Experience That Holds Us Together
It is a pleasure and an honor
to be among you this morning and to share this day with you in such a marvelous
setting. I bring you the greetings of
your brothers and sisters at the Annapolis Unitarian Universalist
I
also bring you greetings from the members of the Unitarian Universalist Partner
We
have learned that in creating partnerships – relationships between
congregations – we can live out what at
one time seemed like a very simple thing that has now become far more complex
and difficult, which is: that the most radical thing we can do is introduce ourselves
to each other. When people have the opportunity
to know each other, then we can work at preventing suspicions, mistrust, and disrespect. Indeed, in today’s world, knowing each other
can be a radical act.
For many American Unitarian Universalists – and perhaps for
Transylvanian Unitarians also – it comes as a surprise to learn that we share a
common faith with people who do not live in our country; that this religion
which is such an important part of our lives, a religion that gives meaning and
definition to who we are, is a religion that is shared and followed by others
around the world.
What
can also be difficult to understand is when we get past the very distinctive
and unique name that we both embrace – Unitarian – and begin looking at our histories
and beliefs, it might appear that we are very different, yes, even extremely
different. And it’s these kinds of
differences that could lead to questions and doubts. Be sure of this: These
differences are real, there’s no denying them.
But we Unitarians share the same religious family. And as in any family, we share
characteristics that have shaped us and still today they are valuable to who we
are.
It’s
these characteristics that clearly and distinctively set us apart from all the
other religions and faith communities that surround us. Whether here in
I believe
one of the things that sets us apart from all the other religions of the world
is how we understand authority. This is
to say: Where do we receive our authority
to believe and act as we do?
This
is the question that was being posed to Jesus in the story from Luke 20
(20-26). He is being questioned about
his authority – “By what right do you teach and preach your message and make
your decisions?” his enemies want to know.
So,
the question I want us to look at is this: By what authority do Unitarians
of Homorodalmas
and Unitarian Universalists from
For those who follow the Jewish religion, their main, their
central source of authority is their Tradition.
Judaism has one of the oldest traditions in the Western world, which
means that they have many, many laws, customs, and words of wisdom that they
can turn to when they have questions of faith.
We Unitarians also have quite an old tradition, don’t we? Just in the name “Unitarian” itself – we can
go all the way back to the year 325 when the Trinitarians and Unitarians were debating. That’s an old tradition!
In the
What’s more is that from the beginning Transylvanian
Unitarians have always had to struggle for their tradition. As it has been in the
I
think of how Petőfi Sádor
speaks of this hardship and tradition in a poem he calls “Rise Up Magyar” (“Nemzeti Dal”). Here are a few lines from his poem:
Rise up, Magyar, the country calls! Talpra magyar, hi a haza!
It’s ‘now or never’ what fate befalls … Itt as idő, most vagy soha!
Shall we live as slaves or free men? Rabok legyünk, vagy szabadok?
That’s the question - choose your ‘Amen’! Ez
a kérdés, válasszatok!
For up till now we lived like slaves, Rabok voltunk mostanáig,
Damned lie our forefathers in their graves - Káhozottak
ősapáink,
They who lived and died in freedom Kik szabadon éltek-haltak,
Cannot rest in dusts of thralldom. Szolgafödbem
nem, nyughatnak.
God of Hungarians A
magyarok istenére
we swear unto Thee Esküszünk.
We swear unto Thee – that slaves we shall Esküszünk,
hogy rabok tovább
no longer be![i] Nem leszünk!
Yet, we both have traditions to turn to when questions of
authority are important. But as
important as tradition is for us, this is not our main source of authority.
In the Roman Catholic
In the
This is where our two churches are different because you
have a much more centralized and stronger structure – starting with the President
of your congregation, then your minister, then the district minister and
finally your Bishop.
For
all of us, there is wisdom in Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians 4 (16), where he
speaks about the faith that sustains us: “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away,
our inner nature is being renewed day by day.”
It
has often been the people in the church hierarchy – this inner nature – that
have seen us through our days of hardship and challenge and helped us renew our
lives. This structure of support has
seen us through good times and difficult ones, hasn’t it?
Yet
like tradition, the hierarchy is not our main source of authority. After all, remember what Ferenc
Dávid said: “Faith must be handled not with the power
of authorities, but with the truth of the Word and the soul’s love.”[ii]
He
was saying that scripture – the Word – is an important source of authority for
all the Protestant churches. For
Unitarians, the Gospels have always been a unique and informative part of our
understanding of authority. Yet as
important as scripture is to our way of religion, it is not the single most
esteemed source of authority.
