To Be, or Not To Be
Sermon given at Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
December 8, 2013
by The Rev. Craig M. Nowak
“Coexist” “Life’s a Beach” “My Child is on the Honor Roll at XYZ School” “Hate is Not a Family Value” “I Vote Pro-Life” “Practice Random Acts of Kindness” .... I don’t think I realized until I began to contemplate today’s sermon topic how much I notice bumper stickers. In the nearly thirty years since I got my driver’s license, only twice have I adorned my car with bumper-stickers and both on the same vehicle. One was a Unitarian Universalist bumper-sticker bearing a slogan that, while no doubt well intentioned by its creators, is read by some, understandably, as somewhat aloof (Unitarian Universalism: The Uncommon Denomination). The other was a political in nature and which I removed once the occupant of a particular office changed.
The car that bore those stickers is long gone and the bumpers of my current car are sticker free and likely to stay that way. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with bumper-stickers per se, in fact I sort of enjoy reading them when I’m driving. They ignite a certain curiosity in me about the people with whom I share the road and the times in which we live.
I’m especially interested in what one might call inspirational bumper-stickers. I've noticed a fair number of these carry slogans better suited for personal reflection than public proclamation, especially if the proclaimer isn’t the most faithful practitioner of their chosen message....”WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?” Well, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have floored it and run a red light. And what about that sticker with the Gandhi quote about an eye for an eye making the whole world blind...it seems that while an eye for an eye might be frowned upon, a hand gesture for a hand gesture is permissible.
But then one surprisingly refreshing like this one comes along, which I first saw just a few months ago.. it read simply, ”I’M NOT IN YOUR HURRY.”
I think of those words often, especially those times I feel pressured by the pace of life, times like now, just a few short weeks before Christmas. A time, Jane Rzepka reminds us, “we should look to our rip cords”...our lifelines that help us slow down, gain or maintain perspective and carry us through.
“Im not in your hurry.” What a perfect response during this Advent season to the absurdity, not to mention the greed and manufactured frenzy of Gray Thursday and Black Friday.
I remember feeling a similar sentiment to “Im not in your hurry” several years ago while shopping at a mall during the Christmas rush. There I was in the thick of it all when suddenly I found myself pausing from my shopping and a question emerged, “What am I doing here?” I was tired, my mind was racing, and I still had more shopping to do. I looked around and before me as far and as wide as my eyes could see was a mass of people rushing around, bumping into each other, and grabbing things off shelves and racks. As I stood there watching it all my question shifted from What am I doing here, to What are we doing here?
Now, depending on your disposition, you may be upset or relieved to know that I’m not about to launch into an extended diatribe on the “evils” of consumerism. I understand enough about economics and human nature to know that an imperious rant will serve little purpose. Besides, our admittedly ravenous habit of overconsumption is, as I see it, a symptom not the cause of larger problems facing our world.
One of those problems is alluded to in the question, “What are we doing here?” And at this point we’ve moved beyond the mall so that the question truly is, What are we doing here...what is this life we have, or have been given, all about? And do we really care?
As a culture, we often seem to be surface dwellers when it comes to life. This is evident in things like our tendency to resist the reality of aging and death through our worship of youth or our engagement in bumper-sticker evangelism where we tend to preach far better than we practice our message to the world. This way of life reveals a deep hunger within us indicating we believe life has meaning but at the same time it reveals we’re not so sure or willing to delve too deeply into that meaning. It’s like we’re afraid of what we’ll find...that deep down we know we would be changed by what we discover...and that scares us. It’s perfectly natural, and indeed, even wise at times, to be leery of the unknown, but when it comes to life, we short change ourselves by avoiding engagement with it.
One of the ways we seek to avoid engagement with things or situations we’re afraid of is to do something to distract ourselves and our mind. Pull out your calendar. It is full? What’s your “to do” list look like? If your day planner, appointment book, or just your mental tally of things to do is full, you’re not alone. You have joined the ranks of the human “doing.” Human “beings” have become passé. The human “doing” is the creation of a hurry up to keep up world. It’s a busy place, so busy in fact that few have time to pause, find a stillness, and…just “be.” And now we’re faced with another question concerning life, to be, or not to be?
I once heard the Dalai Lama refer to busyness as a form of laziness. His words speak a difficult truth to us, especially in the United States, where to do nothing is often taken to be nothing. Yet if we stay with those words a little longer, their wisdom slowly emerges.
His words are not intended to condemn our actions; they are not an unrealistic call to abandon work, family, and friends, but an invitation to awaken to a deeper life, a life that dwells below all the surface distractions with which we fill our days. They remind us that our constant doing denies us the breathing room of perspective, increases our anxiety, and robs us of time with ourselves and loved ones, making life seem hurried and shallow or hollow.
In our reading from this morning Jane Rzepka likens the frenzied, overbooked life we’re continually and increasingly told is not only normal, but desirable, and even necessary for not only our own, but our children’s success in life to skydiving with misprinted directions. Rzepka writes, “I worry about things like this...” As your minister, so do I.
To be, or not to be is a question we face often and perhaps no more so than in this “holiday” season. Despite what all the obnoxious advertising coming from your television, radio, tablet or smartphone says...no matter what your family, friends, and acquaintances however close or distant demand of you this is not a season to be all things to all people, it is not a season to out-shop, outspend, out-decorate, or out-entertain anyone...it is not a season to shout zip codes while hurtling towards the hard winter’s ground.
It is a season to remind ourselves and the world, “I’m not in your hurry”....It is a season to take and pull that rip cord, mindful that the birth the Advent season anticipates is recalled in the scriptures with a sense of awe and wonder, humility and humanity, and the promise of a deeper, transformative way of life.
And indeed, during his ministry, Jesus invited his followers to a deeper life. “Consider the ravens…consider the lilies,” he said, exhorting them to discover, “life is more than food, and the body more than clothing”...more than our strivings...more than our accumulating.
We know that life is more, much more than running oneself ragged in a rush to get a to do list done, to impress others, or amass the most stuff and still it is something we have to remind ourselves of every day and are reminded of when we do pause to consider the lilies… to just be and allow love, truth, light, and hope to come within to dwell.
To be, or not to be? This is a hard question to face during a season now known for increasing our sense of urgency and drive to get things done “in time” for the holidays. But before it was a season where people rushed around to do, it was a season calling people to be…and in being to awaken to that which gives life depth and meaning. We can’t respond to this call when we’re shouting zip codes, those distractions of the season we fill our lives with. As Jane Rzepka reminds us, “Zip codes aren’t important. Rip cords are.”
And so, this season when what we need most is what is most hard to find I invite you to join me in making a promise to yourself, your loved ones, and to one another here today, to find some time, any time, to pause from doing and just be. Let the dark of winter soothe our weary eyes that we may see more clearly and discover our rip cord, our lifelines that lead us toward the deeper life we’re called to engage and live this season, this day...every day.
Amen and Blessed Be
Sermon given at Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
December 8, 2013
by The Rev. Craig M. Nowak
“Coexist” “Life’s a Beach” “My Child is on the Honor Roll at XYZ School” “Hate is Not a Family Value” “I Vote Pro-Life” “Practice Random Acts of Kindness” .... I don’t think I realized until I began to contemplate today’s sermon topic how much I notice bumper stickers. In the nearly thirty years since I got my driver’s license, only twice have I adorned my car with bumper-stickers and both on the same vehicle. One was a Unitarian Universalist bumper-sticker bearing a slogan that, while no doubt well intentioned by its creators, is read by some, understandably, as somewhat aloof (Unitarian Universalism: The Uncommon Denomination). The other was a political in nature and which I removed once the occupant of a particular office changed.
The car that bore those stickers is long gone and the bumpers of my current car are sticker free and likely to stay that way. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with bumper-stickers per se, in fact I sort of enjoy reading them when I’m driving. They ignite a certain curiosity in me about the people with whom I share the road and the times in which we live.
I’m especially interested in what one might call inspirational bumper-stickers. I've noticed a fair number of these carry slogans better suited for personal reflection than public proclamation, especially if the proclaimer isn’t the most faithful practitioner of their chosen message....”WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?” Well, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have floored it and run a red light. And what about that sticker with the Gandhi quote about an eye for an eye making the whole world blind...it seems that while an eye for an eye might be frowned upon, a hand gesture for a hand gesture is permissible.
But then one surprisingly refreshing like this one comes along, which I first saw just a few months ago.. it read simply, ”I’M NOT IN YOUR HURRY.”
I think of those words often, especially those times I feel pressured by the pace of life, times like now, just a few short weeks before Christmas. A time, Jane Rzepka reminds us, “we should look to our rip cords”...our lifelines that help us slow down, gain or maintain perspective and carry us through.
“Im not in your hurry.” What a perfect response during this Advent season to the absurdity, not to mention the greed and manufactured frenzy of Gray Thursday and Black Friday.
I remember feeling a similar sentiment to “Im not in your hurry” several years ago while shopping at a mall during the Christmas rush. There I was in the thick of it all when suddenly I found myself pausing from my shopping and a question emerged, “What am I doing here?” I was tired, my mind was racing, and I still had more shopping to do. I looked around and before me as far and as wide as my eyes could see was a mass of people rushing around, bumping into each other, and grabbing things off shelves and racks. As I stood there watching it all my question shifted from What am I doing here, to What are we doing here?
Now, depending on your disposition, you may be upset or relieved to know that I’m not about to launch into an extended diatribe on the “evils” of consumerism. I understand enough about economics and human nature to know that an imperious rant will serve little purpose. Besides, our admittedly ravenous habit of overconsumption is, as I see it, a symptom not the cause of larger problems facing our world.
One of those problems is alluded to in the question, “What are we doing here?” And at this point we’ve moved beyond the mall so that the question truly is, What are we doing here...what is this life we have, or have been given, all about? And do we really care?
As a culture, we often seem to be surface dwellers when it comes to life. This is evident in things like our tendency to resist the reality of aging and death through our worship of youth or our engagement in bumper-sticker evangelism where we tend to preach far better than we practice our message to the world. This way of life reveals a deep hunger within us indicating we believe life has meaning but at the same time it reveals we’re not so sure or willing to delve too deeply into that meaning. It’s like we’re afraid of what we’ll find...that deep down we know we would be changed by what we discover...and that scares us. It’s perfectly natural, and indeed, even wise at times, to be leery of the unknown, but when it comes to life, we short change ourselves by avoiding engagement with it.
One of the ways we seek to avoid engagement with things or situations we’re afraid of is to do something to distract ourselves and our mind. Pull out your calendar. It is full? What’s your “to do” list look like? If your day planner, appointment book, or just your mental tally of things to do is full, you’re not alone. You have joined the ranks of the human “doing.” Human “beings” have become passé. The human “doing” is the creation of a hurry up to keep up world. It’s a busy place, so busy in fact that few have time to pause, find a stillness, and…just “be.” And now we’re faced with another question concerning life, to be, or not to be?
I once heard the Dalai Lama refer to busyness as a form of laziness. His words speak a difficult truth to us, especially in the United States, where to do nothing is often taken to be nothing. Yet if we stay with those words a little longer, their wisdom slowly emerges.
His words are not intended to condemn our actions; they are not an unrealistic call to abandon work, family, and friends, but an invitation to awaken to a deeper life, a life that dwells below all the surface distractions with which we fill our days. They remind us that our constant doing denies us the breathing room of perspective, increases our anxiety, and robs us of time with ourselves and loved ones, making life seem hurried and shallow or hollow.
In our reading from this morning Jane Rzepka likens the frenzied, overbooked life we’re continually and increasingly told is not only normal, but desirable, and even necessary for not only our own, but our children’s success in life to skydiving with misprinted directions. Rzepka writes, “I worry about things like this...” As your minister, so do I.
To be, or not to be is a question we face often and perhaps no more so than in this “holiday” season. Despite what all the obnoxious advertising coming from your television, radio, tablet or smartphone says...no matter what your family, friends, and acquaintances however close or distant demand of you this is not a season to be all things to all people, it is not a season to out-shop, outspend, out-decorate, or out-entertain anyone...it is not a season to shout zip codes while hurtling towards the hard winter’s ground.
It is a season to remind ourselves and the world, “I’m not in your hurry”....It is a season to take and pull that rip cord, mindful that the birth the Advent season anticipates is recalled in the scriptures with a sense of awe and wonder, humility and humanity, and the promise of a deeper, transformative way of life.
And indeed, during his ministry, Jesus invited his followers to a deeper life. “Consider the ravens…consider the lilies,” he said, exhorting them to discover, “life is more than food, and the body more than clothing”...more than our strivings...more than our accumulating.
We know that life is more, much more than running oneself ragged in a rush to get a to do list done, to impress others, or amass the most stuff and still it is something we have to remind ourselves of every day and are reminded of when we do pause to consider the lilies… to just be and allow love, truth, light, and hope to come within to dwell.
To be, or not to be? This is a hard question to face during a season now known for increasing our sense of urgency and drive to get things done “in time” for the holidays. But before it was a season where people rushed around to do, it was a season calling people to be…and in being to awaken to that which gives life depth and meaning. We can’t respond to this call when we’re shouting zip codes, those distractions of the season we fill our lives with. As Jane Rzepka reminds us, “Zip codes aren’t important. Rip cords are.”
And so, this season when what we need most is what is most hard to find I invite you to join me in making a promise to yourself, your loved ones, and to one another here today, to find some time, any time, to pause from doing and just be. Let the dark of winter soothe our weary eyes that we may see more clearly and discover our rip cord, our lifelines that lead us toward the deeper life we’re called to engage and live this season, this day...every day.
Amen and Blessed Be
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