The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it.

~Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment

The Big Questions: Why Do Bad Things Happen?

Obijuan April 17th, 2009

 

 

delivered to the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos

7 December 2008

Time begins, as we know it, with violence, a great explosion – a massive hydrogen bomb for all intents and purposes – tossing burning elements out into the cosmos at tremendous speed. Eventually the elements cool, and the universe begins to coalesce. Stars begin to form, then galaxies. One star in particular seems conducive to the support of life under the right conditions. Roughly 40 million years ago, our planet began to take shape as we know it. This planet hurtles through space at a blinding speed of roughly 67 thousand miles per hour. It orbits the sun at a distance of roughly 91 million miles. If it orbited any slower, the distance would close and the planet would roast. Any faster, and the distance would increase and the planet would freeze. The surface of the planet itself is covered by mostly water, and the parts that are not water are made up of relatively loosely connected land masses, floating at a snails pace, casual crashing into and careening off of each other over a span of deep time. The land shakes and tears itself apart as it moves. The massive amounts of water threaten to swallow the land from time to time. And the core of the planet, a molten fire, threatens to rise up through the cracks as well.

 

Somehow, amidst all of this speed and danger and fragility, the planet brings forth life. Over millions of years life evolves – first single-cell organisms, then more and more complex, until at last the planet brings forth the human race, a most unique species. Humans develop creativity, imagination, and, most importantly, free will. Where other animals live off instinct, the human animal is able to make choices, and being free, the species doesn’t always make the right choices. Often, we hurt others, we mistake ourselves for the be all and end all of existence, we act in ways that reflect the violence in which the universe is given birth.

 

Eventually, all of this will end. The same elements that were thrown out to cosmos will begin to collapse once more. Life as we know it will disappear, and everything that is will crush itself into a dense singularity until, as the theory goes, it explodes out into the cosmos once more.

 

In the mean time, here we are, free creatures capable of the most extraordinary acts of love and compassion, and the most horrendous acts of violence and hatred, living on a slowly shifting planet whose natural processes drown us or swallow us whole without warning, the whole thing hurtling through the vacuum of space at mind-numbing, deadly speed, and all the while needing to maintain a constant distance of orbit, lest the sun that gives life takes it instead.

 

It’s a wonder, sometimes, that we have survived this long amidst what amounts to chaos.

 

These being our givens, the question before us this morning is, “Why do bad things happen?”

Continue Reading »

The Big Questions: What Happens When We Die?

Obijuan February 13th, 2009

delivered to the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos
9 November 2008

As training for the ministry, seminary students are expected to spend an early portion of their formation time in what is known as Clinical Pastoral Education – acting as chaplain in a hospital or prison setting, getting used to being around humanity at its most human, and getting used to it now before one got to far into the process. The message was clear – “If you cannot deal with human suffering face to face, you might want to consider another line of work.” And so, I spent the better part of 2004 interning as a hospital chaplain, an urban level one trauma center, to be precise. For nine months, I bounced back and forth between the chaos of the trauma center and the quieter and often more private tragedies of the hospital’s inpatient wards. Mostly, I worked amidst the chaos.

The chaplains job in this environment was to help families navigate the chaos. More often than not in the trauma ward, the families were dealing with the sudden and violent death of a loved one. The chaplain was there to answer the question, “Now what?” This is less of an existential question than you’d imagine.
So often, the answers I had to provide were practical ones – guiding spouses and children through the myriad forms required by the hospital and the state, helping deal with the coroner’s office, and always, always translating doctor and hospital speak into plain and simple English.

In the trauma center, one gets used to the idea of death. The chaplain is the tour guide for the living, those left behind. Each on-call day, I was less the spiritual guide than I was the sane and calm hands, eyes, and ears of the family – a temporary member – handling the practical nitty gritty so that loved ones could begin to grieve as they should. The existential follows fast on the heels of the practical.

The big question before us this morning is, “What happens when we die?” The me of 2004, surrounded by death and the chaos of the practical on all sides might have wearily and with some edge of gallows humor answered that question: “Paperwork.” Continue Reading »

The Big Questions: What is the Meaning of Life?

Obijuan February 6th, 2009

 

delivered to the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos

5 October 2008

In a cave on a high plateau on the slopes of Mt. Parnassus in the town of Delphi in Greece, there was once a sanctuary dedicated to god Apollo. The sanctuary was home to the Pythia, the famous oracle at Delphi, who was renowned for her gifts of prophecy, spurred on by the gasses that seeped out of the earth from crack in the cave’s floor that led her into altered states.

