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As we listened to
the story the children heard this morning, about King Solomon and
the demons, some of us may have hoped to hear how to get rid of
those miserable tormentors. That’s not the gift that King
Solomon shared with the master builder’s son, though. The demons
are still there at the end of the story, and they are still here
in the world, and here in our denomination, now. The king’s gift
is, first, that he believes the boy when he tells about the
demons. The king doesn’t say they don’t keep me awake, so they
can’t be that bad. Instead,
he recognizes that if the demons are bothering the boy, there must
be demons. Beyond that, Solomon lets the boy see how to transform
the demons, so that they are no longer his enemies. “You can
make the demons work for you,” says the king. The boy worries
about having no magic ring, so the king says here’s a coin, to
remind you of the ring. We
know that the coin is really to remind the master builder’s son
of his own power. Call on the demons to say their names. Talk to
them. They can not run away from questions.
In a
congregation as diverse as a typical UU congregation, as diverse
as this one, it can be intimidating to think about asking too many
questions. What if we get answers we don’t want to hear? What if
we make somebody angry? What if we can’t agree? You have heard
by now, I hope, mention of a congregation-wide retreat that will
be held this coming winter, where everybody will be asked to
participate and consider our identity as Williamsburg Unitarian
Universalists. Who are we? What are we here for? Who is our
neighbor? We can’t ask the board to define our identity; we
can’t charge a committee with finding it out. The work is valid
only if the congregation participates. Will everybody agree?
Chances are that we won’t. Will we make somebody angry? Chances
are that we will. But we know how to make the demons work FOR
us…we know how to ask them to name themselves. We know that
demons can’t run away and hide from questions.
We are not the only ones involved with the challenge of identity.
Last month Rev. Shirley and I told you a little about the 2005
Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in Ft. Worth, Texas back
in June. In one of the plenary sessions, the Commission on
Appraisal presented their report, called Engaging Our Theological
Diversity. After a four year study, this commission, made up of
nine people elected by the UUA, wrote about our need to understand
and name our Unitarian Universalist identity. Some of the
questions their report addresses are
What Holds Us Together?
Where Do We Come From?
Who Are We?
To What Do We Aspire?
How Shall We Serve?
Let me also mention a provocative question posed by Rev. Rebecca
Parker, president of Starr King School for the Ministry: “What
features of Unitarian Universalism, if you took them away, would
leave us with something that is no longer Unitarian
Universalism?”
As a denomination, we don’t have clear answers to these
questions, and perhaps more importantly, as individual
congregations, we aren’t asking them. In order for us to be
effective in the world, we have to stand for something, and too
often in our congregations we tend to turn away from making
declarative statements about what we stand for. It’s not unusual
to hear something like, “There are so many of us, we believe so
many things, how can we say THIS is what we stand for?” On the
other hand, say many UUs, how can we be useful in this stricken
world if we can’t say that? What does it MEAN to be a Unitarian
Universalist? It has to mean something.
Let’s think for a moment in more specific, concrete
terms. One of the workshops I attended at GA was offered by All
Souls UU in Washington, DC, about growth, what made them grow, how
they encouraged and embraced growth. In a small group, we heard
about the membership program created by All Souls. First of all,
they realized, membership in their congregation had to have
meaning. And they had to be able to declare that meaning to people
wanting to join. They now have four services per year called
Ingatherings, when new members can sign the book as part of the
Sunday morning worship. The new members are honored with red roses
to carry, and they come to the service having already decided to
make a serious commitment to the congregation and the
denomination. Joining carries with it the stated expectation of
commitment. Their decision is made through orientation programs,
which are offered throughout the year. One is required, in that
you have to participate in the program before you can sign the
book. By definition, participating in the orientation is part of
what it means to be a member of All Souls. The second program is
encouraged, with a focus more on All Souls in specific rather than
Unitarian Universalism. In the orientation, education is
concentrated on four points: participation, attendance, financial
support, and asking for help when you need it. Before they sign
the book, people are asked to decide:
Do you WANT to come on Sunday mornings regularly?
Do you WANT to participate in the work of the church, on
committees and other activities?
Do you WANT to share your money generously with the church?
Do you WANT to tell us when you have a need?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, then you are still
welcome to participate at whatever level suits you. You don’t
have to sign the book. If you DO sign the book, you are making a
promise. You are agreeing that you will participate, attend, give
generously, and let the church know when something is wrong.
What
promise do we ask for when we open our book to new members to
sign? How do new members know what it means to belong to
Williamsburg UU? How can we tell them? Do we know? How do we
figure it out? The demons can not run away and hide or go
underground if we keep asking the questions. The demons can be
made to work for us. When we meet together to engage these
questions in a congregational retreat, we empower ourselves to be
a stronger congregation and a more visible presence in our
community.
This
brings up another vital point: do we WANT to be a more visible
presence in our community? Would we prefer to be underground UUs?
