Resurrecting Joy - A Message for Easter 2021

 

Three days ago, it was Maundy Thursday on the Christian Calendar.  It was also April Fools day.  And that morning, I was in a good mood.  You see I had set aside time that morning to finally put this sermon on” Resurrecting Joy” together.  I had been working on it by placing good quotes and articles, etc. in a folder on my desktop, but that morning was the time for more analysis and composition.  And that brings me JOY – especially when the topic was JOY.  As I was getting started, I got a message on my phone from someone saying they had forgotten the password for our UU Statesboro directory.  I didn’t recognize the phone number so said – “Who is this?”  I got a response with a name of one of our Statesboro members who has been doing a lot of good work.  But I did have enough sense – I thought – to make sure it was him by asking sort of a “security question.”  And I messaged, just to be safe – tell me what committee you are on.  And he responded with the correct committee.  SO – I gave him the password – and even created a contact in my phone with his name and this new number he was using.  A little later he messaged back that he had a friend he was trying to help, and he was having problems with his cash app – and wondered if I could use mine to send his friend the money, then he would pay me back.  Dang – this was a scam.  I said, “Call me.”  He responded – “Can’t call now – I’m at the bank trying to get this thing straight.  It’s urgent that he get this right away, and I can send you his Cash App and I can send you his cashapp name.” Then later he did call with music playing, then hung up.  I called back and he answered – and of course it was not the voice of our member and he hung up.  So I spent the  -rest of the morning working to change passwords (knowing that he had probably already printed out our entire directory). And, of course, I tried to contact our UUFS folks via email, Facebook, and constant contact to share with them how I had messed up and that they would probably be getting an email from someone pretending to be me.  And, indeed, many did.  Thankfully – I think I was the only April Fool that day!

 In any case – all of that just sapped away my JOY – and I was not in a joyful mood anymore. Isn’t that the way that it seems to have been going for many of us?  We sometimes feel like we are climbing back up and that everything is going to be fine – then we are ZAPPED with something that drains our joy.  And I needed to try to resurrect some Joy for this Easter sermon.

Folks, when we had Easter online in 2020 – very few thought we’d be here in 2021.  But here we are again.  It’s been a really tough year in so many ways.    All of us have been through a lot – some more than others. It’s a very anxious time regarding our future for many reasons – not all related to the pandemic.   Here’s what one of my colleagues, Rev. Kevin Carson, said about this:

 In uncertain times, when there is a need to fight for justice, and to defend the most vulnerable in society, to deny feelings of fear and anxiety would be insincere. It is hard to become what Rev. William Barber calls the “moral defibrillators of our time,” to shock the heart of America back into a healthy rhythm, unless you first acknowledge that America’s heart is in trouble.

So, in many of my sermons this past year, I’ve lifted up lots of concerns and worries and encouraged us to be there for one another in these difficult times.

Like many of you, I suspect, my uncertainty about our future has tempered the joy I typically feel around the Springtime and Easter.  But folks, it IS Spring and a glorious one here in southeast Georgia!  And it is Easter!  So today – I’m going to attempt to help myself and help you resurrect some JOY in our lives.  Now I know that many of you have found ways to focus on those things that bring you Joy. I asked folks in our two Facebook groups to share in 7 words or less what brings them Joy – and got lots of good responses.  I also found out that some of our folks can’t count to seven – or maybe as UUs, we don’t want our ministers to put any limitations on us! 

Of the 24 responses I received by 11 am Friday, eight of them mentioned children – their own or grandchildren – or other children.  For many children and activities with them bring joy.  I recognize that from recently keeping my two great-grandchildren for a few days.  It was very joyful and very exhausting.  Sometimes, joy can wear you out. Others expanded that joy to other family members – including their fur babies!

The second thing I noticed that brought our folks joy was connecting with nature.

Watching the sun rise, a freshly sprouted garden, time on the beach, watching hummingbirds, feeling a cool breeze, sunshine and leafy green shade, dancing in the rain, and walking in the woods.

Some mentioned other actions that brought joy.  Helping others, playing a musical instrument, completion of an anthem for our online services, manual labor, laughing, listening to music, the creative process of painting or other artwork, and observing others joys and successes.

