"We are on a Voyage Together"

It is with joy and celebration that I join you as your new minister. I am particularly grateful to the Search Committee and the Board for their confidence in offering me this position. And – I have had conversations with Tracy Johnson who told me, in no uncertain terms, what a great congregation this is.

Many of you know that I have had a very eclectic life – from spending many years at sea on commercial merchant ships engaged in worldwide trade, to serving as a professor, sailing master and deputy superintendent at the United States Merchant Marine Academy; from serving as a mental health counselor to serving as a U.S. Department of Transportation admiral rebuilding the transportation system in Iraq and later as a professor at the Naval War College in Newport Rhode Island - and a lot more too. In between all of this, I took a time out in life when I was 35 to attend Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley California and I have worked part-time for more than twenty years as a UU minister with several congregations on Long Island.

Because of my seagoing background, I tend to view each new chapter in my life as a new voyage, perhaps even a new voyage of discovery. Maybe I do this in part because, unlike a lot of mariners who stay on the same ship, on the same run for their entire seafaring career, I was always on a different ship on a new voyage somewhere different in the world. So, I see my newest chapter in life with the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House as yet a new voyage – and a new voyage of discovery at that.

In truth, we are all on many voyages at the same time – perhaps without even realizing it. One of the greatest scientists in human history was the British physicist, Issac Newton. Newton established laws on motion and in his first law, he noted that any object at rest will stay at rest unless it is acted on by a force. Similarly, any object that is moving will stay moving unless another force slows it down. (This is an amazing thing to contemplate – any object moving in space will never slow down. Its voyage will go on forever unless another force acts on it.)

Actually, this law applies to humans too. In our own lives, we humans are always in motion. Within the confines of time and space, we are always moving forward – from the time of our birth to the time of our death. It is true that outside forces can slow us down, or in some cases, cause us to stop for a time, but our voyage through life will always continue to its ultimate conclusion.

As social creatures, we are on multiple voyages. We are constantly on a voyage with the family of our childhood and then our adulthood. We are on a voyage with our peers in schools, with our partner or spouse, with the organizations we work for, with our communities. We are on a voyage with America as it travels through the annals of time. Humanity itself is on a voyage – from the time homo sapiens (our species) first walked the earth some 250,000 years ago forward to an unknown future. And, of course, we in this congregation are all on a voyage together. More about that later.

The earth itself is on a voyage. Earth has been traveling around the sun for some 4.5 billion years. Our sun and all its planets and all the other objects in our solar system are traveling in a grand circle around the center of our Milky Way galaxy – a voyage that takes some 250 million years. Our Milky Way galaxy in on a voyage where it orbits a common center within the cluster of galaxies it is located in. And the grandest voyage of all is the voyage of all the galaxies as they travel ever outward through an expanding universe – to places unknown. And I am quite sure there are voyages even beyond this – voyages beyond the wildest of human imagination.

As noted – Newton’s first law states that all of these voyages continue uninterrupted unless acted on by another force. But even though individual voyages may be slowed or even stopped, in the great scheme of things, these voyages all ultimately continue. The universe, as a whole, is on a great voyage. All the voyages within voyages continue. Is there an end? We do not know. I suspect not.

Human beings are creatures of discovery. We use our voyages to discover new things. From our human origins in Africa, our species has been on voyages across the world. From Africa, homo sapiens spread to Europe, then Asia, then to North America, then to Australia and finally across the vast Pacific.

Curiously, long before the European and Chinese Sailing Age of Discovery through the 15th to 18th centuries, Polynesian peoples ventured forth across the vast Pacific to find new island homes. (Unknown to many, in the 14th century, the Chinese Admiral Zheng He commanded a huge fleet of Chinese ships which explored the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and East Africa.)

And, of course, Europeans took great risks on voyages to find new lands. Yes – some voyages were efforts to exploit the riches of distant lands and to subjugate native peoples but many voyages were simply inspired by the human drive to explore the unknown – to go where no human or at least no known human had gone before. The same urge has caused humans to prod the depths of the sea, to venture to the planets. It is the desire to explore the reaches of space and to discover the mysteries of the cosmos.

But these are not the only voyages of discovery. Ancient thinkers in Greece, in India, in China, in the Middle East – explored new ideas. During the centuries on either side of 500 BCE – the so-called “Axial Age,” many of the major religions of the world were established. Prophets, gurus, shamans, philosphers and sages began grand voyages of spiritual awakening and they transformed the way human beings related to the world around them and to the ultimate forces of the universe. They began to ponder ultimate questions of who we are, why are we here and what is our destiny?

