Are We There Yet?
Sermon Given at Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
October 13, 2013
Rev. Craig M. Nowak
Our mission is to support and promote the principles of Unitarian Universalism. By nurturing spirituality, intellectual growth, diversity of belief, and our ties to one another, we seek to inspire lives of passion, compassion and community. We do this for ourselves and for the larger world. - BUUC Mission
From 2010 to 2012 I served as intern minister at First Parish in Concord (MA). When I left, Doug, the head sexton of the church, presented me with a gift, a Daruma doll. Daruma dolls are modeled after the legendary founder of Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma. Daruma dolls are considered symbols of perseverance and good luck and are often given as gifts of encouragement. One especially interesting feature of the Daruma doll is its eyes. When it is given to someone it has no eyes, the space for the eyes are just blank white circles. The idea is that the recipient will set a goal or aspiration for him or herself. Upon setting his or her goal or aspiration, the recipient draws an eye in one of the blank circles. The doll with one eye serves as a reminder and motivator towards one’s goal. Not until one’s goal or aspiration has been achieved is the second eye to be drawn in on the doll.
A Daruma doll with a single eye drawn on it, like mine, serves as a physical reminder of a goal or aspiration to which I have committed myself. Each time I see the doll, I’m reminded of my goal or aspiration, and am prompted to ask...where am I in relation to this goal or vision I have set before me? In other words, Am I there yet?
You may have noticed that our call to worship this morning was this church’s mission statement. Contained within our mission statement is a vision. We might say it is our Daruma doll, and its presence recited or in print, a reminder of our goal or aspiration.
The vision part of the statement is the future oriented aspect...that place...that somewhere...a new way of living as spoken of in the song Somewhere Amy sung so beautifully this morning. The vision expressed within BUUC’s mission statement is this: “lives of passion, compassion, and community.” And not just for ourselves, but “for the larger world” as well. This vision serves as a kind of polestar, something we seek to move towards. It is the answer to the question, “where shall we go?” or “where do we want to be.” In other words, what does our somewhere look like?
Between here, where we are now, and somewhere, the place we want to be, the question arises, how do we get where we’re going?
Some years ago there was an article in UUWorld, our association’s magazine that explored this very question by posing another, “Who owns your congregation?” Which is to say to whom is the membership accountable? Not surprisingly in our movement, where we gather around covenant instead of creed, many people believe that it is the members who own the church...a few might consider the governing board the owner and one or two may see the minister as the person to whom the congregation is accountable.
In actuality, the members, governing board and minister are fiduciaries, defined by the Rev. Dan Hotchkiss of the Alban Institute, as “anyone whose duty is to act in faithfulness to the interest of another, even at cost or peril to him/herself.” So according to Rev. Hotchkiss, neither the members, the governing board or minister are the owners of the church. Rather it is the mission. The mission is the owner of the congregation, that to which the congregation is accountable in pursuit of its vision.
The mission articulates how we intend to get to where we’ve decided to go or where we want to be. It is the church’s GPS system, if you will....helping us stay on course as we journey toward the somewhere stated as our vision.
The mission part of our mission/vision statement answers the question, How are we going to “inspire lives of passion, compassion, and community” for “ourselves and the larger world by stating what we do as members and as a faith community… “support and promote the principles of Unitarian Universalism…nurture spirituality, intellectual growth, diversity of belief, and our ties to one another.”
The vision and mission of the church are born out of the longing that brought us together as a community in pursuit of a more integrated life, a life of unity of self and the world around us. The vision and mission of the church is our response to the false self within us and the world that speaks of separation...of “us versus them.”
The vision and mission of the church is a radical stand against the spiritual violence of the status quo, not unlike Wendell Berry’s poem which begins by confronting us with a jarring image of the norm...of who we’ve become as a society,
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
Deep down we know this image is a distortion of we want to be....who we can be....and indeed, who we really are. We know that the way of life Berry describes leads to isolation and suffering, to hopelessness and idolatrous devotion to frivolous things. The portrait Berry’s words paint is that of the soul, post mortem.
But that is not the end. For then, the poet, as if turning towards the reader, leans forward as if to share a secret. “So, friends, “ he writes, “every day do something that won't compute...”
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts...
