Service As Our Prayer

Sermon at UUCC Jan. 9th, 2011
Cassandra Howe

Before Christmas, Joe invited me to the Enduring Spirit art exhibit at WMU. As I walked from piece to piece, I noticed my emotions changing. I was grateful for being “let into the lives” of the people in the portraits. I connected with many parts of people’s stories. But I was also struck with the sobering realization that I have judged these very people every day of my life. I judged even as I offered spare cash, served hot meals, gave articles of clothing.
After spending some time looking at the art, Joe motioned to the notebook and magazine article on the table. Several people had written in the notebook. “I struggle too,” One person wrote. “These stories and pictures help me not to judge, but to listen,” wrote another. “We are more alike than unalike,” left a third, quoting the African American feminist author, Maya Angelou.
From the article, I learned the initial question that inspired this project- who in society doesn’t get to have their portrait taken? Answering the question for himself, Tim, the artist, worked with MwC and the members to set up a way to gift the members with their own portraits.
Perhaps most striking piece of project for me is not the product- but the process. Tim spent thirty minutes with each person photographed. The time was very intentional. For the first ten minutes, Tim asked questions like, “who are you? What do you like? What has life been like for you?” The next ten minutes, he took shots, and finally, he had each person choose their favorite ones for printing.

When I think of the amount of money I pay to sit with my doctor for ten minutes, once a year if I’m lucky, I realize how precious time is. What a gift it is to have ten minutes of another person’s thoughtful attention. Another person’s care. Who gets time like this in society? Who gets to have their story heard?
Another thing I like about the process is that it is ongoing. The art is not finished. Even though it is framed, hanging on the walls, it is not finished. Each one of us is part of the art when we go up and begin to read, peeling away the layers, listen to what the stories and the pictures behind the words are telling us. As Tim writes in the article, we have to earn the pictures. Exhibit not just about sharing pictures and stories. It’s about human relationship. We earn relationship by opening to it. By taking time to listen. To watch. And to learn.

Rachel Naomi Remen writes, “We can only serve that to which we are profoundly connected, that which we are willing to touch… we serve life not because it is broken but because it is holy.”

Service, like compassion, not about helping those less fortunate than ourselves, but about realizing our kinship with all beings.
I was recently in Seattle for Christmas. I grew up there, so I was able to visit family and friends from high school and college who either returned or never left the rainy city. One of the people I visited was my godson, Carter. At one and a half years, he is learning and changing every day. one of his recent phases is giving. He likes to give you whatever he has in his hands (or his mouth).
Our impulse to give starts at a very young age. Even before we learn to give, though, we learn to receive. We receive our mothers milk. If we are lucky, we receive warm embraces from friends and family. Smiles. Affirmations. These gifts come from our parent’s desire not for us to get over our infancy, but from their desire to see us grow. They give because they love us- they believe in us, and see our wellbeing as part of their own.
It is important to remember this foundation for giving. As we grow older, giving and helping become more tricky. It is interesting to think of how this works in our language. Whatever is “for you” may be helpful, but also has the potential to be harmful. I think of things that are supposed to be “good for you.”

Some really are good- like vitamins. But others- like keeping unhealthy secrets or putting up with abuse- are really more about the other person’s greed than them caring for your wellbeing. I also think of the phrase, “I’ll pray for you.” After deciding to go into Unitarian Universalist ministry, for example, my fundamentalist Christian friends’ comments, “I’ll pray for you,” meant something completely different than the same words offered by a more spiritually sympathetic friend.

