My name is Rick Korchak, and this is my sermon.

When I read Rev. Roberta’s offer last fall of a “sermon of your choice” in the auction catalog, I knew that I just had to bid on it, and I knew just what the subject would be.

So when I saw Rev. Roberta on the night of the auction, I told her to get ready, because I was pretty sure that the sermon would be mine. “Oh, that’s great – what’s the topic?” she said.

“Death and dying” said I, as bluntly as I could. I secretly wanted to see her jaw drop.

But in typical Rev. Roberta fashion, she immediately came back with “Fantastic! I’d love to do a sermon on that!”

So here we are, on this first Sunday of Spring, talking about death and dying. It’s a perfect irony.

Now I noticed that whenever I invited my friends at home or in the congregation to come to “my” sermon, and I told them about the topic, they didn’t say very much.

They’d sort of look at me, look down at their feet, shuffle around uncomfortably and give me one of those polite “Ohhhh-kay” looks and quickly change the subject.

This was kind of disappointing, actually, but it got me thinking.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that their reaction is to be expected. I mean, let’s face it -- death and dying is not your typical cocktail party topic, except maybe in one of those jokes that starts with something like: “A lawyer dies and goes to heaven….”

Think about it -- the very thing that we have most in common – that will absolutely, positively happen to every one of us – indeed, that will happen to every living thing in the entire universe -- including the universe itself -- is almost never discussed.

It’s the gigantic and the sometimes overwhelming gorilla in the room and it is, ironically, the second most defining moment of our life -- after our birth -- yet no one ever talks about it.

I think that’s a big mistake. Perhaps if we talked more about death, we’d be more comfortable with accepting the reality of life.

Maybe – just maybe -- if more people focused on this life in this universe on this planet -- and why we humans have such an exquisite sentience -- just maybe the planet -- and, indeed, the universe -- would be a much different place.

That’s the primary reason why I chose this topic.

I’m relatively new to Unitarian Universalism, having been uninvolved in any type of organized religion for many decades. I stayed away from church for many reasons, but mostly because I had a hard time coming to grips with a belief in a vindictive God.

This is a God who would someday come to Earth and raise the dead and make a final judgment which would send some to an eternal paradise and damn the rest of us – or at least me anyway – to burn in an eternal Hell.

Little did I know how much my thinking had in common with the original concept of Universal Salvation from the original Universalists.

Unitarian Universalism allows me to believe in a different type of heaven and hell – the heaven and hell that we experience every day on this amazing planet, with its infinite wonders and horrendous sadness.

It supports me in my belief that we are the instantiation -- the eyes, the ears and the consciousness of the living and evolving universe itself.

And it gives me faith – the firm belief in something for which there is no proof – that we are here because it is our destiny and our duty to experience it all during our journey and to forever change it by our very being.

Why is that? Why has our species evolved in this special way that allows us to so fully experience this miracle?

Surely we’re not here to terrorize, to make war, to create injustice, hunger, homelessness and pollution. Surely we’re not here to pass through life in a miniscule existence too consumed with our greed and our ego and the complex and inhibiting social rules we have created.

There must be more. There is more.

Unitarian Universalism and this congregation have given me the structure and the meaning and the support to contemplate these questions and my existence and my purpose. They have given me faith in my conviction that there is meaning and purpose to this life, at this time, on this Earth.

The sermon topic I chose for today was also motivated by something I read in “100 Questions that Non-Members Ask About Unitarian Universalism”. One of those questions is: “Do Unitarian Universalists believe in life after death?”

It has a very interesting response:

“Very few UUs believe in a continuing, individualized existence after physical death” it states. “Even fewer believe in the physical existence of places called heaven or hell where one goes after dying. We believe immortality manifests itself in the lives of those we affect during our lifetime and in the legacy we leave when we die.”

Think about that. This is an extraordinarily powerful statement of belief; one that to me is much more meaningful than hoping that we will rise from the dead and hopefully be chosen to live forever while others burn in hell.

Let me read it once more:

“We believe immortality manifests itself in the lives of those we affect during our lifetime and in the legacy we leave when we die.”

This single statement has enormous implications. It means that we have only one chance – our single brief trip through life on this Earth – to do it right. It immediately brings into question everything our species has done since the beginning of time and will do until its end.

It is a powerful religious statement that, in effect, says: We live for life, not for death.

It puts an enormous burden on us to make sure that the legacy that we leave will provide us with immortality through our spirit. The word immortality is defined as a “perpetuity of existence”. So this means that everything we do will affect every living thing that follows in our footsteps for all eternity.

Can you imagine what this Earth would be like if everyone accepted this notion?

If everyone accepted that we only go through once, and that we will be judged on doing what is right to build the rest of eternity?

If everyone accepted that we only had one chance, do you think we would waste time with terror, war, injustice, hunger, homelessness and pollution?

Maybe this is why so few people talk about death. It’s much easier to believe that somehow things will work out; that we just have to have faith and in the end everything will be taken care of for us through all eternity.

It’s much, much harder to work and to struggle to find the answers that will help us to make our heaven right here on this earth.

So I say: let us talk about death. Let us accept it. Let us learn what others say and think and feel about it.

By doing so, we will accept life -- and we can make it as meaningful as possible, building our heaven for us, for those we love and for those who are yet to come.