The quotation is this – from the Hindu Bhagavad  Gita.

"When one sees Eternity in things that pass away
and Infinity in finite things,
then one has pure knowledge.

But if one merely sees the diversity of things,
with their divisions and limitations,
then one has impure knowledge.

And if one selfishly sees a thing
as if it were everything,
independent of the ONE and the many,
then one is in the darkness of ignorance."

                      -  from the Bhagavad  Gita

And the story is this:

As some of you know, I went to theological school at Emmanuel College – the United Church Seminary at the University of Toronto’s Toronto School of Theology or TST. Emmanuel was the most liberal school I could find while still paying Canadian tuition, and it was a wonderful opportunity to revisit our faith’s Christian roots while forging a new relationship with that heritage.

It was also incredibly strengthening for my Unitarian Universalist faith because I had to articulate it over and over again, explaining to diverse colleagues exactly how and why our paths paralleled, intersected and diverged, what had changed and what was the same. In my classes at TST, I mixed with all sorts of groups I hadn’t even known existed – liberal Baptists, social justice Mennonites and evangelical Anglicans, atheists interested in a theological education and men training for the Catholic priesthood who seemed more Unitarian than I did!

But in one of my field education classes, I encountered a United Church candidate for ministry who was further to the right theologically than anyone else I’ve met – before or since. It was his misfortune (or fortune, perhaps!) to be in a small group with the only Unitarian student in the school, as well as a lesbian woman who was the lone candidate from MCC – the Metropolitan Community Church – a church with a specific ministry to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered community.

He spent the whole year telling us in various ways, how we were going to hell in a hand cart. It was infuriating at first, sad in the middle, boring at the end… Leslie and I (the woman from MCC) used to go for coffee after class (occasionally it required a beer!) to recover from the constant onslaught.

At the very end of the year, we were asked to present our thoughts and views on each person in our group. I went last, after listening to Steve expound on our distressing lack of orthodox belief, and Leslie’s hurt and insult built up over 9 months of abuse. Finally I addressed each student in turn and when Steve’s turn came. I said to him – "I have only one reflection Steve – but I believe it with every fibre of my being; and that is, that God put you in my group to test my liberal faith!" For the first time all year, he was speechless! But dear friends, our liberal faith is meant to be tested; not to become a fundamentalism of its own!

I have always wondered about our need as a minority religion to sort of boast about ourselves. It is surely a revelation for many to become a part of this religion and then discover that some of the people they admire – whether they be a Ralph Waldo Emerson, an Albert Schweitzer or a Clara Barton also chose this free, loving faith for their very own.

But do the Jews have a poster called Famous Jews with pictures of say - Moses, Jesus or Albert Einstein on it? Or Catholics one with John F. Kennedy, Constantine and the Pope? Buddhists one with the Dalai Lama and Richard Gere? More to the point, do I really want to tell people that P.T. Barnum, whose most oft-quoted saying was "There’s a sucker born every minute" shared my faith – even if he is kind of famous for his circus?

When we raise our children, I believe it’s right and good to try and instill in them some genuine pride in genuine accomplishment and worthiness – what I would prefer to call esteem rather than pride. Esteem comes from knowing who you are and liking it, and from efforts to do good that stand on their own whether or not anybody acknowledges them. Pride in your own story is, I believe, a healthy characteristic of a mature faith.

But the pride of comparison, smugness or arrogance – the pride that says "I am better than you," the pride that boasts and feels superior – it seems to me is not the kind of pride we want in our children or our religion. It’s the pride that paradoxically is often based on a smaller sense of self – and is what Jung called "inflation" – where we "inflate" a larger version of ourselves to overcome a feeling of smallness or insecurity. Like an animal which puffs itself up to look larger – it is a way of trying to make ourselves look bigger because we fear that we might actually be quite small.

I have in truth, at times observed this kind of pride in our Unitarian circle, and so have some of you, it seems – for I was asked to preach this sermon by people who have from time to time been very uncomfortable with things that have appeared in our newsletter or been said from this very pulpit over the years.

The pride of arrogance and inflation can lead our "tolerant" religion to exhibit some pretty intolerant moments. Moments where we make fun of or are disrespectful to other faiths, especially somehow the ones to which we used to belong, the way we always feel entitled to criticize our own family; moments where we subtly exhibit a "fundamentalism of the left" where we think that this religion is better that the others because we found it, and we like it, and believe it superior to the others.

The eclectic nature of our faith can lead us to believe that we are a rare and exotic flower – more beautiful and precious than those "common" religions believed by millions instead of our few. It’s both the intimacy and the exclusivity of "the Tiny." We alone are permitted to view the secret Elusian mysteries, which turn out to be that there ARE no secret Elusian mysteries! How odd is that?