Love the world…don’t hide from the world. Work for nothing…be generous. Take all that you have and be poor…don’t cling to impermanent things. Love someone who does not deserve it…change expectations. Laugh, laughter is immeasurable…have fun, the world in which we live is so often absurd, engage it with humor.
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts…do not let the enormity of the world’s ills discourage or dissuade the you or this congregation from its vision and mission…but joyfully accept the struggle as part of the journey and do what can be done.
And don’t worry about making mistakes....as Berry reminds us, “Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction.” Better to try and get some things wrong and maybe learn a thing or two than to never try at all.
Berry closes his poem with the simple exhortation, “Practice resurrection.”
His words direct us back to our mission, providing a means and context in which to reflect upon, clarify, and deepen our understanding the commitment we have made to ourselves and to each other. The poets words remind us that we who would not only imagine...but dare venture... towards, “a new way of living” must be willing to engage in the continual renewal of the human spirit, to gain not what we want (or know); but to learn to want something new.
Our vision and mission...here at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church...a small congregation of 80 or so people who gather in this little stone building...serves as an alternative to an understanding and way of life that demeans human dignity and threatens the very existence of only the planet upon which we and countless varieties of life can live. We are small but we are not insignificant... our vision and mission is great...it is noble...and it is necessary.
For this reason it is important we recall our mission, that we read and speak it to one another, and ask ourselves, “are we there yet?” A question not as simple as it might initially seem. For our arrival is determined not so much by reaching a fixed end point , but rather by the degree to which our mission is achieved, the degree to which we are willing to live into our vision, in other words by how well or consistently we practice what we preach, how well, in Wendell Berry’s words we, “practice resurrection.” the continued renewal of the human spirit which for us includes our intension to support and promote our UU principles… nurture spirituality, intellectual growth, diversity of belief, and our ties to one another. (the BUUC mission statement)
Our vision answers the question, where are we going? and our mission the question, how do we get there? Are we there yet? That is the question that is up to us, as individuals and as a community to answer...It is question we answer with our words and deeds...in our commitment to practice this faith knowing we will sometimes fail and other times succeed. It is a question we answer not by arriving, but by journeying, the means by which vision and mission merge and somewhere, a new way of living, is suddenly right here, right now.
Amen and Blessed Be
Sermon Given at Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
October 13, 2013
Rev. Craig M. Nowak
Our mission is to support and promote the principles of Unitarian Universalism. By nurturing spirituality, intellectual growth, diversity of belief, and our ties to one another, we seek to inspire lives of passion, compassion and community. We do this for ourselves and for the larger world. - BUUC Mission
From 2010 to 2012 I served as intern minister at First Parish in Concord (MA). When I left, Doug, the head sexton of the church, presented me with a gift, a Daruma doll. Daruma dolls are modeled after the legendary founder of Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma. Daruma dolls are considered symbols of perseverance and good luck and are often given as gifts of encouragement. One especially interesting feature of the Daruma doll is its eyes. When it is given to someone it has no eyes, the space for the eyes are just blank white circles. The idea is that the recipient will set a goal or aspiration for him or herself. Upon setting his or her goal or aspiration, the recipient draws an eye in one of the blank circles. The doll with one eye serves as a reminder and motivator towards one’s goal. Not until one’s goal or aspiration has been achieved is the second eye to be drawn in on the doll.
A Daruma doll with a single eye drawn on it, like mine, serves as a physical reminder of a goal or aspiration to which I have committed myself. Each time I see the doll, I’m reminded of my goal or aspiration, and am prompted to ask...where am I in relation to this goal or vision I have set before me? In other words, Am I there yet?
You may have noticed that our call to worship this morning was this church’s mission statement. Contained within our mission statement is a vision. We might say it is our Daruma doll, and its presence recited or in print, a reminder of our goal or aspiration.
The vision part of the statement is the future oriented aspect...that place...that somewhere...a new way of living as spoken of in the song Somewhere Amy sung so beautifully this morning. The vision expressed within BUUC’s mission statement is this: “lives of passion, compassion, and community.” And not just for ourselves, but “for the larger world” as well. This vision serves as a kind of polestar, something we seek to move towards. It is the answer to the question, “where shall we go?” or “where do we want to be.” In other words, what does our somewhere look like?
Between here, where we are now, and somewhere, the place we want to be, the question arises, how do we get where we’re going?
