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November 2004 Sermons
November 7, 2004 SermonRev. Nancy D. DeanNovember 7, 2004Lessons from Humpty Dumpty: Where do We go from Here?Mahatma Gandhi once said: Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.... With the election over, and most of my sermon written in advance, it is worth being reminded that this is but one election among many that all have counted, and there are many more to come that all will count, too. Still, we are a nation of winners; that’s how we think of our nation for the most part, and it is just this sort of unity we need right now. There are a lot of people who are very happy with the results of this election, but almost as many who are not. This is what worried George Washington and John Adams about our two party system, that the country would be come so divided that it might polarize the country into supreme in-effectiveness. So the question of this sermon is: Where do we go from here? Will we go on to work to win or continue to win for our side, or do we look for ways to come together. What I find most perplexing is that this country went, in the space of two and a half years, from being the most united we have been at any time in our history, to being nearly as divided as we have ever been save the Civil War. This is not the time to find ways to become even more divided, or more divisive, but a time to pick up the pieces, to get on with the real work of community, cooperation, and working for peace both at home and abroad. When some months back I was contemplating an appropriate sermon to follow the election, regardless of the results, the Humpty Dumpty rhyme of our youth came to mind. Now this little rhyme has an interesting history, and I hope will serve as a spiritual metaphor for us in these days as we go forward under the leadership of the duly elected President of the United States. We all learned the rhyme this way: Humpty dumpty sat on a wall In Martin Gardner’s comments in The Annotated Mother Goose, the Humpty Dumpty rhyme is a riddle. Riddles, and riddles in rhymes, have been a very popular source of entertainment for many ages. The answer to the Humpty Dumpty riddle is of course an egg. It really is not until the appearance of Lewis Carrol’s Through a Looking Glass, that we have the image of Humpty Dumpty as a personified egg sitting up on his wall. According to one source: Now Lewis Carrol, the pen-name of Charles Dodgson (1832-1898) while best known for his Alice in Wonderland stories, who was one of the those so-termed Renaissance men, because of their wide range of abilities, was a first a mathematician, but also a logician, philosopher, writer, photographer, and a Church of England (Anglican) minister. So he knew a lot about a lot, versus most of us who know a little about a little. So he was well-versed in the history of England as well, which is really where the Humpty Dumpty rhyme originates. As one source states regarding the various theories about the origin of Humpty Dumpty: One is from the name of a cannon during the English Civil War. The
English Civil War was a civil war fought between Charles I, king of England,
Scotland and Ireland, and his supporters, and the Long Parliament, led by
Oliver Cromwell [remember Cromwell was the devout Puritan who had all the
statues in the churches heads hacked off]. It began in the summer of 1642
and continued in England until early 1649, when Charles I was tried and
executed by members of Parliament. Wars continued in Scotland and Ireland
until 1651. Not being the only civil war fought in England or Britain it is
sometimes referred to as the English Revolution and (especially in Royalist
circles) as the Great Rebellion. In another theory, Humpty Dumpty referred to King Richard III [of the mid-15th Century] and the last king from the House of York. After the death of his brother Edward IV, Richard briefly governed as a regent for Edward's son Edward V, but he imprisoned Edward and his brother Richard in the Tower and acquired the throne for himself (crowned on July 6, 1483). A rebellion rose against Richard and he fell in the Battle of Bosworth Field, where he faced the Earl of Richmond (later Henry VII). Shakespeare's historical play Richard III has made his name particularly famous.
King Richard was said to be small and hunchbacked; further, his horse was named Wall, and during the battle of Bosworth Field, he fell off of his horse and was reported to have been hacked into pieces. I prefer the cannon story as the more likely, but take your pick. While we can say politics has improved somewhat from those days, one has long thought the only virtue of wars of the past is that the leaders, the Kings and rulers, went out to fight them alongside their soldiers. I would like to see that the model today. I suspect our wars would be far fewer and shorter. I should own up that when it comes to politicians, I’m a bit of cynic. H.L. Mencken said something to the effect that a cynic is a person who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. My own personal bias is that regardless of political parties politicians are always put in the impossible role of trying to be all things to all people, and if not all, at least too many things to too many people. Someone, I think probably Will Rogers, who was also a cynic about politicians, said: A politician is a guy who shakes your hand before an election and your confidence afterwards. So I came to this sermon with my somewhat cynical views that politicians in general are a group of people who, like children, need encouragement, discipline, and a lot of supervision. That is where you and I and every voter, every citizen, come in; where you and I and every citizen are entrusted with the role of all king’s horses and all the king’s men. We are the ones who have to figure out how to put the pieces back together, or we have to figure out if we must do something else altogether. Right now we are hearing a lot of disgruntled responses from the losing side, but that is not terribly productive. It may release some pent up steam, but the old tradition in this country of the candidates shaking hands, and the loser congratulating the winner, is something meant for us to emulate. It is time to put aside rancor and get on with the business of doing the right things with our lives. Some will view the win as an unencumbered road ahead, which will be a mistake. Some will view the loss as a road going in the wrong direction, which will also be a mistake. Such cut and dried, simplistic thinking serves no one well. For the truth is far more complex. Those who are the winners have a huge responsibility to live up to the claims and promises of the election. This is a country at war with an elusive enemy. A war on terror is not like a war with Germany: there are no boundaries, no easily identified enemy, no single place that houses the leadership. And amidst all this terrible war that is claiming lives now in the tens of thousands, we have economic concerns here at home-big concerns. We have way too many jobs going overseas, with fairly weak jobs replacing them; we have over 45,000,000 people (the equivalent of the population of 12 states) without any kind of health insurance; schools that need proper funding; college costs through the roof; environmental issues on all sides. It would not have mattered who was elected, this would be what either man would face, and what George Bush faces now. So winning this