First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia Rev. Abbey Tennis January 29th, 2017 11:00 AM Description: Every day, 5 times a day, millions of Muslims around the world recite prayers that seek to expand their vision of the divine as they deepen their lives. What might strengthening our spiritual practices expand and deepen in our lives? Sermon:, the words we chanted this morning as we began our worship service, are some of the words from the Muslim community that the western media and Islamophobic politicians have sought to twist in our minds. If you hear those words in a newscast, it is likely to refer to a terrorist chant something a suicide bomber might have yelled before attacking. Something written on a Radical Islamicist s Facebook page that worries the police. Something made fun of in American action movies and comedy shows. But the meaning of is not what our media would make it out to be. Though most non-muslims in our country think is a war cry meaning God is great as in OUR God is the best God as in OUR God is better than YOUR God Allahu Akbar is a prayer. literally means God is Greater As in God is greater than the government, or any one of us alone; God is larger than any conception of God we might have. Now, the way I am interpreting the purpose of this phrase is only one interpretation. Islam is as complex and multifaceted as any other religion with conservatives and radicals, literalists and those who see the faith more for its metaphors, those who practice with unfailing regularity and those who haven t prayed in years. There are queer Muslims and homophobic Muslims, feminist Muslims and sexist Muslims, democrat Muslims and republican Muslims and green party Muslims. My understanding of Islam comes from my teachers and sheikhs, and from my own religious practice, which leans towards Islam. But I am not trying to offer a definitive interpretation here today, because there is no definitive interpretation. Just like there is no one interpretation of Christianity, or Judaism. Just like there are many understandings of the Hindu tradition, and many of the Buddhist tradition. Just like, if I asked each one of you what Spirit of Life means to you, I would get over 150 different answers. If anyone ever 1
tries to tell you something is the definitive answer about any aspect of religion, they are lying or just plain wrong! So, that said, how many of you have performed salaat, or watched someone perform salaat the prayer cycle that Muslims go through five times a day? Salaat is an embodied prayer, standing, bending, prostrating oneself so that one s forehead is touching the ground, sitting, standing again. As the person praying goes through the prayer, is recited many times often by the leader of the prayer and repeated by the ones praying. When is spoken, it means two things: 1) God is greater whatever conception of the holy you had at the moment before saying, God is greater than that. It is repeated over and over to constantly expand the conception of the divine as each person cycles through their daily prayers. 2) When is spoken, it is often a signal that it s time to move it is spoken in the move from standing to bending, from standing to prostrating, prostrating to sitting, and so forth. words recited over and over every day by many of the over 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. Words spoken together in community. Words connected to the moving of the body. - a reminder to expand our understanding of the holy. - a signal that it s time to move. In some ways, I see the phrase functioning similarly to the Buddhist Metta prayer 1 we prayed together earlier. Beginning with self, and seeing holiness there; praying for loving-kindness, wellness, love, peace, ease, wholeness. And then expanding to a loved one - seeing holiness there; praying for their loving-kindness, wellness, love, peace, ease, wholeness. Then to a stranger, then a difficult person, then all beings - seeing holiness there; praying for their loving-kindness, wellness, love, peace, ease, wholeness. God is greater than self, holiness is greater than just those we love, or those we feel neutral about; the difficult ones too, are sacred. All are sacred. 1 https://palousemindfulness.com/docs/lovingkindness.pdf 2
In some ways, it is similar to Psalm 121 from the Hebrew scriptures that the choir will sing for us later Lord I will lift mine eyes to the hills God is greater than what is in me, what is around me. I will lift mine eyes to the hills I will expand my understanding of the holy. Many spiritual practices across religious traditions seek to expand the understanding of the divine for the practitioner the one praying or meditating. It s part of why so many people pray and meditate because it connects us to something larger to the interconnectedness of life, of existence. When we do it well, it helps us to be humble; helps us to see ourselves as siblings with the great human family, with all that is. So, it sounds good, right? Sounds like a good way to live? And yet, do any of us succeed at always feeling connected to the spark of divinity in ourselves and all that is? Seriously, raise your hand if you always succeed, because if so I want to know your secrets. It s hard. It s sooooo hard. And the more we are in conflict, or the world is in conflict, the harder it is. I m curious, who thought of Donald Trump when we prayed for the person who is difficult? Or maybe someone in your lives who is politically opposed to you right now? It was much harder to pray for that person, right? To see holiness in that person? To wish them ease and happiness? I fail at this all the time. I