An online magazine of faith based on a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The mission of Unitarian Universalism: A Way Of Life ministries is to provide information, teach skills, and clarify values to facilitate the evolutionary development of increasingly higher levels of spiritual development for human beings around the world.
We have been taught in the Christian world that we all are sinners and as sinners we deserve punishment and damnation. Were it not for the death of Jesus that punishment and damnation would be for all eternity.
It is of note that sin calls for punishment nor correction. It is in our fears of one another that we hate each other and conjure up a god who will do our bidding to punish others so that we can pretend we are innocent. We are justified in our hate and punishment because of what we have judged the other to have done.
This thinking is, of course, insane. The creator of the universe has extended the creator's power and glory through us of which we are a blessed manifestation. We have a choice: would we see ourselves as inherently flawed, deficient, and inadequate or inherently innocent, lovely, and blessed? The spiritually mature have chosen the later. It is in this choice that peace and bliss is revealed.
Unitarian Universalists, as an institution, has also chosen the latter embodied in its first of seven principles. We covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This is a most significant and awesome principle especially if we take it deeply to heart. As John Lennon sang, just "Imagine."
Those of us in the Christian world have been taught that we all have been born with the mark of original sin. Because of this we are condemned by God. Because of this we have been taught that God is our enemy who intends to punish us in hell for all eternity. Because we believe that God hates us and condemns us, we do as God does and hate and condemn each other.
The loop hole in this insane thinking is the belief that God sent Jesus into the world to be killed to atone for our sins and it is through the killing of Jesus that we have been redeemed. This thinking is the basis for a false Christmas joy that our savior has been born to be killed to save us from the wrath of God who would otherwise condemn us.
What kind of God is this that we have constructed in our religious myths? Could this possibly be the true picture of the divine at work in the universe? Could this ever be the genuine and authentic awareness of the divine in our existence?
Matthew Fox, the theologian who has pioneered creation spirituality, describes a new myth of the "original blessing" not the original sin. Fox points out that the Christian church adopted the story of original sin from Augustine in the 4th century not from Genesis which tells as that God created the world and proclaimed it good.
Genesis 1: 26-31
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”29Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. 31God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. It is from the belief in sin that illusions follow. With the coming of our remembrance of our blessings in the form of a blessed babe, we are restored again to our natural state of love, peace, and bliss. The birth of another child of God on Christmas day is the sign that God not only has hope for His creatures, but loves them and takes delight in what God has created. It is with the same delight that we should enjoy being with one another.
Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning and, while on the surface this appears to be tolerant and generous, at a spiritual level it is misleading because at a spiritual level there is not a different truth for different people. The belief in these differences divide us, they do not unite us. The reinforcement of illusions is not the path to heaven but the path to hell. Setting these illusions aside and seeking the divine within brings us to the Love that is the ground of our being and what we all have in common. This awareness of Love's presence, which we all share in, is the truth that leads us to heaven.
There is a model of spiritual development which is based on James Fowler's work describing the stages of faith development. While, in a conceptual sense, this model is helpful, in the spiritual realm it is not accurate and may even mislead the spiritual seeker. It is misleading because in the last analysis, as human beings, we are provided a simple choice: love or illusions?
In A Course In Miralces, in the section entitled "The Laws of Chaos," the first law is that truth is different for everyone. The course teaches that this is not true. Illusions may be different for everyone, but Love is the same.
Illusions are individualistic and separate us. Illusions can turn us into enemies and adversaries. The more attached we are to our illusions the more hateful and attacking we can become. Chaos ensues and when we back off and try to develop some perspective, we realize that the belief in the illusions that separate us have led us to the insanity of hell. It is written in ACIM in the section on Principles in Miracles that the first principle is "There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not "harder" or "bigger" than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal."
It is true that we can believe in Love which involves an awareness of our Oneness with the divine, or we can believe in illusions which separate and divide us. It is really that simple. This truth is not different for different people. It is maximal for everybody. People don't have to choose it. They can continue with their attachments to their illusions which they may do until they realize they have been mistaken. They have missed the point of their lives because as the Beatles told us, Love is all there is.
Some of us pay lip service to the idea of surrendering to our Higher Power. In Alcoholics Anonymous they say "Let go and let God." Those of us with a Christian upbringing say the "Lord's prayer" which, in part, says, "Thy will be one on earth as it is in heaven." Most of us though still like to think that we are in control of some of the things of our lives and yet suddenly we can fall ill or an accident occurs and we die. The universe has different plans. One of my favorite jokes is, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell God your plans."
"Now, that is funny," Jenny said. "One night, my two children were killed in a crash with a drunk driver and my life has never been the same. My life has not become what I wanted it to be or thought it would be. For a long time, I felt cheated and short changed. People told me I was cheated and short changed. I was angry and other people were angry that God could do this to me. Then I realized it wasn't God who did this to me. It was a drunk driver. I am angry at the wrong thing. God, since that realization, has been there with me every step of the way or, to say it better, I have been there with God. Believe it or not, I am at peace even though I am still very sad and miss my children terribly."
Advent means "to come" in Latin. The verb is advenire and the noun is adventus meaning arrival. The divine is coming and will have arrived on Christmas. Not really. God is always with us because we are part of God, but we don't pay attention. What really is coming and, hopefully, will have arrived is not God but our awareness of God's presence.
We live in a society which is based on the dynamic of "give to get." We are looking for a bargain, a good deal, and when we get one we feel superior and triumphant for about 5 minutes until we start looking for the next great deal. Searching for deals is addictive.
Isn't it odd that "Black Friday" has become the societal ritual that opens the Christmas season? Black Friday isn't about beauty, peace, joy, and fellowship; it is about getting deals and the passion flares so high that people have been killed in stampedes so that stores have learned to provide special security measures to keep people from killing each other in their frenzy of materialism which marks the beginning of the Christmas season.
Advent asks us to pause, and reflect in the search for beauty, truth, and goodness especially during this season of the year because there is something far more valuable than material things that is among us if only we look inward and notice.
The true spirit of Christmas, advent reminds us, is about beauty. Beauty is to be found in enjoying the divine spark which is within each one of us. Unitarian Universalists call it the "inherent worth and dignity in every person." We miss it when we engage in the pursuits of deals which materialism demands. Forget about the search for deals and focus on the riches within. These riches are more easily seen in the innocence of a new born babe.
