Sermons

Minister: Rev. Margaret A. Beckman | As drops of rain that find each other and build to become a track, a rivulet, a stream, a river, a sea, so are we drawn together; so are we fortunate to find each other; so are we bound together, on this shared passage toward an unknown ocean and eternity.
~ Elizabeth Lerner Maclay
READING ~ “They Are Still With Us” by Kathleen McTigue

In the ­struggles we choose for ourselves,
in the ways we move forward in our lives
and bring our world forward with us,

It is right to remember the names of those
who gave us strength in this choice of living.
It is right to name the power of hard lives well-lived.

We share a history with those lives.
We belong to the same motion.

They too were strengthened by what had gone before.
They too were drawn on by the vision of what might come to be.

Those who lived before us,
who ­struggled for justice and suffered injustice before us,
have not melted into the dust,
and have not disappeared.

They are with us still.
The lives they lived hold us steady.

Their words remind us and call us back to ourselves.
Their courage and love evoke our own.

We, the living, carry them with us:
we are their voices, their hands and their hearts.

We take them with us,
and with them choose the deeper path of living.

Source: “Becoming: A Spiritual Guide for Navigating Adulthood”

SERMON

We are the living manifestation of our ancestors.
We are here because our ancestors came before us and gave us life.
We understand who we are now when we understand those who came before us. To really, fully know where and who we are, we must know from where and from whom we came.

One of the most popular gifts at this holiday giving season is one of several DNA test kits. We can find out if we are 30% British and 10% Eastern European and 20% Germanic and 20% African and 20% Neanderthal.
We want to know where we came from and who our ancestors are.
So, there is a specific physical, biological and genetic profile that makes us who we are.

Blood ancestry. Some of us want to know a great deal and some of us are content to know a little bit.

In addition to our blood ancestry, we have a spiritual ancestry. This ancestry is much more difficult to describe or define or research. Yet, it is as important to knowing who we are and how we got here as is our blood ancestry.

Spiritual ancestors are those figures who have shaped our own spirituality and whose influence on us has helped to form and inform us as spiritual beings. There is no 23 and Me or Ancestry.com to help us uncover our spiritual ancestors. These ancestors we know in our heart, our mind, our soul.

Lynn Ungar, Minister for Lifespan Learning in the Church of the Larger Fellowship, writes:

Our ancestors are the people gone before us – blood relations or family of mind and spirit – who guide and instruct and inspire us.
…
Our ancestors write our stories, and we tell theirs.
…
These ancestors don’t even need to be blood or adoptive relatives. Mentors, friends, heroes, teachers, ancestors in faith – all have their part in shaping who we are, and we carry all of them forward with us.

As we continue through this winter holiday season, may we make it a season of memory. With gratitude we remember those who came before us; those whose lives and history make us who we are today.

I want to invite you to think about your ancestors – blood ancestors and spiritual ancestors. Call them into your consciousness. Then, I will invite you to name them and perhaps share a little bit about why you’re remembering them this morning. We keep their memory alive when we tell their story that is now part of our story. We would not be here and we would not be the people we are without them. It is good to remember them with gratitude.

As I put together today’s service over the last week, I have been flooded with memories of the ancestors of my family, the ancestors of my faith, and my spiritual ancestors – all of whom I carry with me – always.

I am who I am – genetically and physically because of my biological family. What I am remembering now, however, is not so much my biology; it is my orientation toward life itself and my place in this life. For me, the memories of my ancestors I carry most closely are the positive and life-affirming ones. Yes, I will acknowledge that I also have memory and ancestry that remain a challenge in my life, but, I choose not to give undue energy or attention to the darker side of my ancestry except insofar as owning it helps me grow into the person I want to be in this world.

So . . .  as you continue to call to mind your most cherished ancestors, let me mention just a few of the important ancestors in my life as it continues to unfold.

Biological and genetic ancestors. Right now I am very aware of my parents and grandparents – all of whom for the first holiday season in my life are gone from me. The feeling of loss is tempered by my sense of deep gratitude. From all these family members, I learned love and respect and the value of family, congregational life and responsible citizenship. These are their names: Eric, Maude, Mae, Charles, and Elizabeth.

My spiritual ancestors include folks I have known and folks who came long before me who shaped the religious and spiritual traditions I have taken as my own. What I carry with me from these ancestors is not so much doctrine or theology – though I do value that – but rather, it is the spiritual practices, and the ethics, morality and philosophy about life, justice and equanimity that I carry.

Let me simply name a few of them and invite you to ask me about them later if you are curious.

Jesus of Nazareth
Siddhartha Gautama
The lineage of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers
The lineage of the Hebrew Prophets
Olympia Brown
William Ellery Channing
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau

John Muir
James Luther Adams
Georgia O’Keefe
Ansel Adams
Mary Daly
Anais Nin
Michael Harner
Pete Seeger
Maya Angelou

This is a short naming, but an important one.

Who do you name in this moment of memory and gratitude?

Go ahead, make a list in your mind. Take time to be mindful of and grateful for these ancestors. Speak their names aloud.

May we all do our very best to be the people we aspire to be, knowing that we come from somewhere and everything we accomplish or achieve in this life has not been through our own effort alone.

May we -eventually – be for those who come after us, sacred and beloved ancestors.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
THIS SACRED THREAD By Heather K Janules
They once dwelled among us, the people of memory.
They who knew us, they who taught us,
They who hurt us, they who loved us.

They touch our lives time and again,
through their presence and their absence.
Through familiar scents and favorite songs,
Through old stories and renewed sorrow.

As the earth turns and leaves fall,
We reach back to renew the bonds between us.
With hearts and hands open
We hold onto to love,
Ever-stronger than death.

We reach back in gratitude and understanding –
Without our time together,
The pain and the joy,
We would never be who we are today;
We would have little to pass on ourselves.

Without fear, with thanksgiving
and with hope for all that awaits,
We remember those who have gone before,
We honor the circle of life and death,
And our place within this sacred thread.

Blessed Be.   I Love You.   Amen.