ORDER AND CHAOS BY ANDREA GOULET UUCC MARCH 26, 2017

Transcription

1 ORDER AND CHAOS BY ANDREA GOULET UUCC MARCH 26, 2017 Greek Creation Story by the poet Hesiod In the beginning, there was only Chaos. Then out of the void appeared Erebus, the unknowable place where death dwells, and Night. All else was empty, silent, endless, dark. Then, Love was born bringing along the beginning of order. From Love emerged Light, followed by Gaea, the earth. Christian Creation Story: The Book of Genesis In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning the first day. Hindu Creation Story: From the Upanisads In the beginning there was absolutely nothing, and what existed was covered by death and hunger. He thought, "Let me have a self", and he created the mind. As he moved about in worship, water was generated. Froth formed on the water, and the froth eventually solidified to become earth. Scientific Creation Story: The Big Bang Theory. In the beginning, a small singularity existed that contained every atom of the entire universe. For reasons which we can t yet measure or fully mathematically model, the singularity exploded with fantastic force and the universe was created. However, from telescopes such as Hubble and Spitzer, and the work of physicists such as Einstein and Lemaitre, we do have evidence that for the past 13.8 billion years the atoms from the Big Bang smashed into each other, created elements, which gave way to stars, galaxies, planets, moons, and all the other matter in the Universe. On some of these planets, such as Earth, life has flourished to the point where we are able to contemplate our own existence. One thing I found particularly interesting in researching this story was the person who was responsible for developing the Big Bang theory, Georges Lemaitre. He Catholic priest who was one of the first to apply Einstein s general theory of relativity to cosmology in Page 1 of 7

2 Then, in the fifties, Pope Pious the 12th was using his theory to validate the Catholic creation story. Lemaitre was a strong advocate for keeping science secular, and worked with the pope s scientific advisor to get the pope to stop preaching Creationism. His stance was that the Big Bang theory is neutral. There isn t a connection nor a contradiction between his religion and his theory. So not only was he a great scientist, he was also incredibly courageous in standing up to his own religion to preserve the evidence-based values of science. And I love that as a Unitarian Universalist, we can preserve the distinction by looking at both the Christian story and the Big Bang separately, while drawing inspiration from both. It s nice, isn t it? So there s a theme in all of these creation stories the duality of order and chaos. We re told that they re opposites. We seek the safety and security of order, and we work hard to avoid the pain of chaos. But that feels a little tough to do these days. Is it just me, or does life seem really chaotic lately? You see, I used to think that the steady beat of inclusivity and progress were growing. I was born in I remember people saying how bad things USED to be. I couldn t fathom a world where people went to segregated schools, where women couldn t work, or where people were rounded up and confined for no reason other than their ethnicity. From my point of view, those things were in the past. During my teens, I saw peace agreements around the world and the European Union came together. In college, we read a lot about globalization and the positive impact it had on the world. I remember learning how global business is one of the best protectors of world peace, evidenced by the fact that, at least at the time, no two countries who both have a McDonalds had ever gone to war with each other. My classes were becoming more diverse. I saw more women in leadership roles and running for office. I thought people were becoming more tolerant and our world was working towards becoming more just every day. Sure, maybe it wasn t going as fast as I would have liked, but I thought things were generally getting better and not worse. I sensed a relatively stable upward positive trend in my world. But the past six months have turned that all upside down. I ve started really delving into the idea of my own privilege and recognizing that for many people, there are systemic forces at work that keep them oppressed. I ve been grappling with my role in dismantling those systems and trying to figure out how to help people without being patronizing. I ve also Page 2 of 7

3 observed the global forces that I thought were so stable begin to fall apart like a real life house of cards. The rise of authoritarianism and hate around the world has my head spinning. Brexit. Trump. Russia. North Korea. What is going on? It feels like the world is turning to chaos! So how do we grapple with this change? Honestly, I didn t think I d be presenting on this topic when I suggested it at the Worship Weavers committee. I was hoping someone else would give me the answers. But like many things in life, I m glad I ended up getting the opportunity to prepare this sermon because I get the best clarity when I m able to create and explore an idea in some amount of depth. So, I figured looking at the creative process might be a good place to start. The night of the Worship Weavers committee, I was listening to an episode of the Hidden Brain podcast called Embrace the Chaos. As I pulled into the parking lot, the host Shankar Vedantam had just wrapped up interviewing Tim Hartford on his new book, Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives. In the interview, I was struck by the story about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he gave his famous and inspirational I Have a Dream speech. Hartford described how King was known for methodical and meticulous preparation for every sermon and speech, and that day was no different. Dr. King knew the weight of history was on him. He stepped up to the stage on the steps of the Lincoln memorial, in the shadow of the president who had written the Emancipation Proclamation. All three networks were broadcasting his speech live, and he started with the words that he had carefully crafted the night before. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. The script, which Dr. King and his aides had prepared was titled Normalcy, Never Again. They were trying to hit several key points to recruit white allies and also navigate a complex political atmosphere, all in just seven minutes. When the speech was falling flat, Dr. King paused and the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was sitting just behind him yelled out Tell em about the dream, Martin! The speech took a sudden turn. Dr. King abandoned the carefully crafted text in front of him and began to improvise one of the most memorable speeches in history. He began to Page 3 of 7

