"THE IMMORTAL EMERSON"

A Sermon by the Rev. Bruce Clear

Sunday, December 7, 2003

All Souls Unitarian Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

This year is passing quickly, and I've been caught up in honoring our church's centennial. In the meantime, another important anniversary is worth noting, and it has slipped through my mental fingers too long. This year is the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

It is hard to underestimate the influence of Emerson on both American culture and the Unitarian tradition. He was at the center of what is often called the "American Renaissance," that intellectual movement that defined us. After the Revolution, we were a new nation but had little identity as a people. In the first half of the 1800s, a circle of writers emerged in New England that articulated the new American spirit and world view. The village of Concord, Massachusetts was the new Athens of this new spirit, and names like Thoreau and Hawthorne and Fuller and Alcott and Whitman became familiar to the public. The biggest name of all, though, was Emerson. No one else was better able to articulate the soul of the American people that was evolving in this new nation. He would be known forever as the "Sage of Concord."

A "sage" conjures up images of a guru atop a mountain, legs crossed, and passing on gems of wisdom to his disciples. But Emerson did not wish that people listen to him and agree; he wanted his audience to listen to him and think for themselves. He even advised such changing of mind in very explicit words when he said, "speak what you think today in words as hard as cannon balls, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you say (today)."

It seems to me that one of the characteristics of a great mind in history is that we continue discover that, no matter how much we think we understand what the person says and means, the person's words continue to make us re-think our ideas. There is always something there which will challenge us to re-consider our conclusions. No one does this better than Emerson, and his influence on Unitarianism over the last century and a half has had that effect. And I hope, before I'm done this morning, I can show that his words are benefitting us in that way today, challenging us again to re-think our conclusions, even if we feel in agreement with him -- maybe especially if we do.

Frank Schulman, a Unitarian minister who wrote a study of Ralph Waldo Emerson, once observed that many people consider Emerson the way that a student, upon first reading Hamlet might say, "What's so great about Hamlet? It's just a bunch of famous quotations strung together!"

Consider some of Emerson's words that have been absorbed into our culture:

• "Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist."
• "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one (person)"
• "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."
• "Character is higher than intellect."
• "All history becomes subjective; in other words, there is properly no history, only biography."
• "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines"
• "All mankind love(s) a lover."
• "The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one."
• "One man's justice is another's injustice; one man's beauty is another's ugliness; one man's wisdom is another's folly."
• "Men are what their mothers made them.
• "Hitch your wagon to a star."

And my favorite, perhaps:

• "I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching."

If Unitarians had a pedigree, Emerson was born with it. Emerson was born in 1803, the year in which William Ellery Channing, the founder of American Unitarianism, began his ministry. He was descended from nine New England ministers. His grandfather was minister of the First Church of Concord, Massachusetts, and participated as a Chaplain in the Revolution, and his father was minister of the First Church of Boston, Boston's most historic church. When Unitarianism became organized in the 1820s, his father aligned with them.

It surprised no one, then, that Emerson entered Harvard Divinity School with the goal of preparing for the Unitarian ministry. It was a reluctant decision, for he felt he didn't have the necessary skills, but his family pressured him to continue the legacy of Emerson clergy. He was a mediocre student - and confessed that in his journals. During that time, he attended Channing's Federal Street Church, and was of course, deeply influenced by Channing.

Emerson was to become the leading public voice for transcendentalism, the first movement to reform and transform American Unitarianism. The subject of transcendentalism deserves its own sermon - or sermon series - but I'll say just a word of summary now. In the earliest days of Unitarianism, the movement received its inspiration primarily from the Enlightenment and scientific spirit. It is in that spirit that Unitarianism attached itself to reason in religion, which accords with our description of All Souls as a place "where reason and religion meet." As the nineteenth century began, reason, for most Unitarians, meant science, study, investigation, logic, and objectivity.

Meanwhile, in Europe, there was a romantic and idealistic movement growing which reacted against what was perceived to be a dogmatism of ideas in the scientific Enlightenment . This reaction was in no way a return to the rigid Christianity of Calvinism, but it was an attempt to bring more spirit and passion into life. It was felt that a religious philosophy that was primarily intellectual lost much of the beauty of living life by feeling. Emerson, for example, spoke out against what he once called "the corpse-cold Unitarianism of Harvard College," and became the champion of the romantic mood in America, which became known as "Transcendentalism."

I'll give one more explanatory word about this movement. Transcendentalism taught us to trust our intuition, our insights, our "gut-feelings" every bit as much as our senses and our intellectual study. Intuition, they felt, was as much an avenue for truth, if not more so, than scientific investigation. When it came to religion, for example, they thought it worthless to go about trying to prove or disprove the existence of God. Instead, the conclusions of religion are intuitively true, and should be accepted or rejected on that basis.

