Join us as we celebrate the opportunity to Step Up, in response to the goals of our Strategic Plan: Rising Up.

 

“Stepping Up to Rising Up: Believing in Ourselves” – sermon preached by Rev. Liz Lerner Maclay, March 3, 2024

 

Many years ago, I invited a senior colleague to come do a Commitment Drive sermon – or what the church I was then serving called ‘The Sermon on the Amount.’ He was working then at the end of a long and successful career as a consultant to churches on financial management. I didn’t ask him what he would say – I figured with his reputation whatever he wanted to preach would be worth hearing. He arrived that morning with the pages of his sermon in one hand and an extra-large box of Wheaties – “the breakfast of champions” – in the other. I don’t remember who was on the box – back then it would have been someone like the great hockey player Wayne Gretzky, or the brilliant world champion track star Carl Lewis or Olympic gold medal gymnast Carly Patterson. Regardless, when the time came for the sermon, he put the Wheaties box with its celebrated champion up on the front of the pulpit. He talked about what it is in champions that makes them win – innate talent and drive, strong support from loved ones and/or coaches, opportunity and luck sometimes helping. But having looked into this a good deal, what he felt was essential for every champion of every stripe – not only athletes – was believing in themselves. He spoke about what believing in oneself is like.  Believing you are worthy. Believing you can be not just capable but great. Believing you deserve what you want to accomplish. Believing your goal is worth what it will take to accomplish.

I remember as this minister talked about what it takes to be a champion I was waiting for him to get to the point – for the other shoe to drop. Waiting for him to counter the implicit egotism in what he was laying out, the taking oneself so seriously, the sense of entitlement that I feared was part of anyone aspiring to be great. I was waiting for his indictment of champions and for him to celebrate modesty and concern for others and selflessness. But after about 10 minutes or more of his developing his theme he turned instead to inviting the church to think like a champion – to take itself that seriously. And I was astounded. Wait, what?!?! What about humility and self-effacement? I then struggled internally with this feeling for a few minutes while he elaborated on the invitation he was extending to the church.

But  as the song goes, sometimes our thoughts are misgiven. And after a bit, I finally thought – wait a minute – why is it that I’m so shocked at this message? Why am I shocked that he is asking us all to – more, presuming we can – take ourselves seriously? Our capacities, our presence, our spirituality, our activism, our power, our present and our future, seriously – very seriously? He’s talking about belief and I’ve given my life to this faith and this vocation – always seeking to do my best and be worthy – but is it possible that I’ve done this with a great sense that this is what I should be doing – but still without ever taking myself and my church seriously enough? And of course not to go on an ego trip, but to serve, as powerfully as possible, all we hold sacred. Without ever even considering whether we could be not just capable of it, but great at it?

In fact, it was possible, and I had done this vast underestimating – or just non-estimating – which was astounding to realize. There are plenty of potential reasons for this – growing up I hadn’t been raised with a sense of entitlement or encouraged to take myself seriously. My home church, which I still love deeply, was a kind, capable, pastoral community but not groundbreaking or ambitious. The church I trained in, and which I also loved, was the same. I’m sure there were all kinds of factors, including my own insecurities, and my insulation from hardships many others were experiencing. I’m female, raised when we were still expected by society to defer. But in the end, this is not about why that was how I felt, why that was what was familiar and expected to me – because not everyone was like me. There were plenty of people, including women, who pushed harder, expected more, felt justified in their goals and ambition – especially if their goals and ambition were for their congregation and their faith and their place in the world.

My point is: that sermon became not just a wakeup call for the church I was serving, it was one for me too. It changed me. And while I may not identify with whoever was on the box then – or whoever is on the box even now, Simone Biles or Mikaela Shiffrin or Nathan Chen, I am inspired by them. And I love Jane Savoie’s wisdom – Jane who started nearby without resources and advantages and forged her way to the highest levels of accomplishment all the same, accruing wisdom that has helped so many people in so many different ways. I don’t usually turn to athletics for worship services, but there is an athleticism required of us spiritually these days. And these athletes are such a clear inspiration for what can be done when we really apply our gifts and capacities with determination and courage – with belief.

