"Make No Little Plans"

READING: 

 

In 1928, the minister, James MacDonald, of the newly formed All Souls

Unitarian Church (the first name of our church), wrote a letter inviting

interested people to join:

 

All Souls Unitarian Church of Santa Monica was organized a few months

ago by a group of Santa Monica people who desired a Fellowship of

Liberal Religion. The church, by its free assent, became affiliated with

the rest of the Unitarian churches in America...and entered into the

noble heritage of American Unitarianism.

 

As the fundamental principle of Unitarianism is the principle of

intellectual freedom, Unitarian churches do not require of their members

subscription to any doctrinal creed.

 

So the unity of these churches does not consist in a uniformity of

theological belief. Instead it is a unity of common devotion to moral

and spiritual ideas and purposes, which may be indicated by simple

watchwords: Freedom, Truth, Character, Fellowship, Service.

 

The members of All Souls Unitarian Church of Santa Monica...have the

inspiration of fellowship with this liberal church for the carrying out

of a vital moral and spiritual purpose, namely: The strengthening of

one's innate religious impulses and the expression of them in a reverent

and noble life.

 

In these times when we are hearing so much about the conflict between

the teachings of science and the creeds of the orthodox churches, there

is greater need than ever to maintain a church of the free mind, that

frankly welcomes whatever truths scientific investigation can establish,

in the confidence that, as truth is one, science will not invalidate the

moral and spiritual realities of life. 

 

All Souls Unitarian Church of Santa Monica is such a church. It welcomes

to its liberal fellowship all persons in the community who, while

desiring church fellowship, also want to preserve their intellectual

freedom by having no doctrinal fences around them. Since its

organization a few months ago, the church has made good progress and new

names are constantly added to its membership roll. If you believe it is

a good thing that a Unitarian church has been established in Santa

Monica, we should be glad to have you join with us and help to increase

the influence of this frankly liberal church in the Santa Monica Bay

District.  

 

 

SERMON:

 

If we were to go back in time, to 1927,

        to ask the founders of the All Souls Unitarian Church of Santa Monica

                why they banded together to start a new congregation,

                        we might discover how a vision inspired twenty-one people,

                                with no resources except a minister

                                        and a lot of enthusiasm,

                                                to make such an ambitious commitment.

And it was a vision that inspired them.

They had no quaint sanctuary,

        or thriving religious education program,

                or lively choir.

They held services in their homes

        and in various rental spaces,

                and they built their church – this sanctuary,

                        with a loan from the American Unitarian Association

                                and with the money they raised from each other.

If we were to ask what the church meant to them,

        they wouldn't be able to speak yet of their appreciation

                for all the church had given.

They would only be able to speak

        of their hope for what the church might one day be,

                and what they were willing to give

                        to make that hope a reality.

They gave;

        and with that momentum, they started this church.

 

James MacDonald, the minister who served the first congregation, 

        stayed five years.

The task complete and the excitement of the start-up winding down,

        MacDonald moved back to Massachusetts.

"I have built the church;"

        he concluded,

                "now someone else will fill it."

 

We have filled this sanctuary for over seventy years,

        surviving early hardships and the Depression,

                wartime losses,

                        and all the changes of the years.

The vision of our founders was lasting and real,

        and strong enough to survive every obstacle to this day.

 

When people ask what the church means to us,

        we speak appreciatively of all that we have:

our sanctuary, 

        our religious education program, 

                our choir and music offerings,

                        and the people and activities that bring us together in community.

We ground the connection we have to this church

        to what it is now,

                to what it gives us

                        and allows us to do.

        

What we have today,

        however faithfully we maintain it,

                became ours because of the vision of our founders.

The power and optimism of that vision

        brought everything we now enjoy into being. 

We are the keepers 

        of what our founders created.

Now it is time for us 

        to be more than the keepers

                of what our predecessors gave us.

It is time for us to plan

        what will endure from our vision

                long after we are gone too.

 

"Make no little plans," declared Daniel Burnham,

        Chicago architect and urban planner.

Burnham didn’t.

This pioneering nineteenth century builder developed the skyscraper,

        supervised the construction of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition,

                and made his mark on Washington, DC.

The list of buildings he designed is enormous,  

        especially now that I understand

                how long it takes to build anything at all.

 

Burnham was prolific, positive and confident.

"Make no little plans,

        they have no magic to stir [the] blood

                and probably themselves will not be realized."

"Make big plans," he added,

        "aim high in hope and work,

                remembering that a noble, logical diagram

                        once recorded will never die."

Big things come from big plans,

        and Burnham liked what was big.

 

We Unitarian Universalists belong to a small community,

        accustomed to striving for impact 

                rather than growing in size.

Yet our founders would have resonated with Burnham's words,

        as they too made big plans

                for our little church in Santa Monica.

Their vision of a community

        uniting people in a "common devotion 

to moral and spiritual ideals and purposes,"

        took a big imagination,

                a generous heart,

                        and an expansive mind.

Their goal was "the strengthening of one's innate religious impulses

        and the expression of them in a reverent and noble life."

