First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

PRAYER

Earth mother, star mother,
You who are called by a thousand names,

May all remember
we are cells in your body
and dance together.

You are the grain and the loaf
that sustains us each day,

And as you are patient
with our struggles to learn
So shall we be patient
with ourselves and each other.

We are radiant light
and sacred dark -the balance-

You are: the embrace that heartens,
and the freedom beyond fear.

Within you we are born,
we grow, live and die-

You bring us around the circle to rebirth,
Within us you dance forever.   Amen.
SLT #524 Starhawk

Coming of Age Presentation

This is a special service.  It is the time for giving the five eighth graders who have been participating in this years’ Coming of Age Program a chance to share their Credo Statements.  The Credo Statements are statements of faith.  A tough assignment for people of any age.  We have asked these thirteen year olds to articulate what it is they believe about life and the way of the world, and what it is they value most in living, The understanding is that these statements are snapshots, the thinking of a moment in time.  We have asked that they be honest and promised them that what they say will not be held against them.  They are not committing themselves to life-long agreement, in fact, we hope the benefit of doing these statements will be largely realized in the future as the participants will read them and be able to reflect back on their earlier selves.  In our liberal religious tradition, it is okay to explore ideas and ways of interpreting life and our own place in the grand scheme of it.

The Coming of Age program has been a year-long event.  This has been the second year running. I have helped Carrie Evans, the Youth Assistant in preparing and sharing the once a month Sunday morning sessions where topics have ranged from values identification, liberal religion, and life choices. The program asked the youth to interview church leaders of their choice, visit another UU congregation in town and attend the worship service here.  They have been asked to help with church events, to provide some service to the church, to help with a worship event, and to get involved in a social action project in the community.  All the youth participated in the Christmas pageant.  It is a lot of effort to ask of young people and these individuals you will now hear have shown a determination to see it through.  I have appreciated their honesty and I hope you will too.

Each participant has been mentored by an adult from the congregation whom you’ll now meet as they step up to introduce themselves and their mentees in turn.

The following are the unedited credo statements from the bridging participants.

Credo Statement: Thomas McLaren

Religion plays a somewhat small part in my life, but what I do believe in, as I have learned, is somewhat hard to define.  This is a summary of my beliefs.

I believe that there is a higher power in the world.  I think of this power as God.  God, in my opinion, does not interfere with human life very often.  I think that God is probably understanding of all religions and faiths.

Out of all the beliefs and religions of the world that I know of I think Buddhism makes the most sense.  That you cannot just do good deeds and be accepted into heaven for all of eternity.  You have to make yourself ready to be removed from the cycle first.  To do this you have to truly be a good person, you can’t just do good deeds and not really mean it you must truly want to help people out. You have as much time as you need to do so also.

I believe in karma too.  For me karma is a sort of reward system.  If you do good deeds in this life then in the next one you will be rewarded.  If you act badly you will be punished accordingly.  Karma helps me live my life with regards to others.

I also believe that there is a negative force.  This force isn’t purely negative, it just distracts from reaching your goal.  This force is one of the main reasons people take so long to attain nirvana, which is the ultimate reward.  There isn’t a specific name for this force it is just all the bad things in the world put together.

I do not pray, even though I believe that there is a “God”.  I do not think God is active enough in human life to help out very much with my personal problems.

All in all I believe the basic structure of Buddhism but with a few sort of “twists” of my own.  I believe in nirvana as I mentioned earlier and I believe in reincarnation also.  I believe in the ways to attain nirvana, but I also believe in a higher power like god or something.  Together this makes up the religious part of my life.

Credo Statement: Robbie Loomis-Norris

I see life logically. What I mean by this is that I believe what I see and hear and touch and taste and smell. I rely on what I can understand it true. Even though, I also believe what people tell me if it seems like it is logical. This leads me to say that I do not believe in any kind of god or goddess or higher being. Because, like I said before, I can not see, hear, feel, taste, or smell it

I think that the "purpose of life", is to have as much fun as you can while you can. By that I don't mean that you should always just blow off things that are more important, but say, if you were inside and it was a wonderful day, and all you are doing is watching TV or something, then you should get outside and have fun. But when there is something that you need to do or say or some kind of responsibility that you need to fulfill, then you need to get it over with so that you can go have fun. Basically, I say that I live life to the fullest unless there is something more important to do. By "important", I mean something that would have a bad effect to you or someone close to you. Such as a very large English paper to write before the end of the school year, If you didn't do that then it would completely mess up your grade and it would go on your permanent record.

