Sermons

INTRODUCTION: One of my favorite stories that I like to share at this time of year comes from Charles Schulz and one of his Peanuts cartoon panels. In this particular cartoon, the irrepressible Lucy asks Charlie Brown about his preferred seating on cruises. She says:

“Charlie Brown, when you’re on a cruise ship, do you like to put your deck chair so that you’re facing the front of the ship so that you can see where you’re going? Or do you like to turn your chair toward the back of the ship so that you can see where you’ve been?”

Charlie Brown’s face turns red and he confesses, “Neither one.” As we would expect from Lucy, she refuses to accept that answer and says, “What do you mean by ‘Neither,’ Charlie Brown? Which is it: putting your deck chair so that you can see where you’re going, or putting it so that you can see where you’ve been?”

Charlie Brown now confesses, “It doesn’t matter whether I’m looking forward or backward, I always have trouble getting my deck chair unfolded.”

This time of year is when we talk about the year past and the year ahead. We talk about things that occurred last year, and our hopes and expectations for the New Year. But in the midst of our planning for the future and reviewing the past, life intrudes – we can’t get our deck chair unfolded. Or as the saying we know so well puts it, “Life is what happens when we were planning something else.”

Sometimes what happens is good, sometimes it’s bad. But in the midst of the give and take of life, the ups and downs, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, like Charlie Brown we are forced to confess that it isn’t a matter of looking ahead or looking back. Sometimes, we simply can’t get the basics of life to work. A relationship fails, a financial expectation or reversal, death or sickness, the limitations of age – life itself does not yield to our efforts.

In times like those…in times like these…what role does faith play? What difference does it make, what we believe?

I must confess that although I’ve been a member of the clergy since young adulthood, and that I’ve studied theology, and sacred scripture, practiced spirituality, and engaged regularly in religious services, both as a profession and for myself as a person…yet for most of my adult life, there has always seemed to be something incomplete about the belief systems, religions and theologies I encountered.

Yes, I believed this or didn’t believe that. I was clear about so much, but despite the best of efforts, reading the best of books, hearing the best of speakers, I never seemed to find that sense of a comprehensive overview where all the parts fit together.

To make it more difficult, for some unknown reason, I’ve always been drawn more to unbelief than to belief. Which is why that when I found Unitarian Universalism, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Like many others, initially I found it so incredibly freeing to be with others of like mind – who didn’t believe.

That gave me impetus eventually to go through the extended process required for transferring my ministerial orders from the United Methodist Church to the Unitarian Universalist Association. Then I discovered something very basic: There’s not a lot of difference between “believing six impossible things before breakfast,” and “not believing six impossible things before breakfast.” Because in both, there is no there, there in either. They provide nothing to grab on to. To believe something that’s not so, or not to believe something that’s not so, is not enough. Neither provides handholds for the living of these days.

n completely accepts the contribution and insights to life of a scientific world view,

n and still totally affirms the value and worth of religion, ritual, scripture, and story?

Would you believe, after all those years, I finally feel I can say, yes. Not only for myself, but also that it will work for others, as well? I mean, I’m almost ready for the mission field. I’ll soon be competing with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, going door-to-door any day now.

More seriously, it doesn’t put anybody’s religion down. It doesn’t attack believers or nonbelievers. But it does have a perspective that I think is authentic, informed and meaningful.

Today, I want to introduce you to a condensation, which we will attempt in coming weeks to flesh out. And with your input and support, we may even be able to produce a book for our 10^th anniversary in 2011 – only three+ years away!

Since it’s the result of a lifelong search, some of the ideas put forth will not be new, in fact, most will not be. But hopefully, the framework will be. And it will be something that we can learn to identify with easily.

Further, since it’s an understanding that has been created with you over the past 6½ years, there will still be room for give and take, proposing, altering and removing. That possibility is one of the reasons why a part of the sermon is printed and placed in your order of service, so that you can have it for referral during the Conversation Café. It’s why a note card is also in the order of service, along with pencils being available, so that you can write your questions down. And it’s why we will have 7½ minutes of interaction between you and me as the concluding section of my sermon. And if you want you can continue the conversation with the others at coffee time.

Let me transition here for a moment: My major in college was journalism. Though religion was never mentioned in the course, it turned out to be a very religious learning experience for me. I discovered that the first lesson taught in news writing was very theological, namely, that the first sentence or paragraph – the lead – of every news story had to do five things – we called it the five “W’s.” It had to answer, Who, What, When, Where, Why, and sometimes How. That way, if the story was longer than the space available, it could simply be cut off at the bottom to fit, because the lead had already given the basic data.

But those questions – the 5 W’s – are also the questions of faith: who, what, when, where, why and how? Who are we, where are we, why are we, what are we, when did we, and how? Those are the questions of existence.

So here are some of the first principles that I’ve discovered after a lifetime of study, thought, experience, praying, meditating, reading, writing, pilgrimages, retreats, listening, hoping, believing, disbelieving, teaching and preaching.* I’ve put them in “We believe” form, which we might call “creedifying” them.

George Santayana said that every species has an innate sense of trust in the created order. The chicken, the cow, and the human being. We all, to put it in religious language, “trust in God.” We depend upon things to be the way they are. Humans are not uniquely related to the Source of life. We all have a sense of confidence in the way things are. We are all part of the Whole.

I mentioned the 5 W’s of journalism. One of them is “Where?” Where did we come from. We talk about cause and effect. The reality of the Universe is that we have this grand effect but without a known cause. Let me repeat that: The reality of the Universe is that we have this grand effect but without a known cause.

There are some who cannot tolerate that notion and they insist that a cause be named, namely, God. It’s the system called “Intelligent Design.” That our bodies, our planet, our Universe, are far, far too brilliant in their design for there not to have been a Great Designer. The rationale for their work is simply what I stated: we have a grand effect without a known cause.

Of course, as you know from logic, you can say the same thing about God. Where did this great God who created the world come from? And where did whatever created God come from? Etc., etc.

n because we are Part of a Whole beyond our comprehension, it will always remain the Mystery before which we each stand.

We stand in awe before life and death, joy and suffering, even conception through sexual intercourse. How can such a world be? What a mystery to us all. But what a Mystery the Universe is as a Whole and as a part. For we are a part of that Mystery…that Whole.

We are all a part of the food chain. There will be a day when none of us will be…except that we will have made a difference…perhaps in having offspring…or in enabling and supporting others. But when we die, there is no way we disappear. As Wehner von Braun put it, “The Universe does not know extinction.”

n yet due to both its immensity and complexity, we can feel disconnected from other Parts and from our true self, as well as from the Whole…

In religion, it’s called sin. We lie, we cheat, we take advantage, and when we do, we feel guilty. We feel disconnected and miserable.

n which is why we turn to spirituality as a way of connecting to the best of ourselves, to each other, and to the Whole.

Spirituality takes many forms, but one form is to help us connect to that which is greater than we are…to our source.

Sometimes people tell me they are spiritual, not religious. That may well be. For me, however, spirituality is the act of attempting to connect to the Source of Life, to God. Religion is tying it together with the rest of life.

So look at the conversation café sheet, look at your card, and turn to someone nearby to talk a moment and come up with a question to which I will respond.

It’s 2008. Here’s what I think life is saying to each of us as we face this new year: Don’t put a period where life only intends a comma. The future beckons each of us.

[1] A sermon presented on January 06, 2008, first in a series of sermons at the Conversation Café of All Faiths Unitarian Congregation, meeting at the Crestwell School, 1904 Park Meadows, Ft. Myers, FL, by the Rev. Dr. Wayne Robinson, minister.

* Subject to change.