The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/2016 1

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1 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ Call to Worship When all is too much, when the news is so bad meditation itself feels useless, and a single life feels too small a stone to offer on the altar of peace, find a human sunrise. Find those people who are committed to changing our scary reality. Human sunrises are happening all over the earth, at every moment. People gathering, people working to change the intolerable, people coming in their robes and sandals or in their rags and bare feet, and they are singing or not, and they are chanting or not. But they are working to bring peace, light; compassion to human life. by -Alice Walker Come in then my friends, to this place of hope and this time when transformation is an option, to find, or to be that human sunrise. Come in. A.F-R

2 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ Reading: Crossing a Creek Crossing a creek Requires three things: by Martha Courtot A certain serenity of mind, Bare feet And a sure trust that the snake we know Slides silently underwater Just beyond our vision Will choose to ignore The flesh that cuts through its territory, And we will pass through. Some people think crossing a creek Is easy, But I say this All crossings are hard, Whether creeks, mountains, Or into other lives And we must always believe In the snakes at our feet Just out of our vision And we must practice believing We will come through.

3 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ Thought for Contemplation: Do one thing every day that scares you. -Eleanor Roosevelt Walking Through Change The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish in Northborough February 7, 2016 Sermon topic chosen by Bob Laptew, who won it at the 2015 Auction Reading: Crossing a Creek by Martha Courtot Frank, a man in a congregation I once served was touched by a story he d read and sent it to me. It happened to a cab driver who said, One night shift, the dispatcher sent him on a call. When he arrived at 2:30 a.m., the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a minute, and then drive away. But, he said, he had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, he always went to the door. This

4 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, he reasoned to himself. So he walked to the door and knocked. "Just a minute", answered a frail, elderly voice. He could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80's stood before him. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware. "Would you carry my bag out to the car?" she said. He took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman. She took his arm and they walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking him for his kindness. "It's nothing", he told her. "I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother

5 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ treated". When they got in the cab, she gave him an address, then asked, "Could you drive through downtown?" "It's not the shortest way," he answered quickly. "Oh, I don't mind," she said. "I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice". He looked in the rearview mirror. Her eyes were glistening. "I don't have any family left," she continued. "The doctor says I don't have very long." The driver quietly reached over and shut off the meter. "What route would you like me to take?" he asked. For the next two hours, they drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of

6 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing. As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, "I'm tired. Let's go now." They drove in silence to the address she had given him. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico. Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as they pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. Surely they had been expecting her. I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door, he said. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair. "How much do I owe you?" she asked, reaching into her purse. "Nothing," I said. You already paid me. It was a great tour. "You have to make a living," she answered. "There are other passengers," he responded. Almost without thinking, he bent and gave her a hug. She held

7 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ onto him tightly. "You gave an old woman a little moment of joy," she said. "Thank you." I squeezed her hand, he said, then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life. I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift, he said. 1 Crossing a creek, the poet says, Requires three things: A certain serenity of mind, Bare feet And a sure trust that the snake we know Slides silently underwater Just beyond our vision Will choose to ignore The flesh that cuts through its territory, And we will pass through. 1 From Frank Mundo who received it from his daughter and shared it with me.

8 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ Some people think crossing a creek Is easy, But I say this All crossings are hard, Whether creeks, mountains, Or into other lives 2 And crossing creeks is what we are asked to do our whole lives, as individuals, as families, as communities. The changes are inevitable. The breaks appear, as illness, as death, as marriage, or birth, as divorce or graduation, as loss of job or a promotion, a move, a new house, a lost neighbor or friend, a new love. All crossings are hard, Whether creeks, mountains, Or into other lives. I think she is right. All crossing are hard. She acknowledges that there are indeed dangers in all changes. The snakes are there, silently under the water. No change is without danger. And we must always believe 2 Martha Courtot, Crossing a Creek

9 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ In the snakes at our feet Just out of our vision And we must practice believing We will come through. It is about faith and trust, and courage. Always. And that is why I am so moved by the story. Yes, the tenderness of the cab driver is marked and touching. And that he carries the experience in its fullness into his heart enough to share it, is touching. But what is significant, I believe, is the power of this woman who in the face of illness and approaching death held her head high, looked life in the eye, and recalling all the practicing she had done in her life, was able to believe that she will come through, whatever that means for her, for this time in her life. Change is hard. We all know that. And it is inevitable. We know that too. And still we balk, we resist, we are afraid. Research has shown that people are more afraid of loss than they are motivated by gain. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, is a familiar aphorism that has

10 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ been around at least since 1678 when it appears in John Bunyan s classic, Pilgrim s Progress. 3 A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. It is not only old, it truly expresses our inclination. We are loathe to risk giving up what we have even if the promise or potential is for something better. Better to be safe than sorry, is another one. In which case, it is amazing, isn t it, that we make any progress at all?! Each time we take two steps forward and only one step back, we have performed an act of courage, an act that defies our natural inclination. We should be proud of ourselves. I took a course on organizational change back in the 1970 s when I was first studying for the ministry (yes, this calling has been in me for a long, long time). Renato Targiuri was a guest, a Professor of Social Sciences in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. He spent a whole day with us. He said a lot of things, I am sure, but what I remember is this: People will resist change until they have confidence that they will be successful in the new environment. People will resist change until they have confidence that they will be successful in the new environment. 3 The Yale Book of Quotations

11 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ Sobering, because of course, we can never be sure we will be successful in the next moment, let alone the next environment. All crossings are hard, Whether creeks, mountains, Or into other lives And we must always believe In the snakes at our feet Just out of our vision And we must practice believing We will come through. That is what the old woman in our story did. She reviewed her life, remembered all of the crossings she had done, all of the times she had practiced believing that she could do it, and she would come through. It is not any different from practicing piano, practicing drawing or pitching, practicing reading or writing or arithmetic. Practicing trust and courage. It is something to do every day.

12 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ We do it as a people too. We look at our country s history and can feel overwhelmed by all that we have done wrong, or all that needs to be righted. And then we can remember all of the times we have done the right thing, the times we have made corrections, and we remember that we can cross that creek, negotiate that challenge, be it universal suffrage, same sex marriage, equal pay for equal work, health care for all, or the integration of waves of immigrants. We have done it before, and we can do it again. we must practice believing We will come through. We can do it as a faith community, a congregation that has weathered splits over theological differences, and the betrayal of trust by its minister, that has said good-bye to beloved members of the congregation who became minsters, and that has said good-bye to beloved ministers. You are a congregation that changed your religious identity from Unitarian to Unitarian Universalist, and from only Christian to a broad embrace of many faith journeys. You have survived the burning of your meeting house and rebuilt it. All of these are stories of the many

13 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ creeks that you have crossed as a people bound together by a covenant to walk toward one another in times of joy and times of adversity a covenant that calls you to be respectful in disagreement and open hearted in challenging times. You have been practicing. And I attest that you have gotten much better at it! All crossings are hard, Whether creeks, mountains, Or into other lives And we must always believe In the snakes at our feet Just out of our vision And we must practice believing We will come through. We will come through. You will come through. You always do. Believe it! Have courage. Amen. Closing Hymn # 143 Not In Vain the Distance Beacons Closing Words

14 The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish UU Northborough, MA 02/07/ Take courage friends, The way is often hard, the path is never clear, And the stakes are very high. Take courage, For deep down, there is another truth. You are not alone. Wayne Arnason, Singing the Living Tradition # 698