SPEAKER:Rev. Tim Ashton

SERMON:Palm Sunday

DATE:March 16, 2008

TRANSCRIBER:David Irvin

When I assist with adult religious education classes or attend them, I learn a lot about our congregation. It reminds me that we shouldn’t stereotype ourselves. Now as I mentioned before, we have been doing “Owning Your Religious Past,” a curriculum which seeks to assist the people who participate in talking with each other about our religious pasts: how they affect us with a particular concern to try to figure out how they continue to guide as well as confuse our lives.

Now from this experience, I’ve gotten several different pictures of what might be UU typologies that you may not notice just by looking at the person. Here are some examples:

There’s the multi-faith, multi-cultural UU, who grew up in a family with many different religious views, values, philosophies, affiliations, etc. And more, to those people, all these different views and values seemed to come together and create a kind of harmony, giving them the sort of worldview that, of course, everybody must have different religions and there is no reason we all shouldn’t getalong and isn’t that great? What a wonderful background to come from. But there is a difficulty sometimes. If you come from a happily diverse family and if you haven’t been a part of a UU church, and finally if you decide maybe you need an institutional religious home, then you will likely experience difficulty if you do not easily find a UU congregation with which to affiliate. Outside of the Unitarian Universalist fold, there are few truly multi-faith organizations. So when you find a UU church, it’s like “WOW! Now here’s the place where I fit!”

Perhaps more typical is the person who had a strong religious tradition in their growing-up home. They did not experience the tradition as oppressive. But as they grew up, the tradition seemed less and less to fit whom they were becoming. More and more they said to themselves: “I just can’t quite squeeze myself into all the places I’m supposed to squeeze my beliefs and ideas”. You try hard to be a good kid, but it eventually occurs to you that you have to make some break, express who you are, but this can be rather painful. If you have a supportive, positive family and you love them, and if indeed they are tolerating your transition, though it’s painful, you may come to “Owning Your Religious Past” to accomplish several complex transitions: to be able to, while you’re differentiating yourself, at the same time to hold on to what is good and positive, and to maintain your family connection.

There’s another group, not unlike this, which we might call “Struggling Former Catholics”. I hate to use the stereotypical word, but many of you use it: “recovering Catholics.” Not everyone has this relationship to Roman Catholicism, this isn’t a blanket attack on that church, but for lots of people it seems like their religion was driven by guilt. They come to “Owning Your Religious Past” in the hope of being able to put sort of positive, motivational “legs” under their religious feelings. They want to be able to feel differently about being religious. They want to wake up on Sunday morning and say, “I want to go to church because it’s fun, creative, interesting, not I have to go to church because it’s an obligation!”

Along with all of these examples, there are more. They are the folks who had either no religious background at all or else it was just sort of there, kind of like the colors of the wallpaper. Nobody really fussed over religion, and they participated incidentally. Nobody got on your case if you did or you didn’t. Well, at least one person of this type arrived, and I believe this is what they are trying to learn from “Owning Your Religious Past.” What is all the fuss about? Why are people so excited, even upset, about religion. What is it with these people that have these troubling experiences? Very often they are trying to understand their own loved ones, people with whom they are in relationships.

And then there is the question that created this particular sermon topic. The bearer of this question arrives, likes liberal religion, likes our freedom, likes multiculturalism, but they have also brought with them positive pieces of their religious past, in this case Christian; and they hear little rumblings at their new UU church about “Christians.” And they ask their new UU minister, “Am I allowed to be a Christian and be a UU? Is it OK?”

It was a question like this that motivated me, since it’s Palm Sunday, to try answer that question: Can I be a Christian and a UU. This seemed like an interesting little brainteaser for me to work on. And I have divided this up into three parts: it’s that kind of a sermon, somewhat complex. Three parts: One: why you should feel comfortable if you are a Christian in a UU church. There’s space for you. After all Christianity is affirmed as one of the Sources from which UU’s draw wisdom and understanding. Two: UU beginning are definitely rooted in Jewish and Christian traditions. And three: I actually believe a UU church can be a particularly good community to practice Christianity in, just as one might practice Buddhism, Judaism, Humanism or whatever else. If you like our style of community and culture, this is a good place to be whatever your religious practice.

Part I, Why Christians can feel comfortable in a UU Church. Source #4 definitely affirms a spot, a place around the table of UU diversity. Source #4 states: “We draw from Jewish and Christian teachings, which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves.” This is one of the six paths of being a UU. It sees Christianity as one of the moral ethical guides of our lives and Jesus as an exemplar, a teacher, a prophet, a companion in your spiritual journey. So, right in the documents of the Association, clearly there is a place.

Part 2: Unitarian Universalism is, after all, named for two Christian heresies. The names almost don’t make sense outside of a Christian context. So, Unitarian – what is that about? It is the heresy, and heresy means choice, doctrine means you believe it because we tell you. Heresy is the error of making a choice for yourself. So, Unitarianism is the heresy, that is the choice, to decide that you do not believe in the Trinity, which is the doctrine that says that God is unitary, but somehow divided into three indivisible parts, commonly known as God the Father, the creator of the universe, God the Son, Jesus Christ, your Savior and God the Holy Spirit. The Unitarian says “God is one” and with the great monotheistic traditions affirms that Jesus, the prophets and the teachers are all human beings, not divine entities in human form.

