Reading “Journey Inward” from
Consider the Lilies: Meditations, pp 39-40, by Stephen M. Schick
(Boston: Skinner House, 2004)

…. I came across words that moved my spirit….from the Gospel of Thomas… Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you…”

Both Jesus and the Buddha taught the importance of regularly taking an inward journey to find what will save you. The gifts buried inside each of us, they said, are more valuable than wisdom sealed in any book, [or] captured in any creed….

Whatever you find on your inward journey should not be generalized. Your journey is your own. To know this is to know that others too can discover wisdom that shows them how to live compassionate and loving lives.….

….The inward journey is not beyond time but in the here and now. When you bring forth what is inside you, your true self, you will be saved from whatever distracts you….

Sermon

         I am indebted this morning to my colleague, the Reverend Calvin Dame of the Augusta, Maine UU church because an essay he wrote called “A Three Minute Faith” (Quest, July 2000) has inspired this sermon. Calvin tells the story of how there was a theme on the ministers’ chat line called “The Elevator Debate.” We challenged one another as to what we would say in this scenario: You step onto an elevator and meet a friend who sees that the button you are wearing has a flaming chalice symbol and Unitarian Universalist on it. He says, “So you’re a Unitarian Universalist” What do they believe?”

You are flummoxed. Masses of ideas flash through your mind. Feelings well up within you about your religion. You see that you’re on the third floor and you know he’ll get off at the 15th. You’ve got about three minutes to tell him what your religion is about and just maybe he’ll be interested enough to come to church with you next week. What will you say?!?

What flashes through your mind is the high value we place on tolerance and diversity. You know that sitting next to you each Sunday are people who are theists, with a belief in God, people who are atheists, with no belief in God, people who are pagans, who have an earth-centered orientation, people who are Buddhist, for whom talk of God is secondary to evolving compassion within, people who are humanists, for whom humanity is the greatest concern, people who are mystics, who value the mystery of all existence, and people who are seekers, who have not yet defined their beliefs.

You think this is quite wonderful and you know that tolerance and diversity are the very things that make our beliefs difficult to explain. You also know that a brilliant and articulate sixteenth century, Unitarian, Hungarian theologian, Francis David, died for his belief that it is essential to have tolerance of belief.

Thoughts also crowd in about what we do not believe. Historically, in our modern times, Unitarians have not believed in a trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They have preferred to use the trinity of freedom, reason, and tolerance when looking at scripture. Reason told them that most of the miracles of the Bible were myths and metaphors for understanding truth about the human condition. Jesus was not God but a man of deep understanding, courage, charisma, and ability to convey wise teachings.

Unitarians preferred to think that revelation is not sealed but is self-revealed to every heart in the process of struggling with religious ideas and discernment of life’s challenges and like the reading this morning said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you” and that “saving you” means that you will not be distracted from the path of transformation, which is natural.

You know that Universalists grew away from doctrine when they realized that God is love, not revenge and hate, and that love must be at the heart of all religion, including our own, just as our unison opening words said, “Love is the doctrine of this church.” But you also understand that we have no doctrine that restricts the flow of ideas and understanding.

We know that, because of our diversity and tolerance, we had to form Principles—the seven that are printed in our Order of Service. But we also know that we are much, much more than our Principles. We gather to support one another on our religious journey. Our worship services are a way to celebrate being together in remarkable diversity, a model for world peace, and this journey we take can and does transform our lives. Believing in the process of freedom, reason, and tolerance can be hard work for you have to define truth for yourself without the specific guidelines of doctrine. It can be thrilling but it can also be difficult.

You might have heard the story of when a UU, a Hindu, and a Jew were traveling to an interfaith conference, when their car broke down and they were forced to seek refuge for the night at a farm. They were welcomed, but were informed that there was only room for two at the farmhouse; someone would have to stay in the barn.

The Hindu immediately volunteered to stay in the barn, and went out.

Soon, there was a knock on the door. It was the Hindu, who explained that he could not stay in the barn because there was a cow there. The Jew then volunteered, and went out.

Soon, there was a knock on the door. It was the Jew, who explained that he could not stay in the barn because there was a pig there. The UU then happily agreed to stay in the barn, and went out.

Soon there was a knock on the door. It was the cow and the pig!

So what would you say to the person in the elevator? I assure you that it will take you some time to compose your words. This is what I’ve come up with so far:

“Unitarian Universalism emphasizes that we each search for truth and meaning with love as a motivating force. There is no doctrine. Because we may each have a different concept of the divine, we value tolerance of the beliefs of others. We have developed seven principles that we can all accept. The first is the worth and dignity of all human beings and the last is the interdependent web of which we are all a part. We highly value working for social justice. We support one another on our diverse paths to transformation.”

Although I’m sure I could say this to someone in less than three minutes, I believe it is too packed for a person to take in. Perhaps saying the “simple gifts” of our religion—freedom, reason, and tolerance—express it all, and yet it doesn’t capture the richness, the wholeness, that we possess.

