There will be a variety of sermon topics at the First Parish in Wayland on the five Sunday mornings this month. There always is, like at most Unitarian Universalist churches, fellowships, and societies. We are that kind of a movement. Our religious interests tend to range widely. We seek inspiration, knowledge, and guidance in all sorts of places, and the questions we explore together cover the gamut of deep human interest.

We come by our attitude naturally, from the earliest days of churches like this one, founded back in 1640. Of course in many ways, we have evolved to positions very, very far from what a Puritan settler would have affirmed. But we carry on their sense that religion is not some one category of life, alongside a lot of other, separate ones. No, religion for them, and for us so long after, is about all of life. It is an exploration of every matter in light of larger questions of meaning.

So sermons in a Unitarian Universalist congregation might concern themselves with matters of current political interest; or what can be gained from the work of a particular poet, old or new; or some historical theme that the preacher thinks can be brought to life anew; or the celebration of the meanings of a religious holiday like Easter, Yom Kippur, or this weekend, Samhain and the Days of All Saints and All Souls, to which I referred in the prayer.

Here at First Parish, Wayland, as in Unitarian Universalist congregations all over the continent and abroad, this barely begins the list of all the things that we might ponder as religious folks who gather in community, with thoughtfulness, affection, and humor. Myself, I have been known to preach on matters as serious as the Holocaust and the wars in Iraq and Bosnia; as evocative as the poetry of Whitman, C. P. Cavafy, or Edna St. Vincent Millay; or as unusual as the lessons I learned from basketball or from pinball or from being the father of twins.

We are that kind of a movement. Unitarian Universalists believe that religion is not an adjunct to life, but a part of all we do. We tend to think of religion not as a set of doctrines or rituals, but as a way of being in the world with a perspective that is widely interested, contemplative, activist, and free.

So there is often no telling what a Sunday sermon might bring, except that this month here at the First Parish in Wayland those of us in the pulpit know our words will echo out into a world beyond these 1815 walls, thanks to the broadcasting power of WADN in Concord. So I can tell you and the listeners at home or in their cars that before this month is over, you will hear me address an aspect of one of my favorite subjects, the interaction between religion and science, an interchange that Unitarians Universalists have been happily involved in from the beginning. That will be next week, when I will consider the latest work of the sociobiologist, E. O. Wilson.

Then the other minister here, Kimi Riegel, and one of our most active laypersons, Greta Stone, will talk about adoption, reflecting the commitment of our denomination and our congregation alike to respond to human need with concern, conviction, and action. Unitarian Universalism is a movement that values the contributions of its members, believing deeply in the priesthood and the prophethood of all believers, which will be in evidence again the following Sunday, which precedes Thanksgiving, when I and others will testify to the good in our lives, and the obligations to service involved.

And finally, at the end of the month, I will preach a sermon based on the inspirational words of our most popular hymn, "Spirit of Life." I intentionally want to celebrate that spirit, even as by then its power will have seemed to have departed from our winter-fated surroundings.

The month begins today, though, with a broader view, a general message, an attempt to say what it is we who gather here might proclaim together if we could to the world outside these walls, a world that for the first time is hearing us – maybe not every single soul out there, but every one who turns on WADN this week at the right time and decides to stay tuned.

Let’s imagine that they don’t really know much if anything about who we are, we Unitarian Universalists, in Wayland or anywhere else. That’s not too hard to imagine, as we are fairly small in number.

But let’s also imagine that they are curious folks, with an interest in religious questions and answers. They may even be wondering if this First Parish is a place they might like to visit, maybe go on to join and become active in. This would, of course, be a pleasure for us, to have our community of faith broadened and strengthened by the addition of new viewpoints, new people to be part of our community of common caring.

But let’s not let our imagination go wandering too far or too fast. Because I also want to talk to the folks who are happy in their own congregations, and to others who attend no church, temple, or mosque at all – but who in either case wonder what wisdom our movement has to offer them and the world. What voice does Unitarian Universalism have to offer over the autumnal airwaves that would be our contribution to the larger discussions, societal and personal, regarding matters of faith?

Before answering, I would only ask the radio listener to consider with sympathy how hard it would be for any faith of any duration and broad appeal to speak its truth in a few moments time. But I confess, it was I who picked the assignment, and so here I go.

If I had the ear of the world outside – even of some small portion – I would say first that ours is a faith tradition that believes in human possibility. We are not unaware of the human propensity for falling short, even woefully so; most of us could recall with small effort our own failings to forgive, or an episode of hurtful anger, a deception perhaps, or some more grievous fault.

But one thing we have been offering the world since the earliest days of our creation as two new movements, Unitarian and Universalist, round about two hundred years ago, is the conviction that human nature is not essentially evil, as religious conservatives of that age contended and some do still. Instead we have contended that people are born with the potential for good or for ill, and either potential can be nurtured by family, society, personal will, and encourage-ment from the pulpit and from friends in the pews.

Next, I would remind the world (embodied in her car at a stoplight on Route 2 or fixing his dinner in a condo in Lincoln) of what I said before about the breadth of humanity’s interest in religion, and the variety of sources that can satisfy or at least invoke and stimulate that interest. In the richness of religious insight that the denominations can provide, that is one that seems to fall to us in particular, and has for a good long while.

