Sermons by Reverend Don Beaudreault

IS THERE ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO CONVINCE/CONVICT YOU?
Rev. Don Beaudreault
Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota, FL
February 6, 2005

OPENING READING: "People are like teabags."

People are like teabags; you never know how strong they'll be until they're in hot water. In times of trouble, you not only discover what you truly believe but whether or not you can act on your beliefs.

Rita Mae Brown

MEDITATION READING: "Convincement by George Fox" (founder of the Society of Friends)

And so he (George Fox) went on, and said, how that Christ was the Light of the world, and lighteth every man that cometh into the world; and that by this light they might be gathered to God.

I stood up in my pew and wondered at his doctrine; for I had never heard such before. And then he went on, and opened the Scriptures, and said, "the Scriptures were the prophets' words, and Christ's and the apostles' words, and what, as they spoke, they enjoyed and possessed, and had if from the Lord": and said, "then what had any to do with the Scriptures, but as they came to the Spirit that gave them forth? You will say, Christ saith this, and the apostles say this; but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of Light, and hast thou walked in the Light, and what thou speakest, is it inwardly from God?".

This opened me so, that it cut me to the heart; and then I saw clearly we were all wrong. So I sat down in my pew again, and cried bitterly: and I cried in my spirit, to the Lord, "We are all thieves, we are all thieves; we have taken the Scriptures in words, and know nothing of them in ourselves."

So that served me, that I cannot well tell what he spoke afterwards; but he went on in declaring the false prophets, and priests, and deceivers of the people.

Margaret Fell, (1614-1702)
Friends for 300 Years by Howard B. Brinton

SERMON: "Is There Enough Evidence to Convince/Convict You?"

What is a complete Unitarian Universalist? And are you one?

Here is the litmus test: You are a complete Unitarian Universalist if you are both convinced by the evidence and then convicted enough to act upon that evidence.

But what "evidence"?

Here is where it gets complicated, because the "varieties of religious experience" among UUs - i.e. the "evidence" - is as varied as the individuals who have those experiences.

In other words, there is no one way to be a Unitarian Universalist, although in whatever way you are one, you are a complete one only if you have passionate beliefs that you passionately practice: convincement and conviction.

The philosopher and theologian, Cornel West, states as much when he describes a "rich life" as one in which you are:

trying to leave the world a little better than you found it.This is true at the personal level.(but there's also) a political version of this. It has to do with what you see when you get up in the morning and look in the mirror and ask yourself whether you are simply wasting time on the planet or spending time in an enriching manner.

As a "complete UU" you attempt to live an "examined life" instead of accepting the status quo simply because it is the status quo. In this process of examination, you are attaining evidence to convince you as to what to think and feel - and what course of action you might take in regard to these.

You are like Margaret Fell who, in our mediation reading, is seeking answers about her life's meaning and purpose; and who, in the process, is being transformed by her experiences. Like Margaret, you might have had your own George Fox in life who challenged you to think about things in deep ways; who asked you similar questions to the one posed by the prototype George Fox to Margaret Fell and others:

.but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of Light, and hast thou walked in the Light, and what thou speakest, is it inwardly from God?

On the day Margaret Fell heard George Fox preach those words, she was forever changed - i.e. convinced. And her convincement was the foundation for her actions - her convictions.

It was a conversional experience for her, "conversion" being defined by William James in his The Varieties of Religious Experience as:

the process, gradual or sudden, by which a self, hitherto divided.and unhappy, becomes unified.and happy. This is what conversion signifies.whether or not we believe that a direct divine operation is needed to bring such a.change about.

Margaret's conversion was sudden, although much led up to it; and it was one where there was a "direct divine operation."

Your "conversion" - based on the evidence that led to your convincement - might have been gradual or sudden - although I believe that the breakthrough moment, that ecstatic instant when you realized: "Hey, I think I know now what I am: I'm a Unitarian Universalist!" was based upon everything else in your life before that revelation. It is just that you have needed someone or something to convince you of what you already knew or felt, but was unable to clearly articulate.

Just like the Buddha when tradition has him saying after he has achieved "enlightenment":

In my emancipated self arose the knowledge of my deliverance.

Emancipation, yes - deliverance yes - aspects of being convinced about purpose and meaning.

Yes, and yet we must ask: At what price?

Think about it this way: those who have conversional experiences are really incomplete unless they act upon their enlightened experiences. That is the price.

There are degrees of this action, of course, with some people becoming major forces for change. Most of us, acting upon our convictions, face the day-to-day connection with others. We do so in seemingly small ways, without much or any acknowledgement from others. But maybe that is the whole point: the good deeds we do should be reward enough; we should not expect further acknowledgement.

But back to the Buddha. He felt that he was emancipated. But he also knew - as did every great spiritual leader - that from emancipation came further commitment and action. Those who have achieved an awareness of this freedom that liberates them from past constrictions must make a choice: to practice noble deeds from this point on or not. To do the former is, in truth, the quintessence - the very nugget - of "freedom."

The philosopher Peter Koestenbaum says of this:

Claiming your freedom is the ultimate secret for mastering your life. To discover your freedom inside your heart is an exuberant experience of both exhilaration and hope, and that freedom can never be extinguished.

Again, there are an infinite number of convincements. Continuing the convincement of how one might attain "truth," we see that Margaret Fell's convincement was a profound awareness that told her she needed to hear the truth inside herself - that "still, small voice" that would liberate her from the pronouncements of other Christians. She began to understand that such teachings came to those who professed them because they, too, had listened to their own voice within. Referencing it to Fell's theistic assumption, we see that they had listened to the voice of "God" within themselves and then applied that knowledge.

