I won’t lie to you, I’m about as nervous today as I ever have been giving a sermon. I have a few friends here today (they’re the people the rest of y’all don’t recognize), so I’ll try not to worry too much.

I don’t usually start sermons by giving you the blow-by-blow of what I’ve been doing lately, but I’ll make an exception, cause it’s worth mentioning.

This the sixth city, in the third state, in the last six weeks that I’ve attended or led Unitarian Universalist services. From Amarillo to Austin to Salt Lake City to College Station to Little Rock to here, I feel like I’ve become one of the old circuit riders.

But today, here and now, I’m excited to be right here with y’all. Outside of my home church in College Station, this is the first time I’ve returned to a church to preach a second time. Which means I either did all right the first time last October, or that the person who asked me wasn’t here the first time I preached. Either way, it’s good to be here.

I’m here today to tell you that it matters what you believe. I’m here to tell you that it matters what you do with that life, and that it matters why you do it. It matters.

Too often we are dismissive of our religion. Being non-creedal, we mistakenly assume that the things we do believe in common aren’t important. And nothing could be farther from the truth. Nothing could be farther. What we believe in common is vital, and it’s my goal today to tell you some of that, to set a framework that we share and that all our personal theologies can fit into.

In short, yes, I’ve come to you today to talk about theology. I know, I wasn’t expecting a thundering round of applause from you at the mere mention of the word. That’s ok. But whether you realize it or not, it’s probably the reason you’re here today, too.

Cause here’s the secret. There are good people, good communities of faith, friendly, caring, wonderful people in so many of the dozens and dozens of churches right here a few blocks from us. Really, there are. Not all of these churches, but a lot of them.

And if that was all I was looking for, that would be great. But it’s not.

I’m a Unitarian Universalist because I know, I know, that this is the only religious community I can honestly, truly be a part of. And I’m guessing a lot of you folks are like me: if Unitarian Universalism didn’t exist, you wouldn’t be a member of any church.

I’m here, standing before you as a Unitarian Universalist minister in the making, because I believe in Unitarian Universalism. I believe that we have a vital, life-saving message. And it’s not that you can believe just anything you want to believe, and that’s a terrible way to promote our vision of religion. We are a faith community, not just a collection of refugees. It’s important to remember that, or to realize it for the first time if you haven’t yet. Unitarian Universalism has something to offer you, and not’s just a friendly, loving refuge from the rest of the world. It’s a way to live your life.

So yeah, it’s theology that I want to talk to you about today. Theology is the study of our relationship to the divine. It’s what we think about our relationship to what is sacred, to our fellow humans, to all of existence in its vastness. And then, and then, it’s about what we do about that, how we live our lives in a way that makes sense with our understanding of that relationship.

But Unitarian Universalist theology isn’t about belief in God or not, though I like to talk about my own theology by using that term. Just like it’s not about whether or not you think Jesus died to save us all, as the hymn goes. Just like it’s not about Goddess, unless that’s helpful for you, or Ganesh, or Buddha, or the Dao. I’m not here to talk about any of those things, because I think there’s something more important, something that all of us in this room today share.

But today, here, right now, I’m going to tell you some of what I believe and why it’s important that we all believe it. It’s not new, what I’m going to tell you, and it’s not my own work, but it’s the truth as I see it, handed down not from on high but from one of us, a fellow believer in the gospel of Unitarian Universalism.

Now, if you’re a student of Unitarian Universalist history or theology, you might already know where I’m going with this. I didn’t pick the story of David and Goliath just because I like it. You see, it was the inspiration for the title of one of the most important works of Unitarian theology of the last century, a piece by James Luther Adams called the Five Smooth Stones of Liberal Religion.

In the story, David carefully selects five smooth stones from a dried riverbed to use in his fight against Goliath. James Luther Adams’ five smooth stones are his explanation of the characteristics that define liberal religion and differentiate it from other religions. In short, they are the specific tools that make our religion what it is.

1. Revelation is not sealed.
2. All relations between persons ought ideally to rest on mutual, free consent and not coercion.
3. We have a moral obligation to direct our effort toward the establishment of a just and loving community.
4. Denial of the immaculate conception of virtue and affirmation of the necessity of social incarnation. Good must be consciously given form and power within history.
5. The resources (divine and human) that are available for achievement of meaningful change justify an attitude of ultimate (but not necessarily immediate) optimism. There is hope in the ultimate abundance of the Universe.

And knowing that is just the beginning. It’s our responsibility, our imperative, our duty as Unitarian Universalists to live out our faith in our church, our community, our lives and our world. We have to make the peaceful and loving community. We have to make good things happen. We have to decide how to live right lives, to live in right relationship with all people, all existence.

We’ll disagree sometimes about the right way to do that, but we should never disagree about the reasons. We believe that positive change is possible, and that it’s our duty to make it happen.

I spoke to the Rev. Burton Carley a couple weeks ago at General Assembly, and I asked if he was relieved to be coming off the UUA board of trustees. He said yes, and then he explained. He said, “I tell my congregation all the time that they have to choose where they are going to spend their courage.” For the last 10 years, Rev. Carley has been spending a lot of his courage, and his energy, and his time, in Boston working for the national movement. And he said it was time for him to come back to his church and spend his courage there.

You have to choose where you will spend your courage. You have to choose where you will spend your courage.

David made his choice. He picked his battle, decided where he was going to make his stand. Now it’s your turn. Choose where you will spend your courage.