a connection to life and to love
May we be so inclined to strive to be a good UU in the very challenging days that are ahead of us. It’s very easy to be frightened about our future especially after witnessing the Orlando experience and facing an election year like no other. Our fears do not have to discourage us or define us and we don’t have to be afraid alone because we have each other and we have a love greater than the sum of us all yet present within each one of us. Let’s join our voices in singing together.
Closing hymn – #1012 – When I am Frightened
Closing Words by Rev. Robert Doss:
For all who see God,
may God go with you.
For all who embrace life,
may life return your affection.
For all who seek a rich path
may a way be found…
and the courage to take it
step by step.