Suffering

A recent satirical article featured alternative titles for Western literary classics. For example, Plato's "The Trial and Death of Socrates" became: "Athens Kills Its Best Unemployed Wise Ass." I love it.

Plato

When not being rebranded, Plato finds himself being misattributed. Turns out it was Philo of Alexandria, not Plato, who once uttered: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle." Regardless of its correct author, I wager this sentiment rings true for all of its hearers. It certainly speaks to the moving lay-led service this past Sunday, which showcased personal testimony about the emotional complexity of compassion. Amy Kavadlo probed: how do we extend compassion to the inconsiderate? Joe Ayoub added: what happens when compassion leads us to murder? And Jennifer Mulqueen exhorted listeners to find spaces in their life to openly share and collectively hold their great battles.

American pragmatist philosopher Cornel West writes that the condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak. Just as the jazz musician leans into the minor keys, so too the truth-teller must attend to the great battles that all of us wage deep within.

Others would dispute this claim, however, citing its fetish for the tragic. How often I have encountered the warning: don't release negative energy into the universe. Positive thinking, we're told, can serve as a powerful prescription, even if merely a placebo.

What role does suffering play in your worldview? Please: continue the conversation.

 

Immigrants

Arizona's infamous immigration law is but a symptom of our society's increasingly hostile attitude towards immigrants more generally. While pundits leverage arguments about immigrant groups breaking 'the law,' Parisa reminded us last Sunday of the contradiction built into that defense. How legal was the founding of this country, after all? Are we not heirs to "illegal immigrants"?

In 2009, Glenn Beck described the Pilgrims' march towards "freedom" as follows: "They fled their oppressive government in favor of sailing dangerous waters across a vast, largely unknown ocean in hopes of finding a new land and then not being killed by the American Indians." America celebrates this heroic journey every year during Thanksgiving. Rarely, though, do we stop to consider the Pilgrims of present day: those immigrants fleeing their own oppression in hopes of finding a new land, and a new life.

So how do we as Unitarian Universalists respond? Some lobby government, others supply water to individuals crossing the dusty borderland.

Please: continue the conversation.

Valentine

I always enjoy hearing bad pick-up lines, preferably not in action. And in February they seem to blossom into full absurdity. Some are unapologetically offensive; but some can be rather clever, or at minimum entertaining. Recently, I overheard the following (unsuccessful) attempt: "Excuse me - I seem to have lost my phone number, could I borrow yours?" An instant classic.



This past Sunday, I closed my sermon with an invitation to reconsider what it means to have, or be, a Valentine.

Compassion answers the question, “are we not of interest to each other?” with a bold: Yes. Yes, we are of interest to each other. Yes, our interests are of interest to each other. Compassion is about celebrating the things we love, more than sacrificing for the things we lament. The passion of suffering initiates, what only the passion of devotion can consummate.

This Valentine’s Day, pay attention to...the people who have come alive, and you with them. These are your saints. These are your Saint Valentines. Let them know.

And be warned: with enough compassion, you may soon be canonized by someone you don’t yet know.

You can watch the full sermon here.


How would you describe your Valentine? Please: continue the conversation.

Inspiring our Aspiring

In her annual "sermon on the amount" this past Sunday, Parisa called on all of us to bring our full presence, full passion and full commitment to First Parish. This church community would be little more than a coffee shop with weekly open-mic sessions were it not for the faithful witness, grand vision and deep contribution that members, friends and visitors bring to this historic place. 


Where two or three are gathered, there the Spirit descends; where two or three hundred are aligned in common purpose, there the Spirit takes flight.

I am reminded of one of my favorite lines from Goethe's poem "Divinity":

Let him be a model

For those beings whom he surmises.

In other words: let us be an inspiration for our greatest aspiration. Let us not only stretch ourselves into the serving souls we want to become. Let us stretch ourselves into their role models. Let us outgrow our own growth.

Can we do it? What is holding us back?

Please: continue the conversation.

Message

In the preface to their mid-seventeenth century catechism, the Polish Unitarians stated humbly: “We do not think that we ought to be ashamed if in some respect our church improves.” This openness to self-transformation and self-transcendence represents one of the greatest strengths of our Living Faith, in my opinion.

Theodore Parker

This past Sunday, I leaned heavily into its spirit, taking up Theodore Parker's infamous distinction between the transient and the permanent. While Parker's Truth (Jesus' Great Commandment) has since withered in Unitarian Universalist circles, his Technique persists. Unitarian Universalism's method of enlightened individualism ("the oracle God places in the breast"), I argued, has become its message. And while this method saves us, we require something more: a message that saves us from ourselves. Else, as Eric Hoffer warns, we risk devolving into “homeless hitchhiker[s] on the highways of the world thumbing a ride on any eternal cause that rolls by.”

Our message, as rooted in the testimonies of our ancestors, is on my view this: 

We are all of One Source and destined to One Salvation.

You can listen to the sermon in full here.

I am curious to hear your response to my polemics. Would you agree that our method has become our message? If so, are we in need of a supplemental message? How would you describe our message?

Please continue the conversation.