Today in Fort Lauderdale, before the Unitarian Universalist Association’s General Assembly gets started, the ministers and other religious professionals are meeting for C.E.N.T.E.R. (Continuing Education Network for Training, Enrichment and Renewal) presentations. This morning’s keynote speaker was Old Testament scholar Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, and a response was given by Unitarian Universalist minister and scholar Rev. Alice Blair Wesley (in abstentia, as her flight was delayed, unfortunately).

Rev. Blair Wesley, now retired, has been a strong voice for the importance of covenant in our congregations, delivering the 2000-2001 Minns Lectures on her ideas. This sermon was delivered in April 2005 at the First Parish Norwell Unitarian Universalist Church in Norwell, Massachusetts.

It Matters Most What We Love

Rev. Alice Blair Wesley

We sometimes say that self-determination and independence are our basic values. Well, self-determination and independence are very important. Yet, consider this: Have you ever heard anybody say, “I choose today — or I chose last week or I will choose next Tuesday — to love my children”? Or, “I determined, after studying the facts, to love ice hockey rather than baseball”? Or, “I decided at age 25 to fall in love with the person I married at 26″?

You never heard any such thing. Especially in the realm of romantic love, we celebrate love as something that happens to us. We say ours was “love at first sight.” Or, “One date and I was swept off my feet.” About a sport, or a favorite author, we might say, “One game — or one page — and I was hooked.” Sometimes people even say of our churches, “One service and I knew I was at home,” meaning, “One service and I loved these people and this institution.”

At its outset, and also in its renewal, there is a crucial element of passivity in all love — whether we’re talking about the love of friends, or love of our work, or sports, or nature, or learning. For love is a response to the charm, the beauty, the worth, or the potential worth of something outside ourselves. To see and feel that charm we have to be open to impressions we can receive only if our attention is “captured.” We don’t act in order to love; rather, when we are acted upon, we love in response.

(Read on … )

Poet Anne Porter published her first volume of poetry at age 83. She has a fascinating story, and was featured in the Wall Street Journal back in 2006.

This poem, “Susanna,” is from her book Living Things, a finalist for the 1999 National Book Award, and helps to remind us how simple certain things can truly be. I first heard it on the Writer’s Almanac a few weeks back.

Susanna

by Anne Porter

Nobody in the hospital
Could tell the age
Of the old woman who
Was called Susanna

I knew she spoke some English
And that she was an immigrant
Out of a little country
Trampled by armies

Because she had no visitors
I would stop by to see her
But she was always sleeping

All I could do
Was to get out her comb
And carefully untangle
The tangles in her hair

One day I was beside her
When she woke up
Opening small dark eyes
Of a surprising clearness

She looked at me and said
You want to know the truth?
I answered Yes

She said it’s something that
My mother told me

There’s not a single inch
Of our whole body
That the Lord does not love

She then went back to sleep.

Source: “Susanna” by Anne Porter, from Living Things, as printed by the Writer’s Almanac on April 6, 2008.

Today, another perspective on the use of religious language in our Unitarian Universalist churches, this time from lay preacher Bruce Arnold, at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, New Bern, North Carolina.

Mr. Arnold argues that avoiding certain aspects of religious language does more harm than good, particularly in a congregation that aims to welcome a greater number of people into their midst. He offers a challenge to his fellowship, to reach deeper into what it means to be a religious community and engage with that depth.

Note: I am always looking for more good material by our lay members, not just ministers or historical figures, but these pieces are hard to find. If you’ve written, or heard, something that you think belongs on this site, please drop me a line!

A Rose by Any Other Name

by Bruce Arnold

Words have power.

They say sticks and stones will break your bones but words can never hurt you. They are wrong about a lot of things. Over and over, my domestic violence patients have said that the bruises heal and the broken bones knit up, but the cruel words last forever.

Words have power.

They say the pen is mightier than the sword. They are right about a lot of things also. During World War II, when Churchill warned Josef Stalin against conflict with the Pope, he replied scornfully “The Pope! How many divisions does he have?” The Soviet Union no longer exists. John Paul II left the papacy stronger than it had been in a century.

Words have power.

Talk about power: In May of 1961, John F. Kennedy gave a stirring speech about putting a man on the moon, at a time when we had not even worked the bugs out of the Atlas rocket. Just over 8 years later, Neil Armstrong fulfilled that promise, with stirring words of his own.

Words have power.

(Read on … )

A video today, created by the Rev. Michael McGee, lead team minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA. Rev. McGee has made four videos titled “Two-Minute Timeouts,” in which he gives a short reflection, with imagery, on Unitarian Universalist spiritual life. This is the first.

Two Minute Timeout

by the Rev. Michael McGee

Source: “Two Minute Timeout” by the Rev. Michael McGee, lead team minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA, as published on YouTube. Hat tip, Shelby Meyerhoff at the UUWorld’s “Interdependent Web.”

The Rev. Dr. Forrest Church, formerly the senior minister at All Souls in New York City and now the Minister of Public Theology there, announced in early February that he has terminal cancer.

