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It's just about summer time. The summer solstice is 2 weeks away, the pool is open this afternoon. The fireflies have been out for a few nights now. The weather is wonderful. Many of you will travel hither & yon over the summer: here and there. Perhaps you'll see relatives or old friends or go on an adventure.

And on a good vacation or a good trip, you will get the opportunity to sit in a chair, perhaps under star light or next to a fire or on deck of a boat or in the woods.

You'll get to talking with someone- like people do- maybe somebody you've known all your life, maybe somebody you've known for an hour, and you'll get to talking.

And it might happen, accidental-like, sort of by chance, but there it is, a question comes up in conversation, and you feel a little bit of tension about how you're going to answer.

And the question will be something about Unitarian Universalism or Eliot Chapel. And you may be eager or you may be apprehensive, but you may find that it is always a slightly different answer you give, and this is both anxiety producing and offers the possibility of clarity.

We Unitarian Universalists don't have it easy when it comes to a defining a faith that seems intentional about keeping its borders out of sight.

We are fiercely independent and we yearn for community. We bring our families and we come hoping for some spiritual insight for ourselves. We are gay and wonder about those straight people, and vice versa. We bring the real selves we are - warts and all- and we bring a picture of the self we really long to be. Our faith is open, our history is long, our creeds are non-existent.

Sometimes I think it would be easier to be Amish- dress in black, have strict rules, live a simple life. But many UUs I know would never trade their individuality away for the safety of conformity. We softly hum and sometimes shout: I gotta be me!

We know you can't always judge a book by its cover. But sometimes you can. There is a man named Homer Sewell. Total strangers tend to call him "Abe." One look at the man, and you know why: He bears a spooky resemblance to Abraham Lincoln.

It all started about 30 years ago in Orlando, Florida, when Sewell grew a beard and kids suddenly began to call him "Abe." He completed the effect by adding a black suit and stovepipe hat, and developed a show called Abe Lincoln's America. Sewell has now made over 2,400 appearances as the 16th president, performing for more than two million people. "As soon as I get my suit on and my hat," he explains, "I become Abraham Lincoln."

Sewell is a dead ringer for Honest Abe, even without makeup, and you've got to admire his attention to detail. The car he drives is a ... Lincoln, of course.

Sewell is part of a group called the "Association of Lincoln Presenters," a union of men and women dedicated to bringing Abraham and Mary Lincoln to life. There are currently 117 Abes and 32 Marys across the country, and together they form a group of passionate Lincoln-lovers committed to presenting the president and his wife to the world in costume and in words.

It must be a strange sight to go to a convention of the Association of Lincoln Presenters and see dozens of Abes and Marys walking around. The group naturally includes Sewell, who was given the "Lincoln of the Year" award in April of 1999.

If it weren't for a guy named Bill Eliot, there would likely be no Eliot Chapel named after him. William Greenleaf Eliot came to St Louis from the East Coast 150 years ago to start a new Unitarian Church.

In some ways, you could say we are Bill Eliot presenters. There are a lot of similarities between the religious vision he offered and the religious vision we offer- in fact ours is derived from his. That's one of the reasons' we call it Eliot Unitarian Chapel.

For Homer Sewell to make his Lincoln presentation work, he's got to put on the stovepipe hat and have the beard thing working. He'll dress in period costuming every time he appears as Lincoln.

Unitarians in St Louis don't need to do that sort of thing. We tend not to wear "garments of righteousness," some of us preferring the mantle of "tasteful & flattering but not overly ostentatious," others of us seem to aim for something else entirely, thus insuring a diversity of dress to mimic the diversity of theology among us.

In preparing for today, I emailed some colleagues for a quick line about how Unitarian Universalists dress for church.

One of my esteemed colleagues writes:

I have always believed that how we dress for social events betrays the seriousness with which we understand our participation and our relationships. Many UUs like to envision their church as an extension of their family or close-knit friends, where casual dress is acceptable.

