Unitarian Universalist Church of
Augusta
March 1, 2015
"There
is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable…” Those were the
words of Phillip Franklin, the White Star Line vice-president. As we know, the sinking of RMS Titanic in April 1912 remains the
worst cruise ship disaster in history. The sinking of the biggest passenger
ship ever built at the time resulted in the death of more than 1,500 of the
2,208 people onboard.
The ship had six watertight compartments which the
shipping industry assumed would make the Titanic “unsinkable. But the divisions
in the watertight compartments were not really divisions because they were only
partly divided; they resembled
more a row of lavatory cubicles than isolated rooms. In the event of the ship
being slit open along either side, water would fill the available space before
flowing over the wall into the next unit. What’s more, the chairman of White
Star had ordered the designers to construct them in this way. Less material
would mean less cost, less height would mean more speed. And some of you might
know that J. Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line, is infamous for
jumping into one of the last lifeboats to leave the Titanic.
Of course, it would have
helped to steer clear of the iceberg!
In the light of this and other disasters at sea,
navigational innovations such as Global Positioning
System and automatic tracking systems make sea travel safer. So do improvements
in communication. The Titanic carried radio equipment with a range of 200
miles, but the strength of its transmitter drowned out signals sent and
received by nearby vessels. Nowadays, very high frequency radio allows ships to
communicate with port authorities as well as other ships in the area, and to
broadcast safety information and distress calls.
The Titanic’s passengers were also
doomed by the lack of lifeboats – even though there were enough for 52% of the
people on board, exceeding the number required. Some passengers died from hypothermia.
Nowadays lifeboats must be provided for everyone, regular lifeboat drills and
inspections must be carried out, and all passengers must have evacuation
procedures explained. Lifeboats must now be fully or partially enclosed to better
protect against the elements.
Now, in case you’re thinking
this is not a helpful metaphor for our stewardship campaign, I bring up the
Titanic because for this sermon, which I feel is one of the more important ones
of the year – I have been thinking long and hard about where we are headed and
how we are getting there: how to have a prosperous voyage with some skillful
sailing.
This morning I want to ask
you to first of all pardon the mixed metaphors to come in my message, but more
importantly to ask yourselves where we can sail off to and how skillfully we
can do it. I wish I knew what was to come - but I don’t have a magic ball, which
I can use to look into the future, and I don’t know how to read tarot cards. I
did flirt with the Ouija board when I was a teenager, and it told me I was
going to marry Paul McCartney, so I don’t put much faith in it anymore…
There are people, though,
who do look at the current state of religion and make predictions, and one of
them is Carey Nieuwhof. His latest article is “10
Predictions About the Future Church and Shifting Attendance Patterns” (Carey Nieuwhof, FEBRUARY 23, 2015,10 Predictions About the Future Church and Shifting Attendance
Patterns).
One of his predictions made me think
of the Titanic and how it might teach us a lesson about skillful sailing in the
treacherous waters of the future. And it’s this: “Churches that love their model more than the mission will die.”
Nieuwhof
uses transportation analogies too in explaining his statement.
“When the
car was invented, it quick took over from the horse and buggy. Horse and buggy
manufacturers were relegated to boutique status and many went under, but human
transportation actually exploded. Suddenly average people could travel at a
level they never could before. The mission
is travel. The model is a buggy, or car, or motorcycle, or jet.
Churches need to stay focused on
the mission and be exceptionally innovative in our model.”
|
|
|
George
William Curtis “It is not the
ship so much as the skillful sailing
that
assures the prosperous voyage.” (http://thinkexist.com/)
|
In order to
have a Prosperous
Voyage we need to make sure we are committed to Skillful Sailing. Skillful
sailing in our case is staying focused on our mission. What is our mission?
“Churches that love their model more
than the mission will die.” What does
that mean? Does it mean that we should be willing to make changes, maybe in the
times we worship on Sundays, in the way we organize our Sunday School classes,
in the way we make our campus more accessible? Maybe all of these. Maybe we
will come into the 21st century at last, and change the way we take
up the offering to include technology, not only by electronic transfer but even
here in the service, using a mobile app, passing a credit card square payment device
around with the offering plate, or accessing a kiosk outside the door.
