Thank Rob Eller Isaac who used this poem in his address to the SKSM alum this past GA.
The Way It Is
~ William Stafford ~
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
How good it is to be together with all of you- people who care about our Universalist Heritage, who tend it and preserve it for coming generations. This faith we cherish we call a “living tradition” because it is not static, but grows and changes over the generations. As Lewis B. Fisher noted in 1921 “Universalists are often asked to tell where they stand. The only true answer to give to this question is that we do not stand at all, we move.” [Howe, p. 96]
And truly Universalism has moved and changed radically over these past 200 years, but still our strong sense of identity and pride remains. What is the thread that we Universalists follow? Over those 170 years of Universalism before the merger with the Unitarian tradition, there were only 3 professions of faith adopted by the whole body of Universalism. The first was passed in Philadelphia in 1790. Then in 1803 The Winchester profession was passed and served our movement for many years. In 1899 the “Boston Declaration” affirmed the Winchester profession but lifted up 5 essential principles of UU faith, and finally in 1935 the Washington Declaration was a substantively new re-statement for the 20th century. This statement remained through merger with the Unitarians in 1961, and in fact was printed in the front of the Sheshequin congregation’s hymnals, and the avowal was repeated each Sunday as part of this congregation’s regular liturgy for many years. Today I would like to take a close look at these statements and see if there are threads we can follow as we move.
The first thread I want to follow is the idea of restoration, of “final harmony with God.” When I describe Universalism to my neighbors or to our children, this is one of the main ideas I mention- that Universalism grew in response to a prevailing belief that some folks would be saved and others would not- in fact that some folks had been elected for salvation and others never had a chance. So we find in the articles of faith from 1790 that Jesus will “Restore the whole human race to happiness” and that the Holy Ghost will “Reconcile the hearts of the children of men to God.” (The language in all of these historic professions is not inclusive in terms of gender, so we will notice that and be grateful of how far we have come).
In the 1803 Winchester profession is a shorter, tighter statement without so much detail about the nature and work of Jesus and of the holy spirit, but great consistence with the statement that God will “restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness.” It is this Universalist notion of restoration and reconciliation that reminds me of the story of our two rivers this morning- the idea that all are worthy and that in the end all are coming to the same place. And that in that final destination all are joined as one.
Later, in the 5 principles of the Boston Declaration, we find this idea with only a poetic change of language in the 5th principle “The final harmony of all souls with God.” What I think is interesting is that the Boston Declaration spells out so clearly “The certainty of just retribution for sin.” Some of you will remember the great restorationist controversy of the 1820s which caused a great rift in our faith- would all souls reach that ocean of one-ness right away when they died, would death itself would destroy any sin of the soul, or would there be a period of punishment or of the soul before they could reach that ocean? So we see clearly in 1899 that the official party line is that there must be “just retribution” as surely as there will be final harmony. This also reminds us that the idea of sin is very much part of this tradition. This is a theological tradition that doesn’t gloss over our failings and the harm we do to one another.
But the huge change comes in the language of the Washington Declaration. Evil is right there in the statement, but the idea of restoration and final harmony has a radically new face. We are now talking about establishing the Kingdom of God. It doesn’t say something about individual souls entering the Kingdom of God, or being restored to the Kingdom of God, but “the power of men of good-will and sacrificial spirit to overcome evil and progressively establish the Kingdom of God. It also says that a common purpose of our convention will be to “co-operate in establishing the kingdom for which [Jesus] lived and died. This is a huge shift of focus. We are not even going to mention the fate of souls after death, our primary concern is now to co-operate to progressively establish the Kingdom of God.
The notion of establishing a Kingdom of God intertwines the thread of final harmony with another thread we find in even the earliest of Articles of Faith in 1790- the section on “Good Work” in which we promote a holy, active and useful life. So at our very beginning there was clarity that your restoration to happiness functioned independently of your good works, which were separately important. In the Winchester profession we say that ‘believers aught to be careful to maintain order and practice good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men.” You see, the idea that our good works, our effort has any impact on the establishment of the Kingdom of God doesn’t appear until the 20th century, even though the earliest statements of Universalist common ground always included the urge to good works, and a social conscience. But here in 1935 is the moment in history where the two ideas come together into one. Today we almost never talk about the final disposition of the soul, there is still a thread which connects us back to that idea, the thread of ultimate reconciliation and restoration, and the thread of our social conscience and the value of good work. These two twine together as establishing the Kingdom of God. Today in our principles we call this thread “The goal of world community, with peace, liberty and justice for all,” but we also have something of this in our seventh principle in our “respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are all a part;” instead of seeing separate rivers flowing towards one ultimate ocean, we are learning to see the whole of the water cycle here and now.
Not all things follow in an unbroken line from the days of our formation. For example, our sense of where truth comes from has changed dramatically. The Philadelphia Articles are quite clear that “We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to contain a revelation of the perfections and will of God, and the rule of faith and practice.” This was hardly changed in the Winchester Profession. In the Washington Declaration there is a dramatic shift. All reference to scripture is removed and instead they avow their faith in “the Authority of truth known or to be known” and in what might be called the Liberty Clause of the Washington Declaration it says of all our previous avowals “They are commended not as tests but as testimonies to the free quest for truth that accords with the genius of the Universalist Church.” And though there had been a liberty clause from the very beginning (removed during a period of orthodoxy in 1870-1899) the sense of the earliest clauses were generally “you don’t have to say these exact words, but just adhere to these general principles” In 1899 those principles were summarized:
The universal Fatherhood of God
The spiritual authority and leadership of His Son Jesus Christ:
The trustworthiness of the Bible as containing a revelation from God
The certainty of Just retribution for sun
The final harmony of all souls with God.
It was really only that last statement that differentiated Universalism from its more orthodox neighbors. But now in 1935, we are talking about a free quest for truth, the authority not of the bible but of “Truth known or to be known” No longer is all truth about the will of God to be found only in the scripture. There is truth yet to be known. Revelation is not sealed. Looking only at these avowals, the source of truth is almost unrecognizably transformed between Philadelphia and Washington.
Now, because I’m a little bit of a mystic, my favorite words in the Philadelphia Articles of 1790, “We believe in One God, Infinite in all his perfections; and that these perfections are all modifications of infinite, adorable, incomprehensible and unchangeable… Love.” Wow. All the perfections of God are aspects of God’s love. The Winchester profession says it more simply “there is one God, whose nature is Love.” Granted we are not all theists here today, we are atheists and agnostics. But can we have faith in love? That’s a serious question I’m putting to you. You don’t get to adulthood without having your heart broken, without encountering hatred and violence in the world.
“Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.”
Can we have faith that at some ultimate, some fundamental level, love is under girding and supporting life? The Philadelphia Articles of Faith say “We hold that the love of God… is the best means of producing obedience …and promoting a holy, active and useful life.” Do I believe that I want to express that fundamental love in the actions of my life? when I ask myself a very practical question “If I believed that God was unchangeable love, and that the way I could love God Back was through a holy, active and useful life, do I have faith that that if people acted out that faith, this would be a better world?”
Then in 1899 in the Boston Declaration, in that list of principles which must be professed … love is missing. Take a look at those 1899 principles, where did the love go? I just felt my heart sank when I noticed that. As if the thread had been broken. And I was delighted to reassured that in 1935 love came back it says “we avow our faith in God as Eternal and All-conquering Love.” But now look at the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism on the back of your order of service. Where is the love? Such a powerful statement in 1790, and the word love does not appear at all in our principles today. We find the goal of world community which connects to the thread about reconciliation, about establishing the kingdom of God. We also see that free and responsible search for truth and meaning, which is that thread of revelation which took a left turn in the 1930s. But where is love? Here is where I think it is hiding. I think it is hiding in the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and in the interdependent web of existence. I think those two principles show a faith that all of creation is holy and worthy, but our current principles stop short of saying we are worthy of love. We are two cynical and jaded to use the same word we see on hallmark cards for how the universe needs and values us and is connected to us. How the universe loves us, because love is its nature. Perhaps we have lost our faith in love.
Now if you look at the six sources you will find love again. We turn to our prophetic women and men who confront structures of evil with the transforming power of love. We turn to the Jewish and Christian teachings by responding to God’s love and by loving our neighbors as ourselves.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Of all the threads we follow, I think this is the most important. We have to hold on to love, or we will be lost. I don’t care about truth, or being restored to harmony with God if the truth is that God is capricious and judgmental with a bad temper. The biggest leap of faith we as Universalists can take is the faith that love is in the very nature of things, in the very web of life. You can imagine my righteous indignation, and feeling even of betrayal when I thought we had lost hold of this thread during the merger of Unitarian and Universalist. And then I came across a photo I had take at this year’s General Assembly, a Giant banner in front of the convention center reading “Standing on the Side of Love.” Because we Unitarians and Universalists have sponsored an advocacy campaign whose mission is “Harnessing Love’s Power to Stop Oppression”
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
I was so relieved and grateful to find the thread again. To know that whatever work we do in our own community, in our own church to stop oppression is a way of holding on to that thread. There is so much that has changed about our Universalist faith over these past centuries, but at its core something remains the same. Something those early American Universalists expressed as they came together back in 1790 still provides guidance and connection for us today. And that is faith in love, and the ultimate harmony of all beings.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
