Dr. John Young 2/11/07
UUCJ
Paying It Forward
This sermon’s title came from the popular movie a few years ago that told the story of a teen age boy in the underclass of Las Vegas. His mother is a barmaid in a casino and has a drinking problem. His father, her husband, is usually absent and beats them when he is home. The boy has a teacher that challenges the class to propose something that “would change the world.” The boy gets the idea to do something relevant that could uniquely change the lives of three people that he helps, and then he simply explains to each one of the people he helps that they should do likewise, that they too could substantially help three other people. They should pay it forward. He realizes that such a geometric progression, if it worked, could end up changing thousands of lives in a relatively short period of time. The boy helps a homeless addict, who temporarily reforms, but soon returns to his addiction. He helps his homeless, alcoholic grandmother to get back in touch with his Mom and him, that, and he gets the teacher and his Mom together, which looks like it will prove to be a lasting relationship. His grandmother, his mother, and teacher pay it forward, and it begins to proliferate. A Los Angeles reporter is a recipient, and he retraces the steps until he finds the boy, and makes him a celebrity. A good idea can work and spread.
We each know that this has been true in our lives. A good idea carried out in a practical way can spread like the ripples on a pond, but we may seldom get around to it. It is easiest and most natural to focus on ourselves, to seldom get beyond taking care of ourselves and perhaps a few intimates. Being a member of a congregation is in itself a deliberate act of stretching for most of us. We decide that we want to be part of a bigger community. We set out to find a group of soul mates, philosophical and ethical colleagues, brothers and sisters in the spirit. Of course, we hope that they will like us, support us, embrace and inspire us, but also we joined this congregation because we want to like the other members, to support them, to embrace and inspire them. We want a community where we can express and carry out our best ideas, and see those ideas inspire and improve the world.
In the shared affirmations of this congregation, we affirm that: “we want to build bridges of love and justice, to enrich, inspire, and nurture our members and children, to sustain a sacred space, and serve as a catalyst for social change through our actions. We want to grow in harmony with the divine, to serve humanity, and to dwell in peace. We want to nurture and enhance our lives together and build relationships of fairness and love. We want to learn to allow loving relationships to transcend issues, to celebrate our diversity even when it is difficult, and to care for each other through times of joy and sorrow. We all recognize that we need to regularly offer: “our personal gifts, of talent, time, energy, and financial support.” One of our congregational goals is: “to ensure the economic viability of the church.”
Nobody has to give money to a congregation. You don’t have to buy a ticket to come to this service. You could go down to the social hour and receive refreshment every Sunday and never spend a dime. We have thoughtful, inspiring, and challenging events all week and all year, and a person could go to hundreds of them over the years and never give us a single dollar. In every one of the six Unitarian Universalist congregations I have substantially served as a minister, there have been a few people in whom I have invested at least several days of my life, and they have been so caught up in their own problems that they have given no money and few benefits to the congregations. However, most of the people, most of the time know that they need to be generous so that when their times of need come that their congregation will be eager to care for them in turn, and they will not despise themselves for being so needy. Even the most successful and powerful have their times of need. When you have been generous in your life, you have learned both how to give and how to receive, and you can do both in joy and peace.
This congregation is flourishing: with good crowds on Sunday, lots of children, many groups and activities, and forty-two new members since July. In the midst of our 101st year in Jacksonville and our 41st year in these buildings, we are bustling with renewal, reform, and hope. We have many active members who have been with us for 20, 30, or even 40 years, and we have many new members who have just discovered us, and realized that there is in this conservative, Bible-belt city, a group of soul-mates just for them, called UUCJ. To keep us going, we need to raise ¼ of a million dollars for the next financial year, about $800 for every person who is a member or regular participant here.
So, let’s be practical. Your annual contributions to UUCJ are a purely discretionary expenditure. If you are an individual, and you pay at least your average of $800 of that $250,000, you would, perhaps, be paying as much as you paid for your smokes if you are, God forbid, still a smoker, or if you are a gambler, what you pay for your gambling habit, probably at least $800 a year. And I can guarantee that the average member of this congregation will live longer than the average smoker, and they will enjoy life more than the average person caught in the gambling habit. And you will be supporting a good cause instead of a bad one.
Let’s look at some more main-line discretionary expenditures. I bet most of you spend more than $800 a year when you add up the times you go to a movie at a theater, your cable bills, TV expenses, and movie rentals. Frankly, you are going to get more visceral entertainment from a year at UUCJ, and you are certainly going to get more inspiration and practical applications. Probably most of you spent more than $800 on Christmas decorations, cards, and presents, and you get to enjoy UUCJ all year. If you imbibe alcohol periodically, I suspect that most of you, if you added up the drinks at restaurants, clubs, and parties, and your purchases for home consumption would go above $800 per year, and UUCJ is not hard on your liver. If you took a long-week vacation some time during the year, didn’t that cost you more than $800 for a long week-end, and did you get as much satisfaction out of that as you did your total church attendance in the last year? I doubt it.
