Why All Souls?

There was a time in our faith tradition’s history when All Souls was the second most common name for our congregations, behind First Parish/First Church of Whatever City. It was a reflection of the Universalist strand of our merged faith–our belief that all souls are held in God’s unceasing love. This All Souls’ Day, the day the Christian church remembers all who weren’t remembered yesterday on All Saints’ Day, this All Souls Day I’m cognizant of how often I’ve drawn our attention to our Universalist heritage since returning from my summer break–and even before.

At the Hands Off rally last spring I spoke our Universalist forebears not believing anyone is damned, and spoke of the primacy of Love at the center our faith tradition yet today. I posited that those gathered at the rally hold love at the center of their lives, too: love of neighbors, love of the stranger, the immigrant, our trans kin; love of those living at economic and social margins of society; love even of our republic, flawed as it is, and love of the generosity that has at times made it a good friend and neighbor and ally, of the diversity that has made it robust and vibrant, and the striving toward fuller equity and inclusion that will make it ever more resilient and resourceful.

I reminded those gathered that Senator Booker had recently declared again and again that the power of the people is stronger than the people in power, and I suggested that we were at the rally that day not only because we know that’s true, but because we know the power of the people doesn’t lie solely in our numbers but also and vitally in our love.

I said we already love the hell out of our imperfect, broken, beautiful, possibility-laden country and that we were there that day because each of us through our own faith or reasoning or experience, had come to understand that our task in this moment is to boldly love the hell out of the our country

love the hate out of our country

love the greed out of our country

love the transphobia out of our country

love the cruelty out of our country

love the wanton disregard for the health of our planet home out of our country.

I quoted 20th century French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who wrote: "Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, [we] will have discovered fire". And I said, "the Fire of Love burning in our bellies, in our hearts, is a power the people in power cannot comprehend and don’t know enough to fear, an all- consuming, generative power that will, if we keep it burning fiercely and courageously at our core as we take actions, big, or minute, and as yet unforeseen, love their hell right out of our country."

That was in April. In September when we launched our Healthy Congregation Team I spoke of the different emphases of our Unitarian and Universalist forebears, and said this:

"Here at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century, Unitarian Universalism exists in a tension between believing that we are each good enough just as we were born and are every day of our lives (that is to say, too good to be damned), and knowing that we are each flawed (that is too say, thank goodness God is too good to damn us). Our salvation might lie in that very tension, in the degree to which we as individual Unitarian Universalists and as gathered groups of UUs come to know in our bones that being flawed is not the opposite of being good enough."

Two weeks ago, when I was last in the pulpit, I reminded us that our Universalist theology calls us to extend compassion even toward those whose words and actions we abhor.

I didn’t plan to have Universalism as a preaching theme this year. After all, how many themes do we need? We have our monthly Soul Matters themes, providing continuity between Religious Education, Covenant Groups and Sunday worship, and President Jessica Leavitt Ouatarra chose Love at the Center for a meta theme for the year. True, Love at the Center and Universalism are nearly but not quite the same thing. But I don’t think that’s all or even primarily what’s calling me to preach Universalism this year.

I think the battle that’s being waged for the life of our country right now isn’t at its core a battle between right and left, red and blue, progressivism and conservatism, or Republican and Democrat. I believe it is a battle between those who strive, succeeding only imperfectly, to see a neighbor in an immigrant or an unhoused person, a friend in trans coworker, a cherished child in a queer teen, a sibling in a person swiping an EBT card in the grocery line, and those who see only something less than fully human in any face that isn’t white, cis-gender, straight, wealthy, able-bodied, Christian (by the most narrow, corrupted definition of Christian) and powerful. In other words, it is a battle between those who hold the sanctity of all souls above all else and those who believe we can, and indeed should, disregard, write off, ignore, abandon the majority of the souls who live within our borders.

As Universalists, as Unitarian Universalists we are called to align ourselves with all souls. Souls of all faiths, souls speaking all languages, souls of all employment, educational and socio-economic statuses, souls of all genders, souls of all ages and races and cultures, souls of all political parties. This is the more difficult path than dismissing most souls. Because, let’s face it, a huge proportion of all souls are difficult, demanding, perplexing, petty souls–each of us included. It’s tough to align ourselves, day in and day out with people quite similar to ourselves, our families and our closest friends, for example. And much harder still to figure out what it means, practically, functionally to align ourselves with people whose experiences and circumstances are far removed from our own. How do we respect their cultures without misappropriation? How do we ask what they need from us without crossing a line into prurient curiosity? How do we share our resources without condescension or patronization? How do we open ourselves to mutually fulfilling relationships while maintaining our own boundaries and integrity, neither suppressing our true selves nor expecting others to suppress their true selves? And, to harken back to that sermon two weeks ago, how do we uphold their rights while abhorring their actions?

We do it together. We do it over again when we get it wrong. We remember that all souls are protected only when all souls are protected–therefore the existence of our loved ones and we ourselves depends on us siding again and again and again, imperfectly but fervently, with all the folks the people currently in power seek to cast out. We do it by observing All Souls Day 365 days of the year–never forgetting “we’re all in this together./All of us.” Amen.