Living and Loving from the Rough
Sunday, February 9, 2025
We begin the 2025 Winter Sermon Series titled "Love at the Center" with grounding from our Unitarian Universalist history. Specifically, we will pick up the five smooth stones of liberalism as articulated and inspired by James Luther Adams to aid us in centering love as we live through this rough chapter in our nation's history.
Opening Words — “Love Is the Center and Foundation” by Rev. Shari Woodbury
N: Again we reground ourselves, here, in our highest values.
L: Love is the center and foundation of this faith.
N: Love is the power that holds us together as a community.
L: As we enter into worship, then, let us open our hearts to the healing power of liberating Love.
N: Because Love is not only something we receive, but something we practice in community,
L: let fall away all that might distract us from the whole-hearted practice of Love.
N: Let us be accountable to one another for doing the work of living our shared values through the spiritual discipline of Love.
L: As we continue to listen and learn, to act and grow, may each unfold in wholeness—both deeply loving and truly loved.
Reading — Excerpt from “Guiding Principles for a Free Faith” by Rev. Dr. James Luther Adams
The Five Smooth Stones of Liberalism
I.
Religious liberalism depends first on the principle that “revelation” is continuous. Meaning has not been finally captured. Nothing is complete, and thus nothing is exempt from criticism. Liberalism itself, as an actuality, is patient of this limitation. At best, our symbols of communication are only referents and do not capsule reality. Events of word, deed, and nature are not sealed. They point always beyond themselves…
II.
The second major principle of religious liberalism is that all relations between persons ought ideally to rest on mutual, free consent and not on coercion…
This second principle, like the others, can be stated in religious terms in various ways. Historically, the more profound forms of liberalism began in the modern world as a protest against ecclesiastical pecking orders. Protest against political and economic pecking orders soon followed. This protest often found its sanction in the basic theological assertion that all are children of one God, by which is meant that all persons by nature potentially share in the deepest meanings of existence, all have the capacity for discovering or responding to “saving truth,” and all are responsible for selecting and putting into action the right means and ends of cooperation for the fulfillment of human destiny…
III.
Third, religious liberalism affirms the moral obligation to direct one’s effort toward the establishment of a just and loving community. It is this which make the role of the prophet central and indispensable in liberalism.
A faith that is not the sister of justice is bound to bring us to grief. It thwarts creation, a divinely given possibility; it robs us of our birthright of freedom in an open universe; it robs the community of the spiritual riches latent in its members, it reduces us to beasts of burden in slavish subservience to a state, a church or a party – to a self-made God…
IV.
…we deny the immaculate conception of virtue and affirm the necessity of social incarnation. There is no such thing as goodness as such; except in a limited sense, there is no such thing as a good person as such. There is the good husband, the good wife, the good worker, the good employer, the good layperson, the good citizen. The faith of the liberal must express itself in societal forms, in the forms of education, in economic and social organization, in political organization. Without these, freedom and justice in community are impossible…
V.
Finally, liberalism holds that the resources (divine and human) that are available for the achievement of meaningful change justify an attitude of ultimate optimism… Progress is now seen not to take place through inheritance; each generation must anew win insight into the ambiguous nature of human existence and must give new relevance to moral and spiritual values. A realistic appraisal of our behavior, personal and institutional, and a life of continuing humility and renewal are demanded, for there are ever-present forces in us working for perversion and destruction…
Sermon — Living and Loving From the Rough
For those who were around or recall the early months of the pandemic back in 2020, we were really in some unprecedented times regarding how we do community, how we stick together in those days of great isolation and uncertainty. The staff and leaders at the time deployed the tried and true scientific method of “throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.” Really, I mean, we tried a lot of different things to keep us together in safe ways and keep us making sense of a deathly serious global pandemic. GeoCluster gatherings was one initiative that came from that era, where people would gather or cluster safely outside in a given geography, hence GeoCluster, and offer one another fellowship, hospitality, and a reminder that we were not alone, even while we were surrounded by the grave realities of failed political leadership in response to maintaining and uplifting what should be a baseline value, our collective public health and wellbeing.
