The Covenants We Keep

Rev. David M. Horst, Interim Minister

Second Congregational Society, Unitarian Universalist

September 4, 2011

 

Come as you are. Be who you are. 

Free thinkers. Soul searchers. 

The faithful. The doubtful.

The joyful. The grieving.

Come as you are. Be who you are.

You are welcome here. 

From many places you come. On many journeys you travel.

Your stories be told. Your feelings be honored. 

Your wisdom be shared.

You are welcome here.

Look above you in this beautiful sanctuary. What do you see? Simple beauty. Bright daylight. Plenty of air. Like a fresh canvas waiting for your brush to shape the line, apply the color, create the form, and paint a picture of the world as only your eyes see it. My friends, this is where Unitarian Universalist faith begins, where it grows and deepens, where it is nurtured and sustained, where it comforts and consoles you at your life journey’s end.

Now look around you. The canvas is not empty; it is full, intricately drawn and richly colored, and complete. See, your friends and neighbors are here, gathered with you. My friends, this is how Unitarian Universalist faith begins, how it grows and deepens, how it is nurtured and sustained, how it comforts and consoles you at your life journey’s end -- in community.

You have a structure and you have the people: That may seem to be the necessary basis for religious community.  Yet there is something more needed to create the line, color, and form of the community -- the beloved community -- you aspire to be: Bonds of friendship created through thought, intention, devotion, and love. Even more than friends, but brothers and sisters.

These bonds do not just happen through good thoughts and warm feelings. The beloved community happens through intention followed by concrete action.

Our Puritan forebears understood this. In the Cambridge Platform of 1630, the founding document of all American congregational churches, “saints by calling must have a visible political union among themselves, or else they are not yet a particular church…. This form is a visible covenant, agreement, or consent … which is usually called the ‘church covenant.’”

Then as now we have no creed or doctrine to which we pledge our allegiance. Rejection of a supernatural power is widely held. We find meaning and truth in our sacred texts and myths, but reason is our guiding light. So where do we turn? What holds us together?

All we have is each other, so we must create covenantal relationships. A covenant is a pledge your make with each other about how you are a congregation together: How you worship and learn with each other, how you celebrate and mourn with each other, how you love and care for each other, how you manage the affairs of the church with each other.
Because congregations are gathered not by creed but by covenant the test of belonging is not “right belief” but “right relationship.” What you and I and each of us believe is of less importance that how we support, respect, and love one another. And when one of us falls short – and we surely will – we call each other back into covenant and right relationship through forgiveness and compassion.

Beloved community grows and strengthens when our gathering of separate bodies and spirits transforms into a gathering of one body and spirit. When me becomes us. When I am becomes we are.

Covenant is a religious term. It recalls the covenant between God and Abraham and the special relationship between God and the Hebrew people:

Abram was ninety-nine years old when the LORD appeared to him again and said, “I am God All-Powerful. If you obey me and always do right, I will keep my covenant to you and give you more descendants than can be counted.” Abram bowed with his face to the ground, and God said: I promise that you will be the father of many nations. That’s why I now change your name from Abram to Abraham. I will give you a lot of descendants, and in the future they will become great nations. Some of them will even be kings. I will always keep the promise I have made to you and your descendants, because I am your God and their God. I will give you and them the land in which you are now a foreigner. I will give the whole land of Canaan to your family forever, and I will be their God. [Genesis 17:1 - 8]

What not choose a more secular term such as “contract” to ensure good relationships? A contract denotes a legal obligation, usually between two parties, one which requires legal remedies if the contract is not fulfilled. Contracts require good faith, of course; but there are a punitive measures should the contract not be fulfilled.

A covenant is not a legal arrangement and or just making a deal; it is a mutual understanding to be and act in a particular way toward another person. The basis of covenant is equal regard and respect, love and compassion -- religious values we hold dear.

