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Sermon by Cat Woods
Delivered August 1, 2004

to the universe, Reality,
to Love, Justice, Mercy,
Community, the Collective Unconscious,
the Soul, Higher Self (or truer Self, deeper Self),
Supreme Being,
the Consciousness in All,
That Which Is Beyond,
the Creator, Creative Force,
Spirit, Source,
Goddess,
and, of course, the one that tends to make Unitarian Universalists squirm a bit in their seats:

God.

The G Word.

I was warned before I even joined UUP that Unitarian Universalists are often uncomfortable with the G word. I thought at the time, Hey, me too. While I'll sometimes use the word "God", I've always preferred the term "Spirit", mostly because the word "God" is more often used in ways I dislike or disagree with. But before getting to such disagreements, let's look at what these terms and concepts have in common -- not what ideology they derive from, but what they mean in this special sense of core relationship.

I notice that my list includes references both to inner individual experience (such as the versions of "Self" and "Soul") and to outer shared reality (such as "the universe" or "that which is beyond"). At a certain level of depth, terms for subjective experience and terms for objective reality begin to become interchangeable. Ultimately, the inner and outer realms reflect each other. Reality is a sacrament that way, a sacred metaphor. Collective reality can only be known through the inner subjective experience of individuals; and the individual, no matter how alienated, is always still part of a greater context. In Sandra Ingerman's book, A Fall to Grace, a spirit guide observes, "When we dream, where are we really? When we fantasize, where are we? When we go to work, where are we? The answer, which will become clear later, is that 'in' and 'out' are the same."

God, the loving creator of the universe who is both compassionate and just,
not
God, the punishing enforcer of the social order who demands blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of rebellion.

I need to be clear that I am referring to a loving core relationship rather than a punitive one.

I think this is the common ground eventually reached by earnest practitioners of all faiths, regardless of how that faith is framed along the spectrum from atheism to devotion to one or more person of God or Goddess. We reach toward greater expression of love. We seek an ever deepening and more fulfilling relationship with all that is. Martin Buber called this an I-Thou relationship. We seek to treat every person, every creature, every thing in our lives with honor and reverence. We want to know each other. We want to know reality (and in this, faith shares a mission with the practice of science). We want to know the greater creative consciousness of which we are a part, that lives in us when we are open to it, that we experience in every act or thought of kindness we encounter.

In my notes for this service, I wrote "reflects relationship with self" and in parenthesis the question "obvious"? Yes, it's pretty obvious. It's one of those observations you hear so often that you stop hearing it. So I'm going to say it again and ask you to consider it afresh:

Your core relationship to your world, your God, and your life as a whole reflects your relationship with yourself.

Build one relationship and the others will also build. Be mindful of each reflection, of every level of relationship.

So what are the characteristics of loving relationship? These are what we wish to build between ourselves and our worlds.

Nourishment
Loving relationship is nourishing. It gives us something that feeds our soul and quenches deep longings we have held in our hearts all our lives. We need love expressed in ways that nurture us -- the same way kitties need a flow of cuddles and smooshes. (They do!) We need to give and receive affirmative messages. People know this, yet many of us have neglected this as it applies to ourselves. We would not call a child a loser or a failure if they made a mistake or were thwarted in a goal, but how many of us have done this to ourselves? Being mindful of all our expressions to ourselves and others makes our relationships more nourishing.

Honesty
Loving relationship keeps a clear conscience. We choose to act on our deepest values rather than our fears and prejudices. We value truth -- not in an absolute, capital-T sense, but in the sense of being as honest and clear as we can, avoiding manipulation whenever possible.

Gratitude
The flow of loving energy is blocked by invalidation. To keep the channels open, it's important to acknowledge the gifts we receive, gifts of energy or time or various types of sustenance. I recently started a practice, not of counting my blessings, but of naming them to myself. This practice has been transformative to my core relationship to the world; I recommend it.

