Imagine Faith – January 8 Sermon
Imagine Faith Talk from Rev. Thea Nietfeld
Being in this new and reliable fathering place comes from the faith of ancient religious forebears – who dared to challenge conventional Christianity…it comes from those who first brought liberal religion to Kansas and Hutchinson and then those who kept the chalice flame alive through monthly gatherings over the decades…
Being here comes from the faith of those in this room who talked through the next step that was needed to welcome others who might benefit from liberal religion into this spiritual community…and then they/we took the action that allowed this mutually-beneficial home-sharing project to begin.
And so we’re here this morning, at the end of the Christmas Season, at the beginning of a new year,
we’re here talking about faith – noticing that the power of possibilities can pull a person or a UU Fellowship into life-affirming action.
The Christmas season end with the celebration of the 3 kings – epiphany . People across the world are getting out their shiniest hats and fastest horses and camels for processions and parades; they are taking deep breaths and jumping onto icy water or singing their hearts out as they watch the Yule log burn. Could it be that there’s been enough of holiday solemnity and now its time to let lose a little – shake free of tradition and allow for possibilities that come with doing something a little crazy?
The story of the 3 kings/ the wise men or magi… is a little crazy; It involves going somewhere guided by a star rather than a GPS…there was no map to guide their faith.
The story as presented in the Gospel of Mathew, Chapter 2, tells how the wise men made it to Jerusalem by following their star, but then they had to ask for directions.
That’s how Herod, the actual civic King, found out about Jesus’ birth and could have ended the whole story with his fearful violence,
but the 3 wise men saw the star again…
worshiped the new, spiritual king and gave the gifts they had brought, and then followed guidance from a dream to return home a different way – so baby Jesus wouldn’t come to harm.
The whole Christmas story requires suspension of disbelief…but maybe this 3 kings story is the most dramatically crazy.
And isn’t it charming? Isn’t it understandable that when John Henry Hopkins needed another song for his 1857 Christmas pageant that he would write “We Three Kings”?
But how is a crazy bible story relevant to those of us who have passed through conventional Christianity or passed through atheism or agnosticism or scientific inquiry on our way into this place with these people on this Sunday morning
searching for inspiration and courage in a new way…
searching for something we aren’t quite comfortable calling “faith”.
Being here this morning indicates you have some faith; it probably also indicates that you have walked through or are walking through some times of doubt and despair. Despair is the loss of faith after an unforeseen event and we’ll talk about that in a minute .
Doubt is the rejection of faith. Doubt is usually chosen…it can be an intellectual stance/ an aloof skepticism that may border on cynicism or emotional withdrawal.
from Salzburg “Sometimes doubt is actually an excuse to remove ourselves from a situation and not put something into practice. We can then stand back and judge, speculate, not commit ourselves, not take a risk, not see what happens…
This is a way of protecting ourselves, because we don’t have to take the risk and commit ourselves and open up to something and then see what happens. But really the strength we then feel, which is a kind of conceit and indulgence, is very short-lived. It will not actually give us the sustained strength and confidence to discover the truth for ourselves.”
Two examples from my life:
Doubt has caused paralysis in regard to learning to play the accordian: I first got an accordian when I was guest-preaching in Hot Springs, Ark., and one of the members was playing…and, I’d always loved accordians and he had an extra one…and, well, soon I was carrying a very heavy accordian through about 5 moves, without ever learning to play. Then this past summer, at the Winfield Music Festival, I saw a brighter and lighter-in-wieght accordian that I just knew – if I had it, I would learn to play it…But I’ve only pulled it out a couple of times, and have yet to actively seek a teacher.
Paralyzed by doubt that I’ll never be good at accordian-playing…and that even learning a new instrument when I’m 60 will somehow be so difficult or so different than musical learning has been in the past that it won’t be enjoyable… the doubt keeps me from discovering the truth… and from taking the risk that this instrument will bring me joy – like piano and flute and drumming and singing and dancing have brought me the joys of music.
