Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of
“Original Potential: Human Nature”
Sunday, September 28, 2008
by Rev. Dr. Gretchen Woods
As we continue our exploration of a possible “Living Ultimology,”
we return once again to the origins of the cosmos and humanity. To begin, we
seek the answer to the question, “Why is there something, instead of nothing,
given the “Big Bang?” Physicist Chet Raymo points out:
It seems that just before
the universe was one millisecond old, matter and antimatter annihilated each
other in a sweeping extinction (as could be expected). But a tiny asymmetry was
built into the universe so that matter dominated over antimatter by one part
out of 100 billion. (Raymo, Natural Prayers, p. 31.)
Isn’t it refreshing to know
that there is something, rather than nothing, because there was an imperfection
in the whole process. The “Big Bang” was not perfect, therefore the formation
of matter and anti-matter was not equal. We exist because of imperfection. We
can all breathe easier about our own imperfection!
So, as we understand the
process now, following an incredibly massive vibrating explosion, gases whirled
through a newly created time/space continuum. Gases mixed, converged,
coalesced; physics became actual. Stars (fire), planets (earth), atmosphere
(air), seas (water) appear. Ooze churning at the bottom of the sea, super
heated becomes what we call “life.” Life continues to experiment with creation:
bacteria, yeasts, fungi, protozoa, algae, plants, insects, fish, reptiles,
birds, mammals, homo sapiens. Who says Source does not have a sense of ongoing
creativity and humor? Consider a giraffe - or a platypus – or sexuality!
Still process continues, as
it will through all time/space, unfolding. Possibility becoming actuality,
reality: Source’s incarnation. Collectives of cells proliferate and procreate:
being as process. Humanity emerges, a complex collective of cells, bacteria,
life forms we barely experience, yet upon which our very being depends.
Humanity manifests many aspects: physical, mental, emotional, moral, spiritual.
And still we struggle to understand what our nature is. We are unique beings in
process who seek to understand our being. No wonder we are engaged in a “free
and responsible search for truth and meaning.”
As beings becoming, human
being is always in process, never finished, yet always as perfect (“worked
through” ) as can be in any given moment. Our perfection exists in our being
wholly what we are in each moment. Therefore, human beings are not born in
original sin, nor original blessing , but with original potential. I believe
that sin arises through dissonance, in archery literally “missing the mark,”
intentionally obstructing Source and the natural flow of life. In contrast,
blessing comes to us through being in tune with the best resonant vibration of
possibilities of Source beyond and the best potential of Source within,
creating love.
I am also convinced that
much of human nature comes with the package: genes speaking to the future. (My
father often said he gave his children the most he could at the moment of
conception.) Still, some of what we call human nature is a function of choice and
some is a function of chance.
We are influenced by
choices those related to us made while we were in utero – and long before –
choices of mates, nutrition, physical activity, to name just a few. We also are
made by chance: moments of co-creation in process that could not have been
anticipated, like natural disasters or illnesses. These most likely both affect
and challenge our further choices.
It is easy to blame others
for the trials of our lives: our parents, our communities, society. Yes, all
affect who we become and are not to be taken lightly, but ultimately, each of
us is called to radical responsibility
for our choices and the way in which we respond to chance in our lives. This
means that what we choose to do matters greatly. All that we do and say and
think is held in the energy/ consciousness of Source, its memory and ultimacy,
forever. This is a basic understanding of Unitarian Universalism since the very
beginning with Origen’s choice to assert a loving
G-d in opposition to the
concept of “the elect” (You get to heaven; I don’t; and this has been predestined
from the beginning of time.)
Ontology, our study of
human ways of being, involves many aspects: physical, mental, emotional, moral,
and spiritual. In our physical form we live and move and have our being. We
cannot be without our physical form. Just try it . . .
Our mental aspect, our
thinking, includes the way in which we function generally and the processes
through which we make choices and act in our world. Through evolution,
according to most brain scientists, the emotional aspect appeared before the
mental, providing the basic building blocks of survival of the individual and
the species. As our emotions evolved, our primitive brain felt the fear, anger,
love that motivates our lives. Then we refined choice through the thinking
process of our cerebral cortex and frontal lobe.
Our moral aspect is
difficult to pinpoint in the evolutionary process, but it is clear that around
the age of six, children generally find a sense of right and wrong within them,
as well as absorbing the mores of those around them. It is up to us to assist
them in refining this human sense through our religious exploration classes.
Finally, though it is still difficult to trace the origins of the spiritual
impulse, human beings clearly seek and perceive continued experiences of
connection and even immersion in a larger consciousness, a Source that affects
their entire sense of what it is to be human and to engage in the process of
living.
Source comprises all of
these aspects, holding them and the whole of our lives in the totality of
consciousness forever. The physical forms each of us inhabit limit Source and
give Source expression, as do our mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual
forms. All these forms interact with those of others, in dissonance or
resonance, throughout our time of conscious being: Source experiencing,
creating through us as we are called “to study life, to serve life, to
celebrate life.”
