There is this atheist swimming in the ocean. All of a sudden he sees this shark in the water, so he starts swimming towards his boat.
As he looks back, he sees the shark turn and head towards him. His boat is a ways off and he starts swimming like crazy. He’s scared to death, and as he turns to see the jaws of the great white beast open revealing its teeth in a horrific splendor, the atheist screams, “Oh God! Save me!”
Time then freezes and a bright light shines down from above. The man is motionless in the water when he hears the voice of God say, “You are an atheist. Why do you call upon me when you do not believe in me?”
Aghast with confusion and knowing he can’t lie the man replies, “Well, that’s true I don’t believe in you, but how about the shark? Can you make the shark believe in you?”
God replies, “As you wish,” and the light retracted back into the heavens and the man could feel the water begin to move once again.
As the atheist looks back, he can see the jaws of the shark start to close down on him, when all of sudden the shark stops and pulls back.
Shocked, the man looks at the shark as the huge beast closes its eyes and bows its head and says, “Thank you Lord for this food for which I am about to receive…”
It’s not every day that I can tell a joke about G*d and risk offending theists and atheists. It points to one of the challenges of UU tradition. Neither belief or disbelief in God is required for a practice of UU religion. What is required is the ability to laugh at bad jokes. That’s not really a requirement. What is required of us is to respect that we and our fellow UUs may have very different beliefs about God and different ways of expressing what is sacred to us.
In our UU congregations, people with vastly different even opposing theological beliefs coexist and form wonderful mutually supportive relationships that enrich our lives, nurture our faith, spirituality and ability to live with integrity to our shared and most deeply held values. Isn’t it amazing that people all along a spectrum of beliefs about God can journey together as they grow in faith and integrity?!
This is our gospel, our good news to the world. We aim to show the world that a new way is possible, that we are not inescapably trapped in religious and cultural differences, forever to be divided from our enemies.
Love your enemies was one of the great challenges issued by Jesus. Our Unitarian and Universalist ancestors took seriously Jesus’ example and his teaching not because they believed him to be the only son of God, but because they found his teachings to be a sound and reasonable way to live with faith and virtue.
Two hundred plus years ago our ancestors chose to have no creedal test for membership. We continue to this day, a liberal generous welcome to all who would journey together in a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Because of the radical acceptance here, we have atheists, agnostics, theists, pantheists, monists and panentheists coexisting in one religious community. Because of this, we might imagine that this is an easy religion, that it demands nothing of us. Even worse, we might miss or ignore the religion here. I hope that we will not miss or ignore the teachings, the messages, the challenges, the way of life that this tradition offers us.
When first exploring UU tradition many people ask, “Where is G*d in this religion?” I absolutely love that question! Where is G*d in this religion? The problem comes when it’s not honestly asked as a question and is actually an accusation. If you imagine that God is not part of UU tradition, you are ignoring our theological diversity.
Some people do leave our caravan because they imagine that traveling with us won’t nurture their faith and relationship to God. I yearn to get past the prejudice that keeps people from discovering that this tradition can fulfill a desire to grow closer to God, and that it can nurture faith and spirituality for atheists and agnostics.
Ironically, there are also atheists and agnostics who leave our caravan with parallel conclusions. They hear the word god used and can’t imagine that such a place could nurture their spirituality. As people from across a wide spectrum of ways theological beliefs, we sometimes have different preferences on language, especially how we express what is sacred. UU tradition asks all of us regardless of theological orientation, to grapple with questions that have been part of religious traditions throughout time.
In traveling the UU road, we eventually hear words and ideas that disturb us. Ideally these nudge us to examine our beliefs. Some might say that Truth is supreme. We may worship God as Truth, or truth as God. Our tradition says that revelation of truth is continuous. Therefore, we value lifelong learning. That’s a positive way to put it. However, it kind of implies that our grasp or understanding of truth is incomplete.
Embracing uncertainty is a UU spiritual practice. It takes courage to admit that we don’t understand everything, that we don’t have complete answers, that we don’t know how to fix all the problems before us. Still think UU is an easy path? Think that no discipline is necessary? Think our tradition has nothing to say about G*d, or any other religious concept?
