Living and Giving for Community"

Sermon

Today is a most amazing day. In terms of public worship, it is the birthday of this congregation. On this first Sunday in May one year ago you held your first worship service. At a time when many Unitarian Universalist congregations, particularly those in Florida, were moving into a slower summer mode of operation, you shifted into high gear. By the time you opened your doors on the first Sunday in May, 1997, you had put in endless hours canvassing your tiny band of visionaries. Their gifts were sufficient to lease this space, make application to the Unitarian Universalist Association for new congregation support, and hire Terry Duncan as you quarter-time Director of Religious Education. Throughout the summer more and more people joined you at worship and for religious education classes. In the Fall you discovered you had been accepted into the UUA's new congregation program, and celebrated your Charter Sunday. In December I visited your congregation so we could see if we would be a match as minister and congregation. Your affirmative vote sealed my appointment by the UUA.

At their most recent meeting the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Association accepted this congregation into the association. Today I can say for the first time from this pulpit, "Community Unitarian Universalist Church is a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association."

It has taken all of you - members and friends of this congregation and especially the person newest to our movement, who just heard about Community Church and Unitarian Universalism to get to this point.

I had occasion to be at Halifax Hospital the other day. As I drove up to the main entrance I noticed a very young couple with a brand new baby. They looked so young, and the baby looked so tiny, that I had a profound awareness of how vulnerable the three of them were. Yet, at the same time, I sensed something else in their body language as they were waiting for their ride to pick them up - a willingness to learn what it is to be a family. It is the same quality I have sensed here in this congregation-a willingness to learn to be a spiritual community.

Today we celebrate this community, and we commit ourselves to its future by being willing to give it what it needs to flourish. Dr. John E. Glass, a Dallas sociologist compiled a list of 10 qualities a flourishing community needs. Since we are currently having our first ever canvass for pledges as a church, it seems a good time to look at how these qualities relate to our pledging.

The first quality of a flourishing community is commitment. You remember the old joke where the cow, the hen and the pig are talking about their commitment to the human race and its nourishment. The hen says, "I lay an eggs almost every day just so that humans can eat the fruit of my body for their breakfast." The cow says, "That's nothing. Every single day, twice a day I give milk from my udder that humans can have milk for all their meals to grow strong bones and healthy teeth." The pig says, "That's nothing. I give my body for bacon and ham and other tender animal protein morsels to be eaten throughout the day and on feast days. Now that's a commitment!"

Our commitment is that we will consciously participate in the process of forming and sustaining this community. We will pay attention to what is needed to sustain this community. Those who have studied the needs of this community and measured the potential for giving within this congregation suggest we give at least 3% of our gross annual income, depending on the amount of our income and how far our income has to stretch. Some Community Church families have already pledged five or six percent. So when we are canvassed, we need to ask ourselves what we are willing to commit to this congregation that it may flourish in the year ahead.

A second quality of a flourishing community is honor and respect for others. Indeed, our first principle calls us to honor the inherent worth and dignity of every individual. At canvass time, I am inclined to interpret this challenge this way: if I am to honor and respect the sacrificial giving of another, then I must give at that level myself. My partner, Patricia shared during Joys and Concerns that she has been accepted as a student in the Computer Science program at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. She begins classes in September. We all know that ERAU is a private school. Therefore, I could rescind my commitment to pledge 5% of my salary plus housing package in the coming year, because of tuition demands on our family income. However, because of our commitment to this congregation, we are affirming our 5% pledge out of honor and respect for others who are making similar sacrifices to support this community that it may flourish.

At the same time, I am also called, as are all those in this community, to honor and respect whatever gifts are given, no matter the size of the gift. Honor and respect means that we recognize everybody is doing the best they can at all times, given the circumstances of their lives.

The third need a community has if it is to flourish is a sense of safety. In matters of money I can imagine at least four concerns: responsibility, accountability, confidentiality, and acceptance. For any of us to make a gift we need to know that our money will be used wisely, in accordance with the goals we have helped to form. We need to know that the board will provide oversight to see that funds are used as they were allocated and make financial reports available to us. Unless we give permission otherwise, we need to know that the amounts of our gifts will remain confidential within the small circle of people who need to know for management purposes. Finally, we need to know that those who know the size of our gifts accept that our contributions are generous given our circumstances.

