REMINDERS
The great 19th century theologian Soren Kierkegaard remarked that most parishioners think that God is the director of this play called “life”, that the minister is a primary actor, and that the congregation is the audience. But Kierkegaard disagreed. “No,” he said, “the congregants comprise the actors, God is the audience, and ministers are reminders of the lost lines!”
Well, that’s pretty close to how I’ve seen my ministry, these 40+ years. My primary job’s been to lift up the duties and destinies, dramatic lines if you will, that all of us tend to forget…lines that recall us to our best selves, on the path toward making Creation more beautiful and just and loving.
There’s no particular order to my reminders today, nor are they brand new, but they’re foremost on my heart. And, as always, if any of them either doesn’t fit your quest or sparks a spin-off lesson, that’s just fine. I encourage you to ride your own ruminations.
Reminder I
The older I get, the more I realize the question Who am I?, while important, isn’t as crucial as its partner: “Whose am I? In essence, the goal of the religious life isn’t to become a self-sufficient creature. Yes, I belong to myself, to be sure, but the scope of my belonging only starts there.
Our Unitarian Universalist version of religion is about belonging, in the fullest sense, to our neighbors, to the natural world, to the entirety of the cosmos. As we put it in our 7th principle: we affirm and promote “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” Note that we earthlings are neither central nor insignificant, but rather integral parts of the web. We belong to it. We belong to something longer and larger than our own egos and must never forget that.
Let me relate a poignant story to convey the depth and breadth of our belonging. It’s about the 17th century French Huguenots, a progressive Protestant sect, whose members, like those of so many other religious minorities of that time, ourselves included, were mercilessly persecuted by the established church. The Huguenots were finally pressured, those who had not already been killed, to flee France altogether. The remaining Huguenots were jammed into a tiny boat and forced to row across the choppy and treacherous channel to safety in England.
As they began to row for their lives, it became painfully clear that there were just too many people in the small craft. Unless something was done, the boat would soon swamp, and all would perish beneath the cold waves. What did the group do? Draw lots and throw the losers overboard? Set upon the defenseless sick, young, and elderly and toss them to a watery death? Decide who were the “least” productive members of the community and force them out of the boat?
I suppose they could have chosen any of those so-called “rational” courses of action. But instead, these beleaguered Huguenots did something else, something far nobler. Without wailing or whining, the people in the boat decided they would take turns, several at a time, swimming alongside the craft. For the many hours of the crossing, as swimmers tired, others would quietly, willingly take their place in the numbing waters. And thus it was that this small boat and everyone who had sought refuge in it, survived the treacherous crossing.
I’m deeply moved by this story. By a bedrock moral commitment to the welfare of all, based on their recognition that they belonged to one another…these Huguenots arrived safely on the shores of England, and since then have prospered down the centuries. I could tell similar stories of our UU heritage as well, where sisters and brothers realized that they belonged not merely to themselves alone, not merely to a chosen community, but indeed to the “Great Big Everything” as Kurt Vonnegut called it.
So, my friends, the question of who am I was answered for the Huguenots by raising the larger question whose am I? And they answered it affirmatively, because they knew they owed one another a terrible loyalty, and they willingly paid it.
So, I implore you: never begin or end a day of your Summitarian life without asking yourselves: How can we bless the world, to which we belong? It’s the most basic yet the largest of all religious questions, because it stretches us beyond our own skins.
Reminder II
I want to explore this question of “whose are we?” a bit further, since I don’t want to leave my ministry among you without declaring that Unitarian Universalism comprises not only an honorable religious alternative but a great and inspiring adventure. I simply don’t want you to ever forget your heritage, where you came from religiously. As our Bismarck, South Dakota, UU friend, Betty Mills put it:
Unitarian Universalism is a feeling of going somewhere and a constant reminder that the quality of life is all-important, that beauty is worthy of pursuit, and that the religious life is joy as much as duty. It’s simply a great adventure!
Our religion, my fellow partisans, is indeed a great adventure–not an easy one, not a secure one, not a finished one, but a high and holy one–yes, a great adventure. Why? Because we’re charged to go full bore here and now, day in and day out, without holding anything back…without waiting around for a better time or fantasized place. Unitarian Universalism entails a wild ride without being reckless or foolhardy, a daring adventure without attempting stupid things with the precious cargo on board.
I can’t speak for you, but I’m mighty proud to join the company of illustrious religious liberals who’ve gone before me on this high and holy adventure: persons like Margaret Fuller, Horace Mann, Clara Barton, Susan B. Anthony, Whitney Young, Lucy Stone and countless members of beloved memory who’ve steadfastly served our noble faith as Summitarians since 1988.
Never forget that we belong to the same tribe as Thomas Starr King, for whom the issue of slavery wasn’t a mere abstraction for a Sunday sermon. King ruined his health to free the slaves and to save the Union.
And we belong to the same tribe as Dorothea Dix, for whom the dignity of every human being wasn’t a “hot” idea for fellowship discussion. Rather Dix devoted her life to the mentally ill.
Yes, you and I belong to just that kind of free and responsible faith, replete with shameless agitators. What an honor, what a responsibility, what an adventure it is to hook up with such a magnificent outfit of freethinking mystics with hands! And, then to get to contribute our own stubborn ounces of love to the mix.