Now
I don’t want you to think that I am dismissing tradition, hierarchy and
scripture because they are vital to our way of being religious, it’s just that they
are not the primary sources of authority for Unitarians.
Experience is Unitarianism’s primary source of authority. It’s through our own experience that we
examine tradition, hierarchy and scripture, and determine what we believe.
So
what is experience? Experience is what
we know from living. And in order to
live, we must use the gifts that we each have developed from the time we are
born. These are clearly stated in the
Transylvanian Unitarian Catechism: “Our godgiven
spiritual gifts are: faith, reason, free will, conscience and love.”[iii]
It
was under the careful leadership and thoughtfulness of Ferenc
Dávid that Unitarianism was able to flourish; he
understood that experience was the sum of every person’s spiritual gifts. Because he knew this so clearly, he was able
to make such a significant contribution to the Edit of Toleration where it
says: “ … preachers shall proclaim and explain the Gospel, each according to
his own understanding, and if the congregation likes it, then it shall be
considered good. If not, no one shall
compel them. But they shall keep the
preachers whose doctrines they approve.
Therefore, none of the superintendents, or others, shall annoy or abuse
preachers on account of their religion.”[iv]
What
a revolutionary proclamation. After all,
there are places in this world where people – ministers and believers – still
cannot make these decisions for themselves.
Yet, here was Ferenc Dávid,
in 1568, so long ago, stating experience as a source of authority. What a gift to us all. We continue to be blessed by his words and
deeds because they have shaped who we are as Unitarians.
The likelihood is that we will never be called upon to be a
leader of such high stature. The opportunities of experience that arise for us
will be more like the one in this story I heard:
A long time ago in a small country village, the richest
farmer in the village was sleeping, as he often did, through the Sunday worship
service. He would almost wake up, then
fall back to sleep. Every Sunday he
would do it the same way.
Living next to the church, it was one Sunday morning he
woke up to roll over just in time to hear the end of the sermon where the
minister said something about blessing bread on the altar, then he fell back to
sleep.
When he really did finally wake up, all he could remember
was something about bread on the altar.
He thought that God had spoken directly to him, telling him to place
bread on the church’s altar. The wealthy
farmer was honored that God had asked him to do this, so he immediately went
about making a loaf of bread.
When the bread was done and cooled, he went to the church
and after placing the bread where he thought God had told him to put it, he
said: “Thank you God for telling me what You want me to do. Pleasing you makes me very happy.”
No sooner had he left the sanctuary than the poorest man in
town entered. All alone, in the back, he
prayed: “O God, I am so poor. My family
is starving; we have nothing to eat. If
you do not perform a miracle for us, we will starve.”
As he approached the altar, he saw the bread and shouted:
“A miracle! A miracle! Thank you God for providing this good
bread. And you work so quickly!” Then he ran home to tell his family of the
good news.
Minutes later, the rich man returned to the church to see
if God had eaten his bread. And sure
enough, it was gone! “You really like my
bread, Lord! I thought you were teasing
me. This is wonderful. You can be sure that I will be back with
more.”
The following week, the rich man brought more bread and
left it. And soon after he left, the
poor man would arrive to say his prayers and find the bread. Another miracle! And then, the rich man would come back and
see the bread was gone and rush home to make more.
This bread exchange went on for many years, always in the
same way.
Then one day, the minister of the church happened to be in
the sanctuary – but out of sight – and he watched the whole thing happen: the
rich man enter and talk to God; the poor man enter and say his prayer then
leave with the bread; then the rich man come back and promise to make more.
The minister called the two men together and told them what
they had been doing.
“I see,” said the rich man, “God doesn’t really eat my
bread.”
“And I see,” said the poor man, “God isn’t baking the bread
just for me.”
They both feared that now God would no longer be in their
lives.
Then the minister asked them to look at their hands. “Your hands,” he said to the rich man, “are
the hands of God giving food to the poor.”
“And your hands,” he said to the poor man, “are also the
hands of God, receiving gifts from the rich.”
“So you see, God can still be present in your lives. Continue baking and continue taking. Your hands are the hands of God.”[v]
It
is out of our own experience that we each decipher and make sense of the truth
as best we can. And when we do, perhaps
we too will be able to stand up, as so many of the great Unitarians have done
and serve our religion and our people, both in
Like Isaiah did in chapter 6:8, we too can be
bold enough to serve our church, community and nation by saying, “Here I am
Lord, send me!” and put our hands to work.
We too will then be
the “hands of God.” This is the
experience that holds us together.
This sermon was given
on
the
the Rev. Fredric J.
Muir.