Sermons

Singing, Shouting, and Praying

Spirituality, Part III

by Douglas Taylor

4/25/04

There are some are some unspoken rules, (no I don’t want to say rules, … guidelines.)  There are some unspoken guidelines about how to be a Unitarian Universalist.  The first guideline is: we don’t do that overly emotional kind of religion.  There is a story of a woman who came to visit a UU church in New England.  And as the minister was preaching, she heard something she liked and said, “Hallelujah!”  An usher hustled up the aisle and leaned over the woman asking, “Woman, are you ill?”  To which the lady replied, “Ill? No, I’ve got religion.”  At which point the usher said, “Please, not in here!”

The reason I mention our penchant against emotional spirituality is that I have come to Part III of my four-part sermon of Spiritualities.  The first two topics were ‘quiet spirituality’ and ‘activist spirituality’.  The last one will be about the intellectual side of spirituality whereas today I am exploring the emotional side of spirituality.

The emotional side of spirituality is difficult for most Unitarian Universalists to get into.  We have long had clear-headed, reasoned theologies.  We are the skeptic’s religion, the rational person’s option.  There is a tendency to shy away from emotion-based spirituality that involves a suspension of the intellect. We shy away from, and even look down on that sort of religious expression were people are jumping up and down, and clapping, and shouting “hallelujah” a lot.  But that is not all that it means to have an emotionally expressive spirituality.  Mystics from many traditions speak of the sheer joy of experiencing the divine first hand.  They speak of spiritual ecstasy and abandon!

There is a story told by Rachel Naomi Remen in her book Kitchen Table Wisdom (Healing At a Distance, p87-89) where she describes a workshop that Joseph Campbell offered to some physicians on the experience of the sacred.  He showed slides as a part of it and on slide in particular stuck in Remen’s memory, not because of the picture but because of the reaction it stirred.  The slide was of the Hindu God, Shiva in a traditional pose, dancing a ring of fire.  Shiva’s arms are all out holding various objects, one foot is raised high while the other is supported by the back of a little man crouched done giving all his attention to a leaf in his hand.

The physicians were very interested in this little man at the bottom of the slide, who was he, what did he represent?  Campbell’s laughter filled the room.  The little man represented those who were absorbed in the material world, in the world of science and study.  The little man is so absorbed in the leaf he does not even realize the living God is dancing on his back.  At times, each of us can get that way.

I mention our communal discomfort with emotional expressions of spirituality not because I want us all to feel proud of our attitude about it, not because I want us to all feel bad about our attitude toward it, but simply because I want to tweak the idea a little and get you thinking about it.  This sermon breaks down into three areas of consideration: singing, shouting and praying.

Some people don’t believe in singin’,

They say singin’ ain’t true

But if you want to get into heaven child

Your gonna have to sing some too!

There is an old joke that says the reason Unitarians are so bad at singing is because we’re always looking ahead to see if we agree with the words.

A colleague, Victoria Safford, wrote up an absolutely delightful piece about this in her meditation manual, Walking Toward Morning (p17).  She refers us to that ever-popular hymn, Amazing Grace.  There is this bizarre moment right in the first verse where the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook slaps down an asterisk and a choice.  What do you do?  Do you sing, “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me” or “that saved a soul like me”?  What other group’s hymnal will virtually stop the congregation mid-measure and do a theological poll?  And you have to be quick because the piano is not going to stop and wait for you, the congregation will leave you no time to ponder, Sunday is rolling on and you are called on to stake your claim right then and there!  Are you a wretch or are you a soul?

Will you risk the shocked, sidelong glace from your pew neighbor as you confess at the top of your voice your own wretchedness and the even our common condition as a fallen, faulty species.  Or would you rather chance the annoyed look as you stand there warbling on about what a pleasant soul you are, what a nice, well-rounded, sin-free, guilt-free happy soul you are?  There you stand the hymn has begun and we are careening toward that asterisk there in the hymnal while you hastily cobble together a theology of human nature.  It’s a lot to ask of people on a Sunday morning!  But that’s what we do.

I love singing in gospel choirs and it is a rare gospel song that has my kind of theology behind the words.  I started a gospel choir when I was at Meadville Lombard Theological School.  We sang hymns mostly, occasionally I found a piece that was theistic but not Christ-oriented.

When the storms of life are raging, stand by me

When the storms of life are raging, stand by me

When the world is tossing me like a ship out on the sea

Thou who rulest winds and water, stand by me.

That is still stretching it a little for me theologically, but I love the feeling I get when I am in a group and the music is rising and there is a palpable feeling of happiness and joy there.

I discovered that I learn better when I’ve been singing.  My brain integrates information better when I’m in a choir or singing in a group.  I was at a week-long minister’s retreat and for the first half, I listened to the papers that were being presented, I attend the worship services and listened to the choir.  On Wednesday afternoon I joined the choir and noticed a change in the rest of my week.  I took in and integrated the information better.  I enjoyed myself more.

I recently heard a colleague comment that a study had been done whereby brain lesions were healed by applying sound vibration to a corresponding part of the brain.  After hearing that, I came home and tried to find a story about that online but with no success, so I need to call Kenn and find out where he got this.  If I remember correctly, they applied a tuning fork-like instrument to one part of someone’s brain and the vibrations and the resonance healed the lesion in another part of the brain.  There were quantum theories to explain it, but it certainly seemed to me to be an interesting concept.  Could certain vibrations and resonance patterns stimulate the brain in special ways?  Could music, could singing, stimulate certain brain area?  What might this mean for religion and spirituality?

Some people don’t believe in shoutin’,

They say shoutin’ ain’t true

But if you want to get into heaven child

Your gonna have to shout some too!

Shouting is another one of those things we don’t tend to see a lot of in Unitarian Universalist congregations.  Let me stress a nuance here: this is not about angry shouting.  This verse, this aspect of emotional spirituality, is not saying you need to express your anger by shouting more!  What it is saying is that you need to express you passion by being louder.

Colleague, Richard Gilbert has said, “Religion is more than mindless jumping up and down about how super it is to be alive.”  Many people in our churches tend to recognize that merely being alive is indeed an amazing thing.  The response to this recognition is usually a quiet gratitude rather than an exuberant shout of joy.   I certainly agree with Gilbert that jumping up and down about how super it is to be alive cannot be all there is to a religion.  However, I think we are not in any danger to reaching that point and we could, in fact, let a little shouting and hallelujah-ing into our mix without much worry.

Here is where we tend to go with our passion: social justice work can get us shouting.  We have about 30 members from this congregation down in Washington D.C. right now marching in support of reproductive rights.  Now, I already did a whole sermon on spirituality and justice.  This is just an indication of how these areas overlap.   I am reminded of the quote from American author E. B. White, “Every morning I rise with the twin desires to SAVOR the world…and SAVE it.  This makes it hard for me to plan the day.”  It seems to me we don’t have much trouble letting out a shout now and then in our desire to SAVE the world, and we shouldn’t be afraid to do the same with our desire to SAVOR it as well.

What is shouting for, after all, but to let off steam!  That old analogy of the steam-powered engine is just perfect!  Imagine yourself just full to bursting with energy shouting is releasing some of that energy.  If you’re full of negative energy, if you’re angry, shouting releases that energy.  If you’re full of positive energy, filled up with joy or gratitude, maybe you don’t want to let it out by shouting, maybe you want to hold it in and spend that energy in other ways.  Maybe instead of shouting you’ll want to go help people, or make the world even more beautiful, or share your story with someone.  The problem you’ll find is that trying to spread around this really positive energy jut builds more up inside you and you may just find you need to let some go with a joyful shout now and then.

Some people don’t believe in prayin’,

They say prayin’ ain’t true

But if you want to get into heaven child

Your gonna have to pray some too!

Praying is intimate work.  It is also one of those activities that we Unitarian Universalists believe ourselves to be no good at.  I know many of us are quite good at it.  It doesn’t take great skill.  You don’t even need to believe in an answering God to voice a prayer.  Soon, I promise, I will devote a full service to this topic.

I wrote and deleted many things for this section in preparation for this morning.  So many words can be heaped onto this topic that are unnecessary.  Prayers need not be deeply emotional things, they can be simple and light.  What prayers do need to be is real.  I commend to you the practice of prayer.  If you’ve never done it before, try it sometime.

Maybe when you are alone you could just sit down and close your eyes and breathe deep.  Reflect on your life; notice what is going on in your life or in the lives of people you love.  Then say something out loud:  God, or Spirit of Life or Eternal Spirit, or some other name that is comfortable for you, God this is what’s going on.  This is where it hurts; this is where it feels good.  This is where I want to give thanks, and this is where I need some help.   Amen.  Prayer is for when you are bursting with life or when life is bursting on you and you need to express it with words or laughter or tears, or simply with sighs and silence.  Just try it.  I can’t speak to what effect it may have.  I doubt the world will change for you, but a change may occur in you, and that may be the whole point, I don’t know.

John Haynes Holmes said that “Reason and rapture need one another, the latter to drive and lift, the former to control and guide.”  He indicates that although the two seem to be incompatible, they are necessary to each other.  This line of thinking flies right in the face of the little unspoken rule about no overly emotional stuff in our religion, thank you very much.  Another way to say it is that our reason is the steering wheel of our car, or the rudder of our ship; and our passion is the gas pedal, or the sails.  A passionless religion is powerless.  We certainly are a faith tradition that has a strong emphasis on the use of reason, but we are not and could not be passionless.  At our best ours is a full faith, embracing all that is in us for the journey.  And if that occasionally leads us into moments of abandon, let us go with joy!

I leave you with the closing lines from a poem by Kabir:

At last the notes of his flute come in,

And I cannot stop from dancing around on the floor.

In a world without end

May it be so.

Salvation
4-4-04
Douglas Taylor

Easter tends to arrive for most Unitarian Universalists with a considerable amount of ambivalence. A few UUs embrace it, others tolerate it, some are hostile toward it, and a good many simply ignore it. The vast majority, however, have mixed feelings. And every year it reappears and we will gather on Easter morning once again with our blend of expectations and opinions. A colleague, the Rev. Jane Rzepka puts it this way:

“Every year I fight the feeling that our UU churches just can’t win on Easter. Our familiar congregation [comes] through the doors, alongside a number of Easter visitors we’ve never seen before. Why do they come?

To hear familiar, traditional, Easter music.
To not hear familiar, traditional, Easter music.

To be reminded of the newness of spring, the pagan symbols of the season, and the lengthening days, without a lot of talk about Jesus and the resurrection.
To be reminded of Jesus and His resurrection, without a lot of talk about the newness of spring, the pagan symbols of the season, and the lengthening days.

To participate in a family service, where children delight in discovering the many roots of our religious tradition.
To participate in a dignified service, where adults celebrate the undeniably Christian holiday, Easter.

We each have religious stories, spring dreams, seasonal celebrations. And on Easter they’re with us, joining together in church. It is our glorious celebration, and by considering the blend a blessing, we win every time.”

I like the way Jane puts that, “considering the blend a blessing, we win every time.” Today is Palm Sunday in the Christian liturgical year. In an attempt to have it all, I am preaching what could be considered a dignified Easter sermon now so we can have a celebratory intergenerational service of story and song on Easter morning.

If you think about it from an historic perspective, Easter really should be a difficult holiday for us to celebrate! Early Unitarians and Universalists spoke out from within the ranks of Christianity. The message of each does serious injury to the doctrines that under gird the glory and purpose of the resurrection for which Easter is all about. From a logical perspective, it is remarkable that any Unitarian Universalist congregation celebrates the holiday with anything more than an occasional sermon topic or special reading such as we might offer for Divali or Yom Kippur. From a logical perspective, with the Unitarians saying Jesus was a man and not a part of the Godhead, and with the Universalists saying there is no hell or eternal punishment, there is little left to support a viable theology of salvation based on the resurrection. Or is there?