election is not winning in every sense; it is primarily winning the opportunity for the one elected to do what s/he think is the best way to handle all these problems. Now I believe that both Kerry and Bush care about our country. We all care about our country. Do you know anybody who does not? But our politicians are people who care about different things, and believe in different ways to accomplish various goals. Ministers, on the other hand, are people who believe that there is essentially one way to achieve different goal: it requires a great deal of cooperation, communication, and truth-telling. And that is why ministers are rarely politicians. But without a certain degree of shepherding, or pastoring, a politician will soon, to follow through with my metaphor, fall off the wall s/he climbed up on. Speaking of government, cynics, and Humpty Dumpty, comedian Jay Leno said: A new report from the government says raw eggs may have salmonella and may be unsafe. In fact, the latest government theory says it wasn't the fall that killed Humpty Dumpty-he was dead before he hit the ground. From a scene in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, Humpty is speaking: "There's glory for you!" I would not envy any person the role of President of the United States; it is a role too big, too onerous, too like Humpty sitting on the narrow wall. Especially these days of instant communication when a politician can say one wrong word-like Dan Quayle and the infamous potato with an e remark-and be forever marked. All the things these political people say come home to haunt them at every election. That is rather my idea of hell. I would hate to be haunted by my misstatements, wrong facts, and incomplete thoughts. I remember once saying in a sermon of four or five years ago that something was said by a Chinese philosopher 10,000 years ago; clearly a misprint in my manuscript that should have said 1000, for we do not have any recorded history from 10,000 years ago. I caught the error in proofreading it later for the final draft to go to the website, but I remembered I said it, and still remember it. Goodness only knows what other errors I have made that I did not catch, though no doubt many of you did. Being a politician, though, is an honor, a privilege, but a great burden, as well; that is, for those who go to truly serve their constituents in the case of most elected officials. But the President is elected to serve all of us. What a very narrow wall to sit upon. Party politics is an opportunity to choose a side, and we are a nation of sports lovers who like to be on a winning side, so it is not surprising we approach elections like fans of the Red Sox and the Yankees. Still, I find much of party politics that is unsavory-the cynic in me again. I often agree with Will Rogers’ statement: The more you read and observe about this politics thing, you've got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The Democrats held sway in this country for many years, with the Republicans have been enjoying the same position for the most of the last twenty years with four more to come, and we are still struggling with most of the same problems. Which tells me that politics and politicians will never lead us to any land of milk and honey. True we get closer under some presidents than others, and we have seen the parties shift from conservative to liberal and back again over the course of our two-plus centuries. So the whole system follows a social pendulum of sorts, moving from conservative to liberal and back again. The real difference comes from people, the constituencies at large, we the people who in order to form a more perfect union elect one set of people who seem to get us further along toward the values that most of us hold dear, then we believe that a change is needed, and we elect a different set, and so it goes. That is the work of cleaning up after the various Humpty Dumptys we elect to govern us, for they all are climbing on the wall in seeking and winning elected office. Bill Clinton often has said that the best thing that ever happened to him as a politician was losing his second election for Governor of Arkansas. He learned what humility in government means. Of course, he didn’t learn that lesson well enough, but he did learn that you cannot take the people for granted. Herein lies the real message, the deeply spiritual message of Humpty Dumpty: that the real power lies in knowing your strengths and your weaknesses. That is true for our elected officials and it is true for you and me. Regardless of whether you are happy or disillusioned as a result of the Presidential election, or the Governor’s election, or any of the other offices to which your heart was tied, you are no more finished just because you pushed the Vote button than they are who won the most votes. All the reasons that led you to vote need to be the reasons that keep you active, engaged, and involved in the governing of the country. Voting is the first step, but it ought not be the only step. You and I have the power by virtue of the pen (which we have been taught rightly is mightier than the sword) to write your elected officials and tell them what you think. You and I have the power of assembly, guaranteed by the Constitution, to gather with others to enact important legislation. You and I have the ability to think and act not just on election day, but every day, and this is what it means to be a spiritual, a religious person: that we think about the greater good, not just our own self-interest, and we act in accordance. If I were a traditional Christian minister, I would say, the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded that we love one another; but as a Unitarian, I say in consonance with Jesus, that we think and do best when we do love one another. That is truth, a spiritual truth that reigns above all the political promises and back-biting which reminds us we have a higher goal. That goal is a values goal that says we need to care about all people and find the best ways to deal with the evil and the suffering of humanity. These great truths do not change, and when a people or a group or a leader forgets the spiritual truths of life, downfall is imminent, and unhappiness assured. I know a lot of people are unhappy because their candidates lost in the different contests of this past Tuesday. It hurts to lose, but the pain can be destructive or constructive. Norm Crosby, a comedian who was famous for malapropisms, once said: If your eyes hurt after you drink coffee, try taking the spoon out of the cup. I suggest that if your pain is so great that you cannot see the possibilities that lie ahead, then consider that we always have something we can do to make the world a better place. We always have something we can do that we voted for someone else to do for us. Every end is but a beginning, we are reminded by the poet T.S. Eliot. This is the beginning of another four years under President George W. Bush, and this is also an opportunity to act based on your spiritual values to be engaged. Or, my friends, you and I can do what a lot of people will do, and sit back and do nothing, or complain, or find excuses, and assume that you can keep drinking with the spoon in the cup. But, if we really believe our values are the ones that need to guide this country, we will be a people of faith who know that each day is a day to act, a day to hope, a day to give, a day to engage, and a day to love. So be it.
