"The Spiritual Life of a Church"

In one of our Unitarian Universalist programs for adults,

 "Building Your Own Theology,"

  participants create a personal timeline

   that chronicles significant events from their past.

Whether the span

the timelines cover is long or short,

  what they reveal is always the same.

Our history is more than a series of events.

It is a spiritual journey,

 with developmental leaps and bounds,

  and changes,

   portending challenge and growth.

 

Looking back holds many life lessons.

What seemed at one time to be a failure

 is actually a positive turning point.

A loss can lead to unanticipated gain.

Plans do not turn out as expected.

Through it all,

 the only constant is change.

 

I remember the first time I laid out my timeline,

 because its revelation is still so vivid.

The events, people, ideas, and decisions

that formed my life path

were nothing extraordinary.

The timeline showed the predictable influences

 someone like me would have.

And yet when I looked at it,

 I could see an amazing pattern of growth and change,

  leading me somewhere

I could not have known

    when I started out.

 

I often didn’t know what I was doing.

I see now that was all right.

And some of the dark times

 led directly to illumination.

 

>From our Unitarian Universalist perspective,

 every person has a spiritual history.

It is composed of the people, events, ideas, and choices

that are part of every life.

But what gives it spiritual meaning

 is the pattern of growth and change

that takes place in it.

 

That was my revelation.

I looked at my history

and saw that it, too,

  was a spiritual life.

Despite its unremarkable trappings and traces,

 my story had its own meaning and worth.

It was all there

in the modest little journey

  laid out before me on drawing paper.

 

A church like ours is a living being too,

 with a history we can chronicle

  and a pattern of growth and change

   all its own.

Its story is composed of the events, decisions, ideas, and people

 that have shaped us over the years.

And its spiritual life is the meaning and worth

 of that story.

It keeps unfolding.

 

We are a very different congregation

 from the one that first gathered seventy-five years ago.

As our church history reminds us,

 that was a time when there were no freeways

  and "plenty of parking spaces everywhere."

Our span has paralleled the staggering growth,

 development,

  and demographic shifts of our larger community.

World and local events have left their imprint on us.

Social attitudes and roles

 have undergone a transformation.

 

Trends in liberal religion have evolved as well.

A 1930 letter describing the "Spirit and Purpose"

 of All Souls Unitarian Church -

  that was our first name -

   invites visitors to join the fellowship.

It reads,

 "In these times when we are hearing so much

  about the conflict between the teachings of science

   and the creeds of orthodox churches,

there is greater need than ever

 to maintain a church of the FREE MIND,

  that frankly welcomes whatever truths

scientific investigation can establish …"

 

This was a time when reason and intellect

 were coming into their own

  as religious values.

Religious liberals were interested

in education and human development,

 not theological speculation.

The Unitarian Humanist movement,

 which emerged during the years

our church was getting started,

   explicitly ignored the concept of God

    and defined religion as human experience.

 

Reading our 1930 pamphlet,

 it is clear that this church was firmly rooted

  in Humanist principles.

Unitarianism in the west already leaned in this direction.

Far from the norms and traditions of New England,

 our predecessors out here

moved in the forefront of modernism.

 

The 1960s brought a wave of change

into our religious community.

The Unitarians and the Universalists -

 two separate traditions with contrasting characteristics,

  decided to merge.

At first this development did not affect us here in Santa Monica.

There were no Universalists down the street

 ready to join us for Sunday morning services.

But the merger took hold elsewhere,

 and eventually it took hold here.

 

The Universalists added a new dimension:

A faith in a loving God

 and a trust in human goodnesss

  were two important characteristics of their tradition.

The Universalists supplied a spiritual and emotional quality

that complemented the intellectual and reserved style

 of the Unitarians.

The Universalist influence has gradually changed our church,

 infusing it with the values of inclusiveness

and loving community.

In 1995, in grateful recognition of that influence,

 we voted to change our name

  and our identity

   to "Unitarian Universalist."

 

Over the years many of us have welcomed the spiritual depths

 not only of Universalism,

but also of feminism,

mysticism, and eastern religions,

 to complement the more analytical approach

     we once cultivated.

This shift has been gradual,

but its impact has been great.

Today we search together

for a sustaining spirituality,

  grounded in our historic Humanist affirmation of humanity.

There have been other big changes as well.

That 1930 letter inviting our neighbors to church

mentions neither God nor any sacred prophet,

  but lists with pride the figures from American history

   who were Unitarian:

    John Adams,

John Quincy Adams,

Daniel Webster,

       Oliver Wendell Holmes,

        James Russell Lowell,

         and Bret Harte,

          among them.

Today that list would be balanced

 by including Margaret Fuller,

  Louisa May Alcott,

   Caroline Severance,

    Julia Ward Howe,

     Clara Barton,

      and Dorothea Dix.

What a story that simple correction represents!

Throughout our history,

 Unitarian and Universalist women have been reformers and activists,

  writers, and ministers,

just as the men have.

But it took the women’s movement of the late twentieth century

 to bring them into the prominence

they deserved.

It has taken even longer for women to have political power.

 

Our church’s history is not all that different.

We welcomed our first woman Minister of Religious Education in 1966.

But a look at our lay leadership record

 reveals that over our entire seventy-five year history,

  only six women have served

as president of the congregation.

That suggests to me that more changes

 are yet to come!

 

If we were to lay out all this history

 in a timeline on a long piece of paper,

  we would see a hardy institution

that has undergone many changes

over the years.

Unlike a religious community that possesses a fixed creed

 or immutable scripture,

  we are constantly in motion,

   living in the times we are given.

Our history gives us the reassurance

 that we are part of something greater than ourselves,

  the human search for truth

   and meaningful life.

Our continuity comes from carefully handing down

the spirit and practices of our community

from one generation to the next.

 

Yet with each new generation,

 our church does change.

That is not always easy.

Think about the characters in the children’s story

 I read earlier.

We are just like them.

We resist change too.

Just when we settle into a routine,

something new comes along,

 challenging us and making us uncomfortable for a while.

But change is good,

even if it does disrupt us.

That is how we grow -

 not just as individuals,

  but together, in community.

Change is the dynamic by which we move forward in life.

When we look back,

 we can see how necessary and positive it is.

 

The spiritual life of our church

 continues to unfold today,

  as we work together to build a community

   in which each of us can grow.

Throughout its history

 run the hopes and struggles of people

  searching for a better life

   and building a better world.

By those hopes

and those struggles,

 we move in the right direction.

References used for this sermon include The Unitarians and the Universalists, by David Robinson (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985) and The Past as Prologue, 70th Anniversary Commemorative Booklet, Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica.