THE MOST DIFFICULT THING IN THE WORLD

Transcription

1 THE MOST DIFFICULT THING IN THE WORLD A sermon delivered by Rev. Bruce Southworth, Senior Minister of The Community Church of NY Unitarian Universalist Homecoming Sunday, September 9, 2012 Reading (1) Recalling Sunday, September 11 a year ago, the tenth anniversary of 9/11, I think of survivors tales and words like those in the documentary Rebirth. Tanya was one of the women whom the filmmakers followed for nearly eight years. Tanya, in 2001, was in her 30s and lost her fiancée, a firefighter who died in the collapse of the Twin Towers. She calls Sergio her soul mate, and in years to come, we see her wearing her engagement ring from him, even after her marriage a few years later to a very nurturing partner. Tanya is able to take down a shrine to Sergio in her home only after the birth of their second child. Tanya, who eventually finds a new partner, marries and has children, says, You re always grieving, but it shouldn t keep you from having a life of joy. I also think of Ling, who had been burned so massively, who says, Everybody heals in a completely different way. Such rumors of transcendence, of hope and courage, are commonplace even though often hard-won, as so many of us know so well from our lives as Wounded Healers and Caretakers of Wonder. (2) Next I turn to John Lewis, Democratic Congressman from Georgia. His recent speech is worth lifting up no matter your political convictions. The last couple of weeks have been filled with enormous passion, competing visions, soaring eloquence at times, heart-tugging and tear-stirring tales of love, compassion, truth-telling, and respect, along with Big Lies, mendacity, misdirection, misinformation, and meanness. From my perspective, the latter the demagoguery too prominent was sadly much more extravagant one week than the other. I am referring to the two recent political conventions that celebrate our electoral process, which commentator Chris Hayes called a miracle of the human 1

2 species. He notes that we have moved, or we are trying to move, away from settling differences by tribal vengeance and blood-letting organizing our common good by this young addition to the universe, this invention called democracy and its elections. With so much speechifying and the many temptations, I submit to this excerpt from John Lewis. I hope you know, and I know many of you do know, who he is, Congressional Representative John Lewis from Georgia. In Charlotte, North Carolina at the National Convention of the Democratic Party, he began this way: I first came here in 1961, the year Barack Obama was born. I was one of the 13 original "Freedom Riders." We were on a bus ride from Washington to New Orleans trying to test a recent Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination on buses crossing state lines and in the stations that served them. Here in Charlotte, a young African-American rider got off the bus and tried to get a shoeshine in a so-called white waiting room. He was arrested and taken to jail. On that same day, we continued on to Rock Hill, South Carolina, about 25 miles. From here, when my seatmate, Albert Bigelow, and I tried to enter a white waiting room, we were met by an angry mob that beat us and left us lying in a pool of blood. Some police officers came up and asked us whether we wanted to press charges. We said, "No, we come in peace, love and nonviolence." We said our struggle was not against individuals, but against unjust laws and customs. Our goal was true freedom for every American. Since then, America has made a lot of progress. We are a different society than we were in And in 2008, we showed the world the true promise of America when we elected President Barack Obama. A few years ago, a man from Rock Hill, inspired by President Obama's election, decided to come forward. He came to my office in Washington and said, "I am one of the people who beat you. I want to apologize. Will you forgive me?" I said, "I accept your apology." He started crying. He gave me a hug. I hugged him back, and we both started crying. This man and I don't want to go back; we want to move forward. 2

3 THE MOST DIFFICULT THING IN THE WORLD To echo our reading, Congressman John Lewis, who had been left in a pool of his own blood in 1961 as a Freedom Rider in the South, reported in his speech at the Democratic National Convention: A few years ago, a man from Rock Hill, inspired by President Obama's election, decided to come forward. He came to my office in Washington and said, "I am one of the people who beat you. I want to apologize. Will you forgive me?" I said, "I accept your apology." He started crying. He gave me a hug. I hugged him back, and we both started crying. This man and I don't want to go back; we want to move forward. How in the world does such a thing happen? How long did it take for that reconciliation? I want to dig in and learn more of the details of that difficult thing, but the outline is that the man who beat John Lewis and many years later apologized is Elwin Wilson. They told this story together on a morning television talk show three years ago in Congressman Lewis at that time said, I never thought this would happen, It says something about the power of love, the power of grace and the power of people to be able to say, I m sorry. As we gather for our Homecoming, how good it is to be together, especially in this time of divisiveness, political extremism, voter suppression, fibbing, lying, and tribalism, even hatred. Good to gather and reaffirm some of our core values, principles and sacred calling, seen in John Lewis and Elwin Wilson who portray Americans, at our best who portray, us, this human species at our best. Before turning again to the challenge at hand of The Most Difficult Thing in the World, I have found myself in the last few weeks centering on the breadth and depth of ways we seek to be in spiritual community here. On Homecoming Sundays, each Sunday, we gather in a place such as this with our hopes, dreams, faith, doubt, plans, frustrations, failures and success. To encourage one another, to support one another, to comfort one another, and to celebrate one another affirming. Glad to see you! A colleague of mine, Robbie Walsh, also once upon a time from East Tennessee, is a talented banjo player among his skills, and he wrote some time ago about the Kingdom of God. He speculated about the Kingdom of God. He 3