So you see – on so many levels, we humans are on, in fact, on many voyages at the same time. And as Newton’s first law on motion stipulates, since we are all in motion, we will stay in motion as long as no force acts against us. And even if it does, such forces can only slow or stop one or some of the voyages we are on. Despite anything that happens, we and the universe will continue to move forward to destinies we can only speculate on.

Through the vision and perseverance of many people in 1986 through 1996 this congregation was established including the purchase of this fantastic building. And so, the voyage of UUMH began. Through these actions, yet a new voyage within many voyages began. And now, with me joining as your minister, still another voyage is beginning. Newton’s first law of motion applies. An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted on by another force.

I like to think that ours is not just any old voyage – but a voyage of discovery – a time when we can explore ourselves, our ideas, our beliefs and challenge the things that we hold to be true and the things that we hold to be untrue.

It’s no accident in my view that the sailing Age of Discovery from the 14th to the 17th centuries was followed by the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th century. Bold sailors such as Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco de Gama, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Hernando Cortes, John Cabot, Samuel de Champlain and many others took great risks to expand the human understanding of the greater world. Because of their many voyages, these explorers caused Europeans to rethink their worldview and their place in the world. This was followed by the great thinkers in the Age of Enlightenment such as John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Thomas Paine and so many others – people who, quite literally, shaped the world we live in today.

So how does this apply to us?

Well, we can be a passenger or we can lead the voyage of our congregation and the voyage we ourselves are on as explorers.

American Unitarians and Universalists began voyages more than two hundred and thirty years ago. They began as separate denominations with very different theologies and beliefs. But their long and complex voyages brought them together in 1961.

As I tell my students of World’s Religions at Nichols College, religions and religious beliefs do not fall out of the sky. They are created and influenced by the social and political world around them and, most often, by the religions and beliefs that pervade a particular area. In the early part of the eighteenth century, a religious revival called the “Great Awakening” occurred in the American colonies. Actually, there are many parallels to what we see happening today in this country and not in a good way.

In a nutshell, people in the American colonies became disillusioned by the religious institutions of the day. In the view of many, the colonies were becoming too secular. Existing religions were, in the view of some, focusing too much on ritual and custom and less on what was deemed most important – ie: the Bible and leading a Biblical life or, at least, what was perceived as a Biblical life. Preachers across America began railing against the lack of faith, the lack of religious practice and the immoralities of colonial life. Long sermons preaching hellfire and damnation became the norm. People were condemned who did not confess their sinfulness in church and beg for forgiveness to the congregation.

In fact, a lot of the Great Awakening was a reaction against enlightenment ideas, the rise of science and a call for the reordering society based on secular laws and not religion. Probably the most quintessential preacher of the period was Jonathan Edwards who traveled throughout the colonies creating as much fear as religious fervor. His most famous sermon was “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” This three-hour sermon was so overpowering that people literally writhed in the aisles and fainted from fear. The title of the sermon pretty much summed up the three-hour narrative.

Reacting against these extreme religious views were liberal Congregationalists some who even went so far as to claim that Jesus was the son of God but not God – hence the name “Unitarian.” The Unitarian movement was born and it became popular in New England, particularly Massachusetts. Unitarians were largely comprised of well-educated and affluent people who were very influenced by enlightenment ideas.

Conversely, another movement arose among trinitarian Christians – those who believed in the trinity of “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Yet these folks did not believe in hell as most Christians at the time did, because they believed a loving God would save all his children – hence “Universalist” or universal salvation. Universalists were largely rural farmers and not well-educated. At one point, Universalists were the sixth largest denomination in the United States.

From these very different beginnings and through the 19th century, the Unitarians and the Universalists grew their theology, philosophy and their beliefs and practices of social justice. As they did, they became more and more liberal and more similar in their beliefs and outlook. In the early 20th century, both denominations embraced humanism and mostly turned away from Christian beliefs. In the later part of the 20th century, in 1961 – they merged into Unitarian Universalism and soon they began to consider religious beliefs and practices from all the world’s religions focusing on seven principles which draw from any sources. Most of you are familiar with these and they are noted in the beginning of the hymnal. But listen closely to the sources that our UU tradition draws from:

• Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;

• Words and deeds of prophetic people which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion and the transforming power of love;

• Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;

• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;

• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;

• Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

When you think about it – there is a LOT going on here because we are called to consider all of these sources which encompass a majority of all the religious ideas, philosophies, beliefs, practices, traditions, sages, seers, prophets, shamans and philosophers. No other religion I know of calls for its followers to think about all these things.

