One of the qualities I love about Unitarian Universalism is that we strive to be a reality-based religion.  We use the best tools of science and reason to start from an accurate description of reality. From that ground we build our faith to places that science alone cannot reach:  from knowledge, to wisdom.

           We are talking for the rest of this church year about the goals of religion.

            What is religion for?

            The real question is, Why are you here?  What are you looking for?

            And I don’t mean just why are you here today?  Or why did coming to church this morning seem like a slightly better option that whatever else you might have chosen to do this morning.  I mean in the sense that belonging to a spiritual community, signing the membership book, claiming, “I am a Unitarian Universalist” as a mark of your identity, and then spending not just a morning at church, but committing to be here week after week, year after year, volunteering on a committee or two (or twelve), serving a term on the board, giving to the church generously, sacrificially, through your pledge, and so on and so on, is all evidence that this faith is satisfying some need for you.

I wonder what that is?

You have embarked, willingly, hopefully joyfully, and let’s add purposefully, on a spiritual journey to somewhere.  Journeys have beginnings and also endings, and also long stretches in between, called “the journey” where you are making progress toward — what?

            Over the next several weeks, I’m going to suggest several different reasons that people might come to church, or have a faith life, or follow a religious path.  Some of the goals I’ll mention may resonant with you.  Others may not.  Any of them are probably true for some people in this room.  And there are still more that I won’t get around to mentioning. 

Religion offers many things.  And certainly for a religion as intentionally diverse as Unitarian Universalism you can be sure we’re not all here for the same reason.  That in itself is one of the learnings that I hope you’ll take away from this exploration of the goals of religion.  You may think we’re all here working on the same goal that motivates your participation.  That may lead to feelings of frustration with other church members who don’t seem as invested in the religious work that is so clearly the reason you are here.  The truth is, they might be working toward different goals.

            If you think you already know what you’re hoping to get from your faith, then I encourage you to try to articulate that goal in a sentence or two.  The beginning of the year is a good time for this kind of work.  What are you hoping to achieve this year through your church?  Write it down and paste it up somewhere where you can see it.  And then over the next several weeks see if you want to add to or modify what you first wrote down.  And then see if you can make some choices in your church participation so that you really make progress toward the goal you really want to achieve.

            And if you’ve never really thought about why you’re here, well here’s an invitation to think about it.  Obviously there’s some motivation that keeps you coming back.  What is it?

            Clear goals are important.  You have to know where you’re going in order to figure out how to get there.

            You don’t start a vacation by driving to the airport and hoping on the next plane.  Not unless you’re very adventurous.  First, you decide where you want to go and then you plan how to get there.  Maybe you need to drive, or take a boat, or hike in.  Maybe the vacation goal you’re really looking for is better met simply by staying home and curling up on the couch in your jammies.  Wouldn’t it be a shame if you ended up on a plane headed for Turkmenistan when what would really help you achieve your spiritual goals was a Netflix account and the phone number for that delivery chicken place?

            And that’s the thing about religion.  There are a lot of different goals out there.  The religions aren’t interchangeable.  They aren’t working toward the same end.  Do you want heaven, or reincarnation, or enlightenment, or rebirth on a higher plane, or merging with divine consciousness, or are you pretty sure this life is the only one you’re going to get?  Where are you trying to go?  Only once you know your destination will you be able to start a spiritual practice that will get you there.

            We will talk about the large goals that religion offers generally to all people later in the spring.  For Unitarian Universalism that large, social, goal is named in our sixth principle:  “The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.”

            But religions also offer personal goals.  Particular, focused, individual goals, that you want for yourself.  “I come to a Unitarian Universalist church because I want, for me…”  Fill in the blank.

            Let’s start with the goal of wisdom.

            I come to church because I want to know.  I want to understand.  I want to move skillfully and confidently through the world because I know the truth of the way the world is and people are.

            I want to know the world.  I want to know humanity.  I want to be confronted with the mysteries of the universe and solve them to my satisfaction.  I want the church to help me put all that in order.

            In other churches, the religion might give you answers.  The church has the wisdom you seek and gives it to you.  In Unitarian Universalism you have to figure it out for yourself, but the goal is the same;  to have it figured out.  Wisdom.

            In probably the most famous passage of the letters of St. Paul, he sounds like a person seeking the wisdom goal.

