Good Morning!
First, I need
to tell you what an honor and pleasure this is for me. It is
humbling to stand here, in Maurice McCrackin’s footsteps, and
Camilla’s, and Hal’s, and so many others I admire.
And you know I
love doing this. Along with meditation and singing, it’s a
spiritual practice that is enormously beneficial to me
personally. So thanks to our Session and the Worship Committee
for the honor and gift of your invitation. And for any
“decently and in good order” watchdogs out there, the second
reading, and probably a few others, will be along in good time.
Most of you
know I’m one of those folks who marches to a different drummer.
This is not a recent development. Of poems I still have around,
the oldest one was written when I was about fourteen, thinking
back on my trials as a nine-year old. It was called “Normal”,
and went like this.
Young,
bedwetting scared,
I prayed to
God to make me normal.
O God,
Thank God,
God didn’t .
With that in
mind, it should come as no surprise that my take on the 2001
terrorist attacks, both when they happened, and in the
subsequent four years, is a bit out of the mainstream. I was not
shocked that we were attacked, not in the least. What was
remarkable about these attacks themselves was how successful
they were. And despite all the subsequent rhetoric about “the
new post 9/11 reality”, the attacks themselves had little
effect on my life, my sense of security, or my perception of
geopolitics. What was very real to me was the needless
suffering of the victims, the lives lost and shattered. Nearly
three thousand innocent human souls died in ambush that day.
But this was not a new war, not the first attack, not even the
first attack on that particular symbolic building. And to be
honest, I felt then, like I feel today, that the level of shock
our nation felt at close exposure to human suffering was a
measure of how deeply we had been asleep.
And I’ll tell
you something else, I felt virtually none of the visceral anger
or hatred towards the terrorists that was a common reaction.
Evil-doing has always accompanied war, and most all participants
in war have, in their own minds, a justification for their
actions. Besides, I had not forgotten experiences in my own life
that demonstrate both the frustration and desperation that can
motivate a group that sees themselves as being hopelessly
outgunned by a ruthless and amoral oppressor. Do you folks
understand that that’s how we are seen in many parts of the
world? Is there anyone in this room that believes it’s all
because “they hate freedom”?
When, in 1964
after a hiatus of nearly 20 years, an American race riot broke
out in New York City, songwriter Phil Ochs captured this
illogical rage and frustration, in the song “In the Heat of
the Summer” with the words: “So wrong, so wrong, but
we’ve been down so long, we just had to make somebody listen.”
When the Watts district in Los Angeles erupted the following
year, Frank Zappa took a deeper look in his song “Trouble
Comin’ Every Day”, closing the song with these prophetic
words:
“You know we
got to sit around at home and watch this thing begin
But I bet
there won’t be many of us to see it really end
‘Cause a fire
in the street ain’t like a fire in the heart
And in the
eyes of all these people don’t you see that this could start
On any street
in any town in any state if any clown
Decides that
now’s the time to fight for some idea he thinks is right
And if a
million more agree, there ain’t no great society
As it applies
to you and me. Our country isn’t free
When the laws
refuse to see that all that he could ever be
Is just some
lousy janitor unless his uncle owned a store
You know that
five out of every four just won’t amount to nothin’ more -
Watch the rats
run across the floor and make up songs about bein’ poor.
“So I’m
watchin and I’m waitin’, hopin’ for the best,
Even think
I’ll go to prayin’ every time I hear them sayin’
That there’s
no way to delay that trouble comin’ every day.
No way to
delay, trouble comin’ every day.”
If you don’t
see the connection between this perceived oppression, largely
racist, of our underclass here, with the perceived oppression by
the U.S. of Muslims and Arabs, two things may help. First,
understand the very reasonable perception from an Arab point of
view that virtually all military actions taken by the state of
Israel, especially since 1950, are, for practical purposes,
direct outgrowths of the American foreign policy. Second, we
must understand that our massive military support of corrupt
regimes throughout the Muslim world, including active military
support of Saddam Hussein, has not gone unnoticed in the Arab
world.
The
“Trouble Comin’ Every Day” that Frank Zappa warned about has
come, not only in our own urban ghettos, but in lots of streets
in lots of towns. In Teheran and Mogadishu; all over Israel, and
in refugee camps in occupied Palestine; in Madrid and Bali
and London. And friends, if there is any lesson to be learned
from recent history, this is not a war we will win by force.
One more
aspect of our national shock after the 9/11 attacks is worth
mentioning. Let me demonstrate with a little quiz. When you know
the answer, don’t say anything, but raise your hand. Some hints
will come.
We all know
the significance of 9/11, but who can tell me the significance
of 12/3? It’s a date, December 3. Anybody? OK, December 3,
1984. Another hint: 4000 completely innocent people were killed
outright, another 10,000 died from injuries sustained.
