Last Sunday (6/15) was a whirlwind.  What a great occasion!  We celebrated.  We ate.  We witnessed some magic.  We made some magic happen.  

I know, I know... sounds like any other Sunday, right?  ;-)

Seriously, the occasion was a big deal, both in what was celebrated and how it all came together.  I want to personally thank everyone who had a role in it.... from planning the event or pitching in the day of... from singing to speaking to helping with hospitality.  I'm also grateful for the excellent teams I get to work with every day -- staff teams, volunteers, Trustees current and past, and so many more -- who truly make this a shared ministry.

You likely heard that phrase a few times on Sunday: shared ministry.  Shared ministry is a really important idea in our tradition.  We're a bit like a spiritual co-op, you see.  It was Martin Luther (Lutheran) who during the Reformation described the priesthood of all believers -- i.e., that it wasn't only the role of clergy (but of everyone!) to wrestle with religious ideas.  The Transcendentalists, especially, blew the lid off of American religion by rooting authority in the individual conscience. It was James Luther Adams (Unitarian) (four hundered years after Luther) who added the prophethood of all believers -- i.e., that it was not only our ideas but our deepest commitments that mattered, and that we all have a role in making those commitments real in community.  "By their groups you shall know them," he wrote (playfully retinterpreting Jesus' famous words: "By their fruits you shall know them").  Another way to put this is to say that how free people organize themselves around big ideas and deep commitments really matters.  That's how you can tell if a people are walking their talk: how they come together.

A few years ago, some of us read together The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, by Priya Parker.  So much in our world had changed about how we were able to meet (given health restrictions, etc.) that we wanted to not take for granted how and why we did what we did.  

You may have heard some on Sunday -- celebrating our work together these past 13 years -- that I was able to "fix the budget."  I want to clarify this a bit, especially for new folks.  I do have a business background before I became a minister, which is helpful... but I did not "fix" the budget.  You did.  I helped.  More specifically, I helped the congregation to talk about money differently... which, in turn, fixed not only the budget but (more importantly) our relationship to it.  It was a group effort, and it -- when it was all said and done -- it was more about people than it was about numbers.

Much of my role as minister is to facilitate deep dialog.  This is as true when I am meeting with couples who wish to be married, or with grieving families who wish to remember a loved one.  This is true when I work with worship leaders, moving beyond mere presentation or performance into something deeper, something transformative.  This is true when I work with our minstry teams -- whether religious education or the arts, social justice or hospitality.  Some who were active in our community theater work years ago will remember when I asked bluntly: "Is this ministry?"  I wasn't saying it wasn't ministry; rather, I was asking the somewhat pushy, clarifying question of how that work together connected with our deepest shared values and ideas.  

This is the work of discernment.  I believe that discernment is sacred work, almost always.  Discernment helps people and institutions connect their lives and their energies with the things that matter most.  Discernment doesn't just happen once; it happens again and again over a lifetime.  In fact, those who we identify as spiritual leaders seem to exhibit a near-constant practice of discernment.  Discernment is just part of who they are.

One of my teachers was Rev. Rob Eller-Isaacs.  He was my intership supervisor, and he was a leader in our tradition in many ways for many years.  Some of you may remember him from when he visited us in Springfield to offer the sermon at my ordination.  Whenever I hear "governance" in congregational circles, I think of him... because he believed (as I do) that governance is how we UU's make real our deepest commitments in institutional form.  I want to share with you a video (~5 min.) that Rob made during the pandemic for his congregation.  (It is special for me to watch and hear this from him.  Rob died in 2022; his wife and co-minister Janne died not even two years later.)

A few important takeways:

  • Promise-making matters!  We don't talk much these days about our promises -- promises to ourselves, to one another, to the world -- but we should!  The promises we make matter, especially during uncertain times.  Governance is a framework for these promises.
  • Governance is not about efficiency (2:20).  Governance is about relationship, connection, covenant.  Governance is less about doing things right (i.e., following rules) and more about doing the right things (i.e., discernment).
  • It is tempting to resolve our sense of urgency (3:55) -- to address our existential anxiety even -- by always doing more, by keeping busy.  Openness and ease of manner are other possiblities.  Discernment and practice can help us find & keep balance.

This video is dated now, coming to us from the onset of COVID and its restrictions... but even from then this message still speaks.  After all, so much is made today about freedom (our theme for June); individual freedom has become a lens for everything these days.  The lens offered here presents an alternative: to consider the promises we make, and how we give those promises shape in our lives.  We are asked to discern, to be in dialog, to pick up ancient ideas like the priesthood and prophethood of all believers and to make them real again today, individually and in community.

The history of this congregation is a story of 200+ years of discernment and dialog, and promise-making.  It is a rich history, a challenging history.  It implores us today to think, to discern, to act.  Even more, it reminds us that it matters not only what we do but how we do it.  How we gather matters.

I didn't "fix" the budget any more than I could ever hope to "fix" a person, or a family.  Fixing is very rarely my role.  My call, rather, is to serve a shared ministry that focuses dialog and attention in the right places, and on the right things.  A couple that fights all the time about socks on the floor isn't using its energies well.  A congregation that talks all the time about money isn't using that energy to serve the world.  Conflict and control block what could be avenues for collective creativity and prophetic vision.

I hope that when my time here is done that I will be remembered not for any gains in efficiency or programming, impactful though they may be... but rather for what service I was able to lend to the ongoing dialog here about what truly matters in life.

"Always be in service of the dialog..." another mentor used to say.  May we indeed be a people so bold.  

May our dialog be ever deepened, our commitments ever renewed.  May joy be our reward and our resilience.  And may love indeed prevail in all that we do.

Thank you again for all that you bring to our shared endeavor.  Your promises, your hopes, your wisdom, your leadership, your service of one another and of our world.  I'm grateful, and inspired.

Onward!

 

Love, always...

Jason