pantheists, panentheists, and process theologians. There are those who believe Eternity takes the form of reincarnation, or the continuation of the pe

Transcription

1 Death and Glory! A sermon preached by the Rev. Lee Bluemel at The North Parish of North Andover, MA, Unitarian Universalist November 2, 2014 All Souls, Samhain, Los Dias de Los Muertos I was walking down the street of a strange city when I saw someone in a black t-shirt emblazoned with a white skull and a white cross and the words Death and Glory! In a single glance, I knew she must be a Unitarian Universalist. Death and glory! Who else would wear a t-shirt like that? Who else but a Unitarian Universalist would resurrect the clarion call, the evangelistic sound-bite of the Universalists of old? Death and glory! Would you wear a t-shirt like that? Some of us might, and others would not. They are being sold by the UU Christian fellowship, which is why there is a cross instead of a chalice next to the skull. (In fact, former member and UU minister Rev. Mark Caggiano had a hand in the design.) I couldn t pass up a clever black UU t-shirt, but since I m not a Christian UU I got this one insteadwith a heart on fire that says Love the Hell out of this world. Personally, I m more comfortable making a pronouncement about our purpose here on earth than about the afterlife-- how typically Unitarian Universalist. The reality is that ours is an odd faith, because we don t have one doctrine about what happens after life. Among us there is a diversity of belief on this question, because among us there are not only Christian Universalists but atheist and agnostic and Humanist Universalists, as well as Buddhists, pagans, Jews, Hindus,

2 pantheists, panentheists, and process theologians. There are those who believe Eternity takes the form of reincarnation, or the continuation of the personality or the soul, or in the echoing impact of our deeds and relationships, or the merging with All That Is, with Oneness, with God or Love and others who believe life is all there is, that we merely recycle our elements, merge with the earth, and still others who believe something else entirely or prefer to set the question aside and focus on enlightenment or the here and now. Regardless of where we are on the theological spectrum personally, as a body, Unitarian Universalism keeps its pronouncements to the present world, humbly suggesting that we ultimately can not know what happens after we die. Personally, we have experiences and convictions and encounters that we can choose to share with others, but as a religion we don t demand that all agree. Nor is ours is not a theology of church as toll booth where one gets a ticket to the afterlife. Darn, you might be saying- I could have slept in even later this morning! Most religions do focus on their answer to the afterlife question, so it can be odd, frustrating, confusing, worrisome to not be handed an answer by ours. But I d argue that even more worrisome are some of the answers get handed out. Too many faiths propose a dualistic universe and a tribal sort of deity that requires certain beliefs for salvation, or divides people into groups of good and bad. Too many suggest that hell after life is real as if the people having to live through hell on earth hadn t had enough of it already. The idea of hell or punishment after life may get some folks into church or inspire them to evangelize others. But on a personal and societal level, it can also inspire a lot of fear and dread, as well as this-worldy judgment of self and others.

3 A friend and colleague who now serves a UU congregation in the mid-west told me a story from her ministry this past summer. She is part of the local clergy group and one of the joint efforts of all the local churches is serving a free community dinner every month. It is attended by various people in town, some who appreciate a free meal, including a number of teenagers who come on their own. Some of the churches are represented by lay people in this ministry, and so it was that one of those laypeople shared a concern with the group. She said, Should we feed the unaccompanied teenagers? They re going to hell anyway. It seems to me that it is this kind of confusion that Rabbi Jesus was reacting to 2,000 years ago. I suspect that s why he ate and met with non-jews, with sinners, tax collectors, women and other people considered beyond the pale. I d like to believe he would be more than startled, even horrified to find his name associated with a religious rationale to turn away hungry youth. It is startling that people can get so confused and so far from the example of their founding mystic and prophet. Universalists has been claiming for over 220 years that there is no such thing as hell or eternal damnation- for anyonehungry teenagers or otherwise. It s a bothersome theology, given that there are plenty of people in this world who get away with evil acts and seem to deserve some divine punishment of one kind or another. But even with this discomforting- even maddening- aspect of Universalism, for over two centuries Universalists in this country have claimed that what comes next is nothing to worry about or fear. Our Universalist ancestors said that going to church doesn t change reality that all are saved, but the inner recognition and reminder of our ultimate embrace by God