No, this was
no natural disaster, definitely evil-doing was involved. Now the
evil-doers did not intend to kill anybody, they were just guilty
of trying to make a profit.
Just after
midnight, in the central Indian city of Bhopal, a little after
midnight, a deadly toxic gas leaked from a chemical factory.
The plant was a joint venture of the Indian Government, some
private investors, and the Union Carbide Corporation. Maybe some
unsafe technology was exported to India because of more
stringent American regulations. Investigation proved that safety
enforcement was lax, maintenance was poor. The victims were
largely poor, and non-white. The story was off the front pages
here within two or three days.
And are you
aware that over a thousand American women and children are
murdered every year in acts of domestic violence, year after
year after year? Where’s their Patriot Act? When does the war on
domestic violence get a Cabinet Department?
So when I say
that the attacks of 9/11 were not a landmark for me, it is not
from lack of compassion for the lives shattered that day, but
rather from awareness that human pain, on an immeasurable scale,
is a compelling and constant fact of life.
I do believe
9/11 will be long remembered as a landmark in American history,
not for the attacks, but rather for our individual and
governmental responses. Unlike me, and I know I’m the one
who’s out of step here, many Americans did respond with shock,
anger and fear. Our government, in my opinion, responded by
manipulating those emotions, especially fear, to further it’s
own pre-existing political agenda. Now I can feel us edging
toward domestic politics, which is somewhere I definitely don’t
want to linger. But before we move to the question of a
spiritual response to our violent times, I’ll leave you with one
last quote on fear and governance, a tidbit of food for thought.
“The people
can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is
easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked,
and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing
the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
Those words
are from Reich Marshall Hermann Goering at Nuremberg.
OK, so what is
the best spiritual response to terrorist attacks? To become more
aware. We need to become more aware, and, we need to beware of
the power of pride. What exactly is the power of pride, you
might ask? Now that’s a great question. Short answer, it’s a
bumper sticker that Josef, Chris, Claire and I saw Wednesday
night on our way home from a gathering of our a capella
group, right at the deadline for me to pick a sermon title.
I’m sure you’ve seen it, American flag on the left, and
those four words. The Power of Pride. I don’t know what it
means, but it sounds pretty scary to me and I’m pretty sure it
needs to be avoided. But step one, becoming more aware, is both
a must-do and can’t-lose proposition on any spiritual journey.
And as the
call to worship observed, kick-starts of awareness for many of
us come with a sudden awakening of compassion, the fundamental
higher energy of humanity. The shock of that sudden awakening
makes us aware of how deeply we’ve been sleeping, and hello
sweet paradox. The first lasting step into awareness is very
frequently an awareness of how little awareness we command, and
how seldom it arises. And the second verse? Same as the first.
Become more aware again, and make this process, calling yourself
to attention to the reality around you in the present moment,
your new favorite exercise. Try to make it a habit. If you can
do this, you are really getting somewhere.
Now here’s
another thing I’ve noticed that happens. Our awakened compassion
makes us yearn to help, to relieve the suffering we become aware
of, but try as we might, often we just can’t seem to make much
headway. Maybe we see the symptoms of suffering, but miss the
root causes. So become more aware. Pay more attention. And
don’t forget to keep an eye out for the power of pride, and be
ready to duck, just in case.
The late
Jesuit mystic Anthony deMello collected a number of stories from
a variety of traditions, mostly Sufi, along with some of his own
teaching tales, in a collection called The Song of the Bird.
Here’s one deMello calls “Change the World by Changing Me”.
“The Sufi
Bayazid said this about himself:
‘I was a
revolutionary when I was young and all my prayer to God was
‘Lord, give me the energy to change the world.’ As I approached
middle age and realized that half my life was gone without my
changing a single soul, I changed my prayer to ‘Lord, give me
the grace to change all those who come in contact with me. Just
my family and friends, and I shall be satisfied.’ Now that I’m
an old man and my days are numbered, my one prayer is ‘Lord,
give me the grace to change myself.’ If I had prayed for this
right from the start I should not have wasted my life.”
Gandhi put it
another way: “You must be the change you’d like to see in the
world.”
I’m sure
you’re beginning to notice a trend towards Eastern thought in
our service so far, so let’s take this opportunity to visit our
second reading in the nice familiar New Testament of the
Christian Bible. Short and sweet, just three verses from the
first chapter of Mark. This is the very beginning of Jesus’
public ministry, and my Access Bible has a helpful explanatory
footnote I will include. Listen, and think about the
implications of following Jesus example.
“They went
to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the
synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for
he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
The scribes, trained in interpretation of the Torah, cited their
teachers, Jesus speaks on his own authority…they were all
amazed, and they kept on asking one another ‘What is this? A new
teaching! With authority he commands even the unclean spirits
and they obey him.’”
