I recently had a series of conversations with ministerial colleagues that re-ignited
a thought I have been working around for some time… What in the world do we do liberal religion for? What could justify all of the expenses of maintaining a church or a Fellowship? What makes the anguish of interpersonal conflict in a religious community worth it? Why do we come to church and into intentional community as a religious tradition?
Other traditions may have a few easy answers, but in Unitarian Universalism I am always suspicious of easy answers. In my Southern Baptist past, I remember the answer being because God commanded it… not one that is likely to hold much sway in my current congregation. I have often heard that we come together for religious community, and while this is true in part, it seems too self-serving and too self-centered to serve as the whole answer. And really, church life is hard… there are easier ways to find an intentional community.
Now, I know a part of why I sought out a Liberal Religious community in the first place… and while having a community was a benefit, it was not the primary reason. That reason was to find a way to save the world. I had been back from Bosnia for a few years, and I was sitting amidst a new worldview that did not give us much hope as a species. I thought I needed to find some people who were dedicated to finding a new way for us humans to treat one another… and I wanted to not only learn that new way, but to help inspire it in others.
That is what has lead me to this new thought… we come into religious community to learn how to practice what we preach. We come into religious community to have a space where we intentionally try to live out our values and principles as Unitarian Universalists, in an environment where the variables are restricted, where there is grace when we make mistakes, and where we can examine what we do wrong as well as what we do well, and learn from it.
In essence, this lens upon our congregations (of which there are several), upon why we Unitarian Universalists build religious communities, is that they function in our lives as a “Learning Lab” for living in right relationship.
There are a few ramifications of understanding congregational life as a “learning lab” for Right Relationship. The first is that what happens in the life of the congregation should always be held in the spirit of learning and grace. This is where you are supposed to “mess up” and be given the opportunity to learn from not doing imitrex online without prescription relationship wonderfully and grow from it. The second is that what we do is less important than how we do it. We can be the most efficient UU Fellowship in the world, and if we are not practicing and living our UU values, we have missed the point of the religious community. Perhaps something we are doing is not the best, most efficient way… but if it is helping us learn how to live in right relationship with one another, it is serving its religious purpose.
The third ramification that comes to mind is that, the entirety of congregational life is in the learning lab. Board meetings, worship, refilling the birdfeeders, religious education classes, and coffee hour all become part of the practice of learning to live our lives in right relationship. How we incorporate justice concerns in selecting building materials to repair the roof… how we work with a disruptive member so that all are safe and respected, including the disruptive member… how we walk with a member through the death of a loved one… all of this and so much more is a part of the learning lab of liberal faith.
So the question becomes… why? Why learn how to live amongst one another, in intentional religious community, in the ways of right relationship? Is it for our own self-betterment? Is it so we can have healthy congregations? Is it so that we can grow as human beings, to better model what a wonderful religious tradition we have?
Yes, and it’s something bigger than that.
We engage in the Learning Labs of Liberal Faith so that we can model Right Relationship in the world. Practicing Right Relationship in our congregations is just that… practicing. The purpose is so that we can learn to live right relationship at work, in our family lives, in community organizations. We learn it amongst our liberal religious community, we try to practice it in the world, and we come back to share the experiences and challenges of living as a person of liberal faith. We do this hoping to inspire right relationship beyond our walls. Some of what we do as a congregation extends beyond our walls as well… social justice could be understood as advocating for Right Relationship in and among the wider world… as could Unitarian Universalist outreach efforts.
And each time we come together into our religious communities, we enter a learning lab for living an authentic human liberal religious life, in right relationship with each other and with all things. And because it is a learning lab, it is okay if we do not do it perfectly all the time… so long as we are learning.
Yours in faith,
Rev. David