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January 2004 Sermons
January 11, 2004 SermonRev. Nancy D. DeanJanuary 11, 2004Journey Toward Wholeness: Racial Justice in the UUALast year at our Annual Service Auction, Allan Cairncross bought the sermon topic that I always offer. When you buy a sermon topic, you get to tell me what topic you want, and can give me as much or as little direction in the creation of the sermon as you like. This is the most control over my ministry anyone ever gets! Allan said he wanted to me to look into what the wider UU movement of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations is doing regarding racial justice. This was an ideal Sunday for this topic since this week, January 15th, is the birthday of the most important person to our modern understanding of racial justice, Martin Luther King, Jr.; of course, the national holiday is celebrated on January 19th, so I hope that you will notice all the news items and special programming that will be on offer in the next couple of weeks. Back some seven years ago, Allan worked with me to put together a program that featured one of the two films used in the Journey Toward Wholeness, a program designed by staff of the UUA to help educate our congregations about the ongoing and very real issues of racism, especially that realm of “institutional racism” that we are all apt to hold in our person at an unconscious level. Institutional racism constitutes all our biases, prejudices, attitudes that have been taught to us by our families, our communities, even our teachers and preachers, but come to us not in some absolute sort of lesson in every case, but rather through those statements, behaviors, and words that we are absorbing constantly from the day we are born. Our wider UU movement has long been important in furthering the causes of racial and social justice, and our membership was perhaps no more alive in modern times than during those years preceding the 1964 Civil Rights Amendment when our ministers and members were out marching and championing the need for this most important amendment to our Constitution in the Twentieth Century. If you ask almost any white American person if they have any racial biases, most will deny it. And, virtually to a person, we will say that we may have grown up with such prejudices, but we have overcome them. If this is true, then it would seem unnecessary to continue to work at bettering our knowledge of racial and social bias and injustice. Of course, the truth is we have not overcome them, for in large measure, many, if not most, of our prejudices and biases are either not acknowledged or not known to us. We just assume we are free of such biases. If, on the other hand, you ask most people of color if white America has gotten past its biases, prejudices, and acts of injustice, they will tell you that that is not their experience. The fact is, all people have some level of prejudice. Over the last ten-twenty years, I have become friendly with families who have adopted children of African-American heritage, and they all say that they had no idea how much institutional racism existed until they had these children, and then had live it by watching their children be subjected to it day in and day out. In this year of 2004, we are only forty years into life under the Civil Rights Amendment. Some people will say, “Well, by now everything ought to be easy for people of color.” In fact, some people believe that it is too easy, that affirmative action programs have gone on too long, and that there is no more reason for them. Some people believe that since a generation has grown up since 1964, that enough time has elapsed to correct all the injustices of the previous three-hundred plus years of slavery. And lest we forget to give them their due, there is a sizeable cadre or group of outright bigots in this country who believe that the white race is superior to all other races. They believe a lot of other nonsense, too, like that a certain kind of Christian is superior to all other people, as well. Unfortunately, forty years really is not very long, especially when we are dealing with long term ingrained attitudes and beliefs. And, while there is no doubt that we are much further along the path to enlightenment regarding racial prejudice, my friends we still have a long way to go. I heard an interesting bit of news this week that parallels the issue of racial justice in a peculiar way. It seems that it was also forty years ago this month that the Surgeon General’s Warning was first put on cigarettes and other tobacco products warning of the dangers of their use. According to the report I heard, a great deal of progress has been made, there is still a large number of people who remain addicted to cigarettes and other tobacco products. According to the Dept. of Health and Human Services, of all the Americans alive today who have ever smoked, over half have quit. That is something to celebrate. Yet, the goals set by the HHS, that by 2010 only 12% of adults, and 16% of teens would be smoking, are considered highly unlikely to be achieved. And teens continue to pick up the habit at a very high rate. Sad to say, because of smoking: "One of five Americans will die........... Each day 3,000 kids begin...... of those 3,000 about 1,000 will go on to die........"