Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Reflection on Reforming Religion

John Beverley Butcher
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Palo Alto, CA

A few weeks ago I celebrated my 70th birthday and my beloved daughter, Marie, organized a party for me with lots of surprises that I thoroughly enjoyed. I had such a good time that I told Marie I want to do the same for her on her 70th birthday. After all, I’ll be only 99! I am here this morning to report that as far as I am concerned 70 is great! Let’s hear it for three score years and ten!

Birthdays provide us with opportunities to stop and reflect: look back, look forward, and then get on with our living! The decades can be special: at age 10 I was growing up in a church and going to Sunday School that concluded every Sunday with the song, “Onward Christian Soldiers.” We often sang the hymn “Fight the good fight with all your might: Christ is thy strength and Christ thy right.” Boy Scouts were big and the most important award was the one for God and Country.

At 10 years old I was given the honor of carrying the flags in procession in church: either the American flag or the Episcopal flag; I carried them as high as I could!

Little did I know then that we were perpetuating the religion of the Emperor Constantine where allegiance to God and Empire were all rolled up together.

I have since learned that the tribal God is a very dangerous god especially when he is on your side and helps you fight and kill other human beings who you have defined as your enemies!

I have also learned that the Earth is more important than any country and that humankind is more important than allegiance to one church denomination.

So when I became rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco I took the American flag and the Episcopal Flag out of the church and put them away in a closet.

(There is a time for people to come out of the closet and a time to put things into closets!)

Then we started flying two new flags outside the building: An earth flag and a rainbow flag.

It is time to pledge allegiance to the Earth and affirm the consciousness of Black Elk who says, “The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth!”

The Rainbow carries vibrant symbolism. In the story of Noah and the Flood God places a rainbow in the sky as a synmbol of peace and, curiously, to remind God not to destroy the earth again!

There is the Rainbow Nation that meets every fourth of July to affirm our oneness as human beings.

There is the Rainbow Coalition bringing all races and classes together

There is the Rainbow Flag affirming the range of people and sexual orientations!

When I was 10 years old I loved to carry the flags: I still love flags, but I have replaced the flags of one country and one church with flags for the whole earth and all people. Much better!

On my 70th birthday my wife Grace and my daughter, Marie, gave me an Earth flag which now flies every day outside our house.

For those of you who plan to have a birthday sometime this year, perhaps it can be one more opportunity to stop and reflect examine your own commitments, let go of ideas, concepts, and allegiances you have outgrown and embrace the people and commitments you hold dear!