Do you consider UUCHC your spiritual home? How can people with diverse theological beliefs share one sanctuary as a common spiritual home? A few weeks back Ann Galland led us in a wonderful worship service that helped us reflect on what home means. It was clear that the word home has a lot of power and import for us. Home is a place a lot of our stories come from. Its where we got our traditions. It a place that made or makes us who we are. It’s made of the bonds between us and those who are important to us.
Today we’ll add the add the word spiritual to home, and delve into our covenant to bring acceptance and encouragement spiritual growth here. We will reflect on the qualities that are essential for making a religious community worthy of being a spiritual home, our spiritual home.
Spirituality can be defined as experience of being in relationship with a Higher Power. Some people call this power God. For others of us it is the natural order, the interdependent web of existence. For others it is the Great Mystery.
Sometimes people use the word spirituality to refer to cultivation of qualities like peace, wisdom, kindness, compassion, or justice.
In this century our country has seen a growth in the number of people that have no religious affiliation. The moniker “spiritual but not religious has become super popular. Our UU tradition is attractive to those who are attracted religion and those that have an aversion toward it. Why do you have several different religious symbols in your sanctuary? How can atheists, humanists, theists and mystics share one religious tradition? UU is definitely an uncommon denomination!
At the center of most religious groups is a book. Most believe that their book has the rules that were given by God. Their book tells spells out what is good and moral or bad and immoral. To many people, religion is a system for judging everyone as either good, one of, and moral, Or alternatively as bad, other, and immoral.
UUs celebrate the diversity of stories held by people as sacred. We study and discuss ideas about how to live a good life. We don’t define ourselves based on a mythological or historical relationship to God. We don’t have a set of beliefs, church doctrine or dogma.
Former UUA president, Rev. John Beurhens writes: “Some religious groups ask a creedal question. ‘What do we all believe in common?’ Much of the genius of Unitarian Universalism is that we ask instead the better, more covenantal questions of ‘What hopes do we share? What promises are we willing to undertake in order to realize these hopes? How shall we treat each other along the way?’”
If UU doesn’t match our experience and concept of religion, it can be easy to miss its spirituality. How can reason, discussion, democracy and scientific findings be part of a religious journey? Clue: We address religious concerns sometimes in surprising new ways.
Unitarians and Universalists were Christian churches that returned to Jewish roots. The transcendentalist movement discovered that communion with the divine was possible directly in nature. The transcendentalist movement open doors to discover Eastern religion.
It reminds me of a story that Christianity attributes to Jesus, and that Judaism attributes to Rabbi Hillel. When you hear the Jewish version you will recognize the Christian one too.
Hillel was old and walked with the aid of a cane. A wisecracking youth asked the rabbi “Can you recite the entirety of the commandments while standing on one foot?” (Keep in mind that there are 613 commandments and that the “commandments” might also have been intended to refer to the 5 books of Moses). The aged rabbi used his cane to balance himself on one foot. He then stated “Love God with all your heart, mind and soul, love your neighbor as yourself. The rest is commentary.” As he lowered his second foot, he swatted at the boy with his cane and admonished him. “Now go and learn it.”
A similar instruction can be found in many other traditions. Religion is culture, a way of living. It shapes lives not by one summary statement, but by collective wisdom, traditions, informative stories, songs, prayers and parables.
Joining the UU movement did not require me to convert from Judaism. It actually encouraged me to go deeper to access the well of inspiration shared by my ancestors. It also enabled me to taste the water of life from Christian, Buddhist, as well humanist teachings and scientific wells.
Judaism is centered on the worship and devotion to a nameless but nonetheless personal deity referred to as God, Hashem, Adonai, Lord, Blessed one etc. Many UU hymns, sermons or prayers speak of God. More frequently, we address the eternal and transcendent dimension in humanistic language.
Last week Janet Belden expressed what I call the “something lost something gained” phenomena that often happens when the church or temple of our childhood no longer fits us. Janet said that she missed the ritual of communion.
I have heard similar expressions from many other UUs. Most of us were reared in other religious traditions. Even if completely happy with our migration, it takes courage to admit that something was lost in leaving.
And it takes even more character to seek fulfillment of spiritual needs in new and creative ways. It’s one thing to write a personal creedo, but can we create our own meaningful rituals?
Yes we can! individually as well as collectively. I’ve seen much creativity on a denominational level. I’ve also seen people discover and exercise priestly power to create meaningful rituals for memorials, weddings, baby dedications, divorce, … Name the important life event and some UU has found a wonderful way to express passion and helps them find faith to continue on.
Together and as individuals we find ways to express and affirm our sense of sacred and holy.
How do we invite members and guests into fellowship with each other and the Divine? How do we bring faith to life? How do we take religious liturgy and literature off the page and breathe life into it?
