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Note: Herein is an approximation of the sermon I delivered on October 10, 2010, at the UU Fellowship of Kamloops. A sermon is an interactive event, and reading it is never the same as the live experience. With that in mind, enjoy! – Wendy
Thanksgiving is a Verb
Readings:
1.“Crying Out for Justice” by James Ishmael Ford, from UU World, Fall 2010:
“The world is perfect as it is. That’s the insight of the spiritual eye. Everything just as it is, is. No judgment, no second thought. Just this.
And, and, and, at the very same time, it needs work. Lord, it needs work. That’s the other eye. Starving children, oppressions and exploitations of every sort, greed, hatred, and endless certainties all leading to small and great hurts, the suffering world crying out for justice, for mercy, for some action.”
2. “Benediction” – p. 163-165, Blessing the World Rebecca Parker: Blessing the World: What Can Save Us Now, collected essays, Ed. Robert Hardies, 2006, Skinner House Press
Your gifts
whatever you discover them to be
can be used to bless or curse the world.
The mind’s power,
The strength of the hands,
The reaches of the heart,
the gift of speaking, listening, imagining, seeing, waiting,
Any of these can serve to feed the hungry,
bind up wounds,
welcome the stranger,
praise what is sacred,
do the work of justice
or offer love.
Any of these can draw down the prison door
hoard bread,
abandon the poor,
obscure what is holy,
comply with injustice
or withhold love.
You must answer this question:
What will you do with your gifts?
Choose to bless the world.
The choice to bless the world is more than an act of will
a moving forward into the world
with the intention to do good.
It is an act of recognition,
a confession of surprise,
a grateful acknowledgment
that in the midst of a broken world
unspeakable beauty, grace and mystery abide.
There is an embrace of kindness,
that encompasses all life,
even yours,
And while there is injustice,
anesthetization, or evil
there moves
a holy disturbance,
a benevolent rage,
a revolutionary love
protesting, urging, insisting
that which is sacred will not be defiled.
Those who bless the world live their life
as a gesture of thanks
for this beauty
and this rage.
The choice to bless the world
can take you into solitude
to search for the sources
of power and grace;
native wisdom, healing, and liberation.
More, the choice will draw you into community,
the endeavor shared,
the heritage passed on,
the companionship of struggle,
the importance of keeping faith,
the life of ritual and praise,
the comfort of human friendship,
the company of earth
its chorus of life
welcoming you.
None of us alone can save the world.
Together – that is another possibility, waiting.
SERMON
Thanksgiving is a Verb
Rev. Wendy McNiven
October 10, 2010
In the book Stones into Schools, author Greg Mortensen summarizes his call to bless the world. He tells of encountering the village that would invite him into his extraordinary vocation. As a mountain climber, he had attempted to climb K-2, the second highest peak in the Himalayas (after Everest). Realizing he could not quite make it to the top, because of bad weather, he turned back down the mountain, and somehow lost his way. Fortuitously, Mortensen arrived in a very remote Pakistani village, where the people offered him hospitality enough to prepare him for the rest of his journey home. He learned enough from his time with the villagers to realize that one of the biggest things they needed was access to education. In fact, as he was leaving, the village head man asked him to promise to return to the village, and build them a school.
Out of gratitude, he was happy to make this promise – even though he had no idea how he was going to carry it out. Greg Mortensen went home to California, where he worked as a nurse, and sold his climbing equipment, his car and all his books to raise money to build a school. With help, he raised $12,000. The story of the three-year trial of getting this school built is described in Three Cups of Tea. That promise kept was the beginning of his life work of organizing many more schools, and especially, for his enabling the education of girls and women in isolated parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
His original gratitude was turned into action.
“The choice to bless the world is more than an act of will
a moving forward into the world
with the intention to do good.
…
Those who bless the world live their life
as a gesture of thanks
… .”
Gratitude is like Love – it’s a nice feeling, but it’s much more powerful if it is expressed in Action.
