TRADITION, TRADITION

By: Rev. Nancy Holden
www.nancyholden.com

On an average Sunday in America, churches are centers of activity, millions of people involved in some form of religious observance.  The majority of them are Christian, and the biggest numbers of those are Catholic.  Some churches are evangelical, that is, Bible-based, sectarian in outlook and working to convert the world, tending to conservative politics and social attitudes tinged by sexism and racism. Other Christian churches are liberal, willing to live and let live, and teaching a modern theology in harmony with the changing lifestyles of society.  The Unitarian Universalist Association stands alone as a haven for anyone of any faith or none—when people hear that, they may imagine there are no guiding principles, limits or boundaries, but nothing could be further from the truth.   Unitarianism is NOT a religious smorgasbord, or one-size-fits-all, nor are we  a community-oriented center for all kinds of activities in addition to religion  It’s true there are no creeds requiring allegiance to any god-image or any flavor theology, no ‘ism’ requiring agreement.  However, there are seven principles that shape our thinking, and this cement forms a strong bond that permeates our shared time and activities; unconditional love and acceptance is the air we breathe.

We are sometimes criticized for not keeping most of the visitors who come through our doors.  They say ours are revolving doors—visitors in, visitors out.  Statistics support that view, but it’s not entirely negative, as the truth is that those seven principles create a challenging profile, and we are unwilling to push that aside in order to win over visitors—UUs are not people-pleasers.  Church-shoppers may have tried many different options, evaluating them on the basis of friendliness, comfort, and attention given in the form of handshakes, introductions, and other welcoming behaviors.  Something about the feeling of a Unitarian group minimizes the importance of such factors, and communicates a sense of profound seriousness, as if to say “this is not your average congregation.”  You need to know who we are. 

I came to this denomination after a lifetime as a United Methodist.   Eager to escape the demands of biblical literalists, I rejoiced to find social justice very high among UU values, but underestimated the depth of my commitment to Christian theology.  I had graduated from seminary in 1985 with the class award for biblical scholarship, but this was due to my putting academic excellence above religious devotion.  Remembering those years, I now realize my view of the holy book was conflicted; anger and resentment could not quite overcome the respect and appreciation of a lifetime.   On guard against coercion, I bristled at any hint of the evangelical, an omen of my future as a religious left-winger, but I now believe there’s nothing to fear and something to gain from using the Bible on a par with all the other resources Unitarians value.  It’s just that one must always acknowledge the source, not allowing the Bible’s often distasteful ethics and pseudo-history to taint our thinking.

John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, put equal importance on four basic sources of faith:  scripture, tradition, reason and experience, now known as “the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.”  Biblical literalists among the Methodist clergy rely heavily on scripture, using tradition selectively, and seldom consulting reason or experience.  For twenty years serving Methodist churches, I used the four aspects of Wesley’s quadrilateral in opposite order, that is, experience came first for me, reason next, then tradition (which might or might not be grounded in the Bible) and finally, scripture that had passed the test of the first three.  All the congregations I served included a mix of liberals and conservatives. When I moved from Methodism to Unitarianism, I just repudiated scripture; Christian traditions gave way to UU traditions; experience embodied in stories from real life remained the center of all messages; and reason replaced scripture as the acid test—whatever was not logical and in tune with science would not be included.

Thirteen years after that metamorphosis, I now realize the baggage I carried along contained some traditions common to both denominations.  Traditions serving life passages grow out of cultural habits around the joy and pain of life, birth, growth, change, grief, and remembrance.  Judaism, Christianity, Islam, eastern faiths: in every civilization traditions arise to provide social recognition of common life events.  A new sense of connection with diverse cultures has now come into my view, like a new bookshelf in the mental library.  This is the fruit of a Unitarian faith maturing after years of learning from the diverse company found in our churches and fellowships.  I see the common roots of different beliefs and habits; the fact that my own ways are different is stimulating, not disturbing.   Sincere love and respect for all religious beliefs is rare outside the UU frame of reference, but it exists here in full measure, and for that gift I thank the founders of our faith as well as the living body of UUism in America.

Now this nation just experienced a radical readjustment.  For me it was shocking and I have only myself to blame, as I should have at least considered the possibility that November 8^th might open the door I had stubbornly kept shut.  Our new President has a right to be who he is, but his profile is a repudiation of everything I honor and defend, my life, my identity, all my treasured values.  Responding to this extreme contrast, I don’t know where to start.  I believe almost every member of the clergy in every denomination, looking into the faces of their congregations will feel the same dilemma—what can I say, where should I start?  Evangelicals may turn to the scripture, but what words will they search for when they open the biblical concordance?  Depending on THEIR traditions and their personal values, it could be anything from EVIL and IDOLATRY to Armageddon and the anti-Christ.

