THE FLAMING CHALICE OF OUR FAITH Rev. Scott W. Alexander Preaching Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Vero Beach Sunday, November 5, 2017 VIDEO CLIP BEFORE THE SERMON http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX3BOZKHsXw (In place of the reading, a 2.04 trailer from the PBS documentary) [GRAPHIC OF SHARPS' MOVIE POSTER IS PROJECTED UP ON THE CHANCEL SCREEN] I’d like to begin the sermon this morning by letting American video historian Ken Burns (who happens to be an active Unitarian Universalist from Massachusetts!) and narrator Tom Hanks tell an amazing story about Martha and Waitstill Sharp – by way of a short clip from the recent PBS documentary, which we will be showing today at 4:30 PM in its entirely for all those of you who are interested. These Unitarian heroes of World War II effectively waged their own personal war against Hitler’s hatred and genocide. This four-minute clip tells the story of the terrible night in Prague, the very day the invading Nazi army marched into Czechoslovakia. Martha Waitstill was on a mission to get a Jewish refugee to safety in the British embassy. Let’s watch it together… [THE VIDEO CLIP IS PROJECTED UP ON THE CHANCEL SCREENS] [Video clip, timestamp 22:40 to 26:26 – the rescue story] [WHEN VIDEO CONCLUDES, THE PHOTO AND CAPTION OF WAITSTILL AND MARTHA SHARP IS PROJECTED UP ON THE CHANCEL SCREENS] Martha and Waitstill Sharp Martha and Waitstill Sharp…true heroes of World War II! As Ken Burns says elsewhere in the documentary about the “Daring-Do” of the Sharps – who, despite their mild-mannered appearance, were often in great danger as they fought to help the endangered escape Hitler’s grasp. These are skills that I am certain the Sharps did not learn in Divinity School! Over the tragic course of World War II the acts of bravery, skill and daring of this husband and wife team (and others working for the Unitarian Service Committee) enabled thousands of adults and children to escape Nazi persecution and murder…including many Jews. [SECOND PICTURE OF THE SHARPS IS PROJECTED UP ON THE CHANCEL SCREENS] In 2006, in humanitarian recognition that was long overdue, the names of Waitstill and Martha Sharp were engraved into the wall at the “Garden of the Righteous among the Nations” at Yad Vashem in Israel. Only one other American has been similarly honored for selflessly rescuing Jews from the Holocaust during World War II. Martha and Waitstill Sharp put their lives on the line for what they believed, working night and day to protect the lives of those endangered. They are true heroes of our Unitarian Universalist faith. This morning – by way of the Sharps’ heroism – I want to tell the story of the flaming chalice of our faith, which we ceremoniously light every Sunday morning we gather together. Some of you may not be aware of the fact that the flaming chalice… [OFFICIAL UUA CHALICE DESIGN AND CAPTION PUT UP ON CHANCEL SCREENS] The Official UUA Chalice ...shown here is the newly designed and adopted “official chalice logo” from the website of our denomination, the Unitarian Universalist Association. The flaming chalice is the one unifying symbol and ritual of modern day Unitarian Universalism. This morning – in every Unitarian Universalist congregation scattered around the world, and in more than 1050 congregations here in the United States – a chalice will be ceremoniously lit as worship begins. And just a word about this particular chalice we light here at UUFVB every Sunday to open our worship. This beautiful hand-crafted chalice is made of pure sterling silver, and was a gift of early UUFVB member Doris Sloan. It was hand-crafted by a silversmith from the Florida Keys according to her specifications and is, as you can see, a lovely piece of art. Because this is a one-of-a-kind chalice, no other UU congregation has one just like it…but many other beautiful chalices (some made of wood…some made of ceramic or pottery…some from various metals…and fueled by different combustibles – many by candles, and many, like ours -- by lamp oil) can be found in our congregations all around the world. As any of you who visit other UU congregations when you travel know full well, the content and style of Sunday morning worship services in our denomination vary widely from congregation to congregation…but the flaming chalice is a universal and widely beloved symbol of our religion and everything we stand for. And that symbol was born in the dark days of World War II when Martha and Waitstill Sharp and other brave Unitarians were working to save so many from imprisonment, slave labor and genocide. It is also important and interesting to know that this universal practice of Unitarian