It may be hard for us to see, but we are no different that any other religious group feeling it has found "the truth, the way and the light" the "path to enlightenment" the "one true religion" or are a people in special relationship to God.

I believe that there is a difference between pride that is esteem and pride that is arrogance. The one leads to inspiration, to other to condemnation. How do we hold our UU story and beliefs in esteem but not arrogance, especially when we compare them to other faiths which differ radically from ours?

I believe the first step is to acknowledge that we were formed out of their clay. Unitarians have come out of the Protestant tradition, which means, literally – the protesters, the reformers. It is a part of our heritage and tradition to challenge, to question, to apply reason to faith, and put "life through the fire of thought" as Emerson said. Theologian Paul Tillich said that the defining principle of Protestantism is that "The first word of religion must be spoken against religion."

Yet, as our minister at All Souls New York, Rev. Forrester Church points out:

"This principle serves well in the necessary work of reforming corrupt religious institutions. Nonetheless, it is primarily negative, not affirmative. One need only contrast Catholic and Protestant church history to perceive that Protestants are forever cutting themselves into pieces like cells dividing, each division in the name of evolution, toward the cause of higher life."

Our faith grew out of one of these "cell divisions" and yet, there is a way that this tradition leads us, in the words of the Bhagavad Gita to "see merely the diversity of things, with their divisions and limitations, independent of the ONE and the many" and to miss the "Eternity in things that pass away and Infinity in finite things."

There is a Mystery at the heart of all questions worth asking, and our questioning and our protesting can only cut away the outside layers of the trappings of truth, not reach its heart. Constant reform can descend into constant negation "We are not this; we are not that; this is not true and that is not real." That is not religion; it is cynicism.

Or, as the former President of our Unitarian Universalist Association, Rev. John Buehrens said,

"Freedom is a heady thing. It can cause reverse fundamentalism if all it allows is denial."

John A. Buehrens, in Salted with Fire .  

One of our historians, Earl Morse Wilbur, makes the point when he says,

"Freedom, reason and tolerance then, are not the final goals to be aimed at in religion, but only conditions under which the true ends may best be attained."  Or, as I have heard it more poetically expressed "The telescope is not the star."

The telescope is not the star!

The means by which we arrive at truth, is not truth itself. It is our arrogance to think that our UU telescope is the star. But it is a very good instrument for looking at stars!

Reason, discernment, questioning and reforming are some of the means by which our religion seeks a greater truth, and we have reason to be proud of the places which they have taken us – proud in a self-esteem kind of way about the ways that our faith sought equality and religious tolerance for all people, stood up for justice, demanded equal rights for people of colour, women and gays; taught that sexuality and spirit are intertwined, embraced the teachings of all faiths and the thoughtfulness and moral value of those with no faith…

Yet "The telescope is not the star." We stumble into arrogance when we let our humble pride in ourselves blind us to the wisdom, spirit and truth embodied in others who believe very differently than we do. They too, are trying to approach the Mystery, although perhaps by a different path.

Thankfully, we are also Universalists, a faith that believed in the power of Love, above all, to overcome hatred and division, a faith that sought to unite the many into the ONE, a faith in profound connection with that Source of Love toward which I believe all religious peoples are yearning.

Reason looks good in the light of day, but it doesn’t always get you through the night. It is our Universalist heritage that turns our hearts to Mystery, our arrogance to a quest for understanding, our prejudice to openness and engagement.

Does this mean that we believe that truth and goodness are completely relative, that it’s a moral and religious free for all, that everything is OK, and all beliefs are equally worthy? Of course not. But we are required to use both our reason and our love to discern what is good and true in our own and in others’ faiths. The outright dismissal, the knee-jerk reaction, the instant assessment or simplistic caricaturing of even those who disagree radically from us are no credit to our story of liberal religion – one of which we should be justifiably proud.

Walt Whitman in his poem
"This You Shall Do" says:
"Re-examine all you have been told,
At school at church or in any book,
Dismiss whatever insults your own soul,
And your very flesh shall be a great poem."

There are many things in religion and life that "insult my soul." I can argue forcefully (and have many times) for the full and equal participation of women in religious life and human community. I hold all religion accountable for the ways in which it perverts the need to belong and the yearning for hope into religious bigotry which is used to promote hatred in this life with promises in the next.

I can state what I love about my liberal religious faith and hold it fast against that which I do not believe – and stand my ground when on deep reflection, what I see "insults my soul." Sometimes God sends you someone or something just to test your liberal faith! But there are no cheap and easy answers to religious questions, nor to any questions that involve human beings. We are too complicated for that. But we still are committed to trying to ask, to find , to see and to love.

My prayer for this liberal religion that I love so dearly is that it will be brave in its loving and humble in its discernment… proud of its history and large in its embrace of others - that we may all find our way to life more abundant, and peace more lasting – among and within us all. So may it be…Amen.