haven t been able to shake one specific memory of being at the Women s March on Washington last week. In a sea of 1.2 million joyful progressive protesters, I didn t meet any counter-protesters. But there was one young man probably in his mid-twenties who was wearing Trump paraphernalia and was giddy and smiling like so many of the marchers. He was reaching out his hand to offer high-fives, saying hey! High five! We re all on the same side, right? All for America? I was wearing my clergy collar, and I knew I was recognizable as a member of the clergy. I am always aware that my actions have a more significant impact when I am representing both myself and clergy in general. As I got nearer and nearer to this happy big-hearted young man, something in me tightened, and I found that I couldn t give him the high five he asked for. I offered a constricted half smile and walked past, feeling both ashamed about myself and irritated with him. I was at the march to call for the rights of all, I literally had a sign on my back that said, love is the doctrine of my church and yet I couldn t high five this young man who, I believe, was genuinely seeking to connect with the marchers. Of course, the story is more complex than that his request brought me back to the angry feelings towards every man on the street who has told me I ll look prettier if I d smile more; 3
his request brought me back to the angry feelings towards every man who hugged me without asking first when I was younger. His request for a high five did not allow enough time for us to have a serious conversation for us to connect on a human basis before engaging with our political differences. And yet, all of that said, I didn t high five him I couldn t shake his hand, even with the sign on my back reminding me to expand my understanding of the holy. Others in my group did; some of you here in this room gave him a high five. Some of you in this room watched as I refused to give him a high five. And still others of you spoke to me about the powerful experience of connecting with a Trump supporter during that day; and how meaningful it was for you to share an honest human moment together beyond your divides. Perhaps I should have prayed more that day, May we be filled with lovingkindness, Lord I will lift mine eyes to the hills. But it was a long day, and I was busy and exhausted and hungry. There is a Zen Buddhist proverb that goes: You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day. Unless you're too busy, then you should sit for an hour. And though the Muslim call to prayer is essentially identical each time it is called throughout the day, the first call to prayer every day includes the extra words: prayer is better than sleep. And still, every day, I struggle with this. Every day I struggle to remind myself to expand my understanding of the holy, every day I struggle to remind myself that I am holy too, every day I struggle to find a way to be compassionate toward those that make me angry, every day I struggle to find a way to move my life in a loving direction. And every day, it is easier to be busy than to meditate for an hour, or even 20 minutes, every day it is easier to stay asleep than to wake early to pray. In our reading 2 this morning, the poet Danny Bryck writes: I know, I know If you could go back you would walk with Jesus You would march with King Maybe assassinate Hitler At least hide Jews in your basement It would all be clear to you But people then, just like you were baffled, had bills 2 http://jocsm.org/if-you-could-go-back/ 4
to pay and children they didn t understand and they too were so desperate for normalcy they made anything normal It is so easy to sit in church and expand our vision of the holy to feel love for our human siblings to feel compelled to move and do something for the world so easy to believe that, we would be Jesus s disciple, not the mob cursing him, had we been around then. This is what churches are designed for. Here in church, it s so easy to believe that we would have marched with King when he called for us, that we would resist Nazism and be part of the underground railroad it is so easy to think we would do better than our predecessors. And yet, last week, I couldn t even bring myself to the simple act of high-fiving a stranger who reached out to me in companionship. EVEN when dressed as a clergyperson, even surrounded by congregants, even with a sign proclaiming Love! pinned to my back. ~~~ This past week, one of my colleagues met with a congregant who had indicated that he wasn t happy with her leadership in recent months. This is a normal thing in church life, and I certainly hope you all feel comfortable enough to come talk with me about your experience here at church and let me know if you re not happy with my leadership. When my colleague and her congregant sat down together, he said that, since the election, he had experienced her preaching as more angry and passionate than it had ever been before. We have a divide in this country that needs healing, and we need to reach out and understand people, he said. Does marching really do anything? He went on, I've been a leader for twenty years and I know that you can't fight and heal at the same time. It's not possible. You can t fight and heal at the same time. He saw her as fighting when he wanted her to be healing. And this is a dichotomy that many of us might be wrestling with right now whether we should prioritize resisting the new policies that cut at the very heart of our values, or whether we should be working with those on the other side of the political spectrum to try to unify our divided country again. In a talk she gave called Getting Unstuck: Breaking Your Habitual Patterns and Encountering Naked Reality, Tibetan Buddhist nun and teacher Pema Chödrön received a question from an audience member who had been wrestling with this dichotomy in her own life. 5
