The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish Unitarian Universalist Northborough, MA 01/24/2016 1 Thought for Contemplation: Saints are sinners who keep trying. -Nelson Mandela Uncommon Ideas The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish in Northborough Preached on the day of the 250 th anniversary of the founding of the town of Northborough January 24, 2016 In the old days it was the monarch who determined the religion of their subjects. Unless there was a special dispensation for another recognized religion to practice, as was the case of the Jews during Jesus ministry, people were forced to change their religion when their monarch changed. Not surprisingly, religions tended to be hierarchical. In 1450 something happened that disturbed all of that. Johannes Gutenberg published the first mass - produced bibles on the newly invented moveable type printing press. People were actually able to get their hands on a bible, read it for themselves, and the control by the Roman church was forever broken. By the fifteen hundreds, in Europe the Reformation with Martin Luther and John Calvin was in full swing, with others stalking the continent with new ideas; Servetus, Zwingli, Biandrata, and Francis David, to name a few. You may
The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish Unitarian Universalist Northborough, MA 01/24/2016 2 have heard of them. Francis David was one who had been converted to Unitarianism, the belief that God is One, and that Jesus is his messenger, or prophet, and who had trotted around Europe, preaching his heresy. He came to Transylvania, now part of Romania, but then its own country under King John Sigismund. King Sigismund heard that David was preaching this new heresy and he invited him to court. In 1568 the king convened what became known as the Diet of Torda, in the city of Torda, and Sigismund invited Francis David to engage in a debate with the religious officials of the day. The debate lasted for ten days and the king greatly enjoyed himself. At the end he issued a decree that said that until learned men could pronounce fuller clearer opinions on such an intricate subject, there was to be no further argument or abuse by one side or the other under severe penalty. The following year, at a debate in Varad, King Sigismund and seven of his ministers were convinced of the correctness of David and were converted to Unitarianism. Our only Unitarian monarch! He reissued his tolerance decree. The people of Transylvania were
The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish Unitarian Universalist Northborough, MA 01/24/2016 3 left free to listen for themselves and make up their own minds using their own conscience. And so it is that the oldest continuing Unitarian churches in the world are in Transylvania, 450 years old, born out of respectful, considered debate, with reason and tolerance at their core. Richard Stengel, Managing Editor of Time magazine got to know the great historian David McCullough, who has been on a one-man campaign to end the epidemic of what he calls historical illiteracy McCullough describes historical illiteracy as a great danger to our democracy. Being an American (he says) is not based on a common ancestry, a common religion, even a common culture--it's based on accepting an uncommon set of ideas. And if we don't understand those ideas, we don't value them; and if we don't value them, we don't protect them. 1 I m going to repeat that. Being an American is not based on a common ancestry, a common religion, even a common culture- -it's based on accepting an uncommon set of ideas. And if we don't understand those ideas, we don't Richard Stengel Time Magazine, Monday, June 26, 2006
The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish Unitarian Universalist Northborough, MA 01/24/2016 4 value them; and if we don't value them, we don't protect them. I think that is important. I think it is important for Thomas Jefferson s reasons. Jefferson said: A nation can never be ignorant and free I would add that a people can never be ignorant and free, nor can a community, or a church- especially a Unitarian Universalist church, a free church, be ignorant and free. But when we look back at our history as Unitarian Universalists, we see that rather than a common culture or language, or a common doctrine, what binds us together from the beginning of our story, is a commitment to freedom, reason and tolerance, uncommon ideas. And there they are from the start, in our DNA. It isn t possible in these parts, in New England, in Massachusetts in particular, to understand our community s history without understanding its relationship with the church, our First Parish, whose uncommon ideas set the stage for what we have become. It is critical to understand that the ideas that brought forth
The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish Unitarian Universalist Northborough, MA 01/24/2016 5 this new nation, were seeded and nurtured, tested and explored in the First Parish assemblies around the colonies. Our forebears set out for the new world, (new to them that is- wasn t new to the folks already living here!), with the vision of creating that gleaming city on a hill, the community that would embody the principles of beloved community that had forged the early church. For its day it would be radically democratic. People would read their bibles and come to their own understandings. They d discuss them. They d discuss how to run their church and how to run their town. They would do it because they believed in the priesthood of all believers, that God could speak through anyone that revelation could be perceived by anyone. It was revolutionary in its democratic ideas, ideas that then generated revolutionary practice. Not surprisingly our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were all heavily shaped by the ideas, the experiences, and practices of our early American First Parishes, most of which eventually became Unitarian. The relationship between the two is sometimes easy to trace. In 1773, three years before our American Revolution Theosophilus Lindsey, an English priest,
The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish Unitarian Universalist Northborough, MA 01/24/2016 6 resigned his charge from the Church of England, citing his being Unitarian. One year later, 1774, two years before the shot heard round the world, Lindsey conducted his first Unitarian service in London, with 200 people in attendance. One of them happened to be Benjamin Franklin who was in London on business, and so the experience, the idea of Unitarianism wends its way back to the colonies, who are already beginning to forge their own ideas of church and state. Being an American is not based on a common ancestry, a common religion, even a common culture- -it's based on accepting an uncommon set of ideas. And if we don't understand those ideas, we don't value them; and if we don't value them, we don't protect them. And those ideas were our ideas, and are still our ideas. We understand them as Unitarian Universalists in our gut. They have been ours for four hundred and fifty years. Freedom, reason and tolerance are essential to beloved community as we understand it, along with the covenant to be there for one another, walking together, and walking toward one another, as our forebears here at First Parish promised to one another, and as we promise still. What power. What magic. A new energy was
The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson First Parish Unitarian Universalist Northborough, MA 01/24/2016 7 unleashed when the uncommon ideas of freedom, reason and tolerance were fused with the historic values of covenant, of promising to live together governed by those values, hard though it may be. Beloved community became possible, not based on a common ancestry, a common religion, even a common culture, but on the uncommon principles of freedom, reason and tolerance. Beloved community. That is what happens when we understand those values, live them, and protect them. It is our sacred work, as Unitarian Universalists and as Americans, for ourselves, our children, and our children s children. May it be so. Amen. Closing Words Be ours a religion which, like sunshine Goes everywhere; Its temple all space; Its shrine the good heart; Its creed all truth; Its ritual works of love; Its profession of faith, divine living. Benediction Extinguishing the Chalice Postlude -Theodore Parker