We Are a Pilgrim People

The Rev. Dr. Morris W. Hudgins
November 28, 2010
Northwest UU Congregation

Introduction

Today I want to talk about Unitarian Universalists as a new band of pilgrims.  My wife, Marti, talks about  her great grandfather’s family as a family who had the “wanderbees.”  By that she means that that were people who liked to travel, and had difficulty settling down.   One could also say they were “Pilgrims.”  They were wayfarers, wanderers, or as the dictionary says, “travelers in foreign lands.”  I want to use this analogy for our liberal religious faith today.

            As it says in our Hymnal, we are thankful, “For this gathered company which welcomes us as we are, from wherever we have come . . .that keeps us human and encourages us in our quest for beauty, truth, and love (Richard Fewkes, #515).”  I will describe pilgrims as a people who face the new world with faith, hope and courage.

             

Original Pilgrims

We all know the story of the Pilgrims who came to America in 1620, settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and began a new life in a New World.  What is often confused is the distinction between Pilgrims and Puritans.  The Puritans had a long history in England before the Pilgrims boarded the Mayflower and headed for America.  The Puritans began around 1560 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I as a movement for religious reform.  They were anti-Catholic, against formal liturgy, vestments, and the Episcopal hierarchy of the Church of England.  Their goal was to purify the Church not to separate from it.  Later some Puritans would become Separatists, completely separating from the Church of England. 

            The Puritans in England had periods when they were tolerated and other periods when they were persecuted.  During the Restoration after 1660 they were expelled from the Church of England and became known as Nonconformists.  
            Some of the Puritans or Nonconformists settled the Plymouth Colony and became the first Pilgrims in America.  Conrad Wright, Unitarian scholar at Harvard for many years, describes the motives behind the first settlers.  He writes:

 

            What drove, or drew, thousands of Englishmen in the seventeenth century to hazard the Atlantic crossing and establish colonies in the Western World?  The motives were varied, and often mixed.  The lure of adventure attracted some, the opportunity for economic gain attracted others.  Some sought escape from religious persecution, or had more or less clearly in mind the blueprint for a holy commonwealth they hoped to construct. . .It should be remembered that even those for whom economic factors loomed largest could not avoid the common religious presuppositions of the day.  Even the most secular of events, therefore, could be given a theological interpretation, and be understood in the context of the unceasing conflict between the powers of light and the powers of darkness.  Whether this conflict took place within the individual soul, or in the events of history, it was a real battle, though one in which God’s purposes could not ultimately be frustrated.  (p. 3, Religion in American Life).

 

