{"id":4096,"date":"2025-02-02T18:18:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T02:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/?p=4096"},"modified":"2025-02-02T18:18:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T02:18:18","slug":"an-optimistic-faith-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/?p=4096","title":{"rendered":"An Optimistic Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Because we are free, the future is open. Because the future is open, there are no certainties, either of glory or of doom. Uncertainty makes space for doubt but also optimism. Unitarian Universalism is characterized by a sense that our future will be better, because we can make it so.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This year in worship, we are taking a long walk through the fundamentals of faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            As this is my last year in professional ministry before I retire from this pulpit at the end of June, I thought as I planned the worship for this year last summer that I would revisit the fundamental issues of spirituality I\u2019ve preached on many times and challenge myself to preach not as Unitarian Universalist preachers usually do:  raising questions and avoiding answers, but to decide for myself what I believe and share my answer with you.  Not to pretend I have the final answers, because these questions don\u2019t have final answers, and my answer may not be yours, but to model for the congregation what it looks like to have a firm faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wasn\u2019t sure as I laid out the issues Sunday by Sunday, that I had answers to all these questions, but this was the time, my final chance, to stake a claim.  I wanted to know whether my spiritual journey through ministry had been a fruitless wandering, entertaining but not enlightening, profitable to my retirement account, but not profitable to my soul, or could I claim that in thirty years of professional and spiritual work that I had arrived somewhere valuable, to me, and hopefully to the congregations I\u2019ve served?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I stand, actually, in the same place where my ministry began in 1996 as your intern minister, I wanted to know, am I standing in the same spot spiritually, or have I traveled to somewhere new?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Whether the future is open or closed is one of those foundational spiritual issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I preached back in October on the subject of free will when we celebrated our church\u2019s Founder\u2019s Day.\u00a0\u00a0Back then, I affirmed my belief that the future is open.\u00a0\u00a0This morning, I want to push that conversation to the question that belief in an open future leads to, which is, if the future is an open vista not a determined path, what are the chances we\u2019ll get to the place we want to go?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Not everyone believes that the future is open.  Interestingly, I think the truth is that the more people think about free will the less likely they are to believe in it..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Theologians will tell you that an all-powerful God leaves no room for your power and that to an eternal God the future would be as clearly known as the past.\u00a0\u00a0Physicists will tell you that the matter of our brains is just as bound by the physical laws of nature as every other physical thing.\u00a0\u00a0The chemical reactions that we interpret as expressing personal desires are just as automatic as any chemical reaction in a test tube.\u00a0\u00a0Our genetic inheritance shapes us in the womb and throughout our lives.\u00a0\u00a0Psychologically, we\u2019re bound to habits that were ingrained in childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That you feel<\/em> you have free will is no evidence that you actually do.  Instead, you choose exactly what a person in your situation, with all the givenness of your past and the world as it is around you, would always choose, would have<\/em> to choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            You may think you\u2019re making it up as you go along, but really, you\u2019re following a script and hitting your marks, and the final scene is already in the can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Coincidentally, as I was thinking about this sermon this week, the latest copy of the New Yorker<\/em> arrived and in it was an article about apocalyptic thinking, titled, \u201cWhat We Learn About Our World By Imagining Its End\u201d by Arthur Krystal.  Here\u2019s the first paragraph:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a mite soon to start grieving, but scientists now project that life on Earth will probably end in about a billion years. A Monday in February, 1,000,002,025, would be my guess. On that inhospitable day, give or take a few million years, the sun will become so hot that the oceans will boil, Earth\u2019s oxygen will disappear, and photosynthesis will cease, as will all living things. We should be so lucky. There\u2019s a pretty fair chance that life could be wiped out well before then\u2014say, in early June, 2034, or on a cloudy Sunday in November, 3633. Then again, who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then Krystal answers his question by saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlenty of people do, as it turns out, and, if you want to know who they are, Dorian Lynskey\u2019s \u201cEverything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World<\/a>\u201d (Pantheon) is a good place to start. Lynskey, a British journalist and podcaster, has assembled biological, geological, archeological, literary, and cinematic permutations of existential finales, leaving no stone unturned, be it meteor, comet, or asteroid. If a book, a song, a story, a film, a headline, a title, or a study has \u201cworld\u201d and \u201cend\u201d in it, Lynskey has unearthed it. Just about everyone who\u2019s had anything to say about the world\u2019s demise, from John of Patmos to Doris of Lessing, seems to warrant a mention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John of Patmos is a reference to the author of the book of Revelations, which is a very detailed description of how the world will end, or at least this current phase of the world\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coincidentally again, or should I say \u201cfated to be\u201d, there was an article in the New York Times<\/em> this week about an asteroid, dubbed 2024 YR4, that has a 1.3 percent chance of colliding with earth in 2032.  