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Clues
A Sermon Given
by the Reverend Douglas Taylor
on October 21, 2001
at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
Bethesda, Maryland
One of my favorite models for ministry has always been Miss Marple.
Miss Jane Marple is the elderly, crime-solver in Dame Agatha
Christie's mystery novels from the mid-1900's. Absolutely delightful
character. Very intelligent and down-to-earth. I've never really liked
Hercule Poirot, but I think Miss Marple is great. She solved so many
of her crimes simply out of her clear understanding of human nature,
which she learned while growing up in a small village, St. Mary Mead.
I like her because she has a different way of seeing things. She see
connections based on her understanding of human nature. She would
hear the details of a murder and say something like, "That reminds me
of poor Mr. Johnson..." And somehow, the little problem that Mr.
Johnson had, or tried to hide, or had perhaps even caused, would be
related to the murdered person's situation in that the motive was the
same but on a smaller scale; or the parlor maid had the same character
flaw as the niece of the guy who was murdered; or some such thing as
that. Miss Marple paid attention to people. She paid attention to life
and saw connections. That is a model I try to emulate in my ministry.
I pay attention to life and try to see the connections. The part about
having a very solid understanding of human nature is something I still
hope to someday claim.
I don't feel it is too far off base for us to occasionally think of
ourselves as detectives. After all, life, at the level we usually speak of
here in church, is a mystery. Unitarian Universalists in particular work
well with this analogy that being a religious person is like being a
detective. One of our prized principles, the one which we perhaps
tote out the most when asked to define our denomination to others,
is the "Free and responsible search of truth and meaning." Detective
work! We are in the search religiously speaking. We are searching
for answers to life's great mysteries. The meaning of life itself is the
greatest mystery and has plagued Philosophers and Theologians
through the ages. It was a Methodist Bishop, and I don't recall now
which one, who once said: "The main thing is to find the main thing
and to keep the main thing the main thing. That's the main thing!"
That is about as clear a definition of the mystery of the meaning of life
as I have ever found from most of the professional theologians and
philosophers.
Thankfully we have poets to help clear things up. The German poet,
Rainer Rilke, once advised a younger poet to cherish his deepest
questions. "Try to love the questions themselves," he said. "Be patient
toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions
themselves like locked rooms or books that are written in a foreign
tongue. The point is to live everything. Live the questions now."
It may come as no surprise to you that UU ministers love this quote
because of what it says about loving questions and living them now.
We love that search for truth and meaning! We like questions that
lead us deeper into more questions, "like locked rooms," or
mysterious boxes we are not allowed to open. We love the questions,
the mystery, and the search. We are tolerant of different paths and
understandings. We respect each person's search for the Holy. The
question may then be asked, "What do we do if someone finds an
answer or two?"
I remember the first day I met members of the church where I did my
internship. One person actually said to me during a side conversation
that in our denomination we encourage the search for truth, but if you
find any truth, you'll need to leave. It wasn't until I got to know that
person a little better that I realized he was just making a joke, rather
than apt social commentary.
Perhaps you cringed a little after I offered the Rilke quote because I
left off the last line. That sort of thing really bugs some of us. But I
did it on purpose because so many people focus on the part about
'loving the questions' that the last part can be forgotten. The last part
of that Rilke quote is very important. "The point is to live everything.
Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without
noticing it, live your way some distant day into the answers."
Answers are a big part of being a detective. Miss Marple would not
be a very good detective if she never found some solid answers.
Being a religious detective means we must be willing to get a few
answers to these big questions we ask. Paul Tillich, once wrote, (and
I offer this quote to redeem my earlier slight against theologians when
I said they are all confusing.) "Being religious means asking
passionately the questions of the meaning of our existence and being
willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt."
Now does this mean we have some kind of obsession with questions
and it's high time we fess up and admit to a couple of answers? Are
we somehow cheating the whole religious community when we say,
"We are non-creedal, we don't believe in set answers for every person
for all time." Is that a cop-out? Is that our way of saying, "we really
have no clue."
No. No, our way of faith is the wide path because that is our
authentic answer to the question of how to be a searching religious
community. I believe that God comes to each person in the way
which that person can best understand and receive God. This even
means if the word 'god' gets in the way for folks, then that is the
wrong word. And we might say, every person perceives the Holy as
they are able. To demand that we all have the same answer to the
intimate and ultimate questions of existence is unrealistic.
There is an essay I remember from my Liberal Theologies course back
in seminary. The author, Lindbeck, claims that all the different
religions of the world are merely diverse expressions of a common
core experience. There is such a diversity of religious belief due to our
different cultures and vocabularies. It is all the same root experience,
but one person's experience of the Holy cannot be universalized.
Each person's experience is filtered through his or her socio-linguistic
background.
If I am in the midst of a silent meditation, for example, and a word
comes to mind unbidden; perhaps even a word which makes a problem
that has been plaguing me suddenly make sense and therefore easier
to handle. Using my theistic understanding of an immanent and
transcendent God, I might say, "that was the voice of God." But I
understand that I could just as easily interpret such an experience as
an awakening to the first noble truth of Buddhism, or as a gift of grace
from the Holy Spirit, or as simply the timely remembrance of a past
knowledge.
How I interpret, and therefore define, this experience is determined by
the cultural and linguistic stream I am standing in. And, while
understanding that, I don't need to give up my perspective as flawed
or in any way untrue. I believe in an active, loving God who can and
does transform lives through the power of grace. I've seen it happen.
I've felt it. We do not need to lose our religious identities simply
because we understand the mytho-symbolic basis of those religious
identities!
