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The Unitarian Universalist Society of Fairhaven, Massachusetts "Seekers, Explorers, and World Religions" Rev. Ann C. Fox January 27, 2002 |
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Why would a liberal Protestant denomination study World Religions? It's hard work, so why bother? Briefly, this is how and why we got to the place of looking beyond our Judeo-Christian roots. More than two score years ago, one people was created out of two. The two peoples were the Unitarians and the Universalists. The beliefs of both denominations have their roots in the early Christian church but their beliefs evolved as the people's outlook changed. They came to believe in the creative wisdom of their constituents to forge new perspectives from generation to generation. Each denomination saw that by the early 1900's, they were becoming more alike. They did a lot of social justice work together and many of their ministers exchanged pulpits. They merged in 1961 and became the Unitarian Universalists. The next two decades were spent in self-examination to discover how we could express our separate beliefs as one. The results of this process are the Seven Principles and Six Sources from which we draw our inspiration. (For visitors who are here for the first time today, these Principles and Sources are on one page just before the first hymn in our hymnbook. I hope you will look at it before you leave today.) In order to discover who we were, we had to stand back from ourselves and bear witness to what we saw. It was hard work and entailed much discussion, appreciation, anguish, and dismay. The Unitarians had to give up some of what they held dear and so did the Universalists. We discovered a spaciousness within ourselves as a people that was characterized by the many aspects of this world that lift our hearts religiously. One of those aspects is world religions and I remind us that the words we chose collectively to express it are "Wisdom from the world's religions, which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life". This source is the focus of our sermon today. I am not sure why I have always had a fascination for the world's religions. It seems to have begun with the exposure I had to East Indian people and to Hinduism as a teen-ager in England. I participated in family and community Hindu practices and festivals. Later, I thought of myself as a spiritual explorer. When I found the little Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Laguna Beach, California, I was thrilled that they occasionally had a speaker of another religion on a Sunday morning, including a woman of the Baha'i faith and an East Indian guru. The Fellowship had a quarter-time minister, Reverend Chris Schriner, who spoke once a month. Chris referred to God as the Tao. He said the Tao was an ancient Chinese concept and that it referred to the creative force that pervades all life, and the entire universe. However, it requires nothing of us except encouragement to discover its nature intuitively and try to "flow with it" to achieve peace, happiness and good will in human relations. This is where the 1960's saying "Go with the flow" came from. Reverend Chris said he used this word, the Tao, to refer to God because it didn't have the "baggage" associated with it for people who grew up in a religion with a vengeful God concept. This concept of the Tao so intrigued me that I took a course in Taoism when I prepared for the Unitarian Universalist ministry. But it was the great freedom I found in this religion that most engaged me. Others make fun of our freedom to inquire into what is true for us. You've probably heard the story of the Unitarian Universalist who died and found himself at the Pearly Gates. One sign said "To Heaven" and pointed the way. Another sign pointed another way and read, "For Unitarian Universalists: A Discussion about Heaven." The study of world religions can help us to understand the peoples of this world better and it can give us a richness that we may never know existed regarding the views of God. As a Unitarian Universalist, I am free to believe in whatever God concept is the most convincing to me, knowing that it may change over my lifetime or I can be an agnostic and not have an explicit belief in God at all. As I studied, I found universal concepts like compassion, truth, goodness, and beauty in all the world's religions. I have found that all religions have mystics who describe God in similar terms. The Jewish Kabbalah and such medieval Christian mystics as Meister Eckhart and Julian of Norwich and the 20th century Protestant theologian, Paul Tillich, refer to God as the great mystery or the Ground of All Being. This God is what we call a Transpersonal God. Transpersonal is that which is both within and without and it is vast. All of the world's major religions have both the personal and transpersonal God. I knew that the Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist God was transpersonal but I wouldn't have known from the school of theology I attended that the transpersonal concept existed in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. Paul Tillich's Ground of All Being was mentioned but rather disparagingly as impersonal not transpersonal. My preaching professor said, "Don't ever let me hear any of you refer to God as The Ground of All Being!" Too late! I had already used it on the radio at First and Second Church in Boston. The term was considered too esoteric in my seminary and it was feared that it would drive ordinary people away. I, personally, do not think there is a "correct" God concept. I just think it is important to allow people the freedom to describe God for themselves and the freedom to not describe a deity and let it all remain a mystery. Studying world religions gives us the vocabulary and validation for this. The Nineteenth century Unitarian Transcendentalists, like Ralph Waldo Emerson, did precisely this as we read in the responsive reading earlier called "The Oversoul", which is a concept directly from ancient Hindu scriptures. Renowned scholar of world