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Companions in Fellowship, Learning and ServiceRev. Phil Schulman11/22/2009David received a parrot for his birthday. This parrot was fully grown with a bad attitude and he cursed like a sailor. Every other word was an expletive. Those that weren't expletives were, to say the least, rude. David tried hard to change the bird's attitude and was constantly saying polite phrases, playing soft music, and anything else that came to mind. Nothing worked. Eventually he lost his patience and yelled at the bird. The bird only got worse. He shook the bird and the bird got madder and ruder. Finally, in a moment of rage, David put the parrot in the freezer. For a few moments he heard the bird squawking, kicking and screaming and then, suddenly, all was quiet. David, feeling frightened and ashamed that he might have actually killed the bird, opened the freezer door. The parrot stepped out onto David's extended arm and said, "I'm sorry that I offended you with my language and actions. I ask for your forgiveness." David was astounded at the bird's change in attitude and was about to ask what changed him when the parrot continued, "May I ask what the turkey did?"
Q: What did the mama turkey say to her naughty son? A: If your papa could see you now, he'd turn over in his gravy! ... Thanksgiving is a harvest celebration similar to harvest celebrations kept by cultures throughout time and the globe. Although not a formal religious ceremony, Thanksgiving is a communion of sorts. We break bread in a spirit of gratitude for the many blessings our communities have received.
Companions are people who break bread together. The word companion comes from two latin words; “com” meaning with and “pan” meaning bread. Today, I will present three ways that we Unitarian Universalists are spiritual companions. We are companions in fellowship, learning and service.
We are companions in fellowship. We became UUs because we feel a sense of belonging here. We became UUs because we like people here. We became UUS because we identify with the values articulated and demonstrated here. People use the word fellowship is a secular manner, (ie socializing), but to be religious liberals we must consider the religious origins and connotations. Fellowship derives from the Greek word that corresponds to the Latin word “communio.” Fellowship is a synonym for communion. Most commonly, fellowship has been understood to mean a relationship between people that values relationship with God. A liberal understanding would say that fellowship means sharing a common a spirit. We enjoy fellowship when come together to affirm what is sacred, values held in common.
Fellowship as socializing without the spiritual or religious component is a much weaker bond.
When people's only reason for affiliation with the congregation is a friendship, they will likely drift away when their friends move away or die. However, when the connection of fellowship is based upon a common spirit of worship, we are more likely to maintain our affiliation through many changes over time. We will retain companionship when we lose our job, our spouse dies, even when we move to a new city. A family that prays together, stays together. So the saying goes. Institutionally prayer provides staying power too. The praying of which I speak is not limited to the kind of prayer you rejected as a child or as a young adult. I am including as prayer such forms as Native American drumming, chanting from any of the world's cultures, poetic or dramatic expression addressing ultimate concern, and other forms of worship practiced throughout the globe.
We are companions in fellowship with the spirit of religious liberalism. What makes us companions is not that we may have different beliefs about God. the purpose or meaning of living. What makes us companions in fellowship is that despite our lack of doctrines and creeds we are still able to celebrate and recognize spirit, the eternal, and all that we hold sacred. As religious liberals we share an appreciation that truth is greater than can be captured in any story, book or set of doctrines.
We are companions in learning: we are learning to grow in spiritual awareness. There is no one map that can trace the beginning or end of spiritual growth. And yet there are profound agreements, commonalities, shared themes and values among the world's religious traditions. For most if not all religious traditions, spiritual growth refers to a maturity in one's capacity for relationships in general, in relation to God or to the largeness of life.
In recent years the term we've used in our congregations for this is “right relationship.” By right relationship we refer to our practice of maintaining a covenant with one another to exist in love and respect. Extending beyond the congregation, right relationship refers to justice, equity and compassion with all our human brothers and sisters. Continuing further, we are growing into “right” relationship with our environment and all the creatures who share spaceship Earth. Right relationship on this level would include actions that support health and sustainability.
We grow spiritually when we move toward “right” relations that bring about compassion, respect and awareness of inherent worth and dignity in human relations. We UU's are growing spiritually as we learn to move into harmony with our ecosystems. We grow spiritually when our beliefs, attitudes and actions support the building of a just, equitable and sustainable human society.
We grow spiritually when we gain awareness of ourselves in relation to something larger. Some of us call that something larger God. Some of us speak of our greatest sense of what is, or an ultimate truth beyond our grasp. We grow spiritually when we discover or face truth, when we move beyond our illusions of separateness into an awareness that we are a part of an interdependent web of existence. Like Buddhists our UU paradigm of spiritual growth focuses not only on right action but also right thought or awareness of the interconnectedness of life. Spiritual growth is growing from the illusion of separateness into an awareness of interdependence.
Please DO notice that both of these two first ways of being companions move us out of isolation and into community. If what you are doing increases your sense of isolation, alienation and estrangement for an extended period of time it's not spiritual growth. Spirituality leads you to feel and know yourself as being connected.
We Unitarian Universalists are companions concerned more with the territory than the map. One year people call a place Leningrad, then it suddenly becomes St Petersburg again. One day there is a place called Senegal and the next it becomes Mali. Similarly, religious cultures use different names to mark their path of spiritual growth. They use different names to identify milestones and the destination of the spiritual journey. The names and understandings change over time. UUS value the territory more than the map. It is an essential part of what makes us a religious people. I may wish to head to San Diego. You intend only to go to Tucson. We can travel on IH10 together for a long ways. I may wish to achieve enlightenment. You wish to grow closer to Lord Jesus. In our congregations it is possible for us to journey together toward faith and wholeness.