Put differently, at issue was the question of authority for religious belief. In the orthodox circles, one's beliefs should be based on scripture and church doctrines and teachings. In the intellectual circles, beliefs should be rooted in scientific proof. For the transcendentalist, religious beliefs arise from intuition and conscience

This is foundation for Emerson's concept he called the "Oversoul." We are all endowed with wisdom simply by virtue of being human, and that wisdom, which has both divine and natural origin, is waiting for us to recognize it. It is not discovered through scripture, and scientific study will give us plenty of facts, but will not give us wisdom. To find wisdom, we must trust ourselves and look inward. This is the reason why Emerson could write, "We are wiser than we know." This is the meaning behind his most famous essay, which he called "Self-Reliance." And this is the background to the inspiring lines from his essay on the "Oversoul," which read:

"Let us learn the revelation of all nature and thought, that the Highest dwells within us, that the sources of nature are in our own minds."

I might also add here a word about the Unitarian movement at this time. What became known as the "Unitarian Controversy" began in 1805 when Harvard appointed Henry Ware as professor of theology, and Ware was declared himself Unitarian. At that time, Unitarians differed from the orthodox in several areas: they rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, they rejected a literal interpretation of the Bible, and most importantly, the affirmed the goodness of human nature rather than the doctrine of original sin that portrays humans as innately evil.

Little by little, the Unitarian heresy spread. Various New England ministers declared themselves Unitarian, and their churches followed. A public debate erupted. The leader of the orthodox view was Lyman Beecher who charged Unitarianism with "corrupting the youth of the Commonwealth by means of Cambridge," and was confident the orthodox would ultimately win, he said, and "victory will be achieved, and Unitarian cease to darken and pollute the land."

It didn't work out that way. Quite a few of the most influential leaders joined the Unitarian movement. The most respected was William Ellery Channing. Another one was William Emerson, Ralph Waldo's father.

It is clear that Emerson's views fit well with this emerging movement. He admired Channing and attended Channing's church while a student at Harvard. The positive view of human nature, which distinguished the Unitarians from the orthodox, was reflected in all of Emerson's writing. But as we shall see, Emerson also became a vocal critic of what was to become the establishment views within Unitarianism.

In 1829, Emerson was called as minister of the Second Church of Boston, which had declared itself Unitarian. He was a good and fairly popular minister, but he was troubled by a number of factors. He spoke out against what he perceived to be superstitions of Christianity that remained within Unitarianism. He questioned the historical accuracy of the Biblical miracle stories. He urged that religious thought reach out beyond the boundaries of Christianity and explore for wisdom in Eastern traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism. He thought talk of God was too simplistic, as some super magician rather than as a transcendent spirit that lives within us. He felt the churches were too inclined to impose ideas on members rather than to encourage them to think for themselves. In all, Emerson's ideas were so radical that he himself struggled to decide whether he was in the right job and able to serve his own congregation adequately.

His struggle with staying in the ministry coincided with some personal issues. Emerson, who was the prophet of individual strength and optimism about life, experienced a great deal of grief during his life. His father died when he was only eight, and as a result, he grew up in near poverty. He was one of seven children. Two of his siblings died before age four, and another at age eight. Another brother was born with severe mental handicaps and could not function independently. Another brother, who became a successful young lawyer, went insane in his twenties and finished his life in an asylum. Another brother died in his before he was thirty. Of the his six siblings, only one lived a full life with normal sanity.

In 1827, Emerson met the love of his life, Ellen Tucker. They were married when he was twenty-five and she was seventeen. They were married the same year he began his ministry at Second Church in Boston. A year and a half later, she died of tuberculosis. They knew she had the disease even before announcing their engagement, and their brief marriage was a roller-coaster ride of powerful love and respect, and facing daily dread of the illness. For years after her death, Emerson visited the cemetery every day.

And yet, true to his philosophy, he did not wallow in self-pity. In writing his journal, he always spoke of what a blessing he had to have her, and avoided focusing on the loss he felt. Regardless of his circumstances, Emerson was able to make life positive and meaningful.

Nevertheless during the year following Ellen's death, he began writing in his journal questioning his vocation as minister. In 1832, these struggles became real to him when he realized he could not, in good conscience, continue serving communion, the Lord's Supper, which was the custom at his church. He concluded the church needed that tradition, but he couldn't supply it, so he resigned from the ministry. He left for Europe to clear his mind, and returned to launch a career as lecturer and essayist. He remained within the church, though, and continued as an active member of the Unitarian Church in Concord, where he settled down.

But he hardly "settled down." In his speeches and writings, Emerson stirred up a hornets' nest of controversy. One of his most controversial moments came in 1838 when he was invited by the students of the graduating class of Harvard Divinity School to be the graduation speaker. The school was so offended by what he said, they took away the students' right thereafter to choose the speaker for graduation.

