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FROM WHENCE COMETH MY HELP?
John T. Crestwell, Jr.
11/9/03

To my students, I welcome you to your first Unitarian Universalist worship service.  I hope you have found our church warm, welcoming and at least intriguing, to say the least.

This morning, I want to share with you from the topic, "From Whence cometh my help?"

We heard from the Psalmist this morning in a very clear and eloquent fashion why His God protects, nourishes, guides and directs his path.  Psalm 121 is a Psalm of Assurance.  And it starts out with a question, "I lift up my eyes to the hills - from where will my help come?  From whence cometh my help?"  And immediately an answer follows, "My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth."  The writer believes that his God is active in his life and in the world.  His God is creator and sustainer of the universe.

The same holds true with the 23^rd Psalm.  Most know it well.  Yahweh is a Sheppard that takes care of his sheep.  Yahweh gives his followers comfort in the midst of a storm.  As it says, "yea, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil for thou art with me.  Thy rod and thy staff comfort me."  This God is great protector.

The writer is clearly a Theist who sees God as a heavenly parent looking down from above.  In his world, God answers his most puzzling questions.  In his world, God is in control of life.

But that is one perspective of the world; one ideology, one faith, one understanding.  There are others.

I spoke with Roz Winard about my sermon, asking her for some possible sources to quote.  And to my shock she recommended the 23^rd Psalm.  Why was I shocked?  Because I know from my conversations with Roslyn that she, on many days, considers herself an Atheist; a non-theistic person.  Yet she said "use the 23^rd Psalm."  Although she sees this as poetry and not prose she told me she felt the warmth and power of the psalm because deep down inside it is a cry from the human spirit for inner peace.  It is a cry for release from the pains of this dualistic life.  It is a cry to be free from the fears of existence.

It is the same cry that created religion over the centuries - at least that's what the Anthropologist might say.  She'd say early humankind, as it evolved, heard the thunder roll and saw the lightening flash and there was fear and trembling.  They saw ferocious wild animals and the roaring sea; they heard and felt the brisk and whistling wind and they feared living.   And they sought an explanation and it came to them that there were gods or a being or beings active in their midst.  Many mythologies developed and over time as human consciousness expanded, this concept of a god become more and more personal.  Some of what I am saying is found in a good book by Karen Armstrong  called "The History of God."  She talks about how humans have created and recreated various gods in their own image out of a need to feel comforted.  It's a good book I recommend it.

Now, we don't live in the age of myth & legend any longer.  We live in an age of science and reason.  What was prose in the past is now poetry in many capacities.

So, how is our changing culture, particularly as Americans, going to deal with this new age of reason when, at our core, at our very essence, we are still very much like early humanity with the same fears and anxieties, and yet for many of us there is nowhere to turn for comfort history says?  From whence cometh our help?  From whence cometh your help if you don't buy the concept of God?

From my conversations with many of you, there are several here who consider themselves Atheists, Deists, or Agnostics or a combination that they haven't come up with a word for yet.   Where do you find strength and help in time of need?  Where does your help come from?

I am among those who on rare occasions is a Theist.  There are times I'm Deist, like the founding Fathers of America, I see God on these days as one who creates and steps away and says, you figure it out.   But on most days I am Agnostic (waiting for more evidence) or Atheist with a twist of Toaism. 

But I can tell you there are days when I would love to be a Theist.  Sometimes life gets very cruel.  Sometimes life throws a huge curve ball.  Every time you think you're getting ahead you go backwards.  And it would be easy to grab a hold of a god who protects and sees you through the tough times.  Then when it's good I can say, "Thank you, God" and when it's bad I can say, "What are you doing, God?  Your will not my will be done." Yes, some days that would be nice because this concept makes the world smaller and less scary.

Right now in America there is a lot misery.  Particularly for the middle class, the economy is bad; people are loosing their jobs, depression setting in everywhere - anxieties all over the place.  There's a useless war in a distant land; and soldiers are dying everyday; we have to deal with the foolishness in the White House.  And all the while poverty gets worse, and the gap between the haves and the have-not's continues to grow in the wrong direction.  From whence cometh your help to deal with all of this, but in particular the personal stuff that eats at you everyday of your life, like paying bills, providing shelter you and yours, and hoping you don't get sick because our healthcare system, if you don't have a lot of money, is average at best.  Where do you turn for solace?  Somebody said, "prescription drugs," John.  Okay, but is there anything else?

I received a call from Reverend Don one day and I was having a day from Hell.  I was tired and had many miles to go before I slept.  My cell phone rang and it was Donny calling to check up on me.  When we were done talking I was feeling much better about things.  It was there that it hit me,  Friends - true friends can be a place where help comes.  Without a "godology" true friends like we have here at Davies can comfort us when we are hurting deeply if we reach out to them when they reach out to us.   And family, sometimes, can be a place where help comes.  That stranger who pops up out of nowhere to talk to us, like they were sent from the heavens, they are a source of strength to help us to keep on keepin' on.   We say it all the time, but it is true, it is really love from others that comforts, protects, nourishes and preserves us.  We can't control nature or in a lot of ways politics, but we can live one day at a time and these interpersonal relationships help us to cope. 

Another thing you see from the psalmist is a powerful belief in God.  Even if it is perhaps illusionary, there is power in belief.  Jesus is noted as saying, "your faith has made you well." That is, your belief that you want to be okay has made you well.  A lot of times we suffer from sickness of belief.  And so, help for any circumstance is truly a phone call away, so to speak, because ultimately if you call yourself an Atheist, or Agnostic and even a Theist, that help is found within you.  I know I sound like one of those Scientologists or like I've been talking to Dr. Phil or Tony Robbins but it is true!  There is no reality, there is only perception.  If you perceive life as evil and scary and nasty and unfair and negative, that's exactly what life will be.  If you walk around with the "why me?" attitude, you'll get answers but they'll all be negative.

You must change your perception and your reality will change.  Don't wallow in your misery ask yourself,  "Where do I go from here?" And more positive message will manifest.  As Unitarian Universalists, we value the power of reason, the power of the mind to guide us in the right direction.   As Channing says so eloquently, "I call that mind free which has cast off all fear but that of wrongdoing, and which no menace or peril can enthrall.  Which is calm in the midst of tumults, and possesses itself, though all else be lost." It is this mind that can make a way out of no way.  It is this mind that thinks and therefore it is.  It's this mind that envisions something great and it comes to pass.   Everyday when I drive around and see great monuments and buildings from our technological genius, I see the mind of so many who thought and it became.  If they do it, you can.

From whence cometh our help?  It comes from within and without. 

And that is why I know, although money is tight, the UUA will find the funds to move our growth proposal forward.  When people say money is tight it just means that the traditional sources are tapped out, but there are other places.  If our church were ever in financial trouble, we know that folks would step to the plate, right away, to fix the problem.  These people believe in our church and what it stands for.  It is belief that drives the action.  It is the belief that changes the reality.

And so believe in yourself.  Pick yourself up from whatever trial or tribulation you are going through.  Take responsibility for your destiny.  And then turn to your friends for support if you so choose.  But ultimately, turn within and see the power you have to mend your brokenness.  Go, your faith has made you well.

"OUT of the night that covers me, 
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.   
In the fell clutch of circumstance  
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance  
 My head is bloody, but unbowed.   
Beyond this place of wrath and tears   
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years   
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.   
It matters not how strait the gate,   
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:  
I am the captain of my soul."

- William Ernest Henley. 1849-1903

Thank you for your time this morning.

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