December 6, 2009 
Reverend Barbara Fast     

OPENING WORDS     

This is a Special day in life of this Community:  It is an In House - Celebration Sunday. The official conclusion of the capital campaign effort to raise sufficient funds to be able to build a sustaining and sustainable parish Hall - a building where folks teach, cook, celebrate and work.

I invite you to think of this whole service as a kind of prayer patched together by singing, silence and speaking truth in love

Mary Oliver:  Praying

It doesn’t have to be the blue iris
It could be weeds in a vacant lot
Or a few
Small stones, just
Pay attention, then patch
A few words together and don’t try
To make them elaborate, this isn’t
A competition but the doorway
Into thanks, and a silence in which
Another voice may speak.

I invite you to think of this whole service as a kind of prayer patched together by singing, silence and speaking truth in love.  May it become your  doorway into thanks.

Hymn #1 A Prayer For This House       Louis Untermeyer

May nothing evil cross this door
and may ill fortune never pry
about these walls may the roar and rain go by

By faith made strong these rafters will
withstand the battering of the storm.
Though all the world grow chill will keep us warm.

May peace walk softly through these rooms,
touching our lips with holy wine
until every casual corner blooms into a shrine

With laughter drown the raucous shout
and though the sheltering walls are thin
may they be strong to keep hate out and hold love in.


SERMON: A Prayer For This House      
Reverend Barbara Fast
DECEMBER 6, 2009

I have my prayer for this house…It is not the blue Iris, Mary Oliver’s famous poem. It is patched from this week of our shared life. I think of it as a doorway – into – renewed hope, into thanks, into our future. 

I also have a song for us and perhaps those who come after will have cause to sing it too. You join in when you want. It’s by Nick Paige.

I heard it first years ago.  It too is a doorway into thanks. You can join me.

Somebody sang for me, had me on their mind.
Took the time and sang for me.
I’m so glad they sang. I’m so glad they sang.
I’m so glad they sang for me.      Thank you Choir

Advent time is a time of opening doors. If you were raised Christian, you may have had an Advent Calendar. You would open a door for each day in December until Christmas morning. The sermon is a week in an Advent Calendar of doorways.

Each day I don’t get on my knees, but as I drive home I think of you. Those I have managed to connect with and those I have not.  I go home praying to be at peace with the love and the longing in my heart. Every day is a doorway into ministry, which we share.

I also have props!  I opened Monday’s door and found this refrigerator magnet.

Monday Night I was with my women’s group. I started this group with a friend 19 years ago. Our topic was to write a list of things we wanted to do before we got too decrepit. 

My friend brought words of wisdom that were intended to help us choose the next best step into our lives.  Ask yourself three questions. Is it:
Too soon?  Too late?  Or, is it Time?
   
I thought of you. It is my faith that it was and is your time to build. I had such thoughts because it was the beginning of the final week of our Capital Campaign, and because that Monday there was a Building Committee meeting. As I drove home from my meeting I knew the Building Committee had concluded their meeting. No doubt with many questions still unanswered.

MAGNET:  I got home and found this magnet on my fridge, given to me by that same friend when I was in search 5 years ago.  It was my prayer Monday night. Its author: Rainer Maria Rilke:

I beg you …to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers now, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then , someday far in the future, you will gradually without even noticing it, live your way into the answer..

Let’s sing.
Somebody prayed for me. Had me on their mind.
Took the time and prayed for me.
I’m so glad they prayed. I’m so glad they prayed.
I’m so glad they prayed for me.

**

TUESDAY I opened the door and found this PICKLE JAR . Actually Abby and Bev opened my door and walked in ready to share pickles and ice cream with me, because they feel like they are in labor.    Pant, pant, blow. Pant, pant blow.

As our hymn sings. “With laughter drown the raucous shout.” Laughter is of the essence for a capital campaign.  Laughter is a good prayer.

So Bev and Abby knock on my door holding this PICKLE JAR – and ice cream… (Everything is better with ice cream.  Larry, Bev’s husband,  made it.)  They are both so expressively grateful for their life partners.

