Sermons

READING ~ Christian Voices in Unitarian Universalism, Contemporary Essays, Edited by Kathleen Rolenz. Boston: Skinner House Books, 2006.  Foreword by Carl Scovel, p. viii.

Spiritual Longings and the quests we undertake to fulfill them are personal and distinctive. What all of these writers have in common is love for and faith in a holy man who lived thousands of years ago and the determination to walk in his path.

READING ~ Matthew 16:13–15 (New Revised Standard Version) (Mk 8:27–30; Lk 9:18–20)

Peter’s Declaration about Jesus

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

SERMON

My knees hurt. The cushion at the marble altar almost did not matter. I could feel the cold in my legs, the ache of unanswered prayers. “Where are you, God?” I asked. Silence. I looked up at Jesus in full triptych glory, surrounded by angels, robed in cobalt blue against a gilt background, shimmering sanctity. The small chapel in the great cathedral was one of my favorite places to pray, mostly because of this Jesus. Today, however, I was restless as I gazed intently at the massive icon of Christ. Usually, the image drew me deeper toward God, and the railing where I knelt was a place of awakening and wisdom. “Where are you, God?” I asked again. Silence. “God?” A quiet plea, really, the most incomplete of prayers. “Get me out of here,” a voice replied. Was someone speaking to me? I looked behind, around. “Get me out of here,” the voice said again. I stared up at the icon. “Jesus? Is that you?” “Get me out of here,” I heard again, more insistent now. “But Lord . . .” The chapel fell silent, but I know I heard a divine demand for freedom. I was not sure what to think, but I also did not want to tell the priest who was wandering up the aisle. I doubted the Washington National Cathedral would take kindly to the Son of God looking for the exit. And I was not sure what to do. Smuggling an altarpiece out of the building was not going to happen. Instead, I got up and nearly bolted out, all the while envisioning how I might rescue Jesus from the cathedral. I felt bad leaving him behind.
(Bass, Diana Butler. Freeing Jesus . HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.)
Words from Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence by Diana Butler Bass. Dr. Bass is an award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality.

“Get me out of here!”  Has the religion about Jesus, Christianity, so obscured our vision of his life and constrained our understanding of his teaching that he has become a prisoner in his own temple, cathedral and sanctuary?  Is Jesus now begging his followers to rescue him from the church?  That’s a pretty harsh thought, but it is exactly what Diana Butler Bass says is happening.

Why would anyone want to be a Christian when even Jesus is fleeing the church?

For us, the answer, perhaps, is found through investigating of the thoughts and writing of those who are freely following Jesus – the tagline of the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship and by reminding ourselves that historically Christianity lives in the heart of Unitarian Universalism.

Let’s back up a minute – to the beginning of our faith as a separate and distinct religious expression.  Both Unitarianism and Universalism are expressions of Christianity.  We trace our beginnings to the left wing of the Protestant Reformation.  Our name(s) refer to specific Christian doctrines that our ancestors rejected.

The Unitarians stressed the unity of God.  They found no evidence in either Scripture or experience for the doctrine of the trinity.  God is one.  God is not three (usually expressed as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit).

The Universalists stressed the belief that all souls will be reunited with God and that God will not condemn any person to a hell of eternal suffering.

Thus we have the unity of the divine and the universal salvation of all people (both Christian doctrines – albeit heretical ones according to the dominant versions of Christianity) running through our religious tradition from its earliest days.

What about today?

How does the Christian faith become real and meaningful for a growing number of contemporary Unitarian Universalists?

Jesus.

It’s about Jesus and his life and his message.

Its not about the institutional churches that have done good and also a whole lot of harm in Jesus’ name.

Here’s what our UUA website says:

Many Unitarian Universalists (UUs) have a relationship with Christianity. Whether we’re moving away from a rigid Christian upbringing or moving toward an all-loving God, whether we call ourselves “Christian” or simply admire Jesus, we have a place in Unitarian Universalism.
(https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/beliefs/christianity)
 

The history of the Christian Church in the last two thousand years is complicated.  There is a whole lot of violence and intolerance, both of which we UUs reject. So …it’s not about the organized religion about Jesus that draws UUs in. It is the person, the life and the teaching of Jesus that some of us find so compelling.

It is just mortifying to be a Christian, except for the Jesus part. —Anne Lamott
(Bass, Diana Butler. Freeing Jesus . HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The central question for Unitarian Universalists is the question Jesus himself asked his closest followers. “Who do you say I am?”

“But who do you say that I am?” This is truly the only question worth asking when it comes to this powerful, enigmatic figure. Jesus seems not to have been as interested in ideas and ideologies as he was in relationships, and so the question is always personal—Who do you say that I am?
(Wikstrom, Erik Walker (2003-10-14T23:58:59.000). Teacher, Guide, Companion: Rediscovering Jesus in a Secular World . Skinner House Books. Kindle Edition.)
For some the answer is pretty simple and straight forward.

He was a man – and probably a great teacher of ethical living.

And that’s about where we leave it.  And that is fine.

Others, however, are compelled to spend deep personal time and effort to discover more about Jesus and how Jesus matters in their own lives.  These folks are answering the question all the time – and sometimes the answer changes. In a free and responsible search for meaning, UUs are encouraged to evolves and grow as spiritual beings. We don’t get one answer and stick to it for the rest of time.  So, Who do you say I am?   Is a deeply personal and an ongoing question.

Erik Walker Wickstrom goes on to say:

Perhaps this itinerant healer, and teacher, and prophet—whose life and ministry was so short yet whose influence is still felt two thousand years after his death—has something to say to us. And perhaps, if we listen closely—if we have ears to hear—we, too, will find in him what countless others have found and what we have been looking for.
(Wikstrom, Erik Walker (2003-10-14T23:58:59.000). Teacher, Guide, Companion: Rediscovering Jesus in a Secular World . Skinner House Books. Kindle Edition.)
Let’s turn to those who have found something of what they are looking for in Jesus and in a uniquely Unitarian Universalist Christianity.

In the book Sources of Our Faith, Inspirational Readings  edited by Kathleen Rolenz, Stephen Kendrick says:

I find Jesus of Nazareth a compelling teacher, master poet, troublemaker, and insistent companion on the ‘narrow path,’ which is to say reality. Jesus is a spiritual genius, one of many we may choose to learn from, but still the one who most compels me to become the person I am meant to be.
(Sources of Our Faith: Inspirational Readings. Skinner House Books. Kindle Edition.)
Kathleen Rolenz has edited another collection of essays by Christian UUs that Skinner House published in 2006.   Christian Voices in Unitarian Universalism is one in a series of books about UU faith from the voices of those who follow a particular theology or practice.

In the Foreword, Carl Scovel wrote these words of wisdom and invitation:

No two people relate to Jesus or God in exactly the same way. Spiritual longings and the quests we undertake to fulfill them are personal and distinctive. What all of these writers have in common is love for and faith in a holy man who lived thousands of years ago and the determination to walk in his path.
(Christian Voices in Unitarian Universalism: Contemporary Essays . Skinner House Books. Kindle Edition.)
I want to turn to some of the 15 writers in this collection of essays and let the them speak to you directly.

Rachel Nguyen is an active member of the UU Religious Society of Bell Street Chapel in Providence Rhode Island. This if from her essay:

I am full-blown in love with God and have completely accepted that Jesus really is my personal savior. And I am a lifelong Unitarian Universalist. …. I am not an evangelist. I have not come to believe that Jesus must be your personal savior. I don’t even necessarily believe that anyone else needs saving. But I do. …Being a Christian is the best thing in my life, and lots of hard work. I find that I need daily contact with God in order to be able to walk this path. ….

The irony is, of course, that I was only able to become a Christian because I was a UU. I’m not sure I would have been able to get past the issues of dogma and theology in a traditional Christian church. ….    I am grateful to my Unitarian Universalist church, Bell Street Chapel, in Providence, Rhode Island, for giving me a safe place to explore my faith.
(Christian Voices in Unitarian Universalism, pp 1-7)
Robert Fabre is an attorney and he attends the Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron, Ohio.

He attended the General Assembly in Phoenix where he encountered people who referred to themselves as UU Christians, UU Buddhists, UU Humanists, UU Pagans or UU Jews. …

My Christian identity is of vital importance to me. It informs me of who I am and what I believe in. By the same token, I am also a Unitarian Universalist because I believe that revelation is not sealed. I choose to associate with people who are also searching for answers in other faith communities. …..I am100 percent Christian and 100 percent UU….  Being in a liberal religious community gave me the freedom to search for answers, unbounded by an expected creed or set of beliefs. And I found, to my amazement, that the answer for me was Christianity. But it was a new type of Christianity. My Christianity does not dwell so much on the divinity of Jesus as it does on who he was as a man and the message he preached. Jesus offered a radical challenge that as both impossible to meet and impossible to ignore. He preached that “God is love,” …   I believe that I am saved by grace (not because I accept Jesus as my personal savior but because, despite my confusion and my unbelief, despite my shortcomings and mistakes, in a mysterious way, beyond my comprehension and explanation, God accepts me). …… Most UUs have different spiritual paths – humanist, pagan, Jewish, agnostic, theist. But we’ve all found a home in this religious movement. In the end, we are all on the same journey – the journey to ultimate meaning.
(Christian Voices in Unitarian Universalism, pp 25-28)
Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley was at the time of this essay associate minister of First Unitarian Church of San Diego. She also served as adult programs director and field consultant for the UUA. She died shortly after completing her essay, “To Keep One’s Soul.”

I am one of those who are in perpetual recovery from intolerance – indeed abuse – from a past religious experience. …The path I knew best, the one in which I felt most rooted – in spite of having been hurt by it – was Christianity. …. I discovered that what I believed and tried to follow was the message of Jesus. It wasn’t always smooth sailing. I struggled mightily with myself and with fellow Unitarian Universalists. I had to separate Christianity from the message of Jesus before I could begin to understand that there are as many forms (or perhaps nuances) of Christianity as there are of Unitarian Universalism.   ….I am profoundly moved by the message of Jesus as I understand it: liberation and freedom from oppression, love and compassion, service to others, and radical inclusiveness. His life and ministry continue to inspire me. … And Unitarian Universalism gives me the freedom to go beyond one path, to continue to explore and embrace different theologies, wherever truth is found.
(Christian Voices in Unitarian Universalism, pp 109-115)
There are just so many beautiful personal stories of how each person came to be both Christian and Unitarian Universalist and how their faith has deepened and widened as a result.

Our UU history has been somewhat hostile to different aspects of faith through the years.  For a long time, we resisted the influence and gifts of humanism.  For a long time, we have resisted the gifts of Christianity.  I hope that we are growing up into the faith that has room enough for every spirituality and every spiritual person.

Almost without exception, when a UU Christian is asked (as they often still are) why they don’t just go to a Christian church, the answer is that there is nowhere else for them to go. There is nowhere else where their spiritual life and quest for meaning would be encouraged and honored and there is no other place where people of all kinds of spiritualities and no spirituality come together for mutual care, compassion and commitment to serving each other and our world.  This is our mutual home.

I want to conclude my talk with more wisdom from Erik Walker Wikstrom.

Over and over again my Unitarian Universalism has proved not an impediment to my Christian faith but a powerful aid. To be sure, the kind of Christian path I follow is not what many people mean by Christianity, but then I’ve never said I was a Pentecostal Christian or an Evangelical Christian—I am a Unitarian Universalist Christian. By this I mean that I am one who sees in the stories of Jesus the memories of a man whose union with the sacred was complete. He invited people into the mystery he called “God.” I see in him the clearest example of the kind of life I wish to live, but I have no problem understanding that other people find clearer examples elsewhere. I find in the person of Jesus a present-day companion on my spiritual journey—challenging me, encouraging me, and supporting me as I pursue a pathless quest into the heart of the mystery itself. Erik Walker Wikstrom
(Unknown. Sources of Our Faith: Inspirational Readings . Skinner House Books. Kindle Edition.)
May each of us pursue our own path into the mystery and find our own true heart and soul in that place.  My we find that Unitarian Universalism is not an impediment to our faith, but a powerful aid.

My Dear Spiritual Companions, as we continue to visit and re-visit the sources of inspiration and meaning for Unitarian Universalism, may we be both determined seekers after our own truth and path and steadfast companions for all others as they seek the path that leads to their truth, meaning, comfort and hope.  I very sincerely believe that we will meet in the light of Love when we are true to ourselves and to each other.

Blessed Be.  I Love You.   Amen.