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It is an honor and a privilege to be here with you to celebrate the installation of the Reverend Manish Mishra as the Minister for the Unitarian Universalist Church of St. Petersburg. In my younger years I was a Methodist. In the Methodist tradition, ministers are not called by congregations, they are placed by bishops, and when I was young, ministers were moved quite frequently so that in my congregation, the installation of a new minister became a somewhat ordinary act. For Unitarian Universalists, installation is an exceptionally non-trivial occasion. In our free Unitarian Universalist tradition, the act of installing a minister is made extra-ordinary because of the covenantal nature of ministry, our understanding of what it means to be call and be called.

Two paths intersect here today: Manish's call to ministry, and the St. Petersburg's congregation's calling of Manish to minister here, with you. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. speaks to us of the importance of the first calling, the calling to vocation:

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

Manish Kumar Mishra is a talented man, and he has walked many other paths in this and other countries. Ministry is not Manish's first vocation. But he treads the path of ministry well. He loves ministry, lives ministry, consumes and is consumed by ministry. This is a first love, a passion tempered and fueled by intimate knowledge.

You see, Manish Mishra isn't a minister simply because he chooses to be. Ministry has chosen Manish. King did not talk about being "hired" to be a street sweeper, or "moonlighting as a street sweeper" or "working as a street sweeper". King spoke in terms of calling, of a call so resonant it cannot be silenced...so strident it cannot be denied. A call that comes to pound, pound, pound on the door before the sun comes up and keeps pounding until we answer. There are others here who have answered this call. They are with us as celebrants and witnesses.

Some who are called to ministry manage, somehow, to ignore the inner noise, to shut out the pounding on the door, to roll over and return to sleep. But those who know Manish Kumar Mishra would not describe him as willfully ignorant. I've known Manish for several years, but the "Kumar" in the installation invitation was new information for me, so I wrote Manish to ask how he'd like to be addressed. He replied "You can address me however you deem fit." Given choice, Manish, I'll choose to address you as a man of great courage, deep wisdom, and boundless joy, who I am honored to call friend. I'll address you as a leader I am proud to stand beside. If though it may embarrass you, I deem it fit to name you as a brave and tenacious warrior for our Unitarian Universalist faith who knows he is called to incarnate his vocation so well that your ministry together here in St. Petersburg will give pause to all the hosts of heaven and earth. The Unitarian Universalist Church is blessed, St. Petersburg and the surrounding communities are blessed, and the Unitarian Universalist Association is blessed.


This congregation had choices, as well. You could have been insular, keeping the world and its troubles at arm's length, apart and ethereal, a sanctuary for the chosen few, the lucky. You could have turned your back on your history of engagement in this community, forgotten how you were so hungry for this community that you gathered in people's homes for three decades. You could have ignored your potential, denied your power to be a force for good in the world. It's nice here - it's temperate, beautiful. You could have chosen a minister who would help you hide your light under a bushel and encourage you to self indulgence.

But you called Manish.

You called him to dwell among you and guide you in your search for understanding and meaning. You called him to lead your efforts to make the world a more just and loving place. You asked Manish to love fiercely in the face of suffering, challenge complacency, and be a source of hope and blessing to all whose lives he touches, to nudge you to be a congregation that gathers not just for those who are already here, but with a vision that always includes the next person who will walk through the door seeking a religious community. Newness - new people, new ways -- can be temporarily uncomfortable. We know this. Each one of us is fresh and new and at least a bit discomforting every time we walk through a door we hadn't opened before. But this is also what makes each of us precious. We Unitarian Universalists have many different beliefs but would, nevertheless, almost all agree that one place we encounter the divine is in the space between human beings, provided we are prepared to bring our whole selves to the encounter.

You invited Manish to be of the world with you, to walk in the world with you, to live our faith on the edges which are and always have been the domain of Unitarian Universalist congregations.

Lucy Lawless, better known as Xena, Warrior Princess, is a New Zealander, a kiwi. When asked about the risks she's taken in her career and her life, Xena credits geography: "Kiwis live at the edge of the world, so we live on the edge. Kiwis will always sacrifice money and security for adventure and challenge."

