REV

Rev. Bob Klein

UUCLR March 27, 2005

BEYOND CHRISTIANITY

Easter thoughts for Unitarian Universalists and other Religious Liberals

Flower Communion

Our pianist, Robin, caught me in the expression of some of my doubts about Easter in a typo that I had sent out in a draft of the order of service hymns, where I had listed the first hymn as, “Jesus Christ (if) Risen Today.” Though I feel quite comfortable raising such questions among Unitarian Universalists, I struggled when I still considered myself a Christian to express some of the valuable lessons of Easter without addressing the literal truth of a physical resurrection. For me Christianity never was dependent upon the literal resurrection, nor upon the divinity of Jesus, but rather upon the value of what Jesus taught and the good works that Christians have accomplished in the last two thousand years. I wonder what Freud would have said about that typo? Perhaps I should have left it!

Another interesting snippet of the week past was in a call our administrator, Barbara received. The caller asked for the owner of the business and was told that this was a church. The caller then asked again for the owner of the business. I thought of the perfect answer, had we been in a Christian church, “Please hold for God.” As with many things in Unitarian Universalist churches, that quip would not do, for it would take a conference call with our entire membership and/or the deities or lack thereof in whom we might believe, for those are our owners!

Easter is connected by Biblical references and long tradition with Passover, which in a rare occurrence will not be celebrated until next month, but it is most appropriate to celebrate in the spring as new life appears in the plant and animal realms. Resurrection has a wide array of analogies in nature in the spring. In our psychic lives, the return of the light and the lengthening of days in the spring also illustrate the possibility, even necessity of resurrection as an archetypal mythic reality. The problem comes in literalizing the resurrection, which may make a good miracle story, but drains the metaphorical power of Easter. In dreams, deaths are frequently transformational, and resurrection leads to new levels of life.

As Unitarian Universalists, we tend to celebrate the cultural aspects of Easter without exploring the spiritual and metaphorical meanings it may hold for Christians. Celebrating our Flower Communion on Easter may keep us from looking at Easter in a deeper way. Celebrating Easter and Flower Communion on one day may dilute the significance of both. Flower Communion is a powerfully symbolic ritual in its own right, and with its own important historical context, which I will get to in a moment.

First, let me raise a few questions about Easter. Both the Unitarian and Universalist sides of our tradition grew out of Christianity, and there were many views held about Jesus and Easter. Many Unitarians and Universalists did not believe that Jesus was God and many did not believe in a physical resurrection. Is Easter merely a cultural artifact for us, or is there something in it for us? Can we at least try to understand Christianity a bit better by exploring the meaning of Easter? Would it help if we could focus on the spiritual resurrection of Jesus or his ideas in the movement that became Christianity? What can we learn about ourselves and our world by exploring the new life that follows the crucifixions we face? As you ponder those questions, let me now turn for a moment to Flower Communion.

Flower Communion is a ritual developed by the Rev. Norbert Capek, the minister of the Unitarian congregation in Prague Czechoslovakia before and during World War II. Skinner House published a Biography of Capek by Richard Henry in 1999 on which the following information is based or quoted.

Norbert Fabian Capek was born on June 3, 1870. His father and grandfather were tailors in Radomysl, in South Bohemia. Norbert was the only son of Josef and Marie Capek. Though much loved, he was a rather sickly child who was quickly baptized in the local Catholic Church. Near the end of his life, in June of 1942, Capek was ordered sent to Dachau by the Gestapo in Prague after criticizing Nazi actions. On October 12^th he was sent on invalid transport to Hartheim Castle, near Linz, Austria. He died in a gas chamber.

During Capek’s life, the world turned over in the attempt to annihilate itself not once but twice. Capek saw two wives die young, being left to raise a household of children on his own. Raised Catholic, Capek became a Baptist Missionary, the editor of several publications, and then finally, a Unitarian Minister. Capek mixed the hope for a free Czechoslovakia with his belief that people should be free to choose their own religion. His journey also brought him to the United States, where he met his third wife, Maja, and where he became a Unitarian. His love for his homeland drew him back to Czechoslovakia. He initiated the first Flower Communion on June 24, 1923, the 1^st anniversary of the founding of The Prague Congregation of Liberal Religious Fellowship.

