by  Jennifer Schnayer, Summer Minister

A sermon given July 1, 2001

First Unitarian Church

Portland, Oregon

Call to Worship

We gather this morning to give thanks for our blessings, to praise the beauty of creation, to heal our broken spirits, to offer our love to one another.  Come and let us worship together. 

Picture a group of friends--all of you are somewhere between 25 and 35 years old and work in the business world in one way or another--some in retail, some in technology.  You spend your time socializing, going to the movies, barbecuing. And then one day one of the people in your little group announces that they are going to apply to seminaries--that they want to be a minister.  (Oh, keep in mind that none of the rest of these folks are churchgoers at all.) 

I imagine it might be a little strange--I don't know for sure, since I was the one making the announcement. But judging from the response I got, they thought it was an unusual thing to want to do.

You want to do what?  Why?  Will you be able to drink beer?  Will you be able to . . .? And then they were curious about what Unitarian Universalism was. After my explanation about our faith they has questions like:

So you don't tell people what to believe? (No.)

You don't even have to believe in God? (No.)

And what do you tell people?  (Ministers in our faith are more likely to suggest than tell!)

Then why do you want to be a minister?

One of the things I learned in those four years of seminary were some better answers to all those questions!  It concerns me that I wasn't able to articulate more clearly the nature and meaning of our faith.  After all, I was raised UU--I had 22 years of churchgoing experience in our faith.  Some of it was that I didn't give much thought to what our life together as a church community meant to my own personal life of faith, other than that I was free to grow in my religious and spiritual understanding, and the church supported my religious journey. 

These past few years, I have come to understand much more deeply that one of the most telling things about Unitarian Universalists lies in the way we come together as a church community.  For generations we have been a free faith, a faith that encouraged free inquiry while at the same time holding to the responsibilities inherent in such a model.  We have called our ministers by congregational vote, and then offer that minister freedom of the pulpit.  This has not always gone smoothly, but our clergy are given the latitude to preach the truth as they understand it, and the church members hear that offering and then decide what resonates or what doesn't with them.  The word of the minister is not the only truth, it is just what they have come to believe.  The denominational body does not direct or financially support the work of our church, but this gives us the freedom to create a communal life that is best suited for us.  Each and every aspect of our program life grows out the generosity of those who worship here--in Portland--at this church.  Our church leaders are elected by the congregation to steward the church and to develop and execute policies guided by our mission, a mission that springs from the hope of the people who worship here.   And together our lay leaders and ministers shape the vision of our church.  It is a complicated balance of power and care, but one that affirms both the value of the individual and the centrality of community. 

In seminary I came to understand more and more that how we gather as a church community says volumes about what Unitarian Universalism is and has the potential to be in our world.  One of the people I studied in seminary that shed the most light on this for me was a Unitarian Universalist minister and theologian, James Luther Adams.  Adams was one of the foremost religious ethicists of the 20^th century.  He began his career as a Unitarian minister in the 1920's, and then in the late 1930's he began teaching religious social ethics at Meadville Theological School, then a Unitarian seminary in Chicago. Later he moved on to teach Christian Religious Ethics at Harvard Divinity School.  His teaching career spanned six decades.

Adams had a lot to say about the meaning and purpose of a free faith, a democratic faith.  He came of age as a religious scholar during the 1930's.  During that period, much of the innovative theological discussion was happening in Germany.  He spent a great deal of time there during the rise of the Third Reich, and his experiences in an increasingly fascist nation left their mark on him.  He notes that one of the most painful human failings his colleagues felt after Germany became Hitler's Germany was that they did nothing to try to stop what was happening in the beginning, while they still could.  In fact, during Hitler's rise to power, many religious leaders conspired with the Third Reich.  By the time it was clear to them all that a terrible evil was alive in their midst, the power they might once have been able to muster was easily crushed, and those colleagues that spoke out were killed or fled to safety.  Adams focused more than any other UU theologian on the nature and value of the democratic faith and the power of voluntary associations in the life of a democracy.  It is easy to see, when you look at his life, why he thought these to be so important.  He felt keenly the responsibility, the fragility and the great blessing of freedom and democracy.  He was constantly agitating for people to organize and use their collective power. 

