June 12, 2005
No One Is Alone
Unitarian Universalist Church of Chattanooga
June 12, 2005
Hymn 34, Though I May Speak with Bravest Fire
Welcome
Good morning. Welcome to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Chattanooga. My name is Monique Lewis and I serve on the board of trustees. Please remember that the emergency exit is over here to my right, child care is available downstairs in the nursery, and the arm chairs here in the sanctuary are for those who need a little extra support when standing. After the service, please join us for coffee and conversation.
Our service today explores the many connections we share as human beings and as members of a community. For music, Marcia Jenison and Tobi Cisin have prepared sections from Beethoven’s Twelve Variations on a Theme from Handel’s Judas Maccabeus.
Kindling the Chalice
Lawrence Kushner is the Emanu-El Scholar at San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El and visiting professor of Jewish spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union. Formerly he was Rabbi-in- Residence of Hebrew Union College and the rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, Massachusetts. He is a regular commentator on NPR’s All Thing Considered. One of the most widely read authors on Jewish spiritual life, he brings his gifts as a storyteller and scholar to his role as a leader of personal and institutional renewal within Judaism. He wrote these lines.
Some seem to be born with a nearly completed puzzle.
And so it goes.
Souls going this way and that
Trying to assemble the myriad parts.
But know this.
No one has within themselves
All the pieces to their puzzle.
Like the days when they sealed jigsaw puzzles in cellophane.
Insuring that all the pieces were there.
Everyone carries with them at least one and probably
Many pieces to someone else’s puzzle.
Sometimes they know it.
Sometimes they don’t.
And when you present your piece
Which is worthless to you,
To another, whether you know it or not,
Whether they know it or not,
You are a messenger from the Most High.
May the Force Be with You
Dolores took many of the children on a field trip this morning, so even though there may not be many here, I still invite the young and the young at heart to pay close attention to what I am doing. I have put some water into this bucket. Today I want to show you that it is possible to raise this bucket, over my head upside down, and have the water stay in the bucket. Of course, for this to happen, I have to handle the bucket of water in a very special way. Let me show you. [Swing bucket around in a big circle.]
The water stays in the bucket because of what we call centrifugal force. This force is set up whenever you move something rapidly around in a circle. The water in the bucket wants to fly out from the center as I spin it around in a circle. This force goes against the force of gravity when the bucket is over my head. Since the centrifugal force is greater than the pull of gravity, the water stays in the bucket and does not come down upon me.
Now as long as I swing the bucket around in a big circle, the water stays in the bucket. What would happen if I stopped swinging and the bucket was right over my head? I’d get wet, because the water would fall out of the bucket.
There is a lesson here for everyone. Life is continually subject to change. If we do not continue to grow, if we do not keep on moving forward; then we can easily lose what we have. Like the bucket, we can easily lose what we have if we stop moving forward. For human beings, like you and me, moving forward means using what we know and learning new things all the time.
When I was young, summer vacation meant no homework, no tests, no reading, no science reports and no long division. But when I went back to school, in the fall, I had to work harder than ever to remember what I hadn’t used all summer long. The water had fallen out of my bucket and I had to put it all back in.
To keep what we have we need to use it. We forget long division if we don’t use it; our muscles grow weak if we don’t use them and our spiritual life takes a beating if we neglect it. I probably won’t see you for awhile, because I’m going on my vacation, just like you. But I want you to use what you learn here at church and remember it. Don’t be shy about learning something new—that’s tending to your spiritual life. And keep the water in your bucket.
Offertory
I love baseball. Perhaps not as much some presidents I know, but I like the game. I like it even more for the stories it produces. You ever heard of Don Sutton? He was born in 1945 and was a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was often accused of altering baseballs to heighten the power of his pitches. When asked if it was true that he used a foreign substance on baseballs, Sutton replied, “Not true at all. Vaseline is manufactured right here in the United States of America.” An umpire once searched Sutton for evidence of ball doctoring but found only a note in his glove that read, “You’re getting warm but it’s not there.”
I tell you these stories of Don Sutton so that if you use any foreign substance to heighten the value of your offering this morning, rest assured that no umpire is present to make you put your money back in your pocket. If you are moved to drop a fiver or a ten spot in the basket instead of a single, no one will call you on it. But a great many people will appreciate it. Thank you. The Louis Wilhoit Memorial Food Bank happily accepts your donations of non-perishable food and household items. The collection basket for that is by the front door.
