RESPONSIVE READING READINGS

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1 1 All existence is connected. My behavior matters. Act now. What Was Voltaire s Candide Grateful For? Rev. Dr. Jim Culver Sermon at UUSP on November 20, 2011 To the reader: This sermon was only part of a service of worship with many components working together, all of which were designed to be experienced in a community context. In our "free pulpit" tradition, its concepts are intended not as truths to receive, but as spurs to your own thought and faith. RESPONSIVE READING ONE: We sing now together our song of Thanksgiving, ALL: rejoicing in all which the ages have wrought, ONE: for life that enfolds us, and helps and heals and holds us, ALL: and leads beyond the goals which our forebears once sought. ONE: We sing of community now in the making, ALL: in every far continent, region, and land, ONE: with those of all races, all times and names and places, ALL: we pledge ourselves in covenant firmly to stand. -Edwin T. Buehrer READINGS Our readings this morning speak to lessons of gratitude and realistic optimism as passed down from 18 th century French author Voltaire through 20 th century American composer Leonard Bernstein. The first reading comprises the lyrics of the huge choral finale that our choir and soloists so beautifully shared with us earlier. Of our two readings, only this first one is printed in our programs. You ve been a fool, and so have I, but come and be my wife. And let us try before we die to make some sense of life. We ve neither pure nor wise nor good; we ll do the best we know; we ll build our house, and chop our wood, and make our

2 2 garden grow. I thought the world was sugar cake, for so our master said; but now I ll teach my hands to bake our loaf of daily bread. We ve neither pure nor wise nor good; we ll do the best we know; we ll build our house, and chop our wood, and make our garden grow. Let dreamers dream what worlds they please; those Edens can t be found. The sweetest flowers, the fairest trees, are grown in solid ground. We re neither pure nor wise nor good; we ll do the best we know. We ll build our house, and chop our wood, and make our garden grow, and make our garden grow. - Voltaire, Richard Wilbur and Leonard Bernstein Our second reading, also from the book of the operetta Candide, speaks to two wildly different opinions about the same institution in this case, the institution of marriage. In this early scene of the operetta, the young peasant boy Candide, played this morning by Mike Manning, and the young princess Cunegonde, played by Margie Manning, kiss, fall in love, and share their dreams of what married life means to each unfortunately without listening to each other. Soon, when we can afford it, we ll build a modest little farm. We ll build a yacht and live aboard it, rolling in luxury and stylish charm. Cows and chickens. Social whirls. Peas and cabbage. Ropes of pearls. Soon, there ll be little ones beside us, We ll have a sweet and modest home. Somehow we ll grow as rich as Midas, we ll live in Paris when we re not in Rome. Smiling babies. Marble halls. Sunday picnics. Costume balls. We ll round the world enjoying high life, all bubbly pink champagne and gold.

3 3 BOTH: We ll lead a rustic and a shy life, feeding the pigs and sweetly growing old. Breast of peacock. Apple pie. I love marriage. So do I O happy pair! O happy we! It s very rare, (in unison) How we agree! SERMON THIS MORNING S THEMES On this Thanksgiving Sunday, what was Voltaire s character Candide grateful for? Can we be both optimistic and realistic? Why is it crucially important as we enter a period of ministerial transition to listen to each other more effectively than Margie and Mike s characters did in our prior reading? This morning, let s briefly explore these questions together, which will require examinations of the operetta Candide, of the power of harnessing optimism, and of the 140 differing assumptions about our church represented here this morning. FOR OUR GUESTS For our guests here today, please allow me a moment to provide a framework in which to listen to this sermon on a subject that doesn t sound like your typical Thanksgiving discussion about Pilgrims sitting down to a 3 day feast with friendly heathen savages. Here at UUSP, we accept - we celebrate - that what we know is always partial and incomplete; and it will always be. We know that the core teachings of all faiths hold much more in common than their violent verbal and physical disagreements would indicate. This is why we Unitarian Universalists hold no creed of faith with which we all must agree. We