Let me read you an excerpt of his 1975 essay The Church That Is Free:

“I call that church free which enters into covenant with the ground of freedom, that sustaining, judging, transforming power not made with hands.  It protests against idolatry of any human claim to absolute truth or authority.  This covenant is the charter and joy of worship in the beauty of wholeness.

 I call that church free which in covenant with that divine community-forming power brings the individual, even the unacceptable, into a caring, trusting fellowship that protects and nourishes his or her integrity and spiritual freedom.  Its goal is the prophethood and the priesthood of all believers - the one for the liberty of prophesying, the other for the ministry of healing.”

The free church, for Adams, is a church in relationship--in covenant--with the ground of freedom, with the essence of freedom.  And that ground of freedom is the source of transforming and liberating power. 

The purpose of our church is to engender our commitment to one another--and to the Ultimate--and in doing so, aims to bring transformation and healing to life in the world.  The free church is not just free for those who gather there, but points toward the ultimate moral hope of what freedom can be in our world. 

Living with democracy and freedom is a gift.  It can bring us pride in our faith and patriotism in our country.  But beware, because sometimes the church or the country is wrong.  Thirty years ago, a gay minister serving one of our churches would have risked being fired from that church if he came out.  What do you do when the church is wrong?  Well, I think the same wisdom applies to our church that applies to our nation: When you love your country or your church, you speak up when you disagree with something it is doing.  As participants in a democracy it is our moral duty to examine the actions of our nation and respond as our conscience guides.  Perhaps my mom dragging me to anti-war demonstrations when I was a kid has something to do with this belief of mine!  Putting our trust in anything--democracy, our nation, our church--without carefully examining what it means for us as moral beings is in effect following a false faith.  The one true faith is an examined faith. 

It is this kind of thoughtful, active engagement with freedom that Adams alludes to when he describes the two tenants of a free faith.  One: the reality of a free faith comes to life when people stand in right relationship with one another.  And two: achieving freedom requires the organization of power and the power of organization.  Freedom means nothing if it is not directed to some community-forming purpose. 

So first of all, what does it mean to be engaged in right relationship?  If our covenant is grounded in freedom, that does not simply mean freedom amongst ourselves, it must include all of creation.  This being the case, then to be engaged in right relationship we must be actively working for justice, equality, and the responsible use of freedom in our world. 

This can make some folks uncomfortable.  Especially when your idea of what justice is differs from mine. 

What does it have to do with me whether or not the life partner of someone is denied the right to advise the medical team about their lover’s wishes when the family has the power to bar that person from the conversation?  Why should I be concerned that the leaders of our corporations amass millions, and in some case billions, of dollars in salary packages and bonuses every year while some of their employees cannot afford to buy prescriptions for the family and put food in the table at the same time?  Why should I be concerned that sometime today in our city a black man will be face down on the sidewalk because the police assumed by where he was and what he looked like that he was up to no good and asserted their authority to find out? 

We have so much to be concerned with already, just getting by on our own.  But I feel strongly that to the best of our ability we must engage ourselves and our churches in the task of bringing justice, equality and freedom to life in our world. 

Someone suggested to me once that Unitarian Universalist churches or ministers should not make moral stands on public issues.  We all believe different things and that should be honored.  But what kind of faith is it that makes no moral judgment?  All of our choices in life point to our faith.  Look to them to see what we hold most dear.  If we chose never to take a stand in the world our faith would be spun sugar, a narcissistic endeavor that welcomes tyranny and injustice, and that celebrates inequality by its silence. 

Freedom means something more.  It means we are willing to be something in the world.  We are willing to make partners with other people to bring our vision of universal liberty to life. Which brings me to Adams' second point about the responsibility of our faith: achieving freedom requires the power of organization and the organization of power.  He says,

“The free person will be unfree, will be victim of tyranny from within and without, if his or her faith does not assume form, in both word and deed. . . .There is no such thing as poetry without poems, architecture without buildings or faith without beliefs. . . .  There can be no reliable faith unless there are faith-ful men and women who form their faith into beliefs, who test and criticize these beliefs, and who transform and transmit their beliefs. . . . In other words, people must sincerely work with each other in order to give reliable form and expression to faith.”