Covenant is perhaps the most important way we do religion. For the past 36 years a document knows as the UUA Principles and Purposes has given our congregations direction. It is a covenant between all UU congregations, an agreement on how we would do UU. Hundreds of UU congregations have added an 8th princle and purpose. The denomination is in a process likely to omit the former statement of principles and purposes. The proposed changes have stimulated much anxiety and excitement!
On a local level, congregations become spiritual homes because of the covenants we make, the agreements we make about why we are together, what we will do together and how we will be together. We call a congregation our home when our spirituality and faith are nurtured. We call it home when we feel a sense of belonging and connection to each other.
What enables us to do that? My sense of what is the most common denominator of thriving congregations is that they are places that people want to call their spiritual home because they are inspired and moved by a shared sense of purpose that permeates every aspect of church life.
That sense of purpose is always clearly UU and it is always clearly authentically local. To put it in vernacular, the congregation has to “have it going on!” Homes need color, vitality. Providing that vitality, being on the same team working together to create something together, that makes a home too. Each UU group asks itself: In what ways do we live out and give expression to our sense of purpose with each other and in our surrounding community?
Spiritual Home isn’t just about how we present or engage with the wider community. Every religious group addresses some basic questions and issues. What makes for a good life? What to say about death and dieing? Is God for real? We don’t come to UU congregations to get our questions answered. We come to get our answers questioned.
We expect each person to be willing to grapple with religious questions and work out theology for themselves. We acknowledge that the reality we long for is infinitely greater than our theories and stories. If that sounds heady, we do tend to require intellectual stimulation. However it is our heart that decides we’ve found a spiritual home. We don’t seek uniformity of beliefs. We do want to know that we have companions on this journey.
The following story illustrates that love or caring is how to create a spiritual home.
At 6am, Ted’s alarm goes off (ring/ or beep beep beep). Ted’s mother already awake and downstairs hears Ted’s alarm too. Fifteen minutes later, Ted’s mother has heard not heard the sound of movement from Ted’s room
“Ted. I heard your alarm go off, but I don’t hear any movement in there,” she said. “Are you all right?
“No!” grumbled Ted. Ted’s mother opens the door to his bedroom. Ted pulls his sheets over his head.
“Oh Ted honey what’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to go to school.”
Why not? asked Ted’ mother.
The kids all call me names. The teachers all hate me. I just don’t want to go to school today.
“But Ted, you have to.”
“No I don’t. You give me one good reason I should go.
Teddie, I will give you two good reasons.
#1 you are 41 years old.
#2, you are the principal of the school.
We all want to stay where we are loved, and we are reluctant to go where we feel unloved. I imagine that most you remember the old TV show Cheers. Do you remember the Cheers theme song? “And they always know your name… and they are always glad you came…”
Love, compassion, and caring are the essential building materials for co-creating a spiritual home. The words of a mission statement are important, but even more important is what the congregation does, what it feels like to be there and what kind of experiences it offers.
The founder of Re-evaluation Counseling, Harvey Jackins, stated that “our need for love is like water. We need a few glasses every day to keep us healthy. However,” he said, “our need to love is like air.” The greatest gift of religious community is that it asks us and ideally helps us to love.
How do we make and keep this a place we will want to call our spiritual home? Francis David, the preacher in the first Unitarian Church said “we don’t have to think alike to love alike.”
If we are honest we will admit that there are people we really like who have religious or political views that we abhor. And there are people who articulate our theological or political views that we wouldn’t want taking care of our children or elderly parents. Sometimes we care less about a person’s theology if we trust them to treat people with kindness. Some people’s personalities resemble porcupines, but we if they come through when it counts, we are going to love them. Compassion, justice, respect can take a lot of different forms.
I am not saying that language, philosophy, and theology do not matter. I spend far too much time pouring over words and details to call teaching and preaching inconsequential. Beliefs and positions absolutely do matter. It matters that our services offer invitations to open our hearts and minds. It matters when our church activities help us to remember what’s important. It matters what the sanctuary, the building and the grounds look like. It matters which classes, programs and activities we sponsor. It matters who gets treated as important, and who doesn’t. It matters if our congregations are welcoming. It matters how long meetings run, and what kind of opportunities for service we provide. It matters what we say we stand for, and it matters more what it’s like to be here! Is it fun here? Is this someplace I want to bring my spouse, best friend or children? Is it always solemn or can I dance my prayers here?
Do you encourage me to experience awe? Gratitude? Do you help me to sit with tenderness? What if I disagree with your politics? Will you sit with me when I struggling? Can we stand together in stillness and witness the dawn of a new day? Do we acknowledge great mystery? The ties between us? Our visions, hopes and struggles? The road that lies ahead?
We do. Sometimes we certainly do. And that is how we come together to co-create our spiritual home.
So be it.
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