These
last two weeks we have heard a lot of speeches on television at the political
conventions. One candidate used the word
hope twice in his convention speech reminding people that the hope they had
four years had not come to fruition. The
other candidate used the word hope 17 times often speaking about what still
gives him hope. And most of the examples
he gave were the actions of ordinary citizens overcoming unbelievable hardships
in their lives to reach their potential, and by doing so, they had the ability to instill hope for others. I think the juxtaposition of these two brings
up an interesting question about hope.
Just because every hope does not come fruition, should we stop
hoping. Is hoping for something
unrealistic appropriate?
Just
recently my cousin posted something on Facebook, mentioning that the NY Mets
were only 8 games behind in the baseball playoff race and he lauded them with hopeful abandon
that they could still win it, if they just swept the St. Louis Cardinals this
upcoming week. So knowing the Mets were not as talented as the Cardinals I
pointed out to him that the Book of Ecclesiastes states, “the race does not
always go to the swift, nor the battle always to the strong.” Often do people, groups, societies overcome
conventional wisdom. It was once
conventional wisdom that slavery should be legal, it was once conventional
wisdom that there was no need for public education, it was once conventional
wisdom that women should not vote, it was once conventional wisdom that people
of the same sexual orientation should not marry. Those things didn’t change
overnight, but through hard work, through the hard work of many people working
together, over a long period of time, even generations, changes to conventional
wisdom came to fruition. And to see this
come to fruition, to sustain the energy of ones purpose over such a long period
of time, one needs hope. This hope is not a magical thought, it is not
something that you can turn on and off.
It is a way of being, a way of living, almost a spiritual practice in
and of itself.
Just
like anything that if we are to be good at it, or if it is to become a natural
part of our personality and religious understanding, it
must be practiced, and it needs especially to be practiced in the onslaught of
everything that tells us otherwise. I think this is exemplified by Vedran
Samilovic. He was the principal cellist
of the Sarajevo Opera, In 1992 Vedran heard a mortar shell burst in the street
near his home, quickly followed by screams. People had been standing in
line to buy bread from one of the few remaining bakeries in the violence
ravaged city. When he looked out his window, Vedran saw the carnage.
The Shell killed twenty two people. Grieved and shocked, he felt he
must do something. but what? He did what he felt he, as an artist, could do.
Dressed up in his formal concert clothes, he went out the next afternoon
and sat where the shell had burst and played the plaintive alinoni
Adagio in G Minor. He played every afternoon for the next twenty two
days, one day of music for every person killed. Then he kept playing As
the Indian Buddhist writer/teacher Swati Chopra describes his discipline –
“he played to ruined homes, smoldering fires, scared people hiding in
basements. He played for human dignity that is the first casualty in war.
Ultimately, he played for life, for peace, for
the possibility of hope that exists even in the darkest hour. Asked
by a journalist whether he was not crazy doing what he was doing, Smailovic
replied: You ask me if I am crazy for playing the cello. Why do you not
ask if they are not crazy for shelling Sarajevo? It takes practice just as playing music
does.”
In what ways are we
practicing hope as a Congregation. In
what ways does our religion provide us hope for a better future. I think one way we gain hope is from looking
back and seeing our religious ancestors who as our sources say used words
and deeds which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with
justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love; By doing so we will be
able to see the practice of an active hope over and over again lead to change.
We see hope the words and acts of Unitarian
Minister Theodore Parker who was one of the earliest and most voracious
supporters of the abolition movement in this country protecting runaway slaves,
and financing anti slavery activist John Brown’s attacks into Kansas to prevent
that state from becoming a slave state. Parker also famously said :
“Look at the
facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the good. I
do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye
reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure
by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see
I am sure it bends towards justice.”
Hope comes from looking back and knowing we are on
that arc, but that we have only come so far, so we cannot rest. We have a responsibility to carry on with the
work of justice. This is the core of our religion, within our principles, where we affirm and promote Justice equity
and compassion in human relations as well as peace liberty and justice for all. It is in the core of our vision and mission as
a congregation, which asks us to devote ourselves to community good and to support
social justice and social action initiatives in our congregation and the
greater community. Hope comes from looking forward and knowing can we harness
the collective power of our energies as a congregation so we can make this a
more just and compassionate world.
So we can impact our community with our values. This is what we are called to do. To stand up
and speak the truth to power, to stand up and do the work that needs to be done.
I have seen this in what our religion has consistently done over the years,
from being the first religion to ordain a woman, to being the first religion to
ordain an openly gay man, in our tireless efforts to see justice enacted
wherever there are people oppressed as did in Phoenix Arizona at General
Assembly this past year. And knowing
this gives me hope.
We
see hope in the words and action of Unitarian Susan B Anthony who in one of her
many works as leader of the women’s suffrage movement was arrested when she tried
to cast a vote in an election at a time when women were denied the right to vote. But she
alone could not have made the right to vote come to pass. It only happened through her tireless work
and the work of many others coming together, both men and women, but it finally
did come to pass. And we are still
working for the justice of gender equality, so that anyone regardless of gender
receives equal pay for equal work. And Susan
Anthony said “a True Women will
proclaim the "glad tidings of good news" to all women, that woman
equally with man was made for her own individual happiness, to develop... every
talent given to her by God, in the great work of life.”Through letters that Susan
B Anthony wrote to her Unitarian Congregation we know her experiences at the
Congregation transformed her.