They have been living this campaign for 9 months. They are laboring to give birth. In your last weeks of pregnancy you don’t sleep well and you may have strange dreams. Abby shared with us that she had a strange dream.

In her dream she was walking down a dark and stormy road, and she could not see what was up ahead, when she ran into Al…..  And he asked her, ‘Did you get the e mail?”  

She and Bev have exchanged 2570 e mails just between the two of them during this campaign.

LABOR: Let me say few things about labor. It is work. It can get intense. It is joyful. And there is pain.  In labor…you pant pant blow…to get through the labor pains, to ride the waves of contractions b/c the goal is so worth it!  They are experiencing it all and I give thanks for their leadership. We all give thanks for their leadership!

And you have a coach when you are in labor. To remind you that it is OK, it is on course, progressing well, and paying attention to any changes that might signal the need for an intervention.  Leaders are coaches and leaders seek coaching. So Thank you Jon Soule.  Thank you for being our coach. The midwife, if you will, of this Capital Campaign

Abby, Bev and I have a spiritual practice for our shared ministry. Every two weeks, we sit here, around the candle table and we offer up our candles, our hopes and concerns, our shared silence, laughter and tears.

In the midst of this all, we minister to one another.

Which brings me to the word itself. Campaign. Within that word is the word “ pain”. And we have felt the pain here. The struggle the hope.  I want to appreciate the work, the pain and the generosity of  those who reached out and made the visits & listened to the prayers. Those who opened the doors of their homes and hearts. 

Those who said, I can, I cannot, or I want to but let me tell you how it is with me these days, maybe later. 

I want to acknowledge those who called on behalf of the canvass operating budget at the same time. So that we can move into the strategic plan goals, the growing programs.

The pain is there and asking, asking for money releases powerful feelings when someone is feeling financial pain, insecurity, loss. Let us hear those voices too. And affirm that we are all in this together.

And lest we get all caught up in ourselves, even when the stakes are high, one of you called me to tell me to go out and see the full moon rise. And that there would be a blue moon ( a second full moon) on New Years eve.

Let us sing:
Somebody sat with me. Had me on their mind.
Took the time and sat with me.
I’m so glad they sat. I’m so glad they sat.
I’m so glad they sat with me.

**
WEDNESDAY I opened the door and found this Christmas pageant Order of Service. See the angels on the cover!

Wednesday I woke with weariness and wariness and watchfulness in my heart about our war and the suffering that comes with war. Tuesday night I had listened to the president’s speech about the escalation of the war in Afghanistan.

I looked forward to opening the door of the church and seeing Judy & the Chimes Crew.   I met Barbara. Her grandfather and grandmother, I had learned, were Unitarian ministers together in the mid west. The day passed with meetings, calls, e-mails.
 
The Web site group met to evaluate our future website options.  The Care Committee held a pizza party and filled Christmas boxes for those unable to get to church. I got a big slice of chocolate cream pie to take home.

I noticed that there were green envelopes resting in the clear plastic basket in the round room foyer. Pant Pant, blow…
    
Auditions were being held for the Christmas pageant! Nonetta came early, played for more auditioners than ever. That was done. The Adult Choir arrived and they were practicing. I am heading out the door, and I meet a family, who are in retreat b/c the choir is already rehearsing…they don’t want to open the door and go in because they came too late for the children’s auditions.

I hear hesitant hope?  Let me go and ask I say. I wanted to open the door of possibility. I guess that is a kind of faith?

Isn’t that how we come? With a hesitant faith? A quiet hope in the possibility? Of a renewal of strength? A hope that what was broken can be restored?

We seek to be reminded of something we cannot really remember, but it mattered to us once. We seek to reconcile with our lives, to become - whole. To be reminded to persist in loving this world.

I sidled over to Nonetta. I asked the question.  She listened to the words and to the meaning under the words. I watched the feelings wash across her face: she listened, looked to the child, and lived into her answer. She knew what it was time for.

The choir fluttered angel wings of support, like those on this Order of Service. As I left, a new voice could be heard singing in this holy house.

Let us sing: Somebody listened to me…
Had me on their mind, took the time and listened to me.
I ‘m so glad they listened. I’m so glad they listened.
I’m so glad they listened to me.

