"Explaining Who We Are"
by the Rev. Krista Taves
February 18, 2007
This morning's reading is not a reading at all. It is a radio play, from a program that many of you will likely be familiar with: NPR's A Prairie Home Companion. Garrison Keillor's dry style is loved by many of us. One of the things Keillor loves to do is poke fun at religions, all of them. A deeply religious man himself, he holds the practice of religion in high regard, and perhaps that is exactly why it so frequently becomes the focus of his humor. In today's religiously and politically divided culture, where so many of us seem to have hardened against one another, sometimes we need simply to laugh at ourselves for this is when it becomes so clear that for all our divisions we are one.
No one is immune to Keillor's scathing critique, and Unitarian Universalists are no exception. We are the frequent butt of his jokes. This skit takes a good shot at us, and while it also pokes fun at others, I hope this morning that we can use this radio play as a tool to deepen our own understanding of the religion we call ours…
RADIO PLAY (click for script)
Unitarian Universalists have no clear doctrine about what happens to us when we die, and we have no doctrine that explains how the world begins and how it will end. We leave that up to science and look in awe and reverence at the mysteries that science explains for us, and at those mysteries we do not yet understand and may never fully understand. What we focus on is how to live now, and we believe that the motivation for living well and living ethically comes not from fear of hell or reward in the afterlife. We're not waiting for the rapture. Our Universalist descendents scoured the Bible for proof of hell and could find none, and declared that the fear of hell was not needed to compel humans to be good and to live well. We find that deeper direction and guidance from deep within. We find it in our hearts, and minds and bodies. Some of us believe that this is where God lives. God is not a being separate from us, a being that is to be feared, obeyed, and humbled before. God is intimately working in and through and of us, and by looking in at our own hearts and by opening ourselves to the wisdom that lies all around us in this sacred creation, God will speak to us and we will find that we are being called.
Each of us is called. Like the Unitarian Universalists in Keillor's radio play, some of us do feel that call to become politically engaged. Some of us do choose to tread as lightly as possible on the earth. Sometimes the call has come loudly like a trumpet, and nothing can ever be the same again. Sometimes it has come silently and imperceptibly, slowly growing in the unfolding of our lives. There are many ways we are called. We are called to be good parents, good partners, good children, good students, good friends. We are called to speak our truths. And then we are called to listen in silence and respect while others speak theirs. We are called to question. We are also called to accept. We are all called to the covenants, the promises, we have made to ourselves and to one another.
Let us enter into a time of silent prayer and meditation.
SERMON
Last year, I served as this church's youth director, and when I asked the youth what you wanted to talk about in Religious Education and at the Lock Ins, I got a chance to listen to you express what was most important to you. And what I heard from you over the course of the year, is that you wanted a place to explore what mattered, to explore the things that make a difference in your life. You want a church that can help you figure out how to be authentically who you are, whether you are here, with your family, at school, and with your friends. You told me a lot about what it's like to be Unitarian Universalist and living in St. Charles and West County, how almost everyone is a different religion from you. Many of the kids you go to school with are taught that there is a rapture, and that if you aren't a Christian you will be left behind. What does that mean for your ability to make real friends? You said that it's hard to talk about your religious and political beliefs. I heard you worry about what it would mean if you started dating a person who had really different beliefs from you. I heard you wondering about what to say when your friends and teachers asked where you went to church, and then followed up with the inevitable question, "What do Unitarian Universalists believe?"
As you have probably figured out by now, this is a difficult question to answer. It seems like people from other religions have a much easier time answering this. They can say, "As a Christian I believe in the teachings of Jesus." Or "As a Muslim I believe in the teachings of the prophet Muhammed" or "As a Jew I believe in the law and the prophets." But when you have a church that includes Pagans, Liberal Christians and Jews, Theists, Deists, Agnostics, Atheists, Humanists, Transcendentalists, Buddhists, and Process theologians, it's hard to provide a simple answer. And it doesn't matter if you are old or young, if you've been Unitarian Universalist for years, or just found us, it is hard to answer this question. Even as a minister, when I am asked what we believe in, I stumble to find a short concise way to explain what for me is a very deep complex and beautiful faith. And the answer I come up with usually feels inadequate and small.
