October 17, 2004

In the office of Starr King School for the Ministry where I went to seminary, there hung an image of Jesus.  The framed picture was not of Christ dying on the cross nor ascended to a heavenly throne.  Instead of the Christ of faith, the artist had rendered a very human Jesus of Nazareth.  In many ways this image was typical of European portraits, with his noble face, long wavy hair, and simple white robes.  However, there was one striking difference about this picture, Jesus was laughing out loud!  His head was tossed back and his whole face beamed with a wide smile that could only let forth the joyous sound of a deep belly laugh.

This image has always stuck with me.  Jesus, the Christian teacher who lived and taught the path of love, most certainly would have laughed.  Jesus who was able to transcend the bounds of society to touch and heal people would have known the pure joy of connecting with others.  Jesus whose parables taught important spiritual lessons through surprising stories certainly had a sense of humor.  He also had confidence that God would provide.

Remember this biblical passage? Jesus speaks to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to the span of your life?  And why do you worry about your clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”  (Matthew 6:25-29)

Jesus’ steadfast faith in God keeps material goods like food and clothes in perspective.  The evidence Jesus offers for the goodness of life is found in the natural world.  Birds do not need to plant seeds, farm or harvest and yet there is food for them.  People spend a great deal of time worrying about clothing, and yet the lilies of the field are far more elegant than King Solomon.  Why even today Donald Trump in his Armani suits is not nearly as magnificent as a lily blossoming in a field.

The biblical words speak directly to us today, “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to the span of your life?”  Of course, each one of us does worry.  There are bills to pay, deadlines to reach, expectations to meet, and choices to make.  However, Jesus, the one whose face radiates with joy, reminds us to keep life in perspective.  As the chapter concludes, “Strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.  Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:33-34)

There is no historical connection between William Ellery Channing and the laughing Jesus.  The portrait of Channing that hangs in the Parish Hall over the fireplace bears a somber expression.  There is no hint of a smile.  However, Channing proclaimed an affirmative faith filled with a confidence in God and the human capacity for goodness.  This Sanctuary stands in his memory.  It is powerful to worship here for truly our religious movement continues to stand upon the foundation laid by Channing.  Our Unitarian Universalist faith is influenced by his life and theology rooted in a belief in the goodness of God and the example of Jesus.

William Ellery Channing was a Newport native.  He was the son of a prominent lawyer and the grandson of William Ellery, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  The Channing family attended the Meeting House on Mill Street that is now the Mill Street Condominiums.  His childhood home still stands on nearby School Street, which houses Child and Family Services today.  Channing’s Unitarian theology was deeply influenced by his childhood pastor, Dr. Hopkins in that his beliefs and worldview developed in sharp contrast to the predominant religious perspective of his times.  The preacher offered a bleak Calvinistic doctrine in which most people were to suffer eternal damnation and only a few would be saved.

Channing went on to study at Harvard.  However, his theological education also came from pouring over books at the Redwood Library and taking long walks along the crashing shore of Easton’s Beach.  At the age of twenty-three, he was called to serve the Federal Street Church in Boston.  He served that congregation for forty years until his death in 1842.  Even though his ministry was centered in Boston, the Channing family often visited Newport.  After all, his wife Ruth Gibbs was also a Newport native.  So although he never served this congregation, he was very familiar with its conception and even preached on a few occasions.

There are strains of Unitarian thought going back four hundred years, especially to our roots in Eastern Europe.  How was it that Channing became known as the father of Unitarianism in America?  What inspired international donations to build this grand church on the occasion of his Centennial, in 1880 when celebrations were also held in England, Ireland, and Boston? 

Channing was a part of the liberal wing of New England Congregationalism.  According to scholar Conrad Wright, “It was something of an accident of history that these liberal Christians became known as Unitarians.” [i]   For in the theological debate of this period, to be called “Unitarian” was considered an insult!  Channing turned this label around by preaching a sermon clearly articulating “Unitarian Christianity” for the first time.  He did this in 1819 at the ordination of Jared Sparks in Baltimore.  The sermon became a widely circulated pamphlet that inspired many Congregational Churches to split off as Unitarian.  Channing questioned the doctrine of the Trinity, which is not found in the Bible.  However, the basic disagreement with orthodoxy was not over the Trinity as much as over the nature of God and humanity.

