There but for the grace of god go I

by

glenda Parsons

I was at one of our adult religious education classes that we have on Monday nights. It was before class started. Everyone was talking about some outrageous remark that a national public figure made. This figure is an avowed “Born Again Christian”. The class was abuzz with the public policy intentions of this figure that stemmed from his religious beliefs. A friend leaned across the table and asked me how we UU’s are any different because we take our religious values into the public arena and this public figure was doing the same. Well I knew that UU’s were different but I couldn’t say how. Class started and we moved on.

My father was in the military, so growing up I went to a lot of different public schools. I always remember saying the 23^rd Psalms and the Pledge of Allegiance before class started. At some point in grammar school I changed the line in the pledge from “one nation under God” to “one nation united” and to this day that is how I say it. I never felt a need to change the 23^rd Psalms. “He leadth me beside still waters, He restored my soul” was always so soothing and personal. That was somehow OK for me but I intuitively knew something was wrong about “one nation under God”. I could not have said or I don’t’ remember knowing what I felt was wrong about it. Now I can say. It feels full of hubris, like somehow you know the mind of God.

When I found UUism I felt I had come home. I am sure that many of you feel the same way. Here I found a framework that held my spiritual questioning and encouraged me on my own path and yet helped me carry my religious values into my secular (whatever that is) life. But this question my friend posed to me about why or whether UU’s were any different from Evangelical Christians in bringing their religious values into secular life gave me pause. I had thought about it somewhat. I knew we were different but how? --- or were we really?

The Good Samaritan story from the New Testament is told by Jesus to a lawyer. This lawyer wants to make sure he does everything right to get eternal life. Jesus asks him what is written in the law. The lawyer responds by stating that “You must love the lord your god with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.” But the lawyer was anxious to get it exactly right. So he asks Jesus “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus then tells the story of how a man was on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and was attacked by bandits. He was beaten, stripped, robbed and left on the side of the road half dead. A priest comes along the road and passes by on the other side when he sees the half dead man. The same happens when a Levite comes to the same place in the road and then passes by. A Samaritan comes by next and binds up his wounds, puts him on his donkey and takes him to an inn along the road. He gives the innkeeper some money to pay for taking in the injured man and promises to pay the innkeeper more money on his way back through if the money he left is not enough. After the story Jesus asks the lawyer who of the three, Priest, Levite or Samaritan was a neighbor to the injured man?

There are some interesting things in this story to me. Jews and Samaritans were not friends. The Jews had warred on the Samaritans even though Samaritans share a belief in the first five books of the bible. Samaritans believe Moses was divine. Samaritans hold the Pentateuch as their ultimate law. Guess where the golden rule makes it’s first appearance in the bible, in Leviticus 19.18. Leviticus is the third book of the bible. So the golden rule was known by both the Jews and Samaritans. The golden rule is known as the great commandment, all other rules flow from these; to love god and to treat your neighbor as yourself.

The golden rule or the ethic of reciprocity is found in the Scriptures of all the major religions of the world, Hinduism through Confucianism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. It is a concise and general principle of ethics that condenses into one rule or principle from which all others follow.

Jesus says to the lawyer” Go and do the same yourself”, Love your neighbor as yourself and Love god and you shall inherit eternal life.

If you look at the back of your order of service you will see a list of our UU principles. Four of the seven principles (1,2,5, and 6) are directed outward to our neighbors. We accord to our neighbors what we wish for ourselves. Of the six purposes half (2,3,4) also deal with how we should treat our neighbor. “We covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person”. That is we recognize and encourage others to recognize the humanity common in all of humankind. We reach for what is common not different, we treat others by how we would wish to be treated with justice and compassion.

American evangelicalism stands on three pillars. The bible is a divinely inspired word. They ground everything in a literal interpretation of the bible. This biblical authority urges them to resist compromise with the standards of the world. There is an ethical urgency to see the whole world adopt their views and this drives their political involvement.

The Apostle’s Creed is the second pillar. To paraphrase it, “the trinity of god is gracious and active. Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected on the third day. All must seek and find forgiveness in Christ. The Christian life is composed of genuine righteousness in thought and deed and the bible is god’s holy word”.

The third pillar is personal salvation and sanctification, the power of the holy spirit acting within a person’s life to transform and empower. Sanctification means to make holy by ritual process. This witness of the spirit, this born again if you will, is seen by many evangelicals as making them morally perfect. Evangelical Christians are certain of their identity and responsibilities because they are certain of the truthfulness and authority of the divine revelation of the holy scriptures. This sanctification sets them apart. Because they are filled with the holy spirit there is no doubt. They are morally righteous. For Fundamentalist Evangelicals there is no other way for eternal life. It is their way or no way.

“What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole torah; all the rest of it is commentary; go and learn.” This is from the Talmud, Shabbat 31a. For me this is it. In our families and with our religious peers it seems natural because there is a like mindedness usually or a familiarity that makes seeing the humanness in each other easier. But by treating your neighbor as you would be treated stretches you to see the other as similar to you. When we change our viewpoint from differences to similarities we reach across and connect human to human.

Our UU principles and purposes do that also. They stretch across alieness and connect with commonalities. They affirm the humanity in all people. When the other is seen through the eyes of samness it is easier to show compassion, mercy and justice. Because we have those words, covenant to affirm and promote, we strive to highlight and ensure to the best of our abilities that others also are called to treat their neighbors as themselves. We do this by example, by supporting legislation, by social action and personal acts of conscience.

Fundamentalist Evangelicals have set themselves apart. They are other. They claim to have a higher moral authority. They know what is right. They do not treat others as they would be treated. Somehow evangelicals have lost or forgotten that very first commandment “You shall love the lord your god with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandant and a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets”. Matthew 22.36-40. Seems to me to be very clear this supersedes all others.

By emphasizing this moral authority there is a wedge between Fundamentalist Evangelicals and their neighbors. Differences are noted and there is an imperative that the other must change to be like the evangelical. Where do justice mercy and compassion fit if the other does not wish to change?

Going back to the Good Samaritan story, I can find no mention of the Samaritan trying to change the injured man to a Samaritan. But I did notice that the Priest, a man probably very sure of his beliefs and the religious laws could not even stop to help the injured. He could not see himself in the injured man’s plight. The Levite, who is presumed to know something of church law because Levites were the people who worked in the churches, also could not see himself in the injured man. In this story who are the Evangelicals?

I have now clarified for myself and I can communicate to my friend why UU’s are different from Fundamental Evangelical Christians. Why our social justice efforts are different from theirs and why I have felt comfortable with UU ism from the very first. I do not know the mind of god. That is extreme arrogance to think you do. But by treating each other as a neighbor and not inflicting on your neighbor anything that you would not have done to you I can follow the first great commandant that is universal. As to whether I love god with all my heart that is between god and me.

We must aid the fellow traveler on the road if they are in need. We must remember to emphasize our relatedness because there but by the grace of god, chance, luck, birth, or accident go I.