Recent Sermon

Title

Flying Home:

The Five Big Questions

by Rev. Ken Langer

First Church of Barre, Universalist

Date

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Sermon

In 1943, during the Second World War, the Germans occupied a small town in southern Italy and the Allied forces were determined to take it from them. English forces surrounded the town while the American military planned a bombing strike. The British were persistent and didn’t wait for the air strike to begin their attack. They eventually took the town but the victory also meant that they were now targets of an impending American bombing raid. To make matters worse, radio communications were out and there was no way to stop the Americans from bombing the British. There were, however,  a handful of carrier pigeons the English kept on hand for such emergencies. 

One particular pigeon named G.I. Joe was given an important message and was tossed into the air. Amid the bombings, the gunfire, the explosions, the screaming, the wind, the smoke, and every other possible distraction, G. I. Joe flew into the air, found his way home, and successfully delivered his message to the Americans just before they were about to launch their attack. How is this possible? How can a small bird find its way through such chaos and know which direction to go? How does it get to its particular destination without a map, a GPS system, a smart phone, or a screaming back seat driver? What moral and religious lessons can we derive from this story? None. It’s just a story. Besides, haven’t you heard? Religion is dead.

That’s the headline written across the blogs and websites and other numerous postings. Religion is dead. Ever since Friederick Nietzsche declared that God was dead in 1882 there has been an ongoing barrage of reports about the end of religion as we know it. But, as is often the case, those who wish to make a name for themselves by offering grand proclamations over simplify the issue. 

Religion, like any label, can mean a variety of things. To some it is an alternative for what I would more closely classify as spirituality. For others it represents the institutions that support a particular theology. There are also those who use religion as the moniker for their particular tribe of political and social relationships. Often, those folks claim to practice a particular religion but do little to actually follow its ethical teachings. They are the ones who like to display grandiose symbols of faith but exhibit none of that faith’s actual practices of compassion and fellowship.

Some like to don the robes of religion because they want others to view them as righteous and good while others simply want to be part of the holy crowd. That sort of superficial religion is actually on the rise. The adherents of the church of convenience continue to grow while religion dependent on particular institutions IS in decline. (1) However, spirituality, or the individual search for purpose and meaning in the world, is on the rise. Approximately 70% percent of Americans say they are spiritual while less than 40% regularly attend a religious service.(2)

What is the reason for this? Why do Americans avoid religious institutions yet clamor for spiritual enrichment? Why do so many say they are not religious but find it important to announce that they are spiritual? For me, spirituality is an individual’s pursuit of understanding and connection to the greater or wider truth while two or more people engaged in a similar spiritual path, to me, is religion. As long as we seek answers to the big questions of life, whether independently or in community, religion is not dead. People need to understand why and what they are or they become lost and despondent.

Humans have the unique (we believe) capability of being able to recall events from the past and to imagine events in the future. We seek to make sense of the past through stories, myths, and parables while we imagine positive outcomes in the future through dreams, hopes, and aspirations. We attempt to connect threads of comprehension between events in the past to possibilities in the future and then we work to expand our vision to a time before our own births and after our own deaths. We want the arrow of time to make sense, to point to something meaningful and significant. We want to understand the purpose of our arrival, our journey, our explorations, our impacts, our departure, and the legacy we will leave behind. Aristotle, in the introduction to his book entitled Metaphysics, said that all human beings by nature desire to understand.

Like the carrier pigeon thrown into the air, before we can know where we are going we have to first know from where we have come and where we are in the world both physically and historically. We are part of a place and part of a story - the Great Story - of which we are each the characters helping to unfold it. We need to be aware of what is happening around us while we stay true to our own inner compass. Regardless of all of our perceived differences, disagreements, identities, grievances, or distinctions we are all on the same journey. We are all trying to get through and make sense of troubled times. We are all trying to make our way through the smoke, the explosions, the noise, and the confusion to find our way home.

We all have the same questions though we may arrive at different answers. In fact, there are at least five questions that are the foundations for discovering who we are and where we are going. We all ask them and we all answer them even if we simply grasp on to the solutions of others. Socrates once said that the unexamined life is not worth living. To truly live our own authentic lives we should be willing to explore our own answers to these questions.

There are at least five important questions with which we should each come to terms. I call them the Big Five and they are: 1) Where did we come from? 2) What is the nature of humanity? 3) What is the purpose of our existence? 4) How should we live? and 5) Where are we going?

The first question (Where did we come from?) seeks to understand the origin of the Great Story. We want to apprehend the ultimate reality of the universe and know who or what is in charge. This is the domain of the mysterious, the realm of the gods, or the province of the laws of nature. Our answer to this question tends to create a philosophical envelope that will enfold the rest of our succeeding answers. 

The second question (What is the nature of humanity?) seeks to define who we are both as a society and as individuals. We want to know why we exist and the meaning we can derive from that understanding. 

The third question (What is the purpose of our existence?) is how we set up a goal post or a direction for us to follow. It is like finding the trail marker at the start of a long hike. 

The fourth question (How should we live?) is an attempt to guide our decisions in life and align them with our chosen direction. This is where we determine or incorporate our values and our morality. With the answers so far determined we need to know how to embody our model of the universe. 

The fifth and final question (Where are we going?) concerns the mystery of our ultimate destiny. We all know our story will end one day but we are unsure if there is more beyond that conclusion and what, if any, are the implications for our remaining chapters.

These five big questions are also the fundamental mysteries that all religious and spiritual traditions attempt to answer. Each provides its own unique answers derived from its originating culture and the conditions from which it was formed. It is my intention to explore how many of the world’s religious traditions attempt to answer these questions and how their answers inform their view of the world and those of us who live within it. In several upcoming sermons I hope to present to you an overview of different spiritual traditions. I do not claim to do justice to any tradition that may be thousands of years old but it is my hope that I can open a small window on many of them so that we may expand our own perspectives. The more we understand this complex and noisy world the more we can make sense of it and fly our way through.

Notes

1. How Religion Declines Around The World - The Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/09/02/how-religion-declines-around-the-world.

2. Spirituality Among Americans - Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/12/07/spirituality-among-americans.

Sources

Quotes

• “The ultimate measure of any theology rests in its ability to transform character and inspire people to lead more ethical lives, towards improving the well being of others and our world.” ~ Rev. Forrest Church

• "Man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life.” ~ Viktor Frankl

Other Sermons

Additional sermons as well as music and other creations can be seen on my  YouTube channel.

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