First Parish Unitarian UniversalistNot Creed, But Covenant
A sermon preached by the Reverend Diane Teichert
First Parish Unitarian Universalist - Canton, MA
September 22, 2002
I'm with Thomas Jefferson who once said, "It is in our lives, and not our words that our religion must be read."
The scriptural text for the very first sermon I ever preached, as a college student in my family's Presbyterian Church, was from the book of James in the Christian scriptures,
"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, `Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,: and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
But someone will say, `You have faith and I have works.' But, I say, show me your faith apart from your works and I by my works will show you my faith."
Or "deeds, not creeds," as we Unitarian Universalists like to say. It's been a UU slogan for some time now. It's not just that it rhymes. It says something important about Unitarian Universalism: that we are more concerned with how to live in the here and now than we are concerned about beliefs about what might happen after our "here and now" is over. We are more concerned with living a principled life and making the world a better place for all, than we are concerned with conforming to certain theological doctrines or dietary laws, claims of scriptural authority, or scientifically impossible miracles taught as facts. Deeds, not creeds.
So, here's a question for you: How is Unitarian Universalism like high school math? Answer: you have to show your work!
We have to show our work in our deeds, in how we live our lives. This is a "living tradition," as we like to call it (see the title of your hymnal, for example), not just because it is alive and ever-evolving over time, or as we also like to say, "revelation is not sealed," meaning it's not static, sealed by scripture thousands of years old or defined by creeds established only slightly more recently.
Ours is a living tradition also because it is about living, about living our lives. As Unitarian Universalists, we have to live our faith. Deeds, not creeds.
A colleague at last March's UU minister's convocation, the Rev. Dr. Daniel O' Connell, said what makes us uniquely Unitarian Universalist is that we have to show our work theologically, too.
"Orthodox religions," he said, "provide only the Question and [the] Answer. Not how to get from the Q to the A. Ignore the blank space, says orthodoxy, concentrate on the Q and A. That's their version of doctrine, not ours. UU-ism says you cannot just give the Q and then an A, you have to show your work. In high school math classes, you can't just repeat the problem assigned to you and spit out the answer. You have to show [how you got the answer]; you have to show your work. UU-ism is the same way. It's how you get to the A from the Q that matters [to us]. The Qs and the As will change over time, but the uncovering of what's in between is what makes you uniquely UU."
The Q's and A's have indeed changed over time, and we'll get back to that in less than a minute. But, first, I want to acknowledge that especially if you're relatively new here, you may be wondering what in the world holds Unitarian Universalist congregations together, if everybody is coming up with their own individual Answers to the Questions!
Maybe some of you long-timers wonder about that, too, as you get to know newcomers whose backgrounds and beliefs may be very different than yours! Sometimes I wonder myself, when I remember that under these conditions, no sermon is ever going to speak to every one present, just as no one person can realistically expect to be grabbed by every one of my sermons!
Yes, it's true, we don't have a creed or common set of beliefs. First Parishioners come from very varied backgrounds, religiously. Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, evangelical, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslim, Unitarian, Universalist, UU or no religious background at all.
Not only that, but we vary a great deal in our present beliefs as well. Some of us are agnostics, some atheists, some have a sense of the divine or the holy, some believe in the God of the Judeo-Christian heritage, some in the Goddess or Allah or the spirit of life, or worship by some other name or no name at all but believe in the power of love.
Not only that but, as I just mentioned, our faith tradition itself has changed remarkably since the early 19th century when Unitarianism and Universalism first became widely known in New England. What does hold us together?
Another colleague, Jim Robinson, the senior minister at First Parish in Brewster, has been reflecting on the theological evolution in his own family. He's a fifth generation Unitarian, whose 28 year old daughter (a sixth generation UU) is preparing to become a UU minister herself!
Jim says that in the first of those five generations, his forebears were "liberal Christians," like all the early Unitarians and Universalists. Their idea of God was as a loving father, not a punitive judge, and they viewed Jesus as a man, not as God, and saw themselves more as followers of the teachings of Jesus rather than believers in the doctrines about Jesus Christ. Theirs was a liberal interpretation of the scriptures, for that time.
