The Avowal of Faith

Readings:   The Winchester Profession of Faith: We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the duty, interest and final destination of mankind. We believe that there is one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness. We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practice good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men. (1803)
We avow our faith in God as eternal and all-conquering love, in the spiritual leadership of Jesus, in the supreme worth of every human personality, in the authority of truth, known or to be known, and in the power of persons of good will and sacrificial spirit to overcome all evil and progressively establish the kingdom of God. (1935)

 

A few weeks ago Carey Boney suggested that I preach a sermon about our Avowal of Faith.  After all we say it together every Sunday we ought to think about what it means.  This is especially true because it is a corporate statement.  We say we are open to a variety of religious beliefs but we continue to print this in our order of service.  For some it is an individual statement of faith.  For others it is more an embrace of tradition and a gesture of respect for our Universalist history. For still others it is said as a kind of metaphor for right living.  In many ways the metaphorical way of looking at it is the most inclusive but it is also the hardest to articulate concisely to a visitor who may be exploring our faith.  This is a conundrum for which I have no easy answer.  Still as we say it together it is right that we reflect upon it together.
         

First a little history: The reading today is the complete context for the avowel of faith we say each week.  It was adopted at the General Convention in 1935. Known as “The Bond of Fellowship and Statement of Beliefs” it is the last profession of faith to be adopted by the Universalists as a separate denomination.
         

Interestingly enough if contains within it The Winchester Profession of Faith first adopted in Winchester New Hampshire in 1803.   The Winchester Profession has quite a history itself.  Originally, it contained within it a “liberty clause” which allowed for the acceptance of it’s principles in general without conforming to its specific language.  In 1870 this was removed.   Starting in 1875 it became the subject of a debate that went on for almost twenty years before being abandoned entirely.  Committees were formed. Different wordings as well as complete replacements were proposed.   All were rejected over and over again by the representatives of state conventions. 
         

By 1935 the world had changed a great deal.  The Humanist Manifesto, affirming the questions and concerns of religion, while rejecting its forms as detrimental to humankind, had been written and signed by two Universalist ministers.  It was time for a change and still the Winchester Profession held on.  Most churches, however, switched over to the affirmation we say today.
         

This compromise is echoed in the membership clause recently adopted in this church’s by-laws allowing for this avowel of faith, or an affirmation of the UU seven principles.  It also holds within it, its own liberty clause.
         

So, what might we make of the section of the declaration we have adopted?  Let’s take it line by line:
We avow our faith in God as eternal and all-conquering love,
In previous sermons I have quoted UU minister Forester Church saying “God is not God’s name but our name for what is in us yet greater than us.” Still the word God has great power in our culture and we should not shy away from it.  So what of God as eternal and all conquering love?
    

English can be a terribly limiting language sometimes. The ancient Greeks had three names for love:  Eros, Philios and Agape.  Eros described a romantic or sexual kind of love; Philos love between friends.  Agape love goes beyond individual relationships. It is the love that sees the beauty and possibility in all humanity and all creation and holds to that beauty and possibility even in the face of overwhelming evil.  This love has transformative power, it is all conquering. 
         

I once served as a chaplain in three nursing homes. At one home there was a woman who sat in a wheel chair and propelled herself up and down with her feet.  She was always beautifully put together, usually wearing a pastel sweater and lipstick.   She held a well worn rag doll in her lap.  Every time I passed her in the hall she would reach out and grab my arm and holding it tightly would ask me “Do you love me honey? Do you love me?” and I would always say “Yes I love you.” and her grip would relax.
         

When I told my supervisor about her he reflected upon my story for a moment or two and said “Isn’t that what we are all asking? We ask in more sophisticated ways of course.  But when it comes down to it aren’t we all asking “Do you love me?”.
         

The nature of God is eternal and all conquering love.  When we ask if we are loved the nature of God answers yes.
         

We avow our faith in the spiritual leadership of Jesus,

Notice that here we say not Christ but simply Jesus. Christian scholar Martin Borg makes a distinction between the pre-Easter and the post-Easter Jesus.  The post-Easter Jesus became the Risen Christ a symbol of resurrection.  The stories of the post-Easter Jesus were to begin a religion about Jesus and a belief that Jesus was the only way. The pre-Easter Jesus allows for other prophets, other teachers.
 

The pre-Easter Jesus was a wise teacher and a revolutionary.  The pre- Easter Jesus called his followers to discipleship by revealing the character and the passion of God.
 

The spiritual leadership of Jesus reveals that God’s character is love and compassion and God’s passion is justice which is the social form of agape love. 
       

To follow the spiritual leadership of Jesus is to seek to reveal God’s character and God’s passion in our daily lives.
       

This brings us to the affirmation of the supreme worth of every human personality:
         

The first UU principle affirming the worth and dignity of every person comes from this statement.  And yet to respond to this and live our lives in accordance with it is a great challenge.  My second year as a hospital chaplain I chose to focus on pediatrics. During that time I encountered a child and his parents who presented such a challenge.
Charlie was born with a bad liver and other problems. He was not expected to live very long. He surprised his physicians by holding on and surprise turned to dismay when Charlie’s parents proved to be poor and to have little education. Additionally, they were given to expressions of rage and threats of physical violence. It was quite clear the father was an alcoholic. Beyond that, and perhaps most disturbing, they defied the expectations that the doctor’s had of the powerless. Rather than gratitude for charitable offerings and passive acceptance of Charlie’s gloomy prognosis they fought for their child’s life. When the hospital where he was born refused to treat him any longer, Charlie was transferred to our pediatric intensive care unit where he spent a good part of his short life.
       

