A sermon delivered by The Rev. Kathy Schmitz on September 16, 2007
At Pathways Church, A Unitarian Universalist Community in Southlake, Texas
"... it is the lies we believe in that keep us in our cages… and it is the truth that sets us free."
from The Beautiful Tiger by Christopher Buice
I received a fun email this week. It was from a Unitarian Universalist in Tennessee named Ted who I have never met before. Ted listens to Pathways sermons via pod casting. As it happens, the reading I shared last week was written by the minister at Ted’s congregation and Ted was kind enough to correct my pronunciation of that minister’s name, which is handy because, just by chance, the story I am about to share is from that same minister, this time from his collection of Contemporary Parables for All Ages titled A Bucketful of Dreams (available from the UUA bookstore). So, with acknowledgement of our many interconnections, and thanks to Ted and his minister, I would now like to share the story of “The Beautiful Tiger” by Christopher B(u)ice – (rhymes with rice).
(Story)
American Poet, (1852-1940) Edwin Markham wrote the following short poem, titled "Outwitted" (complete poem)
He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
Throughout the history of religion there have been those who were painted with the label heretic. These were the people who dared to believe something contrary to the dominant tradition of the day. But what does heretic really mean – it means “one who chooses. That’s what a heretic is – “one who chooses.”
Our Unitarian Universalist history is filled with those who were labeled heretics. I, for one, am glad they dared to choose – to doubt, to questions, to struggle and to search. Rather than giving in to the dogma of their day, they dared to choose answers and spiritual paths that spoke to their unique human experience.
Freedom and Choice.
These gifts are central to the articulation of our faith tradition today. The 4th of our 7 Unitarian Universalist Association principle says that we promote and affirm a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. (repeat)
Or as we say with the children – Everyone is free to look for what is important in life.
Like our spiritual ancestors, we are free to choose – to doubt, to question, to struggle and search. To find the spiritual paths that speaks, in our time and place, to our unique experience of being human.
Freedom and Choice.
We are free to search, to make choices and yet… choices have consequences. And so, while we are free to make choices we are also responsible – responsible for the consequences of those choices.
We promote and affirm a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
Sometimes, when people first encounter Unitarian Universalism and ask what we believe, someone will show them a list of the 7 Unitarian Universalist Association Principles. Depending on their religious background, some of them, after looking at the list for a few minutes, will say, “Well, these aren’t beliefs. Anyone could believe these things.”
Now, depending on my mood, and the way the conversation has been going, I have two responses to this.
In the first, they say, “Well, these aren’t beliefs. Anyone could believe these things.”
And I respond, “We weren’t really trying to set up a club that was hard to join.”
By which I mean, we were searching for deep and widely held human values. Not trying to draw a tight little circle around ourselves for the purpose of excluding other, in order to call them heretics.
In the second scenario, they say, “Well, these aren’t beliefs. Anyone could believe these things.”
And I respond, “Did you really look at number 4?”
I mean, at a surface level at least, lots of people, lots of religious traditions, affirm some of the principles… that people have worth and dignity, that justice and compassion, encouragement and acceptance, are important. Lots of folks support democracy, or world community, or a respect for our interdependence. At least at some level.
Of the seven principles, I think that fact that we:
promote and affirm a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
is something that can be challenging to people.
I won’t make the claim that this make us unique but…
Our clarity about our right to choose, to be heretics if you will, is certainly an important feature of our faith tradition.
Because in this room, this good gathering of people, we have folks with any number of different ideas about some of the theological and philosophical questions that people have pondered throughout the ages. This diversity of belief can be challenging on occasion, but it isn’t just an unfortunate side effect of who we are. Our affirmation of the search is a critical part of our identity.
I’ve been thinking about some of the ways that people become heretics.
The story of The Beautiful Tiger is a wonderful metaphor that can be used in many ways. But, I found myself thinking about what happens next, after one breaks out of the cage. So, with apologies to Rev. B(u)ice, I have taken the liberty of rewriting his story to aid in the investigation.
