Born Again... and Again... and Again (Quest)

[Alex]

Born Again... and Again... and Again
BY ROBERT HARDIES, SENIOR MINISTER,  ALL SOULS CHURCH, UNITARIAN,  WASHINGTON, D.C.
January 2011
Quest
http://clf.uua.org/quest/2011/01/hardies.html

...My other quarrel with being born again, though, is that it gives the mistaken impression that transformation is a one-time affair. That once you’ve come to the faith, your religious journey is over. You’re born again. You’re saved. End of story. I don’t believe this is an accurate representation of the religious life.

...So on this issue of being born again, I come down on the side of ee cummings, who once wrote: “We can never be born enough.” We can never be born enough. The soul—the curious soul, at least, the alive soul—always longs to be made new. To be ever-more whole. To be reborn. Not because we were born wrong the first time, but because we grow and learn and change. And so my wish for us is that we be born again...and again...and again. And indeed, what is our perennial New Year’s tradition of resolution making if not a small attempt to be born again...and again...and again.

That’s what we who have chosen the liberal religious path have gotten ourselves into. Because it is not a path that offers us a once and for all answer to our questions. The motto of the great 16th century Unitarian reformer, Francis David, was “semper reformanda.” Always reforming. His motto could be ours today.  ...



Alex's comment:  Evangelicals constantly urge others to be "born again".  This sermon raise a very good counter point: urging people to be born again just once is too few!  To be born again, ie, to be transformed spiritually, should be done again and again in a life-long religious journey.  基督宗教中的褔音教派時常叫人接受耶穌的救恩以「重生」。這篇講道提出一個很有趣的反論點：叫人「重生」一次太少！人生是一趟延續的靈性旅程，在途上應不斷作多次的重生（靈性更新）。