(2) Seeking God? Angelus Silesius, a Jesuit who lived in the 1600s, resonates with contemporary empirical, natural theology.

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1 RELIGION WITHOUT (OR WITH) GOD(S) Sunday, January 25, 2015 Rev. Bruce Southworth, Senior Minister The Community Church of New York Unitarian Universalist Readings (1) The Algerian-born, Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus in one of his early novels describes humanity s weakness for beauty. To that I would add another of his thoughts: "Absurdity is king but love saves us." (2) Seeking God? Angelus Silesius, a Jesuit who lived in the 1600s, resonates with contemporary empirical, natural theology. thy blessedness is there for thee to seize; Wouldst thou bestir thyself, and cast aside thine ease. Call not upon thy God; the fountain springs in thee, Didst thou not stop its flow, it ever could spring free. God became human in thee. (3) Writer David Foster Wallace offered the Commencement address at Kenyon College in Speaking to graduating seniors about adulthood, Wallace concludes, You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship. Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-today trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and 1

2 you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness. (4) Dorothee Soelle, liberation theologian and a professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary writing in 1968, observed, If there is something we will be able to say about God in the future, it will be this: God is our capacity to love the power, the spark that animates our love. We should stop looking for God. [God] has been with us [and within us] for a long time. (Strength of the Weak, 138) RELIGION WITHOUT (OR WITH) GOD(S) Rev. Bruce Southworth Community, Ritual, and Hope As I have noted in the newsletter for this morning, on Christmas Day several of those attending our mid-day dinner spoke of the NY Times Op-Ed article by T. M. Luhrmann. She is a Stanford University Professor of Anthropology and wrote about Religion Without God. She began by describing a traditional New England church that her family would be attending this Christmas. It is colonial style with pews and stern side stalls with among other things, The Lord s Prayer hanging on the wall behind the sanctuary a place where a congregation, as she said, once would come to face God. She notes, however, that it is a Unitarian Congregation and goes on to explain a bit of history and how ancient supernatural belief claims are received now with skepticism, even as a certain yearning, curiosity, and/or interest in faith remains. Unitarian Universalist diversity of beliefs about God (and no God) was her entrypoint to her discussion of religion without God. She went on to offer a behavioral analysis of any religious/church life, with three major functions. What is the impulse for God-neutral, or even atheist meetings/gatherings /service? (She describes not only Unitarian Universalists but also British humanists and emerging atheist-based Sunday Assemblies.) 2

3 First of all, she identifies the urge, the need the quest for community. Certainly!! Second, she describes the role of rituals that help us focus attention on important things, for example on our best selves and abilities. And I would add that the word worship derives from worthship identifying/focusing on worthy things. For me, I first felt the lasting power of religious ritual in attending weekly worship at a UU church during my senior year of high school. Luhrmann adds that rituals also work. Rituals work. She cites studies about how rituals affect our sense of self. For example, saying that you are grateful makes you feel grateful saying that you are thankful makes you feel thankful. And other studies have shown that such practices make one feel better overall about oneself and the world. With or without God, we humans gather (1) for community and (2) to focus on important things that enhance our sense of well-being. The third element she mentions was the practice of seeing how the world is, and beyond that, embracing what it might be. For her article, she concluded by acknowledging the power of the spirit of Christmas, as aspiration, hope, healing, and comfort, which are available without or with a metaphor or story including God-talk. We here as an inclusive religious community get all this! These things like gathering in Community, Rituals (such as weekly worship, social witness or service), and the accompanying experiences of Hope and possibility arise in our diverse gathering with or without God. We do so without fighting among dueling faith claims about God, no-god, Higher Power, Human agency, saviors, or the like. Holy Curiosity Luhrmann also noted that without traditional God-talk, many like us want to focus on human relations not supernatural ones. This worldly, to be sure yet with Godly, sacred possibilities. What could have been added to her lovely Christmas Day pretty-goodadvertisement for Unitarian Universalists? For me, there is also what we have embraced as part of our creative journey, namely, the Principle of the Free Mind, as the 19 th century Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing called it. Or what Albert Einstein called holy curiosity about life s mysteries, life and death and why? And I always like to add that as much as we value higher education, ordinary thoughtfulness and curiosity are the essential, not a series of diplomas or degrees. 3

