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[Holding up a quarter] Twenty-five cents. Big deal.

If you have any quarters in your pocket or change purse right now, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how much they are worth. Whether you call it a quarter, two bits or a 25-cent piece, each one is worth 25 cents. In some places, five of them will still get you a cup of coffee, 10 of them a vanilla latte– maybe.

But there is a slight chance that you might have a quarter worth as much as $1,500.

The new quarters being issued these days are part of the “50 State Quarters” program. My father-in-law is collecting all 50 and putting them in a book. He intends to do that for each of his 9 grandchildren.

This whole thing got started 7 years ago, and the United States Mint has released a new quarter for each of the 50 states every 10 weeks, since then. The order they've released them has been in the order that the states were admitted to the Union. http://usmint.gov/mint_programs/50sq_program/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=schedule

The first quarter honored Delaware, and the final coin in the series, to be stamped in August 2008, will celebrate Hawaii.

Missouri's quarter came out in August 2003. About a year later, in October 2004, when Wisconsin’s coin was put into circulation, coin collectors across America sat up and took special notice.

The reason? Mint errors. Every time the mint produces a new quarter for a new state, it makes about 500 million of them, and sometimes mistakes are made. Normally the quality-control procedures at the mint weed a lot of those out, but in the case of the Wisconsin money, some error coins got by, and they have one of two kinds of blunders.

The state side of the perfect quarters has the head of a cow, a wheel of cheese and an ear of corn bursting forth from the husk. On one of the error coins, however, the version numismatists call “extra leaf low,” there is a little mark on one side of the corn ear that appears to be an additional husk leaf half peeled off the ear. The version of the mistake the collectors have dubbed “extra leaf high” is much the same, except that the shadow “leaf” is not peeled quite as far from the ear.

Anyway, because only a few of these mint errors made it into circulation, collectors are eager to get their hands on them. So if you find one in your piggy bank, you might get anywhere from $150 to $1,500 for it.

Actually, the Wisconsin quarter is not the only flub in our coinage. Go into any coin shop and you can see several examples of mint-error coins, in denominations from the penny to the silver dollar.

This is because the U.S. Mint produces billions of coins every year. They are struck at the rate of nearly 10 coins per second, so mistakes do get out there. “Hidden treasure in your pocket change?” TheOmahaChannel.com, March 2, 2005, theomahachannel.com.“U.S. Mint error coins.” The Coin Site, 2001, coinsite.com.

Similarly, there is a cultural assumption that there is only or ought to be only one America. An America where all are Christian, all are more or less white. There is an assumption you can see in practically every TV show or commercial that every last one of us either is or aspires to be more or less middle class people attempting to become rich.

Right here in River City, there are churches that offer to cure gays and lesbians of their "disease." A week ago Saturday, 1,700 people from 28 states came to hear about how to "cure" their gay relative. (formerly at http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/0110CFDEB6A784EB8625712100283AE9?OpenDocument)

Right here in River City, there are officials telling families they aren't really a family because the adult couple isn't married. Despite their 3 children, and their relationship of 14 years, the town of Black Jack, Missouri feels it should be able to define what a family is, and it includes some people "out" of that definition, so to speak. Some even said it was "God's will." (formerly at http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/113C4D81BCAE3B688625711F001E720D?OpenDocument&highlight=2%2C%22black%22+AND+%22jack%22)

Despite messages being delivered about 10 times per second on what real religion is, or what a family is, or who ought to be allowed to marry, every once in a while, "mistakes" get made. Mistakes like Unitarian Universalism. Mistakes like Eliot Unitarian Chapel.

We don't quite fit the mold. Oh, we look ordinary enough, just like other Missouri churches. The face of our coin looks similar. But, if you look very carefully, you will observe some unusual things. It won't be a "leaf low" or a "leaf high" like the Wisconsin state quarter.

But here we say "love makes a family" not a town ordinance. Here we say "Love makes a family, even if that family's parents are two women or two men." Here we say it is up to a mature, committed couple to say they are married, not the state, not some church they don't belong to.

There is a church made up mostly of members of the same family. They picket funerals. They carry signs that say "God hates Fags." They have even started picketing funerals of American soldiers who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fortunately, the state legislature is trying to mitigate the damage.

Although that same legislature has also just passed a House resolution stating that “voluntary prayer in public schools, religious displays on public property, and the recognition of a Christian God are not a coalition of church and state.” (formerly at http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/CB2C9380D2405F4C8625712500569747?OpenDocument and http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/CB2C9380D2405F4C8625712500569747?OpenDocument)

There are churches, there are people in the state house who want to tell us what God's will is. They want to mint the coin of public opinion. They want everyone's opinion to be identical– identical to their own opinion.

