A Matter of Degree
Sermon given at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
April 7, 2019
by The Rev. Craig M. Nowak
Dedication
In 2007, I had the pleasure and privilege of studying with Bishop John Shelby Spong, the well known author and retired Episcopal Archbishop of Newark. Bishop Spong is a man who lives his faith deeply and encourages others to do the same. This always involves questioning what has been handed down to us. Bishop Spong believes, as do I, that Christianity, as most us know it, must change or die. It is with heartfelt gratitude and respect, that I dedicate this morning’s sermon to Bishop Spong.
In 2006, the platform of a major political party in Texas attracted the attention of the non-profit group Theocracy Watch, which monitors the activities and influence of the Religious Right in politics. The platform declared among other things, “America is a Christian nation”, and affirms, "God is undeniable in our history…." An understandably alarming declaration for a political document, but otherwise one that would appear to be true. Now, before some of you boo me, throw something at me or get up and leave, let me explain. First, though many people, including a whole lot of Unitarian Universalists, would argue as to whether or not America is a Christian nation, the statistics seem to support this assertion.
According to recent polling approximately three-quarter (75%) of the US population identifies as Christian. Of course that number tells us very little else and I’ll get to that in a moment. On the point that, “God is undeniable in our history…”, well, to be honest it would be more accurate to say, an experience of God is undeniable in our history, for surely no one can deny that religion, and in particular theistic religion, has and continues to play a role, for better or worse, in our history and present politics.
So, seventy-five percent of our population identifies as Christian and God has definitely played and still plays a role in our history and politics. Thus, by one or two measures, we are indeed a Christian nation. But are we truly Christian?
Consider the following, true or false: Jesus taught, “God helps those who help themselves”. If you answered, “True,” congratulations, you are among the 75% of Americans, the same percentage who self-identify as Christians, who are mistaken. It was Benjamin Franklin, not Jesus who uttered those words. Perhaps this explains why, in part, in this supposedly Christian land, our actions and policies as a society tend to pay greater heed to Franklin’s words than anything attributed to Jesus.
Ironically, Franklin’s words, mistaken for scripture, could not be more at odds with the teachings of Jesus. Consider that the share of Americans who give money to charity fell from about 68.5% in 2002 to 55.5% in 2014, And that 21% of our children, in this Christian nation, live in poverty.
In fact, despite all the “family values” rhetoric of politicians and religious leaders the United States, ranks at or near the bottom among wealthy nations in childhood nutrition, infant mortality, and access to preschool education. We have among the highest teen pregnancy rates of any developed nation and we spend nearly twice as much on healthcare as other wealthy nations but experience poorer outcomes. Then there’s wars, military and economic support for dictators and authoritarian regimes, capital punishment, a staggeringly high prison population; persistent racial discrimination and the vilification of various minorities including transgender people and so-called “illegal” immigrants.
This Christian nation claims to value life, yet some are forced to choose between medication and food. We’ve sent thousands of our young people into grossly mismanaged wars without proper equipment and then failed our wounded with disgraceful, inadequate care when they return home. We fetter funding for AIDS, sex education, women’s and reproductive health to narrow religious ideology rather than paying heed to science.
“God helps those who helps themselves,” sounds a lot like the American work ethic, “If you work hard you will succeed”. But what of the people who work 40 hours or more a week and still cannot pay for housing, medical or childcare; we call them the working poor. Are we saying people who work 40 or more hours a week, or two, three or more jobs, don’t work hard?
Now, I’m not here to deflate anyone’s pride in this nation, but let’s face it, we’ve got work to do just to live up to the ideals of our secular Constitution, let alone Christianity…or at least, what Theodore Parker calls the permanent in Christianity.
Unfortunately, deference to the transient in Christianity over the permanent has often been the norm rather than the exception right to the present day. Indeed, as the late Christian theologian Howard Thurman noted, “Too often the price exacted by society for security and respectability is that the Christian movement in its formal expression must be on the side of the strong against the week. This is a matter of tremendous significance, for it reveals to what extent a religion that was born of a people acquainted with persecution and suffering had become the cornerstone of a civilization and of nations whose very position in modern life has too often been secured by a ruthless use of power applied to weak and defenseless people”.
And so it continues.
The current opposition, for example, to trans-rights and comprehensive sex education is driven almost exclusively by “religious” people, many of them self-identified Christians, who say they are defending their faith. Just like the people who opposed desegregation, women’s rights, inter-racial marriage and so forth, claimed.
