Quotes
“The heart of [being a people
of welcome] is about creating space for someone to feel seen and heard and
loved. It’s about declaring your table a safe zone, a place of warmth and
nourishment.” Author and blogger,
Shauna Niequist
“[Being a people of welcome] is marked by an
open response to the dignity of each and every person.” Best-selling poet and essayist, Kathleen
Norris
“[Welcoming people do] not try to impress, but
[they try] to serve.” Author, Karen
Burton Mains
[Being a people of welcome
means] invit[ing] strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner
selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.” Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer and
theologian, Henri Nouwen
[Welcoming people don’t] have to be perfect,
just heartfelt.” Counselor, Susan Karas
People of welcome offer not
wisdom, but love.
[A people of welcome offer] the exceptional
blend of love, humility, hospitality, and persistence [that] can overcome
…barriers…” Christian Apologist, Nabeel
Qureshi
[And finally, as people of welcome we remember
that:] “The places in which we are seen and heard are holy places. They remind
us of our value as human beings.” Author and Integrative Medicine Professor,
Rachel Naomi Remen
Sermon
So
what does it mean to be a people of welcome?
For us here at DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church to be a people of
welcome? Well, first I encourage you to
read the newsletter this month, Mary Law, our Congregational Life Director,
Steve Cooper, our Director of Religious Education and I have offered some ideas
about the practical aspects of being welcoming.
Effective ways to engage a visitor to our congregation, strategies to
help them feel at ease in this unique faith of shared values, but different
beliefs, and tips about how to connect them with the various affinity groups
here—from the humanist group to the pagan group, as well as the chalice circles
and covenant groups. You might think
that how you engage with a visitor doesn’t make much of a difference in the
long run, but it does. A few weeks ago
Martha was telling a new church friend where she goes to church, and the person
replied, “Oh, I visited that church years ago—I remember they actually talked
to me!” So yes, you do make a
difference. These kinds of positive
interactions are part of being a people of welcome. The quotes that I shared today all speak of
welcome, but I think there‘s more to it than being friendly to strangers on a
Sunday morning, something that pulls all those quotes together. And just the other day I found it.
As
background to how I found what I was looking for I want to tell you that I am
going to Washington, D.C. to take a course offered by the American Humanist
Association called The Humanist Lifestance.
I will be in class from 9 AM to 5 PM for a couple days with two leaders
from the Ethical Society and take a field trip to the Hall of Origins at the
National Museum of Natural History. In preparation for this course, I have to
read about 5 books, 8 or so articles, and write four papers. It seems very much like a college
course. It is in one of those books, The
End of God-Talk: An African American Humanist Theology by Anthony B. Pinn, that
I found what I was looking for.
Just
to make sure we are on the same page this morning, I offer this definition of
humanism. Humanism is living in the here
and now, focusing our lives on making ourselves and our world the best we are
able in the time we have been allotted to live on this planet. Pinn would add that humanism includes a
“quest for complex subjectivity…[and] a push for greater life meaning.” I really have no problem adding that to the
definition we will use for humanism today.
Pinn describes theology as a “method for critically engaging,
articulating, and discussing the existential—[what it is to be an acting,
feeling, living human individual]-- and the ontological – [the nature of being,
becoming, existence, or reality—in other words, theology is engaging the]
issues that are part of every human life.” Then he begins a theological
exploration of the history of the African American religious experience. He delves into two different types of
humanism, and these are his terms: weak humanism and nontheistic humanism. I don’t particularly like the term weak
humanism or weak humanist, probably because I am one. Weak humanism allows for the possibility of a
belief in a divine or god while at the same time living according to humanistic
values. He rejects transcendence and
supernaturalism, while exploring how humanism can embrace a sense of awe and
wonder in the everyday experiences of life, and he describes how ritual and
celebration can enhance those mundane experiences. Pinn experiences awe and wonder in the world
and explains this by explicating the works of theologian Howard Thurman, author
Alice Walker (she wrote The Color Purple), and Transcendentalist and Unitarian
Henry David Thoreau; he also finds inspiration in the lives of Harriet Tubman
and Fredrick Douglas. One of his ideas
is to consider place, spelled p (l)ace, as both a physical space and a place in
time. The physical space is embedded in
time place embodying complex subjectivity—thus the world embodies complex
subjectivity and how we experience and make meaning of it cannot be a simple
process. I will probably expand on all
that in a later sermon.