It wouldn\u2019t be a world extinguishing event, but it would do a lot of damage if it happened to hit a city.  A meteor strike in 1908 in Tunguska, Siberia, decimated an 800-square-mile forest.  That\u2019s about twice the size of New York City, and this asteroid is three times larger than that one.  On the Torino scale, a tool for communicating how concerned the public and policy makers should be about an asteroid (who knew we had such a thing?) on a scale of one to ten, 2024 YR4 is a three, which is the second-highest rating ever given to an asteroid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Torino scale gives probabilities but if the future is closed, there\u2019s no doubt.  That asteroid is flying through space controlled by gravity, not by free will.  It\u2019s a law<\/em> of gravity, not a suggestion.  If we had more complete knowledge and faster computers we could say with certainty whether 2024 YR4 would fly harmlessly by earth in December 2032, or land in the ocean, or make a direct hit at 12355 Moorpark Street in Studio City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among all of those apocalyptic scenarios gathered in Dorian Lynskey\u2019s book, Everything Must Go<\/em>, some are fanciful, but some, like the Book of Revelations<\/em> are prophecies.  They will happen, so the believers believe, because since the beginning of time, designed by God, or by the laws of physics, they must happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a picture of a closed future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against that picture, here is what I said in my sermon last October:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut to me, belief in a fixed future is a horror.  I crave not certainty, but freedom.  The freedom to dream whatever I dream, and to work with the possibility that my effort might make a real difference.  I find more comfort in regarding the future as an open space full of possibilities that I can make actual, than in a future that could be seen with certainty, but can\u2019t be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then I qualified my belief in freedom:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur choices are not entirely free.  The givenness of the past does constrain us.  We arrive at church with a building that was already built.  The resources of this particular congregation allow us to do some things, but not all things.  Our church\u2019s character is shaped by our past, and our future will be shaped by who we are today.  But I say \u201cshaped\u201d not fixed.  We are the creators, and with the clay we have been given, we can create many different future shapes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After thirty years in ministry, considering the question of free will many times and preaching about it often, my belief is that we are free, free to make real choices, free to participate in creating what the future will be, not merely destined to live out a pre-determined future.  Against the theologians, I argue that belief in an all-powerful God introduces an unsolvable problem of evil, so I believe in a god that shares power with humanity and other choice-makers.  Rather than an eternal god, I believe in a god that experiences time with us, as a partner in creating the future.  Against the physicists, I follow the Buddhist conception that places consciousness at the foundation of reality, rather than material objects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more than rationalism, I stake my belief in free will on faith, in the common meaning of that word, not because I have objective proof, but because the belief that we are free to shape our own lives and create our own future, individually and collectively is essential to my spiritual health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make sense of important spiritual categories like purpose and meaning, we must be free to choose.\u00a0\u00a0To judge actions as right or wrong and to hold persons accountable for their choices, we must be free to choose differently than we do.\u00a0\u00a0To be proud of what I\u2019ve done, I must be free to have not done what I did.\u00a0\u00a0To be free to love who I love with my own romantic energy, not because my emotions are manipulated by a chemical reaction or follow an automatic psychological response, is what makes love real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I may be wrong.  But as you\u2019ve heard me say several times this year, we judge our beliefs not as right or wrong, but on whether they are useful.  Is a belief helpful to your spiritual health, or is it spiritually unhealthy?  Belief in free will is essential to my spiritual health, and so I believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            So then, if the future is an open field not a set path, where shall we go and what are the chances we\u2019ll get to the place we desire?  With no path marked out for us, will we stray, lose our way, fall into a ditch, or find darkness descending before we\u2019ve reached our goal?  Or might we, by our own power, navigate the trackless expanse, and meet the future we hope for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Last weekend I heard a quote that has stayed with me and given me some comfort in these first extremely unsettling weeks of our new Presidential administration, and as we assess the extent of the damage done to our city by the recent fires and the magnitude of the job of rebuilding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The quote is this:  \u201cHuman beings overestimate what they can accomplish in a day, and underestimate what they can accomplish in ten years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I heard that quote in a documentary about Brian Eno, the musician and record producer, but Brian Eno was quoting someone else and I didn\u2019t catch the name.  Googling the quote, it seems most often attributed to Bill Gates, which may or may not be correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But the statement is true, isn\u2019t it?  We overestimate what we can do in a short time, and underestimate what we can do in a long time.  