Newcomers to our congregations sometimes have a hard time figuring out what we believe. They look around for a symbol to orient themselves like a cross and usually can't find one. Or if they do, they usually will also see a Star of David, an eight spoke Buddhist wheel, a Sanskrit Om, an Arabic Allah, and other symbols they may not recognize. Depending on the Sunday, they may or may not hear anything from the pulpit about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, words one hears in practically every paragraph spoken in a traditional Protestant church. For the great majority of the population of our Continent, visiting a Unitarian Universalist congregation leaves them scratching their heads and wondering how we plug in to our religious source.
I'm reminded of a young man, I'll call him Bill, who visited one of our congregations. I believe the minister, was preaching on a social issue with a moral message and didn't make any reference to God. Bill came up to him after the service and asking that question most Unitarian Universalists dread answering, "Does your church believe in God?" I think we don't like answering this question because we can't really give an authoritative response. "Well, some of our members do, and some don't and some don't know if they do or don't." The minister answered, adding "But that answer misses the point of how we do religion. We are a tradition of shared values rather than shared beliefs." Bill wasn't satisfied with this sound bite response, so he asked him if he wanted to get together to discuss his question further. Bill said, "No thanks." so the minister didn't expect to see him again.
The next Sunday Bill was back and this time sitting in the front row taking notes. You have to be pretty courageous to sit in the front row. Sometimes I wonder if people avoid these seats because they are afraid we ministers are contagious. They are afraid if they get too close, they might catch some religious enthusiasm and start waving their arms or something. I recommend people who sit in the front rows should sit on their hands to prevent this sort of embarrassing behavior.
Well, Bill took notes all through the service. At the end of the service the minister shook his hand and he still looked perplexed. "I see you standing on the fence between being a believer and an unbeliever" he said. "One minute it sounds like you are going to say, thank you Jesus, but you don't and in the next moment you sound like you are about to blaspheme, but you don't. This religion of yours is very strange." "Being a Unitarian Universalist minister is like walking a tightrope." The minister said. " We have a variety of beliefs which I respect by carefully choosing my words and metaphors. Why don't you speak with some of the church members after the service? I think that may help you understand us better."
The minister continued visiting with members of the congregation after the service and listening to their responses to his sermon. The social hall was alive with the buzz of conversation. Suddenly Bill rushed up to him with great excitement. "I think I've figured out what you worship here!" he blurted out. "And what might that be?" the minister asked with interest. "The Goddess!" Bill exclaimed. "Is that so? The Goddess?", he asked wondering if he had been chatting with a UU Pagan and not yet had a chance to speak with a UU atheist. "Why of course!", Bill said, "The Goddess Caffeina!" raising his coffee cup. "You're on the right track." The minister encouraged him. "Meet some more people then we'll talk again."
I don't know whether caffeine is what holds us together or not although I know in our larger congregations we have members who skip the service and come just for the coffee hour. I do know how challenging it can be for a newcomer to get connected to a congregation, to `plug in'.
I like this metaphor of `plugging in' because before I followed my call to ministry, I worked as an Electrical Engineer. My years troubleshooting circuit boards, programming computers, and developing test jigs don't easily translate into giving sermons. Some old knowledge that does translate however for our purposes today about energy, power, and electrical plugs will give this metaphor conductivity I hope.
Most people come in our doors for the first time in need of energy. They want to connect, plug in if you will, with a group which will energize them. It's common here in Florida to see widows and widowers coming through our doors who have lost their husbands in the last several years. They want to plug in to some social energy to help them cope with their aloneness. Families come through our door concerned about finding a religious community in which to pass on their liberal values in our very conservative County. They want to plug in to our energy through religious education for themselves and their children. Many of our congregations have excellent music programs. I know the thrill I experienced before preaching listening to Leon's daughter's flute or one Sunday in Fort Myers listening to their music director playing a passionate and uplifting piece on a beautiful grand piano. These people come for the emotional energy of music. We welcome those with questioning minds who come seeking insight and understanding. These people come for the intellectual energy of ideas. Some come because they love beautiful architecture. In the `80s, I attended the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oakland, California. The building is over 100 years old, built of granite quarried in the Sierras, roofed with coastal redwood beams, and lit through beautiful stain glass windows. Just sitting in that sanctuary away from the rush and roar of the city outside its doors, filled me with a quiet energy which stilled my mind and prepared me for the worship service.
People come in our doors to plug in and get energized. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same type of plug. What is a powerful service for one person is a turn off for another. We have an extraordinarily high level of language sensitivity. In a traditional Protestant church, the words, Father, Son and Holy Spirit unite denominations who might differ on the meaning of baptism and the mass. In our congregations, using those words together can get a minister thrown out on his ear! We debate endlessly the value of using words like prayer, worship, God, church, sanctuary - add a few of your own. And even more than language, some can go ballistic over ritual. Lighting candles as part of celebrating joys and concerns can light a fire under the Catholic-phobic members of the congregation. Putting up a Christmas tree, or a Hanukkah bush as the apologists like to call it, is sure to get a few exercised. We Unitarian Universalists take our symbols very seriously.