The Beautiful Spirit
A story inspired by The Beautiful Tiger from A Bucketful of Dreams: Contemporary Parables for All Ages by Christopher Buice
There once was a child with a kind heart and a clever mind.
Her parents took her to a religious institution that was just down the street from their house.
Each week they would attend worship and classes at that institution.
Sometimes the child would see or hear things in the world that stirred her heart. She would say, “My, I want to do something to help those people.”
When the leaders of the religious institution heard her say this they would tell her, “Your heart should not be moved by this. You cannot help those people. They are sinners and if you help them you will be a sinner too.”
Sadly, the child would believe the leaders and she closed her heart.
Some days, the child would hear new ideas and she would think about them and come up with her own ideas. She would raise her hand in class and say, “Why, I have a question.”
When the leaders heard her say this, they would tell her, “No, you are not clever enough to think for yourself. We will tell you what to believe. You must not ask questions.”
Sadly, the child would believe the leaders and she closed her mind.
Then one day, when the leaders were nowhere around, the child happened to meet an old friend.
The friend, who had known the child when she was younger, knew that she had a kind heart and a clever mind. The friend invited her to help out with a project in town and to go to a talk by someone with some new ideas
“Do not ask me to do such things,” replied the child. “I can’t help those sinners and I don’t want to hear new ideas.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you,” said the friend, “It just that I know you are compassionate and bright. I am only surprised to see you closing your heart and your mind, when clearly you are clever enough to think for yourself.”
“You really think I could think for myself?” asked the child.
“Quite easily, I should think,” replied the friend.
The child was not so sure at first. She had been told differently so many times.
But suddenly it seemed that she could feel compassion and wisdom flowing through her heart and mind. She was silent for a moment and then she smiled and said to her friend, “I will go with you to help at the project and hear the talk.”
After the outing the child was lost in thought. “I’m not a sinner and neither are those people,” she said. “And I don’t know if I agree with some of that speaker’s ideas or not, but I’ll decide that for myself. I spent so much of my life letting other people make my decisions, when all I had to do was use the heart and mind that I was born with.”
The friend looked at her with gentle eyes and said, “Sometimes, it is the decisions we refuse to make that hold us back … and it is the choice to speak our truth that sets us free.”
(end of story)
“Sometimes, it is the decisions we refuse to make that hold us back”
I need to point out that to some degree I don’t believe that we can refuse to make decisions. In most cases, there is a natural consequence to not making a decision – often the status quo. We may say that we have not made a decision, but in so doing we have sanctioned the natural consequence.
For example, to follow a religious leader without question is a decision. It may be easier; it may free you up from decision making in the future, but the decision to follow or not follow is a choice.
So we make a choice.
Maybe you are a tiger who has recognized your strength.
Maybe you are a child who has heard the calling of your own inner voice.
And now you’ve busted out.
And if you thought that was hard to get to, wait until you try to next trick.
Because after the first happiness and excitement… reality sets in. You’re not just dazed. Your lying in a crumpled heap on the sidewalk, because…
…You, my beautiful tiger, don’t yet know how to find food on your own… or how to avoid predators.
Because…
….You, my beautiful spirit, are now considered a heretic by the only community you have ever known.
Oppressive as the cage was, you understood life there. And now you need to learn a new way of being.
It can be hard work becoming a heretic.
Will it be worth the work… oh, I think so… but… it won’t be easy.
Of course, not everyone becomes a heretic in such a dramatic way.
Some people are very happy in their religious homes. The people are nice. The music is good. It’s comfortable. There’s only one problem. You don’t believe the things that everyone else seems to believe. The feeling grows. It’s a little less comfortable.
You start going on scouting expeditions to see if possibly, somewhere, there is something that fits you better.
And maybe you find it easily or maybe it is a very long search. And maybe when you find it you jump right in or maybe, just maybe, it takes a while to feel comfortable in this new place. Because even though it fits a little better in some ways, you still miss the comfortable feel of your old religious home. And so for a while you keep one foot in each world. Until the day the balance has shifted, and you are ready to claim a new place.
What can make this approach easier is that the seeker is never completely spiritual homeless.
