|
|
|
|
|
|
On Not Selling Candles
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CONGREGATION OF THE SOUTH JERSEY SHORE Order of Service July 21, 2002
Sounding of the BellWelcome
Prelude
Chalice Lighting: #418 (adapted) Come into the circle of love and justice.
Come
into the community of mercy, holiness and health.
Come
and you shall know peace and joy. (Israel Zwangwill, adapted)
Come,
let us worship together.
Children’s Story
Children’s Recessional
Joys and Concerns Morning Offering
Responsive Reading: #568 - Connections are Made Slowly Meditation/Response
Hymn #113 - “Where is Our Holy Church?” On Not Selling Candles - Jonathan Black A
congregation has a ministry
What?
What
brings you here and what keeps you here - but what is here and why is here?
Here
is not: But-------------------:
A
hospital healing
A
school learning
and teaching
A
cathedral preaching
and precessing; deep silence and
melodic praise
A
train station arrivals
and departures; journeys begin and
end here.
Here
is not: But-------------------:
A
concert hall singing
and performing
A
service station filling
and emptying
A
factory work
A
public utility to service your individual needs.
Here
is a congregation, a church:
Conrad
Wright, writing of church (including churches, fellowships, synagogues, mosques,
anywhere groups of people gather in worship):
“A
covenanted body of religiously concerned men and women.”
Let’s
work backwards through his definition:
Men
and women: not the faithful; not the elect, not predestined, not anointed, but just people - each with
inherent worth and dignity
Concerned:
not baptized, not saved, not bar mitzvahed, not confirmed, not ordained but
merely thoughtful,
alert, searching for truth and meaning.
Religiously:
not concerned about work or about jobs or about money but about matters of the
spirit and the higher life of humans and the human community.
Covenanted:
not shackled by blind adherence to creed but bound together by principled agreement
in intentional community.
A
church is not the building or the property or the investments or the staff or
even the programs - but the people, the intentional community.
Community:
As
old as mankind - when the first mated pair opened the circle around the fire to include aunts and uncles,
grandparents, orphans, widows and the traveler, community began. Community--->clan--->
tribe--->village--->canton--->
And
when the first people looked up at the moon
and
wondered where they came from and how it all began
or were terrified by lightening and wondered what would
befall them and when it would end,
and,
then, in spiritual need, turned to their companions,
community
began congregation.
We
are a community, and a community becomes a congregation when, in Wright’s words, it is religiously concerned.
What
happens here?
* We
help each other to find and get what we need; what is missing from our lives.
* We
raise up our children in love, and compassion and with moral intuition, as we wish we had been raised ourselves.
* We
each call and are recalled to our better selves; to consider matters of the
spirit and of the human condition
and of human destiny which we ignore
in
the day to day hustle and bustle.
A
congregation has a minister.
What?
I
look at a congregation and assume a ministry; others look at a congregation and
assume a minister.
What
does a minister do?
The
Story - Not sell candles
In the UU movement, where none can claim a special relationship to the holy, where there are not divine sacraments to be administer and the congregation is self-governed, not given into the care of a religious leader, where does a minister get authority and how does it come? From the congregation and it is earned and re-earned
and re-earned
The idea of shared ministry
We often minister to ourselves through ministering to
others – and that’s too great gift not to be shared.
A bit of UU theology:
*
We are fiercely congregational
Our
Universalist forbearers even denied the existence of a larger church; an
association by asserting that every church was the universalist church in whole.
*
We reserve the right to call forth ministers from our midst and ordain them to
our service.
So what does a minister do:
Work?
(The JAP Joke)
*
A spiritual leader
*
A source of cohesion
*
A coach
*
A pastoral care giver
BUT NONE OF THESE ARE UNIQUE – they are roles,
not people!
Worth remembering:
There
was a time, before the advent of scientific medicine, when the minister or
rabbi or priest was THE educated person in the community. In my community of 25000, now, 60% hold
bachelors degrees and there are more than 700 PhDs.
So, what does it take to make a church; a
congregation, an intentional community of religiously concerned people?
The Two Box Church:
The
recipe for a UU church:
Take: Ten adults who agree
that for the next year, they will meet and worship as a church, devote an
regular annual pledge to that activity and each attend at least three out of
every four weeks.
Add
two boxes:
In the first box,
place 25 copies of Singing the
Living Tradition
In the second box:
A hand bell, a chime and a
small drum
A chalice, lamp oil and a
box of matches
A membership book
A whiteboard and markers
A basket for offerings
A ledger for accounts
A portable CD player
A copybook for minutes
A reference library;
perhaps 10 volumes such as, in no particular order: the UUA Congregational
Handbook, Robinson: The Unitarians and The Universalists, Sophia
Lyon Fahs, From Long Ago and Many Lands, a Bible, a Koran, a Talmud,
Seaburg: Great Occasions, Roberts & Amidon: Earth Prayers,
Buehrens & Forrest: A Chosen Faith.
And lastly, a list of important and useful telephone
numbers, email address and URLs.
Leaven with, pulpit
supply, a minister to lead worship and preach one day a month.
At
the end of a year, the cake is done: there is either a church or there isn’t
one.
But
if there is one, then:
*
You will each know who you are
*
You will each know what brings you here and what keeps you here
*
You will each know what you bring and what you take away
*
You will each understand the value of shared ministry
*
You will each truly know what this place is
And, it is my hope, that you will have come to think of this place as a trading post on the edge of the wilderness: from here we will together go out into the undiscovered country of the future. Blessed
be.
Congregational response Hymn #298 - “Wake Now My Senses” AnnouncementsClosing Words: Bertrand Russell “The good life is one inspired by
love and guided by knowledge”
|