So
what does all this have to do with being a people of welcome? Pinn writes: “Non theistic humanistic
theology wants to avoid any tendency to essentialize community, while still
retaining a sense that [community] means something akin to the substance of the
uncertain, a misty recognition of ‘and’.”
What he is getting at here is the idea that we cannot make a community
be what we want it to be. A successful
sense of community comes from embracing the “uncertain…misty recognition of
‘and’”. I need to unpack this a
little. He feels that many Christian
communities--or really any community-- that tries to enforce like-mindedness is
counterproductive. Pinn believes that
people really shouldn’t be molded or shaped or even nudged to think a certain
way. He encourages us to embrace the
idea of community that is enriched by the diversity of thought that is created
when people think for themselves. He
believes there is value in being in that kind of community, but also that we
should still avoid any sense of needing to be part of a community in order to
have a fulfilling life. We join a
community because we are enriched by it, we grow from being in it, even as we
have an awareness that community is not perfect and never will be. Being part of a community lays “bare the
limits and importance of the empty spaces in its geography…[and] exposes [us
to] what is and what is not [in our lives and in our world].” In this type of community we live in the
tension of what we label as community and the feeling that there is something
absent, some need/want not being fully met by the community. Thus in a community, we learn how complex our
lives and our world are and that is a good thing, an important function of the
community. Pinn writes that community
“does not override the ability to achieve personal ends [but provides an
opportunity for] collective vision, loyalty, and recognition.” For him community is a p(l)ace both physical
and spiritual.
Our
Unitarian Universalist third Principle states that we affirm and promote the
acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth within our
congregations. Our Principles are not
doctrine. I agree with this Principle
and try to live it in my life because it makes sense to me, and it’s congruent
with my values, not because it is doctrinal to our faith. Members of any Unitarian Universalist church
do not have to be in agreement with any of the Principles to be a Unitarian
Universalist. Here is the truth, the
Principles are descriptors. They were
created to describe the values of the people who generally come to and remain
members of a Unitarian Universalist congregation. They were created to describe Unitarian
Universalism to people who are not Unitarian Universalists. The minute they become a litmus test for
being a Unitarian Universalist or a member of this church, we are on a path to
both essentializing this community and forcing this community to become
like-minded—in other words trying to get people to accept that there is one and
only one right way to think or believe and they must understand that in order
to be welcome.
So
what is it to be a people of welcome? Being a people of welcome means that
we’re not here because we have to be.
We’re here because we want to be.
And we understand that the people who visit us do so not because it’s
Sunday morning so they have to find a church to be in; they’re here because
they want to be. As people of welcome we
affirm the importance of an uncertain ‘and’, understanding that uncertainty
that is intrinsic to a diversity of belief and thought. We are aware that embracing this uncertainty
allows anyone who joins us to know they can belong to this community. Being a people of welcome means we realize
that we will be enriched by anyone who joins us. As people of welcome we are imperfect and our
community is imperfect and that is the way of life. We are a people of welcome when we understand
the complexity of our lives and our world, while understanding that anyone who
joins us is just as complex as we are and they have the capacity to help us understand
more about the complexity of life. As
people of welcome we need to hold our Principles loosely—understanding that
they describe the values of many, but not all of us, and that we use them to
help others understand what many of us as Unitarian Universalists value. And as people of welcome, we do not try to
mold, shape or nudge each other, or anyone who visits us, into a particular way
of thinking or believing.
In
Kreves Hall there is a sign that says Welcome at the top. Welcome to anyone who is Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Ally, black, white,
Hispanic, latino/a, Asian, biracial, multiracial, Jewish, Christian, Muslim,
Buddhist, Hindu, Interfaith, Pagan, elder, adult, young adult, teen, child,
infant, native born, immigrant, humanist, atheist, agnostic, theist,
conservative, liberal, single, partnered, special needs, a visitor to our
church, and each of YOU! But this is an
incomplete list. After the service I
invite you to add more descriptors to the list.
After you write those descriptors of others you feel should be welcome
here, think about how we can make it so and share your ideas. This is another way we can be a People of
Welcome.
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