Faith, Hope and Charity Unitarian Coastal Fellowship Rev. Sally B. White September 18,

Transcription

1 1 Faith, Hope and Charity. Unitarian Universalists are proud of our history of Social Action. This morning we will consider ways of understanding and responding to injustice as individuals and as a community of faith. Today s is the first in a series of sermons that explore some of the challenges and possibilities, the achievements and the shortfalls in Unitarian Universalist Social Justice work. Sermon: If you visit the website of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations ( you will see on the homepage picture after story after profile after headline about Unitarian Universalists inspired to act for justice. We are a faith tradition deeply rooted in living our values in the world. Deeds, not creeds, we say, and by that we mean that we recognize that how a person acts speaks far more eloquently about their religious beliefs than the most powerful of words. Though I may speak with bravest fire, and have the gift to all inspire, and have not love, my words are vain, as sounding brass, and hopeless gain. [excerpt from hymn #34, which preceded the sermon]. And if you look a little deeper on the UUA website, in a curriculum for adults that explores Unitarian Universalist social justice history, you will find this story about faith, and hope, and charity. It s a story you already know, but I ask you, this morning, to listen again; to see whether you might hear something new. [Long ago and far away,] a Jewish merchant bid his family farewell and left Jerusalem early one morning to travel to Jericho, where he would bring his goods to market. He left early, his donkey laden with goods for the market. He was anxious because he had to travel over the eighteen-mile Jericho Road. The Jericho Road went through steep, rocky terrain that had

2 2 plenty of places where robbers could hide and ambush unsuspecting travelers. The merchant wanted nothing more than to get to Jericho quickly and safely so he could sell his goods. He had traveled a couple of hours and had reached a desolate section of the steep, rocky road when suddenly a gang of robbers jumped out from behind a rock. They stole his merchandise, and then went on to beat him and take his food, his water, and even the clothing off his back. They went away and left him for dead. After a while, a priest chanced to walk down that road. He had finished his Temple service and was headed home for a well-deserved rest. When he saw the merchant, he was not sure at first if he was alive or dead. He paused for a moment to consider what to do. "If the man is dead,"he thought, "then if I touch him I will be unclean. Purification rituals will take a week, and I will be unable to do my job at the Temple." He convinced himself that the man was either dead or near to it, and that it would serve no good purpose to get any closer to the man than he already was. He passed by, on the other side of the road. A while later, a Levite, a Temple official, happened down the road. He, too, saw the merchant's body. He could see signs of shallow breathing, so he knew the man was alive. He considered stopping to help, but then he thought, "He is too badly hurt to just give him some water and food and send him on his way. He might very likely die in my arms, and then I will have a serious problem. I will need to do something about his body, and I

3 3 will also be unclean and will have to purify myself before I can get back to my work at the Temple."He looked away from the man, and passed by on the other side of the road. And then a Samaritan was traveling down the road and saw the man. He took pity on him, even though Samaritans and Jews generally hated one another. The Samaritan gave the Jewish merchant water, gently and slowly, and the man began to revive. The Samaritan poured oil and wine on the man's wounds and bandaged them. He gently put the man on his own donkey and brought him to an inn, where he cared for him for two days. When the Samaritan had to leave, he paid the innkeeper generously for the merchant's room and board while he recovered, saying, "If this is not enough, I will pay you the balance when I come back this way." [ This story of the Good Samaritan is usually framed as a story about who is our neighbor. The story comes from Christian scripture from the book of Luke and it is used to challenge our comfortable assumptions about what it means to love our neighbor; what it means to live and to act in love, even if there is a cost to ourselves. Especially if there is a cost to ourselves. If we look a little deeper into the story, we can begin to explore the idea of charity and how charity is related to justice.

4 4 We begin by asking, at what point in this story is the critical injustice? [repeat] At what point in this story is the critical injustice? And just what do we mean by injustice? Do we mean, where is wrong done? In that case, we look at the acts of individuals the robbers who attacked the man; the priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side of the road their actions cast into sharp contrast by the tender and caring response of the Samaritan. In response to wrongdoing, we may be strengthened in our resolve to do differently, to do right. We put ourselves into the story and we resolve that if we saw someone hurt by the side of the road, we would move toward them, not away. We would reach out to help, like the Samaritan. In response to wrongdoing, we aspire to reach out not just with words of love but with acts of love, acts of caring the Latin word is caritas. The translation into English is charity. We offer the wounded traveler water. We wash his wounds and bandage them. We take him to a safe place, give him a bed to sleep in, clothe him, feed him. The work of charity is good work. The scale is mind-boggling. The National Center for Charitable Statistics estimated that charitable giving from all sources in the United States in 2014 totaled more than $358 billion dollars! But injustice carries a subtly different meaning from wrongdoing. Justice and injustice are systemic; they go beyond the actions or inactions of an individual or a few people to the larger system or framework of expectations (informal) and safeguards (more formal) that define and protect the rights, the safety, the well-

