for Sunday September 12: 

UU Sacraments

A Sacrament is an action which makes real a spiritual experience. Unitarian Universalists share many of those actions. 

In today's sermon 

  I'm going to present the idea that we as UU's 

    actually do have and share sacraments, 

      even if we don't often use the word, sacrament. 

Generally, I try to provide 

  the simplest possible definitions 

    of the terms we use regarding our lives of faith. 

While our faith as UU's can be widely varied, 

  there are some important things 

    we share in common. 

Maybe the most important thing 

  we share in common 

    is our acceptance of each other 

      along with our differences. 

Our understanding of sacraments 

  would be something with which we can do both. 

We can agree on a definition 

  and accept our disagreement on the details. 

In Christianity and in general, 

  the simplest definition I have found for a sacrament 

    is the one from St. Augustine: 

      A sacrament is an outer and physical sign 

        of an inner and spiritual grace. 

That works for me on many levels. 

Some of those terms would have to be defined, too, 

  but without getting too carried away, 

    we can agree that the term "spiritual" 

      refers to breathing and so to life itself, 

        while grace refers to love - unexpected 

          and maybe even undeserved. 

I've tried to simplify the definition further 

  with my description of today's sermon: 

"A Sacrament is an action 

  which makes real a spiritual experience. 

Unitarian Universalists share many of those actions." 

We share many of those sacramental actions 

  with our contemporaries 

    and with religious people from ancient times. 

Our most basic spiritual action 

  is our expression of UU faith. 

We are concerned with matters of believing 

  vs. skepticism. 

As UU's we may find the skepticism to be 

  of equal and sometimes even greater value. 

When we find matters of faith 

  about which we agree or disagree with people 

    of other faiths, 

      we are not particularly dogmatic 

        about those matters. 

Our faith seeks to find meaning in life 

  for ourselves 

    rather than accept what another person 

      tells us our lives mean. 

One of the most UU statements 

  about the meaning of life 

    that I have ever heard 

      came from the great movie, Oh God. 

        (with George Burns as God 

          and John Denver as His prophet.) 

God said, "Your lives mean 

  exactly what you think they mean, 

    no more and no less." 

I'm sure I've quoted 

  this statement from the movie before, 

    and I'm sure I'll quote it again, 

      if for no other reason than its near perfection 

        as a presentation of UU theology and faith 

          when we think of the meaning of life. 

I'm not prepared to call skepticism a sacrament, 

  but maybe for us as UU's it is close to being so. 

We find meaning in many ways in our lives, 

  but we do not insist that our own understanding 

    is the only correct one. 

Our willingness to maintain an open mind 

  is sacred to us, 

    and so it makes real an important part 

      of our lives, and that is a sacrament. 

Sacraments, no matter the religion 

  in which we find them, 

    can help us focus on the meaning of our lives. 

As I spoke of it in my most recent sermon, 

  our Water Communion 

    has a sacramental character 

      because it helps us remember 

        our relationship with the water of life 

          upon which we depend for our lives, 

            and the ways in which water connects us 

              to each other. 

Hence we call it water COMMUNION, 

  and we can affirm it as a UU Sacrament. 

Likewise for those who practice it, 

  the sacrament of the Bread of Life, 

    generally thought of as Holy Communion 

      in a Christian context, 

        can be a UU Sacrament as it

          gives us a point of connection with each other. 

Other UU Sacraments would have to include 

  the traditionally pagan celebration of a ritual 

    with cakes and ale. 

The chalice used for the ale 

  is the Cup of the Goddess, 

    and many people believe that it 

      is the source of the legends of the Holy Grail. 

The grail was never lost! 

It's right here in our hands 

  perhaps as a beer mug 

    when we dedicate our drinking from it 

      to the Mother of us all. 

Speaking of Pagan sacramental rites, 

  the celebration of the Seasons 

    and the wonders of Nature 

      are ways of connecting us 

        to the world in which we live 

          and to each other. 

The current celebration of the Season 

  is the remembrance of the Equinox. 

The newborn Season of Autumn began 

  at 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time last Wednesday. 

Today is our first opportunity 

  to remember the Equinox

    in our time of worship together. 

The act of remembering 

  and holding in our hearts 

    the sacredness of the Season 

      is a pagan and UU Sacramental action. 

The Horned God may say in our hearts, 

  "Do this for the remembrance of me," 

    as we take a sip of beer. 

The Horned God (or Green Man) is a type of Christ 

  in that he offers himself as a sacrifice 

    for the continuing flow and passage of the Season. 

In his case, the sacrifice is not for sin 

  but for the natural order. 

The remembrance of his death 

  is a sign of death and rebirth, 

    a pattern seen in nature over and over, 

      especially in the unfolding of seasons and years. 

As we celebrate life, death, and rebirth, 

  we make our experience of the natural order 

    into a Sacrament that binds us together 

      with Mother Nature, the natural order, 

        and each other. 

The nature based rites 

  are tailor made as UU Sacraments 

    because of their universality 

      and because they are not limited 

        to a particular sectarian religious practice. 

Our remembrance of the Horned God 

  with his birth, death, and rebirth 

    in the unfolding of the natural order 

      connects us with ancient sacramental rituals, 

        with those who celebrate them today, 

          and with each other. 

I don't care at all that Christian hardliners 

  have sometimes connected the Horned God 

    with their devil. 

In fact, in a kind of perverse way, 

  it pleases me, 

    because my sacramental remembrance of him  

      is for me a meaningful repudiation 

        of the narrowness of their faith. 

I believe that sacraments are meant to unite us, 

  not divide us. 

So you can imagine how much I disagree 

  with Roman Catholic bishops 

    who want to exclude President Biden 

      from R.C. Holy Communion

        because of his disagreement with them 

          on the political aspects of abortion. 

I'm fascinated that in my disagreement 

  with those bishops, 

    I'm taking a position close to that of Pope Francis. 

It is the pope's belief that bishops - and others - 

  can agree to disagree with each other. 

As I have told some of my UU friends 

  who have been Roman Catholic 

    during some part of their lives, 

      as UU's, they just may be better catholics 

        than they were in the Roman Catholic church, 

          since the very word, "catholic," 

            means "universal"! 

We don't often think of it in those terms, 

  but that really is 

    what the word catholic (small c) means. 

What we think of as the Catholic Church 

  is more properly called the Roman Catholic Church, 

    and the faith of RC people 

      is often less different than our own UU faith 

        than we might expect. 

Certainly they live within a church hierarchy 

  where we do not, 

    and they have strict doctrinal concepts, 

      which we also do not. 

Yet our human spirituality is based 

  on the universality of our breath  

    in every case, 

      and so our experience of faith and sacraments 

        is more similar than most of us can imagine. 

We all have spiritual experiences, 

  moments in which the completeness of our nature 

    is more clearly revealed to us 

      than we are aware of in ordinary life. 

Those experiences are signs and sacraments. 

A cool Autumn breeze 

  may invoke a reality beyond everyday sensation. 

An act of human kindness may lift us out of doldrums 

  that have been a drag on our hearts' joy. 

Such sacraments are truly catholic 

  since they are part of 

    universal human experience. 

So it is that we as UU's do indeed have and share 

  in holy sacraments that remind us 

    of the holiness of all our lives. 

Our respect for the faith of others, 

  including those who disagree with us, 

    can inspire the finding of meaning 

      in all our lives and faith commitments. 

Amen. 

So let it be. 

Blessed be.