The Knowledge of Freedom

A Worship Service by the Reverend Mark W. Christian

Presented to the First Unitarian Church of Oklahoma City

Sunday March 13, 2005

Reading

Cherish Your Doubts

By Robert T. Weston (SLT 650)

Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the attendant of truth.  Doubt is the key to the door of knowledge; it is the servant of discovery.  A belief which may not be questioned binds us to error, for there is incompleteness and imperfection in every belief.  Doubt is the touchstone of truth; it is an acid which eats away the false.  Let no one fear for the truth, that doubt may consume it; for doubt is a testing of belief.  The truth stands boldly and unafraid; it is not shaken by the testing:  For truth, if it be truth, arises from each testing stronger, more secure.   Those that would silence doubt are filled with fear; their houses are built on shifting sands.  But those who fear not doubt, and know its use, are founded on rock. They shall walk in the light of growing knowledge; the work of their hands shall endure. Therefore let us not fear doubt, but let us rejoice in its help: It is to the wise as a staff to the blind; doubt is the attendant of truth.

Prayer and Mediation

Forgiven, Cured and Corrected

From Harry Meserve (SLT 496)

From arrogance, pompousness and from thinking ourselves more important than we are, may some saving sense of humor liberate us.  For allowing ourselves to ridicule the faith of others, may we be forgiven.  From making war and calling it peace, special privilege and calling it justice, indifference and calling it tolerance, pollution and calling it progress, may we be cured.  For telling ourselves and others that evil is inevitable while good is impossible, may we stand corrected.  God of our mixed up, tragic, aspiring, doubting and insurgent lives, help us to be as good as in our hearts we have always wanted to be.  AMEN

The Knowledge of Freedom

A Sermon by the Reverend Mark W. Christian

Delivered to the First Unitarian Church of Oklahoma City

Sunday March 13, 2005

I should begin with a “Truth in Advertising” disclaimer from the Board of Trustees.  This sermon is part of a series on the affirmation we share each Sunday as we gather for worship.  The phrase “To seek knowledge in freedom” is not intended in any way to excuse any one of us from the obligation to make financial contributions to the church.  Especially at canvass time we want you to know that there is freedom and there is free loading.  We’re all for one and not for the other.  That being said…

A few of weeks ago, while grappling sermonically with the sentence “The quest for truth is its sacrament,” I shared a paradox of freedom.  It is written, and I agree, that “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” the only trouble is that there are a number of truths out there of which I prefer ignorance—Thank You.  I finally observed that the reason we must know the truth is that in the end nothing else can serve freedom. 

Several of you offered me your read on that paradox.  Bob Hurst observed that we seek the truth, even when we don’t really like it, because ultimately even that discomfort is easier to bear than the weight of all the false things you have to add on to keep from knowing a painful truth.  When Bob shared that with me I thought of the enormously complicated equations that were used to explain the motion of the planets assuming the biblical given that the earth is the center of creation.  One can, through complex equations, maintain that Ptolomeic earth-centered world view and explain planetary motion—but it takes very complex figuring.  Or one can employ the Copernican worldview (which wasn’t quite right as it turns out) that the sun—not the earth is the center of creation.  Philosophers and scientists suggested the wisdom of parsimony—which observes that when faced with competing observations the simpler observation tends to be true.  Theologians and Church Fathers, however, were unwilling to grant that church tradition was wrong so they kept adding error upon error to keep the system functioning.

In this church we affirm, one to the other, that we will seek truth in freedom.  We covenant to do this even when we aren’t sure we want to give up believing things which side more with comfort than freedom.

Also on point a few weeks ago were the observations from Hardy Summers.  At first Hardy threw me off because he started talking about fishing—and we all know that fishermen are notorious liars—therefore...  Hardy observed that when he goes fishing he catches fish with artificial lures because the fish don’t have the native ability to test truth when it is put before them.  They see the motion—think it is food—get hooked and become food themselves.  I told Hardy that he seems to have knack for finding dumber fish than I do.  Putting that aside, though, his point is that human beings are built with an innate ability and even need gather information and put it in service of the truth.  Knowledge seeking is standard equipment to our humanity.  Whether or not it sets us free, I suppose, is a matter of faith.

Part of our mission, as a church, is parallel to Paul’s instructions to the church in Thessalonia, “Test all things,” he urged, “Hold fast to the good (1 Thess. 5:21).”  I agree with Hardy that we almost cannot NOT do this.  Seeking knowledge is so deeply ingrained into the human character that it takes a series of ever-complicated equations to keep us from seeking knowledge.  The centrality of humanity’s knowledge seeking spirit can be seen simply by looking at the scientific nomenclature we affix to the first modern human beings—Homo Sapiens—“Wise Human” or “Clever Human.” 

I guess I should observe that this designation grows out of the school of evolutionary development—and that evolution is “Only a theory.”  Yes it is just a theory.  So is gravity.  So are the things that let us do a variety of everyday things that previous generations would have classified as miracles.  It is all a theory.  It’s just that some theories respond to testing better than others.  Some theories allow us to streamline our thinking and some force us to carry ever expanding cumbersome burdens in order to maintain them.

In this church we affirm as a religious value the need and the goodness of seeking knowledge in freedom.  We must be free to chase after truth—to seek knowledge—in whatever direction it leads us.  UU Minister Terry Weston once wrote—

A belief which may not be questioned binds us to error, for there is incompleteness and imperfection in every belief.  Doubt is the touchstone of truth; it is an acid which eats away the false.  Let no one fear for the truth, that doubt may consume it; for doubt is a testing of belief.  The truth stands boldly and unafraid; it is not shaken by the testing:  For truth, if it be truth, arises from each testing stronger, more secure.

