Reading:
A new translation of Psalm 24 by Stephen Mitchell
Who is fit to hold power
and worthy to act in God’s place?
Those with a passion for the truth,
who are horrified by injustice,
who act with mercy towards the poor
and take up the cause of the helpless,
who have let go of selfish concerns
and see the whole earth as sacred,
refusing to exploit her creatures
or foul her waters and lands.
Their strength is in their compassion;
God’s light shines through their hearts.
Their children’s children will bless them,
and the work of their hands shall endure.
Sermon:
The year, 1568. The place: Deep in the Carpathian Mountains, in the small nation of Transylvania, the Royal Court at Gyulafehervar. A fierce theological debate rages, borne in these heady days of the Reformation. Since the monarch holds both temporal and religious authority, each side hopes to win the King to their view. The young King John listens as the two sides state their cases.
The Calvinists, currently in power, declare that the doctrine of the Trinity is clearly of divine origin, and they point to the history of church decisions and the power of church authority to prove their point. Certain they’ve won, the scholars smile triumphantly as they finish their arguments.
A young man rises to give the opposing case. This is David Ferenc, or Francis David as some now call him, a young and brilliant theologian who has been, in his thirty years, Catholic priest, Lutheran minister, and Calvinist bishop. In every stage he has earned the high regard of his peers.
Now, however, they are turning against him. David’s theological framework has continued to expand and shift, bringing him a belief in the unity of God. In his own congregation in the city of Kolozsvar, he has shared his unfolding theology with his people, adopting the term “Unitarian.” The Calvinists see his theology as a threat, and want him censured and stripped of his office.
David stands before the King and Court and begins his case for this new Unitarian theology. He makes his arguments based on the Scriptures, directly from the Greek manuscripts. He defies the church’s authority and creates a compelling case against the doctrine of the Trinity. To close, he states emphatically that reason and knowledge have a role in the shaping of religion, saying, “Sanctified reason is the lantern of faith.”
The King, nodding vigorously, seems won over.
And then, in his moment of success, young David goes one remarkable step further. He asserts, for the first time in Western history, the idea that religion arises out of the impulses of each person’s own soul, and that everyone has the capacity and the right to develop their own faith and theology. He asserts the primacy of human freedom as a religious value.
“The most important spiritual function,” he declares passionately, “is conscience. It is the source of all spiritual joy and happiness. And conscience will not be quieted by anything less than truth and justice.”
David then makes a daring request of the young king. He asks him to use his authority not to declare Unitarianism the faith of the land, and thereby compel all subjects to adhere to this new religion. Instead, he asks the king, give all your people the freedom of conscience in religion. Allow each person to develop for themselves the framework of their own faith, and allow them the free practice therein. This is the path of justice and righteousness. This is the proper use of royal power: to safeguard the rights of your people.
To speak this way to a king was to risk one’s own head. But David does not flinch from his calling. In a moment of great historical need, he heeds his own conscience, and his sense of the demands and possibilities of a new age—and he speaks out for the voiceless.
The Court is astonished. But King John, wise for his years, is moved by this vision of a free land and religious tolerance among the people. And so he declares an Act of Religious Toleration, the first such act in recorded history.
He orders that a decree be read in the civil court of Torda, that all people shall be free to determine their own conscience in matters of faith. No one shall compel them, the decree proclaims, for faith is a gift of God.
In a lovely coda to this story, the young Unitarian minister David Ferenc returns to his church in Kolozsvar. News of his victory reaches the people before he arrives, and as he enters the city they throng the streets, lift him onto their shoulders, and place him atop a boulder. They cry for him to preach his message, and he delivers a rousing sermon on Unitarian faith. History says that the entire town converted on the spot!
The rock is now housed in the First Unitarian Church of Kolozsvar, and Unitarians from all over the world visit it on pilgrimage in memory of this courageous founder of our free faith.
This story is a touchstone for our faith, sparking as it did a new wave in history. The ideal of freedom of conscience was contagious, and it was impossible to contain it in the religious sphere. These ideas spread to questions of governance and ignited other movements including peasant revolts, the first frameworks of democracy, and eventually to the birth of our own nation.
In the 1700s, these ideas, brought over from Europe with the new colonists, were much discussed among the leaders of our own revolution. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and others were Unitarian in theology, and fiercely committed to the idea of religious freedom. Leading Unitarian thinkers were involved in the framing of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
These men and women knew that they risked everything on the brink of their own integrity: Remember that the signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. This was no puffery—if caught by the British, these men would be hanged. And yet they cleaved to their vision of a new democratic ideal, and plunged onto a demanding and difficult path to see that vision realized.
