Sermons

READING ~ “The Way It Is” by William Stafford[1]
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
READING ~ from Theodore Parker – The Transient and Permanent in Christianity.  Delivered at the Ordination of Rev. Charles C. Shackford in the Hawes Place Church, Boston on May 19, 1841.
All this is very simple; a little child can understand it; very beautiful, the loftiest mind can find nothing so lovely. Try it by Reason, Conscience, and Faith — things highest in man’s nature — we see no redundance, we feel no deficiency. Examine the particular duties it enjoins; humility, reverence, sobriety, gentleness, charity, forgiveness, fortitude, resignation, faith, and active love; try the whole extent of Christianity so well summed up in the command, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind — thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;” and is there anything therein that can perish? No, the very opponents of Christianity have rarely found fault with the teachings of Jesus. The end of Christianity seems to be to make all men one with God as Christ was one with Him; to bring them to such a state of obedience and goodness, that we shall think divine thoughts and feel divine sentiments, and so keep the law of God by living a life of truth and love.
 

SERMON

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
…
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.

William Stafford’s poem, “The Way It Is” speaks of the thread that weaves through everything.  And everything changes, but you don’t ever let go of that thread that runs through everything.

For Unitarian Universalists, the thread that runs through our faith from its very earliest expressions to this very moment is Love.

The founder of the Unitarianism in Transylvania in the 1500s was a brave and outspoken preacher named Francis David. He was a fierce advocate of freedom of religion and against religious nationalism of any kind. For a rather brief period of time, King John Sigismund decreed a religious tolerance in the land.  After Sigismund died, the new king repealed religious tolerance and Francis David was tried and convicted of “religious innovation” and sentenced to life in prison where he eventually died.  We remember Francis David primarily for his simple declaration that we need not think alike to love alike.  These words are found in reading #566 of our book, Singing the Living Tradition.  In his commitment to freedom, reason and tolerance, Francis David set the course of Unitarianism on the path of love.  The notion that people of different religious thoughts and beliefs, who are open minded and open hearted can love alike is the thread that runs through our faith.

A bit later in our history, Universalists began to come to North America.  With them came the conviction that Love is the central message of faith.  John Murray (1741-1815), the 18th-century preacher who brought the doctrine of universal salvation from England to the United States, is said to have written:
Go out into the highway and by-ways. Give the people something of your new vision. You possess a small light, but uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women. Give them not hell, but hope and courage; preach the kindness and everlasting love of God.
Another early and highly influential Universalist, Hosea Ballou (1771-1852), is remembered for these words of both religious diversity and the thread of Love:
If we agree in love, there is no disagreement that can do us any injury, but if we do not, no other agreement can do us any good. Let us endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace.
American Unitarian minister, Theodore Parker, is one of our best known and most deeply revered pioneers of Unitarianism in America.  We frequently use his words describing our faith as a benediction.
Be ours a religion which, like sunshine, goes everywhere;
its temple, all space;
its shrine, the good heart;
its creed, all truth;
its ritual, works of love;
its profession of faith, divine living.
Yet, it is his sermon The Transient and Permanent in Christianity.  Delivered at the Ordination of Rev. Charles C. Shackford in the Hawes Place Church, Boston on May 19, 1841 that demonstrates the thread of love that runs throughout Unitarianism.  You heard his words earlier this morning.  The whole of faith can be summed up in the single word – – Love.  For Parker, it was two equal shares – Love God, Love your neighbor.  That’s it. Love is permanent and lasting.  Everything else is either a commentary on love or transient aspects of religion that may come and go.  We keep the life of faith, he said, “by living a life of truth and love.”

So, here we are, almost 182 years later and the thread that runs through all the various expressions of our faith is Love.  It’s simple – yes.  But, not easy.  Throughout the years of our living tradition, Love has remained central to our identity, our work, our covenants with each other and the wider Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, and the way each of us answers the essential question of faith – -“How shall I live?”

In our book, Singing the Living Tradition, there is a section of readings at the end and it includes several covenants used by UU congregations.  The two with which we are probably most familiar speak of love.  The words of L Griswold Williams begin, “Love is the doctrine of this church, the quest of truth is its sacrament, and service is its prayer.”

The words of James Vila Blake begin, “Love is the spirit of this church, and service is its law.”

