First Parish Bedford UU

Welcome
Homily given by Rev. Megan Lynes
At First Parish in Bedford, Unitarian Universalist
Ingathering Sunday – September 13, 2009

Hello and good morning!  I stand before you now with a great excitement welling up within me.  As a new person among you, I want to thank you for the kindness you have shown me already.  Thank you for the potlucks, kitchen cleaning parties, and small group ministry gatherings you’ve invited me to so that I can not only meet you, but begin to know you.  Thanks for taking the time to tell me stories from decades ago, and for showing me around.  A few days ago I was walking with John Gibbons from the church to the Town Hall and a little voice called down a happy hello from the tip top of a tree.  Turned out she was a homeschooler who was doing a unit on outdoor exploration and literature.  There are many of you, some of you may be obscured by leaves, but you do look so friendly!

I’ve noticed that, one of the things First Parish is known for in the local community is a spirit of Radical Welcome.  Somebody told me a couple nights ago that when members of First Parish’s partner church in Transylvania were coming to visit, a huge sign was hung out across the entire front of the church to welcome them in Hungarian.  Unexpectedly a car of local Hungarians were driving by and nearly got whiplash in their effort to absorb a welcome in their own native language.  Turns out they had never heard of Unitarian Universalism but upon entering the building, they felt so at home that they stayed on for all the years they lived in the U.S. 


Perhaps someone in this crowd is here for the first time this morning, and if only this were possible, I would paint for you a magical sign, appearing in words that speak to your deepest longing.  I’d tell you, and all of us who love it here would tell you, “welcome” in your own native tongue.  You can be your own funky, amazing, brilliant, curmudgeonly, broken-hearted, committed, questioning, creative, unique self here.  You, like me, can come as a stranger, and find in this place, a religious home.  Even if you can’t read Hungarian.  Yet!

One of the phrases I’ve heard said quite a few times in recent weeks about First Parish is that “the church has left the building…”  I figured we weren’t having all our future services out here on the common, so it took me a while to understand that people were referring to extending a spirit of Radical Welcome out beyond church walls.  I know I am only just beginning to learn about all the projects that inspire parishioners to leave their homes and pews, but already I have heard about folks teaming up with neighbors to build a Habitat for Humanity house, taking part in a week long high school service trip to Koinonea Farm, preparing food at local soup kitchens and sharing evenings of music with veterans at the nearby VA.  Clearly, the spirit of Radical Welcome is created and magnified wherever two or more are gathered.  Being accepted, respected, honored and understood transcends barriers of class and race, culture, sexual orientation, age and religion. 

The Rev. Jack Mendelsohn, beloved minister emeritus here, wrote the book Being Liberal in an Illiberal Age: Why I Am a Unitarian Universalist back in 1964.  I have heard him remind his readers however, that in fact “all ages are illiberal.”  Therefore, in every age, the role of liberal religion is to offer a Gospel of openness, healing and hope.  We must be willing to not only welcome a stranger, but be welcomed as strangers ourselves.  Have we not all at times been strangers in a strange land?

Not too long ago I spent some time with a dear family friend, a lifelong Universalist, who has forgotten not only the names of her church friends, but the names of her children and grandchildren as well.  In fact, she has only three phrases she can still say, and she says them with the deepest fervor.  They humble me because she says them for me, though she would say them for any one of us.  We are all strangers to her now.  Looking warmly into my eyes she asks, “Can I do anything for you, my dear?”  Later she holds my hand and whispers, “I love you.”  And when the end of our visit comes she repeats her only other words, “Thank you.”  Rather than miss a chance to tell her beloveds how very much she adores them, she has instead embraced all strangers as her own children.  She knows she has so much love left to offer the world.

James Luther Adams, a twentieth century Unitarian theologian, wrote that “we come to church to experience the intimate and the ultimate.”  I know this is true because I myself have experienced both these things.  As a little girl, I used to like to lie beneath the pews in the sanctuary near my parents during Sunday morning services.  I liked being inconspicuous but a part of it all.  I liked how the choir sounded through the vibrations of the floor, and I liked how the two hundred year old pews smelled of pine sol and polish.  The old wood had been sat on by thousands and thousands of parishioners like me.  Some of them had even stuck sweet smelling grape gum up underneath, just to give me something to tie their absence to my presence.  I was, in those moments such a part of it all.  Moved by timelessness and the incredible importance of each scented reverberating moment, I was in church!  My favorite place! 

I guess the spirit of Radical Belonging can sneak up on us, even when we’re hiding beneath a pew, or exploring the tip tops of trees.  May this new church year offer all of us openness, healing, and hope.  May we welcome one another with the spirit of a stranger’s delight.  And may we remember how much love we have left to offer the world.