Sermon: Got Salvation? by Rev JD Benson, preached February 26, 2012, First Parish Brewster.

Transcription

1 Sermon: Got Salvation? by Rev JD Benson, preached February 26, 2012, First Parish Brewster. What is it about Unitarian Universalism, our religious tradition our religious home that has saved our lives? Saved us, as Giselle experiences, from painfully craving spiritual depth and growth and instead helping us to find it, saving us from a sense that we are alone as seekers in a world, particular that of religion, that promises specific and, to many of us, unbelievable answers to the most profound questions, those that reflect our deepest longing? Some might say that Unitarian Universalism from the day you stepped into your first fellowship or church way back when has helped give shape and meaning to your lives. Others of you might say Unitarian Universalism gives you a new and better understanding of the rich meaning and value of connecting in religious community and that has made all the difference. Still others might say this Unitarian Universalism you have come to know and help shape, has saved your spirit, your sense of the value of the best of what religion has to offer, something you feel but can t quite put into words exactly. But you know that you have been changed again and again through your Unitarian Universalist experience, and for the good and this matters so very much to you. At the end of this service today I want you to leave convinced, clear and ready to proclaim these three points: *First, Unitarian Universalism has a saving message; *Second, there are people who haven t heard it, people who don t even know we exist as a religious community; *And third, we have a moral obligation to share our message with the world. To the first point: We believe in the inherent worth and dignity of all people and that God s love or love of the highest order as we each may understand it is universal. Some of us know what it is to live on the margins of religious life. We found ourselves in a place where our questions were not acknowledged or even permitted. As I have said right here in this sanctuary before, I cried during the first service I attended at a Unitarian Church because I felt I d finally found a religious home in which I had a place. I hadn t known about Unitarian Universalism previously or I believe I d have been there long before, even as early as my teenage years. And, like many people who cross that very threshold, I knew back in Oakland, that I had been a Unitarian Universalist my whole life but just hadn t known this religion existed. That personal experience matters and we need to share our personal experiences with one another and with the world. Our saving message didn t begin with First Parish or whatever our first Unitarian Universalist church may have been of course. We are just a part of the larger Unitarian Universalist tradition, over a 200,000 members in the US alone. So what is our saving message?

2 2 William Ellery Channing, the renowned 19 th century Unitarian theologian and preacher, spoke at the ordination of a colleague, in It was six years before the American institution of Unitarianism took root. In that sermon you will find, in sharp contrast to the Calvinism that prevailed at the time, a message of salvation that was and is still unique. In this world-changing sermon, Channing articulated a saving message, that human beings are good by nature (not depraved, as Calvinists insisted). He said that our salvation would be accomplished by our free will and our ability to think for ourselves. The development of one s character is what is essential. Through education and doing the good in the world that we can, we better ourselves, and the larger community too; that is our salvation. He wasn t preaching about putting the fear of God in people. He was talking about accepting the love of life we have naturally, that innate goodness that is in each and every one of us, that we can share abundantly. That was an absolutely radical message in Channing s time and, in many quarters, still is as we all know. The root of our saving message that comes from our Universalist strand can be found in Hosea Ballou s Treatise on Atonement, published in Universalism had come together as a denomination in 1793; the theology was there and had been since at least the time of Jesus. What Ballou said that was radical for his time: God loves us all. In Ballou s Universalism, we all find a place beside the Holy, the Sacred, beside God, not just some people who had been pre-ordained or elected to go to heaven as the Calvinists taught, not just some souls, but all souls. Ballou, like Channing, called for people to look at the Bible and life itself using our ability to reason. Both recognized the human capacity to think and make sense of scripture for themselves, to act to better themselves and the world, this world, with God s love under their wings, not in fear of a wrathful Father. So what is the first point? That Unitarian Universalism has a saving message. And what is that saving message? That human beings are inherently good and we are called to do good, build character, and think for ourselves. That s the first point. When I came into the Unitarian church back in Oakland, I was asked to be in covenant with my fellow congregants, to be in relationship with the congregation as a member, to contribute money to support the work of the church, to give of my time for things small and large that needed doing in and beyond the church in the name of the good and our shared love, our higher love; and to share my skills and my presence with the congregation as they were needed. I was welcomed, all of who I am, all of me, and I felt sincerely and deeply that I was joyfully accepted and brought into the fold from the beginning. What I think we sometimes forget is that there are people beyond our walls who have not found a religious community that would look at them and say, you are loveable, you have worth, you have things to contribute as we create the beloved community here and beyond these walls. We re glad you re here!

