"Our Chosen Faith-- A NEW Old-Time Religion"

Rev. Dan King
February 22, 1998

Today I draw from several works, among them Forrester Church's "Born Again Unitarian Universalism" ,and Jack Mendelsohn's book, "Being Liberal in an Illiberal Age" , as well as the handbook we are using in our Stone Soup Seminars "Our Chosen Faith" by Buehrens & Church.

Imagine you're at a dinner party, much like the round robin dinner we went to last night. Like that, except you're not with half a dozen folks from church. No, these are folks from your neighborhood, or from work contacts, who don't know anything about your religious views.

And the subject of religion comes up in a direct way, so you can't dodge or ignore it: Tonight we're caught a little off guard. Somehow the cat gets out of that bag we carry it in.

"You're a what?

I'm a Unitarian Universalist.

How nice. That's Christian, right?

Not exactly. I mean we were, and some of us still are. But most of us aren't.

You don't believe in Jesus?

Many of us value his teachings, but only a few of us would say that he was God, and most of us doubt the Resurrection story is more than an allegory or metaphor.

What about immortality?

We're pretty divided on that.

But you do believe in God?

It's not exactly that simple. Many of us do find comfort in the concept of God, as we individually define THAT, but others do not find that particularly useful in daily life.

Then what DO you believe?

Think about that for just a moment. What would you say? What have you said when that spotlight of attention comes out of the darkness and shines directly into your eyes?

It helps to have a couple of cards in my wallet, so I can take them right out and read them. Reading something well-written slowly enough can sure help you to understand it better. That's what we've been doing in our heritage and spirituality classes these last few weeks. For someone who is borderline attention deficit, as I am, it really helps. Those of you who have the pink Order of Service cover can read along with me.

This is a kind of laundry list approach. It sounds good, but it's more than a little dry, and heady, somehow. But where does this come from? How does our conception fit with the "traditional" faiths of the world's major religions?

Well, like the Catholics, we have a long tradition-- extending back to the deserts of ancient Israel and Egypt, the small rural villages of Transylvania and Poland, the laboratories of the 18th century British Royal Society and the rocky shores of early New England.

Like the Jews, we have the examples of many heroes and heroines-- those who bore sacrifices courageously like the scholar Michael Servetus, the fervent preacher Francis David, and writer Margaret Fuller; we have had inspirational ministers like John Murray, William Channing, and Ralph Waldo Emerson; and social reformers Clara Barton, Susan Anthony, Horace Mann, and Dorothea Dix-- to name only a few.

Like the Baptists, we have a polity which gives full democratic authority to the local congregation and a tradition of freedom of expression in our pulpits.

Like the Confucian tradition, we have emphasized the human capacity for reason and a reverence for the achievements of the mind.

Like the Hindus, we have an eclectic theology which encourages each individual to develop a personal faith which is not dependent on external boundaries or regulation.

Like the Humanists, we have our roots in the human experience of the world through our natural senses of touch, sight, sound, taste, and smell.

And like the Buddhists, we accentuate the importance of the individual-- on the beauty, the mystery, and the holiness of each woman, man, and child-- as each is a sacred vessel of a consciousness or spirit-- of an element of divinity.

What does that mean here and now, in Augusta GA? I can tell you that it doesn't mean that we can afford to be smug or complacent and self-satisfied, because we think we have the bigger picture-- maybe that we're smarter or better than the folks across the street, or anywhere else. It seems to me that we are both blessed and burdened with our broad concepts of virtuous community combined with a distinctively radical freedom of individual choice in beliefs.

The historian Arnold Toynbee (a Christian, no less) only 20 years ago wrote persuasively about this issue:

"In the world in which we now find ourselves, the [followers] of the differentliving religions ought to be readier to tolerate, respect, and revere one another's religious heritages because, in our generation there is not anyone alive who is effectively in a postion to judge between his own religion and his neighbor's . . . If we do not feel that . . . we are confessing to a lack of faith in the truth and value of the religion that happens to be ours. On the other hand, if we do have faith in it, we shall have no fear that it will fail to play its full part in helping human souls to enter into communion with the presence behind the phenomena and to bring themselves into harmony with this Absolute Reality. The missions of the higher religions are not competitive; they are complementary. We can believe in our own religion without having to feel that it is the sole means of salvation."

