The Cup of Redemption, the Flame of Liberty

On this morning I invite us to think a bit about our flaming chalice. To help us do this, I am first going to talk a bit about symbolism, and then I will recall with you two true stories.

We did not always light a chalice. In fact, we as American Unitarian Universalists did not have chalices in our sanctuaries before the early 1980s. I know of at least one congregation that still does not use a chalice as part of their adult worship life.

Consider this memory from a sermon by the Reverend Clare Petersberger, a UU minister and daughter of Helen and Ralph Petersberger, who grew up in this very church:

When I grew up in Cedar Lane Unitarian Church in the 1960’s, the flaming chalice was not part of adult worship or children’s chapel. In fact, the flaming chalice did not appear as a logo on the cover of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s directory until 1976. And in 1987, during my ministerial internship , my supervising minister refused to introduce a chalice lighting as part of morning worship. He protested, vehemently, against the introduction of such a symbol which, for him, was a form of credalism.

So we may ask why, after so many years without the chalice, did we Unitarian Universalists start to use it in our congregations and on our letterheads and even around our necks? In fact, why did we feel the need for any symbol at all?

Perhaps one of the reasons the flame of our chalice came to be accepted and even loved in our faith communities arose from some need to find a symbol, to somehow make a bridge between our brains and our emotions.

Many theologians have written that symbols and images are the very substance of spiritual life; they are the bridge between the world as we experience it and its inner meaning. (Jeffrey Symynkywicz)

But, if we needed a symbol, why did we adopt the flaming chalice as that symbol? Where was the appeal?

Think first about the flame.

Anthropologists and psychoanalysts alike attest to the power of fire in human thought and spirit. Joseph Campbell suggests that fires were originally kindled out of our pure "fascination of dancing flames."

Jungians say that "the flame is symbolic in our unconscious of transformation, of purification, of the renewal of life, of impregnation, of strength, of energy, of sexual power, and of passion." (David Weissbard)

And, looking for examples, there is certainly no shortage of religions that use fire in some central way.

In the Greek tale, Prometheus stole fire, symbolic of a power belonging to Gods.

Christ writings refer to fire as tongues of flame on the heads of the apostles (see gospels), a symbol of the holy spirit.

We know of Moses and the burning bush which "could not be consumed."

There are many, many other examples, from Druid fires at Beltane to Shabbat candles on Friday nights. There is a power in flame that draws the attention of humankind.

Likewise, the chalice has been used throughout many religions, i.e.

the witches’ cauldron and Passover chalice. Riane Eisler uses the chalice as a metaphor for shared power, coming from ancient goddess worship as a symbol for fertility, abundance, and creativity. In Greece a chalice was sacred because it held wine which could let you let go of life and its cares (David Weissbard).

We can perhaps feel something universal in our flaming chalice.

The story of the chalice that the Unitarian Universalist Association adopted goes back to 1941.

There was a man named Hans Deutsch, an Austrian. He was a left wing political cartoonist who first fled Austria, then France, to escape the wrath of Hitler. He ended up in Portugal where he met Reverend Charles Joy, director of the Unitarian Service Committee. The USC was formed a few years earlier to help those labeled as "undesirables," mostly Eastern European Jews, escape Hitler’s reach and make their way to safety in America.

When Joy met Deutsch, he asked him to design a logo for the organization. He wrote to Deutsch that he wanted a symbol "to make the them look official, to give dignity and importance to them, and at the same time to symbolize the spirit of our work . . . When a document might keep a man out of jail, give him standing with government and police, it is important that it look important."

Well, it was the flaming chalice that Deutsch created. He wrote of this symbol, that it was a chalice "of the kind the Greeks or Romans might put on their alters." The flame was added as "the holy oil burning in the chalice . . . as a symbol of helpfulness and sacrifice."

Deutsch was not a religious man. He was neither Christian, Jew, nor Unitarian. Before he met Joy he probably had never heard of either Unitarianism or Universalism. But his inspiration was seeing faith put into action. In a letter to Joy he wrote, "There is something that urges me to tell you . . . how much I admire your utter self denial and readiness to serve, to sacrifice all your time, your health, your well-being. But if your kind of life is the profession of your faith . . .then this religion is one to which even a ‘godless’ fellow like myself can say wholeheartedly, ‘yes’"

After the end of the war, the flaming chalice remained as the symbol of the Unitarian Service Committee. The USC eventually merged to become the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. They kept the flaming chalice as their symbol. However, at the time the two denominations merged into the UUA, the Association of Congregations did not choose the chalice as our symbol.

Then in 1980 the director of the UUA Department of Ministry, the Reverend David Pohl, lit a chalice at the GA’s powerful Service of the Living Tradition. This was the start of something big! The ritual was taken back, with great enthusiasm, to local congregations all over the North American continent. In the mid 1980s, the UUA adopted the flaming chalice within the double circle as its symbol. The chalice itself was a bit off center, as was the cross in an earlier Universalist symbol, representing that no one religion can be at the center of a wide faith.

