Sermon given by Sophia Lyons, October 13, 2019

A few years ago I had to go in for a minor surgical procedure that required anesthesia.  I had never been put under before and I was, understandably, nervous.  The nurses were doing an excellent job of keeping conversation light and helping to distract me and things were now getting ready to roll.  The anesthesiologist entered the room.  She was a nice woman, mostly all business.  Said very little.  Got straight to her work.  When she asked if I had any concerns or questions just before she was going to administer the drugs, I expressed that I was nervous and had never been through this before.  She attempted to quell some of this concern, as the nurses had done, by asking me some more innocuous questions…”So, what do you do for work?” Now, many ministers will tell you that this question often feels like a tough one and never seems to come at the right moment.  You see, one can never gauge with any kind of accuracy what the response is going to be here.  And then there’s the Athenian task of trying to explain what Unitarian Universalism is…sometimes while on the move, or over the din of dinner party noise. 

So here I am, laying on a hospital bed, with a gauze cap on my head…”So, what do you do for work?”  Me: “I’m in seminary right now.  I’m on the ordination path towards Unitarian Universalist ministry…(Silence)…Do you know what that is?”  She is now sitting by the bed, and is loading drugs into a syringe.  She stops and scrunches up her face, looking up at the ceiling…”Oh ya!  I know what that is!!  That’s that church that believes anything they want!  OK!  Take a deep breath Sophia, You’re going to take a nice little nap…”  As the room went black I remember thinking…”noooooooo, noooooooo………”

This is not the first time I have heard this one.  You believe whatever you want.  It’s an easy default in the face of not being bound to any one creed or doctrine.  Being free to believe in a myriad of religious expressions–and encouraged to develop our own personal theologies in and out of them. A free faith is radical, isn’t it?  And radical ideas can often be reduced to easy defaults.  I get it.  This gets even more complicated because with this technicolor free promise and practice, we must also embrace the myriad ways in which we all express and enact it.  Often they conflict terribly, right?  What brings one person alive can simultaneously make another feel small. This isn’t just contained to theologies.  It happens in justice work as well.  Another’s experience in our world can often challenge our own.  Anti-racism work is just one example of how difficult–how painful–this can be.  And our faith calls us to this work; calls us towards radical tolerance and love, because we believe in the principles that bind us to its center.  And this center can hold.  

This is what I wished I could have said to that anesthesiologist by the way…

In the Fall 2019 UU World issue, our UUA President, The Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray wrote a piece called, “The Cup is what Holds the Light.”  In this piece she reflected on our most recent General Assembly in Spokane, whose theme of “The Power of We,” was most stunningly imagined when, at the final service of the week, the culminating moment, we sang, “We Shall Be Known.” We sang this as every marginalized person in attendance made their way up to the stage. Hundreds of people up there, arm in arm, tears streaming down their faces as we sang this song as if to say  to them We see you.  We love you. Just as you are.  And they sang it right back to us.  SING: “It is time now, and what a time to be alive, in this great turning we shall learn to lead in love.  In this great turning we shall learn to lead in love.”

Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray tells a story in this same article about the brokenness we all carry, the way in which we are all grappling with building a center that can hold, as holding the potential for great and imperfect beauty…she says that, “What we are signing up to do as UUs is no easy task: to follow the liberating and inclusive principles and spirit of our tradition to build up community with a marginless center, a cup to nurture a love that acts as a force for justice within our lives, our congregations, and our movement as a whole…It is this transformative love that makes the future for Unitarian Universalism irresistible.”  Transformative love is irresistible.  Who among us doesn’t want a bit of this?  I see you, I love you.  Just as you are.  

You have most likely heard of our new Small Group Ministry offering which we are calling by a new name: Chalice Circles.  While the essence of these circles will be the same: we will come together for a series of gatherings that allow for deep sharing and the exploration of a meaningful topic, we are adding a component to the circle that holds to the spiritual practice of transformative, radical love.  Deep Listening.  Deep Listening.

We will covenant together to hold a space that each of us can share deeply in, while those listening will practice being fully present to the person sharing.  To gently and lovingly put ourselves aside–our judgements, thoughts, opinions, impending responses, and simply open up the space in our hearts and minds so as to wholly encounter another person.  We will practice opening ourselves, ventilating ourselves, so that we might offer radical witness. And we will practice that here. Practice this, not perfect it, but practice it.  

We are so smart.  This congregation holds so much wisdom, so many gifts to offer the world.  This is a beautiful thing.  A needed thing.  

But we also must learn how to share space.  Our faith calls us to this.  One of the great gifts we can give the world is our cracked-open, listening hearts….even when it is hard.  Especially when it is hard.  And we must practice this.  Listen, it’s one thing to encounter someone in this world who is begging for our help and are ever grateful for anything we are willing to give.  It’s another thing to encounter someone whose political leanings, theological leanings, vision for how we understand racism, patriarchal systems, immigration, and on and on…radically challenge our own.  It often can drudge up physical anxiety, a geyser of frustration, defensiveness…a knee-jerk need to convince, argue, bend another’s mind.  Yes?  Transformative love, radical love, the vision of a shared world or a free faith isn’t a ‘kind-coupon’ we choose to impart to those who we deem deserving. I would venture to say that it’s those who most challenge us that need our love the most.  And we need to be practiced in giving it.

And so, we gather together here, in this center that can hold it all, and we get to work on this.  And one way to do this is in Chalice Circles.  Which is an apt name.  We light this chalice for worship, right? We light this chalice for board meetings, staff meetings, maybe even some of your committee meetings…Why?  Because this flame is a beacon to guide us and remind us of what we are here for.  A light in the dark.  A symbol of the worth and dignity of every human being, every living thing in this beautiful shared world, of God, Spirit, Love.  But this isn’t the only symbol here.  It’s a combination of two symbols: the flame and the chalice.  The chalice.  The cup that holds the light.  The cup is a symbol of care and sustenance.  Something to quench our thirst, and nourish us.  It is this religious community, this center, it is us.  We are the cup, the chalice.  We tend the flame.  As Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray says, “The cup is what holds the light…”  Promising to love one another, to see one another, to hear one another.  Even when it’s hard.  This is what kindles the flame.  And listen, hear this, the cup is also what can break.  Rev. Susan so beautifully tells us that: “It’s easy to hold up a light and declare that everyone is welcome.  It is harder to build a place where everyone is truly at home.” 

The words of poet Naomi Shihab-Nye in her beautiful piece Gate A4 come to mind: this is the world I want to live in.  The shared world.  This is the church I want to live in.  The one that says, there is room for all of this.  There is room for everyone.  And we are doing our best.  We are practicing, not perfecting.  And, this church, this cup that holds the light, US, God, the Source, the ground beneath us, this center can indeed hold.  

I hope you will sign up for a Chalice Circle, I hope you come just as you are and practice the sacred, transformative gift of Deep Listening.  I hope you can gather around our cup of light and say, I see you.  I hope you will also ask us to see you.  

Let’s listen to Naomi Shihab-Nye’s words again: “…And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate— once the crying of confusion stopped— seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies…This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.”

May it be so Dear Ones.  May it be so.