(FDA Consumer Magazine, 1996). I bring this to your attention to point out that smoking is something we recognize clearly that we either do or don’t do, and is a habit within our personal control, yet our success rate is far from the perfect dream envisioned by many in the anti-smoking vanguard of forty years ago. So, if we place alongside our progress with these issues of racism and racial justice, our progress, while significant, has a corollary amount of success, and much yet to achieve. Our UU response to racial justice in the fifties and sixties leading up to the 1964 Civil Rights Amendment was wonderful, laudable. It was also costly, for one of our beloved ministers, the Rev. James Reeb was killed when he went to Selma-heeding the call of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., for clergy of all faiths to join him in marching against segregation and other forms of racial injustice. Still, no person or group can sit on its laurels forever, and by the 1990s, we recognized that there was a lot yet to be done. At the 1997 General Assembly, Unitarian Universalist delegates voted to become an anti-racist multicultural association. This vote was the culmination of a five-year process which began with the passage of the 1992 GA resolution for racial and cultural diversity. Out of that five-year long process, and the 1997 vote, a program of education was developed called The Journey Toward Wholeness. As the reading mentioned, this work of testing ourselves, our beliefs and values, is not about some quick fix, but a life altering experience, which requires of each of us a willingness to risk, grow, and change. Yet, we are also told of the benefits which can be as deep as a spiritual change of heart. One of the issues that arises regularly is that our UU congregations do not tend to be very racial diverse (though we may have other kinds of diversity), and often so much of our energy gets focused in how to increase our racial diversity. While I believe this would be a wonderful thing to happen, the Journey Toward Wholeness program tried to get us to focus on the more immediate, and more important goal, of developing an ongoing process for the comprehensive institutionalization of anti-racism and multiculturalism, understanding that whether or not a group becomes multi-racial, there is always the opportunity to become anti-racist.” It is often our human tendency to put the cart before the horse, for diversity in our congregation will not be the positive experience we might hope for if we have not done the real work of self-examination of our beliefs and values which are at the root of all our Seven Principles. The principled life does not come without intentionality and effort-not to mention the possibility of suffering. I spoke some days ago to the Rev. William Gardiner who is the head of our UUA Anti-racism and Social Justice programs in Boston, which include The Journey Toward Wholeness. We talked about where we are today in our efforts in the UUA toward the ends mentioned. Of course, The Journey Toward Wholeness continues to be one of the core models for our congregational efforts. In addition, there are resources through the Joseph Priestley District, with the Jubilee Workshops, where we can invite trainers in to guide us using the workshop model. I hope that now that we have this wonderful, reliably available, space, that this can be our next effort in furthering our principles around social and racial justice. The Rev. Gardiner also mentioned that there is a good possibility that a new program will soon come out based on the Welcoming Congregation curriculum model. Many in this congregation participated in the Welcoming Congregation program, and after several years, of on and off work, finally brought it to a successful vote two years ago. The Welcoming Congregation, for those who are new to UUism, is focused on social justice for the Gay, Lesbian, BiSexual, and Transgendered community. Gardiner also highly recommended the PBS three-film series, titled Illusion of Race, which deals with the myths and the history of race, and current institutional realities of racism in America. I hope to offer that series in the spring or fall of this coming year. In addition, there is the new book entitled Soul Work which will be offered in here in an Adult Religious Education program. Further, in the UUA, work is underway to create a consultant model with the larger anti-oppression goals which include many issues of oppression such as those that deal with poverty, class, women, GLBT, and children. Dr. Peggy McIntosh of Wellesley College, wrote an essay entitled, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, in which she listed some forty privileges white people have that they do not usually even consider they have, nor consider that people of color, especially African-American people do not always have. Here are just six of them for us to consider this morning: 3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or
purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would
want to live. 13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my
skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a
credit to my race.
