Music can be one of the most healing balms in the face of tragedy and despair. Today, I bring you two hymn texts from Singing the Living Tradition, the Unitarian Universalist hymnal, both of which were sung at this past Sunday’s rededication service at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.

May Nothing Evil Pass This Door

words by Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977)

May nothing evil cross this door,
and may ill fortune never pry
about these windows; may the roar
and rain go by.

By faith made strong, the rafters will
withstand the battering of the storm.
This hearth, though all the world grow chill,
will keep you warm.

Peace shall walk softly through these rooms,
touching our lips with holy wine,
till every casual corner blooms
into a shrine.

With laughter drown the raucous shout,
and, though these sheltering walls are thin,
may they be strong to keep hate out
and hold love in.

Spirit of Life

words by Carolyn McDade

Spirit of Life, come unto me.
Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion.
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea;
Move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold me close; wings set me free;
Spirit of Life, come to me,
Come to me.

Source: Singing the Living Tradition, hymn #1, “May Nothing Evil Cross This Door,” words by Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977); and hymn #123, “Spirit of Life,” words by Carolyn McDade.

A fundamental question for Unitarian Universalists is how to use religious language in a way that reflects the reality of our religious values, since many of the words and concepts we might be drawn to have been claimed by other traditions, particularly more conservative Christian points of view.

The Rev. Dr. Edward Frost explores the concept of “grace” in this reflection from this summer’s issue of Quest, the newsletter of the Church of the Larger Fellowship. He seeks to free the word, and the idea, from its traditional roots, allowing those Unitarian Universalists of differing theological viewpoints to reclaim its power.

Dr. Frost is the Senior Minister Emeritus of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, Georgia.

Amazing Grace

by Rev. Dr. Edward Frost

I watched the dancer leaping and turning, seemingly weightless, his movements apparently effortless. He made it look so easy that I knew anyone could do it. I could do it! The term that came to mind as I watched was, of course, “graceful,” the art of being at ease, and all parts of the whole in perfect accord and balance. The apparent ease is deceptive. Perhaps one has achieved grace when the struggle beneath it is not apparent. On reflection, the complexity, the discipline by which ease is achieved, becomes obvious. Every muscle has been trained, every movement practiced to the point of exhaustion. The artist has devoted life itself to coming to terms with the lack of ease, with the common state of dis-ease, with imbalance. The artist is in command of time, of event, of self, trusts both the event and the self to be as one. And that is grace.

Grace, when we see it, appears so simple, so natural, so “as it ought to be.” It seems that grace should be our common state. Yet we know that grace is rare, a triumph over awkwardness, a victory over dis-ease. Human existence, in its civilized state, is not normally graceful, harmonious, or in balance, but rather is at odds with itself and the universe. Humanness is divided against itself. Mind against body. Passion against restraint. Thought hunting down feeling to deny it. Spirit against material. Civil demands against private virtue. Future hope against past experience. We live awkwardly, gawkily, in tension, pulled by opposites, struggling to be free, sometimes surrendering to one tug or another just to ease the tension. It was James Thurber who said that just as we find our hearts in a close embrace we discover that our foot is caught in the piano stool.

(Read on … )

Easter can be a tricky holiday for Unitarian Universalists: our faith is deeply rooted in Christian teachings and traditions, but many of our members do not feel a close affinity with the particulars of the crucifixion and resurrection stories as they are told in the Bible. Many carry wounds from encounters within traditional forms of Christianity and the emphasis that is placed on the violence of the story.

However, as the Rev. Kathleen McTigue, who serves the Unitarian Society of New Haven, Connecticut, says very eloquently in her Easter sermon from 2006 (PDF), we are called as Unitarian Universalists to “look beneath” for “the kernel of gold, the core truth, still there underneath the layers of dogma.” That kernel, she says, can be found within our own hearts.

What We Bring Forth

by Rev. Kathleen McTigue

One of the great gifts of the Universalist part of our faith is that it teaches us to look for spiritual truth not in one particular religious tradition alone, but in many of them. It teaches us to look for lessons in scripture, but doesn’t let us think of those lessons as exclusive. It lets us move away from orthodoxies that don’t work for us anymore, but pushes us to look beneath them to find the kernel of gold, the core truth, still there underneath the layers of dogma.

But there are perils in Universalism, too. One of them is that if we’re not careful, we can sometimes dilute the particularity of each religious tradition. We can look so hard for a common denominator that we end up reducing down to almost nothing the specific beauty of a story, a tradition, a spiritual practice. That’s especially perilous at this time of year because the Jewish and Christian holy days of this particular season are intertwined, and always have been. It isn’t accidental that the celebrations of Easter and Passover fall at the same time. Jesus and all his disciples were Jewish, after all; and according to the gospel story the last meal they shared with each other before his arrest and death was the Passover meal. As long as Christians have celebrated Easter, they have done it right around the time when Passover is being celebrated.

(Read on … )

On Wednesday, I gave you the the Rev. David Takahashi Morris’s distillation of the Unitarian Universalist Commission on Appraisal’s report published in 2005, “Engaging our Theological Diversity” (very long PDF).

Today, I give you the sermon that he preached in response to his interpretations of the report, which I find gives us a few more pieces in our individual puzzles of how to answer the fundamental question, “What is Unitarian Universalism?” Rev. Takahashi Morris is co-minister at Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church Unitarian Universalist in Charlottesville, Virginia, and preached this sermon on December 5, 2005.

Three D’s and an F: Unitarian Universalist Theology

Rev. David Takahashi Morris

In a community as liberally sprinkled with teachers, scholars, and others connected with education as ours, I know the title of today’s sermon has a certain ominous resonance. There are certainly those who would say that three “d’s” and an “f” make a pretty accurate report card for Unitarian Universalist theology. Critics argue that without a creed or an easily articulated belief statement, we are a religion that offers no solid ground to stand on. And in a troubled time, a religion without solid ground can’t be much of a refuge.

