BUILDING INTERFAITH BRIDGES A Sermon by Reverend Lynn Thomas Strauss

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Natalie Barnett
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1 BUILDING INTERFAITH BRIDGES A Sermon by Reverend Lynn Thomas Strauss In 1820, Edward Hicks, an American painter and a Quaker from Pennsylvania, painted the first of a series of paintings known as The Peaceable Kingdom. Have you seen it at the National Gallery? Do you know the Randall Thompson work by the same title, or the children s books? The idea and image of the Peaceable Kingdom has become part of the American culture and myth, though its roots go much deeper. The Peaceable Kingdom. It s a place thought to be purely aspirational -- eschatological, in fact -- it will come only after this world has passed away. The images of the lion and the lamb lying down together and the children leading come from the Hebrew Bible - book of Isaiah in the 11 th Chapter. The prophet Isaiah speaks of the future hope of Israel, of how the world will be when evil passes away. The Peaceable Kingdom is an image of radical hope. It is written: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. There are two things that I want to lift up from the image that Hicks painted. Because Hicks was a Quaker minister, there is a quality of inner light in the painting that seems to come from within the animals and the children in the foreground. There is a radiance in the Kingdom nothing is as we might expect in terms of how the animals are living with one another, and there is a holy light

2 radiating from within. Clearly, the Peace depicted is a holy peace. The other thing that you may have missed, or perhaps it isn t in all versions of the painting, is that the people, the adults, the men and women are set apart from the Kingdom. They are far back and across a great divide from the place of peace. There is, perhaps, a broad river, a chasm separating them from the Kingdom the Beloved Community. They look full of panic and despair and grief. Again and again, Edward Hicks painted this scene, and writers and composers and preachers have been touched by this image. The question to consider is, How can the community, the despairing people, how can we get to the other side? How can we get to the Peaceable Kingdom? I believe that a version of this Kingdom is possible. I believe that people of different cultures, different races, different genders, different sexual orientations, different classes, different countries of origin, different faiths I believe we can cross the rivers and the chasms that divide us. This is what I believe our faith requires of us to hold this vision and work for this possibility. When I long for Beloved Community, I am imagining not only a Beloved Community of Unitarian Universalists. How small a community would that be? How challenging to create is that? No, I long for a pluralistic, diverse, multi, interfaith Beloved Community! Something never before seen. And I can assure you that many others long for this kind of Peaceable Kingdom as well. The prophet Isaiah rose to speak to his people because times were bad war and violence were destroying cities, people had lost faith in their God, and they had turned away from hope.

3 The prophet Jesus rose to speak because the laws of ancient powers, both religious and secular, had lost their pure intention. Oppression and suffering was widespread because lines of division had been drawn between people, and so he invited everyone to the table, he lived a message of peace and inclusion, he feed the hungry souls of all the people. The teacher Buddha arose because he saw the crushing oppression and suffering of poverty. He felt the pain that greed and inequality caused the people. He imagined loving kindness, care for the other, as a way toward a more peaceable world. The prophet Martin Luther King, Jr. rose up because discrimination and false separation were killing people in body and soul. It was time to face the powers and principalities. It was time for a new dream. And he knew his Bible, he knew of the vision of Isaiah. We live in times of violence and irrational public policies that allow the brisk sale of weapons and encourage the jailing of young men of color. We live in times of social and economic disparity, when food is taken from the mouths of children and our government appears to lack all compassion. We live in times of widening inequality and deepening anxiety. Perhaps this too is a time for prophecy to break forth. Perhaps this is a time when we need to lift up the vision of the Peaceable Kingdom, the vision of an interfaith Beloved Community. I think the time is now. And so do many religious leaders in Montgomery County. So much is happening that I want you to know about. So much dialogue and gathering, and hope is beginning to rise. There is an inner light in the eyes of Imam Faisul Kahn and Buddhist priest Gompo, and minister and organizer, Casey Kaseman there is a light of hope illuminating the work of

