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Paralysis from Analysis
Rev. John T. Crestwell, Jr.
December 10, 2005

There is a Unitarian Universalist paradox.  And that is on one hand we need to be rational, analytical and thoughtful—and that’s why we’re here—we are thinking people, we don’t “leave our brains at the door”; we love to get to the root of things and we like discussion, being argumentative—to make sure the democratic process is followed in our church.  Detail is important.

But on the other hand, we know we should show and have more faith and less reason sometimes; we know we should be bolder and just throw caution to the wind sometimes but it is hard. And sometimes we know we are arguing a moot point about process, enjoying hearing ourselves talk—we’re LIVING IN OUR HEAD--- instead of going with the flow of the meeting, when synergy emerges to take us to another plane spiritually… I find that we can be the very antithesis to our wants and desires sometimes…

Khalil Gibran teaches through his poetry that there is no real separation of reason and passion/ body and soul but we tend to be too “heady” at times…

Also, as open-minded religionists or liberal free-thinkers, we want the best out of life, we want justice, equity and compassion in human relations; we want the Beloved Community to become real and not a utopian fancy. We want equal rights and equal pay for women; equal rights for the gay community and other minority groups—for all people!  We want to end hunger and disease—we want to change the world!   

But on the other hand our higher education and intellect has afforded us certain luxuries and to change the world, could put at risk these very luxuries in some cases…   Our free mind shows us that there is cause and effect in life and that “stuff” happens—so we rationalized and say to ourselves, “What will be—will be!  I can’t do anything about it” and we continue talking about problems but doing nothing about problems—LIVING IN OUR HEAD.  We have book discussions, parlor chats, ADORE discussions; we do a lot to express our concerns and desires for a world free of cultural prejudice and bias, a world that we dream about.  But do we really believe we can have that as our reality?  And do we want this reality?

We talk about a religion that allows us to be free mentally, where we have the space to grow; we talk about the friends we meet and have here at Davies and the love we share.  But on the other hand we never invite a friend, who thinks like us, to come to our church, we never express our ideals for fear that we may offend someone.---  That’s what we tell ourselves...   There are times I wish we had more guilt as a faith, as the others do; something more that could prod us along to become the faith that we should be in this world.

I’ve spoken at several UU churches now and I am amazed at the “coma of complacency” that exists. Even in some of the congregations that are said to be “thriving”. They are warm places with wonderful people but not much is being done from my perspective to really make our religion a beacon of light in this country. 

Yes, sometimes I wish we could use more guilt…  Dr. King, during the end of his short career, saw liberal religion as full of many words and few deeds.  He grew disenchanted and disheartened by the majority of churches that claimed to believe in justice but would not work to end injustice.  Now we know many UU and protestant churches were involved in the movement, but most were not in that time….   Sunday after Sunday he said the preachers would preach nice “essays” about relaxing and keeping your blood pressure down and he said they would never challenge the cultural ethos--- instead they apathetically “played with religion,” he said.  He felt liberal religion, in particular, claimed lofty values; liberal religion believed in the best of the American ideal; it believed in being open-minded, and believed in creating the world community that offers peace, liberty and justice for all but when it came down to it, he felt they were more interested in preserving what they had than making space for those at the margins.  Dr. King would quote from the book of Amos 5: 21-24:  "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.  But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

And he would quote from Isaiah 40:   “Comfort, comfort my people saith your God.”

This was King’s way of trying to compel Christian churches to see that their god called them to something more than just an assembly; something more than music and that something more was SERVICE to community—as a true example of living religion.

We are about to go into the New Year and I am about to be your minister…  And the question is how far can we go together?  How far can we go in reaching this community and the communities of the world?

I think we can go as far as we want to go, but that depends upon whether or not we really want to make our principles LIVE; if we really want the ideals of liberal religion live in us and all through the walls of this place.  But we have to go beyond the traditional Unitarian Universalist paralysis from analysis, which creates a coma of complacency, because we will get so caught up in abstractions that we will never get to the heart and soul and source of what we really want to accomplish.  We will spend all of our vital energy talking about what we’re going to do instead of doing it!  And this over-rationalization is a dream stealer!

Most of you know how I feel about this faith.  This religion, to me, should be, as I said, a beacon of light to the world.  It should have millions of members.  It should decide elections  (not allow the machines to take decide—HELLO);  our faith and members should have a role in deciding who is the Supreme Court Justice; should be as loud as the “Religious Right”.  Our voice should be the one that teaches what respect for the inherent worth and dignity of all really means.  You know we get Freedom Xpress printed with the Washington Times (which is owned by Sun Yong Moon)—well you know we should not get confused with the Unification Church (hello)!  Folk must know who we are and what we believe!

