a sermon by the Rev. Paul Beedle, delivered Saturday morning, April 28, 2001, at the UUA Pacific Southwest District Assembly in Pasadena, California
SERMON: “Passwords of our Faith”
“Let us build memories in our children,
lest they drag out joyless lives,
lest they allow treasures to be lost because they have not been given the keys.”
How do we do that? How do we build memories in our children? Primarily by our example. What children remember most – in the depth of their souls – is not our words, but our deeds. Not the ways we name sacred things, but the ways we live our liberal faith. The keys we must give them – lest they allow treasures to be lost – we hold in our living.
Not that our words don't matter at all. “We live, not by things, but by the meanings of things. It is needful to transmit the passwords from generation to generation.” The ways we name sacred things – the ways we name them – are the passwords of our faith. Now, we in this computer-literate age know very well that passwords must change if treasures are not to be lost. And so our children will – and must – create new passwords. They must name sacred things in their own way. But it is needful to transmit to them the passwords we use so that they can see how we name sacred things. Not the naming, but the meaning of the naming, is what we live by. And so will they, if we teach them how.
So what passwords shall we transmit? The most familiar and popular affirmation used in our congregations is this:
“Love is the doctrine of this church,
The quest for truth is its sacrament,
And service is its prayer.”
This affirmation contains four passwords – passwords transmitted originally from our UU Christian heritage, which some of us have kept and some of us have changed in order to keep the treasures in our own lives – four passwords which, properly understood, define what faith is. Those passwords are: church, doctrine, sacrament, and prayer.
What is a church? “Church” is a password many of us have changed; most often, I think, that's because we let somebody else define for us what a church is. Here's my definition: a church is a countercultural institution whose mission is to transform the world. A church is a countercultural institution whose mission is to transform the world. To transform the world: our mission is nothing short of that. And how? By creating a culture within our congregations – a counterculture to that of the larger society around us – based on the deepest and highest values of our faith.
And what are those values? They are summed up, for me, in the affirmation I just quoted:
“Love is the doctrine of this church,
The quest for truth is its sacrament,
And service is its prayer.”
I've told you my definition of a church; now let me tell you my definitions of doctrine, sacrament and prayer. A doctrine is the most sacred value that guides us in living our faith; a sacrament is the most sacred activity that grounds us in living our faith; and a prayer is the most sacred expression of our deepest longings and highest hopes in living our faith.
“Love is the doctrine of this church.” We express love in church life most directly in our shared ministry of pastoral care – when in times of need we bring a casserole or offer a ride or help someone with chores, when we visit a shut-in or a sick friend, we do it because our doctrine – our guiding value – is love. If love is our doctrine, then it can and should guide us in all that we do together, in all the ministries of our churches. Even the way we organize and govern our congregations. Many of you have no doubt heard talk of something called “policy governance” – our District Board is adopting policy governance as its mode of operation. Policy governance means that the Board sets goals based on input from all of us, and it sets broad policies that set limits on the ways the District staff and committees go about achieving those goals. Those limits are meant to express our guiding values: responsibility, integrity, respect, accountability – all the things that love demands of us. Above all, trust. The Board gives the District's staff and volunteers a free hand to use their full range of talents and creativity, within the bounds love demands. You see how easily policy governance harmonizes with our doctrine of love – and no other theory of organization can match it! My church's board has been studying policy governance, and maybe yours should, too. Imagine a church where everyone's talents and creativity are set free to accomplish the ministries of the church in pastoral care, in religious education, in worship, and in social action, and the board can trust such a wide-open process because it has set policies which everyone follows because we all know and understand that they are rooted in the demands of our most sacred value, love! Let us build memories in our children.
“The quest for truth is its sacrament.” To seek truth – not only the thing itself, but its meaning – is our sacrament, the sacred activity that grounds us in living our liberal faith. We seek truth most directly in church life in our ministries of religious education, whether in children's classes where we strive “not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own ... to touch inward springs”, or in adult classes and activities that help us to know ourselves, each other and our world better and more deeply than before. But we also seek truth in our common worship. In the sermon, to be sure, but also in every other element of the service. The pattern and flow of worship, the symbols we use and surround ourselves with – the chalice, the hymns, the meditation and sharing, in some cases the very walls and windows of our sanctuaries – all these things serve to remind us of the truths and values we seek or have found. As Kenneth Patton put it more than thirty years ago: “Only when the mystic finds in his culture ... universal symbols, ... attitudes and convictions, will his mystical experience support and enwrap these ideals. ... Can we create the windows, paintings, sculpture, chalices, the songs, anthems, meditations, the shapes of assembly, the styles of group behavior and organization, that will declare our membership in humanity, our kinship to all living creatures, and our at-home-ness in the universe? ... If we do, a new generation of religious mystics will arise, whose mystic vision will be the single family of [humanity] ... And these mystics will find in themselves a fire, a vision, that will light their own minds and imaginations, and they will touch unto like fire all those upon whom their words fall, all those upon whom the doves of their compassion alight.” Let us build memories in our children.
“And service is its prayer.” To us, the most sacred expression of our deepest longings and highest hopes in living our faith, is the service – or ministry – we share. We express service most clearly in church life through our ministries of social action, whether in the form of direct service, or education, or advocacy, or public witness, or community organizing. But service is also expressed in our stewardship of our congregations. And I mean stewardship in the broadest sense, the stewardship of time and talent as well as of treasure. Stewardship is not merely the expenditure of time, talent and treasure in service to the church, but the development of them. It is not merely the management of time, talent and treasure, but the cultivation of them. It's not just spending your time, it's finding time and using it well. It's not just contributing your talent, but discovering and harnessing your talents toward worthy work. It's not just paying your pledge, but wisely building and deploying financial resources – in the church and in your own household – to achieve stability and security. Social action, yes; but even more, stewardship of our resources of time, talent and treasure – stewardship of ourselves. How else do we have a prayer of realizing our deepest values and highest hopes in the world? Let us build memories in our children.
“Love is the doctrine of this church, the quest for truth is its sacrament, and service is its prayer.” “Love, like a carefully loaded ship, crosses the gulf between the generations. Therefore ...let us build memories in our children, ... lest they allow treasures to be lost because they have not been given the keys.” Amen and amen.