Janus is the Roman god of gates and doors.
A gate is some kind of movable barrier.
In your own life, what do you know about barriers, and how do
you understand them to move?
The door is any way to go in or out, a passage. Every Sunday, we
take account of passages and transitions and homecomings. A passage is merely
movement from one place to another. A journey, a voyage, a way of passing.
January is a perfect time to take account of passages.
We have moved from one calendar year to another. We have added a
year to our age. We may or may not have added some wisdom and insights.
Some of us have moved from one state to another. Some of us have
moved from uncertainty, around jobs, around health, to a more stable place.
Did your 2003 see movement in your life?
Have you moved into what feels like a permanent state of
complacency? Anxiety? Activism? Contentment?
Some of us have seen significant passages among our family. Some
of us have added a child or are preparing for such an event.
Some of us have experienced the death of a parent, the death of
a sibling. Some of us are preparing for such a passage. Not wanting to face
what is inevitably coming. Afraid. Uncertain. Some are prepared.
Not all things that are faced can be changed, but nothing can be
changed until it is faced. So said James Baldwin, one of my all time heroes.
Looking back, on 2003, what do you know now, that you didn't
know last January? What do you know now, that you can never not know again?
What did you do when you heard that the bombs were dropping in
Baghdad? Did you call someone? Did you watch, intrigued, stone-faced, puzzled,
the coverage from CNN?
What family members joined your clan last year? How was your
tribe increased?
2003 was unforgettable for me. In terms of milestones. I was
ordained, at this very spot. A place that will be meaningful to me, the rest of
my life, no matter where my journey takes me. If I stay here until Norah is in
college, or if we are gone in some relatively short time, this will always be
the spot where I was ordained into the Unitarian Universalist ministry. I
graduated from seminary in May.
Did you pass from one place to another in terms of your
education. Did you enter graduate school? What name did you take on in 2003? I
am, as a result of that ordination, and forever will be, Rev. Roger Butts. Did
you add to your name in 2003? Did you add a new title, or lose one?
I moved from the Village of East Davenport to a quiet
neighborhood North of Vander Veer Park. What moves did you make in 2003? Were
you the chess piece, or the chess player?
Did you move out of your house for good in 2003? Did you
downsize? Upgrade? Renovate?
Where did you find hope? Where did you find resolve?
What was it like, that moment, when a flash of clarity came, that
grabbed hold of you and would not let you go?
Did you finally go through your files? Simplify? Consolidate?
What did you simplify in terms of your lifestyle? What files,
what baggage, what resentment, what unresolved anger, went from deeply embedded
in your spirit to the trash heap?
Did you forgive someone in 2003? How did that reconciliation
come about? How were you changed by that?
Did you finally forgive yourself for not getting into x college,
x relationship, x hobby, x career? For letting your parents down about school?
For treating your child poorly one summer? For forgetting, too often, to tell
your parents that you loved them?
Maybe you decided in 2003 that you would live your life. Maybe
on a cold Tuesday in February or in a hot day in July you said: Today I stop
walking and sail a river that effortlessly bears me on its way. Grateful to
know that I can be who I am, I rest from my endless striving to become someone
else. Maybe you did that two decades ago and forgot until now that you had done
so.
The term January comes from the Roman god, Janus. You know this
figure. Two faces. One looking forward, one looking back. Like a door, looking
both inside the house and outside the house.
There is, apparently, no Greek equivalent to this Roman figure.
I read that when Rome was at peace, the doorway at a certain public spot would
be open. When Rome was at war, the doorway would be closed. Janus, there,
presiding over the doorway.
When Christianity emerged on the stage, the door had been open
only four times.
Kind of an interesting development in the theoretical life of
Janus. Apparently, some gospel writers and epistle writers decided to draw
parallels between Jesus and Janus. I am the alpha and the omega, I am the
beginning and the end, is the most blatant example. There are others.
Janus looks backward. One of the faces is squarely focused in on
what has transpired.
A few weeks ago, we took a look at 2003, at the top religious
news stories of the year. It was quite a year on the global and international stage
for religious developments.
What we didn't do that day, was look at the developments in this
congregation. What we didn't do was take time to look at those who helped to
make this place what it was in 2003.
A quick look back, with acknowledgements and thanksgiving. In
2003, the congregation put to rest its latest search committee, when we
installed me as the 19th minister of the congregation. In Unitarian
Universalism, the congregation holds the authority to call its own ministers,
to build its own buildings, to take on its own projects. While being connected
to other liberal religious societies, our polity calls for an independence that
is refreshing. So the search committee, made up on Jerry Wala, Chris Fawcett,
Martha Harris, Connie Adams, Mary Beth Kwasik, Judy Lance., went on a two year
quest. Looked at the kinds of interest and history of this place. Looked at the
kinds of ministerial candidates who were out there. Talked to you. Listened.
