The Essence (!?) of Unitarian Universalism

Transcription

1 The Essence (!?) of Unitarian Universalism Sunday, April 22, 2012 Rev. Bruce Southworth, Senior Minister The Community Church of New York Unitarian Universalist Readings (1) I begin with a story about John Murray, founder of the first Universalist congregations in this country. John Murray was preaching his doctrine in Boston about a loving God, rather than an angry punishing God, and on one occasion in 1774, a large stone came crashing through the window of the church he was visiting. The stone barely missed the preacher's head, hit the pulpit, and landed with a thud on the floor. Murray picked it up, and without skipping a beat, held it in his hand and said to the congregation: "This argument is solid and weighty, but is neither reasonable nor convincing." Then, as he put it aside, he said, "Not all the stones in Boston, except they stop my breath, shall shut my mouth." The incident made headlines. Such allegiance to reason led John Murray to affirm in the graciousness of creation that God is Love, not an eternal jail-keeper for hell. His doctrine was simple, direct, and convincing. A God of Love does not send his precious creatures to an eternal hell. Murray continued unafraid and put it this way 240 years ago and unleashed a mighty Spirit, a faith in the power of Love. Murray wrote, preached, and celebrated again and again saying, Go out into the highways and byways of America, your new country. Give the people, blanketed with a decaying and crumbling Calvinism, something of your new vision. You may possess only a small light but uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men (and women.) Give them, not hell, but hope and courage. Do not push them deeper into their theological despair, but preach the kindness and everlasting love of God. (2) Universalism 100 years later in the 1870s was beginning to affirm a welcoming embrace of universal values shared by various major world religions with the beginnings of Universal Religion. It was opening its doors to wider spheres. By 1919, its visionary leader Clarence Skinner offered Principles of the Future Religion. He would come to speak about the unities and universals that unite humankind, 1

2 manifested or to be manifested in economic, social, political, racial and scientific as well as religious Universalism. (American Universalism, George Huntston Williams, 84) It was a vision of evolutionary progress, perhaps slow in its fulfillment, but unmistakably underway, a universalism found in the highest development of the world religions (with) Christianity an important step yet a universalism (that) is a higher development than Christianity summoning the best from every tradition. (85) {That a proclamation was in 1946.} (3) Finally for our readings, there is also a perhaps familiar story that I want to offer about an esteemed colleague, Harry Scholefield who some years ago received the Distinguished Service Award from the Unitarian Universalist Association. I share with you again his closing comments upon receiving this great honor, when he summarized the saving grace of our path of spiritual freedom. Sometimes it seems to me that what we are all about as Unitarian Universalists can be summed up in just three words. The first word is ACT. Don't just stand there. ACT! The other two words come to me through a Quaker friend. She went one Sabbath day to an old New Jersey meetinghouse. It turned out to be what the Quakers call a "gathered meeting," a meeting where no one speaks and the silence grows deeper and deeper. Fifteen minutes, a half hour, three quarters of an hour went by and nothing was said. The only sound in the meetinghouse was the ticking of an old grandfather's clock. As the meeting was about to close, a woman rose and said, "I've been sitting here trying to understand what the clock is saying to us. Now I think I've got it. It's saying, 'Think. Thank.' 'Think. Thank.' 'Think. Thank.'" [Harry Scholefield then continued,] I feel that I am an old grandfather s clock that has been ticking away in our ministry for fifty-two years. And what I hear myself saying to you now in celebration of this occasion is, Think. Thank. Act! Think. Thank. Act! Think. Thank. Act! 2