November 14, 2004 SermonRev. Nancy D. DeanNovember 14, 2004Honoring the Spirit in OthersSome years ago I did a sermon on Diwali which was celebrated this past week and is the Hindu Festival of Lights. Diwali (Divali) is a festival for the Goddess Lakshimi the source of health, fertility and prosperity, and her consort, Vishnu, the preserver. The focus is on peacemaking and new beginnings of this the Hindu lunar New Year. That year I taught the children the greeting namasté. Palms together, gently bowing, Hindus greet one another saying, namasté, which is translated as I honor the light in you. That sermon focused on considering how we each might also honor the light within ourselves, but today my sermon is focused on honoring the spirit in others. Much of the language of religion and spirituality is perforce repetitious, for our language always falls short of fully expressing all that one might like to convey about this very important part of our human experience. We talk about the light within, the light of life, the fire of faith, and so on. However, because we are dealing with emotions, we are always struggling to find the words that will fully encompass what we mean. There is always so much ambiguity; the concepts of love, hope, faith, charity all leave us grasping for full expression. When computers were first really catching on, and the first Apples and PCs entered our world, about twenty-five or thirty years ago, there were idealists who thought that computers would solve all our problems, but the one thing that quickly became clear was that computers are only as good as their human creators and human operators. The science fiction writer Isaac Asimov who had no such foolish notions despaired of the ability of computers to even act as linguistic translators. He noted: Computers have been developed which can translate one language into another. Ideally, if the translated passage were then translated by computer back into the first language, the original words ought to be regained. This, however, does not allow for the ambiguity of languages. Thus, there is the story of the computer that was ordered to translate a common English phrase into Russian and then translate the Russian translation back into English. I understand the expression, ‘The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,’ came back from Russian into English as ‘The vodka is cooperative, but the meat is inferior.’ So when it comes to addressing this topic of honoring the spirit in others, I feel the ambiguity of the language in these terms honor and spirit, and of the plurality, the multiplicity, of spiritual expression. We saw Annika earlier doing the lovely Indian dance, and dance has long been used to express emotions that we may struggle to verbalize. But words are my medium, so I will struggle on to impart my message to you this morning. I remember the story about the Rev. Tom Walters, a very successful Christian minister, renowned for his preaching, who was admonishing a class of seminary students on the importance of making the facial expressions harmonize with the speech in delivering sermons: ‘When you speak of heaven,’ he said, ‘let your face light up and be irradiated with a heavenly gleam. Let your eyes shine with reflected glory.’ ‘And when you speak of hell,’ he continued, staring intently at his audience, turning his head from side to side in order to make eye contact with each one, ‘well, when you speak of hell, then your everyday face will do.’ My message today is really about pluralism, this condition we now experience more fully than at any other time in our history of being a nation of many cultural, ethnic, and religious expressions. We are, as Harvard Prof. Diana Eck has written about extensively, an America that is unquestionably multicultural and multireligious. Today we experienced this right here with, first, a basic program that reflects our Protestant heritage, then with dance that reflects Indian heritage, and of course you the congregation and membership here reflect the nation’s multicultural and multireligious variety, for so many of us come from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. For us, as Unitarian Universalists, this is something to celebrate--at least it is for most of us (we are not free of the curmudgeon element). Generally, we UUs find that there is so much beauty to enjoy, as well as a wealth of story from which to learn, in the multicultural experience. But, even so, we have known that for many people in our country this is not something to celebrate, and it is important for us to learn why this is true, as well as what we can do to be positive agents in the processes of adaptation which are necessary with these changes. First, though, I want to talk about how we have been the ones to introduce the new experience, the change. Most of you are well aware that for around a hundred and fifty years, there was a very active Christian missionary program around the world. The Victorians of England, and their counterparts in the USA, believed they had a mandate from Christ to spread the faith to all parts of the world. Much that we regard as blatant imperialism had its basis in, as they termed it, “enlightening and lifting up the heathen.” Heathen usually being any non-Protestant Christian. The Anglicans and Methodists were particularly successful in the missionary movement, but they were joined by most of the mainline Protestant sects as well as the Catholics. Unitarians did not participate evangelically to the same extent, but there were Unitarian missionaries in India during much of the 1800s. While we operated rather more in the support role, because Indians actually founded the Unitarian congregations, there were such missionaries as Jabez Sunderland who went to give help and to support these groups. We are reminded of this history by the local General Secretary of the Unitarian Union N.E India, C. Lyngdoh who wrote just this summer: [T]en thousand Unitarians in the North East of India will celebrate the 117th Birth Anniversary of the founding of Unitarianism here in the Khasi Hills on the 18th Sept, 2004. It is considered the most important day of the year for all the Unitarians here. We celebrate the day with joy, as the day of freedom of the soul [and] celebrate the worship of the one almighty God. The 33 Churches will be celebrating the Anniversary Day in their respective Churches separately with an open air procession on the roads by lighting bamboo torches (kerosene filled in the bamboo and close the end with the cloth) to show to the world that Unitarianism is giving light to others with our faith. The Government also declares the 18th Sept as a local holiday for all