Thus Do We Covenant

Rev. Douglas Taylor

1-28-24

Sermon Video: https://youtu.be/PLuBXFEUFf4

I bought a new laptop computer this week. My old, trusty machine died over last weekend and I spent several days trying to coax it back to life to no avail. Thus, it was I sat in front of my new laptop Friday morning, clicking, and accepting the “terms of agreement” for multiple pieces of software. I trust most of you are familiar with the experience. I am asked to read and comprehend page after page of legalese intended to cover each corporation from legal action, and then click the little box saying, “I have read this document and understand what it says.” After accepting with my click, I am then allowed to download and use the product.

I will confess, I did not read all the documents all the way through every time. I’ve read through enough of them to know the gist of what they say. And after the fourth or fifth product installment I had the sudden, hesitant thought: “Wait, what exactly am I agreeing to?” On the surface, I know the answers – I’ve signed up for Zoom and Adobe pdf editor and so on; software I’ve been using without concern for the past several years. Still, I had a moment, just after clicking on of those buttons, “What did I just agree to?”

Of course, it got me thinking about all the other places in my life where we have these agreements and how we may or may not pay attention to the small print of the situation. But you know, it’s only the business transactions that have the fine print actually all spelled out.

When you join this congregation, for example, we have you sign the membership book. And we don’t give you an extra page of legal provisos and addendums about what it means. We don’t have fine print spelling out the implications. What we have is a covenant.

You have heard me say before that Unitarian Universalism is a little different from most other religious communities. And our reliance on covenants is part of it. Often what I say is that we are centered around values rather than beliefs. We don’t have a creed or statement of belief that everyone must agree to before they click and accept our ‘terms of agreement’ as they join. We, instead, have values.

This is a helpful distinction when we are talking with other people about Unitarian Universalism. When we are asked what we believe here, we can respond saying – that’s the wrong question. Instead of all believing the same, we have shared values at our center.

Here is the trick, however. We have not simply swapped a list of beliefs for a list of values that we all have to accept. The new Article II statement which is set to replace our seven principles as an official definition of Unitarian Universalism lists the following core values: equality, interdependence, transformation, pluralism, generosity, justice, and liberating love. It is more explicitly a list of values compared to what we have as our current principles. However – and this is very important – it still is not a list of what we each must accept and agree to before joining a UU congregation!

It is easier to explain Unitarian Universalism to someone using the idea of values instead of beliefs. And it’s not wrong to frame it that way. But to really get at the heart of what is going on in our congregations, to really understand the ‘terms of agreement’ you click and accept when joining, to really know ‘what you just agreed to’ when you signed the membership book – we need to talk about covenant.

Covenant is about how we agree to be with each other in our community. Here is a working definition I found that I like: “Covenant is a mutual sacred promise between individuals or groups, to stay in relationship, care about each other, and work together in good faith.” (Unlocking the Power of Covenant Report of the UUA Commission on Appraisal, June 2021; p xiii)

All groups must navigate the interplay of the individual in community. Some groups over emphasize the individual while other lean stronger toward community. Historically, our Unitarian Universalist communities have had a strong preference for the individual. Freedom of the individual conscience, respect for the inherent worth and dignity of each person, making space for each voice – this is all an effort to lift the individual.  But we also are a community. And while we are each on our own path, we are traveling together – supporting each other in our journeys. Covenant is the concept we use to hold ourselves together.

We are seekers first; always open to new learning, to new insight, to new understanding. And the best avenue we have found is to be seekers in community. The covenant of respect and mutual care is the framework that provides the freedom we long for and the best boundaries possible for being in community together.

Yes, we have shared values. But we don’t need to necessarily agree on the exact language of that list of values, or the order in which they appear on the list. Yes, the values are important. But more than that – what matters to us is how we are in this conversation about our shared values. I find that calling us ‘covenanted seekers’ is a more accurate way to define us than to say we are a community bound by shared values. Because the covenant is what holds us together, it is what keeps us working together on the list of values we share. It is what keeps us as individuals in community. We are covenanted seekers.

But covenant is an odd word in our current language. Most folks will glaze over a bit when you drop that word into conversation. It is a statement of relationship. Covenant is an old idea.