The kiwis have it made - they know that they inhabit the geographic edge. For Unitarian Universalists, the proximity of the edge is often unpredictable. It's not geographic, it is, rather, cultural, political, and theological. We can pretend it's not there. We can shy away from it. But the edge is always there. And we can't shy away fast enough, because the edge is moving. When did the edge move for you?

* Did it move when the two thousandth American died in Iraq? When the fifty thousandth Iraqi died?

* When there weren't enough troops left at home to evacuate or even bring aid to the poor and elderly in Louisiana and Mississippi?


* When you learned those secret prisons weren't just a rumor, or when our elected leaders regard violations of the Geneva Convention as moral leadership?

* Or when yet another leader of the religious/industrial complex blamed gay and lesbian people for hurricanes, tornados, and massive flooding -- as if God really cares who hosts awards shows?


* Or when you noticed that, once again, the passenger pulled out of the line for "special screening" appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent?

* Or when you listened to yet another news show where entrenched people discussed the crucial moral issues of our time, but no one mentioned racism or poverty in America, or even made a passing reference to the number of the world's children who die in poverty each day--- if this is an average day, 1250 poor children have died since the beginning of this installation service? And how does any of this make sense to life affirming, pro-family people of faith like Unitarian Universalists?

The edge keeps moving for each of us, and for this religious community, and we move with it---we must move with it---for if you and I are not living on the edge, we are obviously taking up too much space. This community cannot retreat from the edge even at the times when some are tired, or burned out, or overwhelmed. We come here for comfort and rest and renewal, but never in retreat because we Unitarian Universalists are called to the edge as surely as you and Manish have called each other.

The edge is the place where we stand for a more just, more enlightened, more compassionate future and against fundamentalism of every type - even the fundamentalism that we ourselves are prone to. Here on the edge, we don't casually allow the American faith experience to be characterized as a singular theology. We know that there's a fine line between a faithful democracy and a theocracy, and Unitarian Universalists light a beacon to illumine the edge for others because it is an edge that is moving, an edge we in particular are charged to attend.

You gather here to be held in the loving embrace of community so that you may gather the strength to walk to the edge, then to draw each other to the edge, convince each other to the edge, call the edge to each other's attention---here it is---be wary. Then, be brave. Then, be here with me, with us. Hold my shoulder, grab my hand for when I look over the depths are compelling, they draw me. I know in the depths of my soul that I must be here, that I am called to this place but please, holy spirit, human spirit, human community, God, whatever has called me here, make sure I do not forget to seek the very best companions for I cannot stand here alone for long. Let me search the eyes of each person who enters these doors, for I need to be companioned here on the edge.

Send me companions, or at least still my heart and quiet my anxiety so I will glance up from time to time and see the others that walk to the edge, the others who would stand here with me, who are standing here already. Perhaps they are with me, perhaps I am with them, maybe we are here together but please, please help me notice their presence. And give me the courage to companion others to the edge. The edge is long. Even shoulder to shoulder we are barely enough. The drop is sharp, and it takes many hands to hold us all in safety until more hearts and hands arrive. And they will arrive. They are arriving already, Sunday after Sunday.

Here on the edge, we know the power of religious community so we invite our friends and colleagues to come to church with us so they can keep their spirits strong and their lives well-grounded. . We cannot afford to do otherwise. As theologian Rebecca Parker says, "None of us save the world alone."

Unitarian Universalist author Kurt Vonnegut wrote: "I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center."

It is at the edge where authentic ministry happens for Unitarian Universalist congregations and their ministers. It is no different here in St. Petersburg. The edge informs in a way that the center cannot. The edge is engagement. The edge is a commitment to care for and challenge both children and adults. The edge is the place where you and I insist on relevant, life changing ministry, ministry that will challenged and transform us so we may transform our small piece of the world. In the words of poet Patrick Overton:

When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly.

Based on your experience and wisdom, this community of faithful people has called the Reverend Manish Kumar Mishra to stand with you in ministry on the edge. Based on my experience and wisdom, I confidently declare that the years will bear witness to what you already know in this moment: that you have chosen wisely and well. May the ministry in St. Petersburg be blessed. May you stand on the edge and light beacons there. And from time to time, in moments of splendor, may you all hold hands, walk forward boldly, and step over the edge together in the sure knowledge that you were born to fly.