A Musical Service

Sermon

We are here today to talk (and sing) about faith, and the essence of spiritual belief.

So you have a few hours? Ok, we won’t answer every question, but we'd like to dive headlong into the subject of faith in the UU religion. A deep and powerful subject, but it seems too often that we UUs like to talk around it. We talk about how our faith moves us, rather than what our faith really is.

For instance, ask a Unitarian Universalist what they believe, and you can bet that the answer quickly turns to what they do not.

"Well, I don’t believe what my parents believed."
"I don’t believe that any one religion has it right."
"I don’t believe in an afterlife, that’s for sure."
"I don’t believe in God… or Santa Claus… or the Easter Bunny… or the Trinity."

As if it was easiest to define our religion through process of elimination!

Tie a UU down and force them to talk about the positive – what they do believe – and the conversation can quickly turn to more secular subjects.

"I believe in the worth and dignity of every person" is a good fallback, and often leads the way. And then the conversation leans towards the policies of human rights, where our secular beliefs are very clear.

"I believe in living in harmony with nature." Again, a great subject, and strongly tied to UU principals. But it's a dodge, really, diverting into how we should live rather than what we believe. We UUs are very good at "how we should live" – reduce, reuse, recycle, and donate to the Nature Conservancy – but again, what about "what we believe?"

"I believe Jesus was a teacher." Nice – that feels religious. Got the big J in there. But isn't that just a sneaky way of saying, "I don't believe Jesus was anything but a teacher – like, for instance, he wasn't the Son of God. Oh and Mary? Not a virgin."

Some UUs do take a bolder step, and dig right into their core beliefs: "I believe in peace and love… and if there's a god, or karma, or any kind of justice in this world, the Democrats are going to sweep in '06. Or '08. Would you believe 2012?"

That's a different kind of faith altogether!

But what about those thorny religious beliefs? How often do we, as individuals and as a community, address the BIG questions. Like, "Why are we here? What’s the meaning of life? Where are we going? What is 'salvation' and where do we get some? What is the promise we bring in life, and how do we fulfill it? How do we face death? What is worth dying for? What is eternal? What is infinite?"

Why are they so hard for UUs? Well, for that at least we have an answer: because we have no creed, handed down through centuries, telling us how to respond.

For Christians, this is an open book test! "I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth…" Easy! For us – since we tend to reject authorities that contradict logic and evidence – we have to (uh oh) "think" about it. I can only answer those big questions for myself, and you for yourself – if I were to tell you what to believe, suddenly we have a dogma. But that doesn’t mean we can't discuss the subject, and agree, or debate, or influence each other (in positive, mind-opening ways)…

Why are these questions important? Again, we have an answer: because Unitarian Universalism is a religion and not just a big, liberal non-profit organization.

[song intro]

When we began thinking about this service, and how we'd be digging into what we believe as religious UUs, and what our faith was really about, it occurred to me that I should start by consulting the authorities. So I reached for my shelf and hefted the Good Book. I refer, of course, to the OED – the Oxford English Dictionary – an enormous tome, filled with microscopic type, and containing not only the definitions, but the etymologies of almost every word in our glorious language. Volume 1.

Song: The Etymology Song (Michael Booth)

So the OED reveals historical meanings of words. And while our language changes and evolves, there is often a core of a word which, while lost in current usage, is retained in the essence of its meaning.

"Affluent means things are flowing toward you. Carnival means meat before the fast."

Where are we going with this? Well, looking up "belief" revealed that it is derivative of the Old English "luð" which means "to hold dear; to love, and rely upon." A definition that reflects the emotional (as opposed to rational) bond people hold in their beliefs, and perhaps their reluctance to change them. So no one need apologize being emotionally attached to their beliefs, even if they sometimes fail the test of reason! That’s simply what a belief is, and that's why they can't often change overnight!

The OED's definition of "faith" includes "the spiritual apprehension of truths and realities beyond sensible experience or logical proof." So does our use of the word "faith" demand that we hold beliefs beyond those suggested by science? How does that sit with the secular humanists? Does faith demand that we believe in magic? Or does quantum physics suffice? — Those gaps in science where we have no evidence – just beautiful theory and suggestive mathematics.

[song intro]

As UUs, we have the luxury of drawing from many sources. As a UU songwriter, I took this as license to juxtapose String Theory with the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas… in order to explore this theme of faith and belief – and to illustrate the value of bringing a believing, yet unknowing mind to such wonders as magic, science, and religion.

Song: The Part That Comes From You (Rick Engdahl)
Most surprising in my stroll through the OED was the etymology of the word “religion” which was originally defined as, "a state of life bound by monastic vows." Only monks were called "religious" because they bound themselves to a particular lifestyle.

Let's review: our beliefs, which we hold dear, are ever-changing and evolving. Our faith leads us to seek knowledge beyond the safety of experience and logic. And our religion binds us not only to our principals and moral code, but also to our quest for truth.

As UUs, are we "bound" to our principals? We’d better be, if we want to call ourselves religious. And our lack of creed or defined dogma is not an excuse from this commitment. Rather, we’ve assigned ourselves the difficult role of being bound to the quest for, rather than the prize of truth.

