Paul Wilczynski's Observations

A Unitarian view of Jesus

This address was given on Easter Sunday by Sue Wooley of Northampton Unitarians, a congregation of 8-9 people in Northampton, England. My wife Joan and I attended the service. Her experience is amazingly similar to mine, and reflects the feelings of many Unitarian Universalists that I know in the U.S.

Her suggestion "Don't throw the baby Jesus out with the Christian bathwater" rings true to me.

On this Easter Sunday, I felt that it might be appropriate to share with you what Jesus means to me, as a Unitarian. I would like to emphasise that these are my beliefs – I don’t expect everyone here to share them; just to listen to them and accept them.

Like many of my fellow Unitarians, I was not brought up in a Unitarian context, and spent my primary years at a little school, which held assembly every day. We followed the round of the Christian year, and sang all the lovely Christian hymns, without questioning their meaning.

It was not until I hit teenage years that the doubts began to kick in. I had never attended a mainstream Christian church (except at Christmas). Then I found out that several of my friends were being confirmed. So I started to investigate Christianity a bit more deeply. With some reluctance, I realised that there were many things about being Christian that I simply couldn’t go along with. I watched Jesus of Nazareth on the TV, and was horrified by the barbarity of the trial and the crucifixion. This led to a fairly violent reaction – excuse me, I didn’t ask for this man to be put to death in this horrific way for me! And anyway, how could that possibly be? I also found the whole concept of communion impossible to stomach (if you’ll excuse the pun). How on earth could bread and wine be turned into flesh and blood? It was mystifying! And then I read the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds, and common sense really went out of the window! How, in the name of all logic, could someone be Three and One at the same time? Or created and uncreated? It just didn’t make sense. And as for the 39 Articles … well! And yet, I still believed in God.

It was at this point that I had a long conversation with my father, who had been brought up a Unitarian, but who had not attended church for many years. He explained that there was an alternative to mainstream Christianity, which didn’t involve outraging your common sense, or requiring you to suspend disbelief. He gave me a copy of Alfred Hall’s little book Beliefs of a Unitarian, and it had a profound effect on me. So this is what it’s all about, I thought.

One of the important things that Dad and Alfred Hall taught me is that it is not necessary to throw the baby Jesus out with the Christian bathwater. What I mean by that is that you may not believe that Jesus was the divine Son of God, born of a virgin, crucified to save us from eternal hellfire, who rose again on the third day, and will sit at the right hand of the Father on judgement day. But the importance of the man and his teachings should not be underestimated. As a pattern and an example, to use the Quaker phrase, he can hardly be bettered.

Historically, Unitarianism grew out of Christianity. The early Unitarians still believed in Jesus as divine, but not equal with God. By the end of the 18th century, Theophilus Lindsey, the first Unitarian minister in England, could write “the holy Jesus was a man of the Jewish nation, the servant of this God, highly honoured and distinguished by him.” I like Alfred Hall’s reflection on the humanity of Jesus: “Unitarians believe that in regarding Jesus as a man, they pay him the loftiest tribute possible. If he had been God, there would have been nothing to wonder at either in his life or his words, for all things are possible with God. But when we say he met temptation to evil and conquered it with the strength of a man; when we say that, by the diligence of his search and the purity of his heart, he discovered truth which has helped millions of his fellows, we render him the highest praise.”

Today there is a wide spectrum of beliefs about Jesus within the Unitarian movement. Some Unitarians have rejected Jesus completely – won’t even say the Lord’s Prayer – and are distinctly uneasy if the readings in today’s service include a passage from the New Testament. Their belief in the oneness of God (or the Spirit of Life or whatever) is so strong that they view anything that smacks of Christianity with deep suspicion. At the other end of the scale are the Liberal Christians, who cheerfully take communion, sing many Christian hymns with only minor word changes, and reverence Jesus above all other teachers. Yet others regard Jesus as one teacher among many, and look equally to the prophets of other faiths for inspiration and guidance. And that’s great – it is one of the strengths of our Unitarian tradition that such a diversity of belief can not only be tolerated, but wholeheartedly accepted.

