"We affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning." So reads our fourth principle.

When I picked this topic to talk about, I did it somewhat impulsively, knowing that I was visiting over time each of the principles and fashioning a sermon around it. Then, when I started to really read the principle, to look at it carefully and not just mumble over the words as we sometimes do on a Sunday morning, especially with those principles stuck in the middle, as this one is, I realized how meaty this could be… I count no fewer than five key words in the principle, each one of which could result in a sermon or two in and of itself.

For example….Free – what does free mean? Is it free from – or is it free to?. Does it mean free as in "at no expense?"

Responsible – what does that word really mean? Is it contradictory to free? How does one determine responsibility? To others? To an ideal or external authority? To oneself?

Truth – As the philosophers are so fond of asking….What is truth? Is it more than not telling a lie? Is there more than one truth? How do we know truth when we see it?

Meaning – Is meaning given by an external authority? Is it within ourselves? Is there such a thing as meaning in the 21^st century?

And last but not the least, we come to a verb form – search. Some of my ministerial colleagues would argue that that is the religious quality in this principle – the other words are more philosophical than religious.

These are awfully heavy concepts and questions….more than we can fully address today, and maybe more than we can satisfactorily address in a lifetime. Nonetheless, I did want to stress the meatiness of the simple phrase – and ask that you keep some of these many foci in mind as we progress.

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When I began attending Unitarian Universalist services as a newcomer, more than 15 years ago, I sensed that something was missing in my life. I had a decent paying job; I had a life partner; I had two children; I was lucky enough to own my own home. Yet I vaguely knew something, what I wasn’t sure, was missing in my life. Over the years, I’ve heard that same statement, or a similar one, from a number of newcomers. There is a hole, a void in our lives. Not a gaping hole, but a hole nonetheless, one that at times can be quite deep if not large. Something is missing, we feel incomplete. So newcomers come here, seeking to fill the emptiness, looking for completion, to see if they might fit in with our search.

Sometimes we talk of the need for community. I know I have and did. I know I also feel less lonely in my spiritual quest, and I assume that others do too. Yet, when I really stop to think about things, I also had plenty of friends in my neighborhood before joining. Not good friends, mind you, but pleasant acquaintances. But to a great extent, those friends were not the type of persons that I could or would want to discuss with some of the major life issues. I’d feel awkward talking to them about God, death, meaning, prayer, life purpose, heaven and hell, living an examined life, spirituality….and other such topics. You just don’t do that with friends….or at least not the types of friends I had. And if I tried, often I would just get a patterned response, almost like a tape recorder spewing forth the dogma which had been taught many years before to my friend.

Dogma and the beliefs that many of us learned in catechism classes a number of years ago were fine way back when….but for many of us now, those answers are no longer feasible or viable. We’ve outgrown them, so to speak, or in some cases, never believed them very well. As we matured, we shed them along the wayside. For many of us, we were quite happy to be rid of them. They weighed us down, and they really didn’t provide much depth to our own understandings.

The Rev. Bruce Marshall notes in his book A Holy Curiosity that the more orthodox religious people look to external sources, external authority and scriptures for purpose and meaning in their lives. They find meaning in the Bible, which they see as containing the truth. How could the Word of God be less than true? Humanity’s purpose is defined by the Scriptures, be they the Bible, the Koran, the Sutras, the Upanishads, etc.

For religiously heterodox people, however, those who come from free or liberal religious traditions, including those with strongly scientific backgrounds, or those who come from orthodox backgrounds where their faith has been deconstructed, they have a more difficult path to walk along. They must look for truth in their own lives, looking inward to see what feels authentic to themselves. They have to ask questions, of themselves and others. They have to weigh and compare and contrast and wonder. They try things on, keeping some but discarding others. It is the search which is important, and the search is often better done together with others than done alone.

We Unitarian Universalists have an even harder burden though. Our struggle with truth and meaning is done in the context of community. We do not do it privately or alone, but together, where our search is affirmed and promoted. Yet, sometimes that means sharing the pain, loss, and frustration of a search that has come up empty, that has refused to yield satisfactory results. At other times, it means sharing tentative steps along a new rewarding path, one in which we are not yet certain. But that means we must trust others within our fellowship. Our efforts here are an incarnation of our spirituality – of our attempt to seek and create the beloved community in our midsts.

