“GOD OF OUR (MIS)UNDERSTANDINGS”

Rev. Greg Ward

Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica

May 7, 2017

 

TIME FOR ALL AGES - Adapted from “The Zax” by Dr. Seuss

 

Let me call forth those young at heart for our Story.

Who here has a cold shoulder? How about a stink-eye? Show me.

Do you ever see anyone giving people a cold shoulder? A stink eye?

Do you think it’s helpful?

Have any of you ever heard your parents say something like, ‘if you keep making that face it’s going to

freeze in place and you’ll be stuck with that expression forever?

I want to tell a story about when that happened.

 

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The day before today, making tracks In the prairie of Prax,

Came a North-Going Zax And a South-Going Zax.

 

And it happened that both of them came to a place

Where they bumped. And they stood. Foot to foot. Face to face.

 

“Look here, now!” the North-Going Zax said, “I say!

You are blocking my path. You are right in my way.

 

I’m a North-Going Zax and I always go north.

Get out of my way, now, and let me go forth!”

 

“Who’s in whose way?” snapped the South-Going Zax.

“I always go south, making south-going tracks.

 

So you’re in MY way! And I ask you to move

And let me go south in my south-going groove.”

 

Then the North-Going Zax puffed his chest up with pride.

“I never,” he said, “take a step to one side.

 

And I’ll prove to you that I won’t change my ways

If I have to keep standing here fifty-nine days!”

 

“And I’ll prove to YOU,” yelled the South-Going Zax,

“That I can stand here in the prairie of Prax

 

For fifty-nine years! For I live by a rule

That I learned as a boy back in South-Going School.

 

Never budge! That’s my rule. Never budge in the least!

Not an inch to the west! Not an inch to the east!

 

I’ll stay here, not budging! I can and I will

If it makes you and me and the whole world stand still!”

 

Well… Of course the world didn’t stand still. The world grew.

In a couple of years, the new highway came through

 

And they built it right over those two stubborn Zax

And left them there, standing un-budged in their tracks.

 

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So… if you want to be happy, I hope you can see

That no-matter-what direction Zax you happen to be

 

If cold shoulders or stink eyes sprout in the prairie of Prax

You might give some thought to the seeds in your tracks

 

For if Love’s what you want and hope you think matters

Then it’s curiosity to plant when the world is in tatters

 

For attention, acceptance, understanding and care

Are infectious, contagious and well worth a share

 

So that you won’t come to the end still wondering how

You were wanting love but still having a cow.

 

READING (Rev. Greg) Isaiah 6:1-8

 

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his

robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim; each had six wings: with two they covered their

faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds

shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

 

And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean

lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a

live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it

and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted

out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I

said, “Here am I; send me!”

 

SERMON “God of Our (Mis)Understandings”

 

We are in trying times, my friends. Am I right?

 

And the sense of urgency – the disagreement and incivility we see – from ALL sides – is mounting.

 

Indeed, even in the conversations we have as we turn from the rancor of the world to find the quiet of our own solitude, we still feel a tension. We long for peace. And harmony. And unity. But we don’t always know how to bring it about. And we’re scared. And frustrated.

 

I’m thinking of a poem. One of my favorites, from Rumi.

 

 

And yet we are like Isaiah. Deeply intuitive. Hungry for connection. Longing for ways to be of use amidst

chaos… Isaiah responds eagerly to the call to become a bridge-builder. “Here am I!” he says. “Send me!”

This despite just having had seraphim – angels of the Lord – place burning hot coals on his lips to prepare him for the work before him. He did not cry or complain. Or back down from what was being asked.

 

THAT is the kind of spirit I like to see in volunteers. Especially those taking on the difficult and important work of mending the brokenness of the world.

 

“Here am I! Send me!” These words are often quoted from Christian pulpits to mobilize and inspire followers. What isn’t often quoted, is the curious part which follows Isaiah’s courageous proclamation. That’s the part where God confesses that the task before Isaiah will be difficult and discouraging. ‘Go out and talk to the people,’ God explains. Build bridges. Connect the disconnected. Instill trust in the timid. Help the hesitant, the hurting, and the disenfranchised come together. ‘Oh… and by the way,’ God seems to say in almost an afterthought, ‘understand that when you take this message to the people, they will not listen.”

 

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I HOPE I don’t need to explain to you that NONE of this actually happened. There is no “God” in the sky who orders angels to place burning coals on the tongues of devotees to blot out guilt and sin. And Isaiah, if any such figure DID exist in history, was not made pure by being traumatized by a seraphim of the Lord. It DIDN’T happen. Period.

