UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST

                                            CONGREGATION

A reading from Carter Heyward:²

 

Because the word love has become a catchall for sweet and happy feelings; because we have learned to believe that love stories are warm and fuzzy tales about dewy eyes and titillating embraces; because we have been taught…that love means never having to say you’re sorry; because, in short, love has been romanticized so poorly, trivialized so thoroughly…turned completely around from what it is, we find ourselves having to begin again to re-experience, re-consider, re-conceptualize what it means to say “I love you.”  What does it mean to believe that God is in the world, among us, moving with us, here and now?  What does it mean to be a lover?

…

To say I love you is to say that you are not mine, but rather your own.

 

To love you is to advocate your rights, your space, your self, and to struggle with you, rather than against you, in our learning to claim our power in the world.

 

To love you is to make love to you, and with you, whether in an exchange of glances heavy with existence, in the passing of a peace we mean, in our common work or play, in our struggle for social justice, or in the ecstasy and tenderness of intimate embrace that we believe is just and right for us – and for others in the world.

 

To love you is to be pushed by a power/God both terrifying and comforting, to touch and be touched by you.  To love you is to sing with you, cry with you, pray with you, and act with you to re-create the world.

 

To say “I love you” means – let the revolution begin!

           

 

 

Come, Come whoever you are,

wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving.

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Come even if you have broken your

vows a thousand times,

Come, come yet again.³

 

Ours is no caravan of despair

            Ours is no caravan of despair

Come, yet again, come

 

//

 

And so we do – we come just as we are

            to this caravan of no despair

We come

            We come to this church

We come to this congregation

                        We come to this community

We come with compassion to this complicated world with its challenging

Confluence of politics, and power

 

We come carrying light for those places that so badly need it

 

We come…to and on this caravan of commitment to do justice

To walk humbly,

            To love

For we are lovers…imperfect

We break vows…but are lovers nonetheless.

Lovers alive with passion

            “Passion that is the deep realization of our relation,

Of the significance of who we are together,

…and our passion as lovers is what fuels our rage at injustice…."⁴

 

We come to and on this caravan of commitment

            Ready

Ready to create, to clarify, to undo, to engage…

This is why we come.

            For comfort, for solace – yes…and for community that

Is courageous enough to speak truth to power.

 

And so we come…

 

//

 

In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Micah chapter 6 verse 8, begins:

            What does the Lord require of you...

What does the Lord…you know I had trouble with that.

I got stuck right there on “Lord” and I understand that Micah

Was located in a particular community, at a particular time

            A community displaced and searching for sense of self

A community oppressed by elite rulers

A community that had embraced monotheism and was working that out

A community steeped in patriarchy –

            I know all of that, and I still struggled.  I got to the word “Lord”

And I stopped.

 

What does the Lord…as a feminist, womanist,

Unitarian Universalist…I just got stuck…The Lord.

But the concept of God as Lord was important to the people of

Jerusalem

            And at the time of writing this text, Micah saw that

His people were suffering at the hands of corrupt rulers

He saw that the ruling elites were taking advantage of the poor,

Land was being seized, stolen

            An unjust war was being waged…leaving destruction in

Its wake…

            His own passion for justice fueled his rage as he

Prophesied:

            Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

Neither shall they learn war any more;

 

Crying out, Micah asks of his people:

            What does the Lord…who restored you

Who brought you out from Egypt, who gave you great leaders in

Aaron, Miriam and Moses…what does the Lord require…

 

And I say, reading Micah – because I had to get through this passage:

What does the Lord,

            What does Lore…tradition, history, the knowledge of those who went before

Require?

            What does Lot…fate, promise, opportunity for those yet to come require.

What does lore…

What does lot…

           

 

What does love…what does love require…what does Love require of us?

for this is the essence of Micah’s question to the people of Israel

 and it is the question for us to ask now.

What does love require of us…who come…

            Who gather?  In this time, when our voices are being stifled

By those who insist on interpreting sacred texts so that only

A few,

            The elite

                        The wealthy benefit…what does Love require of us?

 

//

 

Micah asks:

            What does Love require of us

But to do justice, and to love kindness, and to

Walk humbly…?

           

The prophet believed that fairness and equality should

Govern all social relationships

            He believed that loyalty and integrity were necessary

For fulfilling one’s social obligations responsibly

            He believed that walking humbly described a way of life

That was directly opposed to the exploitation of power…which

For Micah was the root of the corruption and injustice in his society.⁵

 

In so many ways, he could be talking about us, in this society today.