What Emerson said to that mostly Unitarian student body and faculty was how dry and lifeless Unitarianism had come. He told the students that more important than academic study is learning to trust yourself and your own intuitions. The biblical miracle stories, which were taught there in bible courses, he called "ridiculous." And he told this group who were training to lead institutions, before the faculty that trained them, not to look to models and mentors for wisdom, but look within themselves.

The reaction to his message was swift and strong. The next day, the Boston newspaper ran a rebuttal to Emerson calling his sermon "The Latest Form of Infidelity." And as the younger generation flocked to hear more of Emerson, the Unitarian establishment felt somewhat under siege.

Emerson, though, stayed outside the fray. He did not enter into debates and remained civil while others attacked him in public. Though his ideas were radical, his character and temperament were gentle. His biographers report that Emerson, though he spoke in strong words, never spoke ill of any person. Once, after a speech to a literary society, given from the pulpit of a local church, a local clergyman was asked to offer a prayer. He began his benediction, after Emerson was seated, and said, "We beseech thee O Lord, to deliver us from hearing any more such transcendental nonsense as we have just listened to from this sacred desk." Following the benediction, Emerson turned to the man next to him and asked the name of the clergyman. Emerson then remarked with gentleness, "He seemed a very conscientious, plain-spoken man," and went on his way. It is little wonder, then, that in one of his essays Emerson could write, "Life is not so short but there is always time enough for courtesy."

Emerson sought to simplify religion, and in doing so, he rejected the many complicated dogmas of traditional Christianity. He once defined religion this way: "to love, to serve, to think, and to be humble." He did not set out to change Unitarianism, but he, more than any other single person, was responsible for the changes that came. As a result of transcendentalist ideas, Unitarianism gradually opened itself to a broader view of the religious sentiment. For the most part, the superficial trappings were gone -- the Lord's supper, the infallible interpretations of the Bible, the authority of church tradition, the belief in original sin and human depravity, the miracle stories, and so forth. For the most part, under the inspiration of transcendentalism, Unitarianism began to view the divine more broadly. more as a spirit or a natural force, like the "Oversoul," than as a supernatural person outside the natural world. For the most part, Unitarianism has opened itself up to wisdom of world's religions -- of Buddhism and Taoism and Native American religions. For the most part, under the inspiration of transcendentalism, Unitarianism has increasingly relied on the authority of the individual mind - honoring the individual's personal conscience and intuition to discover truth.

Perhaps the central message of Emerson we hear today is that of the dignity of the individual. This also may be his greatest contribution to the young American culture that was just then being shaped. "Trust theyself," he wrote, "Every heart vibrates to that iron string."

And yet, I can't help but think, that if Emerson were looking over us today, he would be saying something like, "O.K., you understood what I was saying. Now it's time for you to think differently." He would not be content to see us content with our own ideas. There is much more in what he said that should, I think, urge us to re-consider how we currently believe.

Take, for example, his ideas around "intuition." It is clear that he felt we should look for wisdom within ourselves. Too often today, when we speak of the power of human reason, we are referring to the ability to study scientifically the natural world around us and understand the way things work. Emerson was not opposed to this process at all, but he would say that we shouldn't confuse "knowledge" with "wisdom."

The transcendentalists often used "conscience" as a allegory for how wisdom works. Conscience is imbedded, not learned. Information can help us in the task of choosing right from wrong, but it is not sufficient. Information can also help us in the task of choosing true from false, but it is not sufficient. We need wisdom, which is imbedded within us. Truth comes to us intuitively, and it is our task to hone the skill of understanding ourselves, relying on ourselves for true wisdom.

I think Emerson might say in his advice for us that we rely less on external sources of reason and more on our own intuitional rational sense.

Or take, for example, the transcendentalist appreciation of mystery and mysticism. The transcendentalists in general, and Emerson in particular, had a strong mystical bent, believing that human intuition and insight connects us directly to the power of the cosmos. Each of us shares in the universal spirit of nature, and we can tap into that connection at will. Today, though Unitarianism allows for a mystical element, by and large it is not a significant part of our religious landscape, and I think Emerson might say in his advice for us that we, as a movement, be more open to the mystery that exists around us and more open to the mystical feeling of connection to the universe.

Emerson's thinking clearly altered the course of Unitarianism 150 years ago, and it seems undebatable that we are much indebted to his contribution. What is most impressive is that his vision continues to inspire and challenge us today. The issues raised by transcendentalism, and expressed most articulately by Emerson, are the issues we Unitarians continue to face today.

• What is our relation, as human beings, to the cosmos and to nature?
• Is there a world behind the material world that we inhabit, a world of spirit and meaning?
• Does a sense of the divine permeate our world and our experience? Can we tap in to that divine sense and gain meaning from it?

One irony is, I think, that today, as we enter a new century, we can look to him again to inspire yet further transformation into a new and stronger religion for tomorrow. That is what being a "sage" is all about.