By Rev. Rebecca
(Transcript from a recording of Rev. Rebecca’s sermon that was delivered extemporaneously.)
So for my sermon today, I’m doing something that’s called a Question and Answer Box, and I had invited folks to submit questions in advance. I received a great number of them – in fact, too many to answer this morning. So we’ll see how things go with timing, and if we can, I’ll invite one or two from the floor. Let’s see.

There are only one … actually, two that I’ve written anything down about, and the rest I’ll speak extemporaneously and from my heart.

So the first question is simply, “Are there going to be any summer services?” That’s an easy answer. The answer is yes. There will be services the next two weeks in June. There’s one in July, one in August, and lots of other really great things happening this summer. I want to thank everybody who stepped up to make those things happen, and as we realize this congregation, we don’t want to stop being together. So there will be things happening.

There is also a way that if you’re going to be distant from this space, you can sign up and connect, and I’ll be sending out some emails each week as we reflect and prepare for next year’s theme, annual theme, which is Journey.

This one: Assuming that there’s only one Jesus Christ of Nazareth – or is there only one? – why are there so many different Christian denominations, and which one gets it right?

So that’s three questions, not one. I chose to focus on the one about denominations. So denomination means “something named.” That’s the definition of that word. For the sake of religion, the Handbook of Denominations in the United States by Roger E. Olson … Yes, there is such a thing, and I’ve enjoyed reading parts of it. He says that denominations are, quote, “any group of churches, congregations, assemblies, or religious meetings with some affiliation amongst themselves, however formal or informal it may be.”

Different denominations, why do they exist? So I could be sort of flippant in my answer to that, and the flippant answer is people. That’s why they exist, because people decide it should be different.

A little bit more of a formal answer, taken from his book, says that different denominations, of which there are some 12 or 1300 in the United States that meet certain criteria … So, probably, you could double that if you didn’t have these particular criteria, like 50 people or more in the denomination, not necessarily one gathering, etc., etc.

He says different denominations exist because of ethnicity, geography, styles of worship, or someone’s attempt to reform a particular Christian tradition. I think it’s very interesting that most of the reform, if you study it, are folks who say, “Let’s get back closer to the original.” Right? So it’s really an interesting thing.

The question of who gets it right, I withhold a response, respectfully.

This third question, “Why do we call it a chalice? In other religious traditions and in the common vernacular, a chalice is a special or sacred vessel that you drink out of, not something you light. Why not a lamp or a sacred light or a flame?”

I’m actually going to take a quotation from Susan Ritchie, a wonderful historian and minister in our denomination. She says, “Many people are surprised to learn that lighting a chalice as a

part of worship only found its way into Unitarian Universalist congregations in the early 1980s. But the path it took to reach the sanctuary is a longer one.”

“It’s a story that begins with Nazi resisters and ends with children in the RE program.” Again, I’m reading her words. She says, “Originally, the flaming chalice was a two-dimensional image that was stamped on documents created by the Unitarian Service Committee to help Jewish refugees escape Nazi persecution.”

“This design that had hastily been put together by the artist Hans Deutsch … He was a refugee. He was working at the direction of the Service Committee’s director, Reverend Charles Joy, who thought that having a logo would make their paperwork look more official, and so later he would claim that the design was reminiscent of the lamps of holy oil used by the ancient Greeks and Romans on their altars and that the flame itself represented a spirit of helpfulness and sacrifice.”

So the stories are always there. I also believe that it is really important, each time we light this chalice, whether it be in a worship service or at the start of a meeting or any time – maybe at your own home before a meal or a gathering, at a memorial service – that we reconnect with the truth that we are not alone. There are Unitarian Universalists throughout this country and in other countries around the world who are committed to the same values and ideals that we are.

So this question is, “What is the value of going to or even streaming some of General Assembly for a member of FRS?” So General Assembly is the gathering of congregations that happens every year. It is the time that people who are what is called delegates vote on issues that are brought before our membership. So the association is a membership association of various congregations.