Change will most certainly come by way of our Leadership Development
initiative, which is a plan supported by UUA curricula and resources to
identity, invite, and mentor emerging leaders in this congregation; it will
come by way of our Green Sanctuary program, though looking at the way we care
for our environment on our campus, in our committees, and in our partnership
with the wider community. Our church model may need some tweaking, it may have
some flaws we don’t know about, and some we do…and there might be some icebergs
that we need to navigate around. But change itself is not the iceberg…
“Churches that love their model more
than the mission will die.”
I’m reminded of the song “Enter, Rejoice and Come In” – the first verse
invites us into a joyful day, Enter, Rejoice and Come in, but then the second
and third verses ask us to be open – open your ears to the song, and open your
hearts, everyone. That is a challenge for us: once we gather in beloved
community, to be open to the moving of the spirit among us – what are we moved
to do? Can we allow ourselves to be
generous enough to be open to what we feel called to do in fulfilling our
mission? Being
open and willing might involve change, but the fourth verse reassures us, don’t
be afraid of some change.
Or at least, don’t take it too seriously - as Jimmy Buffett sings,
It's these
changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing
remains quite the same
With all of
our running and all of our cunning
If we couldn't laugh we would all go
insane.
Well,
we’ve had change already this morning in our service; we’ve expanded our church
family to include our new members. They have swapped their bibs for aprons:
they have received nourishment through attending these services and meeting
you, attending the membership orientation, and they have met church leaders who
have told them about the opportunities here at UUCA – now with signing the
membership book, they put on their aprons of service.
Because
they know that we are a free faith: no one tells us what to do, just as no one
showers us with money from above; to do the work of this beloved community, to
follow our mission, we all have to put on our aprons and work at our passion.
Jean Vanier, the founder of the L’Arche
communities, says,
“We each have talents
We each have strengths and weaknesses
We each have gifts
Some people have the gift of compassion
or perseverance or discernment or action.
Each person has a gift to use for the good of all-
Each of us has a gift to bring to our living,
and the Family of the earth deserves to receive
it.”
I am
excited that these new folks have the potential to be skillful sailors, that
our voyage is enhanced by their presence and their commitment. None of us
expect them to take on a major task on this first day of membership, like
suddenly taking the helm of this ship, because they are joining a group of
people who work faithfully and tirelessly together in many small ways to make a
big difference.
Mother
Teresa wrote, “Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be
extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in
small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” (“Living a Life of
Commitment,” sgm@phoenixuu.org )
George
William Curtis was a 19th century American writer and public
speaker, it is he whose quote “It
is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous
voyage.” Inspired the title of my sermon today. Curtis was someone who knew firsthand what change was like within Unitarianism
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_William_Curtis).
As a
young man he became so inspired by the Transcendentalist movement of Ralph
Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller, that he joined the
communal Brook Farm experiment for a year. He was one of the founders of the
Republican Party (but later became an independent), became the editor of Harper’s Weekly, chaired the
presidential commission to reform the civil service, and was one of the
original members of the Board of Education for what would become New York City.
Sounds like, with all his
activities and interests, he would fit right into this congregation! We have so
many people who put their energies into making this congregation, this faith
tradition, this community and this world a better place. They are assuring our
prosperous voyage into the future. (See the video "Stewardship: Beloved Community" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbbCU9E5qJE&feature=youtu.be)
And this morning I’d like to ask you to
stand and remain standing as you are willing and able, as I mention the
particular sailing skill you offer to the UUS Stewardship:
First, those of you who have been
working hard to get the campaign off the ground – from those who prepared the
pancakes to the planners of the pledge drive;
those members of the board who
serve the church this year;
the new members who have joined
this morning;
the new members who have joined
in the past year;
Joe, choir members and other
musicians who enhance our worship every Sunday;
our pastoral care team; our
Worship team;
chairs of committees; members of
committees;
volunteers who have worked at the
Master’s Table, marched in the MLK and Pride parades, or have come to church
work days; members of this church; friends of this church;
visitors to this church.
You all are helping to sail the
ship! Give yourselves a round of applause! Bon voyage and blessed be!
Gaye W. Ortiz
No comments:
Post a Comment