All of these relate to connecting – don’t they?  And one person even brought it home to the joy of connecting with his own mind and body and reasoning. 

 I’m glad that folks have found some joy during this pandemic.

Sadly, there are folks who might try to diminish our joy.  Rev. Erika Hewitt wrote about a tweet by Roger Cooper that asked, “Could we, without relentlessly criticizing, let people have their pumpkin spice, and avacado toast, and their fandoms, and their D&D, and their too-early-Halloween-decorations, and whatever little harmless things in which they’ve manage to find a tiny, shriveled flower of joy?”

 

Erika went on to say, “To date, more than 332,400 people have liked this tweet. I did. I'm in favor of allowing people their ‘tiny, shriveled flower of joy’—what I imagine as small hearth fires that we each build to keep our spirits warm in a cold world. Surprise: it didn’t take long for the Twitterverse to pile on Mr. Cooper for spelling “avocado” wrong. He patiently thanked his critics for ‘helping me to know that I’ve made a mistake,’ declining to point out the irony in his suffering the very type of relentless criticism whose moratorium he’d been pleading for. (His follow-up tweet: ‘We’re all just trying to survive.’)”

 

Although some folks seem to make it their goal to sit in the judge’s seat on every little thing anyone says or does, we all can fall into this – especially on social media – when someone makes a mistake or something.  And I see folks saying how they cringe when someone uses the wrong “there” in a sentence.  Really?  Now sometimes we do need to point out an error or a problem, but I’m trying to do more “calling in” by sending private messages or calling folks on the phone rather than jump on that horrible bandwagon of calling them out in a way that embarrasses them or puts them on the defense. 

 

And as I get older – I just don’t let a lot of stuff bother me so much.  I try to make room for that Joy.  I walked over to see my Mama the other day – and noticed that her yard was covered with that weed that has those tiny little yellow flowers growing close to the ground.  I looked it up and I believe it may be Oxalis.  In any case, I realized that this weed had destroyed my mom’s lawn.  But then I thought – “but isn’t it pretty.”  And I tried to help Mama find the joy in them as well.  Life is too short to be bothered by the things that just aren’t that important. 

The author EB White knew how to look for the joy.  According to one source, “White and his family came to live full-time at their farmhouse on the coast of Maine.  By all accounts he loved his life on the farm, relishing the delight… of the natural world that surrounded him.  In fact, he once stopped in his barn, captivated, watching a spider spinning her egg sac.  That spider eventually became ‘Charlotte.’”  

 White once said, “All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.” And here’s another quote from White that I can identify with….

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

 On most days, I try to do a little of both. And I agree with the Prophet’s words we heard in our reading, that joy and sorrow go hand in hand.   But on this Easter morn, I want to focus on JOY for bit!

 We would all like to be more happy and joyful!  Can we do anything about it?  Aren’t we just supposed to be “surprised by joy?”  It does often surprise us – but we can live our lives in ways that we are ready to receive it. Another of my colleagues, the Rev. Matt Alspaugh, recommended Martin Seligman’s book, “Authentic Happiness” to help us find our way. And Matt’s ideas about this were helpful, so I’m incorporating them as well.

 In this book, Seligman (a founder of the Positive Psychology movement), suggests that there are several pathways to having a more joyful life.

 The first path is “A pleasant life.”  Seligman says that we should consciously choose activities that bring us pleasure and seek to do more of those.  Now as we saw in the responses that I shared from my little Facebook survey - for some of us, that’s singing or dancing.  For others, it’s reading or playing games.  And yes, for some of us, it’s work.

 The Dalai Lama says,“We create most of our suffering, so it should be logical that we also have the ability to create more joy. It simply depends on the attitudes, the perspectives, and the reactions we bring to situations and to our relationships with other people. When it comes to personal happiness there is a lot that we as individuals can do.”