Covenant is the glue of community, so it is also a pragmatic approach to creating and sustaining a congregation. Covenant is highly democratic: It ensures that a congregation is self-governing, highly participatory, and welcoming to new members. Covenant is also deeply theological: Understandings of right and wrong, life and death, communal worship and personal piety, justice and mercy, and hope and freedom are constantly worked out in the ongoing process of covenant.

Who you are as a congregation is less about the content of your beliefs and more about the intentional process by which you stay in right relationship with one another.

The current covenant of the Second Congregation Society expresses a lot about who you are:

In sympathy with Unitarian Universalist principles and purposes, we unite in the freedom of truth and in the spirit of love for worship and for service to humanity, to our community, and to one another.

“We unite” strikes me as the operative phrase -- above all else you unite. What for? For worship and for service. And then how you unite: In truth and in love.

Truth and love. Truth and love. To me these are at the heart of the covenant: Freely seeking what is true and real while doing so in the spirit of love toward ourselves and each other.

There is much here to understand, to honor, to aspire to in this covenant of 2002. Yet it may be time, during this interim period of the next two years, to enter into a fresh conversation about the covenant, to seek ever deeper relationship with one another, and to consider the theological commitments within which the covenant is made.

Covenantal relationships operate at four levels: The covenant we make with ourselves to be and to act in ways keeping with good personal character: Honesty, generosity, kindness, humility, and compassion are a few aspects of character that come to mind. We also make covenant with the individuals in our lives to treat one another with courtesy and respect among other things. We make covenant with the religious community of which we are a part, promising to participant, contribute, and honor the guidelines for membership.

Finally, we as a covenanted congregation, agree to reach other and help other congregations. The Cambridge Covenant speaks of “the communion of churches” by way of “mutual care in taking thought for one another’s welfare” through consultation, guidance, participation, receiving members, sharing ministers in times of need, being good neighbors, and supporting new congregations. Today this “mutual care” is expressed in our support of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations -- an association of autonomous congregations freely gathered to support and promote the mission of liberal religion in this country and around the world.

The covenants we make are personal, interpersonal, congregational, and associational. They are all linked, of course, and recognize that religious life is not a wholly private matter. Religious life lived in covenant is a mutual endeavor that gives much and requires more.

Covenants are not only made but kept. Keeping covenant is where the challenge lies, because despite your and my good intentions and our high ideals we sometimes falter we sometimes get “out of covenant”: Respect is cast aside when opinions differ. Honesty gives way to expediency. Respect gives way to insult. Humility gives way to hubris. Generosity gives way to stinginess. Mutual care gives way to selfishness.

How then do we get back “into covenant” with ourselves, with each other, with our congregation, with our association when we falter?

Laughter is a good place to start! Laughter at our quirks and foibles. Laughter at the way things sometimes go very wrong. There’s always a lot to laugh about! Truth and love are present in the laughter -- humility too.

Or meditation and prayer: A moment of quiet introspection to bring your heart and mind into the present. A few minutes to let go of the past and stop anticipating the future and to just be. Truth and love are present in the moment. Forgiveness too.

And lstening to one another. Truly listening without judgment. Listen in such a way that the other person is heard. Listening that seeks understanding.

Reciting the covenant, as we’ve been doing on Sunday morning, to remind each other of our highest aspirations and purposes. Sharing a covenant in all of the moments we come face-to-face as members of the congregation is a good practice. Invite truth and love to be present when two or or more gather -- respect and mutual care are present too.

To keep covenant is not a fixed thing, but an ongoing process. To fall out of covenant is not a sin, but a human thing. This gets at the two-fold religious character of covenanted relationships: First, we aspire to be the best individuals and community we can be. Second, when we fall short we are forgiven and given again the chance to hold before ourselves our highest aspirations.

In other words, we are neither as good nor as bad as we imagine ourselves to be.

Come as you are. Be who you are.

        You are welcome here. 

Laugh and pray. Live and love. 

        Keep covenant. Break covenant. Remake covenant.

Be your best. Be forgiven.

        Unite in truth. Seek the spirit of love.