While GeoClusters was a more sustainable and scalable initiative, one program that should not be overlooked was our first and what ended up being our only attempt at a UUCCI-sponsored golf outing. It was the fall of 2020, if memory serves correctly. Dreamed up by a few of us, including Mark Kevitt, who is now the Board President, so I’m not really sure if he had a good round or not, and Jim Farless who helps coordinate our Care Team, and don’t let his friendly disposition fool you; he was cutthroat out on the links! Anyway, I am what you might call a, um what’s below amateur? Oh yeah, a liability. I was definitely a liability for my foursome. Thankfully, we were playing this style called a scramble—and boy did we ever—where everyone got to hit the ball and then the best shot was the location for the next shot by the whole group. To go easy on everyone, I suggest we do the par 3 course, because I am a very compassionate and gracious loser. Anyways, while the official scorecard for the round did not survive the pandemic, I must confess, I likely got the most practice out of anyone in humility and looking for by golf ball in the rough. And lest you think my memorable performance and ongoing under my breath commentary was due to a lack of having a diversity of clubs or that the weather was bad or what have you, at the end of the day, my round, my performance, my joy, my frustration, and my overall experience was directly related to the tools at my disposal, which included my previous experiences playing golf, which was limited, and a fateful single day I was a paid caddy as a teenager, and notably the company through which I was able to spend a few hours with on that beautiful fall morning.
Now I’m digging this memory up for a reason, and it isn’t for sympathy. Rather, I am reminded that in these difficult political times in which we are living, in these days that can feel as uncertain and a threat to the well-being of all who live in this nation, our ability to live and love and for that matter golf, advocate, struggle, persevere, and win our collective liberation, is dependent on the tools in our bag and the community with whom we gather. Whether we seek to live, love, or swing from the tee, fairway, or rough, and my word it feels like more and more we are in the thick grass these days, it critically matters that we understand all the gifts at our disposal, all the pros which might be short for prophetic people who have came before, who lived and loved and fought for a better world one swing at a time, one day at a time. Because if we do not, well, we may assume, we are on a par five with a putter, or like little old David with nothing that can seemingly compare to the gargantuan force of Goliath or xenophobia or transphobia, or of all the fear all the phobias packaged together into whatever keep panicked at night and numb throughout the day.
There is of course a limit to this metaphor of golf to help us consider the tools for living and loving through the rough in which we are living today. It was important for me as we began our Winter Sermon Series titled “Love at the Center” to ground us in the treasure trove of tools that can be found in our Unitarian Universalist history and theology. Whether you have been a UU for decades, years, whether you are just trying on the label or are still curious or skeptical about what such an identity means, let me over this brief crash course into some of the gifts that might aid us in our struggle to live and love in these days. Indeed, perhaps as we come to know some the history of our liberal and liberating, living religious tradition, we will come to not only live and love in these days, but center such values, that is, life and love, in all the precious time we are lucky enough to have together on this earth.
To ground us then for the work ahead, I want to lift up the classic and essential writing of the 20th century UU theologian and ethicist, the Rev. Dr. James Luther Adams, who, in the reading excerpted this morning, utilizes the biblical imagery of five smooth stones, an illusion to the story of David and Goliath. These five smooth stones of liberalism are for Adams the tools that can overcome challenges as impossibly great as embodied in the archetypal bully of Goliath. For each of us, I hope these smooth stones can foster resilience, courage, and of course love in our hearts, this community, and our journeys forward through these rough times.
So let’s take them one at a time. James Luther Adams says the first smooth stone of liberalism is the principle of what he calls continuous revelation. Adams writes, “Meaning has not been finally captured. Nothing is complete, and thus nothing is exempt from criticism.” As Unitarian Universalists we believe that we are not only lifelong learners, but that life requires rigorous and critical engagement. While this incompleteness could be disconcerting, it also is a reminder of the natural abundance of life. Back to our golf metaphor we began, with every swing of the club—good, bad, or otherwise—there is an opportunity to learn from the experience, reassess the new landscape, and swing again. This character allows us to sharpen our practice of love by noticing patterns, addressing deviations, and striving for consistency or integrity in our living and loving in this life. I for one am grateful that every morning that I am lucky enough to awaken again in this fragile and beautiful world I can begin again in love and keep on moving forward, not alone, but with all of you.
The second smooth stone of liberalism is about our shared value, truly our central commitment to what makes liberalism, liberal. Liberalism emphasizes the necessary freedom and choice an individual must be afforded in this life. Thus, Adams suggest “relations between persons ought ideally to rest on mutual, free consent and not on coercion.” This principle clearly has implications for the discussions we will be having the next several weeks on love, relationships, community, and the current political realities we face as a nation. But beyond love, if there ever is such a place, as Unitarian Universalists we promote choice and mutual consent in all aspects of our lives. At UUCCI, I say nearly every Sunday that I am thankful you chose to be in community, that you chose to not go it alone, but to gather, organize, sometimes, yes, scramble with fellow golfers, lovers, activists, spiritual, and active people who believe in many things, but perhaps nothing more central than the power of love in the face of any struggle, impasse, or bunker we find ourselves in.