I take us – our church, our faith, our work, our present and our future, very seriously. I believe. I truly and absolutely believe in you, in us, in this. We are worthy. I believe we can be not just capable but great. I believe we deserve what we want to accomplish. And I believe absolutely in the dreams laid out when so many of us came together last spring to share our needs and hopes for this church. And then we voted on them and in that voting turned dreams into goals, beautifully and compellingly declared in our strategic plan, Rising Up to Celebrate and Serve.

So, while often in this annual tradition, I talk about generosity, today I want to talk more about success. I mean, yes, I want to invite us to be generous – not because generosity is a virtue – though it is – but because this is what our goals need and deserve from us now. If we want to rise up to celebrate and serve, if we want to rise up, if that’s really important to us, if we mean what we said, if we believe what we said, if we believe in ourselves and our faith and the need for our church in our time, then we need to step up. We have a song coming up this morning that reminds us no one can buy their way into heaven. But that same song also reminds us of the power of our choices, that there’s more than one stairway, more than one direction, and that we never have to walk alone.

We have decided, we need to step up, together, in certain directions: to be a church for the city; to be a powerful agent for goodness and justice and compassion; to be a valued collaborator with other great and good organizations and institutions in this state; to stand up for the rights and lives of trans people and immigrants; for common sense gun legislation to make our children and communities safe; to fight for the rights and lives of all people of color and strengthen our antiracism here and everywhere; to fight against the latest wave of antisemitism, and Islamophobia; to fight against food insecurity in immediate ways with our food ministry and long term ways with our advocacy; to stay strong for human rights and voter rights and real democracy, especially with the national election coming in November; to deepen our spirituality and our connections to each other and our awareness of each others’ lives and stories; to cherish and upgrade our beautiful buildings and the resources within them so we can hear each other, and make music together and feed each other and all who come within our walls; to strengthen our financial stewardship so that our money works to support our values and safeguard not only our present but our future, and not only our present and future, but that of the environment, and of the land of native peoples and of laborers who deserve fair wages and standards for their work – all this, all this, is what is on the line now. We need to step up because these are not just our dreams, these are our goals, these are our commitments, and they are so worth it. In this world, in this region, in this city and time, these are our best answers to being the people we want and need to be, together in this time when we all share life and breath and urgency and possibility. Aren’t they worth it?

I agree. I am so proud to serve a people so visionary and motivated and grounded, so acutely understanding and wholly caring about what matters most right now. James Baldwin, as usual was so right; there is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now – and especially now.

We know we’re not perfect, we know we don’t have all the answers, we know we’re still learning. But we are in this, unafraid to risk, willing to work, determined to do all we can. All that – this church – is so worth it to me. Money is tight in my family right now – we have some challenges we’re dealing with. But I received my pledge letter asking me to lift my giving by 15% and I did some figuring and I can manage it and so I will be doing it. Because this church and our work is always my first priority for charitable giving. Most organizations have thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, giving to them. First Unitarian has a few hundred and we need all of us to do all we can, whatever that is, maybe some of us can lift our pledge by well over 15%, maybe some of us will do our best and it will be much less than that this year – what matters is that we all step up, the best we can, in our giving, especially now when we have perhaps the most dynamic and powerful strategic plan in our history and a profoundly urgent time when we can do this, when we can make the difference we want to make, be the church we believe in, in all the many ways we have laid out. We can be the church we dream of, putting our beliefs and principles powerfully into the mix so that life is better and safer and more hopeful for more people and for more of our region on this fragile planet and more of its creatures, our neighbors in the woods and marshes and ocean and air. We can accomplish such powerful good together.

This is the promise that stirs my blood. This is the vision that keeps me centered and committed and connected. May we all step up to rise up, give and do all we can to our own goals and possibilities, to our present and our future. May we stay determined and persistent, joyful and faithful. May we believe, absolutely, in our faith, in each other, in our ability to be not just good or even very very good, but great, yes great, now, together. Amen.