4 preach about his vision that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood... that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. He riffed. He made it up in the moment, drawing on his tremendous experience, expertise, and hope. He used intuition, not reason to stir the crowd. And this is one of the things I know as a creator the value of trusting in something bigger than yourself. Of knowing when to stop when something s not working and just trust your gut and listen to your instinct. For me, there are so many serendipitous moments in my life where that trust has served me. I ve learned that my best work comes when I m like water and just go with the flow. This led me to think about Taoism, a philosophy that arose in China about 2500 years ago when a philosopher named Lao Tzu wrote a series of 81 poems called the Tao Te Ching. There are many famous concepts and quotes from this text that you re probably familiar with like the yin and yang symbol or the quote The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I discovered Taoism about ten years ago when I was going through a painful divorce. It felt like my personal life was falling apart and the Tao Te Ching gave me great comfort. Since then, whenever I ve had a challenge: depression, financial struggles, career uncertainty, I ve come back to this small book of poems and my mind just seems to calm down. I decided to look at my favorite translation by John Bright-Fey to see what jumped out at me and if anything would be good to share for this sermon. There, among the scribbles and highlights, were the following passage: Chapter 53 Authentic knowledge is intuitive knowledge Authentic knowledge is directly experienced It is easy to enter the tao source and way of life Through higher intuition All you have to do is Enter a sacred precinct Pick up your life and bodymind Adjust it to the moment in space and time Page 4 of 7

5 Play and create in the moment Be happy and content with whatever occurs Revel with your creation Rest with your creation Rejoice with your creation When timeworn ritual feels new You will see exactly where you are going And be able to walk the magnificent path In freedom measures Slowly and deliberately It is easy to get sidetracked and lost in the wilderness It happens all the time But The worst thing you can do Is worry too much about it Smile Correct the course Bring yourself back to the great road and walk Slowly and deliberately Nothing else will solve the problem of getting lost. Imposed order and rigid ritual are too clean And won t produce anything of substance or beauty Magic coats with secret symbols can not nullify Anger, violence, or confusion At the center of a lost man An authentic life can not be stolen False spirit is not the tao way of life When order is imposed and ritual defiled When anger, violence, and confusion are purposefully disguised When you feed the stomach, but not the soul When you boast, brag, and push yourself on the world Page 5 of 7

6 You get further and further away from the tao source and way of life Indeed You are its enemy It is easy to get sidetracked and lost in the wilderness. It happens all the time but the worst thing you can do is worry too much about it. Smile, correct the course, bring yourself back to the great road and walk slowly and deliberately. I think chaos is the fear we have of not being in control. Right now, the fear I have most is of violence and conflict. I can t control that. I don t agree with the people who lead my country, and that scares me. I worry constantly: what if war comes to us? How would I cope with the suffering? I thought we had stability and peace, but I see that crumbling. That feels like chaos, but if I pause and observe, that chaos is just fear. Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychotherapist, must have felt that chaotic fear when in 1938, the Nazi party no longer allowed him to treat so called Aryan patients because he was Jewish. I imagine that feeling got stronger when he was uprooted from his home and forced to live in a Nazi ghetto in And I imagine that when he was processed in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 where he was forced to work as a slave laborer, he had to feel like the world was falling to pieces. Even upon liberation in 1945, that feeling of chaos had to engulf him once he learned that his mother, father, and wife had all died in concentration camps. But Frankl used this experience to change the course of history. His book, Man s Search For Meaning has sold over ten million copies and is considered by the Library of Congress to be one of the ten most influential books in the United States. In his book, Frankl shares how even in the most dire circumstances, when suffering is unimaginable and human dignity is stripped away, responding with happiness is the answer. He writes: Happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your Page 6 of 7

7 knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run in the long-run, I say! success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it Chaos and order are illusions. When I was under the illusion of order, I was complacent. I didn t call my elected officials or feel like my voice mattered. Now that I feel that life is chaotic, I need to remember that too is an illusion just another side of the taoist symbol. No matter what life s circumstances bring my way, I am inspired by people like Dr. King, Lao Tzu and Viktor Frankl. I do my best to choose hope, to listen to my instincts, and to remember that happiness shouldn t be pursued, it should ensue. This isn t easy. I struggle. I stumble. A lot. I definitely don t claim to be someone who knows all the answers, but I find comfort in not having to have them all. Happiness in the face of fear is often not intuitive. It takes practice. It s a series of choices and listening to what my heart tells me to do. For example, I suggested this topic on a whim when I heard a podcast on a way to a committee meeting, and then said yes when I didn t expect to be the one to deliver it. Slowing down means taking a deep breath when my kids are acting up and I just want to scream. It s lowering my voice in a tense negotiation. It s choosing empathy over blame when someone does something that hurts. It s creating a space to listen to someone who doesn t agree with me. In times of chaos, my job isn t to fix the world or change everyone s mind, although when I read Facebook, it can sometimes feel that way. No, in times of both order and chaos, my duty is to live my life the best I can. To listen to my instincts, to hold true to my values, and to find happiness in the smallest places, even when it s difficult. Page 7 of 7