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Rev. Beverly Waring Sermon
October 23,2011
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What is your ministry? Imagine! In the vision of Erik Walker Wikstrom, author of our first reading, “Imagine [this congregation] not as [an
entity] led by a few overly taxed volunteers but one where leadership is a broadly shared ministry that members of the community
undertake for the deep joy of it.”
This is how my colleague, the Reverend Jan Carlsson-Bull began a sermon early in her interim year at another NY State congregation.
And she wondered, as I am now, if some of you might be shaking your heads, musing to yourselves, “Isn’t it enough that we pledge our
hard-earned income and then honor those pledges, that we volunteer our time, that some of us take on positions of leadership in this
congregation? Now we’re supposed to be ministers! Deanne was our minister,” your inner conversation may be continuing. “Now we
have Bev as our Interim Minister. What nerve,” you are probably thinking, “you are the minister not me.” Go ahead, shake your heads,
throw me that look.
Ok, now let’s go deeper. Let me explain what I mean and what I am really asking when I speak about shared ministry….the ministry we
are doing together, and how I can with a straight face ask all of you, individually and collectively, “What is your ministry?”
First, let me assure you that this is not my (or Rev. Carlsson-Bull’s) original idea. Instead, you can blame our Christian, and more
specifically our Protestant forebears, for this notion of shared ministry. And we can blame something called congregational polity for the
Unitarian Universalist focus on shared ministry. And we can blame that favorite saying, “deeds not creeds” for our emphasis on putting
our faith into action.
As Jan continued in her sermon, “Shared ministry emerges from a notion called ‘the priesthood of all believers.’ It’s grounded in the early
Christian understanding that experience of the divine was mediated solely through the figure of Jesus, whom devout Christians
understand to be God in the flesh, the son of God, if you will. The early Christian church had no priests. It was informal and egalitarian,
with each believer expected to use her or his individual gifts to build up the Christian community, which was pretty wobbly in those days of
the Roman Empire. This understanding receives especially strong emphasis in the First Letter of Peter. Believers are implored to “Come
to him, to that living stone….and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.”
Those of you who are familiar with the history of the Christian church know other aspects of this story. When Martin Luther, with hammer
and nail, affixed his 95 points of desperation to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517 it was because he was fed up with a
church where access to the holy was then only gained through an exclusive group of priests who profited greatly from this power. And
thus, the Protestant Reformation began with one angry monk’s call to action.
To continue the history lesson, we look to those who later were to become known as Unitarians – those who took Luther’s disdain for the
workings of the church’s hierarchy even further. More than 35 years after Luther had committed his act of defiance, the Spaniard
Michael Servetus was burned at the stake on orders from John Calvin, Luther’s colleague, because Servetus questioned the authority of
the Trinity. Was Michael Servetus a priest or a monk? Was he ordained? No, Servetus was just one of those living stones, but his
beliefs were radically different than those firmly hardened into the hierarchy of the Christian church.
And so it came to be that we who were Unitarians and Universalists and finally a blend of both have long been infamous for our radical
theology. We have been called heretics as if it were an insult to be labeled such. Yet, a heretic is simply one who holds an opinion or
belief different from established religious teachings and, more importantly in our history, one who exercises choice. It is no secret that
exercising our right to hold different beliefs and act upon those choices is core to our practice of faith.
And from here is the logical leap into congregational polity. An important choice made by Unitarian Universalist congregations throughout
history. Our congregations exercise this choice, this heresy, when each congregation calls its professional minister, ordains us, and
governs using a model of relative independence. Yes, we are a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association, but by definition, it is an
association of interdependent congregations who connect and collaborate by covenant, not by hierarchical pronouncements. Inherent in
the notion of congregational polity is a conversation about religious leadership which quite naturally becomes a discussion of shared
ministry.
Several years ago, a group of Unitarian Universalists were commissioned by the UUA to study this idea of congregational polity and they
issued a report that spoke to the interdependence that defines us. Here are a couple of passages from that report that speaks to this
morning’s topic:
“One key aspect of Unitarian Universalism is our belief that ministry of the congregation does not belong exclusively to ordained clergy,
but to everyone.”
The text continues with a quote from a previous report that asserted, "Ministry is the vocation of every person of faith, [and] Unitarian
Universalism, as a democratic faith, affirms the “priesthood of all believers;” we are all lay ministers, whether or not we choose to be
professional religious leaders."
And so we come full circle back to the notion of the “priesthood of all believers.” A notion expanded by the teachings of the 20th century
theologian, James Luther Adams, who extended the “priesthood of all believers” into the priesthood and prophet-hood of all believers.
Prophets, modeled on those Old Testament troublemakers like Jonah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos. Annoying in their time because they
had the audacity to urge the lay people of their times to take seriously ideas such as loving your neighbor as yourself and further to
honor their God by acting in a way that showed they did take those ideas seriously.
Here is what Adams said, “The prophetic liberal church is the church in which persons think and work together to interpret the signs of the
times in the light of their faith…in which all members share the common responsibility to attempt to foresee the consequences of human
behavior (both individual and institutional), with the intention of making history in place of merely being pushed around by it.”