So why is this a service in song? Well, in a previous service we talked about the spirituality of music – how songs can reach a deep, communal space, where we can find deeper understanding. In short, poetry and music can reach places that prose can't easily articulate. And it is sometimes in these places, that answers to big, meaning-of-life questions begin to reveal themselves.

[song intro]

Listen to the religious experience of this song – how Jane Siberry leans on poetry to bind herself to the mystery, and how she expresses her faith in life and the natural world.

This is also the time when you can show that you are bound to your religion, and to your church. Financially, that is. We will now be collecting the offering for the life and good works of this church.

Song: Bound by the Beauty (Jane Siberry)
We've talked about why it's important to remember that Unitarian Universalism is a religion, and as part of our faith, we should actively contemplate the big (albeit unanswerable) religious questions. But how can we address these elusive subjects in a meaningful way without breaking our commitment to logic and scientific method?

First, we can acknowledge that faith is a statement that begins with "I don’t know."

For instance…

I don't know that there’s a god, per se, but I do believe that there's an underlying, unconscious connection between all living things.

I don't know what happens when people die, but I believe that some living essence separates itself from an otherwise inanimate corpse.

I don't know what is eternal, but I know my actions today may influence generations.

I don't know if there's a Santa Clause, but I believe that my stocking will be filled on Christmas Eve.

Ok, you get the idea… You certainly don't have to agree with those statements. I don't even know if I agree. But you can write your own statements of faith, beginning with "I don’t know." And you can rewrite them, and change them… until you hold them dear and become emotionally bonded.

[song intro]

Jackson Browne, in his song, "For a Dancer," digs into the I don't knows on the occasion of a friend’s death.

Song: For a Dancer (Jackson Browne)
All right, so why do we have to go through all this soul-searching? We UUs love social action. We love to take up causes, get active, vote twice – make the world a better place.

Why not simply embrace that as our reason-for-being? Why do we have to have this whole religion thing tied up in it? Why is it more important to live a faithful life than simply to live a good life in the "real world" – without stretching our energy into squishy thoughts beyond experience and logic? What's so special about faith?

Well, we can see through the lens of history that people of faith are so often the catalysts of huge social change. Some examples from our own denomination include:

• Dorothea Dix — who advocated better conditions for the mentally ill
• Horace Mann — who worked to establish universal, free, non-sectarian schools
• Elizabeth Stanton — who worked for women's suffrage
• James Reeb — whose death during the civil rights movement helped hasten the federal Voting Rights act

…Not to mention politicians, preachers, scientists, authors and artists. Is it a coincidence that so many of history's visionaries were people of faith?

I don't think so. Remember, faith – by definition – challenges us to seek truths beyond logic and experience. Open up that part of your mind, and you become a person of vision. You begin to look for the possibilities that others would deem impossible.

MLK had a dream – not a religious dream, but a social one. But it was his life of faith that allowed him to believe in it, despite the odds. And it was his life of faith, again, that led him to use startlingly non-violent means to achieve them.

[song intro]

This is a sing-along, in the style of the blue hymnal, "Rise Up Singing." I think you’ll catch on to the chorus pretty quickly…

Song: I Believe (Rick & Audrey Engdahl)

Finally, having defined and defended the importance of UU faith, there's the difficulty of talking about it. How can we speak to people of other creedal, dogmatic, ancient religions without sounding irreverent of their beliefs.

How can we talk to atheists without sounding like sellouts?

While every religion has its zealots, too entrenched in their point of view to acknowledge any contrary evidence, most people are reasonable. Even those who hold specific beliefs very, very dear.

I recently had an uncomfortable moment at a family gathering when the subject of evolution came up over dinner. My lovely sister-in-law innocently asked, "Why can’t a person believe in evolution and still believe in God? Why can’t a person think of the whole Adam and Eve story as a metaphor? Maybe God is the creator, and evolution is one of his tools."

Reasonable dinner conversation.

But of course I was sinking in my chair, knowing that my father, a very religious, conservative Christian, was the one being addressed.

I've heard my father rail on the "evolutionists," and how they want to write God out of the equation. About the "gaps" in Darwin's theory, and the evil intent of "activist scientists" trying to thwart good faith. So I was cringing at the thought of his response.

But his inevitable diatribe didn't happen. He thought for a second and said, very much to my surprise, "Well, you know the Bible is not a history book. It's a book of faith. My only objection is when some people want to replace God with science."

Huh! Never would have expected that. But I was reminded that despite the, um, how-you-say, junk science he had been reading, and despite his fear of "some scientists" waging a war against religion, my father is usually a very reasonable man. He is an old-school, conservative Christian. Not an evangelical; not a fundamentalist; not a zealot.

And come to think of it, it was he, all those years ago, who taught me that there is no proof for faith – that faith begins only where knowledge ends.

I was thinking, "he’s Christian, therefore he believes the Bible is fact," when really he believes the Bible is Truth.

Well there’s the common ground. And the conservative Christian brought it to our table, not me, the "open-minded" UU.

[song intro]

We’ll finish with something a little different…

Song: Taketina vs. Gamela - A Drum Parable (Rick & Audrey Engdahl)