Some UUs "dress down" for church in the same way that American adolescents use their wardrobe to signify their independence from established institutions. This is interesting in comparison with many Black Americans who "dress up" for church, with the men in suits and the women in hats and gloves.

Maybe if UUs dressed up, we would sing better. (Rev. Ralph Mero).

Hmm. In any event, I don't suppose he's heard us sing.

Which reminds me of the old joke, about how UU churches differ regionally...On the East Coast, Christ is optional. In the Midwest, God is optional. On the West Coast, clothes are optional.

After getting these responses, including one or two from ministers to whom this was a "sore subject" I had to wonder why the tension?

On the one hand, we ought to wear whatever we like, right? Our religious beliefs are not constrained by hidebound tradition, shouldn't we be comfortable. And if, like one of my young daughters, someone comes to church wearing lime green, tomato red and hot pink - and some clothing backwards - then why should we care what other people think?

On the other hand, if someone comes in with dirty, ripped clothes, and no attention paid to appearance, then the rest of us are being told that this person doesn't care what other people think- but hey! We're the other people. That makes a difference, doesn't it?

On one of my first Sundays here almost two years ago, a long timer Eliot member commented that she didn't care much for preachers in suits and would prefer something more informal. She didn't like the robe of the interim minister and was glad to hear I wasn't planning on wearing my robe every Sunday.

How informal do you like? I said teasingly. Shall I wear tee shirt and shorts? And with a straight face, she said that would be fine.

Then a couple of weeks ago, when Rev. Bonnie was preaching, and I was not, I got some negative feedback about my wearing what I considered a very tasteful Hawaiian shirt and matching shorts on Sunday, because, after all- I am a minister, it was Sunday morning, and we do have guests you know, whether I'm preaching or not.

There is something to that- you know if you're at home in sweat shirt and jeans, but company's coming over. There is something to putting on your Sunday best when you expect guests.

So, there may be some tension between individual comfort and social decorum when it comes to what we wear in church. Is what we wear indicative of how seriously we take church? Or is it a reflection of the message we want to send to fellow Eliot Unitarians? Or does it only have to do with personal comfort?

I wonder about this tension between individual comfort and social decorum when it comes to clothing, because I wonder about the tension between individual comfort and social cohesiveness when it comes to our religion, our faith, our Eliot Chapel. Maybe we're getting close to something here.

How do we show in our deeds and actions what our religious faith and beliefs are all about? We can't just put on a black suit and stovepipe hat.

When Homer Sewell plays Abe Lincoln, he changes his public persona, and he instantly projects his faith & values, just by putting on makeup and special clothes.

What is our collective persona? How can people tell that we are Unitarian Universalists?

I suppose they can tell by what we say and what we do, & how close are those two?

This church- our church- helps us express our own faith. It is our individual faiths that collectively write the story not only of Eliot Chapel, but the story of Unitarian Universalism.

For many UUs, there are two aspects to what makes them a Unitarian Universalist: (1) their personal faith; and (2) the larger UU faith.

Your personal faith is your questions & answers about things like: who or what is God? What personal spiritual disciplines shall I try out or keep? What obligations to strangers do I accept? What is my personal responsibility to the less fortunate in my community?

The UU Faith is the faith that was handed down to the Rev. William Greenleaf Eliot, who started the first Unitarian Church here in St Louis, and through him, to us. We do not dress like Mr. Eliot, nor speak like him. Most of us have a different emphasis in our religious belief than Mr. Eliot but there is much we share.

Talking about what beliefs UUs have in common can be an adventurous undertaking.

It is natural to insist on the absolute and untouchable freedom of our personal faith. Rather than finding comfort, we may bristle if someone suggests we fit into a theological category. We may take pride in refusing categories, we are too individual for that. We are as unique as a snowflake- just like everybody else, I suppose.

I would like to suggest that there does not need to be a forced choice between our personal faith and the UU faith at Eliot. The depth oriented spiritual path means co-mingling, comparing, contrasting, mixing it up, letting something new be born out of the experience.