Given this history, there are, understandably, those who want nothing to do with religion, particularly organized religion and their number is growing. And indeed if all religion can or is willing to be is an instigator of or justification for our own worst impulses or a co-conspirator with the powerful in maintaining systems of domination and oppression, then it deserves to be condemned and obliterated. But, I think it goes without saying, I do not believe religion, including Christianity, has so narrow or so nefarious a purpose. And your presence here today suggests neither do you. Religion is not the problem, and no, religious people are not the problem either. The problem is, as Theodore Parker observed, the substitution of that which is permanent in religion with that which is transient… of clinging to what is perishing rather than embracing what is eternal.
For Theodore Parker, our Unitarian Christian forbearer, what was perishing, that is transient or changing, is the religion about Jesus…the arguments lost and won over time as to whether he is co-equal to God, subordinate to God, divine only, human only and so forth, which supplanted his teachings as the source of his authority and found their expression through creeds. The eternal in Christianity, for Parker, is the religion of Jesus and the source of his authority; his teachings and his “way.”
Indeed, history reminds us the earliest Christians were called followers of the Way and worshipped in the temple or synagogue; they were essentially revisionist Jews. It is clear that Jesus’ life and death had a profound impact on those who knew him. We religious liberals often speak of Jesus as a great or wise teacher, but it seems there was more to Jesus’ appeal than his wisdom alone. I mean, I had a very wise teacher in seventh grade from whom I learned a great deal about the evil of oppression and hatred…she was a concentration camp survivor. But to my knowledge there’s no church of Ruth Klemens anywhere in the world.
To understand his deeper appeal, we have to reflect on what those first century followers of Jesus might have experienced in him. We must uncover the heart of the Christian message if we are to salvage it and I think as Unitarian Universalists we ought to be active in doing so; Christianity is, after all, the root tradition of both Unitarianism and Universalism.
Now, we don’t know a whole lot about Jesus. The first written accounts of his life and teachings only appear several decades after his execution, and in Greek; Jesus spoke Aramaic.
Thus, the Gospels, to paraphrase Bishop Spong, paint a portrait of Jesus; they are not photographs of Jesus.
A photograph captures a single moment within the confines of space and time; it is history. But a portrait captures the essence of its subject; it interprets history.
It seems to me the power or appeal of Jesus’ life and teachings is summarized in a line from a much later writing, today’s second reading, which, as you will recall made no reference to Jesus, but nonetheless echoes what he was about. “Ask me whether what I have done is my life. ”
It’s a startling thought. Who among us can truly affirm that what we have done is our life? The question is intentionally unsettling. It is meant to jolt us….to wake us up. For it reminds us that we are each called to a life that reflects who we truly are, not a life that reflects who we or someone else wants or thinks we should be. This is Jesus’ message as well. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus calls us to the life waiting to be lived in us; a life reflective of the fullness of our humanity.
What’s it like to live such a life? As a first century Jew, Jesus includes women among his followers. To get a sense of how radical that was you need to remember women at that time were little more than the property of their father or husband. But Jesus, living the fullness of his humanity, dissolves that and other social boundaries. Jesus hung around will all sorts of outcasts including prostitutes, tax collectors, and the lowest of the low, lepers. He challenged the moral integrity of his culture’s “traditional” or “family” values, and affirmed the worth and dignity of those whom his culture deemed unclean or sinful. Who, in our Christian nation, are talked about and treated as lepers today? Who are considered unclean?
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus, living the fullness of his humanity, teaches if we care for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned we do the same for him, and if we fail them, we fail him as well. The essence of this teaching is not simply to be charitable to those in need, but something far more profound. “Shake the sentence”, as Anthony de Mello suggests in our call to worship, “till all the words drop off”. What do you hear now? I hear our world is one world. Our connection to one another is more than biological; through our thoughts and deeds each of us, and indeed our destiny, is intimately and deeply interconnected. Does that not “set your heart on fire”?
I don’t see how we can be a truly Christian nation if we keep people poor, and our “family values” exclude people. I can’t see how we can be a truly Christian nation if we execute prisoners, or build walls on the borders of our nation or our hearts.
Until we find and accept a way that inspires and motivates us to live the life within us waiting to be lived, we will never be a Christian nation. And if we ever find the courage to accept and follow that path, then we will not, even then, be a Christian nation, but a fully human nation where the transient in one’s clime or creed will no longer be the defensive barrier to which so many cling. Indeed, “There will no longer be Jew or Greek, no longer slave or free, no longer male and female; for all will be one…”, to borrow from Paul’s letter to the Galatians
The beauty, to me, of the permanent in Christianity, and the reason I refuse to cede the Christian message to those who cling to the transient, is that it is ultimately life affirming; offering us the inspiration and a path to realize our full humanity. Jesus is so much more powerful a figure as a man who manifest divinity by living the fullness of his humanity than he could ever be as a God made flesh. To experience this Jesus is to realize the difference between Jesus and us is not a matter of kind, but a matter of degree.