In addition to life’s continuous unfolding and our existential commitment to freedom of personal and collective determination, Adams says we are naturally called “to direct one’s effort toward the establishment of a just and loving community.” Unitarian Universalism affirms that our lifelong learning and loving is not good in and of itself, but because of what we are individually and collectively working towards, namely the Beloved Community. When we are focused on the here and now, on what can be done in this moment or with the next swing, we can lose sight of the bigger picture, the larger struggle, and the ultimate demand of a liberal and liberating faith. Adams beckons our love and faith to be committed to the work of justice. We writes, “A faith that is not the sister of justice is bound to bring us to grief. It thwarts creation, a divinely given possibility; it robs us of our birthright of freedom in an open universe; it robs the community of the spiritual riches latent in its members, it reduces us to beasts of burden in slavish subservience to a state, a church or a party.”
The third smooth stone of liberalism then leads to the fourth, which is that our beloved community cannot be insular, cannot be solely for us, for our community, or interfaith partnerships, but must be directed toward what Adams calls social incarnation. In essence this is where the value of the scramble is a good analogy. When we live and love in good times or rough, our collective effort, wherein sometimes we individually hit the green and other times miss the mark, hopefully, moves us all forward, not some, but all toward a better tomorrow. In this sense, our individual lives and virtues, according to Adams, are given meaning and purpose by our relationships with those beyond ourselves. In Adams words, “The faith of the liberal must express itself in societal forms, in the forms of education, in economic and social organization, in political organization. Without these, freedom and justice in community are impossible…” This emphasis leans into our common Unitarian Universalist belief in shared responsibility, that goodness doesn’t just exist, but for that which we create together in this life, or love for that matter may not exist except for the love that is shared between us and beyond us, a love flowing through every action of goodwill we make in life.
The final smooth stone of liberalism is our “attitude of ultimate optimism.” Adams, like many UUs of the 20th century, was fascinated by the notion of human progress. A popular sentiment of the century was the idea that humanity was on a one way train “onward and upward forever.” Yet in the aftermath of the World Wars this unbridled optimism was tempered if not extinguished because of the horrors deployed and lives and communities decimated. However, I believe as Adams aged so too did his understanding of optimism mature. Notably he names the availability of resources both divine and human, acknowledging that if indeed, as Unitarian minister and abolitionist Theodore Parker believed, the long arc of the moral universe bent toward justice, it was in part if not large part due to our collective human bending of it. Secondly, his articulation of optimism includes an important qualifier, namely that of ultimacy. That we as Unitarian Universalists have a justifiable attitude of ultimate optimism. And like Adams, I do not believe this is just a belief that only in the end things will start looking up, but rather, there is across human history, both recorded and that which came before, we tend to gravitate toward light and love, toward life and community, toward wholeness and liberation. Yes, Adams argues that “Progress is now seen not to take place through inheritance; each generation must anew win insight into the ambiguous nature of human existence and must give new relevance to moral and spiritual values.” An understatement to say the least, we now living in 2025, are called once more to rename and renew the moral and spiritual values of our liberal religious tradition, once that intersect with many other religious and ethical traditions across the world, in order to resist and vanquish the current autocratic avatars and maleficent movements that are striving for in Adam’s words the collective “perversion and destruction” of all that we cherish.
This brings us all the way back to the tee from which we started. When we look out across the political and environmental landscape, we see despairing news raining down causing slick and sinister conditions for this round of loving before us. When we look down at our hands and consider the burden and responsibility that is ours to make our way somehow through these days and weeks—how has it only been weeks!—and months and years ahead, we may feel far from optimistic about what lies ahead. And yet then somehow by the grace of love and life shared by one another here in this sanctuary and beyond these walls, we may find a new driver or drive, a new wedge or angle, a new iron for yes we will need many irons in the fire to prepare for what is to come. Yes, in re-membering ourselves one another and to our Unitarian Universalist heritage of ethical commitment and care, we may muster once more the courage need to not only be resilient in the face of struggle, but able to harness a love we did not know was possible alone.
In the weeks to come, as we navigate what it means for us as Unitarian Universalists to place love at the center of our lives, I hope that we can turn to one another not in a chaotic scramble, but in a loving embrace of our shared humanity in and common commitment to a world that we have a bone deep and ultimate optimism that not only it will get better, but that we will be part of its great returning to love.
May it be so. Amen.