GA 2003 Worship Service
Delivered Saturday, June 28, 2003, in Boston, MA, by the Rev. Jane Rzepka
with musical performances by The Vocal Section.
View Part One
of this event  View
Part Two of this event
(you may want to read along below, as the audio quality
is not very clear)
See the
GA report of this event, written by Dan Harper.
Opening Words
In this gathering, you are welcome.
In this gathering we are known and unknown
united and diverse
travelers and quite at home.
We are here, together, Unitarian Universalists of one spirit
and many voices.
In this gathering, you are welcome.
Homily: The Marker's Meaning, Part I
Hallelujah! I'll see you in the rapture [refers to previous
song]. You see, there's going to be a time when life is perfect!
Perfect heaven. That's what the song said. Everything's going
to be ducky. You'll come to General Assembly after the rapture
and the streetcar out there, the green line, will run smoothly
and often and there will be so many seats to choose from.
It's going to be unbelievable. You'll all have old friends
you're eager to see when you're here at the Boston GA and
you'll bump into every single one of them. What luck! The
restaurants will be reasonably priced--lobster in particular,
the GA programs you want to attend are evenly spaced and paced,
the worship services use all your favorite hymns and they
play them at exactly the right tempo, and you easily make
it to every event that you've circled in your program book
feeling relaxed and eager for more—no two things you
want to go to are at the same time, and you’re not a
bit tired. In the rapture, that's how General Assembly is
going to be.
These songs that we're hearing tonight, these gospel songs,
have a clear message. And that message is, “Make no
mistake. Life in this world is tough, and hope helps a lot.”
We live in a world where suddenly it's not unreasonable
to worry about mad cow disease, SARS, the plague, and smallpox.
We live in a world where war is not simply historical or remote
or within our control. We live in a world where oppression
and starvation and suicide bombings are in our faces. And
even closer to our hearts, those we love continue to die,
we wonder if the money will hold out, if the relationship
will hold out, if the body will hold out. The rapture, if
we believed in it, couldn't come soon enough.
Some years back I read a story in the Indianapolis Star.
It was a Sunday paper kind of an article about finding happiness.
“The truth is,” says the column, “the real
secret to happiness isn’t a secret at all. It’s
just not that pleasant a truth. Nor does it rhyme. Which is
why it is never cross-stitched, hung over the fireplace or
emblazoned on tote bags. The secret to happiness is realizing
that life is often hard.”
The authors of the songs we’re hearing tonight get
that. We’re singing about burdens, and toils and temptation
and how we “couldn’t hear nobody pray.”
The Indianapolis Star notwithstanding, it’s not enough
to acknowledge that “life is hard.”
A local colleague, Wendy Bell, used to talk about riding
the bus on her commute through a suburb called Arlington Heights.
You have to remember that even suburbs are very old around
here by American standards at least, and Wendy would sit there
on the bus and watch out the window until she saw it. She
would sit there on the bus and sooner or later there it would
be, the monument--the stone marker--the one that tells the
account of one day in the life of Samuel Whittemore.
Eighty years old. “On April 19th, 1775,” the
marker reads, “Samuel Whittemore was shot, bayoneted,
beaten and left for dead.” Dr. Tufts, of Medford, declared
that it was useless to dress Mr. Whittemore’s wounds.
Each of us has some pretty tough days. And it’s not
always the big-time tough stuff like literally being left
for dead that gets us--it’s the lost sock that can just
as easily put us over the edge, or running out of cat food,
or discovering that the tube of toothpaste in fact did not
make it into your suitcase--it's back in Butte or Burlington
right next to your laptop's power cord and all the other small
essentials you needed to bring to Boston, and it’s nobody’s
fault but yours. But whatever it is, whether your child won’t
sleep through the night or your feelings for your partner
are clearly waning, whatever it is...at least you are not
Samuel Whittemore on his no good very bad day: thus far, no
matter how bad it feels, you have not actually been shot,
bayoneted, beaten and left for dead. It just feels that way.
Prayer
Will you join me please in the spirit of prayer or meditation:
In the words of James Madison Barr (adapted):
I do not pray; but if I did, here is what I would say:
Hear my prayer, my fondest hopes and deepest longings:
To hurt as few persons as possible;
To resist the pestilences of fear, envy, bitterness and hate;
To come to terms with disappointment, failure and defeat;
To love with all my being:
with my eyes
with my hands
with my heart
To love in every way I can;
To accept the fact that all causes are lost causes, and that
there are no victors under the heavens;
To live graciously in a Universe which at best is only benignly
indifferent to us;
To sometimes experience something other than myself;
To never turn my back to the sun;
To be free enough to celebrate another human being;
To have faith enough, to receive grace enough
That I may sing,
Experience Joy,
Say Yes to life…
Be merciful to us, and help us be merciful to ourselves.
