The Power Of Commitment
Given by James Covington on March 30th, 2008
RESPONSIVE READING
In a world with so much hatred and violence,
We need a religion that proclaims the inherent worth and
dignity of every person.
In a world with so much brutality and fear,
We need a religion that seeks justice, equity,
and compassion in human relations.
In a world with so many persons abused and neglected,
We need a religion that calls us to accept one another and
encourage one another to spiritual growth.
In a world with so much dogmatism and falsehood,
We need a religion that challenges us to a free and responsible
search for truth and meaning.
In a world with so much tyranny and oppression,
We need a religion that affirms the right of conscience
and the use of the democratic process.
In a world with so much inequality and strife,
We need a religion that strives toward the goal of world community
with peace, liberty and justice for all.
In a world with so much environmental degradation,
We need a religion that advocates respect for the interdependent
web of all existence of which we are a part.
In a world with so much uncertainty and despair,
we need a religion that teaches our hearts to hope and our
hands to serve. –Scott Alexander
My sermon thoughts today are a bit random. Let me just admit that from the start. I started out thinking I would speak about commitment, and I will, but in the process, found myself thinking about a number of things. Perhaps there is a connection. We’ll see.
Here is the first thing. I was very struck by our responsive reading today. Scott Alexander, the author of the reading, is a UU minister and serves a congregation in Bethesda, Maryland. He was formally director of the Office of Lesbian and Gay Concerns, and the AIDS Action and Information Program, of the Unitarian Universalist Association. There are two things that stand out for me in this reading. The first is the phrase, “we need a religion.” This phrase follows the general description of one of the various social ills of our modern world. In a time when religion has been critiqued so sharply by a number of writers and when we know how divisive and destructive religion can be, and I know many of you have immediate negative reaction to the term, why would we need a religion? Are we a religion? I believe we are and I believe our strength and growth depend on how well we define ourselves as a religious faith. The reading implies that we are. But what kind?
Here’s what I think: Religion is usually associated with belief in dogma or supernatural power. But the classical meaning of religion is that which binds or brings people together–that which connects. In that sense, the religious impulse is a natural response for connection or attachment. It may or may not have anything to do with supernatural being or dogma. Clearly, the religion referred to in our reading today, implies a commitment to relationship and social responsibility. Here’s a definition I like: religion is a system of thought, feeling, and action that is shared by a group and that gives the members an object of devotion. Religion is a system of thought based on intelligence, knowledge, analysis, facts. It is a system of feeling based on intuition, awareness, need and how the information we have affects us. Religion is a system of action based on what we know and feel in regard to social change and saving the world from ourselves. And our object of devotion? What might that be? Love.
As you know the reading today, is based on our 7 principles. These principles are not preordained or perfect or inerrent. Nevertheless, in my opinion, these principles outline our relgious outlook. They define our thought and feeling about our moral and social responsibility. There are two things that are emphasized: relationship or connection with one another and social responsibility:
Let’s talk about relationship. We deceive ourselves if we think we can be grasped by life’s meaning, or a sense of the holy, before we find and are found by our fellow human beings. [1] There is no sense of the sacredness of life, no sense of the holiness of sheer existence that does not come first through another person. Religious community is people reaching through all the facades people carefully place around them–people embracing people where they live and struggle– “creative interchange.” When we are most alive, we are in the presence of someone or something intensely with us!.Nothing is experienced except in relation either with someone or with a presence within us, or both. It is participation in a religious community that stabs our consciousness into this awareness in the midst of a society that knows nothing about it.
Here’s the 2nd point, social response: The religious congregation that primarily looks inward for the discovery of meaning, wholeness and service, and spirituality (and does not move out beyond its walls to visibly, live its religion in the wider community) will not experience growth and depth. And inward-looking church that does not empower its people to take their faith to the streets in service to others is a church that cannot grow in responsibility or depth.