The following somewhat lengthy quote from a letter reporting to Dr. Samuel A. Eliot, President of the American Unitarian Association, which had provided funds for Capek to return to Prague to begin this work, describes the service. As Richard Henry records, Capek wrote:

We are trying to find new expressions of our religious life very slowly and carefully. Whereas the dedication of a child, weddings, and burials were kept rather close to the general Unitarian custom, we have made a new experiment in symbolizing our Liberty and Brotherhood in a service which was so powerful and impressive that I never experienced anything like it. The most dry and rationalistic members were moved and many an eye brightened through tears.

On that very Sunday, it was the last before the Holydays, everybody was supposed to bring with him a flower. In the middle of the big hall was a suitable vase where everybody put his flower, some lady members helping to do it nicely. The sight of the many beautiful flowers was wonderful. And more and more of them were coming—solemnly yet joyfully with full understanding of the meaning. We had a common song, I read I Cor. 13, and in my sermon I put emphasis on the individual character of each “member-flower,” on our liberty as a foundation of our fellowship. Then I emphasized our common cause, our belonging together as one spiritual community, as brethren. And when they go home each is to take one flower just as it comes without making any distinction where it came from and whom it represents, to confess that we accept each other as brothers and sisters without regard to class, race, or other distinction, acknowledging everybody as our friend who is a human and wants to be good. After the sermon the flowers were brought to the platform, a prayer was said including a dedication and all standing sang, which was the culmination of the service.

(Henry, pp. 143-4)

Karel Haspl, Capek’s son-in-law and successor, reported Capek’s message as including the following thought:

Each of us is choosing a different flower and that one speaks for us. The vase is again a symbol for us. For us in our Unitarian brotherhood the vase is our church organization. We need it to help us share the beauties but also the responsibilities of communal life. In the proper community by giving the best that is in us for the common good, we grow up and are able to do what no single person is able to do. Each of us needs to receive in order to grow up, but each of us needs to give something away for the same reason. (Henry pp.144-5)

Capek was concerned over the welfare of all persons in his country, especially children who had few playgrounds. He was concerned about the need for healthy trade and over the way trade was controlled. He was concerned about the spiritual needs of the people and the way that the Catholic Church still maintained a dominant presence even after political control had been wrested away from it. He was a broad minded liberal who sought the betterment of all and believed that it could happen.

Capek stands as a modern martyr and inspiration to Unitarianism, free thinking, and rational but heart-warming religion. In the Flower communion, we remember and celebrate the lives of all those who have spoken out, shared, and given their lives for a free and liberal religion. Even in the most difficult of times, Norbert Fabian Capek was able to see beauty, sing out richly, and inspire all those he met with his hope for a better future. He believed that our spirits continued beyond even death, and we certainly can celebrate his ongoing memory today as we remember his commitment to life, love, and our religion.

I chose the title, “Beyond Christianity,” for today’s sermon because I believe that Unitarian Universalism has moved beyond Christianity and is in fact a new and growing religion. Our roots are deeply within the Judeo-Christian tradition, and yet we are learning from and including so many other traditions that we no longer fit within the tradition of our roots. When the current President of our Association of Congregations, The Rev. Bill Sinkford, called for a return to the language of reverence, there was a huge outcry from many who feared that he meant a return to Christianity. Our most recent former President, the Rev. John Buehrens, has written a book entitled, “Understanding the Bible: an Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Liberals.” Buehrens advocates studying the Bible, among other reasons, to understand the influences of Christianity on our culture. As Unitarian Universalists, we are connected to Christianity in many ways, and yet we have gone beyond what is now normative Christianity and few of us seem inclined to go back to it.

That leaves the question of what we are going towards? Two hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson thought that Unitarianism would become the dominant religion for the United States. Our movement has changed tremendously over that period of time, yet in so many ways we still represent a better future religiously. One of the hallmarks of our Unitarian tradition since the 1500’s has been our tolerance, now better described as acceptance, of the religious beliefs and choices of others.

Today, we seek to understand and respect the core teachings of major religious traditions and to teach this to our children. Our 7 Principles call us to respect the inherent worth and dignity of all persons, to practice democracy, to encourage each other’s spiritual journeys, to seek a healthier and peaceable world, and to see ourselves as part of the interconnected web of all existence.

