First of all, please put your Sunday programs under your seats. Come on, now, I'm serious. Put them out of easy reach. Thank you.

UU Principles, Purposes and Sources. We print `em in our Sunday program every week. The risk in doing that is the likelihood they'll become the wallpaper of our program - the part that no one (or hardly anyone) ever notices or reads. And UUs aren't much for rote memorization, so not even the kids fresh from their RE classes can recite all seven Principles in order. I'm not sure I can either, though I might come closer than most. No peeking, now! Let's check. Do you know them? Some? Even one of them?

In most UU groups, the Principle most people remember is the first one - affirming and promoting the inherent worth and dignity of every person. I sometimes think it's the one we're most proud of, that's dearest to us. And each of us needs recognition of our own value - and sometimes that can be mighty hard to find. Rev. Sarah Lammert describes the way she sat and wept at the words of acceptance she heard on her initial visit to a Brooklyn UU church. Here was a church that welcomed her just as she was! Maybe you've had a similar experience. If so, you know how deeply significant it is.

At the same time, we are challenged to remember - and practice - a commitment to that same value and importance in other people. That part seems to be a lot harder for humankind, especially when a group has some obvious difference: race or language, religion or culture. History is studded with far too many cases of horrifying abuse and slaughter. Relatively recent examples include the Armenians early in the 20th century, the Holocaust, the slaughter of the Tutsis in Rwanda and the current situation in Darfur. Racial abuse and hatred has lived in the US from the days of slavery on and continuing oppression of sexual minorities is all too common.

And though we like to point to Unitarian or Universalist exemplars like Theodore Parker defending escaped slaves, or Olympia Brown traversing the Midwest for women's suffrage, our history on these kinds of issues is distinctly mixed. We've been owners of slave ships and slave owners as well as abolitionists; we've excluded women's and minorities' participation in our congregations and our pulpits as well as welcomed them. When we're honest, we have to admit that even UU humankind has difficulty seeing beyond the customs and attitudes of our culture. These days, we're doing better on issues of categorical oppression, but we need to continually refine and improve our critique of the humor we encounter and use, the attitudes we adopt and the kinds of comments we make. And when we look around our congregations, we don't see the racial or economic diversity that characterizes our communities. We haven't looked seriously at the reasons for that or explored ways to make changes, despite efforts and programs from the UUA.

Around our District and in the wider UU world, there's a lot of talk about "hospitality" these days, sometimes "spiritual hospitality or" "radical hospitality". It seems to be a pretty wide umbrella. The idea is related to John Buehrens words from our reading - that deeds, not words, are our test of faith. If we say we affirm the worth of each person, we ought to act that way, to demonstrate an attitude of acceptance; more, an attitude of interest and welcome. In this summer's UUWorld, David Rynick had a piece that talks about this connection, and goes on to explain why he sees hospitality as a spiritual practice. "When our actions spring from our deepest truth, we become more alive and aligned. . In a true encounter with another human being, we come face to face with the mystery of life." He also describes the New England welcome his congregation realized they had been offering: "We sincerely welcome you into our church as long as you know how to get here and know what to do.We'll be happy to talk to you if you initiate and will promise not to bother you." His words remind us that true hospitality is more than being comfortable with the way we do thing or even showing reasonably good manners. Do we have our own restricted Central Valley welcome? I don't know, but it's worth asking.

This hospitality stuff is a relatively new conversation among Unitarian Universalists and I get the sense we're feeling our way. The newsletter of the Berkeley church recently ran a whole page entitled "What Is `Radical Hospitality'?" I may put parts of it in our own newsletter, but right now I'll offer their "Five Things To Remember About Radical Hospitality." Ready? Radical hospitality comes from within and is an outgrowth of our capacity to give and receive love. It is inclusive and requires us to remain open to others as they really are. Radical hospitality is about really paying attention. It's about understanding, acceptance and relationship. That's a lot to think about. Let me read them again. (Do that.) I hope that we'll be talking more about all this as time goes on.

Hospitality conversations can also involve sensitivity to particular needs. Some are pretty universal: perhaps most notably, the need for recognition. I don't mean special recognition here; I mean recognition that you actually exist in this time & place. We've all been strangers at times. It's more than a little uncomfortable when you feel uncertain about what to do and invisible to those around you. That's not surprising in a busy airport or a city subway, and we know to look for information booths and signage. It's quite a different thing when it happens in a UU church. I know I'm not the only one who's visited another congregation and had no one but the usher say a single word to me. What a different experience it is to be a first-time visitor in a church where the others nearby turn to greet me, ask a few questions or say they're glad to have me!

