Next Steps

“Next Steps”

A Sermon by Rev. Dr. Jan Carlsson-Bull
for New Member Sunday
First Parish Unitarian Universalist
Cohasset, MA
April 5, 2009

“Baby steps,” he calls them. I refer to the mantra of one of our beloved members who offers regular on-line posts on the progress of his wife, who took a life-threatening fall this past December. It’s been a long hard road toward a new normal. The pace is slow but steady, measured in “baby steps.” Yet I remind him and I remind us all that baby steps are how we each learned to walk. None of us leapt from barely beyond fetal curls into a graceful upright pace. Our first steps are tiny. We proceed unsure of ourselves. We stumble; we fall. We get up and try again. Our next steps may be modestly bolder, or they may break into confident strides; but each step we take holds a story, and each story informs the unfolding history of who we are together.

What are the next steps of this congregation? This morning we celebrated some precious ones. Dave McMorris spoke in his Chalice Reflection of what I call our “ministry of shoes,” launched today by Dave and five other First Parishioners who participated in my “Gifted Promises” offer last fall—seed funding for up to 20 of you to plant a ministry within or beyond First Parish and to share your story this spring. This resolute group of six is leveraging their funds—a high road of funds leveraging, by the way—to ensure that the steps taken this coming October by some well-loved children in Guatemala will be in the direction of school, and that the little feet taking those steps will be clad in shoes, brand new school shoes. Thanks to our gifts of shoes and those of you who will go to Guatemala this fall to deliver them through the non-profit venture, Common Hope, this will happen. It’s a veritable “shoe-in.”

Then Ron Wallace announced that we’re about to light a fire! One of you will soon strike a match to burn the mortgage on our Meeting House and Parish House. Hooray! Ron and Mary and many of you who led and contributed to this campaign have every reason to receive our kudos and congratulations for lightening the load of the next steps we take as a faith community that does not live by faith alone. Stewardship is at the heart of our capital needs and our programmatic needs. The next steps of our stewardship campaign for sustainable ministries in the year ahead are up to all of us.

Then there are the next steps that we take as a congregational family celebrating the expansion of this family. What a joy it is to welcome this morning ten new members plus children into the historic community that is First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Cohasset. Count yourselves members of a family spawned in the early years of the 18th century and still alive and well and, well, procreating. We welcome you and embrace you!

Then there are those next steps taken by a family with a child to whom we dedicate our hearts and minds. Baby steps apply quite literally here. Just the other day I visited this young family on the home front and took great delight in watching what it takes to get from here to there for this endearing little boy: “What will it be—Shall I crawl? Shall I toddle? Shall I crawl? Will I go for it?” Baby steps, precious memorable baby steps.

What a day it is for promises kept and next steps. What a day it is when some from this community and as far away as California are taking more steps than we can imagine in a soon-to-be heard rumble of sneaker soles. The Cohasset Road Race is hosting 3,000 sneakers—actually, 1500 runners in sneaker and race gear—for this year’s event! As we sang earlier this morning, “Guide my feet while I run this race.” We know that the race referred to in this spiritual is not the one at hand, but we can surely concede that the lyrics are apt.

We are on this Sunday morning of early April all about next steps. In so many directions, at such variable paces, through so many stories, across our history as a community of faith and practice, we are all about next steps.

What will they be? Will we go forth haltingly or hopefully? Will we walk with grace and graciousness? Will we reach out and help one another along? Will we continue to dig deep into our hearts and yes, our pockets, to ensure that the next chapter of this historic faith community reflects our will to realize the promise of our mission?

We welcome all to our inclusive spiritual community. We affirm our Unitarian Universalist principles and put them into action by worshipping together, caring for one another, and working for a safe, just, and sustainable world.

Let us walk the walk together in joy and gratitude that we can. Amen.

Sources:

“Guide My Feet,” words: Traditional, Music: Spiritual from the collection of Wilks Laurence James, 1900, Harmony by Wendell Whalum (1932 - ), in Singing the Living Tradition, The Unitarian Universalist Association, Beacon Press, Boston, 1993, 348.