“Wherever there is a meeting that summons us to our better selves,
Wherever our lostness is found,
Our fragments are reunited,
Our wounds begin healing,
Our spines stiffen
And our muscles grow strong for the task…
There is ministry.”
We do not know who wrote those words but I have gone back to them again and again since I accepted the call to this pulpit 12 years ago. And they are very present to me as my ministry here draws to a close.
Those words speak to wholeness and healing, to the truth that each of us and all of us feel lost at times and to the truth that…here…in this sanctuary…we can be found …”our lostness found and fragments reunited”
That we can be found and find a way forward…
That we can finally be free…
As religious people, our commitment to science makes us leery of most miracle claims…but I have to tell you that it is a miraculous thing that we expect in this sanctuary week after week:
To find some truth and the strength of spirit to keep on keepin’ on.
To be encouraged and inspired to live the love we talk about.
A miraculous thing we expert and so often find here in this sanctuary.
I’ve preached over 400 sermons from this pulpit…prayers and blessings beyond counting…
What more…possibly…could I have to preach to you that I have not preached already?
You’ve heard me speak of the Beloved Community…not to pat this community on its back…but to remind us all of where our hope resides and of the commitment required to live the way we truly want to live.
You’ve heard me ask you to believe…just as I ask myself to believe…that love just might be stronger than hate and able to overcome fear…that love might…in the end…win.
You’ve often heard me revisit history…retell our collective story…to acknowledge structures of privilege and oppression which thrive on remaining unseen.
And to call us…individually and collectively…to confession and repentance and repair…
There have been calls to action issued from this pulpit…but also calls to prayer. Though thoughts and prayers cannot be our only response to the violence of the world, as religious people prayer must be part of our response.
You’ve heard me…over and over…caste a vision of inclusive community, in which our differences are blessings and where power is unleased by our pluralism. A vision of a community in which the voices of those most pressed down are the most held up. A vision of community worthy of being called Beloved.
If you haven’t taken in those messages…in these last 12 years…well, its probably too late for that now.
But there are just a few thoughts I want to leave you with…a last word or two I want to preach to you…
First, though it is not my role to judge the ministry we have done…I do want to say that we have done good…even remarkable ministry together.
When the next version of the history of this congregation is written…and my ministry is considered…the engagement with race will probably he named as its central theme…that and the language of Beloved Community…which are not unrelated.
But I hope that you will also remember the maturing of lay ministry and the deepening of our faith development programming; the shift in our justice work from a privileged place to partnership with other justice-seekers, especially front line communities; the wider offering of our sexuality education offerings; the introduction of Family Worship; expanding musical vocabularies in worship and the beginnings of the spirit moving within us and among us in more embodied ways…can I get an amen?
The point I am making is that the ministry of this congregation is done by so many persons. By the staff, certainly, the ministers and program staff, the tech support and building maintenance and administrative staff. The excellence of the staff has grown I do believe…from the high level I found when I arrived…
So the staff, yes, but also all the volunteers…the teachers…and ushers…the greeters…those who care for the grounds…the justice leaders…so many…and all those who show up for the marches and hearings and acts of public witness…
And those who volunteer in the office and the Bookstore and serve on the Board and Nominating Committee, the Ministerial Search Committee, the Foundation Board…the Public Health Team, the Real Estate Task Force, the RE Committee, the Music Council…
I could go on…but I hope you hear my point. WE have shared this ministry…WE have done this ministry together.
This time for me is an ending. And there is a new ministry beginning. And it is important to recognize and celebrate these transitions…honoring transitions in our lives is a central part of what the church does: from dedicating ourselves to our children, to memorializing our elders…graduations, marriages…beginnings of ministries and endings of ministries. We celebrate transitions.
I want you to know that I feel a “rightness” in this ending. You have heard my version of the Good News for 12 years. It is time for you to hear that Good News spoken in another voice, drawing on different life experiences…
This is time for a fresh view that can open new possibilities and frame new answers to the religious questions that abide.
But it is also so important to recognize the on-going-ness of this great church. More than 150 years of history gather with us in this sanctuary…and the hope for many more years of ministry to come…that also is present here.
This is a community of both memory and hope…
All ministers know…and I hope you can understand…that every ministry is an interim ministry. And every ministry is a temporary assignment.
We serve for a time and are privileged to do so.
