from the executive director
Rev. Ron Robinson
UU Christianity and The Edge Effect
Lent is a period for looking backward, evaluating and relinquishing, and looking forward toward Easter and re-commitment to living more fully in the image of God, especially as given to us in Jesus. This is also the time for me to re-orient toward the Big Picture, to re-focus on the Vision calling me forward, that which puts all the smaller tasks and responsibilities into the God Perspective. It is one of the reasons I look forward to Lent.
For me, the UUCF’s Big Picture is about the creation of a space. It is then an ecological metaphor. And the metaphor of the space is that of "The Edge Effect." In God's Good Creation, where nature has been allowed to live fully, there are the edge places where different bioregions converge; the forest edge, the stream, the temperate zones of the mountains, the valleys, the inlets and gulfs, the reefs, and the pathways traced by animals. Here where I live it is the meeting place of the prairie and the woodlands. In all of these places, life thrives and experi-ments and species flourish. One can experience something of the original sense of the Genesis Garden here.
And, in keeping with the biblical narrative, the edge effect can occur from crisis as well, such as from the prairie fire that allows for native plants and diversity to be restored when monocultures have taken over, which allows for more animal species to join the feast of life in these spaces. Jesus himself used so many ecological metaphors in his teach-ings and many reflect the importance of the edge effect: leaven that mixes in where it shouldn't, eating with people of all conditions, healing and being healed by those who had been cast out, mustard seeds that bring a little chaos into the orthodoxy of our lives and expectations. So the cross, a symbol of tyranny, becomes a symbol of rebellion against tyrannies, pointing to a deeper truth that the love and life of God is present and at work transforming even the cruelest and starkest places. The cross is a manifestation of this edge effect.
The UUCF, in promoting the free following of Jesus, creates an edge effect theologically in the world, and in the Unitarian Universalist spheres, and in Christianity itself. Here we create space for different theologi-cal and spiritual bioregions to converge. Where others would look at this and fear conflict and a loss of identity, and in the face of so much of God's abundance they retreat into scarcity reactions, we rejoice and our souls are grown by those of so many others. We experience Jesus in the face of others who go by different names; we learned to do this from Jesus himself. And this then is our unique species we contribute to the world around us. We give to others the gift and the presence of a generosity and a radical trust that has a particular face, one which ironically was never liter-ally drawn and preserved for the ages, but we don't have to define the shape of that face for others and for all time.
Likewise, on the other end of the spectrum, we don't stay on the outside just observing the life of the edge effect out of fear that if we go down one path in it we will miss something going on somewhere else, resulting in a life of anxiety. We know that as there is infinity in the palm of the hand and eternity in a blade of grass, that going deeper into the study of the path of Jesus will open us up to the ways of our neighbors. Even among us within the UUCF, we have our own internal edge effect as we merge our various ways of experiencing Jesus. The more we are able to do so the more we are able to help others do so. It is just like our mission to be a healing presence in the way of Jesus to those who have been hurt in the name of Jesus.
Let us remember too that Lent and all the special seasons of the life of the church are themselves ways we create edge effects in our lives and communities. These times of the year juxtapose themselves against the daily ways the culture tries to fashion our lives. As we immerse into them, as in daily prayer times, daily random acts of kindness and beauty, daily acts of sacrifice, we experience the full flourishing of God's im-ages surrounding us.
When you read what is going on in the UUCF in this newsletter, and when you get renewal letters from us, and when you are asked to give to special appeals, and when you are asked to be a part of our many planning teams, and to begin a group of two or three or more wherever you are, (and CONSIDER YOURSELF ASKED) know that what you and we do here is part of a Big Vision, something cosmic, creating space for the edge effect to happen and for God to grow among us.
Let Lent come into your life and guide you once again this year toward the spirit of the one who has created a space for God in our lives.
Blessings,
Ron Robinson
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