Helping you. Pray for you. But we don’t often say, “I serve for you.” We ask, how can I be of service? In service, it’s not just for you, or from me, but we are participating in an act of communion. An act that seeks the well-being of all involved. A recognition that my house is your house, my joy is your joy, my sadness is your sadness, and my life is your life.
Serving others is an extension of a person’s devotion to God, of our ability to live out the fullness of our humanity.
Serving is at the core of our Unitarian Universalist faith. Universalists recognized that salvation is not about the individual. It is about all of humanity. Their belief that Jesus’ death on the cross saved everyone inspired them to seek to uplift all of humanity right here on earth.
Service that is connected with our underlying human connection and our individual birth blessing can be heard in our first and seventh principles- as we affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every human being, and the interdependent web of which we are all apart.
Service stemming from our common humanity can also be heard in the very first covenant of a Unitarian church- in Dedham, MA in 1637. a covenant that is spoken in many UU churches to this day:

Love is the doctrine of this church,
The quest of truth is its sacrament,
And service is its prayer.
To dwell together in peace,
To seek knowledge in freedom,
To serve human need,
To the end that all souls shall grow into harmony with the Divine -
Thus do we covenant with each other and with God.

Service is our prayer. Prayer, for me, is less about asking or reciting. More about reaching. A longing for union with the oneness that is all of life. in service, as in prayer, I experience a renewing connection with others and with life. I receive as I give, and as I give my full attention to something that is both part of me and beyond me, I learn to deeply listen.

In college I joined a delegation from the UM church of my childhood that was traveling to Guarjila, a small town in El Salvador. We had recently become a member of Sister Parish- a group that pairs together different faith communities across national boundaries. Having heard about mission trips, where the northerners occupy their time building houses or planting trees, I was a little surprised to learn that we were just going to bet here. To hang out, was how one high school companion phrased it.
Once there, I understood that we were there to build relationship. Seeing relationship as foundational to true service, our first several trips to El Salvador were primarily focused on sharing stories, learning history, playing and worshipping together. The organization is not against service projects or fundraising for a specific need in the community- it just recognized that the most effective and transformational service comes out of authentic relationship.
One of the ways that trip impacted me was in my awareness around international trade agreements and US role in the Salvadoran military. I joined others from my church in attending the School of the America’s protests in Georgia in following years, and we joined other organizations in Seattle working to educate around international trade and economic justice.

I smile when I think of how different my experience was from a typical mission trip. Instead of handing out bibles, we learned about Liberation theology from the local residents. Instead of assuming, “we know more than you,” or, “what we have will save you,” we took a deep breath, and listened.

We serve life not because it is broken but because it is holy.

In Judaism, Tzedekah, giving with justice and compassion, comes from the belief that all of creation is a gift and we have a responsibility to return to it a righteous balance. Monetary giving is seen as an extension of justice (Zevit 80). Even with the high esteem placed on giving, it is understood that more than money is needed to restore greater kindness.
The Babylonian Talmud states, “One who gives a coin to a poor person is rewarded with six blessings, but one who encourages that person with words is rewarded with seven.”
To me, the various levels of giving noted in Judaism are less about how much you give, or how much you do, but how much you risk. Often, giving a moment of our time can be more risky, than any product or purchase we might have. Whatever we are able to give, it can be a pathway to the divine. On Mt. Sinai, Moses took off his shoes and found he was standing on holy ground. How can we, in our service, take off our shoes and open ourselves to transformation and change?
Service comes from realizing our kinship with all beings. As we open ourselves to others, we open more fully to ourselves.

The mission of UUCC reflects this understanding of service. The first line states, “our congregation provides a welcoming community that cherishes diverse perspectives.” You go onto commit yourselves through service to make a difference in the world. There is wisdom in your order of words. First, you need community, for in community we build relationship, the foundation for service. We serve when we greet each other Sunday mornings. When we risk telling our stories, the joyful and those full of pain. We serve when we commit to justice-seeking organizations in the community. And when we organize our resources to give in common and with intention, because that is how we find meaning and growth.

Examples of service surround us. Literally, hanging on our walls. We are the first house of worship to host this exhibit. What does it mean to give sanctuary, literally, to this kind of radical relationship? Next week we welcome new members into our congregation. How can we bring more of who we are into this room? How can we offer ourselves more generously to the people we come across, every day of our lives? We will need all of who we are, if we are to make lasting and positive change. May we open ourselves to the challenge of service, calling us to deeper presence, listening, action, and care.

Works Cited:

Zevit, Rabbi Shawn Israel. Offerings of the Heart: Money and Values in Faith
Communities. Virginia: The Alban Institute, 2005.