It is so good to be here on Mother’s Day. The first time I recall being here – at UUCA – was on a Mother’s Day- back in 1992 – for the ordination ceremony for Roberta Finkelstein.
I’m glad to be here with my own mother, and my children. And I am happy seeing so many other mothers and children today.
I love the “Make Way for Ducklings” story we told this morning. I travel to Boston frequently – sometimes with our UU youth, to show them the sites of our UU heritage in Boston. I am in Boston often for denominational meetings. I always go to visit the scenes told in this story – I walk from UUA headquarters to the Charles River, down Mt. Vernon and Charles Streets, across Beacon Street, and into the Public Gardens where the pond and the Swan boats are. And the statues of the mother duck and her eight ducklings, waddling across the garden – statues which attract children and adults alike!
I can understand the dangers the ducklings faced crossing those streets – and also the beauty of the gardens, as well as the risk of the bikers, roller bladders¼
I believe one reason I am so attracted to that story is because it feels like the work we are about in our churches. We know this is a dangerous world. And at the same time, we know that it is a beautiful world. Each of us has parts in the never-ending story of helping teach our young ones how to travel in this world – aware of the dangers, but increasingly confident of our ability to learn skills, and always open to moving forward to find our ways to beautiful and abundant places of being together.
_ There are times when each of us has played the part of the busy drivers, so intent on getting to a destination that we almost run down the little ducklings.
_ There are times when each of us is the little duckling, trying to make our way, and scared and needing some help.
_ There are times when each of us is like the people on the street, who stop and stare at the ducklings and wonder at the sight, enjoy seeing life in the midst of busy-ness.
_ There are times when each of us is like the police officer – in a position to protect the journeyer, to stop the mindlessness of others that can harm little ones.
_ And everyone of us – whether we are young or old, male or female, parent or not – everyone of us has had the opportunity to be the mother duck, the experienced leader with a vision, who encourages her followers to come along, and who has faith that the destination is worth the risks of the journey.
Religious Education is all those parts, all those roles, of the journey. We gather in religious community because we know that this life we share is filled with treacherous times and places, and because we have faith that we can together find and create peaceful and beautiful times and places.
_ When people are scared or lonely, filled with great sadness or despair – religious community teaches us how to comfort and encourage and sustain.
_ When people are eager and filled with life, when they fall in love and have babies and want to learn – religious community teaches us how to celebrate and honor and remember.
_ And religious community can teach us to be aware of those around us whom we may not see if we are too busy or set on our own journeys. We learn to have empathy for the people who have been at greatest risk in our goal-driven society – the poor, the oppressed, the dispossessed. We can be protectors and defenders, and our religious community can help us learn how to help all our neighbors cross safely into a more beautiful garden.
I live in Fairfax County near a pond. This is the time of year when I walk around the pond and see the new little ducklings just hatched out. I know how risky our pond is for those little ones – we have snapping turtles and other dangers. We also have a busy street nearby, that is frequently used by the ducks on their way from a stream to the pond. I used to worry about those ducks crossing the street. Drivers in my neighborhood often speed. They usually roll through stop signs, and even sometimes won’t stop for a school bus’s flashing lights.
But they always seem to stop for our ducklings. At first I couldn’t believe it, when I saw time after time, these drivers stopping and waiting patiently to let those ducks waddle slowly across the street.
Why? I wondered. What was happening?
I figured, those cars must see something in those ducklings – something that has reminded the car drivers that there is life – there is sacredness – in front of them. And it gives them pause. They stop to honor that life.
_ Perhaps they sense the holy.
_ Perhaps they admire the courage of those ducks.
_ Perhaps they are awestruck by the beauty.
Whatever it is, they stop.
What would it be like if we could teach one another and live in the world in such a way, that we would be like the ducks. Proudly crossing streets to journey to new beauty. Would the world stop and stare?
I believe that there is in each of us such beauty, such wonder, that when it is seen, others must stop and honor it. And such beauty and power in each of us, that when it is shared with the world, others will be touched and blessed by us.
That is the teaching of our liberal religious tradition – that within each of us is the goodness and the power to learn how to travel in this dangerous world and teach others how to travel, so that we may all arrive at the garden of the Beloved Community.
Former UUCA religious educators Jane McKeel & Judith Fisher wrote a prayer poem that we can say together with hand motions –
I praise the blue sky. I praise the sun that is in you.
I praise the shining stars that are in you.
I praise the bright moon that is in you.
(singing)
“It’s in every one of us
to be wise.
Find your heart,
Open up both your eyes.
We can all know everything,
Without ever knowing why.
It’s in every one of us, by and by.”
Do you believe in miracles? Do you know that the word miracle comes from a root word Mirare, which means “wonder” or “awe”. A miracle – that which gives you a sense of wonder or awe. Like the word “admire”.
And did you know that another word from Mirare is a word that I believe shows you what I consider to be a true miracle? That word is mirror – and what we see in the mirror is something to be held in awe and wonder – it is a true miracle.
Let people see you. Let religious community be like a good mother duckling, to teach you how to cross the dangerous roads of life. Then all the world will see the miracle.
And we’ll see that all of our lives are gifts for which we can give thanks. Together in religious community we can remind one another to give thanks for all that is our life.
