A Homily given by Barbara O’Neil
on Celebration Sunday, May 21, 2006
at The First Parish in Lincoln
Swimming to the other side
Chorus:
We are living ‘neath the great Big Dipper
We are washed by the very same rain
We are swimming in the stream together
Some in power and some in pain
We can worship this ground we walk on
Cherishing the beings that we live beside
Loving Spirits will live forever
We’re all swimming to the other side
— Pat Humphries
Sung by Charlotte, Jordan and Luke Perkins
A friend told me this week that when something happens three times in your life, the third time, you’d better pay attention to it. This is the third time Charlotte has played this song in church. I am so grateful that each time I have asked her, she has said, yes! But it occurred to me that I should figure out why I keep coming back to this song when I plan a service. I know plenty of others and so does she!
I’ll tell you the story. When I first heard this song, I was driving in my car. I was listening to a CD in which Nick Page’s group, the Mystic Choral, was singing songs from many different countries with the common theme of PEACE. This is my kind of music. I drove along with a nice warm feeling.
Then a song came on that made me literally pull over to the side of the road so I could listen more closely to the words. It was the song you just heard, Swimming to the other side. Listening to it for the first time, I just felt happy. I felt a surge of optimism about life. This song made me feel that if we all band together, we can affect positive change in the world. This was four years ago and I had just started my job as Director of Religious Education at First Parish and I thought, THIS is the feeling that I want to create in the Sunday School. I looked for the music in a couple of song books I have and couldn’t find it anywhere.
So I stored it away and listened to it from time to time and months went by. A few years ago, I led an Earth Day service here in April and I wanted to include some special music. I didn’t really know Charlotte then, but I picked up the phone and called her, and asked if she’d be willing to play something in the service.
She told me she had once heard a song that she liked but had never seen it in a book and didn’t know the composer but just had a good feeling about it, it was called, Swimming to the other side. There it was again, that elusive song that had been such an inspiration to me.
Well the rest is history. Today the power of the song continues as Luke and Jordan join Charlotte in singing it. This being the third time, I decided to learn more about it.
I searched the internet for information and learned that it was written by Pat Humphries, a social activist who writes and sings music for justice and peace. She sings at rallies and in concerts to raise money for important causes. Her goal is not to become famous but to inspire people to work together for peace and a fair and just world. Peter Seeger, another inspired song writer, says this song gives him hope that her message will spread. “It’s hard to stop a good song,” he said.
Just as Pat Humphries uses music to inspire people to do good things, we at First Parish have each other. We are a community of people who share a covenant, a belief of how to be in the world. Each week, we agree to affirm each person’s dignity, to cherish the living earth.
In the Sunday School “service to all” has been a guiding principle. The Seventh Grade Breakfast Club is a good example of how this can play out. In the fall, they attended the Common Cathedral. This is a church service for homeless people held on the Boston Common every Sunday morning. The seventh graders heard that as winter approached, these men and women who are homeless, needed warm coats. They asked our congregation to bring in warm clothing for the homeless people of Boston. Our congregation responded in force and they were able to deliver 60 warm coats to the Boston Common a few months later.
This same group rode their bicycles around their neighborhoods to raise money to support them in the Walk for HAITI in April, a fund raiser for Partners in Health.
They raised $1400.
When they made breakfast for themselves, they invited guests to join them; one guest was a Sudanese woman who told them her story of escape from Sudan.
And locally, one Sunday morning, the seventh graders baked cookies and muffins in the Parish House kitchen and then walked across Flint’s Fields to deliver them to Margaret Flint and to Henry Flint, who, due to ailments and aging, are unable to come to church.
We’re all swimming to the other side. The seventh graders are just an example of what all the classes have done in one way or another this year. We light candles and share our deepest joys and concerns, just as we did today. In this way we support each other as we experience the joys and challenges which are a part of life.
Church is the safe place where we can speak the truth that is in our hearts. Then we reach out to those who are less fortunate than we are. We share that value and together we can make change happen.
That is why I say that teaching Sunday School is a way to put our covenant into action.
It is a way to act locally. What we teach our children now, could affect the world in years to come.
Our children and youth need role models and they have them here at First Parish. They are Sunday School teachers.
We adults can to look to our children who are role models for us as well. They act as if they can make a difference in the world and in fact, they can.
Loving spirits will live forever
We’re ALL swimming to the other side.
Amen