People are a big part of my life, that's not very unique, but it's true. I think one of the most needed things for humans is friends, because they help you through everything that you need help with. Well, most things anyway. They help you when you need help with big things, like family problems, and also with small things like, "hey, which page were the questions for English on?" Anything that a person would need, most of the time they will look to friends for help. Of course, that's not all friends are good for, they have fun with you, which is why people have friends in my opinion. My friends and I have fun because, like I said earlier, fun is the basis of life. Friends are friends because they like each other and because they can have fun and laugh together. Everybody knows that things aren't nearly as fun if there's no one to share the fun with.

People are not originally corrupt, in my opinion, but the things that they want or have, persuade them to do things that they wouldn't do normally. Such things like stealing from people and killing and other inhumane things like that. People do those things so that they can look good or have things that they want. Some people steal things just for the sake of having them, like money. People steal money because they want it. I think money actually controls people, because it can get them anything they want, which means that money = the world. That might be so, but still, money can of course be used for good things too, such as something to give to other people that don't have any so that they can get things that they need to live.

LIFE, it is what everyone is "here" for. Even though I do not believe in any kind of life after death, I still think that we have a reason for being here. And my reason is that we need to live life up. We need to keep our lives, because that is all we really have.

I don't always follow these things that I believe in, but I try to most of the time. No one knows what they really believe I think, but they can dig deep enough to live by, and this is what I dug up from inside of myself.

Credo Statement: Edward Balaguer

I have been asked many times what I believe in.  After being asked this a couple hundred times, you decide to make time to think about it.  (Having to think about it for coming of age also helps you make time for it) So, after thinking about what I believe in I have come up with a rough outline of what I believe.  To answer the question that has always been asked is there such thing as God?  No, there is no “God” No there isn’t a person or some being who sits up in the sky deciding who gets to go to “Heaven” and who goes to “Hell”,  in my belief, there is some power out there that flows among everyone and everything it is present in everything and it manifests itself differently to everyone.  This Power isn’t the same for everyone. There is no book that says what’s right and what’s wrong.  There is no one person who can tell you that is wrong and this other thing is right.  It is the power that dictates the unexplainable, and helps explain those things that we don’t know about or those things that should never happen.  Such as “miracles” a miracle is something that goes against the normal course of nature or what should happen.  If you looked at something like a miracle with a scientific, or logical state of mind, you would say that those things can happen their perfectly okay but then the chances of a “miracle” occurring are very little.  But besides all the odds they still happen. 

I came to this conclusion by examining other religions.  In the past, in my opinion, religion was a way to explain the unexplainable.  To help explain the world around them, such as if lightning hits a field of food and sets it on fire, it is because you did something to anger the gods or your god.  But now, after science has explained most of the things in our modern lives, there are still those very few things which we cannot explain.  How something should happen but it doesn’t, how a person can get lost at sea and somehow survive, how someone with a malignant brain tumor survives for 20 years without an operation, how someone is shot in the head but makes a full recovery, how things that are thought to be impossible happen.  It gives people something to believe in besides pure science, and probability, because Science alone is just cold hard numbers that have no feeling.  But on the other side, religion alone is too much feeling without any fact.  Science alone or Religion alone can only take you so far.  You need to mix science and religion to get the best .  The knowledge and fact from science, but the feeling from religion. The best of two worlds, or in the words of Albert Einstein, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” 

Credo Statement: James Borden

When it comes to what I believe about the Universe and God, basically I believe in Darwinism, the Big Bang Theory and a kind of natural order to the Universe. It’s hard for me to believe that an entity decided to give this little gas ball (Earth) trees, water, and life. The traditional Christian view is that God created everything-but if he’s the creator, then who created him? While many people find the idea of God a source of strength and hope in their lives, I believe that God is functioning for them in the way an imaginary friend can give strength and comfort. While this is important and powerful for them, I find the same strength and comfort not in an imaginary God (“G-O-D”) but in a very real dog (“D-O-G”) Riley, who I can talk to and find strength, reflection and comfort.

I don’t believe that there is a set purpose to life. Instead I think that each person has to figure out for themselves what they want to do, how they want to live and how they will relate to others. Basically, there is no “God-given” rule about right and wrong that we can rely on to know what to do or how to live. However, humans have evolved a social system that helps us live happier, more productive lives with rules that are sometimes spelled out in laws and sometimes expressed through our culture. While the laws are available for anyone to read, the cultural ideas of right and wrong are a little harder to pin down, but they are just as important for the community. These include things like helping others in need, and telling the truth when it is helpful. The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” is another helpful expression of this kind of cultural rule that helps society function effectively.