            The Puritans in New England held firmly to the Calvinist theology that began to change and evolve both in England and America.   This theology separated the elect from the damned.   The minority of the population in America considered themselves the elect, had experienced conversion, gave ministers more authority, and looked to the civil government for control over the churches. 
            As America developed west, the church gained less and less authority over the independent pioneers.  Clerical power would lesson in the frontier communities.  The Great Awakening in the 18^th century would be the church’s attempt to bring people back into the fold, and regain the authority of the clergy. 
            The original Mayflower Compact and the Cambridge Platform that followed created what was in fact a theocratic state.  This would change with a new charter in Massachusetts in 1692, creating a secular state.  By this time the Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded a decade after the Pilgrims founded Plymouth, had become the dominant political force in what would become the state of Massachusetts. What happened in Massachusetts, the secularization of the state, would also happen in other regions of the country, especially Pennsylvania, and New York.  In North Carolina and Virginia the Church of England had more control and the change would take place later.  The end of the 17^th century brought an end to the Puritan colony, and with it the Puritan control of America.   More and more churches would be created, tolerated and with it the end of theocracy.  In the 19^th century, The Unitarians and the Universalists would help continue the break down of this theocracy and challenge the Calvinist theology at every turn.
            Today we are a mixture of both the reform theology begun by Calvin and a continuation of reform with the challenge to the doctrine of the elect, eternal damnation, and the harsh God of Calvinism would be replaced by a God of love and mercy in both Unitarianism and Universalism.  Like the Calvinists before us, hard work would be considered a religious duty.   Self-reliance, frugality, industry, and education continued to be a central emphasis of these new religions.  The extremes of Calvinism, the oligarchy, the doctrine of the elect and eternal damnation, and severe discipline in matters of keeping the Sabbath day, drunkenness, playing games of chance, and participation in theatrical performances were challenged in time.  The idea of congregational democracy was also carried into the political arena which meant less and less control by the church and the clergy.  Suffrage was stripped of religious qualifications (Columbia Encyclopedia).
Unitarian Universalists continue to be a mixture of the Reform Movement as exemplified by the Puritans and the Presbyterians, but challenge the basic theological presuppositions of Calvinism.  If you are interested in this history, you should take the UU History Class that will be offered next year.  If you are not interested in history, I promise I will get off this background stuff in a few moments.       
First, back to the original Pilgrims of Plymouth.  In fact, the Pilgrims were a mixture of Puritans and separatists.  The Separatists had gone to Holland, but because of the rough life there, and the fact that they were too radical for some of the Dutch, they decided to head for the New World.  They returned to England and were to embark on the Speedwell in Southampton.  The ship proved to be unseaworthy, so they returned to Plymouth and some joined those on the Mayflower and headed for Massachusetts.   This group of about 100 passengers first saw land after two months at Cape Cod, then landed on December 26th at a place named for the city from which they came—Plymouth.  Narrowly speaking, it is this band of Puritans and Separatists that made up this group we refer to as Pilgrims.
There is another definition of the word pilgrim that does not fit this group of settlers.  This is the religious person who travels to a sacred shrine.   The Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers were not traveling to a shrine.  That shrine would be developed later as Americans began to return to Plymouth to honor those first settlers.  What I am looking for in this event is the definition that actually comes first in Webster.  A pilgrim is a person who journeys to an alien land.   This pilgrim is a traveler or a wayfarer, in years past this was a person who traveled on foot.  In more recent times that person may travel by ship, or plane. 
Personal Experience
Many college graduates become wayfarers for a time with many modes of transportation—plane, ship, train and bike.  Some may even back-pack.  Whatever their mode of travel, they leave their present world, their, responsibilities of a job, and go off to see the world.  They become “wanderbees” or pilgrims.
            Maybe some of you in this room did this.  My traveling after college was done by car as I embarked on a new life of a graduate student in North Carolina from Missouri.  For me it was quite an adventure.  One thing I learned on this trip is that after you leave home, things are never the same.  I had relatives that viewed me as an outsider because I went off to a “liberal” Methodist theological school.   My theological views would be heresy because I read the modern philosophers and theologians.    For some, I was a radical because I wanted equality for people of color.  No matter what my religion, whether liberal Methodist, or later Unitarian Universalist, I would become a wayfarer, a pilgrim, an alien in my own land.  I was different because I didn’t return home. 
As it turns out all the men in my family became wayfarers.  Two of my brothers went off to armed forces—one in Vietnam and the other on a ship in the Mediterranean.  Both would spend the next twenty years of their life in the service, away from home, and they would be changed forever. 
My older brother, Larry, returned from six years in Vietnam disabled.  He would return to St. Louis, but would die from his injuries in the war.  My other brother, Denny, would never return home except for a visit from time to time.  After leaving the Navy he became interested in genealogy and has worked at this almost full time for the last 15 years, helping historical societies and individuals doing research on their family history in Virginia.
            Denny is a true wayfarer. He doesn’t care for property or things as much as the work he does.  Money is not an issue for him.  He trusts that his Navy pension will be enough.  He visits his children as well as his family of origin from time to time, but this is not a priority in his life.  In some ways Denny is more of a man of faith than most of us.  We spend our life acquiring things, property and money, thinking this will make us secure in our later years.   Denny looks for security in the present, not in things, but in discoveries, and connections with history.  This must give him some satisfaction.  He is a true pilgrim.

