“OUR GOOD NEWS”
A Sermon by the Rev. Bruce Clear
Sunday,
Association Sunday of the UUA
All
If there is a center to our religion – a conviction which we all affirm regardless of the diversity of our other beliefs – that center is probably the integrity of the individual, the right of each person to follow her or his conscience in matters of belief and opinions.
We disagree on many things, and some of them not insignificant disagreements. It is never safe to assume that you know what Unitarian Universalists believe about ethics or theology, about the purpose of life or the nature of death. I have from time to time made such an assumption – that UUs probably believe what I believe – and almost always I've been wrong. And I’ve regretted making assumptions.
But one assumption is safe. We all believe that religious integrity lies in exploring for our own answers rather than accepting the answers we are given. I have yet to find a Unitarian Universalist who believes that religious authenticity lies in accepting doctrines that have been handed down from ancient times through the church or through the scriptures or through creeds or through the clergy. Religious authenticity, rather, is found in the sometimes painful process of questioning and doubting and thinking and feeling and struggling to find answers that you can genuinely claim as your own.
This view of religious authenticity is built upon a deep conviction about the integrity of the individual. The integrity of individual conscience is as sacred to us as any scripture is to any world religion. The integrity of the individual may be our most Holy of Holies.
This respect for individual autonomy has deep roots in our tradition. Nowhere can one find a more eloquent defense of this view than from William Ellery Channing, the spiritual founder of American Unitarianism, who wrote the following in 1829:
"No one should part with individuality, and aim to become another. No process is so fatal as that which would cast all people into one mould. Every human being is intended to have a unique character, to be what no other is, to do what no other can do. Our common nature is to be unfolded and unbounded diversities. It is rich enough for infinite manifestations. It is to wear innumerable forms of beauty and glory. Let us not, then, enslave our conscience to others, but act with the freedom, strength and dignity of those whose highest law is in their own breast." [Adapted]
It seems this doctrine of individual authority is peculiar among Western religions. Many religions view individual authority as an anathema; the more likely goal is conformity to right doctrine. Channing saw this too. Elsewhere, he wrote that the character of an enlightened religious person is
"to call no one master, to bow faith and conscience to no human tribunal, to not be intimidated by cries of heresy, to go to no infallible head, whether at Rome, Geneva, or Wittenberg, to borrow no creed from Trent or Westminster, to take no name from Luther, Calvin, or Arminius, to entrench oneself behind no traditions of ancient saints." [Adapted]
The problem, though, is that not only is our doctrine of individual authority and individual integrity peculiar among organized religions, it is also a clumsy and ineffective way to run a religion.
We are a living contradiction. We are a congregation of individualists. We are a spiritual community of people who hold sacred the spiritual independence of each individual. We are a society of autonomous individuals. We are an oxymoron.
Unitarians follow their own conscience, and therefore, we're all running off down different paths of conviction and belief. There are few rallying cries that will bring the faithful together in common cause. Unitarian Universalism, it is said, is for people who don't like organized religion; we prefer our religion disorganized and chaotic.
Why would individualists willingly associate themselves with, and make a commitment to, a community, which seems by definition to blur individual autonomy. It is true that there is some tension between individualism and community within our congregations. Important decisions can be difficult to make here, because out of respect for individual authority, we do not wish the group to take any action which may infringe on any person's conscience. And, if individuals dissent in this community, you can usually count on them to speak up.
How, then, do we justify our community? How do we reconcile the "I" with the "we?" The easiest answer is simply to say that our community norm – the standard around which we require conformity – is commitment to individual authority. Individualism, rather than being in conflict with community, is in fact the principle that all community members share. But I think there is a deeper justification for our curious community.
One psychologist
who did a great deal of work on understanding the nature of individual identity
was Heinz Kohut, from the
The answer is that we don't – at least we can’t learn about the self without others. We can only learn our individuality in relationship with others. Our identity, our sense of self, is formed only in the context of our relationship with other selves. Every sense of who I am is defined in some way as a relationship. I am a father because of my relationship to my child, I am a husband because of my relationship to my wife. I am an American because of my citizenship by birth; I am a Unitarian Universalist because of my association with this tradition.