In my readings and prayers this morning, I have tried to give you a variety of Unitarian views of Jesus. I think that the theme that shines through them all is the importance of the teachings and example of Jesus. This man, born over 2000 years ago, somehow saw to the heart of things. To quote Alfred Hall again: “Jesus has shown what spiritual heights are possible to man when he is faithful to the noblest ideals. … In the teachings of Jesus there is a note of joy, the belief that life is good and the provision which God has made for it generous, if men would use it aright, and the definite, ringing message that God cares for every human being, and loves each one with a love that will never let him go. … He has also taught us that the basis of human society must be that of generous good-will. He emphasised this so strongly that he urged men to love their enemies. In other words, he declared that each individual is to have the highest motives in his dealings with his fellow-men, and every group in its relationships with other groups must be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect.” It’s quite a message.

When I was doing the research for this service, I came across a fascinating article by Andrew Brown, Unitarian Minister and editor of the Unitarian Christian Herald. It was called Is there a future for the Unitarian Christian tradition? and was published in a book called Prospects for the Unitarian Movement by the Lindsey Press in 2002. In it, Brown argues for an ethic based on the authentic words and deeds of Jesus. Let me share some of his thoughts with you:

“Without doubt, we can all benefit from following a practical doctrine of life which enables us to engage well, creatively, and morally with the world: a world which we are increasingly recognising as exceptionally complex and varied. However, any such doctrine (and certainly one which can be followed in good conscience by members of a liberal religious movement) must be one which, although strong enough to provide genuine hope and stability, is also flexible and open-ended enough to support change as we encounter and reflect upon the complexities of existence. In other words, in a liberal religious community our practical doctrine of life must fill us with genuine hope, because we believe it displays to us something true about God / the ground of being.

Secondly, it must do this without ever imposing upon individuals identical, pre-determined ethical concepts which take no account of the extraordinarily diverse nature of humanity – social, political, economic, cultural, and temporal.

Thirdly, it must be a doctrine which encourages the open-ended growth and well-being of communities as well as individuals – for life is simultaneously aloneness and togetherness, one and many.

For myself, I feel that such a genuinely grounded, but flexible, response to life is to be found in the authentic words and deeds of that first-century Galilean wisdom sage, Jesus of Nazareth. The continuing ability of his authentic teachings to inspire us to lead more ethical lives and to encourage creative exploration of the metaphysical nature of the world suggests that Jesus had understood some fundamental truth about how our world works. That his authentic teachings also ring in sympathy with other great and wise teachers in other faith traditions across time also adds to this impression.”

In fact, Brown goes on to argue that Unitarian Christianity is rather special: “I think it can be said that one genuine and extant form of the Christian tradition (i.e. one which has critically examined its founder’s teachings in the light of modern discoveries in all areas of human endeavour, to ensure that they have remained consistent) is precisely the Unitarian tradition in all its present diversity (be that defined as Liberal Christian, Free Christian or not) and, as such, that tradition most assuredly has a future.”

Well, perhaps. My own position is that I would not call myself a Christian, in that I don’t reverence Jesus above teachers from other faith traditions. And yet, if you can manage to separate the man and his teachings from the traditions and beliefs of mainstream Christianity, it seems to me that he truly was someone very special and wise, whose words and example should influence our daily lives. I’d like to finish by reading American Unitarian minister Theodore Parker’s inspiring interpretation of the teachings of Jesus, which for me are as relevant today as when they were first penned in 1841:

“Christianity is a simple thing, very simple. It is absolute, pure morality; absolute, pure religion; the love of man; the love of God acting without let or hindrance. Its watchword is, Be perfect as your Father in heaven. The only form it demands is a divine life; doing the best thing in the best way, from the highest motives; perfect obedience to the great law of God. Its sanction is the voice of God in your heart; the perpetual presence of him who made us and the stars over our head; Christ and the Father abiding within us. All this is very simple – a little child can understand it; very beautiful – the loftiest mind can find nothing so lovely. Try it by reason, conscience and faith – things highest in man’s nature we see no redundance, we feel no deficiency. Examine the particular duties it enjoins – humility, reverence, sobriety, gentleness, charity, forgiveness, fortitude, resignation, faith and active love; try the whole extent of Christianity, so well summed up in the command, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind – thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” and is there anything therein that can perish? No.”

That is an interpretation of Christianity that as a Unitarian, I can live with. It means following Jesus’ example and heeding his teachings, to live the best lives we can. It is stripping away the later teachings and traditions of the Church, and going back to basics – the words and teachings of this very special 1st century Galilean. I believe that as a spiritual teacher, Jesus has a great deal of wisdom to impart. So let us not reject his words, just because they appear in the Christian Bible – they are as important as the teachings of Guru Nanak, or the Buddha, or any other great spiritual leader.

Happy Easter.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 4:00 PM