This offers us a rather awesome responsibility to our children and to one another. How shall we teach liberation; how shall we live? I would begin with the thinking of another important Transcendentalist, Margaret Fuller, that "All Souls are Equal Before God." Remember, Margaret Fuller was writing in the mid 19th century, when women were not allowed to own property, when the sale of humans was part of our social fabric. This was truly a revolutionary idea- that all souls, even the souls of slaves, even the souls of women were equal in the face of that which is transcendent and eternal. It was this belief that lead Margaret Fuller to support the Abolition of slavery, and to lay a foundation for women's liberation, before even that first Seneca Falls Convention.

I believe that there is something in the idea of an equality of souls which makes possible, or even compels a rejection of systems and ideas which oppress. Let's take that idea into the classroom, where we do some but not all of our religious Education with children. We know that each of these children is equal on the level of the soul. Some of them are better at sitting still, some are better at making friends, or math, or sports. Just about everywhere our children go, they are ranked and evaluated according to certain skill sets. It would be easy for a child, or even their Sunday School teacher to imagine that some people are better at being souls than other people. I wouldn't be at all surprised if our children believe that the main purpose of our religion has something to do with sitting still.

Instead, what I would like for them to know, is that church is a place where all souls are equal. To know that every soul is on its own journey, every soul answers its own call to use the gifts given by nature or nurture. I imagine with hope a time when each of us looks at our children and really see the boy who wiggles in his chair and has only one question "can we go outside now?" I imagine a time when we can really see the girl so quiet, so well behaved, so eager to please that we are used to seeing reflected in her the behavior we want and not the soul she is. I imagine a community in which we could really see… you, behind the masks you wear to function in society, beyond your successes and failures. Beyond your intelligence or beauty, we see a soul.

Because we learn far more from what we experience of the world than from any principle we are taught to repeat, this form of religious education will require the entire congregation - to begin to see one another as souls, to think of ourselves as souls. I suppose before I get much further I'm going to have to provide a definition of the word Soul that we all can agree on, at least for today. When we say that all people have inherent worth and dignity what do we mean? For this proposition to be true, worth cannot be determined by wealth, by whether one meets a certain prescription for beauty. Worth cannot be determined even by your actions in the world, since by inherent worth we imply a value that is present in simply being alive. It is a worth that each of us had the day that we breathed our first breath. It is simple, it is ancient, it is deep, it is unchangeable. So for today, I would like to suggest this definition for "soul:" that which is present in each being which is the most simple, ancient, deep, unchangeable, and is characterized by inherent worth and dignity.

Our revolutionary practice as a congregation will be to see each other, and ourselves, on the level of the soul. This is the most fundamental principle of Lifespan Religious Education. You will know when you have glimpsed someone's soul, because you will suddenly not care how they vote, how they dress, or even the fact that they just cut you off in traffic. This immediately shatters all of the boxes society and ego create, and creates a radical equality. All souls are equal before God.

Since we are in a mixed crowd, that is one with theists, atheists, and agnostics, I will also pull apart the phrase "before God." For me it conjures the image of a defendant coming before a judge. But the God of this construction is not separating sheep from goats; God provides a context of radical equality. I think of the way we judge ourselves. Usually we know the truth about our actions, our words, but sometimes we avoid the real implications of our choices. Other times we judge ourselves too harshly. Can we conceive of a perfect mirror, a way to see ourselves as we honestly are? Since God is a symbol of perfection, this is what I take from the phrase "before God." To observe with perfect truth. All souls are equal when observed with perfect truth.

As Unitarian Universalists we believe that each person has the capacity to know for him or herself what is true. The soul recognizes truth. Our job is not to shame one another into acting within a particular set of standards, our job is to support one another as we search for truth and clarity within ourselves. Parker palmer, in his book To Know as we are Known writes that "To teach is to create a space in which the community of truth is practiced" (xii) We must learn the value and foster the courage to speak our own truth to one another. The pink haired tongue pierced youth have the right idea; say who you are even when it opposes the dominant paradigm. Says songwriter india.arie

"Sometimes I shave my legs and sometimes I don't Sometimes I comb my hair and sometimes I won't Depend of how the wind blows I might even paint my toes It really just depends on whatever feels good in my soul"

Theologian Paul Tillich writes of a radical "yes" which embraces all that is, which affirms the inherent worth, not only of all people, but of being itself. He also, in one part of his Systematic Theology, mentions the radical "no" and claims that this too is a sort of affirmation of faith. The radical "no" implies faith in something beyond that which is. If I say "no" to all that is, I am seeing what is from a vantage which also includes what could be, what should be. It is the "no" of a toddler, understanding perhaps for the first time that his wishes and his mother's wishes are not the same, that each is a unique being.

