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November 02, 2004
OPEN DOORS, OPEN HEARTS, OPEN MINDS
OPEN DOORS, OPEN HEARTS, OPEN MINDS
October 10, 2004
I want to welcome you once again to this very special day in the life of HARBOR UU CONGREGATION. Today we begin the celebration of our 50th year as a liberal religious presence in Muskegon.
50 years ago this month, the Reverend Monroe Husbands came to Muskegon and called together a small band of religious liberals. They began to meet together to see if they wished to establish a Unitarian Fellowship here on the Western Shore. They were young then and many had children. They were looking for a faith community in which they could educate their children. They were looking for a worship experience that reflected their beliefs and values. They decided to begin a Unitarian Fellowship.
We have only one person with us who was part of that very first meeting. Ruth Berlow and her husband were present and active from the very beginning. Ruth, would you please stand?
However, very shortly afterward, Lucile Mason and her husband Keith, Unitarians from birth, read a notice in the paper and decided to check out the group. They visited and joined the fledgling congregation. Lucile, would you please stand?
The small group gathered a few more and then a few more people to their meetings at the YWCA. By spring they applied for membership in the American Unitarian Association. In April of 1955 that membership was granted. This April 24th we will complete our celebration. We invite you to return to enjoy that special day also.
During these 50 years this congregation has kept their doors open for all people whose faith is liberal. They have opened their hearts to all who come here, and extended that caring to the community and the larger world. And, because we believe that Revelation is not closed, their minds are ever open to new ideas. 50 years of Open Doors, Open Hearts, and Open Minds, here in West Michigan.
When Lucile and Keith Mason came to their first meeting of the group that would become the Unitarian Fellowship of Muskegon, they drove to the YWCA downtown. They marched up to the door of the meeting room, and Keith knocked. The door was opened by Nate Berlow, who invited them in. Keith hesitated, and then asked, "If I were a black man, would you invite me in?" "Yes, of course," answered Nate. And Keith and Lucile joined the group.
The doors of this congregation have always been open to all who profess a liberal religious faith. Our congregation welcomes all those who enter our doors whatever their race or ethnicity, their gender preference, their economic level, their sex, their age, or their ability to climb stairs. We open our doors to traditional families and non-traditional families. We invite in single parents and grandparents. The faces in our pews reflect many ethnicities.
We honor the ancient Hebrew tradition of hospitality, and we honor Jesus of Nazareth who invited tax collectors to his table. For those who seek a liberal religion, our doors are always open.
We not only welcome all who come seeking, but we also honor their differences. Unitarian Universalists were among the first churches to racially integrate. The first Universalist church in America had an African American man on its initial list of members. Unitarians were in the forefront of the Civil Rights struggle, some losing their lives for that cause. We welcome all races and ethnicities.
Norm Naylor, a Unitarian minister serving a Canadian church officiated at the first gay "marriage" in the late 1950s. Many Unitarian and Universalist ministers followed his lead in the ensuing decades, and by 1974 the General Assembly, our annual nationwide gathering of members, was calling for an end to discrimi-nation against homosexuals. In 1984 the General Assembly affirmed and en-couraged UU ministers who lead services of union for gay and lesbian couples. And, as we gather today, the Marriage Equality Caravan is touring the country with two straight UU ministers on board. In addition to performing weddings in localities that are trying to pass restrictive legislation, they held a memorial service in Laramie, Wyoming on the sixth anniversary of Matthew Shepherd's death. We honor the diversity of people who enter our open doors.
We also value the aspirations, talents and dedication of all our people.
In our larger association, the gifts of women in ministry have been recognized, honored and valued for many years. Slightly over 50% of Unitarian Universalist ministers are now female. We rejected Paul's admonition that women should be silent in church over 100 years ago. And women lay leaders are prominent in our circles also. This congregation reflects the reality of our larger association.
Mark Morrison-Reed, whose words were read just a few minutes ago, is an extremely talented African-American minister who shares the pulpit of the First UU Church in Toronto with his (white) Canadian wife. And out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians serve in our pulpits and our leadership positions. We value the gifts of all our people. We welcome all through our open doors, honor their diversity, and value their gifts.
In 1976 this country celebrated their 200th anniversary. And in 1976 this congregation decided to throw a birthday party in the city. They commissioned a huge birthday cake and planned a party in Hackley Park on July 4th. After fun and games and an appearance by Charles Hackley, participants adjourned to the Muskegon Mall (of blessed memory) to partake of a multi-tiered birthday cake. When I look at the pictures of this event I see many, many people smiling and licking their fingers. I have never been able to count exactly how many tiers were in that impressive cake.
This congregation opened their hearts to the community on that significant anniversary and gifted them with a celebration to remember. I think it must have been a healing gesture in a country and community still divided over the Vietnam War. Open hearts are a characteristic of Harbor UU Congregation.
When I first visited this congregation the people told me that they were a people who cared for each other. In the ensuing years I learned that this was true. We have a designated group, named the Caring Ministry, who organize support for people who are ill or in pain. However, most members join in visiting sick friends, providing transportation and comforting their grief-stricken faith companions.
