We Make the Path by Walking

We Make the Path by Walking a sermon by the Reverend Susan Veronica Rak preached on 16 November 2014 The First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia PA a Unitarian Universalist congregation In 1987 the founder of the Highlander Folk School - Myles Horton (1905-1990) - and Brazilian educational theorist Paolo Freire (1921-1997 - best known for "Pedagogy of the Oppressed") recorded a series of conversations they had at the Highlander Folk School (now known as Highlander Research and Education Center). They were trying to capture the essence of the historic work of the school and the intersection of education and social change. Horton's approach was grounded in the small, local grassroots education model exemplified by Highlander, locating itself squarely outside the formal schooling systems in the United States. Freire s was centered within university and state-sponsored programs of his native Brazil. Each of them, in their work had come to similar conclusions: real liberation can only come through participatory education, where people learn and act together. But their starting points and their situations and communities were so very different. Rather than sitting down to write this book, their conversations were recorded, transcribed and edited a non-traditional way of writing and certainly non-linear! They were working without a firm agenda and knew there were some theoretical educational issues they wanted to get at. They had an idea of what they wanted to get across, but it was hard to get started and they couldn t see a way to get there. Like we all do when faced with such a challenge, they started to make lists of what they needed to cover, and then tried to prioritize those lists. However, they seemed no closer to their goal, no closer to the important conversation they both felt they needed to have in order to get their message across. And Freire challenged Horton: Yes, everything you recognize as something important. I think that even though we need to have some outline, I am sure we make the road by walking. I am guessing that when the time arrived to winnow that list, Horton was reluctant to let go of certain ideas and thus kept them from getting to do the work at hand. I ve been there - no doubt you have too, where everything you recognize as something important. With First Unitarian Church at such a crucial time in its history, in this transition, so many things clamor for our attention; there is so much to do. Each idea, each thought, each task, is so very important, and worthy. But choosing which and where and how proves daunting. We can't see the way ahead, at least not clearly. We have a very firm but still a little vague idea of where we want to go. As a matter of fact, there are several November 2014 Page! 1 of! 5 Reverend Dr. Susan Veronica Rak

very firm, clear items that need our attention. We need a path to get us to the door, the destination, the goal. But there are no officials or professionals here who will give us the exact, perfect plan on how to get where we need to go. That is something we must do together. I am sure we make the road by walking This saying comes from the Spanish poet Antonio Machado. It s as if he is speaking to us right now, just as his words called Horton and Friere out of their writers block. The words call us to brave the unknown... inviting us out of our boxed-in corners. Machado frames it this way in his poem: Wayfarer, the only way is your footsteps, there is no other. Wayfarer, there is no way, you make the way as you go. As you go you make the way and stopping to look behind, you see the path that your feet will never travel again. Wayfarer, there is no way - only foam trails in the sea. Wayfarer, the only way is your footsteps, there is no other. Wanderer, (another translation says) your footsteps are the road, and nothing more. So when we get anxious about the way ahead, of all that has to be done, on how to get to the next, permanent, settled place, it might be helpful to know that as important as the endpoint may be, the road, the path is our focus now. On some level, the way before us - what we need to be doing NOW - may seem very clear, straightforward. First and foremost we need to keep our programs at First Unitarian alive - to build and nurture this community; to widen the circle and include more people and participation in this congregation. And then, as we were reminded earlier this morning, we need to be good stewards of our heritage and this building. Exactly how we will do this is yet to be decided - but we know this much: it is our responsibility to carry forward the faith we have inherited, the tradition that has been left to us. And then, throughout all this, to position the congregation to begin the search for a new minister. What exactly doing all these things entails is not clear, and much of the work is still down the road a piece. But precisely which way is that road going? To some extent, we do have a part of the road laid before us... there are check-lists of things we have to do in each of these areas that different people are paying attention to right now. So the map seems pretty clear at times. But in reality it is only the idea of a map. This metaphor might seem rather obvious - yes, yes, I get it we are the ones making the way forward. It s all up to us. But I think there is more to consider as we step out on this path. November 2014 Page! 2 of! 5 Reverend Dr. Susan Veronica Rak

We don t want to trudge forward, blind to everything around us, and inadvertently walk into a bramble thicket. Nor do we want to veer off onto separate paths hoping we will somehow all arrive at the same destination whether we go north or south or east or west or some combination of these cardinal directions. Like Remen s entryway path design, we need to be ready to notice what we encounter along the way to take it all into account. To be comfortable with the ambiguity at times; to be willing to take the turns to keep moving forward, making progress. To perhaps even revel in the mystery that is before us, and e hoy the surprises along the way. To set out and make the way by walking even if the path is not totally clear. To do this well means that we need several things, beyond a good compass. We need each other. We need to trust one another. We need to have a common understanding of where we are headed that the path may be quite different than we expect. And we will have to be okay with that. And be aware that we may disagree on individual details - about what we need to carry on this journey and how we ought to equip ourselves or about precisely where it is headed. AND this is where we encounter our covenant the original convent set forth by our Puritan forbears that inspired the 17th century Cambridge Platform, where congregationalism is enshrined, where the members have promised always to walk together in the ways of love, insofar as they can figure out what these ways are. This has not proven to be an easy path to walk, as our history as a congregation or as a denomination [aka the Association of Unitarian Universalist Congregations] shows. But Reverend Alice Blair Wesley reminds us that in choosing to make this path together, many blessing will flow: [they] flow naturally and abundantly in a covenanted society in which people can trust one another, they freely help one another in all kinds of ways, and uncoerced cooperation is par for the course. To an important extent, it doesn't matter whether our covenant is with God or Nature (or any number of words you might substitute for one of those). What matters is the understanding that voluntary faithfulness to the ways of love is a demand we are gifted to understand. it is a promise to pay attention to all that is worthy of our love and loyalty, which is why the covenanted community is a worshipping community of people who love to lift up and celebrate all that is worthy of our love and loyalty. Whether you ve ever said such words or not, you know this, you believe this. Otherwise, you would not be sitting here this morning. People would not have been sitting here for all these hundreds of years, in various groupings, sheltered by these walls. By walking and making this path we demonstrate a faith in our positive potential we November 2014 Page! 3 of! 5 Reverend Dr. Susan Veronica Rak

