Christianity and Unitarian Univeralism

Being home for the summer is an interesting change. It is easy to get used to being at school, living and working among the self selected group that has much of the same interests you do is a different experience then living among your family and returning to the church that sent you to seminary in such a loving way.

I've been reading a lot about ministry and about what it is like to be in ministry. One thing that stuck out for me was something I read in "This Odd and Wondrous Calling" (wonderful book by the way). Lillian Daniel, one of the two authors, wrote about being an intern and how she was going to correct all the problems with the church with this great sermon. One of the people in the church commented how it was time for their annual lecture, because the intern was going to speak.

This stuck with me. When I was preparing to preach at my home church last Sunday I was trying to be cautious about not being a lecture. Yet it was a little challenging. I don't think the sermon could have been anything else. Overall it was about my first year at seminary. As I said, being a UU in a Christian Seminary is hard. Being a Christian in a UU church is also hard. I also talked about our tendency to avoid talking about who we are, about our differences and our real diversity.

This is something that is discussed well in "Engaging Our Theological Diversity" a 2005 report from the Commission on Appraisal. I really think Unitarian Universalism has a lot of unique potential. But this tension toward Christianity is something we have to work with. It is still something I have to work with. But being at school this year has helped a lot.

Our greatest ideals are about diversity and acceptance. Yet there are those who leave our churches because they feel rejected by the jokes about Christians, by the disdain toward spirituality. This does not live up to our ideals of acceptance.

Anyway, I was surprised by how positively the sermon was accepted and em brassed. There were many who thanked me for my words.

It's another reminder that you can never be sure who might need to hear what you have to say.

Mr. Beck's good advice.

Glen Beck gave some good advice recently. I don't know how you feel about him but for me it is the first time I have ever thought... "Hey good idea Glen!" I'll tell you what he said... Glen Beck advised his viewers to look for the words social justice or economic justice on a churches website...

This is where I would like to stop with his advice, because he goes on to counsel leaving a church that works toward social and economic justice. As you might imagine our beliefs diverge at this point.

I think you should look for the words social justice or economic justice on your church's website. One the the biggest things I love about being a Unitarian Universalist is find these words is as easy, if not easier, than finding directions to the church. Our principles call for social justice, and equality. Unitarian Universalism calls for us to hold a deep respect for all life.

The thing is... this is not one of the ways we differ from Christianity. Jesus was a radical! He called for social justice, for caring about people who were poor and mistreated. Jesus wanted us to help each other, to serve the poor and downtrodden. There are more than 300(!!!) verses that address this issue. Here is a sampling -

Luke 3:11. And [John the Baptist] would answer and say to them, "Let the man with two tunics share with him who has none, and let him who has food do likewise."

Mt. 6:2-4. "When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you."

Luke 4:16-21. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read... "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He appointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD... Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

1 Tim. 6:10. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang.

Christianity has gone though a lot of growth and change over the years, but social justice and working toward the improvement of others has long been an important part of many Christian denominations.

I don't know what church Mr. Beck thinks you should go to. But I suggest you take his advice and look for the words "social justice" or "economic justice" on it's website. It's the best advice I've heard in a long time.

UUs standing out?

I need to get to work on some of my mound of home work and assorted other projects. Yet I find myself thinking about a conversation in class this morning. The class is split up into several groups that will each prepare a worship service based around the idea of a parable. It doesn't have to be a Jesus parable. My group is mostly UU and formed with that intention in mind. So in the discussion we try to decide how to do a UU worship service that will fit this class. The first idea is to do interpretive dance. Then of course there is a song about dinosaurs going to heaven.

But we pull back as a group. The concerns develops that if we follow our impulses we might confirm the stereotype that UU's are pretty out there. It's an interesting dilemma. There is a desire to stand out a little and show the other students that UUism is a different religion and maybe just a tiny bit about the differences. Yet we don't want to go so far that we confirm in some minds the idea that there is nothing of interest in UUism.

It's an interesting idea, where do we stand in the idea of interfaith expression of ourselves. We are a different, unique religion. Yet we come out of Christianity. So how do we express out unique place when this might be the only UU service some of our fellow future clergy ever see?

It gets more interesting because after class I was with several other students in the class from different groups (without UU presence). They talked about their plan to do wild and unique services. Interesting...

Reintroduction

Well, we are well into the spring semester of my first year here. Its a completely different experience. Part of that of course is having different classes. There is no doubt in my mind that this is what I'm meant to do. However there is more of a sense of... What am I getting myself into.

Ministry is hard work. It requires a sense of self that must constantly be examined and a dedication to grow. Ministry asks for a dedication to others that also must grow and change. After all I suspect a congregation would get a little bored in the sermons were the same every month.

I'm taking different classes this semester. This is part of the reason why the experience is going to be different.

One interesting thing, the UU and Christian students are going to have a dialogue about what it means to have UU students at a Christian school. I have a lot of hope that this will be a productive conversation. I think that is an important key to making changes in the relationship. It's so important that as future leaders in our respective religions we learn how we are going to interact in a positive way with each other.