After that, there was the Transcendentalist generation, whose religion was a natural religion, imbued with personal experience of the divine in the ordinary-in nature, in human interactions, in mystical experience.
Then there were the humanists. And, then, what he calls himself, the pluralists.
Not every Unitarian family would include the Transcendentalist phase in its theological evolution. In fact, the term "Transcendentalism" was at first a put-down, a name given by Unitarians who didn't approve of it, and it stuck. The other name they gave it was "infidelity"!
One can see, I think, people of all these persuasions, plus more, in Unitarian Universalism today. And in First Parish today as well.
So, if we're not held together by creeds, common backgrounds or common present beliefs, and if it's changed so much over time, how are we Unitarian Universalists held together? What hold us together as we go about showing the work from Question to Answer? What hold us together as we make our personal decisions about how to live, what work (paid or voluntary) to do in the world, whom to love, what to do with our money, and so on?
What holds us together as we lay new cement in the Parish Hall basement, or sand the steps to the upstairs classrooms, plan a fundraiser or count the offering on Sunday, teach the children or organize an adult class or social service project? What holds us together?
You might say it's the sense of community here that binds us as individuals together. You might even say it's a saving sense of community that binds us, that can save you from loneliness, despair, or confusion and comfort you in times of sickness or bereavement.
It can really save a person that way. I know it, because some of you have witnessed to that being true in your own lives. But, of course, you have to be open to being saved, or at least you have to show up!
I'm reminded of a story told by a friend and colleague, Tricia Tummino.
There's a shed behind her house that her two sons have gradually appropriated for their own use. First, one acquired a barbell and weights. Now, my friend, nearing fifty like me, thought she'd take advantage of this convenient mini-gym right in her own home. But, it wasn't long before her son could lift many more weights than she could. So, she'd remove all but one of his weights, then do her thing. By the end of her work-out, though, she hadn't the energy to put all the weights back on the barbell. Her son insisted that, if she wanted to use his equipment, she had to leave it the way she found it, so that was the end of her exercise routine. (When do they ever do that for us, putting our stuff back the way they found it, that's what I want to know!) Then, the other son purchased a full-sized boxing bag, followed by one of those small ones, for fast repetitive punching.
"They're looking pretty buff," she says of her sons. By now she must fend her way around all this apparatus to get through the shed. So, she generally doesn't go in at all.
It's like congregational life. If you enter in and use what it offers, you really benefit, you're downright buff! But, if you don't enter in, it being there doesn't matter at all!
You might say it's that sense of community into which we enter that holds us together, but what holds the community together?
Our intention to be held together is expressed, I suggest to you this morning, in our covenants. It's not creeds or deeds, but covenants that hold us together.
What is a covenant? It's a promise or agreement, but it has a loftier sound than just a promise or agreement, I think, more like vows. A covenant conveys values, what the parties to the agreement value. The word comes from the Latin for "to come together." To come together by making a promise, as when two people come together promising to love and care for one another.
This covenantal approach of ours is not a modern invention. It is a tradition that we can trace back to our religious forebears, the Puritans, which they stated in what became known as the Cambridge Platform of 1648, well before a congregation was gathered here in Canton in 1717.
Every Sunday, we recite the covenant of this congregation. "Love is the doctrine of this church." If you don't know it well yet, keep coming and you soon will! Though we say it is the covenant of our congregation, it is not original to us, but rather is based on two 19th century covenants, that were in turn based on still older ones.
And, it's not the only covenant we have. When I was to be installed as your minister in May of 1999, together we drafted a covenant in which we made promises one to another, the congregation to me and I to you.
I remember well how that covenant came to be. One Sunday, during the sermon, I invited those present to write on a large index card the answers to two questions: one was about what you hoped I would promise to you and the other was what you would promise to me. Then a small group volunteered to sift through all of what was written on the cards and organized the statements by theme. As they looked for common threads that wove a larger vision, and crafted the promises you as a congregation would make to me, I considered my own to you.
During the Installation we read the final document aloud. This past week, I located a copy. Reading it, I was moved to remember the excitement of the occasion and touched again by all we promised to each other. Let me remind you, those of you who were there, and share it for the first time with those who were not.
