December 4, 2005

Rev. Henry Ticknor
Unitarian Universalist Church of the Shenandoah Valley

Welcome The Stranger

There is an old story of two disciples of an elderly teacher who constantly argue about the true path to enlightenment. One disciple says that the path is built on effort and energy.

"You must give yourself totally and fully with all your effort to follow the way of the sacred Law. To pray, to pay attention, to live rightly."

The second disciple disagrees. "It is not right effort at all. That is based only on ego. The right way is to surrender. To follow the way of God, to awaken, is to let go of all things and live by the teaching ‘not my will but thine.’

As they could never agree on who was right, they went to see their teacher. The master listened as the first disciple praised the path of wholehearted effort, and when asked by this disciple, "Is this the true path?" the mastered replied, "Yes, this is the true path."

Understandably, the second disciple was quite upset and responded just as eloquently by describing the path of surrender and letting go. When he had finished he said, "Is this not the true path?" and the master replied, "Yes, this is the true path."

For a while the master and the two disciples sat in silence. The silence was broken by the voice of one of the youngest students who had been sitting nearby and who had heard the conversation between the master and the two disciples.

"Master," the student said, "they can’t be both right."

And here the master smiled and replied, "You are right, too."

This morning I want continue with our yearlong series on the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism. Today we will explore our third principle that calls us to affirm and promote acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.

The first two principles we examined call on us to see the inherent worth and dignity in every person and to bring justice, equity and compassion into our relations with others.

The third, however, calls us to act in a very specific way. It encourages us to be accepting of each other as religious and spiritual beings and to encourage one another in our own spiritual journeys.

So, this morning I want to begin with a little free association exercise. Out of consideration of all who are here, especially any small children who may be with us, this will be a private exercise and we will keep our responses to ourselves. Should you wish to share any of your thoughts during coffee hour that is another matter, entirely.

So here is what we’re going to do. I will say a single word, or a short phrase, and all I ask is that you pay attention to your immediate reaction to the word.

Also, I would ask that you pay attention to the emotions or feelings that you associate with these words. For example I might say words like chocolate or red wine or the seashore at sunset and ask you to pay attention to the feelings that these words elicit. Or I might use a short phrase like sweat socks at the bottom of a gym locker and ask you to note your immediate response to such a phrase.

Remember, we are doing this silently; but remember, too, that in seminary I took the required class on reading other peoples minds especially when your own is too dense to penetrate.

So, here we go. The first word is religion. (pause) what do you think of when you hear that word? What associations does it bring to mind? The next word is church…. Sanctuary….prayer….God….love….life….death….and finally what thoughts and associations come to mind when you hear the phrases like Why am I here? Why must I die? Is there life after death?

I am asking this because for many of us in this room words like spirituality can cause a fair amount of discomfort. I’m not sure exactly where the discomfort comes from because I believe that at some level we are all spiritual beings. I say this because I think if we are honest with one another, each of us, at different times in our lives, is concerned with the big questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose and meaning of my life? And lastly, why must I die.

For me, simply asking these questions is being a spiritual person. How we frame these questions and the answers we give to them is what we call religion.

The word spiritual has its root in the Latin word spiritus, meaning breath. Just as breath gives us life, spirituality, a concern for our most basic questions about our existence, helps to give meaning and purpose to our lives.

Although they might have very different answers to the big questions, I believe that the existentialist Jean Paul Sartre, the physicist Stephen Hawking and the theologian Paul Tillich are, indeed, very spiritual people.

And my hunch, too, is that just as each of us in this room had our own reactions to the words I offered we also have our own and probably somewhat unique spin on the big questions as well. So let’s take a moment to look at what I mean by the word spiritual as it is used in our third principle.

First I’d like to suggest that human beings have been spiritual beings for almost as long as we have been. Writing in the God Gene, Dean Hamer tells us "One of the most famous Neanderthal burial sites is located in a cave near La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France.

There the skeleton of a mature man with his knees drawn up to his chin was found in a shallow excavation in the grotto floor. Nearby there were a variety of flint tools, pieces of red ochre, and the bones of wooly rhinoceros, reindeer, and bison.

The people who buried this man seemed to believe that he would be reborn. The body was buried in the fetal position, as if ready to emerge from the womb of the cave into a new world. The red ochre may have been used to paint the body the color of blood, like a newborn baby."

Hamer continues. "It has been speculated that the tools were placed there so the newborn would have something to work with, and the bones were the remains of animal sacrifices made to provide him with something to eat."

Now Hamer is quick to concede that this is indeed pure speculation. We will never know if this man was buried simply to protect the other cave dwellers from the stench of a dead body or whether the actions were purposeful and filled with the symbolism he suggests?

Hamer ends his book with these words. "Spirituality is very much about the way we perceive the world and our role in it—processes that are mediated by consciousness."

And concerning the differences between spirituality and religion he says, "Spirituality is universal, where as cultures have their own forms of religion." Hamer argues that "Spirituality is genetic, while religion is based on culture, traditions, beliefs and ideas…Our genes can predispose us to believe.

But they don’t tell us what to believe in. Our faith is part of our cultural heritage, and some of the beliefs in any religion evolve over time."

I find Hamer’s distinction between religion and spirituality to be quite useful. I am a spiritual being because of nature…the fact that over the millennia my DNA has come to give me a predisposition to consider the big questions. I am religious, or not, because of the culture I live in, influences of my family of origin, and my own free will.

Writing in a marvelous new book entitled A Short History of Myth, Karen Armstrong tells us "…Transcendence has always been part of the human experience. We seek out moments of ecstasy, when we feel deeply touched within and lifted momentarily beyond ourselves.

