How to Eat an Elephant

Sermon Delivered By

Reverend Nancy Bouchard

October 19, 2008

HOW, Do you eat an elephant? …SHOUT the answer at me!

Again! HOW do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time!! and TODAY

I'm feeling particularly hungry

So I'm cooking up least 2 BIG bites of elephant.

My first bite

Is marinated in sweet sauce,

Its tender, grilled to perfection,

Served with a perfect Maine baked potato

And so tasty even Martha Stewart wants a bite!

This bite of elephant represents an identity,

An attitude of service, a sense of abundance, generosity and

Actions that affirm a church

Living its principles of justice and social conscience.

In 1948 the headlines were compelling

Men, women and children,

50,000 Guatemalans

Displaced from their homes

Fleeing from and fighting the oppression of slavery.

That same year in the Lehigh Valley

Liberal religious thinkers formed a Fellowship of Unitarians.

Determined to offer an alternative perspective of faith

A non-creedal religion

a small group of people grew a church.

In 1961 the Unitarian and the Universalists merged

Giving voice to religiously progressive people

Many who had a passion for reaching out

Into many other venues of social need.

This small but determined group would eventually declare their church a public sanctuary open to the displaced Guatemalan refugees whose numbers and desperation had grown.

The members and friends of this church have advocated for many social justice projects. Their earliest success was to expand religious educational opportunities for children and adults. They created a model that taught plurality.

People of the world, faiths, cultures, beliefs and values, were not all the same but they had equal worth and dignity.

Tackling issues of social justice

Lehigh UUs offered support groups for unemployed men and woman,

Sponsored programs such as the Israeli/ Palestinian Women for Peace,

The Guatemalan Refuge Project,

The Green Fiesta for the Summit in Rio,

The Aids Quilt Project,

Coalition for Choice,

Gay Pride marches,

Haven,

And, UU Service committee projects such as the recent

Tents for Darfur,

Urban Emergency Project

Hurricane Katrina support,

Turning Point School Supplies and Christmas Family Project

And endless other local, national and international projects.

Today, in honor of the 10^th year of service by Win Tweed, the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen, is highlighted as a service UUCLV is proud to be a part of. I am pleased to turn the lectern over to Win Tweeds as he shares his experiences with you.

A couple weeks ago Bill Thompson e-mailed me, he'd been researching his family tree and found we might be 10^th cousins 4 times removed. Of course the obvious question came to my mind, do I have to I include him in my will and will I be in his? Then I wondered “what exactly does that mean 10 to the 4^th removed”? And lastly, I remember the old saying “you can chose your friends by but not your relatives.”

Now, I'm OK being related to Bill, although I don’t know his sentiments.

The second bite of this elephant has to do with family.

It’s a bitter-sweet bite,

Occasional tenderness,

Some tough gristle,

Bitterness that chokes,

Sweetness that teases the pallet.

Family… People we chose to spend time with at our discretion.

People who share similar views and values.

People who know our joys and sorrows and

Welcome our opinions and honor our differences.

They want to understand us and don’t demand and expect.

For those of you who have a family of origin fitting this description…

Hang on to them!!

The family I’m describing is a family of choice…….our church family.

And today, we have welcomed new members into our family and we have invited them to walk along side us is “co-creating” this ideal family of faith.

Two weeks ago we talked about the values that we hold dear, the integrity with which we come into a faith community. We measured our spiritual temperature. I heard from some of you that your spiritual practice and your sense of spirituality are strong, others said they were on the path of growth but a few reflected a desperate need for resuscitation, they actually agreed that church was killing their spirit.

I reacted, I really did. I was saddened and wanted to change things right that minute…change what I didn’t know but something had to be fixed!

I took a breath and laughed at myself “How Biblical to consider the lost sheep first. This reminded me “hey non-anxious presence…the calm, thoughtful brain must be louder than the quick acting reactionary brain.” And then I knew THIS is a window of opportunity, a time to experience the ebb and flow of human relations and human needs. And a great reminder that thoughtful processing can be a powerful and transformative source.

This is my vision for UUCLV this year.

To instill an inner peace.

A peace that is not rattled by the crisis of the moment.

An inner peace and thoughtful mind,

A mind that recalls the mistakes of history

And is able to readjust for a better future.

For those who will integrate such peace into their lives,

There will seldom be a crisis of the moment….

Centered thoughtful processes, prevails over reaction.

“Sure” you say. “It sounds easy, in fact to easy to be true.”

“Can I have some of that peace too?”

Well….. yes!

Today you can start by listening to the message of the music,

Learn to lean.

Survival is not the basis of faith,

Connection to people is.

Step into the arena of memory

and let intimacy and trust return.

Hear the words of the reading,

Blessed are those who join in work, in celebration, in growing spirit,

in being generous in money AND time, who have vision.

In this year together can we learn to trust?

Can we open up to each other and

Admit pains and hurts and disappointments.

Can we let go of secrets and anger and

Embrace the talent, the creativity, the energy,

The hopefulness that enters through these doors every Sunday

And many other days during the week?

Can we look at our children and offer them The best we have in the way of right relations, dreams, hope, sacredness. Can we tell them our history and let them suggest different ways of being. Can we co-create with our new members.

This year can we collectively form an identity

That resuscitates our spiritual being,

That motivates us to volunteer here at the church

or in the wider community,

an identity that makes us all feel proud when we say,

“I’m a Unitarian Universalist from the Lehigh Valley Church in Bethlehem.”

And the response will be “THAT”S COOL”!