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By John T. Crestwell, Jr. and lay members
August 10, 2003
Speaker "Saved" as Child (Joyce Dowling)
Speaker "Saved" as Young Adult (John Crestwell)
Speaker "Saved" as Older Adult (Dick Wilcox)
Good News (poem by John Corrado)
Sharings (Angelique Berry & Bill Grenoble)
For those of whom may be relatively new to Unitarian Universalism, I
thought I'd start with a brief explanation about our theology and
how it might relate to salvation.:
Universalist PT Barnum said, "To the Universalists, heaven in its
essential nature is not a locality, but a moral and spiritual
status, and salvation is not securing one place and avoiding
another, but salvation is finding eternal life . . . Immortal life
is existence regardless of quality. Eternal life is right life,
here, there, everywhere."
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Thomas Starr King, a mid-19th century Unitarian & Universalist
minister said that, "The Universalists believe that God is too good
to damn man, while the Unitarians believe that man is too good to be
damned by God."
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For several centuries Unitarians argued with Christians about
whether God was one or three - Unitarian vs. Trinitarian. Later when
Humanism took root, we said "Unitarians believe in One God - at
Most". After the pagans arrived, reflected in our adding to our
principles the sixth source - earth centered traditions - we say, "UU's
believe in One God - more or less."
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I heard that once a young Unitarian was visiting a Christian church
when the pastor asked if she were saved. She whispered, "In my
church, we aren't allowed to get lost."
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Well, one way of feeling saved from our miseries in this world is to
have a good sense of humor, though this IS a serious topic.
How are we defining Salvation? Well here is how Merriam Webster
defines it.:
deliverance from the power and effects of sin; the agent or means
that effects salvation; (Christian Science) the realization of the
supremacy of infinite Mind over all, bringing with it the
destruction of the illusion of sin, sickness, and death; liberation
from ignorance or illusion; preservation from destruction or
failure; and deliverance from danger or difficulty
The word "salvation" comes from the root salvare which means to save
but also means soothing, comforting, healing, bringing together of
broken parts, and regaining of health.
Today we offer you three stories of being saved. I put them in
chronological order from youngest to oldest - not the people telling
them, but the times in their lives they occurred.
MY STORY by Joyce Dowling
I was dedicated a Unitarian as an infant, almost 10 years before the
merger of Unitarians and Universalists. My grandfather had found the
Unitarians just a few years before my birth because he was looking
for a good choir to sing in. My father decided to try it because of
the emphasis on the freedom of beliefs and critical thinking. He was
a political conservative, though, and raised us rather
traditionally. I had an older sister and 3 younger siblings. I
thought we had a pretty normal life, as it was in rural New York
state. I knew we were a little different since we traveled to the
city to go to church, while attending the only church in town - a
Presbytarian, I believe, only on special occasions. But we went to
the 3-room school house, attended Girl Scouts with my mother
leading, and knew most everyone in town.
Then when I was 9, my youngest sister barely 1 yr. old, my mother
went into the hospital and never came home again. She didn't die;
she was mentally ill. We weren't allowed to talk about it, so there
was no mourning process. My aunts, who lived far away, offered to
take one or two of us, but my father didn't want the family to be
split up, so he decided to single-parent us. He didn't know much
about the nurturing role, though, and thought it was, for the most
part, unnecessary. His main role was still to earn money for the
family, so he became what some call "a workaholic" and we saw little
of him. We had housekeepers to take care of us when we could find
them, otherwise the older children (my older sister and I) took care
of the younger ones. The friends we once had were now being told not
to play with the motherless children.
One Sat., when my father was home and he was busy reading, as he
often did, I was looking for companionship. The house was full of
people, but no one wanted to play with me. It wasn't long after my
mother had left and I was feeling pretty miserable. So I did the
only thing that might bring me comfort - I went for a walk in the
woods, followed by my dog. I felt so bad that day that I started
thinking about whether or not life was worth living. For a while I
was thinking maybe it wasn't if I had to live it alone and I had a
good cry, but then my dog cuddled next to me. I could hear the birds
chirping and the leaves rustling. Life was all around me and I knew
I wasn't really alone.
I thought about my beliefs about God and Heaven and I didn't know if
I could believe those things or not. But I remembered my religious
education as a Unitarian and the thing I remembered most was that I
was allowed to choose my own beliefs. I didn't feel like I had much
control over my life, but I had control over my thoughts and my
beliefs and it was tremendously empowering. And I knew at that
moment that I wasn't alone and never would be - I was part of nature
and it was a part of me.
