Place, Space, and Spirit
UU Fellowship of Madison County
Capital campaign
September 21, 2008
When I was a kid I went to the First United Methodist Church in Miles City, Montana. The original structure was stone, and indeed it had a steeple…but no bell! The newer part of the building was circa early 1950’s. It had four good-sized Sunday School rooms, a parlor for special occasions like funerals, and an office for the receptionist who guarded the door to the minister’s study. Funny…to get to the minister you had to get by the receptionist! And it had a little closet where the receptionist cranked out the Sunday bulletins on the mimeograph machine.
My church building had a huge basement with an industrial sized kitchen, but no dishwasher except for several pairs of hands. I recall cupboards full of stacks of various sized plain white china plates and plastic water glasses. I seem to recall three drawers full of silverware, one drawer each for forks, spoons, and knives to make for easier sorting. The basement was great for parties that we had as members of the Methodist Youth Fellowship and for big potluck suppers. The building served to host everything from the Hobo stew to wedding receptions in which liquor was not served. The sanctuary was huge. When we got to be “big kids” we were allowed to sit in the balcony. At first we thought we were safe up there because our
parents could not see us…but we soon found out that the minister could and did see us, so we did have to mind our manners.
The sanctuary had a choir loft and a wonderful old organ on which my sister Ruth started her career as a church organist. There was even a closet for choir robes, long burgundy colored ones for adult choir and short white ones with large black bows for the children’s choir.
I simply loved this church and spent a lot of time there. The interesting thing is that our church was not the biggest church in our community of 9 thousand people. We had perhaps 200 members. The Catholics and Lutherans had us beat hands down. The United Church of Christ (our Unitarian cousins) was much smaller, however!
There is always a turning point in being in a church. One turning point I clearly remember happened when I was about 10 years old. I recall waiting for a ride after Saturday morning choir practice. I sat on a small table in the entry hall with my feet dangling over the edge. I did not think I was causing any harm…just sitting and waiting. Then, Mrs. Anderson walked by and boy did she scold me. She demanded I get off the table. I was not, according to Mrs. Anderson, being respectful. Watching her fiery red mouth, I heard her say in no uncertain terms, “This is GOD’s house! Do not sit on God’s table!”
I was stunned! All along I thought the church belonged to the people who came every Sunday. I thought the church belonged to my mother’s friends who met on Thursday morning for Martha circle group and to the folks in Wednesday night choir practice. All along I thought the church belonged to the kids who put on the Hobo stew.
I thought the church belonged to all the people who saw each other through thick and thin…who offered each other a shoulder to cry on through funerals and who celebrated with each other at weddings.
— God’s house? —
In truth, Mrs. Anderson’s terse admonition did not make me love my church any less than I did. It did not hurt my feelings nor did it make me angry. Nor did she scare me. However, this encounter did serve to confuse me! Not only was I confused about the nature of God; I was also confused about the nature of church! If I opened the church I saw people not God!
It took about 15 more years of being in conventional church before I learned that I was correct at age 10 sitting on that table. I am not saying that Mrs. Anderson was wrong…from her perspective perhaps that Methodist Church was God’s house…but I did not share this perspective. You have heard it said many times… “I think I was always a Unitarian Universalist but I did not know such a denomination existed.”
Sure enough…at age 10 my perspective of church was about the people…a very naive, but correct perspective, of congregational polity, something near and dear to Unitarians and Universalists. The church is the people in this congregation. This church belongs to us… this very congregation. It does not belong to bishops or popes. It does not belong to the UUA. It belongs to you. This church is about community and how each of us as individuals decide … or do not decide…on who or what God is. This church is about how we are a religious community decide to grow … or not grow.
Preeminent Unitarian theologian James Luther Adams got it right. Succinctly, Adams said, “Church is a place where you get to practice what it means to be human.” Hear this again. “Church is a place where you get to practice what it means to be human.”
Hmmm… so if we think of church as a place, what comes to mind? I think of a building or a location…perhaps like the little white church in the vale, or the church like my childhood church with the spacious sanctuary with stained glass windows. If we think of church as a place we can use as a tool…something used to express our faith but not our faith itself. While important, place then is not as important as what is inside. For place is filled with space. Of course there are people on the inside filling the space, but there are also people on the outside wondering if there is space enough for them to enter, rejoice, and come in.
Space is not the same as place. It sounds trite, but a place is filled with space…a nothing-ness until you put something in it. Space is undeniably an interesting phenomenon. Science writer and religion commentator, Margaret Wertheim1 said space is tied to what it means to be human because how we conceptualize space is a reflection of how we see ourselves.
I quote, “This interdependence between the concepts of space and concepts of self is one of the ways in which we will see that space is not simply a scientific subject.”