The Pythia was an astonishingly accurate seer, although her proclamations were cryptic. One coming to see the oracle needed to know the key to deciphering her predictions. The key was inscribed over the mouth of the cave, for any who cared to take the time to read it and take it to heart.

Gnothi Seauton.

Know thyself.

*** Continue Reading »

The Big Questions: What Do You Believe?

Obijuan January 27th, 2009

 

delivered to the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos

7 September 2008

Football season starts this week, so I think it’s more than appropriate that we begin this morning with a little story about football and theology:

 

Peyton Manning, Tony Romo, and Brett Favre all die and go to heaven. They are immediately ushered past the velvet ropes and the pearly gates to stand before God in his own sitting room. God, it turns out, is a huge football fan, and he wants to get to now his idols a little better.

 

God asks Peyton Manning first: “What do you believe?” Peyton thinks long and hard, looks God in the eye, and says, “I believe in hard work, and in staying true to family and friends. I believe in giving. I was lucky, but I always tried to do right by my fans.” God can’t help but see the essential goodness of Manning, and offers him a seat to his left.

 

Then God turns to Tony Romo and asks, “What do you believe?” Tony says, “I believe passion, discipline, courage and honor are the fundamentals of life. I, too, have been lucky, but win or lose, I’ve always tried to be a true sportsman, both on and off the playing fields.” God is greatly moved by Tony’s sincerity and eloquence, and He offers him a seat on his right.

 

Finally, God turns to Brett Favre: “And you, Brett, what do you believe?” Brett stands up tall, looks God straight in the eye, and replies, “I believe you’re in my seat.”

 

You’ll need to forgive me this morning. We Green Bay fans need to laugh where we can this year.

 

This morning is the first in a series of sermons titled, “The Big Questions” — an exploration of some of the great philosophical and religious questions of all time.

 

This is also the first of our “Bring a Friend to Church” Sundays for the year. And what better introduction to a free and reasoned faith than to witness the ways in which Unitarian Universalists tackle these questions that almost everyone, regardless of faith or tradition, wrestles with.

 

This sermon series was originally presented in the fall of 2007 by the ministers of the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, who compiled the questions and then traded off the duty of attempting to answer them. It was a tremendously well done and well received series. And, because I had never attempted a prolonged answer to any of these questions, and because I knew I wanted to spend a greater part of this year exploring the idea of belief within Unitarian Universalism, I asked my friends if I could borrow the list of questions and tackle them with you.

 

Over the coming months, then, we’ll take on these questions of ultimate concern, such as: Why do bad things happen? How do we know right from wrong? and, What happens when we die?

 

In a concurrent series, we’ll explore what are known as the traditional theological sources of Unitarian Universalism, including Christianity, Humanism, and Earth-centered religions.

 

This morning, we begin with what is perhaps the biggest of the big questions - the same question God asks of his three quarterback friends.

 

What do you believe?

 

In Unitarian Universalist circles, this is perhaps the most difficult question to answer, and the question that has the most variety of answers — too many answers to count, really. For our newcomers and visitors, Unitarian Universalism has no set creed, no test of belief required for membership. Each person is responsible for their own beliefs, so the answer to this question will be different for each person asked.

 

But, despite the diversity of answers, there are three general responses that I want to deal with today. These are frequently heard responses to the query “What do Unitarian Universalists believe?” and they are all, to some degree or another, the wrong answer.

Continue Reading »

Theology Geekin’

Obijuan August 28th, 2008

Walter Brueggemann gave a wonderful lecture at Ministry Days this year, providing a ton of sermon fodder in the process. Now, Living the Questions has an extended DVD lecture from Brueggemann on the same theme of “Countering Pharaoh’s Production-Consumption Society.” 

My copy arrived today, and I opened it up with the same fluttery excitement I get when a new Neil Gaiman book comes out.

The DVD comes with a warning label:

WARNING: THIS PROGRAM MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR CHURCH, SOCIETY AND THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE, AND COULD POTENTIALLY HELP RESTORE THE MEANING OF COVENANT.

Those of you who were with me at Ministry Days know exactly what is meant. For the rest of you, I’ll do my best to blog some notes as I work my way through the chapters of the lecture. Woohoo!

