9.13.15 – Water Communion
Opening Words
Today, we join with hundreds of other Unitarian Universalist congregations who mark the beginning of their church year with the celebration of the Water Communion.
At this year’s water communion, we ponder our place in the flow of life, in particular our common responsibility to share what we have been given.
Our opening words are a poem by Unitarian Universalist Stephen Schick:
Suppose you cried a thousand years for a child who died
when she drank bad water.
Suppose you organized a great movement
to clean the water.
Suppose you carried the first filled glass
to the child’s sister.
Suppose you lifted it to her lips.
Suppose you watched her dive into the glass,
splash, and swim on.
Message
Our theme this morning of water calls to mind a metaphor that has long been used by this church to describe itself – that of an oasis.
I am aware that one of your previous ministers, Rev. Jennifer Innis, encouraged you all to question the metaphor of an oasis because of the risk of it leading to complacency or isolation. In other words, in the comfort of an oasis, we may forget the call to carry out from this place the sustenance we have found here. We may fail to bring it to those who are in sore need of it. Rev. Innis encouraged you instead to embrace the metaphor of a spring.
I believe your next minister, Rev. Tom Schmidt said, keep the metaphor of an oasis, but remember that an oasis is a place of respite along a journey, not a place to put down roots and never venture out.
As for me, I am still learning about you. In my first weeks here as your minister, I have been asking many of you what this church means to you… Wow! – the beautiful things you all have shared with me…
I have heard that the people here are “on fire” – on fire with a “purposeful vision.” That you are small but mighty – as one of you put it: “just a little TNT, but a lot of boom!” I have heard that this is a place where you can learn about diverse ways of being religious – you can “see the faces” and hear the voices of those who think differently but come together to act in love and wisdom. I have heard, “I usually feel a lot of anxiety, but in this church I feel peace and safety.” I have heard, “This is the first church where I felt I could come and be accepted as I am, without removing some part of me.” I have heard “This church saved my life.” Those are all real words spoken here.
So: this church IS a wonderful oasis – a place of life and sanctuary! And…from what I have learned about you, this church is also a spring that goes forth to bring life to dry places.
I know that you do this because I have also learned, for example…that you are teachers who inspire wonder and critical thinking skills, or that you serve on the Boards of agencies that work for justice, or you counsel, you write, you create art, you bring wellness to those who are ill… You nurture partnerships and families and friendships that do the hard work of living with love and vulnerability.
So we in this church are an oasis and a spring…
…And outside in our beautiful gardens we have another water metaphor – a fountain. This fountain continually recirculates water up and over the hard rocks.
I sense that this church has used the metaphor of an oasis because sometimes living in this world, and perhaps especially in this city, it can feel like we are surrounded by dry, unfriendly land, or – like the water in the fountain – as if we are up against some very hard rocks.
Yet the oasis prospers, and the fountain is ever flowing. Likewise, we can return again and again to this gathered community. We can take the love and wisdom we find here and move it out into the world for others.
For part two of our water communion, the Worship Committee and I and others decided that we would move out into the garden and incorporate the fountain in the closing of our service. We will bring this water there, and you will be invited to pour a bit of it into the fountain. Thus this water communion will truly become a co-mmunion, as the waters we brought here will continue to cycle through the fountain, reminding us of the flow of life.
This church IS an oasis… an oasis nurtured by a spring that becomes a fountain!
As we take the love we have found here out into a difficult world, let us remember that we are nurtured by a fountain of life and love.
-Rev. Emily Wright-Magoon
An Oasis, A Spring, A Fountain