Now, fear not, I am not going to try to convince all of you (let alone, myself) as to the literal truth of the resurrection, instead I wish to save for us the concept of salvation. For what is really behind this holiday is the question of salvation, which is really just a question about love. Is there enough love in the world to include me? “Are you saved?” is like asking “Are you loved?” Salvation is a question about who gets to receive God’s eternal love and how do they get it. Unfortunately the question of salvation ends up as a question of “are you a part of the group or not?” The question to often ends up as a discussion of the entrance fee for heaven. That is what I want to argue against.

Salvation is not salvation from hell or from the wrath of God, that is a common misunderstanding. It is not salvation from eternal punishment. According to the Bible salvation is about salvation from sin. Indeed all my sources from the Oxford dictionary to Universalist theologian Hosea Ballou agree on this point, as does the Lord’s Prayer, when it says “deliver us from evil.” Salvation is about salvation from sin. Jesus said, “I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32) The Christian concept of salvation in its basic scriptural form is a call to live a better life free from sin, a loving call to live well.

The Jewish concept of salvation, which of course predates the Christian one and thus is a significant influence on it, is in many ways a communal concept in the same way that sin in Jewish theology is a communal concept. In the stories from the Hebrew scripture, God makes covenants with groups of people such as when Moses brought the Ten Commandments down to the people just after their flight from Egypt. The flight from Egypt is what Passover commemorates, specifically, the thanksgiving of the Hebrew people that God passed over their houses when he went through and slaughtered all the first-born children of their oppressors. Passover is a celebration of gratitude that they may remember their deliverance. Deliverance is a common synonym for salvation. Salvation in Hebrew scripture is a communal concept.

Christian theology mixed the Hebrew concept with Hellenistic notions of life and came up with a decidedly personal version of salvation. The group known as Christians is comprised of individuals who know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. That is a sweeping generalization and does not serve as an adequate definition for all Christians, of course. All the same, according to the standard Christian doctrine of soteriology, the death and resurrection of Christ was the pivot of salvation history. What that means is that when Jesus died on the cross and rose again three days later, people could suddenly get into heaven. It is like that door was slammed shut when Adam and Eve caused original sin, and now Jesus has thrown that door wide open again. But of course the argument is always, well how wide did he open the door, just who gets to come in?

The most notable argument comes from the followers of John Calvin who articulated an idea known as double predestination. Regular predestination is the idea that God has, from the beginning of time, preordained just exactly who will be going to heaven. The number is set. If you’re on the list then you’re don’t even need to RSVP, you’re going to heaven! Naturally people assumed that if you were saved, if you were on the list, you would be a pious person without significant want or suffering in life. Of course, double predestination is a logical and obvious next step. If there is a set number going to heaven, and the only other alternative is hell, obviously everyone not on heaven’s list is going to hell. Double predestination says there is a set number, probably a very small number, going to heaven and a set number, probably a very, very large number, going to hell. The only reason, according to this line of thinking, that anyone is going to heaven at all is because Jesus died on the cross, thus atoning for original sin for a special select number of true believers.

Unitarian Universalists have long rejected such a notion. During the formative years of both Unitarianism and Universalism Calvinist formulas of salvation were very popular and thus easy targets against which to develop a new religious identity. Have you heard the quote from Thomas Starr King who held credentials within both denominations? He once distinguished between the two by saying, “The Universalists believe God is too good to damn them and the Unitarians believe they are too good to be damned.” The Unitarians articulated elegant arguments against the depravity of all humanity as was the popular Calvinist belief of the time. This radical idea of the basic goodness of people undercut the need for Jesus to go dying on the cross to save us.

The doctrine of universal salvation is basically predestination taken to its most optimistic extreme. Sure, there is a set number of people going to heaven, the number is absolutely everyone. The doctrine of universal salvation is usually defined as the belief that there is no hell. Remembering that Salvation is not salvation from eternal punishment, rather it is salvation from sin, the doctrine of universal salvation is perhaps better seen as the belief that everyone is saved from sin. That is a rather remarkable position.

I recall an anecdote about Hosea Ballou that illustrates this point however. He was riding his horse toward a town where he had been engaged to preach, and alongside him was another preacher on horseback likewise traveling to town to preach. They of course feel into conversation and, of course, the conversation fell into religious discussion. The other preacher said, “Brother Ballou, if I believed in your doctrine of universal salvation, there would be nothing to stop me from knocking you off your horse right now and stealing off with it.” To which Ballou replied, “My dear fellow, if you believed in the doctrine of universal salvation, such an idea would not even occur to you.”

If you really believe in God’s unconditional love for you, indeed for all of humanity, the natural impulse would be to respond in kind and to be a good and just person. It reminds me of a quote from St. Augustine (of all people) who said, “Love God and do as you will,” for if you truly love God your will can in no way contradict God’s will.

Both Unitarianism and Universalism brought serious objections to the Calvinist doctrines of God, human nature and how God and humanity relate (i.e. salvation.) Each however raised a different line of argument, and ultimately the Unitarian ideas of salvation and the Universalist ideas of salvation are not only different, they are contradictory.

One of the greatest statements about Unitarianism says we believe in Deeds not Creeds. An earlier version of that statement said we believe in Salvation by Character. Both phrases, “Deeds not Creeds” and “Salvation by Character” are attempts to succinctly say that we believe people need to live out their faith. People need to behave in good and just ways. These phrases indicate that justice making leads to salvation, not unlike the statements I made a month back in my sermon about the spirituality of social justice. “Salvation by Character” is a statement saying we are saved because we are good. It says we are loved by God because we do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

Hosea Ballou and other early proponents of Universalism say we are loved by God first. God’s love is a given. Because of that love, we are led to live justly. God’s love is not conditional or dependent on a certain set of rules being followed. God’s love is not based on meeting a set of criteria first. Ballou uses a most simple anecdote to drive this point home.

Your child has fallen into the mire, and her body and her garments are defiled. You cleanse her, and array her in clean robes. The query is, Do you love your child because you have washed her? Or Did you wash her because you love her?

The doctrine of Universal Salvation says God will save everyone, all are loved and none shall be removed from God’s loving presence in the end. God does not love us because we are good and clean people, God helps us to be good and clean people because God loves us. God’s love is a given, it is where you start from.

