Your Faith in Your Daily Life
Unitarian Coastal Fellowship
January 25, 2015
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Your Faith in Your Daily Life. One way to define the word faith is “what
you believe in so strongly that you must be faithful to it.” This morning let
us – individually and collectively – consider what constitutes our faith, and
how that faith informs our daily lives. This morning's service is the first in a
series exploring “Living Our Unitarian Universalist Faith.”
Readings:
We [Unitarian Universlists] do not require our members to subscribe to a
particular theology or set of affirmations in order to join our congregations.
Instead, we encourage individuals tp garner insights from all the world's
great faiths, as well as from Shakespeare and from science, from feminism
and from feelings. We invite people to explore their spirituality in a
responsible way. We ask Unitarian Universalists to cherish the earth, to
free the oppressed, and to be grateful for life's blessings. Out of thei
combination of reflection and experience, each one of us shapes a personal
faith. [William F. Schultz. “Our Faith.” p. 2 in The Unitarian Universalist Pocket
Guide. Fourth Edition. 2004].
Sermon:
“A person will worship something – have no doubt about that,” wrote Ralph
Waldo Emerson. That which we worship is “that which dominates our
imaginations and our thoughts,” and it works in our lives so that “what we
are worshipping is what we are becoming.” Therefore, Emerson concludes,
“it behooves us to be careful what we worship.”
Emerson himself, a transcendentalist who celebrated each individual
person's direct access to divine inspiration, helped to shape today's Unitarian
Universalism. And at the heart of Unitarian Universalism today is an
invitation: the invitation to shape a personal faith.
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This is an invitation that carries with it a challenge, and a demand, and a call
to action.
The challenge is to be careful what we worship, be careful what it is that we
put our faith in. Not for us a faith that asks us to suspend our powers of
reason and intellect, but rather a faith that draws on all the insights and all
the experiences in our lives; as Bill Schultz put it, insights from all the
world’s great faiths, as well as from Shakespeare and from science, from
feminism and from feelings. Not for us, in the words of Unitarian
Universalist Fredric John Muir, “a faith in spite of evidence; faith as
acceptance of the hard-to-believe; faith as blind obedience to authority.”
[“Faith,” p. 68 in Heretic's Faith: Vocabulary for Religious Liberals].
Instead, for us, faith as that which we believe so strongly that we must be
faithful to it.
And therein lies the demand of Unitarian Universalist faith: the demand that
each one of us examine and interrogate our personal faith, so that we can
know just what it is that we believe so strongly. Unitarian Universalism
demands that we do the work of understanding and articulating our deepest
truths and our highest values. Unitarian Universalism expects that these
truths and these values will change as we change: as we learn more,
experience more, live more. And so the work of knowing what we believe,
and examining what we believe, and living in faithfulness to our strongest
beliefs is work that is ongoing throughout our lives.
Living in faithfulness is the call to action. For beliefs that are deeply held
not only dominate our imagination and our thoughts, but they inform our
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every action: small choices about the way we live; large commitments to the
way we spend our time, our energy, our money. Our faith is the heart and
the soul of who we are. If we live honestly, our actions reflect our faith. If
we live with integrity, our lives are the outward expressions of our
faithfulness to what we believe in most strongly.
So how do we shape a personal faith? How do we examine and re-examine
and remain open to the unfolding and evolving core beliefs and deep values
that inform our living? In this congregation, the Simply Circles gathers
small groups, meeting together month after month, held by a covenant
designed to create a space of safety and trust, to socialize together (usually
over a meal) and then to talk together. Last year, guided by short readings
and deepening questions, the Simply Circles conversations focused on
Living Your Unitarian Universalist faith. The Unitarian Universalist
spiritual practice of examining and of owning our own faith is a practice that
is enriched and supported in the embrace of a group, in the heart of a
community. But ultimately it is an individual practice. And so this year, in
a series of sermons, I offer you here some of the questions, and with each
question, a few seconds of silence to consider how you would answer it.
Then I will offer you some of my thinking, on the question, and on Living
Your Unitarian Universalist faith.
Can you summarize in a sentence or two the most important parts of your
faith?
30 seconds of silence, then repeat the question
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If we were a different kind of religious community, this would be an easy
question to answer. In my office I have a Presbyterian hymnbook, and in the
front are several pages of “Aids to Worship.” Among these are the Nicene
Creed: “I believe in one God the Father Almighty...And in one Lord Jesus
Christ... And I believe in the Holy Ghost...And I believe one Holy Catholic
and Apostolic Church...And I look for the resurrection of the dead; and the
Life of the world to come.” If we were a different kind of religious
community, upon joining each of us would attest to our belief in this creed
or another like it; in a set of teachings; in a catechism or a set of questions
and answers; in the right and acceptable answers that establish us as worthy
and acceptable members of the religious community. No such cut and dried
statements of belief apply in Unitarian Universalism. In the front of our
hymnbook you will find printed an excerpt from the Bylaws of the Unitarian
Universalist Association of Congregations. These set out the purposes and
principles that draw congregations together in an association that exists “to
affirm and promote” certain principles of right relationship. These do not
constitute a creed, and no member congregation may establish a creedal test
for membership. As individual Unitarian Universalists, the church does not
dictate to us what we must believe in order to be members. And so each of
us has the right and the responsibility to discern and to articulate for
ourselves what we believe – although anyone whose beliefs are not
congruent with those principles of right relationship will probably find
themselves increasingly uncomfortable in a UU congregation, and will likely
not stay long.
But the question, can you summarize in a sentence or two the most
important parts of your faith?, is an honest question, and an open question,
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and not a trick question designed to test whether or not you fit in here.
