Explaining Ourselves to Each Other

This morning I am going to talk about forgiveness but first we are going to talk about politics. According to Texas folklore George Washington grew up in the Lone Star State. One day Washington’s father confronted his son in the orchard saying, “Did you cut down that cherry tree?” The young George declared, “I cannot tell a lie. I chopped down the cherry tree.” His father sighed and said, “Well, I guess we’d better move to Virginia. If you cannot tell a lie you’ll never make it in Texas politics.” 

Politics can become a nasty affair in every state in the union especially when religion gets mixed up in it. In our home state of Tennessee there seems to be a two step process to political victory if you are a candidate for office. First, say “I honor the Lord our God.” Second, bear false witness against your neighbor. 

Unitarians are not immune to this dynamic. One of the nastiest campaigns in our nation’s history was in 1800 between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams for the Presidency of the United States. Both men were Unitarians. The campaign was full of slander and libel on both sides. The two men had been friends. After the election they wouldn’t even speak to each other. If bitterness and bad blood have become a feature of American politics then two Unitarians are at least partially responsible. After the bitterly polarized contest Jefferson and Adams were thoroughly estranged. And then one day, after many years of silence and as the two men began to enter old age John Adams took out his pen and wrote Jefferson a letter in which he said, “You and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other.” 

I tell that story because we are in the midst of the High Holy Days of the Jewish Calendar which is a time to seek and grant forgiveness and contemplate the possibilities of reconciliation. John Adams offers us a good example of how to begin the process. So let’s reflect on our lives and ask ourselves whether or not we need to write a letter to someone saying, “You and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other.” 

This year the Unitarian Universalist Association has suggested we all consider a common read On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends In An Unapologetic World by Rabbi Danya Ruttenburg, a book that seems especially appropriate to read during the High Holy Days. In her book the rabbi writes, “We all cause harm sometimes. Maybe it’s intentional, a result of a calculated attempt to gain power, or from a place of anger or spite. Maybe it’s out of carelessness, or ignorance, a reaction to fear, or because we are overwhelmed… Maybe it’s because we were acting out of our own broken places or trauma, or because, in our attempt to protect some interests, we ran roughshod over others. Maybe it’s because our smaller role in a larger system puts us in the position of perpetuating hurt and injustice. Maybe it’s for one of a myriad of other reasons or a combination of them.” Rabbi Ruttenburg is correct. We all cause harm. We all need forgiveness. 

When I was a hospital chaplain I went to visit a dying man who was estranged from his daughter. She came to the hospital to see him but he refused to let her in his room. This is why I got the call as chaplain. I visited with the man and listened to his story but nothing was going to change his decision. And so he died, and his daughter mourned, and neither had the opportunity to explain themselves to the other. 

When I was a minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spartanburg I did a memorial service for the founder of the congregation. No one was more responsible for the founding of that church than him. The written history of the congregation gave him due credit for the accomplishment. And yet when he asked me to do his memorial he was no longer a member. During the civil rights movement there had been a big blow up in the church. Ironically, both sides of the conflict were for civil rights. They just had polarized ideas about how to be for civil rights. Let me repeat that. Both sides were for civil rights. They just had polarized ideas about how to be for civil rights. It’s like Reverend John Buehrens once said of Unitarian Universalists, “I am no longer surprised when we shoot ourselves in the foot. I am surprised by how quickly we reload.” 

The founder of the church told me how painful it was to be in the midst of that conflict with all the vitriol involved. He resigned from the church and never darkened the door of the building until many years later when he found out he was dying. Then he asked me, the new minister of the church, someone he’d never met, to do his memorial service. We held that memorial in the sanctuary of the church. He died and the members of the congregation mourned but it is fair to say that they hadn’t had a chance to explain themselves to each other. 

At the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church we do not have arguments over civil rights or women’s rights or LGBTQIA rights or other human rights because we have unity there. Instead we have fights about the Welcome Garden. 

At first I found it puzzling that there would be so many polarized conversations about a garden but then I remembered the book of Genesis which seems to suggest that all of our problems began in a garden. After I realized that it all made sense. 