Our work in the wider world is where our faith, our covenants, our convictions take shape and are visible for all to see.  In the last decade, Unitarian Universalists at work in pursuit of justice can be seen from close up and from far away.  We wear yellow when we gather for public demonstrations of love leading to justice.  We side with love and our yellow shirts, caps and stoles identify us to each other and the wider community.  We have been characterized by many as the “Love People in yellow.”  Not a bad way to be known.

I hope you all took a few minutes to look at the graphic that was in this week’s congregational mailing. Remember seeing it?  A heart shaped word cloud.

This graphic was created by UU Minister, Rev. Dan Schatz. “I uploaded the entire text of Singing the Living Tradition into a word art generator, and the results managed to be both fascinating and exactly what I expected. By far, the largest word is LOVE. Also significant – Life, Live, Earth, One, Come, Day, Heart, Shall, Sing, Peace, God, Time, World, Spirit, and (I had to laugh) “La.””

I am fascinated by this graphic.  The words that are most frequently used are biggest.  The biggest word is Love.  Then a bit less frequently are One, Come, Life, Day and Sing.  Life, Peace, Heart, and Earth are there too.  Of course, God shows up along with Give, Time, World, Soul and Joy.  This is a cloud of the words that guide us and inspire us and describe us, with Love at the center – holding us, encouraging us, demanding us, and never letting us go.

You know, love is both a noun and a verb.

As a noun, the words of Rev. Rebecca Ann Parker come to me.
There is a love holding us, there is a love holding all that we love, there is a love holding us, we rest in that love.
This love is what we mean when we say “God is Love” or the presence of the divine in our lives is love.  It is a love that lives in every aspect of creation through the energy that gives rise to our ever-evolving universe.  It is the love that we recognize as the divine spark in each living being.

We are a reflection of and an expression of that love.  Never doubt this truth.  It is a comfort and a responsibility.  We rest in love and we are called to be love and to do love.

Love is a verb.  Because we hold love at the center of Unitarian Universalism and as the thread that has consistently run through our faith for all these 500+ years, we are called to show up in this world as love.  The path of love is our way of moving through the world.

Love in action is compassion.

Love in action is respect.

Love in action is holy and righteous anger.

Love in action is bending the arc of the universe toward justice.

Love in action is welcoming the stranger and the immigrant.

Love in action is saying NO to injustice.

As Cornell West famously said, “Justice is love showing up in public.”

Closer to home, love is showing up when someone is suffering.  It is reaching out with food for the hungry, clothing for the naked, shelter for the homeless, care for the sick, comfort for the grieving, human contact for the incarcerated, encouragement for the downtrodden, humility for the self-important, patience for the troublesome, and never-ending admonition for those who make our laws and keep our peace.

Love in action is also joy and happiness and satisfaction and community and delight in the sheer beauty of our shared existence on this planet which is our only home.

Dear Ones, Love also makes heavy demands and accepts no excuses.

“Love your neighbor” includes everybody.  Those with whom we get along and those with whom we most assuredly do not get along.  We cannot save the world unless and until we are willing and able to love all of it, and that includes love for those who do not love us back and love for those who oppose us at every turn.  Love demands that we recognize the divine spark in everyone AND love demands that we never accept behavior that diminishes another.  Sometimes, love is not easy.  Often times, we need each other to be the love we want to be and do love in the world – to be love showing up in public as justice.

My colleague, Rev. Chris Jimmerson, of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, preached a sermon on February 5th – Love Calls Us Forth.  I want to share a few of his concluding words about making love our primary occupation with all of you this morning because they are great words and because this thread of love runs through all our UU congregations throughout the world – even in Maine and Texas.
“And we need community to hold on to the wonder that makes this possible. Spiritual community like that found here at first Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin. A spiritual community where we care for each other so that we can keep manifesting love in our world.

A couple in our church recently said something to me that I thought was very wise. Like we must love ourselves before we can fully love others, we must care for each other within this religious community so that we are able to help build Beloved Community beyond it. …..

May the universal river of love flow through us. May the unity of all bring us great wonder and give us unwavering strength. May we answer the call of love throughout our days together, bringing into being the Beloved Community, within which divine light radiates.”
My Dear Spiritual Companions, we are loved beyond our wildest expectations.  We have each other.  We are capable of so much more than we have done and all that we have done is acceptable and good.

We have inherited and now carry forward the thread of love in all we are, and all we do.

May it always be so.       Blessed Be.   I Love You.   Amen.

[1] William Stafford, “The Way It Is” from Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems. Copyright © 1977, 1998, 2014 by William Stafford and the Estate of William Stafford.