So, this is why I believe we are beginning a new voyage together because together, we will explore these sources as we learn and grow together and as we share in community together – dealing with all the challenges, celebrations, sorrows that confront us as individuals and as a congregation.

My job on our voyage together is not to convert you to anything – but it is, I believe to challenge you to think, to explore, to imagine, to expand your vision of your world, our world and the ultimate realities that surround us.

I have spent my whole life – not just my years in seminary studying history, philosophy, science and religion and I will continue to do so.

I will not endeavor to preach to you but to teach to you. I do not expect you to agree with everything I say but if I share ideas in sermons that cause you to think, to challenge your ideas to reconsider your beliefs or to affirm your beliefs, then I think I am doing my job.

Yes – I can imagine that from time to time some sermons will deal with the human condition and the world we live in. I may discuss the importance of honesty, of compassion, of social justice, of how to make a difference in the world, of the importance of loving our earth, of what is happening in a particular situation in the world and so many other similar topics. But I will always share my insights in the context of where our UU tradition draws from and from a spiritual perspective.

One of my other passions as a minister is the help people with the challenges and problems, tragedies and issues as they pass through the stages of life. I am a trained counselor with a lot of years of experience in pastoral ministry. I will always be available by phone, zoom or in person. I have already met with the Pastoral Care committee and I look forward to working with them in the years ahead.

So that you know my usual schedule, I will offer two sermons a month for ten months and one sermon a month for two months. As many of you know, my usual home is on a horse farm in Woodstock CT. (My wife, Virginia, is the equestrian.) I have a home in Brewster here on the Cape as well. On the Sundays I have a sermon, I will usually come down to the Cape on Thursday evening and return to the farm on Monday. During my days on the Cape, I will be in my office some of the time and can arrange to meet with folks here at the church or at their home – whichever is more convenient. Whenever I am home at my farm in CT, I will be available by phone, by Facetime and by zoom

In my book – “Into a Gale’s Full Fury – Stories and Reflections on my Years Sailing in the U.S. Merchant Marine in the 1970s and 1980s, I describe my first departure to sea at age 17 as an ordinary seaman and company cadet aboard the Farrell Lines freighter, the S.S. African Galaxy. This was the first ship I sailed on since coming to America at age 4 aboard the Passenger ship S.S. United States. This is – again-an analogy for how I feel on my newest voyage with you.

From the book:

Thirty minutes before sailing, “the gang” was called out. The gang included all the unlicensed deck crew, including the bosun, the carpenter, the ABs, and the OSs. Right at 1500, after taking in the gangway, the gang went fore and aft, with some of the crew, including the bosun, going forward to the bow and the rest going aft to the stern. Already on the bow was the chief mate, and on the stern, the second mate.

At the same time, longshoremen line handlers appeared on the dock to let the ship’s lines go at the direction of the chief and second mates. In came the headlines, stern lines, and after-spring line. The docking master left the forward-spring line on to prevent forward motion of the ship while the crew hauled the lines aboard. The tugs pushed gently to keep the ship alongside the dock.

Finally, the forward spring was let go, and the docking master called both tugs on his radio. “On the Mary and the Pauline, back easy.” Both tugs acknowledged with high-pitched “peep whistles,” which indicated they understood the order. Then the order “slow astern” was given on the telegraph, and the Galaxy backed into the East River. It was nearly slack water, so the effects of the current were minimal. Once in the river, the docking master called on his radio to the tug on the bow. “On the Mary, shove easy.” The tug Mary’s peep whistle blew, and black smoke poured from her stack as she pushed the bow of the Galaxy to starboard.

As the rudder was put hard right and the order half-ahead was given, the Galaxy turned to starboard on course to depart. The docking master then said his goodbyes and was escorted by the third mate to a waiting ladder held up by one of the tugboats. In a few minutes, the tugs were away from the sides of the Galaxy and on to another job.

The harbor pilot then began issuing engine and helm orders to guide the ship toward the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and sea. It’s been a long time, I pondered, but I am finally going back to sea, I was delighted.

Well – I am delighted now to begin a new voyage with you. So together, let us let go fore and aft and begin our new voyage together.

With blessings,

Reverend Christopher McMahon

UUMH

July 2024