The
Burden of Choice
Bring
a Friend Sunday
Rev.
Mark Stringer
First Unitarian Church of Des Moines
9/26/04
Readings
“It
Matters What We Believe” by Sophia Lyon Fahs
Some
beliefs are like walled gardens. They
encourage exclusiveness, and the feeling of being
especially privileged.
Other beliefs are
expansive and lead the way into wider and deeper
sympathies.
Some
beliefs are like shadows, clouding children’s
days with fears of unknown calamities.
Other beliefs are like
sunshine, blessing children with the warmth of
happiness.
Some
beliefs are divisive, separating the saved from
the unsaved, friends from enemies.
Other beliefs are bonds in
a world community, where sincere differences
beautify the pattern.
Some
beliefs are like blinders, shutting off the power
to choose one’s own direction.
Other beliefs are like
gateways opening wide vistas for exploration.
Some
beliefs weaken a person’s selfhood. They
blight the growth of resourcefulness.
Other beliefs nurture
self-confidence and enrich the feeling of personal
worth.
Some
beliefs are rigid, like the body of death,
impotent in a changing world.
Other beliefs are pliable,
like the young sapling, ever growing with the
upward thrust of life.
“Window
or Aisle?” by Sarah York
“Window
or aisle?” the man at the counter asked as I
prepared to board a plane for Detroit.
No
mater how often I fly, I always pause to make the
choice: to take a window seat means being
able to get a God’s eye view of earth. But
what if I want to go to the restroom? It’s
such a bother to have to ask people to move.
And I don’t like feeling trapped.
My
answer is always the same: “Window.”
To choose the window is to choose to see.
Whether I am identifying a river or marveling at
the play of moonlight on the ocean; whether the
view is a patchwork of planted fields, a city
showing off its neon finery, or a comforter of
clouds, I am filled with a deep sense of
awe. Sometimes, as the plane moves through a
storm, breaking through the clouds and into the
sun, my own spirit opens up to invite in the
expanse of beauty. There is always something
to see—always something I have never seen
before.
Knowing
that to choose the window is an invitation to
beauty, awe, and wonder—that it is even an
opportunity to break through the cloudiness of my
own spirit—why do I always pause to make the
decision? Each time we get a seat on a plane
we are invited to choose to be touched by the
world or to remain complacent and take it for
granted. We are invited to choose beauty or
fear, vision or convenience. Each day of our
lives, in fact, we are given the choice, “Window
or aisle?” Something inside me will always
pause before I choose…but I think I’ll take
the window.
Sermon
A
cartoon has been on one of the bulletin boards
near the church office for some time now.
Perhaps some of you have seen it. It comes
from the comic strip “Kudzu.” The first
couple of panels show a cheer being offered at a
softball game: Gimme a W, gimme an H, gimme an A,
gimme a T, gimme an E, a V, an E, an R, whadda-ya
got? “WHATEVER!” In the final
panel, one of the characters says, “I love
playing the Unitarians.”
Now
you can say a lot of things about Unitarian
Universalists, but one thing is certain: we
like to laugh at ourselves. When I first read this
cartoon I laughed, too…but the more I thought
about it, the less funny it became. While it may
be the common perception that anything goes in a
UU church, in my view at least, this perception is
simply not accurate. To be a UU means to stand for
“whatever?” I’d like to think not.
Of
course, it is not difficult to see why people
might have that impression of us. As
Unitarian Universalists we are not quiet about the
fact that we encourage each other to construct our
own unique theologies, not from a sacred text but
with the stuff of our lives: the history of the
human race and the religious perspectives that
have emerged from it, the philosophical and
ethical ponderings that continue to inform our
existence, and our own unique experiences of the
world that are a product of the creative
interchange that occurs between us and our
beautiful planet, its inhabitants, and the
universe we all share. We do not, as a
rule, limit ourselves to dogmatic explanations of
reality. Instead, we support each other in
our search for truth as we find it for ourselves…a
truth that is ever-elusive and always subject to
new interpretations as we gain the wisdom that
comes from our experience of being alive. In
other words, we contend that revelation is not
sealed…only to be found in one text or one
religious perspective. While there are some
dogmatists among us…those who are fundamentalist
in their attempt to eliminate anything religious
from our religion…most of us are much more
flexible and open to ideas about
spirituality. We humbly believe that
revelation is continuous, always possible as long
as we are open to the adventure that is life
itself…an adventure with its share of misery and
pain, as well as joy and delight. An
adventure that Albert Camus described as “our
wretched and magnificent life.”
