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By Rev. Preston K. Mears Jr.
June 5, 2011
Those of us of a certain age could not graduate from high school
without having read William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Some of us had
to memorize the soliloquy, “To be or not to be.” I want to use it as
a springboard to ourselves since we are on a journey together and,
as a congregation, have worked at our visioning, have had
conversations about who we are, and, a year ago, completed a 54
question survey about our preferences and priorities. Previously,
the Search Committee presented the results of the survey with you
and, later, this morning, the Search Committee will share with you
comments, observations and suggestions about us it received from
four candidates that were interviewed by the committee. All of this
material is available on our members website.
As most of you know, I have been on the Search Committee and I
resigned from that committee in order to run for the Board. My
reason for the change was to be in a position to bring to the board
something of the excitement and insight about Davies I gained
through the search process.
I start with Hamlet’s question to himself since it is a pretty basic
one to the human condition. Hamlet, as you may remember, ultimately
made everything worse by his hesitation, his indecision; he was a
committee unto himself! By the end of the tragedy, most all of the
characters end up dead on the stage. Of course, Hamlet had been
dealt a bad hand: His father had been murdered by his stepfather who
was in cahoots with his mother.
Fortunately, most church/congregational tragedies don’t end up as
bloody as does the play Hamlet, but they can be pretty sad. That was
certainly true of a small Episcopal Church in the old town part of
Bowie, MD where I provided some part-time assistance, St. James. It
is closed now with its members now attending other area Episcopal
churches. It happened because too many members wanted to be in the
past. And like all of us, its past included good things and not so
good things that included all of the mistakes, hurts, slights, real
and perceived as well as the positive relationships and good
experiences. Sometimes, we people can be very good at cherishing and
holding on to our hurts.
I was struck by going from helping at St. James on a Sunday to
coming here, that, while both Davies and St. James shared the risks
and problems of small church congregations, Davies people
consistently want to be unique and alive in the here and now. More
specifically, Davies people want to be alive in the here and now to
our both being and becoming a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, diverse
and welcoming congregation.
The Search Committee work gave me an opportunity to look at who we
are both in terms of Davies history, the journey of its people, with
all the high notes and the warts, our varied interests and desires
for now and our hopes for the future. Taken altogether, we want to
be a kind and caring people, supportive of each other and we want to
really know each other in all of our diversity and variety, young
and old, and to be a just and responsible people. These basics are
common to those who have been here a long time, to those like the
Mears who have been here a while now, and to folks who are new.
To use religious language, which isn’t always comfortable, we want
to be “spiritually alive.” To be alive is to be aware of but not
stuck in our history, to be very much aware of ourselves, others and
of our environment now, and to be open to new possibilities, new
understandings going forward. Something of both an example and a
metaphor for being spiritually alive and free to new possibilities
comes from children. Show a child some open space and they are off
exuberantly.
Laurie and I have some open space in our backyard with lawn and
trees; when kids come, they want to run out into the field and
explore. Our youngest grand child Ezra just goes down into the yard
as though there is no boundary, no limitation. I holler out to him,
“Ezra, Stop.” There are poison ivy vines plus thorn bushes at the
bottom of the yard. He turns his head, laughs, and keeps on going.
He is not dragged down by history, he is a kid and knows only how to
be in the moment, and he is excited to be free and able to explore.
He is spiritually alive. The Biblical precedent of course is, “Let
the little ones come to me for such are of the Kingdom of Heaven.”
We instinctively know this as evidenced by our unfailingly pleasure
at the kids coming up front to sign the “Spirit of Life.” We are
moved by the older ones who have the signs down smoothly and
gracefully. We are moved by the younger ones, who try and who just
want to be part of the action. The children are spiritual not
because they are all good and innocent, they are not. They are not
spiritual because they have great understanding and wisdom, they
don’t. They are spiritual because they are simply present in the
moment and able to be excited in the freedom of the moment.
Dr. King spoke the lines, “Free at last, thank God almighty, free at
last.” Often that is heard as life after death and being free of the
burdens of this life. That is not all it means, and, in Dr. King’s
context, it meant being free of slavery and the chains of prejudice
and segregation. To be free is to be free to be alive in the moment
and to be able to explore possibilities we only dream of. Such
freedom is spiritual. We adults need to be in touch with that
instinct that is in us and is so evident in the child running down
our yard.
We have a freedom to explore the possible in our time and in this
place and in this society by our being together in this diverse,
multi-cultural community. We have the freedom here with each other
to learn how very varied and differently our world is. We can deepen
our appreciation and awareness of how varied is our world. As we do
that, we become more free, than we were, to understand, to enjoy and
live into new possibilities. We don’t have to be just this class, or
that group, this tribe but not that tribe. It does require us,
however, to step out of our familiar places and understandings if we
are to grow spiritually, if we are to be “Free at last.”
