Show Notes
What makes some topics controversial is because you can make a rational defense of either side of the issue. For example, you can mount logical arguments in favor of either socialism or capitalism but you cannot have a reasonable debate about whether the Earth is round or flat. Unfortunately, we often fail to have the needed rational debates that help us to grow and learn because we have become afraid of the kind of divisive fighting that crops up around subjects for which there really isn't a logical debate. We need to have more conversations that bring light into the world and fewer that just create heat.
More from Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray
This will be the last installment of my preaching career on line. I will still do some pulpit supply as needed and we will use our remaining resources to keep all of our years of sermons on line on our YouTube and iTunes channels. Indulge me in this last sermon to reminisce with you about my own journey from being a traditional evangelical Christian to being an academic Unitarian liberal. Peace be with you all!
The best way to totally misunderstand a good story is to try to take it literally. The birth narratives in Matthew and Luke are not historical, not even close. They are mini sermons in the form of a story. While they are really bad history, they are actually really good sermons if we can dismiss literalism and hear the story the authors are trying to tell us.
An undeniable aspect of the current state of affairs in our world is that we have fewer friends than we used to and more and more families have estranged family members. There are a myriad of reasons for it but no matter what aspect of modern life you blame, the bottom line is still the same: we have too few friends and too much family weirdness. Without complicating the psychology of it all too much, maybe we can try to just "let that shit go."
In the Marvel Universe, the Norse god, Thor, takes his place alongside of Iron Man and Spider Man without theological comment on the improbability of either human superheroes or gods from Asgard existing. Most of the time we easily can tell the difference between what is real and what is fantasy but when it comes to religion, it seems that most people are all too willing to suspend reason and to at least pretend to dive into myths and fantasies. Such religion does us little good and more often does a great deal of harm. So, let's free ourselves from mental slavery since none but ourselves can free our minds!
T. S. Eliot may have been painfully prophetic when he described our nation as being hollow folk with heads full of straw. None of the major religions represented in our nation have successfully created an influential conversation about character, honesty, or personal or corporate virtue. Maybe we could try again? Perhaps a time of reading the sayings of Confucius, without the distraction of a rival theology, might help us to spend time thinking about becoming better people.