Not all of us want the same voltage either coming through our plugs. Some enjoy a service full of energy that includes laughter, tears, and uplifting emotion. Others come to the service late skipping all the fluff to hear an intellectually stimulating message. For them the service has no current, no jolt, unless they come away with some new viewpoints or ideas. For those who want emotion, the service has no current, no power, unless they feel something.
All this diverse receptivity intensifies contemplating the source of this energy. Just who or what is at the other end of the wire?
The Protestant view of the Source, which defined the beginning of our movement on this Continent, was quite harsh. Some people's plugs worked and others didn't and there wasn't a darn thing you could do about it. There was one and only one big power plant floating up in the heavens far away and inaccessible. Those with non-working plugs were doomed to eternal darkness while the ones with working plugs were blessed with eternal light.
Our forbears rejected this view believing everyone either had a working plug or could improve their plug so it would start working. As they began to trace the wires to see where they go, lo and behold, they discovered wires going to other places besides the one and only one big power plant in the sky. ?Could it be that there are multiple power plants supplying the world with spiritual energy they asked themselves? Some said yes. Others said no. The conversation continues.
Today I'd say most of us recognize that the sources of spiritual energy are vast from the fossilized sources dug up from history be it ancient texts, archaic practices, and beliefs to the natural sources bubbling and steaming out of the ground, shining on the just and the unjust alike, filling our sails with inspiration, to the modern ones emerging from advanced mathematics and particle physics splitting our nucleus of habitual thinking.
And the more we trace the wires, the more we discover there are smaller sources of energy contributing to the power grid that are not so very far away, sometimes right next door, sometimes sleeping right beside us. In the process of internalizing the energy we receive from our religious community we realize we are sources too. Direct personal experiences of transcending mystery and wonder show us that the plug sockets are not just found in the pew but everywhere in life as we become our own source of energy.
I think of becoming our own power source as a goal of Unitarian Universalism. We are not dependent on our congregations for our power. We are not dependent on transmission through an intercessory priest. No sanctified wine or wafer are required--helpful for some of us--but not required. I don't believe the power turns on when using the words Lord, God, Our Father, or Jesus or Buddha or Allah. In a power grid, energy is always there waiting to be used. We have no doctrinal explanation of the sources which support and uphold life.
Institutionally, this is may seem to be a foolish way to set up a religion. If people realize they can care for their own religious needs outside the church doors, why will people continue to support it? It is one of the paradoxes the Unitarian Universalist Association must struggle with. As our faith is maturing, the institution remains our power source. Everything works just fine because people come to be energized, to plug in and charge up. When we become the source of our own power, our reason for coming on Sunday begins to change.
This transition happens over time. The road to becoming one's own power source is bumpy. Sometimes we become deluded thinking a substance, a drink, a food, a supplement, is energizing us when it is really depleting us. Borrowed spiritual practices are very energizing but can lose their power over time or perhaps injure us without good guidance and discipline. Relationships which fill us one day can become drains the next. Having a wide network of access to power sources takes time to develop. All the while sickness, and aging gradually wear us down. Life is difficult to face alone no matter how energized we think we are.
If and when we really do become a steady source for our own energy, I believe it is not because we are more independent but because we are more fully interdependent with all of life. The great religious figures of history, who were tremendous sources of energy for their disciples and the religions formed around them, had a deep sense of connection and compassion. Buddha steps back from Nirvana to save all sentient beings. Jesus goes to the Cross for his people. Moses brings his tribe out of Egypt, to the promised land and must stay behind.
When you fully become your own source, you discover that you are not the source but rather a conduit of the source. The separation from all other beings drops away as you directly realize you are one with them. Just as we cannot remove ourselves from the ecology of our planet, we cannot stand at some imaginary point and separate ourselves from the rest of humanity. We are all of the same flesh, 99% the same DNA, of the same needs for food, shelter and health care, of the same needs for love and support. If you open your heart, you will feel the pain of the world. If you continue to keep your heart open, you will want to respond as you realize you share in that pain.
We do not become our own source by ourselves. We become our own source with the aid of countless beings living and dead. Each day, be it plant or animal, life is sacrificed to support our continued journey. Men, women and children have died for our religious and political freedom. To take it all in, produces tremendous gratitude for all we have been given. And there is no way to repay it ... except to become part of the transmission, part of passing the gift on. I have found little in life as meaningful as passing on this gift of energy ... this gift of love that brought us into the world and into our parent's arms.
Bill never did figure us out. He was looking for one source when there are many. The chalice, the minister, the organ and piano, the children, and, yes, the coffee pass the energy along. Each member and friend contributes to the energy found in a religious community. It isn't easy to see who is giving and who is receiving for each is the giver and each is the receiver.
Whether we become our own source or depend on others, the energy will always be available.
Our choice is plugging in.
So be it.
Copyright (c) 1998 by Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore. All rights reserved.