All that, to say the answers I have found are not necessarily the
answers any of you have found. And that works. That is how it
ought to be. My answers are not what this sermon is about. My title
is not "Answers," but "Clues," because answers are not always easy
to find and hold on to. So what we need are clues to how to get
there, signposts and landmarks to guide us on the journey toward the
deeper answers of our lives.
So what are some of these clues? Well, there is one that I mentioned
in connection with my hero, Miss Marple. Pay attention. Pay
attention to life, to other people, to your gut feelings about what is
going on around you. Miss Marple was able to discover a great deal
just by paying attention. It is amazing what we can miss if we stay
focused on the mundane stuff, stuff that we do need to attend to. The
daily routines of work and chores and bills all need our attention, but
that doesn't mean we need to keep our focus there all the time. Pay
attention to who your children are becoming. Pay attention to the
dreams and aspirations in your life, yours and those of the people you
love. Pay attention to the deepest hunger of your soul, that longing,
yearning, sometimes aching feeling within you. Pay attention to life.
As Religious detectives, paying attention is not only a clue as to how
to find answers, it is also the root clue about how to find more clues.
Let me share with you another clue I noticed while paying attention:
Come to church every Sunday. Really, that is a clue, I'm not just
peddling my wares. I have read more than one article in the past year
or two about a study that has been done which connects church
attendance with longevity. The study found there was no clear
connection between how long a person lived and what a person
believed, or which kind of congregation they attended. But there was
a strong connection between a long life and regular worship
attendance. Participation with the community is what matters. This
is true for Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Pagans, Unitarian
Universalists, and all the other major world religions. I remember the
story of a Christian who went and studied with a Zen Buddhist master
for a year. I think it was someone relatively well known, (one of you
may remember this story and tell me who this is about after the
service.) Anyway, at the end of the year the man went to his Zen
master and asked to become a Buddhist. The master said, "No, you
do not need to become a Buddhist. You should go back home and
become the best Christian you can be." And he did. The Master was
saying, grow where you are planted. You don't need to go to the
other side of the world to find the Holy within yourself.
This is not, as one might infer, saying that what you believe and what
groups you associate with are irrelevant. In fact, what you believe and
what groups you belong to are very important. Its just that how you
live out your beliefs is more important. The Zen master didn't say,
"Go home and be a Christian because we're full over here." He said,
"Go home and become the best Christian you can be." The way you
practice your religion is what matters most. Every true religion has
the potential to lead its adherents to true spiritual depth and
understanding. All of them offer answers to the ultimate and intimate
questions of existence. At the same time, I am not shy about saying
that Unitarian Universalism at its best stands out among the others in
that it offers people the commitment to the freedom of conscious that
will allow each person to find the path that leads through their
questions to the deeper answers.
All those articles linking church attendance and longevity conclude
that participation is the key. Participation is the second clue I offer.
And frankly I can't stand here and promise you a long life if you come
to church regularly. But I can promise you a strong life; a quality, if
not a quantity of life. And if I'm wrong, what will you do? Stop
coming regularly, right? Well, if you start to suspect that I am wrong
about this participation stuff and you're thinking of pulling away and
not coming regularly, call me. Usually that is the time that you can
most use a community such as the ours So, pay attention and
participate.
Often the hardest part of any mystery novels for the reader is
recognizing the difference between clues that matter and clues that
don't. Miss Marple seems to always be able to recognize whether or
not a fact or character trait or event is malevolent or benevolent, or
just innocuous. This is not easy. As religious detectives, it is vital for
us to perceive correctly. The story I told during the meditation about
the magic rose window in the cathedral can be a parable about needing
to discern. Certainly after the fact, we can say 'that was a good thing'
or 'that was not a good thing, it was harmful and destructive.' It is
important to note that any lofty principle can lead to a destructive
outcome.
A passion for music can lead to an obsession over a musician. Intense
introspection can lead to depression and isolation. A commitment to
justice can lead to blind rage. This is not about bad people doing bad
things out there. This is about you and me and the person sitting next
to you and how we each have choices we make every day. I know
some of you have been touched by this before. The stone that is
supposed to heal us, sometimes burns us. This is about passion,
commitment, and intense feelings. These are powerful things that we
should not try to avoid, rather we need to discern when and how is the
best use of these powerful attributes. How can we tell which time the
effect of our passion and commitment will heal and not harm.? Well,
one way is that "by their fruits ye shall know them." Certainly after the
fact we can name it.
But how do you discern before you have fruits to check with? A wise
professor once answered that question for me. I asked her how I
could tell the difference between the "dark night of the soul" which
St. John of the Cross wrote about and depression. She said "how's
your prayer life?" I am a little hesitant to put prayer on my list of
clues for everyone because prayer is a topic that causes raised
eyebrows from some of you and secret smiles from others. But that
is no reason not to include it. When it comes to true discernment
about whether the course I would take is life-affirming or life-denying,
whether what I want is of God or of my own ego, I would have to
agree with my professor: pray. It is the only thing that has worked for
me. Which leads me into another sermon on prayer that will need to
wait for another day.
Pay attention, participate, and pray. These clues will get you started
toward understanding the deeper meaning of existence. If nothing
else, these will help you look at life differently and perhaps see more
connections. You are religious detectives, but you are not alone.
There are clues readily available to us in our search. To demand that
we all turn up the same answer to the intimate and ultimate questions
of existence is unrealistic. But to think that therefore there are no real
answers is a form of profanity. Don't shy away from uncovering an
answer or two. And maybe you will find that some of the answers
lead to deeper questions. That happens too.
In a world without end, may it be so.
Bibliography
Church, F. Forrester, ed. The Essential Tillich. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1987. Pg. 1.
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