McIntosh wrote this essay in 1988, and she began it with a quote from an early Unitarian with a strong social justice conscience, Henry David Thoreau, who wrote: Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed... and I am prepared to expect wonders I am convinced that this congregation has plenty of seeds to sow in the work of social justice. Allan Cairncross, for one, has put his principles on the line and spent several years now in the Study Circles program of the YWCA, that is intentional work with diverse groups. We have had a strong Social Concerns Committee for many years, and the work of the Welcoming Congregation also continues. But we are only human, and like most modern humans in this country, we always feel the pressures of time; are always impatient to get more done in less time. It seems like time rules so much of what our principles might better rule. I like this story for its perspective on time: An efficiency expert was driving through the country side when he noticed an old farmer in an apple orchard feeding his pig. What he saw drove him absolutely crazy, for the farmer was stooping now and then to pick up two or three windfall apples, then handing the apples to the pig one at a time, which the pig ate happily. The efficiency expert stopped, parked, and walked up to the farmer saying, “Hey, there, old timer, I have a good idea for you.” The farmer asked him what it was and the Expert continued: “Why not just let the pig wander through the orchard grazing at will. Plenty of apples have fallen, and can be expected to do so for some weeks. It would sure save a lot of time. The old farmer thought about this for a while, as he continued to hand the pig some apples, and finally he said. “Aw shucks, mister, what’s time to a pig?” Most of us are not as easy going as that old farmer, nor as self-effacing. Someone once wrote: If we had our way, more of us would choose the front of the bus, the back of the church, and the center of attention. The hardest thing about working for social change is that it does not happen quickly. This is an ever growing issue, for people nowadays tend to want speed in everything, if not instant gratification. We get easily frustrated by the often slow pace of needed change. So do I. But, I always like to remember Canterbury Cathedral. Like most cathedrals of the Middle Ages, it took many decades, even centuries, to build. It took over one hundred and thirty years to build the first half of the beautiful stone edifice that stands today at Canterbury, from 1090 to 1220C.E., and to its full present size, it took until almost 1500C.E. The early architects, stonemasons, carpenters, and church members of those days knew that they were building the foundation of their dream, that the fully realized dream would not happen in their lifetimes. They had what George Bush, Sr., called the “vision thing.” They had great faith, and great faith in their ability to create something larger than themselves. Something that would be there for their children, grandchildren, and so on of posterity. Vision in something better than they had or would have; but vision in something that was worth having, even if they didn’t live to see it. This is what our wider UU movement has regarding social justice, and all the work of anti-oppression, a vision for what we hope the world can be, and if not in our time, then in the next generation or next thereafter. You and I are part of building the foundation for what yet can be. But it can only be if we do our part. The great tower, transept, and nave of Canterbury Cathedral were never to be seen by those initial groundbreakers, but without them those parts would never have been at all. They were not deterred by what they would not have, but spurred on by what they could do to further the cause of their faith. You and I are in no less position as members of our great Unitarian Universalist faith. We can be proud of what we are doing. Rev. Gardiner told me that since 1997 over one-thousand UU leaders, clergy and laity, have undergone concerted anti-racism training. The Rev. Dr. Richard Speck, our JPD Executive, and I, along with others in our area, are among that group. He also said it felt really good to be told by Dr. Peggy McIntosh recently that she was impressed with the UUA for our great leadership and frontline work of anti-oppression training and education. This is where we are today, building on the foundations poured in the first fifty years of our intentional anti-racism work; but we need to consider that this a work of a lifetime of faith, the work that comes from a deep need and a deep spiritual calling to dismantle the structures of racism and oppression and build a community of health and wholeness for which we yearn. So be it.
