Spiritual Ground for World Engagement

Sermon by Rev. Alan Taylor
Preached at Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation
February 1, 2004

Reading 1:
From The Desert Is Fertile, by Dom Helder Camara

Setting out is first of all getting out of oneself. Breaking through the shell of selfishness hardening us within our own ego. To stop revolving round oneself as if we were the center of everything. …Setting out is not covering miles of land or sea, or traveling faster than the speed of sound. It is first and foremost opening ourselves to other people, trying to get to know them, going out to meet them. Opening ourselves to ideas, including those with which we disagree, this is what the good traveler should do. Happy are they who understand the words “If you disagree with me, you have something to give me.” If those who are with you always agree with you before you open your mouth they are not companions but shadows.  When disagreement is not a form of systemic blocking, when it rises from a different vision, it can only enrich us.

It is possible to travel alone. But the good traveler knows that the journey is human life and life needs company. “Companion” means the one who eats the same bread. Happy are they who feel they are always on the road and that everyone they meet is their chosen companion.. Good travelers take care of their weary companions. They guess when they lose heart. They take them as they find them, listen to them. Intelligently, gently, above all lovingly, they encourage them to go on and recover their joy in the journey. To travel for the sake of traveling is not the true journey. For the Abrahamic minorities, setting out means to get moving and help many others get moving to make the world more just and more human.

Reading 2:
Paolo Freire from Pedagogy of the Oppressed as quoted in Training for Transformation, a Handbook for Community Workers, often distributed to people volunteering in the Peace Corps

Dialogue requires an intense faith in human beings; their power to make and remake, to create and recreate; faith that the vocation to be fully human is the birthright of all people, not the privilege of an elite. Founded on love, humility and faith, dialogue becomes a horizontal relationship of mutual trust. Trust is established by dialogue; it cannot exist unless the words of both parties coincide with their actions. Nor can dialogue exist without hope. Hope is rooted in our human incompleteness, from which we move out in constant search, a search which can be carried out only in communion with other people. … Finally true dialogue cannot exist unless it involves critical thinking, thinking which sees reality as a process, in transformation, thinking which does not separate itself from action but constantly involves itself in the real struggle without fear of the risks involved.

Sermon:

In 1991, Penny Edgell Becker studied twenty-three congregations and wrote a book called Congregations in Conflict. One of the chapters is on Unity Temple, at that time called Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Park. Actually, all twenty-three congregations she studied are in Oak Park, River Forest, and Forest Park. Not one was free from conflict.

Through interviews of leaders and active volunteers, Becker offers a snapshot of the congregation’s institutional life in 1991 during an interim year. No one’s identity is revealed. And even the congregation’s is loosely concealed. But there is no mistaking the congregation she refers to as First Unitarian. She begins her account with, “The first thing I noticed about First Unitarian was the building, and the first thing I noticed about the building was that it does not look like a church. It could be a village hall, a cultural center, or a library. It is a low, square building made of concrete and framed by tall, old trees, across the street from the post office. …”

Becker identifies four different kinds of churches into which she categorizes those she studied. These four categories are house of worship, family, community, and leader congregation. The house of worship model sees the core tasks of being a congregation as worship and religious education. People come to hear the message and learn the lesson and that’s it. The family model, in addition to worship and religious education, provides close-knit and supportive relationships for members. In family churches long time members usually have the most influence. The community congregation model values worship, religious education, and fostering a sense of intimacy but with an emphasis of making the policies and programs of the congregation express the values and commitments of the members regarding social issues. Community congregations are like democracies, with more emphasis on formal and open decision-making that includes all members. Finally, the leader congregation model values worship and religious education while tending to be engaged directly with social issues. There is a shared mission to seek to change the world outside the congregation’s walls.

It wouldn’t surprise me if here among us, different people assessed us in each of the four categories; for worship is very important to us, as is intimacy as we foster through small groups and the Chalice Circle program, as is a commitment to a democratic process, as is social outreach! Becker, interestingly enough didn’t peg Unity Temple into just one of these categories as she did most of the congregations she studied but instead saw this congregation thirteen years ago to be a mix between the family model and the leader model. Indeed, in her analysis, the congregation had under the ministry of Rev. Scot Giles brought in a large number of new members who wanted a leader congregation, a congregation whose central mission was to engage with the world whereas many of the longer-timers naturally had come to value the congregation’s core as its close-knit and supportive relationships. I will come back to this later.

