HUU Sermon Archives

A Different View of HUU

by James J. Geary
21 September 2003

Ummmm.....Ummmm.......

Some Buddhists say that is the sound of the Universe. Okay. . . so is the sound of the beating of a butterflies wings; or the roar of a cannon. All sounds are sounds of the Universe, including this talk, which is going to be a bit crotchety.

I ‘ve had a long and interesting life encompassing several phases. I think I am now in the “crotchety old man” phase. Today you may agree.

Because, this morning I am going to play the devil’s advocate — as I have so often. But then I have always been a questioner, questioning the accepted version of things. Like Santa Claus. Or the Big Bang theory. I question so much. Even our language is questionable. Almost every word requires interpretation, including words like church, worship, holy, sacred, spirituality. I’m going to question a few things this morning, even a few things about UU.

I want to say though, that I was impressed by the enthusiasm of the returnees from GA. I could see them going up to a UU-type Billy Graham and pledging their lives, property, and good names to the goals of UU.

And I was truly impressed by the second talk that Michelle delivered on our second principle. I thought it was one of the most sincere and concerned talks that I have heard here. And I told her so.

I’m afraid Michelle, and probably many of you, are no going to like what I have to say today.

There have been times when I have wondered what I am doing here. But I keep coming back to this fellowship, as I have for 14 years. I come because there is no place else to go. It is the best thing around — except solitude. But solitude is so lonely. Even Emerson had to bend a little and come down among men and women. So I keep coming, though always on the verge of leaving. But to what solitary heights would I go? Whom would I talk with — to express my doubts, my doubts about everything? And I wouldn’t be invited to join the HUU Flick Click and see the movie Harold and Maude.

So where would I go; certainly not to the Episcopal Church, embraced by some of my daughters, and take communion, for God’s sake — literally for God’s sake?. Some people say they have taken communion but with their own interpretation, so it doesn’t bother them. Do you think it might be kinda phony or hypocritical to go through the exercise if you don’t believe in it?

I hope I don’t lose too many friends with this talk. But we are supposed to be honest with one another, aren’t we? What does our third principle affirm: acceptance of one another.

Besides I need you. That is a characteristic of our species. We need each other. We are social beings. We reach out for understanding, vain as it is. But we need to keep trying. And aside from relatives, you are about the only friends Pat and I have. So I hope you don’t get too mad at what I am about to say.

I want you to know first of all that I am selfish. I am a selfish human being. But then so are you — each of you. That is the nature of life. We are all individuals. Try as we might, we cannot enter into the feelings of anyone else; and no one else can really know what we are feeling, not our spouses, not our children, not our friends — and most especially not our doctors.

We are each alone. We are awash in a pitch dark , murky sea of limited, uncertain knowledge with nothing to tie to. Every thing, every theory is questionable.

I used to feel science was the bedrock on which we could stand, the stanchion or pile to which we could tie our bobbing craft of limited knowledge. No more! Science has become shaky, like gelatin. Newton was only partially correct; even Einstein can be wrong..

So what to do? Some say that uncertainty calls for faith. Faith! Faith in what? Just take a leap in the dark, they say. Well, which way are you going to leap? And when you get to wherever you are going to leap, what will you find there in the dark? Only your own fabricated belief. It may satisfy you. If it does, well and good. That is the most you can hope for. That is the most any of us can hope for.

Do I take a leap in the dark? I don’t know. I guess so. I think of life as just another form of energy in our universe, like fire, or beta rays, or electricity; or a combination of many energies.

I don’t see any purpose in life, except the living of it. To me, purpose is a human concept. It applies to human ambition, goals, joint efforts. It does not apply to the Universe as a whole; that is, unless you posit a god, a creator, a kind of intelligence which has a plan in mind. But there is no credible evidence of that. Life’s only “purpose” seems to be to produce the next generation. And that appears to be only evolution’s blind, urgent compulsion for each species to survive.

You need to understand that the backbone of my philosophy is evolution. It colors all of my thinking. I have read the Origin of the Species; I watch a lot of nature films on T-V. I see the universal struggle for survival — as is evidenced by every flower, every tree, every hawk, every mouse. And every human being.

Now Unitarian Universalism is an effort to combat this individualism. It is one of the countless movements, philosophies, religions that through the ages have had this as their goal — to try to engender widespread, universal compassion in the human soul. So far it has seemed to be a losing cause. You know, I don’t think I love humanity. Oh I know that is not very UU. But I think we have cheapened the word love. We apply it to everything these days. We are exhorted to love our enemies. I don’t love my enemies. Maybe I just don’t have the capacity that some have. I love my wife, and my children and grandchildren, maybe a cousin or two ,and a few friends. I loved my parents. When we had dogs, I loved them. But I don’t love my neighbors, unless they are close friends. And I certainly don’t love humanity.

I do admire the human race: I admire it for its strengths: its courage, resolution, perseverance, its ability to overcome difficulties — its survival qualities, which includes discipline, organization, decisiveness, expedition; for its occasional compassion and willingness to sacrifice; its sometimes honesty and straightforwardness, and fidelity.