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”  (1 Corinthians: 13:11-12)

The Wisdom seeker wants to know the universe, not love the universe, or explore the universe, or be at peace in the universe.  The Wisdom seeker wants to think and reason like an advanced, evolved person.  Not the immature thoughts of the person who thinks they know it all.  But the deep, confidant knowing of wisdom.

            This is an intellectual goal, a goal of the mind.  Later we will get to goals of the body and the spirit.

            For the Wisdom Seeker, faith is an intellectual pursuit.  It’s the Jnana form of yoga, in Hindu practice.  It’s theology.  How is the world put together?  What does it mean to be human?  Is there a God, and if so, what is the nature of God?

            Being wise is more than being smart.  There are many smart people who aren’t wise.  So the Wisdom goal isn’t merely learning facts.  So knowledge is the path to wisdom, but wisdom lies beyond mere knowing.  Wisdom is the facts of knowledge, working in harmony, guided by values, and embued with moral purpose.

“I loved her more than health and beauty,
And I chose to have her rather than light,
because her radiance never ceases.
All good things came to me along with her”
(from The Wisdom of Solomon)

            Faith begins with a description of reality.  For the Wisdom seeker they want to know reality completely, entirely, deeply, in detail.

            So the Wisdom seeker relies on all the tools we have to explore reality:  Science.  Reason.  Logic.  History.  Art and Literature.  And, eventually, faith.

            In Unitarian Universalism we name one of the six sources of our faith as:  “Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;”

            An “idolatry of the mind and spirit” would be stubbornly holding to a belief that can be demonstrated false by science or reason.

            But there are, in Unitarian Universalism, as in all religious, important truths about reality which the tool of science cannot reach.  Science is our best tool to describe the reality of material existence.  But science is necessarily silent about the non-material parts of reality. 

Whether a God exists or not, for instance, is not a question science can help us answer.

But reason can help us with that answer.  The God that is supposed to be all good, all loving, and all powerful, for instance, is not logically compatible with a world that contains evil, pain, and suffering.

            Nor can science speak to us about important concepts of values, or ethics.  Science tells us what is but what should be.

            So we also name in the six sources of our Unitarian Universalist faith, “Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life.”

            So science gets us started on the Wisdom path.  Reason and logic move us into those immaterial places where Science cannot reach.  And then, eventually, we get to those principles and values places where we can only continue by faith alone.

            The difference between knowledge and wisdom is that journey into those further reaches.  Not just asking what is, but also why, and what for?

            In a complete faith we ask, “What is?”  Which is our description of reality.  Our worldview.  When I look out into existence this is what I see.  The content of reality.  That’s an important part of faith, and wisdom.  That’s the realm of science.

            And then we ask “Why?”  Why does any of this matter?  What’s important and unimportant about existence, or is every particle of existence equally good and bad with no judgment possible: all to be met with an equal shrug?

            And then, being clear about your values (and Unitarian Universalism gives us a statement of values in our 7 Principles) we then ask, “What for?”  What should I do?

            Complete faith begins in reality.  We are a reality-based religion.  Then faith sorts reality by applying value judgments of what is good and worthy.   Then faith ends in action.

            That is the journey of the Wisdom seeker.  From knowledge of what is, to the Wisdom of why and what for.

            Thus, in a Unitarian Universalist church we offer tools and opportunities for the Wisdom seeker.  Sermons that probe theological questions.  Educational forums that present the reality of our world, the stories of diverse human lives, and the pressing issues of our community and the larger world.  We hold Adult Faith Development classes throughout the year that open to us the wisdom of world religions and our own Unitarian Universalist tradition.

            If you come to church to know more, to understand, to learn, to figure it out; If you are a Wisdom seeker, we can help you on your journey.

            But we probably cannot completely satisfy you.

            Paul puts the end of wisdom-seeking at an unspecified “then.”  “Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully.”

            When is then?  For the Wisdom seeker.  Probably not in this lifetime.  Probably not in the next either, even if you imagine there is a next life.  Wisdom seeking starts a perpetual longing.  There is always more to know.  Every day brings a new and different world.  An eternity of reality unfolding, never fully opened. 

Knowledge is always unfinished.  So perhaps the final form of wisdom is knowing when you have enough.