Being a Unitarian Universalist is indeed hard work. If we take seriously that we are all in the priesthood and prophet-hood of all believers,
if we take seriously the importance, the necessity of shared ministry, I’m guessing that the first act of faith is to shake our heads, gasp for
air a time or two and wonder out loud, what have I done? But then, we catch our breath, breath deeply three times, and begin to think
clearly again.
This brings me back to my original question and the idea brought forth by Erik Wikstrom. What is your ministry? Can you engage in
shared ministry as a spiritual practice? Making lunch for the homeless, providing coffee and desserts to this community, nourishing our
bodies is as spiritual as meditating at sunrise. Teaching in the religious education program, organizing a fund raiser, or serving on a
committee is as spiritual as spending that time in prayer or reflection. Sharing your gifts, all your gifts, of time, talent, and treasure,
enables us to accomplish so much without the danger of anyone of us feeling burned out or taken advantage of.
Now, I know that many of you could have answered my question about your ministry several minutes ago. It is clear from the number of
people who do serve on committees, do teach in RE , sing in the choir, organize fundraisers and social events, worry about the balance in
the checkbook, climb on the roof after each rain storm…the list is endless…it is clear that many of you have or are finding your ministry.
But I also think some may still be pondering or perhaps resisting the idea that “works” go hand in hand with “faith,” that “spiritual” goes
hand in hand with “practice.”
We speak of deeds not creeds, of living our principles, of putting our faith into action, but I wonder if this isn’t more rhetoric than gospel
for some, more white noise rather than deep reflective thought. I do believe all of us are here in this Sanctuary this morning for a
purpose. It’s about faith, but is faith enough? Not if you think like the New Testament author known as James when he wrote, “what good
is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it?
And he did not stop there. He went on to say that faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity. What if James were on your
committee? I, for one, would rejoice because I believe the message would be, let us all engage and connect our faith with our actions.
Let us all accept responsibility for the healthy, safe and effective operation of this congregation. Let us all answer the call to shared
ministry.
So, I ask again…What is your ministry? What are you doing right now that addresses and encourages the faith and works of this
congregation? And are those things, (your ministry) also addressing and encouraging your heart and soul? That is important too. When
you are asked to share your time and talent, it is important to ask yourself a few basic questions first.
1) What am I good at?
2) What do I like to do?
3) What needs to be done?
4) Are there other demands in my life right now that are urging me to run
screaming from the room?
It is important, when the insistent voice of shared ministry is bearing down on you, to ask yourself all these questions.
What am I good at? Sometimes that is the very last thing we want to volunteer to do. I may be really good at washing dishes or cleaning
the yard of dog poop but do I like to do these things? No, not really. So, what am I good at that I like to do? I think I am fairly good at
financial record-keeping and reporting and I like to do it, but that is not what I need to be doing here since the folks hard at work
considering the financial stewardship of this congregation are doing a good job.
The third question, what needs to be done? Well, I know that the tasks of interim ministry, with the promise and the pain, the joy and
heartache, these tasks may bring, need to be done. I believe there are hard conversations to be spoken, rocky roads to traverse and
new chapters to write. So that is what I am here to do – lead you as you have those hard conversations and rejoice with you as new
chapters are written.
And what of the fourth question? Are there other demands in my life right now that are urging me to run screaming from the room?
Fortunately, for me today, no. But that is not to say that this has always been the case. Certainly there have been times when the reality
of health concerns, or elderly parents, or teenage children - you all know the list - have led me to feeling the need to run screaming from
a room, to ask for help, or for time to think or just a little space to be by myself in quiet. Times when asking for help is the only sane thing
to do. And I know that some of you have had to do this too, even if you first scream silently.
So what is your ministry? Ponder those four questions for awhile.
1) What am I good at?
2) What do I like to do?
3) What needs to be done?
4) Are there other demands in my life right now that are urging me to run
screaming from the room?
Allow yourself to think with your head and feel with your heart for a while. Consider your understanding of your own personal priesthood,
your own personal prophet-hood. Then step back into the circle of this community and ask once again, “What is my ministry?” How will I
put my faith into action?
May your answers include within it gratitude that you decided to be with us this morning. May your answer lead you to join us this
afternoon at 2 pm as we start to envision this congregation in the coming years by asking ourselves, who are we and who do we want to
become. May your answer acknowledge the joy of both giving and receiving and the grace of both falling short and succeeding greatly.
So may it be. Amen.
Sources
1. Erik Walker Wikstrom, “The Spirituality of Service,” UUWorld, The Magazine of the Unitarian Universalist Association, Vol. XXIV, No.
3, Fall 2010, 33-35.
2. The Bible (Common English Version).
3. James Luther Adams, “The Prophethood of All Believers,” (1947) in The Essential James Luther Adams: Selected Essays and
Addresses, Edited and introduced y George Kimmich Beach, Skinner House Books, Boston, 1998.
4. Interdependence: Renewing Congregational Polity, Section Nine: Religious Leadership, A Report by the Commission on Appraisal,
Unitarian Universalist Association, June 1997 (also http://www.uua.org/polity/sect9.
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