Let me affirm once more that convincements are varied. And this applies to beliefs about the same or similar ideas.

For instance, Margaret Fell understood the process by which she could attain her own truth. Sydney Harris has the same goal but arrives at it by using a different process. As he says:

In unimportant matters, the more we get to know, the less there is left to find out. When you finally learn how an auto engine works, you have exhausted its possibilities for use.

In important matters, however, the more we get to know, the more we learn how little we know. (Pieces of Eight, p. 145)

I dare say that such a thought is about the only "truth" that is totally true. Harris goes on to say:

Something more than mind is needed, and that something more has little to do with the intellectual level. It has how the mind is used, in conjunction with other parts of the personality, that makes the difference. (p. 166)

As Unitarian Universalists we have continued the tradition of discovering truths in varying ways - often stressing head knowledge over heart knowledge, the mind over the emotions.

The post-modern UU, however, is open to a variety of sources, and recognizes that each of us learns in different ways - that talk works for some, but so does reading, meditation, social activity, involvement in the larger world of "issues." All are ways that provide individuals their own particular convincements.

Truly, this religious movement we call our own - this way of being "spiritual" in the world - provides an eclectic process based upon liberation by which we might discover our own truths, our own convincements.

But here's the rub: sometimes no truths appear! Because we are a non-creedal and non-dogmatic bunch, we are constantly bombarded with the stark reality (although a liberated one!) that we might not know what is true, what is not true.

That in itself is a convincement.

It is also what religious traditions refer to as profound "humility" - in counterdistinction to foolish "pride." John Heider in his The Tao of Leadership says as much with:

Nobody has all the answers. Knowing that you do not know everything is far wiser than thinking that you know a lot when you really don't.it is a relief to be able to say: "I don't know." (p. 141)

I believe that in addition to the convincements that say you must discover your own process to discover your own truths, and that asks you to admit your ignorance, there is the convincement that informs you to admit you are wrong and need a new convincement!

The highly successful businesswoman Anita Roddick is someone who learned from her failures, thereby creating the international company known as Body Shop International. Says Roddick:

What saved us, once again, were our willingness to recognize that we were wrong and our ability to move swiftly on to the next idea. (Credibility, p. 223)

Something more about liberation: Although It allows the fashioning of one's convincement, it often comes with a high price. Consider what Thomas Merton has to say on the subject:

Souls are like athletes that need opponents worthy of them if they are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers.

Here Merton echoes Rita Mae Brown, who in our opening reading expressed her belief that:

Koestenbaugh expands this thought with:

Heroes have exercised this freedom at the risk of life itself. True love means to surrender that freedom to another. The greatest gift you can ever give is the surrender of your freedom. That is the ultimate act of love - toward a spouse, a child, a boss, a friend, a nation, an ideal, a cause, an ideal, or God.

So, freedom - that is to say, "convincement," comes with a price - perhaps even one of death.

The historical list of those who have died for what they believed is long. Some of them - intentionally or not - founded or furthered great religions or political movements or social causes.

But most of us live smaller lives - significant ones (hopefully) to ourself and others, but smaller, nevertheless.

Think about it like this - about how others, emancipated within themselves and thereby knowing what they must do, went about doing it - and were even willing to die for their convincements; who acted out their convictions in impassioned ways. Who, in doing so, liberated the rest of us.

Think about it like this - we in this sanctuary today are heirs of such people who were so strongly convinced that what they believed about freedom of and freedom from religion was right and just, that they were willing to be persecuted for those beliefs, some to the point of death.

So we should never take our liberating spiritual movement for granted. We need to support it - even more than we do at present, given the encroachment today of social forces that would seek to deny us our religious freedom. Now is not the time to be complacent. Now is not the time to shirk from our personal and communal responsibility to give fully of our time, energy, talent, and financial resource. If you cherish your right to sit in this sanctuary - if you have such convincement about what you believe concerning this right, then your responsibility is to show it, to have the courage and the strength of your convictions.

Still, most of us live smaller lives than those great heroes of religious, political, and social freedom when it comes to how we act on our beliefs. The basic way - that which indicates that we are fellow travelers on this mysterious and vertiginous celestial ball we live on - is to attempt connection with another human being. In calling you forth to do so, let me conclude this sermon with a story about such "connection" - or in this case, lack of connection, as told by Robert A. Johnson in his book Ecstasy: Understanding the Psychology of Joy:

.(the) unease with human contact.has been a great loss for our society.

Never did I experience this loss more vividly than during a visit I made to Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco soon after the custom of the passing of the peace had been instigated in the Episcopal Church. Robed and gloved ushers came down from the altar and shook hands with the person at the beginning of each row of pews, and this "peace" was then to be handed down from person to person until the end of the row was reached.

Well, the woman to my right was clearly horrified by this plan. She couldn't bear to touch a stranger. The Dionysian quality of being close was forbidden to her. She turned around to me with an anguished look on her face, proffered a gloved hand, and stiffly put out her little finger. I took the little finger and shook it carefully with my thumb and forefinger. The pained embarrassment at having to touch was vividly expressed between us.

I don't get angry very often, but for some reason the anger just welled up in me over this. So I turned around to the man on my left, raised him up with a big bear hug, and sat him down again. The poor man was so embarrassed that he sat there staring straight in front of him, and the peace went no farther.

My friends, may you refuse to join the gloved and stiff little finger club, preferring the big bear hug club, instead.

In other words: Be convinced. Be convicted. Be a real Unitarian Universalist.

CLOSING WORDS: "The only antidote."

The only antidote to the increased cynicism and stresses of our time is renewed faith in human capacity and an intensely optimistic belief that together we can overcome the difficulties of today and tomorrow. "Keep hope alive."

Credibility by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner