Our Theological House:
A Tour of the House

A sermon delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation (Blacksburg, VA), September 10, 2006, by the Reverend Christine Brownlie.

I want you to imagine yourself as a newcomer and that you are attending a service at a Unitarian Universalist Congregation for the very first time. You’re not quite sure what to expect from the sermon, you wonder if you’ll hear readings from the Bible or maybe some other “holy book.” Will there be a creed that everyone has to stand up and recite? And if there is, will you be comfortable with the beliefs expressed and the language?

After the service is over, you are flooded with a sense of relief because the whole experience seemed comfortable, even liberating. You return again, and you discover that nobody expects you to have a certain set of beliefs; no one is upset if your thoughts and viewpoints are different from theirs — heck, you can even disagree with the minister and tell her so right to her face! WHOOEEE! You tell yourself that this is definitely your kind of place! You love the freedom; the right to believe whatever seems true and good to you. You’re excited that we’re not confined to one sacred text or one set of doctrines. All are encouraged to speak up and say what’s on their minds and in their hearts.

I’ve heard these very enthusiastic words from newcomers time and time again. And I’m so glad that they’ve found a place where they can feel free and accepted. I’m delighted that a newcomer feels at home in a community of people who share a commitment to religious freedom and religious tolerance. And I hope that this feeling of enthusiasm and possibility will fuel and enrich their own spiritual quests.

Sometimes it does. But sometimes that person who was so excited and energized will meet me for coffee and let me know that, as BB King would say, “the thrill is gone!” All that freedom, all that wonderful space to create your own set of beliefs is feeling a little lonely and empty. They wonder if our cherished theological diversity has the unintended consequence of making our services seen so careful and neutral that it sometimes feels that we’re walking a fine line so as not to offend anyone. “What holds us together?” they wonder, and they’re not sure how to answer that question.

As UUs we like to say that we are not “religious” but that we are on a “spiritual” quest. No surprise here. We tend to be strongly individualistic, and we don’t like other people or old traditions telling us what to think. We will travel our own path, thank you. Yet we may find that a spiritual quest that involves only ourselves can be a bit lonely. Many of us come to this place each Sunday because we want to be a part of a larger community and we think we would feel closer to one another if, as someone put it, I knew the person sitting next to me believed pretty much the same way that I did

In other words, we could use a little religion. Why religion and not spirituality? Because spirituality tends to be individualistic in nature, while religion is based shared faith and grounded in history, tradition. The root of the word religion has to do with bringing people together; the Latin root of religion, religio, means to bind — as in to bind together. A religious community is a group that is bound together by shared values and beliefs, rituals and other practices — such as prayer.

From the beginning, both Unitarianism and Universalism displayed a rebellious streak. Both were heretical faiths, founded by men and women who chose to get off the path of conventional Christianity with its doctrines and creeds and to go their own way. If you read the history of both faiths, you will note a restless quality which meant that change was the norm rather than the exception. For Unitarians, it seemed that as soon as a prominent minister gave a sermon that tried to put some parameters around the radical theology that was heard in one of the local Unitarian pulpits, someone else came out with a new and more radical statement of what Unitarians believe today. For me, the history of Unitarianism seem much like an expanding star, always pushing out in to the vastness of human thought and experience.

The Universalists kept a tie to Christianity until the era after the First World War, and then they too took up a quest looking for the shared truths in the great religions of the world. One difference was that Universalists were more inclined to reframe doctrines and creeds, while the Unitarians simply dropped whatever seemed out of step with their new ideas.

After the Second World War, it became clear that what held many Unitarian and Universalist congregations together was a sense of values that found expression in their concern for social justice and political issues. That is still true today. The majority of UUs are Liberal Democrats, pro choice, against the death penalty, pro women’s rights and gay rights, pro gun control, pro living wage. We’re the ones who will write the letters to the editor because we’re in favor of raising property taxes for a new school or park, or to oppose legislation that limits access to civil marriage to heterosexual couples.

Our commitment to these issues is so strong that it is easy to forget that we are not a political action group. We are a religious community that cares very deeply for the problems of the world and who bring a different set of values and beliefs to the larger community Our problem is that we’re not sure what to say when we’re asked about our unique take on traditional theological, and we struggle when we are asked to explain our UU faith to our friends and our families. We’re a little tired of those puzzled looks. We might wish that we had some ready and reasonable answers for ourselves when the hard questions of life present themselves to us. Some of us truly long for that tie that binds, bringing us closer to each other when we gather on Sunday mornings. We’re just not sure how to talk about it.

The Rev. Rebecca Parker has come up with a metaphor that helps us to put the question of what binds us together in a framework of traditional theological categories. She calls this construct “Our Theological House.”

Parker asks us to begin our exploration by imaging that we live together in an historic house that has many rooms. The house has been inhabited by many different people who have renovated the house over time. Our challenge is to try to carefully peel back through the renovations so that we can appreciate the history of the house and those who lived there before us. By touring this house and becoming acquainted with the previous tenants, we will discover what they valued — what they changed, and the beliefs and values that we share with them.

Each room of this imagined house has a theme and I begin this tour of our theological house with the nature of humanity. What is human nature? What is the purpose of human life? How has the concept of human nature changed as we have learned more about ourselves? How has this affected our theological understanding of ourselves and other people? How has it affected our sense of the purpose of life?

The Big Daddy of Theology is, of course, the idea of God. We’ll review how the early Unitarians and Universalists understood this concept and how they responded to the challenges of science and philosophy. We will also talk about the Bible and how that book as been understood and valued (or not) over time.

Both Unitarianism and Universalism have their roots in Christianity, and so we must consider Jesus. One of the big debates that shook the first Unitarian congregations was over the nature of Jesus and why he was an important religious figure. We’ll consider that debate and how UUs understand Jesus today as we witness the reawakening of an interest in Christianity

We will also examine our theology of Spirit, not as the third person of the Trinity, but as a way of thinking of the divine or the transcendent. We will also consider the human spirit or soul.

The problem of Evil is one that we as religious liberals tend to neglect. We’re not all that comfortable with the concept of Salvation either. How do we explain the bad things that happen, especially given our optimistic view of human nature? What is salvation for us, if we don’t accept the traditional concepts of heaven or hell?

The last sermon in this series will ask where do we go from here? How can we strengthen our congregation and our larger movement so that our values and perspectives are better known throughout our society? How might we reach out to those who share our values, but who don’t know that we exist or who never come through out doors for various reasons?

My goal in this series is to develop a sense of being grounded in our long and proud heritage and to encourage each one of you to think about your own answers to the questions that will be raised in these sermons.

I have been a UU for over thirty years, and I have worked as a professional in UU congregations for 23 years. I have seen shifts in the culture of our nation — and in our UU culture as well. I believe that as UUs, we have values and perspectives that meet the needs and challenges of our time in constructive and healing ways. I’m also aware that our growth as a movement is not keeping up with the growth in population; we are, in fact, losing ground. We can change this, and I am so proud and excited that our congregation is preparing to make a leap in our growth by adding space and adding staff. I believe that if we would encourage others to join us, we must also develop a clear sense of identity that invites others into our community.

As we prepare to build a new bricks-and-mortar home to make space for more bodies and more programs, we must engage in building a home for our spirits as well. This home will have a foundation set firmly in our own history and traditions, and it will have plenty of windows that look out into the every-changing world as we look forward to a stronger future.

May it be so.

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