Sermon Delivered at All Souls Community Church

Grand Rapids, Michigan, Homecoming Sunday, September 10, 2006

The great end in religious instruction is not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own;

Not to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own;

Not to give them a definite amount of knowledge, but to inspire a fervent love of truth;

Not to form an outward regularity but to touch inward springs;

Not to bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular sect or peculiar notions, but to prepare them for impartial, conscientious judging of whatever subjects may be offered to their decision;

Not to burden the memory, but to quicken and strengthen the power of thought;

Not to impose religion upon them in the form of arbitrary rules, but to awaken the conscience, the moral discernment.

In a word, the great end is to awaken the soul; to bring understanding, conscience, and heart into earnest, vigorous action on religious and moral truth, to excite and cherish the spiritual life.

 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. It was a Monday.

This date five years ago was a Monday and a day in-between. On the previous day, Sunday, September 9, 2001, a small group of some 25 hearty adults and many children gathered on a bright Indian summer day in Manhattan Park in the Grand Rapids area to see what interest there might be in establishing a spiritual community. The many who have remained can tell you, as they have told me, how that day seemed to capture the bold hopefulness that is ingrained in the character of human being; a hope for true spiritual fellowship, true community, a unity of the spirit out of which freedom and an authentic individuality nurtures in men and women an affection for all humanity. This spirit was resurrected again in particular persons that day, but because it was a public gathering, it yielded a public institution and thus was transformed into a spirit that transcended the individuals who gathered that day. After that morning, and mounting with each Sunday that they met up unto this very day that spirit has multiplied and flourished beyond any one person. It transcends the influence of any one individual who may be part of it. The spirit that arose that day will outlive the last of those originators to die and the last of us to die, because it is an eternal presence in the life of humanity that transcends every individual. That spirit is called freedom, creativity, the integrity of every created soul, God, love, or a host of other names. But it is a spirit that unites all creation into a mutuality and connection that leans the present towards its future fulfillment and completeness.

This date five years ago was a Monday and a day in-between. The next day that spirit still existed but was overshadowed on September 11, 2001 by the specter of humanity’s unfathomable and evil capacity to destroy itself. The spirit still existed when the planes were driven into the towers. The spirit still existed when firemen and policemen rushed in where even angels feared to tread. The spirit still existed when the towers tumbled down. The spirit still exists today in the midst of so much human evil and destruction.

But September 11, 2001 should have reminded humanity that every day we need evidence that this spirit exists in us and existence such that humanity can form bonds of affection that will redeem our capacity to destroy ourselves. The human family needs those individuals who take it upon themselves the task to create right relationships as the form of spiritual community that emancipates hope from terror and fear. The human family needs hope born of faith.

In en editorial this past week in the New York Times author Ben Schott noted that these intervening five years have seemed like a lifetime: the iPod was launched and Enron collapsed, Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded, Olympics held in Salt Lake City and Athens, bombs detonated in Bali, Madrid, and London, WMD declared to exist and denied to exist, the Department of Homeland Security started, Pope John Paul’s life ended, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated, gay partners in Massachusetts legally joined, Dick Cheney shot Harry Whittington, Slobodan Milosevic met his Maker, and according to his yearly physical George W. Bush’s blood pressure has fallen.

I wrote the New York Times a letter in response. There was one glaring omission to this list, something which takes more investigation and discernment, even faith to find, but can be symbolized by this: On September 9, 2001, the All Souls Community Church (Unitarian Universalist) of West Michigan was first gathered as a spiritual community devoted to ‘the liberation and cultivation of the spirit’ as its mission, and with its religious aim to embody “a unity and freedom of the spirit [as it is] expressed through a love for all souls.’ On September 12, 2001, unto this day that spiritual community not only exists but thrives. Thus proving once again that human beings are capable of doing the best things at the worst times, and hoping them in the most calamitous.

* * *

“You” is one of the most peculiar words in the English language because it can signify both an individual in the singular and a community in the plural. You are never quite certain which is meant by the same word. Yet, the individual and the community are different. When individuals gather to create community something new comes into being. You are no longer just an individual. You are part of a community, and the community is part of you. You as an individual become more through you, the community, and the spirit generated by the covenanted fellowship with others.

