Twice this year Unitarian Universalism has made news in Texas and both times religious language was partly the issue. The first time was in January after UUA President, William Sinkford, had preached a sermon at the UU Church in Fort Worth and had been interviewed by a reporter of the local newspaper. The second time was in May when the Texas state comptroller's office first denied tax- exempt status to the Red River UU Church because it "does not have one system of belief" and shortly thereafter reversed that decision.

The newspaper story about President Sinkford began with this sentence: "A former atheist who is now president of the Unitarian Universalist Association will push to put the word 'God' into a new statement of principles." Well you can imagine the uproar that statement caused among UU's who read or heard about the story. In a follow-up statement, President Sinkford stated: "The reporter published a story that reported things I did not say, and drew conclusions that I did not reach." He went on to say: "Let me be very clear: I spoke of the need to periodically revisit - that is, to read and reflect upon - our foundational language. I did not call for the Principles to be rewritten. I spoke of the need for individuals to consider supplementing the language of the Principles with religious language in describing their own faith. I did not call for the inclusion of the word "God" in either the Principles or in anyone's individual descriptions of their personal faith."

The Associated Press article about the reversal of the tax-exemption denial, which appeared in the Modesto Bee ended with this statement: "Unitarians are famously resistant to dogma. They debate whether to describe their houses of worship as churches or even call themselves a denomination." (5-29-04; G-6) Indeed I would take it a step further and state that we debate whether or not what goes on in these churches is worship, and indeed we debate about what worship is and whether or not the word itself has relevance.

I started with these two events because they are two recent examples of the ongoing love/hate affair that Unitarian Universalists have with religious language - with words such as God, worship, faith. This morning I would like us to briefly take a closer look at two of these words and I would like to encourage us to examine and reclaim these words in ways which make them meaningful in our lives.

A number of years ago when I served at the Director of Religious Education here, I led an Adult Religious Education class which did something along these lines. We met before church for several weeks and each week we would discuss a religious word. I encouraged the participants to write about the word and the meaning it had for their life. By doing this they were developing their own credo. Just briefly credo comes from the Latin and literally means "I believe." However, it is also a compound from cor, cordia, "heart" as in accord, cordial, concord, and do, to put in place, set or give. Thus is has not only an intellectual connotation, but refers to will as well. So now I would like to invite you to do the same, and I am going to share examples of how several Unitarian Universalists have reclaimed religious words which helps us see these words in a new light.

Let's start with the word worship. Worship is often thought of in terms of a deity. We speak of worshiping God. Many UU's find this idea of worship troubling. If we look up the definition in the dictionary we learn that while it does have the connotation of reverence paid to a divine being, the word worship derives from the old English word weorthscipe and that it relates to worthiness, repute, respect. I think that we Unitarian Universalists can relate to this idea of worthiness, of being of worth. Indeed in our very first principle we covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Angus MacLean, a Universalist minister, states that ". . . worship involves an inescapable kind of response to life on the part of man. . . We may think of worship as the internal activity of the religious spirit. . . Worship is charged with feeling and thought, but it isn't merely thinking about life. It is rather the hot focus of living in which human needs and desires contend with life's demands, limitations, and conflicts. . . Worship has been described in many ways, but always the descriptions contain this matter of knowing one's inner nature, releasing and controlling it. We can think of it as living in a tremendously inclusive context, involving the universe, our value goals, life's frustrations, along with the expectation that assistance will come to us - will, wisdom, or courage - to do what must be done (The Wind in Both Ears, 1965).

This can somewhat be summed up in what I learned about the purpose of worship when I attended Leadership School, sponsored by the Pacific Central District of the UUA. I learned that worship connects us with the sacred. It reminds us of what is of worth to us. It renews and refreshes our spirits. It gives us courage. It empowers us to live lives of worth and prophetic vision. It bonds us in community.

The responsive reading we used this morning offers us a new vision of worship:

To worship is to stand in awe under a heaven of stars. . .
To worship is to be silent, receptive. . .
To worship is to work with dedication and with skill;
It is to pause from work and listen to a strain of music. . .
To worship is to sing with the singing beauty of the earth;
It is to listen through a storm to the still small voice within.
Worship is the mystery within us reaching out to the mystery beyond. . .
Jacob Trapp

Faith is another word which is troublesome. At least it has been for me. I grew up in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. Faith was big among Lutherans. As defined by St. Paul in the Letter to the Hebrews faith was "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." We were constantly told that we should have faith - just believe what the church said and accept "on faith." As a sophomore in high school I started questioning the church's teachings. I was studying about evolution in biology and I was especially troubled by the creation story in the Bible in which the earth was created in six days. When a new young minister recently graduated from seminary visited our congregation I voiced my concerns to him. Rather than explaining that the Bible was using metaphor, the minister again told me that some things just had to be accepted on faith. Needless to say, my faith in faith was shaken.

It took F. Forrester Church, senior UU minister of All Souls Church in New York City, and co-author of Our Chosen Faith to open another window and shed new light for me on the idea of faith.

"Unitarian Universalists are neither a chosen people, nor a people whose choices are made for them by theological authorities - ancient or otherwise," Church tells us. "We are a people who choose. . . " he goes on to say. "Ours is a faith whose authority is grounded in contemporary experience, not ancient revelation. . . If you ask what Unitarian Universalists believe, two answers, especially if they vary, are almost certainly better than one. In our circle of faith, when two or more gather, a loving argument is a sure sign that the spirit is moving among us (Our Chosen Faith, 1989)."

When Church was asked in what or whom he had faith - faith used in the context that the deeper meanings of life lay beyond what can be explained by scientific method or reason alone he replied:

I have faith in our liberal religion's position that there is not just one path to the divine, but many, and that it doesn't matter which path we take we will find our way to the divine, and we will each define for ourselves what the divine is.

Church's metaphor of the Cathedral of the World is such an example:

Imagine awaking one morning from a deep and dreamless sleep to find yourself in the nave of a vast cathedral. . . It is a world of light and dancing shadow, stone and glass, life and death. . . above all else, contemplate the windows. In the cathedral of the world there are windows without number, some long forgotten, covered with many patinas of dust, others revered by millions, the most sacred of shrines. Each in its own way is beautiful. Some are abstract, others representational; some dark and meditative, others bright and dazzling. Each tells a story about the creation of the world, the meaning of history, the purpose of life, the nature of humankind, the mystery of death. The windows of the cathedral are where the light shines in. . . Fundamentalists of the right and left claim that the light shines through their window only. Skeptics. . . seeing the bewildering variety of windows and observing the folly of the worshipers,. . . conclude that there is no light. . . None of us is fully able to perceive the truth that shines through another person's window. . . (Our Chosen Faith)

I share this faith with F. Forrester Church. I also have these thoughts about faith. I have heard it said that in times of trouble, our chosen faith falls short in not offering a "rock" to which to cling; however, I have not found that true for me. My faith in this community was confirmed during the months and now years following my son, Miko's accident and death. Our members poured out their love for my family in numerous ways, and reinforced the connectedness we share, and the fact that we are part of an interdependent web, and that what we do for one strand of the web strengthens the entire web.

I also have faith in the belief that within each of us is a source which gives us strength to deal with "the curve balls" that life upon this earth throws us. Lastly, I have faith in the belief that my faith is evolving and will continue to evolve as I change and grow. It is not static. As I experience new ideas, my faith will change to embrace the new concepts I encounter.

Thich Nhat Hanh, the Tibetan Buddhist Monk put it this way: "Our faith must be alive, always growing, like a tree. It is our true religious experience that nourishes our faith and allows it to grow (Living Buddha, Living Christ, 1995)."

The area in which we UU's have most successfully reclaimed religious language has been in music. Many of the hymns we sing have had the language changed to make them fit UU theology. We kept the tunes, but changed the words. The songs we are singing and listening to today are examples. We sang Forward Through the Ages to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers. The hymn, From All That Dwell Below the Skies is instantly recognized as the Doxology by those of us who came from mainline Christian churches.

One of our members told recently of her experience at the Women and Religion Retreat where they were discussing this very topic of reclaiming religious language. The example of the song "In the Garden" was used. She tells the story this way:

". . . the song . . . happens to be one of my favorites from my childhood church which was southern Baptist. The song always made me feel cared for and loved, no matter what the circumstances. It spoke to the message that Jesus loved and cared for you. However, as I changed and my image of god changed to the goddess a lot of the songs from my childhood no longer seemed to fit, they were too patriarchal for my comfort, but I missed them. They touched me in a way that many of the UU songs don't. Whether that's because of the message or simply the connection to my childhood I don't know.

At the Women & Religion retreat, there was a place where we talked about reclaiming language and they used the song as an example of how you can reclaim songs by simply changing the gender based language. What happened was as I listened to 60+ women's voices singing this favorite soothing, spiritual song from my religious childhood, I found myself experiencing a "letting go" of resentment and sadness of not being able to enjoy those earlier religious songs and a feeling of power at reclaiming something I had lost. So, I sat there and listened to these beautiful voices singing that song while tears ran down my face."

Our time this morning is coming to a close. We have barely begun to explore this subject. There are many more religious words, spirit, holy, God, among them which also deserve re-examination. My hope is that I have piqued your interest enough to take this language seriously, to study it on your own or possibly with others in a credo group, to make it a religious discipline. By doing so I think you will be adding depth to your individual search for truth and meaning.

[Delivered July 25, 2004. Sharon Arpoika has been a member of the UUFSC since the late 1960's. She served two terms as president of the Board of Trustees and has been active for many years on the Religious Education committee. She was Director of Religious Education at UUFSC from 1992 - 1996. She is a professional librarian, currently (2005) the Head of Children's Services for the Stanislaus County Library.