Author Archives: unitarian reform

06/29/09

Declaration Thursday

[originally posted 03 July 2008]

AUR celebrates Four Great Thursdays, two for the universal expression of virtue and two for the specifically American expression of virtue.

On Garden Thursday, Jesus celebrated a feast with his disciples and, later in the Garden of Gethsemane, recognized the contingent nature of human life by accepting his fate: “If it be Your will, take this cup from me; nevertheless, Your will be done.” This feast day was followed by the violence of the Passion. AUR celebrates this Thursday as a Feast Day and a day of commitment to the contingent condition of the individual life.

On Thanksgiving in 1621, two worlds met in Massachusetts: the Old World represented by the Pilgrims and the New World represented by the Wampanoag. Rather than one group dominating the other in oligarchy, they met as brothers and sisters. It was a moment of human community that, unfortunately, was followed by violence. AUR celebrates this Harvest Thursday as a Feast Day and a day of commitment to the contingent place of each social group.

On Ascension Thursday, 11 disciples gathered to witness Jesus rise up to Heaven. Here they received the Great Commission to spread the Christian message to all humanity. AUR observes this Thursday as a reminder of our duty to spread the message of personal liberation.

On a Thursday in Philadelphia, 1776, 11 colonies (New York abstained) sided with the Massachusetts delegation to declare to the world the right of human beings to rise up against oligarchy. Charged with writing a document announcing the reasons for the colonies’ rebellion, Virginia delegate Thomas Jefferson went beyond this and declared rights for all humanity. AUR observes this Declaration Thursday, the first Thursday in July, as a reminder of our duty to spread the message of social liberation.

HAPPY DECLARATION THURSDAY!

06/11/09

Post-Cynical Religion Part Three –

Part one of this sermon (posted several Thursdays ago) reflected on the rational cynicism that is evident in the ministry of Jesus, and necessary for genuine Faith, Hope, and Christian Love.  While many churches — all along the political spectrum from conservative to liberal — offer a naïve comfort that turns a blind eye to the cynical realities of the world, AUR refuses to offer “salvation on the cheap.”

Part two explored the dangers of becoming stuck on cynicism, allowing skepticism and contrarianism to become idols worshipped at the expense of personal growth and a clear vision of reality.  Sectarian atheism is a particularly common example of that in today’s world.

Reform Unitarianism recognizes that true wisdom is post-cynical, lying on the other side of a blood-sweating struggle against instincts of self-preservation and sociability, and the “unchallengeable” sacred cows of culture. Continue reading →

06/4/09

Post-Cynical Religion Part Two – Smashing the Iconoclasm

Part one of this sermon (posted last Thursday) reflected on the rational cynicism that is evident in the ministry of Jesus, and necessary for genuine Faith, Hope, and Christian Love.

While many churches — all along the political spectrum from conservative to liberal — offer a naïve comfort that turns a blind eye to the cynical realities of the world, AUR refuses to offer “salvation on the cheap” through the false faith of sin-dumping confessional conformism or the false hope of sin-denying celebratory relativism.

Reform Unitarianism recognizes that true Christianity (and, indeed, true religion regardless of its sectarian idiom) is post-cynical, and its comforting truths lie on the other side of a blood-sweating struggle against instincts of self-preservation and sociability, and the “unchallengeable” sacred cows of culture. Continue reading →

05/31/09

Notional American Unitarian Reform Church No. 4

This is the fourth in a series of light-hearted signs for hypothetical American Unitarian Reform churches, created using an online image generator. I hope to show a range of attitudes and ideas all possible within the scope of AUR.

Today’s notional church is named in honor of the Lucian of Antioch, a martyr tortured for nine years under Roman persecution.  A staunch opponent of Alexandrian theology, after his death he was dubiously alleged to have accepted the proto-Trinitarian ideas of the Alexandrians.  The pseudo-Pauline quote represents the Father-Son theology, original to Christianity and later condemned as Arianism, of which Lucian was a respected advocate.

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05/28/09

Post-Cynical Religion Part One – Christian Cynicism

While many churches — all along the political spectrum from conservative to liberal — offer a naïve comfort that turns a blind eye to the cynical realities of the world, AUR refuses to offer “salvation on the cheap” through sin-dumping confessional conformism or sin-denying celebratory relativism.

