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Heaven Knows Where We are Going: The Basics of Unitarian Universalism The Reverends Mark & Becky Edmiston-Lange, October 16, 2005 HOMILY I Welcome—whoever you are, whatever you are, wherever you are on your journey—welcome and thank you for being here this morning. Since this is Bring a Friend Sunday it could be the case that some of you are here just to humor a friend or acquaintance, so that they won’t appear hopelessly social inept to their fellow congregants. Some of you may have been almost dragged here. Or maybe you came on the promise of being treated to a terrific brunch afterward—that’s what a really good friend would do for you, isn’t it? But maybe some of you are at least mildly curious about this strange religion called Unitarian Universalism and are hoping to find out something about us this morning. Or maybe you’ve been looking for a place to call your spiritual home and you are wondering could this be it. Or maybe, just maybe, some of you have been searching for something—something, like the song says, that you can’t even name. Unitarian Universalism affirms that there is a universal, human longing to be part of something larger than ourselves that will inform, deepen and enrich our living; that we each want to feel that our lives are serving some larger purpose, each want to believe that our lives mean something in the grand scheme of things. We all catch glimpses from time to time of something better out there awaiting, but that sense is too often ephemeral as we get mired down in the details of living. We wake, we eat, we go to school, we go to work, we return home, we eat and sleep and get up and do it all over again—amen. But however obscured by our routines, the presentiment remains, even if only whispered, “we are meant for something more, the world is meant for something better.” Different religious traditions have addressed this universal human longing in different ways over the centuries. They have offered various sacred texts, commandments, doctrines, rituals and varying gods to which to pray as the means to attain fulfillment of this universal human desire for meaning, for transcendence. And most religions have also offered some version of the destiny toward which human life is properly supposed to be moving, looking forward to some future time as the consummation of human existence, whether that be the end time of Christianity, or the coming of the Messiah in Judaism, or the liberation from the karmic cycle in Hinduism. In some ways Unitarian Universalism is no different than other religious traditions—we, too, speak to and lift up this universal human longing. We too have a vision of a future toward which we are moving. We could describe some of the details, but before we do, we want to spend a few moments and ask you to think about what you want—what you really want—for yourself, for your children, for your larger family. And what about your neighborhood or this fair city of Houston? Or imagine even more broadly—what about our state, this nation, indeed even the world. What do you really want? After you discard the dreams about winning the lottery, or an ever vaster pile of consumer goods or adult toys—what remains? Health, friends, meaningful labor—these are easily imagined. What about something a little more subtle. Imagine you lived in a world were people understood you, really understood you, more often than not? What if you lived in a world in which you felt like you could easily trust most other people most of the time? Suppose there was easily available support for overcoming destructive habits? Suppose anger did not so often lead to mayhem but to deeper understanding. What would it be like if we did not so routinely pass judgment upon others or imagine they did not routinely pass judgment upon ourselves? What if crime really didn’t pay because you could always do better working for a living? Suppose justice was common; suppose that all the divisions that keep us yelling at each other over the high walls of suspicion were seen to be small things? Suppose all the nations’ leaders: political; spiritual; commercial; and social, did not so often ramp up small suspicions with large doses of fear to maintain their hold on the reigns of power? The more you think about it, the more things you would likely add to the list. As John Lennon once sang, “Imagine,... it’s not so hard to do.” We have just asked you to engage in a typical Unitarian Universalist behavior—we cleared a space for you to think for yourselves. We are aware that there is frequently not a lot of room in our lives for usefully pondering these kinds of things. And we are also aware that there are plenty of reasons for not taking these dreams or hopes very seriously. They all fall into the category of, “Yeah, nice ideas, but don’t hold your breath.” Skepticism bordering on cynicism is easy. And, so, many people concentrate only on their own lives or the lives of those nearest to them, discounting any thought of a larger arena for dreams. It is not unusual to doubt, given where we are today, that we could ever possibly get to a jubilee world like that. So rather than be a dreamer, most of us just keep our head down and do what we can or must to make it through another day. After all, isn’t idealism only for children who don’t have to live in the real world? Yet clearly the world and the people in that world are headed someplace. And yes, we start from no other place than where we are now. How in heaven’s name could what we have now be made into that jubilee world? Perhaps, as the Unitarian poet