offices and schools being the Unitarian Anniversary Day and call it "Unitarian Day". Unitarianism in North East India was established by a Khasi Tribal, named Hajom Kissor Singh. Born of a Christian family, he became disenchanted with traditional Christianity, and in 1887 with the help of Khasi Brahmos and some American Unitarians, he began the Unitarian movement at Jowai. British and American Unitarians helped, including the Rev. Anna Margaret Barr, a British Unitarian missionary, teacher and social worker, stayed in the Khasi Hills from 1936 until her death in 1973. She founded the Kharang Rural Center. Unitarianism varies some around the world, and in British and Khasi Unitarianism, theism is central: Khasi Unitarians believe: "In the oneness of God; in the fatherhood and motherhood of God and the brotherhood of man; in the life eternal; in the salvation by character; in the power of reasoning; in the freedom to search the truth of ourselves; and in the teaching of Jesus and other great religious teachers." Like most Unitarians, they believe in the teachings of Jesus, but they see him as a man to be followed not as God to be worshipped. Four services are conducted each Sunday. Today, the Khasi Unitarians, continue to be supported in their work through our Holdeen India program. So, we have played our small missionary part, but it is important to know that Unitarians never preached any message of absolutism, that only Unitarian faith was valid. This continues to be important to our wider movement, for we do not accept any theology that excludes all other forms of spiritual experience and practice as long as they support the worth and dignity of others, which is critical. Divali is a wonderful New Year’s celebration in India, and like many of our holidays has some spiritual elements but also has wider secular elements, as well. Like Halloween, there is a pleasurable, fun time that goes beyond the religious origins. The fireworks, special food, the lights, the gifts and cards relate to our holiday season in that they extend from the spiritual to the purely secular. We find this happens with many holidays, and the more we have an opportunity to be part of different holidays, the more we want to enjoy them, too. Which is why Annika has danced no less than four times, and three have been at this season when we know our Indian and Hindu brothers and sisters are celebrating Divali. (By the way, not every Indian is Hindu and vice versa.) In the spirit of pluralism, we Unitarians want to know more about the religious traditions of the world, for in the learning we find we appreciate more of our own traditions for how they relate to the web of other world traditions. It is a nice way to be reminded of our connectedness. For instance, listen to this description of Divali as celebrated in traditional Hindu communities: Diwali . . . is celebrated late October or early November. Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, is the honored deity of this festival. This is a time to visit friends and family, [to] clean, and to give gifts and cards. People decorate their homes with flowers and bake sweet treats. These treats are made into the shapes of flowers, human beings, and animals. Some people have said that these candies taste similar to maple sugar candy made in the United States. On this day, many Hindus start the day with a cleansing ritual. After a bath, they then put on their finest clothing. Most clean house and some even go as far as to white wash their homes on this day. Flowers are placed as decorations throughout the house. This is because the goddess Lakshmi loves flowers. Some people build an altar to Lakshmi and decorate it with symbols of prosperity, cars, homes, and fake money. At night there are usually fireworks displays. Homes are full of light. Traditionally, wicks burning in mustard oil give off this light. However, candles are also used to light homes. Saucers, or chirags, filled with mustard oil are placed on window sills and on roofs. These lights are placed out so that the goddess, Lakshmi, will be better able to find her way to the homes of those lighting the chirags. Women and girls often set chirags afloat on the Ganges River. If the light makes it to the other side of the river, this is taken as a sign of good luck. Many Hindu men gamble on this night. Why not, the goddess of luck is supposed to be out on this night. This is also the time of year when businessmen visit the local temples to pray for good luck and fortune in the next year. We have long acknowledged that fear of the unknown is the primary motivator for hatred of the other. We also know that the more we learn of the other, the harder it becomes to hate them. This is the real spirit of pluralism, that we make the effort to learn more about the peoples of the world, their traditions, and so forth. Fortunately for us in many parts of America, like here in northern Delaware, we do not have to go far to learn and experience other cultures, for we have so many right here. Annika’s family originally came from India, and continue to cherish many of the traditions of their heritage, including having Annika learn classical India dance. What a wonderful thing, since we here have the benefit. Thanks Mom and Dad! Why, when we here find this experience of the cultures of the world so inviting, so educational, with so much beauty to share, why do so many people have such an antipathy to this experience? Why can some Americans relish the differences, while others despise it? The UU side of this is easier, so I will start there. Turn your Orders of Service to the back page where you will see always the seven UU Principles listed in short, which note that we of this UU community affirm and promote (those two words are very important) the following Unitarian Universalist Principles: · The inherent worth and dignity of every person. (This truly about honoring the spirit in others.) · Justice, equity and compassion in human relations. · Acceptance of one another and encouragement of spiritual growth in our congregations. · A free and responsible search for truth and meaning. · The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. · The goal of a world community with peace, liberty and justice for all. · Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. We just come at difference and diversity from an open and accepting point of view. (And as one reared in fundamental Christianity, to me Unitarian Universalism has always embodied what Jesus called the second greatest commandment after loving God, which is loving others as we love ourselves.) This is also how our American Constitution and Bill or Rights looks upon people. Not