"The Church Has Left the Building"

A Sermon by
The Reverend Bill Clark

Today I want to talk to you about this faith -- this religion of Unitarian Universalism. Once a month this church year we will be talking about our UU identity. It is a funny identity -- don't you think? People often times can give a few good jabs about this religion of ours. I think it is all done with a sense of humor and perhaps with good intention. It is definitely a religion that is the brunt of some good jokes.

"Did you hear about the Unitarian Universalist who moved into the neighborhood? They burned a question mark in his lawn."

"What do you get when you cross a Jehovah's Witness with a Unitarian Universalist? Someone who comes and knocks on your door -- for no particular reason.

There's one of the worst jokes about the UU who dies and finds him or herself in the afterworld where there is a fork in the road. There are two signs. One says "To Heaven" the other, "To a Discussion about Heaven." The UU goes where?

Then there's the one about two old Maine salts talking on the dock one day about their friend John who has just joined the local UU church. One says to the other, "Unitarian Universalist? What's that?" "Well, best I can figure it, a UU is somebody who has no principles and lives by 'em." 

Now we all laugh -- and I did too. But, to quote my colleague the Rev. Scott Alexander, "I'm not laughing anymore." This religion -- this faith -- I have freely chosen is a faith and a force that demands of me intense spiritual and intellectual integrity, discipline and some good old-fashioned hard work. As a Unitarian Universalist I do not spend my time worrying about the next life. I am not counting, confessing nor absolving sins to purify my soul. Heaven and Hell are not concepts that keep me up at night. It's hunger, homelessness, hatred, inequality, bigotry, war, violence, in this life that keeps me tossing and turning -- and lately, tossing and turning on a pretty regular basis. This religion of Unitarian Universalism -- my faith -- our faith -- requires of all of us to serve -- to help -- to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for one another and our earth. It asks of all of us for a commitment to social action, social justice to make this world a more peaceful and just place to live. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "It is in our lives, and not our words that our religion must be read." One important identifying factor to a Unitarian Universalist is their deeds and not their creeds.

So the thought today is about our UU identity, but it is about our identity as Unitarian Universalist in our work with social action and social change. An exemplar within our faith to this ideal of deeds and not creeds is that of James Luther Adams -- one of the most important Unitarian liberal religious thinkers of the twentieth century. Adams cared deeply about religious institutions and their vital role passing on our values and shaping the political culture towards the demands of love and justice. For Adams, religion was not merely a personal concern but also a social concern. James Luther Adams was born the son of a fundamentalist "tentmaker" minister, who prepared Jim to be an emissary of the end times. In college he met an influential Unitarian minister, humanist John Dietrich, who changed his life. Adams attended Harvard Divinity School and took up his first ministry in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1930's. His theology changed over his years and moved toward having more faith in our potential for good. He remained engaged with the idea that history is not random but operates toward a divinely directed goal and each moment is a moment of decision and commitment. Either one's life is a life of commitment, or else it is a meaningless pastime.

His life of commitment to the liberal religious institutions was greatly influenced by his witnessing the rise of Nazism. As he visited Germany and watched the rise of the National Socialists, Adams saw the institutional forces that might have stopped Hitler's rise to power, among them liberal institutions, crumble before him. Again and again, good liberal Germans chose silence rather than risk "getting their head bashed in."

As a liberal religious faith Unitarian Universalists have often been accused of individualism. Our faith, it has been said, fosters individual spiritual growth. "We are prone," writes Adams, "to take seriously only the responsibility of doing our own professional or vocational work well. In this fashion we evade a costing responsibility for the social policies of the common life." In getting caught up in our vocations, Adams suggest that men and women fail to respond to participation in community conflicts on the grounds that they will otherwise jeopardize the high quality of their own work. This way of thinking and acting in the world Adams calls the sins of omission committed by retreating, uncreative eunuchs.

These are powerful words from one of our own great Unitarian theologians. And although critical of a life of retreat, Adams held high the hope and potential for that conversion within ourselves. "Only by some such revolution," he wrote, "can we be seized by a prophetic power that will enable us to proclaim both the judgment and the love of God. Only by such a conversion can we be possessed by a love that will not let us go."

It is the affirming of that universal love, the sacredness of all life, the love that will not let us go, where the life of retreat away from is turned toward a life of engagement into. The potential is there and James Luther Adams never lost sight of that hope. His writings and teachings continually challenge us to move forward to an engaged liberal religious life of social activism, and social justice work.

So what of the works that we are engaged in here in this liberal religious institution?  Our numerous social action programs keep our social action committee busy that is for sure. And yet I challenge us this Sunday to take a good hard look at this work and see whether we are doing our vocations of social action work well? Or are we engaged in the work of social justice and social change. To better illustrate this point, let me tell you a story.