This is not that church. This church is about Unitarian Universalist principles and purposes. Our mission is:

• Not to strike uniformity but to foster free religious thought,
• Not to root out the personally disagreeable but to nurture spiritual growth,
• Not to insist on an idealized, imaginary past, but to act now for social justice.

We know it costs a lot more than a quarter to run a church. A big church, like Eliot, has a big budget. It gets a little complicated. It’s like 11 years ago, when congressman Delbert L. Latta summarized the progress being made on simplifying the tax code. “I hold in my hand,” he declared, “1,379 pages of tax simplification.”

And it’s not just that finances can get complicated– whether they are church or personal finances. Another difficulty with church finances is that there is, as sociologist Robert Wuthnow points out, a taboo against talking about money.

In his book God and Mammon in America, he reports that very few ever discuss personal finances with people outside their immediate family: In the course of a year, “82% said they had never or hardly ever discussed their income, [9 out of 10] said they had not discussed their family budget, [3 out of 4] said this about their major purchases, [& a similar number] said they hadn’t discussed money worries, and 92% said the same about their giving to charities.”

Even when people talk about giving money to charities, deeds speak louder than creeds. Not to pick on Christians, but a recent study shows that about 6% of people attending Christian churches actually gave one-tenth of their income, compared to the 17% who claimed to tithe.

So, it can be difficult to talk about money and church. Orthodox churches talk about the threat of hell, and the fear this engenders.

A man was driving to work when a truck drove through a stop sign, hit his car broadside, and knocked him out. Passers-by pulled him from the wreck and revived him. He began a terrific struggle and had to be tranquilized by the medics.

Later, when he was calm, they asked him why he struggled so. He said, “I remember the impact, then nothing. I woke up on a concrete slab in front of a huge, flashing SHELL sign. And somebody was standing in front of the S.”

We don’t ask you to give money so you can avoid going to hell. We tend to believe that if there is a hell, it is here on earth in the human experience. Our universalist forebearers could not believe that a loving God would consign a soul to eternal damnation and torment. That would not be a loving God.

We don’t claim that giving money to church is the same thing as giving money to God. We presume that God, like the Queen of England, has no need of pocket change. We do not assume we are God’s sole representatives on earth.

So, if we don’t ask for money so you can avoid an unpleasant afterlife; and if we don’t ask for money because we claim you owe it to God, and we’re God’s tax man; then why do we ask for money?

We ask for your financial gifts, we ask for your gifts of talent, your gifts of time, your gift of presence– we ask everything of you– and we ask this because it is these gifts which make everything else possible.

The great music program, the notable children’s program, all the social justice initiatives, the Sunday services, housing the homeless, supporting charities and interfaith groups. Eliot Chapel touches lives, forms character, changes our community. You know this is true. That’s why you support it.

We know that Eliot Unitarian Chapel is an island of liberal religion in a sea of conservative religion. We know that folks here at Eliot do great work: fostering free religious thought, nurturing spiritual growth, and acting for social justice.

In my life, I have found the most interesting, most honest, most caring people I have run into to be Unitarian Universalists. In fact, I would rather be stranded on a desert island with another UU, than with a person of just about any other “category.” This doesn’t mean UUs are somehow of greater worth than non-UUs, but it does mean we share values.

One of our values is to celebrate life. So, this year, we decided to mix business with pleasure. This year, members and friends are being invited to house parties. Some will be in actual houses, others here at Eliot, still others at restaurants or other places.

And the idea is to get together and celebrate all the good we have done, and the good we have yet to do. To celebrate all the gifts we bring to the party. All the time, talent, and treasure, which is in such abundance here.

So, your spiritual homework this month is to go celebrate, go to a party. Even before I became a minister, I found that UU folk were the kind of people I wanted to have in my life. I bet UU folk are the kind of people you want to have in your life, too.

UUs will challenge you. They will nurture you. They will be companions to you as you move further on in your spiritual journey.

But don’t take all of this just from me. Many of you have, in your own words, spoken eloquently about the value you hold for this place.

I took the liberty of cutting & pasting a few bits from the Welcomes from last fall until now. Here is what some of you have said:

–Read Welcomes here–

And so it is, that you and I together, along with other folks who attend the other Sunday service or no service at all, but a group, or meeting– all of us together form that “community of souls who give to and [par]take of the bounty [that is] Eliot Unitarian Chapel.

Let us rejoice and be glad. Let us rise and sing: As Tranquil Streams, #145.