The list of tasks we assign ourselves in the morning is seldom completed by the time we go to bed.  And when the future looks bleak, as maybe it does to you today, nothing seems possible.  Generally, we give too much weight to the present, and not enough flexibility to the future.  When times are tough, the descending path to doom seems inevitable.  Or when present times are good we feel we\u2019re at the dawn of a new day that will never end.  But then, looking back ten years, or analyzing any ten-year period of history, it\u2019s astounding how much the world actually does change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Two weeks ago in worship I read several passages from a talk Martin Luther King gave in 1967 on the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.\u00a0\u00a0He did exactly that ten-year review I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0\u00a0Remember that list of accomplishments?\u00a0\u00a0Who could have imagined in the legally segregated Jim Crow south of 1957, how much America would change by 1967 because the SCLC got itself organized and got to work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            If the future is open, then all we can say about it is, \u201cWe don\u2019t know.\u201d  Which means, if all we know of the future is that we don\u2019t know, then glory is just as likely as doom, although no more likely either.  Success or failure are equally possible.  A happy day or heartbreak.  An asteroid in a few years, or a boiling ocean in a billion years, or the four horsemen of the apocalypse sometime in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            So why choose hope?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Well for one, hope is a virtue.\u00a0\u00a0Hope is one of the three theological virtues along with faith and charity that I mentioned in my sermon last week, along with the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            And hope is a reasonable choice, because optimism is a hallmark of our Unitarian Universalist tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yesterday we started our Harvest the Power class.\u00a0\u00a0One of the readings was from the Unitarian Universalist theologian James Luther Adams from an essay of his titled, \u201cFive Smooth Stones.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0In his essay, Adams lays out five principles of liberal religion.\u00a0\u00a0The principle that \u201crevelation is not sealed\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Nothing is complete.\u00a0\u00a0The principle of mutuality in human relations.\u00a0\u00a0The principle that we are called to build just and loving communities.\u00a0\u00a0The principle that we are called to work in historical and social contexts larger than our own time and place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And Adams\u2019 fifth principle of liberal religion that we looked at in class yesterday, is the defining feature of Unitarian Universalism I wanted to lift up today.\u00a0\u00a0In Adams\u2019 words:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cFinally, liberalism holds that the resources (divine and human) that are available for the achievement of meaningful change justify an attitude of ultimate optimism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Though the future is unknown, Unitarian Universalists have a hunch that glory is more likely than doom.\u00a0\u00a0Ours is an optimistic faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Our optimistic faith is justified because we know that human beings are not all good, all wise, and all powerful, but our faith teaches us that human beings are good enough, smart enough, and strong enough to create lives of health and joy for ourselves, for each other, and for the world we share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Our optimistic faith is justified because we see not just the open future, we also review the evidence of the past.  We know from experience that shorter spans of history can be dismal, but longer spans of history show improvement.  And we know, because we\u2019ve lived through such times, that even ten years can make incredible difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Our optimistic faith is justified because our faith teaches us and our history shows us, that the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice.  Not because it has to be that way, but because we set ourselves to bend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            By optimistic faith, in the words of Leonard Mason we used as our Call to Worship, \u201cWe affirm the unfailing renewal of life.  Rising from the earth, and reaching for the sun, all living creatures shall fulfill themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By optimistic faith, \u201cWe affirm the steady growth of human companionship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By optimistic faith, \u201cWe affirm a continuing hope.  That out of every tragedy the spirits of individuals shall rise to build a better world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future isn\u2019t certain.  But that gives us room to work, and we are ready for the job.  We have the vision, the passion, the skill.  We don\u2019t indulge in despair or catastrophize a bad couple of weeks or months into a lifetime of gloom.  We don\u2019t sing songs of doom and doubt.  We sing  \u201cFrom all that dwell below the skies, let songs of hope and faith arise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There are no prophecies of apocalypse in our scriptures.  And when we\u2019re told that there\u2019s a 1.3% chance of an asteroid hitting Earth, we can quickly calculate that means there\u2019s a 98.7% chance that it won\u2019t.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Ours is the faith that sings:  \u201cStand we now upon the threshold, facing futures yet unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Ours is the faith that sings:  \u201cWell it looks like it might be a hard road but I\u2019m gonna walk it with you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because we are free, the future is open. Because the future is open, there are no certainties, either of glory… Read more An Optimistic Faith<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4097,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096\/revisions\/4097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}