 

"Make no little plans...

        make big plans;

                aim high in hope and work."

Such soaring confidence may seem grandiose,

        but apply it to the ideals of a reverent and noble life,

                and a vision emerges,

                        a call to act on our highest principles,

                                to commit ourselves and our resources

                                        to what makes us better people

                                                and the world a better place.

Vision that comes from principles and ideals

        helps people do what we thought could not be done.

 

What is compelling about the vision of our founders

        is that they cared about what our church would be

                long after they were gone.

They even cared about what our church would be

        when there was little 

                they could get from it for themselves.

Their vision of the church

        called them to build a community

                that would make a difference in the future,

                        not only in their lives.

It was their capacity to see beyond their own interests

        that enabled them to give,

                generously and enthusiastically,

                        to what was yet to be.

 

It is time for us to make some big plans,

        to become creators rather than keepers,

                to aim high with our hopes

                        and dig deep into our pockets.

Yes, there's something in it for us,

        assuming that eventually

                we will build the facilities 

                        we know we need right now.

But even if there weren't,

        it would still be our time to give

                so that the next generation 

                        will benefit from the vision

                                we nurture today.

It is time for us to be a congregation that gives

        because we too have big plans.

 

I'm a cautious soul.

I think there is nothing I would hate more

        than catching myself being grandiose

                or embarrassing myself because I let myself dream too big.

I don't like to fail,

        so I take few risks and make no predictions.

And yet everything that has ever happened to me

        that has been truly important, 

                transforming,

                        life-changing,

                                has happened when I dared to aim high.

 

Little plans have no magic to stir the blood,

        said Daniel Burnham.

Big plans have vision,

        and vision stirs the blood.

It makes us do more than we thought we could do.

We take the risks that change our lives.

 

The Japanese fairy tale, "Little One-Inch," 

        is an affecting story.

Here is this one-inch high person

        who jauntily steps out of his sheltered home

                and says goodbye to his loving mother and father,

                        to seek his fortune in the world.

It's the kind of risky situation 

        that makes me want to tell him,

                "Don't go! Don't go!"

A one-inch high person can be so easily crushed.

 

But Little One-Inch has no intention of being crushed.

He survives ably,

        gaining the friendship of a lord 

                and his daughter, the princess.

Little One-Inch does not shrink from challenge,

        and when a monster threatens the princess,

                our little man rushes to save her.

He succeeds,

        the monster runs away,

                but not without first dropping the magic hammer,

                        which the princess uses to make a wish for Little One-Inch, 

                                so that he can grow to normal size.

They marry and live happily ever after.

 

The story is touching because Little One-Inch is so small,

        so vulnerable,

                that his confidence and courage seem misguided and risky.

But Little One-Inch has big plans

        and he is not to be deterred by his size.

How good for him that he wasn't

        and how good for all who hear his story

                to think of his example the next time we feel small.

 

"Make no little plans,"

        applies to more than one venture in life.

What will the future of this church look like

        in the coming years?

What will become of our high hopes? 

Not much – unless we make some big plans

        to go with them.

Not much – unless we give as generously

        as our founders once did.

 

If the congregation of this Unitarian Universalist Community Church

        looks back some seventy years from now

                at what we, their predecessors chose to do

                        with the resources we had,

                                I wonder what they will see.

What I hope they will see

        is our vision,

                shining through what the church has become.

I hope they will see our confidence in our faith

        and our faith in the future.

I hope they will see that we cared about them

        and what we would leave to their safekeeping.

 

The future will determine what we leave 

        for others.

The present asks us to choose

        whether we are to be the keepers

                or the creators,

                        whether we are to enjoy what others built for us

                                or make our own big plans,

                                        whether we can generate our own magic

                                                to hand over to the next generation.

We make this choice when we think about 

what this church means not only to us

                but to those who come after us;

                        when we decide just how big our plans will be,

and how much

we will ask each other to give

                                        to bring those plans into reality.

This Celebration Sunday is the time we set aside in the church year

        to think about what this church means to us

                and what our support can help this church to become.

This year I ask you to consider

        not just what the church means to you,

                but what the church means 

                        to those who come after us.

We may never know them,

        but they will know us

                by the vision and the hope

                        our giving brings to life.

 

"Make big plans,"

        said Daniel Burnham;

                "aim high in hope and work..."

The twenty-one founders of this church

        had big plans and high hopes.

I think we do too.

That is why we commit ourselves and our resources

        to this church:

                because our vision still answers the largest need

                        and the deepest yearning within us,

                                to lead the "noble and reverent lives"

                                        our predecessors rightly claimed

                                                as the purpose of our faith.

Only good, perhaps even magic,

        can come from plans this big.

Sources:
"Little One-Inch," in"Japanese Children?s Favorite Stories," Florence Sakade, ed. (Rutland,Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1958)
Burnham of Chicago, by ThomasS. Hines (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974)
"The Past asPrologue," 70th Anniversary Commemorative Booklet, 1927-1997, UnitarianUniversalist Community Church of Santa Monica, October, 1997