This is in contrast to the one catapulted out of a community, who busts out in a sudden spurt. Who, when the dust settles finds that they belong nowhere. Who, when they find themselves labeled a heretic by those closest to them, have no support.
Those who take the more gradual approach have the opportunity to build up a new community of support before they have to completely cut ties with the old.
There are of course, many other types of spiritual journeys. There are people to wander from tradition to tradition never finding a fit. There are people who move away from a community, either gradually or suddenly, and then stay away from all religion for awhile – taking a sort of spiritual sabbatical.
So many paths we travel.
And some of us find our way to UU congregations and find a home here.
People arrive on our doorstep after all sorts of journeys, and the questions that I would like to address, is, what will we offer these travelers after we invite them in?
Before I do that, I do want to acknowledge those who began as Unitarian Universalist.
We know people who have come to us from other traditions.
We know those who are life long UUs.
We don’t see the people who started as UUs and whose journeys took them somewhere else, but, in honesty, but there are those as well.
For those among us who have always been UU, they may experience their moment of heresy when they went out in to the world, when they emerge from the protective circle of their congregation into a world that doesn’t understand them, when they discovered that those who chose not to chose can be very threatened by our free religious tradition.
Our paths are many and varied. And so the question remains.
What do we offer to as refreshment, as nourishment, to the seekers of all kinds who arrive at our door, tired from the journey?
I found one part of the answer in the discussion at the Women’s Book Group last week. The group has been reading the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. It talks about how change happens in societies, group, and even individuals. Someone, I can’t remember who, pointed out a section (page 173). It was about John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist tradition and some of the reason for his success. Here is the line that struck me:
Wesley realized that if you want to bring about a fundamental change in people’s belief and behavior, a change that would persist and serve as an example to others, you needed to create a community around them, where those new beliefs could be practiced and expressed and nurtured.
… you needed to create a community around them
When people are changing it helps to have a supportive community.
That is true for many types of change. It worked for creating Methodists. It works in support groups of many kinds.
I suggest to you that when seekers, weary from the journey, arrive at our door, one of the key things that we need to offer them is a place where what is new to them can be practiced and expressed and nurtured. We need to offer them a supportive community.
There are people who have never before been allowed, let alone invited, to speak their own truth.
To share their true feelings.
To hear their own voice expressing their own unique thoughts.
What a powerful experience!
What a gift we can offer when we create a place for this to happen.
When someone, who has been told for years, that they should not, could not, trust their own inner wisdom… when this person first ventures out, first takes those initial tentative steps…
They need to be listened to.
They need to be accepted and encouraged.
They need to be somewhere that this new way of being can be practiced and expressed and nurtured.
They do not need to be told, again, that they can not trust their own heart, their own mind.
They do not need to discover that they have only found a new cage.
We need to open our door wide that all those spiritual seekers who would find a home among us will.
And once they step inside, we need to ensure that they can find here a safe and nurturing environment.
And we need to make certain, that in the rush of enthusiasm that we may feel when we enter such a space, we do not close the door behind us. We need to make sure that in the joy of discovering our own inner light, that we do not share it in such a way that we become just one more judge in a judgmental world.
If we would invite people out of their/there cages
We must open our door wide
If we would hold up the value of freedom in religion
If we would affirm our heretics right to choose
If this is what integrity demands of us
Then it also demands that we offer support and comfort to all the weary travelers who would come our way.
I close with the words of The Rev. Bill Shultz, former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association:
This is the mission of our faith:
To teach the fragile art of hospitality;
To revere both the critical mind and the generous heart;
To prove that diversity need not mean divisiveness;
And to witness to all that we must hold the whole world in our hands.
Guidelines for use: Here are Rev. Kathy's wishes for the material offered here. The main purpose for making these sermons available is for the use of members and friends of Pathways Church and for those interested in Pathways Church. In this capacity, it is expected that they will be read in place by interested individuals. Should they come to the attention of others, with attribution they may be quoted freely, without permission. With attribution they may be used in whole in the context of worship or religious education without advance permission though Rev. Kathy would be interested to know how they are used and by who. She asks that the text not be used in whole in print press or on another web site without advance permission. Thanks!