It was a Unitarian ex-minister, Ralph Waldo Emerson of Concord, Mass., who was most responsible for introducing into American thought the notion that the religions of the far east might have as much access to sacred truth as did our own traditions. And for many Universalists, the core of their beliefs was an assurance that divinity had been revealed to all people at all times in the particulars of the local faith.

Then I would tell the world that a goodly amount of all purported sources of knowledge and wisdom are -- to put it politely -- flawed. They contain some manner of error. And that when it comes to questions of truth and of error, in the religious realm as much as any other, our surest guides are personal experience, research, reflection, and reason, all taken together.

Ancient books of sacred scripture have much good guidance to offer. But they reflect the knowledge and biases of their times, and in some things, they are simply wrong. Equally wrong were phrenology and hydrotherapy, pseudo-sciences adhered to in the last century by many of Emerson’s friends, even if they yielded conclusions that seemed for the moment persuasive to many. Equally wrong is much that is said by adherents of fads of our own day, however well their books may sell. Equally wrong might turn out to be any scientific theory much ballyhooed for the moment but not yet thoroughly tested.

Having the ears of some small portion of the world outside ourselves for even these twenty minutes now at hand, high on my list of our lessons, our contentions, our wisdom to add, would be our long-time conviction that anything that seeks to pass as truth should comport with our own experience and our good sense, and it should show up in that holy human enterprise, the quest for verifiable evidence.

Let me hastily add, though, a further proclamation, for I know for some, there is thought to be a necessary clash between skepticism and faith, a gap between the worlds of science and religion. As I’ve promised to say at greater length next week, we don’t buy that point of view. We think religion is a deep response to the human situation, and science has a lot to tell us about what that situation is.

But so do inspired texts, and instinct, and nature, and relationships, and more. Religion is not just about matters of factual truth, but about matters of reverence, miracle, mystery, and awe. What we would suggest to a quizzical listener up in Acton or down in Natick is, faith and fact can interact -- suddenly I sound like Johnny Cochran – but we think it’s true, both that our religious beliefs profit by being held to thoughtful scrutiny in light of what the human family has discovered so far by dispassionate observation; and that for all successes at determining the facts of life, if you will, some of the most important facts of life are matters of faith.

I’m happy that this past week, the Pope says that he thinks so, too. And he got a bigger audience than mine for the saying. Like other proclamations we would make, we are not alone in making them. But I think some are ones that we have offered for a good long while, and will continue to offer with a particular fervor.

Next, from the evolving religious heritage won over the 358 years since the Wayland First Parish was gathered, I would suggest to my listener -- turning onto the road from Carlisle to Chelmsford, worried as the sound of the station fades – that one very fine religion – the one we try to practice -- is not about creeds or convention, but about the conviction within one’s soul to live a life devoted to the good, the true, the lovely, and the kind. I would want that listener to hear that there is a religion less concerned with speculation about any life hereafter than it is with improving conditions in life here on earth.

Now all of these views could be wrong. There are other religions that believe that what matters most is getting through life in such a way that one goes to heaven, not hell, and that making the right creedal affirmations is one of the requirements for going to the better location. And they could be right. It’s just that we think otherwise. We are that kind of a movement. We don’t think that if there is a supreme being -- a goddess or god or some more complicated governing board – and many of us think that there is, while others do not – it is not so malevolent as to have a hell or to send anyone there, even people who call us at dinnertime to offer to change our phone service.

Not that we all agree, even on that, or anything else, I suppose, except on our willingness to respect each others’ freedom of faith. It is an aspect that can most bewilder an outsider sometimes, one who assumes that to be bound together, a congregation needs to be agreed on the basics, which to them involve such questions as, Do you believe in God? In Jesus? In the Bible? Some of us do, we answer; and the outsider frowns in confusion. Sorry, but we don’t think those are matters about which we need to agree.

Perhaps, as some say, this is the proclamation that the world needs most to hear that we are best able to make: that people can treasure each other and value the differences between themselves, value the chance the learn and grow from the contact with others’ differing views, value the atmosphere of acceptance that gives them all the freedom to seek and to follow their own souls’ journeys.

It was said by the first great Unitarian leader, Francis David, over four centuries ago in eastern Europe: We do not have to think alike to love alike.

It seems to some that only through conformity, only through ethnic enclaves, nationalistic states, exclusive clubs, religious uniformity, can amity be achieved, only when people of some same sort are gathered together. We think otherwise. We are that kind of a movement. Our very sense of who we are, a community where diversity is cherished and everyone honored, and the success we have of being such a place, holds up a hope for a world too strongly drawn in the opposite direction.

Reason and awe, reverence and science can go together, I said before. It has been ours to say, there need not be the tension that others report. And so we say, too, community and individuality need not contend, nor fellowship and difference. Real fellowship, true community of the most supporting, valuable sort, accepts and welcomes difference. Would that the idea would sink in around the world, even in too many pockets of hatred, in too many sick minds, within our own land. The idea is not an idle dream; every week we bring it here to life anew.

If I had an audience outside these walls, those are the ideas I would offer for their consideration, ideas that have taken hold in Unitarian Universalist congregations like ours all over the continent, even the world,

ideas that offer some real hope to humanity, still struggling to learn how to live.

To conclude with the words of our most basic denominational statement of conviction, set into the form of a litany by my friend and colleague, Scott Alexander:

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 each other 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 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.

That hope and that call – its our proclamation to the world. We are that kind of a movement. So may it ever be. Amen.
 
 
 
 
 

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