Some people think the only difference between the various religions is which creed you have to say, so since we UUs have no creedal test for membership, we might not even be a religion to them.

Other people think what makes a religion is the single scripture it uses. Jews have the Torah, Muslims the Koran, Christians have one of 285 versions of their bible, and so forth. So for people who think religion is all about a single sacred scripture, we might not seem like a religion to them, because we UUs depend on many scriptures.

Those are just two of the things that along with several other concepts- make it difficult to explain Unitarian Universalism in 25 words or less. One of the things that makes it easier to explain what beliefs we hold in common is called the Five Smooth Stones, a sort of UU short list. It is not the end-all and be-all of explaining UU-ism, but it gives us one handle on it.

Some of you know that our fellowship hall, Adams Hall, is named after James Luther Adams. Now if you're new here you might wonder what the term "fellowship hall" means. It is traditional religious language, a sort of code phrase you might translate as "place we hang out, talk and drink coffee after service".

Some consider this one of our more sacred rituals.

James Luther Adams is widely considered to be the most important Unitarian theologian of the 20th century. He grew up fundamentalist, became an atheist in college, and ended his life as a self-described Christian Humanist. Probably a familiar path for some of you in this room. According to the UU History web site,

Adams was a Unitarian parish minister, social activist, journal editor, distinguished scholar, translator and editor of major German theologians, prolific author, and divinity school professor for more than forty years. Adams was the most influential theologian among American Unitarian Universalists of the 20th century, and one of the finest 20th-century American liberal Christian theologians generally. http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/jameslutheradams.html

Adams wrote and taught on many things. He is- as they used to say- required reading at the academy. I have some of his books up here on the altar and if you're interested, the UUA bookstore sells a small paperback anthology of some of his work.

More than any other theologian of the 20th century, Adams pointed to the idea of voluntary associations as the buffer zone and hall mark of the free, democratic society. Clubs, churches, unions, guilds- these kinds of organizations promote democracy in important ways.

He pointed out that it was always the voluntary associations that despots and dictators looked to getting rid of first in their quest for dominance, and so voluntary associations- including the church- are both a canary in a coal mine- a warning system, and the vehicle to balance tyranny.

Adams' Five Smooth Stones are guideposts for many UUs as to what constitutes liberal religion. There's a lot of thought behind these ideas, and sometimes it takes a lot of words to really get those ideas across. But this morning, I'm using some visual aids on this altar table up here, (and no, I don't think the table will be up here next week). The five smooth stones can be summed up as:

(Cheerios box) wake up;
(Invitation) invite consent;
(Gavel) claim ownership;
(Newspaper) don't hide away; and,
(Gold coins) remember your treasure.

One of Adams' editors took the title Five Smooth Stones from the bible. In First Samuel, chapter 17, we can read about the young Hebrew shepherd David going out to meet up with Goliath of Gath, a huge giant of a man: a professional soldier.

On his way, David had been given armor, but he turned it down as it was too bulky and uncomfortable. Instead, he stopped by a wadi, or little valley, and picked up five smooth stones to use with his sling and his staff, which were his preferred weapons. With one shot, he slew the giant.

Centuries ago, with one smooth stone- the promotion of the belief that revelation is continuous and available to all of us- with one smooth stone, religious liberals began the long walk out of the valley toward the beloved community. With one shot, we turned away from the giant, and on to our own path. We woke up.

The first smooth stone is that: revelation is continuous. In many cases this sharply separates us from other groups who believe revelation is sealed and locked in the long ago and far away.

Of course, because we hold that revelation is continuous, we sometimes waver on our search for truth. As one UU joke goes, "Dear God, if there is a God, if you can, save my soul, if I have a soul."

But more often than wavering, for me at least, is the problem of "losing sight" of the big picture. Of really listening.

When Michelangelo did the Sistine Chapel, he painted both the major and minor prophets. You can tell them apart because, although there are angels at the ears of both, only the major prophets are listening.

This week, I was thinking about a symbol for the idea that revelation is continuous. I thought of a notebooks with some pages written in and others blank. While trying to decide about this, I began to open a box of Cheerios for a snack, but the box tops were glued backwards or something.

So I stopped what I was doing and looked down. I saw a phrase with arrows pointing to the box tops, so it looked like there were directions on how to open this particular box of cereal, but here's what the directions said- Once your consciousness has been raised, it cannot be lowered.

What!?!? I almost dropped the box right then and there. Who made General Mills Corporation into an oracle? Can you believe it? Revelation is continuous! It's all around all the time, but we only get snatches, glimpses, sticky bits here and there- bits that stick with us.

Revelation can show up on cereal boxes. It can show up riding the scent of honeysuckle on a warm June night- far from home. It can reveal itself in the icy elegance of a mathematical equation.