As young adults and as adults, spirituality includes being aware of
ourselves and knowing ourselves with all of our history, stresses
and pressures, good things and not so good things. It also means
learning that we are not the center of our universe. And to get to
appreciate this universe business, we need others who are faced with
the same challenge! All of us have friends, mentors, coaches, mates
who have been of particular help to us. Here, we can benefit from
the experience of all kinds of people. That is special fare. Here,
in this congregation, all of the comments and survey results say
that relationship, acceptance and support is essential to us here.
It takes time and patience and work; it is important; it is basic to
our spiritual lives.
For me, our freedom here in this place and time, is spiritual. The
Search Committee’s research underlined this reality as well as to
point to a host of needs that we should manage better and better. I
have felt it, and I am not alone in that. And now, to be very
contemporary, we have “the data.” And, like Ezra in our backyard, I
see lot’s of open space for me and all of us to grow spiritually. It
excites me and it energizes me and I hope that the same is true for
you.
I like it that Laurie and I can be here as a married, hetero-sexual
couple and not have to explain ourselves. I like it that our
daughter is here as one of us and neither she nor we have to explain
her sexuality. I like it that we can have thoughtful, challenging
conversation and relate fully to each other across the racial
barriers we all have inherited.
I like it that all of our children in all of their variety can come
together here and be themselves, be friends and learn and grow. They
may have adoptive parents, they may have two parents of the same
gender, they may be this and they may be that.
Here, our children come together and can say, “We are different.”
Too often, what they hear in the world is, “You are different” and
it is said in a hurtful way. To be able to say, “We are different”
is to be spiritually alive whereas people saying, “You are
different” is spiritually deadening. Listen carefully to the words
people use, words we use.
This is one place to end. I affirm our spirituality and am excited
by our future. We are spiritually alive in that we care for each
other and want to learn and grow from each other. We are willing to
view our history and seek to join together in our diversity to grow
within ourselves and with each other in a spirit of freedom and
discovery. There is another part of our life together that is
important: actively working for justice. So I need to say a little
more about our being a spiritual people.
About a third of our survey respondents noted that we don’t do much
in the social justice arena. Many of us are involved in social
justice on our own and through our work. There are some things that
do happen as a church, such as next week’s Capital pride events. A
few of us are participating, as members of Davies, in the events
next weekend. Some commented regarding growth that we do need to
increase our visibility in the social action/social justice arena
both for its own sake and to attract new members. Some remember the
60’s when civil rights work brought people together and into Davies.
Back at that time, when I was in seminary (1966 graduate of the
Episcopal Divinity School), a question that was seriously discussed
was whether one changed laws and hence behavior and the heart would
follow, or would one change the heart and the behavior would follow.
The activists tilted one way. “Why should the oppressed wait for
some folk to have a change of heart?” “Get people to walk and their
heart will follow.” But, by the same token, “Shouldn’t we be
concerned to help people grow in their understanding and help them
get past their fears?”
To that debate, I would add a dimension of spirituality that should
not be lost. The mere fact of our existence as a visible, caring,
very diverse congregation is its own active witness. Feel it,
believe it and share it. We may not think of our simply being who we
are as an active statement; it is. We sometimes learn years later
that ordinary acts of kindness or thoughtful words offered in a time
of need really did make a difference. The ripple effect of our being
who we are makes a difference in ways we don’t see right now. Mind
you, let’s not get smug or lazy. Just understand that being
spiritually alive is its own doing; it matters; it matters a great
deal.
Another window into the same thing is what we refer to as our
children’s religious education. We mean to do for them so that they
know there are principles to latch on to without giving up their
freedom to learn and understand for themselves. Of course, they
aren’t very good pledgers and can be a lot of work. But, wait a
moment, there is a whole piece that we seem to miss sometimes.
Children do something very important for us adults: they remind us
what it is to be spiritually alive: excited to be alive, hungry to
experience freedom, curious to learn, and, oh, yes, willing to
relate to us and discover who we are. The child running in the open
spaces, literally and metaphorically, is a gift to us. And, we, as a
caring, diverse congregation of people are a gift to others and to
our larger communities.
We started with Hamlet’s question about being or not being. I also
noted that Hamlet seemed to be a committee unto himself. We can be
committee like. However, we don’t want to keep talking to ourselves
in circular soliloquies until its too late. For awhile, going
through transition and a period of retrenchment, we talked and
talked about doing this and not doing that and cutting back on our
program efforts. Now, as we heard from Sandy, our president, we are
moving forward on our building and not just talking about it. We
need also to move forward in our religious education programs with
renewed energy as well; they are essential to our children and to us
adults.
The answer to Hamlet’s question is to be spiritually alive, knowing
our past, engaged in the present and exited to move into our future.
I am glad to be here and I am excited about our future as a diverse,
caring and spiritually alive people.
AMEN
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