Sermon

INTRODUCTION: In “As You Like It, one of Shakespeare’s many plays, he writes one of his best known lines, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players….” And if that’s true, it means that we each have our many parts on the stage of life, our entrances and our exits. But the question that life asks is this:

Will we act upon life, or will we merely be acted upon?[2] Will we stand on the sidelines, or will we join the parade? Will we spend our lives as victims, or will we count all of life’s experiences as lessons learned and move on to the next act?

Whichever, we can be sure of this one thing, on stage or off: Life is not fair. To confirm that, turn on the radio and listen to any country and western song. They whine it, cry it and yodel it. She/he has done me so wrong. Plus there’s always a prison, booze, and a train somewhere. The result is the same: Now I’m all alone and she or he is to blame. The result? Poor, poor pitiful me.

Now I described that in a way I hoped would elicit a smile. But, the truth is that it’s very possible at some time or other in each of our lives, we all needed or will need some one to whom we can tell our sad story, and not necessarily with a country music band accompanying. Nearly all of us at some time or other need someone to whom we can say, “Life is so bad. Can you believe what’s been done to me?”

And if we have a good relationship or friendship, they will sit there and listen to us and shake their head up and down in agreement. They won’t say anything about the possibility that we may have had something to do with what went wrong. Rather, they will repeat several times, “Oh, that’s awful” and “I can’t believe she or he did that.” And “I do understand,” and “I’m with you 100%!”

But after that’s happened, after we’ve vented and sung our she/he/they done-me-wrong-song, eventually, we have to go back to the real world. No wife or husband or partner or girl/boy friend ever had relationship problems that it was 100% the other’s issues. No partner or relationship ever floundered due to one person’s mistake only.

Now I know that sounds hard to believe, but bank it – it’s true. No congregation or minister ever had problems that it was all one or the other’s fault – even when you have saints like you and me.

So, the message that we have to take from any conflict is sometimes harsh, but real: Get over it. It’s life. We have to learn to live together. Are there problems? We have to learn get-along-together skills. We do that better sometimes than we do at others. Even when conflict may have decimated us.

It’s like the waves of the ocean washing in on the beach: We can’t stop them. Sometimes, they will hit us and knock us down. The real question is fairly simple: What will be our response? Will we be like driftwood that goes back and forth, in and out, never having a say in its future. Or will we get up, dust off the sand, ignore our hurt pride, and keep walking.

Again, here’s the real question that we are asked the first moment of every day: Is this a day we are going to act, or a day we will be acted upon? When difficulty and temporary failure knock us down, will we lie there forever as a victim, or will we dust off and get up. Will we take responsibility for our actions, and find a new way to start all over again?

In other words, we cannot always choose what happens to us, but we can choose our response. Or as you and I have quoted to each other so many times, as Dr. Viktor Frankl states in Man’s Search for Meaning, the concentration camps proved again and again, that “The last of the human freedoms is how we will choose to respond to that which has happened.” Will we choose to act?

But let’s also be honest: you and I know about a lot of times when we acted and made choices that later turned out to be the wrong choices…the wrong acts. And we never know for certain, that won’t be the case again. It’s a gamble…a great risk. Should we…should we not?

How can we know? If we accept that we should act…that we should take charge of our own lives, write our own stories, and play from our own scripts, can we in doing so have any confidence about what the future will be?

If we live out our lives with integrity, and act out of a sense of moral harmony with the Universe, can we have an innate sense of trust in the future about our actions?

To me, that’s where Original Faith comes in. What it assures us is a fundamental premise of our self-understanding. As Santayana said:

Every species is born with an innate sense of confidence in the created order…that it is supportive of each species’ effort to survive and to reproduce.

Or to extrapolate from philosophy to theology, it means Santayana was saying that every species is born with an innate and original faith. It was there when we were pushed and pulled out of the womb. At that moment, it said to every newborn species, “Listen up. This is your life to live. No matter what hand you’ve been dealt – whether you’re rich, poor, handsome, beautiful or deprived – you’ve been given something very precious that every other newborn, every other species that walks, flies, swims or crawls on this earth has, and it is this: An innate sense of faith and confidence that the Universe is in support of our efforts to survive.

Or as religious faith puts it, no matter what happens, God is within. And if God be for us, the battle is already half won. But the other half – the action half – is up to us.

That means when we make our choices in life, we do it in faith, because of that original faith with which we were born…namely, an inner awareness that our environment is supportive of our efforts to live life to the fullest.

So to repeat – three things: One, we act, rather than being acted upon. Two, we act in harmony with principles of integrity, care and concern. And three, we do so with an innate sense of confidence with which we were born.

Okay, now let’s transition from the personal and try to relate what I said to this being the start of our 7^th year of existence at All Faiths as a liberal religious congregation:

First a little bit of history: For those of us who were founders, and part of that first year of services, it was a stage that required action. We could think about it, wish for it, and debate its possibilities, and even blame others, but none of that would change anything: We had to make the leap, and then hope that we would grow wings. Let me repeat: None of us knew how to fly, but the challenge was to take a flying leap and hope that we would grow wings. Scary in hindsight, huh!

