Below is a reading followed by the sermon, March 23, 2025, by Rev. F. Vernon Wright V
Reading
What then is sanctuary? The sanctuary is often something very small. Not a grandiose gesture, but a small gesture toward alleviating human suffering and preventing humiliation. The sanctuary is a human being. Sanctuary is a dream. And that is why you are here and that is why I am here. We are here because of one another. We are in truth each other’s shelter.
By Elie Wiesel.
Together Rise Up
Good morning! Yep its time for the sermon on the amount! Its like this: (I’m lovingly lifting this old folktale I found in a colleague’s sermon by the way…) Imagine for a moment you’re in feudal Bagdad, or Istanbul. A woman comes to the judge and accuses a man of hanging outside of her bakery and stealing the scent of the delicious goods inside. “Every morning this scoundrel stands outside my bakery with a smile on his face taking in the good smells, but he doesn’t pay me anything!”
When the accused is questioned by the judge The student says. “Yes its true. As a student I have barely any money for even the most basic things- so I stand here and imagine myself eating the food.”
The judge considers this for a moment and says “Okay. Take some coins from your pocket, offending student!”
The bakery owner starts to smile in gleeful anticipation.
“Now take the coins and jingle them in your hand.”
The student does so.
The judge continues, “Bakery owner, do you hear the sound of the coins jingling together?”
“Yes I do judge.”
Receive therefore this sound of the coins as your payment for this student smelling your delicious food.
Consider the delicious smell that greets you in fellowship most Sundays. Consider the dulcet sounds from our many musicians and all that is organized and performed by our director? Consider the laughter of our children. Consider the hum that is here when the sanctuary is full?
You could come here every week as an outsider and revel in these sounds and smells and life would be good, but however good it would be, it wouldn’t be any better than watching t.v.- it would be something for your passive entertainment. For you to really get to relish the food, and sing and play with the band, and have a say in who it is that delivers these sermons, you have to become part of the physical exchange of what we do. You have to join a committee, the choir, the band, a task force. You have to be willing to put your money to work too.
Murray is not a top down kind of organization- we are a bottom up organization. I work for you. You are my bosses. The work we do to fulfill our commitments to being an environmental justice, black lives matter LGBTQ plus affirming, food justice, clothing justice community, is all about committees and task forces. The heads of those committees are not ordinary people, they are highly skilled well- read activists. They are fun! They are experienced! They have done much good work over the years. Together we rise up!
And you know what when we look at our newsfeeds on our phones, and we see what is happening out there in the world, and it’s just so upsetting I get it- despair is a huge temptation. And why is despair a huge temptation? Well what can we do, we ask- it just seems so overwhelming. When you really think about it, its probably not despair we are feeling- just the sense of being overwhelmed. And of course that is this administration’s strategy. Just remember this though, however admirable or noble, our national life might be, however important, ninety nine percent of everything we do, has to do with the people you actually get to know, that you actually get to shake hands with or hug or wave to. And if it ever came to standing up for someone actually, or laying down one’s life out of gut twisting compassion, it is far more likely to happen in a local community. And maybe together we can take a van with like minded friends to travel to DC or NY, or to an ICE holding facility to hold a sign or even peacefully block an entrance until we are sent to jail. Whatever it takes, right? But whatever we do we will be among friends we met partly here. Together, from the foundation of this community we rise up! This is what the great ethicist and concentration camp survivor means when he says, sanctuary is a human being. We are here because of one another. We are in truth each other’s dream.
And if you have children at home, how are you going to raise them? Are you going to raise them alone or are you going to do it in community. Soccer teams, chess clubs can be communities, but if your like me when I was a full time swim dad, you’ll spend much of your community time engaged in vigorous arguments over politics- and having your kids excluded and isolated because of your views and the values of your family- and there’s a time an place for this, because we must know how to defend ourselves ideologically in local communities… but you also need a place that is safe to play, to recharge, to be among like minded people. Together we rise up!
So I just got to ask, shall Murray do more than smell and sound like a progressive faith and ethics community? Shall we be an imagined community exchanging imaginary gifts- exchanging sounds for smells, or shall we be an actual community sharing real gifts of time and treasure?
We got to rise up people. Your finance committee has put together a stewardship campaign. Let’s rise up and support it. We want to be financially secure this next year, we don’t want to have to worry about whether increasing insurance premiums, or taking care of staff is going to be a no-go. In today’s world we want to be healthy and vibrant and positive.
We have lots of good work to do this year. We have many newer people who have been visiting us. We have many people who joined in the last few years, who never really got a chance to learn how to get involved, or what this tradition or church is really about. We have to run the orientation classes and recognize many new people who have joined in our fun in May.
In the beginning of June we have to dream together what we want to hand down to the next generation of folks. We have to look ahead to a beautiful vibrant church five years from now and we have to look to the four year mark, the three year mark, the two year mark to plan together what we need to do each year to get there! We need to vision together my friends! Together we need to rise up!
With all that sturm und drang out there we need to be strong and whole in here. We need to provide sanctuary for each other and be a part of the physical exchange of real community. When we are strong and whole in here- guess what, we can do all kinds of exciting things out there. This community needs to rise up with love! This community needs to rise up with generosity! The world has never more been in need of the values of justice, equity, inclusion, pluralism and transformation in love, let us lift up our voice let us partake of the good food, the warm embrace, and the inspiring direction of this wonderful Murray community!
