Comfort and Joy. December 2014 Page 1! of! 5 Reverend Dr. Susan Veronica Rak

Transcription

1 Comfort and Joy a sermon by the Reverend Dr. Susan Veronica Rak preached on December 7, 2014 First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, a Unitarian Universalist congregation I don t know about you, but during the past two weeks have i have felt like I was constantly living in an altered state that the world I woke up in each morning was somehow askew. In the old Superman comics and television show, there were episodes that happened in Bizzarro World, and that sort of summed it up. Even Jon Stewart is speechless. Harsh realities can do that to you We are all breathless.. we can t breathe. What I am talking about of course is the two Grand Jury decisions of recent note that failed to indict white police officers in the deaths of two unarmed black men. The discussions around these two deaths and too many others are not simple law & order issues, even as some would wish. Fundamental issues have been blatantly exposed - something I think we knew or suspected was there - a core of racial inequality that remains, even after all the gains and progress, after the revolutionary Civil Rights Movement of 50 years ago, after the election of an African-American President in this country. Now this is not going to be a lecture on race and racism - although I am tempted to go there. Even as we might be on the verge of really acknowledging white privilege - the amount of push-back on this engendered by recent events is sadly illuminating. But that is not what we are here for this morning. A popular phrase right now is black lives matter, and that too has struck a nerve. However. I refuse going to that more comfortable space where we say all lives matter, because even as that is true, right now the thing that holds our collective feet to the fire is that black lives matter. And I am not going to go down the road of debating the role of police in this country I am too much a child of the 60 s and have such mixed feelings around that issue. Yet the killing of unarmed young black men, no matter their size or their demeanor, cannot be part of police just doing their job. Yes, we have to face these things these harsh realities. So we come here struggling - struggling with those nagging questions, with doubts about our society and where we find ourselves. Some of us are well versed in the minutia of these two cases - God knows we have been inundated with information and opinions. I have stopped reading the many posts on Facebook and the articles and blogs that appear in my inbox. I will not read any Grand Jury transcripts. I don t want to hear the lame excuses of how proper legal procedures were followed - I am sure they were but it still makes no sense. December 2014 Page 1! of! 5 Reverend Dr. Susan Veronica Rak

2 Because what it comes down to, for me, is the appealing ease in which these lives of young black men and women are taken; and the way they are rationalized away. The way in all this is seems like black lives really don t matter. I did say this was not going to be a rant or a lecture, didn t I? From where I stand, there is something we need, from each other and from this time of year in particular, to give ourselves the courage to go through times like this, and learn what we need to learn, and do what needs to be done. And what that last thing is I cannot say but I know there is something - the collective voices and demonstrations are moving us moving us toward justice. I am not able to tell us what that is yet I am sure it is moving that way but my heart is yearning for something bigger. Maybe its the time of year - Advent, when we are waiting and knowing at the same time some goodness, some new creative love is about to break through. So we are here this morning with the issues multiplied by new injustices. And we wonder, together, how can this be? What have we missed? What can be done? These are huge questions, and the underlying problems are not new nor did they arise overnight. So there are no quick fixes and the resolution of these ills will take a long time. But it begins here, with us - because just gathering for worship is an act of hope. It begins perhaps with those smaller questions that we might ask ourselves every day has this day changed you? Are the corners sharper or rounded off? Did you live with death? Make decisions that quieted? Find one clear word that fit? (from Questions Before Dark by Jeanne Lohmann) I am especially challenged - and perhaps you are, too - to deal with all this as we face the onslaught of the holiday season. For those who relish these days, we wonder, how can we celebrate in the face of such sorrow, with the knowledge that injustice seems to hold sway? Do the messages of good cheer and peace on earth ring especially hollow now? I think not. I think we need the essential hope that this season brings forth. So I m taking a page from theologian Harvey Cox on this. Back in the 1960 s, he was cutting edge and he invited us to examine the role of religions in relation to a world then beset by revolution and change. The salvation of humankind - our very connection to the divine - may not depend on having the right baptism or proper quantity of prayers, said in the right order. Rather, to be saved - in any understanding of the word - we must become more fully human. And, he thought, to do that we need to be more festive and fanciful, because that is part of our essence. Now any of you around back then will remember the era of December 2014 Page! 2 of! 5 Reverend Dr. Susan Veronica Rak