So if you will indulge me I will take on the persona of the announcer at a boxing match to explain the current controversy over our garden, “In this corner we have those who want the church to have curb appeal, who want people to be able to see our church sign and see where to turn into our driveway and admire our building without obstructed views and advance the cause of Unitarian Universalism. And in this corner we have those who feel that a manicured lawn that requires regular mowing will only mean more fossil fuels burned and CO₂ released into the atmosphere speeding global warming, who want to see native plants that will serve as a breeding ground for endangered species and thus advance the cause of Unitarian Universalism.” Of course, this is an oversimplification of the conflict as there are macro-issues and micro-issues and very practical problems with recruiting enough volunteers to do the related work. Also there are aesthetic questions about what is beautiful and what is ugly. These are subjective judgments and it is hard to change someone’s mind about what is beautiful or ugly. 

So before you choose sides in this particular conflict consider the possibility that there is an alternative to polarization. Take a moment to contemplate that both sides want to advance the cause of Unitarian Universalism. Imagine there are alternatives to framing this as a contest between good and evil, right and wrong. Imagine if we took a moment before the conflict to explain ourselves to each other.This is the goal of a new team established by the board to review the Welcome Garden to see if we can get folks to listen to each other and be changed by that process in order to create a plan that allows our church to be an attractive and visible presence that is accessible and welcoming to visitors while also practicing environmental responsibility in a way that is sustainable ecologically and within our budget. This is our hope. Now when God and Adam and Eve couldn’t work out their issues Adam and Eve got kicked out of the garden. It is our goal to have a more positive outcome than that. 

There is an article making the rounds by a Presbyterian minister who is resigning from church work. He said his wake up call was when he approached a state senator who was a member of his congregation and asked him to serve on the board and the state senator said, “No, I can’t do that. Church politics is too rough.”

Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way. I remember when I was Director of Religious Education I taught a class called Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography that included two people who were polar opposites. Jerry Sillman was a 1950’s style atheist and humanist. I say 1950’s because his hairstyle and manner of dress (including a pocket protector) were of that era as were his influences Isaac Asimov, Erich Fromm and Victor Frankl. Dottie Burnham, on the other hand, was a feminist theologian deeply interested in the divine feminine and rituals that might involve dance and goddess worship.Her influences included Mary Daly, Starhawk and Rosemary Radford Reuther. These two had always been antagonists in the past and I was very nervous about having them in my class together. Indeed, whenever the discussion was about ‘ideas’ the two could quickly fall into disagreement. However the Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography class isn’t about ideas. It is about stories. So as part of the class Jerry got a chance to tell his story of how he came to believe what he believed and Dottie got the chance to tell her story of how she came to believe what she believed and the process led to the two becoming friends. Once these two had heard each other’s stories there was empathy, understanding and connection. And ever since that class I’ve felt that this is one of the most important roles a church can play in our lives, giving us opportunities to explain ourselves to each other. 

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were friends then enemies and then friends again. They exchanged many letters in their latter years. Collections of their correspondence with commentary are over 600 pages long.  Jefferson and Adams were estranged from each 

other until they reconciled. They even died on the same day – the fourth of July 1826. 

Now let me end this sermon by saying that if you decide to go outside after the service and visit our congregation’s Welcome Garden you will see in the middle of the garden the stump of an old tree which has been a source of controversy of late. I want you to know – I did not chop down that tree! Doris Gove tells me the stump is from a big hackberry tree (not a cherry tree) although there is part of me that wants to think it might have been the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If so, I am hoping we will resist the temptation to eat that fruit that turns every disagreement into a contest between good and evil, either/or, right and wrong, my way or the highway. Theologians tell us that the Garden of Eden was a state of Oneness before there were any divisions, when all people were one and all of creation was one. We may never be able to return to the Garden of Eden but it is my hope that we can create a community here at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church where we take the time to explain ourselves to each other and by doing so we may even create a Welcome Garden. 

(This sermon was given on Sunday, September 17, 2023, at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church by Rev. Chris Buice.)

The Unitarian Minister and the Ark

An irreverent theologian once said, “Some people read the Bible the same way they read an internet contract. They simply scroll to the bottom and click “Agree.” But that is not the Unitarian Universalist way. 

This morning I want to talk about how Unitarian Universalists read the Bible.  And my message today is informed by a trip I took this summer to visit the Ark Experience in Williamstown, Kentucky. The Ark Experience is a most unusual biblical tourist attraction which has some similarities to a typical theme park with one big difference. The centerpiece of the park is a full scale model of Noah’s Ark built according to biblical specifications – 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits tall. 