As she wrote “my spirit was born anew to listen to a cultured educated
presentation about what it means to bring the light that lighteth every person
that comes into the world”. She knew it
was special because she wrote on that day it was the first time she had ever
seen her father put money in the collection basket at church. We can gain hope looking back knowing that
our religion gave her the courage to
continue on with the work that we all now benefit from. Hope comes from looking forward and knowing
that we can renew our own spirits as well.
This is also at the core of our religion as our
principles that ask us to encourage spiritual growth in our congregation. It is at the core of our congregational vision
that asks us to feed the mind and spirit. Hope comes from looking forward and knowing
we can change, and grow and knowing that we will have good people to walk on
our religious journey together with. And
that is a key to hope. It is forever
connected to trust. First and foremost
we have to trust in the universe that there is a purpose to our existence. But even more importantly, even if there is
no purpose, we have to trust each other.
We have to know that if
we are going to risk opening ourselves up to new ideas, to risk allowing
ourselves to believe in the potential for personal change, to risk letting go
of some deeply held rigid beliefs, then we need to know that we can trust that the
people we journey together with will catch us when that belief that held us for
so long no longer buoys us, trust that we will not be judged for exploring
ideas that are challenging to us, trust that we will be forgiven when we fail,
and trust the good intentions of all we walk with. I have seen this trust in our meetings, I
have seen it in our classes, our connection circles and in our services. And this gives me hope.
We see hope in the life and deaths of Rev. James J.
Reeb and Viola Liuzzo both of whom were killed when answering the call to March
in Selma Alabama in support of the voting rights act. I think this is important to note, we usually
only talk about Rev. Reeb, and ministers who answered Martin Luther King’s call
back in the 1960s. But it was lay people
as well as ministers together who answered that call. And that is also what gives me hope about our
religion. That unlike so many religions,
we truly believe in what the responsive reading spoke of, the priesthood and
prophethood of all believers.
That
each of us has a ministry, and we minister to each other, that each of you have
a voice to speak your truth and we are willing to live out our shared values in
the world, which may require sacrifice, and in the case of the two I mentioned
the ultimate sacrifice. And they helped create
change in this country by doing so. This
priesthood and prophethood of all believers is also at the core of our
religion, as our principles affirm and promote the right of conscience, and the
use of the Democratic process. And our
vision and mission, speaks to us as a community doing this together, not as
individuals, but as a community.
Together
we can do exponentially more than any one of us could ever do alone. Embedded in our religion is the opportunity to
give people the opportunity to learn and to lead. And I have certainly seen that here, as our
caring team and other individuals care for each other as often life can leave
us in the dark night of the body and soul. You see this in our worship as is
our tradition, our lay leaders also speak from the pulpit. We are all in this together. And these things too gives me hope.
And lastly for today I see hope in the actions and words of
Universalist Clara Barton who among other achievements in her life, not only opened
the first public school in the state of New Jersey, but during the civil war
went to the battlefields to provide medical care to wounded soldiers and then
after the war she founded the Red Cross in America. I think of her
accomplishments and I think, perhaps I should do something more lofty than
watching the Football game this afternoon.
Clara Barton made one statement in particular that
moved me. She said, “I have an almost complete disregard of precedent,
and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told
how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for
anything new that might improve the past.” This to me more than anything else
is foundation that our religion rests on. We look at all things with new eyes
based on new information and new experiences.
To know and to accept that we are not in possession of some final
absolute truth, is in and of itself holy to us. To not only accept but to welcome the fact that revelation is ongoing.
This too is embedded in
our principles in the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. I see this here at our congregation as we
incorporate new ways of thinking, feeling and being. I see it as we incorporate
learning’s from science, not with a fear that it will invalidate our beliefs,
but with a quest that it will enhance our understanding of our purpose in the
universe. I see it in your journeys as
we all come together trying to find our way for ourselves and this Congregation
to reach its highest potential. This
coming together learning from our past and moving forward towards our better
selves also gives me hope.
Now sadly, my cousin was
wrong, and the Cardinals won 2 out of 3 from the Mets, and I wont even try to
console a Chicago Cubs fan, but the thing is, neither my cousin or I had any
control over the outcome of those games.
That was hoping for someone else to do something. That is not the kind of hope I speak of. The kind of hope I speak of is not the kind
of hope that Emily Dickenson wrote about never asking a crumb of her. The kind
of hope I speak of is an active hope. The
kind of hope I speak of today is the hope that is born within us that we are
capable of changing ourselves for the better and changing our community for the
better, and by doing so inspiring others to be moved to hope for the same.
Our religion shows us
through words and actions that what was once thought impossible is possible. Let
us continue to build on the foundation of this house of hope that has been
bestowed upon us generation after generation. Let us cross the threshold
together, and let us have hope and through our words and actions provide hope to
others. Remember, you have to have a
dream if you want to have a dream come true.
May it be so.
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