A Theological Smoothie
Rev. Edmund Robinson, Phil Posner
Unitarian Universalist Church 0f Wakefield
October 1, 2000

Edmund's response to points that Phil brought up in his dialouge: Phil, I suggested that this dialogue be our sermon because I think it's a useful interchange to help stimulate thinking about who we are in this church.

 Now I want to start with a little history of how my original topic was proposed. I heard an excellent talk at GA by the Episcopal Bishop John Spong of New Jersey on the Jewish background of Jesus, and also had read a few weeks ago a column by James Carroll in the Globe about the roots of Christian anti-Semitism in the Gospel stories and how those stories should be understood. I thought it was a powerful idea and proposed to preach about it originally on September 24. When I proposed that, I had thought that October 1 was my Sunday off. Since Rosh Hashanah started September 30, it seemed to me that starting to think about Christianity's treatment of the Jews would be an appropriate preparation for the Days of Awe when traditionally Jews reflect on the sins of the past. Then I discovered I had made a calendar error, and I was actually supposed to take October 8 off. This meant I would be in the pulpit for Rosh Hashanah, and without thinking a lot about it, substituted another topic for last week and moved my Jesus the Jew sermon to this week, and invited Phil, our only Jewish active member, to help out with the service and sermon.

 When we met to plan the service, you pointed out, rightly, that the topic and approach that I had planned assumed a Christian frame of reference. It was centered on how Christians had viewed and treated Jews over the centuries. That might be a valid, even a vital topic for another time, but it did not honor Jewish heritage. You felt that Jewish heritage was getting lost, subsumed in a mishmash. You said it was like the difference between a fruit salad and a fruit smoothie. In the fruit salad, we can taste the flavor of each individual piece of fruit and appreciate the differences in flavor, shape and texture among them. In the fruit smoothie, all the flavors are blended into one and all distinctiveness is lost.

 You wondered whether my vision for this church was to make a theological smoothie. I said that this is a topic very much worth discussing.  I recalled that last year, in the context of the Wakefield Interfaith Clergy Association, one of my conservative Christian colleagues had asked me whether our church would be interested in a pulpit exchange on Christian Brotherhood Sunday or some such event, and I replied that we probably wouldn't because by their lights, most of our congregation were not Christian and I wouldn't be, either. I told you later that I regretted this concession because I think it gives away too much. In other words, I think there is a sense in which I, and many of you, are Christians or at least strongly influenced by Jesus of Nazareth.

 But when I recalled that issue and reflected on it in the context of this discussion, I realized that I have no such ambiguity about Judaism. I am not a Jew, either by my lights or by anyone else's, because I have no reason to question the traditional definition of Jewishness that you are Jewish only if your mother is or if you have converted.  Unlike Christianity, Judaism does not seek to be a universal religion. To quote a website called "Judaism 101:"

"Judaism maintains that the righteous of all nations have a place in the world to come. This has been the majority rule since the days of the Talmud. Judaism generally recognizes that Christians and Moslems worship the same G-d that we do and those who follow the tenets of their religions can be considered righteous in the eyes of G-d.

 "Contrary to popular belief, Judaism does not maintain that Jews are better than other people. Although we refer to ourselves as G-d's chosen people, we do not believe that G-d chose the Jews because of any inherent superiority. According to the Talmud (Avodah Zarah 2b), G-d offered the Torah to all the nations of the earth, and the Jews were the only ones who accepted it. The story goes on to say that the Jews were offered the Torah last, and accepted it only because G-d held a mountain over their heads! (In Ex. 19:17, the words generally translated as "at the foot of the mountain" literally mean "underneath the mountain"!) Another traditional story suggests that G-d chose the Jews because they were the lowliest of nations, and their success would be attributed to G-d's might rather than their own ability. Clearly, these are not the ideas of a people who think they are better than other nations."

 According to this source, G-d is considered to have given Noah seven commandments which apply to all people, but at Sinai he gave the Jews 613 very specific commandments or Mitzvot.