Today, 10/10/10, is a “Global Day of Action” for the Earth, trying to get ourselves back to 350 ppm of carbon dioxide in the air. You have heard some of the scientific analysis of this problem of climate change. We don’t often look at the theological aspect of it. Sallie McFague[1] gives a Christian theological perspective on the imperative to become activists in this cause. As Christianity is one of the religious roots of UUism, I appreciate her analysis. She speaks of the world as God’s household, and it is our task to care for it as God’s partners. Christian theology, she says, requires three things: “the integrity of creation, the well-being of all humanity, and peace for the human spirit.” In recent decades, the last is the one that has dominated. Now, ecological theologies are returning Christianity to its roots.[2]
[Of course, there are different messages coming from others who also call themselves Christian. The most extreme perspective is that there is no need for us to try to change what is happening to our environment, because it is all part of God’s plan, and it would be an insult to God for us to go against it. Either it is the end-times, and God will save those who are in His good books, during the rapture into Heaven, while the rest of us perish in the apocalypse, or it is not yet the end-times, and God will rescue the Earth from whatever danger appears to be confronting us.]
I disagree with this “Christian Right” theology. From where I sit, I see no down-side to acting on behalf of Earth. The alternative is terrifying.
Oftentimes, we human beings don’t want to look at what is terrifying. We would rather ignore it. This is true for environmental matters, and it is true for so many of the ills of the world. There is a disconnect between what we see all around us and what we want to believe. We see people getting hurt. We see political processes that value profits over people. We see destruction of the environment. But we don’t always want to know.
You are activists
I know that I am speaking to a room full of people whose hearts beat with the rhythm of community and justice and peace-making. I know that many of you are involved one way or another in some form of service, to friends and relatives, to the environment, to the city, to global concerns. That’s partly why you are here today, too. It’s a very UU thing to do, to make an active contribution to improving the world.
For much of our Unitarian history, we have been putting our faith in social change brought about by human efforts, gradually moving towards a better world. But Rebecca Parker says that it’s time to change our approach. It’s not enough to be “awaiting the overthrow of the present world order and the birth of the new.” Such slow-moving optimism willfully disregards the massive extent of degradation that is around us and abroad in the world. We must “relinquish our innocence and see the world as it is”[3], and let in the pain.
Be fully alive – hold both-and complexities
People talk about wanting to be More Alive. To be fully alive, it is necessary to open our eyes, and our hearts, to the whole picture. We can’t afford to anaesthetize ourselves against that which makes us uncomfortable. It is necessary to be able to hold in tension things that do not seem to go together. It is difficult but necessary to live with complexity – both-and.
For the most part, we are not encouraged to do this.
Politically, and socially, we are lured into passivity. We are rewarded for ignoring, avoiding, or refusing to name some of the oppression and unkindness that we have witnessed.
Passivity makes us less alive, sucks away our life energy.
I have struggled sometimes with my own lack of energy for, or my own defeatist feelings about, engaging in social action. What can I possibly do? I’m only one person, one small fish swimming upstream. But I found this statement of Rebecca Parker’s to be a very helpful articulation of how to address it. – and it hit me with a real “AHA!”
Rebecca Parker:
“The cure for my cultivation into passivity is renewed activism. Social activism becomes a spiritual practice by which I reclaim my humanity and refuse to accept my cultivation into numbness and disengagement. … Hope lies in our ability to renew our citizenship through engaged action. … ”[4]
I act, not necessarily because I think my little action can change a big problem, but so that I don’t have to be the walking dead.
And that action brings me life.
Here’s another real-life, maybe larger than life, example of gratitude’s inspiring action:
Canadian Afghan Pop Star - Mozhdah Jamalzadah
Mozhdah Jamalzadah born in Kabul. She moved to Vancouver with her family as a young child. But as she grew up, she kept an eye on what was happening in Afghanistan. And she didn't like what she was seeing ... especially when it came to how women were being treated. A few years ago, she decided to do something about it and used her music to promote change.