But we’ve got to move pass our paralysis from analysis.  We’ve got to move pass getting stuck in our metaphors and similes; we get stuck in our poetry, in our history lessons, in our scientific explanations, in our theology, psychology, biology, physiology, and anthropology, to name a few AND these are good things to know, don’t get me wrong, but we’ve got to get out of our heads.  And something tells me we stay upstairs—in our heads—as a justification for not going downstairs to the basement where the work must be down.  Every now and then we’ve got to move from the mountaintop and into the valley.  Every now and then we’ve got to move from hibernation and stagnation to participation…

Now, I know this from first hand experience because I look at myself everyday and I think I am analytical and critical and not doing enough…  I’ve told myself, “John don’t live through the history books—make history!     Don’t wait for change—be change!  Don’t wait for peace, create peace!”

I’m convinced that we can read and research and study and dissect and examine and postulate, with a glass of chardonnay (HELLO)  and never do anything that challenges the present systems and philosophies that create (as you hear me say all the time) the “us against them mentality” instead of the “we are together reality”. 

And you know what makes me mad…I want you to know that I do get mad sometimes.  I get upset when I see folk scrutinize certain work in the church and never put forth their own effort and that’s not right!  This mentality will hold us back.  

In seminary they taught us that if you deconstruct something in a sermon you must also reconstruct it.  So if I am chastising my audience (I hope I’m not doing that) then I must also give an action plan that says, you know, “Where do we go from here?”   In other words, there is no theoretical concept without a therapeutic application.  If we are going to criticize something, then we must ask ourselves, “What can I do/we do to make the situation better?”  Then put forth a plan and then act on that plan.  That is the healthy thing to do.  And I find that this works in the church but works in business and in our personal lives too.

So this morning the question is how do we move from theory to therapy—beyond our paralysis from analysis?

You’ve heard me say already “You be the change you want” and that is my theological model, that change starts with you.  We talked about that in the ADORE session Friday.  There was a discussion about how some are angry over the history of America and reliving its racial past is painful.  But what I shared was that the work we do in this church, right now, in a small or big way will be a paradigm shifter; and the people of Davies Church in 2030 (25 years from now) will look back at our church in the year 2005 and say, “They were a cutting edge church and became an example of what Sunday morning should be—a place for all souls”.  We could not say that in 1980.  We were not there yet.  But look where we are and where we are going and then see the power a few people can have on history.  Think about it, if we start with ourselves, then with our church then maybe our work can spill over to the community, then to this county, then to our state then to our country, then to our world.   You never know.  But until you fix yourself you cannot fix the world.  We jump real fast into the world politic when we have not addressed the individual politic.

So how do we start with ourselves?   Well, I think this is a good time of year for you to start with yourself.  We make all kinds of resolutions this time of year.  “I’m gonna lose 40 pounds, I’m gonna go back to the gym (I’ve been saying that for two months); I’m gonna stop drinking (That’s a Baptist not a Unitarian); I’m gonna spend more time doing the things I love… We make New Year resolutions and they don’t really pan out…

YOU KNOW WHY?  BECAUSE WE PUT OUR EXPECTATIONS TOO HIGH!  The strategy here is we have to set reasonable objectives that we can achieve.  We need to push ourselves some but not to the point where we stress ourselves into giving up, which is what normally happens year after year…

The significance of creating achievable goals and making this a spiritual practice is that we are actually TRAINING OURSELVES INTO ACCOMPLISHING TASKS.  WE ARE TRAINING OURSELVES TO BE DOERS.  And I believe this practice will spill right over from your personal life into the church where you will actively set achievable goals—where we won’t criticize without offering our idea and service, our hands and our feet…    And if many of us are doing this I think we could have a dramatic impact on the future of our lives and the future of this church. 

Create realistic goals this year and you will be helping yourself and your religious community to finish tasks and not just analyze tasks.  Ultimately, you are teaching yourself to be the change you want.  And if we create an environment of “change-makers” then there is no telling where we will go together! 

I picked the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” because it speaks to this time of the year but it also speaks to us.  Emmanuel means “God with us”.  But I can use another metaphor—LIFE with us—Spirit with us.  Love with us…  AND let that energy come to us right now—let God be within us, may the bliss of Life be in us, may the Spirit be in us, might Love be in and with us, so that we can be doers and not talkers; so that we can make our religion real!  And let the Power come dwell in our hearts so we can comfort the people and really speak truth to power and really make justice roll down…

“O come, O come Emmanuel, and with your captive children dwell.  Give comfort to all exiles here, and to the aching heart bid cheer.  O come, you Splendor very bright, as joy that never yields to might.  O come, and turn all hearts to peace, that greed and war at last shall cease.  O come, you Day-spring come and cheer – our spirits by your presence here.  And dawn in every broken soul as vision that can see the whole.  O come, you Wisdom from on high, from depths that hide within a sigh, to temper knowledge with our care, to render every act a prayer.   Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Emmanuel, shall come within as love, as truth, as light, as hope—to dwell.”  

Let it be so.  Amen.

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