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The Meaning of the Twentieth Century
A Sermon Given
by The Reverend Roger Fritts
on December 26, 1999
at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
Bethesda, Maryland
Thirty years ago when I was a student of religion, a humorous
story circulated about the meaning of life. (At least I thought it was
humorous.)
In the story a young person decided to go in search of the meaning
of life. He started by visiting his local church. After listening to
several sermons, the young man went to see the minister to ask her
whether she could tell him the meaning of life. The minister sat
silently for a long time. Finally, she looked the young man in the
eye. "I want to be completely honest with you," she said. "I do
know a lot about the Bible and religious ritual, but I don't know
the meaning of life." "However," she said, "I have heard about a
great philosopher in London. People say that he is the wisest
person in the world. If anyone knows the meaning of life, he
must."
The young man saved his money, and booked a flight to London.
He made an appointment to see the great philosopher. He explained
that he had come from America to see the philosopher because his
minister had said that the philosopher was the wisest person in the
world. Then he asked his question. "Can you tell me the meaning
of life?" The philosopher was quiet for a long time. Finally he
looked at the young man. "I have studied this issue all my life,"
said the philosopher, "and I am sorry to say that I don't have an
answer. However, I do know of an old woman who works with the
poor in the slums of New Delhi. She is truly the wisest person I
have ever met. If anyone knows the meaning of life, she must."
Having come so far in his quest, the student felt compelled to
continue. The next day he took a flight to India. From the directions he had received in London, eventually he found the old
woman. She was working in a kitchen, mixing soup. Long lines
were forming -- adults, children and the elderly, all waiting to eat.
The young man helped out serving the soup, and as he did he told
his story about his visits to the minister and to the philosopher.
Then he asked her his question, "What is the meaning of life?" The
old woman stood stirring the soup for a long time. Finally she
looked the young man in the eye. "I do not know the meaning of
life," she said. "However, I know of a great teacher who lives high
in the mountains of Nepal. He is the wisest person I know. If
anyone can answer your question, he can."
The young man had come so far, he thought he should continue his
pilgrimage. He headed for the Himalayas. After many weeks of
travel, he finally reached the teacher's cave. Staring into the
darkness, he could make out a gray haired gentleman sitting in a
rocking chair in the back of the cave, slowly rocking back and
forth. Again the pilgrim told his story, describing his visit to the
minister, to the philosopher and to the woman feeding the poor.
Then he looked directly at the teacher and said: "Can you answer
my question? Can you tell me the meaning of life?"
The guru sat in his rocking chair moving slowly back and forth.
Finally, he looked at the student, smiled and said, "The meaning of
life is a rocking chair."
The student was confused at first. Then he shouted incredulously:
"A ROCKING CHAIR? THE MEANING OF LIFE IS A ROCKING CHAIR? I HAVE TRAVELED ALL THIS WAY AND ALL
YOU CAN SAY IS THAT THE MEANING OF LIFE IS A
ROCKING CHAIR?"
The old man stopped rocking. He looked at the student with a
startled, puzzled expression and said, "You mean it's NOT?"
The central question posed by religion can be stated in many ways.
Why should we do one thing instead of another? What is the
purpose of our lives? For what are we striving? What are we
aiming to achieve in our time on this earth? How do we judge one
event important and another trivial? What makes one activity
appropriate and another inappropriate?
It is difficult for us, on this small planet in an immense universe,
to know for sure why we are here. Occasionally, using my
computer, I visit an Internet web site called "Astronomy Picture
of the Day." This helps me gain perspective. One day I see an
image of a supernova remnant in a star forming galaxy twelve
million light-years away. The next day I find myself looking at a
photo taken from the Hubble Space Telescope of the Large
Magellanic Cloud one hundred seventy thousand light-years from
earth. I read that in the photo:
More than 10,000 stars are visible -- the brightest of
which are giant stars. Typically, the light we see
from nearby stars left during the age of our
great grandparents, while light from the Large
Magellanic Cloud stars began the journey before the
dawn of recorded human history.
On still another day I looked at a Hubble photo of a spiral galaxy
that is white on the inside ringed with bright purple light. In the
explanation I read that the galaxy "is billions of years old, but its
appearance has changed markedly over just the past few millions
of years. During that time, a ring of bright young stars has been
evolving."
These photos give me perspective. They remind me that I am a
very small person in a very large universe. I am so small that
answering the question, "What is the meaning to life?" seems
almost impossible. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. made this point when he
wrote about two pieces of yeast who were discussing the meaning
of life as they ate sugar. Eventually they suffocated in their own
excrement. Because of their limited perspective, the cells of yeast
never came close to guessing that they were making champagne.
Something to think about while you drink your glass of champagne
on New Years Eve.
In spite of the size of the universe, I live my life each day
believing that certain things do give life meaning. For example, I
believe that relationships with my family, my friends and other
people are important. I believe that living in harmony with the
earth and its cycles is important. I believe that creative activities
are important. I believe that music, poetry, drama, painting, and
architecture are examples of human creativity that have value.
However, I am convinced that we humans have a meaning, a
purpose that is more than just developing healthy relationships with
people, more than living in harmony with nature and more than
creating works of art. Important as these are, I have come to the
conclusion that we are here to do something more.
