Kurts Reflection 3-9-2023

Reflection

 

This Sunday I am leading and preaching at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun. I'm looking forward to a lot of things in the sermon but none more than telling them about Christ Church.  I love telling the story of our evolution over the last five+ years and our vitality now.

 

Many don't realize that Unitarianism was a Christian faith tradition in the beginning.  There are still a lot of Unitarian Christians in the world. Famous Unitarian preachers like Ralph Waldo Emerson (who got in trouble because he had difficulty with the idea of communion and believed each person was able to have access to God without an intermediary or empty rituals) and Unitarian lay-people like Henry David Thoreau (nominally a church goer, of course) attended essentially a Christian church in the 1800's. Universalists, who joined into the combined denomination in 1961 believe that all are saved; that there is no selection process...a loving God will receive everyone. Hope this doesn't upset anyone, but I am a Universalist too. I will never accept that a baby that lives in Ethiopia and dies the day of his birth is going to hell because he hadn't accepted Jesus as his Savior.

 

My sermon is going to sound a lot like last week's at CCL--I'm going to tell the Nicodemus story and then describe what Jesus meant by 'born from above.' You'll remember I said I thought what Jesus was also telling Nicodemus was to stop being so certain his way was the right way and to be open and vulnerable to understand God's presence in his life. He was not saying 'born from above' as much as he was saying 'born anew.'

 

We can all use more time seeing our vulnerability as opportunity rather than threat. And we can all be born anew over and over if we but look at our experiences as learning experiences - all of  them. Even those we go through while vulnerable.

 

I'm also going to describe another thing important for seeing vulnerability as opportunity -- something the Buddhists call 'beginner's mind.'  Remember how you felt when just learning something new? Remember how you soaked it all up, asked a million questions, and learned the new thing by not going into it with preconceived notions? By returning to the concept of 'beginner's mind' we can continue to learn and experience things as a child- open, interested, learning new things over and over. And, in so doing, see God in everything we do. Jesus told us to live as a child, remember.

 

I'll be speaking about that at our church after Easter.

 

Finally, look for the news about a Men's Group at CCL which will meet for the first time after Easter. I think we have interesting and interested men in our parish who would enjoy time to discuss our spiritual lives (and maybe down an adult cold beverage too).  Parish men please hold April 19th for the first meeting.

 

Won't see you Sunday--Have a great service,

Kurt