have chosen to walk together in diversity; to keep redefining and expanding our boundaries. We may look back and see the path behind us, the one Machado says we will never travel again, as ephemeral as our memories, like those foam trails on the sea. We will need to let that go with a sigh of recognition, realize the way we are making together will not replicate the way we traveled before. Wayfarer, there is no way, you make the way as you go. Wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking. You know, any one of those issues, tasks and topics I raised before - and that we will revisit in the months ahead - could be enough to stop us in our tracks. We could easily be stuck, knowing that there is something of great importance there, something that must be dealt with. But we just can t see the way forward. It is just too huge, beyond our control or influence. And we are unsure of the outcomes. There are risks, to be sure, in any worthwhile endeavor. That new job, those studies you want to undertake, that friendship you want to deepen, that relationship that faces a crisis, the career that is stalled or stale, the illness that saps your strength all these life events can only be navigated and endured if we walk that road, the road that is unknown to us. By walking one makes the road, Only by setting forth can we find the way through. The steps we take may not lead to what we thought we wanted or needed. The wanderings are indirect routes to understanding and meaning. But nothing is clear. And nothing is accomplished - no task completed, no adventure or journey begun - unless we begin walking. As you go you make the way and stopping to look behind, and stopping to look behind, you see the path that your feet will never travel again We go forward. Choices and decisions made, detours traveled. And being human, we look back. The path that was once invisible is revealed. The past behind us is instructive. When we look back, we may feel rueful - regretting some steps here and there. And we may feel justly proud of how and where we have come. But we cannot rest in this place of looking back. We cannot go back, cannot undo what has been done. Yet we might take heart from knowing how far we have come what road, hills and valleys, rocky and smooth we have walked. But I notice something else about this road: we have not walked it alone. Walking together, with companions known and unknown, we have made this road. Walking together, we are connected not only to one another, but to the events far and near that have inspired or impeded our walking. Meandering sometimes, stumbling often, confused, unsure, we walk. Or striding forward with confidence, bravely stepping onto paths untrod, walking together, we make the path November 2014 Page 4! of 5! Reverend Dr. Susan Veronica Rak

Reading: The Path from My Grandfather s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge and Belonging by Rachel Naomi Remen (Thorndike Press, 2001) When I was remodeling my home, I was torn between two ways of creating access to my front door. One way involved building a flight of steps from the street that opened onto a path leading directly to my door. From the moment you set foot on the first step, you could see the front door and know exactly where you were going. The other way was quite different. You come through a gate and climb a short flight of steps to a a small landing. Just beyond this landing is a tree of great beauty. As you climb, all you can see is this tree. When you reach the landing, you discover it joins a small deck bordered by a rose garden and passing through this find another flight of steps, quite steep, leading off to the right. The top step is well above your eye level, and climbing, you see nothing until you reach a deck at the top, where looking to your right you discover a breathtaking sixty-mile view of San Francisco Bay. Crossing this deck brings you to three gradual steps leading off to the left. Climbing these you unexpectedly find the little meadow, which is my backyard, and rising from it, the exquisite profile of Mount Tamalpais, the highest mountain in our county. Only then can you see my front door, which is now only a few steps away. You have been moving toward it steadily, without knowing, all along. In struggling to make this decision I consulted two architects, both of whom told me that one of the basic principles of the architecture of front entrances is that people need to see where they are going from the start. They agreed that the uncertainty of the second approach would create unease in any guest coming to the house for the first time. Despite the uniformity of this expert advice, I ultimately chose the second way. Thinking about it now, it seems to me that knowing where we are going encourages us to stop seeing and hearing, and allows us to fall asleep. In fact, when I find myself on such a direct path, a part of me rushes ahead to the front door the moment I see it. As I hurry to overtake this part, I usually do not really see anything that I pass. Not knowing where you are going creates more than uncertainty; it fosters a sense of aliveness, an appreciation of the particulars around you. It wakes you up much in the same way that illness does. I chose the second way. In fact, perhaps we only think we know where we are going as all the while we are really going somewhere quite different. I have done many things in order to achieve a valued goal only to discover in time that the real goal my choices have led me toward is something else entirely. Something I could not even have know existed when I first set foot upon the path. The purpose underlying life often wears the mask of whatever has our attention at the time.... The truth is that we are always moving toward mystery and so we are far closer to what is real when we do not see our destination clearly. November 2014 Page 5! of 5! Reverend Dr. Susan Veronica Rak