THE GENEROUS HEART

A Sermon by
James Ishmael Ford

4 March 2001

When I knew it was time for me to begin to consider the next phase in my own life, where I might best serve these, I hope, strong middle years of my ministry; I had a number of concerns. One, could I find a community that would foster my own deep felt need to share the disciplines of Zen meditation as an aspect of liberal religion? I needed tolerance for this unique work of mine.

Of course my felt needs were larger than that single project. My list included seeking a community that was genuinely welcoming to people of differing perspectives, one that at least wished to be welcoming to people of differing color, sexual orientations, physical and mental abilities. I also wanted to find a community that would, or even better was already committed to training new ministers. And very much I wanted a community that sought to give solace to the hurt, and hoped to change the world just a little bit.

I looked hard. During this time I was myself courted by several congregations. My book and the Zen thing as many here know have given me some prominence within our denomination. But, I wasn’t content to be courted. I needed to feel confident that the congregation I served, for what I hope will be the central part of my ministerial career, was engaged and large hearted. Then, I found you.

Today, I want to reflect a little on what it is I found. I want to share with you how I see this congregation. And within that I want to speak to something I’ve come to call the generous heart. This generous heart is, I feel a description of what we are, of who we can be, of that which we all dream. So today is a celebration of our liberal religious way, and how it manifests within this particular congregation, the First Unitarian Society in Newton.

I feel, deeply, truly, profoundly, that we are all about what I’ve come to call the generous heart. People come into this Society for their own personal needs. We all have these needs. It can be as simple as wanting a place, a community to share with us in the up bringing of children. It can be a profound needing for a place where we can hold our hurts and longings. It can be seeking a safe and supportive place in which to explore questions of meaning.

However, as we come into this community, there is a step, a movement. We arrive for these many and deeply personal reasons. But people stay here because somehow we’ve found ourselves sharing something deep. At some point we discover we come to church not just for ourselves and for our families, but for everyone else here, as well. We discover at some point we’re here for each other.

I suppose in some sense this is psychological. Carl Jung once observed how "Every Roman was surrounded by slaves. The slave and his psychology flooded ancient Italy, and every Roman became inwardly, and of course unwittingly, a slave. Because living constantly in the atmosphere of slaves, he became infected through the unconscious with their psychology." Jung ended this reflection with the assertion that "No one can shield himself from such an influence."

Here we find different influences. Each person in this Society discovers herself, himself to be surrounded and enveloped within a community of care and attention. Not always as successfully as we wish. We are a human community, after all. But the covenant is to try.

And frequently, amazingly frequently we succeed. I see how so often we give to each other more than we can ever dream. It is in that giving, we discover the small and great shifts of being that create a wise person and a good society. Our presence to each other, our willingness to give of ourselves to each other, and even taking that giving beyond the walls of our community, is powerful.

Just as no one can shield themselves from the poisonous atmosphere of a society of slaves, we cannot shield ourselves from this Society of good, of the noble, of the generous. Hearts change here. We enlarge, we expand, we become greater than we were before we walked through those doors. Or, at least the option is always there; the atmosphere of this place breathes the possibilities into our being.

Have no doubt, this is what I found when I found you. When my closest friends first suggested to me this great community in the Boston suburbs, and how I should check it out, I wanted to see what was beneath the surface strife, the difficulties that you were engaged within at the moment. So, maybe you don’t see this about the congregation. Sometimes one is too close, and there has been hurt here in the recent past that can cloud deeper realities. But, I can tell you some things.

I saw a congregation that had voted to be Welcoming of gays and lesbians. I saw a Society that had a large and healthy social action committee. I saw a community that cherished and fostered children and youth with time, energy and money. I saw a community that cared deeply for each other and what might be.

One concrete example for me as I looked into the life of this congregation was the second collection. I understand it was fairly recently established, instituted during the interim ministry, and many people correctly credit Pete Peterson for suggesting it. But the truth be told, such things don’t happen because a minister, particularly an interim suggests it. That’s good for one or two times. After that what we do does speak to our character, what it is we’re going to give our attention to as a congregation.

Well last year the second collection, monies that don’t do anything more than pass through our hands, kept growing. We dedicate a few minutes once a month to asking for money for some particular need beyond our congregation. Last month we dedicated the second collection to Doctors Without Borders. This month, today, we’ll collect for Oxfam. In both these collections the funds are directly targeted to earthquake relief in El Salvador and India.

Last year the average collection was four hundred dollars. This year it is a grand, a thousand dollars. That was what I was looking for in a congregation. Open handedness, care, the generous heart. And that is what I found. So, if you accept this is an accurate description of this community, then you might ask how is it we are we so generous? What beyond simple psychology is at work here? How is it that each of us might be exemplars of a path I can call the way of the generous heart?

This can be a little difficult in a non-creedal society, where no statement of faith is required. In fact statements of faith are resisted. But, I think there are trends, inclinations and directions that can be spoken of as our larger faith. We do have recognizable characteristics. Let me illustrate.

