Foundations: Revelation is Continuous | Rev. Beth Dana | 08.11.2024
Sermon Transcript
I want to begin by saying, take heart friends. Because even a scientific genius like Albert Einstein can be resistant to new discoveries and new truths. The story of what he called his greatest blunder is quite something. Einstein began his scientific career in a time when the predominant worldview was that the cosmos was fixed, kind of like a machine. While doing the computations that led him to the theory of special relativity, he discovered that the universe rather than being fixed, was expanding in all directions. He was stunned by the implications of this discovery, which rocked the worldview that he and so many others held to be true. And so what did he do? He fudged his equations. He changed the numbers to maintain the conclusion that the universe was static and fixed. In the years that followed other mathematicians and scientists challenged him and called him on his mistake, but he argued with all of them.
He dug in his heels and continued to defend his error despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In 1931, Edwin Hubble invited Einstein to view the cosmos from his observatory, allowing him to finally see with his own eyes that his original theory was true, the universe was expanding. He later on admitted his mistake and did own his resistance. Even Albert Einstein, a seeker of truth and a brilliant scientist, had difficulty accepting new truths and adapting his worldview accordingly. The fact that he finally admitted his mistake is a lesson for all of us. It’s not easy to accept a radically new worldview, but it might be even harder to honestly admit your mistakes. Interestingly, in recent years scientists have revived Einstein’s, so-called mistake called the cosmological constant to explain the effects of dark energy. I’m sure he could not have imagined a day when his greatest blunder would actually help us grow our understanding of the cosmos.
Revelation truly is continuous, and nature and history are fraught with meaningful possibilities. The idea that revelation is continuous in nature, and history are fraught with meaningful possibilities is part of the core of Unitarian Universalism. This phrasing comes to us from the author of our reading today, James Luther Adams, the Unitarian theologian whose work inspires our whole foundations of Unitarian Universalism series in worship this month. Adams is considered one of the most influential liberal religious theologians of the 20th century. He gave voice to what really defines liberal religion, specifically Unitarian Universalism, as an important religious movement that speaks to these tumultuous times. Both in the 1940s and ’50s when his theology took shape, and in this time in which we live. He called it the five smooth stones of religious liberalism. Harkening back to the story in the Hebrew scriptures in which the young shepherd, David, uses five smooth stones that he finds in a riverbed to stand strong against and triumph over the giant warrior, Goliath.
Over the next month, we will be exploring these smooth stones in worship, how they help us understand the foundations of Unitarian Universalism and how they are a source of strength for us today. The first of these smooth stones, Revelation is Continuous, is part of what defines us as theologically liberal as opposed to theologically orthodox. We are a living tradition committed to growing and changing and evolving in light of new insights, evidence, perspectives, and experiences. Just as the universe is expanding, so is the way that we understand and articulate our relationship to it. The Unitarian Universalist Association of which our church is a part is going through an important evolution right now. We are living our faith and our conviction that revelation is continuous and transformation is good. As with any process of change and transformation, there are some who are experiencing growing pains as these changes move us toward new understandings in ways of articulating who we are and what we’re about as Unitarian Universalists.
But the truth is that the way we talk about who we are and what we hold dear has changed many times over the long history of our tradition. The seven principles of Unitarian Universalism, the commitments that connect Unitarian Universalist congregations in covenant were adopted nearly unanimously by the UU General Assembly, our national gathering, in 1984, 40 years ago, replacing an earlier purpose statement that had been developed in 1961 when the Unitarian and Universalist denominations came together. They served us well for many years and are woven into the fabric of Unitarian Universalist communities, having shaped many people like me who grew up with them as a core part of my religious education and spiritual growth. The principles of respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person, justice, equity, and compassion, acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth, the free and responsible search for truth and meaning, the right of conscience, and the use of the democratic process, the goal of world community and respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part, have been at the foundation of my understanding of what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist in the world.
Guided by the Unitarian Universalist Association bylaws, which I know doesn’t sound very exciting, but guided by the bylaws we study and consider revisions to our purpose statement every generation or so. It’s taken us about 15 years this time to come to a new statement of our purposes and values. In 2009, a revision of the seven principles was proposed and very narrowly defeated by only 13 votes. An eighth principle was later proposed to represent our commitment to working against systems of oppression and building beloved community. And then in June of this year, after a few years of study and discernment and work, an entirely new statement of values was adopted at the UU General Assembly with over 80% of the vote in favor. We draw from our heritages of freedom, reason, hope, and courage building on the foundation of love. The statement reads, “Love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values of interdependence, pluralism, justice, transformation, generosity, and equity”.
