[Firstumemo] Memo: "No Signs . . ."

[Memos from Rev. Barbara Merritt and Rev. Tom Schade]

M I N I S T E R’ S  M E M O
“No Signs . . .”

After the earthquakes last year in Pakistan and Kashmir, a team went up from
The Dera (the spiritual colony where I stayed in India) to construct some
all-weather sheds. Because these builders and engineers had extensive
experience constructing sheds to house hundreds of people, they offered
their skills to build a number of sheds (8, I believe) in the outlying
villages. After the sheds were completed, they turned over the keys to the
local government authorities.

The regional officials were stunned at the swiftness with which the sheds
had gone up, and the “no strings attached” transfer of the property. As they
gratefully accepted the keys, they remarked, “You were the only relief
workers who didn’t put up a sign explaining who you were and what you were
doing.”

This story had a great impact on me. It was a description of what service
can look like for people who don’t care about spin, credit, marketing and/or
reputation. There was a need. They could help. They quietly did their work
and departed.

I can understand marketing in the world of commerce. I can even see the
benefit of a good publicity campaign for non-profit service agencies. But
when it comes to the life of the spirit, and religious development, and
“loving they neighbor as thyself” I am powerfully pulled to a “no signs”
policy.

On my best days, here is what I imagine. Unitarian Universalists all over
the city, the state, the country, the world quietly working to make this
planet a better place for everyone to live. Picking up trash in the parks,
donating money to worthy causes, assisting the powerless and the struggling,
volunteering at hospitals and schools and museums, buying groceries for the
neighbor who is a shut-in. We would find ways to be of service and never
construct a sign or a billboard, or never leave a calling card.

People who were curious about all this activism would ask, “Who did all this
great stuff?” And the answer would be, “I’m not sure! I think they go to
that church that welcomes all kinds of believers and non-believers,
Democrats and Republicans, the rich and the poor.”

“By our fruits” we would be known. The work of our religiously liberal
congregations would not be established with public relations campaigns, or
by slogans, or brand name recognition. Instead, word of mouth would bring
great numbers of people to our doors wanting to be part of a community that
was attempting to practice “selfless service.” Not to grow the membership.
Not to “look good” in the eyes of the secular culture. Not to “earn our own
salvation” with a list of charitable projects. People would come because we
were a church that understood that our very humanity demanded a generous
response to people in need and a genuine engagement with important issues of
the day.

On my bad days, I worry about budgets, and the pledge drive, and attendance
figures at worship, and the high cost of heating fuel. When I “wake up,”
when I pay attention to what is essential, I look for the ways we can become
the church we are called to be.

You shouldn’t worry about my intuitive distrust of religious marketing.
Being a publicity agent doesn’t even appear in my job description as a
minister. I won’t be taking down any signs on 90 Main Street. I am well
aware that in the current religious culture you are no one without a good
sign out in front.

Yet on my sabbatical I did see another way. And I can’t help but believe
that it actually is better to “not let your right hand know what the left
hand is doing.” I can’t help but believe that it is what we give that
matters, and not what we get credit for. “Loving God with all your heart and
mind and soul, and loving your neighbor as yourself” won’t win any awards on
Madison Avenue. But it may be all we really need to do.

                                                              Barbara


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