The Who, How and What of UU Worship

The Who, How and What of UU Worship

delivered to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greenville, NC, Jan 11, 2009,

Rev. Ann Marie Alderman

(opening words)
Come in. Come into this place, which we make holy by our presence.
Come in with all your vulnerabilities and strengths, fears and anxieties, loves and hopes.
For here you need not hide, nor pretend, or be anything other than who you are and are called to be.
Come into this place where we can touch and be touched, heal and be healed, forgive and be forgiven.
Come into this place, where the ordinary is sanctified, the human is celebrated, the compassion is expected. Come into this place. Together we make it a holy place. ---Becky Edmiston


When you were getting ready to come here this morning did you think to yourself that you were coming to “worship”? Perhaps you thought, “I am going to church”, but....
to worship?

I have heard many a UU express discomfort with the notion that what we do on Sunday morning is worship.

Why?

From what I have heard many of you say, it is because many of us believe that worship means expressing devotion or loyalty to a particular deity. Since, we don’t agree on any particular god or goddess, or some of us, that there is even a god (or goddess) to agree on; perhaps we’ve concluded that we’re not here on Sundays to worship!

We come to Sunday “services” because we like to be with each other; because we want to be intellectually stimulated or to be inspired to take a specific course of action...We come to make an announcement; or because this is where we can share something important that is going on in our lives and somebody will care. We come hoping we will hear something or feel something that will help us with a particular problem, or help us make it through another week. We come for the fellowship, the good coffee; we bring our children for religious education. We come because it is our routine, something to do on Sunday mornings... thankfully, many of you often feel coming here is better than other choices you could have made!

But worship??? Do we come for that? Do we do that here? What makes what we do on Sunday mornings different from “a social club, a hospital wing, a political action center, or even a spiritual refuge”? [“Growing a Beloved Community”, Tom Owen-Towle, p.1]

Two UU ministers, Wayne Arnason and Kathleen Rolenz, in their new book, “Worship That Works: Theory and Practice for Unitarian Universalists”, published just last year, ask and offer answers for why we why we gather on Sunday mornings...

One of the stories they share early on in their new book is about how one day when they were standing on a street corner waiting for a traffic light to change an elderly woman began a casual, pleasant conversation with them. Then she handed them a brochure about her church, the foursquare gospel something or other. She had been so non-threatening and pleasant, they took the brochure. Thanking her for the brochure, they were impressed with her enthusiasm, but thought she had probably had no clue who she was talking to...two UU ministers who lead services almost every Sunday.

She whispered to them, like it was a great secret, ... ”it’s the worship. You go to worship at my church and you come out feeling like a changed person.”

She didn’t say anything about “who” was being worshipped at her church, although we might jump to the conclusion that their salvation was her intent. But she didn’t talk about that. What she offered them was an opportunity to experience a vibrant energy that she assumed they were as hungry for as anyone else.

I promise you that new folks come here looking for that kind of energy, to be in the presence of that which will make a difference in their lives...to, as Tom Owen-Towle, says in his book, Growing a Beloved Community, “occupy holy ground”.

I wonder if we don’t all hope for that! I promise you that when new folks come through our doors, they are not so concerned about who we worship, but how! Will this be the place where they can experience a vibrant energy that will change their lives?

In their book, Arnason and Rolenz tell what they learned as they spent their sabbatical, their time off from leading Sunday services, going from church to church, some UU and some not UU, experiencing all kinds of church services, looking for the places and space where people are energized by vibrant, transformative worship.

I love the way they begin their book. Here are the first three paragraphs from the introduction:

“It was a bleak January Sunday in Cleveland, and neither one of us felt like going to church. Normally, when one of us feels this way, the other has the energy to help us both rise to the occasion. It’s one of the great blessings of being co-ministers who are married to each other. On this particular day, however, we both felt like the guy in the old joke, who wakes up one Sunday and immediately starts complaining to his spouse.

“I hate the service! The hymns are boring, the readings are pedantic, the sermons are obscure, and after it’s over, I get the feeling that nobody likes me. I’m not going to church this Sunday!”

“Sweetheart,” his long-suffering spouse gently replies, “the people in the congregation don’t hate you and the service isn’t all that bad, but besides that, you’ve got to go. You’re the minister!”

I love that story!

One thing that’s for sure in our “free”, (meaning “voluntary” way of doing church, where there are no creeds, no one God that demands our allegiance or our attendance) is that the only one who HAS to go to church is the minister. The rest of you, well, one has to assume that you come because you want to...

Me, too! I come because I want to!

Just like any one who comes through the door, I come with an expectation that something will happen that will make me feel like it was worth my time to be here.

To be more precise, I come, hoping that that which embodies the energy of what is sacred and holy and ever so worth it... appears.

I am happy to say that it does, again and again. Most of the time, the “energy” that makes it worthwhile seems to just appear out of the blue. When it appears it lifts my spirit, reminds me what I am really here for, re-aligns me with that which is most worthy of my attention, my love, my devotion...makes me want to come back again and again... to witness, to participate, to join in the energy of transformation. When that energy appears, I know I have been to “church”, that I have engaged in worship...

The word “worship” comes from the Old English word weorscippen, which literally means “worth-ship”. According to this definition, to worship means to assign worth to something, to give meaning to something, to consider those things or ideas of ultimate worth, to lift up the highest and holiest of human values...AND when we do that, when we give meaning to something that in its essence is mysterious, ineffable, invisible...when we create space for that energy which is worthy... and it appears...we know, we recognize, we are moved by that which is sacred, holy, an energy that makes life worthwhile...makes life make sense...

Human beings have craved and created the space and time for “worship” since the beginning of time. Creating this time and space for the act of worship, we give that which we lift up, the power to shape our lives... In worship we create meaning and we are created by that meaning.

In worship we are both the shapers and the shaped. In worship we orchestrate a drama of creation. When the drama works....the energy that appears seems far beyond our efforts, anchoring us to an identity, a relationship to something beyond ourselves...

In accord with this broader definition of worship, it is not necessarily about who we are worshipping, but “what” and how we allow that “what” to create meaning and purpose in our lives.

Alice Blair Wesley, another UU minister, puts it this way; “The worship...of a free congregation is best understood as the deliberate return of a faithful and loyal community of people who come together--again and again--to be receptive to all that is worthy of renewed love. We come to church to be reminded of, stirred up to recall, and brought again to feel the charm of all that we love and cherish most.” [from “What Does Love Ask of You Today”]

It is in congregational worship, together with those we choose to be with, that we create our deepest and highest identity, over and over again.

On Sunday morning, again and again, we become a “religious” community, reminding ourselves who we are, remembering who we have been, and finding that that energy that will sustain and empower who we will be.

We form and we are formed by the “identity” of this congregation. The “group” to which we belong on Sunday morning’s goes far beyond what particular individuals are gathered on any particular Sunday morning. In worship we are more than who happens to be here.

I can assure you that the particular individuals who are here changes every Sunday! I can’t tell you how many sermons I have written with a particular person in mind that I delivered on the Sunday they didn’t come! I preached the message anyway! Time after time, someone tells me I said just what they needed to hear, to feel, to connect with...

When we are gathered in worship we become more than the specific individuals in this room. We are everyone who has ever been here and whoever will be here. We are every human being that has created and been created by holy time, holy space, holy ground.

Yet, each of us will have our own way of perceiving and responding to, of participating in worship.

For me, the energy of worship is most apparent in those moments that seem to come out of nowhere, those unplanned, spontaneous words spoken during reflection that sum up the sermon in two or three sentences, the words of a child that touch us with their simplicity, eloquence and depth, songs and amens, heartfelt tears, hugs....a sigh of relief that this is the place one longed to find...the fullness of our common silence...

We begin our holy time, invoking the energy of what we hope will appear by lighting the chalice, calling out for that energy to be present with us that has been present for all time...whenever people have gathered to create the frame that will give their lives orientation toward that which is most worthy of their attention.

How we “frame” this time is important. How we respect this time and space is important. The drama of how we worship together communicates who we are more than words, more than mission statements or a list of principles and purposes...

Even our spoken affirmation, which we say over and over again, is more than words, functioning as another ritual device to orient us to sacred time and space.....