 

And yet, it’s all true. People - everyday – all around the world - ARE being traumatized by polarizing forces

tearing us apart. And SOMETHING (our conscience, our morality or sense of justice… maybe just our

common sense) is calling us to stop this nonsense – end this incivility – heal the brokenness.

 

Figuring out what anyone could possibly mean by ‘God’, and ‘religion’ and this call to do good, summon Love and work for Justice – IS HARD. And confusing. And it’s what this sermon is about.

 

A story about this tension first becoming clear to me… I – a California boy – was called to my first church, in

1998. It turned out to be a small church in Atlanta Georgia. They were a little disoriented. They had lost their camel. I was eager to give advice. I wanted to build bridges. I was a little naïve about how hard it was. “Here am I! I cried. Send me!”

 

But when I got there, my challenge appeared in an unexpected form: Seraphim. Angels of the Lord. Four of

them, to be exact – a few days after I moved in, stood at my front door holding hot crock pots of food. They

told me it was macaroni and cheese. My favorite. I invited them in.

 

The conversation meandered around pleasantries. But soon turned to religion and church. I learned later that was the actual purpose of their visit. This was the neighborhood reconnaissance team. So their ears perked up when they heard that not only did I go to church but that I served a church. “Oh, what church?” they asked. “Unitarian Universalist,” I said. Dead silence. And, I’ll never forget, one woman leaned forward, smiled demurely and said, ‘Well of course you do, bless your heart.’ But I never got any more macaroni and cheese. And all future conversations were lax; like the North going – and South going Zax.

 

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How many people can relate? How many people have felt the pain of polarization while yearning for

something that felt connecting and unifying? All around us we see categories, distinctions – hierarchies of

ideologies and binary categories based on politics, race, class, gender, sexuality or language all of which

encourage more division, separation and isolation. 

 

A great number of people have been at their wits end – pushed to the margins of society and the edge of hope. “There must be something,” they believe – “something that rises above the sting of judgment and rejection that can lead us toward understanding and acceptance.” But they just haven’t found it.

 

There is a old story about such a person – a young man – searching without success. Standing beleaguered on a bridge spanning across a rocky gorge below. He thought about all the division in the world and about jumping. But an elderly walking by saw him. And he sensed what the young man was considering, and rushed to him, alarmed.

 

"Stop! don't do it!" came the cry.

 

"Why shouldn't I?" the younger man wailed.

 

"Can’t you see? There's so much to live for!" cried the elder in response.

 

"Like what?" the younger moaned.

 

"Well...are you religious or atheist?"

 

"Religious,” he sighed.

 

“Me too!” cried the elder. “Are you Western or Eastern?”

 

“Western,” replied the young man.

 

"Me too!” said the elder. “Are you Christian or Jewish?"

 

"Christian."

 

"Me too!” cried the elder. “Are you Catholic or Protestant?"

 

"Protestant."

 

"Me too!” cried the older. “Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"

 

"Baptist!"

 

“Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist church of God or Baptist church of the Lord?"

 

"Baptist Church of God!"

 

"Me too! Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?"

 

"Reformed!" the younger said, beginning to smile.

 

"Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?"

 

Now almost giddy, the younger exclaimed "Reformation of 1915!"

 

The older man suddenly scowled. "Die, heretic scum,” and pushed him off the bridge.

 

Like the story of Isaiah, this story never happened. And yet it’s more true than we know.

 

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Does anyone know how many different denominations there are in the world? According to the World

Christian Encyclopedia published by Oxford University Press, there are over 39,000 different denominations in the world today1 – not churches – but denominations of multiple churches – 39,000! And nearly 34,000 of those are Christian denominations.2 Each one of them separated from the others by some unbridgeable disagreement over God or ritual or sacrament or which prayer to use or which doctrine to follow…

 

‘Religion’ is a Latin word - really the joining of two words: ‘Re’ which means, ‘again.’ And ‘ligare,’ which is the root of our word for ‘ligament’ and means ‘to bind together…’ ‘to join together parts that are separate.’ ‘To bind together again.’ Take what is broken and make it whole. How ironic that this very word often creates more division than unity.

 

And that division is not something that Unitarian Universalism is immune to. This congregation, I’ve heard, like many in our denomination, feels some tension around theology. And many more simply choose not to talk about it for fear of upsetting people. So, the issue is perpetually unresolved. And some here, I’m sure, have accepted it is unresolvable.

 

So let me give you the real scary and heartbreaking part of the story: Every single day – all around the world – there are people – young people – who want to be bridge-builders… who want to be part of a solution. So they come to places like this… hoping for connection… hoping for a path… for unity… and they feel the hesitation and tension and become even more disillusioned.

