[Uucf-bible] Excerpts from Hear, Pray, Affirm, latest UU Christian Journal

[RevRonRobinson at aol.com]

FYI thought you would enjoy: 
Do you who have already read the book have any favorite excerpts, or  
questions from it, to pass on to others through our online communities here? 
 
Excerpts from Hear, Pray, Affirm: Three Essentials For Liberal Christian  
Formation. The Decalogue, The Lord's Prayer, and The Apostles' Creed, and 
more.  Sermons by the Rev. Thomas D. Wintle, senior minister, First Parish 
Church,  Weston, MA, long time editor of the UU Christian Journal. Copies of the 
 Journal and more excerpts to read are available by going to  
_http://www.uuchristian.org/images/journals/V62TOC.pdf_ 
(http://www.uuchristian.org/images/journals/V62TOC.pdf)  to  read more, or to 
_http://www.uuchristian.org/R_BookStore.html_ (http://www.uuchristian.org/R_BookStore.html)  to  order a 
copy or order gift copies for others. 
 
>From sermons on The Ten Commandments: 
"The first commandment--no other gods--provides at least two things: order  
and unity. It provides order by forcing us to recognize that there are and 
there  must be priorities--if you cannot sort out your priorities, you will 
be forever  thrashing around rushing from one hectic moment to another, 
without ever knowing  accomplishment, completion or peace. I do not mean that if 
you obey the first  commandment you will not have conflicting priorities: I 
mean that if you try to  dethrone God in your life, you will be forever 
shifting your allegiance among  lesser things. And it provides unity to our 
lives. Once upon a time the world  was filled with people who believed there 
were many gods, one or more to each  people and nation, even each village or 
brook or storm. But the Hebrew people  taught something new to the world. In 
so many ways, the consciousness of one God  created the consciousness of one 
world and one humanity...
 
"What do you do when you break the commandments? And, for that matter, just 
 what's the purpose of the commandments? What's the goal? Is it to make you 
feel  guilty, inadequate, a failure? I'm convinced that's one of the 
reasons the Ten  Commandments have pretty much disappeared from the liberal and 
mainline churches  today. It's not that people disagree with the commandments, 
it's just that they  make us uncomfortable. We think that we already have 
plenty to make us feel  guilty and inadequate and failures!...I don't know 
who said it, but religion was  once defined as 'the art of keeping good 
company in the inner life.' The good  company consists of those models, the 
motivators, those who inspire. What works  inside you are the stories that move 
you, the tales of action that excite your  deepest feelings of rightness, the 
ones where you say to yourself, 'this is  right, this is how things ought to 
be.' It is the whole orientation of your  inner life. In a word, Jesus. We 
haven't said much about Jesus in this series,  but I want to suggest that 
what enables us to do the will of God is the way in  which "the spirit of 
Jesus Christ" (as we say in our church covenant) lives in  us and we in him. We 
need his life, his spirit, inside us....
 
"The point is not that we're going to hell if we break the commandments;  
the point is that, with God's help, we can keep the commandments. We can keep 
 them not just by obeying the letter of the law, but we can understand the  
meaning and the purpose and the intent behind the commandments. Rules alone 
are  not enough. God, I am suggesting, wants spirited lovers, not 
nitpicking  legalists. And for that, we should give thanks.
 
>From sermons on The Lord's Prayer:
 
"I call God "Father" because Jesus called God "Father" and taught us to do  
the same. Jesus was not the first to call God "Father."... The kind of 
father  Jesus had in mind, I think, was not the father in a patriarchal society 
(where  fathers rule) but more the father in the story of the Prodigal 
Son...God, like  that father, will let us go off on our own, and live as if God 
didn't exist, and  make fools of ourselves, and still embrace us when we 
finally come home....So,  can we call God "Father" anymore? Not, I think, in the 
secular culture, for in  the world's eyes, we would be saying that men are 
better than women. But here,  in the Christian community, among people who 
have been taught by Jesus and  blessed by his presence, here in the community 
founded by him, we have a special  treasure, an inheritance, and that is 
the invitation to call God "Father" in the  same way and with the same meaning 
and with the same intimacy as Jesus did. It  is, finally, a question of how 
we hallow the name. 
 
"[on For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory]...The finest  
prayer is when we stop asking for what we want--gimme this and gimme that,  
God--and start asking God what God wants: "not my will, but thine be  
done."...For all our uncertainty, our weakness in prayer, our doubts, these last  
words of the Lord's Prayer provide what one scholar called "our redemption 
from  ambivalence." Our last word of praise,you see, is simply the 
recognition that  the last word will be God's. 
 
>From sermons on The Apostles' Creed:
 
"Creeds are not as important as deeds...creeds are narrow and defining and  
are incapable of capturing the fullness of Christainity...Creeds are  
non-biblical ecclesiastical constructions, and we prefer to go directly to  
Scripture...They can be wrong...They promote a legalistic outlook...They have  
been used as conditions of fellowship...and as ways to declare anathema upon  
others...But Christ envisioned a more welcoming church...They become a 
source of  division between Christians...They can promote a "Christianity by 
rote"...In  churches which proclaim them as required beliefs, they inhibit 
liberty of  interpretation and free inquiry...They emphasize faith as a body of 
doctrine at  the expense of faith as a personal act...
 
"Having said all that...if you break the spell of creeds, if you eliminate  
the idea that you "have to believe them" if you recognize their 
limitations, in  other words, if you remind yourself first of the ten points above, 
then an  ancient creed can be useful. Here are three possible ways: 1. A 
summary of  faith....Although the Apostles Creed was not really written by the 
Apostles, in  its present form it dates from the sixth century and an earlier 
form has been  traced back to the second century. It lifts up the beliefs 
Christians considered  central for centuries. it is our heritage. 2. A personal 
affirmation...You may  find you agree with parts nd disagree with 
others--that is your right--but the  process is important. Unlike some creeds that go 
off into terribly esoteric  areas, the Apostles Creed points to some 
crucial themes. 3. A doxology:...they  are like hymns sung to God, and the very 
saying of the creed becomes a  devotional act in much the same manner as 
reciting the pledge of allegiance is  for many an act of patriotism. The idea is 
that the act of saying/singing them  is more important than the meaning of 
the specific words, which need to be  reinterpreted for every age.
 
"In this free church, no one is required to accept the Apostles' Creed. But 
 here is the flip side: you're also free to accept it!
 
Other sermons address What Is God? What is a Christian? A Theology of  
Prayer. A theology of baptism. World Religions. 
 
blessings, Ron Robinson