So fundamentally I believe that laws of nature govern the Universe, of which we are a part, and therefore govern the cultural and written laws that we humans create and the society in which we live.

Credo Statement: Kelley Donoghue

Religion is a tricky subject. There are so many in the world today, it's hard not to believe one thing without trampling on another person's beliefs. If, and when, you do offend someone you've practically just said that their theory about how life works is wrong. That tends to get people's dander up. But, you have to believe in something, so, I'll try to tread carefully while telling you all what I think turns the world.

I'm going to tell you now, I don't believe in God or any other higher being. The idea that there is a mystical, unexplainable person, usually a man, that made the world and controls everything doesn't do anything for me. And the fact that all the major religions in the world say that women are inferior to men, well, we all know that isn't true.

I think the first religions started out by parents who, when asked a question by their children that they did not know they answer to, made up the answers to their questions to ensure that their children knew who was boss. Eventually there became a universal lie for each question that children usually asked their parents. The children, who were never told that their parents had made up the answers to their questions, actually believed the stories they were told, and past down those stories to their children. One can see how these "stories" might develop might develop into "religions".

To me, religion makes those who are otherwise logical completely oblivious to common sense. The holy books for almost all popular religions were written hundreds of years ago. When they were written women had hardly any rights and the slave trade was flourishing. Why do people still practice a religion in which not all are created equal?. There are still radical Christians that say that the Holocaust was the biggest sham ever created, "How could good Christians kill six million Jews? Impossible." If they would only go online and search for images that are somehow related to the phrase "death camps" they would see that, no, thousands of Jews did not disappear off the face of the Earth of their own accord. They would see that, no, thousands of Jews did not tattoo a serial number on their arms for fun.

I see religion as a kind of baby blanket for adults, always reassuring and comforting them. One example of this is heaven. To ease the pain of loosing a loved one we tell ourselves that they are not really gone, we will meet them in heaven when we die. They will always be looking down on us from heaven. They will be our guardian angel and they will look out for us and keep us safe whatever we do. Without these comforting thoughts we are forced to face the reality and see that they will slowly rot away in a fancy box, buried six feet underground.

I don't think that all religion is bad. In fact, I think that, on the whole, religion teaches us valuable lessons about how to act towards on another. I only have a problem when people use religion as an excuse for doing something that would otherwise be frowned upon.

The thing that I believe in is pretty complex. It is many things, but, at the same time, it is whole. It's a set of rules that the entire universe follows. It's a perfect balance of everything, like Ying and Yang. It's a force that flows through everything. It's a force everyone has felt, but no one can describe. Once and a while we get a glimpse of it, an enlightened feeling that we all get once a life time, when we feel like everything in the world is connected and makes sense. It is the "Ah-ha!" moment.

The world is a confusing place. There are countless theologies that try to explain how the earth, and everything else, works. My theory is only one out of a billion, but it brings a little order to my life and helps the world seem a bit less crazy.

HOMILY: First Essays in the Art of Living by Victoria Shepherd Rao, Intern Minister

I wanted to offer some reflections on some of what we have heard from Tom, Robbie, Edward, James, and Kelley.

There are familiar refrains in what they have chosen to talk about.

Edward has sought to find some kind of rational, comfortable balance between scientific or empirical knowledge and unexplainable revelation.  Many in our congregations struggle to do the same.

James sees in life an opportunity to grow, perceiving enough of a natural orderliness in the world to trust the cultural framework we have inherited.  And this is where we all live isn’t it, with hope?

Kelley gives voice to what many of us have experienced as a loss of faith in institutionalized religion.  She questions any teaching that can lead to oppressive rather than liberating attitudes and ways.

Tom reveals a liberal approach to religion.  He has tried on various interpretations of the human experience and decided that for him Buddhism makes the most sense.  He exhibits the unselfconscious assimilation of centuries of liberalism in this, the Emersonian ideal of the individual persons capacity and God-given right to trust his own perceptions of the world as a reliable standard upon which to judge the  convents of truth.

And Robbie speaks of values which many of us can relate easily to:  the importance of people in our lives - family and friends, the truth that fun or enjoyment rests somewhere close to the center of life’s mysterious purpose.  He shows no small insight when he identifies life as all that we can really know we have, each day, each sunny day we remember to get out to simply enjoy ourselves.  This is an affirmation that is both deeply existential and spiritual.