Although it is not mentioned in the phrase "a free and responsible search for truth and meaning," a fair amount of discipline is implied. Without focused attention, our minds and interests will wander. We will turn away when the going gets tough – and it does at times get tough. There may be pain and anger involved in our search, just as there is joy and wisdom to be found. In our search as well. Any of these extreme feelings can arouse anxiety and avoidance behaviors in us, as we question do we really want to search this freely and intensely. Are truth and meaning worth the struggle in our religious understandings? Such a search can be truly transformative of ourselves and our congregation. Transformation is creative – but when in the midst of transformation, one often perceives it as a crisis. Discipline helps us to stay the course, to see our search through to its end.

There is another variable besides the search that is important. It is the freedom to conduct the search, to not be constrained, to be able to ask questions which challenge authority, the common sensical, and our self understanding, To probe, to wonder, to ask the unthinkable. This freedom from restraint, and freedom to ask and think, is critical for us in our searching, for without freedom, the search is abruptly aborted. And for this search to be fulfilling for us, it truly must be free.

But you notice that the word free is quickly followed by the word responsible. What can that mean….a free and responsible search. I believe that responsible means that the search is done in community. It is not done alone. And when something is done in community, in relationship to others, one does have to be responsible to the other people. Thus, a free search is balanced by responsibility, to oneself and to others within the group. One cannot be a loose cannon in the search for one’s truth and meaning. One must be grounded, in relation with others also engaged in the free and responsible search. Then too, the community can serve as a needed reality check at times on us in our search.

The Rev. Edward A. Frost, in a series of essays about our principles, notes that the search is a religious search for truth and meaning. It is existential, going to the core of our concerns. For many of us, the search for truth and meaning is a search for God. It is a search for ultimate truth – that truth which stands the test of time, that undergirds one’s life. This ultimate truth may vary from person to person. Each of us, being unique individuals, will have our unique truth and meaning. As I am so fond of quoting, the existentialist theologian Paul Tillich noted that everyone has their own God. It is merely that about which one spends most of their time thinking. For some of us, it may be a theistic belief and understanding of the world. For others, it may be the Universal Doctrine identified by Joseph Campbell of how the universe is organized. For still others, it may be sensing the mysteriousness of all that is. There is no one answer that is right for all – there are a multitude of answers – each of which may be right for one person and not the other. That is what is so incredibly beautiful and awe inspiring about our religion….the affirmation of each person’s search for their own truth.

There is a variable to the search which makes this whole quest religious and not merely an intellectual game. The search is lived by us. It is not something that is merely studied about or read about. If it is, it is merely philosophical. Instead, we experience this search for truth and meaning. We compare our answers and findings against our internal self. Does it sound/feel/look right? Does it resonate with me? Is it authentic with the core of my being? Is it consistent with my life’s experiences.

Returning to responsibility, there is also another connotation to the word. Recall the three characteristics of Unitarian Universalism which the Rev. Dr. Wilbur identified? They historically have been present within Unitarian Universalism through the ages: reason, tolerance, and freedom. In one’s search, and in our search together, following Emerson’s edict, we hold up our experiences for the light of examination, by ourselves and by our colleagues. We use reason on our life experiences, not only the at times destructive, analytical reason, in which our experiences are picked apart and broken down into their component parts; but also non-linear forms of reason, in which associations and hidden meanings are explored more fully.

So we gather together, searching for truth and meaning in our lives and in the lives of those we love, being free in our search, but also being responsible towards ourselves and others. Will we find that for which we search? Some of us will – but not all will succeed in their search. There is no guarantee. But I truly do believe the search – the living of it – is what we are all about as a religious community – one which covenants to engage each other in this search for truth and meaning. The going at times is difficult, and the roadway does have bumps. But we nevertheless strive to create our beloved community, here in Rock Tavern. We live with diversity, love, hurts, pains, joy, acceptance, compassion, each other. May we all enjoy the search!

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