4 confessed that he was totally mystified by that ancient language, and he himself had moved far away from such symbols. Yet, he bracketed all that and offered an image I love. He stipulated, if it came to be [the Kingdom of God], [if such a thing ever came to be], I imagine as one of its characteristics that people would always be glad to see each other." awe. They would react to the presence of another human being with joy and Imagine that!... Really, imagine that Joy and awe! They would smile and wave... let s try that and maybe blow their horns or pluck their harps in greeting. And the Rev. Robert Walsh keeps on keeping on: Even if the person they met was a stranger, even one of another race or nationality or lifestyle, they would show with their greeting that they really believed that the other person had inherent worth and dignity. be! So glad to see you!! That s what the Beloved Community is and would Not just on a Homecoming but upon each meeting Radical Hospitality! How cool is that living up to those words on our building. Knowing not sect, class, nation or race, welcoming each to the service of all! How cool would that be in a world filled with tribal distractions that go beyond political parties, with divisions that sometimes even infect families, or workplaces, cities, or churches, or nations? Our calling, here especially, is to help create the Beloved Community, abjuring all that separates and divides. Our calling each day, in every aspect of our lives, at all times, everywhere we go, without apology, with boldness.! Our calling is to be Caretakers of Wonder, and it is to be not only Wounded Healers, but also Companions of the Spirit, Witnesses who affirm we need not think alike, to love alike. To work with others of other different religious persuasions to honor differences and honor our common humanity. In these tribalistic, divisive times, the unities and universals are a healing path our history, our liberal religious faith tradition, our gift and our continuing calling Glad to see you!! And to have such kindred spirits in a world that these days includes too many divisions. 4

5 . Sometimes on Homecoming Sundays, I invoke those who brought liberal religious faith to our city, who in the early 1800s, in 1819 to be more exact, sought to create a new kind of church in our city. These early Unitarians in our city affirmed their allegiance to conscience, to truth, and to God. They sought to overcome what they called the mists of bigotry and the incomprehensibility of Calvinist doctrine that insulted human dignity and freedom. What surrounded them? The mists of bigotry. What summoned them? Allegiance to a God that honored human curiosity, human worth and dignity and creativity, and our quest for truth and honor. Also fitting for our Homecoming and new season, are the words that W. E. B. DuBois wrote to us in 1948 upon the dedication of this building: The final triumph of a Community Church in New York knowing not sect, class, nation, or race is not merely local nor purely personal, but a great step towards making a disillusioned world regard religion as honest, true, and capable of courage and daring. To focus, for a moment, I suppose that vision of our free, religious faith might be a candidate for the Most Difficult Thing in the World, and perhaps there is some truth to that. But, the competition is keen. (And my thanks go to Rev. Henry Mitchell, a noted west coast teacher and preacher for this theme.) What is the most difficult thing in the world? Is it to be the parent of a teenager? Or the parent of a newborn, just home from the hospital without a parent or friend close at hand who has been through it? Or, to be an adult with an elderly and infirm parent, especially one with rapidly worsening Alzheimer s? Or, to have a limiting condition in a world that so cruelly discriminates and punishes those who are not temporarily able-bodied, like most of us? Or, to be a single, working mother or father? Or, to be a single parent and jobless? Chronic health issues are extraordinary challenges, yet studies show the resiliency of the human spirit to bear up. 5

6 I personally think that being a school teacher, especially of junior high students for whom hormones are raging, might qualify as one of the hardest, most difficult jobs in the Kingdom. Of course, if it were a school with drugs abounding, then it often gets even tougher. How about being a politician who is above corruption or who has vision that goes beyond narrow class interests? Keeping a marriage worth saving together is difficult in a turbulent period; ending a relationship when that becomes necessary, wise, and healthy is another candidate. So, the most difficult thing in the world? Among the candidates would be the quest for God, the sacred, whatever is trustworthy, and surely that would be among the most difficult things in the world finding, meeting, greeting God. Yet, for me, one path and there are so many for that one path is so clear in my own life that this perhaps is not the most difficult after all. Alice Walker s gracious wisdom declares that in church we share the god within, not find it from some external realm. To share Spirit, to share Life, to share and to be changed and to grow. Not always easy, but we know it happens. What a great gift to have a community of kindred spirits, blessing one another. I do know that in our congregations caring and loving are not always available, all the time, every day but it is not so difficult either, is it? To see the sacred in one another on your right and your left. Take a look. Or even share a smile?!! Or one can approach the sacred through meditations of mindfulness, appreciative awareness what is before us all the time the glory of Creation, except of course that seems to require cultivating a habit or discipline of mindfulness, to overcome our forgetfulness Forgetfulness, which Islam calls original sin. It really is not the most difficult thing, is it sharing our grace with one another, or giving thanks for Creation and our own Creative potentials? Both are sometimes hard, but not the most difficult, are they? The most difficult thing in the world? How about the brilliant, playful son of a Unitarian minister, E. E. Cummings when he says, To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing 6

