Universalism: a Dream, a Hope, and a Promise
 Rev. Ted Tollefson
©September 21, 2008 @ UU Society of River Falls

I want to speak today about 'the other U', the sometimes neglected side of our faith: Universalism.  Though Universalism appears in many world religions, I will be speaking primarily about Universalism in America as revealed during the last two and a half centuries.  I will speak of Universalism as a dream, a hope and a promise.

The Dream: Universalism comes to America

Over two centuries ago, an English couple named John and Eliza Murray attended church but were not happy about it.  The church they attended was filled with doom and gloom, hell fire and damnation.  They believed in a loving God who would not condemn a majority of his children to eternal damnation.  John quit going to church.  Eliza kept looking.  Luckily enough she found a Universalist church that celebrated a God of Love and Universal salvation.  She brought John to church with her.  Both of them experienced what many of us have felt  here: a sense of coming home to a religion that  confirms our deep convictions, where the talk on Sunday morning fits  how  we live the rest of the week.  So they joined.  And John who had a gift with words was licensed to preach.  And for awhile they lived with their child in a state of blessed harmony.

Then tragedy struck: Eliza and her baby died.  John now had difficulty believing in an all-powerful God of Love, so he quit preaching.  Like many of our ancestors, he decided to come to America.  So he got on a tiny boat and crossed the huge ocean.  If this room represented the volume of the ocean he crossed, his boat would be no bigger than a pea.  John Murray almost made it to America, but the boat he travelled on ran aground near Gloucester, MA.  I'm not sure if the captain knew that John was a preacher, but he knew he was persuasive and kind.  So he sent John Murray ashore in a little row-boat to ask for help from the good people on shore.

John came ashore near a farm owned by Thomas Potter.  It was a well kept farm with a large house and a small chapel. John introduced himself and asked for help from Thomas Potter.  Potter agreed to provide some provisions, but wanted to know about the man who stood before him.  Why had he come to America?  What had he done in England?  With some reluctance, John Murray told the story of his life.  How he had found the Universalist faith thanks to his wife, how he had become a Universalist preacher,  and how he had lost his desire to preach after his wife and child were taken from him.  Thomas Potter's listened very carefully to John Murray's story.  Then he said,  "You know, Rev. Murray,  your coming his is quite fortunate.  You see the little chapel over yonder?  Several years ago I had a dream:  if I built a chapel for our local community of Universalists, a reluctant prophet would be sent to us. I built it; you came.  Won't you preach to our community this Sunday, since we are willing to help you and your shipmates in your hour of need?"

This was a difficult invitation to refuse.  John Murray said:  "If our ship is still here Saturday night, I'll preach on Sunday morning".  There was  alot of praying going on that week in and near Glouchester, Massachusetts.  Several days came and went, but the ship did not move.  On Saturday night, John Murray accepted his fate, and went to work on his sermon for
Sunday.  He preached that Sunday and at the end of the service Thomas Potter offered him a place to stay, if he would become their minister.  For the first time in a long time, John Murray decided to take "Yes" for an answer.  Within a few years,  that small community grew and eventually established the First Universalist Church of Gloucester, Ma which still stands today.  It's there because John Murray, Thomas Potter and a small community trusted in their dreams of a better life and a better way of being religious.

The Hope: Universal Salvation

The hope of Universalism has often been expressed in theological terms:

For some of us, these statements make a deep heart-felt sense  because they conform to the architecture of our religious imagination.  For others of us, they make no sense at all----they might as well be in Greek or Sanskrit.  For those in the latter camp, I'd like to offer some possible, though partial translations.

When Universalists proclaimed that "God was too good to damn them", they were testifying to an experience of fundamental goodness outside and beyond themselves.   I think they were trying to understand "altruism", those moments when we reach beyond narrow self-interest and choose to serve the common good.   God as a source of absolute Goodness encourages us to "do the right thing" even when it hurts.  There is a hidden well-spring of Goodness called God; all we need do is tap in and allow its "living waters" to flow through us.

