Mission Peak UU Congregation

M i s s i o n P e a k U n i t a r i a n U n i v e r s a l i s t C o n g r e g a t i o n

A PATH WITH HEART: OUR UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST JOURNEYS

Sharing Our Journeys

Right now, I invite you to find someone sitting nearby, preferably not a spouse or partner or very good friend, so you may have to shuffle around a bit. Each of you will have 90 seconds to briefly tell the other person about your religious background, what led up to your coming here. Then the other person will tell his/her story. The only ground rule: when one speaks, the other listens.

Sermon

The individual religious journey makes for a fascinating story. Religious journeys abound in literature, ancient and modern, and they are part of many of the world's scriptures and oral traditions: The story of Abraham wandering in the wilderness. The account of Jesus meditating in the desert, and then setting his face toward Jerusalem, proceeding on his determined but dangerous path. The journeys of the pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The story of Gautama Buddha, the young Hindu prince, bored with his protected princely life, who set out on the road beyond his palace to seek something deeper, discovering along the road the reality of human suffering, and then learning, by trial and error, the way to overcome suffering. One of the oldest stories in the world, the ancient Ugaritic story of Gilgamesh seeking a sage and immortality, is an account of a religious pilgrimage, as is one of the most well-known stories - the legend of King Arthur and his knights, and their quest for the Holy Grail - a metaphor of the spiritual quest.

I would venture to say that most people are on some kind of religious journey, whether or not they are aware of it. Some people conduct their journey entirely within a particular religious tradition or denomination. They begin and end as Catholics, or Hindus, or Muslims. But this is not to say that they are mere religious automatons, just murmuring words and performing rites. I have more faith in the longing of the human spirit for depth and breadth, for something more fulfilling, something greater than oneself, than to assume that anyone is simply marking time spiritually. People may be deepening their spiritual lives as they follow the rites and rituals of their faith, they may even find that sometimes questions arise, and even doubts creep in, which they either wrestle with or choose to put aside. Even the atheistic secular humanist, who may want nothing to do with a religious organization or tradition, may yet be on a religious journey, sometimes asking him/herself, "is there nothing more than this material world, is there nothing deeper in the human psyche, than what science and psychology study and measure? How do I discover, or create, a sense of meaning and purpose for my life?"

Some people join and leave several religious groups before they find a home in which to continue the journey. For a few moments this morning, I'd like to turn back the clock a few centuries, to briefly tell the story of one of our Unitarian forebears who did this - who kept on questing, looking for a religious home. Ferenz Dávid was born 500 years ago, in a land still called Transylvania, which was once part of the Hungarian Empire and is now part of Romania. Dávid, an intelligent and inquisitive soul, was born into Catholicism. As a young man, he could speak several languages and was very studious and eloquent. Dávid became a Catholic priest, and then a Bishop. But he was theologically restless, concerned about some Catholic teachings and practices. His study of scriptures and the influence of religious reformation in the air led him into the Lutheranism ministry, in which he ascended to the level of Superintendent. But he still kept searching, and eventually landed in the Reformed, Calvinist Church, where he again was made Bishop. He continued to walk his questioning path, and finally, rejecting belief in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, affirming instead the oneness of God, he embraced Unitarianism, which was then a fledgling religious circle consisting mostly of a few Italian liberal ex-patriots living in Transylvania. In their homeland, these liberal-minded Italians had formed secret study groups, and their studies led them to the conclusion that the Trinity was not supported by the Christian scriptures. These liberals were forced to flee Italy because of the Inquisition. They landed in two places - Poland and Transylvania, where there was a bit more breathing room for religious diversity.

When Dávid embraced this budding Unitarianism, he did it with the same gusto that he had for the other stopping-places on his religious journey. He became a Unitarian minister, and he eventually rose to the level of Bishop to the new Transylvanian Unitarians (they still have a Bishop). Ferenz Dávid became widely known as an eloquent preacher and a skilled debater, tangling with the more orthodox Christian clergy about the Trinity and other doctrines. Dávid's eloquence and skill even won over the king, King John Sigismund, who converted and thus became the first and only Unitarian King in history.

Under Dávid's influence, King Sigismund issued an edict of tolerance for religious differences in 1568 - the first such edict in the history of Europe. The reign of good King John was brief, however, and the next king did not look kindly on Unitarians. Though Unitarianism was by then a legal religion in the land, Dávid continued to make further religious innovations, such as not invoking Jesus in prayer. Semper Reformanda, continual reformation, was what Dávid believed in and practiced. For other Protestant reformers, this phrase was used to inspire the reformation of some practices within the churches while maintaining most traditional doctrines. But for Dávid, even the old doctrines themselves could be questioned, and changed. For making "innovations" to an accepted religion, Transylvanian Unitarianism, Dávid was finally thrown in prison by those who were uncomfortable with the Unitarian heresy. Unfortunately, Dávid eventually died in prison of exposure and neglect.