4 4 know that whatever creed we might come up with would inevitably be inadequate. We understand that we are not weak and childlike, incapable of rising up to meet the many challenges life brings. We have inherent dignity and worth, qualities that naturally inspire us to speak the truth in love and to assist the cause of justice. It helps us nurture and develop the potential that life has given us. Not to give us the answers to life s questions, but to give us a loving community in which to follow our own conscience, help us come into the integrity of our own answers. Not to protect us from the realities of suffering, but to move us to engage problems and do our best to make a difference in the world. Unitarian Universalism is a faith in the abundance of human potential to create unique lives of wisdom derived from trusting our own deepest experiences. So, with that framework, let s do the work of today and ask, what was Voltaire s Candide grateful for?. CAN WE BE BOTH OPTIMISTIC AND REALISTIC? For Unitarian Universalists, the word gratitude may be the closest we come to a single word definition about what we all understand to be the core emotion of our faith. Gratitude inspires hope. Hope subsequently promotes an optimistic worldview. An optimist sees the glass as half full. A pessimist sees the glass as half empty. And a pragmatist sees the glass as twice as big as it needs to be. So, what is optimism? It is simply the belief there s more good in life than bad. It is reacting to life in a positive manner. It is an attitude of positive expectations. There are certain psychological characteristics surrounding pessimism and optimism. Whenever something goes wrong, pessimists believe the problem will continue indefinitely, affect all areas of their life, and is their fault. Optimists, however, believe that problems are temporary setbacks with

5 5 limited impact and due to external causes. In a word, optimists choose to cope, pessimists choose to mope. Although I m an optimist, as a lifelong joke teller I must reluctantly admit that pessimism is a better source for humor than optimism. For example did you hear the one about the optimist who accidently fell off the Empire State Building? When he passed the fourth floor he said to himself, Well, so far, so good! And yet, we're all born optimists. It is our nature to be optimistic. But too many of us, when we reach the age of five or six, have been subjected to so much reality from our parents, family and friends that we begin to view the world through the eyes of our limitations. We gradually evolve into realists. Later, as we grow into young adults, this evolution continues spiraling toward pessimism. "It's a rat race out there. No point in working hard and making big bucks when the government is going to take it all in taxes. What's the point of getting married when 50% of marriages end in divorce? Why get involved in the ministerial transition at my church when my voice might not be heard above 100 other voices? Pessimism is seductively attractive, easily absorbed and difficult to escape from. Around two hundred years ago the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer observed that pessimism allows us to distance ourselves from direct involvement and relinquish the responsibility to take action. Today, in this religious community, now is not the time for pessimism nor for withdrawing our participation from this special place. Now is the time to choose to continue to be optimistic rather than pessimistic. Now is the time to continue sharing our hopes and dreams with each other as, together, we continue to build a beacon of liberal religion here in St. Petersburg.

6 6 WHAT WAS CANDIDE GRATEFUL FOR? What makes Schopenhauer s worldview so strongly comfortable is that the philosopher on the side of optimism offers a much weaker argument than that of Schopenhauer. The philosopher of optimism was Gottfried Wilhelm Liebniz, a 17 th century German. His argument was that God could make the world any way God wanted, and since God chose to make it this way, rather than some other way, it is this way for a divine reason. This must then be the best of all possible worlds, because if a better way to make the world were possible, then, God would have designed it that way. Earthquakes and diseases, Leibniz argued, have a divine purpose, and all things work together for good. We just don t always know God s plan. The French philosopher Voltaire mocked Leibniz s argument that this is the best of all possible worlds in his 1759 satire Candide, which 200 some years later Leonard Bernstein used to compose my favorite operetta by the same name. The comedic satire begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life and being indoctrinated with blind optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss, a fictionalized Gottfried Liebniz. The work evolves to show Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Candide the blind optimist transforms at first into a disillusioned pessimist and then fuses realism with an optimistic attitude. Voltaire concludes with Candide rolling up his sleeves, working to make his garden grow instead of blindly believing that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds". So, if pessimism can be so easily assimilated, and optimism so easily mocked, why choose to be optimistic? The quick start answer to that question is

7 7 that optimism works. Leibniz set back the case for optimism a few hundred years with his inane 18 th century arguments, yet if we set his ramblings aside for a moment, we now have as resources to consider thousands of scientific studies to confirm that people who are optimistic are happier in life than those who are pessimistic. Those who have reached their goals in life overwhelmingly tend to be those who have a positive outlook. Those who approach life with a positive attitude are more fun to be with, tend to have more friends, enjoy happier relationships, live longer, and have fun during the process of self discovery that accompanied the many events involved in a ministerial transition. So on a very practical level, at least, the argument for optimism is simple: it works. But there s another reason for looking at life positively. There is a religious aspect to all this. Being optimistic enhances your own unique spiritual journey. Here at UUSP we have a vision of liberal religion that views every person as unique, with unique gifts that define their ministry to the world. Our religious community exists not to defend doctrine or save souls, but to proclaim this vision to the wider world and help those who join to discover, nourish, and share those gifts, optimistically looking forward to a more just and loving world. In his classic 1902 book, Varieties of Religious Experience, philosopher and psychologist William James writes that we can experience those moments of being at one with the universe when looking at a fire, or the waves, or listening to music, or simply being quiet. Believe that life is worth living, he writes, and your belief will help create that fact. In more pragmatic terms, believing in something will inspire you to put forth more effort to accomplish that thing in which you believe. For those of us here today, believing that we will continue to grow stronger as a loving community will inspire us to put forth more effort and