surprisingly, Unitarians had a lot to do with that view, but that was a long time before we had formally adopted our Principles and Purposes. Still, we can safely say that openness, tolerance for, and acceptance of diversity are part of what it means to be a Unitarian. Does that mean every Unitarian is free of prejudice, bigotry, and pig-headedness? No. But our higher ideals are encompassed in the Principles. As you heard in the reading, Prof. Eck is clear that pluralism requires an active effort on the part of a citizenry. We may be multicultural and multireligious, but we are also often intolerant of the multi-faceted aspect of modern culture. It is a frequent complaint of the isolationist, that we should kick out the foreigners, close the borders, and keep America pure like it used to be! Obviously, this sort of tirade is a statement of ignorance as well as intolerance, for the only non-foreigners are the Native American Indians. The rest of us have either an immediate or not too distant immigrant history. Of course, if we want to be absolute purists, all people came from a small area of Africa bordering on that part of the world we were taught was the fertile crescent. Since those first humans set out in their various directions, we all have been immigrants to new shores down through the millennia. The finders-keepers mentality is at root of much of the anti-immigration fervor, the anti-other. Well, it is not just finders-keepers, but the strongest finders get to be the keepers: hence war, hence nationalism, hence bigotry and all the ugly manifestations of all three. Sometimes, our country has been very welcoming to the newcomers; for instance, at the turn of the last century when the industrial age was in full flower, and we needed people to fill the mills and mines. But, our welcoming was almost always tinged with a you-stay-in-your-neighborhoods-we’ll-stay-in-ours attitude. Over time, though, a mingling and melding of groups occurs, intermarriage gradually breaks down many of the barriers, and children grow up without the strong sense of separateness their parents may have experienced. There is also a strong class element to all this, which is a deeply spiritually challenging subject, for it is always easier to have people like us in our neighborhoods when the like us relates to educational, professional, economic elevation. Class issues probably play as much a role as race and nationality in the separate and unequal treatment of so many immigrants. Mark Twain once quipped: It's true that the clothes make the man, naked people have little or no influence in society. Using humor to teach the truth was Twain’s strong suit. He is right though. Naked people have little or no influence in society. To be poor, illiterate, uneducated, struggling, unable to communicate easily in the dominate language, all these challenges are what it means to be naked, as it were, in the society. To be naked is to be vulnerable, to be easily victimized, to be pointed out and castigated, etc. Naked people have little or no influence in society. When I was young and just out of high school I went to Europe for the first time, and I remember being in a cab in Frankfurt, worried about paying for the fare, worried also about meeting my friend who was waiting for me, and finally just holding out a handful of Deutsch marks and hoping for the best. I didn’t speak German, and felt so miserably alone. The cab driver was a pleasant middle-aged German man, probably about my father’s age, and I have always believed he just took the appropriate amount, but to this day, I don’t know. Sometimes you just throw yourself on the mercy of the people who have control. However, as we all know, that can also have very bad outcomes. One young Anglo-Indian wrote of Divali: Light dispels darkness - [the darkness]of ignorance, blind passion, hatred, bigotry, division and falsehood that marks the lower nature in human behaviour. Celebrating Diwali and bringing light into homes is symbolic [of] bringing the light of love, kindness, empathy for one and all to feel unity of creation in the whole world around us. It is in this spirit we should rejoice and celebrate Diwali. (Hiren Desai) Why do so many people have such an antipathy to this experience or any experience of a culture different from their own? Why can some people relish the differences, while others despise it? My belief is that fear is one factor, but this antipathy is also related to the power and control some religions and some nations are determined to have over other people. To be told in your religion that only your religion is valid, that God will only recognize one kind of worship, that God will damn all other forms of spiritual expression creates not just fear for one’s own salvation, but hatred of anything or anyone that might jeopardize it. I grew up in just such a religion, and I know what powerful control it has over the membership. I finally grew to find it to be so illogical to believe God would create so much humanity only to damn it. But, I can tell you, it is an uphill road to convince the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons of the world that clearly God has created diversity in every part of the web of life, so why would there be only one way to spiritual or religious? Power is a heady thing, of course can also be a very dangerous and damaging thing. As Diana Eck teaches:
Who are we, all of us, who fly the flag and cherish the liberty it stands for, if we do not make it our responsibility to know one another? It is then a tenet of our Unitarian faith that God is one, or that creation is one, that there is an ultimate whole of reality that we cannot deny our part in. We need one another if we are to be a healthy, whole, and creative forth on this planet. This is the spiritual challenge and the reward of faith. It is in this spirit that we should rejoice and celebrate every day, but especially the multitude of holidays that are so plentiful at this time of year with Halloween, Day of the Dead, Diwali, Hanukkah, the winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Day. We see the spirit in others being honored, and we can feel it too, if we are but open to it. So be it. Reading: Diana L. Eck in the Los Angeles Times, July 5, 1992 Along with our new ethnic diversity, the religious landscape of America is also changing. Not far from the starting point of the Boston Marathon, the Hindus of New England have consecrated a temple to the goddess Lakshmi. Outside Toledo, Ohio, a striking new mosque rises from the cornfields. In Stroudsburg, Pa., Hindu teen-agers come to a Hindu heritage summer camp. Jains, Muslims and Sikhs also have summer camps for their youngsters - in the Poconos, the Sierra and upstate New York. But the dimension of religion has been absent from the debate on multiculturalism. "We the people" are not only Christian and Jewish, but Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu. What will this mean to our current national identity crisis? [and] The new religious landscape of America requires that all of us think more energetically about the meaning of pluralism. Our coins are minted with the motto E Pluribus Unum- "Out of many, one." However, the tension between assimilationism and pluralism has been continuous in American history. The assimilationist image is the melting pot. As turn-of-the-century playwright Israel Zangwill put it, "America is God's crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming. " In the pluralist view, however, the right to be different and stand against the majority is not only guaranteed, but cherished. For the pluralist, diversity is not divisive, but is the very stuff out of which the strong fabric of American culture is created. The creation of that fabric will continue to require work. While cultural and ethnic traditions of the new immigrants may change in the American context, religious traditions do not melt. America has not only a multicultural future but a multireligious one. If it is to have any positive content, "pluralism" must be more than just plurality. We may fly the same American flag in churches and synagogues, in Buddhist temples and Islamic schools, and yet remain isolated, with virtually no knowledge of each other. This is not pluralism. Pluralism requires something of us - active engagement and a level of public religious literacy and inter-religious dialogue that we have not yet begun to achieve. Who are we, all of us, who fly the flag and cherish the liberty it stands for, if we do not make it our responsibility to know one another?
November 21, 2004 SermonRev. Nancy D.DeanNovember 21, 2004 -Thanksgiving SundayA Message for Thanksgiving: Putting Our Principles to Work (Auction Sermon for Caryl Carlson)Today’s sermon has two purposes. The first is to be the Thanksgiving Sermon I always give prior to Thanksgiving Day. The second purpose is to fulfill my happy obligation to preach Caryl Carlson’s Auction Sermon. For those who are new here, at our annual Service Auction it is my practice to sell a sermon topic of your choice, and last January three generous members bought sermon topics (an all time high, one is normal). I like this practice because it makes me think about topics that I might not chose myself, or not chose the precise angle that you might. Caryl’s direction was for me to talk (in an inspiring way!) about how this congregation is putting our principles to work both here and in the community; to talk about what we see as important at this juncture in our evolution as a congregation and how we promote ourselves and our principles in the larger community. A great topic. I can only hope that I will do it justice. Considering this sermon topic arose from our annual Service Auction that makes a logical place to start. Back before I came here in 1995, this Service Auction was already well established. The congregation needed to earn money to support the budget, but rather than just send out more appeals, it was decided to do something both fun, and fundraising, by offering services to one another, as well as goods. Lots of wonderful memories have emerged from all these years of Service Auctions (and lots of funds have been raised). Some that quickly come to mind: Allan Cairncross’ famous blueberry pies, Jeanne and Brian Hanson’s car detailing, bridge lessons that turned into the Bridge Group that keeps growing, Judy Cronin’s Christmas cookies, Jane Frelick’s pies, pies, and more pies, the MacArtor’s airport limousine service, and many other such things that we look forward to, and feel fondly are an indicator of our generosity, and also of our good spirit. This year we moved the Service Auction from its winter berth to October, not expecting a great showing with the change, but had a wonderful turnout and still did very well. For both the January and October events, we had the services of a professional auctioneer who donated his services, but we would not have had him at all if it had not been for our former President Steve Medoff who ran into him in an elevator, got to talking, found out about Steve Broshus’ work, then proceeded to tell him about our congregation, and our service auction, in response to which Mr. Broshus volunteered his time and effort. So you see how the principle of the free and independent search for truth and meaning works in mysterious ways, its wonders to perform. This kind of unselfish giving, from our membership who give all kinds of goods and services to help the congregation, as well as that of non-members to us, are to be found in our country’s solid Native American Indian and Puritan roots. While much written about our Indian and Pilgrim heritage is pure fantasy, the one element that was true was their understanding of helping one another. The pilgrims were first helped by the natives who saw the weakness of the settlers understanding of this new land, and the exchange with that first group was mutual, so that when those first Puritan pilgrms survived that first hard winter with the Indian’s help, the Pilgrims introduced them to the long established European tradition of the Thanksgiving Feast. A European religious tradition that over our history became a secular tradition and is now celebrated by citizens of all religions and national origins. Thanksgiving became a symbol of what charity is all about: sharing the bounty. Thanksgiving Day has historically meant giving unselfishly as the Indians gave to the Pilgrims, and sharing, as did the Pilgrims did with the Indians. Yet, as we also know of this history, the goodwill did not continue beyond that first Thanksgiving, because greed and power pushed ahead of the healthy and holy human interdependence we celebrate on Thanksgiving Day. Which is why many of our Native American brothers and sisters view this as a day of mourning. My favorite New Testament text comes from the writings of Paul in 1Cor13:1-13; it is treatise on love, but the word love was translated in the King James Version from the Greek agape as charity. That is how I learned it, but using the much easier to understand, and much better translation of the New Revised Standard Version, and I replace charity for love, the first three lines read thusly: If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have [charity], I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have [charity], I am nothing. 