It's hard to know when to respond to the seductiveness of the world and when to respond to its challenge. If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between the desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. - E.B. White

Several weekends ago, I flew into Manchester, NH and then drove northwest to a small town in Vermont (where I was co-leading a workshop). It was the first time in many years that I'd been to northern New England outside of the Boston area. While Annapolis was enjoying the first flowers of spring, they were still in the grips of winter. But this did not diminish the fun of seeing again all the village greens surrounded by town halls and white clapboard churches - churches that are frequently Unitarian Universalist, congregations that have maintained their places in the life of those northeast small towns for at least 100 years if not considerably longer. The city of Annapolis had been up and going for as long as a century before the first of those village green churches appeared, which has always made we wonder why Unitarian Universalism took hold in Baltimore first - in 1817. I mean Annapolis was the social, political, economic and cultural "first city" of Maryland - up and down the East Coast, it was in cities like Annapolis that our colonial mothers and fathers were creating and joining liberal churches that were UU or would become UU. For reasons I have yet to fully understand, this did not happen here. But thank goodness it did happen - several centuries later. It was on May 2, 1956 that UUism finally took hold - it was then that the Unitarian Fellowship of Annapolis was chartered by the American Unitarian Association.

This morning we recognize and celebrate our 44 years, something I rehearse on most mornings because one of the ways I can drive to work is virtually a tour of the meeting places of this congregation. Leaving Eastport, I drive by the Prudential real estate office at the corner of 6^th and Chesapeake. It's not hard to tell that it used to be a church and the Unitarians rented that from the Seventh Day Adventists who held their worship on Saturdays. Some mornings I drive by McDowell Hall on the campus of St. John's or the West Annapolis Elementary School - both of these buildings were home to this congregation. And many of you can remember meeting at the yellow house across the street from Weems Creek Medical Center (in what's now the Birthright Center) - that was where Bill Barnett began his 20 year ministry to you. None of those buildings, nor this one, look even vaguely like the buildings on the New England village greens, churches that identified Unitarian Universalism for several centuries. But like our New England ancestors, those who, 44 years ago, saw to our beginnings had a vision and mission of faith that outdistanced their immediate needs. In fact, I stand in awe and thankfulness when I think of the growing and maintaining of this church, of those who saw to it - not just in 1956, but all along the way - those who have made sure that there would be Unitarian Universalism for me, for us, for our children, for those who have yet to walk through our doors and say, like many of you did: "This is it. I have finally found a home."

One of the other things I often hear right after newcomers (and oldcomers) share that they "have finally found a home," is that they like it here because they feel comfortable. Now, I think I know what this means, this being comfortable: I think what it means is that this UU context - this congregation - is one where a person doesn't have to say one thing and believe another, there's an opportunity for theological and spiritual congruency, integrity; in this church we don't ask people to use only their brain's right-side or left, but try to use both. "Comfortable" then means finally being able to relax and get on with your religious and spiritual journey rather than playing the mental and emotional gymnastics that come with theological confusion or hypocrisy. And yet, I still get antsy when I hear the "being comfortable" line because I also want to make it clear that I want people to be both comforted and challenged. As E.B. White says it, I want you to improve and enjoy your day. I hope you understand that I and this church seek to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. For those colonial New England village congregations as it was 44 years ago here in Annapolis, coming to terms with the whys and hows of being church has never been simple or easy. Only when these are balanced do we have a whole community, it's only in enjoying and improving, when being both comforted and challenged, that there's religious and spiritual integrity and courage, the kind that it takes to create and build a faith community.

You see, I have a nagging fear that we'll take it all for granted - something our founders never had the luxury of doing (but we do). Or said another way, I'm afraid that we might be tempted to down-size our faith, to sell it and then ourselves way short. Maybe it's just because I see things from a different perspective than you do, but I would sleep a lot easier if I knew that this congregation will be here in another 44 years x 3, as strong if not stronger than today. I would feel better if I knew our congregation's trajectory was not one of down-sizing but up-grading. I want to be convinced that this is the way it will be - I want to know for sure. And what on earth could ensure this? Nothing really can guarantee it. But there are some things that could be done - that we could do - to strengthen the likelihood of our heath and longevity. And they all have to do with clarity - clarity of mission, vision and covenant, three ingredients integral to the life of any faith community. To help us understand how these are important to the life of our congregation, look at the first pages of your hymnal where you'll find our "Principles and Purposes." The last paragraph (on the right page) is the mission statement of the UUA, mission names our purpose - mission tells what we do and why:

If you now turn to the inside of your bulletin, you'll see this congregation's Mission Statement, reading from the first sentence of the first paragraph, it says: The mission of the UUCA is to serve the congregation and community... That's it, that's our "what we do and why," it's our mission.