As your minister, let me tell you that Community Church is living up to these standards. The budget you adopted at the inception of this congregation does guide our present spending; and the budget you adopt on May 31st, after all the pledges are in will guide spending in the next fiscal year. Your treasurer makes regular reports to the Finance Committee and to the Board, forecasting future shortfalls and surpluses. Only a handful of people have any idea the amount of your pledge. It is our hope that you will feel safe in making whatever commitment you feel moved to make.

The fourth element a community needs to flourish is breathing room for its members to learn and grow, sometimes through their mistakes. As expertly as this canvass is being run, it is not THE perfect canvass. As generously as each of you have already pledged or will pledge to support this community, the bottom line will not give us everything we want. We will have to make choices, and not all of our choices will be the right ones. When we become aware of decisions we wish we had not made, may we give ourselves breathing room to learn and grow so that we don't make the same mistakes twice.

A fifth essential for community is trust. Have you ever gone on a trust walk? That's where you allow yourself to be blindfolded so that another person can lead you on a walk. During the walk your guide offers you different tactile sensations - the drip of water over your hand, the prickle of a leaf on your cheek, the stickiness of a spider's web on your arm, all kinds of different surfaces to walk on - grass, gravel, dirt, and mud; the warmth of the sun in an open space or the chill of the shadows in a forest grove.

I can remember an unusual trust walk my children took me on. It was Christmas time. They had bought my present, but rather than wrap it, they walked me blindfolded from the kitchen to the living room and then had me guess what my present was with only spoken clues. I couldn't touch it. I was told it was brown and had moving parts. Knowing what their budget was, I guessed various low end items; a clock or a game were two of my guesses. None of these were right, and finally they let me take off my blindfold and look at my gift - a hamster! Now, never in my born days did I expect to receive a hamster for Christmas. I was not equipped to own a hamster. I had to go out and buy a cage and one of those squeaky little wheels for it to run on and bedding and food and dishes to put food and water in and little plastic tunnels for it to run through. About $20 later we had the hamster settled into her home.

Being part of a family is like being part of a community and trust often takes us amazing places. Just as I had no idea that I would receive a hamster as a gift, I'm sure many of you have no idea what gifts this community has in store for you - some of them, I'm sure, just as amazing and unexpected as a hamster. You may make your pledge with the assumption that you will receive one thing, only to discover at the end of the year that you've received another thing altogether. Hera the hamster was a big surprise to me, but not a disappointment. During her short life we all, my children and I, learned many lessons, not the least of which was how to bury a dear pet when she died unexpectedly.

For this community to flourish it needs your trust, not just in what is expected, but in what is not expected.

A sixth necessity for community is nourishment. Your monetary gifts nourish this congregation. They furnish the means by which we provide programs and a place to worship, share and learn. These programs, in turn, nourish each of us - they give us what we need to live and grow spiritually. They promote and sustain our spiritual growth.

Perhaps the most important gift we have to give to each other is spiritual nourishment. Sitting in isolation by ourselves we are as hampered in our spiritual nourishment as the people in our children's story who were starving in hell with yard-long chop sticks and no thought of feeding each other. Here, in community, we are as blessed in our spiritual nourishment as the people who were flourishing in heaven using their yard-long chop sticks to feed each other.

The seventh quality a community must have to flourish is love for and of the community. Dr. Glass, who compiled this list of ten qualities a flourishing community needs, has this to say about love for and of community: "Love for the community manifests in rigorous acceptance of all other members, love of the community manifests as rigorous gratitude for being a member."

I love his use of the word "rigorous." It implies exertion, as in "I just had a rigorous workout at the gym." It also implies effort, as in "After several rigorous attempts, the baby finally pulled himself upright on his own two feet."

In our love for community we can be rigorous in our living and giving - our annual pledge requiring some effort on our parts to fulfill. In our love of community we can be rigorous in our gratitude that such a spiritual community exists right here in South Volusia County - close enough to make the drive comfortable, diverse enough to make each of us feel welcome, large enough to support an excellent religious education program for all ages, concerned enough to be creating a significant social justice program, inclusive enough to welcome all who wish to serve in our shared ministry, visionary enough to plan for a permanent home while maintaining adequate and attractive religious education, meeting, and worship space. This truly is a community worth loving, an inclusive religious community for all ages.

