Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Duluth 
Sources of the Living Tradition
Karen Johnson Gustafson
He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in.
Edwin Markum
This past week I received a great gift. It came in the form of a challenge.
On Monday Dagmar Osbakken died. For those of you who do not know who that is, I will say that she was the 101 year old Great Aunt of Kriss Osbakken who is a member of our congregation. Many of you no doubt will remember Dagmar as the handsome dark haired woman who, in a wheel chair, accompanied Kriss to Sunday services, committee meetings, and pot lucks and special events. A number of us befriended Dagmar who spoke to us in Spanish, as well as English, relished our food, and stimulated our interest in many ways. Who could have known that the completion of her extraordinary life could provide an opportunity to practice our Unitarian Universalist tradition at its best as well as to deepen our understanding of what it means to be a living tradition that draws from many sources.
I happened like this: When I spoke to Kriss early on Tuesday she told me that Dagmar had been a long time member of a local Lutheran Church and though Dagmar had not participated there for several years, Kriss acknowledged that this was Dagmar’s tradition and that she intended for the service to be there. " I wish," she said, "that we could do something with the UU’s."
"Well," I said, "I would be happy to participate in any way you would like." She seemed surprised and pleased that I would be willing to participate in an otherwise Lutheran service. I reminded her that our living tradition draws from many sources, one of which is Jewish and Christian traditions that responds to God’s love by loving our neighbor as ourselves and that I had participated with many Christians and had even done a service with the Rabbi. I thought we could work it out. I also spoke of the other ways in which our beloved community could be present to whatever arrangements she might be making. Let us know how we could help.
The minister of Dagmar’s church had a commitment for the Saturday , the day the family had wanted for the service. He also expressed some concern about a "non-Christian" participating in a Lutheran service. When she told me that, I was reminded of those lines from Edwin Markum’s poem:
He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
Undaunted, Kriss set about to meet her bottom line criteria for this occasion: to have a Lutheran service that would honor Dagmar’s earlier faith tradition that would also be a comfort to her and to those present who were not Lutherans. So she found another Lutheran minister who not only agreed to include me in the service but suggested that, since there was to be a wedding in the church he served later in the day, that perhaps we might hold the service at the Unitarian Church at 1802 East First.
On Thursday, Kriss and I met with David Andert in my office and for more than an hour we engaged together with love and the wit to win in a process in which we drew a circle that held us all. Kris and I spoke to him of the pain and frustration of being people of faith who felt often excluded in public rituals like weddings and funerals that assumed that everyone present shared the doctrinal tradition of those being honored. I shared the story of the Catholic wedding at which I sat with the 200 others who had been excluded from communion because we were not Catholic in a cold sanctuary on hard benches while the 200 who were Catholic made their way to be individually blessed. I shared as well the story about the Episcopalian service in which all were invited to God’s table, were gently taught the meaning of the various elements of the Eucharist, were told what to do and what to expect and were warmly and graciously welcomed to participate.
We talked about the tradition often practiced at Unitarian Universalist memorial services of asking those present to share stories about the deceased and about how that might fit into the Lutheran liturgy. We discussed readings, both from the Christian scripture and from other writings, that would be appropriate to Dagmar’s service. He then took us paragraph by paragraph through the Lutheran funeral liturgy and talked about why each part was important to that tradition and asked us about what made us feel excluded and suggested ways he might be more inclusive.
In turn Kriss and I were able to express our discomfort at some things and at the same time take responsibility for our own discomfort and to honor the integrity of the ritual as a whole. We talked about the need to translate in our own minds into the universal language of love.
We planned a service which included a reading and a prayer from the UU book of services and an opportunity for sharing. David said that as a result of this experience, there would be some things that he would do differently in all of his subsequent services.
It is not often enough that we take the opportunity to negotiate in the best of the Universalist tradition, with wit and will to win, to draw a circle that takes another in.
Ours is a living tradition that draws from many sources. What does that mean? If Christianity is one of our sources, are we non Christian? Are we Christian? Free and responsible search for truth and meaning involves looking in many places. We do not assume that any one source is adequate.
In 1984 and 1985 the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, using data distilled from Unitarian Universalist Congregations across the continent, entered into its bylaws the Statement of Principles and Purposes which appears in the front of your hymnal and which is used as a way to identify the theological breadth and scope of our movement.
The living tradition we share draws from many sources:
"Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to the renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life;
Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront the powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion and the transforming power of love;
Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspire us in our ethical and spiritual life;
Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
humanist teachings which council us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of mind and spirit;
Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision."
This is significant in at least two important ways. First it encourages each unique individual to seek and search for truth and meaning is all ways that are consistent with each his or her own experience and reason and willingness to faith. It provides a range of possible sources that can give us the strength to live our principles with integrity. Second it asks of us that we support and encourage and respect that search in others even in ways that are foreign and sometimes inconsistent with our own. The practice of our principles provides a way to be respectful. We find the strength to do so by drawing on the sources.
Kriss and David and I listened respectfully and compassionately to each other. The goal was to find common ground not necessarily consensus. Could we have done this with a more dogmatic person? I think so, yes. Would it have had the same outcome? Probably not. Could Kriss and I have become disrespectful or abusive in that case? I would hope not. If our Christian guest had become disrespectful would that have been about him being a Christian? I don’t think so.
We speak of Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbor as ourselves. Unitarian Universalists do not draw equally upon that source any more than do Christians. We are as capable of pettiness and exclusion and intolerance as the next guy. We do it out of our humanness and our pain and our frustration. But we do not ennoble our faith by defending such impulses as being okay because, after all we are not Christian.
A hand full of time in my years of being a Unitarian Universalist minister, I have been denied participation in a religious event or occasion because I am "non-Christian". Though I would probably not say "I am a Christian", I nevertheless find the term non-Christian to be offensive. It could be that I dislike labels of any kind and labels that begin with "non" seem to create a kind of vacuum. I suppose I could be called, in fact, non lots of things. Non Buddhist and non Jew and non male; non plumber; non vegetable. I can hardly imagine a situation in which any of this designations would be used. But the term non Christian seems somehow to be used in this context as a pejorative that carries with it a set of assumptions, over against which, I do not wish to stand. Certainly there are some things that Christian means that I do not wish to claim. Most of these are related to denominational doctrine. Neither do I wish to disassociate myself from all things Christian. The virtues traditionally associated with the best of Christianity namely the love of neighbors, wide sympathy with those in need, compassion and the ardent desire for a world at peace have become embedded in our Western culture through the teachings of the Christian Gospel.
The issue of which sources of our living tradition are included in the circles with which we are identified continues to bother me because I do not wish for myself or for this congregation to be perceived outside of the circle of faith communities. I am particularly concerned that we do not find ourselves disconnected from the important interfaith peace and social justice coalitions that exist and are being formed in this community. I am also concerned that we are not identified primarily either or over against ANY single source. We are neither Christian NOR non Christian; pagan or non pagan, Buddhist or non Buddhist, humanist or non humanist. This is not meant to be so much a paradox as a rejection of any label that excludes any spiritual experience that nourishes one into the promotion or practice of the principles of our tradition.
My challenge to you this day comes in the form of three questions which I invite you to engage in the time following our service , either in the coffee hour or in a gathering in this space after the service.
How do you communicate the pluralistic nature of this faith tradition with people, from other traditions? What are your experiences of being drawn out of another's circle? What are your experiences of with wit and win drawing the circle to take another in both outside and inside of this faith community?
These questions are at the center of how we practice and communicate our tradition.