June 2008 Minister’s Letter

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: All things with which we deal, preach to us.  What is a farm but a mute gospel?  I’m not sure what he meant by gospel, but I will assume he meant that which is true–one of the definitions offered by Webster. Anyway, I like the metaphor. Emerson was a Transcendentalist who was reacting to what he considered the stale theology of Unitarians. While Unitarians were known for their rationalism and devotion to reason, the Transcendentalists wanted their religious life to have passion and feeling wedded to critical thinking.  They had a hunger for personal and authentic experience.  They sought a living religion that would stir their hearts, not just something based on old established rules and forms.  Their highest goal was spiritual growth, the cultivation of their inner spiritual  natures(longings and aspirations for meaning, purpose and connection).  When Emerson wrote the statement above, he was suggesting that a farm, a mountaintop, an interpersonal encounter, a day at work are all mute gospels, if we will but let their teachings infiltrate our days.  Spiritual practice to the Transcendentalist was a way of helping oneself to ground all thought, action, ethics, religion and art in one’s individual experience.  Through spiritual practice, humans get closer to the mind of the divine.

Some of us believe that there is an ineffable spirit that animates all creation. We don’t feel dogmatic about it.  It’s just a feeling. Some of us need to name that spirit.  So we call it “God” or “Universal Spirit,” or “The Holy One” or “Love”. The Transcendentalists named it “Over-Soul.” Transcendentalists thought that the existence and nature of God could not be known through empirical demonstrations, but only intuitively, by faculties that “transcend” the seen and felt world.

I found myself thinking about the Transcendentalists in recent days after viewing a wonderful DVD entitled Listening to Experience, produced by the UU Association of Congregations.  In this recording, 12 visionary UU ministers talk about growth in their respective congregations, all of which are the fastest growing ones in the UUA.  In sharing their experiences one minister noted that people come to her congregation today because they are hungry for the holy, for the divine and for connection.  Interestingly, the Unitarian author, David Robinson, writes that spirituality is the “feeling or hunger for a deeper inner life and a more profound experience of the world that we share. We’re haunted by the specter of our own superficiality.”  I’ve also been speaking about connection and depth in some of my sermons.  Recently I commented that UU’s need a clearer religious and theological identity. I mentioned that I believe gratitude should be central to our identity and also commented that we need to speak of a God that people who take both faith and reason seriously can   believe in. 

For some of us, language is a vehicle to knowing and experiencing the depths.  Words such as God, divine, transcendence, Ground of Being, Universal Spirit, are words that help us probe the mystery of being, and connect ourselves relationally to the greater good, or to that which is greater than all and present in each. During the spring and summer months, this relational quest is heightened by the beauty of rebirth and nature.  There is a running joke amongst ourselves about how we UUs take a vacation from God in the summer.  Well, I don’t think so.  We will continue to have lay-led services on Sundays. And whether atheist or theist or something else, hopefully we’ll be attaching ourselves to the Presence of Being that we all experience in the world of nature, vacation and play and even on Sunday mornings at worship. …… allowing the mute gospels to speak to us.   I love you all.  See you soon.