Helping people with differing abilities to participate as fully as possible is another facet of hospitality. Thanks to Walt Lab and others, we have a permanent ramp at our entrance, so mobility problems are eased. We routinely leave spaces for wheelchairs and carts. Thanks to the Zonligts, we have a hearing assist system, so people who have hearing problems, along with parents with fussy babies and volunteers who duck in and out of our sanctuary can hear what's going on. Thanks to our efforts to change our culture about such things, nearly everyone who speaks here actually does use a microphone, so the system is fully useful.

Providing a welcome to folks with a range of theologies and social perspectives is also part of acting on that first principle. Here we move beyond categorical differences to individual ones. Too often, we assume that "everyone" thinks and believes the same way we do. But Unitarian Universalists actually are Democrats and Republicans, Libertarians and Greens. We are hunters and ethical vegetarians as well as socialists and free-trade capitalists. We are Christians, humanists, pagans and Buddhists; theists, agnostics, atheists, nature mystics and skeptics. I have heard some of our members say, `All of us here agree that XYZ.' but I have never believed it. Our first principle calls us to act on the assumption that differences in belief and opinion are founded in thoughtful consideration and experience. It reminds us to seek better understanding of those foundations. It's not that we'll agree. It's about getting past our assumptions and giving due regard to different people and perspectives as they are. It's about becoming more alive and aligned, about encountering the complexity and mystery of life.

And what about those cases, those people, who say or do things that step outside the bounds of acceptable behavior? Whether we like it or not, people do things that are offensive, sometimes even violent and threatening. In a general sense, this means we support civil rights, even for suspects and we're committed to the idea that guilt must be proven. We believe that prison conditions should be humane. Most of us support efforts at rehabilitation rather than simple punishment.

But not all such problems take place on the police blotter or otherwise away from the Fellowship - this place that brings us closest to our values and principles. Is it true that "anything goes" in a UU congregation because of our first principle? How can we honor inherent worth and dignity and also be clear about both our ideals and our standards? Now things get a lot more difficult, and UUs have been known to allow, if not exactly accept, some pretty outrageous stuff. Just how far do `tolerance" and `acceptance' go?

As we begin to look at questions like these, some of our other principles come into the picture. To my mind, they are natural, logical outgrowths of that first principle; not essentially different, but pointing us to areas of application and concern. The second on our official list is one of these: it calls for justice, equity and compassion in human relations. In some ways, it seems like a no- brainer: if every person has worth and dignity, of course we'll treat each other well.

But just what does that mean? Ah, there's the hard part. And what a combination of elements is listed in that second principle! Justice. Equity. Compassion. Surely there's tension between justice and compassion! And what a challenge to include equity, either in cases requiring a judgment on what constitutes justice, or when a compassionate response is called for. How do we do those things without somehow putting ourselves in a superior position? It's awfully easy to shift into superiority when we we're the ones deciding what's best, what's acceptable, what's merciful.

Let's look at a couple of examples. What if someone in our congregation makes a suggestive sexual comment to you? After all, we UUs teach comprehensive sexuality courses for children, teens and adults! Doesn't that mean we can say anything we want? Well, hardly! It means we value our sexuality and think it's important to know as much as we can. It also means we say that any of our relationships, including those with some sexual component, must be characterized by respect and care for the other person. We must be aware of differences in age, power and position, and expect mutual or equitable interest and intensity.

If someone here makes an offensive comment to you, I hope you won't smack `em - worth & dignity, remember? But I also hope you'll make it clear that you're offended. Which isn't the same as never speaking to someone again, though things are bound to be strained. Maybe something like, `I'm not sure what you meant, but that comment offended me.' Or "That kind of talk makes me feel awkward and uncomfortable." We want everyone to be comfortable and safe here, and also appropriate.

What about someone who's not really known to us and seems somewhat questionable? What if they seem sort of `in your face' and avoid the minister or try to spend their time hanging around with the children? We've had a situation like that. Our response was to write up an Agreement of Appropriate Welcome and Behavior. It basically said the person was welcome at services and adult activities but not in the children's areas or times when no activities or programs were scheduled. A couple of our Board members explained it to the person and asked that it be signed. I still keep the agreement, though this person hasn't been here in a while.

