SPIRITUAL GROWTH VI A SENSE OF WORLD COMMUNITY WHY SEEK ITS GROWTH? Unitarian Universalist Church of St Petersburg February 21, 2016 Rev.

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1 SPIRITUAL GROWTH VI A SENSE OF WORLD COMMUNITY WHY SEEK ITS GROWTH? Unitarian Universalist Church of St Petersburg February 21, 2016 Rev. Jack Donovan READINGS (see below) In Covenant With Black America, Fredrick Douglas, Marian Wright Edelman In How to Meditate, Perhaps the Most Important Thing by Lawrence LeShan In Globalizing Civil Society: Reclaiming Our Right to Power, David C. Korten In Covenant With Black America, Cornell West SERMON A couple walked into a Quaker Meeting House on a Sunday morning and found everyone sitting in silence. The couple knew little about the Quaker Society of Friends except its peaceful activist reputation, so they just took a seat. They received a few warm smiles, but otherwise nothing happened. They sat patiently for about ten minutes, then put their puzzled heads together. What s going on? they asked each other, and they both shrugged. After another ten minutes, one of them leaned over to a Quaker sitting nearby in the pew and asked, When does the service begin? and the Quaker Friend replied, The service begins when the meeting ends. The service begins when the meeting ends. But for much of humankind, the meeting ends at the tip of their nose or there is no meeting at all, outside or in and, amazingly, we are encouraged by our culture to stop right there nowhere except in front of the merchandize showcase that serves as our mirror for ourselves. What happens then to the potentials of our souls our core seed of being when those potentials are denied their birthright to nourishment and cultivation? Evidence is, they dry up like a raisin in the sun. The spirit of the whole world becomes less luminous less numinous. History and mythos suggest that humans don t automatically grant oppor tunity to fulfill birthright potentials to those whom they do not know, to those whom they themselves have not yet grown enough to meet, and come to understand why to serve. Martin Luther King said a wonderful thing years ago Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve. But it may also be ironically true that it is not until you realize the greatness in yourself that you begin to truly serve. There is enough joy, right there. 1

2 That seems sufficient reason why we should seek to grow the dimension of our spirit which understands that our influence extends beyond our kin and ken to those who influence us, though we know them not. So much goes on, and always has, in human souls and spirits and societies so much that require understanding, intention and courage if the spirit is to grow and the common good is to be served. There is substantial resistance to moving beyond one s current state of being, which we usually take to be a given as is. But Marian Wright Edelman spoke for many in saying, I am so tired of feeling afraid for my children s and grandchildren s futures and waking up at night wondering whether human life will end on America s and our watch for children everywhere in our violence saturated world. That is why we cannot be content with not revering life beyond the tip of our nose why we must somehow meet the soul beyond our kin and even beyond our ken. Edelman s concern and care reaches now far beyond the circle of self and immediate family and friends. The Children s Defense Fund which she founded and led has done great things to serve the well being of children everywhere. But, she reminds us if we need reminding, a multitude of children and adults in the U.S. and around the world are suffering and it is apparent that this is not a primary concern in the spiritual life of many people. As the covenant of the Unitarian Universalist Association says and many agree, we need a world community of peace, liberty and justice. We need the dimension of our spirits that fulfills us in seeking that community. International development authority David Korten notes that today s global crisis of social and environmental disintegration confronts us with an urgent question: What is needed to provide healthy, sustainable living space for life on our planet. Korten analysis shows that a fundamental source of the problem is the endlessly expansionary and exploitative institutions of international trade and financial speculation, which override and ravish the systems of life. These institutions have bought up the decision making power of humankind over the world s resources, including humankind itself which then bears the wide spread tragic consequences. 2

3 It does not take much to know the costs of denying peace, liberty, and justice: exploitation, oppression, poverty; loss of local control, extreme local vulnerability, constant anxiety, constant exploitation; injury, illness, loss of life the end of living, the beginning of survival. And it does not take much to know the blessings of sharing liberty, justice and peace: safety and happiness, domestic tranquility, enhanced personal power, esteem, reverence, productivity, helpfulness to the common good. Perhaps there is difficulty in coming to sympathy and compassion with people of faraway places whether that is on the other side of the globe or the other side of the track. Back in the 1960s and 1970s I believed that the thousands of Peace Corps Volunteers returning from two or more years immersed in the life of foreign lands would bring a message of acceptance and esteem. But that does not seem to be the direction in which our country has moved. Perhaps the lesson of culture shock is more telling than the lessons of cultural sophistication. Typically, Peace Corps Volunteers are enchanted with their new people and temporary homeland for the first three months. Then, culture shock! Volunteers become totally disenchanted for the second three months and despair of being any help in this benighted culture far from loved ones and true home. By that point, 26 of my original 39 PCV companions had given up and returned to the U.S. I d have been among them if my dad hadn t written to say, Great, come home. Can t wait to see you. By the way, the chairman of the draft board is sitting on our front steps and can t wait to see you, either. But if one remains healthy enough and stays in country, truly magical changes do happen mainly to the volunteer s spirit and gratitude becomes foremost. But the soul testing lesson of the first six months is a fundamental challenge in our world. Who has the time? A few years ago, I read a report on some research on the farthest distance travelled from birthplace by people born in rural north Florida. It averaged seven miles. This past Christmas the newspaper reported on how far the average American lived from their mothers. It averaged 17 miles. In a way, that warms the cockles of my heart. But it also raises the question, how easy is it for humans to extend their consciousness, much less their concern and caring to peoples in unknown communities and countries? Yet our impact on one another is huge. In the Peace Corps I lived mainly on a tall volcanic island (Fefan, meaning Woman Island) in a forty mile wide 3

