Sermon
"It's a Wonderful Life" is a movie that always gets me all choked up and brings tears to my eyes. I just love those final scenes as Jimmy Stewart realizes how much he cares about his family and begs God to live again. The outpouring of love and support from residents of Bedford Falls to raise the money lost by Uncle Billy on the very day his brother Harry has been awarded the Congressional medal of honor tugs at the heart strings. Those final moments as George opens the book of Mark Twain and we read with him the inscription from his guardian angel Clarence, "Remember, no one is a failure who has friends," conveys a deep and universal truth about human existence and love.

Is there anyone who hasn't seen this movie? Well, if you haven't or your memory of movie is foggy, we'll have to have a party here at the Fellowship in December so we can watch together the copy Philomena bought for me as a present last year. Just to briefly review the story, George Bailey, as a boy, has swashbuckling dreams of traveling all over the world, having many adventures and, as young George brags while he serves ice cream at the pharmacy to his future wife Mary, of perhaps having a harem of three or four wives. George is ready to live life to the fullest. His three favorite sounds are anchor chains, plane motors and train whistles.

Unfortunately, every time he is poised to spread his wings and leave his little town, some problem with his father's business, the Bailey Building and Loan, stops him short. Repeatedly, circumstances force him to choose between serving his own passion to see the world and serving the good of his family, the business and his community. His brother Harry goes off to college in his place after his father dies and George takes over the Building and Loan to save it from Mr. Potter's motion to dissolve it. When his brother returns home four years later and George is once again ready to leave town, his brother surprises everyone by bringing home a wife and the promise of a new job in Buffalo. On his wedding day, George loses his chance to go on a honeymoon when there is a run on the bank as the newlyweds are being whisked off to the train station. In short, George Bailey defers his desires again and again for the good of the broken down Building and Loan and its depositors.

I think the reason this movie touches me deeply is because I too stayed home as my friends went away to college. I attended the University of Delaware, located in my home town of Newark. I too felt hemmed in and limited by my circumstances, yearning to see the world and seek adventure. Unlike George, I did leave home and move to California to seek my fortune but those several years of longing to leave and staying put makes it easy for me to identify with his plight.

I suspect one reason the movie has become a classic is because most of us have had to stay home and take care of the farm, the home, the business, the family, the "whatever" responsibility rather than chase the dream that brings a sparkle to our eyes. At one time or another we've all had that feeling that life is passing us by. Remembering these moments of missed opportunities and making peace with them is an integral part of the process of easing into retirement. While the retirement years do offer wonderful opportunities to follow deferred dreams such as visiting far off lands, trying new things and exploring new areas that the limitations of working for a living and raising a family prevented, the regret about what might have been can still disturb one's sleep on those steamy Florida summer nights. Sometimes, following our hearts, meant staying home and staying put.

George Bailey stays home to be the chief secretary of the Bailey Building and Loan. This early prototype of a savings and loan sold shares which were invested in single family mortgages. George even finances a small development which gave low income people a chance to own their own homestead and develop some equity. Their philosophy of loaning money was strongly guided by the idealistic vision of George's father, "To satisfy," in Peter Bailey's words, "a fundamental urge...deep in the race for a man to have is own roof, walls and fireplace.". Right after George's father's death, George articulates beautifully his father's pro-little guy, help your neighbor philosophy when his nemesis Mr. Potter tries to close the Building and Loan down. After Potter calls the people the Building and Loan serves a "discontented lazy rabble rather than a thrifty working class." George responds,

"What did you say? Did you say they should save their money? ...Do you know how long it takes a working man to save 5000 dollars? Just remember this Mr. Potter, that this rabble you were talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well is it too much for them to do that working and living and dying in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? My father didn't think so!"

The Building and Loan is the one enterprise in Bedford Falls not captive to Potter's control and thus an avenue of hope for the little guy, particularly the immigrant (which Potter disparagingly calls the garlic eaters) as we see in the scene where George escorts the Italian Martini family from Potter's slums to their new home in Bailey Park. While George ekes out a modest living, he takes care of his customers before himself.

The Bailey Building and Loan feels near and dear to my heart as there are a few parallels to our little enterprise right here within these four walls as we struggle along on a bare bones budget. Like the Building and Loan, we feel tiny and overshadowed in comparison to the large Mormon and Baptist churches just down the street and the Methodist Church around the corner. We are anything but a pretentious and exclusive facility. We welcome the religious misfits who want to think clearly and honestly about their religion as well as practice it.

And like the Building and Loan, this town needs us. What congregation here will stand up for religious freedom and individual freedom of belief? Who will stand up for reproductive freedom? Who can be counted on to resist the agenda of the religious radicals who want to impose their religion on everyone? What congregation will stand for racial and gender equality? While others may join us on individual issues, we are the bulwark of liberal religion in this community. We are the place the theist, the agnostic and the atheist can come together to seek support, encouragement and inspiration for their own religious journey.

In the movie, George, in desperation, fearing arrest and ruin for his Uncle Harry's carelessness with $8000 dollars, is ready to kill himself so the money from his life insurance policy can be used to pay the debt. His guardian angel Clarence appears, saves him by making George rescue him, and walks him through a look at what life in his little town would have been like if he had never been born. No one would have been there to save his brother Harry from drowning. No one would have had been around to stop Potter from driving the town into ruin and no one would have been around to save his wife Mary from becoming an old maid librarian (my librarian mother always disliked this part).

Being able to see what life would have been like without us is very enticing. How wonderfully rewarding it would be to discover all the ways we have made a difference even if we believe our lives have been quite modest. While George is horrified by what he sees, we see just how wonderful his life as been for his town and the people's lives he as touched.

I propose the same could be said about this Fellowship and all the lives it has touched. How do we measure the positive ways the good feeling we create together here on Sunday morning supports people's good mental, emotional and physical health? How do we evaluate the inspiration individuals have taken away from this congregation that has motivated them to make a difference in this community? How do we assess the lives we have saved by offering to this community a religious alternative which believes each individual has a unique religious path to walk as they grow through their lives?

Of course we have our challenges just as the Building and Loan did. For us it isn't 8000 dollars that is missing but kids, teenagers and young families. We are missing the space and support facilities. We are not clear in our sense of mission to this community and our future.

The vision of who we are and what we can do is still strong in my heart. I believe this congregation can be the intergenerational congregation the respondents to the mission statement survey overwhelmingly told us they wanted to see after they returned from being away for five years. I am increasingly convinced this will not happen by itself. We must make the changes and take the risks to prepare the way for an intergenerational congregation? In what other church will children be raised with liberal religious Unitarian Universalist values? We have an unique life sustaining message to share people of all ages in this community. We are a pearl in the oyster of the Charlotte County Protestant Churches.

I know we are a pearl of a congregation because we have so many pearls in this congregation. I want to end this sermon by recognizing the generous people who support this congregation, particularly those who step forward when called upon to make a difference.

Appreciations: