A Year’s End Resolution
Sermon given at Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
December 6, 2015
By Rev. Craig M. Nowak
This is not the sermon I intended, nor, to be honest, one that I wanted to write. I wanted to share with you an idea I had about making a Year’s End resolution rather than a New Year’s resolution. It was to be a fun, whimsical approach to spiritual growth and the busyness of the season. I was going to talk about how my past Christmas’ have all had some element of disappointment to them, including the annual fight my husband and I get into setting up the Christmas tree. I wanted to share with you how, by embracing the spirit of the child, I intended to change the story of my Christmas experience from one of disappointment to one of joy and appreciation.
And then I got into my car to drive from BUUC to my other congregation in Storrs on Wednesday evening. On the radio was a news story...a story about yet another damn mass shooting, this time in San Bernadino, CA. My immediate thought was...”What the...” (I’ll let you fill in the blank). To say that I was angry is understatement. I couldn’t even pull out of the driveway for a few moments as I sat there in disbelief. In my mind I shouted at the people who, like my own father, say...and apparently believe things like “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” My mind then shifted to our culture of violence, spurred on by a dualistic national secular theology that sees and divides the world into black and white, good and evil. A theology that teaches us bad violence must be met and overcome through good violence. Then my thinking turned to so many of our political leaders...their cowardice, ineptitude, and lack of moral courage. How many more people will they let die as they lay prostrate, embarrassing themselves and offending the innocent, as they grovel at the feet of their powerful lobbyist cash masters. “Woe to those...who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights!” Isaiah 5:23.
No, this is not the sermon I wanted to offer this morning. It is the sermon I have to offer. My conscience insists.
There are few things that disturb or offend me more than violence be it physical, emotional or spiritual. The tragedy is that violence is like a treatable disease and we refuse to it. It should be an anomaly, but it is talked about and treated as if it is the norm. And so, it would seem, we are stuck. Destined to live in a world where increasing violence and counter-violence is normal.
This view however, is the product of cynicism and resignation Those luxuries of white middle class privilege, to which many of us, myself included, are susceptible and tempted toward on the long, hard road to justice.
And then I remember the words of Victoria Safford in A People So Bold where she writes, “On those occasions when the weight of the world is closing in and the evidence against hope mounts as I read the news, when I start muttering miserable, unrepeatable things at the radio, when I sigh, “I’m so tired, I’m so discouraged”- at those times, my partner Ross, will say, in the kindest way possible, “What kind of self-indulgent whining is this? What kind of grandiosity of privilege is this, to think that you or I or anyone has the right to sever the bright thread of hope, the tradition of dedication to the common good and faith in people’s power to imagine great change, to imagine and take great risks? There is a beautiful, proud history or work for human rights and freedom, for social change and peace and protection of the earth. This is the story in which we choose to stand. We’re ...here to pass this story on...all you have to do is keep the fire burning for a little while, stoke it with your life, don’t allow it to go out, and pass it on. You have no right to put it out.”
Two ideas leap toward me in reading those words: 1. We are part of a story much larger than ourselves. and 2. We are not passive characters in that story, but active, co-authors who can help shape how the story turns out. Hence Robbie Walsh’s realization, in our second reading, of the validity of his friend’s proverb, “Nothing is Settled, Everything Matters.”
Perhaps I should have re-titled this sermon A Life’s End Resolution for the question before us this morning is not so much how do I want the story of this calendar year to turn out...but rather, how do I want the story of my life, my time on this planet, to turn out? Will I sever the bright thread of hope...or will I stoke the fire and keep it alive? Will I imagine and take great risks that an alternative story to one that dominates the headlines can and will go on? Will I live my life as a bold proclamation to a cynical, apathetic, tired, and frighted world, that “Nothing is settled, Everything Matters?”
What say you?
To do this we need to make our voices heard...not just in coffee hour or committee meetings...but out there (outside these walls). We need to share with our family, friends, neighbors, political leaders, to boldly speak and live from the religious values of our Unitarian Universalist faith as they relate to a broader societal vision and goal of a peaceful and just world. What are these values you ask?
Paul Rasor, in his book, Reclaiming Prophetic Witness offers what he calls our core theological principles:
* The fundamental unity and interdependence of all existence- the concept that reality is relational and undergoing a continuous process of re-creation socially and ecologically.
* The transforming power of love- that which moves us toward compassion, respect, mutuality, forgiveness, loving neighbors as ourselves and seeing all as our neighbor.
* The inherent worth and dignity of all persons- the belief in the right of everyone to a meaningful, fulfilling life and our obligation to help create the conditions in which this may be most fully realized.
* Human freedom- recognition of human beings as free moral agents able to create and destroy and that possibilities for positive exercise of freedom is determined not only by individual choice and action, but by social structures we create.
* Rejection of moral dualism- the rejection of the sharp separation of good and evil, refusing to assign individuals and nations to one category or another)
* Social justice- An ordering and advocating for a society and institutions that enable all to live with dignity and respect
* Cooperative power-the use of power with, not over others, mutual persuasion rather than coercion
* Religious freedom- an affirmation and obligation to ensure freedom of conscience, the free exercise of religion and separation of church and state, freedom of association and dissent.
*Theological openness - the concept that religious truth or revelation is not sealed, that religious meaning is constructed, not given and may come from many sources.
Such ideas seem so ennobling, so lofty, so idealized....so at odds with the way the world seems to look...and the way we have been told the world works. Yeah. They are at odds. They aren’t by and large the way things work...right now. They are counter-cultural.
You may recall among the birth narratives of Jesus, the story of Joseph and Mary arriving in Bethlehem as Mary is about to give birth and the couple being shuffled off to a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. It appears in Luke’s gospel.
One way to understand this story is that it seems to be communicating that the world was not ready or prepared for hope to appear as it did...in the form of a seemingly helpless, utterly dependent baby. No bulging muscles, no army, no weapons, no political or economic power to take on the prevailing wisdom of the day. But a baby, who nonetheless grew up, defied the ways of the world in order to take up a different vision and then shared it by talking about and living into that vision. The Christian observation of Advent is in part, a time of preparation, of making room in the inn of one’s heart for the unconventional..an alternative to the ways of the world which promises transformation.
Likewise, as Unitarian Universalists, we’re not hear to adapt to the ways of the world and learn to cope with the status quo. We’re here to transform the ways of the world and work towards a new world. That’s the story we’re writing as people of faith. The story we’re charged with keeping aflame and passing on. Its not going to come to full realization in our lifetime. Yet, we have no right to abandon that story...to put that flame out.
Still, its not easy. When times are tough and our resolve is tested, it may be an indication we ourselves need to let go of conventional ways of seeing and make room for an alternate vision within.
This is where the spirit of the child comes in. Our responsive reading “Give Us The Spirit of the Child” is not a sentimental plea to return to childish ways or blissful naivete. It is a recognition of the wisdom that resides in all of us and which we were able to experience and engage freely before we learned to categorize people, and divide them according to different phobias and isms, before an acceptance of mystery and our sense of awe and wonder became private daydreams, before our vision was corrected to conform to what other people and institutions with more power and influence wanted us to see, before we were blinded to any possible alternative world.
To ask for or seek the spirit of the child is to deliberately reclaim, through the means available to us... including prayer, meditation, play, communal and solitary pursuits the kind of vision we once had and to recognize it as just as real as the world and its ways currently taken as a given today. When we apply this recognition to our religious principles, they begin to shift from lofty aspirations to inspiring possibilities.
The violence that permeates our world doesn’t demand that we come up with a quick, foolproof, easy policy or legislative solution. Instead, it begs us to respond in whatever way we can (be it by petition, vigils, protest, letter to the editor, social media, church and other advocacy, or just plain conversation with others), by lifting up an alternative vision rooted in the enduring principles and values of our faith. For however we choose to respond and whatever contributions we might make toward potential solutions, it is by sharing and living from our values and principles that we inspire and keep alive that vision of a different world.
May this then be our life’s end resolution: to strengthen the bright thread of hope each and everyday assured nothing is settled, everything matters.
Amen and Blessed Be
Sermon given at Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
December 6, 2015
By Rev. Craig M. Nowak
This is not the sermon I intended, nor, to be honest, one that I wanted to write. I wanted to share with you an idea I had about making a Year’s End resolution rather than a New Year’s resolution. It was to be a fun, whimsical approach to spiritual growth and the busyness of the season. I was going to talk about how my past Christmas’ have all had some element of disappointment to them, including the annual fight my husband and I get into setting up the Christmas tree. I wanted to share with you how, by embracing the spirit of the child, I intended to change the story of my Christmas experience from one of disappointment to one of joy and appreciation.
And then I got into my car to drive from BUUC to my other congregation in Storrs on Wednesday evening. On the radio was a news story...a story about yet another damn mass shooting, this time in San Bernadino, CA. My immediate thought was...”What the...” (I’ll let you fill in the blank). To say that I was angry is understatement. I couldn’t even pull out of the driveway for a few moments as I sat there in disbelief. In my mind I shouted at the people who, like my own father, say...and apparently believe things like “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” My mind then shifted to our culture of violence, spurred on by a dualistic national secular theology that sees and divides the world into black and white, good and evil. A theology that teaches us bad violence must be met and overcome through good violence. Then my thinking turned to so many of our political leaders...their cowardice, ineptitude, and lack of moral courage. How many more people will they let die as they lay prostrate, embarrassing themselves and offending the innocent, as they grovel at the feet of their powerful lobbyist cash masters. “Woe to those...who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights!” Isaiah 5:23.
No, this is not the sermon I wanted to offer this morning. It is the sermon I have to offer. My conscience insists.
There are few things that disturb or offend me more than violence be it physical, emotional or spiritual. The tragedy is that violence is like a treatable disease and we refuse to it. It should be an anomaly, but it is talked about and treated as if it is the norm. And so, it would seem, we are stuck. Destined to live in a world where increasing violence and counter-violence is normal.
This view however, is the product of cynicism and resignation Those luxuries of white middle class privilege, to which many of us, myself included, are susceptible and tempted toward on the long, hard road to justice.
And then I remember the words of Victoria Safford in A People So Bold where she writes, “On those occasions when the weight of the world is closing in and the evidence against hope mounts as I read the news, when I start muttering miserable, unrepeatable things at the radio, when I sigh, “I’m so tired, I’m so discouraged”- at those times, my partner Ross, will say, in the kindest way possible, “What kind of self-indulgent whining is this? What kind of grandiosity of privilege is this, to think that you or I or anyone has the right to sever the bright thread of hope, the tradition of dedication to the common good and faith in people’s power to imagine great change, to imagine and take great risks? There is a beautiful, proud history or work for human rights and freedom, for social change and peace and protection of the earth. This is the story in which we choose to stand. We’re ...here to pass this story on...all you have to do is keep the fire burning for a little while, stoke it with your life, don’t allow it to go out, and pass it on. You have no right to put it out.”
Two ideas leap toward me in reading those words: 1. We are part of a story much larger than ourselves. and 2. We are not passive characters in that story, but active, co-authors who can help shape how the story turns out. Hence Robbie Walsh’s realization, in our second reading, of the validity of his friend’s proverb, “Nothing is Settled, Everything Matters.”
Perhaps I should have re-titled this sermon A Life’s End Resolution for the question before us this morning is not so much how do I want the story of this calendar year to turn out...but rather, how do I want the story of my life, my time on this planet, to turn out? Will I sever the bright thread of hope...or will I stoke the fire and keep it alive? Will I imagine and take great risks that an alternative story to one that dominates the headlines can and will go on? Will I live my life as a bold proclamation to a cynical, apathetic, tired, and frighted world, that “Nothing is settled, Everything Matters?”
What say you?
To do this we need to make our voices heard...not just in coffee hour or committee meetings...but out there (outside these walls). We need to share with our family, friends, neighbors, political leaders, to boldly speak and live from the religious values of our Unitarian Universalist faith as they relate to a broader societal vision and goal of a peaceful and just world. What are these values you ask?
Paul Rasor, in his book, Reclaiming Prophetic Witness offers what he calls our core theological principles:
* The fundamental unity and interdependence of all existence- the concept that reality is relational and undergoing a continuous process of re-creation socially and ecologically.
* The transforming power of love- that which moves us toward compassion, respect, mutuality, forgiveness, loving neighbors as ourselves and seeing all as our neighbor.
* The inherent worth and dignity of all persons- the belief in the right of everyone to a meaningful, fulfilling life and our obligation to help create the conditions in which this may be most fully realized.
* Human freedom- recognition of human beings as free moral agents able to create and destroy and that possibilities for positive exercise of freedom is determined not only by individual choice and action, but by social structures we create.
* Rejection of moral dualism- the rejection of the sharp separation of good and evil, refusing to assign individuals and nations to one category or another)
* Social justice- An ordering and advocating for a society and institutions that enable all to live with dignity and respect
* Cooperative power-the use of power with, not over others, mutual persuasion rather than coercion
* Religious freedom- an affirmation and obligation to ensure freedom of conscience, the free exercise of religion and separation of church and state, freedom of association and dissent.
*Theological openness - the concept that religious truth or revelation is not sealed, that religious meaning is constructed, not given and may come from many sources.
Such ideas seem so ennobling, so lofty, so idealized....so at odds with the way the world seems to look...and the way we have been told the world works. Yeah. They are at odds. They aren’t by and large the way things work...right now. They are counter-cultural.
You may recall among the birth narratives of Jesus, the story of Joseph and Mary arriving in Bethlehem as Mary is about to give birth and the couple being shuffled off to a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. It appears in Luke’s gospel.
One way to understand this story is that it seems to be communicating that the world was not ready or prepared for hope to appear as it did...in the form of a seemingly helpless, utterly dependent baby. No bulging muscles, no army, no weapons, no political or economic power to take on the prevailing wisdom of the day. But a baby, who nonetheless grew up, defied the ways of the world in order to take up a different vision and then shared it by talking about and living into that vision. The Christian observation of Advent is in part, a time of preparation, of making room in the inn of one’s heart for the unconventional..an alternative to the ways of the world which promises transformation.
Likewise, as Unitarian Universalists, we’re not hear to adapt to the ways of the world and learn to cope with the status quo. We’re here to transform the ways of the world and work towards a new world. That’s the story we’re writing as people of faith. The story we’re charged with keeping aflame and passing on. Its not going to come to full realization in our lifetime. Yet, we have no right to abandon that story...to put that flame out.
Still, its not easy. When times are tough and our resolve is tested, it may be an indication we ourselves need to let go of conventional ways of seeing and make room for an alternate vision within.
This is where the spirit of the child comes in. Our responsive reading “Give Us The Spirit of the Child” is not a sentimental plea to return to childish ways or blissful naivete. It is a recognition of the wisdom that resides in all of us and which we were able to experience and engage freely before we learned to categorize people, and divide them according to different phobias and isms, before an acceptance of mystery and our sense of awe and wonder became private daydreams, before our vision was corrected to conform to what other people and institutions with more power and influence wanted us to see, before we were blinded to any possible alternative world.
To ask for or seek the spirit of the child is to deliberately reclaim, through the means available to us... including prayer, meditation, play, communal and solitary pursuits the kind of vision we once had and to recognize it as just as real as the world and its ways currently taken as a given today. When we apply this recognition to our religious principles, they begin to shift from lofty aspirations to inspiring possibilities.
The violence that permeates our world doesn’t demand that we come up with a quick, foolproof, easy policy or legislative solution. Instead, it begs us to respond in whatever way we can (be it by petition, vigils, protest, letter to the editor, social media, church and other advocacy, or just plain conversation with others), by lifting up an alternative vision rooted in the enduring principles and values of our faith. For however we choose to respond and whatever contributions we might make toward potential solutions, it is by sharing and living from our values and principles that we inspire and keep alive that vision of a different world.
May this then be our life’s end resolution: to strengthen the bright thread of hope each and everyday assured nothing is settled, everything matters.
Amen and Blessed Be
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