I have always wanted to believe in God as described by Hosea Ballou. I have always wanted to believe in a personal God who knows me, knows my inner workings, my deepest longings, my wrenching sorrows and my soaring joys. I have always wanted that God who knows all about me and still loves me.

Of course, we are not a religion where you can believe anything you want, instead we each believe as we must, as our consciences dictate. What I believe about God comes close to Ballou’s God, but not quite. My conscience leads me to believe that the God Ballou believed in is too transcendent, too anthropomorphic and paternalistic for me to believe in. I believe in an indwelling God, who is more than all loving. Unconditional love from God is still not quite it. God is the loving. And I know I am saved by that love.

Now, how does all this fit with Jesus and Easter? I turn one last time to Hosea Ballou who saw Jesus as a demonstration of God’s infinite love for humanity. Jesus was a model for imitation, an agent of reconciliation by example. He is not the pivot of salvation history, but an arrow pointing the way to greater love and peace. If that question wells up within you or is put to you by a friend, “What do Unitarian Universalists do with Easter,” remember that salvation in its basic scriptural form is a reminder that you are loved and a call to live a better life, a loving call to live well. On Easter we celebrate life.

In a world without end, may it be so.

If I Had a Million Dollars
Rev. Douglas Taylor
3-14-04

The story is told of a millionaire, back when a million dollars was a lot of money, who was on his deathbed. He gathered his family around him and told them to bring him all his money and heap it around him on the bed. They tried to argue with him but he waved them off saying, “I know they say ‘you can’t take it with you’ but I don’t believe that. I’m going to take it with me.” Later that day he died and when he arrived at the pearly gates he excitedly waved his money around for everyone to see. “They said I couldn’t do it, but I did it!” St. Peter came over with a sad expression on his face. “Sir,” he said, “you don’t understand. Up here that money is worthless. The only thing that counts up here is receipts.” It matters little how much you have, it’s what you do with what you’ve got!

A few years back two of my cousin’s children in junior high had an interesting school assignment. They had to imagine they had a million dollars and they had to account for how they would spend it. One of the rules was that we needed to spend all of it. So they were looking through magazines and clipping advertisements for cars, houses, clothes, cruises, and all manner of expensive items. I don’t remember all the details of how they choose to spend their imagined money. In leading up to this morning’s topic, I asked my two oldest children, out of curiosity, what they would do if either of them suddenly had a million dollars. After paying off the house and the car, and buying a new big harp, they figured they would give a least half of it away to help other people have places to live. And then put the rest in savings toward collage.

If you suddenly had a million dollars, you would probably use it first to pay off debts and make necessary improvements, for example you might be driving a real junker and could suddenly be able to trade it in for a new, more reliable, economic and environmentally friendly car (and pay for it outright!) What next? Maybe a long postponed vacation or special trip. Then again you might take early retirement or go back to school depending on where you are in your life. Perhaps you would spread it around, offering to help your kids, sort of an early inheritance. I understand gifts of less than $10,000 are non-taxable. Maybe you would invest the money and try to make more!

I know my family would be doing a number of these suggestions and many more as well. I would also be so happy to finally be able to properly support the local public radio and public television stations, the NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Red Cross, and all those organizations that send me free mailing labels and ask for my money. Oh, and my church. You knew I was going to say that eventually. We ministers are so predictable that way.

Churches are so valuable for people. Congregations are havens for individuals seeking support in a difficult world. They are important to the society at large in that they provide a place for people that is not home and is not work. They are an alternative to bars and coffee shops for folks. I think the first time I heard this idea articulated this way in Robert Putnam’s book “bowling Alone.”

In his book from four years back, Putnam critiques American society and the degradation of what he terms “social capital.” He makes it clear that this degradation is taking place, this decline in social and civic participation. He also looks at several reasons why it is happening.

One of the possible excuses for this decline in societal participation and association is money. I sat down last week and read the section of his book where he considers the possibility of blaming it all on money. What Putnam finds is this: “financial anxiety is associated not merely with less frequent movie-going – perhaps the natural consequence of a thinner wallet – but also with less time spent with friends, less card playing, less home entertainment, less frequent attendance at church, less volunteering, and less interest in politics.” Interestingly, he does not say that low income is associated with this long list of disassociation; he does not say an outright lack of money makes you antisocial. He says financial anxiety is the culprit. Now, to be sure, a person with a low income will tend to have financial anxiety, but I know many middle income people who have considerable financial anxiety as well.

A survey Putnam refers to compares 74% of people in 1975 who agreed to the statement, “Our family income is high enough to satisfy nearly all our important desires;” to the 61% of people in 1999 who agreed with that statement. Despite a remarkable increase in financial well-being and societal prosperity over the twenty-five years between, there is a significant decrease in people’s sense of financial satisfaction. How about you? Would agree with the statement that your family income is high enough to satisfy nearly all your important desires? Do you have considerable worries about your family or personal financial situation?

And according to the findings, people with money worries tend )among other things) to stay away from church. Did you know that a significant number of Jesus’ parables concern the use of material possessions. For someone who is promoted as having been all about salvation and eternal life, Jesus spent an inordinate amount of time feeding people and helping them sort out their financial priorities. Many of those parables and sayings are variations on the theme: don’t let a love for money get in the way of a love for God.’ Another category of money sayings deal with what many refer to as God’s preferential option for the poor. One of Jesus’ best aphorism that mixes these two sentiments is this: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:34 and Matt 6:21) It is interesting don’t you think, that he did not say, ‘if your heart is in the right place, you will use your treasure in good and holy ways.’ No, he said, ‘follow the money and you will learn what really matters to a person!’

So, what would we do as a congregation if we suddenly had a million dollars? Where do we put our money and what does that say about what really matters to us as a community? “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If we really had a million dollars suddenly given to us we would probably put it into our endowment or perhaps into a capital reserve fund in anticipation of making major capital improvements to this building. But what if we had the same assignment my cousin’s children had whereby we were required to spend it all and show our receipts? Where would the money go?