A Unitarian Universalist Gospel

Obijuan August 26th, 2008

Scott Wells over at Boy in the Bands asks: What is our gospel?

In the church year past, I focused my preaching on issues of Unitarian Universalist identity, exploring our roots, our present claims, and our future. Over the course of a year of sermon writing, especially in trying to lift up succinct messages we can claim as legacies from our Unitarian and Universalist forbears, I arrived at a series of brief statements that for me both define our spiritual inheritance, and the heart of the message we are (or at least I am) sending out into the wider world

  • You are loved (All are loved)
  • You are worthy of your place in creation (All are worthy)
  • All our fates are inextricably bound together
  • God* has not given up on us, so we cannot give up on one another
As each new piece uncovered itself in the reflecting and writing process throughout the year, I added it to the whiteboard that hangs across from my desk. This has become the heart of my message, whether it’s covered in sermon or prayer. Every week, this is what I need to say to the people who walk in my door. Is it an original message? No. Is it exclusive to UUism? No. But it sure seems like a message that counters the notion of “religion” as it is presented in mainstream American media. It’s an old gospel, but at the same time it’s still fresh and still needing to be spoken.
*or Spirit, or whatever other word for the larger mystery that doesn’t make you all twitchy

I Swear I’ve Had These Exact Directions . . .

Obijuan August 11th, 2008

via xkcd

xkcd - Google Maps

xkcd - Google Maps

A Vigil Prayer for Knoxville

Obijuan July 30th, 2008

 

Spirit of Life and of Death, Gracious Source of All Love, be here now among us this evening  -

 

Let our hands be your hands, Our hearts be your heart as we reach out across the distance to lend what comfort we can to our brothers and sisters in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.

 

Let our hearts and our minds touch the hearts and minds of all those faith communities who meet this night, as we do, to make sense of our anger and our sorrow, to speak the weight within our hearts, and to remind one another in this time of tragedy that they are not alone, that we are not alone.

Spirit, let us be present with every fiber of our souls to those members of our family who have endured such great terror, pain, and loss. For their sake, and for all our sakes, help us to carry forward the memory of those who have suffered, who are suffering in this moment.

May we bring what comfort we can to the children who gathered that morning to express the joy in their souls, only to lose that joy in fear and confusion.

Let us carry in our hearts all those members and friends of TVUUC whose sense of comfort and safety in their spiritual home has been stripped away. May they discover the strength and courage to continue to worship and live out their ideals as their conscience demands.

Let us pray for the health and safety of Joe Barnhart, Jack Barnhart, Linda Chavez, and Tammy Sommers, wounded in the attack and still hospitalized, and those wounded still unnamed.

Let us carry with us the memory of Linda Kraeger, at church to visit friends that morning, who died later that evening from her wounds.

Let us carry with us the memory of Greg McKendry, who placed his own life in the way of a gun so that others might survive.

Let us hold in our hearts the family and friends of the dead and the wounded. May they know that we share their anger and pain and sense of loss. May they reach, in due time, some form of peace.

Gracious One, grant us the strength, too, to rise above our basic human responses so that we might hope for peace in the soul of Jim Adkisson. We may never understand completely why he resorted to such an evil act, and we may, in truth, find it difficult to forgive — still, we grieve for that part of him that is broken, and we grieve for the broken world that he could not live with.

At last, Spirit of Grace and Love, we hope to find peace in our own hearts and souls. There are those who say that because of the chosen faith we share that the dead and the wounded have received what they deserved, who insist on wishing us harm and evil for living out our conscience. It is tempting to respond in kind. May we find the strength and the grace to rise above the fray, to live out our principles, and to respond in love.

All this we pray in the names of those known and unknown, present and absent, remembered and forgotten. In the names of all the helpers of humankind.

 

Amen.

 

(cross posted at uulosalamos.org)

Pray for Knoxville

Obijuan July 27th, 2008

News is minimal at this point, but reports are coming in that a gunman opened fire in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, TN this morning as children from the congregation’s summer theatre program were performing.

Local news has more complete report with interviews. It sounds as though the children were not hurt. Some injured were taken to the hospital, but no fatalities are reported.

Pray for all involved this morning.

 

UPDATE: There is now an unconfirmed report of one death

“Returning . . .” Returns?

Obijuan July 26th, 2008

Quite possibly. I’ve spent the last hour carefully upgrading Wordpress (learning from Jess’ bad experience). I’ve got a post about weddings in the works to start us off. See you soon.

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