The long years of war once over, the new nation birthing in a tumult of new ideas, the unfolding of freedom’s course continues. The right of conscience is the cornerstone of the separation of church and state—meant to protect religious minorities from intervention by hostile majorities. And the ideas of reason and human freedom are woven throughout the foundational documents of the fledgling nation.
Swiftly thereafter, as Unitarian and Universalist churches formed in the mid to late 1700s, these religious communities bore fruit in numerous movements. Our religious forbears were leaders in every single progressive social movement in the US in the 18th and 19th centuries. Women’s suffrage, public education, prison reform, temperance, abolition, and more…our Unitarian and Universalist ancestors were passionately involved in the creation of these movements.
In each instance, they envisioned a more progressive, more just, more humane way of ordering society, and their response was whole-hearted and courageous.
Very often, the opposition was steep and the way costly: Maria Weston Chapman and her sisters, who dedicated their lives to abolition, were publicly vilified in the streets, losing their prominent place in society. William Lloyd Garrison shared that courageous fight and endured character assassination and angry mobs. William Ellery Channing lost his prestigious pulpit for preaching abolition.
All of these people set aside the normalcy of their lives and sacrificed tirelessly for the cause of freedom and justice.
Unitarians and Universalists were active right into the twentieth century, when we answered Martin Luther King Jr.’s call and sent 100 ministers to march in Selma—more than any other white denomination. We lost two martyrs to the cause of civil rights, James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo.
Like others before them, James and Viola saw the demands of their age and responded. They stood at the brink of a great shift in society, and their faith—our faith—gave them a glimpse of a new way. For our faith is always seeking more freedom, more mercy, more justice, and more love. We believe that revelation is not sealed, and that there are always, always, new applications of the truths we have cherished.
My friends, what is the call of our age? What does it mean to be faithful Unitarian Universalists for our time? We stand at the brink of one of the greatest challenges in human history—the moment when we might move from an extractive, exploitative, imperial worldview to a cherishing, nourishing, embracing relationship with all creation. We face an ecological challenge far greater than any generation before us.
We are called to respond, as never before, to the needs of the human family and of the earth and all her creatures. As Eban Goodstein, leader in the environmental movement, writes in his new book:
“The next decade will be the most exciting, most decisive, most human time ever to be alive. We stand at a moment in history without precedent. Now, we hold in our hands truly incredible gifts for our children and our children’s children: gifts of bright fish among sand and coral; gifts of intact glaciers and ice sheets the size of continents; gifts of polar bear and seals and salmon; gifts of frogs and ancient forests. What amazing gifts. What a time to be alive.”*
Does our faith have anything to say to these new challenges? I believe it does. In the face of rising fundamentalism and superstition, is there any worth in our tradition of embracing reason in religion? You bet there is. In a time of increasing hostility between religions and nation, is there any need for our belief in freedom of conscience, democracy, and human rights? Absolutely.
Folks, does it matter that we gather here every Sunday? Should there be more of us? Damn straight there should be.
I believe in the future and promise of Unitarian Universalism. I believe it saves lives—it saved mine. I see our faith save people all the time—providing meaning in a materialist culture, providing hope in a time of despair, providing communities where all are embraced, and modeling the beloved community.
There are so many who could make their home among us—so many who have given up on religion, because they believe it has no answers for this new age. Or worse, they believe the church is hypocrisy incarnate. There are so many who struggle to find hope and meaning in an age of despair. And they have never even heard of Unitarian Universalism. They have no idea that here is a body of people striving in faithfulness, responding to the call of love.
Today, we are asked to support Unitarian Universalism across the country. We are invited to give as generously as we can to the growth of our free faith. Think of all those whom we might reach, and how strong we could be. Think how great a voice we could have if we opened our doors and welcomed in all who knock.
Imagine the lives we might live. Imagine the changes we might make. Let’s be courageous today. Let’s live as boldly as our forbears, and let’s begin by writing nice big checks. I’m going to give $100, and I know that some of you can do more than that, and I hope you will. Every gift matters, and I hope that all of you will give what you can towards our shared future.
These are extraordinary times we live in. They call for extraordinary courage and hopefulness and generosity of spirit. What an amazing time to be alive, to gather with others who love this earth, and who cherish freedom and mercy and justice. Let us run with courage the race that is set before us.
May it be so.
AMEN.
© Cecilia Kingman Miller 2007
*Fighting for Love in a Century of Extinction: How Passion and Politics Can Stop Global Warming, by Eban Goodstein, 2007.
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