Your mission is to liberate and cultivate the spirit. This, you declared from your beginning. It is you the community who have declared it, and you the individual who has taken it up as the form of your individual identity and viewpoint. You may ignore it, betray it, be indifferent to it, or seek to fulfill it. You can think it’s not mine because I wasn’t there at the beginning, but you will only be turning away from yourself because a community creates a spirit that transcends the individual. It will always be before you because it is your local version of a transcending spiritual possibility that your Unitarian Universalist forbears aimed for, some died for, and all sought to embody, too, in their own fashion and time: freedom, reason, tolerance, humanity’s likeness to God and the universal power of love. And like you each of them sought it to declare it and live it as an ever-present, redeeming hope in the midst of the shock and awe of their times.

To realize the meaning and significance of you as a community is perhaps the most difficult puzzle confronting you and human existence at this time. We, as the human family, cannot seem to fathom how to live together; to form right relationships that ennoble human being rather than diminish or destroy. If you can grasp the meaning and significance of this church as a “we” you will grasp the meaning and significance of why you have grown so large so quickly. Often we do not realize or accept the scope of the meaning of what we do or leave undone.

You have grown to 154 adult members in five years, and it is easy not to see the significance of this growth in terms of spiritual community and the meaning of the kind of spiritual community you offer and are. You are slightly larger than Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church outside of Cincinnati, which is 179 years old! You are bigger than ¾ of the Unitarian Universalist churches in Kentucky, and the oldest one, in Louisville, gathered in 1830, is only 50% larger than you. You are larger than over half of our churches in Indiana, and the Bloomington, Indiana church, gathered in 1953, was over 20 years old before it surpassed the size you reached in 5. You are larger than 2/3 of our churches in Michigan, and our Birmingham Church in Bloomfield Hills, with 600 members, existed over ten years before they surpassed your size and built their own building. It is easy to dismiss the scope of what you have done. It is easy to dismiss the scope of meaning for what you have done. It is easy to dismiss, or really just not divulge to yourself the scope of the spirit that flows through you; a communal spirit of the plural “you” that ennobles, excites, enlivens, enlightens, and stretches the spirit of the individual “you.”

It’s easy to dismiss because so much of our time does not concern building the spiritual community of “we,” but worshipping at the church of “me.” The church of me will kill the spirit and pits humanity against itself which is everywhere in evidence. The community of we, variously organized and through a variety of human experiences and faiths, will redeem creation because it can generate a liberating and saving spirit for every soul.

In the church of me, my needs are more important that any spirit fostered by affection and fellowship, so I’ll give to the church of me when I want to and only what I want to. In the community of we when anyone immerses themselves in the spirit of community that individual becomes more; so when the community calls every part of the person answers. In the church of me individuals ask, “What’s in it for me?” In the community of we all ask, “What at stake for humankind?” In the church of me generosity is no more than what I am willing to give. In the community of we, no generosity is enough until it cultivates the human spirit towards the liberation of affection. In the church of me I won’t give myself until you start doing something that I want you to do. In the community of we, we roll up our sleeves and by doing, liberate human beings from the prisons of hopelessness, alienation, and inactivity.

In the church of me a decision isn’t made until every “me” is consulted. In the community of we leaders are entrusted to lead, they make decisions, perform them, and communicate to stay in touch with those who have entrusted authority to them. In the church of me I can do whatever because the only power is the paltry power of the mortal me. In the community of we there are roles people are chosen for in order to strengthen the community’s spirit aimed at strengthening the spiritual power of freedom for everyone in every generation. In the church of me I can say whatever I want because there is no one more important than me and my opinion. In the community of we the power of the human individual is held sacred and so all in the community know words have power to strengthen or diminish that individuality by rancor and gossip. So persons in the community of we choose their words wisely and speak judiciously and with great forethought. In the church of me my spiritual journey is to be fashioned primarily or exclusively by me. In the community of we everyone’s uniqueness is part of a larger path of faith, and to walk in that path in community means to humble the self before the wisdom of past generations in service to the future of spiritual freedom.

In the church of me the church is just a larger version of my beliefs or I am just a smaller version of the church’s beliefs. In the community of we humankind will be liberated towards a generosity of the spirit that fulfills creation when it endeavors to love all souls, the hope which grasps the community of we, my we, and all we do.