(Read on … )

Because Unitarian Universalism encompasses so many qualities different from a standard organized religion, first and foremost our lack of a prescribed set of beliefs, it is sometimes very difficult to explain to our children what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist.

The Unitarian Universalist Association’s Family Network has a number of good resources available for families to aid in the development of Unitarian Universalist identity in our children. This story from the Rev. Hope Johnson, who serves the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Central Nassau in Garden City, New York, is part of a 34 page document of stories about family religious traditions called “Family Stories as Faith Stories” (PDF). Her description of her faith journey transcends generations.

For consideration: what stories in your own family history inform your faith journey today?

My Faith Home

by Rev. Hope Johnson

Hi, my name is Hope and I’m from the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean Sea. I grew up all over the world but always went back home to my island. I was raised Anglican which folks here in the United States, call Episcopalian. My twin sister Janice and I went to Sunday School every single Sunday no matter where we found ourselves. And we would get in trouble every single Sunday. Our Sunday School teachers didn’t like the questions we asked each week when there was one thing or another that we did not understand.

“I don’t understand the Trinity. If God is God why do we need to pray to Father, Son and Holy Ghost? But you said ghosts are not real. But I don’t believe that the Devil is real. Where’s Hell? But I do love Jesus, I just don’t understand it the way you do. Now about this Virgin Birth…”

(Read on … )

A smaller segment today of Rev. Robert Hardies’ essay, “Love the Contradictions,” printed in the UUWorld’s summer 2007 issue, from The Seven Principles in Word and Worship, edited by Ellen Brandenburg (Skinner House Books, 2007). Part one can be found here, and part three here.

Here, Rev. Hardies brings in the concept of size in spirituality and faith, an idea in language that I find fascinating. What is big? What is big enough? What capacity do we really have as human beings?

Love the Contradictions, pt. 2

by Rev. Robert Hardies

Not long after divinity school, I stumbled upon the work of theologian Bernard Loomer, who began to point me in the right direction. Loomer is an important figure in process theology, a movement that contends that the universe is always growing in size and complexity, and that as the universe grows, so does God and so must we. Loomer saw the increasing complexity of creation as a glorious blossoming that God was delighted to behold. Late in life, Loomer was a member of the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley, California, where on Sundays after church he would lead thought-provoking theological conversations. After describing his vision of the complexity of creation, he often asked the group, “What is the size of your soul?” By which he meant, “What is your soul’s ability to grow and expand, to stretch when life throws more contradictions your way?”

Size was the defining concept in Loomer’s spirituality. He almost always wrote the word S-I-Z-E, with capital letters and dashes, to better convey the spaciousness that he intended by using the word. Loomer describes the concept this way:

By S-I-Z-E I mean the capacity of a person’s soul, the range and depth of his love, his capacity for relationships. I mean the volume of life you can take into your being and still maintain your integrity and individuality, the intensity and variety of outlook you can entertain in the unity of your being without feeling defensive or insecure. I mean the strength of your spirit to encourage others to become freer in the development of their diversity and uniqueness. I mean the power to sustain more complex and enriching tensions. I mean the magnanimity of concern to provide conditions that enable others to increase in stature.

(Read on … )

Further exploring the ideas that come to mind when someone asks, “What is Unitarian Universalism, anyway?” I came across this snippet from a sermon by the Rev. Tony Johnson. Many people look to religion as a source of comfort, of solace, and even of escape from the “real” world. Rev. Johnson, I think, hits the nail on the head when he says that while our Unitarian Universalist churches do provide such comfort, the goal is not to draw people into our communities and keep them sheltered, but to prepare them to go back out into the world and do the work that must be done.

Rev. Johnson served the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Essex County, in Orange, NJ for nine years, and is now affiliated with the Community Church of New York, Unitarian Universalist.

Shelter from the Storm: Unitarian Universalism as a Safe Harbor

by Rev. Tony Johnson

I would suggest to you this morning that Unitarian Universalism is a religion for people who do not want too much safety in their religion. Maybe that’s not the best way to put it. How’s this? Unitarian Universalism is a religion for people who realize that life is just too complicated to make sense of with a single explanation, or that individuals and the world can be saved - whatever that means - by only one faith or path. We want shelter from the storm, but we know the truth of the words of the late mathematician and naval officer, Grace Murray Hopper: A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.

(Read on … )

I’ve spent a very enjoyable portion of the morning exploring The New Hymn and Tune Book, with services, published by the American Unitarian Association in 1914. Blogger Fausto was kind enough to point me to this book in the comments on this post over on my journal, and luckily, Google Books has the whole thing readily available and searchable.

The theologies and liturgies from the turn of the last century fascinate me, and make me wonder what Unitarian Universalism might look like today and in the future if we were to engage more fully with the words used in our churches a hundred years ago, perhaps adapting them for our modern sensibilities. This prayer is one of many from this particular volume that speaks deeply to me.

Prayer for Comfort and Faith

from The New Hymn and Tune Book, with services, 1914

O thou whose name is Love and whose compassions fail not: let thy merciful kindness be for our comfort when burdens are heavy and sorrow is near, — when our hearts fail us for the things that are coming to pass, and we fear as we enter into the cloud. When our dear ones die out of our sight, still, grant to us a large and happy faith, and in our own last hour lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou art the strength of those who put their trust in thee. Send out thy light and thy truth, to shine pure and strong over death and the grave. Amen.

Source: Prayer for Comfort and Faith, from The New Hymn and Tune Book, with services, pg 48, published by the American Unitarian Association in 1914