Sermons

READING   ~ “Michael Servetus” from  Faith like a River
Michael Servetus (pronounced Sir-VEE-tus) (c. 1511-1553) was the most celebrated martyr of the 16th century. His writings include the first systematic description of antitrinitarian thought. He challenged both the Catholic and Protestant churches to return to a pre-Nicene purity; “restoration,” not “reformation.” As with many martyrs, he is remembered more for his death than for his accomplishments.

Servetus was tried before the Calvinst Council of Judges (Syndics) in Geneva. He was found guilty of heresy on October 26, 1553, and was burned at the stake the following day at noon.
Faith like a River: Themes from Unitarian Universalist History
By Alison Cornish, Jackie Clement  © 2011
Faith Like a River explores the dynamic course of Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist (UU) history—the people, ideas, and movements that have shaped our faith heritage. It invites participants to place themselves into our history and consider its legacies.

 

READING ~ They Are with Us Still by Kathleen McTigue
In the ­struggles we choose for ourselves,
in the ways we move forward in our lives
and bring our world forward with us,

It is right to remember the names of those
who gave us strength in this choice of living.
It is right to name the power of hard lives well-lived.

We share a history with those lives.
We belong to the same motion.

They too were strengthened by what had gone before.
They too were drawn on by the vision of what might come to be.

Those who lived before us,
who ­struggled for justice and suffered injustice before us,
have not melted into the dust,
and have not disappeared.

They are with us still.
The lives they lived hold us steady.

Their words remind us and call us back to ourselves.
Their courage and love evoke our own.

We, the living, carry them with us:
we are their voices, their hands and their hearts.

We take them with us,
and with them choose the deeper path of living.
Source: “Becoming: A Spiritual Guide for Navigating Adulthood”
 

SERMON

The veil is thin.  Spirit can pass from one realm to the other – sometimes with no difficulty whatsoever, sometimes not so easily and leaving only the hint of a presence behind.

In the Pagan cycle of the year, we are at Samhain – officially tomorrow at sundown through November 1st at sundown.

Let me remind you of some aspects of Samhain.

Samhain is an ancient festival, originating in the Celtic world.
It marks the end of the agricultural year and is, therefore, the New Year celebration in the pagan cycle.
It is a time to welcome the darkness of winter and shadow. it is believed the barriers that normally hold steadfast between our world and the other world thin, letting us walk with spirits and ancestors long passed.
This ancient pagan agricultural holiday has influenced subsequent religious expression. Our observances of Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day and perhaps even Dia De Los Muertos derive directly from the traditions and practices of Samhain.

We remember and honor our ancestors during all of these festivals, holidays or holy days.

This morning I would like to talk about one ancestor of our Unitarian Universalist faith.  In fact, he is one of our earliest ancestors and he was a martyr of this faith. I chose to talk about Michael Servetus because the anniversary date of his execution on charges of heresy is October 27th.  throughout his short life, he exhibited enormous courage.

He was both a theologian and a physician.  His biggest accomplishment as a physician was his discovery and understanding of pulmonary circulation.  Prior to his research, it was thought that the blood was oxygenated in the heart.  Servetus observed the tissues of both heart and lungs and found ample evidence that, in fact, the blood is oxygenated in the lungs.

As a theologian, he is remembered for his conclusion, based on careful and extensive study of scripture, that there is no evidence of the trinity as commonly understood and taught by both the Catholic Church and the Reformed Protestant denominations.

Consider this statement: “We must not impose as truths concepts over which there are doubts.”

He was specifically referring to the orthodox doctrine of the trinity – for which he concluded and maintained until his death there is no scriptural evidence, basis or authority.

At only age nineteen, he published his views in a treatise called On the Errors of the Trinity (1531). The title alone alarmed and then outraged the religious leaders of both Roman Catholic and Protestant Reformation theology. Servetus spent the next twenty in three pursuits.

Running from the religious authorities in many parts of Europe who wished to try him for heresy.

Studying medicine – hence his interest in pulmonary circulation

Refining his theology

Servetus was surprised by the vehemency with which his theological understanding was treated.  His efforts were not to reject Christianity or even the divinity of Jesus.  He thought, perhaps naively at age nineteen, that if he could point out the various “errors” of the orthodox doctrine in clear and persuasive language, the doctrine would be revised to be more consistent with the biblical account.  Of course …. He was wrong.  The already powerful rarely bow to the insolence of the young – even when the subject is poorly understood by both supporters and detractors.

Nevertheless, Servetus persisted.

He went on, despite being rejected and threatened by both Roman Catholic and Protestant authorities, to publish two more works in an attempt to bring the faith back right relationship with its own core message and history.

His first work – On the Errors o the Trinity was followed in 1532 by a slightly softened but not fundamentally altered version of this theology – Dialogues on the Trinity.

Again, he faced not just criticism, but outright rejection of his thought.

Servetus was under threat of his life and he withdrew into the study and practice of medicine under a different last name.  Here he learned about the circulatory system and offered his observation that it was not the heart but the lungs that oxygenated the blood in circulation.

