The Rosewood House of Harmony

In our own Universalist tradition, one of the earliest expressions of the Covenant defining the UU community that was recited in many a Universalist church in the 19th century was this affirmation:

“Love is the doctrine of this church,

the quest of truth is its sacrament,

And Service is its prayer.

To dwell together in peace,

to seek knowledge in freedom,

to serve human need,

to the end that all souls shall grow into harmony with the Divine -

this is our great Covenant one with another

and with our God”.

In the ancient disciplines of Buddhism, in the Hindu dance of the god Shiva, in the sacred scripture of the Koran, this notion of harmony appears again and again as one of the bedrock elements of successful religious living.

In the ecological consciousness of Native American teachings, in the daily proscriptions of the Torah, in the practice of Christian monastic rule, in the mystic chords of Celtic religion, in Norse mythology, in the Mayan and Aztec cultures — in virtually all of the long-standing religious traditions of which we have record, always it seems to be prized and practiced: harmony. Moving and being in accord, as one, in time , and in tune with the Divine energies of life.

To grow into harmony with the divine: to live in sync with the rhythms of creation around us, of which we are a part, to which we are connected, from which we come. To live our lives as co-singers of creation. The language is poetic and theological, to be sure, but quantum physics is revealing that the language is also descriptive and scientific. For we know now that every subatomic particle “…. not only performs an energy dance, but is an energy dance, a pulsating process of creation and destruction,” as Frijof Capra describes it in The Tao of Physics. To be alive is to feel, literally, the pulse of life.

Implicit in our Unitarian Universalist understanding is the concept, that life “is just a chance to grow a soul.” Growing a soul into harmony, however, is not something that necessarily just happens of and by itself. It requires some intention, and discipline, and sometimes artistry on our part. It requires that we listen with a close ear to the rhythms of that energy river flowing through us all, and that we occasionally re-tune ourselves as required.

A critic once wrote of watching Pablo Casals, one of the most gifted musicians of our century, and the manner in which Casals would draw forth a perfectly tuned note of music from the strings of a cello. The most striking image of the great master was not the loving way he held the instrument as he played, or the intense manner in which he listened to the resonance of each note. What struck the observer was the way in which every single note required constant adjustment of the master’s fingers on the strings. Every seemingly clear note of music was in fact the result of multiple and constant re-tunings, as it were, even as the music was issuing forth.

This is the week when the Jewish community observes the Holy Day of Atonement, a custom which has lessons for all religious people. Judaism teaches that every individual has the capacity and obligation for a direct and unimpeded loving relationship with God. But if that relationship is truly to be loving and unimpeded, it requires that occasionally (annually) the emotional debris that collects and piles up in any relationship must be cleared away.

And so, once a year Judaism observes a holy day of Atonement, a day of “at-one-ment,” a day of “a-tune-ment” when each individual is invited to recollect the passage of another year, to take stock of the imperfections and small failures that have come between the individual and the divine source of life; and through honest acknowledgment of those failures, to clear away the debris and unclog the soul’s connection with others and with divinity itself.

Anyone who has ever tried to maintain a loving relationship with another being can appreciate the power and necessity of such a clearing away. For even in the best and most loving relationships, that emotional debris has a way of collecting, doesn’t it, of piling up and blocking the channels of communication and love. That’s how it is between people. We fall out of step with the dance. We lose our rhythm now and then. And an occasion day of atonement, a day of re-harmonizing, is good practice in any loving relationship. It reconnects us with power and clarity again.

To grow into harmony with the divine. To shape a life for oneself and for one’s community that brings peace and justice into reality in the world. To move and act and relate in such a way that we feel the sense of connection and responsibility for the good earth that is our home, for all the life that springs from that home, for all that nourishes life and life-enhancing values.

To grow into harmony with the divine. To be co-appreciators and co-singers of creation, co-operators with the unfolding process of evolutionary harmony. And together to grow institutions, church communities, governments and societies that live in accordance with such values.

I think that is what the Zen Master was pointing to when he said that all things beautiful have their source in harmony and balance.

We do not always succeed, of course. There are days when life does not rest easy in our hands, and the commitments of our lives in a workaday world do not always afford us the monk’s option of suspending our labors and returning to our meditations until grace returns to us.

With each new day we are invited, you and I, to attune our lives to the all-encompassing natural harmony around us. Our calling is to be and move and act and work in oneness with the larger rhythms of creation. The true Masters will tell you to listen first to the rhythm within. Only in this way is it ever possible to build a rosewood house, or to craft a life of polished interior.