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June 2006 Sermons
June 11, 2006 SermonRev. Nancy D. DeanJune 11, 2006God In a BoxThere is a famous prayer, the holiest of prayers in Judaism, called the Shema, and it is in a way the creed of Judaism, and it comes from the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures, or to Christians the Old Testament), in the book of Deuteronomy in both chapters six and eleven, beginning (this is just the first paragraph): Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. [and Moses said] When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai with God’s commandments on the stone tablets, it is written that he says these words to the people. Tells them what they must do in order to hold on to God, for remember they had taken no time at all to make a golden calf idol of Baal when Moses first went up to Mount Sinai. When he saw what they had done, he was so mad that he threw down the first set of stone tablets and then, after he ground down the golden calf to powder, Moses had to go back up Mt. Sinai for another set. So this is his mindset when he returns with the second set of the Ten Commandments tablets. He says in effect: So that you people won’t forget, here is what you need to do: first teach them to your children, then repeat them wherever you are, whatever you are doing, and you will wear them on your body, and write them on your doorposts. No doubt most of you have seen Hasidic Jews who follow the old ways and wear the side-curls, or other Conservative and Orthodox Jewish males, who, when they pray, wear the prayer shawl the attach the phylacteries, the two little leather boxes to the forehead and left arm honoring Moses’ injunction. In other words, Moses helped the people to be faithful by teaching them how to keep the understanding of the one, invisible God in their minds through these very visible means. Monotheistic religions since that time have been struggling with this problem of how to make an invisible God real for people in ways that do not violate the commandment not to create idols. In a way, we can say that the ancient Hebrews were the first to put God in a box, at least to help people remember God using boxes. But boxes are not always the best way to hold things, especially not things of the spirit. Christians were able to overcome this problem of how to keep faith, keep religion real, by making icons of Jesus; so we see throughout the Christian world, great iconography, statues, paintings, that depict Jesus and people pray before these icons as a way to connect with God through Jesus or the saints. Protestants, though, were so determined to rebel against the established Church of Rome, that, drawing on the teachings of Moses, they would have no icons in their churches, not even stained glass images for many Protestant groups, including the Puritans. Karen Armstrong, whose books on religion I recommend to you, reminds us that early religions developed in relative isolation. Generations of people grew up learning religions for which they had nothing to compare or contrast. Religions developed over time, modified slowly for the most part, or in crisis perhaps very quickly, but within the closed communities of tribal groups, then villages, then city states, then gradually nations. The archeological record tells us that in places where trade developed, like seaports, or river communities, the first melding of religious ideas began to happen. Fast-forward to the modern world, this melding has become in fact pluralism; that is, religions of the world living side-by-side. Right here in New Castle County we have a fair representation of the main religions of the world. Within five miles of this Mill Creek Hundred UU congregation there is a Jewish synagogue, a Hindu Temple, a Chinese Church, a Korean Church, and both conservative and evangelical Catholic and Protestant churches, and any number of individuals whose beliefs have no permanent home, but are here and represented nonetheless. It is impossible for even the most isolatationist of religions to escape the reality that we live in a country that is religiously pluralistic. While it would have been fairly easy six-hundred years ago to claim that any given country was a Christian or Jewish or Buddhist nation, that is rarely possible in most parts of the developed world nowadays. We are not, and in fact, never have been a Christian nation, which would imply no other religions. Certainly the native tribal peoples would take exception. Despite the evidence, there are still religions that want to claim this is a Christian nation, founded by Christians, and their agenda is to claim it for Christians. Yesterday, I spent half a day here with a group of people in our “Building Your Own Theology” class. I talked with them about the fact that Unitarian Universalists do not believe there is any one way to be spiritual people, and that all religions have some reason for existing, and all religions have good things they teach, but what differentiates UUs from many other religions is that we do not claim that our way is the only right way to be spiritual or religious. Other religions also hold this understanding such as those within Buddhism and Hinduism. What we have in common with all religions is the awareness that there is something larger than ourselves, but while many, in fact most, religions call this God, we UUs do not feel that we should speak for all our members, especially since we cannot adequately talk about the nature of God so as to say absolutely there is a God. This is in large measure a matter of semantics, of language, for we know how weak a vehicle language is to describe that which we cannot see, hear, taste, touch or measure in some way. Consider that no one will even attempt say what love is in absolute terms, for the understanding of love tends to be limited by our experience so that what I say love is may not be what any of you would say love is; yet, we would all be right in defining love as we know it. So if we cannot describe something like love that virtually everyone experiences at some level, how then do we think we can claim to know the who-what-where-when-how of God? Yet, at this moment, around the world, and in the five mile radius of this congregation, there are ministers and Sunday School teachers telling people precisely what and who God is, and that they have the Truth, and their truth will save you from the eternal damnation. Moses never considered such a thing as eternal damnation, only that without God the people would be lost; lost as they had been in crossing the desert from Egypt for forty years (a distance that can be walked in eleven days). Moses was trying to help his people, this tribe who had escaped a long enslavement to once again become the nation that God had promised them they could be. The wandering in the desert for forty years is a metaphor for the struggle of the people to become a people. Even as the people of Iraq are now struggling to become a nation once again with all their differences, while the relatively small but effective insurgency works to disrupt the process--they are the discontents, the golden calf builders of today. Five or six thousand years ago, when Moses was at his job of leadership, protecting and defending the remnant of Israel, he had far more limited means. He was right, even brilliant for the time, to know that the people needed ways to stick together. They