Just before moving to Chicago, I had a conversation with a young man who hadn’t heard of Unitarian Universalism. He was trying to understand what it is that brings us together if we don’t share a common theology. He asked me directly, so what’s the mission of your church, and I responded without hesitation, “to be engaged with the world.”  “What do you mean by that?” he asked. I replied, “To pursue truth, beauty, love and justice, to bring about change for good in ourselves and our communities. To make our world a better place to live.” He then asked, “Well, what is the basis of the change you are seeking? Think about the history of missions, how they have gone into other communities and other countries to convert people to what they believe is good. How is your religious faith any different if you are trying to change other people’s lives?”

This is a very good question. It has important theological underpinnings. European and American history of religion is full of mission projects operating on assumptions that they have the grace and good news that others do not, that their task is to bring their way of knowing the world to places where it is lacking. Cultural imperialism has often plagued the attempts of well-meaning people to engage with other peoples. Even today well-intentioned liberals often try to help others, only to cause dissension among the people who are “being helped.” If engaging the world is integral to our mission as a church, we need a theology that discourages cultural imperialism and the smugness all too common among people seeking to be helpers, whether they are liberal or conservative.

To reflect on such a question, while keeping in mind the central conflict within this congregation of thirteen years ago, I want to explore how Unitarian Universalists literally engage with the world through social missions projects in Transylvania. It may come as a surprise, but the oldest surviving Unitarian churches in the world are in Transylvania. These ethnic Hungarian congregations find themselves oppressed both religiously and economically in what is modern day Romania. Nearly fifteen years ago, Ceaucescu, the communist dictator, unveiled his plan to literally bulldoze Hungarian villages in Transylvania out of existence and move their inhabitants to housing projects in the large Romanian cities, thereby destroying their culture and influence on the region. Upon learning this, several Unitarian Universalist ministers sought to increase American awareness and build relationships to literally save the oldest Unitarian churches that are in these villages. When, Ceaucescu was overthrown and executed, the bulldozers stopped but economic deprivation and ethnic tensions actually worsened. Fortunately the seeds were planted for intercultural church relationships.

When I was a member of the First Unitarian Church of Oakland twelve years ago, I remember when funds were collected for a tractor that was sent over to their sister church, in the village of Okland. Members visited and reported back that village life comprises of subsistence farming and great poverty. Most young people leave the villages because there’s nothing there for them. These villages will likely die out unless something is done. The Oakland, California congregation raised funds to build a flour mill along with a bakery. Not only could the villagers have fresh bread on a daily basis, but a few jobs were created.

Two and a half years ago I visited Okland. I saw the flour mill and the bakery, along with the dairy that had just been built. It was surprising to learn that half the village refused to eat the bread. And no one wanted to bring their cows to the dairy, for years of Communist rule has resulted in utter skepticism of anything cooperative for so many people lost their property when collectives were forced upon them. I was lucky enough to be there at the same time as my mentor and former minister of the Oakland Church, Rob Eller-Isaacs. Rob shared with me that the process was flawed even though this project between Oakland and Okland has surpassed any other Unitarian sister church partnership. What went wrong? It was stunted from the start when the primary interaction was money funneling from one side to the other. For the Americans couldn't help but have expectations on how the money would be spent, and the Transylvanians couldn’t help relating to the Americans as anything other than a rich uncle.

Rob Eller-Isaacs is now the minister in St Paul, Minnesota. I met up with Rob and 20 members from his current congregation during their first visit to San Peter, their sister church in Transylvania. The goal of the folks from St. Paul was to spend time with the Transylvanian villagers in their daily lives, to get to know one another and their hopes and struggles, and to foster honest relationships. They refrained from immediate problem-solving or planning for economic development. Instead the goal of that first trip was simply for members of each congregation to talk together, to eat together, to play together, to worship together. The plan was simply to get to know one another, to build relationships of trust and goodwill, to understand each other as human beings.

The San Peter church has one of the few church towers that has a real clock on it. In Transylvania, most church towers have a clock painted on them, but not this one. Unfortunately, this clock hasn’t worked for 3 generations. One visitor, Brian, an engineer, joined a mechanically inclined villager and translator to address it. Over the course of the week, they drew up drawings of parts they felt were needed to fix it and gave them to the village blacksmith. The blacksmith did what he could and the cross-cultural crew returned to the clock tower and determined that they needed slightly different sized parts and returned to the blacksmith. The day before the Americans left, the clock was fixed and the church bells starting ringing for the first time in 60 years. Brian says that he was responsible for less than 20% of the work, that it was true collaboration. This is what engaging the world should be all about. Now we don’t need to travel to a distant land to engage with the world.