7 its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight and never stop fighting.? To be yourself whoever you are means first to discover, create, accept yourself, to grow your soul, to gain a sense of identity and continuity, and then to keep unlocking the doors that lead to new life, new experience to keep growing. To be yourself when your parents have had or still have their goals for you, or when co-workers or a boss may have wrongly defined you in some narrow fashion, or when a spouse or partner is trying to make you into somebody else or some romanticized ideal, or when society rewards going along, getting along far more than it rewards personal authenticity, or when society defines, excludes, overlooks, or marginalizes you if you are what? a certain gender, race, class, sexual orientation? That struggle to be yourself, and often it is many struggles in many venues of our lives is a good, good candidate for the most difficult thing in the world. As Dr. King put it, we are called to be transformed nonconformists and to be creatively maladjusted to forces of oppression that seduce and subtract from the dignity and worth of humanity, from our own dignity and worth. us. To be yourself in the face of everything that breaks us, or at least bends All the negative conditioning possibly thwarts our Creativity, dims our vision, and denigrates our humanity, whether it be racism, sexism, materialism, militarism, ageism, ableism, or heterosexism. Yet, choices are ours each moment, and we live by our compromises, each one of us. And we know it. And we still, more often than not, live with honor, not always, but it always awaits. AND SOMETIMES.almost every day I believe, those rumors of transcendence are true John Lewis Elwin Wilson hugging and crying moving forward. like you and me, characters in a story of hope that we create. Or not. 7

8 So to be ourselves in a world that is constantly trying to make us into somebody else, almost takes the prize, but there is one more, of the many others I suppose, one more at least to lift up this day. There are lines from the ancient prophet Ezekiel. You may or may not know that Ezekiel was an unwelcome, outcast prophet living in Babylon during the period of Hebrew exile about 2600 years ago. He longs for the good old days, the glory of Israel, and its kings when worship at the Temple in Jerusalem was at the center of the life of the Israelites. Ezekiel is fond of castigating the people in exile for their lack of faith. He is not a pleasant fellow at all; most prophets are hard to take. Early in the book of Ezekiel, at the end of the story about his call, we come across these words in chapter three, verse 15: Then I came to the captivity [the exiles] at Tel-Abib, that dwelt by the river Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days. He sat where they sat. He sat where they sat and was astonished, and perhaps that is the most difficult thing in the world. To sit where another sits and to understand their pain, their joys, their heartache, and thus our common humanity. With it, will come the beginnings of revelation and transformation, of becoming more fully human, more fully alive, more deeply, truly, authentically ourselves, more deeply connected to all, not some, but to all our fellow travelers during this precious, brief cosmic gift of our days together. With all this will also come the seeds of justice and peace. He sat where they sat. No longer was he coming to convert them back to true worship with old ritual. No longer was he coming to give them the answers. No longer was he coming consumed with his anger. No longer was he coming in his own self-pity as an outcast oblivious to the fact that each and everyone had been broken, or uprooted, or outcast from their physical and spiritual home. No longer could he ignore their fears, their temptations to embrace the new gods, or their hopes for a new life amidst exile. He sat where they sat, and that may well be the hardest thing in the world, the most difficult job in this blessed creation. He moved from judgment to hope, and later we hear him as God's Creativity s prophet saying, "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." To be patient, to listen, to let go of preconceived notions or solutions for other people's lives. To let go also of hurts, slights, grudges, or anger that may 8

9 have arisen because of feeling wronged. To see your humanity, not your superiority to pause. All of which reminds me of the reference last week by our President who quoted Abraham Lincoln a traditional image, which I find challenging, and annoying and weighty of truth as we try to grow our souls not your own soul alone but with others. Lincoln is said to have said, I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go. More about that next week with our High Holy Day Sunday. Anguish and anger abound afar Afar and at home, and in our lives day to day, so often emotions run high. Our political climate is at times hate-filled and hate-inducing. Sometimes things seem so complicated, but you cannot be in right relationship, in a just relationship, if there is no connection, no mutuality, no relationship beyond prejudice, fear, and mistrust. The hardest thing in the world? Just maybe it is this business of sitting where another sits. When we sometimes feel like holding on to our conclusions about them letting go for a moment seeking some common ground honoring good intentions even when awkwardly done setting boundaries to those with hurtful actions always knowing that Free Speech does not condone hurting others, inciting others, you know this well. As Unitarian Universalists, we seek to be true to ourselves. To be ourselves in a world that is constantly trying to make us into somebody else is the hardest fight we can ever fight and never stop fighting? Yet to be our fullest selves, to be most human, we also have to extend our love, our care, our compassion beyond the single self. The radiance of our name Community is sometimes a challenge, but the good news is that we in so many ways share that radiance and blessing we share that radiance, and the world awaited becomes more nearly the world attained. We have to sit where the other sits for no one is truly other, alien, and apart from us. We know that and seek to live it here in so many ways. The most difficult thing in the world? Ezekiel: "Then I came to the captivity at Tel-Abib, that dwelt by the river Chebar, and I sat where they sat." And he was astonished by what he learned and who he became. 9