“Flame of Commitment…So Our Future Can Begin

Love In Tangible Form by Susan Karlson

Looking at the overflowing cup,
Seeing from another perspective,
Witnessing life in all its fullness,
We share from a place of hope and dedication
And put our love into tangible form.

© Rev. Susan Karlson

March 4, 2012

Unitarian Church of Staten Island

I’m pondering the distinction between optimism and hope since reading my colleague, Bruce T. Marshall’s meditation, (Hope, Not Optimism).  Optimism is passive and is prone to erosion, heartache, and despair.  Hope is active, looks for and nurtures the real possibilities.  Hope-filled people take risks; they dare to imagine an alternative future.  

We don’t need dewy-eyed optimism.  We need good hearted, loving, hard-working, HOPE-filled people with the “fire of commitment”.  That is the theme for this Stewardship drive--The Fire of Commitment to move toward a sustainable future.  This church is calling hopeful folks that see the hard economic realities but who don’t stop there.  We proclaim this year as the year we start to turn things around at this church so that we can live with even more integrity, create even more social change and equity, comfort those who are afflicted, challenge those who are comfortable, care for one another, hold up that vision voiced in the song, Fire of Commitment, of a “…deeper justice built by our courageous choice.” 

I am observing that courage in the actions of  the Board and the  Finance committee in tackling some difficult tasks.   This is the result of an accumulation of synchronicities, the particular mix of people building on the past who have the organization, enthusiasm and vision to do what must be done NOW.

The Board has tackled some crucial but mundane, not-at-all-sexy tasks; writing policies and procedures, persevering with getting  a Certificate of Occupancy, writing rental and building use policies.  They have developed a gifts and donations policy, and they have set about documenting every single important document and policy and procedure.  We’ve been talking about these things for years but now we are able to get them done.

This work is not always easy, but it is essential to enable us to pursue our mission.  When we need to change our culture we bump up against the motto of any institution which cries, “this is the way it’s always been done” or “we tried that once back in ’73 and it just didn’t work”.   Personalities and feelings emerge among the Board members and we rub each other the wrong way because we are human and that’s what happens when humans really work on something together with determination. It’s hard, soulful, real work and it doesn’t always feel good.  But the Board does it because they have the fire of commitment and each and every person on the Board loves this church with their whole selves. 

The Finance committee has also been acting in a different way.  They have continued to create means to be accountable for the financial health and well-being of the congregation, such as a clearer job description for the Treasurer.  In collaboration with the Membership Committee, they are getting clear about the actual members and friends so that we can better serve the existing members and make sure that the members who join in the future are also valued and included.  A new volunteer position has been created so that our equipment, computers, copiers, and all of our software is well catalogued, updated, and maintained.  Our web masters are also working alongside to ensure we are a visible, living, viable force for good, accessible from anywhere.

All of this hard work and fiery commitment by the Board and the Finance Committee, of course, does not reside in them alone.  The Arts Committee, the entire Religious Exploration committee, the Social Justice committee, the Small Group Ministry, each group in its own way has the fire of commitment, and dedication to the Unitarian Church of Staten Island. And each of you by your presence on this Stewardship Sunday, each of you has a fire in the belly or you would not be here today.

When I was thinking of the leaders of this congregation and how much they love this church I was reminded of Jesus’ Great Commandments, the first of which comes from the Hebrew Bible known as the Shema:  “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” while the second is the familiar commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.”  Those Great Commandments are tied in to the notion of a radically distinctive time in the life of this church that I believe we are nearing. 

In my interpretation of Jesus’ Great Commandments, loving God with all my heart and soul and strength and loving my neighbor as myself is correlated with my love for this church and my vision of the kind of community we are called to be.  They are not mutually exclusive.  They are how my love for God (as I understand God) is made real in this world and one way I can live that change and live my faith through this religious community.

 This church doesn’t exist  just to hold temporal property, to have fun and socialialize, even to have great conversations with like-minded people as riveting as those things are and as much as they tie us together in community, but to do good.   We are called to be a community that works to free those enslaved by principalities and systems that violate the civil and human rights of people far and near.  We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves--these are our principles; it is part of our ethical framework and it is our mission to be open, welcoming “doers”.

One of the visionary ideas of how this congregation can be relevant in the 21^st century is to begin an alternative worship service that attracts young adults, known as Soulful Sundown—it is not in our  budget but it is a necessity if we are not to just “age out”.  We have to try different things, see if they work, take some risks, reassess, do something different but if we do what we’ve always done, there is no hope, there is no reality but entropy.

Stan from the Finance Committee is going to tell you this morning at our Fellowship Brunch about a hopeful budget, a fire-of-commitment budget, a budget that is fair and just and moves us in the direction of living our mission, our vision of the beloved community.  He will also tell you that this fire-of-commitment budget cannot work unless we make it work, unless we look deep within ourselves, reach down deep and understand that this church has a special place in our lives and in the lives of countless others that we will never see and never know.

If we are to proclaim this the year of “The Fire of Commitment” our hopes must be invested in a tangible willingness to contribute.  I am asking you to commit again and to commit a little more if you are able.  Many Sundays, we hear about events, fundraisers and socials taking place in the community.  This church is a part of a much wider community and it’s important to see how our lives intersect.

This morning and this year with the “Fire of Commitment”, I’m urging you to put this church first when you decide what causes to support and what donations you are able to make.  I’m challenging you and I’m challenging myself to come up with three ideas that will help us balance this budget, and support our mission to enrich our community by opening our hearts and minds to others, to support and nurture people to grow spiritually and morally, and to support this church with gifts of time, money and talents.

Here are my three ideas—the first is the Soulful Sundown idea I talked about before that I plan to work on this spring and summer so that it can begin this fall.  The second is to place a free will or love offering basket in our church and encourage people to donate and think of this church in their thoughts and prayers whenever they attend an event, class or just drop by the church.

The third is an idea for our children and youth—to begin taking an offering during our Religious Exploration classes so that our children learn about stewardship.  At the end of each year, in May, for example, the children can vote on a project to benefit the church, something else for Staten Island or New York City and something more national or global as a third project.  This way, they learn how their dimes, nickels, quarters and dollars can go to make the church more beautiful; Staten Island, more healthy, and the world, more just.

And I’m increasing my pledge to 11% of my salary, housing and self employment tax that the church pays because I have real honest hope and the “fire of commitment” that we can make this church glow (refers to our Story for All Ages, adapted from the story by Linda Olson Peebles, “Glow Sticks” where we used Glow Sticks to talk about how we all glow when we share our light with one another and the world).

We are the Hopeful, “fire in the belly” folks that roll up our sleeves and do what must be done because we have one foot firmly placed in what exists now and the other equally well-placed foot striding forward toward the future.  We are not afraid of difficult change.  From this our “home that love made” we will sustain, comfort, challenge and radicalize the lives of people this congregation touches—members, friends, children, youth, community organizations and community leaders. 

Let the future begin!