This morning I want to say a few words about God. That’s appropriate, don’t you think? A minister speaking about God? I won’t be telling you what God wants or what God says—I haven’t heard from God lately, so I don’t know his needs. Not that he calls me when he wants something. When God has something to say, he seems to prefer the ministers who preach in immense churches, under tents or on television. When God wants to get his word out, he doesn’t call on ministers who are wrestling with devils or angels, priests who are working with the inner–city poor or rabbis who are praying for abused children.
I haven’t spoken of God lately, don’t ask me why. God seems so remote at times. But I’m not going to let that stop me; what I say today is as much for my benefit as anyone’s. In our services this year, we haven’t mentioned God very often, so I thought we might spend a little time contemplating the nature of God. Don’t worry. It’s not as bad as it sounds.
Specifically, I want to explore the image of God from Jewish and Christian scriptures and an image of God from process theology.
I assume we know the Jewish and Christian scriptures. The Bible. In traditional Jewish and Christian theology, God creates the universe, possesses all the power in existence, sees everything, hears everything, and knows everything. God has been forever and will be forever. God is perfect. God is responsible for everything. God is the be–all and the end–all.
In the Bible, God has a personality, much like a human being. God is happy sometimes and angry sometimes. God is jealous and God is vindictive. God is generous and loving. Very contradictory, just like a human being. In the Bible, God speaks to humans and they speak to God. In the Bible, God is pretty much like a super–man.
Whereas we are pretty familiar with the God of Jewish and Christian scriptures, we may not know much about the God of process theology. Process theology is a system of philosophical thought concerning the nature of God and it was developed by Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne, two professors at the University of Chicago.
Their work influenced many Christian and Jewish scholars and when it’s distilled to its essence, it offers a radical image of God, one that I think is appropriate for our time.
Process theology, or process philosophy got its name from Whitehead’s belief that everything was comprised of a series of experiences. That’s pretty easy to understand when you consider a human being. Even if you aren’t a philosopher, you can grasp Whitehead’s point that the part of you that is you—uniquely you—is comprised of every experience you’ve had. Your twin sister, although she looks like you and although she went to the same kindergarten as you did, is not you because she had a different set of experiences. You become you through a process of experiences, according to Whitehead.
Process philosophy for humans is pretty easy. Now comes the hard part. Process philosophy can get pretty unbearable at times, so to understand what it’s all about, listen to this, by Sheela Pawar. It’s the best explanation I know.
Whitehead departed from traditional philosophy when he conceived of things as a series of experiences instead of as masses of substance. Within each experience, an entity is influenced by others, creates its own identity and propels itself into further experiences. Because of the involvement of all moments of experience with each other, Whitehead proposed the universe as an organic whole. Just as all the cells in our bodies are interrelated, all elements of the universe—from the light waves of a distant star to a grocery bagger in Boise—are interrelated.
These relationships are not all equal: a single skin cell on my toe does not affect my life as much as a nerve cell in my brain. Complex groups of cells, such as the nervous system, have a greater influence on me than single cells. Social groups are more effective than single individuals, and individuals are more effective than single cells. But that single skin cell on my toe does have an effect, however small. The point is that all the cells in my body are inter–related, and Whitehead thought all existence was inter–related, too.
And we are beginning to see that today. People living in upstate New York are affected by gases released from a coal–burning power plant in Illinois. Business practices of Japan affect the value of the American dollar around the globe. Individual elements that have little effect in themselves, such as a molecule of carbon monoxide, are effective in large numbers, and that’s what prompts emission testing in Hamilton County.
Because it is relational rather than mechanistic, process thought addresses questions of social, political, economic, and ecological justice. Whitehead’s philosophy has been applied to aesthetics, biology, economics, education, physics, physiology, politics, psychology and theology.
Charles Hartshorne developed and systematized Whitehead’s way of thinking about God. Just as the systems of my body are guided by my mind, Hartshorne conceived of God as the guiding principle of the universe. Thus, the universe is the very body of God. As my mind is something more than my body, God is not simply equal to the sum of the ingredients of the universe. God is affected by the elements of the universe, living the joys and sorrows of everyone, yet God is not overcome by this multitude of feeling. God gently persuades all entities towards perfection by providing each of them with a glimpse of the divine vision of a better future. And yet everyone retains free will and possess self–determination.