In
my experience, Unitarian Universalism is a
religious perspective that leaves room for other
faiths, that recognizes the wisdom accessible in
all the world’s religions, and that encourages
people to choose to believe not simply what they want
to believe…as though choosing a human response
to the dual reality of being alive and having to
die is something that arises from mere whimsy…like
choosing a flavor of ice cream or a seat on an
airplane. On the contrary, Unitarian
Universalism encourages people to choose what they
as individuals must believe…not just whatever…but
whatever their conscience and hearts and reason
and passion tell them they should.
So
while UUs do in fact choose what we believe,
essential in this choice is a sense of
responsibility…a responsibility for what kind of
impact these choices will have on our own lives
and in the lives of others. Sorry Kudzu, but this
responsibility is much greater than just “whatever.”
But
if it is not just “whatever,” what is it?
I
was thinking about this question, when, the other
night, I caught a portion of a program that aired
on PBS the other night called “The Question of
God.” A group of panelists with different
areas of expertise had been gathered to discuss
their ideas about the divine, however it may be
defined, and its relationship to ethics and
morality. The topic being discussed while I
was viewing was: Where do we get our concept of
right and wrong…is it developed over time or is
it intuitive…or as some would say, given to us
by God? It was the Jungian analyst on the
show that spoke most directly to my Unitarian
Universalist perspective: She said it’s
both…developed and intuitive…that our
consciousness includes religious instinct, civil
and moral codes, and history, and it’s up to us
to keep all this stuff in dialogue with our
experience as human beings. The token
atheist on the panel, the surprisingly congenial
editor of Skeptic magazine, then asked a
pointed, clarifying question: Did the origin
of moral sentiments (the notion of right and
wrong) evolve through natural forces, culture and
history, or did God put them in us?
Again
the Jungian Analyst came through with what I
thought was a wonderful UU-style response, “Why
can’t it be both?”
Indeed,
why can’t it be both? After all, we
cannot know for certain the origin of our souls,
nor what happens to us when we die…and because
we cannot know for certain, it logically follows,
in my mind at least, that we should be free to
choose the belief system that emerges not just
from our intuition or possible endowment from God,
but from our varied experiences as a participants
in life itself.
The
question that seems to follow is, “How then can
we…especially UUs who are not necessarily tied
to any one notion of the divine…how can we
develop a sense of ethics, a system of appropriate
behavior, that is not just a reflection of our own
egos… a system that is more than just whatever?”
I think this question has the same foundation as
the ones posed to us on a regular basis by those
holding more orthodox faiths…questions like “Why
do you call yourselves a church if everyone doesn’t
believe in God?” or “Without a common
understanding of God, how are you inspired to do
good in the world?”
While
I understand why these questions seem essential to
those of more dogmatic faiths, I think they miss
the point of what we do here. After all, despite
our varied perceptions of God, from true believers
to devoted atheists, UUs are inspired by the same
basic moral code shared by most other
religions: the Golden Rule. This idea,
expressed in Christianity as “Do unto others as
you would have them do unto you” is the common
building block of most organized faiths, despite
their different theologies and perceptions of the
divine. I was reminded of how common this maxim is
the other night when I, along with a few other
members of our church, was a facilitator at an
event called the “Golden Rule Conference.”
Sponsored by the Des Moines Area Religious Council
(DMARC), this event brought together about 100
people from metro Des Moines, representing at
least 10 different faith perspectives, to discuss
the role of the Golden Rule in their religion and
in their lives. We were seated at tables in
small groups, and then, one by one, we were
instructed to share the Golden Rule as it is
expressed in our faith tradition and then tell
stories of how we try to live up to it. At
my table, we heard from a Jew, a Hindu, two
Catholics, a follower of Christian Science, and
me. We all shared similar stories. The
Jew shared a line from the Torah: “What is
hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.”
The Hindu shared a passage from the Mahabharata:
“Do not do to others what would cause pain if
done to you.” The Christians shared from
the Bible and I explained that in Unitarian
Universalism, we find the golden rule in our
shared principles, which include affirming and
promoting the inherent worth and dignity of all
people and respect for interdependent web of
existence of which we are a part. After time
had been given for everyone to speak, a
representative from each table was asked to give a
summary of what was discussed.
I
learned a few things from this exercise.
