Standing at the Crossroads

A sermon by Kenneth P. Langer

The theme for this month is about finding our center. The idea of centering usually brings up comforting images of people who bring their focus inward and find some peace between hectic moments. The act of centering emphasizes finding our inner core somewhere between our outer obligations and our inner desires. The idea is that our center is like the middle point of a see-saw. Though the sides may move wildly up and down, the center always remains in the same place. Being at this kind of metaphorical center is comforting.

There can be times, however, when being at the center can be uncomfortable and disquieting or even downright frightening. These are the times when we may stand at an intersection where different roads converge at one point and a fateful decision has to be made. This place is the crossroads and it can be a place of fear and anxiety.

The crossroads is a single point where different pathways merge. When we reach a crossroads we have to decide which way to go. What can be most frightening is that the way we choose to go might affect all our future choices and change the story of our lives.

The crossroads creates difficult choices and an intersection of consequences. Some cultures viewed the crossroads with even more significance. For them the crossroads was a confluence of time and space while others saw it as a convergence between the earthly and the supernatural. The crossroads is a magical place, a dangerous place. It is a place that is literally neither here nor there.

There is the famous story of the blues musician of moderate ability who reaches a dusty crossroads–usually outside a small southern town. There, the musician meets the devil or a demon and makes a bargain with it. The deal is that the demon will give the musician the ability to be a great blues player but the musician must agree to give up his soul in exchange. The lives of great blues musicians like Robert Johnson who might disappear from view for days or weeks at a time and whose deaths were often tragic and sudden helped to perpetuate this myth.

This is the story of the kind of challenge that most people find when they encounter the crossroads. There is a point where several choices are available and one must be chosen. Another type of crossroads is when someone else will make a decision about you and the results of that decision will affect your life. This is the story of the Greek Fates who decide on the destinies of people or the judge in the courtroom who delivers a sentence to the convicted.

There is a third kind of crossroads which I call a cultural crossroads. It is when a group of people find that their way of life is threatened, causing them to make a change together in order to survive. Examples of modern cultural crises include climate change, racial division, the effects of colonization, and challenges to global health, just to name a few. Each of these challenges force us to reexamine our past and make different choices for the future. The stories of this kind of crossroads are ongoing. In the case of climate change we are inundated with examples of extreme temperatures, wildfires, rising oceans, and devastating storms. These things and more make us realize that our current way of doing things is reaping terrible consequences on our home planet. We stand at a crossroads between environmental disasters that could threaten the existence of much of the life on this planet or a future where all life is sustained and promoted for many centuries to come. The decision to take the better path will require a change in the way we live and the way we interact with each other and with the earth itself.

Part of the fear of standing at the crossroads is in not knowing what to do. We all reach some kind of crossroads sometime in our lives so I would like to offer you four steps for overcoming the fear and moving forward. I call these tools Centering, Gathering, Mapping and Acting.

The first step is the theme of the month: Centering. Before taking any steps forward it helps to stop and take a breath–or maybe several breaths. Sometimes in those moments of silence and reconnection with ourselves we may receive an epiphany. An epiphany was originally a divine appearance but now often refers to a revelation or sudden insight. In the act of centering we may receive wisdom.

The second step for moving forward at a crossroads is Gathering. This is done by taking the time to carefully gather as much information as possible about all the possibilities and consequences involved with each path ahead. If possible, this is also the time to actively seek wise counsel in the absence of any epiphany.

The third step is called mapping. This is where you take a close look at all the paths available to you including the path that brought you where you are and any alternative paths you may not have considered before. Sometimes alternatives arise when you consider which ways you definitely do not want to go. At this stage you should consider your own personal values and goals. Avoid what other people say you should do just because that is what they would do or because that is what ought to be done. You will need to move forward based on what really matters to you and those who may be affected by your choices.

The last step, Acting, is when you make a decision and take the actual steps forward down a new path. It sounds like the simplest step but is often the most difficult.

The reason I am telling you all this is because I stand before you at a crossroads in my own life. In a few short months, the UUA’s Ministerial Formation Committee or MFC will listen to me give a sermon then interview me and make a decision on whether or not I should be accepted into fellowship with the UU Ministers Association. Now, UU polity being what it is, any UU church can ordain and hire any person they want at any time they want. As a friend of mine once said, you could ordain and hire the church cat as your next minister if you want. But the tradition has become that most UU churches ordain people after being accepted into fellowship and, usually, only ordained ministers are hired for full time ministry. That, of course, makes a decision made by the MFC very significant–a crossroads.

The crossroads where I am now is an example of the second type: someone is making a decision about me but it came about because of another crossroads I encountered in 2019–just before the pandemic struck. In that difficult time I had to determine how I was going to move forward and I chose the path of ministry.

So now, here I am with you at the crossroads and I take a moment to center. [deep breath] With you I hope to gather information. I am looking to you to be like the three kings or the wise people who bring forth an epiphany, for some version of this sermon will be the one I will present to the MFC and some version of me will appear before them. I welcome your wise counsel on either topic.

As I begin the mapping process of this important life intersection I want to look back on what brought me to this point. I want to ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies, walk in it, and find rest for my soul. I remember that one thing that was important to me was that I wanted to make some small positive difference in my later years. You see, I believe that religion has been the cause of many of our current cultural crises.

If you believe that there is a separate being out there who can hand out favor to one group of people over another then you will naturally assume it is your people who are favored and will then work to oppress and marginalize all others. If you believe that a supreme being distinct from the earth has given us this planet to do with as we wish then we will take from the earth without giving back until it has been hopelessly disfigured. If you believe that only one religion must be the correct path for everyone then you will create borders and walls to keep the right people in and the wrong people out. You will refuse to work with those others and you might even disregard any well researched scientific advice that could help avoid being destroyed by a meteorological devastation or a world health crisis.

And though I believe that religion has brought us to these cultural crossroads, I also believe that religion can be one of the ways to get us to a better future beyond these terrible pathways. Such a religion needs to respect all spiritual traditions and all the people who work together within them. Such a religion needs to value all people in the world without qualifications. Such a religion needs to honor and respect all the beings and elements of the living earth as well as the universe that envelops it. Such a religion needs to value the search for truth and freedom of conscience. Such a religion would not see the sacred as a separate entity but as an inner truth fully accessible and realized by all. Such a religion would promote compassion and community regardless of identity, philosophy, practice, or origin.

I firmly believe Unitarian Universalism is such a religion–not the only one, mind you–but the one with whom I feel called. What brought me to this place and this time is the hope that I can in some small way be part of the solution rather than the problem. In veneration to Robert Frost, I wish to take the road less traveled by and hope that it will make all the difference. I look forward to hearing from you as I stand at his crossroad.

In the name of that which you hold in your heart to be most sacred, may it be so.