Sunday, March 22 2020
Call to Worship
As Susan Taormina plays our opening hymn — wordlessly on piano— see if you can recollect singing the version in our hymnal, in which we sing in praise of the blue skies of our homeland, but then acknowledge that other people love other homelands, in which the skies are just as blue as ours, . The words which we sing to this melody are a familiar expression of our principled commitment to in-ternational understanding, a voice against the nationalism that has driven two world wars. Unitarian Universalist Principles nurture the understanding that as fellow travelers on one blue boat home, we share interests across the artificial boundaries we have drawn on maps. Those UU words are to me, as moving as the melody.
Sibelius composed this for his orchestral suite Finlandia, a celebration of Finnish Independence. He included a choral hymn inspired by Beethoven’s Symphony, the ninth.
Here are the nationalistic Finnish words Sibelius chose to go with his beautiful melody.
Oh Finland, look, your day is coming
(in Finnish: Oi Suomi, katso, sinun päiväs koittaa)
The threat of night has already been expelled
And in the brightness of the morning Fury calls
Like the cover of heaven itself
The powers of the night are already overcome by the morning light
Sun’s day is coming, O country of birth
Oh get up, Finland, lift it high
Oi nouse, Suomi, nosta korkealle
Get wreathed with great memories
Oh arise, Finland, you showed the world
You escaped slavery
And you didn’t bend over to oppression
It’s morning, land of my birth
To listen to this online go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEczLzpVigQ
Songwriters: Jean Sibelius
Finlandia Anthem lyrics © N C B Scandinavia
In fairness to Sibelius’s magnanimity, notice that he does not direct hate at Russia or Sweden, the two European powers which had threatened Finnish independence throughout modern history.
Stay tuned to thoughts of music and the support it gives to the ideas expressed in lyrics. You will find more food for such thoughts when, later, we turn to Beethoven’s (and Schiller’s) Ode To Joy, the hymn in praise of International understanding, which gave Sibelius the idea of using the same. Approach in celebration of Finnish Independence.
Sermon (Homily) The sermon will include two readings: A poem to be read by Pat Johnson and an excerpt from an essay by the philosopher Immanuel Kant: What is enlightenment.
On the Greek island of Santorini, I got into conversation with a local intellectual. She expressed envy of me, as an American, for reasons that surprise. It was not because we had more money or world power than Greeks, but because, as she said, we Americans had inherited and fostered our intellectual freedom. We got it, as she said, as an inheritance from our Western European roots. Western Europe had won in the Enlightenment. “We Greeks – eastern Europe in general – did not experience the Enlightenment, and so our culture is still under the control of orthodox priests.”
I had never thought about the geographic and cultural limits of the European Enlightenment, and if I had been quizzed on it, I would have said it probably covered all of Europe and was now part of the worlds shared culture. I knew that the leading French philosopher, Voltaire, had been engaged by Tzarina Catherine of Russia to teach him the new ideas of the West.
Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher who, two generations before Emerson, first introduced the concept of the Transcendental into philosophy, wrote a little essay with this title: An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment. (1784).
His answer: Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Kant goes on: Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is when its cause lies not in a lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve or courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! (Dare to know! Horace, Epodes, 1,2, 40. “Have courage to use your own un-derstanding!” — that (so Kant said) is the motto of enlightenment.
This was published in a newspaper, in response to popular interest in ideas then being reported as arriving from further west, England and France.
(It was adopted by The Society of the Friends of Truth, an important circle of the German Enlightenment.)
And that enlightenment contributed to the origin of our church, and most famously, to our country’s foundational document, the Declaration of Independence. The influence of that intellectual movement is not limited to us as Unitarian Universalists, nor to our country’s origins.
Importantly, politicians and intellectuals allied with the Enlightenment – most particularly the same Immanuel Kant — found grounds for morality that each of us could discover for ourselves, but were universally valid, not mere artifacts of our local national culture, not founded on ancient religious texts. Opponents of Enlightenment thought wrongly characterize it as “Relativistic”.
Kant argued that human reason could reveal moral principles, and his German Pietist religion, like the similar Quaker religion which arose in England and America in the Enlightenment Era, proposed that we could perceive moral principles by examining our own conscience, looking for an inner voice.
The principles Kant himself propounded on that foundation imply these three. UU principles:
Listen thoughtfully to Pat’s reading of Simon Armitages poem, and consider whether it awakens any conscious moral reaction in your thoughts.
Reading (Pat) “Thank You for Waiting,” from a poem by Simon Armitage
At this moment in time we’d like to invite First Class passengers only to board the aircraft.
Thank you for waiting. We now extend our invitation to Exclusive, Superior, Privilege and Excelsior members, followed by triple, double and single Platinum members, followed by Gold and Silver Card members, followed by Pearl and Coral Club members. Military per-sonnel in uniform may also board at this time. … Passengers either partially or wholly de-pendent on welfare or kindness, please have your travel coupons validated at the Quarantine Desk.
(Karl)
I’d like to lead us on a hunt, following the tracks of that desirable but not so easy attainment called Wisdom.
Wisdom is an abstraction, just the sort of concept I would count on to inspire Ralph Waldo Emerson to pick as the name for an essay. To hunt for the essence of an abstraction such as Wisdom reminds me of Pontius Pilate. Jesus, being accused by the High Priest, was brought before Pontius Pilate, who asked what Jesus had done. Jesus answered “My task is to bear witness to the truth. For this was I born, and all who are not deaf to truth listen to my voice.
Pilate responded, ‘What is truth?’ And with those words, he washed his hands of the matter. Ac-cording to the book of Matthew, he then literally washed his hands in full view of the assembled people. John’s gospel has Pilate simply giving up on the matter, announcing he can find no case against the man
To ask “What is -?” questions about abstractions, such as TRUTH – is not wise, unless your objective is either ending debate or starting an interminable one. So lets avoid the BIG QUESTION what is WISDOM. I at least would rather consider what is wise. Certain people, Socrates for example, was famously considered wise, because as he himself explained it, he knew the limits of his knowledge. One appears most foolish when pretending knowledge of which one is obviously ignorant.
How about principles? The principle Socrates seems to have followed: stay aware of the limits of your knowledge. Test your beliefs, remember our human tendency to look only for confirming evidence. That principle is a wise one. Please note: I am not saying it is TRUE, but that it is a wise principle.
So, principles may be wise. As a member of this UU congregation, I consider our seven principles to be wise. Again, not that they are TRUE but in my opinion WISE, examples, in other words, of wisdom, but not the definition of wisdom.
Let’s consider then the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism. Whether you agree they are wise, I am hoping you will agree that they are the kind of thing that is wise. For now, as we have more to reflect on today, the relevant principles are three in number: 1st, 4th and 6th
First Principle
The inherent worth and dignity of every person
Fourth Principle
A Free and Responsible Search for Truth and Meaning
Sixth Principle
The Goal of World Community with Peace, Liberty, and Justice for All.
Think back now on the 6th principle in particular, with Sibelius’ Nationalistic Hymn and its Inter-national’s UU version in mind.
For now we go back to a foundation block of the Enlightenment, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, the familiar “Ode To Joy”.
It will now be no surprise to you that our UU hymnal includes a version of this hymn, but in this case, with words that, like the original words Beethoven used, are not nationalistic in tone, but foster in-ternational understanding: the brother-and-sisterhood of all mankind.
While listening to Susan play the melody from the Ode to Joy, consider these original lyrics. Aren’t they in line with UU Principles?
12. Ode to Joy (6)
English translation of Schiller’s Ode to Joy
Joy, beautiful sparkle of God,
Daughter of Elysium,
We, Drunk with the holy fire of commitment,
We enter your holy sanctuary.
Your magics bind again
What the artificial customs of nations have strictly parted.
All mankind becomes one
Where your tender wing hovers.
”Chorus”
Be embraced, millions!
This kiss is for the entire world!
Brothers, above the starry canopy
Dwells a loving Father .
Whoever has succeeded in the great attempt
To be a friend’s friend;
Whoever has won a lover’s love
Add their jubilation to ours!
Yes, whoever on the earth’s great sphere calls
Calls even one other soul a soulmate! Let them join our circle
And as for those who never felt their hearts in sympathy with another
Let them steal away – crying – from this gathering!
”Chorus”
Those who occupy the great circle,
Pay homage to sympathy!
It leads to the stars
Where the unknown one reigns.
All creatures drink joy
At the breasts of nature,
All good, all evil
Follow her trail of roses.
Kisses she gave us, and the vine,
A friend, proven in death.
Pleasure was given to the worm,
And the cherub stands before God.
”Chorus”
Do you kneel, you millions?
World, Do you sense your creator?
Seek him above the starry canopy,
Above the stars he must live.
Joy is the name of the strong spring
In eternal nature.
Joy, joy drives the wheels
In the great clock of worlds.
She lures flowers from the buds,
Suns out of the firmament,
She rolls spheres in the spaces
That the seer’s telescope does not know.
‘Chorus”
Happy, as his suns fly
Across Heaven’s splendid map,
Run, brothers and sisters, along your path
Joyfully, like a hero in victory.
From the fiery mirror of truth
Joy smiles upon the researcher,
Towards virtue’s steep hill
She guides the endurer’s path.
Upon faith’s sunlit mountain
One sees her banners in the wind,
Through the opening of burst coffins
One sees them standing in the chorus of angels.
:”Chorus”
Endure courageously, millions!
Endure for the better world!
There above the starry canopy
A great God will reward.
Anger and revenge be forgotten,
Deadliest enemies be forgiven,
No more tears shall he shed
No longer remorse shall gnaw at him
”Chorus”
Our debt registers be abolished
Reconcile the entire world!
Brothers, over the starry canopy
God judges, as we judged.
Joy bubbles in the cup,
In the grape’s golden blood
Cannibals drink gentleness
The fearful, drink courage —
Brothers, fly from your perches,
When the full cup is passed,
Let the foam spray to the heavens
This glass to the good spirit
Escape the tyrants’ chains,
Generosity also to the villain,
Hope upon the deathbeds,
Mercy from the high court!
The dead, too, shall live!
Brothers, drink and chime in,
All sinners shall be forgiven,
And hell shall be no more.
“Chorus”
A serene departing hour!
Sweet sleep in the shroud!
Brothers—a mild sentence
From the final judge!