Currently our annual budget is a little under a quarter of a million dollars, two hundred forty one thousand eight hundred and thirteen dollars to be exact. If we had more money what would we do? Well, I don’t have an official list to look at and tell you the answer to that question. Typically I would. Typically when we get to this point in a pledge drive campaign here at UUCB, there has been a proposed budget prepared and numbers have been crunched and the pledge drive committee lets us all know what we are shooting for and by how much we would each need to raise our pledges to meet that goal.

This year, we’re turning that around. This year instead of asking you to meet the proposed budget increases, we are asking each of you to consider this question: How much are you called to give? Instead of focusing on what the church needs to receive, we ask you to consider what you need to give for your own spiritual development. Next week when the Rev. Dick Gilbert is in our pulpit you will hear all about that message. This week I want to tell you what effect our generosity could have on our plans.

I offer three areas were we could use more money in our budget, three ideas about what we could be doing with our money if we are find ourselves with a significant increase over this current year. One possibility is that we will move the parking lot rent off budget onto a separate maintenance reserve fund of some sort. (Parking lot rent, what is he talking about? I am sure many of you know what I am talking about, but some surely do not.) About two years ago we renegotiated a lucrative rental contract with our next door neighbor, Lourdes hospital, for their use of our large back parking lot. By lucrative I mean we have been receiving between 15 and 20 thousand dollars a year from them for the use of our lot. Now compared with a six-digit budget, 20 thousand is not that much (it accounts for 8% of this year’s income). If we do move it off budget, which I understand to be a fiscally sound idea that I hope we find ourselves debating later this spring, there will be a commensurate gap on the income side of our budget for us to fill. Of course we can continue to use that money toward operating costs, but there is no guarantee that money will continue to be available to us in the future. If we can, I would like to see us saving that rental income toward bigger projects such as renovations and improvements to our facility.

Idea # 2: two thirds of our budgeted expenses are for personnel. This is standard for many congregations, the main expense is for staff. Even if we hold our own on the income side of our budget from this year to the next, we’ll fall behind simply because of the increases in cost of living, such as insurance premiums. There will not need to be too much financial attention to personnel any time soon so long as we keep our steady cost of living increases in line with reality. This is the second idea for where we could put our money.

Now, this third idea is where I think the fun really begins. As a program-size church, we have some amazing programs going on that we can enhance with a little intentional funding. We have piles of ideas waiting to burst forth with the right amount of energy and financial boost. Take our music program for example. Quality music is one of the reasons people come here. Aside from paying our music director and our organist decent money, there is not much budgeted here: a little bit for guest musicians and for the purchase of new choir music, but not much. If we discover at the end of this stewardship campaign that we can anticipate more for the coming year than we have this current year, music is one program area I will advocate we put some of that money.

Now, the quality of what we have going on around here is not always tied to money. In fact, one of the best programs we have going right now has taken absolutely no money from our budget. Small Group Ministry is a wonderful example of the kind of program we can offer here. People meet in facilitated groups of six to twelve a couple of times a month to talk about issues of intimacy and ultimacy. We are making plans to make this wonderful program even more wonderful for even more people. Now, if we had a little money to help this effort out, perhaps we could help some of the facilitators attend a weekend workshop on Small Group Ministry in Rochester later this month.

Other programs that we offer such as the forum series and other classes through the Adult Religious Education committee have little to no cost tied in with them. We occasionally pay for a speaker for a lecture or for the workbooks to use with a class. Imagine, though, what we could do if we put a little money toward advertising these programs to the general community, or if we could help pay the way for more of our members to attend workshops and seminars such as EAGLES so more of us would know how to create opportunities for these amazing programs.
(And more could be said about Children’s Religious Education, Social Responsibility, and Worship as areas where we could put more money to very good use!)

Now, do we NEED you to raise your pledge and go to the next level? Well, that depends on what is meant here by “we” and “you” because as far as I can tell the only people in the room right now is “us.” This is our money we are talking about and it is our plans. If we want to do more here as a congregation, for ourselves and future members, we can start now by generously supporting our congregation. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Next Sunday we are each going to be asked to fill out an “estimate of giving” card at the end of the worship service. We will have an opportunity to reflect on the sermon Richard Gilbert will be delivering, to consider the question “what am I called to give?” Ponder what percentage of your family income you currently are giving and then what percentage you want to be giving. Then at the end of the service, fill out a card and bring it forward before going out to share in a celebration brunch in the next room.

If you are one who lives within very tight financial lines and may want to give more but cannot, I hope you will hear this pitch as a gentle invitation to financially support the congregation in whatever way you can. If you are one who has more flexibility with your finances, I hope you hear this pitch as a bold invitation to financially support the congregation in whatever way you can!

When I die and show up in front of the pearly gates with my hands full of receipts, I want them to show that I lived a modest and valuable life and that I spent my money accordingly. I want my receipts to show a broad variety. I want them to show that I helped my parents and my children when they needed it, that I helped people in need whom I’ve never meet, that I gave regularly to the civil causes and organizations that support justice and further human dignity. And I want my receipts to show that I have generously supported Unitarian Universalism, a religious institution that stands for justice; that recognizes the inherent dignity of each individual balanced within the startling interdependence of all life. Let my receipts show that I support my church and all it stands for in the world. How will it be for you? What will your receipts show?

In a world without end,
May it be so.

Resilience
March 7, 2004
Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Reverend Douglas Taylor

How I got over,
How I got over,
My soul looks back and wonders
How I got over.

Have you ever noticed how there are some people who have heaps of trouble and suffering in their life. (….how I got over) Or maybe you are one of those people who have been seared by the metaphorical forest fires that can burn through a life. (….how I got over) And somehow these folks are OK today, (….my soul looks back and wonders) They have (or you have) transcended the troubles that assail. (….how I got over) And then there are other people you may know or may be, (….how I got over) For whom the suffering compounds upon suffering and there seems no break in the storm. (….how I got over) Folks who make bad choices on top of bad situations, whose lives are littered with loss and hard luck ….My soul looks back and wonders, How I got over

What is the difference between resilient people and those who can’t seem break free from the heartache. What are the qualities of resilience? What are the characteristics we can point to and say ‘This is what you need to get through.’?