As we grow in
consciousness, creating with greater and greater resonance with our Source as
we know it, all of life and Source are blessed. Each being has special gifts,
particular resonances, unlike those of any other, that need to be nurtured and
brought to fruition. Each of us is called to respond to all of our ways of
being human, rather than denying any or all of them.
Unfortunately, true nurture
of our ways of being happens all too rarely. I see so many people who feel
bereft of support. More often, power-over
intrudes, demanding control of consciousness (original sin? ), “breaking
the spirit,” twisting or destroying awareness of resonances with Source. In
this way, ontological essence lost: a person becomes less than being or
becoming.
As beings connected to
Source, lured toward greater intensity and harmony, we experience spiritual
inevitability. This is not predestination, nor providence, nor fate. In
contrast, issues that we find difficult and/or challenging to our very being
come up over and over again for us to work and rework. I constantly have to
deal with my desire to eat everything and lots of it, probably inherited from
my gourmand father. I am effective in moderating this predisposition only by
maintaining an awareness of the physical limits of my body, the cues that I am
actually full, as I am willing to be aware of it and not preoccupied by other,
non-nutritional issues.
Clearly, we have free will
to avoid issues that feel uncomfortable. We can always ignore the reality of
the challenges we face day to day. Yet, if we continue to work to grow in
consciousness, to engage spiritual practice, those issues re-appear and
re-appear and re-appear to challenge our spirits in a process toward greater
being and becoming. Thus, we repeatedly face the particular challenges of our
lives through spiritual inevitability.
So, we human beings are
processes with original potential, neither cursed nor blessed, but engaged in
attempting to maximize our possibilities through our own consciousness. We
therefore, are radically responsible for ourselves and our engagement with all
that is in our world. We are essentially called to make the world a better
place for all, as we best can through our unique gifts and talents. Finally, we
live with spiritual inevitability, whereby we can assume that we shall again
and again experience opportunities to deal with the issues most challenging for
our lives.
We can make being human an
onerous task or we can address all of living as it is – a game for our creative
fun. We can respond to what is before us, opening our selves to all aspects of
being and allow our creative juices to flow into the world. We are clearly not
the pinnacle of evolution; there is far more yet possible than we can imagine.
Still, we inevitably contribute to the future, through our choices and our
chances.
I love Mary Oliver’s way of
expressing how we can engage this process of being human, as explained in “Wild
Geese”:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on
your knees
for a hundred miles through
the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the
soft animal of your body
love
what it loves.
Tell me about despair,
yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes
on.
Meanwhile the sun and the
clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the
landscapes,
over the prairies and the
deep trees,
the mountains and the
rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese,
high in the clear air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter
how lonely,
the world offers itself to
your imagination,
calls to you like the wild
geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing
your place
in the family of things.
(Oliver, New and Selected
Poems, p. 110.)
May each of us come to know
more fully our place in the creation of life, with respect, with
responsibility, and with relish for the process!
So Be it! Blessed Be!
This is our ultimate
salvation: all that we are, were, or will be is maintained within the loving
memory of Source, as genetic material speaking to the future, as decisions
informing others, and as love – or something else - moving through all of life.
Alfred North Whitehead affirms this with this quote:
The consequent nature of
God is his judgment on the world. He saves the world as it passes into the
immediacy of his own life. It is the judgment of a tenderness which loses
nothing that can be saved. It is also the judgment of a wisdom which uses what
in the temporal world is mere wreckage. (Whitehead, Process and Reality.
P.346.)
“Original Potential: Human Nature”
Order of Service
Sunday, September 28, 2008
9:30 AM and 11:00 AM
Welcome and Announcements
Choral Introit
Chalice Lighting
Opening Words: from the
Wisdom of Solomon 7
Opening Song: #188 “Come
Come, Whoever You Are”
Celebrating with Music:
“Everything Possible” by Fred Small
Sermon: “Original
Potential: Human Nature”
Sung Response: #311 “Let It
Be a Dance”
Spoken Response
Candles: Milestones of Joy
and Sorrow/Offering
Meditation
Closing Song: #131 “Love
Will Guide Us” (verses 1 & 2)
Closing Words
Closing Song: #131 (verse
3)
Celebrants: Lorene Hales
and the Rev. Dr. Gretchen Woods
Musicians: Chere and Cliff
Pereira
Etc.
Blessed are the man and the
woman
who have grown beyond their
greed
and have put an end to
their hatred
and no longer nourish
illusions.
But they delight in the way
things are
And keep their hearts open,
day and night.
They are like trees planted
near flowing rivers,
Which bear fruit when they
are ready.
Their leaves will not fall
or wither.
Everything they do will
succeed.