For the next two months I’m going to
take over Robin’s column in the newsletter while she is busy having
babies and not getting a lot of sleep.
One of my favorite things to
do as a minister is explore ancient texts and ideas to figure out
what they can teach us today. I’m a pretty nerdy guy, and it shows
in the way I think about things. That's why I’m calling this Nerdy
Religion Time. One of the topics I get questions about most often at
newcomer orientations is about Jesus. What do UUs think of him?
What does he mean to us? Here’s my take:
First and foremost I think that UU’s
are pretty different, so it's hard to answer what most folks think
about Jesus. Both Unitarians and Universalists come out of the
Christian tradition and a lot of the moral teaching attributed to
Jesus informs what we believe and how we act to this day. For
instance, Jesus was one of the first to call into question the idea
that poverty and sickness were signs of God’s displeasure
(Mark 2:1-12 and many others). This may seem like a pretty archaic
idea, but it's still around especially when dealing with addiction and
AIDS. Jesus taught that health and wealth were not signs of
righteousness and identified God with those who suffer.
When we
speak out against repressing the voting rights of the poor or cutting
the social safety net, and whether or not it comes to our mind, we are influenced as a tradition by Jesus’s words: “Blessed
are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20),
“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these
who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:40).
Jesus quotes the book of Isaiah from
the Hebrew bible to sum up what he thinks his mission is:
‘The Spirit of
the God is upon me,
because God has
anointed me
to bring good
news to the poor.
God has sent me to
proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of
sight to the blind,
to let the
oppressed go free,
to proclaim the
year of the God’s favor.’ (Luke 4:18-19)
Now, it might not be the Spirit of God
that is upon you, but I hope that there is something that stirs
within your soul and calls you to strive for justice. I think that
when we are at our best, Jesus’s mission statement would work for
us as Unitarian Universalists as well. I’ve done a little
translation to fit it into UU vernacular:
The spirit of all that is sacred is
upon us,
because we have been anointed by the
holy among us;
We have been sent to bring good news to
the oppressed,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim that this is the year of
Justice,
this is the year of equality,
this is the year when love for all
will bring comfort to all who mourn;
will provide for those in sorrow all
over this world—
to give them courage instead of
pain,
gladness instead of mourning,
and praise and celebration instead
of a faint heart.
What do you think? Can you get behind
Jesus’s mission statement of justice, either its original or
adapted forms? What do you think about Jesus? Leave a comment below
or send me an email.
See you on Sunday?
Rev. Justin
