Opening words Rev. Thomas Disrud

Here we have come-
from east and west,
from north and south.

We have come amid ongoing heightened states of alert,
at a time when fear is present in the land.

We have come with the awareness that life, indeed, is precious,
and that even in the face of tragedy, life, indeed, moves on.

We have come knowing-perhaps like never before-that we need the church
and that the church needs all of us to lead.

Let us celebrate all we have been given, and look to the future with hope.

It is good to be here together.

Come, now, and let us worship.

Reading by William Stafford
A Ritual to Read to Each Other

If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders the circus won't find the park
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so let me appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider-
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give-yes or no, or maybe-
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
(from The Way It Is, New and Selected Poems. William Stafford. Graywold Press)

Homily
We Need the Church Right Now

It seems a man from Kansas decided to write a book about churches around the country. He starts by flying to Boston and working west from there. He goes to one of the large churches there and starts taking pictures.

As he enters the church, he spots a golden telephone on a wall and is intrigued with a sign, which reads "$10,000 a minute." Seeking out the pastor, he asks about the phone and the sign. The pastor answers that this golden phone is, in fact, a direct line to Heaven, and if one pays the price, he can talk directly to God. The visitor thanks the pastor and continues on his way.

As he continues his way, visiting churches in cities all across the country, and all throughout the land, he finds more phones with the same sign, and the same answer from each pastor.

Finally, he arrives in the Pacific Northwest. He enters a church here and, lo and behold, he sees the usual golden telephone. But THIS time the sign reads "Calls: 35 cents." Fascinated, he asks to talk to the pastor. "Reverend, I have been in cities all across the country and in each church I found this golden telephone, and I have been told it is a direct line to Heaven and that I could talk to God, but in the other churches the cost was $10,000 a minute. Your sign reads 35 cents a call. Why?"

The pastor smiles and says, "Son, now that you're in the Pacific Northwest, it's a local call."

Each one of us is part of a place. And each place has its unique set of attributes, including, perhaps, a tendency towards smugness. Each one of us comes from a congregation that is connected to that place. Each congregation has its unique set of gifts and challenges. Each congregation is trying to find its way to the holy.

Much has happened for all of us these past two months. It has been an difficult time in our country. And it has been a time that has been very important in the lives of our communities. As a minister, I have an awareness like I have never had before of how important the life of the church is. If I had any doubt before, I certainly don't have much doubt now.

It was on the Sunday after the terrorist attacks, that I finally started to understand the magnitude of the events. It was not until I was in the presence of the enormous grief of all the people who came through the doors that Sunday that I really started to get it.

And sometimes that is what it takes. Before I can really come to understand something, sometimes I need to be in the presence of others. We come to some deeper understanding of the events that happen in our lives. We are reminded again of the latin word "religio" means a "tie" or a "binding." The religious impulse, at its root, refers to a sense of our being bound together, connected, conjoined in a circle of community, a circle of mutual support and love.

We come to church for meaning. We come to church for hope. When we don't know what else to do, we come to be together, and to try to make sense of what is happening in the world.

In these past few weeks, our priorities have been challenged. Isn't that what happens sometimes? We get caught up in what we're doing-whether it is all that important or not. We can get so caught up in the doing that we forget the part about the being. We can find ourselves in a situation of realizing that all of a sudden what we have been doing with our time may not be all that important.

This can happen in the life of the congregation as well.

Sometimes when we're doing the budget, the discussion about the budget may not be very connected to what it is we're trying to do in the congregation and the world. When we are setting up a program to welcome newcomers, to welcome people who are bringing all that they are bringing, we may not realize that what we're doing could save someone's life?

Too often, we lose sight of what we are about in the midst of all the details of congregational life. But it hasn't felt like that much at all in the last couple months.

If your church is like mine, attendance has been up. There have been lots of opinions, and plenty of searching. There have been plenty of tears.

And if your congregation is like mine, the past months have been a time to know on a deeper level why we do this work, why we put we put up with one another, why we don't just stay home and read the paper on Sunday morning.

If your church is like mine, people have been drawn by the religious impulse. People have been coming together.

These are very challenging times, and what all of this means is hard to know. It will take months or years to know. But I do know that in times like these, there is an opening. People are coming to us looking answers, and this presents a challenge for us as leaders.

What do we need to do? I don't have all the answers, but I do know a few things. We need to live by our values, we need to honor one another. We need to hold one another. We need to bring our message to the world, because the world needs our message.

Hear these words about the church of a new century:

"The church that is to lead this century will not be a church creeping on all fours, mewling and whining, its face turned down, its eyes turned back. It must be full of the brave, (daring) spirit of the day, keeping also the good (from) times past.

Great truths, moral and political, have come to light… It demands as never before, freedom for itself, usefulness in its institutions, truth in its teachings, and beauty in its deeds.

The church which did for the fifth century, or the fifteenth, will not do for this. It must have our ideas, the smell of our ground, and have grown out of the religion of our soul."

Those were spoken by Theodore Parker, the great Unitarian prophet 155 years ago.

In these times, like in that time, we are called to take ourselves and our message very seriously. They call us to pay attention. They call for us, as leaders, to lead.

The world needs our message. It needs the message of every congregation represented here. Our movement needs the message that our largest congregations can bring to the world. It is a good, holy, sustaining, life-giving message.

Just as our Universalist foremothers and forefathers were called to build the Kingdom of God on earth, each of us and the particular places and communities we serve, must bring our voice into the world.

In times like this, we need the church. Perhaps more than we ever have before. Amen.

Prayer

God of love, hold us this day. Give us the courage to live fully in these times. Help us to move not out of fear, but out of courage and strength. Help all of us as we lead. Help us to bring our light into the world. Amen.

Benediction

May love guide us and hold us in this time we are together. Go from this service in hope and in peace. Amen.

Reported for the web by Deborah Weiner; formatted for the web by Julie Albanese.

• Worship Sermon Report
• Back to Conference Highlights