And then there is Universalism: the heresy that there is no Hell, that there is no final judgment. Put philosophically, it’s the idea that from God creator all comes, and all returns back to the Divine. Looked at more philosophically, one might simply say “Nothing falls out of the Universe. We’re all in here together”. Or as one liberal Christian put it: “God doesn’t make junk; and therefore, God doesn’t have a junk pile”. And as our President Bill Sinkford put it, looking at UU from this standpoint, he said “The quick elevator speech summary is: One God, nobody left out or left behind”, thinking of those dreadful novels. One God, one universe, one state of being. No one put aside or discounted.

Now there is another category of folks that I haven’t mentioned; there’s lots of categories of folks in our church not yet mentioned. This category of folks describe themselves not only as humanists but as secular humanists. These are the folks who are definitely done with their religious past. No more! They do not want the vocabulary, the theology, the words, the symbols, or anything from the old religions. It’s all over for them! And that’s fine. They create their philosophy out of modern, unadulterated words. And in many respects, Unitarian Universalist principles work perfectly for them.

Now for the secular humanists in our congregation, they cannot help but to get to this question: aren’t there liberal Christian congregation out there? Why don’t THOSE people go to those churches? And of course, some of them do, in fact, most of them do. But it is also true, I believe, that there is a particular flavor or way of being a Christian in a Unitarian Universalist context that can be desirable for the particular Christians who like our way of going at things.

And this now gets us to Part 3, why I believe that a Unitarian Universalist church can indeed be a good place to practice Unitarian Universalist Christianity, for a variety of reasons:

One: we affirm that religion is a human creation, not the product of supernatural revelation. If you are a Christian that has this outlook, you may not be comfortable in typical Christian churches which often affirm divine inspiration of scripture.

Two: we believe that religious insight grows and changes over time. It is developmental. Just as in the gospel reading this morning, one can see the developmental character of Christian understanding. Transitions occur because of a constant need to reevaluate and express religious ideas in terms of the contemporary situation. In this case, the monumental crisis of the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem is obvious. The gospel narrative tries to demonstrate that Jesus predicted this disaster, though of course, it is prophecy after the fact.

In general, Unitarian Universalists enjoy friendly debate and a critical eye. Some Christians don’t just want to spend all their time with uncritical Christians on Sunday mornings. It’s stimulating to hear from other people who have different ideas.

And finally, Christians certainly are not all of one category. If you are a Unitarian Universalist Christian, you might also be a Unitarian Universalist Buddhist. And then where do you fit? Or even more challenging, and you might remember when we did the baptism and dedication for little Aowyn, for a Unitarian Universalist Christian pagan family. Now that identity is not an easy one for which to find a home. Pagans are very unsure about Christians, and many Christians are puzzled about pagans.

As I said, Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week. And it’s the beginning of the abortive triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, according to the myth-story; and believe me, I do not think it is history. We know the triumphal entry immediately turns sour. Jesus starts railing against the Temple rituals. He gets into fights with local religious leaders. He curses the poor little fig tree. And he recites the destruction of the Temple several more times, just in case you didn’t get the insult.

Now this is the critical issue: Are these narratives true future prediction or are they prophetic “predictions” after the fact? Is the narrative an eye-witness account of Jesus’ life, which most people doubt, or is this narrative a later effort to offer Christian thinking as an explanation for current events. To which we ought to add that At this early stage, we are not observing “Christianity” but a form of Judaism, augmented by Jesus’s personal impact.

At that early stage, no one would have been called a “Christian” anyway. We know that the Romans suppressed the Judeans and that civil war in Jerusalem in the late 60s. In a final and desperate effort, the rebels used the GreatTemple as a fortress. Romans soldiers ended up battering down the Templedoors; and in the chaos that ensued, they inadvertently burnedthe building down.

I do want to add, it was not the habit of the ancients to burn down people’s temples. They recognized the power of local divinities and did not want to make enemies of other people’s gods. The idea of a universal Sky-God was not there. Gods, at this stage, had territorial boundaries.

So if you don’t think of Christianity as a fixed doctrine, as an absolute revelation, and you look at Christian literature, particularly the Gospel narratives and other writings, as an effort to explore and understand the meaning of Jesus and his ministry and teaching, applying it to changing situations over time, then a Unitarian Universalist congregation may be a good place for you to practice your faith. And if you enjoy debate and a little bit of tug and pull, this could be just the place for you.

I remember the story of one Unitarian Universalist Christian minister, who decamped for a period of time. He said “Oh, it was great!” I think he went over to the United Church of Christ. They read the Bible, they prayed, they talked about Jesus. And pretty soon, he said “I got tired of the fact that nobody asked any questions. Nobody wondered why we were doing it. Nobody asked why it was relevant, and he finally got bored and came back to Unitarian Universalism.

Let me wrap this up with just a brief story. This probably says it all. A very liberal rabbi, Howard Berman, said to me one day “You know a Unitarian Universalist congregation is a perfectly good place to practice Judaism, because Judaism is a way of life, not a ritual you have to practice in a special place. And it occurred to me that one might say the same for forms of Christianity. A Unitarian Universalist congregation is a perfectly good place to practice Christianity, particularly if you understand Christianity as a way of life, practicing the teachings of Jesus, not a ritual you have to practice in a special, sacred place.

Amen.