But – you say – there’s no time for doing those things.  Well, we MAKE time for doing some things that aren’t so pleasurable.  For example, we schedule dentist appointments.  So, we can also schedule these happy moments.  My happy time when I’m on St. Simons is walking on the beach.  I check the tide chart – and schedule my work around the low tide – so that I can take my walk when I can get on the beach right around the corner from my condo.  Yeah, it’s a tough life.  And in Statesboro, I have beautiful places to walk as well that I schedule around the time of day when it’s not too hot.  And the planning for those joyful times – whether a full- fledged vacation or a good homemade supper with a loved one, can be wonderful as well – you know – Anticipation of those pleasant life possibilities. 

The second pathway to happiness is to seek what Seligman calls” the good life.” In this life, we seek to identify what he calls our signature strengths and engage those to obtain gratification. Signature strengths are those qualities, activities, virtues that you are both good at and passionate about.

The essence is: seek to do what you love. You typically know when you’re doing what you love, because you get completely immersed in it, maybe even losing track of time. You’re in the flow.

I’m not good at putting puzzles together.  My mom always thought puzzles were a waste of time, because once you finished it – it was just going to be torn up again.  But I really did try to join in with my cousin Aris in her joy of putting together jigsaw puzzles when we were children.   But she was so good at it.  And I was not.  Now perhaps with more practice I could get good at it, but it’s not really a strength of mine.  I do have strengths – and fortunately, I’ve found good ways to use them that help me have a good life – and I hope others as well.  So, examine your life, and see if you can do more of what you are good at – what you love, and less of what drains you. 

The third pathway to happiness is to seek what Seligman calls” the meaningful life.” In this case, we expand on the good life, so that we apply our signature strengths in service to something much larger than ourselves.

That’s why many of us become a part of a community like our congregations and serve on committees and more.  We become missionaries of a sort – because we are serving a mission that is larger than ourselves.  We are trying to repair what is broken and create a better world. 

The Dalai Lama describes what he does each morning.  “I set my intention for the day: that this day should be meaningful. Meaningful means, if possible, serve and help others. If not possible, then at least not to harm others. That’s a meaningful day.”

Like the Dalia Lama, we can attempt to have meaningful days and a meaningful life. 

These three pathways — the pleasant, the good, the meaningful life paths — are not exclusive. We can do them together. Seligman calls this living” a full life,” saying, “A full life consists in experiencing positive emotions about the past and future, savoring positive feelings from the pleasures, deriving abundant gratification from your signature strengths, and using these strengths in the service of something larger to obtain meaning.”

Yes, we’ve had a difficult year and more.  I know I have – and I’ve followed some of you knowing that you have as well. But my HOPE for our precious UU family is that we may all Resurrect some Joy on this Easter Day! 

Hallelujah!

Building a New Way

Building a New Way

Rev. Jane Page

March 7, 2021

Last weekend I came to you via Zoom from my motel room near Sylva NC where I was visiting my grandson and great-grandchildren and assisting them with getting a new place to live.  While I was there, I depended on my GPS on my phone to get me to where I needed to go.  I don’t know about yours, but my GPS sometimes takes me through some “interesting” places.  And I took a couple of wrong turns when I did not have my GPS on – and ended up seeing some beautiful and interesting countryside there as well.

I did not always value the possibilities on the road.  When my then husband Fred and I were traveling from Statesboro, GA to Starkville, MS for graduate school with our two young children, we stopped over in Montgomery to see some friends and have some supper with them.  Now Montgomery was where we were to get off highway 80 and get on highway 82 to travel the rest of the way to Starkville.  And after we left our friend’s house, I reminded Fred to look for the intersection to get on 82.  He did see it and got on it.  But a couple of hours later, he said “Jane – is there a Georgia County in Alabama – because we just passed a “Welcome to Georgia sign.”  UGH – he had headed EAST on highway 82.  So, he turned around in the Holiday Inn parking lot and said – “it’s your turn to drive.”  I did not see that as an adventure for learning and discovery.  It was not the NEW way I was looking for – for sure.

Some say, it’s about the journey – not the destination and that everything happens for a reason.  I did not buy into that on that long journey through.  I know we can LEARN through mistakes and pitfalls and unexpected detours, but I’m not one in thinking that it’s all part of God’s plan. 

