Can a "Big Tent" Approach to Religion Really Work?

Sermon by Stephen D. Edington
September 29, 1996

Reading

(from Finding Time by William F. Schulz)

Grace has never been something that could be insured; it has only been something that could be invited... What we require is the capacity to see, to see what is usually right before our eyes, to look at the mundane in a new way--to see that life's margins are wider than we think; that the world, even in its agony, retains an option; that a person, even facing death, can seal a triumph. The gracious is the appearance of possibility in the very consciousness of defeat. We do not ask or need to know its source--that really does not matter. We care only for its touch; we ask only for its blessing. And if it should remain in hiding, well then, that is the stuff for which endurance is made; that is the reason for faith.

Let me put it to you in the form of (a story),... a silly little story about a Buddhist monk who was being chased one day by an angry bear. The monk ran and ran but could not escape from the bear and so, reaching a cliff, leapt off into the void and just managed to break his fall by grabbing onto a branch growing out from the side of the cliff. Glancing beneath him the monk saw a horde of angry crocodiles and still above him, peering down, the angry bear. All of a sudden two gophers crawled out of a hole in the cliff and began gnawing on the end of the branch. So here the monk was--angry bear above, hungry crocodiles below, and gnawing gophers--when to his surprize he spotted a strawberry bush growing just within reach. The monk reached out to the bush, plucked one huge red strawberry, brought it to his mouth, smelled it, savored it, ate it. "How delicious!" was all he said. "How delicious!" And that is exactly what the gracious offers us, no matter what our circumstances: not passivity, but possibility; not rancor, but radiance; to be able to say with the monk as we cling to our branch, "How delicious! How delicious!"

Sermon

Like many of our UU congregations, ours in Nashua, NH has a web page which was set up a couple of years ago by a couple members of our church who know far more than I do about creating such things. We put out some basic information about our church and about Unitarian Universalism and log on our newsletter each month. We've also put out the entire text of a little book called One Hundred Questions Non-Members Ask About Unitarian Universalism, which a church member and I collaborated on a few years ago. The most fascinating part of our web page, however, is the part we do not write. Its called "Guest Page', and it's a place where people who have found us can express an opinion either about UUism in general or about our church in particular.

Many of these Guest Page entries are very gratifying to read. The Butlers in Tustin, California: "This is really helpful to me, as I am searching desperately for a religion that will allow me to go to church on Sunday mornings and not walk away discouraged and confused." Patty in Fair Oaks, California: "I am still in the process of reading '100 Questions...' and have been considering this religion for myself for sometime." From a woman in Baltimore: "Thanks so very much for the invaluable information. We have been searching for a 'church' that my agnostic husband can accept. I think we have finally found one. We intend to visit a UU church this weekend." A woman named Connie in Austin, Texas refers to her work in twelve-step programs and also says, "I love your website...I think I'll start attending First Church here in Austin. I'm looking for a group which would be supportive of my evolving spirituality." There was one entry from a woman in Carmel, Indiana that I found to be especially moving: "My dad died suddenly last May...and I wish for a place to go for comfort. After losing (my father) I have realized that my own thoughts toward religion are somewhat different and much more personal than the mainline church offers....maybe by reading further about Unitarian (Universalism) I will finally find a place where I am comfortable for me and my family."

In reading over such entries as these I've come to see that the Internet has taken the phrase "Think globally; act locally" and turned it around. What a local congregation says and does via the Internet can well nigh have a global reach. People from various parts of this country, and occasionally from other countries, who will never come through the door of my church are finding their way to Unitarian Universalist churches, societies, and fellowships on the basis of what one UU community in Nashua, New Hampshire is saying and doing. I find that, in the words of my 13 year old son, to be "really awesome." The local is global.

Now, we do get zinged once in awhile. Not everybody is as positively impressed as the persons just cited. Take a fellow named Doug Lozen, for example. He didn't say where he was from, but he sure had plenty to about UUs, to wit:

"Your 'Big Tent' approach to religion will be your downfall. There is only one way: Jesus Christ. Jesus dined with sinners, including prostitutes and tax collectors. (But) he did not have the time of day for those who professed to have knowledge of religion. If you do not believe in the Trinity, or Jesus Christ, you will be forsaken on judgment day."

Well now. First off, I realize that by using Doug's comments as the basis of, and the title for, a sermon I am falling into a neuroses, if not a disease, that seems to afflict a good number of ministers--UU and otherwise. We can get paid three dozen compliments, but if one zinger--or a discouraging word or two--also comes our way, that's the thing we'll fixate on and lose sleep over. At the same time, one should not ignore negative feedback especially when there is a chance it could be used for some positive purpose--which is what I hope to do with this gentleman's remarks.