The reason this is so challenging, is the inertial force of what has always been, the normalizing force of social constructs. We respond almost unconsciously to people's expectations of us. Our way is smooth when we follow the well worn path. The world will construct you if you don't construct yourself. The songwriter Speech of Arrested Development puts it this way: "your soul does not dwell inside your shell until you decide to rebel". I think it is also what Mary Daly was referring to in our centering quote "I mean to call attention to the emergence of free persons whose lives communicate a kind of contagious freedom" (Daley Beyond God the Father p. 10) These are people who chose integrity with themselves over the safety of the persona which habit, personal history, and societal systems co-create.

Finally, I believe that when we are acting with integrity to ourselves, and when we see all persons as souls, equal before God, there may come a time when we will be called to act to change the systems that oppress our brothers and sisters, and therefore oppress us. Consider the early Abolitionists- fanatics, a radical fringe. "The life of this world has but a limited worth in my eyes and really is not worth such a price as the toleration of slavery." Emerson wrote. This is a radical "no" that did in fact bring into being a new paradigm, where industry, democracy, society are reforming themselves so that one human being cannot own another.

Returning to the Sunday School classroom, these stories are told with a new purpose. We teach one another not only that slavery is wrong, but that a person can question something so deeply in the fabric of how things are, and say "no" and that such a "no" can serve humanity.

But it is easier to praise Emerson's clarity, to admire the courage and vision of the abolitionists than to know and resist the oppressions of our own age. We live not only in an age which has tasted the fruit of the abolitionist movement, but in an age still mired in racism, and a thousand other systemic oppressions. It is not enough for us to know the heroes of Unitarian Universalism, we must also keep before us the shadow side of this tradition, throughout our history and in our present incarnation.. This is the kind of honesty we encourage for individuals, let us practice it as a movement as well. We must teach one another how to recognize oppression wherever we encounter it, and we must assure one another of the importance of speaking that truth, even if we speak it alone.

Religion has the power to liberate and the power to oppress. If we hand on our hard learned wisdom as commandments, if we demand that our children live as we would have them live, we join the system of oppression. Some of that is of course inevitable. Each person born into this world lives an entirely new life. Our guidance, our wisdom, our attempts to keep one another safe, must some day be challenged by our children, standing in their authentic selves. Even knowing that each action we take has a shadow, that the systems we create will oppress some as they liberate others, we are not excused from building, and not exempt from tearing down when the time comes. The tension between freedom and structure will never be resolved once and for all. We build structures to support the world that is, and the world that will be must destroy some of these structures for our own survival. Thomas Jefferson recommended a political revolution every 10 years for the health of a nation. All the cells of the human body are replaced every 7 years. Are you the person you were 20 years ago? Could you live now in the structure of that life? Are you living now in the shell of that life?

I once met with the parents of a youth group I was advising. They wanted to see their children become more socially active. The parents suggested we teach the youth the old protest songs, and encourage them to start an effort to save the whales. These were the things that had called the parents to engage the world as they were coming of age. When I brought the suggestion to my youth group, they responded as with one voice "not the whales again. Everywhere we go we have to save the whales." How will we teach this generation of children and youth to recognize their own calling to act for justice in the world? Their revolution will not be our revolution. Each must stand in his or her own truth, and act from that place.

Religion has the power to liberate and the power to oppress.

Therefore let us teach revolution in this religious community. Let it be one of our core values, to teach and to act from the integrity of our own souls. Listen to the truths of each living being. Remember to say no to all that makes the soul small, denies life, limits being. Remember to say "yes" to life, to being, to the souls of people. Let this be a liberating faith.

What is your reaction to this sermon? Please send comments to Reverend Darcey Laine