#263 Sermon from Service of the Living Tradition at UUA General Assembly 2017

so I was an early adopter of Facebook I liked finding out what my friends were doing and I didn't so much mine their pictures of food that I could not smell nor taste and I really like finding out who was having a birthday like today I found out Sara Lambert is [Applause] but lately I've been thinking that Facebook and all of social media may have been inspired by Satan and I don't even believe in Satan we may have the technology for social media but from what I have observed we have not sociologically emotionally and psychologically evolved enough to use technology well perhaps one day we will but today we use social media as a weapon as often as we use it as a tool so I have become the queen of scrolling because there are just days when I am only looking for cute little cat videos and I don't really want to know about the world the nation or the latest upheaval within Unitarian Universalism just make me laugh because I'm tired of crying a while ago I came across a post that made me laugh out loud it was entitled badly described your profession [Laughter] and some of my esteemed colleagues who apparently also needed a good laugh posted some fine responses here are a few of them the names their names will not be used so as to protect the guilty once a week I talk about stuff I'm interested in and I get mad if everybody doesn't come to listen [Applause] the rest of the time I worry about money i patrol the parking lot making sure no one is parked in the spot reserved for the minister I get paid to keep my head in the clouds and make changes at an incredibly slow pace I also remove melted wax from many surfaces [Applause] my salary is decent but I also received compensation in the form of cookies endless newspaper clippings and homemade jars of jam I talk for an hour a week but into other people's personal lives and go to meetings about creating more meetings on Sunday I tell people they can make the world a better place when things don't improve that week I repeat myself [Applause] there is some truth in each of these responses but I think the greatest truth is the last one we tell people they can make the world a better place and we repeat ourselves and we'll keep repeating ourselves over and over and over again because if we didn't believe we could make the world a better place I suspect most clergy religious educators musicians administrators membership coordinators any religious professional would give up this endeavor called Unitarian Universalist ministry we repeat ourselves week after week and we hope we pray that someone is actually listening that someone will actually be impacted by our words that we are actually making a difference I think that every person who answers their life's calling does so with the intent of making a difference it's not just ministers who listen to what their lives are calling them to do we ministers may act like we're the only one who received a call but it isn't true many people hear a call in their hearts and minds and souls all of us can and when we answer the call we make a vow that we shall follow it through to the end we may make that vow to the Lord to God to the goddess to the universe to humanity to whatever it was that put that call our hearts we make a vow to make a difference and follow it through to the end every year one of the most moving parts of this service for me is when we call out the names of those dear colleagues who follow their vows to the very end I usually don't know most of their names the longer I am in ministry the more names I know but still most of the names are unknown to me I know this I know that one day my name will be called a long time from now in Shilla and there will be people who will not know my name and that will be fine it will mean that I lived a good long life and actually got to retire so no people entering ministry won't know me and won't know my name this calling any calling isn't about making a name it's about making a difference when you begin an endeavor follow any course your life calls you to follow you need to ask yourself this do I want to make a name or do I want to make a difference most of the people whose names we did not know spent their lives toiling in the proverbial vineyard just trying to make a difference one life at a time there may have been times when they were the right person at the right time in the right place and in that moment they made a big difference but I bet none of them started with the intent of making a name for themselves you may make a name if you make a big enough difference but if your objective is to make a name for yourself and you happen to make a difference it probably won't be a positive one because the difference you made was all about you and your ego when one is out to make a name for themselves they are not interested in anything other than themselves oh they may say they're trying to change the world they may say they are just trying to speak the truth but they are really just trying to make a name for themselves and how can you tell these name makers how can you tell if you are trying to make a name or a difference where you could just ask yourself one question do I care if I get credit for something or do I care that something gets done name makers do not care whether they are making an impact on the world they only care that you spelled their name right they say they are change makers and they may be but they do not care whether the changes they make are going to have a positive impact I once heard the great Bill Jones the Unitarian Universalist humanist scholars say that we often speak of change but if you took your car to the mechanic and you needed a new battery because your car wouldn't start and the mechanic changes the rear passenger tire the car has been changed but there wasn't a positive impact on the car because it still won't start so one has to ask the question do I want to make a change or do I want to have an impact because I can change an institution and still not have an impact on the lives of the people in that institution I could change the bylaws I can pass resolutions I can restructure the institution I can change the leadership of the institution I can do all these changes and still not have an impact on the lives of the people the institution is purportedly serving change contrary to popular belief is actually easy having an impact that's hard our unitarian universalist movement has had impacts on many issues same-sex marriage women's rights on many many issues we are 30 years ahead of other faith communities but on some issues like race and class we are 30 years behind we keep making changes but we have had little or no impact we changed the name of programs we change the language we are going to use we change leadership and our impact has still been limited and we keep thinking of ways to change and spend little time thinking about ways to have a lasting impact because to have a lasting impact is to first understand that transformation takes time we can quickly make changes but lasting impacts have to take time to take hold in our rush to change things we sometimes need to stop and hold back and ask are we trying to make a change or are we going to try to make an impact it's not always clear which one we want but at least we should stop and ask the question because that alone could help us focus our efforts to make an impact we have to meet people where they are now we cannot expect people to already be who we want them to be if if they were those people already we would have no work to do so we must need them where they are in order to bring them where they need to be and to do that we must speak in ways that can be heard it does no good to speak if you cannot be heard and how one speaks often determines if one will be heard are you speaking at people for the sake of speaking what you believe is the truth or are you speaking with people to share the truth you believe do you want to speak or do you want to be heard now there will be times when you will say your truth and it's only your truth knowing that the people you are speaking to cannot actually hear what you are saying if that's the case then no you are not trying to really have an impact or make a difference you were speaking because you felt you had to and certainly there is a place for speaking when no one is listening I hope this isn't one of them but they are few and far between when we are speaking only to ourselves when we are standing on our soap boxes proclaiming truth like prophets of old we should go back to our very first question and ask again am i trying to make a name or am i trying to make a difference the times we live in right now are ripe with potential for great transformational seeds to be planted we may not see all of them blossom into the radically inclusive compassionately welcoming justice demanding faith and world we dream of we may not live long enough to reap the benefits of the work we do together and there will be times when the work of creating the world we call the Lovett community will seem too hard and we will just want to give up in despair times when we tire of preaching that same sermon week after week make the world a better place when we wonder if anyone notices the work we are doing as flawed and as imperfect as it is days when we list we see one more tweet one more post one more headline we'll just scream when we come to that place we need to remember the colleagues whose names we heard tonight who just kept climbing one mountain after another speaking not just to speak but to be heard not concerned with but with having an impact not caring to make a name but to make a difference remember them and then go out and climb your own mountain speak your own truth make your own impact make your difference because this is what we are all called to do not just those on this stage but each of us who calls ourselves Unitarian Universalists we are bound together by an abiding faith in the power of humanity to transform the world we are bound together by the belief that with these proverbial hands we can build a future for ourselves and those not born yet that is better than the world we inherited we are bound together by the knowledge that together each of us unique and valued for our differences can make the dream of a world of peace and justice a reality and when that day comes and someone calls out our names and remembrance that it be said of us you may not know our names but know this of us we made a difference amen blessed be [Applause]

Channel: Unitarian Universalist Association

Views: 1,302

Rating: 4.8518519 out of 5

Keywords: Unitarian, Universalism, religion, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist Association, General Assembly, uuaga, worship

Id: zg-CjPyCpeQ

Length: 21min 8sec (1268 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2017