Connections and Unity

During holidays I remember those who are not with me. I recall friends and relatives who live far away. I think of those with whom I have lost contact or who have died. I remember all the persons I have celebrated with in the past, and whom I will not be with this year. The memories are mostly mixed with a little sadness for times now gone.

Still, in December, for me, the present merges with the past. When I sing "Silent Night," I am not just singing it with those who are with me here in 2024. I am singing it also with friends in Phoenix when I was an eight-year-old and in a Christmas play. I am singing it with friends in college, spending Christmas together on a beach in Mexico. I am singing it in Unitarian Universalist Churches I have served in

Kentucky, Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland and Florida. I feel connected to my past.

Again, this year I will sing the carols. I light the candles and share gifts and eat special foods. In these moments I feel continuity with the past. The ritual, the songs, the lights, are all openings that allow me to feel part of a common experience. This year's celebration merges into all Christmas celebrations.

Whatever holy days you are observing this December, be it Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Solstice, Christmas or New Years, I hope you will have this experience of connection and unity. Join in the singing. Taste the foods. Touch the hands of those around you. May your December be an act of meditation on the underlying unity and connections of all life. May 2025 be a time for reconciliation and peace for all peoples.

Sermons

A few years ago, someone developed a rating system for Unitarian Universalist sermons based on the movie rating system. I do not know the original author.

"G" Sermons: Generally acceptable to everyone. Full of inoffensive platitudes; usually described as "wonderful" and "marvelous." The minister panders to the congregational prejudices, while planning on a long tenure. It is always forgotten by 12:30 in the afternoon.

"GP" Sermons: For more mature congregations. It is sometimes relevant to today's issues. It may even contain mild suggestions for change. Often described as "challenging" or "thought-provoking," the minister is a safe prophet.

"R" Sermons: Restricted to those not upset by the truth. This sermon "tells it like it is." It is threatening to the comfortable and most often described as "controversial" or "depressing." It suggests that the minister has an outside source of income. Visitors are shocked.

"X" Sermons: A limited audience. It really "socks it to them." It is the kind of sermon that landed Jeremiah in the well, got Amos run out of town, and set up the crucifixion of Jesus. Always described as "in poor taste," the minister who preaches this sermon should have a suitcase packed and his life insurance paid.

Gilbert K. Chesterton said, “It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.”

Peacebuilders

I attended two Prescott Peacebuilders events in September -- part of a Sunday afternoon concert at Granite Park and a Saturday night September 21 event at the Courthouse. I was inspired by the speakers.

Neither Unitarians nor Universalists are historically American peace churches. Many UUs have served in the military. The phrase "historic peace churches" refers to the Church of the Brethren, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and the Mennonites.

My own view, which has no official standing in our Granite Peak UU Congregation, reflects the fact that my mother came from a pacifist Mennonite background and my UU minister in Phoenix was a pacifist. I was 14 years old on Dec 5, 1965, when I heard Raymond Manker deliver a sermon at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Phoenix. In part Rev. Manker said,

“I am a religious pacifist, I was raised as a Quaker, a member of the Religious Society of Friends, I was taught that human life was perhaps the most sacred entity on Earth. No man had a right to take the life of another human being. To take another human life was the ultimate in human degradation, Coupled with this idea and an integral part of it was the idea that human beings were divine, each man had the spark of divinity in his soul which, if properly nurtured, could help him develop into a sensitive, compassionate person.”

I have learned not to use sexist language, but otherwise, this is my view, and I try to live my life consistent with my beliefs. You will see it reflected in my year with you as your interim minister.

I was encouraged by the Prescott Peacebuilders events. In the words of the Catholic pacifist Dorothy Day, “No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”