Some of us would say this is a weakness of our faith. How can we expect to grow this religion if we can't even explain it? Well, in the late 1990s, many Unitarian Universalists starting talking about this, and one idea that came up was the idea of an elevator speech. What you would say if you were in an elevator and you had from the 1st to the 6th floor to give your answer! And so people would go home and work on what they would say when the opportunity arose. And people came up with some really good ones, like this one by Rev. Lee Blummel:
"Unitarian Universalism is a free-thinking faith, whose purpose is to bring more love into the world."
Not bad, eh? You could do that in one floor!
Here's one by Melvin Makey from Vashon Washington that might be possible to do in seven floors:
"Unitarian Universalism embodies religious freedom. We do not provide the answers to life's great questions. Instead, we provide a beloved community in which individuals, working together and alone, are encouraged to find answers that are meaningful in the context of their own lives. We draw upon all sources of knowledge-including experience, authority, intuition, reason, and faith-in the search for answers. Ours is a living, dynamic religion. We are always free to develop and change our beliefs as we acquire new knowledge and insight concerning truth, reality, and the meaning of life."
Now that is a great elevator speech! It clearly expresses who we are and what it means for us. And I think it's very insightful and wise. But, I know that I would be hard pressed to be able to memorize that and provide it on the spot. And I don't know if I would have felt comfortable when I was in high school talking like that in the school cafeteria, at my locker, or after practice. In fact, I would venture a guess that even the adults among us might feel a bit insecure about our ability to sound that smart at a moment's notice.
While I think elevator speeches are great because they help us express our own faith better, they sometimes miss the point because in an elevator speech what we're doing is giving information. It's a very intellectual heady thing. What I didn't learn from those elevator speeches was anything about the person giving the speech. I didn't get a glimpse into their heart and into their life. Religion is about more than information. Religion is about changing lives in a big way. For instance, when someone says, "I believe in Jesus." What does that really mean? Which Jesus do they believe in? What does it feel like to believe in that kind of Jesus? What does your belief in that kind of Jesus mean for how you raise children or how you love the people in your life? How has your belief in Jesus changed your life? It's the same thing when someone says that being an atheist means they don't believe in God. That gives us information, but it doesn't say anything about what that means to them. Well, I want to know what is the God that you don't believe in? How did that happen for you? Were you alone just figuring this out, were you with a community of like minded people, were you in church and decided it was all a bunch of baloney? But most importantly, I want to know, how has being an atheist changed your life? How has it influenced the way you raised your children and live your important relationships?
There's a blog I occasionally read posted by a Unitarian Universalist with the online name, Lizard Eater. If you want to know why she chose that name, I'll post her website when this sermon goes online. Lizard Eater asks us to give the elevator speech a rest. When someone asks you, "What do Unitarian Universalists believe?" don't worry about having to give a clear elevator speech. It will always fall short of what it really means to be Unitarian Universalist. And in fact, it misses the real point, because it doesn't say much about you.
Trying to explain our religion through giving information may actually undermine what it is we are and it may even be theologically inconsistent with the very bedrock of this religion. Unitarian Universalism is not a piece of information. Unitarian Universalism is a way of life and every one of us here who calls ourselves Unitarian Universalist, and has joined in covenant with a congregation, is living that way of life. The truths of Unitarian Universalism do not rest in a book or even in a website called the 100 Facts about Unitarian Universalism. The truths of Unitarian Universalism rest in us and our diverse experiences. It is in the deepest bedrock of our questioning minds and our beating hearts and our slowly aging bodies that sacredness and truth and God come to be made real. So if you want to know what it means to be Unitarian Universalist, get to know a Unitarian Universalist. Watch their lives, and you will see and experience what it means.
Many years ago, a woman came to me in complete distress. She had just discovered that her daughter had been molested while in the care of the father and the father had hidden it from her. Now, years later, she learned what happened and confronted him. The father declared that he had been forgiven because he had confessed to a priest who told him he was absolved from his sin. He resisted any responsibility for the event, saying that God had forgiven him. A committed atheist and long time Unitarian Universalist, she had no way to argue with him. She could not change him. She could not change herself. All that she could do was keep living and work through her own anger. She went through periods of doubting her own beliefs and feeling frustrated with a religion like ours that could not give her the same pat answers that the priest had given her daughter's father. She even considered withdrawing from the church. But, she found that her saving grace was teaching religious education. When in the presence of children, she could not allow herself to be enveloped by rage. She could not stay closed to their innocence, an innocence that had been taken from her daughter. Slowly, she gained a measure of quietness and peace, even if only for moments in that Sunday School Room. I no longer have contact with this amazing woman, but I wonder, if I were in her shoes and someone came to me and said, "What do Unitarian Universalists believe?" what would I say? I would hope to have the courage to redirect that question towards my experience of Unitarian Universalism and say, "In one of the darkest moments of my life, being a Unitarian Universalist meant I had somewhere to go where I could feel peace, quietness, acceptance, and understanding.