So. God is becoming God through a process of experiences. Just like you and me. In process theology, God is not a super–man, as the God of Moses, Jesus and the Apostles. God has his own problems, his own issues to work through, just like you and me.
Process theology paints a very interesting portrait of God. It shows that God is not omnipotent in the classical sense. Instead of having super power and ultimately being coercive, God is more persuasive. God is a super–salesman. God cannot force anything to happen; he cannot grow hair on my head. God can only influence events by offering possibilities.
This is obviously a different God than the God of the Bible. Not all–powerful, not all–knowing, not eternal, not perfect, not even masculine. In some respects, God is even more human than she was in Biblical days. God is improving, like us. Becoming perfect. Not there yet, but working on it.
In process theology, questions like “Who created the universe?” are not so important. Process theologians are more apt to ask “Who is creating the universe?” The process is more important than the product.
This concept of process being the basis of reality is often hard to swallow. From the time of Aristotle, western thought has had a marked bias for things and substances. After a few thousand years of thinking about things and substances, process theology encourages us to think about change and the relatedness of everything. Like learning a new language, it’s easy to feel like an ignoramus.
But like a new language, process theology offers some interesting possibilities. God is changing, learning and becoming—like us. She’s not so remote, maybe. Maybe God needs our help to be a better God. Maybe God could join the church. Chair the Fellowship committee.
Another proposition of process theology is that the universe is in God, although not identical with God. In other words, God is just a teensy bit bigger than the universe. Just like every cell in my body is in Jeff Briere, but Jeff Briere is just a teensy bit bigger than every cell of my body.
So everything goes to make up God and then some. There is something of God in everything, in this pulpit, in the hymnals, the chairs, the carpet, the new parking lot, in everything. But everything—the universe—is not God.
Many people have noticed that process theology is close to classical Buddhist thought because they both posit the inter– relatedness of everything. A Buddhist would say there is no separate self; that nothing exists independently; that everything depends on everything else and everything is related. A process theologian would say that because everything is in God, everything is related. Just like every cell of my body is related.
And this is where I found my way into process theology. I had a hard time understanding change and process as the basis for reality, but I had no problem understanding that everything is related.
That realization came to me when I read Thich Nhat Hanh’s description of a piece of paper. Do you see the cloud in this sheet of paper? If you look closely, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either.
So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter–are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter–” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, inter–be. Without a cloud, we cannot have paper, so we can say that the cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are.
If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter–are. And if we look deeper still, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger’s father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.
Looking very deeply, we can see we are in it too. And everything else in the universe. You cannot point out one thing that is not here—time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat, you, me, every person on earth, living or dead. Everything co–exists within this sheet of paper. That is why I think the word interbe should be in the dictionary. “To be” is to interbe. You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter–be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.
The fact is that this sheet of paper is made up only of “non–paper elements.” And if we return these non–paper elements to their sources, then there can be no paper at all. Without “non–paper elements,” like water, logger, sunshine and so forth, there will be no paper. As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it.
These thoughts of Thich Nhat Hanh are what led me to my own theological conclusion that God lives in that tiny little space between people. If everything and everyone are inter–dependent, then whatever holds them together is surely some kind of holy glue. A colleague once said to me, “God brings people together to create something.” And I was profoundly struck by that remark. I began to think of God as not only holy glue but holy magnetism, too, drawing people together and keeping them stuck together until whatever they are to create is created.
Now you know why I talk about community and relationships so much. I think we’ve been drawn together to create something. Don’t ask me what. I don’t know yet. It may be something different every day. But it will come to us.
I know that God lives between us, among us and within us. I know that together this community will create something beautiful and something important and something critical and something transformative. No one of us can do that alone. So we come together to create something. We are not alone.
Pick up your program and look at the photographs on the cover. I printed the programs at home so that we could appreciate the photographer’s art. Notice the details, the wisps of hair in the sunlight, the sunbeams on the floor, the sunlight on the face.