Amen and Blessed Be
Sermon given at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
April 7, 2019
by The Rev. Craig M. Nowak
Dedication
In 2007, I had the pleasure and privilege of studying with Bishop John Shelby Spong, the well known author and retired Episcopal Archbishop of Newark. Bishop Spong is a man who lives his faith deeply and encourages others to do the same. This always involves questioning what has been handed down to us. Bishop Spong believes, as do I, that Christianity, as most us know it, must change or die. It is with heartfelt gratitude and respect, that I dedicate this morning’s sermon to Bishop Spong.
In 2006, the platform of a major political party in Texas attracted the attention of the non-profit group Theocracy Watch, which monitors the activities and influence of the Religious Right in politics. The platform declared among other things, “America is a Christian nation”, and affirms, "God is undeniable in our history…." An understandably alarming declaration for a political document, but otherwise one that would appear to be true. Now, before some of you boo me, throw something at me or get up and leave, let me explain. First, though many people, including a whole lot of Unitarian Universalists, would argue as to whether or not America is a Christian nation, the statistics seem to support this assertion.
According to recent polling approximately three-quarter (75%) of the US population identifies as Christian. Of course that number tells us very little else and I’ll get to that in a moment. On the point that, “God is undeniable in our history…”, well, to be honest it would be more accurate to say, an experience of God is undeniable in our history, for surely no one can deny that religion, and in particular theistic religion, has and continues to play a role, for better or worse, in our history and present politics.
So, seventy-five percent of our population identifies as Christian and God has definitely played and still plays a role in our history and politics. Thus, by one or two measures, we are indeed a Christian nation. But are we truly Christian?
Consider the following, true or false: Jesus taught, “God helps those who help themselves”. If you answered, “True,” congratulations, you are among the 75% of Americans, the same percentage who self-identify as Christians, who are mistaken. It was Benjamin Franklin, not Jesus who uttered those words. Perhaps this explains why, in part, in this supposedly Christian land, our actions and policies as a society tend to pay greater heed to Franklin’s words than anything attributed to Jesus.
Ironically, Franklin’s words, mistaken for scripture, could not be more at odds with the teachings of Jesus. Consider that the share of Americans who give money to charity fell from about 68.5% in 2002 to 55.5% in 2014, And that 21% of our children, in this Christian nation, live in poverty.
In fact, despite all the “family values” rhetoric of politicians and religious leaders the United States, ranks at or near the bottom among wealthy nations in childhood nutrition, infant mortality, and access to preschool education. We have among the highest teen pregnancy rates of any developed nation and we spend nearly twice as much on healthcare as other wealthy nations but experience poorer outcomes. Then there’s wars, military and economic support for dictators and authoritarian regimes, capital punishment, a staggeringly high prison population; persistent racial discrimination and the vilification of various minorities including transgender people and so-called “illegal” immigrants.
This Christian nation claims to value life, yet some are forced to choose between medication and food. We’ve sent thousands of our young people into grossly mismanaged wars without proper equipment and then failed our wounded with disgraceful, inadequate care when they return home. We fetter funding for AIDS, sex education, women’s and reproductive health to narrow religious ideology rather than paying heed to science.
“God helps those who helps themselves,” sounds a lot like the American work ethic, “If you work hard you will succeed”. But what of the people who work 40 hours or more a week and still cannot pay for housing, medical or childcare; we call them the working poor. Are we saying people who work 40 or more hours a week, or two, three or more jobs, don’t work hard?
Now, I’m not here to deflate anyone’s pride in this nation, but let’s face it, we’ve got work to do just to live up to the ideals of our secular Constitution, let alone Christianity…or at least, what Theodore Parker calls the permanent in Christianity.
Unfortunately, deference to the transient in Christianity over the permanent has often been the norm rather than the exception right to the present day. Indeed, as the late Christian theologian Howard Thurman noted, “Too often the price exacted by society for security and respectability is that the Christian movement in its formal expression must be on the side of the strong against the week. This is a matter of tremendous significance, for it reveals to what extent a religion that was born of a people acquainted with persecution and suffering had become the cornerstone of a civilization and of nations whose very position in modern life has too often been secured by a ruthless use of power applied to weak and defenseless people”.
And so it continues.
The current opposition, for example, to trans-rights and comprehensive sex education is driven almost exclusively by “religious” people, many of them self-identified Christians, who say they are defending their faith. Just like the people who opposed desegregation, women’s rights, inter-racial marriage and so forth, claimed.
