“The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.”

-Empedocles

I’ve been thinking of our Universalist heritage recently, and how this applies to our theme for January: “Finding our Center.” One way of thinking of this theme is very stark and absolute: there is a center, and we either find it or we don’t. Whether that center is balance, contentment, happiness, any other list of cherished values. But there is another way to think about this theme, and one I invite to challenge and hopefully encourage you. What if the center is everywhere, what if the values we cherish are available where we happen to find ourselves, in the exact mood and predicament we’re in? If that is the case, what does it mean to find our center?

Many accused our Universalist forbearers of encouraging moral laziness and complacency. Some would say: “If there is no hell (or to translate if there is no “off-center”), what encouragement is there to do good?” In short, if there is nowhere we need to go to find our center, why move or do anything? This logic has its obvious flaws. I’m sure you can easily find your own response to this, and I’ll share mine.

If the love we seek is always in the place we find ourselves, I may not be drawn to travel to distant lands to recover my center, but I would like to verify and express that abundant and ever present love in the place I am. It may be a given that our most cherished values are literally under our feet, in our bodies, in the air we breathe. The problem is most of us don’t realize this often enough. We feel separated much of the time from what we cherish most, and we feel that there are innumerable obstacles to our most cherished values. But I think there is a remedy for this. Our Universalist heritage offered the medicine for this disease of mind and spirit: trust that it is here, and we don’t need to earn it. We only need to find ways to express it, to encourage others that love, generosity, kindness – lo and behold, is in this place where we are.

What a relief, and encouragement, at least for me. When we get sucked into a competitive culture that trains us to believe that good things are earned (and limited to the deserving), it’s a relief to me that our faith doesn’t require us to be anyone special. Just ourselves, as we are. But it does not keep us complacent. We do have a mission at our church, but it’s not the mission that most people imagine. We find ways to express in a way that is doable for us, a love that is both boundless and ever present. The good news is each of us is capable of this. It does not require heroics (in fact heroics can distract from the all pervasive nature of this love). It is everywhere, and it is with us now. All we have to do is let it in, and share it. It doesn’t matter how well we share it, or how many people we share it with. It just matters that we sincerely try to share what is already here, a joyous fool’s errand.

Those are my theological thoughts as we welcome in the new year. Of course you don’t need to believe any of this, in fact, I hope you don’t. Belief without doubt is too complacent for my taste. I invite you to test it, and come to your own conclusions.

I wish all of you love and many blessings in this New Year. Together we will make it so.

In Faith, Rev. Joseph