8 8 fully participate in the actions that do, indeed, make us a stronger community. Henry David Thoreau agreed that a positive orientation toward the world around us can help us get through life. Thoreau wrote I believe there is a subtle magnetism in Nature which, if we consistently yield to it, will direct us aright. Buddhists would term this acceptance. Faith in a fact can help create that fact. So, who is being realistic, an optimist or a pessimist? The answer is both are realistic and correct, because both optimistic and pessimistic attitudes become at the end self-fulfilling prophecies. Faith in a fact can help create that fact. That is how an optimistic outlook can realistically shape a positive and meaningful life. But there is still another religious factor in looking at life through a positive lens like optimism. One of the central themes of Unitarian Universalism was and still is the dignity of human nature. On this Thanksgiving Sunday, we remember that the doctrine of original sin has been accepted in the fundamentalist Puritan culture since the 1620 landing of the Mayflower. That doctrine proposes that each of us is born a sinner, with even newborn babies being servants of the devil. Hundreds of years ago, those who would come to be called Unitarian or Universalist objected strongly to this doctrine. People are not born evil, they argued, but with the natural capacity for both good and evil. While the Puritan culture believed the human soul to be naturally oriented toward evil, the Unitarians found the strong capacity for good to be an innate part of each person. And while the doctrine of original sin allowed that a person s soul could be saved only through the intervention of a theistic, supernatural father figure holding a naughty and nice list, by the late 1800s, Unitarians were speaking of a doctrine they called salvation by character. It suggests that the end of the religious

9 9 quest is not correct belief. The true test of religion is not to be found in creeds. Rather, the religious task is the nurture of that natural capacity in all of us for good. Not everyone has a well-cultivated character, but everyone, by virtue of their humanity, has inherent worth and dignity. So, in addition to the idea that looking at the world through optimistic eyes actually works, it also affirms the religious task of making life a meaningful quest, directing us towards embracing a positive view of humanity that recognizes each persons inherent worth and dignity as well as the innate capacity for choosing good. So, if you are feeling any amount of pessimism about our church s future, what could you choose to do? First, I suggest that optimism is indeed a choice, and one of the greatest powers in the universe is our individual power of choice. Secondly, I invite you to become aware of negative self-talk, those negative scripts that are programmed in our minds, constantly playing. Scripted self-talk such as, "We re too old, We re too young; we re too small, we re too many. Whenever you catch yourself with a negative thought, step back and merely observe that you had that thought. That thought is only your programming, only your ego. Just observe it and acknowledge it for what it is; a preprogrammed response that you can choose to change just as you change the programmed response on your voic . Thirdly, remember that to be pessimistic, you have to ignore all the amazing things in this special place. You have to ignore occasions such as our traditional Stone Soup after service today where we come together in community to eat, drink and raise funds for worthy causes. Finally, to regain a sense of balanced optimism, remember that you are not alone. Not here. Share. Listen.

10 10 In the spirit of sharing with each other and deeply listening to the hopes and dreams voiced by all, let s take a trip down a memory lane of lyrics from the 5 musicals we ve produced together. Here then, is what I believe us to be: WHAT DO YOU LOVE? How do you live? What gives your life it s meaning? How can so many gather as one together in community? What really calls you? What really grabs you? What really moves you to live in peace? What do you value? What do you love most? Could it be love that s the same for each? Who are we to be? When do we begin? Where do we begin sharing the love within us? IF NOT US, then who? If not now, then when? Can this be my HOME. Where I don t need all the answers. Where it s safe to ask my questions. Where I go to energize or meditate. I need this HOME when I m going through some changes, when I need a broader vision, when I ve got a special day to celebrate. I wanna transform within, connect between, live life and enjoy. Feel gratitude, know dignity, meaning worth and joy. Those are my views of this amazing community. If that wasn t enough, I invite you to listen especially closely to the choral blessing that our choir sings following the closing hymn. Those thoughts, too, are my view of who you are. CODA So, what was Voltaire s Candide grateful for? Perhaps he was grateful simply for the journey. Candide s journey parallels our current journey in many ways. He was an energetic optimist, then temporarily stunned, went through a brief phase of pessimism only to re-emerge as a realistic optimist. Candide s realistic optimism is a solid model for UUSP today as we journey together through a ministerial transition. Like Candide, I envision us rolling up our

11 11 sleeves and working to make our garden grow, participating, sharing, listening, eating stone soup, and doing it all in the same spirit and for the same reasons we do all that we do in life to bring Dignity, Meaning, Worth and Joy to all our days. Waves of love.