"Gathered and Sent"

Here we have gathered, within these walls again today as we have for the last ten months together.  You have gathered as the Community Church for more than eighty years. In those eighty years, you have created traditions all of which are grounded in the depths of one diverse living tradition called Unitarian Universalism.  We come together for a purpose around principles held together by this living tradition.  Today we affirm our principles and purposes in this great tradition of the flower celebration. 

The flower celebration may be the most universal of our rites.  Unitarian Universalists cherish the flower celebration because it speaks to our deepest held values – unity within diversity, the wisdom of nature, and the human longing for a world of beauty characterized by peace, justice, and love. 

The flower celebration was first created by the Reverend Dr. Norbert Capek for his congregation in Prague, Czechoslovakia.  The first time it was introduced was June 4, 1923.  Capek was experiencing religious intolerance in his native land.  He decided he wanted to counteract the divisiveness with a ritual that would emphasize unity in diversity.  Capek’s wife, also a Unitarian minister, brought the flower celebration to the congregation in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1940.  Since that time, the flower celebration has spread to many other congregations.  The chalice lighting is our most universal ritual.  The flower celebration may be our next most universal ritual, uniquely ours.

The flower celebration does not reflect a simplistic or saccharine religious sensibility.  Norbert Capek established the flower celebration to counteract the evil of his time.  The Nazi regime arrested, imprisoned, and executed Norbert Capek.  The Nazi records show that Capek’s gospel of the inherent worth and beauty of every person was “too dangerous to the Reich (for him) to be allowed to live.”  The radical truth that he preached was that each person is beautiful.

We will not survive if we are all the same.  We will only survive by celebrating the beauty of uniqueness.  Every one of us is a unique and beautiful gift to the world.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Flowers and fruits are always fit presents; flowers because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities of the world.”

Gathering flowers from our individual places, freely giving them as a gift, gathering the flowers together into one unified bouquet, and receiving a flower from the bouquet to take home – is a joyful and symbolic action of this beloved community.  These flowers represent the treasury of our gifts, gathered from the particular soil of our separate lives.  Together they are a token of that beauty that can redeem and transform our lives.  We each take a flower from the gathered bouquets. Parting with this flower is a sign that we accept one another as brothers and sisters in one human family.

People need to learn what plants have to teach us about life.  Harvard biologist, Edward Wilson, uses the word “biophilia,” which he defines as the tendency of the human mind to affiliate with other forms and with the life process.  The core of his thesis is that the human mind evolved in association with myriad life forms and needs them, even if subconsciously, for the continued survival of what he calls the “human spirit.” 

Plants and flowers are our spiritual teachers.  They remind us of the impermanence of all creative endeavors and the fleeting nature of time.  They remind us of the beauty that surrounds us all the time.  Sharman Apt Russell, who teaches writing at Western New Mexico University observes:

Nature has never been silent for me.  Nature whispers in my ear all the time, and it is the same thing over and over.  It is not “Love!”  It is not “Worship!” It is not “Psst! Dig here!”  Nature whispers, and sometimes shouts, “Beauty, beauty, beauty!”

The beauty of this beloved community shines forth even as we go our separate ways. 

I have been blessed with the privilege of being your interim minister.  I send you forth to continue to build a beautiful beloved community in this place. I send you forth to continue to put your faith into action.

When I invite you to come forward to take a flower different from the one you brought,

I also invite you to leave a leaf, a spent petal or even the flower’s scent in the bowl.  As you give your offering, think about what you may want to keep and what you want to let go of from this year.  I invite you to throw away anything concerning me that you might like to get rid of, for example, a harmful word I said or a helpful word I neglected to say.  I also invite you to let go of a joy, a kindness, or a word of encouragement that I might have offered to you.  I invite you to let go of something that reminds you that time transforms the present into the power of memory.

Remember the fragility of life.  All beauty passes yet will become the fodder for eternal beauty, which is born anew in the next cycle of new beginnings.  After all is past, the elements remain – it is the same earth, air, fire, and water, the same energy.  We are part of this energy as we participate in the same process – the alchemy of earth, air, fire, and water.  In this bowl, I place those things I have gathered from this place on earth.

From the air, I return a feather from my office where I spent time with many of you.

From the fire, I return the memory of the California sun as it warmed me on my walks along Santa Monica beach.  From the water, I return a memory of the Pacific Ocean along Big Sur landscape.  From the abundant earth, I return a stone from the park.

These symbolize the joys and challenges you have given me during this year.

I release them to the all embracing soil, which nurtures new life into being. 

I leave you fully trusting in your future success in whatever you do.