Homily: Community and Commitment
Halleluiah. Thanks and praise.
“What a gathering—(points to congregation and then to flowers)
the purple tongues of iris licking out
at spikes of lupine, the orange
crepe skirts of poppies lifting
over buttercup and daisy.
Who can be grim in the face of such abundance.”
I’m sharing words of a poem by Rev. Lynn Ungar.
Who can be grim in the face of such abundance?
“This is what community looks like—
“the vibrant jostle, stem by stem
declaring the marvelous joining…”
Halleluiah. This is what community looks like.
In this late spring, as the season turns toward summer, it is easy to get to Halleluiah. Easy to get to thanks and praise.
Or at least…its easier to get there, when we look at the beauty of these flowers and what Lynn Ungar describes as the “vibrant jostle…of their marvelous joining.”
These baskets of flowers shout abundance and suggest effortlessness.
But we know. We know that we created that abundance by bringing these flowers. That we created the appearance of effortlessness…even though the truth is that commitment was required and is required from each of us…and all of us to sustain community.
Commitment is required.
But commitment to what? What are our religious commitments in this faith without a creed? In this faith that tries to see difference as strength, not as a deficit?
What are our religious commitments in this community with our lofty aspirations and our very human practice?
What are our commitments?
Commitment to one another? Yes, that is certainly required to sustain this religious community.
Commitment to principles that ground our decision making? The inherent worth and dignity of every one of us. Each and every one a beloved child of God. The interdependent web of which we are a part, but just one part. Yes. Those commitments are important to you and to me.
Commitment to our covenant, our promises of how we will be together as we work to build Beloved Community. This community is grounded in covenant.
Many commitments to sustain community…and perhaps one more.
A commitment to a hope that love might truly be real…
To a faith that love might actually prove stronger than hate.
To listening to what calls us, however we may name that mystery…
And…And a willingness to live out of these commitments even when the world tells us that the odds aren’t good. That the trend lines are not going in our direction. Don’t open your heart. Better hunker down.
A willingness to live out of those commitments even then…even now…or at least to try and keep trying…in the face of disappointment and resistance and knowing the reality of our own shortcomings…
Religious commitments are not for the faint of heart.
Our commitments call us to hold fast to our vision of Beloved Community,
To search for the hope in our history,
To find the courage to help that arc of the universe bend toward justice, equity and compassion.
To live as if love were real…and by our living make it so.
These commitments to community are what the Flower Communion we celebrate today is all about.
This ritual grounds us in our history and in the commitments at the heart of religious faith.
Here is the story:
The Flower Communion ritual was created by Unitarian ministers, Norbert and Maja Capek.
Norbert was a Baptist minister, from what was then called Czechoslovakia, who came to the US during WWI when he worked with US Army Intelligence. After the war, he remained to pursue a PhD.
In New York he met and married his wife, Maja, also from Czechoslovakia. Maja had discovered Unitarianism and urged Norbert to convert, which he did. They became deeply committed to the liberation and the hope they found in Unitarianism.
When they returned to Prague in 1921, they founded a Unitarian congregation which still worships today.
Originally, the services they created consisted only of lectures and some music. They felt the need for some ritual to bring the people closer together and provide a sense of religious identity.
The Flower Communion is what they created. Everyone was asked to bring a flower to church. During the service each person was invited to take a different flower from the large vase where the gifts of flowers had been arranged in their beauty and diversity.
The first flower communion was celebrated in Prague in 1923. The ritual was brought, by Maja, to the US in 1940 to the First Parish in Cambridge, MA. It is now one of our most common rituals in UU churches here in the US.
When the Germans took control of Prague in 1940, the Nazi’s found Dr. Capek’s Unitarian gospel of the inherent worth and beauty of every human person to be—as Nazi court records
show—“too dangerous to the Reich [for him] to be
Allowed to live.”
Capek was arrested in 1942, sent to Dachau, where he died four months later.
At the camp, Capek’s courage in the face of torture and starvation was a source of inspiration to his fellow prisoners. He organized the flower communion service among the prisoners. Each prisoner brought what flowers they could find in the camp to the service. At the end they took with them a different flower than the one they brought, to symbolize their sense of community.
After the war, survivors testified that the Unitarian minister could not have been sent to a place where he was more needed.
Norbert Capek’s commitment to justice and freedom lives on to inspire our faith. The hope he found lives on in us.
We will use words from that original flower communion service in our ritual today.
First…
The Consecration (the blessing) of the Flowers: From Capek
Infinite Spirit of Life, we ask your blessings on these
flowers, your messengers of fellowship and love. May
they remind us, amid diversities of knowledge and
of gifts, to be one in desire and affection, and devotion
to your holy will. May they also remind us of the
value of comradship, of doing and sharing alike. May
we cherish friendship as one of your most precious
gifts. May we not let awareness of another’s talents
discourage us, or sully our relationship, but may we
realize that, whatever we can do, great or small, the
efforts of all of us are needed to do your will in this
world.
Partaking of the Communion:
It is time now for us to share in the Flower Communion.
Don’t worry if you did not bring a flower, there will be a
Blossom for each of us.
I ask that as you take your flower from the basket,
You do so quietly—reverently—with a sense of
How important it is for each of us to hold our world
And one another with gentleness, justice and love.
I ask that you select a flower—different from the
One you brought—that particularly appeals to you.
As you take your chosen flower—noting its particular
Shape and beauty—please remember to handle it
Carefully. It is a gift that someone has brought for
You. It represents that person’s unique humanity,
And therefore deserves your kindest touch. Let us
Share quietly in this Unitarian Universalist ritual of
Oneness and love.
Following the Communion
The Communion Prayer (adapted)
Again, from Capek:
In the name of Providence, which implants in the
Seed the future of the tree, and in the hearts of [all people]
the longing to live in love; in the name
Of sages and great religious leaders, who sacrificed
Their lives to hasten the coming of peace and justice—
Let us renew our resolution to be real [siblings] regardless of any kind of bar which separates
Us from one another. In this resolution may we be
Strengthened, knowing that we are one family,
That the spirit of love unites us as we strive for a more
Perfect and joyful life.
Prayer
Will you pray with me now?
Spirit of Life and of Love. Dear God.
In the presence of these flowers,
That remind us of Creation’s profound beauty:
Diverse and Unique, but related and interdependent,
These flowers which come to us as gifts
From we know not where
And which we, in turn, choose to bring to our
Shared and common altar
As gifts for one another
In their presence we turn our thoughts
to the mystery of life—
which we never understand fully
But which we glimpse in each of these flowers,
and in each of our faces,
and through relationships with neighbors
Near and far.
May they remind us of grace we have known
In days past:
Forgiveness we have been granted, and provided.
Love, unearned and shared.
Generosity, unforeseen and most sacred.
And may they inspire us now,
and in the days to come:
To live in affirmation…
To live with “yes” on our lips
As we strive to bring love and justice
To our lives and to our world.
Amen
Topics: Commitment