1 WHY I AM A UU CHRISTIAN
Rev. Don Beaudreault
First Parish Brewster Unitarian Universalist
November 6, 2015
OPENING WORDS: “You are the light of the world…”
You are the light of world. When a lamp is lit, it is not put under a
bushel, but on the lampstand, where it gives light to everyone in
the house.
Matthew 5:14 (adapted)
MEDITATION WORDS: “A Unitarian Universalist Sermon on
the Mount”
Blessed are you, the poor in spirit,
Those who stand in humility and awe before grandeur,
Who humble yourself before the un-answerables of the universe.
Blessed are you, the mourners,
Those who feel deep sorrow when you miss the mark of human
connection,
Who seek repentance for your unjust acts toward others.
Blessed are you, the meek,
Those who cooperate with nature,
Who discover the joy of accepting.
Blessed are you, the hungry and thirsty,
Those who seek goodness and equity for all existence,
Who rail against the injustices of the planet by performing deeds
of love.
Blessed are you, the merciful,
Those of you who help the suffering,
2 Who cultivate an attitude of caring toward those whose lives are
filled with pain.
Blessed are you, the pure,
Those who have no ulterior motive,
Whose intentions are authentic; whose acts are genuine.
Blessed are you, the peacemakers,
Those who attempt to follow these beatitudes,
Who are able to blend feeling with thought, desire with action.
Beaudreault
SERMON: “Why I Am a UU Christian”
Let me tell you of the different types of Unitarian Universalist
Christians who are members of the UU Christian Fellowship, a
national organization that is part of the UU Association. This
description is according to one pamphlet writer, The Rev. Thomas
D. Wintle, a UU minister:
Some gather for worship around a Communion Table, with all the
pomp and pageantry of the Episcopalians. Others meet, not in
churches, but in living rooms for discussion and Bible study.
Some belong to white-steepled first parish churches on New
England town greens where ancient Puritan covenants are
faithfully recited every Sunday, where the Lord’s Prayer is a
standard part of worship, and where “of course, Unitarians are
Christians!”
Others belong to churches where the Bible is seldom read, no
cross is evident, and the congregation proudly emphasizes its
differences from orthodox Christianity.
Some could join in saying the Apostles’ Creed in an ecumenical
worship service, and others are more comfortable expressing
3 their Christianity in a peace march or working in a shelter for
battered woman. Many would do both. What these members of the
Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship have in common is
their conviction that one can be BOTH a Unitarian Universalist
AND a Christian, both thoroughly modern and faithful to the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
So you see there are UU’s who are “Christians” – as well as UU’s
who are not. Truly, there is not just one way of being a Unitarian
Universalist.
John Sanford, a Jungian analyst and Episcopalian priest helps us
understand this truth by blending psychology and religion.
In his book The Kingdom With: The Inner Meaning of Jesus’s
Sayings, Sanford establishes Jesus as a prototype of the truly
individuated human being; that is to say, as a person who was
able to integrate the various aspects of his existence – with all
their seemingly oppositional nature - thereby becoming a “whole”
person.
Jesus, therefore, can become a role model for humanity.
Indeed, the man from Nazareth was on a “mission” – one to gain
awareness.
He was speaking of the possibility each one of us has to be more
fully integrated in our thoughts, feelings and actions. Jesus is
saying that “the kingdom of God” or the “kingdom of heaven” is
within us! Here, we can substitute the word “God” for “the good”
since the origin of the word “God” has the same root word as
“good.”
This Jungian perspective was not what the early Christians held,
no doubt. Some believed that Jesus was talking about an actual
place – a heaven beyond the earthly existence. And many who
thought this way expected a day of judgment to come within their
lifetimes.
4 Still others believed that the “kingdom of God” meant a new
political realm. These were called “Zealots” and believed Jesus
would be the leader in this new world order.
Sanford prefers to think of such a kingdom as a metaphor for a
new state of being within each individual, and consequently for
the community.
So when the gospel writer Matthew has Jesus say: “The kingdom
of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field,” Sanford interprets
this to mean that there is within our unconscious a treasure
waiting to be found.
What prevents this discovery is our ego, our mask, that which we
use to block deeper understanding. For Jesus, the Pharisees are
the ones who represent this.
They illustrate that which is rigid, unwilling to change. Jesus calls
them “hypocrites” – a Greek word that means “actors.”
“Hypokrites” were the people who played roles on the stage; who
wore costumes and masks to hide who they really were.
In other words, one must get beneath the external self if one is
ever to really understand one’s essence and thereby fully relate to
one’s self and to others.
As Jesus said: I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I
wish it were blazing already. (Luke 12:49).
As Sanford puts it: There is a creative power in us working
intelligently to bring about our uniqueness.
This theme can be seen in the story of Jesus and his disciples as
they encounter a storm on the Sea of Galilee. Terrified, his
followers say: “Master! Master! We are going down” which is a
way of speaking metaphorically, meaning that they are afraid of
discovering that which is beneath the surface of their egos
5 “Where is your faith?” Jesus asks them after he has calmed the
storm.
One of the aspects of discovering the inner self is that we will
find our “inner adversary.” It is not that this adversary is either
good or bad in itself, but that it represents that inside us which
“contradicts whatever conscious attitude we have adopted.”
(Sanford).
By accepting the fact that there are adversarial aspects about
ourself, we can at least begin to be reconciled. Jesus says:
Come to terms with your opponent…love your enemies.
More often than doing this, however, we project our own
unloving selves onto others.
Sanford states: A person who is carrying the burden of our
projections is no longer human to us. He (she) becomes in our
eyes devilish, sinister, a nonperson. This is why we are so prone
to become angry with these people, since they are no longer
people but represent to us what angers us in ourselves.
Says Jesus: Do not judge and you will not be judged; because the
judgments you give are the judgments you will get.
A further aspect of Jesus as a fully congruent person, is the idea
of perfection. He says: You must therefore be perfect just as your
heavenly Father is perfect.
Translating directly from the Greek, Sanford interprets this to
mean that which is “brought to an end state”; to be fulfilled as the
person you can be – not to be “perfect” (meaning without
blemish).
Thinking of Jesus’ mission in life as bringing harmony between
the disparate parts of the human self and community, we can
perhaps better understand the following passage from the New
Testament book of Ephesians:
6 For he is the peace between us, and has made the two into one
and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart…by
restoring peace through the cross, to unite them both in a single
Body and reconcile them with God.
For me, John Sanford has shown the struggle toward wholeness
that the human man named Jesus undertook. And I sincerely
believe as a humanist who is attempting to achieve wholeness in
life that to take no account of the Christian message, is to be less
than fully human and aware.
Certainly by attempting to appreciate the Jungian perspective of
Christianity, I can more readily embrace an essential part of the
Unitarian Universalist tradition.
So may we heed the words of Ann Fields as we attempt to
understand our lives and purposes:
Let us open our hearts to the images which speak to our lives…for
each of us, there is a desert to cross, a star to follow, and a new
being within to bring to life.
CLOSING WORDS: “Love is patient…”
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or
arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not
irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but
rejoices in the truth.
I Corinthians 13: 4-6