As you will note in our responsive reading today, the references to all the principles point to the ongoing search for Truth and social responsibility, i.e., relating to the world around us and acting in that world to ensure justice, equity and compassion in human relations. These are the principles to which we are committed to uphold through our lives and our actions in the world.
Last week I talked about hope, Easter’s hope. I defined hope as the anticipation of the good, an energy born of the human being’s innate nature and often found in the deepest, starkest realities of life. Hope is born of our common connections.
But of course, hope can sometimes be only a passive thing. We can hope and dream and without something else, hope will die. Hope needs commitment, i.e, an active response. It requires giving over to. It requires sacrifice and sometimes, anger. The best example of this is the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 60’s. Anger and hope fueled and enlivened the Black community. But it was Rosa Parks refusing to get off a bus and Martin Luther king’s non-violent activism that kept hope alive and led to change.
Here’s another way to define religion: A religious life, a meaningful life, is all about love. And what is love if not a reaching out, a spirit that wants to share, to connect, to make a difference? Love is not love unless it is given away. Think about that for a second. Love cannot be hoarded. Love must be shared; love must be given away. And deep down, if you and I are honest with ourselves, if we are in touch with our deepest longings and our highest aspirations, we want to give ourselves away. The happiest people I have known, the people who live the most satisfying lives, are people who have learned to give themselves away.
We call ours a free religion. We are part of a long tradition of free churches. We hold freedom as a sacred value. No one is going to tell us what to believe, what to think, or what to do. Our first principle affirms the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We affirm each individual’s free and responsible search for meaning and truth.
And yet freedom is a lot like love. Freedom is like money. It only has value when we spend it. Freedom only has value if we give it away. Only when we lose some of our freedom do we build a life. Let’s explore that for a minute. What is getting married or entering into a committed relationship if not losing freedom? It isn’t freedom that brings us happiness; it is commitment. Think about having children. Any parent knows how much freedom we give up with children. Yet it is our willingness to give up our freedom, our willingness to commit to parenthood, that makes possible the sharing of love between parents and children.
Imagine a life without deep, lasting commitments. Imagine a life without making promises and keeping them. A life without commitments is a life that is empty and lonely. You and I create our lives by making commitments and keeping them. The larger our commitments, the deeper our commitments, the deeper and richer our lives. The dedicated life is the life worth living. [2]
This goes for our commitment to this Fellowship. We could be doing other things this morning. You are free to do so. But many of us have given up that freedom, to partake in a religious experience of meaning and depth. It means giving up time, giving energy, giving money to make it happen. But it is a commitment that brings depth and meaning that you are not likely to experience in general society.
Now having defined religion from my own perspective, which of course is also the UU perspective, let’s take a moment to think about us. Those of us in this sanctuary this morning come from widely different backgrounds. Most of us were born in another part of the country, or even outside this country. One thing the vast majority of us has in common, though, is that we made a decision to walk through the doors of this church for the first time. We came in search of something.
We did not want to pretend that we believed things we found unbelievable. Based on what I know about you, I believe your were and are looking for a place where you could join hands with others to work to create a meaningful life and a better world.
How many people do you believe are also looking for a religious home? How many progressive, open minded and good hearted people are there who have no religious home, who feel out of place in a more orthodox religious setting? How many parents are there who want their children to learn lasting spiritual and ethical values rather than dogma and fear? How many people are living lives of isolation and loneliness–people who long for friendship and connection? How many gay, lesbian and transgender people are there who long for a place where they are not ostracized, where they are accepted, where they can just be themselves?
And just look around at America today. We live in troubled times. We live in a culture of paranoia and confusion, greed and instant gratification. Many of us are deeply concerned about the state of our world and the leadership of our government. The souls of thousands of our neighbors and millions of our countrymen are deeply troubled. These souls are vulnerable to easy answers–answers that create division and scapegoats. People who are afraid can be made to see enemies everywhere. This week in peer supervision meeting with my professional colleagues, someone mentioned that we live in a traumatized culture. Everyone agreed–traumatized by war, violence, media saturation, divorce, family breakdown, abandonment, isolation. Many of our clients seem more despairing and numbed out than anytime in recent memory.