 

It’s the real reason why more than 4000 churches are closing every year across this country. And that number is increasing. If you want to see the direction religion is headed in the US, look at Europe. And you’ll find some of the most amazing churches you’ve ever seen. Except most of them are not churches anymore. They’re museums. People go to them to look back in time – not to look forward – with a vision of Love and Justice – into the future.

 

Churches like this were made to help us see a better way ahead. To cast a vision towards what is healing… what can bring us together. Because that’s what the world needs. Unless and until we can do that, there will be no one to hand this church on to.

 

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About eight years ago, I taught a course on theology in my church. Twelve of us got together to try and name what we believed about God and religion. Initially, many expressed excitement about doing this with other ‘like-minded’ people. But when it came time to actually naming our personal understanding of God, our likemindedness became lax as we devolved into north – and south going Yax. But we did agree on one thing – that when it came to God, there was nothing ‘like-minded’ about us.

 

And then we tried one exercise that changed everything. We took turns offering statements about God where the only requirement was to say, ‘And’ before each statement. As we were doing it, the room became electric. Energy that had drained away in our earlier debates returned. I copied the list we came up with and sent it around to some colleagues. And they were impressed. Some asked if they could add a few understandings of their own. I’d like to read you the final list we came up with:

 

God is love

And God is an internal spark

And God is the cosmic heart beat

And God is the Space between the notes in music

And God is a cosmic force not involved in human affairs

And God is possibility after possibility unfolding

 

And God is daffodils in the spring – thousands of them

And God is reality

And God is imagination

And God is a misunderstanding from which comes coercion and violence

And God is truth when it comes

And God is justice when it happens

And God is the holding of breath just before justice happens

And God does not fit in any box

And God is within me

 

And God can never be defined because that would be too limiting

And God is everything we cannot possibly imagine

And God is a woman

And God has no gender

And God is a black, lesbian, divorced woman in her mid fifties who lives with her cats

And God is no one to mess with

And God is a holy mystery

And God is here

And God is not here

And God is things as they are waiting to be discovered

And God is the most frustrating and unnamable of realities I’ve ever imagined

And God is in both our laughter and our tears

And God is the blending of all things

And God is a word created by man to project his own image

And God is evolving

And God is one

 

It’s a powerful list. But you know the most powerful part about it? All the ‘Ands’ in between the statements.

The simple way all our truths became joined and additive. The simple way that, when joined together, they

formed a bridge. That brought us together. That become like a prayer.

 

Too often we get so emphatic about what God ISN’T – we tie ourselves up in ‘NOTS.’ “God is NOT this…

God is NOT that.” Our theological conversations – even in these loving and tolerant UU communities -

become a litany of rebuttals. And you can often identify a rebuttal because the first word is always ‘BUT.’

 

During the class, we talked about how divisive this feels. How hungry people are for unity. And how hard it is when we go looking for such connection to have someone put their ‘but’ in our face. We talked about how often we show each other our BUTs. We talked about the disillusion around churches being places where people go to BUT heads. So much so they often begin to see the minister as the chief BUT-head.

 

If we look around churches today – including Unitarian Universalist Churches - it’s true. We often get so

caught up in abstract distinctions. In needing to ‘be right.’ We lose sight of our need to be healed. Our need

to be healers. To build bridges and connect.

 

Religion needs places that can do THAT. Places that know how and are dedicated to extending their ANDs – connecting people – instead of revealing their BUTs and dividing people. I believe the church is called to teach us how to do that with grace… and humility… and a sense of humor.

 

Indeed, one of the best outcomes of that class I taught last year were the t-shirts we ended up making that had the picture of the church with the words, “Does this church make my BUT look too big?”

 

Friends, you have lost your camel. And all around you people are full of advice. Our words, themselves, may not always be in sync. But if we listen carefully – underneath the rhetoric, we will glimpse a people who care deeply… and love fiercely. Often they are people who are scared. But who, like Isaiah, feel called into conversations about Love and Justice. It’s time to return to the prairie of Prax and become forward thinking,  forward marching Zax. It is time to put our BUTs behind us and walk AND and AND together.

 

And on our way, I hope and pray, we will all say – each in our own way:

 

Oh Elusive God of our (mis)understandings, help us with these holy conversations. Reveal the connections

that elude us. Give us the strength to let go of the fear that divides us and help us build the Love and Trust

that will save us. And all the while, help us look upon one another, seeing clearly all our differences and say, “Amen.”

 

Copyright Wardswords, 2017