3 Woodstock, and musicals like Godspell, and later in the early 1970 s, Leonard Bernstein s Mass. Elements of carnival woven into essentially religious themes. Religion and concerns about the spirit have always been serious business no room for such frivolity here. And now, as we take in the reality of a damaged world, frayed and racially divided society - how can we even think of such things? But Cox said we ought to give this serious consideration, even in challenging times. Perhaps most especially in challenging times. These aspects of our human nature are what enabled us to evolve, to survive through disaster, persecution. They encourage us to change, to embrace possibility. Festivity, fancy, imagination I certainly don t feel festive or fanciful on a regular basis I would be suspect of people who were, seeing them as airy or rather twee - certainly not connected to reality. Myself, I need an excuse - a holiday or party or wedding or something, to break out my dancing shoes or party hat. At first glance, our society hardly looks like one that has repressed fantasy or festivity. But it is substance we are talking about here. It is not about superficial things, a splash of glitter here or a meme that lasts but a few hours there. It is not frivolous. Festivity, by breaking routine and opening us to the past, enlarges our experience and reduces our provincialism. Fantasy opens doors that merely empirical calculations ignore. it widens the possibility of innovation. [Cox] Together festivity and fantasy enable each of us to experience a richer present - a more joyful and creative way of living. Cox outlined three essential ingredients of festivity: excess, celebration and juxtaposition. So lets consider them for a moment. Excess: revelry we might eat and drink more during the holidays. certainly we allow ourselves treats and prepare certain foods and beverages only at this time of year. [I may bake cookies or other treats throughout the year, but only make butter spritz cookies in December!] It s a short vacation from convention - a change of pace that breaks us out of routine. We give ourselves permission to shake it up a bit -to let off steam. And celebration - this is not about just living it up. It is affirmation, offering a resounding yes to life, with all its loveliness and all its hardship. Celebration means connection - being here today or attending Christmas Eve services connecting with others, affirming there is joy, if not here in this moment exactly, but somewhere we know it. We remember, we know we will feel it again. The third element: juxtaposition - this is a unique consciousness we human beings bear - the knowledge that we are alive and that we will die, that all things pass. Juxtaposition allows us to celebrate, to treasure those moments and engage in festivity while still holding in our minds - and in our hearts - life s realities. We can, in the midst of December 2014 Page! 3 of 5! Reverend Dr. Susan Veronica Rak

4 celebration, remember that this is a moment in our whole history - we can treasure that moment as it happens. This is what Cox meant by it not being superficial. Juxtaposition incorporates life s ambiguities. it is what will make it possible for us to still celebrate, to sing, to dance even, in the face of this damaged society that we know we must work to mend. Festivity can help us, as individuals and as a community, keep relating to past, present and future all at once. That is why, as we were reminded in our communion Service two weeks ago, that is why music and singing were such a force in the Civil Rights movement. It is why we sing. Excess demands that we stay in the moment. Celebration means that we are in community and connect with others. It helps us recognize and affirm the dimensions of time that we might ordinarily fear - death, injustice, failure - things we would prefer to ignore or deny. And Juxtaposition firmly places us in the continuous flow of history and reminds us of our part in it. Lest that sound too analytical and abstract, just think for a moment, now that you are here, now that you have heard music and words that are happy and sad, that challenge us to face life how is it with your soul at the moment? The elements of festivity surround us - greens, lights, plans for giving gifts and celebrating together. Can we sit and hold these opposing feelings? E.B. White once quipped I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. But the truth is, we must do both. I think that s what Cox is getting at as well. We cannot do one without the other. So bearing our grief over these recent events, and struggling to understand where we are in this society regarding race, and what this means for Unitarian Universalists and for members of this congregation we are reminded that we don t do this in a vacuum. We do it together. There is a lot of work before us - much struggle and no small amount of pain. It s not just about going a demonstration or carrying the right sign. We are also called to look within - to acknowledge white privilege, to take on the cause that in particular back lives matter. We - as individuals and as a community and as a society - are for the first time in a generation being forced to really see and feel the world we live in the world of inequality and racial prejudice that is more than skin deep. A world we have inherited and cannot leave as we found it. We ponder the news and embrace the challenge - reluctantly or willingly. And we pray and still we will smile and sing out loud. It is an act of human perseverance a way through the misery, confusion and fear our very life asks nothing less of us. December 2014 Page 4! of! 5 Reverend Dr. Susan Veronica Rak

5 Reading The Questions We Ask Ourselves by Parker J. Palmer Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart Try to love the questions themselves Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given because you would not be able to live them and the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answers. Rainer Maria Rilke It took me a long time to learn it, but the questions we ask ourselves are at least as important as the answers we come up with, often more so. And our deepest questions are the ones Rilke writes about questions that cannot be answered right away but can only be "lived into" over the long haul. These are the questions that shape our lives, so we should choose them with care. Night is coming on in my part of the world, and I just re-read this beautiful poem by Jeanne Lohmann as a way of reviewing my day. I was happy with my answers to some of her questions, not so much with others. First thing in the morning, I'll read the poem again. If I live tomorrow with some of its questions in mind, who knows? Maybe tomorrow night I'll find that I took at least small steps into better answers... Questions Before Dark by Jeanne Lohmann Day ends, and before sleep when the sky dies down, consider your altered state: has this day changed you? Are the corners sharper or rounded off? Did you live with death? Make decisions that quieted? Find one clear word that fit? At the sun's midpoint did you notice a pitch of absence, bewilderment that invites the possible? What did you learn from things you dropped and picked up and dropped again? Did you set a straw parallel to the river, let the flow carry you downstream? December 2014 Page! 5 of 5! Reverend Dr. Susan Veronica Rak