3 3 There are not dozens, not hundreds, but thousands of good souls right here on the Cape who have been so hurt, so alienated by society as a whole, and from religious communities in specific, that they cannot begin to hope for the affirming embrace of a caring, life changing, religious home. They assume that what they ve experienced in other religious contexts--where they were told what to think or believe, where they were told that who they loved wasn t right, where they were treated as less than worthy of respect and dignity---that that experience will only repeat itself elsewhere; they cannot imagine we exist! Which brings me to the second take home for today: there are people who haven t even heard about us, or about our saving message, who sorely need to hear it. We need to get it out there: ours is a saving faith in the ways that matter, right here in this very lifetime. There are so many people hurting and damaged and on the edges, from all classes and cultures, caring and loving people, seekers longing, looking or perhaps who have stopped looking and they would be a part of this community if they only knew about it, if they would only come through our doors once, and again, and again, then they d know as you and I have come to know for ourselves they are, at last, home. Third: we have a moral obligation to share our saving message with the world. This is a hard one for many of us to understand or accept. Some of us come from traditions that support a philosophy of attraction rather than promotion and so we think we shouldn t make a point of letting people know about our faith. Rings too close to trying to convert people which some other religions push hard. Letting people know about our Unitarian Universalism is simply that, being sure the word is out, sharing our experiences. The best way to get the word out, of course, to echo Jimmy Carter speaking of his own faith, is that we live our message and people see it and are attracted to it and say I want to be more like that, or I wonder what that person does or believes or what community they belong to because of their justice stance, or I see the love that comes through them in the service work they do, or the public witness they are involved in, and I want some of what they have. But this can t be to the exclusion of simply educating people, one by one or through advertizing for that matter, that we re here and what it is that we represent, our mission. It s a little too easy to hide our light under a bushel, to keep the good news of Unitarian Universalism and First Parish to ourselves. We are not a secret or private club. And we re not a building. We cannot be exclusive or passive about our faith or our congregation and be faithful at the same time. This is no quasi-religion, but a faith tradition as full and as rich and historical and at least as demanding as any other. When we consciously strive to live the message.we know this to be so. I m telling you, someone, more than one someone, is waiting for this lifeboat. It isn t grandiosity. Don t flinch when you think of talking more often about being a Unitarian Universalist with other people. Someone who needs to find us is listening or will hear about us from the people you speak with. Don t turn away from the moral obligation of sharing our good news.

4 4 We ve reveled in the idea of travelling down the middle of the river together, floating feet first, in the joy and fullness of life we find there. What if someone s holding onto a branch to the side of us, the currents threatening, or stuck on the side having bumped into the rocks and knocked their heads, their hearts? What if someone is over there, standing alone along the river bank, in pain, broken, suffering the one who was told he s no good if he doesn t think the way others do, the one whose heart was seared when she was told she s going to hell if she doesn t believe this or that doctrine, the one who is alone and frightened and grieving, the one who dares to love whom they love and are scorned, the poor of spirit, the sick, the depressed, the one who huddles alone who longs to find something better, something bigger, some place to grow their own hearts aren t we obliged, aren t we eager to let them know a way in, one that has saved us and others in this sanctuary? I bet you could think of more than one person right now, even just right here on the Cape who could be helped, who could experience healing, who could benefit from knowing we exist and from an invitation kindly and simply to join us, to pay a visit some Sunday. When you are engaged in doing service or public witness out in the world, when you have reached out to support someone who suffers, when you are at a party and someone asks you where you play golf on Sunday mornings I don t know---wherever you may go tell them Sunday mornings and other times too---i go to First Parish Brewster, my Unitarian Universalist home, and it makes a big, a positive difference in my life. And if you are like me, you can even say, it saved me, it really did in all the ways that it has, in all the ways it matters. Could it be? I wondered that first time in a Unitarian Universalist church, the tears streaming down my face, Could it be?. I d come for my young son, to find an open and accepting place for our non-traditional family. And then in coffee hour, where I saw a number of people I d gone to jail with years before, in action against making nuclear bombs years before. They were people who prompted me to wonder from afar, Who are these people, with such self-possession, such sense of purpose, and all the while a sense of calm about them? Yes, we are an imperfect human community as all human communities are. We all make many mistakes, every day. I know I do, failing to live up to my best intentions. We are fully human. But I tell you, I was saved in that sense that in my life, this one precious life, I found my spiritual home at long last. I didn t need to leave a part of myself at the door not my brain or my piece of the truth, not my heart. And neither do you. And neither do you. And neither will the next person to cross our threshold, he or she who somehow does make it here: welcome, welcome, welcome. We have a saving message, there are too many who haven t heard it yet, and, I believe, we have a moral obligation to tell others so they know who we are, what we stand for, that we are here when they are ready to come into our sanctuary. So may you walk, so may you share, so may it be.

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