"The Noahic commandments are binding on all people, because all people are descended from Noah and his family. The 613 mitzvot of the Torah, on the other hand, are only binding on the descendants of those who accepted the commandments at Sinai and upon those who take on the yoke of the commandments voluntarily (by conversion). In addition, the Noahic commandments are applied more leniently to non-Jews than the corresponding commandments are to Jews, because non-Jews do not have the benefit of Oral Torah to guide them in interpreting the laws. For example, worshiping G-d in the form of a man would constitute idolatry for a Jew; however, according to some sources, the Christian worship of Jesus does not constitute idolatry for non-Jews. "

 So we don't seek to be Jews. What we do seek is religious truth and that religious truth according to Unitarian and Universalist traditions can come from any source, and particularly can that truth come from religious traditions kept by a community for thousands of years.  For example, we can use Rosh Hashanah as an occasion to look at our lives, to consider where we've come from and where we're going, to think about any wrongs we've committed. Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the year. The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are called the Days of Awe. As my source says,

"One of the ongoing themes of the Days of Awe is the concept that G-d has "books" that he writes our names in, writing down who will live and who will die, who will have a good life and who will have a bad life, for the next year. These books are written in on Rosh Hashanah, but our actions during the Days of Awe can alter G-d's decree. The actions that change the decree are "teshuvah, tefilah and tzedakah," repentance, prayer, good deeds (usually, charity). These "books" are sealed on Yom Kippur. This concept of writing in books is the source of the common greeting during this time is "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year."

 As the old advertisement went, you don't have to be Jewish to love Levi's bread, and you don't have to be Jewish to take stock of your life at this time of year. It is a useful exercise for any of us: theist, atheist, or agnostic to consider that, if there were a book, what would be written in it for each of us for the past year.  A related practice, which anyone can do, is Tashlikh, or "casting off," where a person walks to flowing water on the first day of Rosh Hashanah and empties his or her pockets into the water, symbolically casting off the sins of the year.   Another Rosh Hashanah custom is to eat apple pieces dipped in honey, to symbolize that life is sweet. And we will have some at coffee hour for anyone who cares to partake and celebrate the sweetness of life.

 These are all things we as non-Jews can take from Rosh Hashanah, it seems to me, things we can use in our own spirituality without dishonoring the integrity fo Judaism. We should not kid ourselves that we have understood what it is to be Jewish, and we should not think that we have hit the core of Judaism or the Jewish experience. We have merely sampled this deep and rich heritage. We have taken what makes sense into our lives.

 Now Phil is entirely right in saying that if we just blend in these Jewish practices with our other spiritual practices, there is the danger that the Jewish flavor might be lost. We might end up with the theological smoothie.

 Now, one reaction I have is to ask:  What is our religious quest? Are we looking to connect to some ultimate reality beyond ourselves? Let's say we are. Let's also say that we conceive of the great religious traditions of the world as also engaged in this same quest, each with its own particular set of sacred texts, stories and ideas about ultimate reality. To use the metaphor developed in Scotty McLennan's book Finding Your Religion, if all the roads ultimately end up on top of the mountain, does it matter which one we take or whether we follow one all the way up?

 Yes, I think it does. Religion is not an individual enterprise, it is a collective one. The paths that have been blazed and marked will get you further than setting out on your own over uncharted terrain.  Judaism and Christianity and Buddhism and Hinduism are all well-established paths, but I insist that so is Unitarian Universalism. It sometimes feels like everyone else is definite and we are wishy-washy or, as one seminarian put it to me, a great big ship without a rudder. But we have long and rich traditions and they are informed by the sources we list in our Principles and Purposes. Look inside your hymnbook for the traditions on which we draw.

 Unlike other religions, we do not require you to leave behind the tradition into which you were born. This is why Phil can be Jewish and a UU, as about 15% of our members are nationwide. This is how the new minister in West Newton, James Ford, can be ordained into the Buddhist priesthood and a practicing UU minister.

 So on this New Year Day, my hope for us all is that we can continue to taste the rich fruits of our individual heritages, and inform our common life here with the sweetness of the year.

 Amen.