Reading: [IF] The Unitarian Version
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all folks doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all folks count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance ran,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you just may be a Unitarian!
--Original version by Rudyard Kipling / edited version by Alma Hatfield
Talk: RE-COVENANTING UU-- by Alma Hatfield
Hearing that slightly altered poem given as the Reading for this Sunday, read from that perspective, caused at least some of you amusement. Some of you may agree with the UU comparison,... if only slightly,.... while others will disagree and wonder how she had the audacity to site this work at all! And, all these reactions are quite appropriate and accepted, especially in a UU Congregation. Why? Because we are a creedless faith. I chose to entitle this opening service “Re-covenanting”. Now just what is that supposed to mean?
In a creed, people look outward ...and they agree that they all see the same things. In a covenant, we look at each other and exchange promises, ... commitments. Taken seriously, a covenant lays out a considerably more challenging spiritual path.
Due to my temporary position as part-time consulting administrator for this congregation, this past month I’ve had cause to examine much more closely just how confusing our lay-lead UU congregation may appear, not only to visitors new to Unitarian Universalism, but even to newer members, some of whom are transfers from other UU churches and who want so very much to contribute and join in the work of this church.
As an example, several years ago a couple joined this church who had been attending Unitarian churches, in other areas of the country for several years. After several months of membership here, the husband felt comfortable enough to confide in some of us, that he thought our church here in Sioux City was one of the most wonderful, although one of the most confusing churches for newcomers that they had ever attended. “When you go into a new church,” he explained, “one of the first things you attempt to do is to identify just who the real leaders of the church are.” And he said it was usually pretty easy to do. Not so here!
He explained that the first week or two of his attendance here, several individuals did quite a bit of the talking and seemed to be running things, so he made the assumption they must be the leaders of this congregation. Then, low and behold, the next few weeks it seemed that those he had just identified as “the leaders” were relatively quiet or absent, and other individuals were doing most of the talking. So he changed his mind and decided that he must have been wrong and that this newer group must be the real leaders of this church.
Then, to his complete consternation, those folks also seemed to drift from the spotlight and still other individuals, some of whom he hadn’t even met yet, appeared to be in the center of events and appeared to be leading. He said it was at this point he finally began to get it! There was no one person, or family that were “the leaders” of this church. That this was, as nearly as he had ever experienced, a congregation of equals, where all wore many hats, and seemed to exchange or rearrange those hats often ....and willingly!
He certainly made all of us present that day feel pretty good about ourselves and our religious community. But becoming an authentically “healthy loving religous community” doesn’t just happen automatically overnight. The paper enclosed this morning in your Order of Service, "Lessons from the Geese", http://suewidemark.com/lessonsgeese.htm was something a group of us here discovered a short while after we became a lay lead church. The saying goes, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear”; ....even if it’s a goose.
This piece came into our hands, and was published in our newsletter at exactly the right time for our church. We really needed it’s message then. However, it’s equally valid today. We must never forget the lessons we’ve learned or ignore the lessons we must continue to learn and to practice, as we continue to grow and evolve as a religious community and as we continue to welcome new members into our church, and into our hearts, along the UU Way.
Which brings me to the talk, or rather parts, excerpts, from a talk, that I want to share with you today. This is a slightly abridged version of a talk first delivered by the Rev. Axel Gehrmann a year ago at his church in Urbana, Ill. When I called him a couple of weeks ago to ask his permission to use his talk, or at least parts of his talk, in a service his answer was “Please, by all means! I’m happy to know someone else can make use of it.” His answer and the title of his talk is:
The UU Way [Abridged Version]
Now, in the abridged wording of Axel Gehrmann:
(1) “The attacks of 9/11 ..[that took place six years ago this Tues.].. exploded the sense of security and meaning millions of Americans had long taken for granted. The events didn’t fit into the framework through which we made sense of the world. The crisis shook the foundations of our lives. We were forced to confront existential questions of life and death, good and evil, love and hate, hope and despair.” [and]
“This is what every religious community [at it’s best] seeks to offer: a place where we can confront questions of meaning. A place where we can be reminded that life is stronger than death, and good greater than evil. A place where we are able to move from hate to love. Where [in the words of Martin Luther King] we “hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” Religion is an effort to find answers to the deepest questions of our lives. And, every religion seeks to do so in a slightly different way. I myself am partial to the Unitarian Universalist way.”
“Ours is a religion that proudly celebrates a history of heresy. Our heroes challenged the orthodox authorities of their day and championed innovative theology and progressive social causes.”
“[............] Five hundred years ago, Michael Servetus was put to death for his heretical teachings. In the midst of the tumultuous years of the protestant reformation, Servetus said there is no scriptural basis for the doctrine of the trinity. His book “On the Errors of the Trinity” was based on his critical, rational reading of the Bible, and became a sixteenth century bestseller. Opposing Trinitarian doctrine, lifting up God’s unity, Servetus was called a Unitarian.”
“Centuries later our Universalist forebears were persecuted because - at a time when most minister preached hellfire and damnation - they believed that God is too good to let anyone burn in hell forever. They believed that in the end ...everyone will be saved. They believed in universal salvation, and thus were called Universalists.”
“Ask ten wise men and women to answer a question of deep religious meaning –[for instance].. [what’s] the nature of God, the secret of salvation, the meaning of good and evil – and you will get ten different answers. For those who crave religious certainty, this diversity of opinion is a serious problem. Not so for Unitarian Universalists.”