A second example of paralyzing doubt is in taking a financial risk – of buying a house as a single person. I vacillated for about 5 years. Although I’d owned 3 houses with my former husband, now mine would be the only income and I didn’t have the confidence in myself and the trust in all of it to be able to decide. Finally I talked it over with a caring person whose support helped me overcome fear and trust my yearnings. So – I bought a lovely little house in the summer of 2007; of course the housing market crashed and I moved away despite that…it hasn’t been the situation I expected, but everything changes…and maybe it will provide some income after I retire…
The point is…we need to have enough faith to make decisions about making and spending our resources – even when everything about financial transactions – in the world – seems unpredictable/ some would say unstable. Being paralyzed by doubt and the fear behind it is not the way to give ourselves to life. Cultivating faith is a way to be spiritually prepared for whatever may come.
As you probably have heard, today is the anniversary of the Tuscon shooting of Congressman Gabrielle Giffords, the killing of 6 others, and wounding of 13 more people. Today, there will be commemorative events in Tuscon, and we may get to hear from Congressman Giffords.
The life-affirming faith of Congresswoman Giffords and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, inspires me:
The bullet that went through her brain at that supermarket constituent event last year broke the connection between her cognitive center and her speech center. And it was smiling and speaking that Mark most wanted from Gabby – that’s what would bring back the optimistic person he knew and loved.
Although the odds were strongly against her recovery, Mark had the faith to interpret their wedding vows as including this situation – where he would stick with his wife of 4 years through sickness into health. He would be optimistic and hopeful; he appointed himself Gabby’s Motivator-in-Chief.
They found that music and remembering songs was a great help for Gabby, as she worked the steep challenge – for herself and for Mark, and for her Congressional District constituents. When she came back to the Capitol to cast a vote last August, her arrival brought Congress to its feet in appreciation of her vitality and courage. She recently sent an audio message to her constituents that she missed Tuscon and wanted to get back to work.
From the little research I’ve done, Mark and Gabby’s recent book on her recovery over the past year, Gabby – a story of Courage and Hope, must include many examples of courageous acts that come out of the kind of faith we UUs can relate to – faith in people despite evil and violence, trust in strangers – whose selflessness and skill probably kept her alive, awakening the sense of possibility – inspiration and its necessary corollary – patience for recovery. Confidence in herself, and her husband’s confidence in her have to be a huge part of the faith that is behind each day’s acts of courage and persistence.
For me and I know for many of us, when life throws us a curve – when a disaster strikes, or a death or other loss – despair can creep up…despair can paralyze as surely as doubt can paralyze. If we are to be true to ourselves and if we are to give what we are here to give…then we need to be prepared with a faith that is stronger than doubt or despair. We need to know what that faith is made of and how it is expressed in our lives and we need to practice using it. That means we need to express our faith in steady acts of risking change, of taking a chance on the possibilities.
This is what we’re celebrating today – a crazy story about following a star…our own lives’ examples of being blocked or taking the risk we needed to take, of confidence in ourselves and in others – to encourage and support their faith, and of recognizing inspiring stories around us…to restore lagging faith.
May this shared home be a place where the elements of our individual and collective faith are enhanced, so that individually and together, and with new friends and companions, we can give our gifts.
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Meditation on “We Three Kings”
Imagine the doubts the kings must have had – wondering about the risk of following a star:
Is this too expensive? What about my responsibilities? My routines?
What am I doing? Following a sacred call? Stepping into a delusional adventure?
Imagine the faith it must have taken to have these questions, to live them with others, to travel so far…
not knowing what the destination would bring…
Imagine the faith it took to bring the gifts they had to bring – a single unique gift to carry and offer.
Imagine the faith still needed to return home and allow changes to take hold
Changes from questions, journey, companions, and giving what each had to give.
Imagine such a faith.