Carefully considered the options. And called 3 or 4 individuals to
pre-candidate for this pulpit. They started sometime in 2000, and wrapped up
their work, officially at the ordination. Ordaining me to the ministry was this
congregation, represented by Jerry Wala and Chris Fawcett. Working on the huge
party were so many from this congregation, Katherine Allen, Ruth Wirtz, so many
more.
In our independent polity, the board of trustees is a body made
up of individuals elected by you, serving your interests, producing policies
and procedures that reflect who we are as a community, what we are dreaming
into being.
They are to be commended. The board, along with myself and a few
members of the membership committee, held a retreat out in the Rock Island
countryside, in August, and set a course for the year, under the leadership of
Joanne Maciejko and Ruth Wirtz and Martha Easter Wells, a course that is
ambitious and is courageous and will impact the life of this congregation for
years, and quite possibly, decades to come. We committed, in the quiet of that
place, to a process called Raising the Roof. More on that in a bit.
In 2003, we welcomed 15 new members or so. Under the leadership
of the membership committee we held new U classes, three sessions. We
implemented new procedures to track visitors, to welcome them, to send them
letters and newsletters and to assimilate them into the life of the
congregation in an intentional way. The committee continues to reform itself.
In 2003, we turned 135 years old. To mark that birthday, a book
was written about our place. We are blessed with the presence of a tireless
archivist, a great supporter of liberal religion: Betty Gorshe. She leads an
archives committee that meets once a week, has lunch, talks, and keeps the
records of this church in creative and imaginative ways. The book is called
Bits and Pieces and includes stories about the last, I don't know, 50 years,
told from the point of view of writers from within our congregation. If you
haven't yet purchased a copy, see Betty. They sell for 10 dollars and are well
worth the cost.
A group of fellows meet regularly to keep the grounds beautiful
and maintained. Jack Wiley and Phil Kester and Ross Lance and Joe Gadzik and
Henry Becker and there are certainly others. But they deserve our deep
gratitude. They are working on a plan for the future, including some wetlands
down at the base of our hill, that will make a beautiful place even more so.
The Religious Education Visioning Task Force. The new DRE. The
youth went to Guatemala.
The treasurers. In small ways, people help this place--Jon
Halladay with sound. Joyce Wiley with the Forum. So many others.
One day, I was here meeting with representatives from Clinton,
Burlington, and Dubuque, and of course, Davenport. The whole while, we were
meeting, a group of anonymous folks were cleaning out the closets in this
place, starting with that space under the choir loft.
I cannot tell you how many hospital visits were made, how many
home visits were made, as a result of your caring committee. It was
re-invigorated in 2003, under the leadership of Connie Sauer Adams. She has
done remarkable things there. Clusters of helpers are available in different
areas. You may want to help out. There is a new parents cluster. There is a
bereavement cluster. There is an ill and hospitalized cluster. Remarkable compassion
shown this year by you all, caring for one another.
In the area of community outreach and social justice, this
congregation continues to be a leader in the community. The Sunday morning
forums often explore the issues that confront our community. We, as a
congregation, supported the Candela project in Guatemala in remarkable ways.
And a major initiative was undertaken by the committee in the last year around
the commercial exploitation of children.
The Endowment Committee, in a very short time, has organized an
endowment that looks to secure the future of this place, while spending 3, 4
thousand dollars a year on projects of immediate concern. They funded, for
instance, a new initiative in 2003, that allows for sexual minorities from a
wide range of faith communities to gather for community building, sharing, and
singing and prayer. It is called First Tuesdays, and while so much of what has
happened in faith communities around GLBT issues divides, we seek to unite.
On that front, this congregation continues to be a leader around
justice for GLBT issues. We hosted the spring concert and fundraiser for the
pride chorus. We hosted an alternative prom for young gay folks and their
allies. Just a few weeks ago. I attend meetings of the Religious Concerns
Committee of Quad Citians Affirming diversity, a group of clergy that are
supportive and affirming of gay rights.
This congregation has committed to sending two up and coming
leaders to the Midwest Leadership School, a project of two Unitarian
Universalist districts. For a number of years, someone from this congregation
has served on the staff of that school. It is a remarkable commitment. But
starting last year, the leadership school decided to bring home their
learnings. So, once or twice a year, they gather folks around and talk about
healthy communication styles, healthy congregations, conflict resolution and so
on.
The Committee on Ministry has been a stable and important tool
for this congregation. The Religious Services Committee has done remarkable things
over the last year. The RSC coordinates the services once a month when I am out
of the pulpit and the summer, when I am away. People told me that the summer
services this year were as good as any they have heard and that attendance was
an all time high.
Janus faces forward, as we all must. What can you see coming up
this year that may provide a great challenge to you? As we welcome in 2004, are
you on the threshold of something big, something scary, some transition that
you can see may challenge your abilities and get your blood moving?
Perhaps this is the year you will finally learn what string
theory is really all about.
This may be the year that you commit to going down, with a group
of fellow Unitarian Universalists, to tutor at the John Lewis Coffee Shop.
Maybe this is the year that you will finally start jogging.
