Sermon at the World Gathering, Transylvania

Rev. William G. Sinkford

July 2002

Reading:  And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another; and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?”  Jesus answered, “the first is, ‘hear, o Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”  The second is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Sermon

What a pleasure and a privilege it is to be here with you at this “World Gathering of Unitarians.”  We come together from many churches, from many nations, to be together as Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists.  We come together, acknowledging and celebrating our differences.  We come together knowing that we share a common faith that supports us in our lives today and offers hope for tomorrow.

We come together to learn from one another and to share what we have learned.  We know that this larger community of faith can be a blessing to us.  Alone, we seem so small, unequal to the task of living out our gospel.  We know how short we fall, how many wrong turns we take.  Together, in this multitude, a greater sense of possibility and hope stands in our midst.

As the new President of the Unitarian Universalist Association, I represent more than 1000 free, liberal religious congregations in the United States.  Unitarian Universalism, today, is vibrant and growing.  Growing in numbers, yes.  But more importantly growing in the willingness and the ability to bear witness to the gospel we share.

In the United States, more and more, we are not hiding our light under the basket of our fear.  We are beginning to reach out, to offer our good news, to a world at war with itself.  A world in which neighbor is divided from neighbor.  A world in which faith is too often an excuse for fear.  A world in which faith too often fuels hatred.  A world in which the gospel of love finds no ears to hear.

“Who is my neighbor?”

This is my first trip to Transylvania.  My first trip to this ground where Unitarianism took early root.  This land where freedom of religion and religious tolerance found first expression.  The land of Francis David.

“Faith is a gift of God,” and cannot be coerced.

“Who is my neighbor?”

Unitarian Universalism in North America and Unitarians in Transylvania are neighbors – neighbors not in geography, but in faith.

I think of leaders like Judit Gellard, who helped us see that partnerships between North American and Transylvanian Congregations could benefit us all.

Even these partnerships have not always been easy.  Too many assumptions made.  Too many hopes unmet.  Even for us, who drink from the nourishing waters of a common faith.

But the partnerships have been redeemed by relationship.  By love.

“Love Thy Neighbor as Thy Self”

I have learned so much in my few days here.  I have heard how difficult life was under communism.  I have heard how hard it is to be a minority (in identity and language, in religion and culture).  I have heard how hard it is to have your land, this land, transferred from Nation to Nation, as if a boundary line on a map could change your lives.

How easy it must be for the Unitarians in Transylvania to see self-protection as the most important goal.

I know something of being a minority in my own life.  As an African American, I know oppression in my own land.  My ancestors lived through slavery.  I went to the second-class, segregated schools as a child.

I know the need to protect “my tribe.”  I know the impulse to build walls for security.

But our Gospel is a demanding word to follow.

“Love the Lord, thy God, with all your heart.”

Through to trials of life, the difficulties of each day, the sorrows and the suffering…

It is hard enough to know the presence of God in our lives.  It is hard enough to know that the Spirit of Life is with us, there to support and hold us in the hollow of his hand, there to surround us with her love.

It is hard enough to know, deep in our hearts that we need not walk alone.

But our Gospel is a demanding word to follow.

“Love Thy Neighbor as Thy Self.” 

We are called to go further.  We are called to go further.  We are called to answer this question.  “Who is my neighbor?”

Each generation must answer.  Who is my neighbor and what does it mean…to us… To love our neighbor?

In the United States, we ask, “Are Muslims our Neighbors?”  The people who attacked us on September 11^th of last year were Muslims.  Must we love them, too?

Unitarian Universalists said, “Yes.”  The people who attacked our nation should be punished, for their crimes.  But the 6 million Muslims in the United States are our neighbors.  Most long for peace as we do.  Unitarian Universalists stood with the Muslim, Arab and Sikh communities, working against the prejudice and hatred toward these neighbors that followed September 11^th.

The option is to strike back and build walls of self-protection.  But that is not what the Gospel demands.

Walls can be dangerous.  You know the story of the walls of Jericho?  How, so the story goes, when Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, God caused the walls of Jericho to come tumbling down?

Archeologists have found that those walls did come “tumbling down.”  There was a disaster at Jericho.  We don’t know whether it was an act of God, or an earthquake, or the work of human hands.  But the walls did tumble down.

The interesting thing is that the people of Jericho had built their homes and shops up against those strong walls, believing those walls would protect them.

But when the walls tumbled down, it was the walls that killed the people of Jericho.

Our Gospel is a demanding word.

What does it mean to love your neighbor?

Almost all Unitarian and Universalist communities are minorities.

In the United States, we are less than 1% of the population.  We struggle with a religious culture in which we are often seen as a “cult,” not a real religion.

In the Khasi Hills of Northeast India, the Unitarian community struggles to find its relationship to the Calvinist Christian community and the dominant Hindu culture.

Who are our neighbors?  Only those like us?

What would it mean to love those who are different?  Even those who oppress us?

Would we have to give up our identity?  No that is not humanly possible.

Would it mean that we must not defend, even fight for our rights?

No.  The Gospel also calls for justice.

What does it mean to love our neighbors?  Each generation must answer.

What we know is that our faith calls us to work for a beloved community, where all are respected and loved, where all are seen as children of God.

In the United States we are trying to build bridges, not walls.  Bridges so that we can share our good news that religious tolerance and respect are possible.  Bridges that offer a path that shows that differences can be a blessing not a curse.

What would that mean here?  Who are your neighbors?  What would it mean to love them, as you love yourself?

Our Gospel is a demanding word.  It offers more questions than answers.  Each generation must find it's own way.

We hold out a word of hope.

Hope for a global Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist community of faith.  One in which we can support each other.  A community of relationship, which can deepen our faith and enrich us all.

Hope for a Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist faith not hidden behind walls we construct in an attempt to find safety.  But a faith building bridges of relationship to help the universe bend toward justice.

We strive to find the love of God.  We yearn to feel the presence of the spirit of life in our lives.   We know that we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves.

These are troubled and troubling times.  Yet we live in hope.  Hope that the world we shape with our lives will welcome our children and their children.

The demanding gospel we claim requires to know this as our goal.

This has been a rich, a wonderful first trip to Transylvania.  I have learned so much.  You have welcomed me so warmly.

But I want to learn so much more, to get to know you in deeper ways.  And to share more of what we in the United States have learned, and even our struggles.

We are neighbors in faith.  We share so much.  And our partnership can enrich us so deeply.

This will not be my last visit here.

May this gathering of the faithful be blessed.

May it be a blessing to us all as we journey together.

Amen