SINGING THE LIVING TRADITION

Based on a Program Presented at

THE UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF PENSACOLA, FL

 Nov 15, 2015

This is probably the last “UU History” program I’ll be doing. I’ve decided to stop focusing on the past, ours and mine, and as Ram Das advised, “Be Here Now” But hopefully this will be a memorable swan song.

As you all know UUism grew out of those Christian Churches which lost in the theological battles of the centuries. The winners are called “orthodox”, that’s with a small “O” and the loosers were called “Heretics”. Communities of Heretics managed to survive even under the most brutal persecutions. Just for the records they all claimed to be the true Christians. The Orthodox believed that God existed in three persons, Father Son, and Holy Spirit which were somehow not three Gods but only one. Unitarians believed that God, the creator and sustainer o the Universe was either the only God and Jesus his son – in a metaphysical and physical sense – “born of the Virgin Mary” or that Jesus was born a man but somehow became divine by being totally obedient to the will of God. The details are mind boggling. But one thing was clear: the earliest Unitarians and Universalists all believed they were true Christians. So we start with an undeniably Christian hymn in the altered Unitarian version. It dates from about 850 of the common era.

225 O Come, O Come, Immanuel ~850 C.E.

O come, O come , Emmanuel, and with your captive children dwell.
Give Comfort to all exiles here, and to the aching heart bid cheer.
Rejoice, Rejoice. Emanuel shall come within as Love to dwell.”

The first group to call itself Unitarian, as far as we know, were a Hungarian speaking people living Transylvania in what was then an independent nation but is now part of Romania. I visited there about 15 years ago. They retain their Christian orientation and traditions though a more interfaith perspective is gaining ground. There are two tunes from that tradition in our Hymnal but the only one with the original words is number 352. It reflects the very spiritual character I found in their congregations. Let’s sing the first verse together.
352 Find a Stillness ~1607
Find a stillness, hold a stillness, let the stillness carry me.
Find the silence, hold the silence, let the silence carry me.
In the spirit, by the spirit, with the spirit giving power
I will find true harmony.

At the heart of Christianity. is a notion of resurrection. For some Christians that means a literal re-animation of the physical body in another world – heaven. For others it means complete change in the heart or soul of the person. Most Unitarians and Universalists held on to the notion of resurrection but redefined it so much that the orthodox would not allow them to be part of the National Council of churches or often of local ministerial associations. The compilers of our Hymnals included some of the traditional Easter hymns with subtly altered lyrics. One of these is # 268 Jesus Christ is Risen Today . Lets read the words of the first verse together.
“Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia
Raise your joys and triumphs high! Alleluia
Sing ye heavens, and earth reply. Alleluia.

This altering of the original Trinitarian words by Charles Wesley in 1770 is really strange . Can any of you who were raised in orthodox churches see the alterations? (I sang, in my Methodist Church, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” Charles Wesley who wrote the original version would be turning over in his grave if he could hear this version in your hymnal! I’m surprised it is there because as far back as 1876 Unitarian Samuel Longfellow – brother of the poet, John Greenlief Longfellow felt altering Charles Wesley’s words was hopeless so he wrote a new words to the tune. Please turn to page 61 and sing verse 2:

Lo The earth Awakes Again ~1876
Once again the word comes true. Alleluia
All the earth shall be made new. Alleluia
Now the dark, cold days are o’er. Alleluia
Spring and gladness are before. Alleluia

When Rev. Samuel Longfellow substituted joy in renewing nature for praise for an exemplary Jesus the major influence in his life had been a former Unitarian minister, Ralph Waldo Emerson. In one of my sermons 30 years ago called Emerson a “New England Hindu.” Emerson, in 1838 had written a revolutionary sermon delivered to the student and faculty of Harvard Divinity School in which he said,
“Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. … Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man. One man, was true to what is in you and me. He saw that God incarnates himself in man, and evermore goes forth anew to take possession of his World. He [Jesus] said in this jubilee of sublime emotion, “I am divine. Through me, God acts; through me speaks. Would you see God, see me [[ up to this point Emerson is stating the conventional liberal Christian position, but then Emerson went on to say For some Christians these revolutionary words ] “or see thee, when thou also thinkist as I now think.”

In other words God is incarnated in EVERY person.

Emerson was saying that Jesus was not unique. That each of his hearers could become like Jesus, an incarnation of God. Radical indeed. Too radical for most Unitarians in 1838 but by another generation his view had become widespread, if not the most common Unitarian – and Universalist – position.

I need to insert here a bit of institutional history. Before 1865, April there was no Unitarian denomination! There were churches that considered themselves Unitarian Christian as opposed to Trinitarian Christa but there was no denomination. There was an American Unitarian Association, but it was an association of individuals – most of them ministers but what we think of as a denomination did not exist until 1865 when representatives of 400 delegates from nearly 200 churches gathered and adopted a constitution for National Conference of Unitarian Churches. That constitution began,
“Whereas, The great opportunities and demands for Christian labor and consecration at this time increase our sense of the obligations of all disciples of the Lord Jesus christ to prove their faith y self denial and by the devotion of their lives and possessions to the service of God and building up of the Kingdom of God, Therefore, the Christian churches of the Unitarian faith …. etc. etc. etc.“

No Question that a majority of the delegates considered themselves Christians. But there was a large minority who had moved to a more inclusive faith and two years later they formed the “Free Religious Association” an association of individuals who were committed to a broader view of religion. It included, not only many Unitarians – Ralph Waldo Emerson, then 64 years old, held membership card number 1 but Jews and non-theists as well. While vigorously committed to freedom of conscience and passionately opposed to any binding creed, they published a pamphlet in 1870 that listed “Fifty Affirmations of Free Religion”. Many of the ministers of Unitarian churches of that time and perhaps some Universalists (I’ve not been able to research this question.) were members but as an association, it’s major project was the Parliament of World Religions of 1893 when for the first time significant numbers of Eastern religious leaders were introduced to Americas. If you read the fifty affirmations I think you will find you would agree with many, if not most of them. A representative sample is in the book I think every UU should own, “The Epic of Unitarianism: Original Writings from the History of Liberal Religion.”