May Sarton wrote, it is absolutely vital to distinguish between the impossible, and the merely very difficult. HOMILY II—Somehow We Will Yes, somehow we will get there—wherever there is. Much depends, of course, on what we intend—about both the destination and the means of getting there. To be sure we are, neither individually nor collectively, in charge of the future. But that admission does not absolve us of responsibility, nor should it ever imply that we are merely helpless pawns of unseen forces. What then, can we do? Unitarian Universalists most often describe faith as a journey and perhaps the easiest way to understand what we mean by “journey” is to describe what it isn’t. It is common in western cultures to associate faith with belief. The very first question people frequently ask about Unitarian Universalism focuses on matters of religious doctrine. “What do you believe about God? What do you believe about the Bible? What do you believe about Jesus?” It is almost always assumed that belief makes all the difference. The equation is simple enough. Believe the right things and your future is assured. Believe the wrong things and you will be cast into the fiery pit or oblivion. Unitarian Universalists often frustrate people because our answers to such questions can seem very evasive. Unitarian Universalists, we say, believe a great many things. Some believe in God, others don’t—and there are probably as many different beliefs about God as there are people in the congregation. Even more maddening, Unitarian Universalists reserve the right to change their mind. A theist one day may become in time a humanist—and a humanist one day may in time become a theist. And, to make matters more confusing, it is not the interest of Unitarian Universalism to try to persuade the theist to become a humanist or the humanist to become a theist. People shake their heads in “disbelief” when they hear this. How can you possibly be a religion if you’re not trying to get people to believe one thing over another? And if there is that much variety in belief, don’t you end up being wishy washy, not standing for anything, theological milquetoasts? Is it sort of a Cheech and Chong version of religion, “Whatever turns you on man?” Well, beliefs are very important to us, but of far greater importance is the way we believe, the manner of our believing. A word we often use to describe the manner of our believing is “covenant.” Essentially a covenant is a commitment to treat each other in certain kinds of ways. If we are indeed on a journey, we need to have some understandings about how we will conduct ourselves while we are on our way. Furthermore, we also believe that this covenantal agreement reflects the kind of world toward which we’d like to be moving. The more we can live up to the covenant, the closer we move toward that good future of which we dream, that jubilee world, that city of human delight. Unfortunately, the particulars of the covenant are at first glance not very remarkable. They begin with “Affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person,” and end with, “respect for the interdependence of all existence of which we are a part.” In between justice, compassion, democracy, the search for truth and meaning, peace, liberty, and spiritual growth are mentioned. Not many people are openly against compassion or justice, say, so these principles can seem like they are so ordinary that they deserve no special attention. “Isn’t that nice—you’re for compassion.” H’m.... We sometimes think it would be easier to support Unitarian Universalism if some kind of astonishing miracle were responsible for these principles. Would they be more persuasive if a booming voice coming out of the sky said, “Affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person now, you puny earthlings!” But we have no such extraordinary celestial event. The power of these principles is not undergirded by a supernatural guarantee—only by how they become real in the life of ordinary people, people like you and I. And it is within our living that we begin to see that the principles are more profound than we might have realized. The words are very easy to say. They are somewhat less easy to put into practice. It is not that difficult to casually affirm the inherent worth and dignity of, for instance, your neighbor, who chats with you pleasantly when you happen to meet out on the front yard. What if you found out that your neighbor is gay or a lesbian? Or what if your neighbor found out that you are gay or lesbian. This past Tuesday was National Coming Out Day in the United States. It is an effort to encourage people in our society who feel routinely un-affirmed to come out of the closet. The encouragement is necessary because as long as gays and lesbians remain silent the very real discrimination gays and lesbians face is never addressed. Quiet wheels never get fixed. However, as soon as you speak up, reveal yourself, you risk being categorized as “that gay man” or “that lesbian” instead of just a regular human being who just happens to not be heterosexual. In addition, people who do come out of the closet bear an extra burden of vulnerability. They may lose their jobs, they may lose their child or children, they may be violently attacked—not because they didn’t perform well or were a bad parent or because they did anything harmful to other people, simply because of ignorance and prejudice against them. And if you are heterosexual and meet someone who isn’t, and you know it, it’s hard sometimes not to feel awkward and self-conscious. You don’t want to say the wrong things, you