Some years ago there was an article in UUWorld, our association’s magazine that explored this very question by posing another, “Who owns your congregation?” Which is to say to whom is the membership accountable? Not surprisingly in our movement, where we gather around covenant instead of creed, many people believe that it is the members who own the church...a few might consider the governing board the owner and one or two may see the minister as the person to whom the congregation is accountable.
In actuality, the members, governing board and minister are fiduciaries, defined by the Rev. Dan Hotchkiss of the Alban Institute, as “anyone whose duty is to act in faithfulness to the interest of another, even at cost or peril to him/herself.” So according to Rev. Hotchkiss, neither the members, the governing board or minister are the owners of the church. Rather it is the mission. The mission is the owner of the congregation, that to which the congregation is accountable in pursuit of its vision.
The mission articulates how we intend to get to where we’ve decided to go or where we want to be. It is the church’s GPS system, if you will....helping us stay on course as we journey toward the somewhere stated as our vision.
The mission part of our mission/vision statement answers the question, How are we going to “inspire lives of passion, compassion, and community” for “ourselves and the larger world by stating what we do as members and as a faith community… “support and promote the principles of Unitarian Universalism…nurture spirituality, intellectual growth, diversity of belief, and our ties to one another.”
The vision and mission of the church are born out of the longing that brought us together as a community in pursuit of a more integrated life, a life of unity of self and the world around us. The vision and mission of the church is our response to the false self within us and the world that speaks of separation...of “us versus them.”
The vision and mission of the church is a radical stand against the spiritual violence of the status quo, not unlike Wendell Berry’s poem which begins by confronting us with a jarring image of the norm...of who we’ve become as a society,
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
Deep down we know this image is a distortion of we want to be....who we can be....and indeed, who we really are. We know that the way of life Berry describes leads to isolation and suffering, to hopelessness and idolatrous devotion to frivolous things. The portrait Berry’s words paint is that of the soul, post mortem.
But that is not the end. For then, the poet, as if turning towards the reader, leans forward as if to share a secret. “So, friends, “ he writes, “every day do something that won't compute...”
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts...
Love the world…don’t hide from the world. Work for nothing…be generous. Take all that you have and be poor…don’t cling to impermanent things. Love someone who does not deserve it…change expectations. Laugh, laughter is immeasurable…have fun, the world in which we live is so often absurd, engage it with humor.
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts…do not let the enormity of the world’s ills discourage or dissuade the you or this congregation from its vision and mission…but joyfully accept the struggle as part of the journey and do what can be done.
And don’t worry about making mistakes....as Berry reminds us, “Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction.” Better to try and get some things wrong and maybe learn a thing or two than to never try at all.
Berry closes his poem with the simple exhortation, “Practice resurrection.”
His words direct us back to our mission, providing a means and context in which to reflect upon, clarify, and deepen our understanding the commitment we have made to ourselves and to each other. The poets words remind us that we who would not only imagine...but dare venture... towards, “a new way of living” must be willing to engage in the continual renewal of the human spirit, to gain not what we want (or know); but to learn to want something new.
Our vision and mission...here at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church...a small congregation of 80 or so people who gather in this little stone building...serves as an alternative to an understanding and way of life that demeans human dignity and threatens the very existence of only the planet upon which we and countless varieties of life can live. We are small but we are not insignificant... our vision and mission is great...it is noble...and it is necessary.
For this reason it is important we recall our mission, that we read and speak it to one another, and ask ourselves, “are we there yet?” A question not as simple as it might initially seem. For our arrival is determined not so much by reaching a fixed end point , but rather by the degree to which our mission is achieved, the degree to which we are willing to live into our vision, in other words by how well or consistently we practice what we preach, how well, in Wendell Berry’s words we, “practice resurrection.” the continued renewal of the human spirit which for us includes our intension to support and promote our UU principles… nurture spirituality, intellectual growth, diversity of belief, and our ties to one another. (the BUUC mission statement)
Our vision answers the question, where are we going? and our mission the question, how do we get there? Are we there yet? That is the question that is up to us, as individuals and as a community to answer...It is question we answer with our words and deeds...in our commitment to practice this faith knowing we will sometimes fail and other times succeed. It is a question we answer not by arriving, but by journeying, the means by which vision and mission merge and somewhere, a new way of living, is suddenly right here, right now.
Amen and Blessed Be
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