A path to real spiritual depth means learning about what it was that was handed as a gift to old Bill Eliot. How it motivated him to start Washington University, and all the other social justice accomplishments he and his congregation got going.

The Rev. William Greenleaf Eliot believed in the unitarian doctrine of the perfectability of humankind. This didn't mean he thought we could become perfect. It did mean that he thought- unlike the orthodox of his day and ours- that humans could participate in their own progress. The orthodox think it is all up to God - our only job is to accept God's will as determined by some religious authority. But Rev. Eliot, and his kind said- no, we can participate in our own salvation and that of others by works of character, and especially by education.

Education was so important that he helped start Washington University and a girls school to educate women, a novel concept in his day.

There is much we share with Mr. Eliot:

our emphasis is on the here and now, not the hereafter
deeds are more important than creeds
it is Love & character which grow our souls
asking the right questions is more important than claiming all the answers

Our challenge is to claim the UU faith that we have inherited through Eliot - to make it our own- and to pass it on, like a boat away down the river.

By taking the larger UU story and making it our own, we make UU history, we make and remake this faith.

As we travel this summer, we will have conversations, deep talks maybe here and there: after dinner, or unexpectedly when someone is troubled and asks us a question. And when the other person is real quiet and is obviously paying attention because they really want to know the answer, then we enter into a holy conversation.

We can pause. We can take a breath, look into the fire, gaze up at the stars, turn back toward our questioner, and with our demeanor let them know we are going to give them a serious answer.

And we can tell them: our religion says you can ask ANY question you want- there are no taboo questions. And you can follow these questions where they will go, meandering along like a river past the mill, down the valley, and away down the hill - or who knows where?

Our religion says: we follow these questions where they lead.

This may be news to your listener. For many people organized religion is a rock too close to a hard place, and they don't want to get stuck. They may become very curious as to how you do it.

The rock is the restraints of institutional religion. The hard place is the social pretense that spiritual questions don't matter. How to sail ones spiritual boat past the rock & the hard place?

When you are no longer bound by the restraints of institutional religion, and when you are no longer bound by society's pretense that religious questions don't matter - you begin to taste some of the freedom that is woven into the sailcloth of Unitarian Universalism.

It helps to have companions on the journey to share stories, share hopes, share despair, share dreams. It helps to have your personal story be connected, be a part of a larger story. It can be great to belong to a place like Eliot Chapel.

You can even become an Eliot Presenter, with your own Association. Our larger Association we call the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. We have a partner church in Novogorod St Martens, Transylvania.

From our body of brother & sister congregations- in the Midwest & around the country - we get guidance & encouragement, resources & inspiration, plus the odd and enlightening experience of hanging around with UUs from other places.

And a few of you have come to us from other UU congregations, bringing new ideas and old hymns. We certainly don't all look the same, as is the case with the convention of 117 Abes in stovepipe hats, but we learn from one another.

When you join Eliot Chapel, you join a church that belongs to a larger association of UU congregations. We don't need to grow beards or acquire the clothes of a Jesus, Buddha, or Mohammed. We aren't required to travel the country and spread our message to millions of people.

Instead, we are invited to walk with one another, and to let the Spirit of Life work through us. We are asked to perform the works of our religion, and through these works to reveal the power and character of our faith to the world.

If we accept this invitation, people will look at us and say, "Unitarian?" And we'll say: yeah.

How shall we live together? How shall we share our faith?

Other children shall bring our boats ashore. May you go and blow about this summer. May you notice beauty- in nature and in people. May the beauty you stop to notice affect you, may you feel gratitude at being alive.

May you know that Bill Eliot's work, his dreams, our dreams, Eliot Chapel, Unitarian Universalism- all of it- exists to inspire you on your journey, to spread the word. Travel well, keep hope, find courage. Amen.

Forward through the Ages, #114

Benediction:

we extinguish this flame, but not
the light of truth
the warmth of community, or
the fire of commitment

these we keep in our hearts
until we are together again.                              Go now in peace, Amen.

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