2018.10.21 Something Greater from the Difference

2018.10.21      Persistence: “Something Greater from the Difference”      Rev. Laura Bogle

Celebrating 10 years since the charter of Foothills UU Fellowship

How many of you were present or involved in this congregation ten years ago when this congregation was chartered as an official congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association?

Why do I ask that question?  First, to give some love to those of you who worked so hard to bring a dream to life, and have persisted with it to this day.  And secondly, to look around and see all the many more people we have touched and included since then.   I know each one of you could name at least one other person who was here ten years ago and is no longer with us, or just not with us this morning!

None of us, including me, has the full story of who we are and how we came to be.  Each one of us has our own experience intersecting with the collective story.

We might even have differing opinions about what anniversary to celebrate.  Do we celebrate when the Blount County satellite ministry of TVUUC first started in 2006?  Do we celebrate the anniversary of the charter of this congregation 10 years ago on October 19th, 2008?

Do we celebrate the 70^th anniversary next year of when Lon Ray Call came to East TN and helped plant the seeds of TVUUC and Oak Ridge, the congregations which then helped spawn Westside UU Church and our own congregation? 

And why not look even further back to remember the efforts to start Unitarian and Universalist congregations in East TN in the 1800s.  So different from us today – think about that little Universalist church in Harriman in the late 1800’s founded as part of the temperance movement there!—and yet, part of our collective history.

Those churches that were started in the 1800s didn’t survive in their particular form, but I wonder what ripples of Love and Freedom were sent out from those gatherings that continue to touch us today in ways we may never know?

The charge from the ancestors we read earlier (you can read it here)  helps me put the years of this congregation in perspective.  Ten years is such a short time really, when seen in the larger flow of our history.

And yet, a lot can happen in ten years, a lot *has* happened in ten years.  Children of this congregation have grown up and moved off to adulthood.  Babies have been born and are growing held by many hands.  We have worshipped in several different locations, each move bringing different gifts and challenges.  Leaders have contributed their gifts to shape this congregation and in turn been shaped themselves.  Lots and lots of work by many hands.  Some people have come and some have gone.  Members have died and been memorialized and remembered—I especially want to lift up Laura Post, Rosemary Gilson and Ed Mucha who left legacy gifts to this congregation.  And three weeks ago the installation of your first called minister. Life flows on.

Think for a moment about what will happen in the next 10 years.  How old will you be in 10 years?  If you have children in your life whether you are a parent or grandparent or aunt or uncle or teacher or friend to children – how old will they be in 10 years?

And now I want you to think about 50 years beyond that.  Think 70 years out from 2008.

Which ones of us will still be here?  What are your hopes and dreams for the world of 2078?  (I want to acknowledge that I am asking this question in the context of a recent very sobering report by the Inter- governmental Panel on Climate Change.  It is heavy on my heart, and I will be preaching more about that this year.) 

There are days I get bogged down in the minutiae of the day-to-day of life, sometimes in the minutiae of the administrative tasks of keeping an organization going. 

It is good and life-giving to remember why we are here, what is the point of this particular faith community?

Why do so many of us give so much to continually create and sustain it?

Last June I asked a version of this question at our Leadership Retreat “What is the core reason for being of our congregation?” and the top three answers, in order, were:

--Community—valuing and fostering deep relationships that foster on service to one another

--Social transformation—pursuing justice and beauty in the world through the creation of networks for good

--Purpose-finding—clarifying, articulating and acting on one’s personal mission in life

These categories come from a series of reports called “How We Gather” that looks deeply at today’s religious landscape, and looking at trends especially for faith communities on the liberal side of the spectrum.  Other options were personal transformation, creativity, and accountability—all of those are present with us as well. 

You may find yourself gravitating to one or the other of those answers as your reason for coming here.

Community, social transformation, and purpose-finding are great reasons for a Unitarian Universalist congregation to exist.  Those categories might even drive some of our decisions and planning about what we will and won’t do over the next few years.

But, here’s the thing –

--There are other places to find and build community that are not congregations—I have heard testimonials from some of you about the real community you have found at CrossFit or your kids’ school or your neighborhood.

