My son thought very hard, looking intently at this new place his father had brought him.
“We have all kinds of people here,” Ruth explained gently, helping him make sense of what he was hearing.
“This is an everybody church!” shouted Ben, leaping up in his chair.
Why does this matter?
A sermon preached on Sunday, August 20 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spartanburg, SC.
A recording of the sermon may be found here:
An excerpt of the transcript may be found here:
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Why does this matter?
Just look at the world. And look at us in it.
How powerful it is
to be in a place
of connection,
and belonging,
a place where difference
is not only valued
but is loved,
a place of truthful conversation
and deep encounter
without coercion, or threat,
or violence.
And why does this matter?
It matters how we live together.
It matters how we use our knowledge.
It matters how we share our resources.
It matters how we think.
It matters how we treat one another.
It matters what kind of world
we decide
this time around the sun
we will create.
And when we do this
with intention,
with risk,
cognizant of ourselves
in relationship to others,
something more happens—
not just goodness,
not just justice,
not just healing,
not just community—
although it includes all of these things—
Something more happens:
a kind of magic.
That is what an eclipse is:
bodies in relationship,
illuminating one another.
at the very moment of their mutual darkness.
We use the word “eclipse” to talk about something that is ending,
or being surpassed,
something losing its supremacy,
something dying and fighting for its life.
Hear how much
that echoes our own fears,
as individuals, as peoples.
But that is not what an eclipse is.
An eclipse
is bodies
very different from one another
coming into alignment
such that we see suddenly
in their relationship with one another
something startling—
darkness & light fused in cosmic glory—
which is also nothing more
than their very nature.
In an eclipse, sun and moon—
and our position on earth,
our small but crucial place in it all—
come for a moment
into a particular alignment.
And from this momentary vantage point
aspects of the sun,
its different colors and circles of light
can be seen.
In its very darkening,
through its relationship
with the moon,
we see the sun’s light
in a new way.
And not just the sun,
but all of life
is presented in a different aspect
during that brief intersection of bodies—
the temperature drops,
animals and plants become disoriented,
people—that particular form of animal that we are—
become confused too, frightened or ecstatic or both—
stars come out,
and astronomers
and astrologers
after long preparations
hasten to study
the heavens and our place in them
across this sprint of time.
In that moment
the light & the darkness
are not the same
but together,
mutually revealing
what is true to both—
what is really just their nature,
common and ordinary—
but unseen
when they are not together.
And when they are:
unearthly glory
people will travel the world
to encounter.
And so with us—
each of us
full of light,
full of darkness,
full of knowledge and religions
and resources and power,
full of life,
common & extraordinary.
So often we have chosen
to dominate and overwhelm
out of fear of what we will lose
if we don’t,
fearing that we will be eclipsed
and die forever
if we don’t conquer first
the world around us
and the people of this world.
So often we have chosen
the lie of supremacy.
And in consequence
we have destroyed worlds.
But if we choose instead
alignment
& relationship,
not a false unity or sameness
but a universe of different bodies
in relationship to one another,
connected to one another,
revealing the glory
of one another,
what brilliant darkness,
what luminous shadow,
might be seen in us?
This is an everybody church.
Every body,
earthly & celestial,
dark & light,
of every name
and gender
and origin
and belief
has a home
in this world,
has a home
here.
Whatever your orientation,
whatever your gravitational pull.
whatever your light,
whatever your darkness,
whatever your history
and your place in it
you have a place here.
Let us reveal to the world
what is so rarely seen,
something extraordinary
that is also just us,
bodies luminous
in our movement
together.
This poetic, wise, optimistic message was such a joy to hear yesterday in our church. THank you,Scott, for becoming our minister!
We are all just walking each other home. Thank you for choosing to walk along beside us on our many different paths towards the goal of bringing more love and justice into the world.