Any questions
about where Jesus stood on the question of authority of
scripture versus the authority of his own developed
understanding? Hey! You know what? I think I figured out what
makes all these religious fundamentalists, Jewish, Christian and
Muslim, so hung up on the idea that their holy scriptures, and
only their holy scriptures, contain the unique true word of God.
It’s the power of pride! You know the chant: My God is red hot,
your God ain’t diddly squat! I’m serious here, this is
important, it’s another important step in a spiritual response
to contemporary times. Get over this idolatrous book worship!
Face reality, practice spiritual humility. Everything you
believe might be wrong. If any fundamentalists know the mind of
God, like you all claim, you wouldn’t be doing so much stupid
and nasty stuff all the time. The power of pride has got you.
Your books, like all books, are words written by humans.
Inspired? Maybe. Infallible? Sounds like the power of pride
talking there.
The reason my
sermons here have referred so often to people like Anthony
deMello, Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, George Gurdjieff,
Indres Shah, Charlotte Joko Beck, and others who teach eastern
thought to western seekers is because of how critical it is for
us to become more aware in the present moment in order to follow
Jesus, and because these teachers are all specialists in
strategies for raising awareness.
Howard
Rheingold, writing about Spiritual Pathwords, shares some
similarly intended thoughts; the first from Tibetan Buddhist
oral teaching.
“The
traveler who finds his road blocked by a river will use a raft
to reach the opposite shore, but, this shore once reached, he
will not carry the raft on his shoulders while continuing the
journey. He will abandon it as something which is no longer
needed.”
And from
Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu:
Fishing
baskets are employed to catch fish, but when the fish are got,
the baskets are forgotten. The baskets are not the fish. Snares
are used to catch hares, but when the hares are got, the snares
are forgotten. The snares are not the hares. Words are employed
to convey ideas, but when the ideas are grasped, the words are
forgot. The words are not the ideas.
Rheingold
comments further: “Language is the road to God but words are
tools of the Devil too. The map is not the territory. Terms may
be used, but none of them are absolute. Don’t bite my finger,
look where I’m pointing! Language collides painfully with
paradox when words are used to direct people to the realm of
spiritual matters. Possibly more blood has been shed throughout
the centuries over differing interpretations of holy scriptures
than over all the mercantile or territorial disputes combined.”
Friends, this
“True Word of God” stuff is a very slippery slope right
through the neighborhood of the power of pride.
At the end of
the day, no matter what, we’re left with the challenge of trying
to do what Jesus did. It is both a challenge, and potential gift
for each of us to be able to wake up and be aware of our
consciousness. And it’s the best we can do, and all we need to
do. Wake up! Keep our hearts as wide open as Hurricane Katrina
opened them, and keep our minds wide open for the amazing new
teaching that comes in the Scripture God is writing this very
moment. Then choose for ourselves each best next step towards
God, and take it. And sometimes it’s scary. Any step might be
wrong, and, the journey tends to get lonelier and lonelier the
further we go. There’s no book can walk it for you, you’ve gotta
walk it by yourself.
I want to
leave you all with a parting gift, with the help of my friends
Fran and Ruth Rosevear. Almost all of you know Fran and Ruth,
but for the sake of any visitors, I’ll ask them to stand for a
second. Now Fran and Ruth are a treasure here, as we all know.
They are gifted in so many ways, and there is certainly no other
couple that could come close to matching their gifts to our
congregation over the years. And of all the gifts they’ve given
us, the greatest is their living testimony of steadfast love. I
suspect much of their love is centered in music, the music
they’ve made and supported here, and the music they’ve made
together for who knows how long, and the music of so many
members of their family. A few years ago, Ruth’s vision began to
fail, and Fran took on the task of enlarging musical scores on
the copier, then laboriously fitting and pasting them together
so Ruth could see the notes. Look at this giant music. Think of
the love that is in these notes, and the love that fills the
room when they play together.
Four years
ago, tragic events happened on a September morning, and before
long the very name of the day itself was kidnapped by the power
of pride. Now our government wants it called “Patriots Day.”
You know the philosopher Bertrand Russell defined patriotism as
the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Things like the power of pride. But this morning, thanks to Fran
and Ruth, we’re taking this day back.
Everyone here,
look at this music, think of the power of this steadfast love,
and from now on, where ever you are, whenever you hear 9/11 this
or 9/11 that, think about Fran and Ruth in the town of Leonia,
New Jersey, on the western end of the George Washington Bridge,
on September 11, 1936, embarking on a marriage that today begins
it’s 70th year. So Fran and Ruth, happy anniversary.
And to all of us here, happy Steadfast Love Day. Amen.