I wanted to print the best pictures possible, because if you look closely at each photograph, you’ll see God in every picture. God is with the cowboy and his horse, with the mother and her child, with the women in hats. God is with the children, with the young father, with the old couple. God is even with the woman looking over the wall. She is not alone. Someone is there. No one is alone. Truly, no one is alone.
And that gives me my sermon title today, “No One Is Alone.” I am grateful to Steve Hollingsworth for inadvertently inspiring this sermon when he suggested the music of Stephen Sondheim for this service. Sondheim wrote a song that he put it in a musical based on fairy tales called Into the Woods. Steve asked Kate to sing it.
No One Is Alone
Please check out the announcement sheet in your program it contains information about the life of this church.
In order that our religious education teachers have a chance to greet their friends and enjoy our time of fellowship, they are released from their duties 15 minutes after this service ends. Parents, please take note of this and meet your children at that time. It is important that the teachers know you are supervising your children so they can attend to their own needs.
I’d like a show of hands, if you don’t mind. Please raise your hand if you were not here for the annual meeting last week. Don’t be shy, no one is angry with you for missing church. Well, I have some interesting news for you.
At the annual meeting, your fellow members passed the budget for next year. And the budget they passed has a deficit of about 9800 dollars. They passed the budget with the understanding that all members would be asked to increase their pledges to make up the deficit.
The problem is not on the expense side. Our spending is not out–of–line. The problem is on the income side. Our pledging could stand some attention. And that’s why I bring this to your attention. We’d like you to increase your pledge. I did it, Kate did it, Fred did it, Daidee even increased the pledge for her cats.
Many members have increased their pledges and we are nicely on our way to our goal. I am sure we’ll cover the deficit. But we need your help. Please increase your pledge by whatever amount you can afford. We need an average additional pledge of about $70 per member to meet the budget. And if you can kick in an additional $100 for someone who is really strapped, all the better. Thank you so much for all that you do for this church.
Also at the annual meeting, several people were elected to leadership positions on the board. We neglected to acknowledge them last week, so now I ask the newly–elected leaders please rise and accept the gratitude of the congregation.
Benediction
Harold Kushner is Rabbi Laureate of Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Columbia University. He has six honorary doctorates, has studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and has taught at Clark University and the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Kushner was the editor of the magazine Conservative Judaism for four years. In 1995, he was named as one of the 50 people who have made the world a better place in the last 50 years. In 1999, he was named clergyman of the year. He is best known as the author of the book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. He wrote these words.
I was sitting on a beach one summer day, watching two children, a boy and a girl, playing in the sand. They were hard at work building an elaborate sand castle by the water’s edge, with gates and towers and moats and internal passages. Just when they had nearly finished their project, a big wave came along and knocked it down, reducing it to a heap of wet sand. I expected the children to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened to all their hard work. But they surprised me. Instead, they ran up the shore away from the water, laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build another castle. I realized that they had taught me an important lesson. All the things in our lives, all the complicated structures we spend so much time and energy creating, are built on sand. Only our relationships to other people endure. Sooner or later, the wave will come along and knock down what we have worked so hard to build up. When that happens, only the person who has somebody's hand to hold will be able to laugh.
Link to this Service
June 05, 2005
Cents & Centsability
Hymn 40
The Morning Hangs a Signal
Welcome
Good morning. Welcome to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Chattanooga. My name is Carolyn Moore and I serve on the board of trustees. Please remember that
the emergency exit is over here to my right, child care is available downstairs in the nursery, and the arm chairs here in the sanctuary are for those who need a little extra support when standing. After the service, please join us for coffee and conversation.
Our service today has themes of responsibility, vision, and stewardship. To begin, Linda chose music from John Denver. This is Whispering Jesse. The lyrics are
I’m just an old cowboy from high Colorado Too old to ride anymore, too blind to see I sleep in the city now Away from the mountains Away from the cabin we always called home
Whispering Jesse
Kindling the Chalice
Readings 646 & 464
We clasp the hands of those that go before us,
And the hands of those who come after us.
We enter the little circle of each other’s arms
And the larger circle of lovers,
whose hands are joined in a dance,
And the larger circle of all creatures,
Passing in and out of life, who move also in a dance,
To a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it
Except in fragments.