Interfaith colleagues ask me whether it is extremely difficult to be the minister of a UU congregation when I cannot advise them on what they should believe. I tell them, “Oh, no, it is exciting and I have a rich scripture from which to draw my inspiration for Sunday services!” I could also add, “Why, this Sunday, I will use a painting to illustrate our diverse beliefs!”

In the spirit of “a picture is worth a thousand words,” one of our churches, All Souls Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, commissioned a well-known artist, P.S. Gordon, to make a painting that would capture the simple gifts of our faith so that newcomers would have a better idea of who we are and what we believe. Perhaps we could use such a picture when we greet people who come here for the first time and ask whether they’d like to know what our picture means. Or perhaps they will solicit the information from you.

Let us have a look at the picture that All Soul’s made. We’ll darken the sanctuary a bit so you can see it better. [Dear Reader, This Sunday, with the help of a technically talented parishioner, we went “high tech” to display on a screen a JPEG file of the picture “Simple Gifts, Too” sent to us by All Souls, Tulsa on the condition that we will not share it to honor copyright laws. You can see a copy of this picture in our Parish House or you can log onto All Souls’ website at www.allsoulschurch.org.]

This is the painting called “Simple Gifts, Too.” You can see that it is basically a bouquet of flowers on a table. I would like to explain to you what all of the things mean in the picture. Let’s begin from the bottom.

The Table, an early American antique, represents Unitarian and Universalist roots in the American Revolution, Declaration of Independence and the founding of the United States of America.

The Bible represents our historical and theological foundation.

The Emerson Book sitting on the Bible represents how the 19th century Unitarian Minister Ralph Waldo Emerson explained that no one book can contain all of God’s wisdom and revelation for all time. So, while the Bible remains at our foundation, we are open to a larger vision in which divine revelation is understood to be unending.

The Untitled Book represents the ongoing development of our theology beginning with Emerson and continuing today.

The Antique Ballot Box represents our use of democracy to govern our religious organizations.

The Heart represents the Love at the core of our religious lives. “Love is the Spirit of this Church.”

The Statue of Liberty represents our value of freedom in religion and freedom of belief. “We need not believe alike to love alike.” (Francis David)

The Scale represents justice. Our freedom is to be used responsibly, guided by justice and utilized in the pursuit of justice for all.

The Flowers represent the people of the church, each with diverse backgrounds and beliefs, each unique yet adding to the whole. There is a beautiful unity in our diversity.

The Water represents God (that which sustains and nourishes us). Each flower is different, yet is nourished by the same source. Like the Divine, water is formless, and is within us, around us and sustains us.

The Glass Vase represents the church—the place where we come together to be nourished by the Sacred and by one another. The glass is clear showing how we look out on the world even in church—a reminder that religion is not inside one hour a week, but every hour of every day and is engaged with the world.

The Blue and White Vase is from a Unitarian village in Transylvania where Unitarianism began as an organized religion in 1568 during the Protestant Reformation [and its theologian, Francis David, articulated our faith]. Our roots are deep.

The Single Flower (in the blue and white vase) represents the individual. We respect and encourage each individual’s unique spiritual journey. But we feel it is not enough to be religious on our own. We are individuals held together by a covenant (a sacred promise) rather than a creed (a unified belief).

The Dead Oak Leaf represents all those who have been members of our church community who have died. The leaf reminds us that they are never fully gone and they always remain a part of who we are and what we will become.

The Falling Oak Leaf represents life. It is falling to remind us of our mortality. We live for a short time and hopefully we spend it bringing love, freedom, justice, unity and all our highest aspirations into being.

There are two copies of this picture in the Parish House today and on a table in front of each are copies of the description I just read. Feel free to take one home with you. Perhaps you can study it and be ready to explain it to a visitor. It will also help you to remember the simple gifts of our religion and perhaps it will inspire you to create a three minute elevator speech.

I am hoping that you will become so confidant at explaining the picture that you will all become “super greeters” on a Sunday morning for this picture will always give you an opportunity for a newcomer to think more deeply on what he or she believes and may feel “safe” enough with you to reveal a little that is in her or his heart.

The “Question to ponder” at the bottom of the Order of Service today asks you to identify three things of Unitarian Universalism that you would want to share with others. What are the simple gifts of our religion for you? Now that you have something more concrete to ponder, perhaps you would alter or add to the Simple Gifts picture or reinterpret it for yourself. Perhaps you would like to send me your three minute elevator speech. I would be delighted to read it. If many of you sent me your elevator speech, perhaps we can publish them, with your permission. May we use this picture to deepen and strengthen our understanding of our religion and may we discuss with others what we understand and listen carefully to their perspective.

References

The following has inspired and informed this sermon:

Dame, Calvin. “A Three Minute Faith,” July 2000 Journal of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, published by the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Gordon, P.S. “Simple Gifts, Too,” a watercolor, 2002, commissioned by All Souls Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma to represent the simple gifts at the heart of Unitarian Universalism. The description of the elements in the painting was a major inspiration for this sermon. The painting will remain in our Parish House so that we can share our understanding of it with newcomers to our faith. To see online “Simple Gifts, Too” and the explanation of the items in the picture, go to www.allsoulschurch.org.