Salvation Doesn't Happen at the End.

Global Reading:

[An]other startling thing about Julian's homespun theology is her view of the feminine identity of God. Julian sees the Godhead in the Trinitarian context of Christianity, but with this radical twist: the Second Person (Christ) is actually the Mother (not the Son). "As truly as God is our Father," she says, "just as truly is God our Mother." Who else but a mother, she asks, would break herself open and pour herself out for her children? "Only God could ever perform such duty." Not only that, but Julian's God-as-Mother remains available at all times, especially present in our darkest hours -- some kind of spiritual hybrid that encompasses the unconditional love of Mother Mary in the Catholic tradition, the infinite compassion of Tara in the Buddhist tradition, and the indwelling holiness of the Shekhinah in the Jewish tradition.

It baffles Julian that we don't get this. When we miss the mark, we want to run away and hide. But "our courteous Mother doesn't want us to flee," Julian says. "Nothing would distress her more. She wants us to behave as a child would when he is upset or afraid: rush with all our might into the arms of the Mother." For Julian, the good news is not merely the reward we will receive one day when we slough off this mortal coil and go home to God. Every moment is an opportunity to remember that we are perfectly loved and perfectly lovable, just as we are.

"And so when the final judgment comes," Julian writes at the end of The Showings, "... we shall clearly see in God all the secrets that are hidden from us now. Then none of us will be moved in any way to say, 'Lord, if only things had been different, all would have been well.' Instead, we shall all proclaim in one voice, 'Beloved One, may you be blessed, because it is so: ALL IS WELL.'"[1]

Salvation Doesn’t Happen at the End.

Dictionary.com, which is based on the Random House Dictionary, offers up three definitions for the word Salvation.

1. the act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss, destruction, etc.

2. the state of being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc.

3. a source, cause, or means of being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc.

4. Theology. deliverance from the power and penalty of sin; redemption.

I don’t know if you were as surprised as I was by these definitions. For most of my life, salvation meant one thing to me: being saved from Hell by a belief in Jesus.

Which would’ve required me to believe in a story that I don’t believe in. I know and love many people for whom this story is deeply powerful and has a lot of meaning. I am just not one of them.

And as Easter is in just two weeks, this might be a good time for me to mention on Good Friday, the interfaith clergy group that I am a part of here in Modesto is co-leading two services together: one at Noon on Friday, at the First United Methodist Church downtown. That will be a service of hymns and readings. The later service, which will be held at the College Avenue UCC Church is something called a Ten brae service, which can be very moving. It starts with all the lights and candles in the sanctuary lit, and as the service goes along, one by one candles are extinguished, and then the gathered congregation leaves the sanctuary in darkness and silence at the end. This will start at 7PM, and I highly recommend it to you.

I don’t personally believe in the story of Jesus’s resurrection, but I do believe in honoring the faiths of others by engaging in interfaith worship. I hope you’ll join us.

So the first definition of salvation, offered up by the Random House dictionary, is, once again: the act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss, destruction, etc. The second definition is: the state of being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc.

I know that the news shared by the search committee this morning isn’t what anybody here wanted to hear. And back when I thought the only definition of Salvation had to do with being rescued from a Hell I don’t believe in by a God I don’t believe in, I was really worried about what I was going to say this morning.

But I have to come to preach to you about a very human salvation. That salvation, that caring, that work of protecting you from harm, of safeguarding the whole community, that the Search Committee is deeply engaged in.

When the Search Committee was formed, it was created by asking the membership of the congregation to write down three people they trusted, three people that you held in high esteem and respect on an index card. We did this for three weeks in a row.  At the end, the names were tallied, and the people who served on Grace’s Committee on Ministry and I listed the names in order, subtracted those names who were either on the Board, or who had spouses on the Board, and then invited 7 people. With only one change, those are the seven people on this committee now.

They take their responsibility very seriously.

And so in this round they didn’t find a candidate who they thought would be a good match for the congregation, not a minister who also thought that they had the talents needed to serve this congregation.

Like the lost button from the story I shared earlier, there just wasn’t a feeling of belonging.

By now you may be asking yourself, just how the Search Committee is engaging in a practice of salvation with regards to the congregation.  Here is one small possibility.