And then all that has divided us will merge
And then compassion will be wedded to power
And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind
And then both men and women will be gentle
And then both women and men will be strong
And then no person will be subject to another’s will
And then all will be rich and free and varied
And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many
And then all will share equally in the Earth’s abundance
And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old
And then all will nourish the young
And then all will cherish life’s creatures
And then all will live in harmony with each other and the Earth
And then everywhere will be called Eden once again
May Nothing Evil Cross This Door [verses 1& 2]
Just a Piece of Glass?
I invite the young and the young at heart forward to see things differently. What do you see in my hand? ... Your first answer might be simply, “Just a piece of glass.” But look again and think about how you might use this piece of glass. What do you see? ... If you were a homeowner, you might see a pane of glass for a broken window. If you have fish in the house, this might be a cover for a fish bowl, to keep the goldfish in and the cat out. If you like to garden, you might see this as a protection for a table top upon which a flower pot might be placed. If you were an artist, this could be a surface upon which to mix some colors if you were painting with oil paint. This piece of glass is a very simple object and yet it can have different meanings to just as many different people.
I find that very interesting. We can learn something about people just by seeing how they make use of what is around them. And how we use the things that we have tells other people something about us. Now, as Christians, we want people to see that we are followers of Jesus, and that means using what we have for the good of others as well as for ourselves. That is part of what we mean by stewardship.
We come to church to try to see things in a new way, to see things as God sees them. And the closer we come to seeing life as God wants us to see it, the closer we come to finding true life. So, keep your eyes and ears and heart and mind open here. What you find in church may surprise you; and it may help you see life in a different way. And that may change the way you use all the things you will have in life.
Offertory
There’ll be Some Changes Made
Leonard Marx, better known as Chico, lived from 1891 to 1961. He was the Marx Brother with the curly hair.
Chico wrote Heywood Broun a check to pay off some gambling debts, warning him not to cash it before twelve o’clock the following day. Broun later complained to Chico that the check had bounced. Chico asked: “What time did you try to cash it?”
“Five after twelve,” Broun replied.
Chico shrugged. “Too late.”
Julius Marx, better known as Groucho, lived from 1895 to 1977. He was the wiseacre of the Marx Brothers. Groucho despised the empty cliches of business correspondence. He received a letter from his bank manager which ended with the standard phrase, “If I can be of any service to you, do not hesitate to call on me.” Marx immediately put pen to paper. “Dear Sir,” he wrote, “The best service you can offer me is to take some money from the account of one of your richer clients and credit it to mine.”
We will take up the morning offering next. Now I didn’t tell you those stories so that you would emulate the Marx Brothers. Please do not write a rubber check and don’t steal money from your neighbor just so that you can make a significant donation. The Louis Wilhoit Memorial Food Bank happily accepts your donations of non-perishable food and household items. The collection basket for that is by the front door.
Later today, after an inspirational worship service and a scrumptious potluck lunch, this congregation will conduct its one–and– only meeting of the year. We hold our annual meeting in the late spring so that the congregation can direct the business of the church throughout the following fiscal year, which begins on July 1st.
This church and other Unitarian Universalist churches operate on a model of governance known as congregational polity, which means that the congregation has final authority in matters of business, ordination and the calling of ministers. The minister, the board of trustees and the president all derive their authority from the congregation. I am not the boss. Although we call him the president, Fred Tregaskis is not the boss. Chris Tregaskis is the boss.
That was a joke. Although it does appear that Chris runs this ship, you are actually the captain. You are the boss. And you have some decisions to make today. To continue this nautical metaphor, Fred is the helmsman and I am the navigator. Chris is the chief engineer.
There are three things that need our attention.
First, we are fortunate to own some modest endowments and they need periodic tending. For that purpose, the Endowment Committee has been resurrected and reconstituted. If the Endowment Committee ever had a charter, it was lost, so a charter for the committee was drafted and you need to look at it and either vote to adopt it or suggest appropriate changes.
Second, we must elect new officers. Fred generously agreed to serve two years as president, and that was a blessing for me. He was also chair of the search committee, and having his counsel and guidance was invaluable for this new minister. But he wants to go fishing, so we need to elect a new president. The Nominating Committee will also present you with candidates for vacant seats on the Board of Trustees. You must vote to elect these candidates or suggest others.
And third, we must examine our finances for next year and consider the recommended budget, which contains a deficit of about $9800.00.