Ministers influence the ministry of the churches we serve…of course. But he ministry of this church is not defined, at least not only defined, by its ministers.
The ministry of this great church relies on the ministries of literally hundreds of congregants and dozens of staff members as well as the called ministers. To describe this ministry as shared ministry is both true and such an understatement.
There is an old saying that great ministers create great congregations but that it is great congregations that create great ministers.
After 12 years here…I know that to be true.
There is another thing I need to share in this last sermon. The world that we have lived through…the world in which we have ministered…has been challenging from the day I was called.
I arrived in the midst of what we call the Great Recession, following the financial collapse that began in 2008. Layoffs and furloughs were happening all around. We managed to survive without either.
We ministered through The Occupy Movement that insisted that income inequality and greed were tearing the fabric of this nation apart. We managed to survive as an economically diverse religious community, not perfectly diverse, but still…
We saw both gentrification and houselessness…two sides of the same coin…come to characterize progressive Portland.
The Movement for Black Lives and the continuing violence against black and brown bodies finally called this community to action…over 150 days of protest…with resolution still not visible on the horizon.
We saw the introduction of technology into the life of the church. Streaming worship, the screens…so appreciated now…so controversial when we installed them…
Then Covid…which led to my extending my ministry here…which has tested us all and leaves so many questions about so many things as we regather…
Covid…which super charged changes in our world that we are only beginning to understand.
Now War in Ukraine. And the pressing truth of gun violence.
Our ministry has taken place in the midst of challenges every year I have been here.
But it has been the rise of an all too successful nativist movement that is the most troubling…
Make America Great Again…attempts to turn back what little democracy we have managed to create…
We are having to…give up what we now can name as a naïve belief in a confident future of progress toward Beloved Community…abroad and here at home.
The spiritual challenge of these days is truly great.
Preachers are taught to bring the Good News to the people, to point the congregation toward hope so that they can navigate troubled times…
But I have to tell you that it has been getting harder and harder to preach…in the last 4-5 years…especially this year…
It is hard to preach the Good News when there is so little Good News in the world.
Twelve years ago, when I arrived, I described myself as the most experienced new parish minister on the planet. This church, First Unitarian, was my first parish ministry. But I brought much experience in leading the church and I hoped to leave First Unitarian stronger than I found it, vibrant and confident and growing in spirit and in witness.
And in many ways, this church is in much better condition…financially and spiritually…than it was when I was called…
But the universe is not cooperating with my wish. The challenges facing this congregation and congregations in general and people of goodwill everywhere…the challenges before the church are great…and the responses the church will make could not be more important.
So, I did not manage to wrap my ministry up with a bow…it will be the on-going-ness of this church and a strength that will allow it to adapt and change that will see you through. This is in your range…I’ve seen that capacity here…
This is in your range.
But, just as was the case when I arrived, I leave you in challenging times.
And one last thought…I promise…just one more.
Twelve years ago, during my candidating week,
I remember being asked why…why after such a successful ministry as President of the UUA…why I was called to serve a single congregation…
And I responded by saying how gratifying it had been to serve at the UUA…and how much I thought we had accomplished during my presidency…
But that my calling to ministry was a calling to serve one church…to preach to folks whose stories I know…to dedicate particular children…to memorialize particular elders as they transitioned…
I was called to the ministry of intimacy…where I could be welcomed into your lives…
That was the ministry to which I was called. So many years ago. And I remember joking that my 17 years at the UUA were just a detour on the path to that ministry.
And I remember telling you that being called to First Unitarian was the fulfillment of my calling…the fulfillment, the purpose for which I said yes to the insistent voice that all ministers hear that asks them to follow and to find ways to live in the service of love.
I have learned so much here. And grown so much here. I have been so fortunate to work with so many talented and committed staff and volunteers. I have been so deeply blessed by the opportunity you have given me to minister among you.
So the one last thing I want to say to you before I go…the one thing that I want you to know if you know nothing else for certain…
I want you all to know how deeply grateful I am to you for allowing me to be your minister.
So grateful…
My thanks come from a place so deep in me that it must be the place in me where Spirit lives…
The poet Amanda Gorman writes:
All we have is time, is now.
Time takes us on.
How we are moved says everything
About what we are to each other
& what are we to each other
If not everything.
Bless you…as you have blessed me.
And…thank you.
Amen.
Topics: Endings and Beginnings