First Unitarian Church of Baltimore

Corner of Charles and Franklin Streets in Downtown Baltimore

Mailing address:
1 West Hamilton Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
P: 410-685-2330
Fax: 410-685-4133
Office E-mail

BY WHICH WE LIVE

by the Reverend Phyllis L. Hubbell
at the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore
on the 28^th of October 2001

A prominent scientist was once giving a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun, and the sun, in turn orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady came up to him and said, Thats rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant turtle.

The scientist gave her a superior smile before replying. Then what is the turtle standing on?

Another turtle, came the reply.

And that turtle? the scientist asked in exasperation.

Youre very clever, young man, very clever, said the old lady. But its turtles all the way down.

Last year at the Urban Church Conference, we were asked to talk with each other, in small groups; about the theology that underpins our commitment to urban ministry. I watched people grope with what were clearly unfamiliar questions. I left feeling that we as ministers are not doing the job when it comes to providing our congregations opportunities, and language, for serious reflection on theology. Today I would like to begin a conversation that we can continue after church today, for any of you would like to share some of your own reflections. I hope that we will continue this discussion.

Traditionally, we think of theology as the study of the nature of god and religious questions. Paul Razor, a Unitarian Universalist theologian, defines theology in a broader sense that allows all to join in the conversation. In his view, theology consists of reflections on the central symbols, ideas and practices of ones religious faith. It asks how we understand ourselves in relation to what we consider ultimate or holy, to the world, to each other, and to ourselves.

Now those may seem like very abstract questions. In the last seven weeks, however, we have been called perhaps more clearly than ever before to articulate our beliefs. We in the western world have been challenged to defend our values, our way of life. We in our religious movement have been challenged more than most. What response do we believe we should make to the attacks of September 11? How are our answers theologically grounded? If we believe in the traditional God of Christianity and Judaism, we may respond that God calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves. We may explain further that God calls us to respond by turning the other cheek while others may cite the same grounds for rising to the defense of our neighbors. Regardless of the response, we have a basis for it, a grounding. God, the creator of the universe, has set down rules for us to follow. Clearly, even more traditional religions have endless discussion about the nature of God and the meaning of the rules.

But if we believe its turtles all the way down, ah thats a different story. If the universe itself rests on turtles, if the universe rests on atoms that have a shape, that have substance, but no conscience, where does that leave us? If we believe that nothing in creation calls us to something beyond ourselves, if nowhere source of existence itself lies a passion for life, or love, or kindness or justice or compassionthen are we left with a morality based on those ethics that satisfy whatever criteria we happen to establish.

How then do we justify those criteria in a value-free universe? We may say, for example, that our first priority is the survival of the species. Or a basic standard of living for all. Or freedom of speech and association and religion. We may say instead that it is the supremacy of our own race, whatever that happens to be. Or the primacy of our own gender. Or simply the advancement of our own interests.

If there is no fundamental morality that rises out of creation, then there is no ultimate answer to which of these answers is better than another. Morality depends finally on what consequences each one of us considers desirable. Or worse, morality depends ultimately on who wins. On who is left standing when the final bell tolls.

I suspect that most of us do not like this scenario. We believe that justice, freedom, and mercy are values that all should cherish. We may judge harshly those who do not hold similar ideas of what justice, freedom and mercy require of us. Yet some of us will admit that although we would like these to be ultimate values, even act sometimes as if we believe they were, we don't know how to support this position.

Some of us have rejected the very idea of God.If we still believe in something we call God, we often have only the vaguest idea what it is. Without God, where do we turn for guidance? Without some ultimate source of goodness, where do we turn for hope? Values. Hope for humanity?

Is there some way that we can look at this question fresh? If we can no longer believe that God possesses body hair and micromanages our days, is there nothing in the universe that we may worship? Nothing that we may call "holy?" Nothing that can guide our feet, whatever name we attach to it? Is there something else that is worthy of the name God?

When we look out into the vastness of the universe we inhabit, some of us may conclude that there is not. Creation exists in incredible variety. But so does destruction. Life exists, but so does death. So far, intelligence and compassion as we know them are limited to this minute part of the universe. Concepts of justice do not even seem relevant to stars we only glimpse across space and time. We came from the dust of the stars. To the dust we will all eventually return.

Yet out of the dust dreams of freedom sprang. Out of the dust concepts of justice developed. Out of the stuff of the universe, came calls for mercy, courage and wisdom. Out of the stars came Shakespeare and Ella Fitzgerald. Out of the atoms come the turning leaves. Out of the atoms comes we know not what that has yet to be discovered.

