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December 2002 Sermons
December 8, 2002 SermonRev. Nancy D. Dean December 8, 2002 (This homily followed our UUSMC children presenting their Annual Children’s Service with songs about diversity, peace and justice, for the holiday season and all year through.) Teaching Children Real Diversity, Peace & Justice in the Holidays We in this congregation have always understood the importance of caring for the children who come here, and that we are doing an invaluable service for them and for ourselves in remembering that we should “raise them up in the way they should go,” a Biblical allusion not lost on this congregation. Perhaps it was the teaching of Jesus about children that I grew up with that has had the most profound effect on me, for it seems so obvious that it is true. Jesus is reported to have said, as we read in the Gospel of Luke in the Christian New Testament: “Suffer the little children to come unto me and prevent them not, for such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” To bring it to a modern vernacular, Jesus says: Don’t keep the children away from me, the teacher, don’t stop them from wanting to learn, for the children, the innocent, the honest, the questioning children, are most like those in Heaven. My own career roots are in the education of small children, and I have never ceased to be amazed at their willingness to ask the obvious, often the obvious that escapes their parents, or other caretakers. We parents will often go to great lengths to protect our children from what we believe are unpalatable truths, yet the children, given half a chance, will usually ask the very questions that we as adults are least willing to examine. It is a common event here at Mill Creek to have people come here precisely because the children are asking: Who/what is god? Why do bad things happen to me or to good people? Why was I born? Why do people die? Many parents bring their children because they suddenly realize that maybe having a chorus of voices, education we call it, is the best way for their children to learn. They want to tell their children the truth, but often parents are afraid that they do not know the truth, and want to find it for themselves, as well. These are very good reasons for becoming part of a religious community: to learn what is good and true and important to pass on to our children and others. The music that the children gave as their offering to us this morning has much truth to impart. These are the things that we need to give our children. After all, what can be more important than teaching the children of this UU community that diversity is a reality of the world. We see it all around us. There is, for example, no single precious kind of tree or flower, and this diversity is repeated throughout the world in people, ideas, culture practices, spiritual beliefs, and religions. In fact, this the most wonderful message we can impart for the holidays, which in and of themselves are what the holidays teach, and that is that people can be wonderfully creative, be good, be spiritually diverse, but, still, the single message that unites us is that we all need love and understanding. We can never do more, and should never do less, than to tell children the truth, and to teach our own children, and those who are placed in our charge that we value diversity of people, thought and practice; of course, with the caveat--as long as those people and practices do not devalue us. And, this is equally important, it is okay to say: I don’t know, when asked questions that do indeed extend beyond our own knowledge. For children need to learn that we do not know everything. For if we teach our children that things are true that we only wish were true, they will find us out eventually. Jerry Seinfeld said: “Once you survive growing up, the next step is to have your own kid. It’s major point. I think you are at a certain level when everyone you know pretty much as caught on to you. You need to create a new person, someone who doesn’t know anything about you. You have a kid, the relationship if off to a great start. You give the kid food and toys, and immediately, they are very impressed with you.” The other side of the story is best said by a humorist of an earlier, certainly far less accepting, or tolerating, that is the Victorian age, Oscar Wilde, who said in the sad story The Picture of Dorian Gray: “Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.” Children represent many things to us: love, hope, the future, a second chance (this is not always positive). They also are the brain-trust for the future, that is, what we adults in their lives pass on to them by way of family, teachers, friends, mentors, caring congregation is what they will pass on to the next generation. Train them up in the way they should go is the idea. So we ask: What do we want them to have of us to take forward into the future? We do not want to give them our falsehoods, our prejudices, our hatreds, our self-centered pleasure-seeking or loathing. We want to give them lots of love, an understanding of freedom, faith in possibility, hope, and a belief in the value of other people, ideas, ways of being religious. That is the goal of this Unitarian Universalist community, that we really pass on the teachings of our Principles. Love is the message of the holidays. Love is the message of the caring family. Love is our message in this UU community of faith. So be it. |
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