Spiritual book discussion, Scripture Unbound, What's your scripture?

Topic three

What’s your scripture?

Community use of a text, then, shapes and helps decide what ultimately becomes scriptural. Though the dictum of authority has its role, scripture has to have a community endorsement, or it will die. We can study scriptures of cultures and societies that have ceased to exist, but in each case the scripture still has its source and foundation in a particular group of people.

Johnstone, Jonalu. Scripture Unbound: A Unitarian Universalist Approach (p. 7). Skinner House Books. Kindle Edition. 

A great deal of texts used in Unitarian Universalist worship services is insipid. It tends to veer into psychobabble and flowery poetic expressions of verses better suited for greeting cards. The fact that UU has no agreed upon cannon of wisdom sayings undermines its institutional and ritualistic power and authority. 

The lack of cohesiveness in Unitarian Universalist worship undermines its sustainability as a religious force in shaping and guiding the spiritual development of its members and influencing the external world.

A common vocabulary is necessary for effective communication among members and with external audiences, and the lack of development of this shared glossary hampers UUs ability to sustain, let alone attract new members.

The one exception to this criticism seems to be the doxology and the seven principles. Perhaps these can be the building blocks of a shared experience that can sustain the covenant which people enter into when they become members of the UU community.

1. What is your scripture? 
2. Are there texts which you turn to on a regular basis for prayer and contemplation to sustain and nurture your spiritual faith?
3. Are there texts that you regularly share with others when talking about your faith?

A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson #80, Let me recognize my problems have been solved.

 Lesson #80

Let me recognize my problems have been solved.

Matthew 6:25 - 34 

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In the material world there are always problems. In the spiritual world there are no problems once we accept the Oneness from which we separated.

In Alcoholic Anonymous, in the eleventh step we seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the Oneness and realize with peace and bliss that our problems have already been solved. We have just forgotten his fact as we pursued bodily pleasures in the material world.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote seven principles the first of which is the inherent worth and dignity of every person which we have forgotten as we get caught up in the ways of the ego.

Today, we are asked to take 10 - 15 minutes twice to reflect on the idea that my problems have been solved when I accept the idea that all my problems come from separating myself from the Oneness which is the ground of my being and the Divine Essence which is nothing but worth and dignity. It is in this wholeness (holiness) that I dwell. When I find myself the least bit angry, fearful, resentful, beginning to feel aggrieved I will recognize with a deep breath and a step back that the problem(s) at a Spiritual level have already been solved.

Spiritual Book Discussion, The Spiritual Child, Phoniness, hypocrisy, and disillusionment

 

Phoniness, hypocrisy, and disillusionment

What the teen cannot bear, as Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye declares, is “phoniness”—hypocrisy and inconsistency—in their hunt for a harmonious truth, a felt wholeness of personal values and reality. In my work with parents and teachers, I sometimes share that “me, me, I think…” or “not me at all…” can sound irritating, self-centered, and self-obsessed. It isn’t. It is the cultivation of the only instrument that teens—or any of us—have for knowing: our inner instrument. At a surface level, in our everyday lives with teens the questions and debates of individuation may sound overdramatic. But given the deep stakes of the developmental work under way, the emotion is appropriate.

Miller, Dr. Lisa. The Spiritual Child (p. 236). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

What most teens, who developmentally are challenged to form their identity and find the reference groups to which they belong, find most troublesome is phoniness and hypocrisy. Disillusionment is a big experience in adolescence as parents and other authority figures are de-idealized and a more accurate awareness of the authority figures functioning sets in.

This de-idealization occurs in religious training and adherence as well. The phenomenon of teen rebellion and opposition and resistance to external controls is well known. At the same time as the de-idealization is going on, an interior compass is being developed which guides the person in decision making. This often is an unconscious process and gaining the approval of one’s reference group and avoiding their disapproval becomes paramount.

The covenantal nature of Unitarian Universalism becomes important for teen development and yet commitment to the covenant is very weak in most cases if it exists at all. Perhaps this lack of commitment to the covenant is because the seven principles calling for affirmation and promotion are so weakly explicated and rarely recognized as indicators for the interior moral compass. Parents have a huge role to play in explicating these principles and talking with their teens about how to apply these principles in their daily lives and decisions making. Examples by the parents and other adults is the best teaching pedagogy.

Questions:

1. How often do you talk with teens about the principles and their application?
2. When  opportunities to demonstrate good decision-making are available, are the principles used as reference points?
3. Have you ever talked with a teen about the interior compass which is based on genuineness and authenticity and not on hypocrisy and dissembling?

