We just heard the choir sing words from Rev. Gretchen Haley:
You are loved in this moment: safe, whole, and loved.
You belong here, upon this earth.
However tired or broken, angry or afraid,
You are loved, and you are not alone.
This is one of the necessities of life, isn’t it? To feel loved enough, and whole enough, that you can be present here, to this life; can be open to what comes, trusting that you have what you need for the living of these days.
I'm so grateful to Aiden for preaching last week, and for his inspiration of this month’s theme, of the four loves. I'm grateful to Aiden for his great sermon, in which he unpacked these four kinds of love: affection, friendship, romance, and charity or agape. And I'm grateful to Aiden for preaching so I could go on vacation!
A couple of months ago I was in the car with some retired ministers, heading to Boston for the board meeting of an organization we serve. I was in the backseat, as was Brad, and we were talking about church, of course. And he said, “It seems every sermon I hear lately ends up talking about love; saying that, whatever the problem is, love is the answer. That if we have more love, and act with love, and stand on the side of love, then things will be OK. But I want and need preachers to give me something more tangible than that!”
At some point in my second year of seminary, I stumbled upon a book entitled “The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Intrigued, I grabbed it off the shelf, wondering if it was some kind of Chicken Soup for the Soul-esque collection, and if so, how it ended up in the seminary library. Opening it up to the introduction, I was struck by the epigraph on the first page, which was this dialogue:
And don’t some people fall in love with their heart’s desire,
Marry, and live reasonably happy lives?
Some. For a while. Maybe. I can’t say.
Don’t you believe in love?
Yes, but the word has been polluted. Beware of people who go
Around talking about loving and caring.
Homily given by the Rev. Ed Frost for the commissioning of Chaplain Joshua Goulet to the community ministry of spiritual care.
That hymn we just sang is based on words from the book of the prophet Isaiah:
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?” (Isaiah 55:1-2a)
Do you ever stop and wonder, “Does it matter? In my life, am I making a difference” I certainly wonder. And I imagine you do too.
And it’s a good thing to think about. Because if you keep coming back with “No,” or “I don’t think so,” then it may be time to make some changes. Because you do hope to make a difference while you’re here, don’t you? A note of caution: our culture, with its tendency toward individualism and hero worship, can make you think that if you don’t do something really big, then you’re not doing anything.
Many years ago, my mom gave me this book: Stride Toward Freedom, Martin Luther King’s first book. It tells the story of King’s first pastorate, at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, in Montgomery. Alabama. He and his new wife Coretta had been living in Boston, and King had job offers in the north, both teaching and pastoral positions, where Coretta could develop her singing career. They liked living where there was no legalized segregation. But, he wrote, “We agreed that, in spite of the disadvantages and inevitable sacrifices, our greatest service could be rendered in our native South. We came to the conclusion that we had something of a moral obligation to return—at least for a few years.”
I have so been looking forward to this day. To return home to you, for that is how I see this. For in the two years that I served as your Intern Minister, I believe we cultivated, together, a shared sense of home and soul and belonging against the backdrop of the pandemic and complete social upheaval. What a time that was…
On this blessed night, when the overriding expectation is joy, can we also acknowledge that, some years, Christmas is hard? If you’re young, the waiting can be hard; as a child told me this morning, “I’m trying to not be naughty.” And tonight, waiting for the moment when the talking stops and the lights are turned down and you get to hold your lit candle, and we sing. We’re almost there!
Last Sunday, before the service, Clare observed that the places in our living nativity pageant—Nazareth, Bethlehem, the region known as the Holy Land, is the same place that’s racked with violence and suffering and death in these days. Did any of you find yourself thinking of this just now, as we just sang, “O Little Town of Bethlehem?”
Universalist Unitarian Church of Haverhill
15 Kenoza Avenue, Haverhill, MA • 978-372-5173 • office@uuhaverhill.org
Mailing & office address: 16 Ashland Street, Haverhill, MA 01830
The land now called Haverhill sits on the original homelands of the Pennacook and Pentucket Nations, Algonquian-speaking peoples of the Wabanaki Confederacy.
