Sermon- September 21, 2025

As many of you know, Tom Mark and I – and more recently Tom and I, have been going to Ferry Beach the first full week of August for many years. The week’s theme is “Circles of Life” and it’s so thrilling to see the same folks every year, some greyer, older, kids growing, and reconnect on a truly special level. Those of you who have experienced Star Island know meaningful these weeks are.

The past 3 years, I have been the Minister of the Week for our week, and each year I swear that this will be my last! But it gives me the chance to bring everyone together – either during worship or chapel services, during vespers, or even if just after dinner in the friendship circle in the sand.

One of the matriarchs of that week is a woman named Ann. Ann has been attending that week at Ferry Beach for a good part of 40 years. Her children grew up there, and she had developed deep relationships with the regulars that week.

This year, as soon as I saw her, I knew it had not been a good year for her. She had lost her hair and eyebrows, was gaunt and tired looking, and was walking with a cane. She had been fighting stage  4 breast cancer for the better part of the year – chemo, radiation, the nausea and vomiting that comes along with treatment. Her spirits were good though and was not going to let a “touch” of cancer ruin her life or her week at Ferry Beach.

Wednesday evening during the week is Vesper night – a time of quiet reflection for folks to just be together and enjoy the kind of holy energy that these vesper services evoke. Earlier in the day I had asked Ann if she would be comfortable sharing how the past year has been for her and what gives her strength. She happily agreed. Her sharing was profound and powerful. Afterwards I asked her for a copy of her remarks which she said she would send to me. Serendipitously, her remarks arrived in my inbox on Friday, and I’d like to share a few of her remarks with you, with her blessing. She titled her remarks “The Essentials of My Life.”

Ann begins: “My life changed dramatically one afternoon when a nurse called and announced, “You have breast cancer.  Any questions?”  I didn’t know then that I would very soon learn to find the Essential in my life and live it each day. I used to begin each morning with a brisk two-mile walk with my pup before breakfast—at sunrise if possible. Now, I respond to what my body is requiring; rest, a little movement from the recliner to the deck, and another nap.” 

“I find my church and family circles are Essential.  I head out Wild Walking each and every Wednesday as I have for several years.  It’s the highlight of my week.  A small, close group of friends and I head out into the woods for a few hours usually to a small body of water—a lake, a pond, even a large puddle.  We laugh, we share our lives, we explore the land and life around us, and we eat our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before heading home again.  This time of year, we usually find ice cream on our way back.  I renew my soul this way every week.”

“I’ve always regarded myself as a strong, independent (and yeah—a little stubborn) woman taking care of myself and my family, my work. I’ve needed help in ways I’ve never considered—and I’m just now learning how to ask.  Spoiler alert: You gotta say it directly, “I need help.  Could you please…?”

“But more importantly, friends and family are showing up with what I need before I realize I can no longer do for myself alone.  I’ve needed to graciously accept what they offer.”

“So now I am at Ferry Beach—I wasn’t sure I’d even make it here this summer.  I’m in the full glory of family, of friends, of community.  I’m in the presence of the ocean and the pines and the singing and the campfires and the laughter.”

“This loving community renews my soul each minute, each hour, each day.”

“I am grateful.”

One of the truly magnificent, dare I say holy things, about our Unitarian Universalist faith is our compelling desire to be together – to be together in community, to be together to support and love each other, our ability to laugh and to cry together. We covenant with each other to be there, to be there together and weather any storm. Ann’s words that evening moved me. And makes me treasure our faith tradition for its deep and meaningful connections we make with each other. And in these connections’ lives all of the power of the universe.

It seems to me that our world could use a whole lot more covenanting with each other right about now.

I watched with horror as Charlie Kirk is assassinated, his life snuffed out. And I am watching with equal horror as some try to make him a martyr. His views were nothing less than homophobic, xenophobic, racist, sexist and just plain evil.

I am watchin in horror as human beings are being snatched from streets, parks, courtrooms and schools. Farmers are losing their livelihood and their farms as food rots on the vines because there are no workers to harvest. Rural hospitals are beginning to close due to funding cuts, hundredths of thousands of people will lose their healthcare in the coming months and years, and children will go hungry.

My heart hurts when I am honest with myself and see how we are treating each other and on the other hand I am so damn angry that this is happening, that there is a segment in our society that believes that this is ok.

I am reminded of those words from Mother Theresa that I used in last week’s Update:  “If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”

In her poem “In Sweet Company,” Margaret Wolff writes: 

“We sit together and I tell you things, 

Silent, unborn, naked things… 

You do not cluck your tongue at me 

Or roll your eyes...

You stay with me in the dark…

You make room in your heart for my voice...

I see my future Self in you…

In sweet company, I am home at last.”

You stay with me in the dark…You make room in your heart for my voice...

So beloved people, here’s the thing – we are in the midst of radical and unprecedented change. And I do believe that out of this horror will emerge a new way, a new way of being with each other. There is a re-alignment happening, and that’s why our faith tradition is so important in these times. We need to be together; we need to stick together. And most importantly, we need to continue to covenant together.

You know, Tom and I have been doing a lot of talking about how do we continue to live in this world, this country. We’re next…this regime has every intention of coming after me and my family. There are already rumblings in the supreme court about overturning Obergefell.  Make no mistake – this is cruelty for the sake of being cruel. 

But we have something they don’t…we believe in the goodness of humanity. We believe that it is only together that any of us can succeed. And we believe in the infinite, ever present power of love.

I end today with this quote from Brene Brown:

“True belonging is the spiritual practice of believing in and belonging to yourself so deeply that you can share your most authentic self with the world and find sacredness in both being a part of something and standing alone in the wilderness. True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.”

May our sometimes broken and hurting hearts continue to covenant with each other. May our lives be a testament to a faith so deep and loving that the world stops and gasps at its power. And as my dear friend Ann says, “May this loving community renews my soul each minute, each hour, each day.”