I think the history of evolution points to why we are here. We are
here to use our brains, our minds to try to understand the nature of
life and the universe. We are here to gather knowledge, to preserve
the best of what we have learned, to pass it onto our children,
hoping they will add to our knowledge. We hope they, in turn, will
pass their knowledge on to our grandchildren and so on.
I believe the meaning of human life is to carry forward the search
for knowledge about the universe and about life, including human
life. I trust that as we gain knowledge we will eventually have a
better understanding of why we are here to gain knowledge. Until
that time, it is enough for me to accept the fact that we are here to
expand human knowledge and understanding.
This brings me to the title of my sermon for this morning. I believe
the most meaningful events of the last 100 years are those that
helped us gain in knowledge of the nature of life and the nature of
the universe.
Clearly the event of the past 100 years that had the greatest impact
on the greatest number of people was the Second World War. I
suggest that the Second World War has significance, has importance, has meaning, to the degree the war helped us gain knowledge about the nature of life and the nature of the universe.
That war did teach us something about the nature of life. From the
Second World War we learned something about ourselves, and
learning about ourselves is part of the process of learning about
life. Because of that terrible war, many people learned that for
human beings to live together in peace, some system of world law
is necessary. In 1945 the attempt to create world peace led to the
establishment of the United Nations. With all its problems, the
United Nations represents a great advancement in our understanding of how we should organize ourselves so that we can live in
peace.
Looking at the internal events in the United States in the past one
hundred years, it seems clear to me that greatest internal issue
facing the United States has been the issue of race. From the Ku
Klux Klan lynchings at the beginning of the century to the
dragging death of a black man in Arkansas at the end of the
century, we continue to live with enormous tension between the
black and white races in America.
This racial tension did teach us something about the nature of life.
Out of the tensions between blacks and whites came the civil rights
movement and the civil rights legislation of the 1950s and 1960s.
The civil rights movement represents a great advance in our
understanding of how we should treat every human being with
dignity and respect, whatever their skin color. Out of the civil
rights movement grew new movements demanding equality for
Native Americans, for women, for Hispanics, for gay people, and
for the disabled. All the liberation movements of the century
learned from African Americans who began the fight for human
dignity.
Both of these events, the creation of the United Nations and the
Civil Rights movement, are human attempts to understand the
nature of life so that we can live together with each other in peace.
As we learn to live together in peace, both within the United States
and among the nations of the world, we free ourselves to apply our
intelligence and creativity in other areas.
We have in the past century learned a great deal about how to keep
ourselves physically healthy. The single most important discovery
in helping us stay healthy was the discovery of antibiotics. While
working with bacteria in 1928, Alexander Fleming noticed a
bacteria-free circle around a mold growth. Investigating, Fleming
found a substance in the mold that prevented growth of the
bacteria. He called it penicillin. Many of us are alive today because
of this discovery.
Plant breeding has also had a dramatic impact on the health of
human beings. By 1909 George Shull established the biological
basis for hybrid corn. Using his discoveries, the yields of corn and
other food products have dramatically increased, reducing hunger
around the world.
Other discoveries and inventions, such as birth control pills, drugs
for mental illness, blood types, and vaccinations have also improved human health. These all have meaning and significance
because they free us from the focusing constantly on the struggle
to survive. The Twentieth Century has freed some human beings
from the fear of war, the fear of discrimination, the fear of hunger,
and the fear of sickness, so they could turn their intelligence and
imagination towards trying to better understand life and the
universe. We have seen a series of discoveries:
In 1905 a twenty-six-year-old high school drop out named Albert
Einstein rocked the world of physics with the theory that space and
time are not fixed ideas.
In 1922 quantum mechanics was invented to describe the behavior
of matter and light on the atomic and subatomic scale.
In 1924 the Taung skull was found in Africa, providing concrete
evidence to support Darwin's theories.
In 1929 astronomer Edwin Hubbel deduced that the universe stared
with a big bang about fourteen or fifteen billion years ago.
In 1953 the Double Helix, DNA and RNA, the hereditary molecule
were first described.
These discoveries are the most meaningful events of the past one
hundred years, because they advance what I believe is the purpose
of human existence: to gain in knowledge of the nature of life and
the nature of the universe.
At the beginning of a new millennium, the best theologians, and
best philosophers are turning to the astronomers, the physicists, the
biologists and others in science for help in understanding the nature
of the universe and the nature of life (including the nature of
human life). Much more remains for humans to learn and discover.
If we can live together in peace, and not poison our environment,
we can make enormous advances in understanding life and the
universe.
It is possible, I suppose, that we will discover that the meaning of
life is a rocking chair or that our universe exists only to make
champagne for a very large creature.
But I do not think so. I believe that using the tools of science,
humans in the future will discover things wonderful things about
the human soul, about the nature of death and about the nature of
God -- things that we cannot even imagine now.
What is the meaning of life? Exploring the nature of life and the
universe is the greatest human adventure. The last hundred years
have been a wild and exciting time of exploration, discovery, and
learning. It has been a wonderful time to be alive. In the next one
hundred years, in the next one thousand years, if we can learn to
live in peace, learn to respect the dignity of each person, and learn
to live in harmony with the earth, our children will continue this
exciting adventure of discovery.
cluuc@his.com
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