My title this morning comes from an e-mail from your Director of Music to me when I was still a student at Meadville/Lombard Theological School. Your ministerial search committee had asked me to be your candidate for the position of minister of this church and I had accepted their invitation. I was planning to lead worship for two Sundays in May of 2002 – these were to be services which you were all invited to attend, and many of you would base your opinion of my skills as a minister on those public worship services. After the second of those services, in fact, the members of this church were asked to vote to call me as your minister. The outcome of the vote is clear as I talk to you now, but back then, a great deal was still at stake. Those services were going to be very important. Rachel and I had been put in touch with each other by e-mail to plan those services. She had lots of musical ideas for them, and I remember asking if we could sing a third hymn in the service – something I don’t think was common in your services at the time. And I remember her reply was something like "Yes, I am in favor of musical abundance."

I, too, am in favor of musical abundance. And your musical abundance had a great deal to do with my attraction to this church as a place to practice ministry. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but some of you have probably not heard it – the Search Committee included a CD music of your choir singing in the packet they sent me in this long process of discernment. It was the only church that I was considering that included music with their packet of materials. And I could tell a lot about this church from that music. Not just that you had a great choir and fabulous pianist. But that you valued your youth – for the youth choir was singing on that CD, too. Very important to me, too, was the diversity of musical selection on that CD – your musical abundance. For there were songs with traditional church language – the words God and Lord, and songs I had never heard before in my life, and music I knew but that many churches would never consider church music at all.

I was reminded of this recently when I attended the Spiritual Activism Conference in Washington DC (see Message from the Minister) at the All Souls Unitarian Church – a church of more than 600 members with two settled ministers and a choir with a continent-wide reputation for excellence – it doesn’t hurt that Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, is a member of that church and founded one of their choirs. Their choir performed for this interfaith conference of activists who want our kind of progressive religion to matter in the public arena. They performed for us on a Thursday night, just as I knew our choir was rehearsing or taking a break, so I dialed Rachel’s cell phone and held it up to the music for you all to hear – but wisely, Rachel didn’t have her phone turned on to interrupt your rehearsal. And indeed, that choir deserves their reputation.  

But, let me also say, this choir deserves their reputation. The big difference between the two choirs, in my humble opinion, was not in the sound, but in the look – not only was there more physical/racial diversity in the members of the choir, but they dressed like they were a professional group alike in black pants or skirts and solid colored shirts or blouses on top – and they moved. The processed in like the youth did this morning, and let us hear them from the center of the sanctuary and moved as they sang. But the diversity of the music they sang and the quality of the sound, was comparable. It was all I could do to prevent myself from turning to brag to all my colleagues –"I serve a church with such musical abundance!"

The Conference itself reminded me of our music program and choir – this Spiritual Activism Conference was the most truly interfaith gathering I have ever attended. There were 1200 of us (we didn’t all fit in the sanctuary of All Souls) – we were Catholic, UU, Protestant and Evangelical Christians of all sorts, from Orthodox to Reconstructionist Jews, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccans, and many, many folks who identify as "spiritual but nor religious" – and what was so powerful about the gathering was that instead of watering down our different faith traditions to the lowest common denominator, all the speakers spoke from the center of their own faith. Like the choir music on that CD which reflected such different styles of music and texts with the music – no indication that this church would water down the music to the lowest common denominator.

Just so you know why I find this remarkable – in the material I got from one church – and I wouldn’t tell you which church even if I remembered, but I don’t – but there was an order of service included in their packet and I remembered they performed Because All Men are Brothers made popular by the Weavers and Peter, Paul and Mary and in a note on the order of service there was an asterisk next to the title and a note below explaining that they know the term ‘brothers’ is sexist but they had decided to sing it anyway – and, my Lord! – may I just say my lord! – that kind of political correctness is very worrisome to me. I much prefer the approach taken by the music program here – that we balance our program by singing Because All Men Are Brothers followed by Bobby McFerrin’s version of the 23rd Psalm – "the lord is my shepherd, I have all I need, She makes me lie down in green meadows. Beside the still waters, she will lead." We balance our music program not by omitting music or apologizing for it, but rather with diverse musical abundance!

Diverse musical abundance is deeply related to diverse spiritual abundance. The Spiritual Activism Conference, like this church, featured both. I have to say I was most moved by the Evangelical preachers at the conference – probably because their religion has been most misrepresented and used in the public sphere to promote intolerance in the name of righteousness. These preachers, Jim Wallis and Tony Compolo among them, were standing up to say that the religious right does not represent the Jesus they know and love. It was beyond moving. The struggle to stay compassionate was clear. There were times when some of the speakers veered toward expressions of anger and unfair categorizations of people – and sadly, sometimes, the crowd cheered them on – but mostly, we were called to our best selves and exhibited restraint in our judgment of others and thoughtfulness and care in our responses to the issues. We could not assume common theological beliefs – and it made conversation with those sitting next to us a little bit tricky. But, oh, so much more powerful. There was a spiritual abundance in that place which reminded me of home, of this church. And I just wanted to tell you that this morning. Rachel, I am still in favor of musical abundance, and I so proud to serve this church of such deep and beautiful spirit and music. Amen. 

* Sermons are meant to be spoken and not written. I have not edited this homily to written form

Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing
855 Grove St. | East Lansing, MI 48823 | 517-351-4081