Reminder III
My third and final reminder is to live in the present but not for the present. Often when I awake in the morning, I’ll silently offer a modest prayer, something like this: “Great Spirit, thank you for the gift of another unmerited flow of 24 hours. May I remain grounded on the earth while touching the sky. May I fully employ the one body and one spirit with which I’ve been blessed. May I be reminded today that I’m not called to be Moses or Lao Tzu, but the fullest version of Tom Owen-Towle possible. O Great Spirit, that’s my humble prayer and pledge.”
I commend to you a similar kind of prayerful opening for each of your days.
And, moreover, I charge this congregation to be fully attentive to being the best current edition of Summit UU Fellowship possible on this new and glorious site rather than wondering why you can’t resemble a church down the block or why you can’t return to the days of yesteryear. For, as song writer John McCutcheon puts it: “there’s no future in how it used to be!”
So my friends, forge ahead, live up to the name of your street out front: Buena Vista, which means not merely harboring a good view, but maintaining a solid vision. Remember where there’s no vision the people perish, as the Hebrew scriptures alert us.
I challenge you to aspire to be a full-service Fellowship with a balanced commitment to personal development, social justice, and spiritual depth. With a vital music program that touches the inner realms of the soul and a religious exploration program that transforms the souls of our younger companions. And I challenge you to find creative ways to use your real estate to welcome those who need a place to meet.
And as you grow, be brave enough to knock down the walls to my left and expand your sanctuary or do something equally bold and daring. And I challenge you always to remember that you exist not for yourselves alone but for the world as well, starting right here in Santee.
Vision is what we have when we see a better way to do what has, for too long, been done another way. Vision is what makes life better for every sister and brother, plant and animal…move by move by move.
As Buena Vistans, may your vision be good, may your vision create tomorrows of which each of you can be proud as Unitarian Universalists. Every night may you go to sleep with a heart, sufficiently serene and content, knowing that, individually and institutionally, you’re doing your fair-share to heal this patch of the globe.
A seeker searched for years to know the secret of achievement and success in human life. One night in a dream a sage appeared bearing the answer to the secret. The sage said simply: “Stretch out your hand and reach what you can.” “No, it can’t be that simple,” the seeker said. And the age said softly: “You’re right, you’re right. It is something harder. It’s this: stretch out your hand and reach what you cannot.”
For nothing of worth we ever start is actually reached or finished–certainly that’s the case with shared ministry. So, my colleagues, we start and stay the road, but we never complete the journey. We do our just and joyful share, then we surrender tasks and bonds. As Andre Gide wrote: “Great art is never completed only surrendered.” Same with ministry.
We steward congregations, then when we move away or die; we pass them on to others. Along with Brother Buddha, I affirm that all things are impermanent, all things are imperfect, all things are incomplete. Yet having said that, I still do my darnednest to bring as much to fruition as possible during my allotment of days and nights.
So, my friends, you’re not going to fully create the Beloved Community here in Santee, but that’s your aspiration, that’s your goal, that’s the direction in which you’re pointed, that’s you vision, that’s what will bring you abundant life, personally and spiritually. That’s why you exist on Cottonwood and Buena Vista. To move ever closer toward your vision of creating and sustaining a Beloved Community, here in East County.
I close with a humorous anecdote. You know the brilliant TV news analyst Tom Brokaw who recently retired. Well, he was wandering around Bloomingdales in New York one day, shortly after he was promoted to co-host on the Today show. At the time, that show was a pinnacle of sorts for Brokaw, after years of work, first in Omaha, then for NBC in Lost Angeles and Washington, D.C. And Brokaw was feeling “pumped” about himself.
He noticed a man watching him closely. The guy kept staring at Brokaw and finally, when upon approaching, Brokaw was sure he was about to reap the first fruits of being a New York television celebrity. Well, the man pointed his finger and said, “Tom Brokaw, right?” “Right,” said Brokaw. “You used to do the morning news on KMTV in Omaha, right?” “That’s right,” said, Brokaw, getting set for the accolades to follow. “I knew it the minute I spotted you,” the fellow said. Then he paused and added, “So, whatever happened to you?”
Well, years from now, one of you will likely run into me and sort of recognize me and ponder whatever happened to that interim Summit had back in 2005-2007, a guy, by the name of something like Owen-Towle? Isn’t that the truth? We do our best, but it’s never quite as fancy or famous as we might have envisioned.
But this I know to be true: our shared ministry these two years, short as it’s been, has been a most wonderful, inspiring adventure, certainly for me, hopefully for you as well. In my wildest imagination, I never would have predicted this: all these bright, colorful, glorious creations streaming from our yoked souls!
And I want you to know that, despite distance and time and role, I won’t forget what and who we’ve been together. You’ve been an absolute blessing to my ministry, my family, and my life. We’re knit together as strands of the Summit tapestry, now and forever.
And, my friends, since we won’t be leaving the area, I hope you’ll invite us back for your 25th anniversary, so Carolyn and I might occupy a couple seats in the back of this room or, God knows, wherever you might be in 2013.
I believe so deeply in your grander mission, in your larger hope, in your bigger vision, and I’ll always remain your spiritual buddy, cheering you on. You’re inside me, and I’m inside you…forever, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
For all that we’ve been together…thank you, thank you, thank you. For all that lies ahead for Summit Unitarian Universalist Fellowship: yes, yes, yes!
Tom Owen-Towle
July 1, 2007