To deal with a couple of minor matters first with respect to Doug's Guest Page comments: The New Testament gospels actually portray Jesus as being rather sophisticated and quite well versed with respect to his knowledge of the religion of his day, even though his audience for the most part was the peasantry. But never mind that. I also found it of interest, in Doug's reference to "sinners", that prostitutes and tax collectors are put on the same moral plane. But never mind that either. What I want to pull out of Mr. Lozen's entry to our website are his words, "Your 'Big Tent' approach to religion will be your downfall. There is only one way..." Setting aside also what our Guest Page guest says constitutes that "one way"--for him its belief in the Trinity and in Jesus Christ--lets focus instead on this issue of the 'Big Tent' approach to religion versus the 'one way' approach. Mr. Lozen quite correctly notes that we UUs are 'Big Tenters'--or at least we try to be.

But a Big Tent approach to religion, and to maintaining and nurturing a religious community, does not, just by itself, accomplish the job. Doug's got a point here. Simply having an amalgam of beliefs and perspectives that are reasonably tolerated by all cannot, again by itself, be the basis of a religious community--liberal or otherwise. Tolerance is a virtue; lets not lose sight of that; it certainly beats intolerance. But if I am looking for a religious community to which I can bring my experiences, my needs, my questions, my beliefs, my desire for spiritual growth, and my desire to live in a more sane, just, and loving world, then I need something more than being tolerated. I need affirmation. And yes, while I would indeed be attracted to a Big Tent where uniformity of belief is not required as a ticket for admission, it is how I am or am not affirmed once I get inside the tent that is going to determine whether or not I stay.

In order for there to be a common spirit of affirmation that both embraces and transcends toleration in our UU communities, and in our lives as religious liberals, I think there are certain "core concepts", certain common affirmations, that do need to be present at the center of this Big Tent so that those who are in it will also feel and know that they are part of a larger Whole. While I am not suggesting "one way" here in the sense that our friend Doug does, I will offer what I see as being some of these common affirmations that serve to bind together a liberal religious community, as well as enhance and deepen the liberal religious life. I have three [I've been a Unitarian Universalist for twenty years now, but still cannot get away from "trinitarian" sermon structures]:1. The affirmation that there is a Reality greater than ourselves with which--or with whom--we have a vital relationship. 2. The affirmation that our lives and the world in which we live them are capable of positive transformation. 3. The affirmation that the gracious is ever present in the midst of the mundane--even in the midst of the painful and the broken.

Back to the first one, the affirmation that there is a Reality greater than our individual selves with which, or whom, we have a vital relationship. For me this affirmation is self-evident. If we did not desire a relationship with something greater than ourselves, then why seek a religious community to begin with? If, after all, all that is being sought is an alternative to some of the more traditional and conventional forms of religion reading the Sunday papers can take care of that. The difference between UUism and some of the more conventional or traditional forms of religion is that we do not claim to fully know the nature or make-up of that Reality. We leave a good deal of room for mystery and wonder adn doubt. We do not insist that this Reality can only be found by way of a given doctrinal or creedal route; and we do not insist that it only be known by one name or single set of names. Some of the more common, humanistically oriented names we use at present for this Reality are the Human Spirit, the Spirit of Life, the Larger Life, the Spirit of Love, the Life of the Universe. The more theistically oriented among us may call this Reality God or Ground of Being; the liberal Christian may call it the Spirit of Jesus; the pagan may call it the Earth Spirit or Gaia or Goddess. The person in recovery may call it his or her Higher Power.

We can bring, and we should bring, many names, many experiences, many life journeys, many beliefs and convictions into the Big Tent; but we also bring them to the common affirmation that there is a Reality greater than ourselves, and we are nurtured by our relationship to this Reality, however we each may understand, define and name it. This relationship with a Reality greater than ourselves is also part and parcel of our relationships with one another--relationships in which we share in one anothers' joys, attend to one anothers' pain, and be present with one another in all the various ways in which we each take a share of responsibility for our common life.

The second affirmation I'm suggesting as standing in the middle of the Big Tent is that the lives we live and the world in which we live them are capable and worthy of positive transformation. Our Unitarian and Universalist ancestors called this idea "perfectibility." Among the "Five Points of Unitarianism" that were quite frequently cited by our religious forebears around the turn of the 20th century was one that proclaimed "The progress of mankind [sic] onward and upward forever." A good number of events of this past century, which I do not believe I need to explicate, have quite rightly tempered and sobered the optimistic--make that the overly-optimistic--spirit of our liberal religious predecessors. But even with such tempering of that spirit I daresay that few, if any, or us would participate in the liberal religious life if we did not feel that our lives wouldn't somehow be transformed for the better by such participation, and if we did not feel that our participation would give us some greater measure of personal wholeness that we would otherwise know. Contained within this affirmation is an understanding as well that personal transformation is part and parcel of the transformation of our larger society and world. It may not be fully "perfectible", but it remains worthy of our care and our labor and our occasional tears. And so there is room for many lives, many experiences, many beliefs, convictions and dreams in a Big Tent religion, with one of the affirmations at the center of that tent being that the lives we live and the world in which we live them are capable and worthy of positive transformation.