January 18, 2004 SermonRev. Nancy D. DeanJanuary 18, 2004Celebrating World ReligionsToday is World Religions Day when we acknowledge and celebrate the great diversity of human religions. The world is so clearly diverse, in all matters of human experience. There are many thousands of different kinds of life, and diversity within each species of life. Even those things that seem so solid and unchanging, like rocks, come in hundreds of varieties. Within our human population diversity comes in many forms, like our great variety of physical characteristics: height, weight, build, hair-eye-skin color, and each set of fingerprints is unique, so they run to the billions of different ones. The only major place where we ever get the message that diversity is not good comes from the realm of religion, for some religions state that they have the only path, the only way for one to be a religious person that is acceptable to God. Yet, despite the efforts of different religions to gain a monopoly on religion and right spirituality, it still has not happened. The world remains filled with diverse religion, and religious beliefs and practices. Less perhaps now than in ancient times, but still the world is greatly diverse in religion. This recognition for the fact of diversity of world religions finally became celebrated with this day, today, that we might lift up, acknowledge, and truly honor this gift of such a breadth of spiritual expression. At least, those in religions such as Unitarianism and Hinduism, to name but two, believe that it is a good thing to have this diversity. Yet, even if we had only one religion in name, we would have diversity; this is the way of the world. While we are different in many ways, it is important to note that there are also commonalities, some things, like a fairly consistent ethical code for example, that all religions share. Perhaps the first question to put forward is, Why is there such a diversity of religion in the world? Wouldn’t it have been simpler if God had preordained us all to believe alike, just as we all must breathe air alike? But, even as I ask this second question, I answer the first. We all do not believe alike, for we have developed widely different understandings of how we got here, what caused human existence, what our purpose is, and how we are supposed to understand the meaning of our lives. If we think back to a hundred thousand years ago, as human beings were developing the behaviors that would eventually lead to community, we know that those small clans or tribes found answers to those questions at a pretty basic level. Not surprisingly, the religious development of the peoples of the world tended to reflect their location and circumstance; so that the primitive peoples of Scandinavia had gods/goddesses and creation stories that talk about ice, snow, cold, and frigidity as a theme that correlates to hell; while the primitive peoples of Egypt came to understand their gods and goddesses and creation stories out of the sun, dryness, heat, and the fire of hell came from related Sumerian religion of that climate. Creation stories of all the religions of the world lift up the peoples’ origins, the creation of the first people, always in terms of their own lives. The harsher the environment, the harsher the nature of those stories, for the most part. Out of all those thousands of different cult beliefs, we come to this time in human development with some religions that are classed as “world religions,” mainly for the number of people who adhere to those beliefs. By the way, the word “cult” is used by all who study religion to describe different emerging religions with smaller followings. The negative associations of the 1970s, is not the primary use of the term. The world religions most practiced, and most recognized in modern times (the last 3-4000 years) are Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and the group which is generally called the Primal religions of the less well known religions that were practiced by the tribal peoples in the beginning and those of today,. If nothing else is clear from this diversity of religions, the one thing that is clear is that the vast majority of people want and need religion. There is no society or culture that is free of religion. Even during the heyday of Communism, which sought to be an atheist state, religion was still widely practiced throughout the Soviet Union. My own personal thesis about this is that human nature inclines us to look for meaning, and we want to lift up the great passages of human experience: birth, coming of age, marriage, death; and, we also want to lift up those experiences that relate to survival: the harvest, the winter, our common experience, for example the monsoons in equatorial India. Religion, then, becomes a community vehicle for expressing what is important to us as a people, and a personal vehicle for expressing what is important to us as individuals. My son was a teenager, he once told me confidently that in a few hundred years there would be no more religion, because people would have evolved out of it. I think many people think this is likely, but I do not, for I believe as long as we are human, in the way we are now, we will still look for ways to be religious that appeal to our sensibilities. Eric Johnson, a humor writer stated: Unless [religion] helps us make a better world right now, we'd better look for other forces. I agree with William Penn . . . who wrote: "True Godliness does not turn men out of the world but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it." Note the verb excites.
