Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Pottstown

The Potter’s Wheel

Rev. Paul D. Daniel, Minister

 

Each of us has come to this Canvas time in UUFP’s history

 

with different hopes, dreams and expectations.

 

Our decision on how much we are moved to financially support

 

the various ministries we offer each other and

 

the community we are creating will determine whether those aspirations will be met.

 

This canvas is ultimately about setting priorities for your own life.

 

The simple truth is, not funding this year’s budget has the potential to disappoint your deepest spiritual and communal longings.

 

                        

Imagine for a moment you are a potter with a lump of raw clay you have just placed on the wheel..,

 

we stand back and ponder the mystery the clay holds and what we hope to create.

 

When our foot presses the petal to spin the wheel and

 

our hands touch the clay for the first time…

 

the process of creation begins.

 

So it was when you first came to UUFP whether almost 50 years ago or last Sunday.

 

Perhaps we can still feel the excitement and even some nervousness we experienced that first moment

 

that we entered this community and still do when moved by the spirit of this community.

 

Each of us by our presence here today contributes a profound energy to the clay. 

 

Some have a deeper impact than other for they have been here longer, perhaps a founder or a long time member.

 

Others are newcomers or friends who have bought a fresh energy, vision and enthusiasm to share.

 

Each of us changes the nature and feel of this community and its looming future.

 

Whichever you are, you have already made sacrifices to support this community. 

 

We need each other to help make things work out in the ways we hope so that we keep something spiritually vital and important alive:

 

that opportunity to create something transcendent that touches the holy and

 

connects us to others in a meaningful way.

 

The person sitting next to you today needs that and the stranger

 

who enters our doors next week hungers for what we offer, or they would not come.

 

Realistically, this Canvas is about choices.

 

It is about why you are a member of UUFP and whether you will honor your commitments to each other to work together to create something larger than ourselves.

 

All of us, all volunteers, keep the wheels of UUFP humming along.

 

We, have each staked our future on UUFPs success in living its mission and vision.

 

We have each done this in various ways.                                                                                                                  

 

I staked my emotional satisfaction and financial needs on you when I contracted to serve as your minister. I became a stranger in a strange land because I wanted to be your spiritual leader. We all have risked much in our new relationship. Like some of you, I move between hope and anxiety for our communities future.

 

But know this… I have no regrets. I am here because I want to be.  I have abiding hope in our future together; for I know a life worth living is full of challenges and also presents opportunity in the face of adversity to grow.  I know that together, we are up to the task. I have trust in myself, my faith and especially in you and the covenant we share. If given the chance, I know we will do the right thing for ourselves and UUFP.

 

Each of us, founder, new member or visitor will shape the future of this congregation.  We will do that by doing our best to honor the financial commitments we will make to this current budget and by helping with additional dollars if we can.   Let us take to heart the values and love we share when we consider our pledge for the New Year. That value is far more then bricks and mortar. You only have to look at the person sitting next to you to know that truth.

 

I am not just asking you to be a steward of this church but of each other, the planet and all our brethren. We must be about the business of building relationships in a way that acknowledges the web of existence and the inherent dignity of each person in that web. Membership is about bringing to life our faith for ourselves, our children as well as for the stranger and a shared future.

 

Money is only a sub-text for what is really important at UUFP. Your pledges provide sacred space and a forum to engage each other in a heartfelt civil discourse. Perhaps more than sex and politics, money is hard to talk about because it has power over us and embodies a mystique around issues of influence and prestige, status even vulnerability over the struggle to acquire it, hold on to it, spend it and not lose or waste it.

 

Strangely, though money is also about love, for we financially contribute to what we love, our families and children, social welfare organizations, our faith and church.  Money is a tool that enables the longings of our heart to become effective in reaching out to others to repair a broken world. It empowers us to live out our values and faith. It offers us a place to plumb our spiritual depth help, to find meaning in our lives. 

 

We offer pastoral care when our members are hospitalized or in need of loving human contact. Our garden helps feed the hungry as do grocery cards and much more.

 

Money, when properly focused allows us to embody our values more effectively. Over times, we have learned that when the congregation unites, we have greater power to effect change in the world than we do as individuals. The institutional church lends purpose to our lives and allows us to focus our attention not on the dollars but on how money empowers us to serve people who have great need.

 

We have an opportunity right now to be great. As a congregation we have sometimes been like a diamond in the rough, we see our own potential, but have not quite focused on why we exist or what purpose we serve. We have not always done that well because we miss the spiritual purpose money can hold, to heal the sick, feed the hungry, love the sinner. Sometimes we only consider money as  necessary only to  pays staff and maintain our buildings, to provides for the nuts and bolts of running a church often at the expense of our  mission and vision that you see on the front cover of this order of worship.