The message from the song we are using as our sacred text today says, “We are building a new way.”  - Not we are falling into a new way.  Building is an intentional activity.  As I was researching the topic of building a new way, I came across an article with directions for building a new driveway.  And there were eight steps of preparation you had to take before you got around to pouring the concrete.  Things like – knowing your boundaries, making sure to remove anything that may be problematic, leveling out the sand and more.  And that’s hopefully how we move forward with some of the work in our congregations.  We study, we prepare, we attempt to predict what could be problematic and remedy that or find alternative possibilities.  If we want to have a smooth journey together, we plan well together. 

Yet – as the bumper sticker says, “Sh- it happens.”

In March of 2020, we got the word that the pandemic was traveling so fast in the US that we would need to quit having face-to-face services.  I suggested that we meet jointly via zoom since I could get a good professional rate through the UU Ministers Association and we took what we thought at the time would be a short detour.  It was like a boulder fell down in the road – and we had to build a new way.  And we did not have the time to do all those preparation steps that I talked about with the driveway article – so our beginning had LOTS of bumps in the road.  Of course, at the same time, many of you were having to find new ways to do your work – or to make ends meet if your work was no longer there.  We had to figure out new ways to keep our children safe and our parents as well.  We had to determine new ways to connect to our loved ones, and sadly – new ways to let go of lost loved ones.  And we had to find new ways to stay physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy. 

The path that we’ve taken as congregations has not been a smooth way – but we have survived – and occasionally – even thrived. 

How is this even possible in such difficult times.

My colleague - Rev. Diane Dowgiert shared with her congregation:

Joy and woe are woven fine throughout our lives, and neither is imbued with a deeper meaning other than what we give it. We are the meaning makers. We take each experience, add it the ones that came before, and in the doing, discover more of who we are, what we are made of, and what we are made for.

She continues…My journey thus far has taught me that we are beings of infinite worth, that we are made of stardust, and we are made for love. We are made for moments of amazing grace and we are made of courage to face whatever Cyclops we may encounter along the way. As the prolific writer and spiritual luminary Henry Nouwen once said, “You can’t see the whole path ahead, but there is usually enough light to take the next step.”

Enough light – to take the next step.  Yet – for us, we still have real destinations for our journey.  Our song reminds us that we are building a new way in hope.  Our choir lifted up words like:

We are working to be free.

We can feed our every need.

Peace and Freedom is our cry.

Yes, we should enjoy and learn from the journey – including the detours and rocky paths, but we must also be mindful of those ideas that call us to journey together – love, freedom, peace, justice, and more. 

Sometimes, I’ve wondered if we took the right path to work for these ideals.  We could have done what many congregations did – and just streamed the minister and musician from church without any interaction possibilities provided through zoom.  It may have been easier, for sure.  And – possibly better.

You know the old Robert Frost poem:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

When we have a choice – especially when there is little time to explore possibilities, we just make a choice – and for better or worse, that choice makes a difference.  Now it wasn’t that the road less traveled was a better one – but it is the one that traveler in Frost’s poem took.  And similarly, our path is the one that we took, and we are doing our best to move through it with love, compassion, and humility.

And now – we can see that the main highway lies ahead, and we are going to be able to get back together again.  Many of us have already received our vaccinations and according to President Joe Biden, others should be able to be vaccinated before summer arrives. 

To be on the safe side (because we hear something different everyday), your program committees are planning summer services online for June and July with us returning to our sanctuaries and RE classrooms in August.  And we look forward to that time.  But we are not there yet – and there is much to learn on the path we are on. 

Some may ask – do we even know where we are going?

Is it like the song “Woyaya” in the Teal Hymnal – “We are going, heaven knows where we are going, but we know within.  And we’ll get there, heaven knows how we will get there, but we know we will.  Wo-ya-ya. Wo yay a.

I like singing that songs and just going with flow – so to speak.  But I do think we know something of where we are headed as Unitarian Universalists.  We may travel separate theological paths and have different ideas about a destination in an afterlife, but we are choosing to travel in this life together as Unitarian Universalists for a land of promise on this earth – achieving some of it perhaps in our lifetimes and preparing the way for others to move forward in the future.  We are going to that Beloved Community, one in which -

“all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated… Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit.” (from King Center Memorial)

And peace will prevail.

