SERMON ARCHIVE: August 31, 2008 at Northern Hills Fellowship

"Let's Talk About God"

by Dave Beato

We have an unusual pulpit in this church.  The words “God” and “Jesus” are not mentioned very often in our services, whereas almost every other congregation in town at this time is hearing how God wants them to behave, what God intends for us, how God operates, and maybe even what God told the preacher this past week.

So who needs God, anyway?  I guess the answer is practically everybody. 

People still living in the pre-technical, pre-commercial world of cooking pots, homemade shelters, and the need to hunt or fish for their meat usually have a plethora of gods---helpful ones, malicious ones, and even capricious ones.  Unless, of course, they’ve already been discovered by Christian missionaries.

Civilization has brought about some more refined and widespread religions.  I may be mistaken, but I believe Buddha took the route from rich kid to inspired young man to God pretty successfully (and gently).  Of all the human beings who have been worshipped as gods, he deserves the title because of the strength of his teachings.  I don’t think Buddhists have ever had to kill non-believers.

As for the monotheists’ presumption that their gods are one and the same, we often run into difficulty combining the dominance of Allah, the law-giving nature of Jehovah, and the love of the Christian god into a single divine personality.

Essentially, God comes in handy for providing comfort and support---such as if we are well-behaved and follow his teachings He will heal our ills, comfort our sorrows, and protect us from evil.  Some folks attribute natural disasters or even manmade ones to God’s discipline.  So being nice to one another is often the result of fearing that God will give us a good smack if we don’t behave according to his standards.

I was intrigued to discover that, according to fundamentalist Christian beliefs, when the earth was created 6000 years ago animals did not eat one another, everything was designed to live forever, and, of course, all of the species ever created were living peacefully together.  Then Eve ate that damned apple.  If it weren’t for her, we could be immensely overpopulated, stegosaurs would be browsing alongside I-75, and you could actually meet your great-great-great-great grandfather.

But to get back to making good use of God....I suspect that few of us here rely on God to “make it all better” in treating our illnesses, finding money to pay our bills, or helping us to get along with those cranky neighbors.  But if you really don’t use God, don’t admit it in public.

One of the favorite quotes at our end of the religious spectrum is:

                   "God created man in His image and likeness.

                   .....And then man returned the compliment."

Let’s go back to our early ancestors who discovered (or invented) The Great Spirit.  Life was hard.  They, too, had unpleasant bouts with disease, famine, severe weather, and natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.  You ended up feeling pretty insignificant and picked on.  Surely some Big Being was doing this to us, and it was probably because we had made him mad.

Then one of the cleverer cave men stepped forward and invented the position of holy man, shaman, or medicine man.  It was a neat job, for while all the other guys were going out to kill or be killed hunting animals or fighting rival tribes, the shaman could stay home in the cave or at the campsite where the women were kept busy caring for children, preserving food, and making skins into clothing.  He experimented with making concoctions to cure illnesses, communed with the Great Spirit to establish rules of conduct for his tribe, and often went into impressive trances to reveal to his people what the Great Spirit revealed to him.  This position eventually diversified into the honored medical, legal, and clerical professions of today.  Admittedly, today there are still a few cults led by self-proclaimed prophets who like to take in and redistribute their flock’s combined resources, serve as the group’s primary contact with God, and develop special uses for some of the women in addition to their traditional child-rearing, food-preparation, and tailoring skills.

Our denomination is particularly opposed to self-proclaimed Holy Men.  Our ministers are respected but not necessarily “revered”.  Our congregations hire them and, on rare occasions, fire them.  And we are highly suspect of any of our clergy who attempt to mess with our money, claim he or she has a direct connection with God, or suggest that anybody was meant to be subservient.

In one way, our ministers are not as free as other ministers.  Since our denomination does not have a specific set of beliefs you must adhere to in order to be a member in good standing, our ministers tend to soft-pedal their individual convictions for fear of offending some of the diverse beliefs of their congregants.  It’s like having the good manners to avoid conversations about sex, religion, and politics in mixed company.  As a layman, however, I am free to express my weird theological opinions from the pulpit just as you are, and I think we should do it more often just to find out what makes each of us tick.

Ah, but other religions have some real convictions about how to worship God.  At the Conservative end, you are doomed to the everlasting fire if you don’t follow the rules.  Our most historic Christian religion has had 2000 years to develop power and ritual to perfection.  They’ve got ceremonial clothing that makes a Methodist minister look like a Quaker.  And nobody does rituals as well as priests---the awesome solemnity with which they burn incense, break wafers, drink wine, kneel down (and then get up unaided), open a scripture, hold a Sheppard’s crook, process down the aisle, or occasionally touch someone.  Their congregations are very obedient, and the clergy serve as their conduit to God....in addition to hearing some really interesting stuff in the confessional booth each week.  You don’t mess with them, and it doesn’t actually appear to be much fun.  That may be why several of you have left those congregations for ours.

As for fun with Conservatives, you’ve gotta hand it to the Fundamentalists.  They know how to have a great time on Sunday morning.  When they get going, they can jump to their feet, raise theirs hands in the air like TV dishes receiving God’s blessing, shout “Amen” and “Halleluiah”, sway back and forth, and generally work up a good sweat before going home for lunch.  Their preachers can shout and laugh and cry, loosen their ties, lay hands on people, and speak in tongues when their spirit moves them to shout “Ollah gamallah rocta shollah!”  ..........I hope I didn’t say anything offensive.  But what it all boils down to is that there is no deviation from their law---“God said it.  I Believe it.  That settles it!”