All these statements express one of the unique spiritual gifts of our religious tradition.  That is religion without the fear.  No fear of institutional or eternal punishment for asking questions or having doubts.  The down side of such freedom we all know is the possibility of confusion.

Here is a little story about a fish swimming along.  He is burdened with a big question on his mind.  But then he comes across a big fish….

“Excuse me,” said the little fish.  “You are older than I, so can you tell me where to find the ocean?”

“The ocean,” said the other fish, “is the thing you are in now.”

“Oh, this?  But this is water.  What I am seeking is the ocean, “ said the little fish.  Disappointed, he swam away to search elsewhere. 

(Anthony De Mello, The Song of the Bird, pg.12-13)

This parable gives some indication of how confusing it can be to ask ourselves religious questions.  And it has been difficult for these young people to tackle this credo writing assignment.  But I hope they are not going to swim away disappointed.  Because they may or may not recognize the significance of some very important positive things they have said to us this morning about the way the world seems to work.  And so I want to briefly highlight them.

Edward has said that he believes that there is some power that flows in and among all things.  This power explains the miraculous and can contain human feeling.  Kelley also spoke about a force that flows through everything which everyone can feel and no one can describe.  It connects everything.  Holding this belief, she says, brings order to her life and eases confusion.  Helps the world seem a bit less crazy.

Tom talked about some Buddhist beliefs that he has found useful.  He is in the minority in this group, choosing to name the nameless, “God.”  He ventures beyond the certainties of this life and takes comfort in the idea of reincarnation, the idea that we all have as much time as we need, as many lifetimes as we need, to learn the lessons we need about love and kindness.  Tom says this way of understanding life, with a final goal of reaching enlightenment, helps him live his life “with regard to others.”  How to live “with regard to others.”  We all need to learn these lessons on living “with regard to others.”  This is universal teaching. 

As Robbie said, you have to dig deep into your self to come up with this stuff and these articulations show a great sensitivity to the paradox or contradiction inherent in religious ideas.  They are beyond human words and understanding.  Words may be used to speak of such things but they cannot contain or completely describe the ultimate truth.

But still, we know we can experience the coherence of ultimate reality and most of us do.  James has said, in earlier versions of his credo anyway, that he talks to his dog, Riley, and that he has found comfort and real relationship with his dog.  And such is the experience of babes in the arms of their new parents.  It is the feeling of an unconditional love, a wordless embrace, a word-transcending feeling of acceptance.  Such experiences are the foundation of love of God or life, the stuff of faith. 

Robbie talked about the importance of his close connections to his friends, how his relationships with others enhance the experience of fun.  It is something about sharing that makes it real.  It reminds me of Mother Teresa’s words about love, that love can have no meaning if it remains by itself.  It has got to be something which connects us to others, something which is expressed in action which connects us to others or else it is meaningless.

Words fail to signify the depth and power of such experiences of love and relatedness.  But the fortunate truth is we are experiencing creatures and we don’t need words and ideas to draw the vital spiritual sustenance available to us through relationships with others.  It is there, in the eyes, in the face… let us always take the time to look into one another’s eyes and faces and see there communion.

But these young people have gone on a word chase and they have worked hard to find the words which express their views at this time.  It is hard to call out from the wilderness between the vast expanses of childhood and adulthood, where they are now - hard to know what you think and believe, and to find the courage to share it with others, to say it out loud.  I want to commend Kelley and Tom and Robbie and James and Edward.  It has been a great learning challenge for all of us.  Carrie and I want to thank you for sticking with it and we want to thank the mentors and all the parents for supporting us all the way.

Mark Morrison-Reed, one of the ministers at Toronto’s First Unitarian Church, and one of the first preachers of this movement to inspire me, has said that “…the task of religious community is to unveil the bonds that bind each to all…[that there is] a connectedness…discovered amid the particulars of our own lives and the lives of others.”    This morning you have all been called to witness to such particularities in the lives of a handful of families of this community.  May the sharing of the milestones of our personal lives build the strength of the bonds of our communal life.  Morrison-Reed asserts that the religious community is essential because, “Together, our vision is widened and our strength is renewed.”  He was speaking about the potentiality of the religious community to act for justice in the world and that is a very important calling on the church, but what he says is also true on a personal level, for meeting the challenges of changes and transitions in our lives, in all their particular dimensions.