How I got over,
How I got over,
My soul looks back and wonders
How I got over.

This gospel hymn I found has a wonderful opening verse. But when the rest of the song does answer the question of how this gospel singer ‘got over’, the answer is Jesus Christ. Somehow, Jesus Christ got this person over his or her troubles. But I want to know a little more detail. How did Jesus help? What did Jesus do that work? I need a broader answer because I don’t have Jesus that way and I don’t think I’m ever going to. So I want a song that will tell me how I’m going to get over. Because my soul looks back and wonders how I got over.

I had a professor when I was in undergrad studying theater who would talk to us not about acting or set design or directing, but about life as an artist. His philosophy was ‘if you know who you are as an artist, everything else will fall in place.’ This professor was a bit of an odd duck, but you grow used to that when you work in theater. There was one lesson in particular that I found and still find of great value. He was talking one day about the role of suffering in the life of an artist and he said it is important to name and own the pain you’ve experienced. This way, for example, when you are getting into character, you could relate to your character’s hurts and suffering by saying “I know that fire, I’ve been through that fire or one very similar.”

That image of talking about the hurts in our lives as fires we have lived though stuck with me when I switched my major from theater to psychology, and when I then went through seminary as I trained to become a minister. This idea that we all have been though fires that have burned us has informed much of how I interact with other people, especially as a minister. And it is an analogy that seems to fit better and better the more I think of it and live with it. Fires are deadly.

I noticed and saved a newspaper article from a 2002 about a fire that “burned through the Bitterroot and Lolo forests that surround the college town of Missoula, Montana,” back in the summer of 2000. The headline read “Montana forests rise anew from grey ash.” It was a nasty little fire, burning so hot in some places that there was not even ashes left, just charred rocky soil. But in the second paragraph of the article the journalist writes, “During the past two summers, while fires have raged in other parts of the country, those seemingly dead forests [in Montana] have had a chance to burst back to life.” The article goes on to describe the amazing plants and flowers that bloom after a fire has been through a forest. Certainly a lot of the process can be chalked up to seeds that float in on the breeze. The left over ash mixes into the soil adding rich nutrients for the new seeds. But that is not the whole story, or even the interesting part. Apparently there are some seeds that sit and wait for a forest fire. There are seeds that will not germinate until they have reached a certain high temperature, and then after that have to take in moisture and go through a cold cycle before they will burst forth in bloom. The seeds can lay dormant for hundreds of years waiting for the next fire.

“Some plants flowered in mass only the first year following the fires; others, only the second. Some species, such as the Bicknell’s geranium – a delicate, stringy plant with tiny, pink flowers – and the dragonhead, will quickly disappear after this second summer, and be unseen until the next fire event. Some perennials, such as fireweed and wild hollyhock, will flower in mass several more years.” (Washington Post, September 16, 2002; pA9)

There is a natural resilience to the world. This morning’s reading about Mt. St. Helens also mentions this. There is a particular lake near that mountain called Spirit Lake that was temporarily killed as a result of the 1980 eruption. The landslide caused by the initial explosion fell into Spirit Lake at roughly 150 mph according to reports. (“Spirit Lake Came Back” by Tom Paulson of the Seattle Post, May 10, 2000.) “The day after the eruption, Spirit Lake was the temperature of a hot bath. It bubbled like a witch’s cauldron from the volcanic gases seeping up from the lake bed. … Nothing was left alive in Spirit Lake. … A month after the eruption, the lake was completely devoid of oxygen.”

Now, as you might guess, Spirit Lake was resilient. But how long did it take? It has been twenty-two years now and the place is once again a beautiful place to visit. One researcher wrote that “it went from a relatively unproductive lake prior to the eruption to a highly productive lake by 1982 and 1983.” And I love this line, “The rapid turnover from a toxic sludge hole to a cornucopia of life surprised scientists and demonstrated how little we know about the complex biology of recovery.”

So, what I get from reading these articles about the resilience of the earth after the volcano or after the fire, is that resilience is an inherent quality. It’s natural. Life moves toward life: it’s a natural process. Life moves toward higher order. We sometimes think entropy is the final word, not so. Life moves toward higher order. In the Jewish and Christian story of creation, God takes chaos and speaks it into order. And looking around it sometimes feels like God said “go,” and creation has been happening ever since. All around me and within me there is birth and rebirth and creation just leaping out. We bounce back. That’s how we are designed! That is how all of creation is designed.

Another newspaper article I noticed and saved from a few years back has the headline “Some victims resilient while others crippled by abuse.” (Washington Post, July 29, 2002, pA14.) The article talked about two individuals who were very similar in many ways: they were both in their fifties, both came from middle-income Catholic families, both had been alter boys, and both were molested by priests in the mid-1960s. Each, however, fared differently. One had dropped out of school, battled alcoholism, attempted suicide, been diagnosed with predatory sexual disorders, spent time in a mental hospital and jail, and is (at the time the article was written) unemployed again. The other worked as an insurance investigator, advocate for the abused, and recently a music teacher. He takes medication for depression and anxiety, but seems to be doing OK. Early in the article the journalist poses the question: “Why are some victims permanently crippled by child sexual abuse while others are able to transcend the trauma?” The question is not answered in the article. I suppose I should not be surprised, after all it is a newspaper article, not a sermon.

I’ve heard a lot of stories about people who are not demonstrating their natural resilience. I know many people who are spiraling down in their troubles and are not “Leaping with life and creation.” I’m even related to some of these people. I bet you are too. There is not much you can do about the hand you’re dealt, but how you play it is all up to you. I know a man who took years to break out of an unhealthy relationship. He got married again a year later and I see him now having many of the same old problems in this new relationship. I know a couple who have never been able to make it economically, and then when she decides to go back to school in her fifties, she chooses a career with remarkably limited possibilities for making any money. Hard situations on top of poor choices and these people can’t break out of the cycle.