The other day some friends told me about a special feature at the speakout.com website. It’s a link to a religious questionnaire that tells you what faith with which you are most sympathetic, or at least ranks those faiths with witch you have some philosophic alignment.

Wanting very much to put off working on my sermon I visited it, quickly finding the "religion selector" function. I was rather pleased to learn my highest affinity was, with one hundred points, Unitarian Universalism. Theravada Buddhism closely followed this, with ninety-two points. Third, if you care, at eighty-eight points was Humanism.

Well it rather did put a finger on my primary theologies, I thought. But one thing in particular came to mind as I was playing with this survey. I believe the key questions that led the survey engine to list me as UU and, interestingly Theravada Buddhist was how I tended to respond to questions with here and now perspectives.

In general, for us as Unitarian Universalists, there is considerable attention paid to what we do in life, rather than how we think about the so-called "big questions." Many of the concerns of orthodox religions such as "where do we come from?" and "where are we going?" while of significance, are not central to us. Indeed, when I looked at the definitions of Unitarian Universalism at that site, the way nearly every sentence about these so-called big issues began was with us having "diverse beliefs."

What I find holds us together in fact, is how we all tend to find engaging the world just as it is, is very very important. Now, just how we choose to do this engaging would again bring up that phrase "diverse beliefs." Nonetheless, I think there is a near consensus among us that a major focus of social organization needs to be care for each other, and particularly for the least among us. The nineteenth century term for this approach to spirituality was "salvation by character."

Healing, educating, nurturing, these are urges we find welling up within us as spiritual imperatives. We believe we are what we do. We Unitarian Universalists might differ, we will differ on how best to achieve our goals of care for all. But, I think nearly all of us agree action in the world is critical. The consequence of this is a belief that deep attention must to be paid to the needs of people as well as to our environment, as primary spiritual concerns.

I think of this Unitarian Universalist impulse for a salvation by character, as the generous heart. This term, the generous heart, speaks to how we engage our own lives, both as we look within ourselves, and as we act in the world. We UUs, we give all this special attention. We understand this is at our core; this caring, this attending to actual needs, to real people, to the living earth.

Of course we have no monopoly upon this impulse. Our orthodox cousins in the many religions all have calls to manifest love in the world. This is, I am certain, what rises naturally within a human being, when she or he allows the mind and heart full expression. This generous heart, I believe, is a fundamental aspect of our humanity. For us within our liberal religion, however, the shift is that this is primary.

Still, I think we can learn a great deal about the nature of this impulse, this generous heart, by listening to what others have said about it over the years. So, I was rummaging around the web for thoughts and reflections on the nature of generosity, when I stumbled upon an essay by the late seventeenth, early eighteenth century philosopher and mathematician, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. I believe he speaks to this generous heart, its source, and its applications as eloquently as any.

Leibniz wrote, "Generosity, in the proper sense of the word, is the virtue which elevates us to do actions worthy of our kind, nature, descent, or origin, which is heavenly; for as St. Paul says, following a Greek poet whom he himself cites, we are of the kind or race of God, who is the source of all minds. Thus, it is in this sense that it is fitting for all human beings to be generous and to act according to the nobility of human nature…"

There is some etymological connection between nobility and generosity. Indeed, an archaic usage for generosity is as a designation for "noble birth." Here we find, I think, our highest aspirations, our deepest good. Here we find the only true nobility of humanity is the generous heart. As we reach out, as we share ourselves, as we give ourselves, we find ourselves within the great web and act from our larger reality.

Indeed here we find an understanding of God that compels me. As we gather together, as we open ourselves to each other, as we discover how we are supported by each other; mysterious forces rise up within our beings. We discover, frequently, that we are not alone. And that we never were meant to be alone.

We are unique; we are precious, just as we are. But, then our fulfillment happens as we give of ourselves in that preciousness, in that uniqueness, in that "just as we are"ness. Here the enterprises of this Society, not a club, not a school, but a religious, spiritual community; begin to reveal themselves.

We come as we are. And we are enriched. And we enrich others. Such is the generous heart. We find God, we find heaven, we find all the meaning of life, in helping a child to get to the bathroom, or visiting a sick friend. It really is that simple. As we hold out our hand to another, we find the gate to heaven thrown wide open.

It is amazing. And, to my observation, it happens all the time in this place, in this specific Society. This meeting room is ancient with hands being reached out. This hall is made holy with the care that is evidenced every Sunday, indeed everyday of the week. We support our larger community in uncountable ways. We provide space. We provide care. We provide ourselves.

On a pledge drive Sunday, I would be remiss in not adding how we also share our money. This mention is wonderful and it is good and worthy, because that money, as important as it is, is still a small part of what we’re giving. And, beautifully, so frequently, of what we’re receiving.

I was so glad when I was offered candidacy, and ecstatic when you elected me your minister. It is now my great honor to be a part of this congregation. FUSN is a living and powerful manifestation of the generous heart, of the way of salvation by character, of a path walked in good company. Thank you all so much, for caring, for attending, for giving of yourselves. This work, I have no doubt, that has flowered for a hundred and fifty years, will continue to do so for ages to come, a fragrant blossom for the whole world.

Amen.