Amen.
[Song: Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray]
Homily: The Marker's Meaning, Part II
If you are a Unitarian Universalist, it is quite true that
hanging around General Assembly these past few days, you couldn't
hear nobody pray [refers to song], at least not the way the
original singers of the song meant praying. For them, life
was trouble and they prayed conventional prayers to a conventional
god, that they might be released from their suffering. But
yes indeed, for them there’s hope ahead, salvation.
“I’ll see you in the Rapture some sweet day.”
“Farther along we’ll know all about it, Farther
along we’ll understand why.” “Just a few
more days to labor and wait. We’re going to sweep through
the beautiful gates.” [refers to songs]
We are Unitarian Universalists, and our salvation comes
not in the rapture but, historically at least, in "salvation
by character." We believe there is something wonderful
inside us-- you could call it inherent dignity and worth--that
allows us to work toward good character, wholeness, healing,
and all that is good. We have within us a little core of natural
hope—Thoreau’s bug in the sixty year old table
metaphor could work here [refers to reading]—some little
bit of hopeful life that lies waiting to spring into action.
And even better, most UUs don’t just sit for sixty years
waiting, we act to realize that hope, that life, that
wholeness. In spite of the difficulties in our own experience
and of life in the larger world, we do what we can. Therein
lies our Unitarian Universalist salvation.
Rabbi Harold Schulwies writes in a poem: "We have seen
Yitzhak Perlman/ Who walks the stage with braces on both legs,/
On two crutches./ He takes his seat, unhinges the clasps of
his legs,/ Tucking one leg back, extending the other,/ Laying
down his crutches, placing the violin under his chin./ On
one occasion one of his violin strings broke./ The audience
grew silent but the violinist didn't leave the stage./ He
signaled the maestro, and the orchestra began its part./ The
violinist played with power and intensity on only three strings./
With three strings, he modulated, changed, and/ Recomposed
the piece in his head./ He retuned the strings to get different
sounds,/ Turned them upward and downward./ The audience screamed
delight,/ Applauded their appreciation./ Asked later how he
had accomplished this feat,/ The violinist answered/ It is
my task to make music with what remains./ A legacy mightier
than a concert./ Make music with what remains./ Complete the
song left for us to sing,/ Transcend the loss,/ Play it out
with heart, soul, and might/ With all remaining strength within
us. ["Playing with Three Strings," in Dancing
on the Edge of the World, Miriyam Glazer, ed.]
That hope, that strength, that "salvation by character,"
is the religious rapture we Unitarian Universalists have looked
for for many generations. And we have found that people have
a spirit inside. We have a spirit. We bounce back.
Maybe politically, maybe spiritually or psychologically, or
medically, or morally. Sometimes in small ways--you got up
and wrote a pretty decent letter to your home-town newspaper
this morning even though the coffee maker in your hotel room
let you down, or you ran an extra mile along the Charles River.
You can feel a little hope inside, a little light inside,
hope for the world and for us all. Your power and your zest
comes back--you can feel it in your fingers and toes, you
can imagine a time when lessons will have been learned--a
few lessons anyway--a time when your efforts and our
efforts together will pay off and no one--no one--is ever
left for dead.
Which reminds me. The marker's meaning. Samuel Whittemore's
marker. You remember, eighty years old in 1775, shot, bayoneted,
beaten and left for dead down the street in Arlington.
Samuel Whittemore survived that day. More than survived.
He recovered and lived to be 98 years old.
Life, the world, it can all get pretty desperate--shot,
bayoneted, beaten and left for dead. But we believe in the
light of life, in that something inside that can awaken and
shine and sing all songs of hope. So may it be with us. Amen.
[Song: This Little Light]
Closing words
In the words of the Universalist John Murray:
You may possess a small light, but uncover it, let it shine,
use it in order to bring more light and understanding....
 About
TVS - The Vocal Section
TVS is three of Boston's hottest vocalists combining their
talents in a vibrant, soulful group. Started in 1978 as a
three woman vocal section for work in the recording studios
in the Northeast and for showcases, by the mid-eighties, the
group had formed a band. They are celebrating their twenty-fifth
anniversary in 2003. TVS continues to play clubs, colleges,
and private parties, as well as working in the recording studios
and singing backup for bands on special occasions. Recording
includes the soundtracks to The Secret of Roan Inish and Dick
Tracy, as well as the Love Dogs latest CD, New Tricks. They
are currently working on their first solo CD. TVS also does
select pro bono work, with special interest in battered women,
the homeless, and elders. They perform some of their gospel
material in churches, especially Unitarian Universalist.
See the
GA report of this event, written by Dan Harper.
Last updated June 12, 2005
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