Our statement of Living Tradition reminds us of the rich heritage of religious and humanistic ideas from whence we draw our understandings. Our openness to differing religious and spiritual perspectives gives us flexibility to create strong communities within our congregations and to offer compassion and justice to the broader communities in which they are located.

Set against the parochialism of much of modern day Christianity and other religious traditions, we are the best thing available religiously and spiritually, and yet we are known only to a small minority of people in the world. Part of our commitment to this movement ought to be to spread the word, not with promises, bribes or threats, but by sharing information and by invitation to those who need a different choice religiously.

The message of Jesus was one of love and acceptance, a message often obscured by an emphasis on physical resurrection and being born again spiritually. Perhaps the Flower Communion is a fitting ritual for Easter, in its invitation to all of us to share our gifts in the symbolism of the flowers and to honor the community we build in the vases and baskets that hold our flowers. We celebrate new life and the resurrections of spring in these flowers and in the community we build together and in all this we may go beyond the narrow focus of modern Christianity and aspire to the loving acceptance and the calls for justice that were so much a part of the teachings of Jesus.

This Easter Day, may we honor our roots and remember the lives of Jesus and Norbert Capek as we share our flower communion!

Amen, Shalom, Salam, and Blessed Be!

Mrs. Adrian Brewer

Betsy Cottrell

Wilma Diner

Mrs. R. A. Dykeman

Shirley Ebert

Jane Fields

Janice Gates

Francis Hocott

Carol Holcomb

Mary Honke

Carol Hrishikesan

Mary Johnson

Peggy Marvin

Shirley McFarlin

Mrs. Oddist Murphree

Connie Panos

Ann Shafner

Mary Thompson

Katie Towbin

Barbara Whitney

Mrs. Bill Wilkins

Virginia Williams

Pat Youngdahl

These women made a big difference in Little Rock, though their names may not have become widely known. I hope that this church will never forget them or what they did. I hope that there will be other women to rise up when other crises arise.

Other women who were Unitarians or Universalists were changing the world long before the Little Rock school crisis, while others are changing the world now or will be changing the world far ahead in the future. The following women are probably fairly familiar to most of us. Did you know they were Unitarians or Universalists?

Susan B. Anthony, was born in 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts, and later lived near Rochester, NY. She was an advocate of Temperance, the abolition of slavery, as well as being one of the leading voices calling for Women’s Suffrage. She died in 1906, fourteen years before the Nineteenth Amendment finally gave women the right to vote.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) is believed to be the driving force behind the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, and for the next fifty years played a leadership role in the women's rights movement. Somewhat overshadowed in popular memory by her long time colleague Susan B. Anthony, Stanton was for many years the architect and author of the movement's most important strategies and documents.

Lucy Stone, on the radical edge of women's rights at the beginning of her speaking and writing career, she's usually considered a leader of the conservative wing of the suffrage movement in her later years. Her speech in 1850 converted Susan B. Anthony to the suffrage cause. The first woman from Massachusetts to earn a degree, a graduate of Oberlin college, when she married she kept her own name.

Mary Livermore was born in Boston on 19th December, 1820. As a tutor on a Virginia plantation observing the way that slaves were treated turned her into a strong opponent of slavery. She later married Daniel Livermore, a Universalist minister. A writer and editor, she did relief work during the Civil War, joining the U.S. Sanitary Commission in Chicago. Along with Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe, Livermore co-edited The Women's Journal (1870-72). A founding member of the American Woman Suffrage Association, Livermore was president of the organization between 1875 and 1878. Livermore was also one of the leaders of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Mary Livermore died in Melrose, Massachusetts, on 23rd May, 1905.

Julia Ward Howe was an ardent feminist, abolitionist, and mother of six children. She was a founder of the New England Suffrage Association. She was one of the leaders of the American Woman Suffrage Association. She wrote the poem, which later was set to music, Battle Hymn of the Republic, and was president of the American branch of the Women's International Peace Association. She first proposed Mother’s Day as a day for women to join in opposition to war.

Florence Nightingale, born May 12, 1820, was a lifelong Unitarian. She revolutionized the care of the sick and the wounded. Because of her efforts to reform hospitals, nursing became an honored calling.

