"Give Them Not Hell but Hope and Courage"
Rev. Dr. Joshua Snyder, November 16, 2003
OPENING WORDS
Into come this house of blessed community may we come
to grow
to share
to learn
to speak
to grow together in the spirit of peace and harmony and love
MEDITATIONThere is incredible power in forgiveness. But forgiveness is not rational. One can seldom find a reason to forgive or be forgiven. Forgiveness is often undeserved. It may require a dimension of justice (penance, in traditional terms), but not always, for what it holds sacred is not fairness, but self-respect and community. Forgiveness does not wipe away guilt, but invites reconciliation. And it is as important to be able to forgive as it is to be forgiven.
No, we do not forgive and forget. But when we invite the power of forgiveness, we release ourselves from some of the destructive hold the past has on us. Our hatred, our anger, our need to feel wronged- those will destroy us, whether a relationship is reconciled or not.
But we cannot just will ourselves to enter into forgiveness, either as givers or receivers. We can know it is right and that we want to do it and still not be able to.
We can, however, be open and receptive to the power of forgiveness, which, like any gift of the spirit, isn't of our own making. Its power is rooted in love. The Greek word for this kind of love is agape. Martin Luther King, Jr., defined agape as "Love seeking to preserve and create community." This kind of love is human, but it is also the grace of a transcendent power that lifts us out of ourselves. It transforms and heals; and even when we are separated by time or space or death, it reconciles us to ourselves and to Life. For its power abides not just between us but within us. If we invited the power of agape to heal our personal wounds and give us the gift of forgiveness, we would give our world a better chance of survival.
Sara Moores Campbell
Into The Wilderness, 1990
READINGGo out into the highways and byways of America, your new country. Give the people, blanketed with a decaying and crumbling Calvinism, something of your new vision. You may possess only a small light but uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men. Give them, not hell, but hope and courage. Do not push them deeper into their theological despair, but preach the kindness and everlasting love of God.
John Murray
SERMON“Give the people a little bit of your good news. Give them not hell but hope and courage,” Thus exhorted the Father of Universalism, John Murray, to his fellow ministers. Murray lived in the early days of our Republic, serving as a Chaplin in the Revolutionary War at the command of General Washington himself. Murray came to America looking to avoid a life of preaching and evangelism, and yet circumstances beyond his control pushed him in the direction of becoming a Universalist minister. You see in those days, Universalism was just getting a foothold in the American colonies. Not every Yankee Calvinist wanted to hear about the loving mercy of God that would rescue all souls and lead them to heaven. God for many people back then was an angry dictator who viewed us humans as insects to be squashed. Religion seemed to be a holding pen for us to beg for mercy from the Divine boot making a mess of us on the sidewalk. Murray, however, convinced a number of people in Massachusetts and Philadelphia that this was a perverse doctrine. So passionate did he feel about this, that he felt compelled to ride from town to town preaching in any house or barn, or other venue that would have him. Thus did the early Universalist Churches emerge in New England.
Moreover, Murray was good at what he did. People came to hear his logic of argument and his knowledge of the scriptures. Soon other people wanted to spread the word of this religion of love and compassion that did not require us to grovel at the feel of God. Here finally was a religion of life, not death. A religion that inspired a moved people out of a desire to be and do the good, not cower in fear of the slightest transgression or sin. John Murray’s Universalism was a radical change in religion, as revolutionary in religion as the political revolution that he lived through. Naturally others were attracted to his charisma and dynamic leadership. They looked to him for inspiration and courage. And so as he spoke to a group of ministers who were about to embark on what they called in those days “circuit-riding.” Most Universalist Churches were not big enough to support one minister full-time. So they would in essence share a minister who would ride a circuit of churches from one town to the next on his horse. It was a nice deal for the small churches that got a minister for a Sunday, and it was a nice deal for the minister because he only had to write one sermon, and got tons of mileage out of it! And so to these people, John Murray tells them, “Don’t go out and scare the heck out of people with some fire and brimstone image of the afterlife. Give them something to hold on to, something to use and be inspired to live by. Not only talk about divine love, but also live it in your words, deeds, and presence, with the people you encounter. Give them not hell, but hope.”
