Taking a New Road
Morgan McLean, Intern Minister
Sunday, January 2, 2011


Note: The sermon is an oral event. This manuscript may not reflect the exact spoken words. If you want to hear what was actually said, you can listen to sermon visit our website at www.uurockford.org. © Morgan McLean, 2011.

“Gather what you can into your hearts, the present moment has arrived, and we must leave much behind.”

In the last few weeks of 2010 many of you told me you were looking forward to a new year. A fresh start, a blank book where we get to write our stories again, like we heard from Kelly earlier. There’s something powerful about January first that helps us move forward. We can move past the loss, the grieving, the worry, the changes, the uncertainty. But it’s not because of the date on the calendar. No… it’s because we know the ups and down of life, and we humans make meaning in that cycle.

Every New Year we make resolutions… Grand plans to lose those pounds, or use the exercise bike in the basement. This will be the year, we say, that we will organize our mail as soon as it arrives. Or quit smoking. Or pay off that debt. Or be more patient with our spouse or children.

Have any of you ever made such resolutions? Determined it would be different that time, and by mid-February or so, you notice your progress slows? You find you’re too busy to get the exercise, too stressed to quit smoking just yet. You hear the same word from your mouth in the same fight you’ve have for years.

Some of these resolutions strike me as fairly superficial. I don’t mean they’re shallow, but superficial as in just floating on the surface of something much deeper that we’re holding onto. Perhaps that’s why most people don’t succeed at their New Year goals. The real change is deeper than we can easily see. Something inside us that we’re carrying.

What is it that keeps you too busy to take care of yourself? Are you avoiding time alone?
What is the source of stress that makes the cigarettes so welcome? Is it something you can stop?
Why do you keep having the same fight? What fear or memory does it set off in you?

Those are the kinds of questions we need to ask. That’s the level where we need to make our resolutions. The places well below the surface where we hold our burdens.

But, boy, is it hard to look there.

It’s scary, that place that holds our shortcomings. It holds those mean things we said yesterday, and the ones many years ago. It holds that person who hurt you, and the person you hurt. It holds the patterns of friendships, and relationships with family. It holds guilt and resentment, anger, confusion, sadness. It holds our fears.

We need to find a way to lighten some of that. To let go. To carry it more lightly.

And as long as we carry those things as burdens, we struggle to make room for the new. We can make all the resolutions we want at the New Year, but if we carry too much from past years, we can never move forward.

The contradiction, however, is that we should never forget the past. Let go, carry it lightly on our hearts, but not forget. It’s a funny thing about those burdens, because it is those experiences that have made us who we are. We must keep them with us. They give meaning and insight. They inform our decisions and influence our relationships with each other.

We should not be embarrassed or ashamed. We should not be afraid to let go. We are each unique and beautiful creatures. Even with the extra pounds, the bad habit, the sadness – you are filled with hope and love. The collective stories of life experiences and learning of the people gathered in this sanctuary could fill libraries!

Honoring the past, telling those stories, but not letting them weigh us down – that it our sacred New Year’s task.

What have you been holding onto, what has been heavy to carry?

As we sang in our first hymn, though we gather here each week to celebrate life, there are losses along the way we must grieve at times. We must honor them. And we must continue to live life from day to day. Live life looking forward. The New Year, then, can be a time for healing. A time for remembering and letting go. A time to be “okay” with the past.

The winter’s stillness, and the passing of time, brings an honesty about the realities of life. A reminder, simply, that we’re alive. That we humans share a struggle for belonging, for compassion, and for right relationship. A reminder that none of us is perfect, and learning to be – just be – with our flawed selves and complicated histories, makes us more humble and more sincere.

Our past is important. But it is not the end of the story. “Gather what you can, for we must leave now.” Leave the first decade of the new millennium. Leave old patterns and bad habits. Take only what you can carry.

History cries “carry me!” but history is too heavy sometimes to bring into the next year. So she begs “carry me lightly – in your hearts.” Carry me lightly. Carry history lightly on our hearts. Yes. That is what we must do. When we let go of the burdens and instead let them nourish us, we can truly have a fresh start.

What would you like to let go of? I invite you now to think about the resolutions you made yesterday, and what is on the deeper level. What history do you need to carry more lightly? Perhaps it is someone you loved. Maybe it is your health, or your home. It could be someone you work with who creates a stressful work place. Or the feelings you have around those extra pounds, the cigarettes, or that same fight.