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REFLECTION on Elements of Faith:
Salzburg turns childhood or conventional notions of faith on their head: Faith isn’t about being good enough or having beliefs others approve of or make promises about. Rather, faith is an antidote to fear – especially the kind of fear that paralyzes.
Faith allows us to step away from conventionality and conditioning so that we live from what our experience tells us is true.
Salzburg’s elements of faith are trust, inspiration, confidence, patience, and courage. Together, these qualities enable us to live with vitality – to do our parts/offer our gifts.
Cultivating faith through finding inspiration and practicing patience; living, despite disheartening evidence – with trust in people and possibilities; testing our confidence and taking courageous risks all take an open heart.
When we have fear, doubt or despair, we can search out people and activities where there is trust and trustworthiness, mutual inspiration, those who are expressing their gifts with confidence, and who allow time – so things can unfold when they have done what there is to do.
We can place ourselves in the company of people whose lives express their faith through courageous acts.
When faith is low, recognizing, supporting and encouraging the faith of others can sustain us.
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READING
from Sharon Salzburg, who explored faith in workshops before she published her book called Faith, in 2003.
“The last time I led a program on Faith, I heard people express disquietude, uneasiness, and even hostility. Somebody said to me, “I came to Buddhism to get away from all this.” And for him, because of his own conditioning or background, the very word “faith” was difficult to hear. It brought up questions of being good enough and having enough faith; it brought up facing dire consequences if he didn’t have enough faith or didn’t have the right kind of faith. The word faith brought up a lot of fear, rather than faith seeming like an antidote to fear…
Sometimes faith means trust. In your reflections you can contemplate: Is there some quality within yourself that you trust? Awareness, love, critical thinking? What do you trust? I remember having a great deal of difficulty with my practice at one point in my life and my teacher U Pandita said to me: “You just sit and walk. The dharma will take care of the rest.” I was trying too hard to “make the practice work,” and the faith that came from simply trusting that the practice would work all by itself has been tremendously helpful for me.
Faith can also take the form of inspiration, where all of our being comes together behind something, behind an endeavor. This doesn’t feel like a struggle, because we are so inspired to engage in a pursuit. We might be inspired by a teacher or a teaching, but whatever it is a sense of possibility is awakened for us. This initial inspiration is what brings us to a practice or to any deeper exploration, and it helps sustain us in the difficulties we inevitably encounter.
Or faith can mean confidence. You might think of a time in your life when you faced a task that was a little bit daunting, but you had a quality of confidence so you persevered. (When we face anything new or surprising, our confidence can be shaken. Yet, something enables us to keep going.) What allows us to say “Well, maybe this is just the way things are (now)…, or maybe this is just going to take some time, and I need to devote time to see what happens?” What allows us to take that risk and keep going? This also is a form of faith.
Another way we might think of faith is in terms of patience: when we can be present in a situation and allow it to unfold without needing to manipulate it, letting things take their natural course, allowing things time to ripen. You might think of a time in your life when this was very present for you.
The faith that inspires us to take a step away from the normal dictates of society, as it defines happiness, success, prosperity or goodness, and perhaps to begin a meditation practice (or to face an exceptional challenge)—is courage. We step back from our conditioning, from our past, from our belief systems, and then we step forward to take a look in order to allow the truth to speak to us, in order to be present for whatever might be revealed through our own experience. All this takes courage, and this courageous aspect of faith is by no means insignificant.
The purity and simplicity of faith is powerful. Faith is what begins our energy, our willingness to look; it is what sustains it. It is what allows us to take a risk, to open up to seeing the truth for ourselves, rather than simply going along conventionally or conveniently believing only what we have been told. ##
Announcement:
On Jan. 22, we will continue exploring faith by looking at covenant in our UU tradition, and by developing a covenant among us for discussions/formal spiritual conversations during worship and lunch together.
Hutchinson/faith.1.08.12
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