I will admit to you that when Charlie first came to us I dreaded encountering his parents. It seemed that all they ever wanted from me was a free pass to the cafeteria. I dreaded being paged at three in the morning to sit and listen to the self-serving pity of a man stinking of alcohol and then to endure the glares of a pasty-faced woman full of rage, only to be hit up for a free meal. Confident in the superiority of my judgment, I was sure that these people were unfit parents and that Charlie’s best outcome was a swift and merciful death.
       

It was a good thing that I was not the only person involved with this family. One social worker, against all prejudice, fought for the supreme worth of this family.  And slowly but surely they began to claim that worth for themselves.  Charlie’s parents sought help to learn how to better express their anger so that they could advocate for him. His father fought the demon of alcoholism, to lesser and greater degrees of success, but he fought it. After a time when the use of alcohol made the father abusive, the mother became strong enough to have him removed from the home. Through it all they both fought to give Charlie the best possible life available to him. It may not have been the life that I thought was “best” but Charlie was a happy child. He lived for a little over two years. He smiled frequently. His mother taught him how to blow kisses which he did with great generosity of spirit. Toward the end of his life, when he was quite ill and we thought he might die soon, his mother tearfully told me that she was fighting to hold on to Charlie as much if not more for her sake as for his. She spoke of needing to learn to let go. At that moment she and I were not terribly different. Who among us has not loved with that very dilemma at its core?
I had the privilege of baptizing Charlie and of conducting his funeral service. The funeral home director raised a quizzical eyebrow when I said I was going back to their apartment for the gathering after the funeral but I knew that was where I needed to be.
       

This story does not end in the transformation of Charlie’s parents to middle class folks replete with the protestant work ethic. To my knowledge they remain very much who they are. It was my vision which was transformed, my ignorance that was challenged.
       

If we affirm the supreme worth of every human personality we must be willing to challenge all our prejudices and assumptions about others no matter how rich or poor they are, what they look like, where they came from or who they are called to love.
         

We challenge our assumptions and beliefs when we avow our faith in the authority of truth, known or to be known.  This is one of the building blocks of a liberal faith.   A corollary is the principle that calls for a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.  This is a radical aspect of our faith.   It is not that we do not affirm truths, we do.  We stand for what we believe in while being willing to entertain the thought that given factual evidence or personal experience our beliefs may change. It takes courage to live with this level of ambiguity.  It is not for the faint of heart.   We testify to the belief that while much has already been revealed to us, revelation is not sealed.
 

Acting accordance with the nature of God as love, the spiritual leadership of Jesus, the supreme worth of every human personality and truth known or to be known we make  the boldest affirmation of them all: We avow our faith in the power of persons of good will and sacrificial spirit to overcome all evil and progressively establish the kingdom of God.
         

First of all let me observe that this phrase acknowledges that there is evil in the world.  Not just bad choices, or bad genes, or unfortunate upbringing, but evil.  It suggests that it is the force of evil in our world which stands against the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
           

In 1917 the Universalist Church, in its Social Service Commission Report, articulated a vision of economic, social, moral and spiritual orders which together might comprise the Kingdom here among us: “First, an economic order which shall give to every human being an equal share in the common gifts of God, and in addition all that persons shall earn by their own labor. Second, a social order, in which there shall be equal rights for all, special privilege for, none, the help of the strong for the weak until the weak become strong. Third, a moral order in which all human law and action shall be the expression of the moral order of the universe. Fourth, a spiritual order, which shall build out of the growing lives of living men and women the temple of the living God.” It isn’t too much of a stretch to infer from this that the absence of such structures indicates the presence evil.
In response to this 1917 report the Reverend R.M. Fewkes observes:  “As you can see, this Universalist vision of the kingdom of God says very clearly that there can be no individual Gospel without a social Gospel. The kingdom of God implies a politics of justice and compassion embodied in human law and social relationships.”
         

Now when we speak of a politics of justice and compassion embodied in law and social relationships it is easy to fall in the trap of assigning this embodiment to one political party or another.  But remember the language of the avowel of faith speaks of people of good will and sacrificial spirit.  People of good will may disagree about the means of embodying justice.  In the end, as Unitarian James Luther Adams said “It is by their fruits that ye shall know them”.
         

What about people of sacrificial spirit? This is another challenge for it requires a willingness to sacrifice not only material things, but it also calls us to sacrifice positions of power. It calls us to share power it with those who live on the margins.
           

In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Luke Jesus puts it this way “Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh”
         

As Universalists, we believe that adherence to the principles of our faith can offer transformation, not only for ourselves, not only for the members of our churches, but for our world.  As theologian Paul Tillich said “Here and there in the world and now and then in ourselves there is a new creation.”  When we affirm this part of our avowel of faith we are committing ourselves to open our eyes, our minds and our hearts to this new creation.  We are bravely promising to be part of the, oft times slow, progress toward its realization. 
         

When we avow our faith in God as eternal and all-conquering love, in the spiritual leadership of Jesus, in the supreme worth of every human personality, in the authority of truth, known or to be known, and in the power of persons of good will and sacrificial spirit to overcome all evil and progressively establish the kingdom of God.  We are making promises. We are promising to live our lives as examples of eternal and all conquering love, we are promising to be guided by the wisdom and passion exemplified a leader such as Jesus, we are promising to be available to truth as it is revealed to us and we are promising to set ourselves to the task of overcoming evil and establishing the beloved community, the commonwealth of God.
    

May each of us find here the strength and the inspiration to keep these promises as best we can as we go about our lives, morning by morning and day by day.   May it be so.