First Parish Sermon Archive

Beverly V. Waring                                                            August 1, 2010

Starting Out: Visions of a Transitional Ministry                 First Parish in Wayland

 

Reading 1                                           “Working Together” by David Whyte.[i]

We shape our self to fit this world and by the world are shaped again.

The visible and the invisible working together in common cause, to produce the miraculous.

I am thinking of the way the intangible air

passed at speed round a shaped wing easily holds our weight.

So may we, in this life, trust to those elements we have yet to see or imagine, and look for the true shape of our own self by forming it well to the great intangibles about us.

 

Reading 2

 

From Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [ii]

 

You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other.  In a car, you are always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it, you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV.  You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

 

On a cycle, the frame is gone.  You’re completely in contact with it all.  You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.  That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it’s right there, so blurred you can’t focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from the immediate consciousness.

Sermon

 

Sometime this past spring, you learned the news that Rev. Erin Splaine was leaving First Parish to serve her own church.  In a newsletter article and a letter sent to each of you, your senior minister, Ken Sawyer and the Parish Committee announced that I would be joining the staff beginning August 1^st.[iii]  It was much later that I learned that I would have this opportunity to introduce myself to you during a summer service.

 

Now, I know you all read your newsletter and other information sent to you from First Parish very carefully, so this is just a reminder of some details you may not have memorized.  My title is Temporary Assistant Minister.  I have a contract with the Parish Committee for one year but it’s understood that it could be extended into a second year.  The stated purpose of my hiring is to help assure that both Ken and First Parish programs continue to receive the support they need while your congregation thinks through your long-term staffing needs.

 

In their letter to you the Parish Committee went on to say: “Like you, we are each juggling the many feelings that these changes produce: sadness, apprehension, and uncertainty, tinged with excitement about new beginnings and the opportunities that lie ahead.”  And they closed asking you to embrace these changes in launching the next phase of life at First Parish in Wayland.

 

During my tenure here, I will be supporting the efforts of the Community Life Committee and supervising the soon to be hired Community Life Coordinator.  I will be working closely with both the Religious Education Committee and Director as well as with our youth and their families.  We are in the process of hiring a Youth Coordinator to manage the weekly youth programs with adult volunteers and me serving as advisors.  You’ll see me in the pulpit and I’ll be available for pastoral needs and concerns.  My hope is that I will have the time to observe and support and work with many other committees here at First Parish as well.

 

 

 

The most important message I want you to hear this morning and as we move forward together through this year is that I am here as your minister, working with Ken to provide the best ministry team we can possibly be together.  The fact that I am temporary (who among us is not?) and that my tenure could be just one year does not diminish the effort or compassion or mindfulness with which I am approaching my time here.

 

Several years ago, I attended a workshop in which a colleague listed four simple truths from basic Buddhist writings in a way I had never heard them described before:

 

• Show up.
• Speak the truth.
• Do what you do with intensity.
• Don’t get attached to outcomes.

 

This way of thinking was easier and more meaningful for me at the time than to speak in the language of suffering and impermanence and it still holds true for me today.

 

• Show up.
• Speak the truth.
• Do what you do with intensity.
• Don’t get attached to outcomes.

 

As we embark on this ministry together I think these four truths are a good roadmap for you to understand my approach to ministry – and often all of life for that matter.

 

Let’s look a little deeper.  What does it mean to show up? What does it mean to be present? Fully present to another person, during a meeting, while providing worship – What does it mean to truly be in the moment?

 

 

 

 

 

For me, showing up is the building block for the rest of these truths. 

To show up is to speak the truth.  Saying the hard things – with love and compassion but with honesty - is showing up.  Speaking the truth with emotion because you are fully present, you are feeling and living and being the truth is part of showing up.  Tears tell the truth behind the words.  When you are fully present, silence is also truthful.  Often words get in the way – sometimes they are an attempt to steer us off target towards another’s agenda or into a more comfortable but less truthful place.

 

So, first show up, then speak the truth, then “Do what you do with intensity.”  Intensity can be hard or soft.  It can be loud or quiet.  The power of concentration is intense.  But, intensity must always be authentic.  You have to be present, you have to have shown up for intensity to be real and valid.

 

It is possible to try too hard.  Often trying too hard to be intense means you are trying to push something onto another, you are trying to influence rather than to simply state an observation.  Intensity coming from passion is authentic.  Coming from a desire to change another or get one’s own way can make that intensity seem forced and artificial.

 

Trying too hard can also get in the way.  Humility speaks softly, but brings with it its own kind of intensity.  Humility keeps us from becoming attached to outcomes.  Our 4^th truth - Don’t get attached to outcomes. 

 

If you are attached to outcomes, you are more connected to your own agenda than to the process.  Truth be told, if you are attached to outcomes, you really haven’t showed up.  We all do it. We spend time and energy imposing ourselves, steering the car rather than helping others navigate.

