"The Smart Money" by Rev. Barbara Merritt

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

M I N I S T E R’ S   M E M O

“The Smart Money”

Approaching the 223rd Annual Meeting of the parish this Sunday, you have to
admire those early “risk takers” who founded this church. This congregation
was among the first, if not the very first, to organize in America around
the principals of religious freedom. While there are quite a few Unitarian
congregations older than ours, this church in Worcester is the only one I am
aware of that began with the calling of a radical, heretical minister, the
Rev. Aaron Bancroft. All of the other churches I know of were founded by the
orthodox, strict tradition of their day and then evolved into more liberal
bodies. But in Worcester, from day one, we were trying something that had
never been done before. Not surprisingly, the prudent, experienced voices of
the day condemned our theology, denounced our outspoken and unorthodox
clergyman, and predicted that the Second Parish would quickly falter and
die. The “smart money” in 1785 knew better than to try organizing a new kind
of spiritual community.
This just makes our institutional survival, several centuries later, all the
sweeter. How wonderful, with the wisdom of hindsight, to know that the
pundits so many years ago were wrong. This congregation has not only
survived, it has flourished. It has gone through lean and difficult years,
as well as times of great prosperity and optimism. It still stands despite
flawed ministers and flawed lay leaders. Best of all, the congregation
continues to attract members who want to change the world and to change
themselves. I am so very glad that our spiritual ancestors didn’t take the
pessimistic pundits too seriously.
If you’ve been paying any attention to the upcoming national presidential
election, you have noticed that political experts and polltakers get it
wrong, time after time. At least when the professional football commentators
pick their winners before the game is played, their season’s accuracy record
is displayed for all to see. Perhaps the talking heads on TV would benefit
from a similar scorecard? Before every primary they would state for the
record who they thought would win. Then, whenever they spoke again we could
all see just how well they had guessed in the past.
Prophecy is an extremely risky business. How can anyone know what will
happen in the future? Politicians assume that if you spin expectations up or
down, you can change perceptions and change what is real. But reality is
more durable and trustworthy than that. Spin has a very short and
unsatisfying shelf life. Politicians of whatever party or persuasion, with
any number of brilliant strategies and dedicated volunteers, will eventually
bump up against what is true. (For example: People know when they are being
treated fairly and when they are not. The consequences of not taking care of
our planet and our air and our water are serious and dangerous. We ought to
be leaving more to our children than a huge national debt and a population
divided against itself.)
At best, people can face the future with a few theories and an open heart.
But there are no “sure things.” The expression “smart money” evokes the idea
that there are some who make their bets, gambles and risks with the
assurance of greater knowledge, better research and insider information. But
at least one Wall Street book (by David Scott) claims that even in the stock
market, experienced investors with inside trading information are not likely
to experience better average returns than speculators who didn’t have the
“inside track.” When it comes to predicting the future, it turns out money
isn’t smart. And neither are people.
The poet T. S. Eliot claimed we only have “hints and guesses.” I would put
it more plainly. When it comes to knowing what lies ahead, we are as dumb as
posts.
Nevertheless, I am extremely grateful that 223 years ago a brave group of
religious seekers decided that they wanted to move forward. Claiming the
authority of their own experience of spiritual truth, they leaped off the
platform of the known and the familiar, and gathered their resources in the
hope that God would bless their commitment to religious freedom.


We honor their vision and their courage this Sunday at our 223rd Annual
Meeting. We can only pray that we might be so fortunate in continuing this
risky, engaging and important work.







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