It's a Mystery
Unitarian Universalist Church of Muncie
August 30, 2009
©2009 Rev. Thomas Perchlik
Reading
"Noir Religion" by Thomas Perchlik
In Denver, Colorado, my office window on the first floor of the Principle building did not look out on the mountains. But when my feet were on the desk I could imagine the shoe tips were twin peaks against a brick red sunset made of real bricks.
One day, while looking at those mountains, wondering if I could make a bottle of cheap whisky taste more like good cognac, she walked in to my office. Her hair the color of liquid copper cascaded over a dress as green as pine boughs, and her eyes were Colorado blue columbines. "You must help me" she pleaded. "Take a chair and we'll talk about it" I offered with a gesture of the bottle. She shook away the drink. The columbines became wet with dew, and said, "I have lost my faith." Each word she swallowed like a bitter pill. "What did this Faith look like," I asked, "was she as pretty as you?" "No," she bit back, "My religious faith. When I was young I trusted my parents, and everything the teachers and preachers said. They all seemed so confident proclaiming the goodness of humanity, and the power of freedom, justice, love and mercy." "Sounds compelling" I suggested helpfully. "But then my father betrayed my mother. Really he betrayed all of us, and I began to look around at the mess the world is in. War, crime, greed and pollution have ruined everything. One day I just realized I had no faith, not in God, nor human beings. Even the world itself will one day burn up in the sun and the sun will dwindle to an icy ember in the emptiness of space."
This girl was in a world of hurt and trouble. I told her I would see what I could do, and for only half my usual fee.
I first checked in with Fred the Fence; an Arian guy with a big mustache. His usual office was a bar called The Superman, where he would sit and talk all day when business was slow. Some called him the philosopher. I asked if he knew where faith could be bought on the black market. But he said the market had dried up since the police started getting tough on indulgences. Then he began to rant about a murder of the head of the faith cartel. "He is dead, he remains dead," Fred Grumbled like a madman, "and do you know who did it?" I waited for the answer. *"We have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?" It was a mystery and I left it at that. [*quote from "The Gay Science" by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, 1882]
Sermon
"A mystery, a mystery, life is a riddle and a mystery." Much can be known, but sometimes we must live with the mystery, and embrace the fact that not all puzzles can be solved. A mystery is, according to the dictionary, "anything that is kept secret or remains unexplained or unknown." In some religious circles "Mysteries" are revelations of truth only available through supernatural intervention. I don't have much to say about that kind of mystery. For me there are only two kinds of mysteries, those you can solve and those you can't.
It has been the pride and center of our movement for some time now that we heed the guidance of reason and the results of science. We are children of the enlightenment. We have reasonable pride in being reasonable, in being focused on this world and how to make it better. Even today many of our people are scientists and reformers. From the Enlightenment frame of mind has arisen not only our form of religious but a form of story, that of the detective. All detectives, from Ms. Marple to the myriad CSI technicians, use reason and natural clues to unravel mysteries. Instead of seeking revelation they use a process of study and deduction to solve the mysteries life presents them. As Holmes says, "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains however improbable, must be the truth?"
We want to know. Human beings are made rich by our ability to know and reason. In knowledge lies power and security. Science in the 19th century created the age of discovery – the world revealing its secrets. This past summer I read Vern's novel, "20,000 Leagues under the Sea." When the book was written we did not even know of the continent of Antarctica, only the tip had been touched. But Jules Verne imagined all the secrets of the world being discovered, uncovered and revealed through the discipline of science and technology.
There is a power in disciplines of the mind, to cure disease, to draw more food from an acre of land, to reach the moon. The show "Unsolved Mysteries" notes on their website, "More than 50 percent of the wanted fugitives profiled on Unsolved Mysteries have been captured—most as a result of tips from our viewers. Unsolved Mysteries has contributed to over 100 family reunions, and helped prove the innocence of seven people convicted of crimes they did not commit."
As I worked with this sermon an insight came to me. The common idea that God has a plan, and a purpose for everything, is in fact an expression of the Enlightenment idea that the world is sensible, reasonable, and its mysteries can one day be known. Of course the problem comes when trying to find reasons, since evil and injustice poison and twist whatever good comes from them. This morning I read about the terrible murder of Heather Teegarden ten years ago. John Carlson wrote "how anyone could have done that to this 19-year-old girl?" and implied the religious question, If God is good and God is in charge then how could God have let this brutal attack and murder happen? Her sister, "Savannah Teegarden has lived with that question since she was 9 years old."I feel that God did it for a reason," the 20-year-old Ball State University telecommunications major said, "but ... it's still hard, at the same time." She still has a desire to understand, to unravel one of life's most terrible mysteries.
Maria Mitchell, the Astronomer from Nantucket, spent every night of her life observing stars, comets and planets, seeking to know the patterns of the universe. She wrote, "Small as is our whole system compared with the infinitude of creation, brief as is our life compared with the cycles of time, we are so tethered to all by the beautiful dependencies of law, that not only is the sparrow's fall is felt to the outermost bound, but the vibrations set in motion by the words that we utter reach through all space and tremor is felt through all time."