religions, Huston Smith, who is also a Unitarian Universalist and member of the UU church in Berkeley, California, has written a book describing each of the world's religions. He presents the basic concepts of each one without any judgment as to whether one is better than another. He has also contributed to a book called The Meaning of Life in the World Religions. This book says there are 2 billion Christians (half Roman Catholic, one quarter Protestant, and one quarter Eastern Orthodox), 1 billion Moslems around the globe (with Indonesia being the highest population), 1 billion Hindus, 350,000,000 (million) Buddhists, 20 million Sikhs, 4 million Jains, 1 million Jews, 6 million Baha'is. There are indeterminate millions influenced by Confucianism and indeterminate millions of indigenous traditions across the world (such as our Native Americans). The world's major religions are belief-systems giving answers to the question of life's meaning. Of course, life can have meaning without religion, but religions articulate the highest value and purpose we can attain. If a religion does not help people add value and meaning to their lives, the religion does not survive. No institution survives that has no value. To be a world religion, a religion must have three things: 1) a set of beliefs (we have our Principles and Sources, 2) a God concept (we are free to choose), and 3) a canon, which are religious texts that inspire and inform the beliefs (we might say that our Sources are our canon). We have said that all the Religions have both a personal and transpersonal God. There is no God concept in Buddhism but the state of bliss, nirvana, is the Ultimate Reality and some Buddhist sects have the Goddess of Compassion and the Amidha Buddha. We heard that in Taoism, there is the Tao in the flow of all life and beyond. In Confucianism there is Shang-Ti, the Supreme ancestor but there is also Tien, Heaven beyond him. All religions recommend ethical behaviors that make life better for all human beings. All religions expect that we will make mistakes and so offer ways to encourage restoration to goodness. All religions have some notion of an afterlife or an afterlife state of beingness. The monotheistic religions have heaven and hell, although Judaism downplays them. Hinduism and Buddhism believe in the evolution of the person through multiple lives. There are great differences in Buddhism across cultures. Zen Buddhism is a blend of philosophical Taoism and Buddhism and Zen does not trouble with afterlife concepts or anything other than the present moment. You have probably heard of the story of the Zen master who is asked about the afterlife. He replied, "How do I know? I'm a Zen master, not a dead Zen master!" Some Unitarian Universalists are also skeptical about afterlife concepts. I came across a cartoon where two UUs are looking at the advertisment for next week's sermon topic, which reads "Eastern Religions." One man said, "Didn't we have that sermon a few years ago?" The other replies, "That was Zen, this is Tao." While the eastern religions contributed the understanding that different personality types require different religious paths, western religions contributed the concept of grace. Grace is the accessible love and upliftment of the divine we can experience. I recently heard a radio discussion of the hymn Amazing Grace. People called in from all over the nation. One man commented on people's resistance to singing the word "wretch" in the hymn, saying, "Everyone is a wretch sometimes. That hymn really does something for me and I'm an Atheist!" In the reading, we heard John Hick say that all religions offer a great cosmic optimism in that they call us to attain our deepest nature and sometimes call us to help those in miserable situations across the world. The meaning of life is then enhanced because coming into touch with our deepest nature makes a difference in our lives, perhaps calling forth the greatest human goodness. Houston Smith says that, "Life burns with the greatest intensity if it is lived from the religious perspective…. It offers the greatest possible meaning and thus a deep joy in just being alive." When he spoke to us at the 1997 General Assembly in Spokane, Washington, he was asked whether he would describe his spiritual practice to us. He laughed, said he couldn't imagine why anyone wanted to know but he said that he did believe that the spirit advances with insight but one has to develop the ear to hear and the eye to see. So he does have a practice. He said, "Every day I begin with a mixture of prayer and meditation. Then I pay attention to my body with some yoga exercises. Then I read a piece of scripture and reflect upon it. Nowadays I read the Bible because it is so many years since I read this scripture. This morning I read the Song of Songs. Then, I stirred the compost! I love this part and I glory in knowing that with God's help it becomes whatever She wants it to be!" You can see that his practice is drawn from many religious traditions, including pagan or earth connected. We have begun a class on World Religions that meets on Tuesday evenings at 7pm. This week is our third class on Hinduism and we will study some Hindu scripture. You are all welcome to join at any time. I will do a sermon on each religion as we study it so if you miss the class, at least you can hear the basic concepts and we'll look at our own tradition to see what is similar and how we can enrich our understanding. Oh, yes, let us always increase our understanding of other peoples of the world. May the world's religions inspire us to explore spiritual practices that enhance the meaning of our lives and nurture our deepest nature. References The following inspired and informed this sermon: Runzo, Joseph and Martin, Nancy M., Editors. The Meaning of Life in the World Religions, Oxford, England: OneWorld Publications, 2000. Smith, Huston. The World's Religions, San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991. Video of talk by Huston Smith at the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalists, 1997. |
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