The American Dream. What Next? Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Society, Madison, CT The Rev. Jeanne Lloyd November 13, 2016

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1 Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Society, Madison, CT The Rev. Jeanne Lloyd November 13, 2016 Spirit of Life... Come Unto Me. ~ Carolyn McDade Gathering Music Into the Realm by Kevin Kern Olga Kalinina Sounding of the Gong Welcome Jennifer Swenson, President Board of Trustees Prelude On the Lake by J. Brahms Olga Kalinina & Nate Pawelek Chalice Lighting & Bell (The flaming chalice is the symbol of our free faith) Opening Words Zachary Pawelek Rev. Lloyd SLT 505 Adapted from Thich N Hat Hanh Let us be at peace with our bodies and our minds. Let us return to ourselves and become wholly ourselves. Let us be aware of the source of being, common to us all and to all living things. Evoking the presence of the Great Compassion, let us fill our hearts with our own compassion towards ourselves and towards all living beings. Let us pray that we ourselves cease to be the cause of suffering to each other. With humility, with awareness of the existence of life, and of the sufferings that are going on around us, let us practice the establishment of peace in our hearts and [with each other]. #*Opening Hymn #1027 Cuandro el Pobre A Story for All Nate Pawelek Director of Religious Education #Sing the Young People Out Go Now in Peace

2 Honoring Our Joys and Sorrows Page 2 of 8 Today we will honor our joys and sorrows in silent communion. I invite you to verbally share them with me or others after the service. And, you are welcome to join us at noon for our post sermon reflection here in our sanctuary. Each of us, this day, awoke, to the earth s glory, its sun and beauty. Each awoke with pressing matters on our hearts and minds. These matters envelope us in a variety of spirits, the Spirit of Joy and of Sorrow, the Spirit of Worry and of Gratitude, the Spirit of Love and of Discontent. We have things on our minds or dwelling in our hearts that we know we need to let go of, if only for a while in the sheltered sanctuary of this congregation. This vessel contains our shared waters from our water communion, a joyous occasion. Let the water symbolize our shared joys buoyed by this community. Let each stone symbolize our individual worries & sorrows. You are invited to come forward silently in body or spirit, to take a stone, imagining it to be an unwelcome burden or preoccupation that you need to let go of. As best you can, let it fall away from you. Relinquish its power to possess, while harnessing its power for constructive change. Allow the sustaining power of the Spirit of Love and this congregation to call you forward into a path toward Love and reconciliation. Pastoral Reflection Adapted from words written by Barbara Pescan 1 In recognition of Veteran s Day, I offer these words in honor of those who... sacrificed their lives to preserve the highest ideals of humanity. Spirit of Life whom we... [call] by many names in thanksgiving and anguish Bless the poets and those who mourn. Send peace for the soldiers who [do] not make the wars but whose lives [are] consumed by them. Let strong trees grow above graves far from home. Breathe through the arms of their branches... [Resolve] No more, never again, remember [them].... Give us courage to answer the cry of humanity s pain And with our bare hands, out of full hearts, with all our intelligence let us create the peace. 1 Tittle, Mathew and Gail, Editors. Barbara Pescan: Memorial Day Prayer, Bless All Who Serve, Sources of Hope, Courage and Faith for Military Personnel and Their Families (Boston, UUA Skinner Books, 2010) 20.

3 Page 3 of 8 Sung Meditation: Hymn #123 Spirit of Life Offertory Words by Simon Ortiz 2 [The] dream shall have a name after all, And it will not be vengeful but wealthy with love and compassion and knowledge. Let us now take the offering to sustain this congregation and its work in the world. Offering & Offertory Music Chorale by J.S. Bach That dream shall have a name after all, And it will not be vengeful but wealthy with love and compassion and knowledge. And it will rise in this heart which is our America. We gratefully accept your gifts of time, talent and treasure to our community. Sermon The American Dream. What Next? Rev. Lloyd Life. Liberty. The pursuit of happiness. Seems a reasonable dream, an enlightened dream that caught fire here, and elsewhere, in an organized, institutional way, three or four centuries ago. Life. Liberty. The pursuit of happiness. But, really... this desire, this yearning for the freedom to seek and find that which makes you whole, that which brings meaning to your life, happiness, is not, exclusively an American Dream, is it? We don t own this desire, and didn t create it. It is a human desire that has, perhaps, existed since humans first walked this earth. My guess is, though I can t prove it, that those ancient ancestors that created such engaging murals in Europe and Asia, some 40,000 years ago, were also seeking meaning through their own creative self-expression. Life. Liberty. The pursuit of happiness. It s not an American thing. And, it s not a white-european thing. We just have a fondness for claiming credit for great things. And, though I ll not go into it today, and again, I can t prove it, my bet is that this inclination to seek and find happiness, is not even a human thing. I ll bet than an infinite number of other life forms, including other 2 Ortiz, Simon. Reading No Lifting our Voices, Readings from the Living Tradition. (Boston: UUA, 2015), 49.