Now, it’s no secret that life is hard. There is always the daily little stuff to deal with. For example, in my family, we’re always stressed about not having enough money or enough time together. Many of you have these or other daily worries. Are you making the right choices for your children or for your aging parents. Maybe your health is deteriorating. Maybe your older brother just lost his job or your best friend is dying of cancer. Life is hard. It always has been. It always will be. But that is just the regular daily stuff. Each of us have been through various emotional or spiritual forest fires in our lives. These events, these traumas threaten to consume us. But somehow, so many of us keep going or even transcend the hardship and really grow. How does it work? Well, as it happens, I did finally get some answers. I took a course in Family Systems Therapy last year and one of the faculty gave a lecture about resilience in which she listed out several qualities of resilient people. That resilience is natural was at the top of her list.

One of the things I’ve noticed is that resilience has a lot to do with attitude. If you look around yourself when things are falling apart in your life and think “this is all my life will ever be,” then it’s not likely you are going to be able to tap into that natural resilient quality within you. Your attitude can block the natural resilience. I remember thinking when was a younger man that I had never been as happy as I had been sad. That is to say, the most extreme and most common feeling for me was sadness. Now this is no longer a true statement for me and I sometimes doubt that it ever was a true statement. I have a lot of joy and happiness in my like now. And I suspect that when I made that assessment back when I was younger, I blocked out the memories of happiness I’d had. I limited my definition of myself and what I was capable of being. This closed off resilience. I didn’t believe it was a possibility. So step one, of course, is the trust me when I tell you that resilience is an inherent part of who you are. There are things over which you have little control. You are not in charge of the environment around you. Situations come up which you can not stop from happening. What you can control is how you respond. People who are resilience have a good sense of what they are in charge of what is out of their control.

Another quality of resilient people is playfulness and imagination. Serious people don’t bounce. Think about the way most of us get when they are faced with a significant trauma in life, we tend to over value the power the event holds. Maya Angelou has a line in her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings which struck me when I read it and I’ve never forgotten it. After some particularly tragic event (and if you know the book you know that the tale is fraught with tragic events) she says “That night, the sun set and it never rose again.” Now, Angelou is a resilient person, remarkably resilient. But at that moment life seemed to hold no more possibilities for her beyond her pain. But in her resilience, and as it unfolds through the rest of that and her subsequent autobiographies, her imaginativeness returns as does her playfulness. Having a sense of humor, or better, a sense of life’s absurdity, is important.

Did you know that 90% of all scientific discoveries are mistakes! I can’t back that statistic up, but it sounds good. I recently read somewhere that the invention of the air conditioner and the microwave were accidents, that it was not necessity serving as mother to these inventions, rather it was playful imagination which noticed another possibility in a situation. Here’s another one: a group of scientists set out to win the Nobel Prize for bold research involving the destruction DNA. Unfortunately they failed miserably, no matter what they throw at it. They failed so big, not only could they not destroy any DNA, their tests kept turning up more DNA. Now, another group of scientists took on the same research, and got the same results, but said they were trying to replicate DNA and they got the Nobel prize for it!

Let me offer you another quality of resilient people, were developing a list here for those of you taking notes. Another quality is persistence. Persistent people keep plugging away at the problems in life and thus, tend to accomplish some positive things. If you think about it, the definition of resilience is the system’s or organism’s ability to resistance to change. It is the ability to absorb change and disturbance while maintaining balance. It make’s sense that persistence is a piece of that.

Perhaps you can see some of these connections and can witness to the resilience you have felt and seen around you. Perhaps you are reflecting on your family, on your work environment, or on your church community. Perhaps you are thinking about yourself or a friend or family member you care about. Perhaps you are thinking of one of these as an example of resilience or the lack there of. In the latter cases, what can you do about it? You can try to bring in a little persistence and playfulness, and some faith in our natural ability to rise above the hurt and trauma, some faith that you will get over.

In a world without end,
May it be so.

The Work of our Hands
Spirituality Part II
Rev. Douglas Taylor
2-29-04

One autumn I spent a number of weekends painting houses for God. I trust you understand I am speaking metaphorically. The man who hired me, paid me and eventually let me go because I wasn’t very good, was named Erwin. And at the time and for years after, I thought I had been working for Erwin. But as it turns out I was painting houses for God. As it turns out, the work was laden with values and lessons about putting one’s faith into actions. I thought I was just looking for a few extra bucks and some lessons in house painting; as it turns out I was helping to bring more justice into the world. As it turns out, Erwin and I and the others there with us were all painting houses for God.

Erwin was a remarkable man. The majority of the painting jobs he did were for people in government subsidized housing, people who were required to maintain their homes according to bureaucratic standards yet lacked the financial resources and, frankly, the wherewithal to do so. Erwin did not work through the government, he was a private contractor, but he made a point of taking jobs based on the work that was needed rather than on the profitability of the job. Erwin didn’t get rich doing this. But he did a lot of good. He would always spend time talking with the resident. Philosophical conversations seemed to be a part of the package deal he offered people. They would often talk about the house and the job. But there were also times when they would talk about politics, education, childrearing, economics, ethics, poverty, and the welfare system.

Erwin figured this was his way of giving back to the world. This was his good works flowing from his deep humanistic ethic at the core of his faith. But for me, something else was going on. I was not there because my spirit called me to help people in that way. I was not there because my core faith led me to behave in such a good and helpful manner. But that work led me to reflection. That work led me to a deeper understanding of my own faith and beliefs. It was a reversal of the normal pattern and I did not know it could happen that way. My actions informed my faith rather than my faith informing my actions.

Most of the time the work of justice functions as the natural outgrowth of a healthy and active faith. Many people talk about social activism as “the fruits” of ministry. This agricultural metaphor likely continues to be so prominent in our non-agricultural society because of the passage in the Bible where it is mentioned that “By their fruits ye shall know them;” meaning: the inner motives of a person will show themselves in the course of time through word and deed. You can say you believe this, that or the other thing until you are blue in the face, but how does this, that or the other belief effect your life? Or, as the question was posed in our Building Your Own Theology workbook, “How do your beliefs interfere with your life?”

