Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing

One of the storytellers of our age that I love is Rachel Naomi Remen. She wrote about George, a man who had patented a part of a medical invention. (My Grandfather’s Blessings, pp. 225-228) This story is about a wealthy man who built a successful company that manufactured and distributed these medical parts worldwide. George came to see Rachel Naomi Remen because he had discovered that he had lung cancer.

George was depressed, not so much about the fact that he was in a hopeless situation but said, “I have wasted my life, Rachel, I have two ex-wives and five children. I support all of them but I do not know any of them. I never took the time to know them or anyone else. I have spent my life doing business, building my company from an idea in my basement to what it is today. I do not think they will miss me. I’ve nothing behind me but a lot of money.”

Coincidentally, Rachel had another patient, Stephanie, who used that exact device. Previously she had been nearly housebound and occupied most of her time trying to control her symptoms. The device, enabled her to get a job, meet and make friends, get married and have a child. Rachel told Stephanie about George, and Stephanie was speechless. She asked Rachel if George might be willing to come to her home for dinner. George agreed.

Afterwards, George told Rachel that Stephanie’s whole family welcomed him. They had decorated the little house with crepe paper and everyone had cooked – it was an extraordinary meal and celebration. The important thing was they told George Stephanie’s life story. George cried most of the time and then Stephanie said, “This is really a story about you George. We thought you needed to know.”

Rachel asked him, “How many of these things do you make every year?” He responded, “Close to ten thousand,” and then said softly, “I just knew the numbers, Rachel. I had no idea what they meant.”

That is what I want you to think about today; what this congregation means, what its mission means to you. I do not want you to think about the numbers. When you make out your financial pledge to your congregation think about what UUCWC means to you. If we all do that, I have faith that the numbers will take care of themselves.

Of course, money is on everyone’s mind in New Jersey, especially since our governor and legislature are considering drastic funding cuts across the board; cuts that, if enacted, might lead to significant job losses and a general economic contraction of essential services. Some of you may be a bit better off in Pennsylvania, but many of you have more connections to New Jersey than just this congregation. Still, we know that Pennsylvania’s finances are not that great either.

However, with all that in mind, here are a couple of facts that are good for us to ponder: If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish somewhere you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy. You may not feel like it, but you are.

I know that you gathered here today are the brave and the committed. You came today in spite of the fact that you may have known today’s service is about stewardship. Perhaps you did not know, but once here you were too uncomfortable to turn around and leave when you realized today’s focus was stewardship, but you are here and I am not going to talk about numbers. Today, I will emphasis the mission and the vision of your congregation. This is about what this community means to you and the value of what together we have here.

We gather here at 268 Washington Crossing-Pennington Road today and many other days because of what this congregation stands for and provides to us and to many others. It is about YOU! As we strive to be an inclusive faith community, one that focuses our energy and our resources on spiritual deepening and in the process challenges us as individuals and as a congregation to become a dynamic and a recognized force in our community(s).

The word stewardship may seem a little quaint. We do not hear it often. Good stewardship implies the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care. Coming from and growing up in a farm family, I first understood stewardship to mean how well one took care of the land you farm. It meant keeping it fertile and rich because nutrients need to be returned to the soil each year so that it could once again produce hay, oats, corn, potatoes or some other crop. Others of you might be from a union background and think of a shop steward who takes care of and maintains a healthy environment for workers. There are many other stewards with various different responsibilities, but being a good steward is following the practice of wise management of that which is entrusted to your care.

April makes ninety-four years since this congregation started. Its vitality, its strength and its mission have been entrusted to our care. This congregation began as a vision of a community that would offer a liberal religious oasis in a land of strict religious doctrine and evangelical revivalism. A small group banded together in 1916, with a vision, but without a home. Ours was an itinerant congregation renting various spaces in Trenton. Ours was the only Unitarian congregation serving Mercer or Bucks country for at least its first forty years.

Our congregation has been a beacon of free and liberal religion for ninety-four years. We are part of a larger liberal religious movement that began more than three centuries ago. This congregation, this liberal religious franchise, is entrusted to us. It is under our stewardship. You and I have and continue to benefit richly from the people who understood what it meant to build a church that would be free, free to question religious and social doctrine. Those who came before us provided us with an abundant and fertile field for the growth of inquiring minds both locally and around the world. Hundreds and thousands of others have preceded us and set the stage.

The founders of our congregation did not see themselves as extraordinary. They were just a few ordinary people who wanted a free and liberal religious option for themselves, their children and whoever might want to join them. They did not see themselves as heroic when they kept a fledgling group of Unitarians together. They finally bought a house on West State Street as their home. Later, in 1971, others had the vision of purchasing land here and building their first little structure in the midst of farm fields. What they wondered would they do with all that land, five acres? They may not have felt like it, but they became a beacon of light.

