Sermon by David Dodd, President of the UUP Board of Trustees
delivered, May 22, 2005

This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul, and your very flesh shall become a great poem.

 ~  Walt Whitman, From the Prologue to “Leaves of Grass”

These hours--151 of them so far in UUP's history by my calculation, are sacred because we make them so. We: 54 of us members as of today, plus many who come regularly, plus the 550 guests we've had so far who have signed our guest book. As a Deadhead, and as a baseball fan, I've always had a soft spot for statistics. I had thought I would go into more detail here, but I'll restrain myself. (How many hymns have we sung? What's our top ten of hymns sung? Who is our favorite poet?)

We are a community gathered to worship together, from our many separate paths. Our services have ranged from recreations of pagan rituals such as solstice circles and labyrinth walks to fairly mainstream liberal protestant sermons, to explorations of social justice, of dreams and dreaming, of Unitarian and Universalist history, of the many spiritual paths found throughout the world in history and today. We have had services that were intentionally funny. We have shared our personal stories through our This I Believe and This I Do series of services. We have explored questions of faith, of time, of loss and healing. We have raged together against unjust war, and mourned together over personal and societal losses and wrongs. We have celebrated for couples who have married, and we have shared the sorrow and pain of couples who have parted ways.

We have, in short, intentionally created a safe space in which to share all of the experiences of life.

In so doing, we have formed new friendships and cemented existing ones.

We have made music, we have made art. We have watched our children play and grow together.

Worship: an antique word? An ancient word? An antiquated word? Definitely all three, but a word that describes the process and art of taking an hour out of our daily lives to gather to create something evanescent and beautiful. 151 services. 550 people. We are touching lives, even if our numbers remain relatively small. And I'd venture to say that a huge part of the importance and value of worship is how much of the Sunday experience stays with us through the week, and how we embody worship in our daily lives.

I want to share a few more statistical thoughts.

There's a rule of thumb bandied about (I'm not sure of chapter and verse) that in any given population, about 1% will be Unitarian Universalists, either by self-identification when polled, or by actual membership. Think about that number for a minute. It seems small, doesn't it? But if we had a membership equaling 1% of the population of Petaluma, it would be about 550 people. A congregation of 500 would be qualitatively different in many ways from the 50-person group we have now.

My suggestion for our future success is that we behave as though we were, or should be, or intend to become, a congregation of 500. What does that mean?

It means a sense of strength, a sense of a prophetic role in the community, a sense of possibility, of generosity, of largeness in all the best senses of that word.

It means being sure to take the time to greet, welcome, and integrate our visitors, guests and new members into the life of the congregation.

That, in turn, means that we make some changes in our Sunday morning ways of being with one another.

Think about the space around worship, and within worship. When we arrive in the morning, we members and long-time friends, are we welcoming to the fresh faces in our midst? After the service is over, do we quickly try to do business with each other, or catch up with friends, before we depart to the remainder of our Sunday? Or do we consciously bring people we don't yet know very well into our circles of conversation?

How does a church grow?

It does so by being committed to growth, and by having an outward, not an inward orientation. It does so by being more concerned with what our visitors and newcomers are seeking in a gathered community than in what we offer. Don't be afraid to ask people you haven't met before what they are looking for in a spiritual community! It's a great opening for a big conversation. And that big conversation can take place in just a few minutes.

• Bring someone to a Sunday service (three quarters of new members know someone in the congregation). Tip: the easiest way to do this is to call someone up on Saturday and ask if you can swing by and pick them up on Sunday, because the service is something you thought they might particularly be interested in. It's hard for UUs to evangelize. Think of it as taking someone to a free and interesting event - a concert; a lecture; an art opening.
• Talk with someone you don't know during coffee hour.
• Wear your name tag at every Sunday service.
• Tell a return visitor that you're glad they came back.
• Sit beside a visitor at a Sunday service.
• Put a UU decal on your car or home window. We have bumper stickers in the back - just take one and put it on your car!
• Wear UU jewellery.
• Use a UU coffee mug at work (or at home!).
• Practice your response to the question "What is Unitarianism?" Sometimes this can be best thought of as an "elevator speech" - what would you say about your church to someone during the space of an elevator ride?
• Tell people about the UUP website at uupetaluma.org.
• Tell people about the website of the Unitarian Universalist Association www.uua.org
• Volunteer to be a greeter.
• Write an article for a local newspaper about a church project in which you're involved.
• Host a party to which you invite both members of the congregation and non-members.
• Participate in a community event that reflects UU principles.
• Serve on your Publicity Committee. If you don't have one, consider starting one.
• Link your favorite social justice cause to the congregation.
• Wear a UU T-shirt.
• If you are a member of a small group, invite a non-member to one of your meetings.
• Invite a non-member to an adult program.
• Tell a non-member about an adult program. Heck, volunteer to organize an adult program!
• Talk to non-members about your congregation.
• Give a copy of a sermon you liked to a non-member. (Many of our sermons are posted on our website!)
• Display our "7 Principles" at home or work.
• Carry a "7 Principles card" and give it to people when they ask about UUism.
• Visit other UU congregations.
• Give a copy of World magazine to a non-member.
• Attend a UU church when you're on vacation. (Diana and I do this a lot - it's always a great way to experience a new place, and the church spaces are sometimes among the tourist attractions of the city or place you're visiting.)
• Tell someone about a provocative thought you heard at church; ask them their opinion.
• Call a member you haven't seen for a while and ask them how they are.
• Buy a copy of "Singing the Living Tradition" (our hymnal) for your home.
• Include UU content on your personal and/or business web site.
• Put a stained glass chalice in your window.
• Put a chalice in some place of honor in your home.
• Visit UU camps, such as the Mendocino Woodlands Family Camp, and bring a friend (they're not just for UU's!).

