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Finding Our Center
A Sermon Given
by The Reeverend Roger Fritts
on March 28, 1999
at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
Bethesda, Maryland
A few days before the celebration of Passover, Jesus rode into Jerusalem. Having taught in the small towns and
villages, with mixed success, he decided to appear in the capital city. It was a risky venture, for he was already under
suspicion. He was friendly to the hated Samaritans, and frequently in the company of prostitutes.
According to the story, as Jesus entered the city, people took off their coats or cut leafy branches from the fields. They
spread the coats and leafy branches on the road before him as he rode to the Jewish temple in the heart of the city.
Perhaps this attention gave Jesus a false sense of confidence. After riding into Jerusalem, Jesus went to the temple and
began to chase out the venders and shoppers. He overturned the tables of the bankers, along with the chairs of the
pigeon merchants. He said something like this, "Don't the scriptures say, 'My house is to be regarded as a house of
prayer for all peoples?'-- but you have turned it into 'a hideout for crooks!' " Because he was spreading discontent
against those in power, because he was a riotous and disruptive Jew, a few days after arriving in Jerusalem, the Romans
executed him.
On Palm Sunday Jesus was an agitator, marching through the city, whipping up the crowds, attacking the temple,
cursing the lawgivers and threatening the power of the state. The story of Jesus in the Temple suggests that Good
Christians should be bold, outward looking, socially aware, conscious of injustice, challenging conventions, taking a
stand, risking the wrath of those in power. The Palm Sunday story represents the reforming, activist, and muscular
aspects of Christianity.
Where did Jesus, knowing that he was risking his life, gain the strength and the courage to protest injustice? A Quaker
by the name of Kara Newell used the image of the potter's wheel to talk about how she gains strength. Writing to
clergy, she said:
Do everything possible to hold on to the discipline of centeredness. My mother is a potter, and I've spent many happy
hours watching her prepare the wet clay, plop a soggy lump of it on the wheel, start the wheel, and slowly draw the
clay up into whatever form she has chosen. But, I've also watched her start the process over and over when she's been
unable to center the clay properly. Whatever comes from un-centered clay will not be usable. That is true for us. Unless
we become clay in the potter's hands and allow ourselves to be centered, we will not be useful in the ways that we are
called to minister. Some elements of the discipline of centering include being quiet and empty before God regularly.
Listening for a word from God during that time. Praying regularly. Renewing one's call in prayer.
I have been thinking about Kara Newell's image of centering this past week as I have tried to fulfill my commitments
to my family, my congregation and my community. The key to my effectiveness is in my ability to take myself like a
soggy lump of wet clay and plop myself down into a center.
Ten years ago a friend sent me a self help book called Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It is not a book I would
normally read. The publisher filled the cover with words like "success," "profit," and "power." However, the friend who
sent me the book is not into profit or success or power. He is a minister with the Volunteers of America and oversees
management and fund raising for homeless shelters and shelters for battered women and their children. In his spare time
he does fund raising for the Spina Bifida Association, and he works hard to be a loving and caring parent.
So on my friend's recommendation, I read the book on the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The author, Steven
Covey, suggested that each of us has a center. He says our center has an all-encompassing influence on our lives. I saw
myself in his examples.
Some days I am money-centered. Of course, money is necessary for food, clothing and shelter. However, when my
sense of worth comes from how much money I have, anything that will endanger that money jeopardizes my sense of
importance.
Some days I am work-centered. Work can give us a sense of worth, a sense of direction, a desire for advancement, an
available gathering of friends and associates and an awareness of achievement and success. However, if my basic
identity comes from my work, what happens to my sense of self worth when I am not working? When I can no longer
say "I am a minister," who am I? If our identity comes from our work, then our sense of worth is susceptible to
anything that prevents us from continuing to work.
Some days I am possession-centered. Most of us need possessions to function. However, possessions can become a
driving force in us. When I am possession-centered, if I see someone with a smaller house, or an older computer, I feel
superior. If I see someone with a nicer house or a new faster computer, I feel inferior. My sense of self worth is
dependent on my material possessions.
Some days I am pleasure-centered. Physical pleasures can provide joy, renewal and relaxation for the mind and the
body. However, centering my life on eating good food and going to amusing movies turns me from being an active,
productive person to a passive and receptive person. My sense of self worth becomes dependent on my next pleasure
fix.
Some days I am friend- or enemy-centered. Having a few friends and a few people that we do not get along with is
common. However, when I am friend-centered the opinions of my friends become supremely important. When I am
enemy-centered, I can become obsessed with a person or an issue I do not like until it is all about which I think. The
mood and behavior of my friends or my enemies decide who I am.
Some days I am spouse- or partner-centered. A close, fulfilling, lasting relationship with one other person can be a
wonderful experience. Therefore, centering ourselves on our partner may seem normal and appropriate. However, if my
feeling of personal significance comes predominantly from my spouse, the moods and emotions, the actions and
behavior of my partner decide who I am.
Some days I am child-centered. This also might seem natural and proper. As a center of my life children give me a
chance for intense connections of caring, and laughter. However, when I center my life on my children I become
emotionally dependent on the moment by moment feelings and actions of my children.
These are examples of some common ways we center our lives. I may center on money, work, possessions, pleasures,
friends, enemies, partners, or children. The weakness of all these is that they place my center outside myself. In each
example I become dependent on something or someone outside me for my core identity.
I have learned another way to live. When I am at my best, when I am at my strongest, I am centering my life on basic
ethical principles, basic values. I imagine my life as a potter's wheel. Extending from the center of the wheel is my
money, my work, my possessions, my pleasure, my friends, my enemies, and my family. At the center, at the core of
the wheel, are my ethical principles. When I am at my best, I take that lump of soggy clay that is myself and I center it
with moral principles.
I have at the core of my being a few principles. They come to me from a religious heritage handed down to me over
the generations. I have confirmed them by own experience and reason. Even if I lost all the external things that define
who I am, even if I lost my possessions, my money, my position as a minister, my friends, I would still do my best to
cling to these principles. They are the core. They give me my sense of identity and worth.
What are the principles that are in the center of my wheel? The most important is that I believe in the worth and
dignity of every person. I believe that inside every human being is a spark of divinity that, if properly nurtured, can
help us develop into sensitive compassionate persons. Believing this, I try to do unto others as I would wish them to do
unto me.
For me, a church is a fellowship of people who develop, practice, and cherish ethical principles that relate to the
purpose of human life. There may be a few persons who do not need the support of a religious community. They can
live out their ethical principles without the encouragement of a gathering like this. However, temptations distract most
of us from the values to which we want to devote ourselves. Therefore, I am a member of this religious community
because it encourages me to live out my values in my life.
This is why Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem a few days before Passover. Jesus risked his life because he wanted
the religious community of his time to support the ethical principles that were the center of the Jewish religion.
This is the message of Palm Sunday. My belief that I should not center my life on money or work or pleasure or
possessions or friends or enemies or even family. Instead I try to center my life on fundamental truths, on basic values
as I understand them. And I try to find others in the religious community who will give me support and encouragement
as I try to live these ethical principles.
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