The third way to be companions is through service. We are companions in a common spirit when incarnate the values that we hold in common. Our way of being of service to humanity and the divine is to continue the prophetic tradition. Unitarian Universalists are called to build a land where sisters and brothers, anointed by God and all that is holy, shall then create peace, where justice shall roll down like waters, and peace like an ever flowing stream.
This third form of companionship comes to us from our liberal Christian ancestors and the Jewish roots they honored. Although many of the people who call themselves UU today eschew identification as Christians, it is important to remember that everything we have today- our practices, our values our living tradition comes to us through a Christianity that held on to the Jewish prophetic tradition. Our ancestors were Christians. They were Christians who turned back to the Jewish roots of Christianity. They were Christians who believed that following Jesus was more important than having an approved set of theological beliefs about him. They were Christians who experienced the meaning of communion -not only as remembering Jesus, but as the invitation to become the body of Christ- to continue Jesus ministry and allow his compassionate spirit to move through them. Our forefathers and foremothers were Christians who carried on the Prophetic tradition that Jesus was a part of. The Unitarians and the Universalists were Christians who by receiving communion became companions, brothers and sisters committed to the work of establishing on Earth the kingdom of love. They, like the Unitarian -Universalists of our time understood that Jesus's greatest teaching and most challenging call was to love. They understood and we understand that to enter into fellowship, to receive communion, to receive the holy spirit means accepting the call to incarnate divine and eternal love into our experience of mortality.
We are spiritual companions who bind ourselves together in fellowship when we understand our ministry for this world. We are called to love this human race with all its gnarly imperfections. We are called as Unitarian Universalists not just to talk about love or the inherent worth and dignity of all people, but value love, to pursue love, to experience love, to learn love, to practice love. Love is the doctrine of this church.
And being companions on this kind of journey, in this kind of tradition asks us to do more than to bunker down someplace where we feel safe, where we fit in, where we feel important, where we feel loved. Don't get me wrong we need these things. Safety, belonging, a sense of worth, love ... these are precious things. These are needs without which life will not thrive. I am not knocking these things. But we are called as Unitarian Universalists to grow spiritually. As William Shed said, “A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.”
To take this precious legacy and use it in order to avoid the challenges of spiritual growth, to use it to avoid doing the hard work to find a faith to live by... that would be to fail to understand or appreciate our tradition. In deed would be to misrepresent it. We are called to do the work of bringing love into this world. Love is the doctrine of this church.
Being Unitarian Universalists means being a religious liberal. Why do we identify as UU and then claim to be against religion? Unitarian Universalists can not hold onto false notions that equate religion with institutions that serve powers and principalities, who exploit the week. This is to deny the power, the value and the reality of liberal religion, the prophetic tradition in general and our Unitarian Universalist tradition specifically. Our ancestors did more than reject the trinity. They affirmed the unity of the source of life that they referred to as God. The Universalists did not just reject the idea of eternal damnation, they affirmed the love and goodness of the source of life that they referred to as God. Their faith gave birth to a powerful optimism that became a force for liberation. It is not a coincidence that they emphasized a social gospel. From abolition, to public education, to prison reform, the Universalists strove to incarnate divine love and move society toward greater humanity.
And we are called to carry this effort forward, to bring this love to life today. Love is the doctrine of this church. Being called to love is not an easy ministry. It wasn't easy for Jesus. It wasn't easy for Ghandi or Martin Luther King or any of the prophets.
It's hard enough to love our neighbors. It's hard enough to love our family members. It's really hard enough to love our companions who join with us in the hard work of the church. (Can I get an “Amen?) We are called to do all these things, and more. It's hard enough to be good Samaritans, to do the unusual thing of not ignoring the real human beings who are in need of our support. It's good and wonderful to do charity, to serve in a soup kitchen. That's good work.
And we are called as a people to a level of service that continues the prophetic tradition. We are called to notice that the streets are strewn with humans that this society has chewed up and spit out. We are called to speak up and speak out whenever and wherever we can- whenever the powerful use their power for short sighted greedy gains at the expense of many. We are called to speak in love, to reject rationalizations and quick fixes that sell out the next generation. We are called to use prophetic voice whenever corporate actions will harm the environment and health of future generations. Love is the doctrine of this church.
And if you are feeling that its too tall of an order, if you are feeling overwhelmed and overburdened and inadequate... we are called to be companions. Our work is to create a sanctuary that nurtures souls and helps heal the world. Our work is to maintain a sanctuary that helps us to see divinity; beauty, meaning and value- Our ministry asks us to be companions who help one another see the sacred behind and beyond the world of separate things that fall apart and die.
Our faith asks us to break bread together as spiritual companions. To receive the love that is here to share. It means cherishing the tradition that was given to us, and remembering it is bigger than any one of us. It means admitting that we can't do it all. We can't even figure it all out. Being companions asks us to remember the one thing that is always at our fingertips to do. Love is the doctrine of this church.
We are companions on a journey that is sacred to us. Let us celebrate and give thanks for this honor, this privilege- this gift. Love is the doctrine of this church. Who will declare and usher in the new kingdom of love? Who will live in it? Who will be a companion?
Long pause. ah-ho mita-coo-yeah o-ya-see! (to all my relations) Amen. Blessed be.
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Last Updated on Monday, 23 November 2009 22:08 |
Copyright © 2012 Community Unitarian Universalist Church of San Antonio. All Rights Reserved.
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