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Designing Space for the Possibility of Grace
Sunday, July 23 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am
Creative ideas are born in unexpected places. Yet their birth holds genius and magic in it. Join us as we explore together the collective possibilities for grace-filled wonder and transformation.
Rev. Jennifer DeBusk Alviar is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister whose unique call is to expand the welcome table of hospitality, inclusion and liberation. To this end, she cultivates positive relationships with community organizations and diverse faith traditions actively engaged in the healing work of bridge-building and social change. Rev. Alviar received her Master of Divinity degree at Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley, California. She currently lives with her family on the indigenous land of the Duwamish people known as Seattle, Washington.
How to Attend
We require masks in all buildings. We encourage all in person participants to be vaccinated. Read more about our In Person Guidelines here.
• To virtually attend, please Zoom in using room number 989 3107 9078, passcode: chalice.
• To phone into the service, call 669-900-6833, Meeting ID: 989 3107 9078.
For those joining, please mute as soon as you enter the room, so everyone can hear. Please note, the services will be recorded, but at this time, there are no plans to share the recording.
More Information
Religious Education for children and youth happens this Summer on July 2, 9, 16, 30, August 6, 13, 20, 27, 10:30-11:30 a.m. All ages children and youth join in for a fun, interactive, stand-alone UU lesson. Contact LeAnne. Other Sundays are all ages and children stay in the Sanctuary with their families. Learn more here!
If you don’t have a chalice, but want to light one, check out our Making a Chalice at Home page.
Both virtual and in person services are followed by coffee hour.
Children’s Story
Sermon Audio
Designing Space for the Possibility of Grace
Sermon Text
In the summer of 2022, I embarked on an adventure that pivotally shaped and defined my ministry. This marked my first pilgrimage to Iona, Scotland. I joined a band of pilgrims united in caring for the earth within the Celtic spiritual tradition. Our group consisted of clergy members, spiritual directors, healthcare providers and environmentalists.
The beautiful thing about pilgrimages is that it invites our imaginations into a more expansive worldview filled with wonder and awe. Our journey led us to embark on a ferry ride to the magical Isle of Staffa. The land of the puffins! When our ferry docked, our fellow pilgrims climbed a steep, rocky, volcanic cliff with breathtaking views of the lush greenery set against its blue/turquoise waters.
When I first set my eyes upon the puffins, their funny waddle enchanted me. I found their expressive eyes filled with character and charm. My heart both softened and expanded. Here is an image of a puffin. Puffins are often referred to as the “parrots of the sea” given their bright beaks.
Curiosity and intrigue followed next. These birds are wild. They live on the edge of jagged cliffs. They don’t waddle up to you. Instead, they invite you to re-wild your own soul and test the edges between danger – the precipice of a staggering cliff – and the experience of delight in the birds themselves.
As I reflected on this contrast, I noticed my friend, Jim, sitting on the edge of the cliff playing his flute for the puffins. It felt like communing in an outdoor cathedral. A holy communion. A call and response between nature’s wild creatures and our own wild souls feeling alive and free.
This musical interplay between creature and human, nature and soul, made me think of something that the great cellist YoYo Ma said: “Music happens between the notes.” Music comes alive in the spaces, pauses, and silences between the melodies. A meditation of in breath and out breath. This liminal, in-between space is where a note catches our imagination and invites us into a sacred space of mystery, wonder and delight.
And isn’t this a similar sensation to the story that we read today by Kobi Yamada? “What Do You Do with an Idea?” Here is a child who is intrigued by an idea AND worries about what others might think. He experiences something magical about his idea AND he fears that people might laugh at it or think it is silly.
I call this living in a both/and vs. either/or world. A liminal, in-between space. A creative tension. Honestly, it’s not the most comfortable place to inhabit. It can feel bumpy, awkward and messy. But this creative tension also holds possibility if we are willing to open ourselves up to diverse perspectives.
I can relate to the child in this story because I, too, have an idea. I, too, live in a both/and world. On one hand, the traditional model of worship arts in our UU movement has been well established for thousands of years: pulpit, preacher, pew. Do I dare disturb the status quo? Who am I to upend tradition? Couldn’t I work just a bit harder to fit in as a minister to the way things have always been done?
On the other hand, I experience magic and possibility in my idea around revisioning the worship arts in church. Like the child in our story, I decided to listen to my idea. Pay attention to it. Let it guide me. My idea led me to a daylong retreat called, Staying with the Trouble: Nurturing Nuance amidst Paths to Polarization. Lux Gypsum (they/them) is a queer, non-binary facilitator, conflict mediator, and relational coach. Lux’s work is guided by a calling to support us in transforming our culture of domination into a culture of co-liberation through un-winding and re-patterning how we relate to ourselves and each other.
Nine of us gathered in a yurt-style council circle at Rite of Passage Journeys – a nature-based nonprofit located in Seattle. Our generational diversity ranged in age from 20s to 60s, along with diverse gender identities. The four intentions that guided our gathering are best described by Jack Zimmerman and Virginia Coyle in their book, The Way of Council: 1. Speak from the heart, 2. Listen from the heart, 3. Be lean of expression, and 4. Be spontaneous.
Lux brought a refreshing, unique blend of somatic, body-based practices through their intentional design elements. For example, we participated in a paradox breathing exercise of holding both/and. This exercise was designed by Kai Cheng Thom.
In breath: I am imperfect
Out breath: I am enough
In breath: I make mistakes
Out breath: I am allowed to be imperfect
In breath: I have shame
Out breath: I am sacred
In breath: This culture is not my fault
Out breath: Shifting it is my responsibility
In breath: I accept the way things are
Out breath: I take action to make change
In breath: I am a unique, irreplaceable being
Out breath: So is everyone else
In breath: I have been harmed
Out breath: I have caused harm
In breath: I have received love
Out breath: I have given love
This somatic, body-based workshop mirrored back to me all that I longed for in the worship arts at church: kinesthetic, experiential modalities of healing and grounding, nature and silence. Thanks to Lux’s gift of weaving intentional design elements into a safe and sacred container, we co-created space for the possibility of grace. Grace, of course, is unbidden. It cannot be manufactured or reproduced. Yet with intention and care around worship design, we may be able to experience grace-filled moments more frequently when they do arise.
This brought me full circle to my favorite part of our story about working with creative ideas. One day, the child’s idea burst forward and became part of everything. Isn’t this what church is all about? A sacred space to generate ideas for collective liberation? Some ideas may begin inside church walls. But they aren’t meant to stay there. They are meant to be shared and transformed into new ideas, new community-building relationships, new possibilities.
In fact, an idea can start anywhere. It might be born through a heart-centered conversation during coffee hour after worship service. Or a note that rang true during a hymn that moved one’s soul. Or a feeling of celebratory joy or comforting solace shared in community with others. It doesn’t really matter where an idea comes from. The important thing is to pay attention to it.
Living in a both/and world takes ingenuity. It requires holding creative tension that moves us beyond polarities and opposites. It calls us to practice the four intentions of council for collective trust-building: 1. Speak from the heart, 2. Listen from the heart, 3. Be lean of expression, and 4. Be spontaneous. This is not easy work. Yet this is the very soul work necessary to bring forth greater healing and wholeness in our divided world today. Here, in this liminal in-between space, is the birthplace for grace-filled wonder and magic.
I’d like to draw your attention to the last line in our story: “And then, I realized what you do with an idea…You change the world.” Let us do this together. May it be so.
Amen, Shalom, Salaam, Namaste and Ashe.
