Sermon

         You have probably heard the classic joke, "Did you hear what happened when the first Unitarian church was built in Georgia? The Klu Klux Klan burned a question mark on their lawn!" In this joke, we are poking fun at ourselves because in the last half century, as we have become more diverse, it has been difficult for us to say precisely what we believe. We would half jokingly say that we'd prefer to live with questions rather than to have simplistic answers. Many thought that this made us smug and theologically shallow.

         When the Unitarians and the Universalists merged in 1961, they began putting together what answers we all could agree upon. This effort resulted in the Principles that are printed every Sunday in your Order of Service with a box around them. Much of the language had been used regularly in both denominations and it took three years of discussion amongst the congregations to finally compromise and adopt in 1985 the current language.

         If you grew up in a mainline Christian church and someone asked you what you believed, you probably would recite the Nicene Creed: "I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth. . . and so on." This would have sounded to Jews like their ancient prayers that I mentioned last week: "Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe who createst the fruit of the vine." Christians were building upon the traditional language and beliefs of the Jews about God and incorporating a few new ideas about Jesus through the perspective of Greek philosophy. The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes tells us that "there is nothing new under the sun." [Eccles 1:9] I believe it is more true to say, "there is nothing entirely new under the sun" because we are always building upon the language and tradition of what has come before. Reason uses what we know, which has come up through the ages.

         Minsters are taught in seminary to use in our thinking scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. This might sound lofty to you but I think you will find yourself naturally doing this, perhaps with the addition or substitution of philosophy, when you think about the big questions of life. Religion is after all a place where we work out our response to the human condition in which we find ourselves.

         Much of what holds Unitarian Universalists together is our diversity of beliefs. We do not know what UUs mean who say they believe in a power beyond themselves. We would have to inquire together whether "power" means a personal God, the divine in the process of life itself, a creative power, or the power of love, perhaps. We do not know what UUs mean who say they are humanists whether they are agnostic with an emphasis on the human being that holds God as a possibility or a-theists without any God concept at all. Or perhaps a UU could be a mystic where all things are possible. And I mention here the fact that when we had a great majority of a particular theological orientation, we were far less tolerant. For example, in the 1900s when most Unitarians and most Universalists were theists, there was little tolerance a-theists, just as in the 1950s to 1980s, there was little tolerance of theism. This may have been a good example of the "tyranny of the majority." Nowadays, however, as good and exciting as diversity is, it has actually led us to not discuss at all what we believe for fear of offending one another. We only knew what the beliefs were amongst us when an extensive survey was taken.

         In very recent years, some of us have begun to listen and speak to one another about our beliefs, and we are finding that we can respectfully hear one another and come to a new understanding. It really is possible to believe and share vastly different things about the foundation of reality within and beyond this world, and still have much in common. It is not possibl to hear the heart of another and not be changed! This engagement in diversity affirms our third and fourth principles: acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth and a free and responsible search for truth and meaning."

         You might have heard of the UU church that did a series of services on what binds the denomination together. The sermon topic for one of these Sundays was "Lazy Sinners." A church member seized upon the opportunity to invite her lapsed UU friend. "No one has invited me to church for a long time," her friend said. The woman replied, "Yes, but this is the first time we've had a show and tell."

         We study ourselves through a body called the Commission on Appraisal, which was first established in the 1930s when the American Unitarian Association (AUA) had stopped growing and we wanted to examine why this was so. This Commission of nine members has today begun to assess what is the core of Unitarian Universalism, or what holds us together. The Commission has held many town meetings at various churches across the country to interview and discuss certain questions with us to elicit from us what we think is the core of Unitarian Universalism. The findings of the Commission will be published in two years. This inquiry and assessment is in accordance with our Fourth Principle, a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

         Though I suspect the core will be a combination of elements, including diversity, I strongly suspect that the one fundamental force that is foundational to our message and our congregational purpose is love, love that is embedded in the tradition of covenant, meaning a sacred agreement or promise. And love and covenant are embedded in the tradition of our early congregational churches, that became Unitarian in theology. Love, of course, is foundational in all the world's religions, often expressed as compassion. Now covenant is part of what we call polity or the way we are organized, which is democratic, and this is guaranteed by the bylaws we agree to when we become members. Many of our churches also adopt behavioral covenants, rules that we agree to abide by while we walk our religious journey together.

         I began thinking about this when I reread recently the Covenant of First Church in Boston that was established in 1630. Part of it said, "We covenant…to walk together in all our diverse ways." If we look into the historical documents of one of our early churches, in the city of Dedham, Massachusetts, which was established in 1637, we read that "they set us a series of weekly neighborhood meetings, 'lovingly to discourse and consult together…and prepare for spiritual communion in a church society .… that we might be further acquainted with the (spiritual tempers) and guifts of one another.'" (Blair Wesley, p.19)

         The record says that 'they set a few simple rules: 1) Decide at the previous meeting what questions to discuss so that they would come with considered thoughts.' 2) The host would begin the discussion. 3) They should discuss their doubts and understanding. The Record reports that all their 'reasonings' were 'very peaceable, loving, & tender, and much to edification. . . .For the subject of thes disputes or conferences divers meetings at first were spent about questions as pertayned to the just, peaceable & comfortable proceeding in the civill society…" (Blair Wesley, p.19, with the spelling of the day)

         So here we have also, the desire for justice and peace and with the church taking some responsibility to help make this happen.

         In the Dedham church's records of 1637 to 1638, "…there is much use of these words: reason…deliberation…encouragement, advice, advise, counsel… agreement, liberty…promising. There is also repeated use of the words: sweet, comfort, help and brotherly. But by far the most commonly used words in this written history are: affection embrace and love, loving lovingly." (Blair Wesley, p.22)

         This morning, the choir began our service with the song "Love is the Spirit of this Church" and then we followed it with the unison opening words, "Love is the doctrine of this church," which is under the category of covenant in our hymnal. I believe that the core of Unitarian Universalism is love lived out in the context of covenant because it is true for me for you have called me to speak the truth as I see it. But you must decide for yourself what the core is for you for you are the authority for your truth.

References

The following has inspired and informed this sermon:

Wesley, Blair Alice, Our Covenant: The Lay and Liberal Doctrine of the Church: The Spirit and the Promise of Our Covenant, The 2001-01 Minns Lectures, Chicago, Ill: Meadville Lombard Theological School Press, 2002.