Are we, on some level, a tiny bit ill at ease about naming
ourselves Unitarian Universalists in Williamsburg? Words such as
“proselytize” and “evangelical” give us the willies, and
yet the people who ARE out in the world proselytizing,
particularly on our college campuses, and more and more in our
high schools, are preaching a message of distorted Christianity,
divisiveness, and condemnation that we have to recognize and
acknowledge. Can we keep our Good News to ourselves in the face of
this pervasive presence of the religious right that surrounds us?
What are we called to do as people of faith? Who are we called to
be? And we Unitarian Universalists ARE people of faith; we are
religious people. That is what our sign on the street says to the
world. We cherish our intellectual identity, as a denomination and
as an individual congregation, but we can go to graduate school
for our intellects. We don’t need a religious community for
that. We pay careful attention to keeping track of the people
among us who need care, but other organizations could do that. The
Commission on Appraisal says, “It is critical that the Unitarian
Universalist Association and congregations within the UUA know
their identity. That identity cannot be a club, a social action
organization, or a surrogate family.” (Engaging
Our Theological Diversity, p. 32).
By
now I can hear you asking, “Well, what do we DO? How do we
answer these questions?” First of all remember that in the
story, the answers are not what made the demons work for the
master builder’s son—it was the questions. So we can start by
asking the questions, in a congregation-wide retreat to which you
will all be invited this winter. Please come. You don’t have to
wait for winter, though. You can go to lunch, or have coffee some
morning, with friends in the congregation, or people you don’
know that well, and say let’s talk about our church. I know that
some among you are uneasy about the word “church” and prefer
that it not be used. I know that others cherish the word
“church” and want to claim it as a way to identify
Williamsburg UU. That’s a starting point for conversation:
religious language. Another starting point is money: do we operate
out of a spirit of scarcity or a spirit of abundance? And another
starting point is, where do our fears lie? It takes courage to ask
questions such as these, and if we ask them, we can make the
demons around them say their names, and work for us. So watch for
more news about a congregational retreat, and plan to participate.
Bring your questions.
Let me offer a specific, personal, microcosmic example of the need
for an identity. A while ago, I agreed to facilitate a particular
group at my own congregation. There were two others facilitating
similar groups; we all worked together with our minister over the
summer for training, reading background information, and
organizing. When we
began our groups in the fall, we had a clear idea of the purpose
of what we were doing, and we had written and published thorough,
detailed explanations to the congregation. My level of frustration
grew every week as people came to my group saying here’s what I
want to do, why do we have to do that, I don’t think that’s
going to meet my needs, I prefer to do it another way. There
seemed to be no understanding that the groups had a meaning,
purpose, and identity already established, before the first
meeting ever took place. One day I was telling my story of
frustration to Rev. Janet Newman, our former interim minister, and
she offered me this metaphor, that has been so useful to me ever
since.
“It
sounds like when you get on the plane,” she said, “and
somebody from the crew makes that announcement: this plane is
going to Atlanta. If Atlanta is not your destination, you’re on
the wrong plane.” You don’t have to get off the plane. You are
welcome to fly with us, put your seat back in the resting
position, put your luggage in the overhead compartment, and eat
the free peanuts. But here’s what you need to understand: when
we land, we’re going to be in Atlanta. If you don’t want to be
in Atlanta, you need to
figure out what you want
to do. But THIS plane is going to Atlanta.
As a
denomination, as an individual congregation, where is our plane
going? Do we know? Do we know how to figure it out? Do we know how
important it is that we DO figure it out? Can we really say, come
on, get on the plane, we aren’t going anywhere in particular,
just tell us where you want to go? Being among thousands of UUs at
GA this summer, listening to the stories of their congregations’
struggles and triumphs, listening to the individuals’ own
stories, makes it clear that we have the potential to be a
powerful force for good in this world. How will we BE that force?
How will we make the best use of our potential, rather than
re-inventing the wheel over and over again in our own
inward-focused circles?
Here
is what the Commission on Appraisal says: “The Commission on
Appraisal does not see this report as the end of a process;
rather, we hope it will be a beginning. We have raised the issue,
and asked many questions; now it is time for all of us to engage
collectively, thoughtfully, and respectfully, in the challenging
process of searching for answers. What could our UU faith be like
if our congregations truly became the safe and welcoming place we
aspire to create? If we truly did honor and celebrate both our
theological diversity and our sources of unity? If we were willing
to commit to spiritual discipline as deeply as to spiritual
freedom? ‘Whether we now have the seeds of a liberating faith is
not really a question. Deluding ourselves into thinking that
admiring the seeds will make them grow is the issue at hand,’
writes a contemporary UU prophet. What marvels might be possible
if we took these seeds and planted and tended them? What wondrous
blossoms might arise?” (p.152)
Let’s find out.
And
so may it be.
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