Angus MacLean, the late Dean of the Theological School at St. Lawrence University from which I graduated, delighted in telling this story: "An Irish Catholic and an Englishman and my friend Sandy MacTavish were once shipwrecked, and as they clung together to a broken spar and night came on, they were driven to desperate measures. They decided to try prayer. The Irishman couldn't produce anything that didn't sound like profanity, the Episcopalian couldn't recall a single prayer, and so they both turned to Sandy, rather hopelessly I'm afraid, but Sandy at once responded, 'Let's take up a collection.'"[1]
We are not shipwrecked, we are not desperate, and we haven't yet resorted to prayer, but we have decided to take up a collection. It's called the All Church Canvass. Its theme is "We Believe, We Serve, We Do." This, then, is a sermon about Unitarian Universalist generosity. The Board of Trustees made me do this.
Recently I read an article that fell into my lap like manna from heaven. Some of you know I am a chocoholic. While my other health habits are pure as the driven snow, I admit to what I formerly perceived as weakness in maintaining my physical health. Some of you have pointed out that chocolate brings headaches, too much caffeine and excessive sugar. In the past I have acknowledged my sin, and confessed an addiction before which I am powerless.
What, then, to my eager eyes should appear, but a headline, "Study says longer life is paved with chocolate." Since then I have searched the web to confirm that happy news, and, miracle of miracles, there is cyberspace validation of what I had read. It seems chocolate produces not only pleasure, which promotes good health, but also antioxidants which strengthen the immune system. Chocolate lovers live longer. The Harvard University School of Public Health says so! Not only the consumption of chocolate, but its mere aroma is health giving, according to Associates for Research Into the Science of Enjoyment (ARISE).[2] Check it out! Key words - "chocolate" and "health."
I was filled with the spirit - this being an epiphany of no meager proportion. It was a revelation from on high! It was an experience of pure, unadulterated grace! It was expiation for my sins! It was justification for years of uncontrollable "sweet-toothery" which I added to the Seven Deadly Sins! I concluded, "There is a God, and he - she - it loves chocolate!"
And so I was intrigued by an essay from Robert Fulghum, Unitarian Universalist minister turned author, about the propensity of small children to raise money for their various exploits - Girl Scouts, soccer leagues, band trips - by going door-to-door selling chocolate candy. Not surprisingly, I'm an easy mark. I always buy.
Stimulated by all of this, I then began pondering the parallels between chocolate candy and our church - there are many. You have no doubt heard of or read the series of books on "Chicken Soup for the Soul." a compilation of uplifting stories. As a vegetarian I can't go there, and besides chocolate is my medicine of choice. And so I propose "chocolate candy for the Unitarian Universalist soul" - stories that inspire.
I encountered two such stories March 11-14 attending a conference of large Unitarian Universalist churches in San Diego - the theme - "Worthy To Be Entrusted," after a quote from 19th century Universalist minister Olympia Brown, a graduate of St. Lawrence University Theological School who was ordained in 1863.
During the Saturday morning worship service I heard a particularly poignant sermon from a ministerial colleague about trust in a church community. He spoke candidly about the serious illness of his wife, who happened to be sitting at our table, their young son with her, alternately listening to his father or placing his head on her shoulder - she putting her arm around him. That tableau itself was a moving story of the courage to be - made possible by living in a trusting community.
My colleague went on to tell the story of an older woman in his congregation, a political activist, twice a member of the State Legislature, a government administrator and a woman of some renown. She gave a canvass testimony about what the church meant to her - much as we have heard these past few weeks. However, it was not about the public role of the church, though that was certainly important to her. It was about the support the church community gave when her son and her husband died. What would we, what would any of us do, without such a community at such a time of loss?
For the past four Sundays, we have heard stories from members of our church about their joy in being a part of this religious community. We have grouped these testimonies around a particular concept of the church, all illustrating our canvass theme - "We believe, We serve, We do." They help define four discrete yet related dimensions of our life together.
Imagine if you will a circle within a circle. The center circle is worship - our communal gathering to celebrate life, to seek and share the spiritual - that which cannot be seen but sustains and inspires us. The outer circle is in three parts - one is religious education, that life-span adventure of growing a religious self; another is caring community, affirming our mutual ministry to one another in times of need; the third is moral discourse and social responsibility - our outreach to the wider community which grows out of our spiritual and material abundance.
In this model each part touches every other part. As we read in Peter L. Steinke's Healthy Congregations, our homework for the large church conference: "From atom to organism to person, the pattern that meets us in nature is that of connection and contact. In the world of living organisms, isolation is nowhere met."[3]
Patterns, connections, contacts. What is the church but a place where we form the patterns of our lives? What is the church but a locale where we connect with those who share a vision of life with us and help us realize it? What is the church but a point of contact - with the Ultimate however we name it - and with those proximate people with whom we make the religious journey? It can be lonely out there in the world. We seek to overcome the isolation with beloved community. How important is that community to you?