The lessons I have learned in the past thirteen years sustain me now, and the first and most crucial of those is the new tradition taught by you, my fellow UUs.  Secretary Clinton spoke for me with these words:  Stronger Together.  UUs as a religious body of Americans exemplify stronger together.  Though we feel repudiated by the ethics of division and hatred, our tradition of love and acceptance binds us together into a community that is now and always MUST remain open to all people.  From the oldest to the youngest, the richest to the poorest, the most gifted to the most disabled, each one of us is individually beloved by all, accepted, and given a place in the sun, the right to speak our minds, and the respect we extend to all living things.  We are not immune to fear and trembling, but together we find the strength to face reality.

Voices that disrespect whole groups of humanity for any reason must be resisted.  Eliminating millions of people from equal space in the civilized world ultimately led to the Holocaust; now as we face climate change, another era of selective hatred could spell the end of the world.  The Christian Bible speaks of sinners being “cast into outer darkness.”  Will some preachers be using that terrifying passage of apocalyptic scripture?  Yes, some will, because that has always been their theme song and the basis of their fear-driven theology.  As a Methodist I used to say “fear is the work of the devil.”  Of course I knew very few of my people actually believed in an evil being called Satan or Lucifer.  But that image enabled us to talk about the manifestations of fear/anxiety/dread and other psychological afflictions, as one side of the watershed division between fear and trust, psychic health and mental illness.

Comic book figures, demons and the flames of hell, images from the fantasy of the Exorcist, over there in outer darkness and the last judgment, are common in popular media.  Millions of our fellow Americans watch this horror, living in daily battle with anxiety, and this year they voted out of fear, persuaded by the rhetoric of a would-be warrior champion who promised to protect them from human devils. That rhetoric was effective because in fact human devils do exist—they are very real.  Law enforcement, doctors and hospitals are kept busy by real criminals, while imaginary criminals lurk in the shadows of our minds, and everybody wants a gun or two or three, thinking of that lethal weapon as a safeguard.

On the other side of the watershed division between fear and trust are some true champions armed with Love, including the central figure of the Bible, the man from Galilee, the primary archetype and representative of Good.  Spiritualized and mythologized beyond all reality, Jesus nevertheless commands the forces of light, enabling the human psyche to set aside hatred and overcome fear.  Words from the Bible have the power to electrify us— these are the something to gain which you, my fellow UUs, have helped me to affirm yet again in a new context, on a new level.  For example:  In the beginning was the word; in him was life and the life was the light of man.  The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.  And then, these words he said over and over like a mantra:  fear not.  When I use this word someone is sure to ask, why did he keep saying that?  fear WHAT?

A better question is WHY?  All who live someday will die, but humans are the only self-conscious species.  Unlike all other species, we must live with the knowledge that we are mortal.  So the true answer to the question “Fear what?” is DEATH.   Life spent in preoccupation with that reality can never rest—always on guard against enemies real or imagined, wasting the precious days of our lives, the WHY is none of the answers we may give, but actually unwillingness or inability to accept the prospect of death.  People look for help from God or some version of something to call god, and they may not find that here in the UU context.  If we don’t provide what cynics call “pie in the sky” they may go away with more questions than when they came.  Unitarianism is a grown-up religion. Come with your hardest, most challenging questions, your darkest fears and least satisfying would-be solutions,  let go of the tight grip on the urge to cry, in short, let it all hang out.  Then clasp the warm hand that will reach out to you, as it certainly will, for we all know we are stronger together, never more so than when we face death.  If there’s music may it be victorious, voices and symphonies, the beat of drums like hearts, the rhythm of living.  The spirit within will fill with joy, and fear will finally, for at least this moment, dissipate, leaving the blessed, priceless gift of serenity.  Even one such experience is enough to give us the confidence to believe—on this day in this UU congregation I felt uplifted, my spirit overcame fear, and now I know that can happen, so I’ll be back.

Friends and fellow UUs, the forces of fear and hatred have deepened the darkness in our nation but we are bravely determined to defend human rights, to bring hope and confidence into the darkness.  This year in mid-January we will honor Martin Luther King Jr. once again.  Never has there been a time when his prophetic voice was so desperately needed.  Dr. King paid the ultimate price like many prophets of other times and nations.  Keeping hope alive, let us take up the torch, teaching the hurting people all around us our basic principle number one:    UUs covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person.   All Americans can live that principle, building a nation without guns, lighting our streets with unconditional love, always and everywhere blessing each other by the shared knowledge that we are stronger together.

The something I can gain from the Bible requires me to take command of my internal image of Jesus, maintaining guard against the fear and divisiveness of evangelicalism.  It took thirteen years for me to jettison the offensively smug and superior spiritualized images that misinterpret so much of his teaching.  He was a man, not a god, teaching about this world, not about heaven and hell.  When he said, “fear not,” I have come to believe he meant here and now, in this life on this day, cast out the images of the wrathful god, judge and avenger, turn yourself around to face the other way.  Live in the present with the loved ones who are part of this day, savoring the sweetness of life, and giving no thought to any other world.  The kingdom is here, now, and yes your days will come to an end, but that is nothing to fear.   Let your joy in life be fully lived, and may the force be with you.  Amen.