I belong to the Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent, OH. Several times a year, our committee is called upon to lead a church service, which invariably involves my being a part of it somehow. Today was just such an occasion, and I have spent the better part of the last week or more preparing my part of the service, which was entitled "Creating the Beloved Community: The Path to Active Nonviolence". I was asked to write a sermon explaining the Unitarian and Universalist heritage of active nonviolence, since I am seen around church as something of a history buff. I have spent several weeks doing active research and occasional communication via e-mail to and from the other person with whom I would lead the service. I find this entire process to be partly nerve wracking, partly fascinating, and quite exhausting overall. You must do a great deal of reading, reflection, writing, editing, polishing and timing, to make sure that it all works. When you have more than one reading to do, you must make sure that all the parts fit together. After much consideration, even as late as yesterday, I finally arrived at my final product for the service today. The opening reading was a snippet from Henry David Thoreau's essay, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience", which served as inspiration for
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose work "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence" we would read later in the service. It only seemed fitting that I would open with such a reading, given where we were going with the service theme. After the King reading, I did the first part of the sermon, entitled, "The Heritage of Active Nonviolence" (the other part of the sermon was done by my worship partner, Vivien, on her experiences participating in the Seabrooke, New Hampshire Nuclear plant protests back in the 70's when she was in college). This called on me to do a bit of historical research into the Unitarian and Universalist heritage of nonviolence, and I wanted to highlight both one Unitarian and one Universalist who served as inspiration for the work of Dr. King. The Universalist I chose was Adin Ballou, a little remembered but important 19th century Universalist figure who founded a utopian community called "Hopedale" in order to live in Christian socialism and nonviolence. Of course, the Unitarian figure I chose was Thoreau. I went on to explain how the work of these two men influenced King's nonviolence in the civil rights movement, and then finished with a moving speech by Robert F. Kennedy that he gave in Cleveland the day after King's assassination called "On the Mindless Menace of Violence" that I felt strongly needed to be included somewhere in this service. I was struck by its powerful message and how timely it is for what is going on in the world today, so I knew that this particular speech somehow had to fit into the service. By connecting the dots, from Ballou to Thoreau to King to Kennedy, I was able to accomplish just that. It took a lot of work, but it eventually all fell into place. I was also called on to do the closing reading, and once again, I wanted to turn to a historical Unitarian or Universalist figure who was well known in his or her day for their work in nonviolent activism.
After much work, I was able to find an early 20th century Unitarian minister and nonviolence activist named John Haynes Holmes. I did some online research (thank goodness for Google!) and was able to find a sermon given by another UU minister that was all about the life and work of Rev. Holmes. I found what I thought was a most timely quote from Holmes written on the eve of America's entry into the First World War that was in staunch opposition to our involvement in it. I loved the sentiment expressed in this sermon that Holmes wrote: “War is an open and utter violation of Christianity. If war is right, then Christianity is wrong, false, a lie. If Christianity is right then war is wrong, false, a lie. The God revealed by Jesus, and by every great spiritual leader of the race, is no God of battles. He lifts no sword, he asks no sacrifice of blood….His law, as interpreted and promulgated by the Nazarene, is ‘Love one another,’ ‘Resist not evil with evil,’ ‘Overcome evil with good,’ ‘Love your enemies.’ Such a God and such a law others may reconcile with war, if they can. I cannot—and what I cannot do, I will not profess to do…In time of war, as in time of peace…I shall love my country and serve her to the end….And how shall I, a pacifist, serve my country in time of war?....If any man or boy in this church answers the call to arms, I shall bless him as he marches to the front…But I also have a conscience, and that conscience I also must obey….If this means imprisonment, I will serve my term….So long as I am your minister, this pulpit will answer no military summons…. Other parish houses may be turned into drill halls and rifle ranges; ours will not. Other clergymen may pray to God for victory for our arms; I will not….So long as I am priest, this altar shall be consecrated to human brotherhood….In a time of raging hate and brutal passion, I will keep alive that spirit of good will toward men….To discover terms of reconciliation, to work out methods of cooperation, to soften hate and dispel suspicion, to spread abroad sweet influences of confidence and healing….How better can we serve our country than by restoring to her that high mission of peace-making?” Well, I thought that this final sentiment about peacemaking was the perfect way to end the service, both with a question and a statement that could well apply to our situation today. The service went over fabulously. Vivien, my worship partner, and I received high praise from everyone in the greeting line as they left the service. It was so wonderful to know that we moved people and instead of preaching to them about what they should do, we taught them instead from the lessons of the past. Viv and I have done services in the past that have always been very well received by the congregation, and as a worship team, we seem to mesh extraordinarily well together. We both prefer to teach instead of preach, and we both love writing sermons with powerful messages that leave people thinking. We both harbor a great passion and love for history, so we love to draw on historical figures and examples for our services and our sermons. So while the entire process of preparing a church service can be utterly exhausting, still, the effusive response is always worth the sweat that goes into it. And that in itself makes the whole thing worth the effort.