In another direction, you may know that we made a noble attempt to re-write our national statement of principles and sources. The process developed by the Commission on Appraisal, finally led to a proposed rewording of the entire section except for the principles. The proposal failed by an incredibly small margin. Out of frustration with the process a new proposal was put forth to change only the last section, from a statement on non-discrimination to one on inclusion. I, like many others, love this kind of stuff, seeking through the mysterious jumble of words, for just the right ones. It is an expression of faith in the power of words and reason to disclose and evoke what is true and good. If only we can capture the truth in the perfect words we can move forward in confidence.
The Rev. David Keyes in a blog report on our General Assembly in Salt Lake City said, "The most popular event at G.A., other than the major worship services and ceremonies, was a nine-hour lecture on theology" and added "You might need to read that last sentence again." The Theology lectures were by Rev. Dr. Galen Geuengrich. "Theology" he said, helps us step "back from a certain kind of experience, religious experience." Theology is how we ask "what makes [that experience] possible, and why is it transformative, or why is it destructive?" Galen's theology is to help us balance mystery and reason. But there is a way of mind, capable of catching any one of us, which tries to eliminate mystery. Galen Guengerich notes that in this sense, fundamentalism is not a religion. It is a worldview that requires the annihilation of all contrary convictions. It is a way that tries to rid the world of loose ends.
But mystery is essential. Mystery draws us forward; it is the energy of life, dispels boredom, and sparks creativity. At its best it moves us to seek to be with the mystery and to wonder. It has been said, "Without mysteries, life would be very dull indeed. What would be left to strive for if everything were known?" The Taoist master says, the Way is, the mystery of all mysteries, the gate of wonder.
The heroic scientist, Einstein, refused to admit the world is less than reasonable, saying "God does not play dice with the universe." Decades later the theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawkin, replied, "God not only plays dice with the universe, but he cheats."
One truism is that the more you know the more you know that you don't know. Even if we could know, we do not have the time to gather all the facts, sort all the clues. Usually we have to move forward through life as through a mystery novel, far from the final chapter. Confusing twists, disorienting surprises, and awe inspiring wonders abound. I had a friend who noted that even though he knew exactly how a rainbow was formed, the angle of light, the refraction from raindrops the angle of the viewer all interacting, this did not stop the rainbow from being a wonder, a joyful surprise, and truly beautiful. In fact his knowledge added to its wonderfulness.
Some have said that Unitarian Universalism is not organized religion but organized agnosticism – if organized religion has creeds, organized agnosticism is unsure about all creeds. It is not to deny beliefs but to state that certain truth claims can not be known, are not able to be proven true or false. It was Thomas Huxley, known as Darwin's Bulldog for his defense of evolutionary ideas, who is generally said to have coined the word agnostic in 1869. This man, who was so confident in the scientific process, knew that some things can not be known. He drew the word from "Gnosis" the Greek word for knowledge, especially secret, spiritual knowledge only reachable through revelation or the teaching of those who know, and the prefix 'a' meaning 'without,' or 'not.'
I always have liked that quote from Carl Jung's autobiography about the time he began sculpting with clay and ended up building a stone tower with his own hands. This scientist of human psychology said, "Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain."
The UU Minister, Forrest Church once wrote, "Unitarian Universalists do not reject religion; we extend its compass. That our orthodox neighbors should circumscribe wonder and meaning in too small a circle doesn't force us to abandon wonder and suspend our search for meaning. On the contrary; we change our angle of vision (as Emerson put it). We expand our circle of inquiry." As to scripture he wrote, "During our brief span, we interpret the greatest and most mysterious masterpiece of them all, the creation itself. The creation is our book of revelation, not a bound book vouchsafed to us by some ancient guru. We rely on the oracle of our own experience, drawn from our reading of the book of nature and of human nature, including our reading of the Bible and our study of philosophy. The text of meaning is vast, its nuances many and various."
On the other hand people often subscribe their religious faith not to a book but to magic, supernatural miracles and unexplained wonders. In contrast, Ralph Waldo Emerson argued, "the very word Miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is Monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain … the invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common." This is what Thich Nhat Hanh was talking about in the meditation this morning. He also said, "People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is … to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle."
It is good to know: to study green leaves to know their chemical, genetic and aesthetic power. But sometimes it is best to just be with the mystery of it all and know that you are a wonder and a mystery too. Oscar Wild noted that the "Ultimate mystery is oneself." So to end I return to my detective from the reading.
I met her by the river. She was just watching the water flow by. "Its comforting," she said, "It flows of its own accord, and it is so quiet yet so powerful. That river could wipe away trees and towers." She remained quiet for a moment so that I could hear the ripple of water on rocks, wearing them away - very slowly. "I should be so constant" she asserted. "It gives me faith that there is something in life, shaping us all, bending the world ever so gradually toward justice, just like Martin Luther King said." I wanted to tell her that Theodore Parker said it first. Instead I just said "Case closed." She had her faith. I wasn't as certain about all she said. Still I did have a faith, as a detective. I had faith in seeking answers, sorting clues, and dancing with mysteries. I didn't always solve them, but that didn't matter. It was the unsolved mystery that drew me forward, got my heart beating, and sparked my interest. What mattered was the puzzle. As that Einstein guy said, "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead."
