First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh
605 Morewood Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2999
412-621-8008
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UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM FOR BEGINNERS By David Herndon
Starting on Sunday, June 19, First Unitarian Church will embark on a series of twelve "summer Sundays" extending from the third Sunday in June through the first Sunday in September. We will have just one service starting at 10:00 AM on these twelve "summer Sundays" instead of two services at 11:30 and 11:00 AM. I will be preaching on three of our twelve summer Sundays, but other individuals will be speaking on the remaining nine summer Sundays. They are extraordinary people, and no doubt they will be saying some extraordinary things. Although I have no idea what our pulpit guests will be saying, I do have a very clear idea about who they will be, and I'd like to let you know a little something about them. Two of our pulpit guests will be Unitarian Universalist ministers from other congregations. Two of them will be staff members here at First Unitarian Church, one who identifies herself as Episcopalian, and one who identifies herself as Unitarian Universalist. Two of our pulpit guests identify themselves as liberal Christians, both having been ordained by the United Church of Christ, perhaps the most liberal of the mainline Protestant denominations. Another of our pulpit guests is a Zen Buddhist monk who leads a Buddhist community in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. One of our pulpit guests is a singer and songwriter who expresses her sense of spirituality through music. And finally, one of our Sundays will be covered by the Humanist Group here at First Unitarian Church. One reason I for reviewing our summer schedule is to encourage you to come to church over the summer, and I would like to add that we are offering religious education classes for children on eight of our twelve summer Sundays. But the primary reason for reviewing our summer schedule is to lead into my topic for this morning, "Unitarian Universalism for Beginners." How could it be, a beginning Unitarian Universalist might ask, that we would have speakers from such a diverse range of viewpoints? Others might answer this question in other ways, but I would say that each of these speakers represents some part of Unitarian Universalism. The liberal Christian speakers, for example, remind us of our liberal Christian heritage and the continuing influence of that heritage in our living tradition. The members of the Humanist Group remind us of the continuing influence of religious humanism within Unitarian Universalism, with its emphasis on human agency and critical reasoning. The Buddhist speaker reminds us of our interest in exploring what religions around the world can offer. The musician reminds us to look toward contemporary culture for religious insights, even toward parts of contemporary culture not specifically identified as religious. And the Unitarian Universalist speakers remind us that our faith tradition has its own distinctive identity. I would also point out that our summer schedule includes women as well as men, and lay people as well as those who have been ordained as professional religious leaders. From this discussion, I would lift up "openness" as one guiding principle for Unitarian Universalism. One classic expression of this principle is the statement from a nineteenth-century Unitarian, Samuel Longfellow, who proclaimed, "Revelation is not sealed." Another way to say this comes from another nineteenth-century Unitarian, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who declared, "It is the office of a true teacher to show us that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake." [1] Another more recent way to say this comes from Gracie Allen, who said, "Never place a period where God has placed a comma." Yet another way to characterize this attitude, and the way that I prefer, is intellectual humility. Who among us can claim certainty? Therefore, we need to be open to the experiences and truths of others. A story from China presents one kind of openness. Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer who owned a champion horse. The horse was his favorite possession. One night it jumped the fence and ran away into the hills. The neighbors came over to offer their sympathy. "Isn't it terrible," they said. "Your prize horse has run away." The farmer said, "Maybe it's bad, maybe it's good; we don't know yet." The next morning the champion horse returned, leading a band of ten more beautiful wild horses. He led those horses right into the farmyard and the farmer quickly closed the gate behind them. The neighbors came over to offer their congratulations. "Isn't it wonderful," they said. "Your horse ran away, and came back, with ten more! Now you have eleven horses." The farmer said, "Maybe it's bad; maybe it's good. We don't know yet." At dawn the next day the farmer's son went out to see the horses. He got too close and was kicked hard. His leg was broken. After the doctor left, the neighbors came over to offer their sympathy. "Isn't it terrible," they said. "Your prize horse ran away, came back with ten wild horses, and one of them broke your son's leg. Now you will have no one to help you with the farm work." The farmer said, "Maybe it's bad; maybe it's good. We don't know yet." The next day the Emperor declared war on a nearby country and sent officers to every village to conscript soldiers. Every young man but one was taken. The neighbors came over to offer their congratulations. "Isn't it wonderful," they said. "Your horse ran away, came back with ten wild horses, your son's leg was broken, and now he cannot go to war." The farmer said, "Maybe it's bad; maybe it's good. We don't know yet." I admire the farmer in this story for his exemplary intellectual humility and his belief that the future is not yet settled. Clearly this farmer is not going to put a period where God or anyone else might want to put a comma. Yet something is missing. An exclamation mark, perhaps? Italics for emphasis, perhaps? What is missing is a willingness to become actively involved in the story, to take personal responsibility for how the story unfolds, to stand up for one's understanding of justice and compassion in human relations. This is a second guiding principle for Unitarian Universalism. Yes, we are open to diverse points of view, but we also have a shared commitment to a vision of society that respects the inherent worth and dignity of all people, a shared commitment to a vision