3 The Essence (!?) of Unitarian Universalism From our readings, I begin with the Universalist faith of John Murray in the 1770s: Use your light to give hope and courage to others. Share kindness and everlasting love embedded in creation. Clarence Skinner, a 20 th century Universalist leader, spoke of the unities and universals of religious traditions across the ages. From our Unitarian heritage: equally well: Think. Thank. Act. Harry Scholefield declared what we are about Our Unitarian Universalist faith has found many expressions throughout the centuries, and this morning I return to essential themes, core values. A distinctive religious path that is both simple and challenging comforting and liberating even as we find our personal ways of speaking about it. Evolving, Maturing in Faith My own path has been and still is an ever-maturing, evolving embrace. I grew up Unitarian Universalist in Knoxville, Tennessee. I remember the original home in an old house on the edge of the University of Tennessee campus, with children s classes in the basement. Then when I was six years old, we moved to the new building on the respectable church row, along Kingston Pike, a main road a few miles away. We learned about Jesus, the Carpenter s Son not Jesus as God s son. We learned about other religious traditions in The Church Across the Street curriculum, which also included visiting the two synagogues in that smallish city. I made friends from all over town; it was not a neighborhood congregation with only my schoolroom classmates. And I recall a neighbor and good friend who was forbidden by her parents from visiting, from setting foot in my church, because well I guess because some of us were budding activists. Some of us teenagers were against the Vietnam War, as well as against religious bigotry and racial prejudice. Moreover, theologically, we were heretics obviously bad influences on other teens. And for Unitarian Universalists when being identified as heretics, I always quickly note that the word heresy comes from the Greek word that means, to choose. That freedom of choice is part of the essence of our faith freedom of conscience. Freedom of belief is a wonderful blessing. 3

4 Isn t God, or Life, or Creation, or Human Creativity too large to be confined in one narrow, dogmatic belief system? We happily, gladly, choose because, as one of our hymns says, what we choose is what we are. Growing up Unitarian Universalist, I/we would trick or treat for UNICEF, walk the nature trail behind the church as a Sunday school class, and in the early 1960s attend an inter-racial summer day camp on the campus of Knoxville College at least until racist threats of violence against black and white children forced the closure of that integrated program. I am sure at times I may have initially resisted going to Sunday School some mornings, but my mother was a teacher, and my brother and I had no choice. And something remarkable happened! We had fun and saw church as a place for celebrating Life and a wonderful constellation of kindred spirits. One Sunday School teacher I vaguely recall, on a slightly different note, was renowned for having a pet monkey. However, at some point, he was arrested for something like embezzling money from his job, which is only to say that my home congregation was made up of wonderful and sometimes flawed individuals, just as every congregation is. We also rebelled against the 7 th grade Sunday School curriculum, and something else remarkable happened. The adults listened to our questions and complaints, and a new course was offered. We had been heard not only heard but also taken seriously respected. The pioneering, child-centered curriculum of Sophia Lyon Fahs was working its magic upon us! As teenagers, we continued to grow in curiosity, were encouraged to ask questions, and learned about free-thinkers and core Unitarian values. We also found outlets for social protest and adolescent angst, and we found supportive friends. We were learning that we can help change the world with greater love and reasoned faith. All this set us and our church apart from the conservative, Fundamentalist culture that embraced racism, sexism and the many other systemic oppressions I did not yet understand and rebel against. In tenth grade, in the foyer of the church, I found a small card inviting membership. It has a bond of union on it that declares that Unitarian Universalists affirmed - the worth and dignity of every person, - the free and responsible search for truth and meaning, - the use of democratic processes throughout society, and - justice, love and compassion in our daily lives. 4

5 I would read that card and say, yes, yes, yes, this is who I am and what I believe. However, it was a mouthful, and I am pretty sure that card included another value/virtue/affirmation that I affirm heart and soul but don t now recall. I would read those affirmations and knew this was MY church home, but I had a hard time remembering it all.. But I had a solution. I put the card in my wallet. I carried it around with me for several years, would take it out occasionally and read it again and a month or two later do it all over again, with the same quiet joy, knowing this was my home deep values something sustaining. And I was not alone. Part of this is to say, that for our newcomers who may never have heard of Unitarian Universalists until recently, I understand a bit of the challenge it is to grasp our values, this liberating faith. I assented mentally to those affirmations and felt their living power in that congregation, yet it took a good while before I could fully speak clearly about them and share them with others. Thinking for Ourselves & Core Values First of all, however, one essential idea seemed to strike me clearly: I realized that we must think for ourselves about religious matters. That much I knew by heart and could say to friends from other faiths. Religion is so important we have to use our gift of reason. That goes to the heart of the matter, AND there is more. The core back then: the worth and dignity of every person, the free and responsible search for truth and meaning, the use of democratic processes throughout society, and justice, love and compassion in our daily lives. A mouthful then, and now? In our Responsive Reading, we have seven principles. We have cards with those in the lobby, and the good news is that they fit more easily into one s wallet or purse than the card I had in high school. Who Are We? The Essence of our faith? This morning I turn again to some of our faith stories and our values, a kind of Unitarian Universalism 101, but with something for long-timers, as well I hope. Last fall, I offered an elevator speech an affirmation that can be offered in the time it takes to ride an elevator up or down a few floors. 5