 

Freedom and Attachment

            The Pilgrims of the 17^th century set the stage for a nation of wayfarers.  How has this affected who we are and how we live?  Thomas More, in his book, Soul Mates, identifies two psychological drives in tension within human beings—the need for freedom and independence, and the need for attachment and togetherness.  We see these tensions active in our desire to live our own lives away from our family of origin, in the way of work, which may send us anywhere in the world, in our travels, as the world becomes our destiny.  We are no longer satisfied with staying in one place, with one family, or I would add with one church.  We are a nation of people with little allegiance, and sometimes with few connections with people who care for us.
We are all forced to live with this tension of attachment and freedom.  This is the way of the pilgrim.  This tension according to Moore is the “way of the soul.”  As I look at our religious association, I see that we are struggling with just these drives.  The word we hear a lot in our religious movement is that of interdependence, covenant, as we also say we believe in self-reliance, and freedom.
            Thomas Moore advises us to live with these tensions, and if we do we can be more “soulful.”  I feel this tension everyday as I struggle to please others or to fulfill my own desires, to be with my nuclear family or be with my family of origin, to be satisfied with this community or look to the larger family of the human community.  I have a feeling all of us feel these tensions.

 

Transylvania
            Those of you who spend much time in other countries, know this tension whenever you return.  I felt it most vividly when I first visited Transylvania, the home of the first Unitarians, now living in Romania.  We talked about this in a recent service.  The youth of Northwest will experience it next summer.  For most of their history the Unitarians in Transylvania have lived under the control of another nation.  In most recent years they suffered under the control of communism and a failed economic system.
            Since 1989, Romania has experienced freedom, as the fall of the Berlin wall, has brought the East and the West together.  However, this has not brought prosperity to these people.  Plus, the Romanians continue to control the Hungarians who live in their country and have since the end of WWI.
            Our Unitarian brothers and sisters in Transylvania face difficult challenges.  The young people are forced to move into the cities for work.  This leaves the population in the villages as poor with the older population separated from the younger.
            For our brothers and sisters in Transylvania this God is seen through creation itself, though the rising and setting of the sun.  It is this God that encourages us to conserve our environment and also to be concerned about our neighbors. 
Most important of all the Transylvania Unitarians know all about the human struggle.  They remember when their relatives were forced to tell the authorities how their brothers and sisters were following the laws of the state.  In many cases they revealed to the authorities the wrongdoings of their own ministers and their members of their church.  They know the world of poverty.  But they also know the world of hope.
Rev. Andrasi, of Transylvania, wrote a prayer acknowledging the struggle and expressing the hope. He prays:

 

             We live today in hard, difficult times, filled with worries, troubles, struggles, and wars . . .We human beings cannot know what tomorrow will bring to us, but we believe that you, our loving God, will be with us and will bless any noble thoughts and truthful actions.

            We pray to you, our providential God, that your help will be with us, through our knowledge and talents, which we; have received from you, that we may be able to serve a peaceful, love-filled future for humanity.

 

Conclusions
            The goal of religion is not belief.  It is how we treat people and care for our world beyond ourselves.  Yes, we are pilgrims, wayfarers, travelers, seeking some place that accepts us as we are, and encourages us to be the best that we can be.  For me that place has become a Unitarian Universalist congregation, that takes me outside of myself, encourages my fulfillment, tells the world that freedom is value to be held in high regard.  But freedom by itself is not enough.  We need to be thankful for those things we have received and to look to the future with hope and courage.
            The pilgrim is the person who sees the world as home, who is comfortable with people wherever we land.  As James Martineau wrote:

 

 We are people who are thankful for the universe, for its grandeur and its beauty, and for the abundance of life which covers the earth.  We give praise to the overarching sky and for the driving clouds, for the winds of heaven and for the constellations on high.  We give praise for the salt sea and the running waters, for the everlasting hills and the quiet valleys, for the trees of the wood and the grass beneath our feet.  We give thanks for our sense by which we can see the splendor of the morning, and hear the jubilant songs of birds, and enjoy the fragrance of the springtime. 

 

May we have hearts that are wide open to all this joy and beauty; and may we save our souls from being so absorbed in care or so darkened by selfishness that we pass heedless and unseeing, when even the thorn-bush by the wayside is aflame with the glory of the earth.  (adapted from “The Glory of the Outward World”, One and Universal, ed. by John Midgley p. 15)
May this be our pilgrim prayer, a prayer for wayfarers and strangers who land on foreign soil, respect the earth, and look for people to know and to love.   May this be our prayer to see beyond our own needs to the needs of all people, to join with others in the struggle as we acknowledge freedom, but people with roots that go deep and concerns that go wide with faith, hope and courage.  Amen.