Dear Ones, 

The Soul Matters packet introduces this month’s theme like this: “Of all our themes this year, Embracing Possibility is arguably most central to our faith.  It has distinguished Unitarian Universalists from our beginning.  Historically, when others saw depravity and sin at the core of human identity, we saw potential.  When many were preaching that this world is fallen, we fell in love with the possibility of heaven on earth.  Theologically, you might say we were the people who believed that God hadn’t given up on us and so we shouldn’t give up on each other or this world.”  While our theology has shifted from emphasizing God-language, I think it still embraces possibility in much the same way – as long as there is life, it is possible to create change.  But there’s a difference in where we find the hope.  For our Unitarian and Universalist forebears, hope was grounded in their faith in that which is larger than us, that they called God – sometimes I think it’s easier for us modern-day UUs to give up hope, because we’ve largely moved away from that kind of faith.

This is why community is so important in our UU faith tradition.  For many of us, community is that thing that is larger than us, and our faith is the trust we develop in each other.  So our faith is grounded in human relationships – and that faith/trust grows as we deepen those relationships.  As our trust/faith grows, we find ourselves more willing and able to find, and even embrace, possibility.  And the possibilities grow as our community grows.  So theologically, we’re the people who don’t give up on the world because we have tangible experience building a community in which we don’t give up on each other.  I’m grateful that the JRUUC community is such a good example of this!

In faith and love, Karen