Revelation can be gleaned amongst poly-peptides and gene sequences. Revelation can come in the off-hand comment of a lover.

Revelation comes as the shock of recognition. It sticks before you can speak its arrival. And you know what all the cool cereal boxes say- Once your consciousness has been raised, it cannot be lowered.

The second smooth stone: is that all relations among persons ought to rest on mutual free consent and not coercion. This can be summed up as "invite participation, invite consent". We offer invitations of exploring heaven, not threats of hell. This is not so simple a thing as it first may sound. This idea turns classical Western religion upside down.

For a long time in the early years of this country, Universalists couldn't hold office or vote because they offered a Loving God, and didn't use threats of hell to coerce behavior. Classic Universalism says we are already saved by Love. We can take this for granted sometimes.

Nevertheless, we not only tolerate but promote the idea of multiple, even conflicting religious viewpoints in our community, particularly those things known only through faith.

Of course, a responsible liberalism recognizes there are limits to individual freedom. We may promote compulsory education for our children, for example. We may ask our teachers to publicly or privately affirm the values we want taught to our children.

But we strive for free consent. We will help, we will offer, we will suggest, but it is up to you to choose how, when and where to participate.

While the 1st stone is to wake up, the 2nd is to invite consent, the third smooth stone says we must acknowledge and affirm our moral obligation to work for a just and loving community. In other words, we have to claim ownership over our own civic life. Not abandon it, not pretend we have no civic debts other than paying taxes and voting when it's convenient. Nuh-uh.

While I've used the Cheerios box to symbolize revelation, and I've used a printed Invitation as a reminder for inviting consent, I've picked a gavel for the 3rd stone of claiming ownership. When the hub-bub is loud, the conversations animated- and then the gavel strikes a few times (strike gavel), we focus our attention together on the reason we are at a meeting. The gavel represents justice, too.

Some religions believe only God can bring justice. In Shia Islam they say: "the last imam [the last divine religious leader] disappeared in 880, and Shia Muslims to this day await his return, when they believe that justice will be established on earth."

In Buddhism, "human action leads to rebirth, wherein good deeds are inevitably rewarded and evil deeds punished. Thus, neither undeserved pleasure nor unwarranted suffering exists in the world, but rather a universal justice."

"Much Jewish thought, from the Book of Job onward, has been preoccupied with the problem of justice. Now there is the belief that virtue and obedience will ultimately be rewarded by divine judgment after death."
(Quoted parts are from Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003. © 1993-2002).

A lot of this was adopted into Christianity. But Unitarians are not content with this. Adams believes God acts through people, and it is through people acting for justice that justice is gained.

We will not wait for the "last imam" to return. We will not spend much time speculating on past lives of karma. We place no stock in the idea of divine judgement after death. We seek justice here and now, the justice that is within our reach to affect.

Furthermore, our quest for justice is not some cold accounting in blood, but the yearning for a just and loving community.

The 1st stone is to wake up; the 2nd is to invite consent; the 3rd is to claim civic ownership; and Adams says we have to do this in a public way.

This is the fourth smooth stone- the faith of the liberal must express itself in social forms. Another way to put this is to say- don't hide away.

We are urged not to hide away in our newspaper, but to read it to see where we can live out our faith. Who most needs what we are best equipped to give?

Some of us will be suspicious of the claim- to live our faith publicly.. We live in a culture that tells us religion is a private matter, that it is merely a support system to help shield us from a cruel world.

We come from a culture that tells us religion is a fantasy, that it does not matter, that our search for meaning is arbitrary, and that it and we are ultimately- unimportant.

We come from a world that tells us church is not important or is hopelessly out of touch with reality, or that it cannot possibly be of real help in our lives.

If any of those things are true, why go to the bother of expressing our faith publicly? Isn't religion a private matter? Adams says a purely private religion is purely irrelevant.

The Rev. Johnny Ray Youngblood, Senior Pastor of St. Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn, says-

We need men and women who want to roll up their sleeves and build or rebuild the spinal institutions of the public sector, the private sector and the voluntary sector.
--Bostonia (Summer 1993), 42-45.

The path to a depth-oriented Unitarian Universalism includes expressing your faith- living it out in the world. A purely private religion is purely irrelevant.

The 1st stone is to wake up to Revelation- even on a cereal box; the 2nd stone says: invite consent; the 3rd stone says claim civic ownership; the 4th stone says don't hide away, seek to live your faith; and the 5th and final stone says: remember your treasure.