This is a very excellent question that we would do well to heed. So you believe in the principles of non-violence, how does that effect your driving? So you believe in the inherent worth and dignity of all people, how does that effect your choice of which grocery stores, clothing stores, and books stores you patronize? So you think Jesus said some powerful things about how we should treat one another, how does that effect the way you treat other people?

The classic question asks, “In what way does your faith bear fruit?” I wonder now, can this work in the opposite direction? Can our good works bear inner fruit? Or perhaps a different analogy would serve better: Can our good works bear seeds? Can justice making be seen not only as the outcome of a healthy spirituality, but also as a pathway into a healthy spirituality? Because if that is the case, then we can jump into the cycle at any point. I don’t need to wait until I have a healthy inner spiritual life before I go having fruits because if everyone waited until they had a healthy spiritual life, hardly any justice would get done.

Mother Teresa’s diaries made a stir when they were reviewed a few years ago. Mother Teresa has long been considered a spiritual giant as well as a powerful activist of the past century. Some of the contents of the diaries were reported on recently as it pertains to her fast-track to sainthood, and apparently Mother Teresa was not as spiritually sound as the world had believed. She was plagued with doubt and felt abandoned by God. She had one year of ecstatic visions and fifty years of drought. Can you imagine if she had pulled up early on and said to herself: no more good works until I get my spiritual life back on track! Vatican is not ruffled by her doubt. They are calling it her ‘dark night of the soul,’ granted it was a very long night, (lasting decades,) but the Catholic Church is still moving forward with their plans to make her a saint.

When I was still in seminary I delivered a vespers sermon that outlined a very linear view whereby first you have faith and then you do good: first one, then the other. One of my professors came up afterward and congratulated me on a good sermon, but challenged in the same breath. He said, “That was great Douglas, I only disagree with you about the order.” (I thought, “Ron, the order was the main point!” It amazes me how little comments like that can linger in the memory for years. I’m certainly glad his comment lingered, though. At the time I couldn’t see that the argument about which comes first the faith or the works, is like the chicken and the egg! It is cyclical: working for justice deepens your spirituality, which in turn can spur you to respond by working for justice, and so on.

I remember a colleague who expressed dismay over a justice project going on in his congregation. They were managing a Habitat for Humanity style house renovation for a family out in the community. The trouble was focused on the project manager who was getting very frustrated with the rest of the congregation because he couldn’t find regular skilled volunteers for the job and he was doing far more work than he had signed up to do. The project manager was getting very grumpy and indignant about the whole affair. My colleague lamented that there were always plenty of volunteers, just not the sort that this project manager wanted. The minister finally pulled the manager aside and asked him, “What are we doing here? What is this project all about?” The manager replied, “We’re building houses of course.” “No,” my colleague shot back. “If we are trying to build houses we should get out of the business now. We lack the proper skills, the proper funding, the proper commitment of time, the proper organization and the proper motivation! We are the last organization who should be trying to make houses. But that’s not what we’re doing. This project is about transforming lives: the lives of the people who will eventually move into this house, and your life and my life and the lives of all of us working on this project! We are not building houses, we are transforming lives.” The great end of Unitarian Universalism is transformation: personal and social transformation. That is why we are here: to become better people and to make the world a better place. We certainly don’t own the corner on this and can end up in some wonderful partnerships!

Back when I was living in Montgomery County, Maryland, I participated in a grassroots, interfaith, political lobbying group called Action In Montgomery, or “AIM”. It is based on the Industrial Areas Foundation that was founded by Saul Alinsky in Chicago in the 1940. People from all sorts of Jewish, Catholic, mainline Protestant, and Unitarian Universalist Congregations came together to advocate for issues of common concern in the community. Many people were involved from the start with the reflection and discussion about what the needs were. I showed up after things were already cooking, I walked in when it was time for the action to start.

I remember in particular an AIM meeting my family and I attended on county funding for housing held at a little Methodist church. Over 200 people from nearly 15 churches tried hard that evening to fit into a very small sanctuary! My family and I sat up in the choir seats next to the pulpit. (If I can’t be in the pulpit just put me in the choir and I’ll be happy.) It was a great meeting– exciting and efficient: a kind of mix between a tent revival and a well-run finance committee meeting. Near the end of the meeting there was a Call to Action. “Now, we’ve talked about power before,” said the speaker calling us to action. “We need some power now to see this housing proposal safely through the budget process of the County Council. We’ve got power right here in this room tonight. We are that power.” My daughter leaned over to my wife and whispered, “We have the power?” “Yes, we do,” my wife responded. “Do I have the power?” my daughter asked incredulously. “Yes,” my wife said smiling, “You do.” My daughter and I responded to the Call to Action and signed up to help see the proposal through.

Later I reflected on these experiences with my child. We talked about how exciting the big AIM meetings were and how good it felt to be a part of the smaller personal meetings with the various County Council members trying to convince them to fund the affordable housing proposal. All the people who were a part of the organizing from the beginning had a chance to reflect on what they were getting into before they did it. My daughter and I jumped into the action and found time to reflect on it and grow from it afterward.

Sometimes action can lead to reflection and deepening, working for justice in the world can help you figure out who you are and where you belong! Just leap in! There are thousands of opportunities awaiting you. The Social Responsibility committee can sell you fair trade coffee during coffee hour and tell you about the evils of Free Trade and what you can do about it. Petitions float through our midst now and then, if you agree with them, don’t hesitate to sign them! Our monthly Forum series is often focused on social and political concerns, learn more about what is going on by attending. And there is so much more just within our little congregation, so many opportunities for you to discover the truth to the aphorism, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.”

You could think of it as a Unitarian Universalist version of the Christian season of Lent. Traditionally, Lent is a time when Christians, for their own spiritual betterment, give up a vice for the forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. In the UU version, instead of giving up a behavior you don’t like in yourself, you pick up a behavior you wish was a regular part of who you are. What if, over the next six weeks we all did something extra to make the world a better place. Do it for your own spiritual growth. Do it to save the world. They may be the same thing in the end!

In a world without end,
May it be so.