The Post Modern Preacher

Was tasked this week with giving a page long summary of what I find spiritual. Below is what I'm thinking of as what I'll hand in.

Spirituality itself is a notion with which I am in tension. I reject the notion of the “spiritual but not religious” people being very spiritual. My conception of faith takes place only in the bounds of community as a transformative agent that unites people and turns them toward greater morality and appreciation for the larger state of all humanity. Faith is meaningless unless it enacts a change in the individual in the presence of the community.

I believe in a single God; I believe in a divine which inspires creativity and desires justice. I find whatever notion of spirituality I have in moments of creativity or in moments of justice. My personal devotion includes time spent with my guitar expressing musical creativity and nonverbal communication. The creation of something beautiful and unique is a way to reach into the divine and gain some agency of the creator. There is something very moving and powerful in that presence.

Justice work is something very spiritual and very redemptive for me. I believe that the divine inspires the prophetic call for justice and for righteousness. The spirit of prophecy is one still living in the world. In the words of Rev. Dr. Dale Andrews the church needs to hold a new ecumenical counsel to include the epistles of the prophets beginning with Martin Luther King’s letter from a Birmingham Jail. The presence of God is felt in the words of Reverend King, in the words of Eli Wiesel, in the words of Martin Buber, in the words of Malcolm X, and in the words of the women and men who cry out for freedom and equality from a voice of faith all over the world.

I believe in the notion of beloved community. In congregations and in groups of people there exists a sum greater then the parts which touches on the notion of the kingdom of heaven. Leaders lead through service and all are made welcome at the table. Conflict is handled with love and grace, and all are treated relationally instead of as objectified and made the other. This is my true spiritual community. Real, flawed, scared and wounded seekers coming together in hope, in faith, in love show the imago Dei far better then any monastic community or group which has retreated from the world.

I really wonder sometimes why we UUs use a Christian liturgy to explain a nonChristian message. Why are we locked into the sermon sandwich when we aren't proclaiming the mystery of faith and the lord's supper?

Besides notions of contemporary worship I wonder what a proper UU liturgy might look like. I wrestle with this notion since the goal is to bring the seeker to a path toward truth why do we follow this notion of a format that tells the seeker the preacher's truth?

Maybe fewer hymns, shorter sermons, more stories, more meditations? I just don't know what such a thing would look like.

Why the post modern in post modern preacher?

Well, I understand in narrative. My life is a recollection which lets me see a driving flow toward some understanding and my actions are what provide for me meaning. Last night I played blues for an hour and a half feeling music, feeling language, relating to the sounds of the other guitar players around me who were either much more talented or less talented and how I related. Blues communicates something and for a time my message can be heard and in my failures I express my own brokeness and that expression is beauty because it is true.

In a way I wonder why liturgy doesn't pull from this? I really don't feel in the current form of liturgy a message truthfully expressed. Why? Something artificial is there in standard UU services, something either too theatric or too ritualistic without feeling or perhaps too insider. Somewhere in the announcements and in the candle lightings and in the chalice lightings and in the organ's cry a show is put on and a message is given from a pulpit but how and why do they link with each other? A free pulpit and a free pew feels outdated for me. Shouldn't the exchange be more organic and more empathetic with flow from both sides of the ministerial divide?

This week the topic is on a professional concern.

I am concerned with the way our denomination treats leaders, both lay and ordained. There is a tendency for congregations to objectify leaders instead of see them as members of the same body moving toward a better place. I think the consumerist tendency in perception of the ministry and overemphasis of the importance of the individual instead of a desire for common good plagues congregants in our association.
The emphasis on individuality at the expense of the community is the Unitarian Universalist version of the prosperity gospel which is raging across Christian radio and media. When an individual is given space to shop for the answer they like best instead of struggling in community to make a better place they forsake the ultimate aim of faith which is to bring people together and show some common bond. Real faith is not something bought and sold on Sunday mornings, nor is it something one can find without commitment and effort.
From our roots in the Hebrew Scriptures we are descendents of Israel, the one who wrestled with God. Often we forget this institutionally and accept those broken by other faiths, other churches, and other paths but we do not respond to their brokenness with healing. Sick and wounded communities do not function as beloved communities should. We all are wounded in our wrestling with God, with our wrestling with faith, by our wrestling with one another yet in healing those common wounds we are able to grow together in faith and in love. This healing takes dedication and effort. This healing demands that we change and have inner conversions toward being better people.
Often the cost of change is too much to ask those who are wounded who enter our church doors. Some few come in with scars across their souls as big as the chips on their shoulders and desire to feel better about themselves by causing destruction in other peoples’ lives. When week in and week out they cry out of their own pain seeking to draw attention they are empowered by our tendency to comfort. They then use the vulnerability of the care giver to manipulate the environment and put forth dis-ease to the congregation. This infection feeds their needs to feel empowered but does so at the cost of being harmfully critical of leadership, of the society, and of the dehumanizing of those who give so much of themselves to make the congregation function.
What is needed is more mercy and compassion in the pews and more mindfulness of our own brokenness amongst the ministry. Using Henri Nouwen’s image of the wounded healer we must be mindful and bind up our own bandages tight before we go forth to heal others. We must actively work against those who come to do harm to our congregations by lovingly letting them know that anything which dehumanizes or objectifies is not acceptable in the responsible search for meaning. We need to communicate that the full value of each coming together is made more valuable in concord then in strife.

Bold visions?

It is a difficult game to play. Do you have multicultural ministers serving predominatly white congregations or do you put your money where your theology is and start church plantings in multicultural areas? Will the UUA waste money on another Pathways or will it be radical success?

I'd love to serve a diverse congregation. I'd love to have a church be inside the city instead of in white flight suburbs. I'd love for a church in an urban area serve those in need instead of boast of the historic stained glass or famed architecture. I hope that this is what President Sinkford intends.

After attending the first UU contemporary worship conference in San Diego I have some new thoughts on worship. Music isn't enough. Visuals aren't enough. Worship has to be authentic and participatory and it needs multiple voices. Worship isn't about the performer, it is about the communal experience. Crafting the energy rollercoaster needs to be intentional so we don't carry on monotonous worships, including monotonous high energy worship.

Liturgy should be patterned on learning and on method which conveys our message and transforms lives. Liturgy is the work of the people. It is more then just conveying a word or THE WORD depending on what the preacher considers their position to be.

People of all ages crave something real and authentic. It isn't about age barriers so much as it is about paradigm shifts.

Much thanks to Michael Tino for creating the conference.