In preparing this sermon, I "Googled" the Internet to see if I could find any interesting or humorous New Year's Resolutions.
I was surprised to find that most of the resolutions were quite serious. Most were about the human physical condition -- losing weight, building muscles, getting more sleep.
Many others were resolutions about money -- how to make it, keep it, save it, invest it, love it.
There were several about the human psyche -- resolutions on becoming a better person, a better parent, a better boss. There was even one on how to keep your New Year's resolutions.
According to those who study these things, January is a time of year when folks often "resolve" to start attending church.
The reasons for this return to a place of worship are as many and as varied as the people themselves.
Perhaps it's because they miss being a part of a religious community.
Perhaps it is to provide their children with religious education.
Perhaps they hope that church will provide them with a new world-view and perhaps it's because they just think they ought to.
A recent publication edited by the Unitarian Universalist Association listed a number of the reasons that motivated people to come and visit our churches:
Some of these folks have been questioning some of the traditional religious beliefs and they are looking for a church where their doubts are not ridiculed; where their sorrows are comforted and their joys celebrated.
Some have been looking for a church where children are taught all religions; where individual talents are nurtured. Where reason is honored and friendships are deepened.
Others have a need to be in a place where one's need to serve others is fostered and one's need to laugh is encouraged.
Forrest Church once observed that, "For most of us, our faith did not choose us, we chose it.
Born Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Muslim, or into a secular 'mixed' household, when it came time for us to affiliate with a religious institution we sought one that fit our own thinking, not one that imposed its thinking on us.... Unitarian Universalists are neither a chosen people, nor a people whose choices are made for them by theological authorities--ancient or otherwise."
This is why Unitarian Universalism is referred to as "The Living Tradition." Ours is a dynamic and evolving faith tradition.
We are not a one size fits all kind of theological movement.
Not all of our churches worship in the same ways nor do our congregations all hold to a specific creed or dogma.
Ours is a faith whose authority is grounded in contemporary experience, not ancient revelation.
This Living Tradition of ours did not emerge out of the void fully developed and completely thought out, but rather it is the product of generations of input and debate.
This morning I want to explore briefly the six sources our movement claims as the basis for our Principles and Purposes.
In a series of sermons throughout this spring I will give greater attention to each of the six. But for this morning, let's just walk through the six sources.
If you want you can follow along by referring to the hymnal where you find them listed just before the first hymn.
We say that our Living Tradition comes to us through the direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.
I suppose another good word for transcending mystery is awe.
Awe is a vital dimension of life, but one that is often ignored in our day. Without awe, life becomes flat and people become hollow.
Science reveals a world filled with mystery and wonder. Mystery is truth bigger than us. Mystery is not a problem or riddle to be solved.
With mystery, the more we learn, the more we realize how much more there is that we don't know.
Mystery inspires awe, which invites us to enter into mystery and celebrate the wonder that is all around us.
As Einstein once commented:
"The most beautiful and deepest experience a [person] can have is the sense of the mysterious.
It is the underlying principle of religion as well as of all serious endeavors in art and in science.
He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind.
The sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as feeble reflection, this is religiousness."
Secondly, our living tradition draws from the words and deeds of prophetic women and men that challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion and the transforming power of love.
One of the few times that I am jealous of my colleagues in other denominations is when I am writing a sermon.
You see most ministers can draw on what is often called a lectionary--A thematic collection of readings from the Hebrew Bible, the Gospels and the Epistles that have been organized to coincide with the church calendar.
This morning in many mainline churches the sermon will be on the Epiphany...the story of the Wise Men coming to find the babe Jesus in the manger.
The texts for the sermon would be developed around readings from the Hebrew Bible book of Isaiah, Paul's Letter to the Ephesians and the story of the Magi as told in the Gospel of Matthew.
But we Unitarian Universalists rely on more than just one source for our prophetic message.
We draw from the sacred writings of Eastern religions, Native American spirituality and the works of transcendentalist writers like Emerson and voices from the distant past such as Michael Servetus, the last Unitarian martyr, and even heed the words of Arius who as far back as the fourth century argued for the humanity of Jesus.
Of course we also call upon the writings of modern prophets such as Martin Luther King, Albert Schweitzer, and so many others whose calls for peace and reason seem to go unheard in our own time.
On any given Sunday we Unitarian Universalist ministers must make our way through any number of texts--secular and religious--to find just the right stories and sermon illustrations. But this freedom allows us to rely on the collective wisdom of all humanity and to lift up the voices of all who have spoken out to bring peace and justice to a hurting world.
Next our living tradition draws wisdom from the world's religions that inspires us and informs our worldview.
Today we find ourselves in a world that is greatly troubled by the fundamentalist beliefs of several religions.
As the world has grown increasingly smaller due to instant communication I think that each of us has a responsibility to respect our neighbors' views.
As the Unitarian minister Jacob Trapp notes "Each of the world's religions has a distinctive note, to be likened to the strings of a harp.'
He goes on to suggest that in Hinduism it is the note of the spirit; in Buddhism it is the wisdom of self-discipline;
in Confucianism it is reciprocity;
in Islam it is the note of submission, in Judaism it is the escape from bandage and in Christianity it is that all may become one.
So while there may be times when I am envious of the texts laid out in the Christian Lexionary, I have often been deeply moved and enriched by trying to probe the wisdom the world's religions as I prepare my morning message.
Moving on, the sources of our living tradition also spring from Jewish and Christian teachings that call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves.
After all both sides of our house--the Unitarians and the Universalists--came to us from solid Calvinist origins.
It is only in the last eighty years or so that our movement has been influenced by such movements as humanism.
