Groundbreaking

Rev. Meg Barnhouse
October 15, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
austinuu.org

We celebrate our impending renovation with a symbolic groundbreaking, and we talk about other life situations which are a paradox of the already and the not yet, the comforting and the discomforting, preparing the way for the new.

This morning we are celebrating two things that go together wonderfully well. Our groundbreaking ceremony, which is a community experience of and affirmation of our moving ahead in the process of being a more welcoming congregation physically, and the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali. Diwali is about the defeat of ignorance, about lighting someone’s way home.

Unitarian Universalism is all about the Light of Truth. That is what our chalice stands for. The search for truth is at the forefront of our faith. We teach that the revelation of truth is ongoing. It wasn’t dropped down from somewhere all at once, self-contained, with all the answers to everything. There isn’t a revelation that stands, written in stone, but the Spirit of truth continues to reveal itself to us as we gather more knowledge and more experience as humans. The light grows. Our worship services contain pieces of the truth, as great writers and thinkers, and as the ministers and the congregation grasp them. We always say “We could be wrong,” which is a great truth in itself.

We know there are people who need truth, who are starving for it, people who have been harmed by ignorance. We know there are thirsty human souls longing to hear the message that there is worth and dignity inside every person. They have been made to feel worthless by their religion, or by their family, or by the human condition, which seems to be that we hurt inside in a thousand invisible ways. Some people need this faith, however flawed its members and ministers may be. We need one another, and we need those who will be drawn here in the future. We make room for them. We light the way for them.

“Prince Rama was the son of a great King, and was expected to become King himself one day. However his stepmother wanted her own son to become King, and tricked her husband into banishing Rama and his wife Sita to live in the forest. But this was no ordinary forest. This was the forest where demons lived, including Demon King Ravana. Ravana had twenty arms and ten heads. There were two eyes on each head and a row of sharp yellow teeth. When Ravana saw Sita he wanted her for himself and so decided to kidnap her. Ravana placed a beautiful deer into the forest. When Sita saw the deer she asked Rama if he could capture it for her so they could have it as a pet.

However when Rama was out of sight Ravana came swooping down in a chariot pulled by flying monsters and flew off with Sita. Sita, although afraid, was also clever. Being a princess she wore lots of jewelry and she dropped her jewels, piece by piece onto the ground to leave a trail for Rama. Sure enough Rama, realizing he had been tricked, discovered the trail, and also came upon his friend Hanuman, King of the Monkeys. Hanuman promised Rama he and all the monkeys would help Rama to find Sita and they searched the world looking for her. Eventually a monkey located Sita on a dark, isolated island, surrounded by rocks and stormy seas. Hanuman flew to Sita to make sure it really was her. She gave him her last precious pearl to give to Rama and prove it really was her and she had been found. The monkeys helped Rama for a second time by throwing stones and rocks into the sea until they had built a great bridge to the island.

Rama and his faithful army battled with the demons until they were victorious. Finally Rama took his wonderful bow and arrow, specially made to defeat all evil demons, and shot Ravana through the heart, killing him. There were huge celebrations when Rama and Sita returned to the kingdom. Everyone placed a light in their windows and doorways to show that the light of truth and goodness had defeated the darkness of evil and trickery.

To celebrate Diwali, across India people decorate with beautiful lights, and some keep the lights on in their homes for the five days of the festival. In Nepal, there is a tradition of keeping your door open during Diwali. Both are lovely instructions to us as we make our space welcoming.

Many of us are aware of the forest full of demons. We feel ourselves surrounded by fears, surrounded by a feeling of loneliness, of self-hatred, of addiction or despair. These demons clutch at us, sometimes we feel lost and unable to see a way forward. Then we have friends, the monkeys and bears in our lives, people who come searching for us, people who accompany us on our journey, who get us out of bad situations, people whose writings inspire us, whose deeds give us courage.

These people, these heroes and sheroes are the lights that light our way out of the forest, that light our way home. During the ground breaking, I am going to invite us to call out the names of these lights, these people, … Martin Luther King, Jr … Fannie Lou Hamer … Howard Thurman … Rabindranath Tagore … Flannery O’Connor …

Who has been a light on your way?

I’m going to ask the architect and the folks involved with other aspects of the construction along with the members of our building team to go out into the garden. This is where we will have the symbolic groundbreaking. It is tremendously exciting to break ground, but there is another aspect to a construction and renovation project. It’s a breaking. There is some violence to it. There isn’t a way to create something more welcoming without moving things we love, breaking some things we thought would always be there. I want to let you know that this garden will be moved, will be renewed. It won’t be exactly the same as it was. Many of us have loved it fiercely, and many have enjoyed it without thinking about it too much.

This is why we need courage to move forward. It’s not always comfortable to keep the door open, to keep the lights on for those who are on their way home.

Please call out the names of the people whose light illuminates your path, and, if you know them, the names of people who have given this church life to this moment.

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