One excellent piece of advice I was given when I started out in ministry was, "Find something to celebrate every Sunday." Sometimes it's easier than others: there's not much difficulty celebrating the major holidays or joyful events in the life of the congregation. Sometimes, though, it's a challenge to find the appropriate focus for celebration, and this particular Sunday, the last in the summer programme, is one. How many times in the past week have you thought, or said to someone, or heard them say to you, "Summer's almost over . . .?" It's a ritual, isn't it, every year at this time. Certainly this year, unlike some other times, we can't feel cheated or deprived of long, warm, sunny days, and yet perhaps for this very reason we regret the coming-to-an-end of the season, even as we look forward to what is for some of us our favourite time, Fall.

If we haven't progressed very far in learning how to live in the present, we may even find our enjoyment of Fall is tempered by the anticipation of winter, which may not be our favourite! In this in-between time, looking back and looking forward, what do we celebrate? I suggest that we can celebrate the very inbetween-ness of it, the fact that this Sunday is a little breather between the responsibility so many of us feel in the summer to enjoy ourselves (you know, "How's your summer going?") - between that and the responsibility of September, when everything starts up again (we have our "Ingathering" service next Sunday) and when we're supposed to be refreshed and renewed and rarin' to go! Today we have no particular responsibilities, no expectations put on us - and if that isn't cause for celebration, I don't know what is!

A UU minister, Sara Moores Campbell, points out that in every religious tradition there is a ritual for the new year. There are different calendars -- for example, the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, occurs in the early Fall (this year on September 18) and school starts after Labour Day, beginning the academic year. In all traditions or cultures the rituals mark the ending of one period and the beginning of another, based on something as big as observation of biocosmic rhythms -- or as small as the need to buy new school supplies. The rituals are part of a larger system of periodic purifications, so they usually involve purges and confessions to let go of the old and invite a clean slate for the new (lovely unspoiled notebooks are a concrete example) -- but don't worry; we're not quite at that point yet, so we don't have to get into purges and confessions. This is an in-between time; these are precious days.

Let's spend a few moments now in quiet appreciation of these precious days.

For these few precious days, we are thankful.

There's a second reason for celebration to which I'd like to draw attention now. There's a full moon tonight! Yes, this is commonplace; it happens once every four weeks, but I suggest that it's no less wonderful for that. In some of our UU congregations there are groups, usually women's groups but not necessarily so, which meet on every full moon date, or thereabouts. The moon, like the sun and the stars, can't be altered by us in any way -- well, except for the fact that we've walked on the moon and left some human traces there. The moon is just THERE, high above and beyond us. No wonder it's been worshipped at various times, and is still part of many religious observances. I don't find myself less reverential towards the moon because humans have trodden on it, do you? And I remember with vivid clarity that night in July 1969 when the lunar landing took place -- it seemed to me an entirely astonishing and wonderful event. I still find the moon mysterious and marvellous, and I think if the full moon only happened rarely - once in a blue moon as it were - we'd pay much more attention. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said about the stars,

If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would people believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!

As it is, each month we have the opportunity to watch the waxing and waning of the moon and to celebrate, if we choose to, the new moon, the half moon (which can be quite bright enough to throw moon-shadows, as I discovered two weeks ago), and the glory of the full moon. Perhaps tonight you can go outside and admire this phenomenon. For some of us here -- an increasing number it seems -- spiritual growth means a growing sense of relatedness to nature, to the cycles of the seasons, our changing view of the moon, the observance of events such as the summer and winter solstice, the spring and autumn equinox. I hope we can encourage that spiritual growth whole-heartedly, because I think there's nothing but good in attempts to re-establish connections with the natural world. For now, let's take a few moments to enjoy in quietness our awareness of this precious day, the day of a full moon.

For this precious day, and night, we are thankful.

The third cause for particular celebration in these few precious days is that this is Labour Day weekend! It may be just a Monday off for you, but its reason for being is to celebrate the workers of the world. I invite you to listen to the words of a liturgy based on a writing by Matthew Fox, and to ponder how very fortunate most of us are either to have employment, paid or upaid, or to benefit from the work of others, or (in most cases, lucky as we are) both.

Let us pause to honor those who labor with their bodies and their hands . . . those who dig the ditches and lay the roads . . . those who hoist the cartons and stock the shelves . . . those who stand on the assembly line . . . those who cook or serve the meals and those who make the beds . . . those who clean the toilets and the floors . . . those who bear the children and grow the food and make the world come alive with flowers.

LET US HONOR THOSE WHO LABOR WITH THEIR BODIES AND THEIR HANDS.

Let us pause to honor those who bring to their labor the creativity of their minds . . . those who craft the sentences that live beyond the safety of the page . . . those who illuminate the complexity of living with patterns and models . . . those who wrestle with the intricacies of computers or designs or plans.

LET US HONOR THOSE WHO LABOR WITH THE CREATIVITY OF THEIR MINDS.

Let us pause to honor those humble enough to teach and those with openness enough to learn . . . Let us honor those who care for the sick in body, mind or soul . . . let us honor those who give tenderness to children . . . those who bring forth the gifts of art and music from their hearts . . . those who keep the wheels of living turning by answering the phones and translating the bureaucracies, tending the faxes and keeping the copy machines from taking over the world. Let us honor all the rich dimensions that are the work of human beings in the world.

LET US, ON THIS PRECIOUS DAY, HONOR THE WORK OF HUMAN BEINGS IN THE WORLD.

For these precious days, of work or of rest, we are thankful.

And finally, here is a small activity which may help today be even more precious. At the first in-between service I ever attended, many years ago, a dear friend, the late John Hearn introduced me to a form of Communion which I have never forgotten -- the Golden Bean Communion. I say to you, as he said on that day, that if you take one these magic beans it will assure you of at least one day's happiness in the coming congregational year, 2001-2. But the magic only works for you if you give the bean to someone else whom you care about, and tell them the same story, and that you're giving it to them because you care about them.

Take your Golden Bean. Later, when you leave this service (and it may be while you're still in this place, or maybe not), find someone whom you care about to give it to, and tell them the story. Then you will have at least one happy day in the year ahead -- guaranteed!

(GOLDEN BEAN COMMUNION)

The Hebrew word "Shalom" means "peace". It is used both as a greeting and as a farewell. It is a good word to use in this in-between time, as we prepare to say farewell to summer and hello to the new congregational year. It is a good word to use any day, as we seek peace within us and among us. "Shalom".