Rituals (repeated patterns) appeal to our human need to make this space and time familiar and predictable, answering the questions of our ultimate identity—to whom, to what do we belong?...over and over again. Repeated patterns go hand in hand with surprise...

In worship there will be elements of both comfort and of challenge, of teaching the old truths, again and again in fresh ways.

I hope for sermons that will be delivered on enough levels that some will say, that’s just what I needed to hear today...even though what each of you hear and feel will be different depending on your circumstances and need.

I keep before me in preparation the words of my colleague, Alice Blair Wesley’s who said in an e-mail to UU ministers; “The preacher's one task in worship is to lift up that worthy of our devoted love so that we can see it in our imagination, feel the charm of its appeal, rejoice in its excellence, recognize and think through intellectually what it asks of us, and resolve faithfully to act accordingly. The fine sermon will rehearse dramatic events, describe sensuously, compare with realities of lesser worth, bear personal witness, show right understanding, and summon loyalty to ways of worthy living.”

Hers is a high standard and in a tradition such as ours where preaching so often takes such a prominent position in worship, I feel an awesome responsibility to do what I can to help make this the finest hour of your week...

I know I am doing more than delivering a lecture or a talk...

These words are from the Rev. A. Powell Davies, minister of All Souls Unitarian church in Washington, DC in the late forties and fifties...also remind me what “church” is for...

“Let me tell you why I come to church.

I come to church-and would whether I was a preacher or not-because I fall below my own standards and need to be constantly brought back to them. It is not enough that I should think about the world and its problems at the level of a newspaper report or a magazine discussion. It could too soon become too low a level. I must have my conscience sharpened—sharpened until it goads me to the most thorough and responsible thinking of which I am capable. I must feel again the love I owe my fellow men (and women). I must not only hear about it but feel it. In church, I do.

I need to be reminded that there are things I must do in the world-unselfish things, things undertaken at the level of idealism. Workaday enthusiasms are not enough. They wear out too soon. I want to experience human nature at its best-and be reminded of its highest possibilities, and this happens to me in church. It may seem as though the same things could be found in solitude, but it does not easily happen so.”

In worship we risk coming together to feel and sometimes express our shortcomings, to be lifted again to our better selves...Expressing our gratitude for what we have received, part of worship is our act of giving when the offering basket comes by. Putting a gift in the basket is more than paying a pledge. It is a “sacrament” of response to what we have received and an expression of gratitude... and thankfulness...

We express our vulnerability, our need for each other, we become a people who struggle and suffer together...in joys and concerns, in the lighting of candles of community. The time we set aside for sharing personal milestones and significant events is a also a ritual that is more than a recitation of facts. It is a weaving together of our theology of relationship: we are each an integral part of the interconnected web and what matters to one is of concern to all of us. Speaking aloud of our joys and sorrows and listening with care and concern is another one of the ways we make our gathering sacred.

It has been our practice to follow the candles of community with either a prayer or a time for silence. Many of you have told me that the time for silence is the most precious and needed time of the Sunday Service for you. ...a time and a space to connect with something deep within the self or beyond the self, in the midst of intentional community...I am touched, over and over again at the fullness of our silence together...

The worship committee and I, have been reflecting together on all these elements of our time together on Sundays, on how we might better construct our worship time, tweaking how we do what we do...to frame the drama of worship...

So, today and for a while, announcements will come towards the end of the service.
Believing that announcement of upcoming events, turn our attention to the future and how we might make commitments to participate in the ongoing life of this community, we felt announcements should be an integral part within the frame of worship. A way to answer the question of who will we be...

When worship is vibrant, full of an energy of renewal, it will call from us a commitment to be more alive, more grounded by who we really are, over and over again...

Come in. Come into this place, which we make holy by our presence.
Come in with all your vulnerabilities and strengths, fears and anxieties, loves and hopes.
For here you need not hide, nor pretend, or be anything other than who you are and are called to be.
Come into this place where we can touch and be touched, heal and be healed, forgive and be forgiven.
Come into this place, where the ordinary is sanctified, the human is celebrated, the compassion is expected. Come into this place. Together we make it a holy place. ---Becky Edmiston