**
THURSDAY – I opened the door to sunshine!  The rain and stormy roar blew through at 4:30 Am…I opened to find my front door to find the hinges of the storm door bent. Then I went for a walk to see the flooded road and there in the water was a fish swimming up my street!
 
I came to the office and got a call. From one of you who said to me…

”Barbara, I need to come and speak to you. I want to make peace with you and within myself.”

I opened a door …into my heart.

I asked ‘ How much time do you think will we need’. The person replied. ‘I don’t know. Once we open this door, I don’t know where it will take us.’
I said, ‘Let us leave some spaciousness around this time.’

I waited and worked and later that day I opened my office door…one of you came in and we began together…again.

We leaned into truth… spoken in love… truths listened for in love. An hour and half of making peace …took us into joy.

I have permission to share this because this may also be your story. You may have things you wish to tell me, and hesitate to do so. That doorway is always open within me if we take the time to speak personal truth in love. And listen to see where an open door will take us.

There are many doorways into truth…It is more important that we build here – in our hearts -  as we build our building. This is a house of many prayers.

Let us sing:
Somebody spoke to me…had me on their mind.
Took the time and spoke to me. I’m so glad they spoke,
I’m so glad they spoke. I’m so glad they spoke to me.

Thursday late afternoon, Nancy Rieser came in and we patched some words together for a service of Love & Remembrance…for those who are grieving this time of year…for anyone who is grieving new losses or old ones…holidays can feel lonely…

As I went home, I noticed that there were some envelopes in the basket. I think I saw John  S….walk in to collect them. He was wearing shorts!

**
Friday: I am home, writing.  I imagine opening a small door,  into the heart: That door opens to a sacred space, surrounded by the rhythmic heart beating, the pulse of creation. In there, there is another door. This door opens deeper still. Here is the door into the silence that invites us deeper still. In this place, the quiet voice of the soul speaks truth with such unbearable love.

Within every effort, within every day, are infinite doorways. Let every act, every struggle, every labor & pain, be a doorway into thanks. 

**
Saturday: The Green Capital Campaign envelope. 

Natalie and I and 9 others began our Ethical Eating discussion group, which is passionate and hopeful. After they left, I sat down to finish this sermon.

I opened the lid to the Capital Campaign basket. It was empty.

I went into Fellowship Hall to see what amount had been reached on our Campaign thermometer had gotten to. The curtain was down covering it.  I lifted the curtain and peeked under it and there, stapled over the thermometer, was a cardboard sign. It read: Caught you peeking!

Then:  Cele M.. dropped off three green envelopes. Joe and Maureen S… carried in two big sheet cakes…one has chocolate mousse!

Building is a great act of faith. You are putting your beliefs & faith to work.  It takes such courage to do so at a time when the world was contracting. You have chosen to build. To grow larger!  What a radical act of affirmation of your faith and values in this world!

And it did not begin this year. It did not begin five years ago.  Even before it was even a knowing twinkle in your eye, it was taking shape and growing in your hearts.

This campaign is all about opening doors to possibilities. To do that you have opened the doors of your homes, and hearts…you listened, you spoke , maybe you even prayed about what to give and how much to give and if you could give.

If you have a commitment yet to complete, now is our invitation to you to place into the basket at the back…as you leave  and it will be to be counted today..and the curtain will come up, the door will be opened and the number will be revealed.

Let us sing: Somebody built for me…had me on their mind.
Took the time and built for me.
I’m so glad they built. I’m so glad they built.
I’m so glad they built for me.

Don’t worry – it is only the beginning…This will require more humor, more ice cream, more pickles, more dreaming, believing, discovering, caring.

More opening doors onto listening, speaking, sitting, singing, praying.
Into building open minds, helping hands and loving heart as we build a Parish House. 

More opening doorways into thanks!  Into sacred silence.

This building process will require more of everything of us, because once you give birth, the real work begins!

This is my prayer for this house.  Small stones of thanks at the doorway of tomorrow. Thank you.

--2009  Barbara Fast    May be shared with attribution.