 

Sometimes we forget that we are a community dedicated to each other, sometimes  even turning  on each other when the challenges feel overwhelming or when we disagree.

 

What gives me hope is that I have also seen members come back together, acknowledge their breach of our covenant, put their differences aside and work together for the common good.  We have found that when we use money wisely we can do all these things and more and in so doing open the door to the greatness hidden within each of us…the call to serve humanity.

 

We actually minister well to each other with pastoral care and worship that can meet our spiritual needs. We do the best we can to religiously educate our children and offer adult enrichment programs that serves all ages with a variety of programs.  We have an undernourished  focus for our social justice outreach and  supporting and spreading the good news of Unitarian Universalism. We can be justly proud of our accomplishments, yet humble in the knowledge that there is much more we can do.

 

Like the potter we can step back, take in all we have created and then take the next step in refining our vision into something we would be proud to share with the world. We are limited only by our vision of what we can achieve. Our vision and purpose is why we need to fund this canvass.

 

 

The shape of UUFP is incomplete, as we all are. The next step for us is to clarify who we want to be in this community and then live that into reality. Like the potter we stand at the wheel— experiencing and feeling the clay and working to shape it into something grand; a thing of beauty containing all the colors of our dreams,  called UUFP.  What we imagine and create with our hands will contain all our hopes and visions for a better tomorrow. This place can serve our spiritual need to bend the arc of the universe towards justice and compassion.

 

This is not a time of despair for out of challenge and adversity hope is born anew. Everything is possible if we are willing to boldly act on our dreams.  This is our moment of greatness if we take all the good that has come to us through our participation and support of UUFP and apply it to the present and into the future.

 

Through our time, talent and treasure, we are building something of true worth and dignity that exemplifies the best in us… in the service to humanity. Here we are linking hope to action. We do that when we come together because we need each other when we seek to heal and would be whole. We need one another when we come to grieve and die and when we celebrate and laugh together. Our lives take on greater meaning when we share it with others in a place such as at UUFP. 

 

May what your hands have created reflect the vision of your heart.

 

Blessed it be!

May it be so!

Rev. Paul

 11/6/16   Sermon– Our Second Principle

Justice, equity and compassion in human relations

Rev. Paul D. Daniel, Minister

 

From the earliest days of our faith in mid-sixteenth century Transylvania and

 

later in Poland, our faith, was founded on the idea of covenants within a free-thinking church. 

 

These are promises, agreements, to hold each other accountable to live our values within the church into the wider world.

 

Rev. Richard Gilbert echoes this.  He wrote, “our faith is centered less on doctrine

 

than on the practical application of religious principles into daily life”.

 

Love and tolerance are embodied in our singular, not Trinitarian belief in God.

 

We believe in a non-theist rational understanding of moral conduct,

 

valuing our deeds above creeds.

 

Emerson said, “what you are …

 

thunders so that I cannot hear what you say”.  

 

 

A 1981 story in the Chicago Tribune about Mother Theresa

 

 and the president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, Eugene Pickett is telling.

 

During a visit to Chicago she was asked the question of life’s final meaning.

 

Her answer was, “to become holy, and to go to Heaven.”

 

Eugene Pickett’s response to the same question was a significant variation on that theme,

 

“the purpose of life is to become whole, and to create a heaven on earth.”

 

Surely that possibility begins with justice, equity and compassion.

 

The very name Unitarian Universalist writes Gilbert “suggests a strong ethical component.

 

“Unitarian” implies the unity of all beings, binding us together in one human family.

 

“Universalist” suggests that our concerns are global in nature,

 

that no one is to be excluded.

 

Our second principle articulates that tradition.”

 

Unitarian Universalists find ultimate meanings in how we live our values.

 

The core of our faith is to be of service starting here at UUFP and all our churches.  

 

All our seven principles define what It means to be spiritual and ethical.  

 

Gilbert sums it up with these words

 

 “in the love of beauty and the spirit of truth, we unite for the

 

celebration of life and the service of humanity.”

 

 

Not a bad phrase to include in our “elevator talk”

 

that calls us to define our faith in 10 floors or less.

 

We would each do well to remember and repeat

 

 our own speech as part of our daily spiritual practice.

 

 

Sadly, we sometimes forget our values in the heat of a disagreement,

 

or when annoyed or trying to win a point.