Intelligence
I don't mean IQ according to standardized tests. I mean the many-faceted synchronicity and responsiveness that is natural to living systems. Complex chemical systems exhibit properties of intelligent organization. Ecosystems certainly do. And loving relationship between conscious beings creates even greater possibilities of intelligent behavior. Blockages of our native intelligence come about through pain that has been kept outside of loving acceptance. To accept and release this pain is to free up our intelligence for better relationship.

Acceptance
Love accepts what is, even when we wish to change it. Love maximizes tolerance and understanding; it embraces both the reverent and the irreverent, accepts both pain and humor, and includes all the so-called negative emotions as well as light-heartedness and mischief. Love accepts all of these as essential ingredients in the mix of relationship.

Intimacy
The very concept of core loving relationship implies intimacy. Because of this, many love songs can be heard as expressions of this relationship to Spirit or the universe -- to that which is embodied in our lives. For example, the song that we sang for you earlier, Attics of My Life, speaks of a quest for the sublime or transcendent, and celebrates the fulfillment of this quest in a loving relationship. "When there was no dream of mine, you dreamed of me." Are we singing to a romantic partner or dear friend, or are we singing to something beyond this world -- to that which created us? Isn't there often overlap between these meanings when it comes to real intimacy? Being classically Pisces, I tend to hear love songs that way. I once even made a CD I called Love Songs & Other Spirituals. My point is that, whether we are partnered or not, we are never alone; we can always be in loving relationship with our surroundings and with whatever brought us into being.

But... what about the other kind of love song? The Somebody Done Somebody Wrong songs. What about the Blues? What about when a parent loses a child or someone is raped? What about the deep sense of betrayal we may feel when What Is hands us something unjust or unbearable? In my work as a healer, I encounter this every day. I am convinced that a large majority of people in the world are walking around with their trust in their core relationship undermined or destroyed. This pattern is at the root of a vast array of physical and psychological illnesses.

I have no answer for this. I can only give you my opinion. My opinion is that not all that manifests comes from loving consciousness. All the shadows and all that is denied also manifest, often with tragic result. Perhaps the very purpose of physical manifestation is to make visible to us what has been held in shadow. Perhaps our purpose here is to bring awareness to these places by acknowledging what we find and responding appropriately. Perhaps our job is to search for ways to meet the needs of the aspects that have been cut off from the whole, so that these parts can reconnect to the whole, and what has been kept outside of loving relationship can again be brought in.

Whatever the case, when we improve our communication with what is greater than ourselves, we take the big risks of intimacy. We stand a greater chance of feeling hurt or betrayed if reality doesn't follow through on what we thought we were promised, for example. The possibility of miscommunication and misunderstanding becomes much greater than with ordinary language difficulties. The way larger reality communicates is not exactly the same as standard Webster's English. Reality is inherently symbolic, so we have to understand it in its own language -- not the language of deadlines and calculations, but the language of dreams and journeys into the subconscious.

Boldness
Love boldly. I've always loved that instruction, and I think it's worth taking to heart. I don't believe it's even possible to truly love without taking some risks. We take the risk of being ourselves, speaking our truth, and emerging from our hiding places. Our boldness -- our willingness to take risks in our core relationship -- also means that we are willing to rebel against authority when called by conscience.

Rebel against authority... Uh oh. That's what really sets Unitarian Universalists apart, isn't it? Our attitude toward rebellion. I've yet to meet a UU who was unable to integrate the concepts of rebellion and dissent with the concept of spirituality. To us, rebellion is an accepted and sacred part of the process of loving relationship. (This is probably why I feel at home here.) We are willing and eager to see Michael Moore's film, regardless of whether we agree with it. We like dissent. We honor it as the basis of real freedom. The freedom to find one's own way is honored among us above almost anything. You probably all know this, but I feel it necessary to remind you: this is not typical in the world at large. "God" as punisher of rebellion is presently in far more common usage than "God" as compassionate creative force.