We could only do it because we believed in what we were doing…that there was a need in Ft. Myers for another liberal religious congregation with a Unitarian Universalist minister, specifically, this one. We had to believe it would succeed: That in this corner of the universe, we could find a place, and have a unique voice.

Thanks to you – and I emphasize that – thanks to you, six years later, we have made it to this good day. We have always paid our bills. And we have money in the bank – sometimes more, sometimes less, but never too much. We’ve held services every Sunday. We’ve maintained an office, and a communication’s program. And most importantly, we’ve developed a caring and supportive congregation.

Now our 7^th year looms before us. What does the future say? I would suggest these three things:

That’s another way of saying, that we need to continue to develop our inner strengths rather than attempting to build outer ones. In five years, I would love to give up the post of settled minister and focus on a capital campaign to buy or build. But between then and now, we need to continue to develop inner strengths in areas.

That means more small groups where we interact and get to know each other personally. It’s one of the reasons our president, Joyce Ramay, has been working so hard this past year, and especially, these past few months dividing us into zip code zones, putting together a telephone tree, and coordinating getting-to-know-each-other parties in homes. In fact they start next week. Their focus is two-fold: Getting to know each other better, and in so doing, learn how we can strengthen All Faiths.

What that is all about is “growing strong by growing small.” The more we meet together in small groups, the stronger we grow overall.

I genuinely hope you will plan on attending one of the parties scheduled. There is a signup pad in the back. They’re scheduled by zip codes. I have been invited to each one and look forward to meeting you there. They will start at different places in a week or so and run for the next two weeks.

I met with Pat Nuding, the membership chair, this past week, and here’s what we’re proposing to our Service Support Council and to our Board of Governors: That we institute a membership course that will run each quarter for six weeks. It will be called Building our own theology. It addresses the question: What do you believe now at this point in your life. You probably are pretty articulate about what you don’t believe, but are you equally fluent stating what you do believe. That’s what the course will be focused on. It has wonderful materials and great teachers. It’s open to anyone, but we want especially to recommend it for new members, for those considering membership, and for those of you who have signed on as our Friends.

Building a liberal religious congregation in SW Florida is a challenging and difficult task. It takes a whole lot of us working together. As we approach this new year, we really, really need you on board as a member. We so much appreciate those of you who have signed on as Friends, but please, considering moving to the next level: Become a member. Sign up for our membership course. Get on board.

In Aurora, Illinois, which is due West of Chicago, and probably a 30-minute train ride, there’s a beautiful YWCA. I spent some four months there in the late 80s or early 90s as a capital campaign consultant. I heard this incredible story.

Near the turn of the 20^th century, there was a textile factory on that site. They had scores of women working in transforming cotton into cloth. They worked from sunup to sundown. They even ate their lunch while working at their looms. The women of the local YWCA met with the owner and asked if he would consider giving his workers 15 minutes off for lunch at which time the women from the Y would assist them with their lunch and read scripture to them. He agreed, and in what was a revolutionary change for those hardworking women, they now had 15 minutes each day away from their looms to eat, and while they ate, the caring women of the YWCA read them scriptures.

Fortunately, things have changed in America. Such practices would not be tolerated anywhere. But the women of the Y WCA led the way in Aurora. And many years later, when they needed to find a new site, guess what they found. This same textile mill, but old and abandoned. They bought it and built the beautiful facility they have there today.

But here’s the point I want to make: Do you think for a minute – even one second – that the women who sought time in 1898 for the women mill workers to have time off for lunch, ever even dreamed of their one day being a dynamic women’s association on that very site? Of course not. But because of what they did, when they did it, their legacy lives on. And the same challenge is ours today. Six years ago, we had no idea what or who or how All Faiths would be. The result has been this warm and unique community of faith that we know as All Faiths.

One foggy night at sea, the captain of a ship saw what looked like the lights of another ship heading toward him. He signaled the other ship with this message, “Change your course ten degrees to the south.” The reply that came back was: “Change your course ten degrees to the north.” The captain answered, “I am a captain, so you change your course ten degrees to the south.” Reply: “I am a seaman first class – change your course ten degrees to the north” The last exchange really infuriated the captain, so he signaled back, “I am a battleship – change your course ten degrees to the south.” Reply: “And I am a lighthouse. Change your course ten degrees to the north.”

n Growing strong by growing small…that is concentrating on those things that strengthen us from within.

Happy Anniversary, All Faiths! I am so proud to be here with you on this good day.

[1] A sermon on our 7^th Anniversary, September 09, 2007, at the All Faiths Unitarian Congregation, meeting at the Crestwell School, 1904 Park Meadows, Ft. Myers, FL, by the Rev. Dr. Wayne Robinson, minister.

[2] Posed by Stephen Covey in Everyday Greatness.