Semper Reformanda, continual reformation, is to this day a part of the religious path that is our liberal religion - openness to new insights and understandings. Some years ago. I came across a humorous little book put together by one of our congregations in Pennsylvania, titled: A Coloring Book for Religious Liberals. On one page was a drawing of an open loose leaf book, with the caption: "This is our Bible. Color it loose leaf, because we Unitarian Universalists believe that all the facts are not in yet."

The late singer and songwriter, and Unitarian Universalist, Malvina Reynolds, once said that the soul is not something we are born with. Rather, she wrote, "A soul is something you accumulate in the course of living." And that accumulation of soul, she said, happens in community.

I believe that this is true for many of us. Even though we could continue on our individual religious journeys alone like Thomas Jefferson, who said that he was content to be "a Unitarian by myself," many of us seek companions on the journey - fellow travelers, not to give us their answers but to support us on our way. The community that brings forth and nourishes the human soul does not have to be a religious congregation like this one, but what better place is there to explore and reflect upon the journey that is our unfolding lives? We might walk our own paths, but how much richer that journey is when we can walk with one another, sharing what we've found along the way.

You may remember the spiritual pilgrimage recounted in the books by Carlos Casteneda, in which the fictional Yaqui Indian Medicine man Don Juan spins out his wisdom. At one point in the series, Don Juan says: "Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore, you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions... Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Ask, 'Does this path have a heart?'... If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use." This question, "Does this path have a heart?" is one I often ask myself when I am about to embark upon a new adventure.

Not only do our own religious paths change but, because we travel together, our religious tradition itself winds a path through the various ages and cultures in which it has lived, evolving and changing as it goes.

Once upon a time, Unitarian Universalism was thought of by those outside of our movement and by some within it as a highly rationalistic, skeptical, intellectual group - one that looked suspiciously at the non-rational, the emotional, the affective side of life. Because of this stereotype, we became the butt of many jokes and quips. Here's one example I once caught on a rerun of an episode of that old TV sitcom, One Day At a Time. The sitcom features a divorced mom with two daughters, and a "super" - their building superindentent and janitor. In this episode, a teenage boy chains himself to a post in the home of one of the girls, whom he is smitten by and who is ignoring him. The "super," who is trying to talk the boy into unchaining himself says to him: "Do you want to talk to a priest?" The kid says: "No, I'm a Unitarian." "Oh, well," says the super. Maybe you want a math teacher, then?"

I just saw a new quip the other night in a PBS program - an enactment of the drama surrounding Charles Darwin's publication of On the Origin of Species. Darwin is talking to his wife, and he quotes his grandfather, who described Unitarianism as a "Featherbed for falling Christians."

Here's another one I first heard about 15 years ago: Did you hear the one about the Unitarian Universalist minister who had twins? She decided to baptize one, and keep the other as a control.

Like many stereotypes, these caricatures of us contain a grain of truth. We are and have historically been rational, skeptical questioners. But there is continual reformation in our religious tradition. We continue to change. One major change I have seen over the past four-and-a-half decades since I became a Unitarian Universalist, is that we have added to our religious menu the emotional, the experiential, and the spiritual, but without losing our skeptical eye, our characteristic reasoned approach, and our questioning spirit.

It has been said that Unitarian Universalists approach all questions with an open....mouth! We do love to talk, to analyze, even to debate, like our forebear Ferenz Dávid. But we also feel together. We laugh, we weep, we share our lives, we experience the full spectrum of the human mind and the human heart. So: does this path of Unitarian Universalism have a heart? Hell, yes! Does it have a mind? Most definitely! What about a soul? It does indeed - a soul that grows by our being in a beloved community with one another. Is Unitarian Universalism, or does it continue to be, a path with heart - the path for you? I earnestly hope so!

To close, I invite you to join me in speaking together responsively the words of Ferenz Dávid.

Responsive reading #566 - GOD IS ONE

by Ferenz Dávid, adapted by Richard Fewkes

In this world there have always been many opinions about faith and salvation.: You need not think alike to love alike.
There must be knowledge in faith also.: Sanctified reason is the lantern of faith.
Religious reform can never be all at once, but gradually, step by step.: If they offer something better I will gladly learn.
The most important spiritual function is conscience, the source of all spiritual joy and happiness.: Conscience will not be quieted by anything less than truth and justice.
We must accept God's truth in this lifetime. Salvation must be accomplished here on earth.: God is indivisible.
Egy Az Isten (the Hungarian is pronounced: Edge Oz Ishten): God is One.

Benediction

By Vanessa Rush Southern from This Piece of Eden.

Expect, watch for and embrace uncertainty.
Dance with the madness of the cosmos and not against it.
Leave your door open and your heart ready for anything.