Many in our congregations are solidly Christian in their thinking and, at the same time, many come to us with strong ties to their Jewish heritage.
That is why we continue to give a prominent place in our worship to the high holidays of both religions.
There is much we can learn from these traditions; there is comfort in hearing again the old stories that come to us from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.
There is much we can explore in these faith traditions that have informed so much of human history.
We should never succumb to the temptation to denigrate or belittle those who personal belief systems are based on Judaism and Christianity.
There is an old Jewish story told by Forest Church in the book Our Chosen Faith that seems to sum up what we have gained from both of these traditions. It goes like this:
A rabbi spoke with God about heaven and hell. "I will show you hell," God said, and they went into a room which had a large pot of stew in the middle.
The smell was delicious, but around the pot sat people who were famished and desperate.
All were holding spoons with very long handles that reached to the pot, but because the handles of their spoons were longer than their arms, it was impossible to get the stew back in the mouths.
"Now I will show you heaven," God said, and they went into an identical room.
There was a similar pot of stew, and the people had identical spoons, but they were well nourished and happy.
"It's simple," God said. "You see, they have learned to feed one another."
So regardless of the religious tradition we feel closest to, let this story be a lesson to every one of us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves.
The fifth source of our living tradition draws from humanist teachings that counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
Up until the late 1920s both Unitarians and Universalists would have been characterized as being Christian denominations--however liberal they may have been.
It was only with the signing of the Humanist Manifesto in 1933 that humanism began to have a strong impact on our movement.
Thirty men, many of whom were UU ministers and lay people, signed the original Humanist Manifesto.
Many of the ancient questions about human worth and dignity were addressed in this document that challenged so much of the religious thinking of its time.
The religious questions of the day in the 1930's were remarkably the same religious questions that had been asked for centuries: what is the nature of moral decisions? Is it inner goodness, or God's law?
What is the fate of humanity? Is our fate in the hands of a God or our own hands?
At the time the authors were penning the Manifesto, there were increasing questions about the existence and nature of God; about the question of salvation, the question of the origins of truth, and the place of science in religion.
However we describe our own beliefs--Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, atheist, humanist, we still have a moral obligation to help those in need and to apply the technical and scientific knowledge of our day to improving the existence of all humanity so that all may realize the goodness of the earth and the milk of human kindness.
And finally, our living tradition draws from the spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
In 1995, a sixth source--"Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature"--was added to our Purposes and Principles.
This sixth source is an open acknowledgement of the importance of Earth-centered spirituality to our UU faith.
And just what are these earth-based traditions that this source is referring to? Well, in one word, I suppose it's paganism.
In recent years, something interesting has happened. The term "pagan" as a religious label is making something of a comeback.
Today, an increasing number of women and men choose to call themselves and their religious outlook "pagan" (or, sometimes, "neo-pagan, or Wicca or any number of other terms").
Margot Adler, commentator for National Public Radio (and a practicing pagan herself) writes in her book, Drawing Down the Moon:
"The thousands of persons on the United States today who call themselves Pagans or Neo-Pagans... consider themselves as part of a religious movement that antedates Christianity and monotheism."
"By pagan," Ms. Adler continues, "they usually mean the pre-Christian nature religions on the West, and their own attempts to revive or recreate them in new forms.
The modern Pagan resurgence includes [among others]... feminist goddess worshippers, new religions based on visions of science fiction writers, attempts to revive ancient religions--Norse, Greek, Roman, Celtic--and the surviving tribal religions..."
For the past two years our church has hosted an event known as Pagan Pride Day and last September well over 200 guests enjoyed crafts, music and talks sponsored in part by our own Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS) group which calls itself Earth Ways. I invite you to consider these words adapted from the Earth Ways link on our website:
"Earth Ways," is a community dedicated to the celebration of the circle of life.
We hold a sacred trust based on integrity and honesty of spirit, and with the diversity of our beliefs, we will feed the fire of our common vision.
We will provide sanctuary for all peoples, by including children, men and women in our workings in perfect love and in perfect trust...
Well, there's a radical statement if ever there was! Talk of integrity, honesty, diversity, divinity and love, why it's enough to make you stop and think perhaps I should have these values in my own life!
So here ends our quick journey through the six sources of our living tradition.
As I said at the outset, in the coming weeks I will spend more time exploring each one in greater depth in order to gain perhaps a little more insight into our pluralistic outlook.
Our faith is the result of the interconnectedness of mind and spirit. We honor science and reason and place great faith in their ability to improve the lot of humankind. But I think we miss something if that is all we rely upon to inform our worldview.
In addition to logic and concrete thinking, I think we also need a dose of what our first source calls the transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life.
Adlai Stephenson, himself a Unitarian layperson, once observed that:
"I think that one of our most important tasks (as Unitarian Universalists) is to convince others that there's nothing to fear in difference; that difference, in fact, is one of the healthiest and most invigorating of human characteristics without which life would become meaningless.
Here lies the power of the liberal way: not in making the whole world Unitarian, but in helping ourselves and others to see some of the possibilities inherent in viewing points other than one's own; in encouraging the free interchange of ideas; in welcoming fresh approaches to the problems of life..."
In the weeks ahead, may we be open to all the mysteries of life and may we go and search diligently for the truth, in whatever form we may find it, and in whatever ways it may inform our lives. May we look for moments of enlightenment that will help us find our way on the path of life.
Let me close with these words from my friend and colleague the Rev. Patrick O'Neil:
So here's to epiphanies, great and small, whenever they occur. A blessing on all Wise Men and Women, East and West. Here's to the stargazers and pilgrims everywhere, who are still foolish enough and brave enough to follow their stars, who travel by night, who bestow their uncommon gifts on us all.
Amen and Blessed be