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By John T. Crestwell, Jr.
March 7, 2004
Good Morning. The sermon
today, as printed in your Order of Service, is “Unitarian
Universalism on the Brink”. Some of you may ask, “On the Brink of
What?” I’m reminded how one of my students, after visiting us said,
“Your church seems like a place for religious misfits—where people
go because they are fed up with traditional church.” --I don’t know
about that… I sure hope we’re not on the brink of showing the world
that we are religious misfits…
I would like to say to you this morning that I believe that the
Unitarian Universalist Church is on the brink or at the brink of
becoming the next great religious movement in the 21st century in
America. Now, I have my reasons. Whether you will agree is another
thing. There is a reason why a leader in the Mormon Church in charge
of missionary, said we are “the most dangerous church in America”
And if you will permit me, I would like to share with you why this
is so…
The reason we are at the brink of greatness and dangerous to the
establishment is WE ARE A CUTTING EDGE FAITH IN A CUTTING EDGE TIME.
AND AT LAST—THE TIME, PLACE AND CIRCUMSTANCE ARE RIPE FOR OUR
MESSAGE.
What am I talking about? Take a ride with me… You can go back as far
the 16th century in Europe and find story after story of men and
women who were speaking out, religiously, against the status quo.
Religious radicals caught in a place and time that was not quite
ready for their universal and inclusive message. We heard the words
of John Murray this morning. And Murray along with George de
Benneville, who together are known as the founders of Universalism
in America in the 18th century, where caught in an environment that
was dominated by Calvinist dogma. While most of New England and the
Mid Atlantic States were preaching hellfire for predestined souls,
Benneville and later Murray were run in and out of town because they
were preaching a message of hope and unity and salvation for all
souls. They were cutting edge thinkers who were not in cutting edge
times…
If you jump nearly 100 years in American history, you’d find
yourself in an environment that was ready for Civil War. The Union
between the North and South was insecure. The major political topic
of that time was the issue of slave labor. The North had long since
let go of this notion but the South was stubborn for many reasons,
mostly economics, and so they (the South) kept the institution of
slavery alive. But nonetheless, around 1859, a man named John Brown
traveled throughout the North raising money to fund an ambitious and
almost insane idea to raid the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. The
plan was to take control of the arms and ammunition then travel
south freeing slaves and at gunpoint telling plantation owners they
had to find new laborers for their fields.
While Brown was north he
had many supporters, names you are familiar with like Emerson and
Thoreau. And one of his financial supporters, who was a part of a
group known as the “Secret Six”, was Theodore Parker. If these names
are not familiar to you these are very well known Unitarians…
Brown
failed in his attempt but the point is we were there in history, at
the cutting edge dealing with the major social, political and
economic problem of that time. Although these men were well known
and viewed by many as great thinkers, they too lived in time where
the ideas of Protestantism dominated the culture. The North won the
war, but America was still young and not ready to hear a Unitarian
or Universalist message that “all people are created equal.”
Fast forward nearly 100 years and you are in the 50’s headed toward
the 60’s another tumultuous time in our history. We’re now in the
era of Jim Crow when segregation and discrimination was an overt
reality. A. Powell Davies was preaching from his pulpit at All Souls
Church in Washington, DC, and he made a list, telling his
parishioners not to eat at any restaurant that permitted
segregation. And later we come to the time of the Civil Rights
Movement. In Selma, Alabama where voting rights was a priority,
Unitarian and Universalist ministers like, Reverend James Reeb, the
Reverend Clark Olsen and the Reverend Orloff Miller, among others,
answered the call of Dr. King to march for justice and equal rights
for African-Americans. The three minister’s were beaten badly by a
vicious mob. Reverend Reeb was killed. But his death was not in
vein, it sparked the Voting Rights Act in 1965. YES, WE WERE ON THE
CUTTING EDGE! Once again the culture would hear but not truly listen
to our message.