The audience member raised her hand and walked to the microphone and said: One of my parents abused me quite a bit as a child how do I have compassion for her while, at the same time, needing to draw some very clear boundaries? Because she still abuses. She talked of struggling with the Buddhist work of compassion and openness while needing to protect herself from further abuse. The answer that Pema gave has stuck with me for years. She said: No there is no conflict [between boundaries and compassion]. Boundaries [are] good. Buddha would [have] like[d] boundaries [and of course, when] you start to draw boundaries the abuser is stopped short, and they don t like it. But what could be more compassionate than to stop someone from hurting people? 3 What could be more compassionate than to stop someone from hurting people? ~~~ God is greater than all of this greater than any of us could possibly imagine. May all beings be filled with loving-kindness. Lord, I will lift mine eyes to the hills. The core work of the spirit is to grow more loving. To expand what we see as holy until we see all as holy and then to keep expanding. Because when we are boundlessly loving, when everything becomes holy, we cannot help but treat the world as sacred, treat the stranger as sibling. And when we treat the world as sacred and the stranger as sibling, we cannot help but seek to restore to heal - that which has been desecrated and protect the rights, and worth, and dignity of each of our companions on planet earth. Spiritual practices are training for the spirit. Whether praying to Allah, to God, to Jesus, meditating to expand our compassion or empty the clutter from our minds, we are training our spirits to grow more loving, and to expand our vision so that we see all as interconnected all as divine. Can we fight and heal at the same time? 3 from Q&A session of Pema Chodron s audiobook of Getting Unstuck: Breaking Your Habitual Patterns and Encountering Naked Reality at ~ 3 hours 14 minutes. 6
What could be more healing than to stop someone from hurting people? Each one of us in this Sanctuary is wrestling with struggles that the rest of us know nothing about. Some in this sanctuary are struggling with abuse both as victim and as perpetrator. Some in this sanctuary are struggling with frightening diagnoses and bad prognoses. Some in this Sanctuary are struggling with depression and immobilizing anxiety. Some are terrified that they will lose their health care, or their social security, or their immigrant family members, or their ability to stay out and proud, or their freedom. Many of us are at the edge of losing hope, if we have not lost it already. Some of our struggles are personal, some political, some spiritual. But here is what we have in common: We come together to train our spirits to be more loving. We come together to expand our vision of an interconnected living family here on earth. We come together to find hope. We come together because none of us can do this alone. Resistance is an act of love stopping someone from causing harm is the most compassionate thing we can do for them. If we do not take action to grow our love and resist abuse in our country right now, we will let those who are causing harm destroy the very values they claim to love. And if you don t believe that President Trump loves the values of freedom and equality, justice and the pursuit of happiness that are under threat right now, at least believe that the vast majority of his supporters love those values. I believe the young Trump supporter trying to high five me at the Women s March on Washington believes in these values just as I do, even if we disagree vehemently on how they should be put into practice. Our work is to resist oppression from a place of love. Our work is to fight and heal. Our work is to hold boundaries while expanding our compassion. If you do not yet have a spiritual practice that helps you grow more loving, that helps you widen your view of what is sacred what is of worth in this life that helps you remember to take action then, my friends, not is the time to find one. You might start by wearing a black lives matter button every day reminding you to expand the boundaries of what you have been taught is holy to include black lives reminding you to act when you see injustice. It might start by wearing a pussy hat reminding you to expand the boundaries of what you have been taught is sacred to include women s bodies, connecting you to your own power to speak out when misogyny is characterized as simply locker room talk. 7
It might start by writing two things in a journal every day One: a way that love grew in you that day and Two: a way that you resisted injustice that day. It may begin with meditation, or prayer, or Salaat. We all need spiritual training. We all need each other to hold onto love, and hope, and resistance when we inevitably lose sight of it. Those kids sitting down in the highway, and chaining themselves to buildings that kid That s King. And this is Selma. And Berlin. And Jerusalem. And now is when they need you to be brave. Now is when we need you to go back and forget everything you know and give up the things you re chained to and make it look so easy in your grandkids history books 4 Holiness is greater that we could ever imagine. It s time to move now., my friends. Amin, and Amen 4 http://jocsm.org/if-you-could-go-back/ 8