3 1f I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have [charity], I gain nothing. [and the thirteenth verse] 13 And now faith, hope, and [charity] abide, these three; and the greatest of these is [charity]. Back in those early years of after our Mill Creek founding, Debbie Dehghan helped to put together the Agape Fund, a special offering was taken a couple times a year to create a pool of funds to help members of the congregation. A year or two after I came here, we expanded that effort to include the Minister’s Discretionary Fund which is to help people outside our congregation. So, we extend the very real understanding of the Greek term agape, which means unconditional or unselfish love for others. As a result of these funds, many people have been helped that you did not see get the direct benefit, but knew it happened nonetheless. True agape. We have always had calls for help, as all religious groups do, and now that we have a visible presence, we have people drive up to our door and ask for help. You should know that our practice here is to give non-members SCRIP food certificates, rather than cash, though you have given me discretion in how both funds are disbursed. There are many needs most people in this congregation never personally experience, but your funding of these two pools of monies make it possible for your minister to do the good that you would have me do. Jesus was very big on charity that a person did not get to gloat about, or feel puffed up about, he taught that it was better pray and to give in private ways knowing you would not experience the admiration of others who might witness the generosity. Of course, Jesus, this young Jewish teacher was very rebellious about public forms of doing good that were intended to benefit the giver as much or more than the receiver. He was always helping the wrong people, sinners, tax collectors, fallen women, foreigners, and so forth. But Jesus’ overwhelming message was all about agape; love was charity of behavior towards others who were not the chosen or privileged people. Individually, members of this congregation live out our UU Principles in a multitude of ways. Virtually every member of this congregation gives outside this congregation in many ways. (During discussion I want you to share some of the organizations/ways that motivate the agape impulse.) Here at UUSMC, Caryl used to chair and is still very active on the Social Concerns Committee, a committee that has always been very strong here. Jeff Hamilton is the current chairman. That committee has done many different projects to encourage the congregation to outreach into the community. Some of the better known are those you see plainly this Sunday: the UU Service Committee Guest at Your Table program which feeds children around the world, a very low overhead program, so that almost all the monies go directly to where the needs are; the holiday cards are also a UU Service Committee project; the Heiffer Project, that Lauri Rickard got going, which gives farm animals to communities in need which allow them to expand their ability to feed their local people; the Mitten Tree mittens, hats, scarves go to local community organizations like the YWCA or Communidad Hispania; Fair Trade Coffee products that benefit the local growers who traditionally got a tiny amount compared to the middle-people who distributed them, but now get a fairer portion through this rapidly growing program; Souper Bowl Sunday when we sell soup and bread (both donated by congregants and others) for the Delaware Food Bank; and the Adopt-a-Family holiday support. And this is by no means a complete listing of projects. Our children also do social action projects such as gathering food for animal shelters, helping on the annual Red Clay Creek cleanup, planting beach grass to protect the dunes in Rehoboth, and other such projects. Some years one project does better than others, but this congregation has never complained about supporting all these various efforts to extend our help to the larger community. Not once has anyone said to me that we do too much charitable giving. That, in and of itself, says a great deal about the real Agape feeling of Mill Creek congregation. We also help each other in so many practical and spiritual ways. I remember a young pregnant mother, who used to be a member here, was struggling to take care of her children and her house, and the women’s group organized a work party and went up and cleaned her house. Then there are the hundreds of cakes, casseroles, loaves of bread that have gone to help people who were ill or variously indisposed. When I had to have back surgery two summers ago, I was deeply touched by the members who brought meals and various aids to recovery. And that kind of help will happen at the drop of a hat if we are alerted to the need--to be alerted is always crucial. To make sure we do a better job of keeping abreast of the needs, we started the Lay Ministry program in 2001 with six Lay Ministers, and now we have ten Lay Ministers who each have a group of members to call and check on periodically and help me to keep in touch with our growing membership. Anytime we hear of need, we are quick to respond, but we do need to hear, which means all of you need to be willing to help by calling me, the Lay Ministry, or the Board to make sure we know. A lot of what we do that emerges from our Principles we call fun. Our potluck suppers, holiday parties, dances, auctions, picnics, retreats, and so on. But in all that we do, there is a principle of love as agape, love as charity that is about supporting one another. We listen, we talk, we exchange, we share. Not a soul in this congregation is here just to give. Every one of us is here to receive as well. We all need to experience the love of others as it is shown in social activities. Everyone who helps to put these activities together, like Judi Krause, who is our present chair of the Social Activities committee, or Michelle Hamilton our long time chair of Hospitality (coffee hour), are giving something very special to our members and visitors. For, as we all know in our being, the sharing of food and drink is its own communion regardless of whether it is formalized or ritualized by religion. In the friendship context of sharing food, coffee, a meal, we live our Principle of respecting each other and all that implies which is so vital to a good life. While we might always wish we did better or more, I am proud of the consistent good heart of this congregation. It is something for we can all be truly thankful. We have never had a situation like I heard of many years ago: Just after the Second World War, the Rev. Venables, pastor of the local Congregational church in a small town, was worried about how he was going to ask the congregation to come up with more money than they were expecting for the repairs to the church roof. As a result, he was especially annoyed to find that the regular organist was sick and a substitute had been brought in at the last minute. The substitute wanted to know what to play, and the minister said: "Here's a copy of the service.” He went on, impatiently explaining the situation: "So you will just have to think of something to play after I make the announcement about the finances at the end of the service." As he was coming to the close of his message, the minister paused and said: "Brothers and Sisters, we are in great difficulty; the roof repairs cost twice as much as we anticipated, and we need at least $4,000 more. Any of you who can pledge $100 or more, would you please stand up." At that moment, the substitute organist opened all the stops and played "The Star Spangled Banner." The patriotic congregation stood to a man. And, by the way, that was how the substitute became the regular organist! Well, we have never needed such tactics at UUSMC. One of the great sources of joy and gratitude for me as a minister is how loving and giving the members of this congregation are, regardless of resources. Nearly everyone finds a way to give. And giving is never, never just about money. While we always need the tool that money is, without the volunteer efforts that have produced the weekly Orders of Service, the monthly newsletter, the Religious Education classes, bookkeeping, light bulbs changed, chairs set up, in fact anything that happens here, including ministry. If I had to do it all, we would not be where we are today, and all the money in the world would not have made us the congregation we are. It is the loving kindness and willingness to dive in and do whatever needs to be done that makes this such a wonderful congregation. I would need a lot more time to give you all the ways this congregation lives out of our Principles, but what is most important to know is that we still only scratch the surface of the needs that exist here in our part of the world, much less the world at large. And, we all can succumb at times to the plight as stated by a new bishop when he was asked how he regarded his new duties. He replied with a wry smile: "I am rather like a mosquito in a nudist camp. I know what I ought to do, but I don't know where to begin." Thanksgiving Day is the traditional time for remembering all that for which we are thankful. One thing we as a congregation are grateful for is this new building we have now enjoyed for one year. Most of us are thankful for our UU faith, and want to preserve it for the future. Beyond that, though, we must consider how will we develop in this place, and how we will make a difference so others will be thankful for our presence? One of the reasons Mill Creek congregation wanted a building was so we could do more to help the community, to do more outreach, and we have lots of ideas how we might do that, but it is very important not to have lots of isolated efforts that have no connection to the whole. For this reason, our Board of Trustees began last spring to put in motion the Re-Visioning efforts now underway to define what you, the congregation as a whole, want in our present and our future. What kind of church do we want to be? What kind of work do we want to do? Marianne Riding, our Board President, and Fran Loeffelholz a member of the Board, are organizing meetings so you can give your thoughts and input on what that greater vision is to be from which our work will emerge. In other words, what is our mission, our vision, our purpose? This is Thanksgiving week, and most of us are thinking about how we will celebrate Thanksgiving Day; where and with whom we will share the traditional meal. I celebrate this tradition, for we are drawn together to share, and to remember the need we each have to be grateful. We all have much for which to be grateful. It is needful, spiritually needful, to speak our gratitude, to ritually express our thankfulness. My family were fruit-growers, who felt keenly the sense of the harvest brought in. Whether a good year or a poor year, my father (as did his father before him) always prayed as if we had more than we deserved, for at least we never went hungry, and he reminded us that many did go hungry. We would eat our food with an appreciation for plenty and a respect for thanksgiving. Of course, even as children do take for granted so much, my brothers and I often felt dragged through the ritual of mealtime prayers, but I also think we did have a sense of the greater meaning our parents were trying to instill. After all, I am still talking about it. We here want to be as good parents, living and breathing and teaching the principled life. As the New Testament Book of James teaches, faith without works is pretty empty. As Unitarians we believe that our ethical Principles have only as much meaning as our efforts to act up on them. It is not enough for us to say we should help one another, then do nothing to help anyone unless we are also recipients. It is not enough to say we are grateful unless we move outward to act grateful. With writer of the Book of James, we believe our faith needs to be active along with our works. I believe this understanding will carry us into the future. As the Dalai Lama teaches: Compassion is the wish that others be free of suffering. It is by means of compassion that we aspire to attain enlightenment. It is compassion that inspires us to engage in the virtuous practices that lead to Buddhahood. We must therefore devote ourselves to developing compassion. [and] Every aspect of our present well-being is due to the hard work on the part of others. As we look around us at the building we live and work in, the roads we travel, the clothes we wear, or the food we eat, we must acknowledge that all are provided by others. None of these would exist for us to enjoy and make use of were it not for the kindness [and hard work] of many people unknown to us. For the person of principle, for this congregation founded on ethical principles, we all live and have our being in agape. It is who we are, what we do, how we would be known. This November 25th day of Thanksgiving, may your thanksgiving celebrations be filled with joy and sharing, and all that thankfulness can bring and do to make agape a way of life. So be it. Reading: James 2:13-26 13: For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy; yet
mercy triumphs over judgment. *Rahab the harlot is from the book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).
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