We could find ourselves in situations that are more problematic. At last month's Board retreat, the facilitator, Mary Ellen Morgan, asked what we would do if a registered sex offender asked to become part of our congregation. As I recall, the room got really quiet for a while. We hadn't thought much about that possibility and didn't really want to think about it. Still, we knew it would be much better to talk, do some research and work on a policy in advance of any problems. We were glad to learn that a new on-line safety course from the UUA includes this and other related issues. How do we honor the inherent worth of a person and still protect ourselves and our children from a possibly serious threat? It's quite a challenge!

In situations like that, along with a range of less weighty matters (and largely because of that first principle) we are religiously committed to freedom of conscience and the use of the democratic process - both here at the Fellowship and in the wider community. If you check the list, you'll see it says exactly that in our fifth principle. So we want to hear your comments, we want to hear your doubts and your ideas. We think everyone has something to add to our conversations, our decision making; not just officials or clergy members. Theodore Parker claimed, "Democracy means not `I am as good as you are,' but `You are as good as I am.'"

Our commitment to this community includes considering different viewpoints - even though it can seem to drag on and on, even though we're sometimes repetitive and irritating, even though those who disagree with us can be so wrong! And maybe it's also the other way around. Sometimes we're the ones who are mistaken. Certainly we all have the minority view at one point or another. But we don't give up on the whole thing and walk away. Parisa Parsa, one of our contemporary ministers reminds us, "It's the right of conscience, not the right of ego we preserve in our fifth Principle." Later she continues, "While worship is our collective act of celebration, affirmation, challenge and inspiration, it does not ask of us what attending an annual meeting does."! Any long time UU knows what she means.

We can extend that challenge - to listen carefully and consider different positions - outward to social and political issues of many kinds. Affirming and promoting the right of conscience and the democratic process means respectful, thoughtful engagement with those who hold opinions opposite from our own. It means refraining from name-calling and ridicule. It means holding the door open, at least a chink, to the possibility that we might have missed some important factor; that we might need to modify our position. It might mean working through assumptions that mis-characterize our thoughts and those of our opposition. It might mean using a different framework to explain our aims and intentions.

Our sixth Principle extends this process even further. It calls us to the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all. We can see this as an extension of the things we try to do, person to person, in our congregations and in our country. But how much more difficult it all is on a world scale! How easy it seems for conflict to balloon into hatred for whole groups of people, people who have somehow `become' wholly different from `our' kind! How impossibly difficult to arrange for dialogue, negotiation or exchanges once these lines have been drawn! Yet we are called to build bridges between Earth's people, not walls.

We may not be diplomats or politicians, but we participate in a democracy, and so have influence. We find other avenues for connection - responses to crises, humanitarian efforts, travel experiences, exchanges of various types, volunteer service. All these actions move us toward world community. It's a far-off goal, but if we don't start, we'll never get there. As you have heard, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And as travelers on this kind of quest, we are not called to success, not responsible for reaching such a goal. We are called to keep moving onward. The Rev Sean Dennison Parker reminds us that, "In the Jewish tradition, the world is seen as incomplete and broken. The work of this life, then, is to help with tikkun ha'olam: the healing of the world." Not to accomplish the healing, but to help with it. Every one of us can do that much.

We've been following connected ideas this morning and we've come a long way. Our path has gone from claiming that each person has worth through the need to ensure safety and the right of conscience, through democratic processes here at the Fellowship and far beyond. We've come to talk about the vision of a community that holds all Earth's people in right relationship. It's quite a journey! In the weeks ahead, you'll be hearing about other connections and other Principles and also about the ways they all interact and affect each other. It starts with each one of us, but spreads and connects throughout the world.

You'll also be hearing about some new UU marketing efforts in the Bay Area and spilling into our region as well. One of the slogans being used describes what we've been talking about right here, and what we're aiming for. At least I think it does. It says our congregations are places where we "nurture your spirit and help heal the world." I like that. May it be so.

September 16, 2007

This is one of our Minister's Sermons. We also have a brief biography of Rev. Simons, and the latest edition of Grace Notes, a column she writes for our newsletter.
We have another sermon collection, from our Guests.