Those of you who were among the members of UUCWC with the vision of making ours one of the first five Unitarian Universalist Welcoming Congregations in 1991 stretched the congrega-tion beyond its comfort zone. Those who envisioned this sanctuary in the early 1990’s embraced a mission that enlarged and emboldened the impact that we would have in our area. In 1995, when we dedicated this sanctuary, there was a great deal of pride, but you knew how precarious existence was when you signed that mortgage.

The strength and vitality of this dynamic movement of a free and welcoming religion lies in the vision held by ordinary people like you and me as we go about the day-to-day events in the life of our congregation. It does, that is when we remember what it means. It does if we remember our mission. This congregation’s vitality depends on the depth of our understanding that the future of our liberal religious community is contingent on the careful and responsible management of what we have been entrusted with.

I want you to think about what this congregation meant for the hundreds and hundreds of homeless children who we nourished in body, mind and soul on Monday evenings for the past twelve to thirteen years.

I want you to think about what has this congregation meant for the hundreds and hundreds of children who have had their curious and enquiring minds expanded by attending our liberal religious Sunday school classes over the years.

I want you to think about what has this congregation meant for the hundreds and hundreds of people who visited our worship services fearing that they would find out that this was just another congregation that wanted everyone to believe in one doctrine, worship in one way or fear the punishment of hell if they did not. Think of those who stayed when they were encouraged and affirmed to follow their quest for authenticity, wisdom and spiritual deepening.

I want you to think about what has this congregation meant for the hundreds and hundreds of people who happened to be gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual who attended worship here and rather than hearing words that condemned them were welcomed and encouraged not only to attend, but to become congregational leaders at all levels.

I want you to think about what has this congregation meant for the hundreds and hundreds of people who came here hoping to find a community that not only talked about believing in justice, equity and compassion, but were surprised and encouraged when they were empowered to “stand on the side of love.” The put their love into action by reaching out to touch the lives of others through the many service opportunities where they could walk their talk.

On a personal note, when I ponder what this congregation has meant for me I truly marvel at the rich gift I as your minister have been entrusted with. One of the younger ministers I have been mentoring over the last three years said to me that when she pondered what kind of ministry she wanted, she realized she wanted to do what I do.

Friday night I presented pictures and information about our Compassionate Listening delegation that visited Israel and Palestine to meet with, learn from and partner with leading Jewish and Palestinian peace activists. This congregation empowered me to go and do that. Two weeks ago, they asked me to be one of the New Jersey Regional Coalition (a state wide church based community organization) representatives to testify at an assembly committee meeting concerning Affordable Housing in New Jersey. Being the minister of this congregation meant that I felt empowered to speak out powerfully and bluntly, in ways that other ministers could only dream of doing.

Last week I joined the Hopewell Township Pennytown Task force on Affordable Housing because the former mayor knew of my work and our congregation’s support and participation in NJRC work to get rid of Regional Economic Agreements permitting wealthy communities to pay poorer communities to take their share of affordable housing. Some of the area ministers both appreciate and envy the fact that I am able to do this.

Last week, I was asked to join the Hopewell Valley superintendent, two principals and the local rabbi to discuss an isolated incident at the school. I was included in that meeting because the community knows me as the minister of a congregation that has empowered me to speak forcefully about religious tolerance and the importance of interfaith dialogue.

During the campaign for Marriage Equity for same sex New Jersey couples, I was talking with Senator Shirley Turner in the New Jersey State building. I identified myself as the minister of the UUCWC, and I urged her to support same sex marriage. She quickly said, “I have heard from the members of your congregation.”

There are countless more personal opportunities that you, the members of this congregation, gave me when you have welcomed me into your lives during religious education classes and courses, spiritual growth opportunities and, of course, times when you have opened your hearts and souls to me during times of illness, death and other losses. Times when we are able to hold one another’s pain and sorrow, embrace one another with our loving and healing energy or just listen and help one another sort out a problem.

These are just a few of the many examples of what this congregation means to me as we gather to create a welcoming and caring religious community where we gather to celebrate the wonder of the cosmos and the mystery of life with all its passages, its joys and sorrows.

That is why, compelled by justice, we give voice to societal concerns and become aware of our profound potential to affect the individual and global community. That is why we commit our personal resources to each other and our shared sacred mission. This is what it means.

Truly, free churches like ours are the best hope of the world. When we are strong and thriving, our vision and our mission call us not to hide our light, but to become like a beacon on a hill, spreading not fear and hate, but hope and love.