In our readings this morning, we heard of two women: an old woman and a young one. The old woman said you have to remember those short statements of what you believe. Maybe they're expressed in a few lines of poetry or prose or in a hymn. That kind of treasure can't be taken away, and is there with you to the end, even if you are awake and dying. The old woman knows that one day- if she's lucky- she'll be in a bed; she'll have people around who care about her- and they'll talk or sing or pray- and they'll remember their treasure in that way.

The young woman said- about church- "it's kind of scary.. it just seems so important. You know, I never go to anything important. This just seemed so important".

And you and I know- that she woke up- right then and there. She's on the look out for her treasure, she knows she has to find it, she is on a true spiritual path.

When we're "on the path" we are living out our hope and our courage, we are building up our treasure. Even when we hit bumps in the road, we know the path we're on will ultimately win out.

Let me tell you about George. George's first job as a landscape contractor was to remove a large oak stump from a farmer's field. He also was using dynamite for the first time. With the farmer watching, George tried to hide his nervousness by carefully calculating the size of the stump, the proper amount of dynamite, and where to place it.

Finally, he and the farmer moved to the detonator behind his pickup truck. With a silent prayer, George plunged the detonator. The stump gracefully rose through the air and then crashed on the cab of the truck. George gazed in despair at the ruined cab, but the farmer was all admiration. "Son, with a little more practice, those stumps will land in the bed of the truck every time!"

When we face adversity, do we look at the crushed cab and give in to despair,? Or do we see how close to the bed we came and express joy and optimism?
--Tim Riter, Deep Down (Wheaton, Ill.:Tyndale House, 1995), 51.

Adams asks us: does history have a meaning? Are we called upon to try and change the world? The religious liberal answers: Yes! We enter into the struggle, knowing from Unitarianism that this life is the one that matters. And we know from Universalism that we are loved and needed beyond our beliefs or first worries.

These then are the five smooth stones of religious liberalism: (1) wake up to revelation; (2) invite consent in religious matters; (3) claim civic ownership; (4) don't hide your religion; and, (5) remember your treasure- it's all you've really got.

We religious liberals know that we are always learning new things, that the fruits of science and religion need not conflict nor be carved in stone for generations, but that we participate in creation and the revelation of meaning as it is expressed in our own lives and in the life of our community.

We believe in mutual free consent as the basis of approaching each other in awe and wonder, as the basis for a radical respect for who we are and who we want to become.

We affirm the call to bind the wounds of the world and to take public stands about our beliefs: to truly try and live our beliefs in the world: for that is the measure of their use to us and other people.

We religious liberals know we cannot bring about the beloved community by ourselves alone, but that by participating in an institution like this church we can- together- change the world.

We know that history has a meaning, and despite the bumps and bruises of dictators and despots along the way, we are bringing about the beloved community, here and now, and in our own way.

So now some of you have heard something new about Unitarian Universalism. There is of course more than one way to look at what we believe. There are the Principles and Purposes on the poster by [Adam's Hall?]; there is a version of What do Unitarian Universalists Believe? On our website, and many others.

Let me tell you a story. You are on a spiritual path. You are moving to a date with destiny. You know something big is coming up, a giant to conquer or get around. You don't want to use a religious view that is cumbersome, you don't want to use religious tools that have no relevance to you- so you leave off that armor.

But you know- you will come around a corner, and there- there will be Goliath. You will have the slingshot of your mind/ and one smooth stone to vanquish your adversary.

Now here is the question only you can answer- who or what is your Goliath? Is your Goliath a giant know-it-all? Revelation isn't continuous, you aren't motivated to break out of your habits and trying something new.

Maybe your Goliath is a giant of Fear. Fear of public speaking, fear of being known, fear of looking foolish, fear of being embarrassed. Fear coerces you into inaction or impotence.

Maybe your Goliath is one of self-involvement. You like your life the way it is, you don't want claim ownership, you don't want to establish a just and loving community, you just want to be left alone. Your Goliath is around the corner laughing at your self-absorption.

Maybe your Goliath is that your religion is private, you shy away from expressing your faith in a public way. Goliath says: here, cover your head with newspaper, don't read it.

Maybe your Goliath is of deep pessimism, of depression, of feeling like you simply don't have the strength to face disappointment again. Your Goliath says you and your efforts don't matter.

On the spiritual path, we all have our Goliath of Gath. He's waiting around the corner, seemingly impossible to get around, and so we can get stuck, hiding in restaurants, hiding in movie theaters, hiding in video games- hiding from Life.

Your spiritual homework this week is to take your one smooth stone and place it in a conspicuous place in your life- on your dashboard, on your desk, under your pillow, or- taped to your forehead!

Let it be a reminder to you in the days and weeks ahead, to ready yourself to confront your Goliath, and with the single-mindedness you reserve for your most important tasks- break through that barrier holding you back!

Say Amen, somebody!