The first two items, approving the charter for the Endowment Committee and electing new officers are pretty straightforward propositions. I was asked to contribute my thoughts to the charter and I did that. Customarily the minister is not about candidates for the vacant board seats. I trust the Endowment Committee to look after our investments and I trust the Nominating Committee to nominate responsible, energetic people to be officers of the church.
The third item, however, calls for some consideration. And that prompts me to discuss it today. Thus, the title of my sermon, Cents and Centsability refers to the cents in our pockets and our centsability in deciding what to do our cents.
Just a sidebar, if you don’t mind. My sermon title was listed among the top ten most intriguing sermon titles. I must confess that I enjoy writing one of the top ten most intriguing sermons, as printed in the Times–Free Press on Saturday. Usually it happens of its own accord, but today’s sermon title was a calculated attempt to make the list. So you see, you can make the media work for you.
If you read your mail, you probably know what I think about the question of the deficit budget. I sent ’round a letter last week spelling out very clearly that I think we ought to adopt the recommended budget and make up the deficit with increased pledges. Following my own good advice, I increased my pledge by a hundred dollars, Kate did the same and I threw in another hundred to cover someone who could not increase his or her pledge. Today, as I speak, I hope you understand why we did that.
The canvass did not go as well as we hoped. In hindsight, we can point to several reasons for that. We couldn’t find anyone to chair the canvass, so it was quadro-chaired by four people. Next year, we will begin planning earlier and we hope to find one person to administer the canvass.
We failed to capitalize on the Fellowship Dinner. While we had everyone captive after an enjoyable meal, we did not present the needs of the church. And our canvassers, although they were well–trained, did not make enough face–to–face visits and did not stress the needs of the church enough.
OK. That’s enough of the canvass and how we blew it. Better procedures are in the works for next year, so watch out.
I asked Fred a question the other day. We were discussing our options to address the shortfall in the canvass. I said, “Do you think this budget is extravagant? Is it out of line for our congregation or for what the church needs?” Because I thought that the budget was just about right for this church.
He thought the budget was not as bare bones as it could be—not that it was laden with fat—but that it could be cut. And he showed me how it could be cut. To be fair to Fred, I want to stress that he supports this budget.
The point is that any budget can be cut. Even this one. But I don’t think it should be. I believe that the budget is not extravagant; it does not ask for too much in a time of scarcity. I believe we should not act as the man portrayed on the front cover of the program.
Compared to other Unitarian Universalist churches in this area, our spending is not out of line. We have a voting membership of 155 people and a budget of a little more than $144 thousand dollars. This budget would spend about $935 per member; last year, with 124 members and $137 thousand, we spent $1112 per member. This is not income I’m talking about here. This is spending.
- The Neshoba Unitarian Universalist Church, near Memphis, has 174 members, a budget of about $194K; and that works out to about $1119 per member.
Tennessee Valley in Knoxville, 413 members, $401K; about $973 per member.
Westside in suburban Knoxville, 118 members, $140K; $1194 per member.
Oak Ridge, 201 members, $269K; $1338 per member.
I looked at a few more, but the range of spending did not vary much. The low was around $700 and the high was around $1500. And we don’t know any of the specifics of those budgets. Some could reflect a big mortgage, larger churches have big programs to support and some charge for religious education.
What comparisons like this do is show our spending in relation to others and what we learn from this is that this budget is not an outrageous budget—it supports basic church—sort of like a 1955 Chevy with an AM radio, a standard transmission, no power windows, no cruise control and no fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror.
So I believe our spending is not out of order. Most lines went down, but the ones that went up the most are for staff compensation. Now, it’s a little disingenuous for me to stand here and promote a budget for this church that will raise my salary. I know that. “Come on,” I say. “Adopt this budget. It gives me a raise.” So you can temper what I say with that in mind.
What I am about to say may get sticky, so please bear with me. I do want to address the issue of salaries, but not mine. My salary is fine. It represents the most money I’ve ever made in my life and I am very grateful for it. With what I am paid, I can meet my obligations, pay back my school loans and save a little.