Rev. Church has devoted his ministry to not just caring for his people and his community, but also to scholarship and theological writings meant to further the movement of Unitarian Universalism. Many of his writings can be found at his website, and he has also published many wonderful books.

The central message of his life, however, has been consistently that of how we are called to love one another. This sermon (PDF), given on February 3, 2008 to All Souls New York and a week later to All Souls Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a culmination of that message.

Love and Death

by the Rev. Dr. Forrest Church

Audio from Tulsa can be found here.

Although I have delivered some thousand sermons on almost as many discrete topics, one way or another each circles back to a single theme. This tendency, I’m told, is not uncommon. Every minister worth his or her salt has one great sermon in them. It’s no wonder that we return time and again to its familiar music and uplifting chords.

Even church administrators pick up on their bosses’ penchant to repeat themselves. In certain instances, they have little choice. One of my storied colleagues, James Madison Barr of Memphis, Tennessee, had a habit of disappearing periodically, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays, when the office staff was composing and printing the weekly church newsletter. At the top of each newsletter, they included the sermon title for the following Sunday and a brief précis of its theme. Whenever Dr. Barr was missing in action and necessity forced the Memphis church administrator to be creative, she listed his forthcoming sermon as follows:

“The Great Mystery”
James Madison Barr, Preaching
What Dr. Barr will be preaching about this Sunday is a mystery, but we’re certain it will be great.

Whether great or no, my recurring sermon, too, is rich with mystery. Time and again, I return to the abiding themes of love and death. I do so this morning for personal reasons. Since there is no way, or call, to be artful about blunting this news, let me begin by reading you the letter I shall send tomorrow to the members and friends of this wonderful church, whose destiny and mine have been interwoven now for so many years.

(Read on … )

What better way to acknowledge the great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who the nation honors today, than in his own words?

Dr. King spoke to the 1966 Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in Hollywood, Florida, as the distinguished Ware Lecturer. His remarks are very long, so I reprint only a segment here. The entire address can be found on the UUA website.

For some context, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was in 1955-56, the “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered on the Washington Mall in 1963, and the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1964. At the time of this speech, the Civil Rights Act had been in place for not quite two years, and the Voting Rights Act for not quite one year. Dr. King was tragically killed almost exactly two years later.

Note: I have added some paragraph breaks to make this easier to read.

from the Ware Lecture to the 1966 Unitarian Universalist Association

by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Another thing about this philosophy [non-violence] which is often misunderstood and that it says that at its best the love ethic can be a reality in a social revolution. Most revolutions in the past have been based on hope and hate, with the rising expectations of the revolutionaries implemented by hate for the perpetrators of the unjust system in the old order. I think the different thing about the revolution that has taken place in our country is that it has maintained the hope element and at the same time it has added the dimension of love.

Many people would disagree with me and say that love hasn’t been there. I think we have to stop and talk about what we mean in this context because I would be the first to say that it is nonsense to urge oppressed people to love their violent oppressors in an affectionate sense. And I’m certainly not talking about that when I talk above love standing at the center of our struggle. I think it is necessary to see the meaning of love in higher terms. The Greek language has three words for love – one is the eros, another is the word filio, and another is the word agape. I’m thinking not of eros, or of friendship as expressed in filio, but of agape, which is understanding, creative, redemptive good will for all men, an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. When one rises to love on this level, he loves a person who does the evil deed while hating the deed. I believe that in our best moments in this struggle we have tried to adhere to this.

(Read on … )

Two years ago today, Rev. John Cullinan led this meditation at the Christmas Eve service at Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Oak Park, Illinois, where he served as the ministerial intern. He now serves the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos, New Mexico, where we will happily celebrate Christmas Eve in story and song with family and friends.

Bright blessings on you and yours, and Merry Christmas.

Postings will continue in the New Year, so stay tuned!

Christmas Eve Meditation

by Rev. John A. Cullinan

Put away, for one moment, all the anxiety and obligation of this season.

It is another time, another country– a place shattered by violence, oppression, and poverty. Its people cry out for peace and for love.

On a silent night much like any other night, to a family much like any other family, a child was born who would answer that call.

Tonight, we come together in celebration of that one night. It is a different time, a different country, and yet so much now remains the same. Our world is still touched by violence and fear, still cursed with poverty and oppression.

Tonight, we still cry out for peace and for love.

(Read on … )

Right about now is when I look up from all of my December busy-ness and try to remember just what it’s all about. Rev. Jane Rzepka, the senior minister of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, comes to my rescue, with this selection printed in the December issue of Quest.

The Mystery of Christmas Past

by Rev. Jane Rzepka

The middle of December. I know what it’s like. I know what goes on. The time has come. You bundle up, start the car and drive in the drizzle over to The Mall. You can’t find a parking place. Finally you spot somebody—a fellow walking to his car—and slowly, you follow him as he wanders around the parking lot, drifting from aisle to aisle, lane to lane, until he finally finds his car, fumbles with his packages and car keys, gets in, smokes a cigarette, and vacates the parking space. Why are you in single-minded pursuit of this space? You need this parking space because 2000 years ago, a baby was born in a stable.