5 5 being of individuals and groups of people. Injustice is not so much an incident as a state of affairs, in which wrongdoing is uncorrected, ignored, unrecognized perhaps even perpetrated by a culture, a society, a political or legal or religious system. The response to injustice is very different from the response to wrongdoing. If we see the issue as injustice, then we work to change the situation, change the system, put a different system in place that addresses not only the victims of wrongdoing, but the state of affairs the status quo that made it possible for the wrongdoing to happen in the first place. On the Jericho Road, we might tell and retell the story shine a light on the dangers that lay in wait for travelers. We might set up firstaid stations along the road. Make the road safe by policing it. Arrest the robbers and punish them. Restore the thieves to the community. Question a society that produces thieves. We might do the work of social justice. Charity reaches out to address an immediate need, while social justice works to address the root cause of the problem. Charity helps the wounded traveler; social justice seeks to keep future travelers from being attacked. Charity stocks a food pantry or builds a soup kitchen to feed the hungry; justice works to give people the means to feed themselves. We need the work of charity to keep people going, but we need the work of justice to build the road; to paraphrase Martin Luther King, Jr., to make the hills and mountains low, and the rough places plain, and the crooked places straight. [ I Have a Dream 1963;

6 6 How is this religious work, and not political work, or economic work, or legal work? Well, in truth it is all these things. In truth, it takes all these perspectives, and skills, and tools, to bring justice into the world. But it is faith that gives us the vision even to imagine that things could be different. It is hope that gives us the strength to carry on, even in the face of wrongdoing. Even in the face of injustice. Even in the face of resistance. For the work of justice is not easy work. Hope it is that empowers us to reach out to others, knowing that we cannot do this work alone. Hope it is that comes to life in the religious community, which, reprising the words of our call to worship this morning, unveil[s] the bonds that bind each to all; which shows to us a connectedness, a relationship discovered amid the particulars of our own lives and the lives of others. Once felt, it inspires us to act for justice. [Mark Morrison-Reed; STLT #580]. Hope is the ground that we stand on, in the face of wrongdoing and injustice again Martin Luther King: we shall hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. [ I Have a Dream 1963; Hope it is that calls us to work alongside politicians and economists and legal experts in partnerships and alliances and coalitions. In the words of the Rev. William Barber, President of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, in his book The Third Reconstruction, after forty years of wandering in the wilderness, isolated in our issue-based tribes, our coalition found others to stand with them Like a cloud by day and a fire by

7 7 night, our common agenda, rooted in North Carolina s deepest moral and constitutional values, promised to lead us forward. We did not know how long we would have to struggle or how many obstacles we would have to overcome. [The Third Reconstruction. p. 65]. But hope it is that keeps them going. Keeps us going. Keeps inviting others in. Sings Come and go with me to that land And faith it is that gives us the impulse to lift our eyes above the road at our feet, and see in our mind s eye that land where we are bound. Religious scriptures give us language: a land where we bind up the broken, where the captives go free, where justice shall roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. But scriptures are only language, and it is faith that supports us in believing that our actions can bring that world into being. That our small strength taps into a larger strength the strength of conviction that another way is possible. That our small efforts are important, but not indispensable for we are part of a larger truth, and part of the long sweep of history; part of a vision large enough to include the wounded traveler and also those who live by thievery; the fearful priest and also the charitable Samaritan. Faith it is that tells us that our contribution to the work of justice may move things along, but that when we fall short, when we meet resistance, when we are defeated the setbacks are also part of a larger pattern, and in the end, justice will prevail. Faith it is that made it possible for someone perhaps it was Mohandas Gandhi, and perhaps it wasn t to say about the work of justice, First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win. [ And faith it is that inspires Rev. William Barber to say, A heavy backlash against our movement for justice may

8 8 hurt. It may well make us weep and moan. But it must not deter us. In fact, it should encourage us. Because resistance is our confirmation that we are on the right track. [The Third Reconstruction. p. 65]. If you visit the website of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, you will see on the homepage three windows, labeled who, and what and where. We are brave, curious, and compassionate, they say. We live boldly, with gratitude and hope. we are where you are. Connect with us. This is a snapshot of a people who live in faith, in hope, in charity, in the service of justice. This is a snapshot of who we are, and who we aspire to be. Take a moment, now, in silence, to picture yourself, and this congregation, in this snapshot. The bell will lead us into silence, and music will lead us out. Bell Silence Music May it be so.