When Socrates declared the great imperative, “Know Thyself,” that can only happen if we know how we related to those people and things around us. There is no individuality without relationship.
Kohut's point is that we learn about ourselves, about our sense of self, through encounters with objects outside ourselves. It doesn't have to be a person. It can be an institution, like a school or social concerns organization. It could be a community of people, like a church.
The paradox is that individuality can only truly be nurtured and become mature in the context of relationships, in the context of community. It takes a village in order to know who you are.
This paradox explains how our Unitarian Universalist congregations can be communities of individualists. And in fact this is a big part of our Good News as a religious community. It is possible to be part of a religious movement and still nurture your own personal and individual beliefs. It is possible for a religious community to be an avenue toward fulfillment of individual identity.
A number of years ago, the Unitarian Universalist Association did an extensive self‑study of the purpose of its congregations. In its report the study commission made this comment: "For Unitarian Universalists, the individual is central.... But we (also believe) that only in community can the individual attain his or her fullest development." An effective way to express our belief in individualism, then, is to participate in and support a community which is committed to the integrity of the individual.
I have been speaking primarily about a church community, a congregation. But this morning, as this sermon winds down, it is important that we turn our thoughts toward a larger community – the Association of Unitarian Universalist churches and fellowships.
Our reading today was from former UUA President Gene Pickett, and his reflections on the mission of the larger movement. He agrees with the premise that individuals are nurtured by relationships, but also that churches are nurtured by common association with other churches. He said,
“I have found that I need you in order to be me, that we need them in order to be us, that only together do we have a future. Could we but accept and act on this simple but basic insight, prejudices would be undermined, injustices denounced, and exploitation of nature and people condemned. The world will become ours, and all women and men us.”
The Unitarian
Universalist Association is today launching a new program called “Association
Sunday.” Across the
Just as each
church is a community of autonomous individuals, so the Unitarian Universalist
Association is an organization of independent congregations. Headquartered in
The idea of celebrating an Association Sunday began with the recognition that we have a responsibility to let the world know who we are and why we exist as a religious society. In spite of the fact that over the centuries, Unitarians and Universalists have had a disproportionately high influence on society – in arts and literature, social justice concerns, government, and science, for example; and in spite of the fact that our members are often active in the community, we are still a relatively small denomination, and not well known or understood.
The UUA has determined that it is time to tell the world who we are. It is time to grow. Each one of you, I expect, knows at least one other person, probably a dozen or so, who share the values we proclaim and would quite possibly be interested our congregation if they knew what it is about. We all know our churches serve only a fraction of the people who would benefit by affiliating with us. Our problem is not that there aren’t very many of such people. There are plenty, enough to double or triple (or more) our combined membership. The problem is that they don’t know we exist. They don’t know who we are or what we’re about. The time is now. The UUA has challenged us to get our word out. The prospect is exciting.
The celebration of Association Sunday is the launching of this great project. The center of this campaign is national and local advertising. Some of you may have seen the full-page ad for the UUA in TIME magazine this week. That will continue. Other national sources for advertising will be used. The UUA will become a sponsor of the new TIME magazine website called “Time.com Religion Pages,” with advertisements and UU links. Advertisements have been prepared for use in local media, where UU churches in a metro area can combine to sponsor them.
About $50 million dollars is needed for this campaign to be successful. Of that, over half has already been raised. It is hoped that Association Sunday will be the major source of raising the remainder. It is believed that giving an average of $50 per member across our UU congregations will achieve what we hope to achieve. Some can give more, and some can give less. All of us are in this together. The world deserves to know we exist.
In your orders of service you will find envelopes for contributions to this project. During the closing hymn our youth will be here to take a special collection. We hope you can give something right now to this cause, but you may also take your envelope home with you to send in directly to the UUA.
The world deserves to hear our Good News, and today begins an important effort in making that happen. What is our Good News?
