On this day when we recall our strength as a community and extend appreciation to all who have benefited from this precious congregation through participation in its care taking, listen to this wonderful writing by Unitarian Universalist minister Max Coots:

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:


For children who are our second planting, and,
though they grow like weeds and the wind too
soon blows them away, may they forgive us
our cultivation and fondly remember where
their roots are.


Let us give thanks:
For generous friends . . . with hearts . . . and
smiles as bright as their blossoms;


For feisty friends tart as apples;


For continuous friends, who, like scallions
  and cucumbers, keep reminding us that
  we’ve had them;


For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and
  as indestructible;


For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as
  eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn,
               and the others, as plain as potatoes and as
  good for you;


For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels
  sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes,
  and serious friends, as complex as
              cauliflowers and as intricate as onions;


For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as
   subtle as summer squash, as persistent as
  parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as
  zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be
  counted on to see you throughout the winter;


For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in
  the evening-time, and young friends
  coming on as fast as radishes;


           For loving friends, who wind around us like
  tendrils and hold us, despite our blights,
  wilts, and witherings;
And, finally, for those friends now gone, like
  gardens past that have been harvested, and
  who fed us in their times that we might
  have life thereafter;


For all these we give thanks.

Gratitude is a spiritual practice with pragmatic uses. A culture of appreciation keeps our hearts open through the connections that appreciation promotes. When we look up at the sky and say thanks for being alive, we connect to life, or god, or the energetic spirit or whatever names we call the life greater than us. When we express thanks with admiration, we feel more connected to each other. Appreciation keeps our minds open with curiosity. We learn something by asking questions, by noticing differences. Now look how you did that -- I would have never thought to do it that way. That’s wonderful -- thanks. Gratitude is a spiritual practice. We have much to be grateful for in this congregation. We are vital; we are brave; we ha ve energy; we ever move toward health and wholeness. The Unitarian Universalist Association says that a congregation such as ours flourishes when 65% of the local membership participates in activities beyond Sunday morning. Well, more than 80% of this congregation does so. Today I want to recognize you as a group and offer a general thank you. Now such a gesture of appreciation cannot replace a personal or a public individual thank you and I hope that you already have received something of that from many people in numerous ways. If you feel that you have not, please let me know.

To Be of Use by Marge Piercy


I want to be with people who submerge in the task,
who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along.
Who stand in the line and haul in their places,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in
or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing, well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn,
are put in museums but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

What is the real work we do in this community for which we express gratitude? Practically speaking, it falls into several categories. Since there’s nothing like a visual, as I name a category you identify with, please raise your hand. Those who lead, who organize, who plan, who implement, who take the responsibility (committee chairs, Board of Trustees, Small Group Ministry facilitators, event coordinators, and the like); those who volunteer and carry out the tasks (committee members, events volunteers, HUGS people, and the like); those who focus upon the maintenance and support --20the buildings and grounds workers, the finance people and fund raisers, the nominating committee, and the like; those who focus on the program -- religious education, social action, workshops and adult education, social events for families and adults, our small groups; those who focus on the spiritual life -- the Sunday services, the music, the welcome of newcomers and the caring upkeep of members. What have I missed? Now, if you raised your hand one or more times, please stand as you are able and willing. Look around. See how much people power and enthusiasm exists among us. It’s pretty amazing. After the service we have a present for everyone -- cupcakes and strawberries. What is the real work we do in this community for which we express gratitude? What do all of the tasks and jobs and efforts I just mentioned have in common? Attentiveness. Paying attention to what needs doing, to what needs saying, and doing and saying it. This applies to the tasks necessary for our lives in general, for our life together here and it applies to the relationships necessary for our lives in general and for our life together here. We are a community in covenant with one another to form the b est possible relationships, to provide an atmosphere where our children can develop their potential, to respect one another and look out for each other’s well being. That requires us to pay attention to one another and sometimes that involves going beyond our comfortable habits and reaching out beyond ourselves.

What does it mean to pay attention? Among other things, it means to approach one another in a spirit of curiosity, hopefully appreciative curiosity. Who are you? What are you about? If you are here, we must have some commonality; let’s find it. We greet each other with open ended questions, ones which carry no assumptions, no preconceived judgments or litmus tests on our part. This is challenging because we can so easily fall into a comfort zone of moral superiority. We make moral determinations about one another even before we realize it, according to how we dress, according to what we eat, according to how we vote, according to who we love. But do we ask questions before we judge, before we assume? Do we attempt to understand why another person made the choices he/she did; do we wonder where another person might be coming from? Paying attention means to approach one another with open curiosit y. Scientists and artists bring questions to their work as a matter of course: Why? How? What if? By not assuming they already know the answers, their questions lead them deeper. Let us be scientists and artists in our open-minded, open-hearted attentive curiosity about one another, even when it takes us beyond our comfort zone.

