"Good Causes and Spiritual Truths" by Rev. Thomas Schade

[Memos from Rev. Barbara Merritt and Rev. Tom Schade]

M I N I S T E R ‘ S   M E M O

“Good Causes and Spiritual Truths”

This Sunday, our worship service will be given over to a performance of
Missa Gaia, a wonderful contemporary composition that celebrates our Earthly
home. It was last performed here at the church in 2003. If our Environmental
Committee existed then, it was in its infancy; now, their effects are seen
throughout the church.
*	Last Sunday was our second car-pooling Sunday.
*	We have switched out many of the incandescent bulbs in use throughout the
church, replacing them with fluorescents.
*	Our monthly electrical usage seems to be down by well over a third,
perhaps a half, through our conservation efforts.
*	We are in the process of applying for a grant to build solar panels on the
roof of Unity Hall. Imagine that; we would produce some of our own
electricity without adding to pollution, green houses gases and global
warming.
*	I can see the church’s compost pile from my office window.
*	The bins for paper recycling are filled and emptied every week and the
bottles and the cans are recycled.
*	We even see our growing awareness of the environmental impact of what we
do when we keep the lights off in the sanctuary on sunny Sunday mornings,
letting the play of sun and clouds sweep through the room

All of these efforts are good works, for a good cause. And because the
church calls for us to be our best, it is no surprise that churches become
good places for good people to do good works for good causes. And the
temptation exists to think of religion as being the good thoughts that
motivate the good people as they do their good works for good causes.

The Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, the national group
of churches and congregation with which First Unitarian affiliates itself,
affirm together Seven Principles which we hope will be embodied in our words
and deeds. The last of these, the Seventh Principle, is that we try to have
“respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a
 part.”

Many UU environmental activists see this principle as a warrant for their
good works, and a somewhat vague endorsement of the good cause of
Environmental activism.

It is that, and so much more., for it describes where we stand in the entire
Universe and our relationship to it. It proclaims a basic spiritual truth.
All of reality is a vast network of beings, events, people, and ideas
connected and interconnected with an infinite number of strands. Everything
is influenced by everything else; everyone depends on everyone else. And as
we think of God, it is probably a mistake to think of God as being separate
from this network, like a cabinet maker is separate from the furniture he
makes. God, and our ideas about God, are as much a part of this network of
being as food we eat and the air we breathe.

For us as persons, it means that are influenced by more people, and more
history, than we can be aware of, and that everything that we are doing has
consequences that we may never see.

Military trainers and athletic coaches value something call “situational
awareness.” Does the fighter or athlete in training have the ability to see
more of what is going on at the present moment and to realize its
importance? You can see how the ability to perceive the subtlest clues and
signals in all the confusion of the present moment could be crucial on a
battlefield or a playing field ,

If the deepest truth is reality is an interdependent web of all existence,
then one could say that “situational awareness” is the deepest virtue we
must cultivate. It is to live in “the here and in the now” but not as tiny
separate bubble of space and time. Here and now are at the intersection of
the past and the future and all the infinite places without and within.



The global environment is a wonderful arena to practice the spirituality of
situational awareness. And so is thinking about the people of Iraq, or the
Gulf Coast, or Darfur. And so is trying to bring your family together for a
wedding, or a baby dedication or a funeral, or to care for someone who is
ill, and sometimes even just for lunch. In each case, we are stretched to
know not only our intention, but how we effect others, and to hold ourselves
and others responsibly, and with compassion, and with respect and even,
love.

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