The song we sang “Where you go I will go” is a covenantal reference to the book of Ruth. Covenant has a significant starting point in Hebrew Scripture, we can talk about Noah and Abraham, Moses and David. In each of those cases, however, the specifics of the concept, the details of how it worked are not all that applicable to how covenant works for us today. But it remains a good starting point and a solid reference for comparison.

In Hebrew Scripture, God is like a king setting the terms of the agreement. The people can accept them or not – but there is not room for negotiations and alterations. There was no amendment process for the ten commandments. But that’s how it was when people lived under the rule of a king. The king set the terms of agreement. And that’s how they imaged it could be under God as well.

In these Biblical stories, God was a character in the events with whom the Israelites would enter into covenant. God would make a promise: to not destroy the inhabitants of the earth by flood again, using Noah’s example, or to bring forth a great nation in Abraham’s example. God made certain promises to the people if the people would agree to abide by God’s law. “I will be your God and you will be my people.” The relational part of the covenant is clear in these old Biblical examples. But it is more one-sided than we experience in our congregations today.

Fast forward many centuries and we can find a form of covenantal theology that also follows a model of government: democracy instead of monarchy. When you shift the government model that the theology is using as a metaphor, the implications for the theological model are quite dramatic. Instead of the holy being vested in a single authority, holiness is found within every person.  

Modern Congregationalism traces its roots to Robert Browne and the English separatists of the late 1500’s. Browne gave up on the Church of England and attempted to create a new model of ecclesiology, or rather in his mind to recreate a very old model based on the early Christian house-church gatherings.

But here is the interesting stuff that carries forward for us from this history: We Unitarian Universalists have taken Congregational Polity to heart and have established our congregations in keeping with the basic tenets of Congregationalism from 400 years back. It radically relocated religious authority from the hierarchy of bishops and priests to the people in the pews.

And that is where our ideas of covenant really flourish. There is, as I’ve outlined, a deep history to our ideas of covenant. But there is also a remarkably contemporary understanding of covenant at play among us. The concept is old but we use it with our own modern spin. And part of why I think it is helpful to remember the older part is that it reminds us that covenants do not talk strictly about the relationship between individuals – between just you and me and you and you. Covenant in the way we talk about the individual’s relationship with the community, with us.

It is like a marriage. Think about weddings for a moment – the wedding vows in particular. Wedding vows are a form of covenant. They are often framed as a promise one individual is making to another individual. But really those vows are not to the individuals but the union itself, to the “us” that is created by the wedding.

And so it is with a congregational covenant. When you join this congregation, and you promise “to dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another,” that is not a promise you are extending to each individual member. Instead, it is a promise to the “us” that is the congregation.

The covenant, therefore, calls you to consider and treat each individual member of the congregation as you would any other member of the congregation. There are certain basic pieces that you automatically offer to every member – not because you like them or even know them – simply because we are all covered under the same covenantal relationship.

It is a theological system that creates a relational equality. You treat people well not because you like them but because you have chosen to be in covenant with this congregation and what it stands for. A covenant allows us to sustain a community by promising to one another our mutual trust and support.

Part of that is about being kind with one another – as our behavioral covenant asks of us. Part of that is what allows our plurality – I’m seeking on my path of understanding and you are seeking on yours. We don’t need to be on the same paths to support each other – we don’t need to think alike to love alike.

So some of you in the room signed the membership book years or even decades ago. Some of you are newer members and some of you here haven’t joined yet and never will. And then there are some of you who have not yet clicked on and accepted the terms of agreement but you are thinking about it.

For you, let me say – there is no official document of our terms or agreement. Sorry. But here is a close version of what such a document might say: You will be asked to make a financial commitment and you will be asked every year to reconsider that financial commitment. You will be invited to offer your gifts and talents, and you’ll be invited to help shape this community as we live our promises together. And you will be held and supported, challenged and persuaded, accepted and inspired and – if you’re lucky – occasionally transformed.

In short, you will be part of this community and this community will be yours. “And your people are my people.” And together we will do what we can to manifest the Beloved Community together again and again, week after week.

In a world without end,

May it be so.