At such times it seems that we are living more intensely than usual, firing on all cylinders, and inhabiting that whole of our humanity. Religion has been one of the most traditional ways of attaining ecstasy, but if people no longer find it in temples, synagogues, churches or mosques, they look for it elsewhere: in art, music, poetry, rock, dance, drugs, sex or sport."

Armstrong goes on to suggest that this hunger for transcendence is why most human cultures have created such rich and varied mythologies.

"Myths are universal and timeless stories that reflect and shape our lives—they explore our desires, our fears, our longings, and provide narratives that remind us what it means to be human."

Armstrong believes that it is a mistake to regard myth as an "inferior mode of thought that can be cast aside when human beings have reached the age of reason. She insists that myth isn’t history or objective fact. It is a game that transfigures our fragmented, tragic world, and helps us to glimpse new possibilities by asking ‘what if?’—A question that has also provoked some our most important discoveries in philosophy, science and technology."

And here she returns us to Hamer’s thoughts on the spiritual life of our earliest human ancestors.

"The Neanderthals who prepared their dead companion for a new life were, perhaps, engaged in the same game of spiritual make-believe that is common to all mythmakers:

"What if this world is not all there is? How would this affect our lives—psychologically, practically or socially? Would we become different? More complete?

And, if we did find that we were so transformed would that not show that our belief was true in some way, that it was telling us something important about our humanity, even though we could not prove this rationally?’

I am at present very content to place my religious and spiritual quest for truth and understanding squarely within the Unitarian Universalist tradition. Which is a good thing considering I am speaking from this pulpit. But at times in my life the process of asking "what if" questions has gotten me into trouble.

Let me share a recurring experience that I had in seminary. During lectures and discussions on basic Christian doctrine I would occasionally find myself lulled into thinking this is really great…these folks have ALL the answers. (I just realized that I wrote all in all caps!)

I thought they really did have all the answers to life’s imponderable questions—as my favorite private detective Guy Noire would say. And I would get this warm and fuzzy feeling that there was a meaning to my life and that God indeed had a plan for everything and all would be well.

But this feeling wouldn’t last long. About halfway home, usually just as I was getting on the Dulles Toll road I would suddenly think ‘what are you crazy? This is someone else’s set of beliefs, not yours. Be honest, it’s not what you really believe." And I would recover my senses.

To compound all of this I began to have dreams of myself as a trapeze artist. I was on one trapeze and the person on the other trapeze was a person of deep faith. We were swinging back and forth high above the floor and I could see that there was a safety net under us. I knew that I was the one who was expected to be the ‘flier’ to let go of my trapeze handle and ‘fly’ through the air to be caught by the other.

But in my dream, even though I thought I really wanted to, I could never let go. I wasn’t sure that the other would really catch me or if I would just flop to the net below. I didn’t know what would happen if I was caught; would being in that new place be any better than being where I was?

I’m sure that a psychotherapist might have quite a time with this dream. Over time I came to see the dreams as being about my basic human need to know the answers to the big questions of life.

But in my waking hours I knew that while I can make up my own answers that seem to make sense, they are only speculation at best. As a human being, I am driven to explore my existence.

I am driven to seek answers to those questions that are unanswerable. I am driven to create my own mythologies that seem to satisfy my curiosity. I am driven to be a spiritual person even when I don’t think I am. In fact, I am driven to be engaged in the process of mythmaking.

As Unitarian Universalists we affirm and promote this adventure of spiritual growth and exploration in our congregations.

"Encourage" writes the UU minister Carolyn Owen-Towle, "literally means to put courage or heart into another. All of us need reassuring as we face the travails of life. Sometimes that lift comes in the form of a hug or a supportive comment. It might be heard in a sermon, a piece of music, a poem. At other times it comes as a nudge to get going, to turn around, or to buck up."

And how are we to affirm and encourage one another on our life journeys? The first answer is that we can each minister to one another. We can do this by listening to the stories we all hold dear. We can do this by being willing to share our experiences of both joy and sorrow so that another may feel not so alone. We may do this by being open to the ideas of others and by being open to new ways of seeing the world. We can be empathetic, we can be sympathetic and we can be prophetic in our responses to the world around us. We can do this by living lives that bring us closer to nature and closer to those we love.

And we can do this by welcoming the stranger among us. We Unitarian Universalists who have more questions about life than we have answers, can welcome those who are on the same journey of understanding life’s complexities.

Just as none of us has all the answers, none of us has all the questions. The real question is this: What can I bring to the conversation that will be of help? What can I bring to the conversation that will enable another to have the courage to travel through the vale of tears? "Take courage friends." writes Wayne Arnason in one of the benedictions in our hymnal. "Take courage…The way is often hard, the path is never clear, and the stakes are very high. Take courage. For deep down, there is another truth: You are not alone."

Each Sunday when I see a new face in our sanctuary I think to myself here is another, brave enough to come into a new place, uncertain of our traditions and our beliefs, yet willing to be a stranger among us.

And I am glad for that person’s presence because I know that person will bring far more to our conversation than I may be able to give back in return.

I am glad for the stranger because she or he may have learned that the secret of letting go of the trapeze handle is having the assurance that there really is someone who will catch her when she flies; and trusts the safety net of community to catch him if he falls.

We arrive in this place each week on different paths and headed in different directions. And except for those few birth-right Unitarian Universalists among us, each of us came to this faith tradition as strangers.

We came as strangers but we felt welcomed and affirmed and encouraged to grow as spiritual beings. My hope is that indeed ours is a church that affirms us and encourages us in our exploration of what it means to be alive.

So humanist and Buddhist, Christian and atheist, Jew and pagan, here we are a company of strangers coming together each week to seek out the answers to life’s big questions.

"Master," the student said, "they can’t be both right."

And here the master smiled and replied, "You are right, too."

Amen and blessed be.