“Who am I? Who are you? Where to? What next?”

First Sermon by Consulting Minister the Rev. Melanie Morel-Ensminger
for the North Shore UU Society, Lacombe, LA
Sunday, October 12, 2008

I am so honored to be here with you on my first Sunday as your part-time shared consulting minister. Last month, my consulting with your leaders was by phone and by email, advising on worship and membership, and dealing with pastoral care matters. I am delighted with this service to begin my every-other-month preaching with you. Thank you so much for this opportunity to minister with you, and thanks also for the wonderful time and delicious meal at last night’s Circle Supper. If you are not signed up for a Circle Supper, I urge you to do so right away – you are missing out!

As this is our first time worshiping together, introductions are in order. Who am I? Who are you? These are questions always asked of new folks, as Unitarian poet Carl Sandburg relates in his book-length poem “The People, Yes.” “What’s your name, where you come from, stranger? Who are your people?” But these are good questions as well for a new minister serving a new congregation. You’ve learned something about me in the brief bio that was in the newsletter, and in the longer one you heard at the start of this service. As we interact in person, by phone, and by email, please feel free to ask me anything else you want to know about me. In return, the timeline that began with the Meditation this morning will help teach me about this congregation and all of you – and hopefully you too will learn something as we go on and add to it. But we won’t be finished any time soon, for all of us are on the move, growing and changing.

In “The People, Yes,” Sandburg gives a picture of all Americans as perpetual motion machines – always on the move, never completely satisfied, ever looking ahead to the next thing. Even when involved in everyday activities, constantly on the lookout for those “lights beyond the prism of the 5 senses,” for that ineffable something – we don’t know what it is, but we’re sure we’re gonna find it – always asking, “Where to? what next?”

What I like about those questions is that there are different ways they can be interpreted, depending on the inflection of the speaker. They can be eager, anticipatory: “Where to?! what next?!” Or they can be depressed or despairing: “Where to? what next??” They can be frightened or apprehensive: “Where to? what next?” Today, I mean to express all-of-the-above, because ambivalence, mixed feelings, about change is normal.

Those of us in greater New Orleans have had to deal with more than our fair share of change (if there is such a thing!) and many of us feel like we’ve had enough. But it’s not just us – almost everybody dislikes change. Most of us enjoy knowing what we can depend on, and feel good being able to predict things. A few years ago, a church consultant told a conference of UU leaders, “The only person who likes change is a wet baby.”

Change is uncomfortable, even painful, even changes that we yearn for. After escaping from Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites complained bitterly to Moses about “the good old days” – when they were slaves! Modern adults get a better job, make more money, and then are surprised by how unhappy they are, even though things are “better.” Children yearn to grow up, insist on being treated older than they really are – and then moan about how hard everything is. At age 10, my son once said to me, “I don’t mind growing up, but why does it have to hurt?” Why indeed?

However painful, change is necessary to growth. In Passages, Gail Sheehy notes, “Changes are not only possible and predictable, but to deny them is to be an accomplice to one’s own unnecessary vegetation.” Ouch! It’s unfortunate, but true, that vegetation is the inevitable result of the stubborn or fearful refusal to make necessary changes. Change opens the doors to new growth and maturity – but conflict usually walks in as well.

In UUism, we have seen this happen over and over again. I will use 2 of many possible examples from our history to illustrate how change and conflict go hand in hand. My first example occurred during the late 19th century, as Unitarianism expanded into the Midwest. In the 1880s, the Unitarian societies of Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, western New York and Pennsylvania formed the Western Unitarian Conference. They established as their motto “Freedom, Fellowship, and Character in Religion” – and in so doing, ignited a furious controversy that took 8 years to settle. Other Unitarians were outraged at what the motto left out: no God, no Jesus Christ, no institutional church. “How can we be a religion without God?” they asked. “How can we be Unitarian if we are not Christian?” In effect, they demanded, “Where to? What next?”

You already know how the “Issue in the West” was decided, even if you’ve never heard the story before. Today, Unitarian Universalism is non-creedal, with no doctrinal test for membership. We welcome into our goodly fellowship a wide diversity of faiths to which our experience, our minds, and our hopes bring us. We are held together not by beliefs but by behavior; not by shared creeds, but by shared values.

My 2nd example comes the time when the Unitarians and the Universalists first began cooperative efforts on social reforms during the latter part of the 19th century. Despite the cooperation, there was serious resistance on both sides to a merger. Both were suspicious – would the benefits outweigh the disadvantages? Would each lose a sense of their own special character? The early part of the 20th century found many Unitarians and some Universalists embroiled in the Humanist debate, and the Universalist denomination looked askance at their colleagues, thinking, “Why do we want to get involved with them?” By the 1930s, merger was discussed ad nauseum at each denomination's annual meeting, but little progress was made. In 1953, the Council of Liberal Churches was formed, in which many administrative functions of the 2 were combined, and a year later, the 2 youth groups united. Finally, finally, more than a century after the idea was first proposed, in 1961, the merger was completed, and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations was born. Today we are all UUs with little thought to the labor and even trauma it took to bring the 2 Us together.

As uncomfortable, painful, and full of conflict as it might well be, the North Shore congregation is approaching the time to ask “Where to? What next?” (You might also be asking, “Just how much transition can one church take??”) In a short, too short, period of time, you have faced the physical storm of Hurricane Katrina, the spiritual storm of a minister’s breach of trust, and the financial storm of a too-big mortgage shouldered by too-few members in a time of economic near-panic. You weathered the smaller storm over the resignation of your previous consulting minister. That’s A LOT for any one congregation to deal with, let alone within a compressed period of time.

In this transition year, you have agreed to share ministry with your sister churches of Community Church and First Church in an innovative arrangement so creative that the UUA doesn’t even have any comparables to share with you. I am proud that all 3 of our churches have created this relationship, and I believe that this experience will strengthen all of us.

As you prepare to look ahead to a possible future with a new, more permanent ministry arrangement, you must first come to terms with the past. You must look at what your church has meant in the past before you can peer into the distant future, and faithfully answer those important questions: “Where to? What next?” I invite everyone present to place their Post-Its on the timeline, whether today or later, and I urge you to keep on adding to the timeline as more significant events occur to you. Take time every Sunday to look at the timeline as it grows and becomes more complete; encourage everyone to participate. We can’t possibly know “Where to? What Next?” until we know where we’ve been and why.

Let us walk together on this journey of discovery, being open to what we might find, and looking out for those “lights beyond the prism of the 5 senses” to be our beacons on the way. So might this be! AMEN – ASHE – SHALOM – SALAAM – NAMASTE – BLESSED BE!