Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of
“Spirituality: Meeting
the Ultimate"
Sunday, November 02, 2008
by Rev. Dr. Gretchen Woods
As you will have noted from our reading from Warren
Ross’s book, The Premise and the Promise,
the word spirituality was
generally absent from Unitarian Universalism from the years after World War I
until the 1970’s. There is no doubt that the Women and Religion movement which
led to the 1977 Women and Religion Resolution and the curriculum Cakes for the Queen of Heaven by Shirley
Ranck was instrumental in reclaiming the experience of spirituality among us.
Still, as Ross goes on to note:
Spirituality is
now so widely invoked in UU circles that some, like Eugene Pickett, suspect it
of being a buzz word. Historian Ernest Cassara says that the emphasis on
spirituality bothers him. It’s some vague and amorphous idea,” he says “but
never defined,” and Natalie Gulbandsen states bluntly that spirituality is a
fad. Jack Mendelsohn sees both value and risk. He is concerned that the
emphasis on spirituality can be “slick and ambiguous,” with the result that
“young ministers today are not on fire to influence public policy, to shape a
better society. Instead, their business is spirituality, prayer, healing,
meditation, community.” Those are all useful, he concludes, “but
only if used instrumentally for some higher, more challenging objective, such
as a better society.
These are, however, likely to be
minority opinions, perhaps reflecting a generational split. The majority of
Unitarian Universalists probably agree with Paul Johnson that the emphasis on
spirituality is “an acknowledgement of the mystery of existence.” (pp. 198 –
199.)
As you can readily observe, There
is no uniform agreement on the value of spirituality, much less its definition
or sense of purpose. Given that caveat, I foolishly venture where wiser heads
fear to tread, offering a definition of spirituality, some examples, and
several ways of going about the business of spirituality. Bear with me.
Let me again begin with s story from my childhood, one
many of you already know: I lived on the East coast (the New Jersey shore to be
precise), where spring withheld its blessings through snow, rain, and mud until
the day it suddenly burst forth with flowers fully opened, earth and air warm
and soft, various
pungent fragrances of life abloom, and a sense that anything was possible. On
one such morning, awake before the rest of my family, I opened my front door
and was astonished by the change from the night before. The air was vibrant and
I could see every molecule – possibly every atom – around me and in me dancing
in vibration with the whole of life. Though I knew I was distinct from this
riot of energy, every cell in my body felt deeply connected, vibrating with the
whole. I succeeded in turning a cartwheel for the first and only time in my
life. The sense of connection and oneness lasted for time out of time. I was
awash in diamonds of life, filled with song and energy.
While I never again had quite that experience, I have
often felt this awareness of the power of life surging through me in other
circumstances: while quietly and deeply conversing with a friend, while making
love, while watching a vivid sunset, while giving birth. I felt connected with
far more than my simple body, and the
feeling was totally embodied, as well as being mental, emotional, and
spiritual. I felt surrounded by and filled with an energy/consciousness that
was and knew far more than I could ever contain, but which held me gently – and
sometimes wildly -- in its thrall.
My colleague, the Rev. Dr. William H. Houff, a Ph.D.
research chemist, wrote his own book on spirituality called Infinity in Your Hand. I think he
defines spirituality well:
To me spirituality has to do with the special kind of
connectedness implied in Schleiermacher’s “intuition of the infinite in the
finite.” I would say that spirituality points to the interface of the finite
and the Infinite. Or to use the Reverend Jacob Trapp’s phrase, spirituality is
where “the window of the moments open(s) to the sky of the eternal.” This isn’t
restricted to some other-worldly realm. As very mathematician knows, the finite
is, by definition, included within infinity. Thus, the interconnectedness
implied in my idea of spirituality takes in all types of relatedness. (Houff, p. xvii.)
I would add to Bill’s
definition that spirituality is the experience
a person has of that connection, an experience that energizes, informs, and
often leads to creativity, but may simply rest on its own as a powerful knowing
of life.
Now, spirituality is not “New Age.” As PDQ Bach once
noted of the music, it is far more “Old Age!” Early references to such
experiences go back more than five centuries ago in
. . . jnana yoga, or the
path to union through knowledge; raja yoga, or the path of realization through
meditation and psychic control; bhakti yoga, or the path of realization through
love and devotion; and karma yoga, or the path of union through work. (Prabhavananda, p. 98.)
This is one of the first
systems of practices to open one’s self to the possibility of experiencing
energy/consciousness fully in one’s life. You will note that this takes into
account one’s learning style or styles and/or one’s natural preferences as a
human being. It also takes into account that some people will need to be Doing things to make connections. This makes space
for the people who need to be involved in social justice work to achieve their
sense of union with the ultimate. This is not spirituality as escape from the
world, but as energizer to be most effective in the world.
In like manner, in
You will find similar
systems in the practices of different cultures, but this is the one that most
closely fits my experiences of connection with the ultimate. In like manner,
there are practices for opening to grace or union with the ultimate in most
cultures. If you follow a Celtic path, you will find a greater emphasis upon
the development of the individual and individual spirituality. If you follow
some Native American paths, you will find a recognition
that practice must benefit the community as well as the individual.