Reform Unitarianism recognizes that true Christianity (and, indeed, true religion regardless of its sectarian idiom) is post-cynical, and its comforting truths lie on the other side of a blood-sweating struggle with self-preservation, social/psychological instinct, and the “unchallengeable” sacred cows of culture.
Continue reading →

05/21/09

Ascension Thursday

The Twelve Days of Commission conclude today in the Ascension of Jesus. This feast day is one of the Four Great Thursdays of AUR, the other three being Garden Thursday, Declaration Thursday, and Thanksgiving Thursday.

Ascension commemorates the return of Jesus to Heaven between two angels. This imagery confirms the centrality of reconciled, complementary virtues to Christian morality by closing Jesus’ time on Earth with symbolism that echoes a consistent theme throughout religion.

In the book of Numbers, we read that the Word of God came to the Jews from between the two angels on the “Reconciler,” a device which sat atop the Ark of the Covenant.

Medieval Jewish theologian Moses Maimonides explained that these two angels on the Ark represented the punitive and beneficent aspects of God, reconciled in God’s Unity.

This moral message of reconciled virtues can also be seen symbolically in the prophecy of Isaiah that the Anointed returns when the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, and the lion and the calf lie down together.

In the Christian idiom are repeated lessons in reconciled, complementary virtues:  Law and Wisdom reconciled in true religion, Faith and Hope reconciled in Divine Love, the shrewdness of serpents and the innocence of doves reconciled in the attitude of a true Christian.

Justice and mercy, strength and kindness, the arrow and the olive branch: only together and reconciled are these virtues. Apart and partisan, they become the vices of Beast and Babylon, rage and lust, violence and libertinism, authoritarianism and anarchy.

The Reconciling Word of God, manifest in Jesus of Nazareth, returned to Heaven between two angels representing the benevolent and punitive aspects of God, angels who appeared beside him echoing the cherubim of the Ark. It is this image, and its rich spiritual meaning, that we commemorate on Ascension Thursday.

05/17/09

Notional American Unitarian Reform Church No. 3

This is the third in a series of light-hearted signs for hypothetical American Unitarian Reform churches, created using an online image generator. I hope to show a range of attitudes and ideas all possible within the scope of AUR.

Today’s notional church is named in honor of the First Apostle, Saint Andrew of Capernaum. The twin fish represent not only one of the earliest symbols of Christianity, but also Andrew’s trade as a fisher. The message is a translation of the first verse of the Gospel of John that more closely captures the theologically significant grammatical distinctions in the original Greek.

03StAndrews

05/10/09

Agape Thursday

loveToday is the First of the 12 Days of Commission, which is the third dozenal of the Easter Season. The 5th Day of Commission, which is the 6th Thursday after Easter, is Agape Thursday.

The 12 Days of Commission are a celebration of the Christian virtue of Love (ἀγάπη or “agape” in Greek), and Agape Thursday is a day to feast in the reconciliation of Faith and Hope as partners in all-embracing Love.

The 12 Days of Commission culminate in Ascension Thursday, the day in which Christ rose to Heaven between two angels as the Christian virtue of Love is lifted by Hope and Faith. Ascension Thursday is one of the Four Great Thursdays of American Unitarian Reform.

05/7/09

Loyal Thursday

faithToday is Loyal Thursday, the 4th Thursday after Easter and the Ultimate of the 12 Days of Trust, which is the second dozenal of the Ascension Season.

The 12 Days of Trust are a celebration of the clear-minded virtue of Faith (πίστις in Greek, fidelis in Latin), and Loyal Thursday is a day to feast in fidelity to the things we know to be true. Faith is the virtue of steadfast thinking, the antidote of confusion, and with Hope a vital half of the highest Christian virtue of Love.

05/7/09

Notional American Unitarian Reform Church No. 2

This is the second in a series of light-hearted signs for hypothetical American Unitarian Reform churches, created using an online image generator. We hope to show a range of attitudes and ideas all possible within the scope of AUR.

Today’s notional church is named in honor of the Councils of Tyre (335) and Antioch (327) which defended traditional Christianity against the conflationism of Hosius and Athanasius.  Its message — appropriately, a gentle poke at the conflationist Trinitarian doctrine of coeval personae — is modeled on the humorous moral rhetoric found in many Protestant Trinitarian church signs.

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