First, I also want to give a plug that next year, it’s in Providence. So for many of us … Yes. For many of us, it was not possible to get, for example, to Spokane, which is where it is this year. I do hope a lot of us go next year. It connects us to Unitarian Universalism. It helps us understand what are the issues that, together, we are facing and deciding and gives representation to this congregation.

I should also say, not out of ego, but more out of, I’d almost say, a responsibility, that a large congregation in our association is any congregation of 500 members or above.

So as we are inching towards that – and put specific numbers aside – there are – and I don’t want to misspeak, so I won’t quote – a surprisingly few number of such congregations in this country. We are the voice, the faces, and the action of Unitarian Universalism in this community, in this region, with people you meet elsewhere. I believe that, as one of the those congregations, we have a privilege, an honor, and a responsibility to connect with and be a part of this faith beyond this congregation.

So let’s shift to this congregation, these questions. I wrote … This person asked for their permission to read it verbatim. This is exactly what they wrote to me, and I said I thought that, in some ways, this question was perhaps the most meaningful.

This person wrote, “I suspect people come to church for a variety of reasons. Some come for the music, others for the friendship and camaraderie, others for a quiet oasis amidst their hectic lives. None of these things really matter much to me. I come to church because I’m seeking an answer to a very specific question. I want to understand how I should live my life. By that, I mean how do I build a life that is rich and meaningful?

“Like many people, I find myself living more on automatic pilot. I’ve created a very nice and comfortable life for myself, but I tend to spend most of my time living on the surface, attending to daily demands, crossing items off a to-do list. My greatest fear is not about dying, but rather coming to the end of my life and realizing that I have not truly lived. Unfortunately, each passing year moves me closer to that very result.”

They went on to say, “I don’t expect you, Reverend Rebecca, to have a magic answer, but any thoughts you have would be appreciated.”

Years ago, my children were raised in this faith, and years ago … and this is … I’m just speaking from my heart. Years ago, my daughter said to me, as I was studying in seminary and becoming a minister, she said, “Mom, could you promise me one thing, please?”

I said, “Sure, Ginger, what’s that?”

“In every sermon, could you say something that maybe applies to life?” She said, “I mean, I love Reverend so-and-so and so-and-so,” who she grew up with, “but, often, at the end of it, I think, ‘Well, that’s nice, but so what? What now?'”

I remember her talking about an Easter sermon and the rolling away of the tomb from our hearts, and she said to me, “What am I supposed to do with that? What does that mean?”

I took her question deeply to heart because, at that time, as a tween – in between a … she was in her early, early teen years – I saw the depth and frustration and longing and honesty in that question. She was saying to me, “Help make our religion meaningful in people’s lives.”

So I do my very best, and I don’t do it perfectly, by any means, but I do, each sermon, try to find something that you might be invited to consider in your day-to-day life. The thing about it is that it isn’t one sermon or another sermon. I really, really encourage you to make a commitment to coming next year every week, because what you’ll experience if you do and can is that there are ebbs and flows and arcs and this one is about history, and this one is more an introspective, and this one is more joyful, and this one engages laypeople.

It’s the wholeness of it that I hope leaves us all with things we can bring into our day-to-day lives. For this person, I also want to offer this hope: I believe that any person who is asking such a question – “How do I live my life? I don’t want to come to the end of my life realizing I haven’t truly lived?” – if you’re asking that question, you’re halfway there.

Next question: “These spiritual sustenances on Fridays, they’re terrific, Reverend Rebecca. Where do you get them? Who writes them?”

Well, that’s easy. I do. I write them. I gather quotes from things all throughout the weeks and days and books and throughout the time. They started after the last election, when a congregant in my previous congregation said to me, “Can you please help us remember the spiritual? I don’t want to get lost in all this other stuff. It matters, but could you help us remember?” So that was their origin.

“You talk about love a lot. What do you mean by that?” I’ll have two more after this.

That is a very, very fair and important question. Let me say this: I believe that love … Love is the term I use. Love is an animated, animating force. What that means is that love is not willpower. Love is a gift. Love is an energy, a force from within us and around us and between us that calls us to serve, to not live a self-centered life at the sacrifice of others.

Love makes us do things uncomfortable, irrational, unreasonable. Love calls us home to this place. Love pushes us out of our comfort zone. Love, to me … and I can say this in all honesty. Love is what brought me into the ministry. Love is what got me through everything before and after. Love is what saves my life every single day. It is not my willpower, and it is not another human being. Now, both of those things are really important.

There’s this magic, this mystery, this “I can’t explain it, but I’ll try to do a better job” that is real for me and that, again, acts in my life and, above all, allows me always to remember I am not the center of the universe and to do for others.

So I would say that it’s about … My own personal journey in life is about love, service, and rest; faith, trust, surrender; love, service, and faith; rest.

Okay, last two. “Is there anything good or bad that surprised you about our congregation?” Woo-hoo. “Or are we exactly what you expected?”

Very quickly, I’ll say yes – no, yes and yes. Yes. You all did a phenomenal job of being honest. Your packet – right? – that described who you were, your surveys you answered, what the search committee said was amazingly accurate, and, by and large, everything in that was true and I have come to be true. There were even specific little things a couple people said, and I’ve been on the search for, “Who was that?” A few, I have found, and others, not yet.

However, were there things that surprised me? Yes. Yeah, of course, right? I wouldn’t be honest if there weren’t. One of them is that Connecticut does not make one a New Englander. Those people in Connecticut call themselves New Englanders. They haven’t lived in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and I didn’t know that, because we all walk around saying we live in New England. In fact, the culture change is significant.

Part of that that has been a wonderful surprise for me is that you are the most loyal, faithful people I have ever met as a collective, truly. So the good news is that if we hang in there, we can’t do anything but good together. You are loyal people. It’s remarkable.

I could say a lot more, but I’ll end with one request, really. Another thing that I had not expected and that I don’t know what it means, I don’t know how to interpret this, is that I really want more between us. I want more exchange. I want more feedback. I want …

So when we send out a Steeple Extra saying something about how the RE program is really being transformed next year, and I didn’t get one answer. Not one person emailed me, and I thought, “What? What’s that mean? Are they just polite? Are they not reading their emails? Do they not like it, or are they really happy? Is that just the culture?”

So I was a little … and maybe it’s all of that and other things, but I can only know what you give me the privilege and honor of knowing. So my hope would be that we can sort of open some of those channels up a little bit more.

Last, and I’ll end on this … Well, maybe one from the floor. This person says, “I’m curious. How long do you need to serve our church before you are no longer our new minister?”

Isn’t that great? I thought, “That’s a really good question,” and I think I’d say after today. Is that fair?

From now on, I’m no longer … Don’t have that little hook that gets me off the hook, and I’ll just be here to stay as your minister. Does anybody want to ask one question before we move into our closing? Who has a question? Kristin?

Kristen Miller: I have a question. So if you were able to spend a prolonged period of time – like several months – in a faith community that is not New View, anyplace in the world at any time in history, what would it be?

Oh my gosh.

That is my question.

Wow. Wow. So this is … I’ll answer what comes to me. Thank you for that question, I think, and I’ll preface it quickly by saying that this is how I answer today. I can guarantee you that if you asked me that question next month, certainly next year, I would have a different answer, and that’s part of what I love about Unitarian Universalism. My faith journey is a journey. I mean, I have gone through all sorts of expressions and confusions and … right?

Where I am today is I would go back and I would spend time in the earliest Christian home churches, which is where they were. It would be great if Jesus could be there, and I answer … I say that because of two things. One is that I’ve long and hard struggled with my own Christian roots, and I’ve tried everything from blocking them out to denying them to trying to be things I’m not to fully embracing them to not being a UU to being afraid to say that to all sorts of things.

What I’ve come to understand is that having a sense of peace and wholeness and truth, for me, with my religious ancestry is critical to my wholeness. So I am in the midst of that journey, and where better to go – back to our first question – than to the first time that those who called themselves Christians gathered?