As you might guess, John Murray is one of my favorite figures in Unitarian Universalist history. Murray inspired many many people of his generation, and even into modern times. When I was a ministerial intern in Chapel Hill North Carolina, one of the primary duties of my internship was to start a campus ministry at the University of North Carolina. When I got there, there was nothing, no UU presence on campus at all. I had a year to get one started. So in the fall there was this big display area where all the different groups on campus put out their displays and tried to grab the attention of Generation X if only for a few moments to sign up for their student group. I had just submitted the necessary forms to qualify to set up shop in the very hot Carolina sun of early fall. A few people stopped, and fewer signed up. I spent most of the afternoon by myself, vacillating between boredom depression over my lack-luster first weeks as a ministerial intern. So I began reading the pamphlet I had made. On one of the inside flaps was that quote from John Murray, “you may have but only a small light, but let it shine to illuminate the hearts and minds of men and women. Give them not hell but hope and courage.” Perhaps it was the dehydration, or perhaps it was the level three sunburn I was developing, but suddenly I had a religious experience. I felt that John Murray was speaking directly to me, right now in this very circumstance, not in some Joan of Arc sort of way, but that his experiences and mine were not so different. It was in that moment that I became an Evangelist for Unitarian Universalism. It was in that moment that I became a minister.
Evangelist of course is a word with levels of meaning that are not particularly pleasant for most Unitarian Universalists. I still have a hard time calling myself that sometimes, I will admit to you that there is a big part of me that wishes there was a Buddhist term I could use to replace “Evangelist” but none are apparent to me. Of course the meaning of words depends a great deal on their context. In many places in Europe for example “Evangelical” just means “a Protestant.” However in America “Evangelical” conjures up images of men in expensive suits and slicked back hair, and now more recently women in smart dresses, preaching the word of the Lord! Or we think of the various religious groups that go from door to door peddling God as if God were a toothbrush or a vacuum cleaner. In some case even they admit that door-knock evangelism doesn’t work, they do it in as a form of discipline, so that their members are able to defend and articulate their faith. If a few of the heathen change their minds, then so much the better.
Surly I am not recommending that Unitarian Universalists employ such methods of converting people to our point of view. UUs should not be so arrogant as to force their religious beliefs onto other people. Ours is a religion that places listening at a higher premium that talking. All of this I agree with. We should neither employ the methods nor the attitude of those we think of as evangelists. Having some of their money wouldn’t hurt though.
No I call myself an evangelist because it is the only word that conveys the kind of passion I want to express about Unitarian Universalism. Evangelism is really about passion. It is about something, anything really; that you care about so much that you cannot help but share it with others. By that definition one could be an evangelist for anything. Movie directors and distributors are hoping that when you see their movie that you will love it so much that you will go out and tell five of your best friends to go see it. That word of mouth comes from a deep part of ourselves that saw something that moved us. We want to express it and share it, and so we talk to others about it. That is a kind of evangelism. Of course it works the other way too. When people see a movie they don’t like they tell about eight of their friends to avoid it, and five of their worst enemies to run out and see it right away. In one extreme case, Sharon and I were in the middle of dinner after seeing a really bad movie, and we spent the first half of the meal on the cell phone calling friends and relatives in Michigan telling them how bad this movie was.
The UU Minister Rev. Larry Peer writes, “An evangelizing church is one that calls forth some of the deepest spiritual yearnings and aspirations among its members and also know how to engage those members in works of transformation and justice in the world. A congregation that is truly evangelizing cannot help but share its good news and allow that good news to impact the lives of others.” For religious liberals evangelism is a dirty word with a valuable core. Liberal religious evangelism is not about converting people. It is about talking with people about something that is very precious to you. Liberals believe that the highest purpose of religion is to facilitate each individual’s spiritual journey. It may not be fun all of the time, but being human religiously, as James Luther Adams once put it, means seeking meaning in the nooks and crannies of life that may appear very barren and stark. We are not given a lot of the answers that some other religions are, and that is a great blessing sometimes and an inconvenience other times. It would be easy perhaps to have all of the answers in a book to look up and know that it is right no matter what. But Religious Liberals have chosen to lead the examined life, the authentic life that seeks and squirms through more gray than black and white. What that allows us to do, however, is come up with some pretty creative religious ideas and practices. There is no one to force me into a box of this religious text or that insightful guru. I am free to piece together the meaning of life myself, using my own devices or the ones on loan from the great religious thinkers of the world. In any event, the point is that each of us must follow our own spiritual path as best we can. But sometimes in our journey we stumble across something that is truly magnificent. A gem that is worthy of admiration. Many years ago, on my spiritual journey, I stumbled across Buddhism and Zen meditation, and I have been crowing about it to you people for the past four years! I hope to continue to do so for many more. But I am willing to bet that all of you, each and every one of you whether you are a long time member of this Church or a visitor sitting among us for the first time, all you have stumbled across something on the spiritual path that was worthy of being shouted from the mountaintops. Perhaps it was a book you read, a CD you heard, or someone you heard speak.