A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson #79, Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.

 Lesson #79

Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.

In this lesson we learn that the only problem we have is separation from the non dualistic Oneness from which we emerged when our essence was incarnated into a body. The problems we experience in this material world all have the same basis which is separation. We experience our bodies as separate from that which the ego tells us we should have. This lack leads to distress.

In Alcoholic Anonymous, in step one, we admit that our desire for things that aren’t any good for us, our being separated from that which our ego desires, has made our lives unmanageable. As we move on to step two and step three we decide to turn our cravings for things in the material world over to the Oneness with which we begin to seek to establish conscious contact.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote a respect, if not a love, for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Today we are asked to take 2 10 - 15 minute periods to reflect on what the deeper problem is which underlies all the other  more superficial problems that frustrate us and upset us. As the Rolling Stones sang in their great song, “You don’t always get what you want,” we are asked to consider what it is that we really want? Obtaining the idols of the ego is hardly sufficient to satisfy and fulfill because when pursuing the idols of the ego there will always be something else or something more.

My kind of  church music.

You don't always get what you want, The Rolling Stones

Spiritual Book Discussion, Scripture Unbound, The free and responsible search.

 

Topic Two

The free and responsible search.

“In terms of understanding our Unitarian Universalist heritage, early Unitarians and Universalists were biblical people, immersed in the stories and symbols of Jewish and Christian scripture. Many of them reached their so - called heretical positions through Bible study, as we’ll see in chapter 7.” p. Xii

“Among the six Sources of our Unitarian Universalist living tradition, we claim Jewish and Christian teachings, as well as wisdom from the world’s religions.” p.xiv

“This attitude (respecting other religious texts) toward scripture places Unitarian Universalism in a position distinct from other faiths; rather than venerate one text over others, we feel free to read each in the light of all the others.” p.xv

As Francis David, the pioneering Unitarian in the 16th century said, “We need not think alike to love alike.”

One of the wonderful things about Unitarian Universalist tradition is the idea that my God is too big for any one religion.

Unitarian Universalists are an especially religiously literate  people. They are free to explore the perennial philosophy and theology from whatever source. It is this comparison and contrast and wide ranging religious exploration that deepens rather than detracts from the understanding of a universal faith.

The fourth principle of seven in Unitarian Universalism is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. 

1. To what extent has your religious tradition facilitated this search? 

2. What has your journey been: from where to now? 

3. Where are you inclined to search next?

A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson #78, Let miracles replace all grievances.

 Lesson #78

Let miracles replace all grievances.

Gary Renard, a teacher of the Course, describes what he calls “forgiveness opportunities.” We have hundreds of them a day. Forgiveness opportunities occur when we are annoyed, irritated, insulted, scared, disgusted, resentful, aggrieved. The issue is not what we think happened to us but how we handle it. The lesson today suggests a shift in perception from the attack to the Divine Spark in every person.

In Alcoholics Anonymous we are asked in the eighth step to make amends to people we have harmed where it would do no further harm. Most of all we have to make amends first to ourselves. What is the harm that we have done to ourselves which we then project outward in blaming others and life’s circumstances? Jesus, as He is being crucified, says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” In this extreme circumstance, if Jesus can rise above  this grievous situation and replace it with the miracle of forgiveness, we can do likewise in the more minor grievances that we experience.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. How often do our grievances blind us from perceiving this inherent worth and dignity? To perceive this inherent worth and dignity takes a presence of mind, what nowadays we call mindfulness. Would that we be mindful and let miracles replace all grievances.

Spiritual Book Discussion, The Spiritual Child, Spiritual individuation is a protective factor

 Spiritual individuation is a protective factor mitigating problematic behaviors.

More than any skill or asset, spiritual individuation will set up the teen for a much healthier, more meaningful, purposeful, and thriving adult life. Lacking spiritual resources, teens search for the transcendent experience wherever they can find it: risky behaviors, including reckless driving or casual or unprotected sex, and substance use.

Miller, Dr. Lisa. The Spiritual Child (p. 226). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Having the vocabulary to describe one’s interior spiritual life, and values about what really matters for the good life, and principles to guide decision making, and a teacher or other people to turn to with existential questions and dilemmas are keys to spiritual individuation.

It is an extremely intimate question which teens are rarely asked, “What is your interior spiritual life like?” Try it and see what kind of response you get. You might start with the adults in your life before you move on to the adolescents.