If you now look at the back of the bulletin cover, you'll see that as a "member congregation of the UUA, we covenant to affirm and promote ..." and then our seven principles are named. Often times people mistake these "Principles" as our covenant, but it's not. The "Principles" states our ideal, our best, it paints a picture of what we want. This is vision, it's our Association's vision - a vision of the Beloved Community.

Our church also has a vision, though it's been written into our mission statement: To affirm the universal spirit of human dignity by creating an environment that challenges, inspires, encourages and supports the quest for religious fulfillment. That's our vision of an ideal, of our best, of what we want.

Finally then, the covenant. We are a covenantal faith, not a creedal one. Most of us who came here from faith communities other than Unitarian Universalism, probably from a creedal faiths - a faith that centered around a creed, a statement of beliefs that everyone acknowledges and accepts. That creed is recited by the congregation during their worship - it's the creed that binds the congregation together. We are a creedless faith; we are bound not by creed, but by covenant. A covenant is the commitments and promises that we voluntarily make to each other. Buried at the end of the "Principles and Purposes" is our Association's covenant: "As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support."

And in the second paragraph of our congregation's Mission Statement is our covenant, is the commitment and promise that we make to each other: We are committed to the church as an institution, to social justice, to liberal religious education, to mutual caring and support, and to the value of diversity. Here is the promise we voluntarily make to each other as persons of this congregation.

Now, why am I going through all of this? Why do I think that this is important enough to share with you on a beautiful spring morning? Many reasons:

First, because Darrell (Nash) bought this sermon and asked me to talk about some topics related to all of these. Second, it is Founders Day, what I want to make an annual observance of the church's being chartered by the UUA, and I wanted to look at what I thought were important issues over our 44 years. And third, to share my understanding, concern and hope about the future of this congregation. Maybe it comes with turning 50, perhaps with being in the ministry for 25 years, maybe it's having served you for 16 years, maybe it's that there's a congregational meeting tonight where we'll vote on some very important, future-shaping issues - but I want to encourage us to have clarity about who, what and why we are a religious community, the same kind of clarity our colonial mothers and fathers had, the same kind of clarity our founding members had 44 years ago, I want clarity because I worry about the down-sizing of our faith community.

Now one thing that is for sure is that in my term with you this congregation has had times of clarity that were as pure and insightful as you could imagine, the kind of clarity that with it came opportunities for wide support and participation. It was at these times that you have been at your best. Building a new addition, purchasing more property, creating the memorial garden; constructing a home for Habitat For Humanity, starting and supporting "Our House" for those living with HIV and full-blown AIDS, marching against the Klan, affirming the Welcoming Congregation; the 333 Coffee House, New Wave of Entertainment, families of P-Flag; anti-racism work, marching for gun control, speaking out against the death penalty; youth cons, sexuality education, holy days and holidays; alcoholics anonymous, singles and all the myriad self-help groups that have come, gone or stayed a part of this church's programs. With clarity of thought and support, this congregation has done amazing things, the kinds of things that make us appear to be a church of thousands instead of hundreds. (I hope you'll be with us tonight to share what you know about our church's past, as we recall our history).

What has driven all of this has been a clarity of mission, your commitment to Unitarian Universalism and this congregation. John Wolf describes this clarity in this way:

Being clear as to why you do what you do gives depth and meaning to your participation in this congregation. You are a member of this church to support it.

But clarity of mission hasn't been the only vital piece to our life together because we've also had a clarity of vision - actually, it's our vision that so many find appealing: our Principles, the things that we do as outreach, that we are a religious and spiritual home with both diversity and depth. It's this kind of strength of vision that Rebecca Parker speaks about when she writes:

If you have a vision - a picture of how you would like things to be, as we do - then there must be witness. Without witness, vision is empty and becomes meaningless. This congregation has always had a sense of vision and witness.