While the Free religion association did not last long as an institution it’s philosophy very gradually became the dominant philosophy of churches outside of New England and those congregations organized themselves into an association called “The Western Unitarian Association, whose “Missionary Secretary” was the Rev Jenkin Lloyd Jones, who, in Parke’s words “organiz[ed] churches from the Appalachians to the Rockies all in the name of Freedom, Fellowship and Character in Religion’, the conference’s motto” which, I believe was derived from the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

End of diversion into institutional history.

Lets get back to the hymns.

By 1908 when our next hymn was written Jesus’ status was still high but Unitarian Churches were beginning to be focus on the other prophets – not only those in the Christian tradition. The minister of the First Unitarian Church in Berkley, California expressed this trend in his 1908 hymn “Onward Through The Ages” You’ll notice that the tune is more familiar as the setting of “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Not by accident, I think. Let’s sing verse 3 of
114

Forward Through the Ages      1908
Not alone we conquer, not alone we fall;
In each loss or triumph lose or triumph all.
Bound by God’s far purpose in one living whole
Move we on together to the shining goal.
Forward through the ages, in unbroken line,
Move the faithful spirits at the call divine.

Did any of you have a problem with the phrase , “God’s far purpose” ? Very few Unitarians would have in 1908 had a problem with either “God” or “his” “far purpose.” Those years before WW1 were filled with optimism. In fact one of the affirmations of “things generally believed among us” written by James Freeman Clarke and published by the Unitarian Sunday School Union in ??? , “belief in
“the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the leadership of Jesus, salvation by character, the progress of mankind upward and onward forever.”

It became more difficult to believe in the inevitably of progress in those days but the optimism continues among us to this very day with our talk repetition of Martin Luther King’s version of Theodore Parker’s belief that
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards toward justice”

We need to move on now twenty years to 1928 when a young minister, Ed Wilson accepted the call of the Unitarian church in Schenectady, NY. As some of you know, Ed became one of the founders of The American Humanist Association and later an advocate of Religious Humanism. I knew him to when I lived in Yellow Springs, Ohio and invited him to return to Schenectady when I was minister there from 1969 to 1972. Forgive the personal footnote. Ed was probably one of the first to abandon Theism entirely and still retain his status as a Unitarian minister. His definition of who Unitarians are was very different from the founders of the Association of Unitarian Churches. Let’s sing verses one and three of :
113 Where Is Our Holy Church 1928

Where is our holy church?
Where race and class unite
as equal persons in the search for beauty, truth, and right.
Where is our holy writ? Where’er a human heart
A sacred torch of truth has lit, by inspiration taught.

While a few Unitarian and Universalist ministers were by 1930, when I was born, NON-THEISTS many were modern day DEISTS. The distinction is important. THEISTS believe the creator and sustainer of the Universe can be directly experienced by human beings. DEISTS do not deny that there is such a creator, but they deny that he or she can be directly experienced by human beings. When I entered the Unitarian Universalist ministry in 1963 – two years after the merger – it seemed that Theism was becoming uncommon, deism was shrinking, and Secular Humanism was the wave of the future. Some cheered, some wept. But in most Unitarian and Universalist Churches this next hymn was sung with vigor and no dis-belief. Let’s sing verse four:

 115 God of Grace and God of Glory written in 1930

Fill us with a living vision, heal our wounds that we may be
bound as one beyond division in the struggle to be free.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, ears to hear and eyes to see.
Eyes to hear and eyes to see.

I have a confession to make. That hymn was not written by a Unitarian. It was written by a Baptist. Henry Emerson Fosdic for the dedication of Riverside Church, one of the most progressive congregations in America, then and now. But it has been a favorite of Unitarians ever since. But it is still a favorite in our congregations where liberal Christians predominate.

At last we come to the modern the Unitarian-Universalist era which began in 1963. As I’ve often preached, I wish we could drop adjective and just call ourselves Universalists. Though it took many decades for the two heretical churches to formally unite, as early as 1937 they were using the same hymnal. I’ve brought my copy. You’ll be amazed if you look through it how much has changed.

What hymn should I choose as exemplary of this era? There are many in the current hymnal but I chose Kenneth Patton’s anthem originally titled, “Man is the earth, upright and pride” which in the interests of gender equality Patton altered to “we” but his intention is to refer to all of the human species including women children as well as male persons. Let’s conclude with that altered version set, again with malice aforethought, to the tune Luther chose for his Hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Please join me in singing both verses of

303 We Are the Earth, Upright and Proud 1980
We are the earth upright and proud. In us the earth is knowing.
Its winds are music in our mouths, in s its rivers flowing.
The sun is our hearth fire; warm to the earth’s desire,
And with its purpose strong, we sing earth’s pilgrim song;
In us the earth is growing.
We lift our voices, fill the skies with our exultant singing.
We dedicate our minds and hearts, to order beauty bringing.
Our labor is our strength; our love will win at length;
Our minds will find the ways to live in peace and praise.
Our day is just beginning.

Yes my friends. Humanity’s day is just beginning.

MAKE IT SO.