The song we heard, "Breaths" - the poem written by Birago Diop,
expresses that feeling for me. I don't know if my ancestors are part
of the nature around me, but it is easy to imagine that they are.
The introduction to the song is: "In the African world view, the
invisible world of spirit man and the visible world of nature exist
along a continuum and form an organic reality. The same is true of
relationship between the past, present and future." That is what I
felt that day and I carry that with me wherever I go, no matter who
is or isn't around me, and I feel that I can love life no matter
what.
SAVED BY A DIFFERENT FAITH
John T. Crestwell, Jr.
(as re-written for Freedom Xpress)
Guillaume Apollinaire has a poem titled “Come to the Edge” It reads:
Come to the edge. We are afraid.
Come to the edge. You’ll push us.
Come to the edge. They came to the edge.
He pushed them. They flew!
The first two lines of the poem reflect where I was about three
years ago. And I’m guessing you may be there too. Let’s see… Are you
a religious seeker? Do you ask a lot of questions that most can’t
answer? Are you tired of religious fundamentals that seem primitive
and rote? Do you see society as constantly defining God for you,
leaving you with a definition of that creative, sustaining force
that is too limited? Are you an “out of the box” thinker? Did you
grow up in a church or recently left a church frustrated by dogma
and/or rituals that seem meaningless? Do you find there is some good
in all faiths or that there are many paths and perhaps many
destinations? Are you jaded by religion in general yet feel a
longing in your spirit for revitalization and fellowship but there’s
no place for you?
I left theological seminary having answered “yes” to all of the
questions. I was not interested in being a Methodist preacher any
longer. Philosophically, I was no longer there. I didn’t go to
church for six-months. I spent time reading many things about other
religions, mythology, anthropology and science. I also wrote a book.
It was therapy for me. I assumed I was a pilgrim on a journey all
alone.
It’s amazing when you come to the edge and jump off how scary it can
be! We’re not accustomed to free falling alone. Our parents impart
many cultural and religious ideas within and it gives that
foundational support which carries us through life. But what happens
when we “grow out of the house” or the foundation cracks or even
breaks, so to speak, and we need new land to build a new foundation
for our emerging beliefs? We have a choice, move away from the edge
or jump off.
Well, what did I do? To make a long story short, I found a website
www.dmuuc.org and checked it out. I haven’t been the same. I cannot
prescribe your remedy but I don’t mind if you try what I did! I
jumped off and haven’t landed yet! There are people who are just
like you. You do not have to be alone any longer. JUMP!
AN EPIPHANY
By Richard "Dick" Wilcox
Thirteen years ago, in 1990, I was on a very satisfying business
trip to Geneva and Vienna. Satisfying in that the business part,
which involved overseeing the installation of a new computer system,
had gone very well, and also in that the trip had involved an
interim weekend in which I had been able to get a bus tour from
Geneva to Mont Blanc, which is only a couple of hours away. Mont
Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps, but I wanted to go there
primarily because of the cable car ride. After taking two successive
cable cars up to the 12,000 foot level, there is a horizontal cable
car ride 3-1/2 miles long, terminating in Italy, that crosses over
the various ridges and glaciers. It is one of the most spectacular
rides in the world. And I was there on a beautifully clear day when
you could see forever! What I didn’t realize was that at that
altitude more than half the earth’s atmosphere is below, so that the
air is very thin, and it is a very unhealthy location for anyone
whose heart is not pumping adequate oxygen into the arteries.
To make things worse, on the last evening of the trip I celebrated
by eating in a good French restaurant a meal that was very, very
delicious and very, very unhealthy. So I was not surprised when I
woke up the next morning with a substantial case of heartburn. But I
was surprised that the heartburn lasted not only through breakfast,
but also through the ride to the airport and the flight to Paris for
transfer to the international leg of the trip.
During the two-hour layover in Paris I realized that something more
serious than heartburn was probably involved. Although the
possibility of a heart attack crossed my mind, in my naive state of
knowledge at that time I thought that heart attacks presented a
crushing pressure on the chest and spread to the arms, neither of
which I was experiencing. I considered going into the city to the US
Embassy to seek medical advice. But then I would have to reschedule
my flight, and if something really was medically wrong the
logistical problems of health insurance and visits by family would
be horrendous. So I abandoned that approach.
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