 

It is like what Robert Pirsig said in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about vacationing on a motorcycle.  On a cycle, he said, “You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.  That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, it’s right there, so blurred you can’t focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole experience, is never removed from the immediate consciousness.”

Showing up, being totally present in the moment, not thinking 3 steps, 3 days, 3 months ahead – not losing sight of the needs, the moods, the tasks today because we “know” ultimately what will be needed, what we will want, our preferred outcome.  Showing up is what I am called to do.  For me, showing up is a very large part of what ministry is all about.

 

• Show up.
• Speak the truth.
• Do what you do with intensity.
• Don’t get attached to outcomes.

 

I believe we need all these ideas to achieve the state described by David Whyte in “Working Together.”  He said, “So may we, in this life trust to those elements we have yet to see or imagine, and look for the true shape of our own self by forming it well to the great intangibles about us.”  That is part of my call to ministry and part of my ministry here, “trust to those elements we have yet to see or imagine, and look for the true shape of our own self…”

 

In the information about this morning’s service that I sent to Penny I said I’d give you some insight into my theology.  Now, I cannot reveal all there is about myself on my very first day – where would the fun be in that for me or for you?  But I will whet your appetite and hopefully spark some deeper theological conversations with this. 

 

When I was preparing to see the Ministerial Fellowship Committee (the group of Unitarian Universalist clergy and lay people with the final word on if I should have been ordained or not) I had to write an essay of my theological call to Unitarian Universalist ministry.  Here is how I began that essay.

 

“When I entered Andover Newton Theological School in the fall of 2004, I defined myself as a Humanist and fully embraced the Atheist label that many attach to that theology.  Now, more than five years later, the theological context of my call to Unitarian Universalist ministry is both clearer and less rigidly defined. 

 

 

I still feel a kinship to much of what defines a Humanist.  I continue to embrace free will, reason, ethics, and justice as essential for a moral code and I still reject the concept of a supernatural being as creator and/or protector.  But I now find that calling myself an Atheist no longer feels authentic. 

 

Although I do not believe in a supernatural being that controls what happens in the world, I am no longer comfortable with a definitive statement that nothing greater than myself, no higher power, exists.  I do feel and respond to a call from something larger than myself in the universe.”

 

In my essay, I went on to describe my affinity with much of what defines Religious Naturalism;  an approach to spirituality that does not assume the concept of a supernatural being but that is concerned about the meaning of life while being equally interested in living daily life in a rational, purposeful way. 

 

Religious Naturalism embraces mystery in a way that Humanism does not.  It acknowledges that we do not know everything, and even the unknown is wondrous.  And with Religious Naturalism comes a strong sense of interdependence with the Earth and all living things.  Like our seventh Unitarian Universalist principle, Religious Naturalism encourages us towards benevolent stewardship of the Earth.

 

The final piece of my theology I want to introduce today comes from Process Theology.  Process Theology is a form of theology that emphasizes the close relationship of humans, nature, and God.  This may feel like a big leap for an atheist to take but not once you look deeper at the concept of God from the Process Theology perspective. 

 

Process Theology contrasts with many orthodox theologies in that, rather than stressing our dependence on God, it puts forth our interdependent co-creation with God, with the divine principle, and with each other.  A Process God is not a God that is the creator of all things; rather it is a God that is present in all things.  This is a concept that expresses God as an energy that lures us toward what is good.   

 

 

 

This is a God (and by the way, I rarely actually use the word God to describe what I mean) who fits my theology since I believe that what I define as holy can be found in the experiences and interactions that humans have with one another and in relationship with the natural world. 

 

Process Theology also asserts that the unfolding present is not yet concrete, it is changeable, and we can influence it.  In Process Theology, divine energy, or the spirit of life, or God, participates in time.  God is not separate, eternal, or transcendent but is an energy, that mystery from Religious Naturalism perhaps, which lures us towards what is good.

 

I think that we have all had an experience of deep connection with another person, or perhaps during a sunset, maybe while walking in the woods or while listening to a piece of music, or looking at a work of art, when a feeling comes over us that brings goose bumps, or our emotions are so touched that tears come to our eyes. 

 

What we are experiencing in that moment is a connection to a greater whole.  What we are feeling in that moment is what Process Theology calls creative interchange.  In that creative moment, a new reality exists.  We have been changed – it may be subtle or it may be profound but change has occurred.

 

So, in a nutshell, there you have it.  It is with excitement and curiosity and an open heart and mind that I enter your community as one of your ministers on this day.  I am excited about the opportunities and possibilities before us.  I am curious to learn about all of you, who you are and what motivates you to be part of this community.  And my heart and mind is open to learning and changing and growing with and because of all of you.  I hope you will walk this journey with me.

 

Amen and Blessed Be