. The ticket for the Ark Experience was not cheap. I had an internal debate about whether or not it was worth it. Ultimately I decided to chalk it up to the costs of good sermon research.  I bought my ticket at the main station and hopped on board a trolley full of other tourists and we proceeded to make our way toward the Ark. Even from a distance the grand scale of the Ark was impressive. 

Before I say anything more about the Ark let me say something about how Unitarian Universalists read the Bible. In 1819 the Reverend William Ellery Channing gave a sermon where he spelled out some of the principles that informed how Unitarians read scriptures. 

“We profess not to know a book, which demands a more frequent exercise of reason than the Bible… we may observe that its style nowhere affects the precision of science… Its language is singularly glowing, bold, and figurative, demanding more frequent departures from the literal sense…and consequently demanding more continual exercise of judgment.….We feel it our bounden duty to exercise our reason upon it perpetually, to compare, to infer, to look beyond the letter to the spirit.” 

One way to summarize William Ellery Channing’s lengthy sermon on the topic is with a short succinct quote from my friend the Reverend Johnny Skinner of the Mount Zion Baptist Church who often says, “We take the Bible seriously, not literally.” 

I mention this because if you decide to make your own trip to the Ark Experience you need to know that you are going to visit a literal Ark and you are going to be exposed to a very, very literal interpretation of the story of Noah and the Ark. Of course, you don’t have to travel to Williamstown, Kentucky, to encounter biblical literalism. 

Many years ago there was an evening concert series on Market Square called Sundown In The City that was very popular. Hordes of people would descend on the city for these shows. And I remember one time seeing huge numbers of people walking by this lone street preacher standing all by himself shouting, “And Noah warned the people there was going to be flood but no one would listen to him because they were too busy going to Sundown in the City.” 

I think that street preacher would enjoy going to the Ark Experience. The theme park is designed for people who read the bible in a very literal way with one important proviso. Even though the story of Noah and the Ark is a Jewish story grounded in the Jewish tradition found in a Jewish holy book, the Torah, this is not a theme park where you are going to see many yarmulkes.  The Ark Experience gives this Jewish story a very conservative evangelical Christian spin. So fair warning. 

This very sectarian perspective on the story is important to note because there are flood legends found in many different cultures around the world as far back as the Bronze Age and the Neolithic era. Legends of a worldwide flood are found in Africa, Asia, Oceana, Europe as well as among the indigenous peoples of North America and Central America. 

When I lived in Indiana I got a sense for why such legends might begin. Indiana is nowhere near any ocean and yet when I took my kids hiking we would find the fossils of sea creatures pretty much everywhere we walked. During the Paleozoic era Indiana was underneath a shallow sea and so today you can find fossils of marine animals in abundance. It is not unusual at all. Flood stories are a reminder that the world did not always look like it does today. The dry land of today may have been the bottom of a sea in another era. Our geography is subject to dramatic change. Noah and the Ark is one among many flood stories. 

However, at the Ark Experience Noah is THE FLOOD STORY. Other flood stories are not given equal time. Even so, a visit to the Ark Experience can lead to a realization of how difficult it is to be a biblical literalist. As you enter into the Ark there is a sign that reads in big bold letters “Artistic License” and includes this disclaimer, “The Bible gives some specifics about Noah but it does not tell us what he looked like, how he dressed or what his hobbies might have been. We are told even less about his family and scripture does not even reveal the names of his wife and his daughters-in-law. Artistic License was taken to name these four women, develop their backstories and craft their appearances. The Bible provides a few details about the Ark…but it does not explain every aspect needed for us to recreate an exact replica. Our Ark is based on biblical data and shipbuilding research but we used artistic license in many areas including the design of the ship’s interior and exterior structure as well as the mechanisms for animal feeding and waste removal…” That waste removal alone would have been a big challenge. All of this is to say that even biblical literalists are not free from the need to exercise a little religious imagination. 

I have to say that walking around the Ark Experience made it even harder for me to interpret the story literally. The tall clay jars on display did not look like they could contain near enough water for all the people and animals on the Ark. And there were details to the exhibit that I think would give even biblical literalists pause. For instance there was a sign that read, “Did you know that up to 85 kinds of dinosaurs were on the Ark including 2 Tyrannosaurids, 2 Stegosaurids, 2 Ceratopsids and 2 Brachiosaurids.” I don’t know about you but there were no dinosaurs in the picture books I read about Noah and the Ark when I was a kid. Also I see no mention of dinosaurs on the ark in the Bible so I am assuming this is just another example of artistic license. 