Here is some Good News! There is a religious community of individualists, an association of autonomous individuals. Our tradition is intentional about honoring individual differences within the context of a community of seekers after truth.
There are seven more pieces of Good News which may be familiar to you:
Good News! There is really only one race of people in this world: the human race. People are not born stained by sin. Each person is endowed with inherent worth and dignity. There is a religion that begins with this affirmation.
Good News! Whatever the Source of life, whether it be God or Nature, that Source doesn’t care what you call it, it doesn’t demand loyalty or wish to be worshipped. That Source of life celebrates love and justice, and does not condemn people because they may guess wrong in their beliefs.
Good News! The world is not divided between the saved and the lost. It is not even divided between “us” and “them.” We are all in this life together, and we have each other if we only ask. Our task is to find ways to work together in our differences.
Good News! You are needed in this world. You are needed by people who are grieving and can use your support. You are needed to do something about injustice in the world. You are needed to make the world a better place to live.
Good News! Religious truth is not static. It is dynamic. Scripture is not limited to specific texts, but truth and wisdom can be found in many sources. Revelation is not sealed and finished. Discovery awaits us.
Good News! We are part and parcel of all of nature. We are the same substance as the stars, we are the same substance as the oceans and the wild creatures of the forest. We are not insignificant little creatures for the amusement of the gods. We all come from the same Source, and we share in the divinity and the destiny of the Source of all.
Good News! Religion is not about creed or judging others. It does not direct you to change the minds of unbelievers. Religion, in the words of the Hebrew prophet Micah, is to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” Nothing more is essential to live religiously and with authenticity.
The Good News is the blending of community with individuality. That is summarized in Gene Pickett’s powerful sentence:
“I have found that I need you in order to be me, that we need them in order to be us, that only together do we have a future.”
READING from O. Eugene Pickett
Former President of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalism is an idea, a faith, an international movement, an historical institution whose expression is more than congregational, but other than hierarchical. The key word is “associative.” We work and worship in association with one another, which is to say, in partnership with one another. The Association represents our best effort to walk together in trust and respect with all who value a free but organized religion.
The longer I am part of this movement, the more convinced I become that the values and ideals of liberal religion can be effective only if they have a solid institutional base, and that means strong congregations and a strong Association. I know that we as a religious movement have traditionally been suspicious of a strong Association. We have been fearful that strength would mean power, rigidity, and control. But I am convinced that our Association can be both strong and flexible, an institution of which we can be critical while still being committed to it.
We tend ot be a contentious group of people. We are often harder on ourselves than are our fundamentalist critics. It is so easy to be cynical and mistrustful. But the UUA is what binds us together. It is a vehicle of our hope.
Those years as president made me deeply aware of how much we need one another. It is only as we recognize our mutuality, honor our diversity, and reconcile our differences with respectful honesty that we can build a strong and vital religious community.
I have found that I need you in order to be me, that we need them in order to be us, that only together do we have a future. Could we but accept and act on this simple but basic insight, prejudices would be undermined, injustices denounced, and exploitation of nature and people condemned. The world will become ours, and all women and men us.
From the Rev. Suzanne Meyer
We have come together today.
Not because we expect to find answers here,
But rather because we expect to be encouraged in our questioning.
We have come together today,
Not because we expect to find perfect people here,
But rather because we hope to find authentic people here.
We have come together today,
Not because we are certain of our own righteousness,
But because we are continually searching for the right, the good, the uplifting.
We have come together today,
Not because we seek absolution for our sins and failures,
But rather because we acknowledge our imperfections and seek courage to make amends for those failure to ourselves and others.
We have come together today,
Not because we need to be told what to believe and how to act,
But rather because we need each other’s encouragement to act according to our own beliefs.
We have come together today,
Not because we are hoping to find God in a scripture or a ritual,
But rather because we are hoping to discover the divinity within our hearts and within the hearts of others.
We have come together today,
Not because we believe that holiness exists within these walls alone, but rather to have our hearts and minds directed to the holiness in the world.
For all these reasons we come together today.