4 lagoon that became substantially contaminated when American forces sank 43 Japanese warships harbored there and leaking oil ever since and severely damaging the food supply. I also had occasion to live awhile on a tiny coral island, 15 feet maximum elevation, with 284 native inhabitants. I don t know about that island, Fananu (meaning Spirit Island) but similar islands have been rendered uninhabitable by the rising sea level and some have washed away with all their people. It doesn t take much to wash away a beach or salinize the fresh drinking water lens under a coral island, though they had survived thousands of years. One person does not often deeply experience the suffering or hardship of other persons and peoples, much less experience their souls. We do not customarily think we personally can extend the common good. We do not pay attention to the Marian Wright Edelmans calling out stop those who prey on children. Our souls and their emerging spirits are not prepared to respond. We have not met the world of others, soul to soul. We do not say, or at least truly mean, Namaste (the sacred in me reveres the sacred in you). We move so fast, and sometimes so far. We starve ourselves of the grace that would pour forth if we really met. The great reality is, I believe, as human rights leader Frederick Douglass said: If there is no struggle, there is no progress. The spirit must grow if it is to have wisdom and courage and compassion. Only as we garden ourselves and each other can we come to know the meaning of the words the novelist put into the mouth of Saint Francis of Assisi: I said to the almond tree, Sister, speak to me of God, and the almond tree blossomed. I will be 72 in about six weeks. More and more I am getting to meet myself the innocent me, the teachable me, the seeking me, the contributing me and I am still getting to know myself. And I am getting to know you and I am grateful for my expanding sense of appreciation of what we are and even better, of what we can be. I love how busy and inspired and curious and hopeful I am. I love all the things I see you do devoting great time and caring to a loved one, cherishing the beauty of the world and making it still more beautiful with art and cultivation, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the vulnerable, repairing the hurt to earthkind. The joy of seeing it and being part of it is reason enough to do it. We have a ways to go. But on our journey we are guided by one great infallible kind of question: When I act, who am I acting for? If I consider the effect of my actions on peace, liberty, and justice for others, how far and positive a reach do I have? Is the extent of my love and joy as great as possible? Does my 4

5 soul magnify my source? Do I help my spirit grow so I will act for all people to have a life blessed by the peace, liberty, and justice that fulfills the common good and makes my own life glad? When will our souls meet to bring forth the fullness of life? And how? Next Sunday we ll explore how. Today, 15 minutes after the service, I hope you ll come back into the Sanctuary to share your ideas about why. Blessed be and Namaste. READINGS OPENING WORDS from Frederick Douglass & Marian Wright Edelman in The Covenant With Black America LEADER : If there is no struggle, there is no progress. MEN : Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are people who want crops without plowing up the ground. WOMEN : They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. LEADER : This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, ALL : but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. WOMEN : I am so tired of feeling afraid for my children s and grand children s futures MEN : and waking up at night wondering whether human life will end on America s and our watch for children everywhere in our violence saturated world. ALL : So let us stand to stop those who prey on children, pick on children, and put children in harm s way, anywhere, anytime. READING FOR MEDITATION Perhaps the Most Important Thing, Lawrence LeShan,PhD., How to Meditate Perhaps this is the most important thing to remain clear as to your purpose... to find, accept, and sing the best in you, a best that is unique, individual and yours alone; a best that you share with all those of the human race who, in one way or another, have made the search, but that is for each person something different and special. It is only as we garden ourselves 5

6 and each other toward our fullest humanhood that we can come to know how at home we are in the universe and that this is a good world for us, and to know the meaning of the words which novelist Nikos Kazantzakis put into the mouth of Saint Francis of Assisi: I said to the almond tree, Sister, speak to me of God, And the almond tree blossomed. READING BEFORE THE SERMON What Is Needed? from Globalizing Civil Society: Reclaiming Our Right to Power by David C. Korten, PhD. What is needed to provide healthy and sustainable living spaces for a growing world population on a finite planet? It is surely one of the most important questions of our time. Yet the institutions to which we have entrusted decision making power over the use of the world s resources are so focused on the promotion of expanded international trade and financial speculation that they scarcely seem to notice the rapidly deteriorating situation in much of the world with regard to environment, human rights, food security, population, unemployment, poverty, and the social fabric. (5) In large measure, the crisis of global scale social and environmental disintegration now underway can be explained in terms of a confrontation between the conflicting imperatives of the money world, which commands unending economic expansion and which holds the power of decision and the world of life of people and the laws of nature which requires balance, diversity, sufficiency, synergy, and regenerative vitality, and which bears the tragic consequences of the money world s decisions. (8 11) CLOSING WORDS from Cornell West, PhD, in The Covenant With Black America LEADER : Our Covenant is neither a contract nor a compact. ALL : A contract is too selfish and a compact is too seasonal. LEADER : Now is the time for us to keep faith with our spiritual, moral, and political covenant bequeathed to us by great foremothers and forefathers that simply says: 6

7 WOMEN : Stand with grace and dignity and take action with courage and compassion, MEN : with malice toward none yet a righteous indignation against injustice, ALL : so that everyday people and especially their precious children can flower and flourish as the sun shines and the stars shout with joy. 7