This does not mean that the church takes a position on every civic issue.  But the church does stand for seeking justice and equality and in doing so is required to organize its power, and to make an effort to organize power in the wider community to speak to these issues.  During the last election, members of this church organized their power for several causes.  One was the campaign finance reform measure on the ballot.  Had it not been for the effort and organizing power of people here, the measure never would have been put forward to the people of this state.  The measure, as you probably know, didn't pass.  But we still need to be concerned that in order to run for office in this state and in this country you must have access to wealth.  This means that we can only be governed by a segment of the population that has access to power and money.  What does that mean for us?  Does that represent the best that freedom has to offer our nation?  No.  I think we can do better.  It will take time, but I believe there is a deep desire in this country to correct that inequity.  And we here will be engaged in making that happen. 

Unitarian Universalism is a free faith, a democratic faith.  (If it really were true that you can believe whatever you want and come to church here we would have an anarchistic governance model!)  We choose a democratic faith, because we value each person's voice.  We also believe in gathering as a community and choosing ways of being together which represent our deepest values.  Democracy blends the value of community with a respect for the individual.  It asserts that we shall make choices in the world after listening to one another.  But choices will still be made, and we will assert a message to the world. 

These are all grand ideas.  They are great and hopeful dreams. 

And so I offer also a warning in all of this.  It is actually the same observation I make when couples come to me for counseling before marriage or a service of union.  This is what I tell them: You have made and will make promises to each other as you live your life together.  Promises are the foundation of the marriage covenant.  My question for you is what do you do when promises are broken?  One thing I can guarantee is that in any relationship there will be broken promises.  It doesn't mean that someone is intentionally cruel and rotten.  It means that we are human.  But how do you come together again? 

We will make and break promises.  It is true in marriage.  And it is true in the relationships here at the church--the relationships we have with each other personally, as groups and as a church body.  As a minister, I am keenly aware of how painful it is when promises are broken at the church.  (The Old Testament is full of stories about promise made and promises broken--perhaps an indication of how old this problem is?)  But the church is a human institution, and so the same question applies here as it does to committed couples: The question is "then what?"  That depends on a lot of things.  Yet, it is what happens after promises have been broken. That reflects the vitality and true essence of a relationship.

When I was a teenager, we called a minister to my small lay-led fellowship.  It was the first minister who had ever been called, and she was a brand new minister--albeit in her second career.  It all went well for a while.  Then things started to deteriorate. She didn't preach the way they wanted, she wasn't this and she wasn't that.  Factions built up in the church.  When my mom and I would go to church, some of the leaders of one faction would accost her--which side are you on?  Do you know what she did this week?  And on and on.  I am not sure where the beloved community was in all this - it was really hard to find.  So many promises were broken during that painful time.  Some of the people felt that the minister wasn't living up to her promises.  Some of the people felt that the congregation wasn't living up to its promises.  And I know my mother felt betrayed by her church.  It was supposed to support her and help her through the difficult times in her life.  Just when she was going through a messy and painful divorce, her church was turned inward on itself. 

So how do we heal?  How do we pick up the pieces and find a way to promise again?  Relationships that last are relationships where we promise again and again--and we act in good faith and with good will toward one another.  This is where we come to know our real strength, our real powers of endurance.  This is where we come to know the honest truth of our humanity.  None of us are perfect.  We are all flawed, and our relationships are flawed.  And finding the courage to come together again is often an act of faith. 

I have one final message from James Luther Adams this morning:

“But the church is never wholly free: It tolerates injustice, special privilege, and indifference to suffering, as though it were not accountable to a tribunal higher than the world's.  It passes by on the other side, thus breaking the covenant.  In the midst of this unfreedom the congregation comes together to adore that which is holy, to confess its own brokenness, and to renew the covenant.

I call that church free which does not cringe in despair, but casting off fear is lured by the divine persuasion to respond in hope to the light that has shown and that still shines in the darkness.”

May it be so for us. Amen. 

Prayer

Spirit of Life, we pause today to give thanks for the liberties that we are so generously offered.  Help us to be able to see where freedom can grow, and remind us to temper our freedom with responsibility.  May we bring to life in all our relationships healing and transformation and hope.  Amen.

Benediction

Go now, and may the hope of freedom, and the promise of this day be with you.  Go in love and go in peace.  Amen.