Instead, it is indeed an invitation into the lifelong process of being
accountable to yourself for your spiritual honesty and integrity. Notice, I
said that you are accountable to yourself. I do not stand in judgment upon
you. We do not stand in judgment upon each other. But in the end of the
day, each of us is accountable to ourselves, for ourselves. My own answer
to the question about the most important parts of my faith includes a belief
that I – and we – are connected to something larger than myself or ourselves.
That there exists an order that I did not make but that includes me. And that
I – and we – have power to change and to shape the future.
Would you call your faith Unitarian Universalist? Why or why not?
30 seconds of silence, then repeat the question
This question is intended to emphasize the openness of our spiritual
community and of this conversation. It invites either a “yes” or a “no”
answer, precisely because there is no “right” belief, no prescribed Unitarian
Universalist belief that your belief either matches or not. Indeed, the Rev.
Stephen Kendrick describes Unitarian Universalism as “a faith people make”
because for each of us individually and for all of us collectively faith is “a
living thing, always growing and changing – because we change through
life.”[A Faith People Make, p. ]. Your faith, then, helps to shape “our” faith by
virtue of the fact that you are a part of the community, and a part of the
ongoing conversation. And yet...names are important. And so it is for you
to name whether you would call your faith Unitarian Universalist, or
whether you would call it by some other name – Christian, or Buddhist, or
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Wiccan, or humanist, or atheist – or whether, perhaps, you would choose not
to label it at all. My personal commitment to the ongoing conversation is
central not only to my own faith but also to my understanding of what it
means to live as a Unitarian Universalist – and so I would, indeed, call my
faith as well as my life Unitarian Universalist.
How does your faith inform your daily life? Are there things that you
believe, say, or do because of your personal faith? Are there things that you
refrain from believing, saying, or doing?
30 seconds of silence, then repeat the question
If you were a Muslim, five times in each day you would stop what you are
doing, turn to face toward Mecca, and pray. If you were an Orthodox Jew,
you would never eat pork, or shellfish, or meat and milk at the same meal. If
you were a Catholic, you might attend weekly confession and pray the
prayers of the rosary, and you might refrain from eating meat on certain
days. If you were a conservative Baptist, you might never dance, or attend
movies. You would do – or not do – these things because they are integral
to your membership and your participation in your faith community. But
what are the beliefs, the words, the actions that arise out of your personal
faith? Individually, personally, do you avoid eating meat, or volunteer in the
community because of beliefs about your human place in the web of life?
Do you pray, or meditate, or paint, or walk in the woods, as a way to connect
with the sources of your spiritual health? Do you speak up, or speak out;
write letters or poetry; raise money or donate money; fast or go on silent
retreats as a way of making a statement, or a way of knowing yourself
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better? Do you put your popularity on the line, as Nathan Staples did, by
speaking out in support of the treating people with dignity? Do you put your
body, or your life, on the line by enlisting in the military? Do you work to
change society by marching in protest, or opposing laws or policies that you
think are unjust?
Are there ways that you live your faith in community? This Unitarian
Universalist congregation offers you a wide range of opportunities to
practice your faith: Sunday worship services, Social Action projects,
religious education classes to take or to teach, books to read, songs to sing,
Simply Circles small groups and Caring Connections that connect you to
ways of helping one another, educational conferences and advocacy groups,
pathways to service and leadership on congregational committees and
boards, informational meetings (today right after the service) where you help
to chart the course and the future of this congregation. All of these are open
to every one of you. None of these is a requirement for membership, or for
personal merit, or for eternal salvation. Each of these offers a way of living
your faith in the world, day by day. I have dedicated my life to the Unitarian
Universalist ministry – to serving you, the people, and also the larger
institutions that embody my faith and our faith in the world. I may not be
directly involved in every program – I may not even agree with every
initiative – but if I am to live with integrity, I must answer the call to action
which is life in Unitarian Universalist community.
How does your faith inform your daily life? Are there ways in which your
faith “grows” your world, making it seem ever larger? Are there ways in
which your faith restricts your world, rendering parts of it “off-limits”?
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30 seconds of silence, then repeat the question
Some beliefs, some faiths, place some things in the world or in your life, off
limits. Old Order Amish people will not use buttons, or automobiles, or
telephones. Orthodox Jews will not work, nor will they allow machines –
like cars – to work for them on the Sabbath. Some people are unwilling to
marry someone outside their faith community; some people prefer only to do
business with people who share their core values, beliefs, or religious
tradition.
And sometimes your beliefs, if fully lived, can make your world larger. I
have watched people come into this congregation hesitantly, sitting in the
pews in the far back of the sanctuary, listening and watching, sometimes
even crying, but not saying anything. I have watched them take a first step
into participation: join the choir, sign up to teach the children one Sunday,
come to a committee meeting, sign up for an adult religious education class.
And then, I have watched them begin to open up like flowers unfolding.
Some have gotten involved in Social Action projects, and soon they are
moving with passion into leadership in the congregation, leadership in the
community, deep involvement in organizations and initiatives that had never
before been in their lives or even on their radar screens. Some, like me,
have found a call to move Unitarian Universalism to the center of their lives,
and at least two are moving into professional ministry. These – all of these are people whose faith, supported by the richness and diversity of this
congregation, has led them in new directions, through doors into new
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dimensions of life and of their own lives. These are people whose lives
embody the words of our choir anthem this morning:
Where there is faith, there is love.
Where there is love, there is peace.
Where there is peace, there is blessing.
Where there is blessing, there is God.
Where there is God, there, there is no need.
Faith, love, peace, blessing, God – however you name these things, may they
manifest themselves in your life and in your living. And there, may there be
no need.
Take a moment in silence to reflect on your faith in your everyday life.
The bell will lead us into silence, and music will lead us out.
Bell
Silence
Music
May it be so. Amen.