may even feel a little resentful about having to work a little harder at being a little more conscious of your social behavior. You may not like having your point of view challenged; you may worry about your own sexuality. All in all, there’s no getting around the fact that meeting people who are different from you is just plain harder. And when you begin to understand that fact, you have an inkling, just an inkling, of what it is like to be a member of an oppressed minority in our society who have to deal with this complexity every day. So perhaps you can see just how subtle is this business of affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every person. The more one thinks abut it, the more one must acknowledge, this affirming the inherent worth and dignity stuff is complicated. Oh, and we should mention, if you haven’t figured it out by now, that we do mean “every” person—and not just “deserving” persons or “good” persons or “nice” persons or persons who agree with us. We mean “every” person. It is easy to say in the abstract—but it is hard to do in every day life. It involves a willingness to be uncomfortable from time to time, a willingness to admit error, a willingness to own up to prejudice and thoughtlessness you didn’t even know you had, a willingness to support people being who they are rather than who we want or insist they must be. So learning how to truly affirm other people is difficult—but it’s not impossible. And that’s just the first principle, arguably the most difficult, but still there are six more. And in case you were wondering, we didn’t just dream these principles up. We regard them as something like a distillation of everything that we have encountered as a religious tradition over these past several hundred years. (Yes, you heard that right, Unitarian Universalism, originally two separate denominations, has been around for even a longer time than that.) In addition to the principles we also look back to what are called the “sources.” These include: “words and deeds of prophetic women and men from all ages;” “wisdom from the world’s religions;” “Jewish and Christian teachings;” “humanist teachings;” “spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life;” and “direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.” If you think about this list of sources there’s not much that is left out. That’s because we are unwilling to draw a boundary that would keep us from gaining more insight and depth about our situation. We tend to be suspicious of the divisions etween faith communities or even the division between what is ordinarily called sacred and commonly called profane. We suspect these divisions are frequently derived from human, rather than holy, impulses. If you are seeking something you do not yet have, like sufficient wisdom, sufficient compassion, sufficient commitment to justice, why would you, from the outset, refuse to look into some corners of the human experience? If you lose your car keys, you never begin the search by saying, “I will not look on the bench in the garage—that is just not a proper place for the car keys to be.” One just starts looking, anywhere and everywhere; and doesn’t stop until the keys have been found. Unitarian Universalists enjoy tremendous freedom to explore and to discern what it is we believe as individuals and then we are called to act on those beliefs with integrity and compassion. Yet we also know that none of this is best done in isolation because none of us has perfect insight, none of us has perfect discernment, none of us can completely understand and know all there is to understand and know. Because none of us are capable all by ourselves we need religious community. We need each other to question and challenge and thus deepen our individual insights. We need one another to remind us of the things we have overlooked or forgotten. We need one another to teach us things we don’t yet know. We need one another to enlarge our vision, stretch our spirits. We need one another to raise the questions that haven’t crossed our lips or have only begun to be voiced within the echoing chambers of our hearts. We need one another to clasp our hands and lend us strength when the way ahead seems perilous. We need one another to forgive us when we have been wrong. And we need one another to renew our courage and hope when we are afraid or in despair. Although the spirit of this congregation is strong, the walls around us are very porous. We cherish one another, most of the time. We try to understand one another, most of the time. But we know clearly that where this congregation is headed is not different from where the rest of the world and all the people in that world are headed. We are all going someplace. Given the inevitability of movement, we believe it is crucial to remember that we are not helpless. There are things we can do, lessons we can learn, wisdom to acquire, love to live. There is no doubt in our minds that if we keep at it, over time, we really will get to that place of our dreams. Oh, perhaps not you and I sitting in this sanctuary—but our descendants—they can arrive at that place, a city of beauty, a community of justice, that place where compassion is expressed wisely and easily and love is a common fact. And that shining city on the hill, will be right here on this earth, a place built upon hard won dreams imagined by people who learned, generation by generation, how to live well with one another, how to lift up and not tear down, how to listen and not fear, how to travel together in love. |
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