He never abandoned his study of scripture or his Christian faith.  His final opus – again with the hope that his careful reasoning and precise study and research would be persuasive and gain the favor of other reformers of the faith – The Restoration of Christianity was published in 1553.  Bold in his expectation of a favorable reception, he sent an advance copy to John Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland.  Big mistake.  Calvin betrayed the location and identity of Servetus to the French Inquisition. Servetus was captured, tried and imprisoned.  He managed to escape the prison and execution and fled to Geneva.  Well, not the brightest decision.  When he was recognized at a church service in Geneva, Calvin reacted.  Servetus was again arrested and tried. Found guilty of antitrinitarianism and opposition to infant baptism, he was sentenced to death.

Though Calvin requested that Servetus be mercifully beheaded, the Geneva Council instead sentenced him to burning at the stake.  Servetus did not recant.  He did not abandon the truth as he understood it.  He might have saved his life, but he would have sacrificed his personal faith and conviction.  One of his biographers – Peter Hughes – offers this description of Servetus’ death:

Spectators were impressed by the tenacity of Servetus’s faith. Perishing in the flames, he is said to have cried out, “O Jesus, Son of the Eternal God, have pity on me!” Farel, who witnessed the execution, observed that Servetus, defiant to the last, might have been saved had he but called upon “Jesus, the Eternal Son.” A few months later Servetus was again executed, this time in effigy, by the Inquisition in France.
(Article by Peter Hughes posted January 20, 2013 –
Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography. https://uudb.org/articles/michaelservetus.html)
Many Unitarian Universalists claim Michael Servetus as a Unitarian.

It would be in accurate to say that he was a Unitarian.

He was a different kind of trinitarian than the version being authorized at his time in history.  Heresy was all over the place in the decades following the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.  People were being excommunicated and/or executed by any and all sides of the religious power struggles and theological debates of the time.

Servetus did not mean to overturn the trinity.  He meant to correct the understanding of the trinity.  He meant to reform the faith from within and bring thinking and practice back into alignment with scripture.  He failed.

Yet, I think we can claim Servetus as a pioneer of non-trinitarian thought, at least of orthodox trinitarian doctrine.

He was courageous in his willingness to dive deeply into scripture and follow where his study lead him – knowing that his conclusions would threaten the power structures of the church.

He was courageous in his determination to maintain his own faith convictions, even as he was burned to death.

He is among the saints and the ancestors we remember and honor today.

Our Unitarian Universalist faith is guided by our seven principles and our six sources. For those of you with a gray hymnbook near by, you’ll find those principles and sources listed in the front of the book.

Today, as we begin our observances of Samhain, All Saints and All Souls Days, I want to pay special attention to our second source:

Words and deeds of prophetic people which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;

So, in addition to Michael Servetus, there are other Unitarian and Universalist and UU ancestors we may choose to remember and honor today and in the coming week. People who demonstrated courage, conviction and compassion in their own faith and became exemplars and prophets for future generations.  You may know some of the names of those who influenced not just our religious history, but that of our country.  John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Margaret Fuller, Olympia Brown, James Luther Adams, Frank Lloyd Wright, Malvina Reynolds, Albert Schweitzer, Pete Seeger, Adlai Stevenson II, William Howard Taft, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. are just a few of our ancestors who helped to form the faith we now hold and shape for future generations.

Who do you remember?

It might be UUs Pete Seeger or Margo Adler.

It might be Maya Angelou or John Lennon.

It might be Justices Earl Warren or Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

It might be Christa McAuliffe or John Glenn.

In some traditions, we would set a place at the table for those have died in the last year. In some traditions, we would construct beautiful altars of artifacts and remembrances of those recently departed from this life.

In some traditions, we would attend a memorial service where the names of our newest ancestors are spoken aloud and remembered in prayer.

In some traditions, we would light a candle, say the name and offer a blessing for those we have loved who have died.

This morning, I invite you to take a moment of silence and meditate on the lives of those who are your personal ancestors – the ones you have loved who have gone before us into eternity.

We remember them.

In our own lives, each year at this time, when the veil that separates the already dead from the still living is at its thinnest, we call to mind and heart the ancestors we have loved and those who have had such an influence on us that their lives have helped to shape our lives.

Perhaps the ancestors closest to us and the ones we miss the most are the ones we feel most strongly as we all reach across the veil.

It might be your father or mother or sibling or best friend.

It might be your lover, partner or spouse.

It might be your child.

It might be your teacher, or college roommate, or work colleague.

Who do you remember on this day? This week?  This year?

For whom will you light a candle, say a prayer, prepare a favorite food, sing a remembered song, walk with in your daily meditation?

May your memories be sweet.

May your grief be a reflection of your love.

May you gain courage and wisdom for the days ahead in your remembrance of them.
In the rising of the sun and in its going down,

We remember them.
When we are weary and in need of strength,

We remember them.
When we have joys we yearn to share,

We remember them.
So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.
From Roland B. Gittelsohn (Adapted)
May your holiday, however you choose to celebrate, be a blessing in your life.

May we remember all the people who have brought us this far.

Blessed Be.   I Love You.   Amen.