4 interfaith bridge building. There are 60 or 70 clergy and religious leaders moving forward together. To get to the other side of the great river, the wide chasm depicted in Hicks s painting, it must begin with an inner light of faith and hope and inner light of courage. For the work of reaching across religious and cultural and language divides is risky and difficult. We may offend, we may fail, we may be afraid or embarrassed. When I and some others from our congregation attended the service at the Sikh Temple commemorating the attack on the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin where six people were killed while at prayer, it was my first time to cross that particular religious divide. We were told that we needed to cover our heads, to wear head scarves. I can t tell you how anxious that made me. I agonized more over what to put on my head than what words I might speak to that bereaved community in Potomac. But, they were so welcoming, so happy to have us there. The older woman who invited me to sit next to her at the back of the temple on the women s side definitely had a light in her eyes. She was happy we were there supporting them, reaching out to them, responding to their invitation. What we need to get to the Peaceable Kingdom, to the radical Interfaith Beloved Community is to walk across the bridges that are already before us, and each time we do that, we strengthen the bridge. The more people who venture onto the bridge, the stronger the bridge will become. We can approach the bridge to the Peaceable Kingdom from many paths. Here at UUCR there are some of us approaching through the work of Green Sanctuary, working with other faiths

5 groups who share their vision of Beloved Community. We are walking toward the strong wide bridge in our work for immigration reform, for there we meet immigrants from all over the world, there we build relationships of meaning and compassion. We are walking toward the bridge when we feed the homeless, or work for marriage equality and offer shelter for LGBTQ youth. We are walking toward the bridge when we invite our friends and neighbors to musical events here, to youth events here, and when we go to conferences and workshops that sharpen our cultural competency. We live in traumatic times. We have choices to make. We can draw our circle smaller and tell ourselves we are safe. Or, we can take a fighting stance, let anger and cynicism drive around and around. Or, we can live our value of inclusion and the joy of difference. We can pay attention and recognize and feel the fear and anxiety of our religious neighbors, knowing that each time a shooting or an act of terror, or the killing of an innocent African America boy on his way home, occurs anywhere in America, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, all people of color wonder who in their family will be next. None of us is safe, until all of us are safe. And so we in the interfaith community of Montgomery County are building bridges. We are planning to create a Community Chaplain Corps, training clergy from different traditions to join first responders at scenes of crises to provide pastoral presence to those who are suffering. I am part of that team and the meetings have been happening here at UUCR. After intensive training, I will be on call four weeks out of the year. This is serious and committed public ministry. I will need your support and participation.

6 Eboo Patel writes: These times require all of us to be interfaith leaders. We have to expand our knowledge of diverse faiths in order to make our nation and world safe and free for all. Diversity work is not a safe zone; it is complicated and I have to know where I stand before I can step out into the world of interfaith dialogue and cooperation. Patel suggests three skills necessary for interfaith work: 1. Readiness to articulate one s own faith. 2. Appreciative understanding of other traditions. 3. An eye that sees and sensabilities that feel resonance, points of connection. We have to see and affirm the difference and we have to see the points of commonality. These are some of the bridge building tools needed. Interfaith outreach opportunities are already here: On Sunday, October 13 from 1-5 p.m., there will be a Friendship Picnic at Wheaton Regional Park. I hope one of you will step forward to organize this family event. On Sunday, October 27, we will host Clergy Beyond Borders, a Caravan of Religious Leaders for Reconciliation that will be traveling around the state, educating and inspiring interfaith connections. They will arrive at UUCR around 4-6 p.m. There will be food and music and shared stories. I need someone to step forward to organize a welcome for this group. These times require all of us to be interfaith leaders. I invite you to walk with me toward the bridge, toward the Peaceable Kingdom, toward the Interfaith Beloved Community. May It Be So/Amen

ACTS OF FAITH: CONFRONTING RACISM. A Sermon by Reverend Lynn Thomas Strauss

ACTS OF FAITH: CONFRONTING RACISM A Sermon by Reverend Lynn Thomas Strauss Friends, you know it is harder to care about your neighbor if you don t know them; harder to understand a different religion or