6 Who are we? We Unitarian Universalists seek to speak and live the truth of our lives and the wisdom of the world in love. In love and I now add, in community. I keep tinkering with it. It affirms the importance of deeds, truth-telling, personal authenticity, group identity, inclusiveness, our spiritual quest, and love. That covers a good bit of the ground of our historic faith and our liberating spirit. We seek to speak and live the truth of our lives and the wisdom of the world in love and in community and... and and even more that I shall come to. Deeds Not Creeds The essence of our faith? A briefer candidate is a popular description: Deeds not Creeds! Truly, that is what we Unitarian Universalists are about. Theological clarity is important in anyone s meaning-making, but what we do our deeds trump creeds. Creeds tend to divide humanity. Good works, service, and loving action bring people together. So, how did we take shape and who are some of our mentors, guides, anchors? The Principle of the Free Mind In 1830, the leading liberal minister and theologian of the period was William Ellery Channing who served the Federal Street Church in Boston. He had already helped claim the name Unitarian for us a decade earlier, and then in a sermon titled, Spiritual Freedom, he offered The Principle of the Free Mind individual freedom of belief and clearly this principle of the Free Mind suffused my religious upbringing. Honoring Personal Experience Next among the profound spiritual guides for our evolving faith came Ralph Waldo Emerson. Admittedly, he was a Unitarian Minister soon disenchanted with congregational rituals like communion, and he was not very talented as a pastor, but then in the late1830s, he shook up our faith with a radically new vision. Speaking to the graduating class at Harvard Divinity School in 1838, he began to open Unitarians up to deep appreciation of personal experience, first-hand religious experience in nature. As a result, we moved beyond a singular identification with Jesus and our Christian heritage. He had been reading the book of Nature all around him in Concord, Massachusetts, but also reading the Upanishads, a scripture of Hinduism. 6

7 In both Nature and Hindu teaching, he sensed mystic, kindred intuitions of oneness of the Human spirit with Life s spirit, with Creation and the Creativity within, around us and beyond us something sacred divinity in our spirits and souls and in the world around us. Emerson also noted that society is often in conspiracy against us. Conformity tempts us, to which he responded, Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. In the spirit of Channing s Principle of the Free Mind, Emerson continued to set us apart from so many other faith traditions, for whom questions are not allowed. Emerson in that 1838 commencement address offered a discourse on Natural Religion focusing on the divine impulse within each one of us, a sacred Creativity within our hearts, souls, and minds that transcends the authority of the Bible and of Christianity. Nature, and our human nature he argued, reflect a divinity that is independent of particular or specific revelations, a divinity that transcends the received revelation handed down in Christian scripture as the only path to God and salvation. That day, Emerson s words would be scorned by the Divinity School faculty. One professor followed up with a written reply and titled it, A Discourse on the Latest Form of Infidelity. But, it would not be too long before many of the free-thinking Unitarian Christians embraced Emerson s Transcendentalism that honored religious wisdom and sacred revelation in traditions from around the world, as well as in Nature s grace, majesty and power Transcendentalism that honored our moral freedom and power. Passing Our Lives Through the Fire of Thought Soul and Evermore Soul Emerson argued that our task is to pass Life, our lives in all their beauty and woundedness, to pass Life through the fire of thought to cultivate soul and evermore soul by which he meant our moral and spiritual capacities for compassion and character. And this truly is a prime candidate for the essence of our faith: to pass Life through the fire of thought to cultivate soul and evermore soul by which he meant our moral and spiritual capacities to grow our souls, spirits, and in so doing to fulfill the promise and potential of our humanity. As opposed to second-hand faith believing something because someone else tells you that you have to believe it as opposed to that, with Emerson s initiative we embrace the invitation to think for ourselves about what we believe and to affirm familiar or unfamiliar paths or wisdom wherever we find it no longer the Bible alone... no longer only the leadership of Jesus discovering an expansive liberating path. As influential as Emerson was, expanding our tradition toward universal values beyond the bounds of Christianity, Christianity remained a dominant influence well into the 20 th century for many. 7