We live in a time that desperately needs a different religious message. We live in a time that urgently needs a religious message of comfort, a message of hope, a message of love, reason and tolerance. We need a message that says every single person matters, that each of us is connected to each other, that the common humanity that unites us is far more important than our differences. We need a religious message that urges us to gather together, listen to one another with an open heart and an open mind, and truly get to know each other. We need a religious message that says that we need to take care of this earth. We need a religious message that tells how important it is to live responsibly with one another, in our homes, our neighborhoods, in our nation, and with other nations.
I believe most people want to participate in making the world a better place. They want a place where their children can grow and be nurtured.
We yearn to have something in our short existence that somehow partakes of the infinite, the eternal – or at least something good and honorable that will outlive us. We find our most satisfying identity not by shining spotlights on ourselves, but by becoming smaller parts of something larger.
That’s what honest religion is about, and what this congregation is about: offering a place where personal and spiritual transformation is possible. We are religious liberals because we won’t accept creeds or dogmas, or mandated behaviors that come from priests, churches or traditions unless they feel honest, and they are useful to us. We reject creeds and dogmas not because we don’t care, but because we care too much to settle for mediocre versions of religion.
There’s nothing supernatural about all this. It’s the part of our human nature we’re trying to nourish, whether you want to call it the Buddha-seed, the God-seed, or the depths of our potential to become more fully human and alive. We’re all aware of needing to serve ideals higher than our own personal wants and needs.
But see how this is an example of how serving ideals that transcend our own personal wants are transformative, both of individuals and institutions? Now we come to your part in all of this. It’s simple. Your part is to be here, and be present. We’ll promise honest religion for head and heart – I’ll try and focus each Sunday on high ideals that can transform our lives and our world, and to present them in ways that may touch you, move you, and give you something worth taking home with you. But you have to be here for it to work. We could serve some of the finest spiritual meals in the world, and it wouldn’t make a bit of difference if you aren’t here. And if you want your children educated, they have to be here, too. It wouldn’t matter how good a religious education curriculum were if kids were absent half the time.
So come in, get active, bring your creative and constructive ideas. Add your voice. Be present. Make it your religious home. And help make it stronger and healthier. And then help us live out our ideals in the world around us by welcoming the stranger, the gay and lesbian, the outcast, working for peace and justice, feeding the hungry, keeping the community safe.
And support this institution financially. Discover where you belong in the range of financial giving here, and settle in. Our median pledge is about $660 per unit, but we have people pledging from very little to thousands of dollars a year. Think about where your income level fits in here. Is it about average? Lower? Higher? What is this place worth to you? All of the things I have been talking about, are intangible. It’s not like paying monthly payment for a car. We are talking about values, meanings, transformation. What is that worth to you? Ten dollars a week? Twenty dollars? It almost feels ridiculous to talk about “worth” in this manner.
Find your most responsible level of financial support, and settle into it. We’re not going to whine or beg – this is a grown-up church and you’re adults. We do hope that you will be generous and pay your way according to your ability. For those are also high ideals that help define and shape our character: supporting the institutions we believe in. So pledge something, and be generous in your pledge. It will absolutely transform the way you feel about this good Fellowship and about yourselves. That is what a religious community is finally about.
We don’t need to be clever. We need to be faithful. When we are faithful to our religion, our lives are filled with purpose and meaning. The love in our hearts will guide us. The passion in our hearts will empower us.
Let us begin here at home. Let us continue to welcome all who would make this their religious and spiritual home. Let us grow our faith together.
We would be one in building for tomorrow
a nobler world than we have known today.
We would be one in searching for that meaning
which binds our hearts and points us on our way.
As one, we pledge ourselves to greater service,
with love and justice, strive to make us free.
–We Would Be One