In fact, in that spirit there is no "officially" adopted statement of meaning for the symbol. But it does provide a sense of unity among us in a way that was lacking before its adoption.

But now, we need to acknowledge that the origins of this symbol go back much further than Hans Deutsch and the Service Committee. We do not know if Hans Deutsch knew of this history, but the symbol he designed had most likely either consciously or unconsciously been in his mind. The flaming chalice had been used as a symbol of freedom for many years in Czech culture.

There is a true chalice story, even older, of how that chalice became part of Bohemian culture. This story comes from the early 1400’s in what is now the Czech Republic.

The 1400s emerged out of a very difficult period in history, the Middle Ages. There were: plagues, poverty against a backdrop of nobility and papal rule which left the ordinary person bereft of any citizen status, a careless form of law that did not value human life of humble origin, and two popes.

Against that backdrop, Jan Hus (John Huss as his name was later anglicized) was born in 1369. "Hus" was also a word for goose, which we will discover shortly became important to the story of his life. He was born in Hussinetz (75 m. ssw of Prague). At the turn of the century Huss was 31 years old.

John Huss became a priest. Ironically, early in his career he said, "I choose the office of priest because I have in mind a safe shelter, and goodly apparel, and a comfortable living." He had been born into a family of very humble circumstances and, no doubt, the life of a priest looked pretty good! Huss was also a sincerely religious person.

In 1400 he was ordained a priest. In 1402 he was appointed preacher of the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague. It was in church life, in his community of faith, that John Huss shined.

Before long, John Huss was labeled by the hierarchy of church as a heretic. These are the so-called heresies of John Huss (Remember, this is 100 years before Luther!):

Huss had quite a following who became steadily bolder in defying papal authority. And, of course, as happens, Power pushed back. Danger was afoot. Three men from the lower classes who openly contradicted the preachers during their sermons and called indulgences a fraud, were beheaded.

In 1414 a general council was convened to take up the reform of the church and end Papal schism. Huss was invited and attended. He welcomed the opportunity for dialogue on the articles of faith.

Now, remember, "hus" = "goose." He wrote to his friend: "the goose is not yet cooked and is not afraid of being cooked."

Unfortunately, he was arrested almost immediately. After nearly three months in prison, much of it in intolerable conditions, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death.

On June 6, the day of his murder, they dressed him in priestly garments with a high paper hat on his head, inscribed with "heretic." He was walked past bonfires fueled by his writings and books. Huss was stripped of his priestly garb and chained at his neck to a stake, and the burning began. We are told that he said, while tied at that stake: "Today you are burning a goose, but out of my ashes will be born a swan whom you will not burn."

As one scholar writes:

Response was immediate. On 2 September 1415, an assembly of 452 Bohemian and Moravian nobles signed a letter to the Council of Constance stating flatly that Huss should not have been executed. A good many kings had called a good many popes a good many names, but never had Europe seen this kind of spontaneous condemnation of the judgment of a general council . . . "The burning of Hus transformed a reform movement into a resistance movement." (Skip Knox)

Huss’s followers now adored him even more than when he was alive. They chose the chalice, a chalice with a flame, as a symbol. The chalice itself representing the cup from which ALL are welcomed to drink, the flame reminding them of Huss and his commitment to faith and to truth. Today, in the Old Town Square in Prague there is a statue of John Huss. His birthday continues to be celebrated, by some, with bonfires. He is a symbol of freedom to the Czech people. At the time of the Russian occupation, one patriot protested by burning himself at the foot of this statue. During the Czech upheaval in 1968, a flaming chalice in chalk appeared on walls with the words "Truth is victorious." The scores of ice hockey games became graffiti under drawings of flaming chalices when the Czechs were victorious in their games with Russia. Flaming chalices also appeared at Czech landmarks, still a symbol of self-determination.

The chalice today continues to stand for courage and daring and commitment. Clare Petersberger, thinking again back to her pre-chalice days at Cedar Lane, writes:

Hans Deutsch was inspired by the lives of individual Unitarians committed to service who put their faith in action. . . ..

She continues:

This is what I saw in a Unitarian Church before the symbol of the flaming chalice was part of the culture of the church. I saw adults volunteering to greet and serve coffee, to sing in the choir and to teach Sunday School, to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless and care for the mentally ill. They did so with gratitude for receiving the gift of religious freedom from those, like Jan Hus, who sacrificed their lives for it. They did so to create meaning, like Hans Deutsch and Reverend Joy, in their service to others. They did so with the hope that their commitment to freedom of individual conscience, and the use of reason in religious matters, care for each and every person in the religious community, and their work for a world more fair, with all her people one, would help truth to prevail.

The Hussite motto after the murder of Huss was "Pravada Vietzi" or "Truth Prevails." I would add to that, in the spirit of Huss, "Love Prevails." It must! As the children sing,

Chalice,
Help remind us with your light,
of how we’d like to live each day,
with Love and Truth helping lead the way.