Wertheim noted, and I agree with her, that it is impossible to talk about space without talking about theology. Wertheim suggested that we need more than just a place to put our bodies, but we also need to have a sense of where we are. I think what Wertheim means is that we need to have a sense of where we are in relationship not only in regard to our individual selves in relative to the space we fill, but also we need to have a sense of where we are in relationship to other people. Thus, if our theology is about the sacredness of community and relationships, so then too does our space reflect the importance of how we engage our theology of covenantal relationships. How do we invite people into our sacred space?
It is here, I believe, that in relationships that we find the Spirit or the Essence of Goodness. Or when we are in relationship we become Spirited when we engage relational behaviors such as love, compassion, trust, and hospitality. When our space…filled with the essence of the Spirit it is a place where we engage our feel like we are at home…a safe space to inhabit, no matter where the location.
I would suggest that this is why we feel at home when we visit UU churches in other towns. The Essence of Goodness is felt as well as seen and heard. It is when we fill our space with this Essence of Goodness that we become extraordinary. We become more than just a social club…more than Kiwanis or Rotary or a book group or knitting circle of friends.
So…of course. Church is space is filled with the Spirit of human Goodness. But the fact is, we have to have a place. We have to have a building, because for as important as the Spirit is, it still needs a place to reside. It still needs a place to call home. It is because you have engaged the Spirit and the Essence of Goodness that you have incidentally created space that is living and breathing…and growing! Your Spirit of Goodness needs more room to breathe in this particular space. Ours, of course, is a breathing, living tradition that changes with the times. And change is coming here!
Why is change coming? Why is change necessary? I think it is because people need us! You have done the truly hard part of what it means to be church. You’ve already created space for the Spirit. But our church is different than most churches. While it’s understood that a building is nothing more than a place for the Spirit of Community to take up residence, the fact is that a larger building is necessary. Even if we UUs will probably never be the church of the gymnasium or a
mega church of the entertained happy-clappy, we still need a bigger place. We require a larger place even though we truly do understand that our structures is made of something stronger than stone and high tech sound systems. We still need a roomier place even though we know that what holds us together is not the building itself but what is inside. We need a bigger place even though we know without a doubt that it is the pillars of reason, freedom, and tolerance that hold us up.
Church is the place where you can practice what it means to be human in human terms. You the people inside… Your Spirit… the Spirit of human goodness that you all practice here day in and day out, is held together with mortar of covenantal relationships practiced in human terms such as compassion, justice making, forgiveness, empathy, and love.
Indeed…you all…the people in this place need more room to breathe. And the people on the outside need a place where they can breathe too. They need a church where they too can practice what it means to be human…to engage in relationships without fear…to learn about the nature of God, or not, without being force-fed…to breathe fresh air of freedom rather than breathe stale air of time warped tradition…to worship with head, hand, and heart so nothing is denied to their human spirit. To be in a congregation that decides for itself what it means to be church rather than be told how to be my some higher power or authority.
There are plenty of churches where one would wonder if it is possible for the Spirit of human goodness to reside. There are plenty of big church buildings where the Mrs. Anderson’s of this world will tell you what God is or what God wants. But we offer something different.
You are familiar with the old say, “ if you build it they will come.” We’ll, I think you have managed to pull it off. You created the most important thing…the space that is filled with the best of the human spirit. This did not happen by accident. With intention you practiced what it takes to be church. You filled … completely filled this place with creativity. I see creativity in the art…visual art, musical art, literary art…but most you filled it because you understand the art of hospitality so even kids can have space to grow and breathe into life rather than allow archaic church dogma suck the creative life force out of them. I repeat…you have already done the hard part…you’ve already created a welcoming life-giving space filled with the Spirit of Life ,,, and people have come! A worse thing could have happened…you could have built a big building and left the space void of what it means to be human.
So…now you need to enlarge the place. I do not want to minimize the difficulty of raising money to enlarge this place.
But more important, I certainly do not want to minimize that fact that what you have already done is more difficult that raising money to buy more room to breathe and grow.
This church belongs to you. It many ways is not really that much different than the church in which I grew up. The important lesson I learned about the church of my youth was the lesson of what it means to be in religious community. Of course I remember Mrs. Anderson, but in truth, I remember less of the Methodist doctrine than I do of the friendships and hospitality my old church offered. I remember more of the essence of hospitality and human concern than I remember of the creed (which I learned only because I was forced!) I left that church not because I lacked friends or love. I left that denomination because I needed a space where I could be more than Methodist and more than Christian…I needed a space where I could be all of everything I wanted to be. A place like this.
One more time…church a place where you practice what it means to be human. You know what you have. You have a solid, loving, cohesive community where you come each week to practice being who you are and now…and with the possibility of the addition…who you yet shall be.
So, we can rejoice…and should rejoice in this space we know and share. And we can rejoice in the good that is certainly quite possible…yet shall be. Amen. Shalome. Salaam. Om. Let it be.