Nevertheless, I would like to propose to each of you that, for our sense of ourselves as a meaningful faith, our Unitarian Universalist faith is worth sharing. We know that there are folks "out there" who are still looking for a religious home, and they deserve to hear about our message of hope in the face of uncertainty or skepticism about the myths and creeds that don't seemto make sense in modern society. Like many of us inside these fortress walls, they are searching for greater truth. If we share with them our way of looking at the big questions, it could give them a new paradigm for their search. And that could satisfy a part of our sense of duty to make the worlda better place while we're passing through it. As I began this morning, I told you how Forrester Church put it in thecontext of the dinner party conversation-- he went on to write: "When you join a UU church, you commit yourself to a moral and spiritual purpose: to be faithful to the inherent responsibilities of religious freedom. You commit yourself [to use critical reasoning] to continue to discard whatever beliefs you discover to be false, and to accept whatever you experience to be true.

What this means is that we understand that as people grow and change, theirbeliefs will grow and change . . . if they are encouraged to permit growth and change."

[His relentless inquisitor continues to challenge him: ]You don't have to go to church for that!

" Of course not. This is [only] one part of the [commitment]. . . I simply mention it because it distinguishes our church from many others.

But if you're permitted to believe various things, what unites you, what brings you together?

"Though each of us may believe different things, we share a common faith, a confidence, if you will, that by working at it diligently, with one another's help we can become better, wiser, and more loving human beings. We may not accept the answers other religions offer, but the questions remain the same. They are life and death questions. Whether or not we set aside time to address them can make a profound difference in our lives, and in the lives of those around us. Uncertain enough to be tolerant, and open enough to be free in our search for meaning, our faith tells us that by giving ourselves to this essential task, we shall find a deeper meaning to sustain us through life's trials, and a sense of purpose to guide us through our days."

Maybe if we can bring ourselves to give this kind of answer, we can accept the spotlight long enough to let a thoughtful listener hear where we're really coming from. We can give that one person in ten or twenty who might also be consciously looking, a chance to consider the value of what we're involved with for ourselves. All who believe there's no alternative between a creedal religion and staying altogether away from anything that half resembles a church, should have some way of discovering that this is simply not true.

All who believe that they must sacrifice intellectual freedom in order to fill the emptiness in their lives should be invited to consider the alternative that we embrace.

At our best, we have so much to offer, so much to give. To those who choose to follow our paths with us, we have something new and valuable to offer. And much that is old and full of meaningful heritage, which can inspire us and give us strength, and joy, and passion.

This is what our liberal faith is all about. It is not a rejection or substitution of religion, but it is our OWN religion. It connects us with each other and the best part of ourselves, that reckons face to face with life's eternal questions as we struggle and celebrate each day in a search for purpose and meaning in our lives. There's nothing cheap or easy or shallow about it, if we undertake it with full consciousness.

I've been reminded to give a little side homily here about churchmanship. You see, for some folks the idea of membership in the church is an intimidating thing. When you formally join, it means that you've taken on a new identity for yourself-- YOU have become part of US. And you can't know until you cross that mental threshhold how deeply that connection runs. As that old Bible passage says: What will be required of me?

Well, I think that part of the answer to that question is in the Bible, of all places: To do justice, to walk humbly in the paths of righteousness. And as Paul of Tarsus expressed in so many ways, the church needs your tangible support of the collective identity in its physical and financial needs, ofcourse.

But to that I would add-- as responsible UUs, we must insist that we listento each other, to learn, and to keep working on our own spirituality, to continue to grow in our sense of the fulness of life, to give the community the benefit of our strengths and skills.

But I think the most critical element is that each member of this church must be welcome to share our times of need and struggle with the community.

Because it is often through our sharing of our strengths, our compassion, in sustaining you in YOUR needs, that the rest of us can grow in providing for you. I think that a church is not much of a church unless it can be in balance, in both receiving AND giving from its members and the community it serves. And that enriches us all, because the whole is greater than the sum.

In conclusion, let me paraphrase a prophetic Unitarian minister's words fromnearly 50 years ago, about the time that our little church here was founded by some of you who were inspired by these words and who are still with us now:

There are millions of Unitarian Universalists in America today who are not in our churches. There are millions of Unitarian Universalists who do not know our history, our basis, our purposes, our principles. They do not know that they are really Unitarian Universalists. If a true religion can shape the world to peace and freedom, these people should be joined together to advance those causes.

I believe that religions with worn-out creeds can't do it, because many peopleno longer hold those creeds inside. IR-RELIGION or CONFUSED religions cannot inspire us to great sacrifice or great actions. If the strength of a free person's free faith must be the foundation of the world tomorrow, a world so full of dangers and rich in opportunities, and if our culture must take a position of leadership within this venture, then we as Unitarian Universalists must take a vanguard position in our culture.

This will be much more likely to occur if Unitarian Universalists will not just preach their faith, but if we actually give witness to our faith in how we live our lives. Not just in our churches, but in the world.

May it be so. Blessed be. Amen.