Their open hearts are not restricted to this congregation, however. For several years we have joined with Temple B'nai Israel and the Christian Scientists to serve a meal at Supper House. On the third Friday of the month we gather this interfaith crew to serve hungry people. Thanks to the efforts of Anne English Rapoport we buy the meal with the proceeds from the sale of bagels and bread that Goodgrains Bakery donates. If anyone doubts that we have hungry, home-less people here in West Michigan, I invite you to join us at 4:00 p.m. on the third Friday of the month.
Hearts that are open to the needs of our community led us to join with the Islamic Study Center to support E. Grace Loftis school in Muskegon Heights. Nancy Stier helped organize volunteers to tutor and mentor children. Jean Scarbrough helped organize their library. Barb Conn inspired us to collect money to refur-bish their playground. And all of us donated for that cause.
But our open hearts led us even further to an international project. Our children's Religious Education Department is supporting the education of Bikram Rai, a young Nepalese boy. It was again Nancy Stier who connected us with the organization that answers the need for education in this poor section of the world. The children however, led in the projects that raised money for Bikram Rai. Our child-ren are learning that open hearts are part of our identity. They are learning to care for people whom they may never meet.
In the children's story today, I told the story of Maria Mitchell. Maria asked many questions about many things as a child. When she was an adult she asked questions about religion that few people asked in the middle of the 19th Century. She asked, "How do we know God exists? Is all of the Bible true?" And she asked the really big question, "Why are we here?"
When she talked with William Ellery Channing, the great minister who defined Unitarianism in 1819, he "woke up her mind" by saying that not all questions have definitive answers. Certainty about the big questions is not possible. Later Unitarian leaders came to the understanding that Revelation is not sealed.
We have, from our inception, used our minds to reason about religion.
When the leading graduates of Harvard Divinity School traveled to Germany to study with the best scholars of the early 19th Century, they learned to read the Bible in a different way. They learned a new technique of study called Historical Critical Biblical Criticism. This technique allowed scholars to study the Bible as a piece of literature, placing it in the history of its authors and the context of their culture.
When they did so they began to question many of the assumptions of Calvinism. They used their reason to define a new and different kind of religion. They saw God as loving and merciful, rather than judgmental. They understood Jesus as a divinely inspired human rather than part of the godhead. They believed the Bible was inspired by God, but written by humans, fallible by nature. Their open minds quested for more information, for more revelation.
Succeeding generations of Unitarians and Universalists found truths in other cultures and other faiths. They did not claim an exclusive path to The Divine. Rather, they honored the paths of other sincere religionists, while remaining devout members of their own congregations.
Today, some people of this congregation find their center in Jesus, in Humanism, in Judaism, in Buddhism, and in Earth Centered religions. We honor all these paths, for we believe that revelation is not sealed, and truth is available in many forms. Other people are still seeking, still questing for more information.
Our faith communities are unafraid of science. We do not find a conflict between the facts revealed about our natural world by science, and the mythic truths that inspire us. We teach our children about the wonder of the natural world and the glory of the cosmos, and we draw inspiration from them. We teach them the parables of Jesus and the great exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. We teach them about World Religions, and what they have in common with us, and how they differ. We teach them to have open minds.
In our congregations we encourage every person to ask the same kinds of questions that Maria Mitchell asked. We encourage people to seek the answers that give meaning to their lives, and recognize that others will find different answers to the questions. Each person uses his or her mind to explore the questions, and find the answers.
Earl Morse Wilbur, the famous Unitarian historian, said that Unitarians actually do believe in a trinity. He named that trinity as freedom, reason and tolerance. This trinity may well be the subject of a later sermon. For today, let me lift up that reason, or the use of the mind, is part of our DNA. It is critical to our identity. You do not check your mind at the door when you enter this church.
You are encouraged to use your mind to engage in reflection on the sermon, or discussion in the classes we offer, or in conversation at the coffee hour. Revelation is not sealed, nor is inspiration located in only the minister.
The story of this congregation continues today, and will continue into the future. Our doors are still open. Our welcome this morning reflects our community. We really do welcome all into our midst.
Our hearts are also open. We include in our care not only the members of this congregation and faith, but also the people of this community and the larger world. We will carry this care forward into the future.
And our minds are open to new revelations and new truths. As astronomers continue to explore more distant spaces and times, we anticipate what they will learn about our far distant past, and the future that awaits space travelers. What will they learn about how our cosmos began? Will they learn anything about our ultimate end? And then we must apply this to the study of that penultimate question--Why am I here?
We will be here, wrestling with the questions, finding possible answers. We will be here with open doors and open hearts, looking for the open minds that wish to join us.
Today we celebrate 50 years of engaging questions of ultimacy. We look forward to the next 50.
Amen.
Blessed Be.
Shalom.
Saalat.
Posted by nanak at November 2, 2004 01:28 PM