But as we travel as Unitarian Universalists and others headed in that directions, we will encounter more than bumps in the road.  There are some monsters on the road.

Dowgiert shares, “We know what the …Cyclops that we are likely to encounter look like. They look like hatred and greed. They look like all the isms – racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism. They look like patriarchy and white supremacy….”

She continues, “Together we find the courage to face whatever structures of oppression we may encounter, the ones internalized within ourselves, and the ones that exist within society at large. Together we find the strength and the stamina to dismantle them, making the way clear for the Promised Land to arise.”

We have opportunities to continue to take steps to especially dismantle racism in southeast Georgia by joining with others who are doing this at this critical moment in the history of our nation and our association.  “For there is work to do, my friends – important work, holy work, ahead of us, work that will ask much of us.  But remember, we are worthy of the task…. We are made for this journey. We are made for love.” (Dowgiert)

You know --- Although we may have experienced some of these terrible isms and attitudes within ourselves and others on this PANDEMIC detour, I’ve also seen many glimpses of that Promised land – that Beloved Community – that keep me going – have YOU?  You have to be on the look-out for the Beloved Community in action – and you have to create some yourself and some with others.  But we sure have folks who are doing that here with us.  And that’s a real blessing as we build a new way together.

Earlier in the service, you heard the beginning of Walt Whitman’s Song of the Open Road.  At the end of this long poem, he shares an invitation.  He writes:

Camerado, I give you my hand!

I give you my love more precious than money,

I give you myself before preaching or law;

Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?

Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?

 

Now, I’m not asking you to stick with me – Jane Page – for as long as you live – (well, maybe - one of you) – but I do hope you’ll commit to traveling this road to the beloved community.  And you know, it can be a difficult road, so you do need good traveling companions.  I’ve found that Unitarian Universalists are some of the best. 

If you are not already on this road with us, I give you my hand.  Will you come travel with us?

I invite all of you to put on your traveling shoes -

Because (sing)

“We are building a new way feeling stronger everyday – we are building a new way.”

May it be so!

Amen and Blessed Be.

When Our Heart is in a Holy Place

 

"When Our Heart is in a Holy Place" as sacred text for sermon by Rev. Jane Page 

I chose this song for this series because I like the melody, I like the lyrics, - it’s a sweet song.  But using this as my sacred text made me think a little more deeply about it.  And I asked myself – what is this Holy Place that Joyce Poley is referring to?  And why do we need to have our hearts there to experience this love and amazing grace that she lifts up in her song?  So I read the lyrics again – and I want to read them again for you as well.  I just read the three verses then share the chorus at the very end.

When we trust the wisdom in each of us,

Ev’ry color ev’ry creed and kind,

And we see our faces in each other’s eyes,

Then our heart is in a holy place.

When we tell our story from deep inside,

And we listen with a loving mind,

And we hear our voices in each other’s words,

Then our heart is in a holy place.

When we share the silence of sacred space,

And the God of our Heart stirs within,

And we feel the power of each other’s faith,

Then our heart is in a holy place.

When our heart is in a holy place,

When our heart is in a holy place,

We are bless’d with love and amazing grace,

When our heart is in a holy place.

And I realized that we are in that Holy Place when we embrace our common humanity and are truly able to empathize with others.

In his first inaugural speech, President Barack Obama said: “We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself...”

But here we are now – so divided in this world and nation.  Yes, our traveling and trade did make the world grow smaller – but it seems -  instead of sharing love and empathy with one another, we’ve just shared deadly viruses.  Are we just hard-wired to be selfish, competitive, and greedy? 

In addition to celebrating LOVE in February, we lift up EVOLUTION!  Darwin’s birthday is February 12 – same day and year as Lincoln’s.  And many congregations that embrace SCIENCE celebrate the Sunday before or after his birthday as Evolution Sunday.  So, that makes it even more appropriate for me to share a little about evolution today.

It is quite easy for us to see how we evolved selfishness – the whole “survival of the fittest” idea.  But scientists are continuing to study the evolution of cooperation and empathy – and more about how or why that happened. 