Oh, resolutions. Janus looks forward. And it is true what
Baldwin said: Not all things that are faced can be changed, but nothing can be
changed until it is faced. What are you going to face up to this year?
What will you hope to learn this year that you will never not
know again.
I have been reading Sandburg of late. I am going to take on
something he says in one of his poems, entitled simply, Joy. That poem ends,
"Joy always, joy everywhere. Let joy kill you. Keep away from the little
deaths." In this field, religion, so much is unattainable. So much is
unresolved. Children, in our community, still cry themselves to sleep every
night, because of hunger. We do what we can to mobilize change. It all seems so
large. And there are little slights, little missteps, that can send me into a
tizzy.
But I am with Emerson, even so, even with the reality that the
little we can do may not always be enough, I am with Emerson: we nonetheless
are immersed in a gracious reality. Even so. And we are surrounded by such
blessings. I am resolved this year to let joy kill me.
As part of this community of faith, each one of us, as religious
liberals, is called to continuously lift up the ideal, the possible, and not to
dwell on what we cannot yet accomplish. We must stay away from the little
deaths.
Janus looks forward. And so does this community. We have seen
much of what was accomplished last year. We are on the threshold of great
adventures.
The Religious Education Visioning Task Force will continue its
conversations around the future of our religious education program.
A number of us will continue to dream about what is possible
around The Center for the Arts and Religion, an idea that is in the plant
seeding phase.
On April April 23-25, 2004 at the Kansas City Marriott Country
Club Plaza, Hosted by All Souls UU Church, Kansas City, the Prairie Star
District of the Unitarian Universalist Association, will have its annual
meeting. Unitarian Universalists from all over the Prairie Star District which
represents the UUA in the Upper Midwest of the United States. The District
serves about 60 congregations in eight states: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota,
Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, will meet and
engage in timely, practical, and fun activities, including workshops on
congregational growth and other topics. There are few better ways to get to
know the state of our religious movement than by attending the District
meeting. I hope that ten of us will go, and will bring back to this
congregation, the learnings and enthusiasm picked up at the district meeting.
Another exciting opportunity this year is the General Assembly.
Last year, we had a grand time, at our national assembly meeting in Boston.
This year, from June 24 to 28, the General Assembly will be held in Long Beach,
California. My hope is that we can organize ourselves, energize ourselves and
send 15 people to that meeting. Henry and Vivian Becker went for the first time
last year. Talk to them about their experience. Martha Easter Wells and Joan
Benziger and Melanie Landa and so many others, go every year. I challenge us to
send even more. It is a great time. Your commitment to Unitarian Universalism
will be cemented.
GOTV & QCI & NAACP, Who will emerge to lead the
congregation in helping QCI and the NAACP realize our common goal of increasing
voter participation in the electoral process.
How can we ensure that 200 people will attend the forum on
commercial exploitation. Well, one way is to invite your friends, invite young
parents, Episcopalians and Congregationalists and Baptists and Jews and
Muslims. If you think you are too old, consider your grandchildren. If you are
child-free by choice, think of our common civic life. If you think you are too
young, think of your siblings, or nieces or nephews.
Help out with the auction and coffee house, our annual, great
fun activity in February with lots of music and auction items. Contact John
Kinser. Contact Judy Stengel. Contact me. Get involved. Jump in. Organize some
part of this project. And make some friends in the process.
Looking ahead, we are going to host River Cities Days, where
four congregations will worship and sing and play together. May 16th.
In the fall, what if we had the most participants of any
congregation in the CROP Walk?
All of the activities in the coming year, serve as a reminder of
our true purpose. To be a religious community that stands for freedom and
openness, for wholeness and reconciliation. To be a place of significant
personal and spiritual development. All of these things will come into focus as
the leadership team around Raising the Roof begins its work in the coming weeks
and months, with the help of a consultant on congregational life from the Alban
Institute. The team is being put together now. The work will involve you,
involve speaking with you, listening to you. Tapping into your gifts and
dreams. As we continue to face the future, together. United in our diversity.
Steadfast in our determination to be the strongest community of faith we can
be.
Of particular importance, however, is our ultimate goal: which
is to help one another stay married to amazement, something captured in this
Mary Oliver poem.
When death comes/ likes the hungry bear in autumn;/ when death
comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;/ when death comes/ like
measle-pox;
when death comes/ like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:/
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything/ as a brotherhood and a
sisterhood,/ and I look upon time as no more than an idea,/ and I consider
eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common as a field
daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,/ ending, as all
music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something precious to the
earth.
When its over, I want to say: all my life/ I was a bride married
to amazement./ I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When its over, I don't want to wonder/ if I have made of my life
something particular, and real./ I don't want to find myself sighing and
frightened, or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
Looking back, on 2003, what changes, what passages occurred?
What do you know now, that you didn't know last January? What do you know now,
that you can never not know again?
Looking forward to 2004, what are you hoping to learn. What are
you on the threshold of? What can you imagine for the coming year?
January 11, 2004, Unitarian Church, Davenport, Iowa. Rev. Roger
Butts