Johnson also relates this story: Groucho Marx was famous (along with his brothers Harpo and Chico) for his slapstick comedy and wisecracks. One day, when he was getting out of an elevator, he happened to meet a priest, who came up to him and put out his hand, saying "I want to thank you for all the joy you've put in the world." Groucho shook hands and replied, "Thank you, Father. And I want to thank you for all the joy you've taken out of it." So now a brief look at these world religions. I begin with the oldest developing of all the world’s religions today, Hinduism. Present day Hinduism is not one belief, but a whole gamut of beliefs that fall within a system that we westerners call Hinduism. It was about four thousand years ago that a group called the Aryans, or Noble ones, in the Indus Valley of what is today India, began to develop practices that centered around a fire sacrifice, a burnt offering to the gods. Priests were men specially trained to oversee and conduct these rituals that entailed chanting sacred hymns. The hymns were called Vedas, or “sacred knowledge.” They are the beginnings of the vast holy scripture of Hinduism. The purpose of the sacrifices and Vedas was to “ensure well-being and prosperity.” It was not until about a thousand years later that the doctrine we most associate with Hindu belief, reincarnation, began to appear in the most recent of the Vedas (those about 3000 years old). According religion scholar Philip Novak: “the cycle of reincarnations driven by karma and the liberation from this [earthly] bondage by means of yogic discipline,” came into existence about three thousand years ago, and are present in the later period of vedic literature called the Upanishads. The Bhagavad Gita, which figured largely in my study of world religions when I was at Harvard, is that great holy and literary work that most Hindus consider scripture. The Vedas, are divided into four collections, and the Rig-Veda is the best known to Westerners, and is “the most important and foundational.” This whole body of work is characterized by warlike themes, heroes, and heroic exploits. Many of gods/goddesses manifest these characteristics. Yet, the later work particularly, is also filled with compassion and sympathy, not just for humans, but for all creation. The thing we Westerners tend to hear about Hinduism is that Hindus worship many gods, and to monotheistic religions, of course, this is damnable. The truth is, that Hinduism is clearly founded on a belief in Brahman, the All, the Supreme Being which is everything--God. The gods/goddesses are in fact avatars ( like icons); that is, they each represent an aspect of God. Each group, temple, community, tends to worship some of these aspects more than others. As I have mentioned before, when our Hindu brothers and sisters built their temple in Hockessin, the major issue to work through was which god/goddess would be installed in the temple. I notice that even in the monotheistic communities of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, God is kind or harsh, the angels helpful or not, depending on the denomination; which to my thinking correlates to this aspect of avatars in Hinduism. Let me give you a taste of the Rig-Veda, in which the hymn praises Soma (which will be a familiar term to those of you who have read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World). Soma is the god who inhabits a mind-altering beverage said to be the food of the gods: We have drunk Soma, have become immortal, Gone to the light have we, the gods discovered. What can hostility do against us? What, O Immortal, [is] mortal man’s fell purpose?
Buddhism emerged from Hinduism about twenty-six hundred years ago, and has been called the “Light of Asia.” The founder, Siddhartha Gautama, was born into privileged family. His father was a Raja, a King, of one of the territories that eventually would become part of modern India. Many stories and legends have developed about Gautama, but the most consistent story is that the young price left his walled community and saw people suffering from poverty and illness-things as he had been sheltered from all his young life. Even though he was married, the prince abandoned home and all to look for the meaning of life, especially what could explain all this suffering. He lived wandering from place to place, and one day as he sat beneath the bo tree, he received his enlightenment. The term “Buddha” means the “enlightened one.” When Gautama emerged from the spell of his enlightenment, now as the Buddha, he walked to Benares, some hundred miles away, where he preached his first sermon, in which he lays down the foundation of Buddhism as it would develop thereafter, by stating the Four Noble Truths. The First Noble Truth is that life is suffering. This seems pretty pessimistic, but as Hustom Smith notes, “A supreme optimism prevails everywhere,” in Buddhist thought, in the belief that well-being can be attained. The Second Noble Truth is that suffering comes from desire or craving: “craving for sensual desires, craving for being, craving for non-being,” craving/desire for control and power. The Third Noble Truth is that to end suffering, one must reject or let go of the cravings that cause suffering. The Fourth Noble Truth is that the way to get rid or let go of the sufferings comes by way of the Eightfold Path, which is: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. From this foundational Buddhism, many varieties, sects, or denominations have developed across Asia, so that there is Tibetan Buddhism, Theravadan Buddhism, etc. The holy scriptures of Buddhism are that the vast body of writings called Suttas, or foundations. God is not the most significant idea in Buddhism, yet there is an understanding of God as All, everything. The more