4 Page 4 of 8 mammals, seek, in some way or another that we don t fully understand, freedom of selfexpression and a sense of well-being that we, as humans, call happiness. Sometime, take a look at your dog, or cat, or horse, or a bird singing at the top of a tree, and, ask yourself might they also seek this elusive concept called happiness? Today, however, I need to focus on human beings. Let s go back to the beginning of this country. What of Native Americans, who did not self-identify as American before others arrived on their shores? Reflect on the breadth and depth of the various forms of native American spirituality. It is a spirituality that is particular to their varied histories and principles. These are spiritual traditions that may be monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, animistic, or something else entirely. So deeply connected to the land and nature are they, their beliefs did not resemble European theology, but did have this in common: theirs is a spirituality that is usually passed down, face to face, from generation to generation through stories, allegories and principles. 3 This passing down, this sharing, is nothing less than teaching, the teaching of principles designed to preserve and sustain one's family and community, teachings to sustain and inspire each individual and community to health and wholeness. Life. Liberty. The pursuit of happiness. It is life pursuing life, over and over again, by individuals and peoples across the millennia. Isn t that what was happening, when those seeking freedom from religious persecution, sailed across the Atlantic to settle here in New England? Why make that treacherous journey, if not in pursuit of a better life? Why take on the journey of an immigrant whose life is many things, but most surely, a life of insecurity. A time of unknowing risk. A time of peril and uncertainty. Why choose that path, if not seeking something better, if not seeking change that sustains life, offers the freedom to choose, and promotes health and healing? It is the right of all humans, and perhaps even other creatures, to pursue such dreams. Do we think we own this right? I don t think so. We ve just claimed it louder and perhaps more convincingly as a core value of this country. As written by Emma Lazarus, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. 3 November 12, 2016

5 Page 5 of 8 Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me..." 4 Is it any wonder that wave after wave of immigrants have sought these shores, which were not ours to claim, though in fact, we did. Is it any wonder, that those forcibly removed from their African families and villages, and then enslaved as our own, have sought, perhaps more than most, the life, liberty and happiness stolen from them? How is it that in the perpetuation of various institutional practices, one people s pursuit of freedom out trumps another s right to freedom? How is it that any one group can claim exclusive possession of the right to life and liberty? Here s the problem as I see it. There are those that claim that the pursuit of basic human rights, is exclusively owned by a particular group of people the ones who conquered the First Nations of this land, and later legalized innumerable practices to maintain that sole right of ownership. And, in the process, a lot of damage has been done. The notion that this is an exclusive dream, applicable to some but not all, has led us, as a country, to make a great many mistakes that, at best have marginalized others who were also seeking happiness, and at worst imprisoned or enslaved them over and over again for their pursuit of this right, on plantations, in prisons, in ghettos, in redlined suburbs, on reservations, in work camps, in internment camps, in institutions for those with disabilities, in the home between genders, in closets, and on and on it has gone and still, this human made heartbreak unfolds. And, yet, life still seeks life. The Spirit of Life of Love for one another will not be put down, will not allow itself to be relegated behind institutional or invisible bars of oppression. Life seeks life. Life seeks wholeness. Life seeks joy. All life seeks liberty. And, so, along the way, the Spirit of Life and Love, this human yearning for life, for the freedom to choose, for happiness, has helped us, has led us, as a people to rightly correct some of the mistakes we have made. The spirit of life and Love, has called us to ensure all people s right to pursue happiness, has called us to admit that no one of us is entitled to an exclusive human right to pursue life and liberty. And, along the way, the voices of those who were institutionally left out of the dream, were and are sometimes heard. Perhaps reluctantly, at first, but when persistent and insistent, people s voices have been heard, corrections made, and actions taken to do what should be obvious: that is, to assure that every human being, regardless of their ability, their skin color, their named gender or gender preference, their country of origin, their power or lack of it, all peoples are entitled to seek life, seek liberty and seek the creative pursuit of their own happiness. 4 November 12, 2016