I believe that we have a vitally important message to deliver. I am sure that there are many in Petaluma, Cotati, Penngrove, Sonoma, and Sebastopol, not to mention Two Rock and Bodega and Tomales and Rohnert Park, who are eager to find us, if they only knew we existed. I believe that we can grow to a membership of 500 or more in the next few years. But it will take that outward orientation. It will take vision, and risk, and the overcoming of the fear of failure, not just on the level of an institution, but on the level of making personal connections, and the risk and vision and courage that entails. Some may say that there's an inherent contradiction in being evangelistic about Unitarian Universalism. A friend of mine, Benjamin Maucere, now minister at the First Unitarian Society of Philadelphia, considered a street ministry while he was a student at Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley. But he wondered: "What would I do? Stand on the corner and exhort passersby to 'Follow your own heart! Believe what you want to believe!' ?" And then there's the tired old joke about what you get when you cross a Jehovah's Witness with a Unitarian: someone who knocks on your door for no particular reason.

But I don't see it that way. Now is the time in our country to take the message of a free religious way of faith to the forefront. A way of faith that can lead to salvation here in this life, not one that waits for the next.

The columnist Jon Carroll did our denomination a huge favor about a month ago by writing a wickedly funny column for the San Francisco Chronicle, in the form of a manifesto from a group calling itself The Unitarian Jihad. Here's a taste:

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States! Too long has your attention been waylaid by the bright baubles of extremist thought. Too long have fundamentalist yahoos of all religions (except Buddhism -- 14-5 vote, no abstentions, fundamentalism subcommittee) made your head hurt. Too long have you been buffeted by angry people who think that God talks to them. You have a right to your moderation! You have the power to be calm! We will use the IED of truth to explode the SUV of dogmatic expression!

People of the United States, why is everyone yelling at you??? Whatever happened to ... you know, everything? Why is the news dominated by nutballs saying that the Ten Commandments have to be tattooed inside the eyelids of every American, or that Allah has told them to kill Americans in order to rid the world of Satan, or that Yahweh has instructed them to go live wherever they feel like, or that Shiva thinks bombing mosques is a great idea? Sister Immaculate Dagger of Peace notes for the record that we mean no disrespect to Jews, Muslims, Christians or Hindus. Referred back to the committee of the whole for further discussion.

We are Unitarian Jihad. We are everywhere. We have not been born again, nor have we sworn a blood oath. We do not think that God cares what we read, what we eat or whom we sleep with. Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity notes for the record that he does not have a moral code but is nevertheless a good person, and Unexalted Leader Garrote of Forgiveness stipulates that Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity is a good person, and this is to be reflected in the minutes.

Beware! Unless you people shut up and begin acting like grown-ups with brains enough to understand the difference between political belief and personal faith, the Unitarian Jihad will begin a series of terrorist-like actions. We will take over television studios, kidnap so-called commentators and broadcast calm, well-reasoned discussions of the issues of the day. We will not try for "balance" by hiring fruitcakes; we will try for balance by hiring non-ideologues who have carefully thought through the issues.

We are Unitarian Jihad. We will appear in public places and require people to shake hands with each other. (Sister Hand Grenade of Love suggested that we institute a terror regime of mandatory hugging, but her motion was not formally introduced because of lack of a quorum.) We will require all lobbyists, spokesmen and campaign managers to dress like trout in public. Televangelists will be forced to take jobs as Xerox repair specialists. Demagogues of all stripes will be required to read Proust out loud in prisons.

We are Unitarian Jihad, and our motto is: "Sincerity is not enough." We have heard from enough sincere people to last a lifetime already. Just because you believe it's true doesn't make it true. Just because your motives are pure doesn't mean you are not doing harm. Get a dog, or comfort someone in a nursing home, or just feed the birds in the park. Play basketball. Lighten up. The world is not out to get you, except in the sense that the world is out to get everyone.