needed a common purpose, a way to see beyond their fears, concerns, selfishness, and greed, to that something that was greater than any one of them. To do this he gave them tools for reflecting on their greater purpose, which was to do what God commanded so that they might build the nation they were promised. From that point on, the people were able to stay focused enough to eventually get to the land of Canaan where they could establish the nation of Israel. Needless to say, they did get the land, but they lost and regained it a few times, so the path for Israel has never been smooth. The point of the Moses story is that developing a common purpose is one way to unite a people. We UUs believe that, too. Where we part company with other religions is over the belief that so many religions have of superiority, of being the only right religion, of being chosen among all others, of being set apart for salvation—whatever the idea of salvation may mean, for that is another concept that has a wide variety of ways to be understood. Like some of you, I grew up in a religion that claimed only the people who accepted their path would escape the fires of hell and reap the rewards of heaven. Depending on which religion, some give you more carrot and less stick, as it were, but the goal is to get to heaven or escape hell by doing what you are told, and being good here on earth. But here is the real kicker, the ultimate meaning of what constitutes being good, what it means to be or do good, is just as hard to pin down as love or beauty or God. While we can see where the human impulse comes from to get people behind a common purpose, we don’t always see, especially when we are inside the fishbowl of a given religion, why one method or another develops. I believe we always have to separate religion from spirituality. The terms tend to be used synonymously. People say someone is very religious or very spiritual as if they are similar states of being. They are two very separate states of being. Religion is about institution, and we talk about the different religions of the world understanding this institutional nature of Islam or Christianity, and so forth. Within these broad categories are further subcategories of religions. Christianity includes Catholic, Protestant, non-denominational, etc; rather like the university which is made up of various colleges. Spirituality is something we all possess. Everyone is spiritual, meaning each of us has a spirit-mind-soul, and each of us seeks some kind of meaning for our lives. No religion gives you spirituality, but religion can help us grow mentally/spiritually. Someone once said I wasn’t spiritual enough. I wondered exactly what would I have to do beyond give up my career at the university, devote three years of graduate school in religious studies, intern for two years, go through all kinds of tests both academic and psychological, all so I could be a minister and serve others—what would I have to do to be spiritual in this person’s eyes? Well, I think I know what she meant, for there is in some people’s limited understanding (we all have limited understanding, but some of us know it) a view of spirituality that is about gauzy garments flowing in the breeze, an ethereal voice speaking of vague and imperceptible ideas, and devoted to ritual. The only part of that understanding of spirituality I can lay claim to is devotion to ritual, for I do believe that ritual is important. There is no one way to spiritual, any more than there is only one way of being religious. The facts are self-evident, even if we don’t want to look at or accept them. Religion is about institution, and all institutions seek to preserve and/or grow the institution. That is what Moses was doing, and that is what I am doing. All of us who are leaders within religious movements seek to preserve, promote, and grow our religions. There is nothing wrong in that, per se. The problem arises, from our UU point of view, when one religion is determined to be the only religion, and lays claim to absolute Truth. That is how God gets put in a box. Down through the ages it was fairly easy to convince people that the religion of the community was the best, the only, the right religion. But as our world as grown ever more populated, as we struggle to lay claim to the valuable lands, to protect our various groups, these differences have taken on ever greater import. With few exceptions, wars have been about land and resource, conducted in the name of religion. Here in the USA, God bless America is plastered on cars from sea to shining seas. Yet, why would we expect God to bless America more than any other part of the world. I like the bumper sticker that says, God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions. Of course, the reason for invoking God, and for all our politicians wearing little flag pins on their lapels since we went to war, is to, in the age-old tradition, claim God is on our side, and that religious belief and patriotism are one and the same thing. What Moses knew was that people need a common purpose, our leaders know that too, but a common purpose does not have to be religious, nor does our common purpose as a religion have to be about proclaiming a single declaration of truth. There is diversity in everything in the world, including the ways people are religious and spiritual. There is nothing wrong in that, in fact, I contend that it is necessary and ultimately good. While we Unitarians do not believe you can put God in a box, even we struggle not to put religion, spirituality, patriotism, intellectual awareness, or human goodness in various boxes of our own making. We are all subject to this inclination. Generally UUs believe that the truth of your own heart and mind is what should guide your personal creed, or beliefs, but our common purpose as an institution lies in our Seven Principles. The ethical principles we believe most free peoples would be guided by if given a choice. They, too, are a box, but at least a very large box that allows for lots of variations of spiritual belief and religious practice. One Rev. Anderson, a Lutheran minister, talks about how Moses effectively put God in a box, and how his church had a religious education program called “God in a Box.” He writes: [I] remember sitting around a table with likely some of [the members] listening. And every once in a while the voice on the tape would say, "Now turn off the tape, and reflect. That is what I believe we are called to do: turn off our tapes and reflect. Putting God in a box is always a limitation of God or whatever the nature is of ultimate reality. None of us can know God absolutely, for there is no single way to know God or Truth or Love or Justice or any of the great needs of human existence. The best any of us can do is to recognize we are running a mental tape (or program in these computer days), and to be willing to occasionally turn it off and reflect. Reflect on what we know, how we know it, and consider that there is always still more to know. Whatever the nature of “ultimate reality” or God or the force of the cosmos, the only thing that really matters is how we treat one another. If our beliefs do not lead us to respect one another and the whole of creation, we are probably missing something. Very likely that something we are missing is outside of our own particular box of religious being. So be it.
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