John Milton posed it even more succinctly—“Whoever knew truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?”

Which brings us to the Oklahoma Legislature.  This week on a 96-0 vote the State House passed a measure allowing the Ten Commandments to be posted in any public building.  Without delving into the Church/State separation issues inherent in this issue, I have deep concerns theologically and spiritually with that intent.  I don’t deny that the 10 Commandments are basic ethical markers of our society.  It’s just that when the state posts them it gives the impression that they are the be-all and end-all of our ethical boundaries.  They aren’t.  Some will counter that this is an act of historical, not religious, intent.  They observe that the commandments were central to morality of our nation's founders and those founding communities of Pilgrims and Puritans.  Yes, and so was slavery.  Yes, and so was a belief in witchcraft.  Yes, and so was the belief that native Americans weren’t really human beings. 

I want to make an amendment to that House measure.  If the Ten Commandments are posted they need to have posted beside them a disclaimer explaining that “These Commandments are just theories and have, as yet, proven futile in bringing about peace, justice and the wholeness of God.”  Better still, let’s mandate that anywhere the Ten Commandments are posted that the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism be noted as an alternative theory of morality to be given equal consideration.

We have a deep and multi-faceted commitment to seeking knowledge in freedom.  One facet is a passion to discover the things we don’t know.  The companion, mirror, facet is infinitely more challenging.  It is tied up in that monkey grip hold that some make to the Ten Commandments, Creationism and the Ptolomeic worldview.  Seeking knowledge in freedom means discovering things we didn’t know—but it also includes discovering some of things we think we know are wrong.  “Aye and there’s the rub.”  If one is to affirm the quest for knowledge in freedom as a religious value—one must be open to ALL the revelations that may be forthcoming.

Before I took my first class in seminary, I spoke with the Seminary’s president—Bill Tabernee.  I told him that I had an enormous void in my biblical knowledge.  “Growing up a Unitarian,” I confessed, “I never learned much about the bible.  I was never asked to memorize any scripture.”  He stopped me in my tracks and assured me that I would, in all likelihood, be alright.  “You already know you don’t know what’s in the bible.  It’s your classmates who are certain of their knowledge that I worry about.”

We don’t struggle so much over the things we don’t know—we get stuck on the things we know that just aren’t so.  Thomas Edison once observed that “We don’t know one half of one millionth of a percent of anything” and while that smacks of hyperbole, I think I agree.  In most fields of endeavor, every question answered poses two or three more complex problems.  Perhaps our only saving grace in that conundrum is that seeking knowledge is written in the human DNA.  The challenge comes when wen try to idolize what we find.  “I have found the truth—thank you—now I will quit looking.”  In this church we proclaim that is bad religion.  Seeking knowledge in freedom includes a caveat to be ever vigilant for new expressions of truth.

Deep within this religious tradition is a radical commitment to this ever-renewing quest for  knowledge in freedom.  It is radical because it is at our root and it is radical because it stands so firmly in the face of most other approaches to religion.  “Revelation,” we say, “Is not sealed.” 

No matter how much knowledge we have garnered, we believe that more is waiting our discovery.  No matter how much of truth or God we think we have internalized—we stand in the radical awareness that more truth, something new of God, is always waiting to be born in the world.

            Thus our religious commitment to seek knowledge in freedom.  This commitment means that we not only seek freedom with our knowledge, but that we remain ever free to seek knowledge.  We seek out the things that will set us free from the usurpations of heart and mind.  We seek knowledge of the things that bind us to error, suffering  and tragedy.  At the same time we affirm the centrality of freedom that tells us that we dare not fence off the spirit.

            Each week, in this church, we affirm and covenant one with the other a number of things that serve both as boundary and guiding light.  One of those things we affirm is a commitment to seeking knowledge in freedom.  On this day know that this is no simple task.  It involves humility.  We seek knowledge and admit that sometimes the things we think we know no longer serve us.  Seeking knowledge in freedom points us toward on ever-broader horizons.  As rational as the phrase may sound, our commitment seeking knowledge in freedom actually puts us on a mystical path.  We use knowledge in the service of freedom and freedom in the service of knowledge. These two tasks are noble in their own right.  Taken together they are like the Tao that once known is not the real Tao.  Finally, a commitment to seeking knowledge in freedom places ethical burdens on our shoulders.  Seeking knowledge inevitably means uncovering injustice—injustice in the world, injustice in our lives and injustice in our hearts.  Our commitment to freedom and knowledge mean that we can never step aside from the work of justice in the world.

            I close with these words from Wallace Robbins—may they resonate with our commitment to knowledge and freedom.

Ours is a non-creedal church—not because we have no beliefs, but because we will not be restrained in our beliefs.  Ours is a church of conscience—not because we hold that conscience is infallible, but because it is the meeting place of God and Humanity.  Ours is a church of reason—not because the mind is free of errors, but because the dialogue if mind with mind, and mind with itself, refines religious thought.  Ours is a church of moral work—not because we think morality is a sufficient religion, but because we know no better way if showing our gratitude to the divine and our confidence in one another.  We dare not fence the spirit, nor close off the sincerity of conversation with which souls must meet in religious association.  As others have their ways of religion, so do we have this faith; and, in honest difference, we order our lives together.

AMEN