The recommended budget gives raises to all staff. Now at first glance, the raise for the Director of Religious Education, might appear out–of–line with respect to other raises. The line represents total compensation: an hourly raise, which recognizes good work and more hours per week, which addresses the need we face in administering a growing religious education program. Taken together, as they are in the compensation line, the per-hour raise and the increase of hours paid per week appear to be a hefty percentage raise for the director of religious education.
But looking only at percentages can be deceiving. If we paid the minister a dollar an hour and gave him a raise of 100%, he’d still only get two bucks an hour. Minus taxes. What I am saying is that there is a baseline of appropriate compensation for certain positions. The market for qualified Unitarian Universalist religious educators is such that you cannot hire one for $10 an hour. And the needs of the religious education program in this church are such that you cannot expect the director to complete her tasks in less than 20 hours a week.
Perhaps a little history is in order. For many years volunteers led the religious education department. When I came here, we were paying a token wage to a person who was adequate, but barely. In that year we advertised for a religious educator and hired Dolores Wood, a professional educator with a PhD in Early Childhood Development. With a new minister and a new professional religious educator on board, we began to see more children each week and the board realized that we could not accept “adequate” any more. The importance of religious education for our children is too great to rely on someone with little vision and no training. We were lucky to find Dolores.
At the time she was hired, we could not offer her the salary she deserved for her background and abilities. Now, I think we can. And now I think we need a religious education director working more hours to administer the program.
I feel strongly about this. There are people—including my wife— who will argue with me about this, but if the board had begun to cut the budget, I was prepared to accept a modest raise for myself in order that Dolores and Chris be paid what is appropriate. One of the reasons I feel this way is because the congregation compensates the minister in an appropriate fashion. And that sense of justice should be extended to all staff.
Another reason is that I believe that the future of this church rests not on the minister’s upkeep, but the upkeep of young families and a healthy religious education program. And every parent—every one—has expressed support for Dolores and what she’s doing. I know the ministry I provide this church would not be possible were it not for a strong religious education program. I know that when the religious education program flourishes, so will the church and everyone in it. And I can tell you from personal experience that the minister could not do his job without the able assistance of the other staff members.
Let me tell you some of what’s in this budget.
On the income side, last year, we overestimated the income we expected from building rentals, so next year, that line is down by $1500. Also, Sunday offering income is projected to be less next year. We expect the fees that Cingular and Verizon pay us for the cell tower will remain nearly static. Pledge income is down by about $1800.
On the expense side, more things are happening at the church for which we need child care, so we increased the line for nursery staff payroll. Music has assumed a heightened degree of importance during worship, so we set aside a stipend for the music director. Of the twelve lines under operations, all but two are down from last year. Only security and utilities are expected to increase.
With more members, our dues to the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Thomas Jefferson district will increase. This budget spends nothing on leadership development and denominational affairs and next to nothing on membership, adult religious education and social concerns. Like I said, this is basic church. No frills.
Looking at a spreadsheet like this can be a daunting task. So many lines, such little type. It can be confusing and ultimately boring. Sometimes, I look at budget sheets and my eyes glaze right over. Come to a board meeting and see for yourself.
But how we spend money can be a theological issue. It goes right to the heart of our ideals of justice and how we see ourselves as a religious people. And it’s not only spending money that’s guided by our ideals. Yesterday a group of people were here at the church cleaning up the grounds, rooting out weeds and tending to the earth. They did that because for them, caring for the earth is a religious issue. Their ministry is in the earth. But we all have a ministry of support for the church, and that’s why I’ve spent 20 minutes or so directing our attention to the issues inherent in this budget. Along the way, I’ve touched on what our decision will mean for the institution, what our decision will mean in terms of our cents and our centsability.
Announcements
In order that our religious education teachers have a chance to greet their friends and enjoy our time of fellowship, they are released from their duties 15 minutes after this service ends. Parents, please take note of this and meet your children at that time. It is important that the teachers know you are supervising your children so they can attend to their own needs.
Only one more announcement—please join us for the potluck which follows immediately after the service and please stay for the annual meeting.
Love all Creation
The whole of it and every grain of sand
Love every leaf
Every ray of God’s light
Love the animals
Love the plants
Love everything
If you love everything
You will perceive
The divine mystery in things
And once you have perceived it
You will begin to comprehend it ceaselessly
More and more everyday
And you will at last come to love the whole world
With an abiding universal love
Postlude
Cool & Green & Shady
Link to this Service