important concept is Nirvana, in which, as in Hinduism, the goal is to reach absolute nothingness, oblivion. This is how heaven is defined, as oblivion, or freedom from suffering which is life. However, there are many variations that have developed in the last 2500 years, with the additional legends, rituals, and such embellishments as distinguish groups within any religion. Meditation is a central feature of all types of Buddhism, which is very much the same as prayer, with the focus on self/soul-improvement versus placation. Many people in the West have been drawn to Zen Buddhism, which focuses primarily on mindfulness and meditation. Here is a tiny bit of the Metta Sutta, which means, Foundations of Loving Kindness: May all creatures be of a blissful heart. Let no one work another one’s undoing Or even slight him at all anywhere; And never let them wish each other ill Through provocation or resentful thought. I have a joke: Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused the dentist's novocaine during root canal work? He wanted to transcend dental medication! (Remember transcendental meditation?) Confucianism is the next related religion which has influenced millions in the East; in fact, about 1/5 of the world’s population practiced Confucianism for around twenty-five hundred years, and millions continue to follow the teachings of Confucius. Confucius was primarily a humanist, and his teachings focused on “social transformation.” As Novak states: “Although the Chinese mind has also been shaped by folk religion, Taoism, Buddhism, and in this century by communism, Confucianism remains, by any historical measure, its chief mentor.” Confucian thought is contained in the vast number of writings which are divided into four groups of canons: Ancient Classics/The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Great Harmony, the Mencius, and the Analects. Unlike the prophets or spiritual heroes of most religious founding, Confucius is clearly an educator; and, like the writer of Proverbs in the Bible, Confucius is one who is concerned with human social transformation through higher wisdom. One such Confucian teaching states: The Master said, Moral force never dwells in solitude; it will always bring neighbors. Taoism, which came into being alongside Confucianism, is a similar spiritual-wisdom religion, founded by Lao Tsu, and contains many of the religious/spiritual teachings that I find most meaningful in my own life. Most of you have heard me say that my favorite saying comes from Lao Tsu, which is: Every front has a back. The great book, or scripture of Taoism, is the Tao Te Ching, or the Book of the Way and Its Power. The idea of yin/yang is central to Taoism; that is, the dualities in life. Light-dark, heat-cold, male-female, willfulness-receptivity, and all the countless pairs found in life. A Taoist teaching many have heard is: The journey of a thousand miles starts from beneath your feet. Much of Eastern thought comes from “Confucianism, with its empases on will and rationality, and Taoism, with its preference for intelligent instinctiveness, intuition, and creative letting-be.” Of all the religions that are practiced today in much the same way as early days, Judaism may be the oldest, at about 3200 years old. The Hebrew Bible, or what Christians call the Old Testament is the scripture. Judaism arose in the Middle East, most likely influenced by Egyptian religion which developed the first known monotheism, in the worship of the sun god. From wandering tribes came the call to establish a nation, and the Exodus led by Moses from Egypt to Canaan is a story of that process, and makes up the oldest of the writings in the Jewish Bible or Tanakh: the Law, the Teachings, and the Prophets. The central message comes from the Covenant with Abraham, or the promise that God would give these, who are described as his “chosen people,” a land and a nation. The job of the Hebrew people is worship God, and follow the Ten Commandments (the foundation of the Law), and if they follow this law, they will be protected and assured a nation. Much of what constitutes the teachings of the prophets deals with the disaffection of the people from God by their failures to follow the Law fully. But, the guiding principle of faith rests in this promise of a nation, and even today it is central in much of what happens in modern Israel. From Judaism we get the story of the 7-Day Creation most Westerners know: “In the beginning God created . . .,” and Adam and Eve. We get the great body of songs, called Psalms, that figure so largely in hymns both in Judaism and Christianity. Probably half this congregation, or more, could recite with me the 23rd Psalm, which begins: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. . . .” The Hebrew Bible is first and foremost, a story of the Hebrew people, and it remains one of the most powerful of all the holy books for its story of human struggle and triumph, of human pain and joy. Even if you have never read it, you know some of the Bible, for it is the most widely published and sold book of all time. (It is definitely the biggest best-seller, even the popular Harry Potter series is nothing by comparison.) Phrases, stories, themes from the Bible permeate Western history and literature (which is one reason all young people need to be conversant with it, for so much of literature, history, and music come directly from the Bible’s influence). And, of course Judaism is the parent of both Christianity and Islam, and the Hebrew Bible is critical to both. Christianity, of course, comes directly from Judaism, for Jesus was a Jew, he lived and died a Jew, and by all that is stated in the writings of the New Testament attributed to him, he had no intention of becoming anything else. Jesus was a