Worship

Intergenerational Message

Rev. Kenneth Sawyer
The First Parish Wayland
Wayland, MA

Church is a different kind of place, a special place, not quite like home or school or other places, but sort of like them. It is sort of like school, because we learn things there and we learn things here. But we don't learn the alphabet here, or arithmetic; we learn about caring and sharing and doing right and the wonder and beauty of life.

There is a word for that: religion. Religion is what churches and temples are about. Religion: learning to be more caring and thankful and kind.

One way some people have of talking about religion is something or someone called God. Some people think God is a very important idea. And some people don't.

People who think God is really important have a lot of ways of thinking about God. Some people think God is sort of like a person. Other people think God is more like a spirit, like love, or like nature, or like peace.

Some religions have lots of gods, like Hinduism. Some people think of God as the sun, or as a bird. There is a god that looks like a man, except it has a head like an elephant. There is a god that looks like a woman, except it has six arms.

This week, the Sunday school classes will begin studying about world religions and they will learn about gods. It's really interesting, how many different ways there are that people think.

You may discover some day that one of your friends thinks it is important whether or not you believe in God. I know that used to happen to me. "Do you believe in God?" someone would ask, and you knew the answer was supposed to be yes.

And maybe for you it is yes; maybe you do think there is a God; and maybe you don't. That's okay with me, either way. Many grown-ups here today believe in God, and many don't.

And most of us go on changing. People always have. Once almost everybody believed in a god named Zeus and now nobody does. That's what happens.

People who believe there is a God may change their minds about what that God is like. May you will, too. And in our church, we believe that is okay, that people go on changing all their lives when it comes to what they believe.

Some of the kids here and some of the grown-ups here will sometimes think there is no God. And some of the kids and some of the grown-ups will sometimes think there is a God, but a different one at different times; maybe a force for good, or for healing our wounds, or for making the sunsets so beautiful, or maybe a love that is always ours, even when we mess up.

So I want you to know, if you have your own idea about God and it makes you more kind and brave, that's okay, even if your friends believe in a different God. And if you change your mind about God, that's okay, too.

And furthermore, if you don't know what to think about God and even if you just don't care, that's okay, too. And you can tell your friend I said so.

This is not what matters most. What matters most is what you do.

If there is a God, it doesn't care if you get its name right. It cares if you are kind. And that is still what matters most if there is no God.

What matters is whether you stand up for the person who's getting picked on, at the office or on the playground. What matters is if you say hello to the new person in class or in the neighborhood and make them feel welcome. What matters is whether you try to help and not hurt other people and animals, too.

To me, that's the most important thing in religion. This is what all of us, all of our lives, come to church to keep on learning.

Delivered at the Winchester Unitarian Society
On March 3, 1996