CALL TO WORSHIP
Immanence and Transcendence: Finding the Divine Here or There?
San José First Unitarian Church
July 20, 2014
I first started coming to this church 25 years ago, drawn by our shared spiritual history and focus on American Transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau, which grew on my own spiritual tradition of Christianity and exploring Taoism and Cha’n Buddhism.
But as much as this church served my own intellectual and community-based pursuit of the divine, I always felt closest to God on a mountain top, or watching the waves, listening to birds, sleeping under a clear sky or even helping others through my work in government and non-profits.
So now I’m back, after nearly a decade away, to explore anew with all of you this paradoxical duality:
Is God out there or right here?
Do we find the divine beyond us or within us?
Is it the Father above or the Mother Earth?
Come, let us worship together.
But as much as this church served my own intellectual and community-based pursuit of the divine, I always felt closest to God on a mountain top, or watching the waves, listening to birds, sleeping under a clear sky or even helping others through my work in government and non-profits.
So now I’m back, after nearly a decade away, to explore anew with all of you this paradoxical duality:
Is God out there or right here?
Do we find the divine beyond us or within us?
Is it the Father above or the Mother Earth?
Come, let us worship together.