4 Theological Diversity All this is part of who we are. With regard to God-talk, we honor diversity. A few years ago at one of the new member classes we offer, I was especially struck by the comments of two of those present as they reflected on their own religious journeys. Each was clear and spoke with contented conviction. One reported that she was an atheist, yet wanted more than an intellectual philosophy. Here she found a sense of spirit, community, and activism. A spirit of Life!! The other sitting on the same couch reported that she believed in Jesus as her Lord and Teacher and in the Golden Rule do to others as you would have them do to you. Here she found a sense of spirituality, community, and active support for her spiritual growth. That each could find a home with us is a testament to the breadth of our welcome. It was an affirming witness to our encouragement to find one s own path an affirmation that there can be a caring community that cherishes differences rather than arguing about them. Deeds, not creeds! Others in the group were in different places one with clear Buddhist leanings, others with differing Humanist or Theist or Higher Power theological views and others still not quite sure how to articulate their experiences of wonder, awe and connection, or transformation. To be sure, when we have done surveys, we seem to have identifiable selfdescriptions (some of which overlap): Ethical Religion, Humanism, Naturalistic Theism, Ethical Christianity, Mysticism, Buddhism, and Agnosticism. Less numerous but surely here are atheists, theological Christians, Deists, Taoists, Sufi s, and Existentialists. Also the many who also identify as Unitarian Universalist! It is a wonderful diversity. We honor each other s experiences and choice of selfdefinition. For some God-talk is important, and for others it is not. A Challenge This morning some reflections on God, God-talk, and what I believe is more important than language namely our personal experiences that anchor us to life Life with a capital L and on how we go about our lives each day with hope, courage, and character. In this curious quest, Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, whom I have found so helpful in my religious growth, once warned, Discussing God is not the best use of our energy. (Encountering God, D. Eck, p. xvi) 4

5 And, Lao-Tzu in the opening meditation of the Tao Te Ching, The Way of Life, begins: Existence is beyond the power of words to define: Terms may be used, but none of them is absolute. Yet, I am equally sympathetic with the great Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, who argued that despite the abuse of the word God, which is so tarnished, we may still want to "point indirectly to certain scarcely describable events in human life where spirit was encountered." Encountering Spirit For me, poets can be helpful in pointing to evoking reflecting intimations of my own experience, of spirit being present. Walt Whitman is one: I say to mankind, Be not curious about God, For I who am curious about each am not curious about God, (No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.) I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least, Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. Why should I wish to see God better than this day? I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass, I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign d by God s name, And I leave them where they are, for I know that whereso er I go, Others will punctually come for ever and ever. Alice Walker in her novel The Color Purple dispatches the ancient patriarchal, male, blue-eyed sky-god personification as no longer being serviceable for her and embraces that divine spark within us that makes us co-creators lines that speak so deeply to me about our sacred potentials. Again in The Color Purple, Shug at one point puts it this way: tell the truth, have you ever found God in Church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for (God) to show. Any God I ever felt in Church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They came to church to share God, not find God. 5

6 What Walker suggests, theologian that she is masquerading as a novelist, is that we be mindful of creation be awake, appreciative even amidst mystery... and then, blessedly, comfort and joy arise from such reverence and appreciative awareness. Even amidst the tragedies of nature s fury, or accidents, disease? then, especially then Yes, even In the Midst of Tragedy - A World of Grace In speaking about spirituality and suffering and forgiveness and living with power, week by week, day by day, we shape our faith, our convictions, our values, and I want to share the perspective/faith/vision of a college professor named Jerry Sittser, [Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington,] who lost his mother, his wife and his four-year-old daughter in a car accident. (with thanks to Rev. Richard Gilbert) Sittser reflects this way challenging some traditional perspectives on God: Many people wrote to him expressing shock, anger, and doubt. Why you? they kept asking. As one person commented, Your family appeared so ideal. This tragedy is a terrible injustice. If it can happen to you, it can happen to any of us. Now no one is safe! No one is safe, because the universe is hardly a safe place. It is often mean, unpredictable, and unjust. Loss has little to do with our notions of fairness. Loss is no more a respecter of persons and positions than good fortune is. There is often no rhyme or reason to the misery of some and to the happiness of others. Over time I began to be bothered by the assumption that I had a right to complete fairness. Granted, I did not deserve to lose three members of my family. But then again, I am not sure I deserved to have them in the first place. [My wife] Lynda was a woman of superior qualities, and she loved me through some very hard times. My mother lived well and served people to her life s end, and she showed a rare sensitivity to me during my rebellious teenage years. [My daughter] Diana Jane sparkled with enthusiasm for life and helped to fill our home with noise and excitement. Perhaps I did not deserve their deaths; but I did not deserve their presence in my life, either. On the face of it, living in a perfectly fair world appeals to me. But deeper reflection makes me wonder. In such a world, I might never experience tragedy; but neither would I experience grace, especially the grace God gave me in the form of the three wonderful people whom I lost. So, God spare us a lifetime of fairness! To live in a world with grace is better by far than to live in a world of absolute fairness. A fair world might make life nice for us, but only as nice as we are. We might get what we deserve, but I 6