Maybe it was a lyric of a song. There was a point when I was a student that they way I selected my sermon topics was to consult my CD collection, see what moved me about that particular song, and use it as the jumping off point. It moved something deep down that I had to express beyond just playing the song for someone. It spoke to my soul in some way that was powerful. I could not keep it to myself, it had to come out and touch the lives of other people. Maybe it would not touch them as it had me, but I still felt compelled to do so. For all of your sake you are lucky I don’t do that very often anymore. Otherwise you would hear a lot of Beatles sermons! Evangelism comes out as a result of our spiritual journey. It is a relational moment that seeks mutual transformation.
More Larry Peers,
“Evangelism at its heart means the ability to share one’s faith in such a way that you offer it as a way of intersecting with the lives of others…. It is an encounter between two human beings. Evangelism provides an intersection between a message and a recipient of that message that answers the question: Is this a faith that can truly liberate me? Is this a religious community that can become for me a vehicle of saving grace and healing power? Is this Unitarian Universalism a way toward what is holy? Will this engagement with Unitarian Universalism really make a difference in my life and for this world?”Evangelism is the intersection of two human lives. Two lives that are lived with intensity and passion come together to learn from one another. That is what happens when we share that piece of ourselves that is so very precious to us, and yet cannot be contained within our skin. It is to encounter the sacred dimension of life in the midst of another person, what Martin Buber called the “I-Thou” relationship. Evangelism then, is not the coercive activity that we have unfortunately grown accustomed to in this country. True evangelism is being open to other people and what moves them, and in turn sharing what moves me. It is not a tug of war to see who can quote more Bible verses, or as some ill-informed generals in the Pentagon believe, that my God is bigger than your God. Evangelism is crossing paths on the spiritual journey with your fellow pilgrims, taking out your backpacks and sharing what each of you have gathered along the way in your travels. The idea is that you find a couple of those fellow travelers sitting next to you in those chairs you occupy right now.
One of the most powerful stories I heard about UU evangelism came from a man in Sioux Falls, whose name I don’t recall, who spoke at a District Workshop on UU Evangelism. He told the story of how, before he moved to South Dakota, he lived and worked in Texas. I believe it was in the Houston area; he would drive back and forth to work every day, and would pass a Unitarian Universalist Church near his home. After decades of passing by this Church, he moved north, and happened to find his way into the UU Fellowship. On a trip back to Texas, he decided to stop by this Church that he had so often seen from the street, but never knew anything about. He attended the service, and afterward he spoke to some folks at the coffee hour. He said, “You know I drove by this Church for many years. There were times I was struggling in my life, with family, with my job, with my faith. I never knew about Unitarian Universalism. Why didn’t you tell me you were here? Why didn’t you share with me what you had? Why did I have to travel so long, in time and distance, to find Unitarian Universalism?” Why indeed.
The moral of the story is not for us to rush the pamphlet wrack in the foyer and go leafleting the neighborhood. The moral of the story for me at least, is that we as a Church and as a denomination must be engaged in the world. We cannot keep our light hid under the bush. Not only for our own sake, so that we might grow, or even for continuing the living tradition of Unitarian Universalism, as lofty as that goal may be. But rather we must be active in the world because the world is in desperate, life-support need of a liberal religious voice. We as keepers of that voice are under an obligation to share it, not to convert the heathen, but to inspire, to bring life, and to give them not hell but hope.
Actually there is a Buddhist story of evangelism. After the Buddha attained enlightenment, he stayed under the bodhi tree for forty days rapt in the transcendental experience of bliss that is nirvana. Finally Brahma, the king of the Gods descended to earth to persuade the Buddha to teach. “Living beings are suffering, your teachings can help them put out the fires of ignorance, desire, and hatred. Please teach!” The Buddha claims, somewhat arrogantly perhaps but he is the Buddha after all, that his insight is too profound. No one will understand it. After Brahma pleads with him three times, the Buddha relents. Someone will understand. Someone is this close to getting it. I need to spread my good news for their sake. So may it be with us.
May we have the courage to walk the spiritual path with honesty and intensity. May we seek out those whom we meet to hear their stories, and have the courage to tell our own. And may we seek always to be transformed by the encounter. Amen, Blessed Be.
Recommended Books:
Alexander, Scott. Salted with Fire
Howe, Charles. The Larger Faith
CLOSING WORDSAnd now may we go forth,
in the certainty of
in the knowledge of love and in the vision of hope,
And in our going, may we be blessed with all good things on this day, forever more. Amen.