“For us, a diversity of perspectives provides the fertile soil in which we work to find kernels of religious truth. For us this is the most promising place in which to grow a deep and vibrant faith.”
“Our celebration of diversity is perhaps the most striking feature of Unitarian Universalism. Where most other religions suggest a particular path to salvation or enlightenment or life eternal, we say, there are as many different paths to salvation as there are people in the world. Where most other religions provide their believers with a specific system of beliefs, we say, every person needs to develop and explore their own beliefs, in light of their own particular life story, guided by their own conscience, and their best powers of heart and mind.”
“We agree with the Christian theologian Emil Brunner who wrote, “No religion in the world is without some elements of truth. [and] No religion is without its profound error.” The task of discerning truth amidst error cannot be done for us. Every individual needs to do this work.”
“We agree with the Hindu, who says, “religion… is not compounded of dogmas and creeds. Religion is a way of life in consonance with rationality and Truth. Truth is not and cannot be revealed once and of all – it must be a progressive revelation.” (Harold F. Mazumdar) The pursuit of truth is a never-ending process. Wisdom and understanding are never gained once and for all, but need to be rediscovered again and again.”
“We are a community of seekers. Each of us heading in a slightly different direction. Each of us reaching slightly different goals. Each of us guided by slightly different convictions.”
“This is what makes it so difficult to answer the seemingly simple question: What do Unitarian Universalists believe? Because we believe all sorts of things. Some of us believe in God, ........................others don’t. Some believe in life after death, some in reincarnation, and some believe that this right now is the only shot at life we get. Some of us practice Buddhist meditation, others observe the Jewish High Holy Days. Some of us believe the Humanist Manifesto, others find inspiration in the poetry of the psalms.”
“Amidst this diversity of beliefs it is sometimes difficult to see what it is that binds us together in religious community.”
“In 1975 a man by the name of Robert L.H. Miller conducted a comparative study of the values Unitarian Universalists hold, based on an earlier study of the values of Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and the unchurched. Comparing the results of both studies Miller made some interesting observations. For instance, he learned that though we Unitarian Universalists are widely diverse in our stated beliefs, we share a remarkably homogenous set of values.”
“Perhaps even more strikingly, he found that rich Catholics and rich Protestants held a different set of values than the poor members of their churches held; new members held different values than long-term members. But neither wealth nor any other variables affected the typical values Unitarian Universalists held. Poor UUs had the same values as rich ones. New UUs had the same values as members of long standing.”
“In conclusion Miller writes, ‘The data supports the conclusion that being a Unitarian Universalist is characterized by holding a constellation of values [that is distinct] from other kinds of religious communities and, at the same time, develops an internal sense of community and a homogenous community. The UU set of values is marked by the uniquely high ranking of… : self-respect, wisdom, inner harmony, mature love, a world of beauty, and an exciting life.”
“Unitarian Universalism is firmly rooted in the liberal religious tradition. It is a tradition that is desperately needed in this day and age. In today’s pluralistic world of competing cultures, we need a faith that thrives on the exchange of ideas, rather than the intellectual isolationism of religious orthodoxy. We need a religion that understands both the challenge and the promise of pluralism.”
“In his book entitled Faith Without Certainty the UU theologian Paul Razor writes:
‘Liberal [religion] is not for the faint of heart. It points us in a general direction without telling us the specific destination. It refuses to make our commitments for us but holds us accountable for the commitments we make. The liberal religious tradition is an invitation, not a mandate. It invites us to live with ambiguity without giving in to facile compromise; to engage in dialogue without trying to control the conversation; to be open to change without accepting change too casually… Liberal religion… asks us to pay attention. It is an eyes-wide-open faith, a faith without certainty.” (p. 185)
“As a Unitarian Universalist, I believe ..[...]. that deep within every person resides the religious impulse. I agree with psychologist James Fowler, who says, human beings are creatures who cannot live without meaning.”
“Meaning is not given once and for all. In the course of our lives meaning needs to be discovered and rediscovered again and again. When in moments of crisis our sense of meaning is shattered by grief or fear, when we are shaken by new insights or new revelations, when we are moved by a rare stirring of the heart, by unimagined depths of love and joy – we need religion.”
“We are religious creatures. We need some hope beyond the present, some self-respect beyond our failures. Our hearts yearn to leap up at beauty. We long to entrust ourselves to the life that is larger than ourselves.”
“May this community of seekers be a place where we each can find ...our... religion.”
[From “The UU Way” by Rev. Axel Gehrmann]
In Loving Community, May It Be So............Amen.
- Closing Words: by the late Unitarian Universalist minister Rev. Ralph N. Helverson
Deep in ourselves resides the religious impulse…
We have religion when we stop deluding ourselves that we are self-sufficient, self-sustaining, or self-derived.
We have religion when we hold some hope beyond the present, some self-respect beyond our failures.
We have religion when our hearts are capable of leaping up at beauty, when our nerves are edged by some dream in the heart.
We have religion when we have an abiding gratitude for all that we have received.
We have religion when we look upon people with all their failings and still find in them good; when we look beyond people to the grandeur in nature and to the purpose in our own heart.
We have religion when we have done all that we can, and then in confidence entrust ourselves to the life that is larger than ourselves.
(1) An abridged excerpt from “The UU Way” A Sermon Delivered at the Urbana, Illinois
Unitarian Universalist Church on September 10, 2006 by Rev. Axel Gehrmann
http://www.uuc-urbana.org/OurChurch/Sermons.html
To read Rev. Gehrmann’s complete sermon, please click on the above link.
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