reformer, one whose purpose was to transform, change, modernize the faith of his people. He identified himself with the Messiah of Jewish teaching (though it may have been more metaphorically than in actuality); but he came to be identified by his followers as The Messiah, the one whom the prophet Isaiah foretold, Immanuel who would save the people of Israel. Later, his followers would expand and develop this until the idea of Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophecy would be central to the new religion of Christianity. Scholars tell us that there were many such teachers and leaders, but the rabbi Jesus clearly had a more faithful following, for after his death by crucifixion at the hands of the Romans, his teachings continued to be passed on, and written down. What really changed the religion of the Jesus cult, came seventy plus years after his death with the teachings of Paul. Paul took the fledgling religion and made it his own. It has often been said Christianity should be called Paulianity, for it is the teachings of Paul that most influence and direct the course of the Church. And continue to do so exclusively for over a thousand years until the Reformation, when great splits occur between the Church and the reformers; and then among the Protestant churches, as the Church’s teachings are challenged, until dozens of different denominations were formed. One such sect came to mind with this very cold weather we are having, it was a small religious sect, the Dukhobors, many of whom moved from Russia to Canada around 1900, and settled around Vancouver. Somewhat like Quakers, they preached equality, pacifism, and total openness. Unlike the Quakers, however, they would totally undress themselves and lie on the ground, open to God as a part of their religious exercise. I don’t know if there are any practicing Dukhobors these days, but I know they wouldn’t be lying out on this frozen ground naked! Christianity like Judaism before it, and Islam after, inculcated the belief in being chosen, or favored by God. Unlike Judaism, conversion became a very important focus for Christianity, though less so for Islam. But the idea is that the Christian is required by God to try to convert the heathen, the unwashed, the unsaved--everybody in other words. Great teachings from Christianity come from the parables and sayings of Jesus. E.g., “Let the little children come unto me, for such is the kingdom of Heaven.” And, “The second greatest commandment is you love your neighbor as yourself.” And the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” By the way, some form of the Golden Rule is taught in all the World Religions. Islam developed in the sixth and seventh centuries of the Common Era, founded by the prophet Mohammed in Arabia. Muslims believe that they are the people of Ishmael, who was the son born to Hagar, Abraham’s concubine. According to the Hebrew Bible, Abraham’s wife, Sarah had produced no children, and she told Abraham to take the concubine to conceive a son, but then God grants her a son, despite her advanced age, and so she sends Hagar and her son out into the desert. That is the last the Hebrew Bible says about Hagar, but the Qu’ran (Koran), the holy book of Islam, picks up the story and tells of the founding of the people who become the followers of the prophet Mohammed. There are many varieties of all these major religions, from the liberal to the conservative. This is a characteristic of all developed religions, that they will sprout movements of various sorts that address the different needs of the people. They can vary widely in teaching and practice from mainstream to the unusual, like the Dukhobors. Primal religions are those of the indigenous or native peoples of the world that came first; most have disappeared or been wrapped into what came after, but many still exist in the remote and unchanged parts of the world like Borneo, or the deep Amazon forests. But, all Primal religions tend to see their God/s, or however their deities manifest, as near at hand, overseeing, able to intervene to help or hinder. Most Primal religions, though, are oral traditions, never written, and passed on through ritual, recitation or storytelling. Some, like our Native American religions, have begun to be written down, and some wonderful teachings come from these. Most Primal religions also involve a shaman, a teacher/healer, who imparts wisdom and/or healing. The sweat lodge is a shamanic practice of some western Native American religions that many of us have heard about. The religions of the world tell us that people are concerned with both survival and the larger questions of why and how we came to be. Today, we are still working on those questions. As Unitarian Universalists, we have come from our roots in the Protestant Reformation to believe that all the ways that people can be spiritually healthy are good (which is to say, so long as they harm no one and help the believer). As a Unitarian minister, it is my role to guide you to consider what you need for your soul’s happiness, for the comfort and development of your mind/spirit. There is no one right religion, but there is one right spiritual path for each one of us. My path reflects my birth, my upbringing, my journey, my search for answers to all these questions. I hope you will find, as I have, that by examining the ways people have been/are religious, it will help in your spiritual growth. We today can rightly celebrate all the good that has been gained by the world’s religions, yet still despair the terror and pain that have come from them as well. May we strive, as Unitarian Universalists, to be a religion of goodness and healing, and a religious people who will settle for nothing less. So be it. |
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