Universalist, Clara Barton was born on Christmas day, 1821, in Oxford, Massachusetts. She began teaching school at the age of 16 and in 1852 founded the first free public school in the state of New Jersey. In 1864 she was appointed Superintendent of Nurses for the Army. After the war, she established an office that located 25,000 missing soldiers, living and dead. She worked with the International Red Cross during the Franco‑Prussian War and then came home and campaigned long and hard to have the U. S. become a signer of the Geneva Convention to establish the American Red Cross. Congress finally signed the Convention establishing the Red Cross in 1881, and Clara Barton ran the organization until 1904, when she was 83 years old.

Born in 1821, Elizabeth Blackwell served as a teacher in Kentucky and the Carolinas as she sought to fulfill her dream. After many rejections, she was accepted and graduated first in her class from the Geneva, New York, Medical College in 1849, the first modern woman doctor. She died in London in 1910, where she had served as professor of gynecology for over 30 years.

Dorothea Dix was born April 4, 1802. a Unitarian known for her work to improve conditions for prisoners and the mentally ill. She began teaching school at Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1816, at the age of 14. At the age of 33 her health failed, and so she was forced to stop teaching. In 1841 she went as a volunteer to teach a Sunday School class in the East Cambridge Jail. There she was horrified to find the prisoners and the mentally ill all housed together under inhuman conditions. That experience launched her into campaigns which resulted in a complete revolution in the care of the mentally ill.

Mary Woolstonecraft, a Unitarian born in 1759, has been called the "mother of feminism." Her book-length essay on women's rights, and especially on women's education, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, is a classic of feminist thought.

Transcendentalist, Margaret Fuller, born in 1810, became the first female foreign correspondent and the first book review editor in the U.S. under Horace Greeley at the New York Tribune.

Emily Dickinson born in 1830, was an American lyrical poet, and an obsessively private writer -- only seven of her some 1800 poems were published during her lifetime. Dickinson withdrew from social contact at the age of 23 and devoted herself in secret into writing. Her writing deeply influenced modern style.

Louisa May Alcott, beloved author of Little Women and various other books, was born November 29, 1832 and died March 6, 1888

And in more recent days, do you remember Samantha Smith, the young UU girl who wrote a peace letter to Andropov and visited the USSR, then died in a tragic plane crash in 1985at the age of 12?

Any astronomers or astrophysicists out there? Did you know that a Unitarian woman was the 1^st person – man or woman – to earn a Ph.d. from the Harvard College Observatory?

We’re told that when Cecilia Payne was five years old, she saw a meteor and immediately decided to become an astronomer: "I was seized with panic at the thought that everything might be found out before I was old enough to begin," wrote Payne-Gaposchkin at the end of her life.

Mrs G’s (that’s what she was called) enthusiasm for science and math was not in keeping with her English upper-class girl's education, which strongly favored literary interests. In her autobiography The Dyer's Hand, she recalled that "When I won a coveted prize ... I was asked what book I would choose to receive. It was considered proper to select Milton, or Shakespeare. . . .I said I wanted a textbook on fungi. I was deaf to all expostulation: that was what I wanted, and in the end I got it, elegantly bound in leather as befitted a literary giant.

She studied at Cambridge, but realized that her career, as a woman, of course, opportunities in England were going to be limited to teaching… so we’re told:

After completing her studies at Cambridge, Payne became a doctoral student at Harvard in 1924. The rich store of astronomical records at the Harvard Observatory, and the presence of a community of astronomers, created a nirvana for Payne from which she would never leave. In 1925, a brisk two years after her arrival in the United States, she became the first student, male or female, to earn a Ph.D. from the Harvard College Observatory.

We’re told that Mrs. G was a many-sided personality known for her wit, her literary knowledge, and for her personal friendships with individual stars. She became the first woman in the history of Harvard University to receive a corporation appointment with tenure, and the first woman department chair in 1956.

A September 1956 article in The Christian Register published by the American Unitarian Association, announced her appointment and described her as a member of the denomination's First Parish and Church in Lexington, Massachusetts.

In her autobiography, The Dyer's Hand, she describes a career marked with slow promotions and low salaries. What sustained her were her intellectual interests and the rewards of her work. She wrote, "I simply went on plodding, rewarded by the beauty of the scenery towards an unexpected goal."

