Why are you here? Many of you came to Unitarian Universalism because you are people who want to craft your own personal spiritual paths, to build our own theologies. Here you have heard and accepted the invitation to seek and continually deepen your personal understanding of the nature of divinity by reflecting on your own life experiences. Certainly you read and listen and incorporate the ideas of others into your theology. You honor the wisdom of the ages, you heed the teachings of prophets and poets, but the ultimate arbiter of what is true and meaningful for each of you is the truth of your own life. So what does your life tell you about the nature of the divine?
Over the millennia people of many faiths have sought ways to answer that question. They have sung their God images, and spoken them, written them and sculpted them, painted them, danced them, and imagined them. This morning I invite you to consider a particular musical expressions of God images – the hymn we just sang which was written by Brian Wren. Wren is not a Unitarian Universalist; his hymns appear in Protestant hymnals of several denominations. They make use of inclusive language, diverse images and metaphors. You have sung the hymn together. Did you read ahead to see if you agreed with the words? Did you sing the words anyway, perhaps as your gift to your pew mates, knowing that we sound so much better when we all sing together?
“Bring many names, beautiful and good, celebrating parable and story, holiness in glory, living, loving God, hail and hosanna, bring many names.”
I know that some of you are uncomfortable with God language; several of you declined my invitation to participate in this service saying, “God is not really my thing.” Well, you used more elegant words but still . . . I hope that all of you will keep your minds open to the possibility that the people who will speak this morning, people for whom God is a thing . . . that they have something to offer to you no matter where you are on that atheist-theist spectrum.
When my friend and colleague Rev. Scott Alexander hears somebody say, “I don’t believe in God” he always counters by asking, “Which God don’t you believe in?” Maybe you don’t believe in the God who used to require you to eat fish on Fridays (then changed His mind!), or the one who didn’t want you to mix milk with meat, or the one who condemned you for being gay or for being in a committed relationship outside of marriage. I share your disbelief; I don’t believe in a God hung up on food and sex!
This is an invitation to consider the possibility of a different and more nuanced way to understand and know the divine. The word God is really a kind of shorthand that we use to represent a very complex set of beliefs and meanings. We use the shorthand because there are times and forms - prayer and song and poetry – when to roll out the whole complicated explication of what we mean would get in the way of what we are trying to do. One of the jokes about Unitarian Universalist ministers is that when we are invited to say a prayer in an interfaith setting, we spend so much time using every name for God that we can think of in the first sentence that we run out of time to say anything else. Sometimes we need to be able to use the shorthand language of reverence and trust that the words we use can and will invoke different images for different people. Sometimes we need to use the word God that way. It has been used that way over and over again by every kind of faith seeking people.
Given that, isn’t this God question just a matter of semantics? Doesn’t the word have so much baggage attached to it that it is rendered useless? For Unitarian Universalists the semantic question is important. We do need to ask each other, “What do you mean by that word?” But we can’t get so hung up on the semantics argument that we never get beyond it. We can’t trip over the word, or refuse to use it, or plug our ears when we hear it. If we do, we risk losing all of the rich meanings that the word carries. Scott Alexander tries to counter the semantic argument by asking, “Which God don’t you believe in?” That at least makes us stop and think. I would press further on and ask the next question, which is, “And so, now that we’ve cleared all that up, which God do you believe in?”
The God each of us believes in is nothing more and nothing less than whatever we consider to be of ultimate worth. God is shorthand for what is constant and reliable for each of us, God is shorthand for whatever is most likely to engage our minds and hearts and souls, God is shorthand for the source of comfort and assurance in hard times, for the partner in the dance of joy and celebration. Let’s bring many names into our ongoing search for truth and meaning, and let’s honor and welcome them all.
Jo Maden: Strong mother God . . .
“Strong mother God, working night and day, planning all the wonders of creation, setting each equation, genius at play: hail and hosanna, strong mother God!”
