This coming Sunday, April 4th, we will celebrate the Flower Communion, our unique Unitarian Universalist ritual for celebrating the diversity and beauty of our community. Each of us is asked to bring a flower to church and place it into a common container for the “communion” ritual. Like all rituals, it has a history that gives it special meaning. It began in 1923 with Rev. Norbert Capek (CHAPEK) who founded the Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia. His congregation, much like ours, came from many different backgrounds and beliefs so he explained that the flowers symbolized the members, each unique and individual, yet gathered together in community, accepting each other despite their differences.
Eventually, when the Nazis took over his country, Rev. Capek was sent to the concentration camp at Dachau where he was killed to silence his message of the inherent worth and dignity of each individual. Yet, through this ritual he lives on, reminding us what it means to live in community. So, as we take part in our Flower Communion, may we be conscious of our commitment to diversity, our willingness to set aside differences, and to revel in the beauty of our human family despite the very real challenges we face.
The reality of life is that not one of us is exactly like anyone else; no two of anything are exactly alike. That’s what makes the world work, and like the world around us, we Unitarian Universalists also thrive on diversity, even when our differences make us uncomfortable. We are a community of shared hopes and joys, of burdens and sorrows. The flowers we use in the ritual symbolize that community. The flowers remind us that in spite of all the sorrow in our world, beauty and friendship also exist. May the flowers be for us a sign of the glory and variety to which we aspire, however difficult it may seem.
By exchanging these flowers, we show our willingness to walk together in our search for truth, setting aside attitudes and actions that work to divide rather than unite us. Each person takes home a flower brought by someone else, thus symbolizing our shared celebration in community.
So, before you leave church on Sunday, please remember to take with you one of these flowers, a different one than the flower you brought. Take a flower as a symbol of your participation in the community of this church, of your participation in the community of human kind, of your participation in the community of all living things. If, by chance, you didn’t bring a flower, take one anyway. Take a flower as a symbol that beauty and grace and joy and love are not matters of reciprocity. In this world we cannot earn or deserve that which is most important. It comes to us as a gift.
Let us always remember that our faith has the potential to beautify and transform our world. Let us never fear to spread its seeds among all that we meet, despite differences of religion, nationality, politics or social status. Strengthened by the power of love, may we ourselves blossom into the people that we were meant to be and, in so doing, create the world we want for our children and grandchildren.
We all share this one small planet; let us make of it a garden.
Shalom, Blessed Be, Aloha and Amen.