The third affirmation I'm putting in the center ring, if you will, of this Big Tent is the one which holds that the gracious is ever present in the midst of the mundane; even present in the midst of the painful and the broken. I go back to Bill Schulz for this one:

"What we require is the capacity to see, to see what is usually right before our eyes, to look at the mundane in a new way--to see that life's margins are wider than we think; that the world, even in its agony, retains an option; that a person, even facing death, can seal a triumph. The gracious is the appearance of possibility in the very consciousness of defeat. We do not ask or need to know its source--that does not really matter. We care only for its touch; we ask only for its blessing. And if it should remain in hiding, well then, that is the stuff for which endurance is made; that is the reason for faith."

At an earlier point in his essay Bill says, "For us the gracious cannot be prayed into existence; it does not respond to our implorings. It can only be prepared for, attended to, spotted." Another characteristic of a Big Tent religion is that it provides a place, a setting where people can prepare for the gracious, where we can attune our lives to be receptive to it, where we can grow a life and cultivate a consciousness that will indeed allow us to see and feel and be touched by the gifts of life that are all around us, and where we can catch a glimpse of the "appearance of possibility in the very consciousness (or midst) of defeat (or despair)." The thing that intrigues me most about the "silly little story", as Bill calls it, about the Buddhist monk who could still savor the deliciousness of the strawberry while an angry bear hovered over him and crocodiles swam below him and gophers chewed away at the only thing that was holding him up, is that we are not told how it turns out--however obvious the ending may appear to be. And there is a message contained in the very incompleteness of this story--however "silly" it may seem. Its a message about keeping faith with life in the midst of fear, anxiety, and the appearance of certain defeat. Its about saying "yes" in the face of all that is saying "no."; its about trusting life in all its many twists and turns.

Bill is also correct when he says of the gracious "We do not ask or need to know its source." I would hasten to add, however, that one of the things that makes a Big Tent approach to religion work, is when the many sources or paths to the gracious which its members have found, are each and all honored and celebrated. And the thing that pulls those many sources together into a common Whole is this affirmation that the gracious is indeed present and available for us in the midst of the mundane--even available in the midst of the pain and the brokenness we often encounter in our dealings with life.

One of the things we are truly about, then, is honoring and valuing the many spiritual paths and resources that call us together as a liberal religious body. We as an Association have identified six of these paths or sources in our Purposes and Principles Statement where we say "The Living Tradition we share draws from many sources..." What I have tried to do in offering these thoughts is to describe a focal point to which these sources can lead since I believe that is the way to true inclusivity.

Beyond the calling together and affirming a diversity of spiritual paths and sources--to which I have devoted my thoughts this morning--there are other kinds of inclusivity to which we need to pay serious heed. We are still a very homogenous group when it come to race and class. One of our more popular hymns contains the words: "Where is our holy church? Where race and class unite...." That is a very worthy and necessary goal; it is also one that most of our liberal religious communities have yet to achieve. What it might mean--and could mean--for us to take seriously the pursuit of inclusivity along racial, cultural, socio-economic, and class lines is a bigger topic, and a bigger concern, than I can open up right now, other than to say that it is a concern that more and more of our liberal religious congregations are beginning to grapple with in some dedicated and meaningful ways. If a Big Tent approach to religion is to truly work then these kinds of concerns also have to be put on the table.

As for our friend Doug, I guess his note about the Big Tent being our downfall is a kind of reality check to let us know that we are not, and cannot be, for everybody. I do owe him one, though, for his making me devote some thought to the subject of what it does take to make a Big Tent approach to religion work. I could e-mail this sermon off to him. If I owe him one, that's at least one way of handling it. Even if it didn't impress him all that much, it would at least acknowledge that I did listen to what he had to say.

"The living tradition we share draws from many sources..." Let us honor the lives and the life journeys that are called together, and bound together, by our liberal religious faith. We conclude our Purposes and Principles with a statement that says: "Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision..." A deeper understanding of who we are and what we can be...and an expanded vision of the lives we are living and of the world in which they are lived. This is what religion, at its best, does offer. May we be ever capable of making such an offering.

Copyright © 1996 by the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Nashua NH. All rights reserved.