When we engage in social outreach, whether near or far, it behooves us to reflect on our approach to social missions. Because I don’t think we can with integrity embrace social outreach without engaging in relationship with the people with whom we seek to help. Let me put it theologically. As religious liberals we must not assume that we have a saving power which we need to take to other peoples. We must guard against being cultural or religious imperialists. Instead, I urge you to consider that our mission is to uncover and reveal the grace that waits to be revealed through relationship.

It is a tough recipe to follow to be engaged with the world, but a recipe that brings meaning and purpose and joy.

• Seek to be in relationship with people unlike yourself.
• Open yourself to dialog, welcoming disagreement rather than shirking it.
• Share of yourself while learning from the other.
• Refrain from assuming you know what the other needs, especially if you have more resources.
• Be willing to be changed by what you started.
• Remember that grace and truth and beauty are everywhere and that neither you, your religion, nor your culture have a monopoly on them.

When white liberals seek to help black or Hispanic communities, offering money and resources, often there is a “We know what’s best for you” attitude that precludes any meaningful engagement. We as religious liberals need to overcome this propensity. But there’s another propensity that we also need to overcome, which is the flip side of this equation—we need to remember that we are capable of being in relationships with people from other communities, other ethnicities, other cultures, that being present to others not changes the. It changes ourselves.

Here in Oak Park, a related controversy is brewing over the imminent takeover of West Suburban Hospital by Resurrection Healthcare. Several members here have shared with me substantial concerns. I am told that hospitals under Resurrection’s management get rid of all abortion counseling services, strongly discourage contraception, and intentionally reduce its indigent care to save money. Given West Suburban is wedged between a most socially liberal community and a community that includes many indigents, I share our members concerns about how a conservative Catholic hospital will relate genuinely with its surroundings—as it appears to be engaging the world in the way I am cautioning you not to do.

When I first came up with the title of this sermon I thought I would provide fuller answers and direction for the spiritual ground for world engagement. This task at this point in time is beyond me. We haven’t yet engaged together in social outreach. I opened this sermon with a snapshot of this congregation thirteen years ago with its identity being split between a family church providing intimacy for people and a leader church engaging in social outreach.  This ambiguity she felt was the source of most of the conflicts. Since I have arrived here in Oak Park, I have noticed some of the same tension Becker described between those who would like our congregation to be a harmonious family with those who want social outreach to be an integral part of our congregation. This is not a bad thing, it just is—and we need to creatively deal with this tension as we clarify together the questions “Who are we?” and “What do we want to do?” I agree with Becker that it is possible to serve both missions, but it takes thoughtful, intentional leadership on behalf of both the minister and the congregation’s leadership and core volunteers. It doesn’t need to be an either/or situation. It can be a both/and situation if the conflict between the two is dealt with creatively.

Over the last twelve years this congregation has had the thoughtful leadership to do just that. A large step was the call and installation of Rev. Jay Deacon, an openly gay man with experience in AIDS and HIV ministry. During his ten years as minister here, several more steps were taken: the affiliation with Rev. Clare Butterfield, a Community Minister who is the Executive Director of Faith in Place, a subsidiary of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, fostering interfaith cooperation and dialog to bring about sustainable technology; the founding of the Social Missions Council; a change in the by-laws that calls for three projects to be identified for the congregation each year; and most recently, the identification of social outreach to be a significant part of the long range plan.

The way I look at it, the central purpose of our congregation is to nourish people through worship and small groups such that they can go out into the world and help make the world a better place to live. A central purpose for our being together is to serve, to look towards what is larger than us.

In time, I hope our congregation tithes. That is, I hope that in the not too distant future ten percent of our budget is flowing out into the wider world, that we have a budgeted commitment to social missions. But even importantly, I want opportunities for us to build relationships with people who are different than us. I want people here not to simply give of their resources but to engage with other people such that members here are changed for the better. I don’t expect everyone here to be involved in our church outreach programs but it is my hope that our faith journey together leads us in our own lives, in small ways and large, to help make the world a better place to live. As we deepen in relationship, I believe we shall forge together a spiritual ground for world engagement.

May it be so.

Blessed be.

Amen.

 

© Copyright 2004 Alan C. Taylor, All Rights Reserved.