Now, not everything past has problems. There’s nothing wrong with the seven principles, but it was time for a new statement of what we uphold as most important. Embedded in these shared values are the historical foundations of our Unitarian Universalist faith, as well as the heart of the seven principles. And yet they articulate in a new way our covenantal commitments and lift up the importance of love as a theology and a spiritual practice in a way that our previous statements did not. We are a faith that builds on the foundation of what came before. We don’t destroy the foundation, we allow it to ground us and hold us up while we continue to discern new truths and create beauty and goodness on top of it. As part of the discussion of the new shared values at this year’s general assembly, the Reverend Victoria Stafford reflected however we vote we put love at the center, unflinching insistent. This free faith we so cherish reveres the past and trusts the dawning future more. We believe in evolution, unfolding always not unraveling. And revelation is not sealed.
She reminded the gathered community, “We can neither be brought down nor saved by any bylaw change. It’s the way we move that matters”. Amen to that. It’s the way we move that matters. Almost 200 years ago, Unitarian minister Theodore Parker, who is famous for his words, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice”, spoke some less famous but equally prophetic words in an ordination sermon entitled The Transient and Permanent and Christianity. He warned us about making idols of the cherished images, symbols, and language of our faith. Parker said there are two elements of religion, the transient and the permanent. The transient is the doctrines and forms that religion takes as it’s lived out. And the permanent, he names as the divine life of the soul, love to God, and love to man.
Religious forms may be useful and beautiful he admits. They are so whenever they speak to the soul and answer a want thereof, but they are not the substance of true religion. He said, the religion that is accepted and lived out has never been the same thing in any two centuries or lands, except only in name. This notion that’s so much of what is taught as religion is merely transient, rocked the world of his clergy colleagues and got him uninvited from their pulpits. But it drew thousands of people to hear his preaching in music halls and elsewhere because it spoke to something deep inside of them. Parker’s transient and permanent reminds me of the William Stafford poem, The Way It Is, which we’ve shared in worship before. It goes like this. “There’s a thread you follow. It goes among things that change, but it doesn’t change. People wonder about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread, but it is hard for others to see. While you hold it, you can’t get lost. Tragedies happen, people get hurt or die, and you suffer and get old. Nothing you do can stop times unfolding. You don’t ever let go of the thread”.
Now, the thread that the poet speaks of isn’t language or words. It’s the values behind the words. The principles or purposes or values we put into words are not the essence of our religion. The feelings and experiences that they express or evoke are what religion is at its core, it’s what they point toward and how they move us to act that really matters. If revelation is continuous and our experience of the world keeps changing and evolving, naturally our words must as well. James Luther Adams claims that we cannot properly place our confidence in our own creations. We must depend upon a transforming reality that breaks through encrusted forms of life and through to create new forms. We put our faith in a creative reality that is recreative, he says. And this creative reality is that thread. It’s the permanent, but it’s not static. It is what some use the word God to point toward.
Like many of our religious ancestors, we find ourselves at a point in the arc of Unitarian Universalist history where we are letting go of our own creations that no longer fully serve us. Maintaining the foundations that are of enduring value and finding new expressions or ways of living out those foundations. Meaning has not been finally captured, nothing is complete, and thus nothing is exempt from criticism. These words of James Luther Adams are what the first smooth stone of religious liberalism is all about. I like to think of Unitarian Universalism as an artfully and sturdily woven fabric that is flexible and layered. You can find such meaning and possibility by following the threads and seeing how they are woven and intertwined with others. In the 1840s, Theodore Parker was writing about the transient and the permanent. In the mid 1900s James Luther Adams was writing that revelation is continuous.
And in 1899 in the founding sermon of this church, our minister Daniel Limbaugh preached, “We believe that revelation is gradual, progressive, not stationary. That it comes in all countries to all people at all times and through all channels. It comes to us through nature, history, science, through daily life and experience, through our own minds and consciousness, through our own innate intuitive moral reason”. Our newly adopted statement of shared values explains the value of transformation this way. It says, “We adapt to a changing world. We covenant to collectively transform and grow spiritually and ethically. Openness to change is fundamental to our Unitarian and Universalist heritages, never complete and never perfect”. The placement of love at the center of the new articulation of our Unitarian Universalist values is the latest expression of this thread that has run throughout our history. From the early Universalists who said that God is too loving to condemn anyone to hell. And the early Unitarians who said that all people are created good.
To today’s expression of love in religious communities such as ours and in our work to build a more compassionate and just world. Reflecting on the adoption of the new values, Reverend Justin Almeida wrote “At our core, we are a religion that believes love is the ground of our being and that no living being is left behind in this love”. He says, “May we continue to reach this gospel far and wide. You are worthy. You are precious. You are not alone. Love will guide you home”. So my hope for you, this congregation of worthy, precious souls, is that you will always remain open to new truth. Whether it comes to you through science or experience or the life of the spirit, don’t resist it like Einstein did. Remain open to its meaningful possibilities. Pay attention to those common threads and to the threads that bind you to others through an intricate web of life. If you do so, you can’t help but be transformed by the realities of others. Let it break through the encrusted forms of your life to create new forms. Put your faith in a creative reality that is recreative. Revelation is continuous. May it ever be so, and amen.
