The Uncommon Denomination
Rev. Holly Baylies
UU Church of Wakefield MA
February 5, 2006

We Americans are a curious lot! In a way the impersonal nature and the complexities of our technological advancements may have actually begun to replace the once intimate characteristics of our social structure! In other words, we seemed to have found alternative ways of expressing ourselves, such as in the use of bumper stickers that allow us to make little contact with others yet also allow us to make bold, loving, abrasive, humorous, political, religious, silly and innocuous statements that express our feelings and convictions but seldom invite a response.

On one occasion many years ago, I was a witness to one exception. A friend of mine while driving to work, pulled up behind another car at a stop light. The light changed and the car in front of her didn’t move. She honked gently and the car still didn’t move. The driver of that car turned in his seat and waved. But his car remained motionless. Through the next light cycle they both sat there. My friend, growing in anger leaned on her horn emitting a stream of several loud blasts. The gentleman then opened his door and got out of his car and went to her window with a smile on his face. He thanked my friend for her support but also added, Madam, my car has broken down if you like we can change places, I will honk and you can crank the engine!” In the meantime “God Bless you.”

My friend, now late for work, angrily pulled around the crippled vehicle and as she did she noticed his bumper sticker that read, “ Honk if You love Jesus!”

Bumper stickers have become our way of carrying our values, our thoughts, feelings and sarcasm around with us everywhere we go.
There are some that are very funny and others tempt us to run the owner off the road. 

The first bumper sticker I ever saw, was pasted on the car belonging to the chairman of the English Department at Newfound Memorial High School, where I taught in Bristol New Hampshire. He was a very cynical man who had no patience for the number of high school students in that rural community that could not read. His sticker plainly stated, “Illiterate? Write for Free Information Today!”

In the past week I have paid very careful attention to the sayings and slogans that people plaster on their cars and I would like to share with you a few of them. Of course there are those that are political, the remnants of the Bush, Kerry campaign, both pro and con, humorous and serious. There are the “Give War a Chance” stickers parked next to the “Less Bombs and More Art Supplies,” and the, “I don’t like politics at all” series beginning with “Politicians are like Diapers and Should be Changed Often for the Same Reason!” And one that read “Bless Be the Day Education has all the Money it Needs and the Pentagon has to Hold Bake Sales!” I used to have one in my office that read, “My Karma Ran Over My Dogma!” And the only sticker I allowed on my last car said, “Hate is Not A Family Value.”

Every sticker, among the hundreds and thousands of choices, speaks in some way of every aspect of the human condition - its joys, its failures, its wants and deeds, even its day to day futility for some. One that spoke volumes read, “Some Days Its Not Worth Gnawing Through the Straps.” And another one said, “Drowning in the Mainstream.”
  
Of all the stickers we might encounter in our travels, I find the religious ones the most disturbing, revealing, and sometimes enlightening. Naturally there are a few I do like, such as the one placed prominently on the rear of a Lexus that in large letters read, “WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?” and in fine print continued… for a Klondike Bar?” 

The fine print was a wise choice as the driver could easily have been rammed from behind by an irate Fundamentalist!
 
Believe it or not we too, the UU’s, who are religiously laid back, a do your own thing denomination, and an everything counts when it comes to religion association of churches, also have our own bumper stickers. There are several sold in the bookstore:

•	A Different Trinity: Respect, Freedom and Justice
•	Different People, Different Beliefs
•	Room For Different Beliefs: YOURS
•	Unitarian Universalism, The Uncommon Denomination

Reports back by parishioners on the Different Trinity have included, “my congregation really loved them”, to, and I quote from one disgruntled customer, “What way to piss off the Christian Community.”

However, we are indeed the Uncommon Denomination, and as I mentioned, there is a story behind every bumper sticker we will ever see or plaster to the rear of our cars. 

Our Unitarian Universalist story is a long and eventful one, filled with names and dates and, at times, complex events that have culminated in this very day and moment for our church, and for many others. Our detailed history is another series of sermons, but there are a few reasons why we are most uncommon in the evolution of any religious sect that ever existed. 

If we are ever asked what we mean by an “Uncommon Denomination,” there are a few facts that we should always keep in mind.

First, we are a refined faith spawned from two very powerful and separate pedigrees, the Unitarians and the Universalists. In 1961 we merged to create one faith with the goal of adopting the Judeo-Christian principles professed by both faiths. 

Many of our old churches carry the evidence of that heritage, as it is not uncommon to find these biblical sayings still displayed in older churches: From Judiasm - in Deuteronomy: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy soul and thy might.”  From Exodus, “Thou shalt have no other Gods before thee.” (referring to the confusion generated by the three persons of the Trinity: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit… which one is God, or is it three Gods?) 

From the Prophet, Micah, “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” From The Christian Tradition, the New Testament of John, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”  And in Luke, “You are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.”  And even from the Dead Sea Scrolls, “For thou has given knowledge of thy truth, and insight to tell forth thy wonders, unhushed by day or night.” 

These might be compared to earliest of bumper stickers, if you will, only they were painted on the walls as frescos or framed above the altars. What was remarkable about these choices was that the selections combined the early wisdom of both Jewish and Christian faiths side by side. It was a subtle beginning of our recognition of other traditions as having as much insight and value as our own.  In our churches, it was the efforts of individuals that changed the course of the history of this country.

In America, to name one, it was Thomas Jefferson, under the influence of the British scientist and Unitarian Joseph Priestly, who combined his independent thinking with his Unitarian beliefs as author of The Declaration of Independence. He wrote, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal…” His legacy extended to the importance of religious equality written in 1786 in the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom (the predecessor of the separation of church and state) and showed his belief that freedom is only possible through public education, regardless of financial or social status. 

Universalism had been brewing in the United States since 1684 and came to the surface in New England when Joseph Gatchell of Marblehead became a Universalist martyr for his simple public statement “All men should be saved.” 

He was branded a heretic by order of the Suffolk County court. He was pilloried and his tongue pierced with a red-hot iron.

Salvation by character was the heretical cry of the Universalists. 

Freedom, tolerance, and reason was the mantra of the Unitarians. 

The Unitarians fought with politics and words and laws that allowed for the expression of individual faith. The Universalists fought for social change and justice for all. With heart and intellect combined, the two found they had much in common. Two pieces of a whole encompassing a faith of inclusion.
  
Every single important social and governmental advance in the early religious history of this country came about because of the Unitarian and the Universalists. I hope it doesn’t stop there.

So when you are perplexed by The Good Shepherd stained glass window behind me, or the offset cross inside a circle on the altar, or hymns praising God’s love, you are looking at the best of our history, and a remarkable story as to what these symbols and words meant in the early phase of the evolution of our religious life. 

We are a faith that never stayed stuck in the past, but took the principles of a world conceived in mystery, revealed by science, made by the hands of a creator… and then deduced that the miracle has many meanings, thanks to those who came before us. 

Let us treasure what we have here, treasures, not to be hidden but to be known for what they represented: true progress in faith with roots that honor what we once were and meant to a struggling world. Unlike so many others, we did evolve with the times and survived to tell our story and to add to its chapters.

So, when you adjourn to coffee hour, select your bumper sticker. Look at it and think about its words and where they came from and why we are indeed, “An Uncommon Denomination.”
 
So Be It

Amen.