Month: October 2015

Habitat Unity Build 2015 Sermon Meditation

Meghann Robern

Sermon Meditation given at The Temple, Congregation Ohabai Sholom, on October 9th, 2015 as part of a multifaith service to celebrate this year’s Nashville Habitat for Humanity Unity Build.

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Out of wood and stone, out of dreams and sacrifice,

the People build a home.

Out of the work of their hands and hearts and minds,

the People fashion a symbol and a reality.

That comes from one of the readings in our Unitarian Universalist hymnal (#733), and as I was praying on what words to offer here tonight, I kept coming back to this verse over and over again. In our modern culture, with high populations in urban and suburban areas, and increasingly specialized careers, it’s easy to forget that once upon a time, the building of each other’s homes was one of the ways humans built community.

Out of wood and stone, out of dreams and sacrifice,

the People build a home.

Out of the work of their hands and hearts and minds,

the People fashion a symbol and a reality.

Today, we celebrate returning to those roots, We have come together to honor that which connects us together despite our religious differences — our mutual desire to support our larger community, and to invest our time and effort into making that community a better place for all, regardless of whether or not they share our individual beliefs.

Out of wood and stone, out of dreams and sacrifice,

the People build a home.

Out of the work of their hands and hearts and minds,

the People fashion a symbol and a reality.

The reality is a house that someone will male the symbol of their home, the place where their heart is. Every piece of wood, every nail, every window, every drop of paint, came together with your hands to build this place of shelter and comfort — an outward expression of what our religions seek to provide inward. Symbols and reality, inextricable from one another, for without one, the other loses all meaning and significance.

Out of wood and stone, out of dreams and sacrifice,

the People build a home.

Out of the work of their hands and hearts and minds,

the People fashion a symbol and a reality.

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Through the Veil

Meghann Robern

This was published in the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville October 2015 newsletter, and adapted for publication on Nature’s Path, the CUUPS Patheos blog.

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Blessing For Those Not Here An extra place setting at dinner. Photo by Julie Gibbons 2010(cc)
Blessing For Those Not Here
An extra place setting at dinner. Photo by Julie Gibbons 2010(cc)

October 31st, which most of you know as Halloween, is also known as Samhain. In the Wheel of the Year, it is the Wiccan New Year, the time when the Blessed Lady mourns for her dead Lord at the same time she prepares for the rebirth of his incarnation on the Winter Solstice. This juxtaposition of grief and hope is, to me, one of the most poignant fundamentals of the human condition.

Once upon a time I had some toxic, manipulative people in my life — people who tried to take away my exuberance. My ability to find joy in little things, or efforts to follow my bliss, were either repeatedly mocked or deliberately silenced. And I let it happen, until a few years ago when I simply could not take it anymore.

I have spent a lot of time since then trying to figure out exactly how I broke free. I had a support system in place, yes, but it had also been there before I escaped that awful situation. Over the years I’ve come to the understanding that it was the memory of my grandfather, Dada, that gave me the strength to persevere and make a new life for myself.

He was not broken by his months of torture as a POW in Korea. He loved his wife, and understood that even a storybook romance requires effort to maintain. His sense of honour and commitment were so profound that he was selected for service to the President of the United States as a pilot for Marine One. I know all of these things are true, and yet the things about him that have survived the years most clearly for me are his smile, as broad as the horizon, and his laughter, which came freely and loudly and proudly.

I believe it was this memory of his presence, and knowing his story through others, that saved my life all those years ago. If finding joy and laughter in as much of the world as possible was good enough for this man, who had every right to be angry and hard… then surely it is good enough for me as well.

This Samhain, as the veil between the world gets thin, like the Blessed Lady I, too, find myself at the juxtaposition of grief and joy. I cry that Prudence and Percival will never know his laughter, that he and Josh’s dad will never discuss the beauty of God manifest in nature. I wish he could have seen me realize my call to ministry. But I am also overwhelmed with joy at my life — that I refused to settle for anything less than the standards he set in love and life, and that I will no longer wear the masks others try to set upon me. I remember the dead by making them part of me, and using their wisdom to help me follow a path of living justice — not just for others, but for myself as well.

Blessed be.

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Small Group: Unity & Diversity

Meghann Robern

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First UU Church of Nashville Covenant Group Session Plan #139
Meghann Robern, Intern Minister and CG Facilitator

October Worship Theme: Unity & Diversity

Opening Words: UUA Lifting Our Voices worship supplement, #41 (Penny Hackett-Evans)

Each of us brings a separate truth here.

We bring the truth of our own life, our own story.

We don’t come as empty vessels but as full people,
each with our own story and our own truth.

We seek to add to our truths and add to our stories.
This room is rich with truth, rich with experience.

All manner of people are here:
needy
joyful
frightened
anxious
bored

We all bring our truth with us.

May we all recognize the truth and the story in other lives than our own.
May we hear and honor the truths that we all bring as we gather together.

Together we have truths.

Together we have a story.

Together we are a community.

Chalice Lighting and Covenant

Check-In and Sharing

Topic:

The Reverend Mark Morrison-Reed offered up four things for UUs to consider regarding “The Perversity of Diversity”:

  1. Lighten up. Many UUs are fearful of making mistakes, of saying the wrong thing and offending someone. Our fear prevents us from forming authentic relationships. We cannot let trepidation prevent us from reaching out. We will inevitably make mistakes, but we can forgive one another’s blunders.
  2. Know who we are. We can only attract those who are like us. By knowing who we are, and being authentic to who we are, we will be able to attract more people who are like us across ethnic and racial lines.
  3. Appreciate the diversity that’s already within us. The more we can do this, the more we would attract others to join us. Let’s affirm and celebrate with joy the diversity we already have.
  4. Understand how we are caught in a conundrum—we have a perversity to our call for diversity. We want to change, but not too much, and we want to stay in our comfort zone. We settle for looking different rather than being different. Change will come whether we want it or not, simply because the society around us is changing.

How do these ideas make you feel? Have you ever stopped yourself from doing something out of fear of offending someone? Can that stopping, that not reaching out, ever be a good thing? Why are some areas of diversity so much harder to achieve than others?

Bridging from the Sept 27 worship service, how do you reconcile your multiple identities into one whole person? How can that work you do with yourself be applied to congregational life? To life in a larger community like Nashville?

Closing Check-Out and Chalice Extinguishing

Closing Words: UUA Lifting Our Voices worship supplement, #23 (Jonipher Kwong)

Spirit of Life,

You speak to us from the East and the West
You speak to us from the North and the South
You call to us from the depths of our being
We respond with enthusiasm and fervor
We cry out from Manila to Maui
We shout from Alaska to Alabama
We proclaim your wondrous love from the highest mountain to the deepest ocean
Our voices must be heard. We shall not be silent.
Our voices must be heard.

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