Summertime is upon us, with a vengeance. The last days of May have been triple-digit and record-setting. I am reminded of the fundamentalist Christian church that put out a sign that commented wryly, "So you think it's hot up here." And we can laugh doubly, because as liberal Unitarian Universalists we don't believe in hellfire, and the founders of our religions were particularly upset by the Puritan notion that God would roast his children for their transgressions.

    The more humanistic interpretation, by liberal Christians, of the doctrine of punishment for sins is that we make our own heaven or hell right here on earth during our own lifetimes and thereby enjoy the consequences of our behavior in the here and now. This is a doctrine not unlike the advanced Buddhist concept of karma, which went beyond the Hindu description of "karma" in which you are repaid for your behavior in your next lifetime, enjoying or suffering your next incarnation. For "protestant" Buddhists, karma comes in your own lifetime. And you can even enjoy enlightenment in this lifetime and become a living saint.

    William Blake, the mystic poet and artist, declared that "Man has no Body distinct from his Soul" and put forward the doctrine that "Good is Heaven.  Evil is Hell." We can make our own life a living hell, or choose to bring heaven into our daily affairs through loving kindness, mercy, and benevolence. I think that, like so many things, it begins at home.

    May your households be blessed by patience, the virtue that makes all the other virtues possible.

 

Yours in faith,

        John

The Reverend John LeRoy