Take for example – the wolf.  A lone wolf can only kill small animals.  And the stronger and faster will get to that small animal first – and therefore that wolve’s genes will be more likely to survive evolution.  However, if the wolf cooperates with others in a pack of wolves, they can kill big animals and the pack will thrive and therefore pass on those genes of cooperation. 

So, especially with the evolution of mammals and the need to nurture the offspring via milk and care, those parents who were capable of doing this had offspring who survived, etc.  Yeah for us! 

Now the study of evolution shows us that when organisms evolve, they often keep remnants of their ancient selves. Sometimes they have these attributes even after they no longer use them.  And sometimes, they still do need to use them. . Therefore, we refer to our “Reptilian Brain,” which can help or hurt us depending on the situation. 

Now,There are lots of studies that show that empathy is not just a human trait – but certainly prevalent in other primates and more.  But humanity has certainly evolved these more cooperative traits. 

So – the bottom line is – it is human nature to be selfish; AND it is human nature to be empathetic. 

Now, just as those wolves evolved to hunt in packs, humans also find power in crowds.  In his Saturday Evening Post article “Can Our Common Humanity Unite Us,” Nicholas Christakis writes:

For good or ill, forming crowds comes so naturally to our species that it is even seen as a fundamental political right. It is codified in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which notes that “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” shall not be infringed by law. The inclination to assemble into groups and deliberately choose friends and associates is part of our species’ ­universal heritage.

And - Another human trait that we have is that we can be influenced by crowds.  We just need enough of us to display love for all humanity and empathy for this to spread.  If enough of us have this – then we can infect others and lovingkindness will spread – like a virus, but a good one.

In that video I shared with you during our story time, Brene Brown shares the attributes of empathy that we need to nourish and emulate for this to happen.  I was fortunate to have more detailed training which used her videos while at a ministers’ retreat at the Mountain. So – I have been to the Mountain Top on this subject and hopefully have been able to take these lessons to heart.

In I Thought it Was Just Me (But It Isn't) (2008), Brown references nursing scholar Theresa Wiseman's four attributes of empathy:

• Perspective taking – that is to be able to see the world as others see it—This requires putting your own "stuff" aside to see the situation through another’s eyes. Sometimes that’s easier to do when reading a book or seeing a movie.  Why is that? 

• To be nonjudgmental—Judgement of another person's situation discounts the experience and is an attempt to protect ourselves from the pain of the situation. This IS how it is for them.  I know I’ve had an especially hard time of this with some folks.

• To understand the other person’s feelings.  To do this, it helps to be in touch with our own feelings. You have to identify something in your own life where you have felt similarly.  Now that doesn’t mean you share that with the other person.  It just reminds you of how it feels to be rejected or lonely or like a failure, etc. To quote Joyce Poley’s song:  “We see our face’s in each other’s eyes,” …”We hear our voices in each other’s words,”… and “We feel the power of each other’s faith.”
• To communicate your understanding of that person’s feeling.  Rather than saying, "At least you..." or "It could be worse..." try, "I've been there, and that really hurts," Perhaps you haven’t been there – and don’t say you have if you haven’t.  After I lost my son – I really appreciated all the caring responses.  But sometimes folks would say something like – “I know how you feel.  I recently lost my grandfather.”  And I’m thinking – No, you don’t know how this feels.  (But I knew their intention was good and they were trying to connect with my feelings.)  Even if you haven’t been there, you can still share your understanding of their feeling. For example:  (to quote an example from Brown), "It sounds like you are in a hard place now. Tell me more about it.” Or – again to quote Brown – “I don’t know what to say, but I’m glad you told me.” 

Now like swimming or riding a bike – we may have evolved the potential for doing some things, but perfecting them takes practice.  “Brown explains that empathy is a skill that strengthens with practice and encourages people to both give and receive it often. By receiving empathy, not only do we understand how good it feels to be heard and accepted, we also come to better understand the strength and courage it takes to be vulnerable and share that need for empathy in the first place.”(Kate Theida in Psychology Today.) 

So to culminate this sermon time, we’re going to practice with a Common Humanity Meditation that I found on the internet and modified.

In this Common Humanity Meditation we’ll be practicing acknowledging the similarities between ourselves and others. We often focus on differences, but realizing that even people who seem very different from us in fundamental ways are just like us, can become the basis of real connection. 