Think again! Every week we give this message: “Think again! Take a fresh look at God, at love, at life. Listen to the different ways we think about what is holy, sacred, what binds us all together, what lifts us up, empowers us… Think again. And again!”
It’s at this point in writing this sermon I realize that I will be able to scratch the surface and present but a few of the many ways that UUs think about G*d.
Some of us identify as atheists. Even within this category there are differences. To the extent I have listened and understood atheist perspectives, God is seen as a fictional character that has been imagined in different ways by different cultures to explain things that humans weren’t able to understand or explain. Atheists (and others) may see god as a tool used by kings and emperors to subjugate and enforce obedience, justify privilege and squelch dissent. (amen, anyone?)
As religious liberals we tend to view scriptures as poetry that points to things that can be very difficult to understand or express. When we explore scriptures and sacred stories from various cultures, we value scholarship, as well as conscience to discern what is useful, reliable, truthful and helpful.
Some of us think of G.O.D as an acronym meaning good orderly direction. Who doesn’t believe or want more good orderly direction in their lives?
Some of us think of G*d as the expansive universe, a vastness that is difficult for us to comprehend. In this view, God is the totality, the whole that transcends all the forms of creation.
I like how Sadguru expresses this. He said: Any definition you put on you, it is not enough to describe this one. And this small piece of creation is like this. The source of creation, how are you going to put a definition on it? You can experience it. You can not make knowledge out of it. Whatever knowledge you have about God, is just pure nonsense, cultural nonsense. Depending on what kind of culture you are in, that kind of god you have. Isn’t it?
It can only be experienced. Experience does not mean you can eat it or you can grasp it. You can experience only by dissolving in it. We are just looking for methods of dissolution so that we can experience something far bigger than ourselves.”
Some UUs strive to trust Father God of the Abrahamic faiths. Others have blossomed and have been watered by study and worship of the goddess. Others of us appreciate Zen Koans and or Trickster stories and other traditions that point out that reality doesn’t always fit into our nice little religious boxes.
Some UUs are deists who think of God as the Creator of all that established the laws of nature as the world’s operating systems. In this view, God is like a clock maker who sets a clock in motion and then leaves it alone.
Some UUs think of God as energy, spirit or life force. Others view God as a symbol for ideals, principles, or values. We can hear this in prayers that begin with phrases like Spirit of life, spirit of peace, love, justice etc.
Many UUs hold Nature as the greatest teacher, the source and the Ultimate Reality. Some of us identify as Nature mystics. We speak of respect or reverence for the interdependent web of existence. We talk about being in service to life.
Eternal, Alpha and Omega, one without beginning or end, these are common descriptions of the divine. Along with the quality of transcending death is the characteristic of being the Ultimate Power.
In the book of Exodus, God is depicted as an unnamable voice from a burning bush that instructs Moses to tell the Pharoah to “let my people go.” This voice enables Moses to lead the Hebrews to escape slavery in Egypt. It promises them they will travel to a place that will be their home. Liberal religion holds as sacred the force that agitates movement toward justice. I believe this force, this spirit, this yearning to escape enslavement, this direction of empowerment toward fulfillment and actualization of our potential is the supreme value of UU religion. We might call it divine.
Ric Masten who wrote the beloved “Let it Be A Dance,” also wrote:
everyone it seems
is on some kind of road these days…
rolling from guru to guru we go
like gypsies
searching not for a home
but a space to park the wagons for a night…
i doubt if anyone really wants
to change his way of life
though all of us I’m sure
would like to know
how to make the scary feelings go away
Emerson told us that every person will worship something. Each of us must do our own work. To journey to wholeness, we much take the fragmented pieces of our experience and integrate them in a meaningful way.
We listen to each other. We care to hear each other’s words, thoughts, feelings. We care even more to learn from what each of us is doing to make humanity more just and more wonderful. We are a learning community guided by love.
Healing the wounds of our divided world is more than any one of us can do. UU Spirituality has us come together to work to bring more heaven to this Earth. In the process, we realize our connection to something greater than ourselves. We may see it in the collective. We may feel it as God.
Whatever it is that we think about God, whatever words we use to express what makes us whole, we cherish this sanctuary where the divine light and love in us bows to the divine in our companions.
Blessed be!
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