Each path has its own
peculiarities, but most take into account several specific needs that must be
addressed through practice: grounding one’s self in one’s place in the world
physically; centering one’s self in one’s body and defining one’s energy field;
shielding one’s self and energy field
from negative forces; releasing from one’s self beliefs and/or forces that do
not serve one’s greater connection to one’s Source; and refilling one’s self
from one’s unique connection to one’s Source that does not take any energy away
from any one else. All too many teachers leave out significant parts of this,
like the grounding and shielding or refilling once one has released energies.
Another concern I have is the old healing model that tells one to “send one’s
energies to another.” A far healthier model I have experienced is to fill one’s
self and to invite the other to fill her or himself from her or his unique
connection to Source. This model does not presume to develop dependence of
another on one’s self.
For example, if I tell you
I can heal you, you could assume that healing comes from me. While this might
be attractive to my ego, in reality it creates a dependence upon me and does
not empower you to be able to do it for yourself. I think this ultimately
handicaps others at the expense of my own ego – and doesn’t work well anyway
because one is best healed with one’s own energies and consciousness. As I say
to folks who come to me, “I don’t need you to need me, but I do encourage you
to find your own power-from-within. Your spirit knows best how you need to be
healed.”
There are as many
experiences of spirituality as there are human beings and, for all we know,
other creatures as well. The commonality of them is that they energize and
increase one’s sense of self and one’s power in the world as well as deepening
one’s desire to help make the world an even better place. As Anne Wilson Schaef
notes in her definition of a passion versus an addiction, a passion (or a spirituality) enhances one’s self, while an addiction
diminishes one’s self. While we acknowledge the reality of evil – and
addictions, let us open to our passions and the experience of oneness that is
possible, the experience of a Source that can feed and refresh and renew and
gently but persistently demand that we offer the best we can to life.
Of course, this is
predicated upon openness to the experience of connection to something beyond
one’s little life, whether it be energy or love or
community. Mary Oliver writes of the possibilities for this even when we don’t
believe it is possible in her Morning Poem:
Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange
sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again
and fasten themselves to the high
branches –
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands
of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim along the soft trails
for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it
the thorn
that is heavier then lead –
if it’s all you can do
to keep on trudging –
there is still somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted –
each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
each morning,
whether or not
you have dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.
(Oliver, New and Selected Poems. Pp.
106-107.)
May you find that beast
within you, with respect, responsibility, and relish for the process. So Be It!
Blessed Be!
Spirituality: Meeting the Ultimate
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Order of Service
9:30 AM and 11:00 AM
Welcome
Choral Introit:
"Walking With You" by Burns Stanfield
Chalice Lighting
Opening Words
Opening Song: #123 “Spirit
of Life”
Story for All Ages – Niya
Standish
Sung Response: “As You Go”
by Kathleen Tracy
Celebrating with Music:
"Come, Spirit, Come" by Mary Kay Beall
Sermon: Spirituality:
Meeting the Ultimate
Sung Response: #83 “Winds
Be Still”
Spoken Response
Candles: Milestones of Joy
and Sorrow
Meditation
Closing Song: #6 “Just as
Long as I Have Breath” (verses 1 & 2)
Closing Words
Closing Song: #6 (verse 3)
Celebrants: Lorene Hales
and the Rev. Dr. Gretchen Woods
Which brings us back to the expectation
of those who have been joining our congregations for at least the past ten
years. To quote Barry Andrews . . ., today’s newcomers are likely to be
motivated “by a strong if inarticulate desire to address a spiritual void in
their lives . . . They are looking for a ‘spiritual experience’ and for a
community that cares about them and shares their values.” Hence they tend to be
more comfortable with religious language and ritual than the comeouters of
previous years.
As for today’s sermons, according to Suzanne P. Meyers, .
. . only members born before 1947 still prefer emotionally neutral sermons that
deal with ideas and issues. Admitting that it may be a bit of an
overgeneralization, she goes on to say that among baby boomers, “celebration
and spiritual renewal is number one . . . They prefer sermons that deal with
feelings, personal dilemmas, life passages and spiritual growth,” and often
look for help in personal crises.
The turning point in the religious emphasis in the
denomination came gradually, unobtrusively. But if a single date can be
assigned to the watershed it was William Schulz’s sermon at the 1986 General
Assembly. He used language that none of his predecessors – not the theist
Greeley nor the humanists West and Pickett – would
have chosen. “Reason is still a cherished standard in our religious
repertoire,” he declared, “but reason is coming to be supplemented by our
immediate apprehension of the Holy and by our conviction that the Holy is
embodied in the abundance of a scarred Creation. . . .
He went on to trace the rediscovery of spirituality to a “a greater valuing of women’s experience, a new openness .
. . to Western faith and practice; and of course a growing disillusionment with
materialism.” Proclaiming himself to be still a humanist, he nonetheless said
that “the simple liberalism of my childhood – the faith that if we protect
fundamental civil liberties, if everyone is given a platform and a voice, we
will end up with a civil community – suddenly appeared inadequate to the realities
of war and iniquity . . . We needed a compelling vision of the ends toward
which we struggled.”
His use of the word rediscovery is apt. As has often been
pointed out, these beliefs in many ways mirror nineteenth-century
Transcendentalism – the Emersonian concept of the oversoul and the Thoreauvian
desire to live deliberately and “suck out all the marrow of life.” Or, if you
prefer, we have rediscovered the essence of Universalism. (Ross,
pp. 197-198.)