It’s so much easier to sign on to a set of beliefs than it is to figure them out rationally.  More moderate denominations allow for a little religious interpretation here and there, and basically they’re happy with accepting Biblical generalities, being polite and wholesome with one another, dressing the kids up nicely for Sunday School, and coming up with something really tasty for the bake sale.                                                        

What about this congregation’s assorted needs for or interpretations of God?

A couple of years ago we took one of our periodic surveys as to our assorted belief systems.  Typical of our freedom of choice, we were allowed two choices each.  About half of the responses listed God as optional---28% were Humanists, 12% were Agnostics, 9% were Non-Theists, and 3% were Atheists.  The other half, however, believed in a supreme being or a nature-oriented creative force.  They consisted of 9% Mystics, 8% Pantheists, 7% UU Christians, and a wide assortment of Naturalistic Theists, Theists, Deists, Earth-centered religions, Pagans, Religious Feminists, and a Buddhist.  Presumably, they find inspiration in a creative, guiding, loving, spiritual being or natural force in the universe.  We need to hear more of their views to improve our understanding and maybe even adopt some of their concepts for ourselves.

At this point we’ve considered the need for and various characteristics of God, the role of clergy in directing our worship of God, the more colorful ways we worship God, and the wide variety of options of belief open to us in this church.  By now it’s beginning to appear that I have difficulty accepting any of the myriad descriptions of God, His plans for me, or the rewards or, it is rumored, the punishment I’m in for in an afterlife.  Most of us would be surprised to find ourselves in any form of an afterlife, but, once there, we would probably find an appropriate action committee of fellow UU’s protesting the extreme heat, crowded conditions, and total disregard for civil rights in this new, totally unexpected and unpleasant environment reserved for the vast majority of us who had paid no attention to the televangelists.

Well, I still have room for awe for a creative force, for respect for something more powerful than me, and for a need to live peacefully and lovingly with other beings on this planet. 

I can’t fully comprehend The Big Bang theory, eternity, and infinity, but the concepts are awe-inspiring.  We can explain chemical reactions and influences of

inert matter---rock strata, earthquakes, weather, the makeup of the moon and nearby planets---but living matter is the miracle.  How single cells came about, how they combined into colonies, how they became moving beings, how they heal themselves and reproduce---this is awesome.  Some of you are saying, “See?  It’s a Creative Force, you blockhead!”

Okay, let’s look at God the Creator.  In Genesis 1 He accomplishes it all in one week, and ends by putting Man in charge.  Not a good move.   In contrast, there’s Evolution.  

Let me drag you through earth’s history condensed into 12 months just to experience some vastness that makes God’s children appear as an afterthought.

Let’s say the earth became a molten mass on January 1.  By the end of March there would be enough steam condensed for bacteria and algae to form.  You might note that that’s all that was swimming around in various oceans of hot to not-so-hot water for the next seven months.  By the end of October, these cells started banding together to form jellyfish and corals.  A month later some sea life with backbones appeared just before Thanksgiving, and then things really took off.  Right after Thanksgiving fish developed, and vegetation and insects turned up on land.  During the first week in December amphibians and then reptiles arrived, and the next week dinosaurs made their appearance followed by birds.  The first bipedal primates showed up on December 29, and on New Year’s Eve early human beings arrived at 10:04 p.m. followed by the last ice age from 11:53 to 11:58 p.m., and Jesus was born 14 seconds before midnight.  Let’s face it: we haven’t had a big role in Evolution.

Another way to achieve humility is to peer through a telescope on a starry evening.

Finally, can good people get by without God’s guidance?  I think so.  The Ten Commandments don’t make near the impact on me as do our accumulated laws and regulations which discourage me from killing, stealing, or going 45 in a 25 mile-per-hour zone.  Municipal laws could probably encourage honoring fathers and mothers a bit more than they do, but they make no effort to prevent me from coveting my neighbor’s ox...nor his ass, for that matter.

So why bother to come to church?  That’s a question that can make a minister go a bit pale.

For one thing, it’s the caring community.  You have communities of friends at work, in your neighborhood, in your family, and in some interest groups.  But this is a community where, hopefully, we can express an idea without having anyone suck in their breath.  Admittedly, we have to go gently with politics.  We’ve got a good spread in age groups, we’ve got a variety of personalities, and the refreshments and conversations are enjoyable after the service.

These are the folks who support you when a setback turns up; this is the place where you can get married, dedicate a child, or have a memorial service; this place provides additional ethical training for your kids; and here is where you can get an informative and/or challenging sermon every Sunday.  I like it here.  We’ve been attending NHF regularly for 38 years, and it’s my most comfortable circle of friends.

And we’ve got professional help and guidance in the form of a well-trained, dedicated, and conscientious Minister who’s there to counsel us, comfort us, conduct services for those particularly meaningful moments of our lives, and even come up with sermons to make you think on the way home every Sunday.

I assume true believers depend on their individual forms of God for strength and assurance.  As for me, I’m socially content, and I have a great deal of respect for and confidence in my wife, an assortment of doctors, a financial advisor, and the Springfield Township police.  It’s interesting to hear various descriptions and interpretations of God, and I’m fascinated with various religious beliefs that now and then turn up in conversations or on the news.  But I’m glad I don’t have to agree with a particular definition in order to be a member of this church.

I’ll always remember the grandfatherly UU minister who defined it all by saying his God was spelled with two “o’s”. 

May the force be with you.  Amen.