Freedom as Liberating Love

Part of Sermon of the Month Series Subscription Service

By Renee Ruchotzke

Headshot of Rev. Renee Ruchotzke

Sermon

The results of the November 2024 election have shown that many of our neighbors don’t share the same vision of what kind of world we want to live in. Christian Nationalism has been on the rise and democracy is under attack. In this service, we explore how the recently adopted UU Shared Values can help us model a compelling alternative.

Presented by Rev. Reneé Ruchotzke, UUA Congregational Life Staff, Central East Region.

Opening Words

There is a comic strip by Chris McCoy that shares an eternal truth about our humanity. A cardinal and a bluebird are on a branch of a tree and the cardinal says, “Can I help you?” The bluebird says, Huh?” Cardinal: “You’ve landed on my tree!” Bluebird: “Your tree?” Cardinal: “Yeah, I inherited it from my grandpa who stole it from some squirrel.” Bluebird “That’s stupid, you can’t own a tree.” Cardinal “What if I sold it to you at a very reasonable price?” The bluebird thinks to themself, “Wow, my own tree….”

How often do we have a big T truth that we know in our hearts… “You can’t own a tree!” and then mindlessly change our minds. We displace it with a construct, an idea that we come up with but doesn’t have any evidence, in this case: “I have the right to own nature!” Religion is one way of meaning-making, of creating constructs to help us understand and to give us purpose in life. At its best, religion gives us a moral compass as we make meaning, often based a s cred text or a particular historical figure.

Unitarian Universalism uses conscience as a moral compass, but conscience in relationship to a community, and responsible to a shared set of values. Sometimes we humans inherit an old construct and discover we need to deconstruct it, because we realize isn’t actually a “Big T” truth. Often this happens while many other humans around us may keep believing. Here are a few examples of truths that I do not believe but many others still do:

  • Humans have dominion over nature.
  • European culture is the pinnacle of civilization, and everything else is backward or primitive.
  • It’s the job some humans to meet my needs because of their lesser-ness, their gender, color, education level, or
    economic class.

This deconstruction is deep soul work. It calls us to step out of a sense of self-confidence and into a place of confusion, vulnerability, discomfort, and –eventually – transformation. But it is possible to do so because we UUs do it together. We are not alone.

Come, let us worship together

Chalice Lighting

Grace Meets Us Where We Are by Gretchen Haley

There is nothing you need to bring with you to be welcome here
no right beliefs or proof of citizenship
no eternal optimism or clarity of conviction
no boundless courage or endless expertise
You do not need to know what brought you here
Or how you will solve that problem you are turning over and over and over in your mind
Your bills do not need to be paid and your checkbook can be a mess
your children may have been up half the night
your hearing aids may not be working & your knees may be creaking
You do not need to be already perfect—or even half-way— to belong in this circle where grace meets us where we are
but does not leave us as it found us*
where love resides in each of us yet is somehow more than all
where life still pulses and rages and heals and transforms
creating us and this day anew once again.

Closing Words

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.
― Ursula K. Le Guin

Suggested Hymns

  • Love Will Guide Us #131
  • We Are Not Our Own #317
  • When Our Heart Is In A Holy Place #1003
  • Building a New Way #1017
  • Building Bridges #1023