And mission and vision can be found in virtually every congregation of any faith. While the words and specifics of our mission and vision could be unique to us, there is nothing on the surface that makes it Unitarian Universalist: I know of many congregations that have similar goals and ideals.

No, not our mission and vision but covenant is what makes us unique. Covenant is the how and the why that gives power to our mission and vision. And it's covenant that makes everything else uniquely Unitarian Universalist. Whether it's the annual canvass or a capital fund drive, teaching religious education or creating adult enrichment, attending morning worship, mindfulness meditation or an earth-centered ritual, landscaping the entrance, bushwhacking a nature trail, singing in the choir or volunteering in the office - these, and everything else we do, are all grounded in covenant, in the voluntary promises and commitments we make to each other. It's covenant that makes us Unitarian Universalists - we are a covenantal faith.

I'm reminded of a friend of mine in Maine - let's call her Martha. She grew up French-Canadian Catholic. She was supposed to become a nun. How she ended up at the UU Church is a typical kind of story, but after attending for a while she shared with me what a different experience it was. Of course our theology and liturgy were different - that's not difficult and she was prepared for that, she came for it. She went on to explain: "But you expect me to be a part of the church, of the community. Where I used to go to church I just had to show up and put in my hour or two every Sunday - I was free to leave after that. No one expected anything else. But here. I have this feeling that you expect me to be involved in the life of the congregation." What Martha discovered in Unitarian Universalism was not the absence of creed, but the commitment and promise of "mutual support and trust." She discovered covenant, she found community, she was expected to up-grade her faith, not down-size it.

As glorious and appealing as the mission and vision are, these are not what we promise and commit to. What we promise and commit to is "mutual trust and support," our covenant is grounded in community, in being together. One radical implication of this is that it's impossible to be a Unitarian Univeralist alone. I have another friend whose parents left their UU church after the congregation undertook a building program they didn't agree with: they left dissatisfied with the direction the church was going (if that's really why they left because I'm always suspect of people who resign their membership over polity issues - it seems to become a convenient place to hang their hat of dissatisfaction). But this husband and wife never joined any other UU congregation. Yet they still identify themselves and tell others that they are UU. What I'm suggesting is that that's not possible because the very nature of our faith is not creedal - just because you agree with mission and vision that doesn't mean you're a UU. The essence of our faith is covenantal: you must be in relationship with other UUs - you can't do it alone. The only way to be a UU is to be part of a UU congregation, to make promises and commitments around vision and mission. To do anything else will be to have down-sized your faith.

The current cultural trends seem to indicate that religious community is not popular - there's a suspicion of institutions and I can understand that. Often we get invested in institutions and then feel betrayed when something doesn't go the way they feel it should. Instead of faith communities, people are into spirituality, of following their unique individual spiritual path - it's an individualistic course of action instead of a community one.

I know that many of you - as I do - feel the tension created by the paths of community and individualism. Actually, this tension has been part of our historical faith tradition for centuries - in fact, the early Christian church was divided over the same kinds of issues and probably every faith tradition has been challenged by this apparent chasm. And in secular literature - well, we needn't look any farther than the reflection in the bulletin, from E.B White: the path of enjoying is often a personal, individual one where the path of improving is often one done with others, in community, by commitment and promise. And we arise many mornings torn over how to plan our day.

44 years ago, I know that our founding members had a dream of balancing these two. At it's best, this can be done in covenant - I think that our vision speaks about both individual and community needs, it speaks of enjoying and improving. And as a community, we covenant to do both. These are not mutually exclusive categories, they need to be balanced.

As your minister, and I know that every leader in this congregation does the same, I struggle as to how to balance all of this in our institutional context. Because we are in positions of leadership, we can see - not always with perfect clarity - the pathways of the past and the road ahead. Your church leaders try to meet the challenge of enjoying and improving, of comforting and challenging. I know that everyone of them would affirm these words from the great UU poet Carl Sandburg who wrote about his church experience:

I am committed to this vision, I promise you that this is my mission. Only as a community, in covenant, can this vision and mission be made real. Let's never run the risk of down-sizing our faith. For 44 years we have been a strong and vibrant part of people's lives. We will continue this legacy.

The sermon topic was selected by Darrell Nash as a result of his purchase at this year's church auction.