Shall We Gather?

Sermon by Stephen D. Edington, September 11, 1994

Its really rather amazing when you think about it--all the journeys we've made, all the places we've been--and how we all wind up in the same place at the same time (with a couple of us checking in by proxy from Alaska). I wonder what it is that calls all of us back? I think its this--we come back from our many and varied journeys in order that we may journey together once again.

We gather so we can move on together again on our journeys of meaning and hope, our journeys of the spirit; in order than we may again seek and find community with one another and rekindle our commitment to a renewed world. We are called to a re-gathering, to a renewal, to a regeneration of our minds and hearts and energies. We are called to a re-gathering because we need one another, because we are nurtured by one another, because we trust one another, and because we are challenged by one another. We are called to a re-gathering in order that in the presence of one another we may also know our place in, and experience our relationship with, that Larger Life that surges all around us.

I'm beginning my seventh year as minister here. I know I've changed and grown quite a bit over these six plus years. Sometimes growth comes easily and naturally, and other times it comes with a struggle. However it comes, it is good to be able to say "yes" to it. We've grown as a congregation over those years as well, and I'm feeling especially optimistic about the year that is ahead of us.

In speaking of why it is that we gather and what it is that calls us back I must also emphasize that as important as it is that we be here for ourselves and for one another, it is equally important that we be here for those who have not found us yet. For we are also called to be a liberal religious community that opens itself up to those whose lives would be enhanced and enlivened by what we have to offer them and by what they have to offer us.

We got a taste of some real growth last year, and I want us to keep building on that in the months ahead, for we gather in order that others may gather here too. Our Membership and our Public Relations Committees are working now on our having an "Open House" Sunday two weeks from today. I know we're a little shy when it comes to inviting people to church, so we're trying to make it a little easier for you to do that on this one Sunday; say "we're having an Open House on the 25th at our church--come down and see what we're about." We've even got a book out now to help you out a little in that regard. John Sias and Bud Swanson did a great job on this little volume--and I pitched in a little information as well. Too bad the late Anna Stearns can't see it, since she paid for its publication and distribution. If you're on our church mailing list you'll be getting a copy in the mail in the next couple of weeks. We'll have some out at coffee hour, and there are some in our brand new literature racks at the rear of the sanctuary right by the doors. Now if people start asking you questions about who we are and what we are about you've got it all down in about 40 pages. We gather, then, in order that we may also go forth and invite others into the fellowship of this wonderful community; we hope this will be a useful tool to that end.

Six and a half years ago, in April of 1988, I candidated to be the minister of this church. In one of the sermons I delivered over that 8 day period I said that ministry was like a dance between and minister and the congregation with the lead changing over and over again. Sometimes the impetus for the direction of the dance comes from the minister and sometimes from initiatives within the congregation. Ministry is what happens between the minister and the congregation and within the congregation itself, and it really is an ongoing dance. Now in the course of any dance a toe is going to get stepped on once in awhile, and there are going to be occasional missteps; but if we keep with the rhythm of the beat that binds and calls us together--our values, our principles, our purposes, our lives that we share--then the dance is truly a dance of life. I look forward to taking up the dance with you again.

Six years ago we didn't have the hymnbook in our pews that is there now. Our new one has a song in it by Ric Masten--who is a kind of UU troubadour--which makes this point about a dance in a much better way than I'm trying to say it....... so Bruce Dye is going to lead us in singing "Let It Be A Dance" as we close our service for today

Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashua

Shall We Gather?