When Roberta invited the Worship Associates to share in this service we sat with our hymnals open and read the verses of this hymn; I immediately called “dibbs” on the second verse. My religious and spiritual journey has led me from the almost wizard-like paternal figure of God from my childhood, to thoughts of no God at all with little faith in the divine, to a beautiful synthesis of a divine feminine. Though I no longer hold a visual imagery of a singular form for this divinity I feel the presence of an energy and a love that is, for me, at this time in my life, distinctly feminine. She is the life-giving energy of Mother Earth; she holds the wisdom of our ancestors; she has the strength of a warrior; she lives in the laughter and the tears of my many sisters; she is the spirit of love that flows from my mother’s memory, through me to each of my daughters. Strong mother God.
Jennifer Whitten: Warm father God . . .
Cathy Okhuysen: Old aching God, Young Eager God
Old, aching God, grey with endless care,
Calmly piercing evil’s new disguises,
Glad of good surprises, wiser than despair:
Hail and Hosanna, old, aching God!
A reading from Believers: Spiritual Leaders of the World by Elizabeth Goldman
"We can live only in the bodies we were born with, shaped by our particular strengths and weaknesses; we can live in only one place and one time. Students of religion call this limited reality that we experience conditioned reality. Our age, size, sex, and nationality are all conditions. All people know the world only from their own, limited points of view. (But most) people believe that an unconditioned reality - infinite, eternal and absolute- must also exist.
Such an unconditioned reality goes by many names. People in the West usually call it God, or Allah, or Jesus. But to a Taoist, it is Tao, and to a Confucian, Heaven. Hindus call it Brahman; Buddhists call it nirvana. In many Native American traditions, it is known as the Great, or Mysterious, Spirit......Monotheism refers to religions whose believers worship a single god, or ultimate power. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism are all monotheistic, religions. They are linked to Zoroastrianism, the ancient monotheistic religion (founded in
Changing times (over the centuries) made new demands on people. Some religions, such as Buddhism and Islam, seem to have arisen as people began living in cities; the rural codes that had suited people for centuries were suddenly inadequate. Technological changes have influenced religions as well. The invention of farming in the ancient Near East called a new set of gods and goddesses into being in ancient
YOUNG GROWING GOD, EAGER STILL TO KNOW
WILLING TO BE CHANGED BY WHAT YOU’VE STARTED
QUICK TO BE DELIGHTED, SINGING AS YOU GO;
HAIL AND HOSANA, YOUNG, GROWING GOD
From Zoroaster in 7 BCE jump forward to the 19th century
Bahá'í teachings emphasize the underlying unity of the major world religions. Religious history is seen to have unfolded through a series of divine messengers, each of whom established a religion that was suited to the needs of the time and the capacity of the people. These messengers have included Krishna, Abraham, the Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and others, including their founder Baha’u’llah
As a UU with a Christian background and primarily informed by Christian music and practices, my Ultimate Reality is the Holy Spirit. The Giver of Life spoke through the prophets and messengers of the past and proceeds into the future toward a time where there will be peace, good will to all. Continuing to be revealed in wisdom and truth, it gives me the strength to choose good over evil and work for justice.
Roberta again: “Great living God, never fully known, joyful darkness far beyond our seeing, closer yet than breathing, everlasting home, hail and hosanna, great living God!”
Do I believe in a great living God, never fully known? Yes I do. And since childhood I have defined and redefined and refined what it is that I mean by that. That is what makes me a Unitarian Universalist; that process of wrestling with my ever evolving understanding of the divine. We are both privileged and obligated to define the word God for ourselves, not just once, but over and over as we live and grow into our chosen faith. The Reverend Jane Rzepka writes about Unitarian Universalists, “ . . . whatever you are, whatever you believe, know that each of us has the same assignment: to name the source of our blessings, the foundation of all that is good, the ground of our being. So when the mysteries are close at hand - and the miracles, whether you believe in God or not – you know you have a grounded religion ready for the telling.”
Jo and Jennifer and Cathy have offered you their grounded beliefs, ready for the telling. I hope that you heard them as the gifts that they were. I hope that you will consider offering a similar gift to this, your beloved community. Remember also what my old friend Mel Pine spoke of – the many reasons why you have come to be part of this congregation, the many ways that this congregation is enriched by your diverse thoughts and words and actions. Bring many names. All beautiful, all good, all known and yet unknown, all part of the mystery of life in community.