            Only there some would have us believe that the God of Micah,

Of the Hebrew Bible

            Of the New Testament supports unjust wars

Some would have us believe that those who are poor choose to live that way

Some would have us believe that not all human beings have inherent worth

Some would have us believe that torture is okay

Some…

            I could spend my time

recalling each time someone, not just someone

But this nation’s political leaders quoted biblical text,

I could recall each moment in our recent history that

Words like: faith, almighty, god, lord were used in the public arena

in conjunction with justifying war

            Used in conjunction with securing liberty and democracy

            Used in conjunction with acting in the interest of the wealthy

Or I could encourage us // – as a mass movement // of unrelenting

Unitarian Universalists to pull out our bibles

            Dust them off, spread them open and study

Study…come to a place of healing – and speak truth to power…

About what biblical text really says about sexuality

            About poverty

                        About war…

Remembering that we too, are particular people, living,

Working, striving – speaking in a particular time….

 

Ready to reclaim a tradition, language that is historically ours also

Be pluralistic yes, keep our religious and spiritual embrace wide yes,

            And to take back the language that is being used to

Justify all manner of injustices.

I want us to join with other liberal and progressive religious communities

 

I want us to turn the statistic around…so that those who attend church

Weekly are also the ones who are unwilling to justify the Iraq war and

More likely to challenge this war and any threat of war.

 

I want us to equip our young people to fully appreciate the varieties of

Religious expression, to form interfaith alliances for the work of

Transformation, and to speak clearly for the common good from a place

Of spiritual strength.

 

I want us to become a force for radical conversion…

In the tradition of the Civil Rights Movement

            Prophesy and by that I mean, articulate moral/ethical truths that

Need to be heard for social change .

 

//

 

At the Mountain Desert District meeting last weekend

            I found myself in a small group of six UUs huddled together in a circle.

Puzzling over the question:

            If Unitarian Universalism were brought to trial,

what evidence would the prosecutor offer the court

against us.

We were having enough trouble with the first question –

This one did not seem to be any easier.

            Brought to trial?

            Evidence…against us?

We cast our eyes about the room at the other small groups

Chatting away, lively, animated, engaged.

We strained our ears to catch snippets of conversation, an

Answer maybe

Silence hovered above us, begging for speech, for something

To be expressed.

            Finally, one of us said with glee:

I know! 

Our backs straightened, we perked up – an answer!

 

//

          

     The question is provocative. 

What would the prosecutor’s evidence be?

See…the first question was equally provocative…

What role does the church fulfill that could not be fulfilled

By any other organization concerned with social change,

I’m paraphrasing.

            the questions lingered, caused me to pause.

Invited me at various points, to look around the room…

just over two hundred Unitarian Universalists gathered for the weekend

Coming to connect, commit, create community…

 

What do we do as a gathered religious community

that serves a unique function in society?

 

And are we…are we doing it to the best of our ability?

Is there any evidence that we are not?

             

//

 

What we do as a religious community that serves a unique

Function is…

            We answer the question: What does Love require of us.

 

Love requires that we

come to grips with the staggering death toll in Iraq

Love requires that we

understand that entire families – with children are trying

to survive on minimum wage

            Love requires that we

Come to terms with the violence in our larger society that

Has an influence on violence in our schools –

Love requires that we

Address issues of racism, classism that we know exist in this country

Before they are uncovered by natural disasters like Katrina

Love requires that we

Hold our leaders accountable when they break the law

            Love requires that we

Keep on moving forward on marriage equality

            Love requires that we

Face this nation’s economic injustice

            Love requires that we

Speak up and out for undocumented immigrants and their families

 

Love requires that we

advocate for civil rights,

that we struggle with each other, rather than against each other.

 

Love requires that we

We be compassionate lovers in our struggle for social justice

That we be a community in this struggle, not just a committee.

 

Love requires that we sing, cry, pray, and act with each

other to re-create the world.

To be radical conversion

            To know – really know that most social transformation in

Our history

            Have religious roots. 

And we are a part of those roots.

 

Let it not be that this era of awakening is defined for us

But that we remain relevant and on the fore front of creating

A fair and equal social vision.

 

Let it be that we come into the public arena

            Bold in our willingness to reclaim language

Let it be that we come into the political arena

            Strong in our ability to articulate a moral/ethical social vision

To speak from a place of faith

Let it be that the only evidence that they would ever find against us

Is that we come…

            Insistent on moving in and on a caravan of commitment to do justice

To walk humbly and to love.

Let it be that we always hold our embrace wide…Loving…

 

Saying: I Love you…meaning

Come come whoever you are

            Meaning we will not bow down to injustice

Meaning – our commitment to Love will usher in a new social vision

 

Meaning: Let the revolution begin.