Universalist congregations lighting a chalice each and every Sunday when they gather is relatively new. When I entered the ministry in the early 1970s, the flaming chalice and the moving story of Martha and Waitstill Sharp were basically unheard of in our congregations. In fact, as far as I know, the first time the symbol was used by the denomination as a symbol of our faith was on the cover of the 1976 UUA directory. By the mid-1980s, about the time UUFVB was founded, lighting a chalice on Sundays had quickly become a widespread and beloved practice in UU congregations everywhere…and since then the flaming chalice has become the official logo and symbol for Unitarian Universalism all around the world. Today the flaming chalice is central to our identity as Unitarian Universalists, and will undoubtedly remain so for centuries to come. But I have gotten ahead of myself. I need to go back to the dark days of World War II to tell the story of how the flaming chalice came to represent and stand for our faith. There are two equally important components to this UU symbol: 1) THE CHALICE (the vessel itself), and 2) THE FLAME. These two ancient archetypal religious images that can be found in ancient mythology as well as in many of the world’s great traditions were brought together in 1941 as a Unitarian symbol by an Austrian artist, Hans Deutsch. [PICTURE OF HANS DEUTSCH GOES UP ON CHANCEL SCREENS] As my colleague the Rev. Dan Hotchkiss tells the fascinating story: Living in Paris during the 1930s, Deutsch [an Austrian Refugee] drew critical cartoons of Adolf Hitler. When the Nazis invaded Paris in 1940, he abandoned all he had and fled to the south of France, then to Spain, and finally, with an altered passport to safety into neutral Portugal. There, he met the Rev. Charles Joy, Executive Director of the Unitarian Service Committee. The Service Committee was new, founded in Boston to assist Eastern Europeans escaping the Nazis, among them Unitarians as well as Jews who needed to escape Nazi persecution. From his Lisbon headquarters, [Rev.] Joy oversaw a secret network of couriers and agents who, among other things, created fake “traveling papers” and replacement papers for endangered people trying to flee Europe. Deutsch was most impressed and soon was working for the USC. He later wrote [Rev.] Joy, “There is something that urges me to tell you…how much I admire your utter self- denial as a Unitarian…and readiness to serve, to sacrifice all, your time, your health, your well- being to help, help, help. I am not what you may actually call a believer. But if your kind of life is the profession of your Unitarian faith then…religion, ceasing to be magic and mysticism, becomes confession to practical philosophy and – what is more – active and really useful social work…[this is a religion, Deutsch went on] to which I can say a wholehearted YES!” The Unitarian Service Committee was a relatively unknown organization in 1941, and Rev. Joy realized they needed a recognizable and dignified symbol in this cloak-and-dagger world of border guards, false identity papers, and clandestine escapes. So Joy asked Deutsch to create a symbol for their USC travel papers and replacement documents, which the organization boldly issued to artists, intellectuals, dissidents and Jews who were trying to escape…“to make them look official, to give dignity and importance to them, and at the same time symbolize the spirit of our work…When a document may keep a man out of jail, give him standing with governments and police, it is important that it look important.” [PICTURE OF ORIGINAL FLAMING CHALICE IS PROJECTED UP ON THE CHANCEL SCREENS] With pencil and ink, Deutsch drew this simple chalice with a flame, which Rev Joy, in later writing to his Board of Trustees in Boston, described as “A chalice with a flame, the kind of chalice which the Greeks and Romans put on their altars. The holy oil burning in it is a symbol of helpfulness and sacrifice…This was in the mind of the artist. The fact, however, that it remotely suggests a cross was not in his mind, but to me this also has its merit. We do not limit our work to Christians. Indeed, at the present moment, our work is nine-tenths for the Jews, yet we Unitarians do stem from the Christian tradition, and the cross does symbolize Christianity and its central theme of sacrificial love.” So…the flaming chalice of our faith was born as a practical yet striking symbol for our Unitarian Universalist humanitarian efforts in World War II, and the amazing part of it, as one denominational historian observes, is that “When Deutsch designed the flaming chalice he had never seen a Unitarian or Universalist church, or heard a [UU] sermon.