7 wonder how much that is and whether or not we would really be satisfied. A world with grace will give us more than we deserve. It will give us life, even in our suffering. With or without God, there are times of wonder and joy. And times to mourn, not to blame, for we share in the mystery of moments of tragedy the fellowship of suffering that no one escapes. alive. Times to be transparent and vulnerable [May Sarton] - to be fully human and Escaping Foolishness One of the odd things in my seminary studies odd to me was the large number of courses I took in Old Testament and New Testament. Along the way, I made some discoveries, helped along by a particularly irritating passage in Psalms. It said, "Fools say in their hearts, 'There is no God.'" Theologically, I had humanist leanings, with a good dash of nature mysticism, was anti-god, at least anti- supernatural God, and being introduced to theistic possibilities of the process of Creativity Creativity of the cosmos that is in you, and in me.. I was not inclined to use God-talk, nor comfortable with the conclusion that I was a fool. I quarreled with that text, and in seminary, I wrote a sixteen-page paper on Psalm 14, with my own translation from the Hebrew, two pages of footnotes, and two pages of bibliography, trying to make sense of it, (and I ll read it to you now! Not really!) What I recall is that the fool in Hebrew is one who acts alone, who thinks that one can actually act alone, live alone, without connection to anyone or anything. The fool is one who tries to be self-sufficient: no friends, no intimate companion, one who has no connection with Life, or Creativity, or Higher Power, or God, if that symbol/reality speaks to you. Or in Hebrew, the fool is one who is empty. No reverence for mystery, no appreciation for wonder, no laughter at surprise, no bonding with another, no love, no joy at an infant's birth, no delight with each new day. By contrast, the wise person, the full person, even if you avoid God-talk and all its ambiguities, confusions and blessings, the wise person is a seeker after such daily things the things that reveal something greater, the Spirit of Life, or a Creativity within you and me and around us. Common Ground So, no matter your taste in symbolism for mystery and creative power, or in theology, or distaste for either, some common ground remains for all of us. 7

8 With or without God, there are times to mourn, but also opportunities, yea even community and rituals, to give thanks for the graciousness that brought us to Life and for the many gifts we so often take for granted. Spirit of Life, or God, or Human creativity, or cosmic Creativity much poetry, many symbols and stories. As I come close to the end of my ruminations this morning, I turn again to Senator Al Franken, whose path and mine have intersected in various ways over the past 45 years. It was four years ago that Senator Al Franken spoke at our denominational Annual Meeting when it was being held in Minneapolis. He claimed to be setting aside his usual speech, and with us, he had decided to venture into speaking about God. He reported that his father saw God not as a person; rather than that, God was that which is behind everything, including nature. [He added] It wasn t very different from what our founding fathers believed. Then Senator Franken included a story about a friend who had praised Franken s son for being so nice who was someone who reflected simple virtues, virtue in action, doing the right thing. Choking up a bit, he added, "To me that s what God is. God is my dad in my son. So, for him, the sacred God gets passed along, from generation to generation, a bonus of value added by our deeds. Humility, Reverence, Thanks & Caring With or without God, there is time for humility to acknowledge that we ourselves are not God and that the only way we complete ourselves is by living for persons, causes, ideals, dreams larger than ourselves, which together we can make real. With or without God, times for thanksgiving and humility may help us to live with some measure of reverence for creation and each other. Community helps. Focusing on worthy things helps. Acknowledging the power we have for radiant possibilities helps whether we invoke God as metaphor or story or not. Something we do in community, with our many rituals, practices, and pointing to hope and new life. Whether the symbols, metaphors, or images of God lure you, bless you, and nurture you or not, we share common humanity and the daily opportunity of o deeds being more important than creeds, o fulfilling our humanity, 8

9 o becoming fully human and fully alive, o perhaps growing our souls, with or without God, doing all this as we mourn, as we grieve, as we give thanks, as we seek a measure of humility, as we give ourselves to something greater than ourselves, and as we live with reverence. Perhaps the kind of reverence, with or without God, as offered by the prophet of old, O mortal, what is required of thee but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly. Reverence with or without God however you discern best for your own life reverence in the knowledge that love does save us. Where in the world is the spirit? [Where do we meet God?] It s wherever anyone sees and hears and feels and cares. (Duncan Littlefair) Meditation O gods, goddesses, O Gift of Life, with the gifts of Memory, of the searching Mind, of the Heart, and of our Bodies and the gift of Imagination All these things that bless us, bless us, bless us, and challenge us, distract us, and sometimes keep us from being here, now. Awaken us here. now. Such is our prayer. Amen. 9