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That Transcending Mystery and Wonder
"The living tradition we share draws from many sources: 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." (First Source from UUA Principles and Purposes)
I think we have here a veiled reference to that three letter "G" word that many Unitarian Universalists have difficulty affirming or acknowledging theologically or liturgically, except, as the joke goes, when the Sexton hits his thumb with a hammer. Then you can bet he won't exclaim, "Oh That Transcending Mystery and Wonder!" He's going to say, "O God!" and then some. The trick is how to acknowledge the Transcendent without actually saying the "G" word.
Adherents of the 12-Step programs call it their Higher Power or a power greater than oneself. The ancient Hebrews would never utter the name of God, Yahweh, but would interpolate or insert the word LORD or Adonai in its place. Even today Jewish writers will only write "Gd" and leave out the vowel. The name of God is too holy to write or utter. I think this first source from our UUA Principles is our attempt to do something similar. Sometimes, however, it’s just not possible and God comes back into our speech to express the depth of emotion we feel in the face of life's profoundest mysteries and wonders, both joyous and tragic: birth and death, love and beauty, suffering and passion. "O God!" we say, and no other word can quite take its place.
This first source is also an indirect acknowledgment of our New England transcendentalist heritage, which emphasized intuition, and the authority of personal experience of nature and the divine. With Einstein and Rachel Carson we would all affirm that without a sense of mystery and wonder about life and this incredible universe in which we live we are spiritually dead. With Emerson we are called to become newborn bards of the Holy Spirit, to acquaint ourselves at first-hand with deity, to have an original relation to the universe. We begin by acknowledging "that transcending mystery and wonder which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life."
They asked the Psalmist, "Where is your God?" Likewise, we ask ourselves where are we to find that transcending mystery and wonder? It is none other than the power of being in the farthest galaxy and the spark of life deep within the human soul, so far and yet so near, far beyond what we can ever be or become, yet closer to us than breathing, nearer than hands and feet. It is the One of a thousand names, yet ever nameless. It is within you, within me, within the friend, the stranger and the enemy. It is that which makes us one though we are many.
Deep within each and every one of us there is a holy yearning for union with that which has no name. You are our deepest and truest self, yet you are more. You are the fullness of being. You are the life that has no end. You are the mystery that cannot be named, unutterable and unfathomable, yet you are present on the edge of every word that has ever been spoken, silence springing into speech. You are the face behind every face, animal and human, yet no one has ever seen you. Lift up our faltering hearts that we might feel your presence deep within us. Be in our hands that we might touch you who are beyond all touch. Be in our eyes and ears that we might perceive you in all the wonders of your manifest creation. Be in our minds that the source and goal of our thoughts will lead us to the center of all being which is our true home forever one with thee.
(Richard M. Fewkes – President, UU Psi Symposium)
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