When I was preparing for this sermon, I decided to try this. I shared with the adults that the youth had asked me to write a sermon on what it means to be Unitarian Universalist, and then I gave the adults these questions:
1) How has being Unitarian Universalist changed your life?
2) What was one of the most important spiritual experiences that occurred for you in our church?
3) What are the essential characteristics and ways of life that make our church unique?
Notice that I did not ask you what Unitarian Universalists believe. I asked you about your experience. These are some of the answers I received:
How has being Unitarian Universalist changed your life?
"Being Unitarian Universalist has freed me from feeling guilty that I didn't really believe all the doctrine taught in my previous church. It provides me an outlet for exploring my faith and spirituality without fearing judgment, and gives me a framework to teach spirituality to my daughter."
"Being Unitarian Universalist has made me more accepting of alternative religious viewpoints. I feel obligated to find the inherent worth and dignity in every person instead of blowing them off."
"Being a Unitarian Universalist has changed my life by helping me focus on community service and practicing my ethical beliefs in the wider world."
What was one of the most important spiritual experiences for you in our church?
"The first time I really felt like I was part of a community was when I attended Emerson. I felt like it mattered that I came, and when I was sick, I got calls from people I barely knew, and they cared. That was huge."
"Building the new sanctuary has the most meaning because I was involved in every step. It was a great leap of faith to decide to build. We took another leap hiring an interim minister. The final leap was in calling our settled minister. In this process there have been many lessons in belief. Belief it would be accomplished. Belief we could bring so much with so few people."
"The most transformative thing is realizing the gifts I'm giving my kids. They're receiving gifts and positive energy from our wonderful teacher-volunteers. My kids may not realize that they are learning and internalizing lessons about the varied meanings of belief and faith and spirituality, but I know that it is inevitable. And that is priceless."
What makes our church unique?
"I have never been asked to explain myself, to defend my beliefs, or to be quiet."
"A church can have a philosophy that one may 100% identify with, but if the people are not genuine, then nothing else matters. Emerson has truly genuine people with good hearts."
And finally,
"Our church is its people. We have some absolutely wonderful and unique and kind members and friends who believe that we can be a beacon of personal change and inspiration and enrichment for many St. Louisans. There's a spirit of wanting to share all of our diverse riches and to plant a variety of seeds for future generations to enjoy."
This is Unitarian Universalism. Even when it gets messy, which is inevitable in any human community. Our experience is the most sacred thing of all. The experience of our hearts, our minds and our bodies witnesses and abets the creation of life itself. We are being born and reborn here, over and over and over again. And if there is anything close to a rapture in this faith, that is it.
So when someone asks you "What do Unitarian Universalists believe?" think about these things. How has your life changed by being Unitarian Universalist? What are some of the most transformative spiritual experiences you have had because you are Unitarian Universalist and because you come to this church? Why is this place so special to you? When you share this, you have made Unitarian Universalism real for the person who stands in front of you with their simple question.
Now I realize that some of you are visiting us for the first time and may be very new to Unitarian Universalism. You may have in your minds the question, "What do Unitarian Universalists believe?" and I hope you have gained a glimpse of what can happen in this faith. If you want to know what Unitarian Universalists believe, get to know a Unitarian Universalist, and you've started that process just by coming here. And I have some questions for you, questions for you to ponder as you evaluate your experience with us this morning. How might you want your life to be changed? When we look for a religious home, it is because there is something in us we want to fill. What do you hope your life would look like if that happened? What transformative spiritual experiences do you hunger for? And what would it take to make a place so special and unique that you would make it your religious home? As you discern the spiritual needs that guide your search, may these questions help you in your journey.
Amen and blessed be.
Lizard Eater's Blog
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Send Questions or Comments to Rev. Taves: Minister@EmersonUUChapel.org
Updated: 02/24/07