Given this history, there are, understandably, those who want nothing to do with religion, particularly organized religion and their number is growing. And indeed if all religion can or is willing to be is an instigator of or justification for our own worst impulses or a co-conspirator with the powerful in maintaining systems of domination and oppression, then it deserves to be condemned and obliterated. But, I think it goes without saying, I do not believe religion, including Christianity, has so narrow or so nefarious a purpose. And your presence here today suggests neither do you. Religion is not the problem, and no, religious people are not the problem either. The problem is, as Theodore Parker observed, the substitution of that which is permanent in religion with that which is transient… of clinging to what is perishing rather than embracing what is eternal.
For Theodore Parker, our Unitarian Christian forbearer, what was perishing, that is transient or changing, is the religion about Jesus…the arguments lost and won over time as to whether he is co-equal to God, subordinate to God, divine only, human only and so forth, which supplanted his teachings as the source of his authority and found their expression through creeds. The eternal in Christianity, for Parker, is the religion of Jesus and the source of his authority; his teachings and his “way.”
Indeed, history reminds us the earliest Christians were called followers of the Way and worshipped in the temple or synagogue; they were essentially revisionist Jews. It is clear that Jesus’ life and death had a profound impact on those who knew him. We religious liberals often speak of Jesus as a great or wise teacher, but it seems there was more to Jesus’ appeal than his wisdom alone. I mean, I had a very wise teacher in seventh grade from whom I learned a great deal about the evil of oppression and hatred…she was a concentration camp survivor. But to my knowledge there’s no church of Ruth Klemens anywhere in the world.
To understand his deeper appeal, we have to reflect on what those first century followers of Jesus might have experienced in him. We must uncover the heart of the Christian message if we are to salvage it and I think as Unitarian Universalists we ought to be active in doing so; Christianity is, after all, the root tradition of both Unitarianism and Universalism.
Now, we don’t know a whole lot about Jesus. The first written accounts of his life and teachings only appear several decades after his execution, and in Greek; Jesus spoke Aramaic.
Thus, the Gospels, to paraphrase Bishop Spong, paint a portrait of Jesus; they are not photographs of Jesus.
A photograph captures a single moment within the confines of space and time; it is history. But a portrait captures the essence of its subject; it interprets history.
It seems to me the power or appeal of Jesus’ life and teachings is summarized in a line from a much later writing, today’s second reading, which, as you will recall made no reference to Jesus, but nonetheless echoes what he was about. “Ask me whether what I have done is my life. ”
It’s a startling thought. Who among us can truly affirm that what we have done is our life? The question is intentionally unsettling. It is meant to jolt us….to wake us up. For it reminds us that we are each called to a life that reflects who we truly are, not a life that reflects who we or someone else wants or thinks we should be. This is Jesus’ message as well. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus calls us to the life waiting to be lived in us; a life reflective of the fullness of our humanity.
What’s it like to live such a life? As a first century Jew, Jesus includes women among his followers. To get a sense of how radical that was you need to remember women at that time were little more than the property of their father or husband. But Jesus, living the fullness of his humanity, dissolves that and other social boundaries. Jesus hung around will all sorts of outcasts including prostitutes, tax collectors, and the lowest of the low, lepers. He challenged the moral integrity of his culture’s “traditional” or “family” values, and affirmed the worth and dignity of those whom his culture deemed unclean or sinful. Who, in our Christian nation, are talked about and treated as lepers today? Who are considered unclean?
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus, living the fullness of his humanity, teaches if we care for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned we do the same for him, and if we fail them, we fail him as well. The essence of this teaching is not simply to be charitable to those in need, but something far more profound. “Shake the sentence”, as Anthony de Mello suggests in our call to worship, “till all the words drop off”. What do you hear now? I hear our world is one world. Our connection to one another is more than biological; through our thoughts and deeds each of us, and indeed our destiny, is intimately and deeply interconnected. Does that not “set your heart on fire”?
I don’t see how we can be a truly Christian nation if we keep people poor, and our “family values” exclude people. I can’t see how we can be a truly Christian nation if we execute prisoners, or build walls on the borders of our nation or our hearts.
Until we find and accept a way that inspires and motivates us to live the life within us waiting to be lived, we will never be a Christian nation. And if we ever find the courage to accept and follow that path, then we will not, even then, be a Christian nation, but a fully human nation where the transient in one’s clime or creed will no longer be the defensive barrier to which so many cling. Indeed, “There will no longer be Jew or Greek, no longer slave or free, no longer male and female; for all will be one…”, to borrow from Paul’s letter to the Galatians
The beauty, to me, of the permanent in Christianity, and the reason I refuse to cede the Christian message to those who cling to the transient, is that it is ultimately life affirming; offering us the inspiration and a path to realize our full humanity. Jesus is so much more powerful a figure as a man who manifest divinity by living the fullness of his humanity than he could ever be as a God made flesh. To experience this Jesus is to realize the difference between Jesus and us is not a matter of kind, but a matter of degree.
Amen and Blessed Be
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