I belong to the Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent, OH. Several times a year, our committee is called upon to lead a church service, which invariably involves my being a part of it somehow. Today was just such an occasion, and I have spent the better part of the last week or more preparing my part of the service, which was entitled "Creating the Beloved Community: The Path to Active Nonviolence". I was asked to write a sermon explaining the Unitarian and Universalist heritage of active nonviolence, since I am seen around church as something of a history buff. I have spent several weeks doing active research and occasional communication via e-mail to and from the other person with whom I would lead the service. I find this entire process to be partly nerve wracking, partly fascinating, and quite exhausting overall. You must do a great deal of reading, reflection, writing, editing, polishing and timing, to make sure that it all works. When you have more than one reading to do, you must make sure that all the parts fit together. After much consideration, even as late as yesterday, I finally arrived at my final product for the service today. The opening reading was a snippet from Henry David Thoreau's essay, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience", which served as inspiration for 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose work "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence" we would read later in the service. It only seemed fitting that I would open with such a reading, given where we were going with the service theme. After the King reading, I did the first part of the sermon, entitled, "The Heritage of Active Nonviolence" (the other part of the sermon was done by my worship partner, Vivien, on her experiences participating in the Seabrooke, New Hampshire Nuclear plant protests back in the 70's when she was in college). This called on me to do a bit of historical research into the Unitarian and Universalist heritage of nonviolence, and I wanted to highlight both one Unitarian and one Universalist who served as inspiration for the work of Dr. King. The Universalist I chose was Adin Ballou, a little remembered but important 19th century Universalist figure who founded a utopian community called "Hopedale" in order to live in Christian socialism and nonviolence. Of course, the Unitarian figure I chose was Thoreau. I went on to explain how the work of these two men influenced King's nonviolence in the civil rights movement, and then finished with a moving speech by Robert F. Kennedy that he gave in Cleveland the day after King's assassination called "On the Mindless Menace of Violence" that I felt strongly needed to be included somewhere in this service. I was struck by its powerful message and how timely it is for what is going on in the world today, so I knew that this particular speech somehow had to fit into the service. By connecting the dots, from Ballou to Thoreau to King to Kennedy, I was able to accomplish just that. It took a lot of work, but it eventually all fell into place. I was also called on to do the closing reading, and once again, I wanted to turn to a historical Unitarian or Universalist figure who was well known in his or her day for their work in nonviolent activism. 
After much work, I was able to find an early 20th century Unitarian minister and nonviolence activist named John Haynes Holmes. I did some online research (thank goodness for Google!) and was able to find a sermon given by another UU minister that was all about the life and work of Rev. Holmes. I found what I thought was a most timely quote from Holmes written on the eve of America's entry into the First World War that was in staunch opposition to our involvement in it. I loved the sentiment expressed in this sermon that Holmes wrote: “War is an open and utter violation of Christianity. If war is right, then Christianity is wrong, false, a lie. If Christianity is right then war is wrong, false, a lie. The God revealed by Jesus, and by every great spiritual leader of the race, is no God of battles. He lifts no sword, he asks no sacrifice of blood….His law, as interpreted and promulgated by the Nazarene, is ‘Love one another,’ ‘Resist not evil with evil,’ ‘Overcome evil with good,’ ‘Love your enemies.’ Such a God and such a law others may reconcile with war, if they can. I cannot—and what I cannot do, I will not profess to do…In time of war, as in time of peace…I shall love my country and serve her to the end….And how shall I, a pacifist, serve my country in time of war?....If any man or boy in this church answers the call to arms, I shall bless him as he marches to the front…But I also have a conscience, and that conscience I also must obey….If this means imprisonment, I will serve my term….So long as I am your minister, this pulpit will answer no military summons…. Other parish houses may be turned into drill halls and rifle ranges; ours will not. Other clergymen may pray to God for victory for our arms; I will not….So long as I am priest, this altar shall be consecrated to human brotherhood….In a time of raging hate and brutal passion, I will keep alive that spirit of good will toward men….To discover terms of reconciliation, to work out methods of cooperation, to soften hate and dispel suspicion, to spread abroad sweet influences of confidence and healing….How better can we serve our country than by restoring to her that high mission of peace-making?” Well, I thought that this final sentiment about peacemaking was the perfect way to end the service, both with a question and a statement that could well apply to our situation today. The service went over fabulously. Vivien, my worship partner, and I received high praise from everyone in the greeting line as they left the service. It was so wonderful to know that we moved people and instead of preaching to them about what they should do, we taught them instead from the lessons of the past. Viv and I have done services in the past that have always been very well received by the congregation, and as a worship team, we seem to mesh extraordinarily well together. We both prefer to teach instead of preach, and we both love writing sermons with powerful messages that leave people thinking. We both harbor a great passion and love for history, so we love to draw on historical figures and examples for our services and our sermons. So while the entire process of preparing a church service can be utterly exhausting, still, the effusive response is always worth the sweat that goes into it. And that in itself makes the whole thing worth the effort.
2 comments:
Congratulations on a fine piece of work. You gave a great message to people there and I think that people reading your blog will also appreciate the thoughts that you put together. Good job!
Of course, I may be prejudiced.
This was a great post, Sally. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and tears came when I came to the final reading that you selected.
As one who has written and preached many sermons, I know how exhausting the preparation is. Our general rule of thumb is for every minute you preach, you spend one hour in preparation.
Well done!
n, np
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