When the Universalists say that "God is Love",they are celebrating the power of love to carry us past self-interest to the common good.   Love is all its guises carries us outside and beyond our selves.  When our hearts open in the spirit of friendly love (philia) or self-sacrificing love (agape), we are filled with an overwhelming power to do good.  In the 18th century, Universalists like Benjamin Rush applied love to the care of the mentally ill and created humane treatment rather than punishment.   In the 19th century Universalists joined with Unitarians to end slavery.   The words  we just sang have been lived by  Universalists  for centuries: "Love will guide us through the dark night".

When Universalists proclaimed that the "love of God is stronger than the sin of Man", they were evoking many things, including God as a "limit concept".  What we are not, but wish to become, that ... is God (Fuerbach revised).  As all words take their place in a field of silence or a blank page,  as everything seen  is defined by a moving horizon or background, so too "God" is a symbol for the backGround which defines.  Just as many of us find our place between the earth below our feet and the sky over our heads, so too many Universalists felt they were buoyed up in an ocean of divine goodness and love.

This is the God of Universalism: the goodness beyond our reach, the love that carries us towards selfless service, the "more than" dimension of human  life, the common good.

The Promise: a Universal Faith for the 21st Century

Universalism is more than a dream come true, more than a theological artifact.  It is a living faith with promises to keep.  I believe it contains within itself the seeds of a Universal faith for the 21st century.   Our era is defined, in part, by a growing sense of the interdependence of all life and a growing number of nations who have the power to end life as we know it. A faith worthy of our time  would deepen the sacredness of the life we share in common. 

A faith fit  for the 21st century  must overcome one of the tragic limitations of many traditional  religions.  Too often the 'old time' religion has based itself on a literal reading of religious texts and a narrowing of faith to 'correct and obedience belief'.  When this happens,  the "Great Mystery" which some call God receeds from view and holy wars begin again.   A universal faith needs to focus on what human beings have in common, not divisive beliefs that cannot be proved or disproved with any certainty.   What do human beings have in common?  An embodied life that is lovely and transient, a predictable pattern of growth through the life cycle, the possibility of love and justice and the certainty of physical death.

Every minister's association that I have been associated with in the last 28 years keeps replaying  two options.  Most communities have two distinct groups: one defined by beliefs, the other by common concerns and values.  Groups based on purity of belief are notoriously divisive.  What begins as the "Christian ministers" will soon be tempted to exclude Catholics.   Protestant ministers  soon replay the squabbles of the Reformation.  Even groups of Baptists, Lutherans and Unitarians can splinter into ever smaller sub-orthodoxies of belief.  The alternative is to focus on the life we share in community and the difficult calling of ministry.   If we focus on our common life and  calling, deeply shared values can come to light.  We care about justice.  We care about those who cannot fend for themselves.   We care about the air we breathe and the water we drink.   We care about the possibility of making peace without killing anybody.  

A universal faith for the 21st century must be founded on the common  ground of our shared life and common values, not the battleground of mutually exclusive  theologies. 

A universal faith would celebrate the predictable turnings in the human life-cycle and gather us in caring and learning communities.

A universal faith would re-connect us to seasonal turnings and remind us of the great web of all life.

A universal faith would invite us to practice kindness, tell the truth, establish justice and become peace-makers.

A universal faith would be guided  by the golden rule of reciprocity and the green rule of interdependence:
treating our neighbors as we would have them treat us;  remembering that what we do to the earth, we do to our selves.

Two and a half centuries ago, John Murray set forth on a tiny boat  to cross an immense ocean.   We are now all passengers on a little  blue boat called "planet earth".  We are moving through perilous times and immense spaces towards the dream and hope for a better life.   May this Universal faith of open minds, open hearts and open hands guide us to a land where no one need be our stranger or enemy.


Blessed are the peace-makers