This can include people we don't know very well, people with whom we're in conflict, or even people who we see as enemies. It's possible to develop a sense of compassion and understanding by coming to feel our shared sense of experience as human beings. This practice can help overcome that sense of difference and distrust by opening channels of compassion.

1. Let’s begin by taking a moment to allow your body to settle in a comfortable position, inviting a sense of ease and relaxation throughout the body [5 seconds]. 

And gently closing your eyes or looking downward just to limit visual distractions [5 seconds]. 

2. Allow yourself to take a deep breath in, and a long breath out. And as you breathe out, allowing a sense of releasing any tension that you're holding in your body [5 seconds]. 

3. Now bring someone to mind in your community who you don’t know very well, maybe someone who seems very distant or different from you, even someone you’re in a minor conflict with. And as you bring to mind this person you may not like or know very well, just notice if you experience any shift in sensation in your body [10 seconds]. 

Now - Hold this person in mind as if they were right in front of you. 

5. And say to yourself, “This person has a body and a mind, just like me” [10 seconds]. 

“This person has feelings, emotions, and thoughts, just like me” [10 seconds]. 

“This person has at some point in their life been sad, angry, hurt, or confused, just like me” [15 seconds]. 

“This person has in their life experienced physical and emotional pain and suffering, just like me” [10 seconds]. 

“This person has experienced moments of peace, joy, and happiness, just like me” [10 seconds]. 

“This person wishes to have fulfilling relationships, just like me” [10 seconds]. 

“This person wishes to be healthy and loved, just like me” [10 seconds]. 

6. Now take a moment to sense how you’re feeling [5 seconds]. And as you hold this person in your awareness, just notice: What do you experience? [10 seconds]. 

7. Now as you hold this person in mind, send them good wishes. May they be well [5 seconds], may they be happy [5 seconds], may they be healthy [5 seconds], may they live with ease [10 seconds]. 

8. Now shifting your awareness back to your breath, breathing in [5 seconds], breathing out [5 seconds]. Reconnecting with your body, feeling present, alive, connected, right here, right now.

And now open your eyes.  And I share with you a Namaste – The Spirit in me honors the Spirit in you.

(sing) – “We are blessed with love and amazing grace, when our heart is in a holy place.”

May it be so!

Restoring the Soul of America - (Script)

 

I wasn’t supposed to be sharing a message with you today.

If you read the January Newsletter, you may have been looking forward to hearing a message by Rev. Mellen Kennedy.

Mellen is a UU minister serving in Vermont – and we were seminary classmates at Meadville Lombard.

Mellen will be sharing with you, instead, on February 28.

She called me about a week and a half ago and indicated that her worship committee thought they might NEED her in the pulpit the Sunday after the inauguration – not knowing what possibly could happen on that day. 

And she added – I’m sure your congregations might need you that Sunday as well.  And so – whether you need me or not – here I am.

I’m certainly glad that Mellen’s fear of additional violence did not happen. 

And I didn’t really think it would happen. 

But I looked on this as an opportunity and challenge to share a post inaugural service and message with you. 

And I decided on a title for it based on some of the words I heard in Biden’s victory speech in November – Restoring the Soul of America.

I looked to a book by historian Jon Meacham entitled,

“The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels”

 published in 2018 to get a little help with understanding.

 Indeed Meacham and Biden use much of the same language as they both

look back to Abraham Lincoln’s words from his first inaugural address

in 1861 for inspiration.

Lincoln said:

“We are not enemies, but friends.  We must not be enemies. 

Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. 

 

The mystic chords of memory,

stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave

to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land,

will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched,

as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

By using these words – “the better angels of our nature,” I think Lincoln was referring to that deep, good, Soul that we know we can be as a nation.

Of course, a brutal civil war – where brothers became enemies followed,

with our better angels silenced by some for a very long time. 

It’s helpful to know all of this history. 

Because indeed – we have been here before –

a divided nation with efforts to move us backward to a less perfect union –

many times before.