of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all people. Yes, we may differ in our preferences regarding religious language, but we do nevertheless share many values in common. We believe, for example, that this world we live in here and now deserves our most earnest and cooperative efforts, not simply as a stepping stone to some other world, but for its own sake. We believe that although human beings are capable of wrongdoing, both in ordinary and in spectacular ways, human beings are also capable of kindness, and ingenuity, and moral courage. Sometimes tension exists between these two guiding principles: that is, sometimes tension exists between remaining open to diverse points of view and responding to the call for social justice. Yet these two guiding principles are linked by an abiding respect for human beings: we remain open to diverse points of view because we respect the reason and conscience of all people, and we respond to the call for social justice because we respect the worth and dignity of all people. Because of the respect for human beings that links these two guiding principles, Unitarian Universalists should be classified as deeply liberal. Western religious traditions generally have recognized four sources of authority: Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. More conservative religious traditions have emphasized the authority of Scripture and tradition. More liberal religious traditions have emphasized the authority of reason and experience. As sources of religious authority, Scripture and tradition place more importance on the community, while reason and experience place more importance on the individual. One excellent example of the spirit of individual authority in religion comes from the poet e. e. cummings, who once said: "To be nobody-but-myself-in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else-means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." Not surprisingly, perhaps, it turns out that e. e. cummings came from a Unitarian home. A more encompassing example of the spirit of individual authority in religion was the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. The Enlightenment emphasized reason and experience. This emphasis provided great inspiration and encouragement for the rise of modern science, which has placed greater emphasis on the authority of reason and experience than on the authority of Scripture (or any ancient text) and tradition. Not surprisingly, perhaps, it turns out that both Unitarianism and Universalism arose as liberal Protestant responses to the ideals of the European Enlightenment. In North America, both Unitarianism and Universalism began around 1800, at the close of the eighteenth century, in and around the city of Boston, Massachusetts. One of the most prominent of the early Unitarians was William Ellery Channing, who lived from 1780 to 1842. Channing was a great champion of the "likeness to God" that characterized human beings, and both the Unitarians and the Universalists rejected the pessimistic Calvinist theology that was quite widespread in the United States at the time, with its gloomy insistence on the wickedness and weakness of human beings and its prediction of eternal punishment for the vast majority of humankind. In accord with the spirit of the Enlightenment, both the Unitarians and the Universalists had much more optimistic visions of human abilities and human prospects. In fact, of all the faith traditions which trace their origins back to the Protestant Reformation, perhaps none has been more deeply influenced by the Enlightenment than Unitarian Universalism. Beginning Unitarian Universalsts may wonder what holds us together, when we emphasize the authority of reason and experience more than the authority of Scripture and tradition. This brings us to a third guiding principle, which says that what holds us together is a covenant. Unitarian Universalist minister Kirk Loadman-Copeland makes this observation: "Since ancient times people have used a covenant as a basis for relationships that did not involve kinship. Our Puritan forbears created churches around a covenant that established mutual obligations among the members." Another Unitarian Universalist minister, Richard Fewkes, offers this description of a covenant: "A covenant, in distinction to a creed, is a voluntary agreement between parties that states the basis of their relationship, its purpose and intent, and which spells out the terms upon which the relationship will proceed. A covenant does not have the force of law, but of conscience." Here at the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh, our custom is to recite the seven principles of the covenant of the Unitarian Universalist Association. These seven principles are a statement of ethical ideals, guiding our relationships with one another and setting forth our social vision for the larger community. But these seven principles are not intended to shut off theological inquiry or exploration. They specify that what holds us together is not theological unity but rather the quality of our relationships, including such characteristics as trust, cooperation, vision, kindness, democracy, respect, and a commitment to working together for a more just and compassionate world. As many of you know, I could talk for hours about Unitarian Universalist history, and usually I adopt a historical approach when I describe Unitarian Universalism. This morning, however, in this sermon entitled "Unitarian Universalism for Beginners," I have largely stayed away from history and instead characterized our approach to religion as a creative tension between openness and shared values, and I have suggested that our way of maintaining this creative tension is through voluntary association as specified by a covenant. I would like to close with two quotations that proclaim the promise of our approach to religion. The first of these is from Thich Nhat Hanh, who combines openness and shared values with these words: "No single tradition monopolizes the truth. We must glean the best values of all traditions and work together to remove the tensions between traditions in order to give peace a chance." The second quotation, which is longer, comes from Miguel Otero Silva, who offers this affirmation of the world together with hope for the future. He writes: When nothing remains of me but a tree Listen to me! My wish for us is to live also Therefore, 1. Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Divinity School Address," in Three Prophets of Religious Liberalism: Channing, Emerson, Parker, edited by Conrad Wright (Boston: Beacon Press, 1961), p. 107.
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