The Rev. Dr. Craig Rubano

Anyone can slay a dragon, but try waking up every morning and loving the world all over again. That’s what takes a real hero.

~ Brian Andreas

We don’t have to be pollyannish, or fatalistic. We can just be human. We can be messy, imperfect, contradictory, broken. We can recognize the difference between hopelessness and helplessness. Because what if we’ve been doing the equation backward? What if hope isn’t what leads to action? What if courage is what leads to action and hope is what comes next?

~ Mary Annaïse Heglar

We need the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing and just hoping to land on something. But that’s the struggle. To live is to wrestle with despair yet never allow despair to have the last word.

~ Cornel West

Movements don’t alter history by saying: What if we don’t succeed?…Some things will never change….The odds seem really long….Maybe we’ll never get the right to vote, to marry, to be free….Without knowing the outcome, we have to try anyway; without a single guarantee, we must show up.

~ Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson

We continue in observing what I referred to in my sermon on September 13th as the Season of Creation, a term applying to September and October, and uniting religious peoples across a huge range of denominational imperatives to sustain them in the courage to make climate justice a priority. And the first three worship services of October make additional forays into environmental awareness. October 4th, one of the UU ministers this congregation ordained, the Rev. Julie Newhall, will ask why we reach up in so many ways to the heavens, to the sky, while we so inescapably stand on the earth. On October 11th, we will follow the wisdom of Saint Francis and have a Blessing of the Animals: all will be invited to bring photographs or tokens of the animals that have been and are a part of your world and, together, we will bless them and ask their blessing upon us. And to close out this fall’s Season of Creation, one of our environmental warriors, Ann Sherwood, takes to the pulpit to help us to understand what it will take to be certified a Green Sanctuary congregation, and what environmental justice means looking through the lens of naturalism. How can our congregation think about resilience, environmental justice, and mitigation of climate threats? All this, while a group calling themselves “Path Makers and Wanderers” (open to all!) expands our access to, and our learning from, the full 18 acres that are UUCMC (not just the three which the buildings and parking lot occupy). All of this, I believe, falls under not only the Season of Creation, but under our congregational theme for October, that of “Courage.”

Our quoted authors above teach us that, sometimes, just getting through another day can be heroic (Andreas), that being human requires courage (Heglar) and that the actions that we take individually and together can fuel a sense of hope that can then steel us in the face of important struggles against injustice without succumbing to despair (West). And that this has always been true of all movements that have succeeded in making change (Johnson/Wilkinson), despite the lack of a guarantee that anything we do will immediately yield discernible results. We have elections coming up in this country in which nearly every value that Unitarian Universalists hold dear is on the line, and there are ways to get involved in getting the vote out in advance of the various deadlines (check our eblast each week). I look forward to being together for a post-midterm-elections Pot Luck dinner the evening of Wednesday, November 4th. In the 70 trailblazing years of this congregation, political fortunes have blown this way and that, but the determination to live out our values at UUCMC have remained courageously strong. We will still be UUCMC, no matter the elections’ outcome, and the necessity for summoning up courage will present itself again, and again.

I’d be remiss in neglecting to mention that, on the final Sunday of October, we will celebrate the feast of Samhain and of All Hallow’s Eve, and this is the question: will you have the courage to come dressed in costume? I hope so, as our multigenerational community will be in full force for a Trunk ’r Treat festival in the Community Room following the service.

And, many of you have heard the news that I will celebrate UUCMC’s upcoming 70th Anniversary by underwriting a series of concerts to benefit the congregation. “Rev. Craig Presents…,” will kick off in the Earth Room on Friday, October 2nd at 7 PM with An Evening with Broadway and Cabaret’s D.C. Anderson. D.C. is a prolific singer songwriter who, among other things, will give us a sneak peek at some of his upcoming NYC concert Wide Awoke (and Proud of It). Then, on Friday, November 6th at 7 PM I welcome, in conjunction with Holocaust Music Lost and Found (Janie Press, pres.), members of the Polish Chamber Musicians Association for Refugees from World War II: Reclaiming the Music of Polish Composers. This will be a stunning exploration of Polish composers whose lives were upended or destroyed by the Holocaust, performed by pianist Grzegorz Mania, mezzo-soprano Hanna Hipp, and violinist Marta Gidaszewska, direct from Poland. And then, on Wednesday, December 9th at 7 PM, to close out the fall season of “Rev. Craig Presents…,” I join soprano Shana Farr and pianist Jon Weber in All the Things You Are: Love, Laughter, and the Music of Jerome Kern. Composer Jerome Kern was the bridge among operetta, vaudeville, and African American musical idioms and the modern Broadway Musical. The concert will follow a love story utilizing some of the great songs of the 20th Century (among them, “A Fine Romance,” “I Won’t Dance,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” “The Way You Look Tonight,” and several selections from Kern’s masterpiece, Showboat). I hope you will join me and these fabulous performers for three evenings of music and community, all as a benefit for UUCMC!!

As I write this, the first leaves are starting to tinge red along the edges, and the cool air is combining with the sunlight in crisp delight: autumn is upon us, and it can be a beautiful time of year. I look forward to spending October with you all, as we continue to be UUCMC: A Wellspring of Hope and—yes—Courage.

Rev. Craig