Rebellion is a necessary tool when dealing with the cut-off parts of consciousness that have also embodied themselves in the universe. That which has divorced loving essence (probably based on a misconception) is also manifesting, is also part of manifestation, is also in relationship to us. And that part sometimes requires confrontation as part of love. Make no mistake about this: the intentions that have become divorced from loving awareness exist in all of us. All of us have habitual patterns that sometimes bypass true awareness and love. All of us have shadow. All of us need to be confronted from time to time.

All these various and seemingly contradictory facets of loving core relationship are recognizable in people of faith, regardless of how it is framed. So whether we call ourselves atheists, pagans, buddhists, scientists, metaphysicians, iconoclasts, jews, christians, muslims, or -- the UU favorite -- all-of-the-aboves, we have something in common in how we relate to... That Which We Relate To. That which some choose to call "God".

This is why UUs tend to converge again from their divergent viewpoints. What is truly of value is recognized inherently by the human soul when freed to seek its own truth. Only programming gets in the way, so permission to rebel and find one's own way ultimately leads us to common ground, even though we may know this ground by a variety of names and descriptive systems. Here we have a religion with no creed. You don't have to believe anything about Jesus or Mohammed or Buddha or Mary Baker Eddy. You don't even have to believe in God. And yet you don't generally find us screaming all our conflicting ideologies at each other. Instead, I find a pervasive sense of sharing a faith, of coming from the same place. This is real unity: unity in diversity. This is the strength of UU faith. And, I might add, the strength of this nation when it is listening to its conscience.

Tomorrow is the holiday of Lammas, when the northern hemisphere is halfway between the summer solstice and the fall equinox in the Earth's journey around the sun. A time of ripeness and preparation for harvest. In the meditation I'm about to lead, we will prepare ourselves for an internal harvest in our relationship with greater consciousness.

Make yourself comfortable in your chair. Relax . Close your eyes.

Be aware of the sensations of your body.
Let any tension in your body release at the touch of your attention.
Let any pain release and drop away to the transformative power of the Earth.

Connect to the ground, to the Earth below you.
Connect to the cosmos above and all around you.
Be aware of your inherent connection to the Earth and the cosmos. You belong here.

This exploration is not about belief or doctrine. This is a postulate: just supposin'.
So just suppose that the universe is

full rather than empty,
that it is living rather than inert,
that it is born of love rather than indifference.

Suppose the universe is aware -- or, if you prefer, that it is an outward sign of awareness beyond this universe. Suppose that this endlessly creative, intelligent awareness is not only loving and compassionate, but that it also cares about you, loves you... How do you feel about that idea? Is it okay with you? Is it scary? Is it too wonderful to be true? Is it just what you always hoped for?...

Then suppose again that this loving awareness embodied in the universe has gifts of nourishment to feed you and fulfill the yearnings of your heart. In what ways would you be open to receiving these gifts, this food for your soul?...
This could be beautiful colors or light streaming towards your body and filling your cells.

If so, allow yourself to imagine this now. See this. Feel this...

If so, imagine taking these sounds in to your ears and your heart... Hear this music...

If so, imagine drinking this nectar now. Taste this. Quench your thirst with this...

If you like, let your body imagine feeling those sensations now...

And then... suppose again that this loving awareness wishes to communicate with you. In what ways might you be open to having this communication?...
It could be sitting by a lake and sensing a communion in the stillness.

If you like that, imagine that now...

If so, visualize this conversation; imagine what how it would feel...

If so, listen to this voice...

If there is another image... or feeling... or sound... that allows you a sense of communication or communion with loving awareness, give this some time in your imagination now...

Take some time to listen to what your inner connection has to tell you... What are the promptings of your heart... your conscience?...

Remember, you don't have to believe, but you can always have these images, concepts, and sensations as resources when you feel empty, alone, or depleted. Notice that the supposition of loving awareness can itself nourish you, exactly as if it were true.
You are giving yourself cues for reaching this state of nourishment whenever you need it. Savor those cues. Remember them for later, just in case you someday encounter stress...

Now turn your awareness again to the present moment, your body in this room now.
Allow your awareness to surface back towards fully alert, waking consciousness...
pay attention to the sounds, notice the people around you,
and when you're ready... open your eyes.