Her words to scientists of her time, I believe has much to say to us today – as we think about how we might live our lives. She says this:

"Your reward will be the widening of the horizon as you climb. And if you achieve that reward you will ask no other."

Now, just one more woman, who I, personally consider a personal hero…a great friend of the planet, and not all that different from you and me. I hope many of you have heard of, have read her books – or have actually heard her speak in person at the 2003 General Assembly:

Frances Moore Lappé is author or co-author of fourteen books, including the three-million-copy bestseller Diet for a Small Planet. The co-founder of two national organizations that focus on food and the roots of democracy, in 1987 she became the fourth American to receive the Right Livelihood Award. Her most recent book is You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear (Tarcher/Penguin, 2004).

Frances Moore Lappé grew up in the 1950s in Fort Worth, TX, a proud child of UU parents. Upon returning home from attending a bible class in a local Baptist Church one day, she asked her parents, "What does hell fire and damnation mean?" Her parents answered, "It means it's time to start a Unitarian Fellowship." And they did.

”As a young woman in the 1960s, I awakened to the tragedy of global hunger. I was determined to share my startling discovery that hunger is needless. There is more than enough food in the world for all to thrive; and, since hunger is made by human beings, we have the power to end it. With this message, my first book, Diet for a Small Planet hit the stands in 1971, and I quickly learned I had a lot of company. Millions of others were seeking ways to link their lives, their everyday choices, to create the world we want.

She says: “We all share this small planet whose fate is in our hands. Do we choose life or do we choose death? Do we choose fear or do we choose hope? Given the choice, no one would choose fear.”

“I’m now re-writing The Quickening of America – to help people fight despair and learn from living democracy emerging in America. It will be published with a new title by Jossey-Bass in 2005. Working alongside me on two critical chapters is my daughter Anna Lappé and helping overall is TeamDemocracy, young researchers exploring together the most vital examples of citizen problem solving. Once the book is out, we will make our TeamDemocracy research easily accessible on our website.

Over these 30-plus years I have experienced our world moving rapidly in two directions at once. In one direction I see heightened violence, polarization, environmental devastation and fear. In the other, people are manifesting cooperation with each other and with nature in ways so rich I could never have imagined them possible when I began my journey. As never before on our small planet, we humans can see a clear choice. Choosing hope to me means choosing to act. One thing for sure I’ve learned in these three decades is that hope is not what we find in evidence; it is what we become in action. “

“hope is not what we find in evidence; it is what we become in action."

… A contemporary example of a UU woman quietly using her own gifts and talents to contribute to the health and healing of our planet.

These Unitarian, Universalist, and UU women we have remembered today are an inspiration for all of us, male and female alike. These women each had a vision of a better world and they sought to make it a reality. Some did not live to see the fruition of their dreams, hard work, and tears; but the world did change for the better because of what they did. The world we live in still provides plenty of challenges for us. In our nation, and around the world, there are gaping chasms between rich and poor, there remain all too frequent occurrences of racism, sexism, ageism, and heterosexism. There remain huge ecological problems yet to be addressed around the world. All these challenges remain for this and future generations.

These and so many other women pioneers have helped to build greater equality, to move us closer to a world in which all persons will be recognized for their inherent worth and treated with dignity. These women and so many others suffered much on the course of their life journeys as they sought truth and meaning in a world dominated by the old boys networks. They have broken down barriers for women and minorities and have helped to create a greater level of justice, equality, and compassion in the world. Was their Unitarian and/or Universalist faith a motivating factor for their exception contributions?

We live in difficult times, and there are many in our society and around the world who would curtail the rights of women and minorities. We live in a world ever more aware of our interconnections and interdependence, and yet there are those who would force us back under the control of antiquated and oppressive religious ideas, who would breach the separating barrier between church and state. Just as our Unitarian women took the lead in Little Rock when the schools were closed, again and again strong creative women have helped move society forward. As we affirm our Unitarian Universalist Principles, especially our belief in the inherent worth of all human beings, may we women and men alike, be inspired and challenged to use our own individual talents and gifts to create a better world.

Information compiled from multiple books on UU History, and websites including UU historical sites accessed through UUA.org, Harvard Square Library 2, National Park Service sites, Women’s History Project, etc.