It began with a preamble in which you honored those Unitarians and Universalists in Canton who had preceded you, and I honored my parents, family and friends. Then it proceeded back and forth between the minister and the congregation, as follows.
First Parish Members and Friends:
Today we offer you, Reverend Diane Teichert, this free pulpit, that you might speak the truth from it with all your heart, mind and soul. We ask you to use it to guide and challenge us into individual spiritual growth, increased kindness and cooperation with one another, and a clearer witness for justice in the community, and even the world, in which we live.
Minister:
I promise to tend to my own spiritual needs, knowing that without grounding and growth of my own, I can neither lead nor inspire you.
First Parish Members and Friends:
We promise to show up! We will participate with energy and positive outlook, and contribute ideas, enthusiasm, leadership, and resources. We will communicate with you and with each other in open, honest, and democratic ways that create harmony and build the common good.
Minister:
As will I! And, when we fail or falter, as we surely will from time to time, I will accept and forgive myself as well as you, and ask that you do the same for me and for each other. And, so, we learn, and then move on.
First Parish Members and Friends:
We desire to grow in so many ways. We want to be larger in spirit as well as numbers. We want to be more welcoming of more kinds of people and more appreciative of the differences, even as we come to know and trust our commonalties. And, we want to serve the larger community, doing the work of love and justice. We know these are high hopes and we want to know if you share them.
Minister: I do.
President (then Kitty McGregor):
Diane, will you also walk with us when we are hopeless? Will you rejoice with us in our individual joys, grieve with us in our sorrows, and help us to mark with meaning the important passages in our lives?
Minister:
I am honored to walk with any of you, uphill or down, on the flat barren stretches, when the way ahead is obscured or fearful, or bright with promise, getting to know you in good times and hard times, loving you and helping you to celebrate life's passages.
First Parish Members and Friends:
We, the members of First Parish Unitarian Universalist-Canton, do hereby install you, Diane Teichert, as minister of this congregation. We will be fair and faithful to you and do our best to reach our high hopes for this ministry together.
Minister:
With joy, humility, and faith in a larger love that holds us all, I take up this ministry among you, to walk with you a good way toward the high hopes we share.
President:
Colleagues, family, friends, will you please rise and together may we say
Then, everyone gathered, parishioners, guests, all were asked to stand and read:
We raise our voices in affirmation of this congregation, this minister, and for their striving for high hopes.
Indeed!
First Parish will soon have yet another covenant, one among the leaders of First Parish, that will be drafted this Saturday, at our annual Leadership Retreat.
There's also a covenant that binds First Parish to other UU congregations, as we read aloud together a few minutes ago*. That covenant is not a creed, it's not a statement of belief; instead, it is a statement of values, a vision for how we want to live.
Drafted by committee and submitted to all congregations to review, it was adopted by the delegates from congregations to the General Assemblies of 1984 and 1985, with an amendment to include the last source, about earth-centered traditions, in 1993. The left side is referred to as our "principles and purposes" and the right (which we did not read aloud) as "the sources," but what seems to me to be the heart of the promise made between congregations appears in the smaller print at the bottom, the last sentence: "As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support."
So, indeed, our life together is guided by several covenants, with one more on the way:
Between us as individuals, we are guided by the covenant of this congregation that we read every Sunday.
Between the leaders, soon they will covenant in regard to their relations one with another, with committee members and with the congregation as a whole.
The relationship between you and I as congregation and minister is also a covenantal relationship.
And, finally, our associations with other UU congregations, as well as our individual and collective behavior in the world, is guided by the statement that follows the opening words, "We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote." and ends with "as free congregations, we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support."
Any of these covenants are, in one sense, just words. We should feel free to change the words and write new covenants as times and our living tradition change. But, the intent of these covenants goes beyond words, deeper than words, connects us with generations past and generations to come, and somehow holds us all. The words of our covenants convey our desire to be in community with one another and our vision as to how to do so. That's what holds us together. So may it be.
Amen.
Benediction
Let ours be a dance of faithfulness to our best intentions, our highest aspirations. Let it be a dance, though, let it be a dance!
*"We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association covenant to affirm and promote: The inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity and compassion in human relations; acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations; a free and responsible search for truth and meaning; the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large; the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part."