What Do You Believe?
Summer Service, July 15, 2007, Gary Lerude
Opening Words
Why then do we choose to join together rather than exercise our full freedom to believe what we will in the privacy of our homes on Sunday mornings? Simply because experience has taught us that we need one another. We need guidance in recognizing our tears in one another's eyes. We need prompting to raise our moral sights. We need companions in the work of love and justice to enhance our neighborhoods and to strengthen our witness in the world. And yes, we choose to join our hands and hearts because we know how easily we slip back into mechanical habits that blunt our consciousness. We need and know we need to be reminded week in and week out how precious life is and how fragile. So very fragile. And so phosphorescent. A year can seem to last forever, to the point that we may pray for it to end; yet decades flit past in an eye blink.
From a sermon by Forrest Church, given at All Souls Church of New York, October 8, 2006
Sermon: What Do You Believe?
Have you ever been asked about your religious beliefs? And did you find it a challenge to cogently summarize your religious philosophy in under a minute? To affirm what you believe rather than what you don't believe?
In the book Born Again Unitarian Universalism, Forrest Church recounts the dialog at a dinner party.
"You are a what?"
"A Unitarian Universalist."
"Oh, I see," he says - but he obviously doesn't. He is rescued by the woman to our right.
"I've never really understood just what it is you Unitarians believe. You are Christians, aren't you?"
"Not exactly. I mean, we were, and some of us still are, but most of us are not."
"You don't believe in Jesus?"
"Not in any orthodox way, certainly. Many of us value his teachings, but few, if any of us, believe that he was resurrected on the third day or that he was God."
"What about immortality?"
"Well, I guess you'd have to say we're pretty much divided on that one."
"But at least you all believe in God?" interrupts the man across the table...
"Not exactly. Many of us do, if each in his or her own way. Others of us do not find the concept of God a useful one."
"What then do you believe?" our hostess politely asks.
Sound familiar?
With our open-ended search for meaning and often non-traditional views, UUs are arguably at a disadvantage when asked "just what do you believe?" Today, we will explore ideas for creating your own "elevator speech," meaning a concise statement of what you believe as a UU.
But first let's consider why this is important.
One of the seven principles affirmed by Unitarian Universalists is "a free and responsible search for truth and meaning." Each of us embraces the freedom to think for ourselves, the freedom not to have to accept a creed or specific set of beliefs that don't ring true. For many of us, who find Unitarian Universalism after we have left the religion of our upbringing, Unitarian Universalism is the antithesis of what we have rejected - a safe place to regroup our spiritual principles.
In this church, you know, we have the freedom not to believe. Yet, that's not sufficient. As Henry Whitney Bellows, the former minister of All Souls Church in New York City, warned: "Freedom, whether political or religious, has no power to produce anything. It merely leaves the faculties free to act." And, as Forrest Church, the Minister of Public Theology at All Souls, noted in his book Born Again Unitarian Universalism, "Freedom of religion too easily translates into freedom from religion."
That's why this UU principle is stated as "a free and responsible search for truth and meaning." Responsibility means filling the religious vacuum left by the faith of our upbringing, or the faith we never knew, with a lifelong consideration of the spiritual questions that every human mind considers, because they are a part of human nature. Abraham Maslow identifies a few of these questions: "What is the good life? What is the good man? What is the good woman? What is the good society and what is my relation to it? What are my obligations to society? What is the best for my children? What is justice? Truth? Virtue? What is my relation to nature, to death, to aging, to pain, to illness? How can I live a zestful, enjoyable, meaningful life? What is my responsibility to my brother and my sister? Who are my brothers and sisters? What shall I be loyal to? What must I be ready to die for?"
These are all very practical questions, helping us to define for ourselves how best to live our days on this planet. And although they may not be as practical, there are other questions that are equally intriguing: How do you view the transcendent nature of the universe and your relationship to it? Within this transcendence, is the concept of an organizing force or higher intelligence or God meaningful to you? Is there a moral nature to the universe, outside of human experience? What does it mean to be human? Do you believe that your conscious state of being will survive the death of your physical body? How should being human shape the life you live? How does your religion shape the life you live?
These are the questions that intrigue us, some without answers and some that we answer by how we live and the course of our lives. In Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke writes "Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day."
Let's return to Forrest Church's dinner party.
"What is your church?" asks the man across the table.
"I am a Unitarian Universalist."
"You are what?"
"A Unitarian Universalist."
"Oh, I see," he says - but he obviously doesn't. He is rescued by the woman to our right.
"I've never really understood just what it is you Unitarians believe. You are Christians, aren't you?"
"Some of us are, but not all. You see, when you join a Unitarian Universalist church you commit yourself to a moral and spiritual purpose: to be faithful to the inherent responsibilities of religious freedom. You commit yourself henceforth to discard whatever beliefs you discover to be false and to accept whatever you are convinced to be true. What this means, in part, is that we understand that as people grow and change, their beliefs will grow and change, that is if they are encouraged to permit such growth and change."
"Well, you don't have to go to church for that," our hostess politely interjects.
"Of course not," we reply. "This is but one part of the charge to which we commit ourselves upon joining a Unitarian Universalist church. I simply mention it because it distinguishes our church from many others."
"But if you are 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."
Not a bad elevator speech. If only I were as articulate on the spur of the moment.
How about you? What do you believe? And how do you answer the question, when someone asks what is a Unitarian Universalist?
A nice aspect of our summer services is that they are more informal and can be interactive. Just as we cherish the freedom to fashion our own beliefs, we have the option to participate in worship and spiritual practice. In that spirit, I'd like to invite you to spend a few minutes in meditation, considering your beliefs and fashioning your own elevator speech.
In this time of meditation, contemplating your relationship to the mystery of creation that is so much greater than us - yet is present in each of us. What do you believe and how does this inform your life?
[Meditation. Invite sharing of thoughts.]
Here are a couple of samples. See how they resonate with you.
Erica Alston, in Articulating Your UU Faith, says that Unitarian Universalism is "a free-thinking liberal religion that is guided by shared values rather than a particular dogma or creed. This lets individuals claim their personal beliefs based on conscience and experience. At its core, Unitarian Universalism places an emphasis on the worth and value of every person and the interconnectedness of all things. UUs are encouraged to give life to their values, demonstrating compassion, respect, and justice, working together to make the world a better place to pass along to our children."
Galen Geungerich, the Senior Minister at All Souls in New York City, has an even shorter "As Unitarians, we believe all names for God point toward the same mystery. As Universalists, we believe all creation shares the same destiny...One divine spirit within and around us, and one destiny before us."
May you find a sense of the sacred and your relationship to it, and may this bless and carry you through the days of your life. Amen.
Closing Words
The closing words are by Forrest Church, from Born Again Unitarian Universalism:
"In our faith, God is not a given, God is a question. God is not defined for us, God is defined by us. Our views are shaped and changed by our experiences. As we grow, our faith grows. We struggle with what it means to be alive and yet have to die. We probe the depths of our own being for little hints of meaning. We create a faith by which we can live and struggle to live up to it. Throughout, each of us is fated to travel his or her own path. In the larger sense, we have chosen to journey together because we find that it is helpful. We find that it is good."