8 Five Points In 1886, a Unitarian minister by the name of James Freeman Clarke responded to a resurgence of Calvinism with his Five Points of the New Theology. His five were: 1. The Fatherhood of God 2. The Brotherhood of Man 3. The Leadership of Jesus (not the divinity of Jesus) 4. Salvation by Character (salvation by what we do, not God s whimsy) and 5. The Progress of Mankind onward and upward forever. It was wildly popular and useful for decades, yet for us today patriarchal language has faded, as has a focus on Jesus only for most of us, as well as that last affirmation about the inevitability of human progress, as the 20 th century unfolded with its World Wars, genocide and other horrors. Yet human community, the grace of our kinship, and salvation by character still do describe us powerfully, and still empower! Freedom, Reason, Tolerance I want to add that in the early to mid-twentieth century, it was a historian a Unitarian historian of our faith by the name of Earl Morse Wilbur, who gave us a new and powerful grounding. Wilbur, who began his history with the Transylvanian Unitarians in the 1560s, came up with three distinctive elements of Unitarianism. Generations of Ministers were schooled in his declaration about Freedom, Reason, and Tolerance: individual freedom of belief, the use of reason in religious life, and tolerance of the faith of others. These three emerged in his review of 400 years of liberal faith in Europe, England and America. Freedom, reason, and tolerance are what collectively distinguishes Unitarian Universalism from other religions. (Rev. Bruce Clary) And these became the gospel of many a minister and still offer us clear identity. The essence of our faith? The Free Mind; Deeds not Creeds; passing our lives through the fire of thought; growing our souls; the unities and universals; Freedom, Reason and Tolerance? All worthy and good The Fruits of Liberal Faith And all this too was part of my upbringing. I learned that in freedom and openness, in choosing, in thinking critically for myself, 8

9 in respecting others, through loving kindness, in justice-making, in using personal power to put love into action, and with support of a caring community, change is possible. Uncertainty need not be feared. Life s wounds can heal. Final answers are often a trap. We live into answers, and that there is Life Abundant. Each of us can make a difference. Welcoming Each to the Service of All There are also at least two other things that have deepened within me, that I have learned along the way, with you, over these years of ministry with one another, in my evolving faith. The first comes from that phrase on our building, beneath the Isaiah statue that speaks of beating swords into plowshares. Those words Knowing not sect, class, nation or race, welcoming each to the service of all were part of the bond of union adopted here in For a faith of strong individualism and individualists, there is now more recently our ever-expanding understanding of a servant spirit. Not only do we live for ourselves to grow our souls, to grow in beauty and strength but we also can do that only if we have each other s help and only if we give ourselves to matters greater than our individual selves. Welcoming each to the service of all. Simple yet Life affirming and life changing. A healthy spiritual reminder for individualists. Gratitude Then, perhaps the most fundamental matter of religious life, a spiritual life the essence of a healthy faith that we have not always emphasized, or perhaps just taken for granted: A life of Gratitude for this gift of Life Think and Act but always Thank! Wonder before life s gifts! As caretakers of wonder, give thanks! The Essence of Our Faith? What is the essence of our faith, with so many dimensions? How about? 9

10 As Unitarian Universalists, we seek to speak and live the truth of our lives and the wisdom of the world in love and in community, and in service and in deep gratitude. We find our own words of faith, symbols that speak to us, or hymns that are favorites. You may or may not love the affirmation about the Church Universal, or the banners from religious traditions around the world here in our Hall of Worship, or the Flaming Chalice witnessing to our individual and collective light and love. We keep growing in spirit, grounded yet changing, perhaps with a different focus at different seasons of our lives. This morning some reminders of our breadth and depth. For me, these days, I keep returning to variations on several themes: Life is a gift. Our days are brief. People are precious. Caring counts ultimately. Think for yourself. Honor your integrity. Cherish our community. Share everything. Serve Life and others, and rejoice. Give thanks.give thanks give thanks and the world awaited truly becomes more nearly the world attained. 10