In the church of me I know everything and other people are an audience for my truths. It’s easy to find where a “me” ends up once that “me” begins worshipping at that church. It gathers down at Calder Square almost every weekday noontime in the form of a solitary “me” shouting at others what the truth is, gathering the church of me into its one true One. In the community of we each person is a seeker, seeking to listen for the spirit as it flows through others and through the ages. It meets only, but every time, that liberating spirit is made real. And this community is so rare, so difficult to find, and requires so much effort to create and a hundred times more to sustain. Yet, it is today the only hope for the world.

You have been wildly successful beyond measure in terms of our churches and, if you do any studying about church in general in America, in terms of that as well. But I can tell you a truth I have discovered in 23 years of ministry: Creating and then doing successful spiritual community is as easy to lose as it is hard to gain.

Neglect the spiritual depth of your congregation and faith tradition, and your church of we will whither to the common church of me. Neglect the genius of your congregation’s organizational structure and it will disintegrate. You have succeeded where many other communities have failed or struggled far, far beyond what you say is a struggle, because you have sought to strengthen the spiritual character of your congregation through knowing spiritually who you are. And you have succeeded where many other institutions have failed or struggled far, far beyond what you say is a struggle, because you have structured yourselves through an organization that is well-reasoned, trusts the powers of its leaders, and gives authority to individuals to execute various roles. It may seem such a struggle to you because you are an enigma to your time. You cannot look around and see many other communities of we, and so it is easy to be tempted to become like or envy everyone else, and become part of the church of me that is destroying the world.

The longer standing members, and by this I mean those of you who were at the first gathering 5 years ago or became connected to the church in its first and most formative year, I give you this charge: You need to complete your job of institutionalizing this church’s organizational structure. You set into place an organizational structure so that freedom could thrive and it has. The people you see as new people need to know how and why you structured this community organizationally in the manner that you did. Your charge has two specific tasks: Construct a lay leadership program at all levels of your organization to pass it on. And learn how to raise money and do it. You have declared the spiritual mission of the church to be the liberation and cultivation of the spirit. Insure this mission by institutionalizing it in these two ways for succeeding generations

For the new members, the ones who have come into this community, spiritual fellowship over the last four years, you too, have a special charge as you begin to assume the mantle of leadership and begin guiding this church over the next five years. Your charge is this: learn the spiritual foundation of this distinctive form of community done in this distinctive faith tradition. Become a student of All Souls, much, much more than insisting All Souls be a student of your individual opinion and path. Become a student of All Souls’ customs, its practices, which are unlike any other, including many other Unitarian Universalist churches. Become a student of this faith tradition and the ideas that have guided it for centuries. Become students of the faith tradition that this community intentionally and purposefully placed itself within; become students of the spiritual documents that formed this church, in part because this church formed itself uniquely under the guidance of spiritual and theological documents that are part of our faith tradition as Unitarian Universalists. All Souls is the ONLY Unitarian Universalist conceived in this manner. That is unique, and you ignore it at the peril of the spirit this community is, has generated, and which is its future destiny to become.

And to all of you, longer standing members, newer members, visitors, and friends. The you that is community will transform the you that is you as an individual. And if the you that is community, a community whose character and aim is a unity and freedom of the spirit expressed through a love for all souls, if you are transformed by that and humankind is transformed by that, then there is hope. There is Good News.

The meaning and spirit of All Souls Community Church transcends individuals and modern times, and to those who doubt, hear this:

The chapel of Staunton Harold in Leicestershire, England, was built in the seventeenth century, when civil war had ravaged the land and all hope everywhere was at its lowest ebb. On one of the walls of the chapel will be found a tablet bearing this inscription: “In the year 1653, when all things were throughout the nation either demollisht or profaned, Sir Robert Shirley, Barronet, founded this church: Whose singular praise it is to have done the best things in the worst times and hoped them in the most calamitous.”

-The Temptation to Be Good, A. Powell Davies

Like September 10, 2001, this day is a day in-between; in-between five years ago and five years into the future, indeed all of the future of your life, your children’s lives, and the lives of all souls yet to be.

AMEN.