There were also anachronisms aplenty on every floor of the Ark including a variety of snack shops where you could get a bite to eat and your choice of your favorite Coca Cola products to drink. There was a theater with a film purporting to be an Interview with Noah where the biblical patriarch was forced to endure hostile questions from the “liberal” media, leading one man in the audience behind me to cry out, “That’s just like CNN.” So if you prefer your bible stories unleavened by right wing political commentary you might want to choose another vacation option. 

Of course, critiques work both ways. When I posted a picture of the ark on social media Demi PC commented, “Is that a working ark? Will it float? So that the righteous investors can be saved from the climate change hoax floods.” In answer to Demi’s question, “The Ark replica is not a real boat and will not float. Indeed, and here is a major irony, the Ark Experience actually had to sue their insurance company for refusing to pay for flood damage to the park’s infrastructure caused by heavy rains in 2017 and 2018. 

But back to our tour. After you finish your tour of the Ark you are guided/required to “exit through the gift shop” which offers a wide variety of stuffed animals of every kind of creature, souvenir t-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs, key chains,  jewelry and more. There is a certain uncritical alliance between the Bible and unvarnished capitalism on display. Once you leave the Ark you can take a stroll around a modest sized zoo and see some real life animals and if you are brave you can even pay extra and do a zipline. I do not remember any references to ziplining in the Bible but there it is. 

Walking through the Ark Experience I began to contemplate the story of Noah and the Ark and ask myself, “Is there a way to take this story seriously but not literally?” One of my problems with a literal interpretation of this bible story is it seems to suggest that God had major anger management issues and questionable parenting skills.  

Fortunately, biblical scholars tell us there are at least three different ways we can contemplate a biblical story. 

1. We can read the story in a literal way.
2. We can contemplate the story as an allegory.
3. We can reflect on the story in a didactic way by asking -what is the moral of the story?

I think the vast majority of the people who go to the Ark Experience interpret the story of Noah and the Ark in a literal way. However, there are other ways to read the story. 

One such interpretation of the story is offered by a friend of mine who is an environmentalist. She said the meaning of the story for her was that human beings are not the only creatures that matter.  The story reminds us that it is not enough to save humanity. We have to save every species. For her the story was a metaphor for her work in ecology and her efforts to stop mass extinction. While it might be impossible to imagine a literal ark that could literally hold two of every creature considering there are 6, 495 species of mammals and over 10,000 species of reptiles and a similar number for birds. However, the story can be a reminder to respect the diversity of species that belong on our blue boat home, our garden, our harbor, our holy place – the earth, our common Ark. 

I began my summer vacation by visiting the Ark Experience in Williamstown, Kentucky, but on my last week of vacation I paid a visit to a different kind of Ark much closer to home. On the Alex Haley Farm in Norris Tennessee there is an interfaith chapel built in the shape of an Ark. This is the ingathering place for the Children’s Defense Fund’s Samuel Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy. This institute is an interfaith retreat where activists across the country come to learn how to organize for children’s rights – to work for a world where every child will be fed, every child will have a roof over their head, every child will have access to health care, every child will have protection from the storms of life. A plaque on the wall says, “The beautiful ark-shaped …Interfaith Chapel symbolizes the safe haven all children need.” And if we embrace this metaphor then we realize that it is everyone’s responsibility to build the Ark. It is everyone’s responsibility to build a world that is safe for our children; to provide shelter to the most vulnerable young people from the harsh elements of life. And that is what we are doing this week at TVUUC. Our congregation is supporting the Family Promise program by hosting families with children who would otherwise go homeless. This week our church is the Ark. 

As we noted earlier, some people read the Bible like they read an internet contract. They simply scroll to the bottom and click “Agree.” This is not the Unitarian Universalist way. We aspire to look at these stories from many different angles and reflect on their meaning from many different perspectives. We accept that there is no way to read them that does not involve using our own religious imagination, or exercising our own artistic license.  We know that we do not have to take these stories literally in order to take them seriously. Indeed the scriptures themselves warn against literalism when they tell us, “The letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.” Can I get an Amen? And if you are not feeling so demonstrative you can simply get out your cell phones and click “Agree.” 

(This sermon was delivered at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday September 10, 2023 by the Reverend Chris Buice.)