1. Reading of 1 Thessalonians 5:12-21 (21st Century
King James Version)
12And
we beseech you, brethren, that you come to know those who labor among
you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you,
13and to
esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves.
14Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are
unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward
all men.
15See that none render evil for evil unto any man,
but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and with all
men.
16Rejoice
evermore.
17Pray
without ceasing.
18In
every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you.
19Quench
not the Spirit.
20Despise
not prophesyings.
21Test all things; hold fast to that which is good.
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2. Placing the Text in Context:
There are at least two contexts or containers
for this text. First, it's a early letter by the Apostle Paul,
one of the earliest documents of Christianity (52AD?). It is
mercifully free of Paul's rants against his hate-groups (women,
gays-lesbians, human sexuality, other belief systems). It gives a
light dose of Paul's theology. It emphasizes in a positive way
what it takes to live together in community.
Second,
this text comes to us by way of two ministers and two
brothers. Your former minister, Eleanor Rice, saw it in
First Parish of Concord, Mass. and brought it back with her.
Brian Copp's twin brother attends that noble congregation, so Brian was
familiar with it. And your current minister, Ted Tollefson, is
putting in a plea for two key words that were left out: "Test Everything". It comes
right before "Hold onto what is
good".
Without those key words, Paul's letter to the
Thessalonians is full noble and useful sentiments, but it is not a
Liberal Religious text. What distinguishes our society from most
of the churches across the road, is the freedom and responsibility we
place in your hands to "test everything". Most religions in our
culture are "revealed religions". Moses, Jesus and
Mohammed had a revelation---a peak experience---and true
believers take that experience on faith, often repeating it as part
of worship services.
We
have a different approach to truth and meaning. We practice a
participatory, question-driven approach to religion. Our Seven UU
Principles were not carved in stone by lightning bolts, they were
debated, discussed and voted on by UU's just like you and me.
Last spring, we voted to alter our 7th principle to read: "respect and reverence for the
interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part." We
believe that 'the Book of Revelation' is not sealed. We invite
you to "Test Everything" and to hold onto that which proves itself
good, true and meaningful in your own life. If Moses was a
Unitarian Universalist he would have brought "10 Suggestions" not "10
Commandments". They would be written in pencil, not stone. And it
would be a two-way covenant, not a one-way covenant: we would not
forget to include what we expect of the Almighty. Perhaps a question
mark is
the unacknowledged sign of our interrogative faith. As one of my
mentors posted on his office door: "All easy answers
questioned here."
3. Test Everything---but how?
The Apostle
Paul tells us to "Test everything!", but he doesn't say how. As
is often the case, we're given a command but not an operator's
manual. I believe there are at least three ways of testing what
is good, true or beautiful. None of them are fool-proof, but
when used carefully and in combination, they offer a trustworthy
guidance system.
Many of us
have been taught how to test claims for goodness, truth or beauty by
using our intellect. It's called "critical
thinking", "free inquiry" or "the philosophical method".
In each case, we measure a bit of experience by the yard-stick of our core
values. Our core values---like goodness, truth and
justice---are like a carpenter's square or level which is used to "check
out" a claim or suggested course of action. We can check
for contradictions between one idea and another (the logical
test). Or we can check for sensory evidence to support or refute
a claim (the empirical test). Or we can look for practical
outcomes that we like or don't like (the pragmatic test). Taken
together these three methods of testing (logical, empirical, pragmatic)
are very useful when we can define our terms clearly and limit the
scope of our inquiry. They may be less useful when what's
at stake in the quality of relationship or the complexity of embodied
experience.
A second
method of testing relies on the "heart" more than the "head", the
limbic ring more than the neo-cortex. When
the issue is relational, sometimes the best test is compassion, empathy, the "knowledge of the
heart". Some of us have
a 'natural' capacity to sense immediately what another person is
feeling, needing or wanting. We may not know how we
know it, but we easily and accurately feel another persons pain or
delight. For others, the access to another
person's inner world may be less direct. We may have to go
through several stages to imagine what it is like to walk in
another person's shoes, to see and feel the world through their body,
and to inhabit the life-situation. Still
another path to compassion is the practice the "golden rule" of
mutuality: to treat others as we wish to be treated; to not do
unto others what we would not want done to ourselves.
Perhaps the power of the "golden rule" which has arisen in
most cultural and religious systems, is that it builds a bridge between
head and heart, between rule driven and empathy drawn approaches
to testing what is good and true.
A third
method of testing puts its trust in embodied
knowledge. For some this is a full-body feeling with a
typical flavor (anxiety,
anger, sadness, guilt) that signals some systemic threat or change.
For others these warning signals are localized in "the heart",
"the gut", or the "hands". For a long time this "kinesthetic"
knowing has been overlooked because it was associated with those who
worked with their hands. Star athletes and coaches in many fields
have used body-knowing to excel, get rich and teach others.
In the healing and martial arts of China and Japan, this knowing is
located in the lower Dan
Tien (Chinese) or Hara (Japanese). My decisive lessons in
this way of knowing came in my first year of seminary when I
managed a 52 unit apartment building in a changing neighborhood of
Oakland, Ca. I quickly learned that my job was to figure
out who I could trust to pay rent on time. None of the external
factors proved good predictors. Finally, I noticed that in the
first 5 minutes of a face-to-face conversation with a prospective
renter, my gut would either relax or tense up. Over-time, I
learned that a relaxed-gut meant "trustworthy" and a tensed-gut mean
"untrustworthy." When I followed my gut it choosing renters and
applied the golden rule to my relationships with them, I was surrounded
by good neighbors and made rent deposits on time. It's what those
under 30 call their "spidy sense" (as in the "Spider-man" films and
comics).
The good
news about these three ways of testing ----with our intellect, our
heart and our embodied awareness--- is that we don't have to be born
with them. Each can be cultivated with careful practice. Taking a
course in philosophy, joining a bookclub or a UU congregation can
encourage capacities in "critical thinking". Empathic
listening, living with a child or dog or serving those in need can
increase our compassion. Sports, yoga, t'ai chi and massage
can develop our knack for embodied knowing. Cultivating
these separate capacities and learning to integrate them into a
cohesive system is a supreme yoga, a
path to unity and our full human potential.
4. News from our Wisdom
Circles: Additional Ways to Test Everything
a. check it out with my network of
trusted friends and mentors
b. do
additional research---Google it
c. ask
myself: what happened the last time I/we made this choice?
d.
would I make the same choice if I were choosing for the next 7
generations?
e.
sleep on it---see how it looks in the morning
f.
take a walk---get a fresh perspective
g. do
my spiritual practice---yoga, draw, meditate, pray
5. Closing Words---a Revised
Version of the Concord Variations
The closing words which we borrowed
from First Parish Concord Mass and they gleaned from Paul's First
Letter to the Thessalonians is a
living text. It changes as we change and also
calls back to our true nature. In
the weeks and months ahead, I will pause after the first line (v. 13),
so that those who choose to join me in
repeating a mantra for our liberating faith: Test Everything!
(v. 21) At our Annual Meeting in the spring of 2010, I will bring
the question to the floor whether we want to add the missing words to
this helpful text. We will no doubt debate, discuss and
decide. That is our way of
being faithful to the best in us and our tradition.
Go out
into the world in peace. (v. 13)
Have
courage. (v. 13)
Test Everything!
(v. 21)
Hold onto
to what is good. (v. 21)
Return to
no person evil for evil. (v.
15)
Strengthen
the faint-hearted. (v. 14)
Comfort
the suffering (v. 14)
Honor all beings. (v. 14)
Blessed are the peace-makers