I also despise it for its weaknesses: it cowardliness, lack of resolution, laziness, self indulgence and slovenliness; its general pusillanimousness; for it lack of compassion, its phoniness and dishonesty, greed, lying and double dealing; its general depravity. :

No, that’s not right. I neither admire nor despise the human race. I just observe it. It is what it is. It’s what it has been for a long time and what it will be for a long time to come. It can’t help being what it is. It is the product of human nature, or I might say, animal nature. .

What does it mean to say we love humanity? Do we make an exception of Al Queda? Or the men who blew up the World Trade Center? Does one make an exception of Hitler, Stalin,. Saddam Hussein? Do you love Odai and Qusai? Come on, we don’t love these people. And those who do love these people don’t love us.

People repeat a lot of questionable sayings; like, “no one wins a war.” Are they including the Civil War, that freed the slaves and kept the nation together? Or the Revolutionary War, that freed this country from George III and paved the way for the establishment of the first democracy in the world in hundreds of years? Or World War II, which stopped the Nazi evil, bent on conquering the world with the most formidable military machine the world had ever known up to that time?

Nearly everyone talks about what a terrible thing was the enslavement of African peoples. And it was, for the tens of thousands who died in the slave ships, for the abused slaves of Southern plantations, and for the discrimination many suffer today.. But if Nature’s “purpose” is survival, survival of a species or a race, then the black people of the United States have done very well. A million slaves were imported into the United States. Today there are something like thirty-seven million black people in the United States. That is survival with a capital S. And that’s not to mention their average standard of living and security as compared with the black people of Africa today.

There are nearly always two ways of looking at things. Nothing is black and white.

And what about our seven principles. Let us take them up one at a time.

Our first principle says: “We affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” Do you affirm the worth of the terrible persons I mentioned earlier?. Or the dignity of serial murderers and child rapists and killers?

Principle number two: Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. In a competitive world, that is a large order to live up to.

Principle number three: acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. I can’t argue with that, though it may be more difficult that it sounds. Especially today!

Principle Number four: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning. I certainly embrace that, although I am not sure what is meant by meaning..

Principle five: The right of conscience, and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. Well, that’s a noble thing to aim for at least.

Principle six: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. I’m afraid that is a cry in the wilderness.

Principle seven: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. This one I’d like to discuss. I believe in the interdependent web of all existence. But I probably think of it a little differently than some of you. And here my awareness of evolution and the natural world comes in to play.

Do you tell the hawk to remember the interdependent web of all life and that he should not attack and kill that little mouse, that small bird, or that baby rabbit? Do you tell the wolf to spare that young deer? And do you tell the meat packer that killing heifers is a sin against the interdependent web of life? Do you think about the interdependent web and refrain from eating anything that was once of the animal world — meat, fish? Are you careful never to eat a fertilized egg? Do you refrain from killing anything — a fly, a mosquito, a rat? And I won’t even get into the abortion question.

Oh I know, we are not wolves or hawks. But we are still animals. We still have our stock yards, and fishing boats, and hunters who kill some 50,000 deer in Virginia every year, and another 50,000 or more in Pennsylvania, and goodness knows how many in North Carolina and other states, north, south, and west. .

But then we are different from other animals. Most animals kill to eat. They fight, and sometimes kill their adversaries for food, or sex, or territory. But these are usually single killings. We, on the other hand, kill other human beings by the millions. So much for universal brotherhood.

All life is interconnected, all right —interconnected by the basic laws for survival. But in the course of our long civilization, many of those basic laws have been distorted — and not always for the better.

I might wish we lived in a different world. But I see it for what it is — I think. Please don’t get me wrong. What I have said may not sound like it, but I have a great affection for our fellowship. It borders on love. And I admire what we UUs try to do — even though some of it is like reaching for the stars. We have to keep trying to make our society better. We have to keep reaching for the stars.

It’s just that I want us to reject all phoniness. I want us to be honest. I don’t want us to be namby-pamby. I don’t want us to walk in lock step to whatever UU’s are supposed to believe in. I don’t think we should embrace every idea that surfaces and that someone says it is liberal.

And our seven principles are probably about as good as we can get. The authors are to be congratulated. Our principles represent goals — perhaps impossible goals— but something to strive toward. So I salute our members who have struggled to express their meanings — not an easy thing to do.

Our principles are like our national constitution, simple and direct. And like our constitution, they are subject to interpretation by each of us. I think they are excellent. They state magnificent goals for us to aspire to — just so we don’t take them too literally, like they are written in stone, the word of some creator. They are like the goal of the Man from La Mantra, an impossible dream, but a dream society must pursue. So we struggle on, trying to overcome the animal in us for the common good.

There is an ugly word that some people use — “do-gooder.” I marvel at the people who work to try to reduce some of the suffering in the world. I’m just not one of them. My philosophy prevents me. Oh I give to a few of the thousands of causes. I try to be a good husband, a good father, and a good citizen. I vote for liberal politicians. But I’m no Mother Teresa. I’m not an activist.

I watch the passing scene. I glory in our world; I glory in life. As I have said before, I am an observer of the great pageantry of life, including the long and varied, cruel and compassionate history of the human race.

That is a cop out to many of you who talk of wanting to leave the world a better place than you found it. Good luck.. To me that’s like throwing a cup of water into an endless volcano. I say life is going to go on as it has for hundreds of millions of years, birth, life, death, never ending, and human nature, the animal in us, never changing.

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