6 Page 6 of 8 PAUSE In this faith, our first principle is that we believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Our second: we call for justice, equity and compassion in human relations. Our fourth: we demand a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Interwoven between all our principles is that elusive dream we claim for this country and humanity. But, at no time, do we say it is a right exclusive to only one group of people. Those that suggest that, those that believe that, are, in my mind, not only violating the essential core value that this country has claimed as its own, for centuries, they are in denial about that which will not be denied. The Spirit of Life seeks Life. And, it will not be put down, relegated, or destroyed. The Spirit of Love that calls us to life will always call people to be free and happy. All peoples. Not just the ones with white skin, or wealth, or power. All people. People differently able, people from away, people who were here first, people who are young, people who are old, people who are differently gendered. All people. And, now I have a question for you... How many of you have family or friends who voted differently than you, this past week? Those are our people. They are our people. We have, as a society, created silos of like-minded people, who mostly communicate with each other. We need to learn, again, how to listen to one another with respect. We need to share our stories. We need to value each person s striving for happiness, all the while recognizing that no one group has an exclusive right to it. The dream is not exclusively American or white. The real dream is that all peoples be afforded the opportunity to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is what this great experiment, called the United States, is all about. Now the really hard work begins, again, to engage each other in figuring how to make the real dream come true. To figure out how to do so all the while building on the civil rights already insured. PAUSE Life is complex. People are sometimes a mystery. I do know this: it almost never works to categorize people by labels. Most of the time, in the labeling, we end up

7 Page 7 of 8 dehumanizing the person or their people. We thereby undermine our own efforts and values. PAUSE Some of you know that I have family that live in Tennessee and Georgia. I m fairly confident that some of my family voted differently than I did, this week. And, yet, they are my people. They are loving, kind, generous people. But, we do not talk about politics or religion. And, in the process, I have failed to understand their context. I have failed to listen. I have failed to try. And, they do not know mine. Another short story. Our son now lives in Arizona, where it has been known for several years to be a place that finds numerous ways to legally deny and undermine the rights of those seeking asylum. He has made friends there. A week ago they felt fairly safe, even though they lived in Arizona. They felt protected by the core values we profess as Americans. Now, because their heritage is different from his, they feel as though they are a target for hate. Strangely, Arizona suddenly feels so much more dangerous and threatening than it did before. Regardless of our intent as an American people, the dream has been wounded by those who claim it exclusively as their own. It remains to be seen whether it can be saved. Friends, we have work to do. We claim as part of the very fabric of our identity that all people have inherent worth and dignity. And, our persistent and insistent voices must be heard, if we are to revive the real dream. It s never been easy, but in these times, where both G*d 5 and civility have been abandoned by both the religious and the nonreligious, when our people have lost their bearings, when we have lost our bearings, and when we have forgotten how to work together in pursuit of a common dream of peace, liberty and justice for all 6, we have to step up and step out and revive the core values of respect and tolerance for one another, before they are forever sacrificed on the altar of self-righteousness. Too many of us no longer feel safe to be, simply, who we are. Until civility returns, I want to encourage each of you to consider wearing a safety pin. You are starting to see them everywhere. When you wear it, it is a symbol that you are a safe person to talk to, that you are a person who will listen, that you are an ally who respects human rights. It 5 Rev. Lloyd does not spell out the word, G*d, because the term is loaded with many misconceptions and preconceptions. That which is the spirit of life and community, the spirit of love and death, the spirit of humanity, cannot be relegated to one three letter word. Rev. Lloyd invites others to reconsider the meanings of this word, and, to contemplate whether it is a noun or verb. Is G*d Love? The reader is invited to expand their vision and understanding... 6 UUA Sixth Principle.

8 Page 8 of 8 means you will protect those who feel in danger simply because of who they are... or more accurately because of the label given them by others. It means: You are safe with me. In the meantime, we cannot rest on the laurels of our past. We cannot accomplish the dream by calling the other, other. It won t work. It simply will not work. Now is the time to invite others into dialogue. Now is the time to listen with respect and curiosity. Now is the time to cast aside labels and assumptions. Now is the time to make an effort to work through conflict with each other, face to face. Now is the time to invite someone for a cup of coffee, and say to them, tell me, how are things for you? And, then listen, hard. Now is the time. There is too much at stake. This is the time. May it be so. *Closing Hymn #1015 I Know I Can *Closing Words Please join hands for the extinguishing of the chalice. We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. We extinguish this flame, but not the power and meaning of our covenant, calling us to our highest ideals and ways of being with one another. These we carry in our hearts until we are together again. Let the congregation say: AMEN Extinguishing the Chalice Closing Music Horn Concerto No.1, 2nd mvt. by W.A. Mozart A Moment of Silence Announcements Jennifer Swenson