Our annual church canvass gives us opportunity to give tangible support to the idea that "life is all of a piece."
We heard about Sunday worship - at the very core of what we do and are as a church. We heard about sharing "everything from deep sadness to great elation during Joys and Sorrows," about the beautiful music with which we are blessed - everything from traditional church music to Miles Davis. Here we find refuge from a society of hedonism, materialism, consumerism and feverish competition. Here we experience inreach into our deepest selves.
We heard about our life-span religious education program from a young family which worships together during family services, and thoroughly enjoys this church. You may remember one comment from one of their sons who told his mother while they were walking one evening that Sundays seemed boring without church. Let's clone that young man. So may it be for you.
We heard about our Caring Community, our loyal cadre of visitors to those ill at home or in the hospital; the rites of passage celebrated inside these sheltering walls; the sense that no matter how lonely we are - here is loving community - generously shared. We know life to be full of joys and sorrows - we are caregivers one moment and receivers of care the next.
We heard about our outreach into the wider community - adults who were attracted here by our social action program and now find the whole family involved in building a playground at School 20. Their teen-age son volunteers with other youth in a Roman Catholic Church soup kitchen. We learned how all of us participate in this action for justice both personally and through our generous pledges. We Believe. We Serve. We Do.
Like "chicken soup for the soul," these "chocolate candy for the soul" stories are not abstractions - they are the realities that constitute our church community. This is not a concert and lecture series, but we do hear some of the finest music ever created, and listen to words of inspiration from the prophets and poets of humanity. This is not a philosophical debating society, though we differ and discuss and debate at the drop of an idea. This is not a social club, though here we find life-long friendships that give us pleasure and support. This is not a political headquarters, though we relish dirtying our hands to bring some love and justice to a hurting world. Where else can we find comparable experiences?
I confess there are times I wish I could invoke the prospect of damnation to encourage generous pledging or promise celestial bliss for all tithers. Unitarian Universalism just doesn't work that way. Instead I offer the philosophy of Robert Fulghum, who having found a pot of gold at the end of a literary rainbow, is generously sharing his windfall with groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters, Planned Parenthood and the Unitarian Universalist church. Fulghum writes, "I have a strong feeling, that as a human being, I owe the pot, and to the degree one can give back to it one ought to."[4] Consider our church a common pot into which we all dip from time to time.
Once a year we ask you to pledge to our common pot, to participate by your religious generosity. Comedian Flip Wilson was once asked what his religion was. He said, "I'm a Jehovah's Bystander." The person who asked him said, "You're a what?" And he said, "I'm a Jehovah's Bystander. They asked me to witness, but I didn't want to get involved." We hope you'll want to get involved.[5]
And so, when it comes to raising money for our church, going door-to-door selling chocolate candy just won't do it. We do, however, want to remind you "how sweet it is" to be a part of the First Unitarian Church of Rochester and ask you to support it. To do so we need committed Unitarian Universalists who take their church seriously - and savor the good taste of belonging. When you are asked to pledge, please think church and chocolate, and say yes - generously and sweetly.
This place does not have incense, but there is an unmistakably sweet aroma here. The taste of this community is delicious to the palate. There are spiritual antioxidants which activate an immune system that enables us to negotiate the sometimes troubled waters of living. There is pleasure to be found here, but if you are in pain and life is bitter-sweet, there is also healing for the spirit. We won't guarantee a longer life, but we can promise a more meaningful one by taking up spiritual residence in this house of worship and supporting it generously.
There is a tale from the Jewish Talmud that illustrates chocolate candy for the soul. "Time before time, when the world was young, two brothers shared a field and a mill. Each night they divided the grain they had grown together evenly. One brother lived alone, and the other had a large family. Now, the single brother thought to himself one day, 'It isn't really fair that we divide the grain evenly. I have only myself to care for, but my brother has children to feed.'
"So each night he secretly took some of his grain and put it in his brother's granary. But the married brother said to himself one day, 'It isn't fair that we divide the grain evenly - because I have children to provide for me in my old age, but my brother doesn't.'
"So he began every night to take some of his grain and put it in his brother's granary.
"Then, one night, they met each other halfway between their two houses, and they realized what had been happening. And then, what could they do but embrace each other in love? The legend is that God witnessed their meeting and proclaimed: 'This is a holy place. And here it is that my temple shall be built.' And so it was that the first temple was constructed in Jerusalem."[6]
If you simply substitute chocolate for grain, you may find this ancient legend a living reality right here - at our temple, 220 South Winton Road. "We believe. We serve. We do." That's it. Chocolate candy for the soul. Enjoy! Now, and in the years to come. Amen.
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