Approaching one another in a spirit of attentive curiosity leads us to respond to one another. This provides a basis for our desire to welcome all who come here who can dwell with this community in covenant. It’s easy to respond to those we know and like; its comfortable. Responding to those we do not know in a spirit of welcome can challenge us to stretch ourselves. This is why the Board of Trustees and the Welcome Committee have agreed to spend the first fifteen minutes of coffee hour greeting people they do not know. This is why I ask that you not do business with me on Sunday mornings, so that I can practice attentive curiosity and welcoming. I don’t think we have met before. My name is so and so and I’ve been here for three years. How about you? Questions rather than assumptions. Curiosity in welcoming that opens the door for connection. Paying at tention. Paying attention to who sits alone after service, at the pot luck. Whose child stands alone on the edge of the room. Who has no seat at the table? Paying attention and responding to people who expressed a joy or sorrow. Paying attention to those not coming around lately and reaching out to them. Paying attention to people in fragile health or in need of support of another kind. Paying attention, even when it takes us out of our comfort zone. It’s worth it. As Dag Hammarskjold writes in Markings, “. . . In the self forgetfulness of concentrated attention -- the door opens for you into a pure living intimacy, a shared timeless happiness, conveyed by a smile, a wave of the hand.”

Whose responsibility is this? All of ours, isn’t it? Don’t we all, in some way or another, want to be paid attention to? While we have some structures in our congregation to specifically address attentiveness, does not a practice of attentive curiosity and welcome add to the quality of our lives in general? Does it not open our spirits? Do we not find that the more we pay attention to others, the more attentiveness comes our way from others? I love to watch you on Sunday mornings and at other times. I love it when I see you approach people standing or sitting alone; when you greet people you do not know; when you extend yourselves to respond to one another’s joys and sorrows and needs. This happens frequently. It happens often. But not always. Whose responsibility is this practice of attentive, open-minded curiosity, welcome, response and connection?

The other half of paying attention, the other half of attentive curiosity is listening. Deep listening, really hearing the other person through our attentive curiosity asks that we stick around, that we stay put rather than running away into our own thoughts, or moving into pre-conceived judgments, or rationalizations, or argument, or blame, or praise. It asks us to stand still, even to stand still, even in our discomfort, and just receive what the other person wants to say, without agreeing or disagreeing, without exaggerating or ignoring it, without trying to make it go away. We are not problems for each other to fix or blank slates for each other to write our own scripts upon. We are people for each other to connect with and connection requires open-eared listening, even when it takes us out of our comfort zone. How often have we caught ourselves not listening to people because we’re too busy framing what we want to say when they finally shut up? How often have we not paid attention to what someone said because it made us feel uncomfortable? How often have we found ourselves on the receiving end of someone else’s not paying attention? How often have we felt that we had to break down a door or yell and scream before we were listened to? Listening: an important part of paying attention. Listening with open curiosity is a way of honoring the lived experiences of another person.

Open-minded, open-hearted paying attention. Fearless paying attention that sometimes means discomfort. That’s the work of this congregation. That’s the work of human beings everywhere. Approaching each other with appreciative c uriosity, with questions aimed at learning something and enhancing our understanding, welcoming, responding, listening, acknowledging, honoring someone else’s experience -- all of it bringing connection. And out of connection, we know, arise generosity and gratitude. Gratitude is a spiritual practice with pragmatic uses. A culture of gratitude keeps our hearts open through the connections that appreciation promotes. Paying attention fearlessly makes it possible.

So on this Thank You Sunday I want to thank you. I want to thank you for paying attention; for responding with welcome; for listening; for being accountable; for connecting. For stretching yourselves beyond your comfort zones. “I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, . . . Which is what I have been doing all day. . . . Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’ (Mary Oliver, The Summer Day) May it be so.

Song #128  For All That Is Our Life


Closing Words    From YES by Muriel Rukeyser
Some go local
Some go express
Some can’t wait 
To answer Yes.
Some complain
Of strain and stress
Their answer may be
No for Yes.
Some like failure
Some like success
Some like Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes.
Open your eyes,
Dream but don’t guess.
Your biggest surprise
Comes after Yes.

Benediction

Welcome Committee comes forward with trays and after the benediction and extinguishing of chalice, people take a cupcake or strawberry.