It is a story about a small village, a wonderful, lush place right by the river. Everybody knew everybody and there was a great sense of fulfillment. One day a peasant was walking by the river. He looks over into the river and sees a baby floating in the water. Instantly, he jumps in, pulls the baby to shore and brings him to safety.

The next day he is walking by the river in the same place and there are two babies floating in the river. He calls out for help and soon two villagers jump in and pull the babies ashore to safety. The next day there are four babies, the next day eight babies. This continues with more and more babies coming down the river.

Soon it reaches the point where the whole village has to organize in order to rescue the babies that are increasing in number. Now this goes on and on and they keep rescuing more and more babies and become so well known through the area that clergy people would come and bless them for what they are doing.

Finally one day someone says, "you know, maybe we should go upstream to find out where these babies are coming from."

But the elders of the village say, "We can't do that. If we take a group upstream there won't be enough people to rescue the babies here."

Now the person who made the suggestion was a lone voice. "I'm still sure that we really should go up the river because even though we may lose a few babies, it will be the work of justice, as we'll find out what the source of this is and we can put a stop to it. Then there will be no more babies floating down the river. Justice will be served

But the elders said, "No, we can't afford to do that. We must stay here and continue to perform the action of rescuing these babies."

So they continued to rescue more and more babies, until it got so overwhelming that they couldn't rescue them all.

To me this story beautifully illustrates the issues of social action and social justice. The action of pulling the babies to safety is imperative. Yet, the justice work of finding the cause for their appearance has far reaching, and longer lasting benefits. Social action eventually reaches the point of social justice. You have to go to the root cause to find out why is this happening. Social justice then leads to social witness. So with strong convictions and in the public arena you take a stand and work for change.

So what of our work here at First Parish? What is the vision of our social action work? Although all of it is important and helpful, does one serve justice while the other actions?  As in our children's conversation, are we giving fish to folks so they can eat for a day? Or are we teaching folks to fish so they can eat for a lifetime?

Don't misunderstand me, all of this work is important, and yet the mission of our congregation is "to serve the larger community and create a more just and loving world." Engaging in the work of justice-making we engage in the tasks of helping people to be free.

Yet this freedom comes at a price. One cannot be free without a home to feel safe and secure in. One cannot be free without enough food to feed one's family. One cannot be free without access to health care services. One cannot be free without the same job opportunities and educational opportunities as others may have. One cannot be free when the gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen with time. Freedom comes from equality and justice. And if freedom is the most important goal, then part of our work as a faith community must be an engagement and involvement outside of these four magnificent walls. The church, my friends, has to leave the building.

Our social action ministry over the years has done wonderful work. Part of our service today is to find out where some of your passions lie in the work of social justice. If you had to choose one or two things that you would like First Parish to be known for, to work towards, what would that be? Do we act locally and think globally? Do we focus on this community alone or reach beyond its borders? Do we reach out further to other nations or do we focus on the disparities within this country?

Clearly in today's world there is no shortage of need. Yet we also must face the painful reality that we cannot do it all. And we also must clearly understand it is not the work of a committee! It is all of our work. "What imaginations, what poetic genius can foresee the potentialities of such a force in the life of men and women." What are the potentialities to the force in our lives?

What are we willing to do to help the church leave the building? Where are your passions for social justice? (Cards....fill them out.......talk amongst yourselves in the pews for a few moments)

Beebe award to Al Jacobson.

James Luther Adams and our own Al Jacobson have set the challenge before us in this liberal religious faith. We can either, retreat into our own lives and spiritual vocation and be retreating and uncreative eunuchs and commit the sin of omission. Or we can be that prophetic church and prophetic voice that concerns itself with the struggle for human decency and justice. We can be that church, that liberal voice that holds out the chalice of our faith to offer hope and freedom to those who have none.

A colleague tells the story of one of his parishioners who grew up in Slovakia and was a child when the Nazis arrived. It is a horrible story, where the little girl watched as her parents were shot, watched as later numbers were tattooed on her arm in the camps, watched as friends disappeared. And yet she survived. What helped her survive she claimed, what got her through day after day was this small daily act: she took her finger and each day in the talcum-like dirt of the concentration camp, she sketched a chalice, her symbol of freedom. Under her chalice she wrote the Czech words for "Truth overcomes." She said, "my sketch of the chalice on the ground contained that sacred wine of hope which I drank every day to my delight. That sketch in the dirt gave meaning to my terrible life."

My friends, the chalice of this our liberal religious faith calls us to offer hope and freedom to a hurting and imperfect world. And this is nothing to laugh at! Now more than ever, may each of us search our hearts to find the work that will engage us in the world to labor for social justice, freedom and equality for all. May we be the dreamers of dreams and the doers of deeds.

The church has, indeed, left the building.

Blessed Be.