--There are plenty of places to participate in social transformation – and many of you participate in them!—nonprofits doing good work here, and of course political organizations

--There are endless books and coaches and classes that will help you find and articulate your purpose in life.

So why come here for any of that?  Why come here for community, social transformation or purpose-finding?  I want you to think about that for yourself, and I’d love to hear from you.  

Here’s a brief version of what I think:  I think it is because we as a community of faith also offer a connection to Something More that transcends our individual lifetimes, and our individual needs.

I don’t quite mean just a spiritual experience – after all many of us could just go hiking on Sunday morning and have a spiritual experience.

I say sometimes that we are a gathering of memory and hope.

By that I mean to say that we are a place that pauses to remember ourselves and our place on this earth, to remember those who have gone before and those still to come, to remember that we are part of a living tradition that provides wisdom, challenge and sustenance.

And we gather in hope. Not easy optimism, but we gather to be hope, to be hope for one another.  To work at embodying our best ideals so that we can live into a world of Love and Justice for all.  We gather trusting that when we each bring our gifts to the table everyone can be fed, abundantly.

THIS is the something greater that can only be seen and experienced when we place ourselves in the broad sweep of history, remember how insignificant we are, and are willing to give significantly of ourselves anyway, trusting that something greater will arise from the differences between us.

Our congregation is about community, and it is connected to social transformation, it can help us find our purpose, and we often have spiritual experiences along the way. And then there’s what happens that is greater than the sum of the parts.  Some of us might called that God or Spirit of Life.  You can just call it Something More if you want.

The poet Alberto Rios says--

“You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.
Together we are simple green. You gave me

What you did not have, and I gave you
What I had to give—together, we made

Something greater from the difference.”

We gather not just to connect with the Spirit of Life, with Something More, but to participate in it.

This is why it matters that you are here and that we are here together.

To connect back to the minutiae of running a congregation – this is also why it matters that you volunteer on Sunday morning, or serve in a leadership role, or give generously of your financial resources.  Like the animals in our story this morning, when we all show up with what we have, open handed and open hearted – wow!  Something More happens!

I want you to know that the leadership of this congregation is working hard not just to sustain us but on making sure we are growing and staying relevant and energized for the future. 

If you are not already part of that, there are lots of opportunities.  If you aren’t already pledging financial support to this congregation, you don’t have to wait until next spring to do so. This year’s budget plans to draw several thousand dollars from our savings, and I bet we won’t have to do that if folks who aren’t pledging give a contribution, or perhaps those of you who are pledging decide to give more. 

If you aren’t sure where your gifts could best contribute in leadership, set up a time to talk with me or with a member of the Leadership Development Team.  If you’d love to be a part of building community here through Sunday morning hospitality or organizing social connecting events or being part of our caring team, talk to Sherry Brewer or other members of the Congregational Growth and Development Team and sign up!

The Board has identified a couple of priorities for their own work based on the Long Range Plan. 

They have already created a charge for a Facilities Team, that would be a research group gathering information and thinking creatively about options for future facilities.  Some of you are going to get an invitation from me to join that Team this week. If any of you are interested, let me know.

And the Board is leading us towards our next imaginings of how we engage, together, in the work of service and justice in our community. What is the gift we collectively have to give to our community during this particular time?  How do we live that out?

Here’s what I’m really excited about!  How might the Facilities Conversation and the Community Outreach conversation intersect?  How else do we want to serve our community, and what facilities will enable us to do it??

We need your participation in all of this, not just to run an institution but because we touch Something More when there are more of us contributing.

Today let us celebrate 10 years—and let us also remember and acknowledge our place in the larger flow of history—12 years and 70 years and 100 years.

What ripples of Love and Freedom are sent out from these gatherings that will continue to touch the future in ways we may never know?

You are part of the answer to that question.

I’m grateful to be part of this place of memory and hope with you—where we celebrate the joys, we welcome new life, we create community, we hold each other through the sorrows, we find our purpose, we give our gifts, we transform this corner of the world, we memorialize each other when we die, we leave a legacy for the future.

May it be so.

AMEN.