The eighth quality a flourishing community needs is risk. It is one thing to sit around in a group and talk about starting a new congregation. It is another thing entirely to take steps to start one. It is one thing to sit at home talking about how nice it would be to have a place to worship where one is free to discover one's own spiritual path. It is another thing entirely to gather oneself and, possibly, one's family and go to church. It is one thing to look at one's monthly expenditures and write a check for whatever is left over to support one's spiritual community. It is another thing entirely to make a significant pledge and each week or month or quarter (however often you make pledge payments) to write that check first, before any others.

I learned how to be a percentage giver from Ed Baseheart. Ed was a salesman. His income was unpredictable, and, truth be known, not much more than what he needed for basics. However, Ed came out of a tradition that asked all members to make contributions of 10% or more to their church. I was treasurer of our congregation that year. Each month I would get a check from Ed - one month there'd be a check for $44.70, the next month one for $55.41, and the third month one for $379.22, a good month for Ed and a good month for the church. As anyone who is self-supporting knows, it's hard to carry on from month to month when your income is unpredictable, yet when he received his commissions the first check Ed always wrote was for 10% of what he received, payable to the church. He risked sharing generously, so that the congregation's financial risk would be minimized. "Risk," says Dr. Glass, "is the embodiment of trust."

No community exists without conflict. The ninth element a flourishing congregation needs is the ability to anticipate, acknowledge, and process conflicts constructively. Many of you helped to create this congregation. You know the conflicts you weathered to get to this point, not the least of which was how much money it would cost to get here.

History and current experience tell us that a full-service congregation cannot thrive with fewer than 250 members. It takes that many members to meet the diverse needs of those seeking spiritual community today. It used to be that people related to their churches as they did the old general store, or Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery. If the general store, or Ralph's or the church did not have it you did not need it anyway. Now, as we move into the 21st century, we live in the world of the mall and specialty shops. A spiritual community, in addition to Sunday morning worship, religious education, and care for infants and toddlers, is asked to meet other spiritual and social needs. I've heard requests for a singles group, a parenting group, and more voices in the choir; a games group, a meditation group, and a book group; a CUUPS group, an after-church outdoor group, and an artists' support group. We can meet these needs as we have the members, the staff, and the facilities to support them.

Figuring out our priorities and timing, however, will mean navigating through the seas of conflict. As we sail through the straits of struggle and round the cape of confusion, we will get to know each other better and strengthen our relationships. We will learn communication and conflict resolution skills. We will embody our values. Money is the resource we have chosen as a culture to represent our values. Therefore any conversation we have about money is a conversation about values. Let us remember that as we make our decisions.

Finally, number ten: a community that stays together laughs together. It is part of human nature to be playful, creative, and spontaneous. Let us have fun together as we meet our fiscal obligations.

Let's see if I can demonstrate. Raising money isn't easy, but already we have more than $57,000 already pledged to the church. Wanting to keep all the pledge statements safe and sound, Lee Dary stuffed them all into his wallet and put his wallet in his back pocket. On his way to a canvass committee meeting, someone invited Lee to go fishing. Now Lee was feeling so good about how the canvass was doing, he decided a spot of fishing would be a great way to celebrate. They would be out for just a little while, and Julie could run the meeting. So he called Julie on his friend's cell phone and let her know his plans.

When Lee and his friend got out on the water, Lee accidentally dropped his wallet, stuffed with all the pledge records, into the water. Before it could sink, however, a large carp swam up, grabbed the wallet in its mouth, and soon started a game passing the wallet back and forth with the other fish. Lee was terribly upset - all the pledge records were in his wallet. He wanted his wallet back. His friend the fisherman, on the other hand, was amazed. You see, he had never seen carp-to-carp walleting before.

I want to end my sermon by thanking Lee Dary for being such a good sport and both Lee and Julie Dary for their leadership in our current canvass. Please join me in thanking them.

Community Unitarian Universalist Church will flourish because of our commitment, our honor and respect for each other and all gifts, the safety we provide here, the breathing room we give one another as we learn, our trust in each other, the spiritual nourishment we receive here, our love for and of this community, our willingness to risk, our anticipation and acknowledgment of potential conflict and the joy, creativity, and spontaneity with which we engage one another.

Let's sing the hymn "Come Build a Church." The words and music are on an insert in your bulletin.