Our values come from ourselves. But we ourselves come from the universe. So we may in truth say that our values exist embedded in the universe. That our values are at least in some sense derived from the universal, ultimate. But still that leaves us adrift. For all values can be claimed to spring from the universethose that we would call monstrous alongside those we would call sublime.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, a person will worship something. It is true. Examine your checkbook. Consider how you spend your time. Name what you love. Even for those of us who say we worship God, even for those of us who say the prayers and haunt our churches, the question of what we worship remains unanswered until we see how we respond when we are approached by someone in need, approached by someone who is different, threatened by a far off country. If there is in some sense a creative force behind existence, it may not what we would recognize as a moral force. The question is whether something exists that is worthy of the majesty of the word god.

In these last few weeks, we have seen incredible acts of goodness, kindness, compassion, mercy. These are present in our universe. For all the ambiguity involved, I find that I believe that there is something holy about these acts, something ultimate, something greater than the daily acts of our lives. I believe that. That is my faith. The source of those actions is my god.

But I see also that those whom we call terrorists have themselves given what they might call the ultimate act of goodness and compassion for their own people by giving their lives in a suicide mission. True, their belief is that God will reward their actions. But they, too, believe that they have performed a holy act. One that may bring about justice and freedom for them to practice their religion as they choose.

Jesus once said that those who would sit on his right side in heaven were those who fed the hungry and visited those in prison. Could we not make the argument that all those who do these actions believe in Jesus. That Jesus is not about a name. That God is not about a name. It is about what we worship, what we hold sacred in our lives and our deeds.

We make choices every day that reflect once again the nature of our God. If we make no conscious choice among the gods that exist, we are likely to choose by default a very small god. We will worship success. Or power. Or things. Or ecstasy. Or we may perhaps worship something larger, our family, our tribe, our country. But still we may choose a god of the few, not of the many.

If we would look for grounding in the ultimate, I would suggest that we must choose a wider god. A god, a morality, a justice and morality that embraces their land and ours. Their people and ours. That we hold holy the universe itself. Is not that as close as we can get to a grounding in the source of creation? A grounding in the eternal?

I would suggest as well that the survival of the universe, important though that may be, is not the only ultimate value. Certainly there is a drive toward survival embedded in the universe that underlies our value of life, of existence. We long to live. It is a fierce drive. But we also learn from the universe that endings, that death, are also very much a part of existence. Life is not the ultimate value. Nor the only value.

If we would find values that have some ultimate grounding, I would suggest that those values lie in our contemplation of what actions, what attitudes will best serve the universe. I would include in that reflection, however, the various parts of the universe individual turtles, particular trees, you, me, as well as the whole, all turtles, all trees, our country, their country, our planet, the universe? If the entire universe survives, but there is no justice, there is no beauty, there is no mercy, there is no respect, there is no freedom, have we served the universe?

Where do justice and beauty, mercy, respect and freedom exist outside of this planet? This infinitesimal little speck of the universe? Tiny as we are, we are still a part of this universe. It is through us that the universe has created the concepts of justice, beauty, mercy, freedom, respect. Are these not worthy of worship along with existence? Is these values not grounded in the ultimate? Should we not be slow to sacrifice the parts for the whole? For both are holy. Both are worthy of our worship. Both reflect what I call for lack of a better name, God.

These are times that test our souls. There are no easy answers. What I have suggested, even if you agree, raises more questions than it answers.

We confront people who appear to have conducted an escalating series of attacks over a number of years against our country. How might we respond that would be best for individuals of both our countries? How might we respond that would be best for our planet?

Moreover, what do we mean when we say best? The most lives saved? The most people well fed? The most people who live in freedom? The questions do not stop. But the answers are framed with the widest possible perspective. The individual and the whole. Our country and theirs. Our planet. Existence itself.

Moreover, our own lives continue. Fights with our relatives. Babies born. Airplane accidents that have nothing to do with hijackers. The ordinary temptations we face that threaten our relationships? Moments of pleasure that lighten our days. A moment of shared laughter. Desires for things. What do we worship? Where is god? Do we change our lives when we discover her?

These questions are difficult. So much rides on the answers. Forrest Church, minister of the All Souls Unitarian Church in New York City, once said that we must act on our 60 percent certainty, holding always alongside it the strong possibility that we are wrong.

May we be gentle with each other, even as we remember the cries of the world around us, wherever they may arise. May we be gentle with one another, even as we seek to serve each other and our planet.