First,
I learned that everyone tries to follow the Golden
Rule…or at least everyone who was present at
this conference believes she/he does…despite our
different faiths. Second, during my small
group sharing, I surprised myself by recognizing
that my knowledge of the Golden Rule was as much a
result of watching Sesame Street as a child
(an experience I am now reliving with my daughter)
as it was from going to the Presbyterian and
Methodist churches of my youth. And finally,
I was reminded once again, that there are common
threads running through our lives…threads woven
together by our human history, our triumphs and
our failures as a species…and that we each have
a responsibility to acknowledge that our own
perspectives… especially our ideas about God and
religion…are never as important as what we
choose to do with those perspectives…how we
choose to live our lives from day to day.
I
like how UU minister William Gardner put it: “We
all have two religions: the religion we talk about
and the religion we live. It is our task,”
he said, “to make the difference between these
two as small as possible.”
The
decisions of how we act on our beliefs (or our
faith, if you will), then, are much more important
than the beliefs we claim to hold. And
therein lies the “burden of choice” that is at
the foundation of any religion…particularly
Unitarian Universalism, a religion especially open
to choice. How do we decide what to do in
the world, how to treat each other, how to
be?
It
is so easy to want to withdraw from the world,
to
throw up our hands in despair or disgust…or even
disinterest…
to
assume that if God does exist,
he,
she or it will take care of us…so why should we
bother?
But
I think we know somewhere deep within us,
maybe
even too deep to admit,
that
to wait for others to do for us
what
we could be doing for ourselves,
is
not just a resignation to the status quo,
it
is a resignation to the spirit crushing notion
that
we as humans are inherently impotent to improve
our quality of life…or the conditions of this
planet we share…
it
is a resignation to the belief that our choices
don’t make a difference after all…
it
is a resignation to the only true atheism I think
there is…
the
atheism that rejects choice altogether…
the
atheism yoked to nihilism…
the
atheism that negates the redemptive power of human
agency in the world…
no
matter what we think we might believe about
God.
Indeed,
I contend that anything that distracts or
distances us from the
understanding
that we have a responsibility to help create the
kind of
world
we want to inhabit is not only counterintuitive,
it
is demonic.
Along these lines, I appreciate the story about a
man who stood before God, his heart breaking from
all the pain and injustice in the world? “Dear
God,” he cried out, “look at all the
suffering, the anguish and distress in your
world. Why don’t you send help?”
God answers, “I did send help. I sent you.”
While the lesson of this story is certainly not
unique to Unitarian Universalism, I do believe
this church, indeed the entire Unitarian
Universalist movement, exists to remind us that we
have choices in life…and how we choose to live
matters greatly…both to us and to our earthly
companions…indeed, it matters much more than
what we each might believe (or not believe) about
the nature of God.
We
gather here each week to celebrate that we are
alive and that this gift of life comes with a
responsibility to be true to ourselves, true to
each other, and true to what together we can
become…
a more peaceful, loving, and just society where we
treat each others as we would want to be
treated.
And we send ourselves out into the world at the
end of the service each week with the expectation
that we will be open to life, expecting to love
and prepared to serve.
Dogma
aside, isn’t this what religion is all about?
In
one of our readings this morning, Sarah York
shares how she ponders the choice of whether to
take a seat on the aisle of an airplane or a seat
by the window. If she sits on the aisle, she
will be closer to the bathroom, closer to the
exit, and farther away from the reality of where
she is going and where she has been.
It’s a choice that she says always makes her
pause. Maybe it’s the responsibility of
the choice, the burden, if you will, that makes
her pause. She knows that her choice will
not only have an impact on her day, it will say
something about her.
Perhaps
I am stretching this metaphor too thin, but I
believe how we choose to be participants in this
church and this liberal religious faith it
espouses is not all that different.
Unitarian Universalism gives us the option of a
choice. It’s up to us to accept or decline
the invitation…to put ourselves in position to
see the world as it truly is: a world of
different landscapes, populations, points of view
and possibilities…a wretched and magnificent
world where the mystery has more than one
explanation, and each explanation that respects
and embodies the Golden Rule has value and worth…
as
long as we choose to make it so…
as
long as we choose to make it so.
I’d
like to think that to embrace this Unitarian
Universalist approach to religion is not to
embrace just whatever. Unitarian
Universalism encourages us to embrace whatever
leads us to act in such a way that life improves
for ourselves, our neighbors, and the earth we
share.
Noted
Unitarian Ralph Waldo Emerson captured this well
when he wrote:
In
other words, the more accurate UU cheer might be:
Gimme
a Y, gimme an E, gimme an S, a T, an O, an L, an
I, an F, an E, whadda-ya got? YES TO LIFE…Whadda-ya
got? YES TO LIFE.
Now
that’s a burden I hope we all can choose to
bear.