The Search Committee read a lot of pages written by ministers. Before that, though even happened, they engaged in months of research about this congregation. They found out what you wanted, what you felt you needed, what you preferred and what you didn’t like.

And with all that information, they began to read packets of ministers. Which, after having written one of my own, I can tell you, is a lot of words to read through.

Also, they met with Bob Meiss, who works with the District to help in this process.

This round of search, there just wasn’t a button that matched your shirt. A minister whose skills matched what this congregation needs.

It is far better to wait, and find a match then it is to pair up with a minister who isn’t suited to the congregation.

This is such a common occurrence that the Transitions Office in Boston has procedures for this. There are names for each of the steps that are to be taken if you a good match isn’t found in the first round.

The Reverend Keith Kron wrote a letter to those congregations that did not find a match in their first round. In it he writes:

I am sorry that a candidate did not work out in this process...yet.  Ultimately that may be for the better, but I know it is hard.

Some of you may decide you want to enter into the second round of search, which is an abbreviated version of the first round.  The calendar is below for key dates.

Some of you may decide to wait six months to the next cycle or a full year to enter the search again.  Any of the above answers are fine. We will honor your choices.

Some congregations went into the second round of search, which is shorter, trying to find a minister.  Sometimes this works well, and sometimes it doesn’t. About that Keith writes:

Additionally, of those congregations in the second round of search,  50% of them were able to find a minister.  It's an effort worth trying but it may not find you a minister.   This does not mean you were unsuccessful.  Creating a bottom line standard is important and not going below that line is vitally important.

In the last two years, 2 of the 9 ministers called in the second round were negotiated out and resigned within the first nine months of their ministry.  The learning from here is this:  Don't let your standards drop or your anxiety cloud good judgment.  Keep the same standards you had before.  You are better off with another year of interim ministry now versus a ministry that ends in the first year.  There are few absolutes from my vantage point, but that is one of them.  Whatever pressure and hope you may hear from the congregation, don't let it lead you to settle for someone whom you've got significant questions about.

These are more instructions for salvation.

By now some of you have heard that I have received an invitation to be the Candidate for my next church. Now that they have been able to announcement this in their service today, I can tell you that it is true. I have been asked to Candidate for the Settled, Permanent Ministry in the Unitarian Universalist Society of Cleveland, Ohio.

Last year, the Society in Cleveland sat in their sanctuary, and had their Search Committee tell them just what yours told you today: We do not have a match.

From an interim minister who has been in my place before, that place of loving a congregation who you think is amazing, that hasn’t found a ministerial match…I bring these words of wisdom: Do not use the phrase “failed search,” instead, use the phrase “incomplete search.”

I invite you to listen to the advice of the wise women I’ve brought to you this morning. St. Julian of Norwich and the Rev. Meg Barnhouse. Even if St. Julian’s dependence on a Parent God doesn’t sit well with you, there is the message that all will be well, because it is. Even if what you are looking at right now in this moment isn’t perhaps all that you would like it to be, it is as it should be.

Meg Barnhouse, in her study of Julian of Norwich, discovered such a deep theme of “things are as they should be,” that she was able to write a song and sing it to the Unitarian Universalist congregation she serves as minister. She asks, “Julian, don’t you know about the troubles of the world? It’s too much! It brings me to my knees!” And Julian responds to Meg, all is as it should be.

We don’t have to wait until we die to figure out the question of salvation. We don’t even have to agree on what happens to us after we die. There are people who hold wildly divergent ideas about what happens after death.

And all of that is okay, because you are a loving community, and loving to each other. Here, and in Unitarian Universalist churches the world wide, we work to protect each other from harm and risk and in times of loss, we gather around each other with loving arms full of tissues, casseroles and hugs.

In times of disappointment, we gather around each other. We look into each other faces, and offer sometimes even a tentative smile, for we know that together, we will be okay.

You will do the work that must be done. You will support each other through this time. All will be as it should be.

And then, when you do find the minister that has the talents, gifts and love to offer you that you deserve, you will celebrate.

And what a celebration it will be.

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[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mirabai-starr/julian-of-norwich_b_4115736.html