February 8, 2004

Did you know in the Oxford English Dictionary the word testimony lies quite evenly, midway between the words testicle and tete-a-tete.

How wonderfully appropriate I thought- given that I would be speaking from the heart on matters of my own spiritual journey today –

But, more of that at another time.

My spiritual life here at First is not even a year old- but I knew of this community long before I arrived at the door ………. through my work with hospice and the care for the dying, which in turn privileged me to help support several members of this congregation in their own dying.

But, I was slow to learn that to in order to live fully in this world- one needs spiritual community.

When I had my meeting with Mark several months ago, about becoming a member here at First, I relayed to him this story and I would like to share this with you today:

Just before I graduated from High School in the early 70"s I had a dangerous encounter with the writings of the philosopher Betrand Russell – specifically his speech entitled: Why I am not a Christian. In this speech he lays out criticism against the major arguments for the existence of God- namely the argument from First Cause- the argument from the Universal Law of Nature-the argument from Design- and lastly the argument from Morality –

Never before had I heard such heresy-all I could think of was that if Russell was correct then this construct called monotheism, as we know it, is merely a cruel yet fantastic response that mankind created to abate the threat posed by our own innate existential angst? How ridiculous is that I thought!!

I have to say though that Russell’s words did give me reason to pause- it was true that I too could never accord the figure of Christ his theological profundity as articulated in doctrines such as Trinitarianism –where musings of hypostatic unions- and infinite co-naturality abounded.

On top of all this I was just entering university at the time and grappling with new mathematical theories - I remember even being taught that if you added 1 to infinity you would actually get an amount that was larger than infinity.

I was now certain that heresy abounded in all corners of my world

I could almost hear Betrand Russell laughing in his grave-

Yet at the same time I was also beginning to see that no matter where I travelled in this expansive yet continually diminishing universe- the yard stick I carried would always confirm for me that a yard would always contain 3 feet.

So the question I asked myself was: How many false measurements would it take for my mind to understand its own inherent biases.

After University I decided to take on a new mission in life- or at least in my rhetorical life:

You see I was determined to start my own church- and I would call it the Church of the Guaranteed Salvation-

The premise was simple really-

I planned to rent a small trailer and position a neon sign close by with a big arrow on it saying Join the Church of the Guaranteed Salvation today –

I was adamant that the location of this new church be out by the airport. There’s something about airports and their vicinity which seems to attract all manner of flights- from the evangelical type and spiritual to even the erotic variety.

The premise was this- you sign up at my church for $25000. It’s a one off- up front- lump sum fee. You would then receive from me a document that spelt out that the holder of this certificate was now in the possession of a money-back guarantee for their own personal salvation. You didn’t have to come to church after that- in fact there would never be a church service at my Church. You were told to just go out and have a good time- and to enjoy yourself- that was it.

When you died- and if by chance you were not saved- then of course I would refund your money immediately. No questions asked

As strange as this all sounds

I felt certain that my idea was doomed to succeed. You see I’d done my work- I read somewhere that the average Church goer in America tithe’s approximately $40000 US over their life time to their church of choice- but here was the catch, on top of that they were also expected to show up every week for worship- and even with all of that you never had any guarantee of salvation from these institutions

The way I had it figured out I wasn’t even going to need to call on the "guilt" card to make sales.

Here I was simply offering the big prize without condition.

At this point in my story telling I have to tell you that when I looked over at Mark he was sweating just a little bit- but he did have a smile on his face all he could say was: My God- you’re a universalist and you don’t even know it.

Suffice it to say that my spiritual journey does not end with my being just an anonymous Universalist - it goes on with my own explorations to define what living a good life is all about- and it’s a journey that I am making with you as a community- who knows, perhaps I’ll be able to come back in a few years and give another testimony to fill you in on how things are going then.

Thank you