The store is crowded. It’s 30% off, plus the 10% off coupon you hope you really did put in your pocket on your way out the door. You purchase the percolator for your mother-in-law even though as it turns out, the 30% off does not apply to “small appliances” and the coupon wasn’t in your pocket after all. You harvest a number of Christmas presents, a baby doll — “Baby Wiggles and Giggles” to be precise — an electronic dart board, a large bottle of rum, a gingerbread house with M&Ms on it, a chain saw, an oversized tin can of caramel and cheese flavored popcorn, and some gift bags with illustrations of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on them. Oh. And an inexpensive Grinch wristwatch for yourself, and a red sweater, too, for those parties coming up.

Why are you buying the reindeer bags and the chain saw and the gingerbread house? You spend your money and your time on percolators and popcorn because—well because once upon a time, it is told, a wrinkled little baby was born to a mother named Mary.

(Read on … )

Today’s selection is really a treat. I went looking for Unitarian Universalist perspectives on the events in Pearl Harbor, the attack that happened on this day in 1941, and came across the writings of Rev. John B. Isom (December 2, 1909 - April 23, 2004), who served as an Army chaplain during World War II. He was a Baptist minister, who then underwent a theological crisis and became a Unitarian in 1955. He served churches in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Louisville, Kentucky, Wichita, Kansas, and the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines, Iowa, where he was named an emeritus in 1975.

Rev. Isom was quite a prolific writer, and his children and grandchildren have collected many of his works for the public to read. The excerpt I chose for today is from “As I Remember Me,” Rev. Isom’s memoir, specifically dealing with his theological crisis. His reading of Albert Schweitzer’s The Quest for the Historic Jesus was a major tipping point for him, which he describes here. What strikes me is the pain that is evident in Rev. Isom’s realizations that he can no longer believe what he was raised to believe, and his sense of loss as he comes to these realizations.

I hear echoes of the sermon I posted last Friday, in which the Rev. James Covington states, “No, my friends, you and I are not free to believe anything we choose. You and I believe what we must. The beauty and genius of a faith like ours is that we are not asked to pretend to believe things we do not believe. You and I are not free to choose what we believe, but we are free to stay with our religious community when we grow and when we change our minds.”

For consideration: Have you experienced a crisis of faith? Have you experienced a conversion to Unitarian Universalism, not just from another religion, but perhaps a moment of realization of your commitment to your faith?

From “As I Remember Me”

by Rev. John B. Isom

When I went to Spartanburg, as I have already confessed, I had some serious doubt about some things I was expected to believe and teach as a Baptist minister. I knew then that I had no hard evidence to justify me believing some of the very basic assumptions which were essential to the Christian faith of Baptists and most other Christian believers, such as the Bible being the holy word of a supernatural being called God, who created the heavens and the earth and all life therein; the supernatural events associated around the birth, life and death of Jesus; Heaven and Hell as places for the eternal abode of all human beings. By the time I read “The Quest for the Historic Jesus” I knew I had no evidence for believing such assumptions. All I had left was a very dim hope that such evidence might still be found. After reading “The Quest for the Historic Jesus” that dim hope was no longer possible. There are a number of reasons why that book made me face up to the truth of my disbelief in the basic essentials of the faith as taught in most Christian churches.

(Read on … )

Approaching prayer as a language of faith in a religion that does not require belief in a god can be a tricky thing. Today’s prayer (PDF) by the Rev. Bill Neely, from his days as the ministerial intern at Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul, Minnesota, explores this unknowing.

Rev. Neely now serves Neshoba Unitarian Universalist Church in Cordova, Tennessee.

For consideration: What do you name Holy? What do you consider larger than yourself?

Minister’s Prayer

by Rev. Bill Neely

Let us pray,

What shall we name you today, how shall we call you forth, by what shall we know you?

Are you Love greater than feeling, are you Truth truer than reason? Shall we call you Hope fueling all life, or Source of all beginnings and endings? Are you the gentle Father? Are you the sustaining Mother? Today, will you be our Trusting Companion or our Loving Guide? Shall we name you All? Shall we call you One? Are you all of these? Are you Mystery?

In humility, may our hearts call you whatever they will call you, knowing that all are just fine for now, knowing that while our language may be limited, love is not. With openness and with courage, may we seek to know you, even though we can’t define you, may we experience you, even though your truest nature is a mystery to us.

May you be the seed of unknown origin growing in our hearts and minds, a seed whose creation we do not understand and whose destiny we cannot foretell, but whose growth nonetheless nourishes our minds and refreshes our hearts, regardless of whether we can express it or not. For it is in our moments of greatest joy and greatest sorrow, our times of great fear and great hope, or even when we are accompanying someone close to us as they move through those moments, that we often find ourselves wordless or our language lacking. And yet the experience may be, even with diminished verbosity, abundantly holy.

Let us continue to call you what we will with honesty and humility. And let us know you, in some form, in moments of great joy and great sorrow, and all times in between.

Amen.

Source: Minister’s Prayer (PDF) by the Rev. Bill Neely, while serving as ministerial intern at Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul, Minnesota, delivered November 14, 2004. Used with permission.