Our nation was birthed with the sins of genocide and slavery

and a deep patriarchy and white supremacy that still rears it’s ugly head.  Meacham’s book details so many of these.  Meacham states:

“To know what has come before is to be armed against despair. 

If the men and women of the past, with all their flaws and limitations

and ambitions and appetites could press on through ignorance and superstition, racism and sexism, selfishness and greed, to create a freer, stronger nation,

then perhaps we, too, can right wrongs and take another step

toward that most enchanting and elusive of destinations:  a more perfect Union.`

Indeed, throughout history, we have moved forward. 

Yes, sometimes it feels like it’s two steps forward and one step back. 

But the movement is forward. 

We do call forth those better angels – our better selves –

and we certainly need to do so at this moment in history,

as President Biden has called on us to do.

In his inaugural speech, President Biden called for Unity

with strong words of inspiration and encouragement. 

But our president is a realist. 

He knows that we can’t get everyone on board this soul train,

and we never have.

President Biden reminded us of this with these words:

 

“The battle is perennial, and victory is never assured.

Through Civil War, The Great Depression, World War, 9/11, through struggle, sacrifices, and setbacks, our better angels have always prevailed.

 In each of these moments, enough of us—enough of us—

have come together to carry all of us forward, and we can do that now.”

I’ll share some of Meacham’s ideas about how we might do this. 

But first, I think it would be good for us to move this effort down to a smaller scale – to us as individuals, as congregations, and as communities.

 For we have to restore our own souls as well. 

So, I’m going to take a 5 minute break from this sermon

and put you in smaller groups to just share with one another

what some possibilities might be. 

Don’t try to save the world – you only have 5 minutes

and each of you should try to contribute at least one thing  -

it’s not much, but it’s a beginning. 

For we have a new day now.  Hallelujah. 

What will we do with it? 

You all try to watch your own time –

but you’ll get a warning when there is one minute left to wrap it up. 

I encourage you to join a group when you get the invitation. 

I know from experience that some of you won’t – and I’ll encourage you to use this time to make some notes about this – and perhaps share that in the chat – or email them me.

(Break)

I hope that some of you will email me some notes on what you heard discussed – if anything – related to our congregations – and I’ll share those with our leadership.

Now here are those suggestions from Meachum that I promised.

1.    Enter the Arena.  The battle begins with political engagement itself. 

Those who disdain the arena are unilaterally disarming themselves in the great contests of the soul, for they are cutting themselves off, childishly, from what Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., called the “passion and action” of the age.  One need not become a candidate (though that’s certainly an option worth considering) or a political addict hooked on every twist and every tun and every tweet.  But the paying of attention, the expressing of opinion, and the casting of ballots are foundational to living up to the obligations of citizenship in a republic.

 

2.    Resist Tribalism.  “We know instinctively,” Jane Adams wrote, “if we grow contemptuous of our fellows and consciously limit our intercourse to certain kinds of people whom we have previously decided to respect, we not only tremendously circumscribe our range of life, but limit the scope of our ethics.”

3.     

4.    Respect Facts and Deploy Reason.  “The dictators of the world say that if you tell a lie often enough, why, people will believe,” Truman wrote.  “Well, if you tell the truth often enough, they’ll believe it and go along with you.”  Meacham – “To reflexively resist one side or the other without weighing the merits of a given issue is all too common—and all to regrettable.  By closing our minds to the even remote possibility that a political leader with whom we nearly always disagree might have a point about a particular matter is to preemptively surrender the capacity of the mind to shape our public lives.

5.     

6.    Find a Critical Balance.  President Kennedy realized the importance of this within the press.  He said, “I think (the press) is invaluable, even though…it is never pleasant to be reading things that are not agreeable news.  But I would say that it is an invaluable arm of the Presidency. …

7.     

8.    Keep History in Mind.  To remember Joe McCarthy, for instance, gives us a way to gauge demagoguery.

 

Me --So many times as I read some of our history – or watch documentaries or movies about it I realized – “We’ve been here before.”

 

And yet – with enough of us – enough of us calling on our better angels – we can survive and move forward.

 

I don’t know about you – but I’m ready to get on that SOUL TRAIN and know as Sam Cooke sang – A Change is Gonna Come!

Yes it will!

Amen!