Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Returning to the Source

Reverend Amy Zucker Morgenstern
September 7, 2008
Palo Alto, CA

In our amazing evolution out of and upon this planet, we share something with every other species that has ever lived. We all have our origin in the same source, our common great-great-grandparent: the sea. Robert Weston wrote, in a reading that is in our hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition:

Ponder this thing in your heart;
    ponder with awe.
Out of the sea to the land,
    out of the shallows came ferns.
Out of the sea to the land,
    up from darkness to light,
Rising to walk and to fly, out of the sea trembled life.
Ponder this thing in your heart, life up from sea:
Eyes to behold, throats to sing, mates to love.
Life from the sea, warmed by sun, washed by rain,
    life from within, giving birth, rose to love. ¹

We come from the ocean. We are reminded of it with every birth, as the new human being emerges from nine months’ development in a personal ocean of saltwater and begins life on land. When we lie on our backs in the ocean, it holds us once again, the mother who cradles us, the father who rocks his baby with a lullaby. The rhythm of the waves is much like the rhythm of a person’s breathing, coming in, going out, coming in, going out, ceaseless and essential to life. Many humans who grew up on an ocean shore find it hard to fall asleep when they are out of hearing of this planet-size inbreath and outbreath. And millions of us, if we have the resources, head to the ocean whenever we can, returning to our source with the sure instinct of a newly hatched sea turtle: to the place of rest, of life. Home.

And this is our spiritual home, our source. Fifty years ago tomorrow, on September 8, 1958, we made these buildings our home. Having worked and saved, worried and sweated, imagined and built, the wise founders of this church at last dedicated this space, the home we return to each year with joy and hope. Our home full of laughter and companionship, our sea of wisdom, hope, and comfort, our source of conscience and inspiration. We need to return to the source, be reminded and replenished, remember where we came from so that we can remember where we are going, and how to get there.

Our mission as a congregation is to guide each person who enters these doors to the sources that will allow each of us to nurture our spirits and help heal our world. To be transformed, and to transform all we encounter. To move inward toward each other, toward our best selves, and then out into the world to move it closer to the vision of justice, beauty, and love that we celebrate here.

I urge each of you to return to your source this year. Find the ocean that lies within you, around you, and return to it again and again. Here in this second home, you have many ways to find the source that will keep your best self alive. This year, just as our lifespan religious education focuses on the sources of our living tradition, throughout our church life there are many offerings meant to connect you with the sources that sustain you, inspire you, challenge you, give you hope, feed your passion. I won’t try to name them all, but here are a few.

In a series of Sunday services throughout the year, members will share with each other their personal sources, and you are invited to share yours. You can join other youth and adults in exploring different spiritual practices and find the one that is your source, in Reverend Eva’s “On the Path” beginning next month. In January, you can spend a Sunday afternoon discerning the gifts that lie within you, one of the oceanic sources of all that you do and what you can become, in my workshop “Discovering All You Can Be.” You can join a small groupÐParent Journey to learn more from the rich source that is parenting and other parents, Elder Journey to reflect with others of your generation about life in the elder years, Brown Bag Books to delve more deeply into the books you read, Forum to make sense of world events … there are other small groups as well, and we’ll be developing more together.

If one of your sources of hope and meaning is making a difference in the world, you can join with others to improve health care and housing, keep alive the freedom to marry, feed the hungry, strengthen democracy, care for the planet. Our new Action Council will be inviting people to form groups devoted to social and environmental transformation, and helping to shepherd the justice work that puts our principles into action.

If you find your strength and happiness in being among new and familiar friends, you can come to any of the many social events that fill our calendar: barbecues and picnics, family nature adventures and yard sales. Those are all spiritual sources too. And by reaching out to invite newcomers to these events, you can help welcome everyone home.

A song we sing at many ministers’ gatherings calls, “Return again, return again, return to the home of your soul. Return to who you are, return to what you are, return to where you are born and reborn again.” ² This morning, and whenever your vision is clouded and your feel that home is far behind you and the place you were headed is a long way off, return to the source. Return to the source of your self: the place you feel at home, the people who remind you who you are. Return to the source of your spirit: where you rest, where you regain the vision to carry out the dreams you see so clearly in the moments of your high resolve. Return to the source of your hope, the voices that carry you out o f the lonely desert of cynicism and fill you once again with the boundless power of the ocean, which never gets weary, which never stops pouring its blessing onto the world.

Return again and again. Whether you have been here many, many times before, or walked through these doors for the first time today, welcome home.

 

Ritual: Water Ceremony

 

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