4 is powerful enough to change and re-orient your entire life! Once you realized you re already savedonce you re completely freed from rewards and punishments theologyyou can shift your theological stance and your life from being based on fear to love. But even those Universalist ancestors of ours had disagreements. Yes, they agreed that all people would be saved, restored to a loving God in heaven after death, but they argued and debated how quickly you got there. In the mid-1800 s, there were two main camps: One was called the Restorationist Universalists. They believed that there would be some form of punishment in the afterlife, before being restored to God in heaven. (This, of course, led to debates about how long such correctional punishment might be; would it take a few years, or a thousand?) The other camp was named by their enemies the Ultra-Universalists or the Death and Glory camp. The Ultra-universalists believed that after death all went straight to glory in heaven. Among them was Hosea Ballou, the great Universalist preacher who lived from 1771 to Ballou also held unitarian beliefs, since he rejected the doctrine of the trinity as early as But his preaching focused on Ultra- Universalism. As finite creatures, he argued, humans are incapable of offending an infinite God. He rejected the doctrine of atonement, the idea that Jesus Christ died to appease an angry God. God, he preached, is a being of eternal love who wants happiness for people, and once folks realize this, they ll want to live a moral life and doing good works. He said humans are rewarded for good behavior or punished for misdeed in this life, and at death all are transformed by the power of God s love as we enter eternity. The great Unitarian preacher William Ellery Channing attacked Ballou

5 in a sermon in 1832, saying that he had never seen a more irrational doctrine. Ballou answered back, arguing that Channing s idea of salvation by character overlooked the sinfulness of humans and the love of a God determined to save all. Seventeen years after Channing s verbal attack, Ballou summed up his counter-argument in an article called Salvation Irrespective of Character, published in Take that, Channing, he must have thought. Today, the world no longer pays attention when Unitarian Universalists debate about salvation-- respective or irrespective of character. Perhaps that s why the UU Christian Fellowship printed those t-shirts to start a public conversation, or many small conversations, about our faith and what it says about what happens after life. You must admit, death and glory is a good sound-bite from the old days. And I m wondering if it might even be a good sound-bite today, that could work for many atheist, agnostic, Humanist, theist and Christian UUs alike. What do UUs say about the afterlife? We believe in Death and Glory! Well, for all of us, it might take some getting used to. But it s a phrase that might work for those who believe or hope that after life we experience a homecominga return to God, to Jesus, or to heaven, a realm of eternity where we are met by those we ve loved. Is that not a version of Death and glory? For what is more glorious than reunion with God or with those we love? It might work for those who believe that the end of life is when we lose our ego at last, when we finally let go of our individual personalities and are released into God or Love or Bliss or All That Is, like a drop of water merging with the ocean. Is that not a version of Death and glory? For what is more glorious than oneness with God or Love or All That Is?

6 It might even work for those who feel that as we exhale our last breath there is simply an end, a cessation, nothing beyond for us and yet still feel a profound gratitude and reassurance that Life, the earth, Creation will go on that as our elements go back to earth and the small ripples of our lives dissolve into the vast collective history of Life, Life itself will continue beyond us, full of glorybirds still singing, creatures still moving with grace through the oceans, sunlight and moonlight still shining through the leaves, stars still shining and galaxies still spinning, and human beings still looking, listening and loving, at least for a time. Is this, too, not a version of Death and Glory? For what is more glorious than Life, than the earth, the universe or Creation? What I m getting to is this: even without a unified doctrine of death and what comes after, ours can still be a faith of reassurance and joy- even in the face of death, even though we ve got everyone from atheists to Christians, with their various convictions of what will come. One thing is for sure: every one of us will face death, as will those we love, and we ll all do so in our own way. My hope is that no Unitarian Universalist will worry about or fear what comes next, and can pass this reassurance along to others. Yes, we may grieve our losses of life and the future- that makes sense. Yes, we may be afraid of pain or how we ll die; that s logical too. But there is simply no need to fear what comes after death! And knowing that, sharing that with others, can perhaps make a difference in our approach to both life and dying. This morning you heard two readings by the poet Mark Doty. In the first reading, he wrote about a person who is dying, and has attended to everything, said goodbye to his parents, paid off his credit card.

7 His caretaker encourages him to get some goldfish, something small and beautiful and golden. He is initially intrigued, but turns her down saying, I can t love anything I can t finish. In contrast is the poet s observation of his partner, Wally, as he approaches death. Paralyzed from the waist down, Wally is still eager to engage in life. Wally wants new living things some lizards, a bird, some fish, a little rat. The poet asks, How many men want another attachment, just as they re leaving the world? Well, this man does. So the poet, the partner, comes home with Beau, a shelter dog with boundless energy who not only licks Wally s face but bathes every irreplaceable inch of his head. (Perhaps some of you have known such a dog, and can imagine the scene.) The poet goes on to remark on how Wally lives with both death and glory. He lifts and rests his hand on the dog s golden flanks, despite all the energy and will and intention this takes. The poet comments, this is all he is now, this gesture towards the restless splendor, the unruly, the golden, the animal, the new. This is all he is, a willingness to move towards what is glorious. And so may we be people willing to move toward what is gloriousin our living and in our dying. And meanwhile, let s love the hell out of this worldso all beings may taste the glories of life and love, right now and here, on earth. Amen.