 

If we believe that everyone deserves to be treated fairly, with compassion and respect,

 

why do we fall to criticizing each other or talk behind the back of the person whom we disagree?

 

Why do we neglect to treat the grocery store clerk with respect, or to have compassion for someone with a disability as Trump has done? Do we merely forget to be compassionate or worse are we hypocrites, looking only to win an argument or get allies in a conflict? I think and hope it is the former.

 

Perhaps, the next time any of us become frustrated or cross with someone,

 

 we might remember see the other person with eyes brimming over with compassion.

 

Perhaps, they are dealing with debilitating crises of a physical or emotional nature or

 

just having a bad day.

 

Let us remember that when there are misunderstandings, disagreements, arguments

 

they need to be resolved quickly with patience and compassion, not confrontation, sniping “or whispering down the lane”.

 

As the aphorism reminds us, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

 

 

 

At times, we all fall to bring our better angels to the table,

 

but if we engage in some reflective self-talk, it might help us to avoid conflict.

 

Better to talk to ourselves than to quarrel or bad-mouth another.

 

 

One might think compassion would be the easiest to achieve,

 

but, I think, the more personal the relationship the harder it seems

 

to give in, compromise, be open and trusting of the common humanity we share.

 

Perhaps, “familiarity does breed contempt.”

 

To be respectful and kind when nose to nose and feeling vulnerable and afraid often

 

can causes us to back away from our principles and assume an aggressive self-protection stance.  

 

And suddenly, we’re in a wrestling match with each opponent aiming for a knock put punch.

 

Have any of us been in that situation?

 

Have any of us ever let ourselves “freak out” in a public confrontation

 

to show our power or to get people to choose sides, ours, not theirs?

 

Do we need to be right and the other person wrong?

 

If so, I suggest we can all do much better.

 

If peace and justice, equity and compassion does not begin with us,

 

how can we ever hope to make a better safer world?  

 

 

 

I certainly have failed often enough in my own efforts at

 

treating people fairly with justice, equity and compassion in my heart.

 

As I get older, I find myself getting more cranky and short with people.

 

I am certainly less tolerant of, self-entitled, self-centered people

 

who build themselves up by knocking others down,

 

especially in the political arena and in social institutions. Such as schools and churches.  

 

As UUs we to sometimes forget the needs of the many for selfish purposes. 

 

 

Now, having said that, I realize my characterizing of other as I just did is

 

becoming what I most object to in people who do not honor their covenants with each other. 

 

This is to say the least an uncomfortable realization.

 

It’s tough, isn’t it, to face how flawed we all are,

 

how depressingly human we can be.

 

Looking at our own dark side should make us all squirm   

 

I sure have been lately.

 

The one good think to come out such self-revelation is

 

that it can shock us into seeing who we are.

 

Staring at the abyss of our own human failing can jolt us back into communion with others.

 

 It can be an important teaching moment to re-examine our faith and seven principles. 

 

It can help us to be the kind of people we want to be:

 

justice, equity and compassionate seeking people in all our human relations.

 

This hope for myself and each of you is what propels me today to

 

speak out and act to create the peaceable kingdom that I seek,

 

to offer love in the face of all that is not.

 

If we can but remember to walk at least a mile in another’s shoes,

         

perhaps we can come to see each other as our brothers and sisters.

 

To do so would surely lead to compassion in all our relationships.

 

A daily practice of our seven principles is part of our spiritual journey as Unitarian Universalists.

 

A loving, gentle approach can change our lives.  

 

The author Emily Gage wrote, “with a self-aware attitude and engaging in an inner dialogue”

 

we can   create a better society.

 

I believe that in my heart in the same way I know this is not something we can do entirely alone.

 

It is something that becomes more and more powerful as

 

we find our voice and join with others in common cause.

 

Through our seven overlapping principles we can continue to create a framework for peace and love.

 

 

Our faith calls us live such existential questions of life and relationships.

 

Let us hope we will always be willing to make a conscious effort

 

to question whether our moral and ethical conduct is in keeping with our values.

 

The idealism embedded in our second principle are noble, but

 

fraught with many obstacles. either self-made and imposed by others, but

 

if we each model our second principle we can change the world.

 

 Let us then, resolve today to consciously treat each other with respect and dignity,

 

to see each other as precious and human.

 

Let us pass on compassion justice and equity on, and on, and on”, as an act of real kindness.

 

From there we can begin to build systems and institutions that best reflect our values.

 

If we can do that, our second principle will become more than just a dream.

 

May it be so!