I wish everyone here a warm welcome.  It is wonderful when fate brings new members into our hearty band of spiritual seekers and social justice makers!.  We are glad that your paths have led here.  But before anyone gets too comfortable, I want to make sure we all understand what this faith demands of you, demands of all of us.  Our Principles and Sources ask us to seek justice and equity and compassion in all of our endeavors.  We are asked to search for truth in a responsible way.  We believe that revelation is not sealed.  The prophets in the Jewish tradition and all of the religions of the world have much to teach us about how to live in right relationship with other people and the earth.  But so do the poets and the womanist theologians.  Earth centered spirituality informs us just as much as humanist ideals and scientific evidence of life far more vast and complex than we can even imagine.  Here we affirm that we are all interconnected and all deserving of dignity and fairness.

How will people know that you are a Unitarian Universalist?.  How will people know that you stand on the side of Love, (One of the UUA’s popular slogans) in all of its forms?.  By our actions, of course.  We are a deeds rather than creeds kind of people.  We didn’t join this congregation to become part of a committee, although that’s part of what our members do and it helps all aspects of congregational life.  We didn’t join this congregation to simply come here on Sunday mornings to hear great music and reflect on something a speaker said.  Of course, worship is important!  We want you to listen, and to be filled up.  We want you to be stimulated and inspired.  But we also want you to continue the tradition of our long standing fight for human rights.

Unitarians and Universalists have long gone against the grain of current theological thinking.  Whether it was fair or not, both denominations were named by others who wanted it to be known that we weren’t quite up to snuff.  We denied the Trinity partly because we believed Jesus was a man and not a God.  We denied the idea of original sin and the depravity of humankind.  We thought that eventually, God was too great to not grab everyone and bring them to heaven.

Whether or not we believe in God or whether or not we want to talk about Jesus, Unitarian Universalism still offers an alternative to mainline protestant churches.  We are known more by our involvement in justice work than for any set of beliefs.  We were one of the earliest denominations to publicly support gay and lesbian rights.  The first openly gay minister in one of our pulpits was in 1979.

Over the last couple of years, the rights of illegal immigrants have been a major focus of the UUA and individual congregations, as well as the UU Social Justice college.  Less pressing but no less important for the welfare of our country is the work for racial equality.

Malcolm Gladwell made popular the phrase “Tipping point”, and it is my fervent hope that we have reached that juncture where we have heard and seen enough injustice towards our brothers and sisters of color, that we are willing to do something about it.

Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray.  The list of unarmed men, women and children killed by police goes on and on.  Black men, women and children killed by the very people meant to protect them.  And I don’t want to place the blame for all that is wrong with the police departments.  The police department is just one governmental entity that doesn’t always work the way it is supposed to.  There are many other things wrong.  Our laws on drugs and the punishments for possession need to be changed.  Our schools in communities of color need to be improved.  Many of our brothers and sisters of color need support and education around family systems.  Racism is our oldest evil in this very young country of ours.  Dominant culture privilege is not a phrase made up by Academics to waste time and energy.  We live in a system created to keep mostly White people in power and people of color, dis-empowered.

Being a part of this faith asks each and every one of us to do our part to destroy this evil, to confront our own prejudice, to learn about our white privilege, as a group of us has been doing for the last few weeks, and will continue to do.

In some ways it is a miracle that stories from Ferguson and Staten Island and Baltimore are making national news.  Our President is speaking more honestly about what impoverished communities need.  Have we seen and heard enough yet to become angry?  In my own despair and anger, I have found a lot of comfort and inspiration, as well as good information on the internet.  Some of you may have seen this website, called A Full Day, created by Kenny Wiley.  His recent post was called “A Unitarian Universalist ‘black Lives Matter’ Theology”.  Here are some excerpts.

In 1812, the Universalist Magazine wrote vehemently that it was “utterly impossible to reconcile slavery with the pure doctrines of Christianity.” In October 1845, 170 Unitarian ministers signed the “Protest Against American Slavery,” published in the abolitionist newspaper “The Liberator.” In it the ministers condemned their own reticence to engage, referring to harm done “by the long silence of northern Christians and churches.  We must speak against [slavery] in order not to speak in its support.” Lydia Maria Child said of systemic racism, slavery, and segregation, “The removal of this prejudice is not a matter of opinion—it is a matter of duty.”

The nineteenth-century Universalists and Unitarians who worked to denounce slavery fought three battles: the battle to end slavery, the battle against silence from within the congregations, and the battle against their own prejudices.  We fight the similar struggles today.

In the early and mid-nineteenth century, the majority of Unitarians and Universalists were not actively engaged in the abolitionist movement.  Those willing to attempt fully living out their espoused values pushed their colleagues and religious siblings to eventual understanding and greater action.  Taquiena Boston and others call this “leading from the margins.”

“The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought Jim Crow segregation and, again, silence from too many churches.  Neither stopped black woman and Unitarian Fannie B. Williams from saying, in 1893, “It should be the province of religion to unite, and not to separate, men and women according to the superficial differences of race lines.”

Denominational fear and ambivalence in 1953 did not stop the white minister A. Powell Davies from proclaiming, “I shall myself…not eat a meal in any restaurant in [Washington D.C.] that will not serve meals to Negroes.  I invite all who truly believe in human brotherhood to do the same.”

Right now we as Unitarian Universalists are being called to act.  We are being called by our ancestors—those who insisted, who demanded that we help end slavery, that we fight for suffrage, that we join the struggle to end Jim Crow, that we listen to and honor Black Power.“

In this post, Mr Wiley talks about the fact that our first principle is an unrealized and unfulfilled promise as of yet.  But he doesn’t lose hope.

He continues:

“Ours is a faith that has said, or worked to say to those who have been marginalized:
You are a woman, and your life matters…
You are gay or lesbian, and your life matters…
You are transgender, and your life matters…
You have a disability, and your life matters…
You were not loved as a child, and your life matters…
You struggle with depression, and your life mattersRight now we are being called—by our ancestors, by our principles, by young black activists across the country—to promote and affirm:
You are young and black, and your life matters just the same.
You stole something, and your life matters just the same.
I have been taught to fear you, and your life matters just the same.
The police are releasing your criminal record, and your life matters just the same.
They are calling you a thug, and your life matters just the same.”

Thank you kenny Wiley for reminding us what this faith is all about.  Thank you for calling us to do what we know needs to be done.  Thank you for reminding us who we are and what we stand for.  Yes, we stand on the side of Love, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be angry about the state of affairs in this country.  We can love our country very much, as I do, and still be angry.

Love in action looks like justice—it looks like stepping up to do the work that needs to be done for our less fortunate brothers and sisters.

I have such faith in this congregation, and in the larger faith of which we are a part.  I know that you who have come here, want more than to sit in the pews on a Sunday morning.  I know that you will volunteer to share food with our friends at the Congregational Church and their homeless guests who are participating in Family Promise.  I know you will want to join our next Conversation on Race and Privilege, when we view Traces of the Trade, a film about a white family in New England who discovers that their wealth was derived from slavery.  I know that you will do your best to help us raise money for the good works of the church so that we can continue to fight for those whose voices are not heard, those whose bodies are not being cared for, those whose minds are not being challenged.

There is much work to be done.  But we will do it together.  We will do it because it is the right thing to do.  We will do it because we know, bone deep, that we are all one.  Whatever happens to you, happens to me.  We are intertwined and interconnected.  What has been plaited cannot be undone.  Spread the love and the fire of this Faith.  Start now.

Rev. Susan Moran.