Now, let’s up the ante to twice that figure, $1600, what we need from the average adult couple in the congregation. I bet most of the couples here spent more than $1600 in a year eating out, and I am not talking about the absolutely required business lunches. I am talking about the completely discretionary nice evenings out. Let’s look at another discretionary part of contemporary life. Add up your DSL-telephone bills, long distance calls, and cell phone bills, bet it’s $1600 or more. Know we think it’s essential, but of course, when we are totally on vacation and don’t call anyone we survive. Did you take at least one week-long vacation last year? Did it cost you at least $1600 for that week? Hope you had a good time. However, most of us did not get the pleasure from that week that we got from the totality of our UUCJ experiences for the year.
A major chronic excuse for activists and progressives, like most of us, for not being generous to our chosen congregation is that: ‘we donate to a lot of other charities.’ So, let’s add $1600 for other charities besides your chosen spiritual home. Kathleen and I gave more than $3000 to other charities besides UUCJ last year, plus I gave away $50,000 of my capital to my UU seminary a few years ago. So, I feel for you, but just because you give to other charities does not excuse you being less generous than you could easily be with the chosen center for your values, your chosen congregation.
Do you have a recreational vehicle, a trailer, boat, etc., add $3400 or more. Did you take a longer vacation last year [two weeks or more], add $3400 or even a good deal more. How about a vacation home, that place you only live in for a few weeks or months a year, add $6800 or more. So, if you just focus on purely discretionary expenses, like church, there are plenty of things most of us spend a lot of money on that is simply our choice. Since you make a significant commitment of your time, probably at least 50-100 hours a year to UUCJ [say two trips to church services a month, an educational opportunity once a month, one social event a month, and a couple of counseling appointments, a home or hospital visit in the course of the year], why shouldn’t UUCJ be one of your major annual investments in money as well as time? It simply makes practical good sense.
However, as the title of the sermon suggests, a central reason for financially supporting UUCJ is not simply direct selfish value received, but because it is your opportunity to Pay your values, principles, ideals, and hopes FORWARD. Almost every time you come to this place or participate in one of our activities, your values are supported, your ideals are celebrated and affirmed, your hopes are raised and you become inspired to turn your dreams into practical realities for the world. How much is that worth? Well, of course, it’s priceless, but it does not happen without time, effort, and money. In the course of your time with UUCJ, I believe that almost every one of our members makes a life-long friend, helps a child become a creative, innovative, fulfilled activist and liberated person, becomes engaged in an issue that transforms their consciousness or helps them to reform and lift up their community, and sometimes, we do things that change the world.
60 years ago UUCJ was the only Jacksonville white church with African-American members. 150 years ago, Unitarians and Universalists were the only congregations with women ministers. We were the first straight congregations to welcome and support gays and lesbians, in the US and in Jacksonville. Our denomination has been at the forefront of almost every progressive ethical and spiritual civic movement in the history of this nation, and our congregation has had an influence in this city out of all proportion to the size of its membership. Wage Peace was born here. So, when we tell people that our congregation is engaged in becoming a green sanctuary, or that we have raised more than $4000 in the last six months for good causes outside of our congregation, that our officers, members, and minister are active community activists, or that our minister was the person who co-taught with Archbishop Tutu, UUCJ only congregation in Jacksonville besides his own where he spoke, people are not surprised, that what they expect from UUCJ.
You have an opportunity to keep this going. Kathleen and I are giving more than 5% of our earned income to UUCJ. I hope some of you will choose to do the same. Sure, it’s like any other organization in the world, a small proportion of us are going to give most of the money, just like a relatively few of us give most of the time or talent. However, I came to this congregation, like each of the congregations I have served because a lot of average UUs were generous with their time and their money, and that’s what I am asking each of you to be. Really do the best you can. If UUCJ is no more important to you than your smokes or your movies or your single week-end trip, then give us that $800. If UUCJ are just as important as your telephone connections or your dinners out or a week of vacation, give us that $1600. If UUCJ is more important to you than that, and you spend discretionary income on other things, like Kathleen and I do, then give us more, give us 3, 4, or 5% of your income. Pay it Forward! Change the world, make lots of people happier, more liberated, and fulfilled, affect the future! Give and get people to pass it on, to Pay It Forward. It could change the world. Heh, it even worked in the underclass in Las Vegas!