When you jump to the present, you will find that we are still on the
cutting edge, but what’s different now is that the times are ripe
for our message! While the mainline churches are wrestling with the
issue of Gay and Lesbian rights, threatening to dismantle or split
denominations as a result, we have long since been supporters of
this community. Issues like separation of church and state, the
issues with prayer in schools, government accountability,
environmental issues, we are right there in the mix, making a
difference. We are still a small religion numbers wise, but our
voice is loud. The times are ripe right now, for us to have massive
growth as a church. More and more, people are asking questions today
and seeking new answers. For many, the traditional responses are not
enough anymore. People are not accepting the notion of being in the
closet but they want to freely live and express their constitutional
rights. The time is ripe for us to have massive growth!
There are trends as well… If you look at any numbers in the mainline
churches, mainline being Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran, and
Presbyterian), you find drastic and consistent declines in
membership. When you look at the Catholic Church, you find a
watering down of the faith, so to speak. More and more, Catholics
are becoming more inclusive regarding women, sexuality, and
acceptance of other faiths… At one time in history, Catholicism
would not fathom the idea of listening to Protestants. Today, they
work together in Ecumenical circles. When the Granddaddy of ‘em all
is changing, all of Christendom will change! I conclude, there are
obvious signs that the cultures religious psychology is changing…
There are also statistics that support my claims… I scoured the
Internet looking for stats and found some reliable information from
the BARNA Research Group in Ventura, California. The numbers say
that over 70 million of the 300 million Americans are “unchurched”.
That is, they have not been to church in over a year or never been
to church. Of course, I found another “unchurched” number that said
over 170 million Americans didn’t go to church. I thought to myself,
“This guy must have be talking about the two-time per year chuch-folk—Easter
and Christmas.
So, the numbers support my claim that people are dissatisfied and
looking for a new form of religious expression. BARNA research also
indicates that only 7% of Protestants have a biblical worldview.
Biblical worldview means that an absolute moral truth exists and it
is found in the Bible. Also, he found that 64% of Americans said
truth is relative to the situation. And 57% said they were not
satisfied with their church. Lastly, BARNA research found that the
more liberal the viewpoint the more likely the person will be “unchurched.”
Again, this research tells me that the time is ripe for the
Unitarian Universalist message.
In substance, it is our history and trends in the religious
psychology of Americans that confirms we should be a major force
religiously in the 21st century. And we should see astronomical
growth as a result of the religious climate in America. THIS IS OUR
TIME! In an age of liberal thinking and expression, when technology
and scientific genius allows us to access knowledge at the click of
a button, we stand as the religion that embraces both tradition and
innovation. THIS IS OUR TIME. We stand as the religion that can
effectively link the past with the present. For far too long the
liberal religious voice has been quiet and often shallow. We have
allowed, through fear or indifference, the voice of fundamentalism
to speak for the majority when it really speaks for the minority.
THIS IS OUR TIME, and the numbers show us, and you see it in your
daily lives, most people are moderate and liberal. Even those who
call themselves fundamentalists, when faced with life’s decisions
they too are moderate and liberal or what I’d term “selectively
fundamental.”
There is only one religion that I know of that embraces the Buddhist
and Catholic. There is only one religion that I know of that loves
the Muslim and Hindu. There is only one religion that I know of that
accepts the Atheist, Agnostic, Humanist and Christian. And that is
the religion of Unitarian Universalism. “We have come over a way
that with tears has been watered. We have come, treading our paths
through the blood of the slaughtered. It is high time we accept our
destiny. THIS IS OUR TIME!
Well, I’ve been dogmatic enough… J Let me bring this message home.
This is Stewardship Sunday. What does this mean? It asks that we be
committed stewards of our faith—that we give our time, talents and
gifts for the sake of our church.
I would like to ask that you to look at this Stewardship Sunday a
bit different. Given all that I’ve said, I don’t want you to leave
here today seeing your association with the Unitarian Universalist
Church as something of a social club, although we love to eat and
socialize J. I don’t want you to see this as your affiliation with a
little ole church at 7400 Temple Hill Road in Camp Springs,
Maryland, zip code 20748-5406.
If you are hearing me this morning, we are not just a place for
sanctuary and fellowship and fun. But we are more than a church. WE
ARE A MOVEMENT! We are a cutting edge movement. And we are one
church among a little over 1000 churches in America that are a part
of this movement. And we have the task of accepting our place in
history as the church for the 21st century or risk being deemed
irrelevant or as my student said, “…the place for the religious
misfits.’ But we are more than that!
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