Channing viewed God as Father.  These days we often think of God the Father as a patriarchal domineering figure, however, Channing’s belief was much more positive.  Instead of as a stern Judge, he viewed God as a kind loving parent.  Channing’s mature faith stood in sharp contrast to the hellfire and brimstone preached by his childhood pastor Dr. Hopkins.  Calvinism taught that human nature is depraved, that only the elect would be saved from the fires of hell, and as only God’s grace could save you there was nothing that you could do about it.  As you might imagine, this fostered a fearful view of God and a bleak sense of self-worth.

Channing’s examination of Scripture and his life experience brought him to a very different conclusion.  As children of God, all people have an impulse toward holiness.  For Channing, God is the ultimate moral perfection, infinite goodness, justice, and mercy.  Through his parental character, God has a loving concern for the virtue and happiness of all people.

Listen again to Channing’s words that Linda read earlier, “Each person has a likeness to God, with divine qualities in our souls.  The idea of God, sublime and awful as it is, is the idea of our spiritual nature, purified and enlarged to infinity.  In ourselves are the elements of the Divinity. . . . The same is true of God’s goodness.  How do we understand this but by the principle of love implanted in the human breast?  Whence is it that this divine attribute is so faintly comprehended, but from the feeble development of it in the multitude of men?  Who can understand the strength, purity, fullness, and extent of divine philanthropy, but he in whom selfishness has been swallowed up in love?” [ii]

For Channing, as a liberal Christian Jesus was the ultimate example of a moral life.  However, he felt that this revelation was accessible to all people.  Each one of us has in our very nature an impulse toward goodness.  This seed of divinity within our souls can be developed through the practice of religion.   This is what Channing termed “self-culture”.  Imagine you have a seed of divinity within you.  Through the use of reason and the practice of love each person has the capacity to grow into his or her best self.  “Through humane living, all persons are, like Jesus, made one with God.” [iii]

Today there are a variety of beliefs among us.  In this sanctuary are liberal Christians, as well as Jews, Buddhists, Pagans, Atheists, and Mystics.  In most Unitarian Universalist congregations, the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures are no longer considered the only source of truth and inspiration.  Jesus remains an important religious figure alongside a multitude of other great spiritual teachers.  Even with this great diversity of sources and expressions, there remains a vital center to our liberal faith:

·        A belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person

·        The use of reason and conscience in order to lead lives of integrity

·        and faith in the goodness of Life itself.

This is not a naďve faith.  Channing’s steadfast faith in the benevolence of God led him to be a reformer.  His belief in the worth of humanity brought into focus the ills of society: alcoholism, poverty, exploitation, corruption, and greed.  Channing spoke out against slavery as the gravest offense against human dignity of his times.

Today, each one of us is also keenly aware of suffering.  At times in our lives each one of us struggles to feel our own worth.  This could have been brought on through the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, illness, depression, addiction problems or divorce.  And even if our own lives are in order, we also live with the knowledge that many people are not able to enjoy a moment of carefree laughter, let alone realize their sacred potential.  In times such as these when we are painfully aware of the growing gap between rich and poor, as the news brings images of death, torture and violence into our homes, we need a community of faith.

We need one another to be reminded that humanity is not depraved.  All people have an impulse toward holiness.  It is through our relationships with one another that we are reminded of the goodness of life.  We celebrate the joy of laughter, the tenderness of human touch, the gifts of love and friendship, the wisdom of shared experience, and the rewards of service.  We need one another to be reminded of the miracle of life itself.  Birds in flight, waves crashing upon the shore, the bounty of the harvest are living testaments to the sacredness that surrounds and sustains us each moment.  In order to live our faith in the goodness of life, we need a place to pray, to meditate, to be lifted in song, to be renewed by sacred words so that we can manifest goodness through our living.

For as UU minister Barbara Pescan reminds us,

We are held in an embrace invisible but infinite

moving with all creation

between wholeness and fragmentation

moving always toward the one.

Small joys and great sorrows pass

and we, steps uncertain, move on

to whatever is next

but continually seen, heard, held

by Life infinite and remote, intimate and abiding.

Love, do not let us go. [iv]           

Amen.