As you reflect, Paul is going to pass around small pieces of paper and pens. Today, together, we’re going to compost our burdens. We’re going to put them in this soil, and let them break up naturally, knowing they will nourish us.

On your piece of paper write down what you would like to leave behind. We will come forward by row, Paul will motion to you, and plant our burdens.
Join us singing, Glory, glory, hallelujah, since I laid my burdens down.

It’s easy to follow the same route. We know it, even the bumps and the places that bruise. We get comfortable. We fall into the same hole over and over again. Eventually, hopefully, we go down another street.

Taking the new road is entirely possible. Resolutions, those things we said we intended to do, can turn to resolve—a true change. I know we can each avoid the hole in the sidewalk. And New Year’s resolutions around those deep goals are a great place to start, it can bring you to the resolve you need each day. So the resolution should be something you want every day.

What did you just put in the compost bin? As it breaks down and lightens, what will it feed in your life? What new road will it allow you to travel?

Go ahead – take a moment – think about it. What could be different? What will it nourish in your life?

Taking a new road is something we do for ourselves. It makes us healthier and happier. It opens our eyes to possibilities. How can we change that same old story? That same old fight? Well, we’re the narrators. We are in charge. We get to choose how we tell it. Unlike the kids in the story, we get to look at our books – the beautiful pictures, the spots, the pages left blank. We get to look back and admit our part – the good, the not so good, and every unsure place in between.

And when we do, when we tell a new story, travel a new road, we also engage more with the world around us. Everyday we have a chance for a new page – for renewal. We spend less time in the same hole, and more time in the world.

So, we also take a new road for those around us. We are interconnected beings, and taking a new road means charting new territory to share with others. So we make these changes for our husbands, wives, children, grandchildren. Our friends, and neighbors. The way we live our lives matters.

When we are most engaged with the world we truly begin to change it. Transformation is something inside each of us. No matter our age or gender or anything else. The New Year fulfills the ancient promise of life. That winter, that the cold and dark places of the past, holds a promise of renewal, and survival; the promise of new life. But everyday is a new day. That’s what we celebrate today. We celebrate the promise of tulips under the snow. The promise that we humans will do the same thing. We will emerge. We will survive and learn and grow. And we will be filled with joy and hope and light and life.

How do you travel that new road? One day at a time. One new dawn, one renewal at a time. New Year’s resolutions can help. They can remind us of that promise of the cycles of life, and the ways we celebrate and commemorate them. They can transform each of us, and thereby transform everything around us.

Am I suggesting losing those extra pounds can change the world? Well, yes, in a way. Because it isn’t about a new diet, and it’s not even about what the scale says. It’s a new lifestyle. Whether or not you actually lose the weight, you’ll adopt different shopping and cooking habits. You’ll eat more fresh produce, probably supporting local farmers. You’ll buy less processed foods, which create waste in resources and packaging, and less the environmental impact. Someone you know will see your changes and be inspired to do the same. Have you ever felt inspired by the person walking as you drive down the street? That could be you!

If we recognize, and maybe stop that same argument we have, what transformation would that bring? We learn patterns of relating in childhood, and then as we interact with friends and romantic partners, we repeat those patterns and learn their ways. And we pass them to the next generation and to the people we are with. Imagine how it would feel to be less frustrated. What if you talked instead about world peace, or love, or beauty? You could spend a little more time in the garden, or volunteering. It’s not far fetched. When we take a new road, it’s impossible to know the full extent of the impact we have on the landscape.

We never know how our lives will impact others – that is the beauty of living in community. We take bits and pieces, sometimes subconsciously, and form new ideas.

We have just one life. We come together to share that life. To be challenged and to grow because of what we learn from each other. A New Year’s resolution should be something you want everyday. Something you’d be proud to look back on in a year and to share with those in your life.

A year from now, how will you be more engaged with the world?

Go on – take another moment… What history will you be carrying more lightly in your heart? What new road will you be travelling?

Each new year, just like each new day, brings the promise of renewal. It brings the hope that we will know ourselves more, that we will appreciate our own beauty and uniqueness, so that we might see the same in those around us. This is a daily task, not just on January first. It’s more than resolution – it’s resolve to live more fully, to make life worth living.

Happy New Year!