And along with a singing career, Mozhdah Jamalzadah has her own TV talk show. She has been called "the Oprah of Afghanistan." Millions of Afghans follow her every word and she is using that platform to talk about some traditionally sensitive subjects from divorce to domestic abuse.
She got into singing because there were no contemporary Afghani female singers played on radio or elsewhere – only a couple of singers from about 30 years ago. She felt she had to do something about this. Now she is the first woman talk show host in Afghanistan, and she has a purpose. She focuses on family, in a nation that really needs help. Tries to teach them the basics of daily life, especially on sensitive issues. No families come onto stage, but she interviews families behind the scenes, about what their problems are. Then she tells it onstage, so that this can help other families.
She is controversial. There are security threats to her, and she doesn’t totally trust the security she has been given there. Her dress, her confidence and how she talks all seem to provoke the morality squad –who have asked her to dress differently (though by our standards she is still very modestly dressed). But she continues, and she is having a positive impact on the society there. – some people are saying that there is now less beating happening in their families, for example.
Why does she do it? “Canada gave me the opportunity to get an education, get this confidence level – my parents told me I’m one of the lucky ones that got out – I feel I have to do something for these people.”
“Your gifts
whatever you discover them to be
can be used to bless or curse the world.”
It is her way of blessing the world, living her life as a gesture of gratitude for the beauty of the world.
What will you do with your gifts?
The great Christian message is to love your God and love your neighbour. There are echoes of this same message in other of the world’s major religions. That is our job, to love our neighbour - and it is a job that can be acted out in a million different ways.
Maude Barlow – in Blue Covenant, last page – says that all diversions of water from natural bodies or courses will have environmental consequence. Barlow says on the subject of her opposition to bulk water exports from Canada: “Let’s be clear: this water is not ours either. It, like water everywhere, belongs to the Earth and all species, including humans, and was put where nature needs it. Our responsibility is to be stewards of this precious resource so it will be here for all generations to come. … Any people as blessed as we are can do no less.”[5]
I hear this as Barlow’s insistence, based at least partly on gratitude, that “that which is sacred will not be defiled.”
Activism as spiritual practice:
A life of activism – wherever your gifts take you – can be a spiritual practice. It can help to heal the soul, nourish the wholeness of a person, help return you to your most alive and true self. From that place, love and compassion come naturally and authentically. From that place, it’s easier to remember that everyone is connected, all are part of each other. In that place, there is less violence, more cooperation, more health.
The goal of this spiritual practice of activism is to become more whole, more alive. The world needs people who are fully alive.
“And while there is injustice,
anesthetization, or evil
there moves
a holy disturbance,
a benevolent rage,
a revolutionary love
protesting, urging, insisting
that which is sacred will not be defiled.
Those who bless the world live their life
as a gesture of thanks
for this beauty
and this rage.”
This is a statement of faith – that although we may be too weak, imperfect, or distracted to do it ourselves, there is this holy disturbance which will help us, or stir us. Maybe it is not something “separate” from us, but is the source of our being moved to become active, to “bless the world.”
Not all of us are born to greatness. We are not Maude Barlow, or Greg Mortensen, or Mozhdah Jamalzadah. We are who we are, and this includes an ability to respond to the world around us, this immediate world, or a larger context, in ways that rise up against the apathy and passivity surrounding us.
“The choice to bless the world
can take you into solitude
to search for the sources
of power and grace;
native wisdom, healing, and liberation.
More, the choice will draw you into community,
the endeavor shared,
the heritage passed on,
the companionship of struggle …
…
None of us alone can save the world.
Together – that is another possibility,
waiting.”
Blessed Be.
[1] Distinguished theologian in residence at Vancouver School of Theology
[2] McFague, S., A New Climate for Theology, p. 33f
[3] Parker, R., Blessing the World, page 21
[4] Parker, p. 36, Blessing the World
[5] Barlow, M., Blue Covenant, p. 208