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The Better World A Worship Service by the Reverend Mark W. Christian & Jonalu Johnstone First Unitarian Church of Oklahoma City Sunday August 20, 2006
Readings “A Liberal Church” (Adapted) By Wallace W. Robbins (HCL 460) Let this church ever seek the oneness of God, and never turn from that venture, to the dark byways of quarrels and competitive struggles which interrupt the human pilgrimage. We aspire to be catholic and to take all into account. We reject that which scatters us into ghettos or forces upon our neighbor an ultimate loneliness. Ours is a church which holds the dead in sacred memory, and the living in goodly fellowship. We desire to live together in such affection as will not allow us to feel threatened by our differences—happy in the liberty which encourages each to make their words correspond with their thought, our acts with our conscience. Ours is a non-creedal church—not because we have no beliefs, but because we will not be restrained in our beliefs. Ours is a church of conscience—not because we hold that conscience is infallible, but because it is the meeting place of human beings and God. Ours is a church of reason—not because our minds are free of errors, but because the dialogue of mind with mind and mind with itself, refines religious thought. Ours is a church of moral work—not because we think morality is sufficient religion, but because we know no better way of showing our gratitude to God and our confidence in one another. We dare not fence the spirit, nor close off the sincerity of conversation with which souls must meet in religious association. As others have their ways of religion, so do we have this faith; and in honest difference, we order our lives together.
“And Then” Judy Chicago (SLT 464) And then all that has divided us will merge And then compassion will be wedded to power And then the softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind And then both men and women will be gentle And then both men and women will be strong And then no person will be subject to another’s will And then all will be rich and free and varied And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many And then all will share equally in the Earth’s abundance And then all will care of the sick and the weak and the old And then all will nourish the young And then all will cherish life’s creatures And then all will live in harmony with each other and the Earth And then everywhere will be called Eden once again
Prayer and Meditation “In Praise of Hands” By Diann L. Neu
Blessed be the work of Your hands, O Holy One. Blessed be these hands that have touched life. Blessed be these hands that have nurtured creativity. Blessed be these hands that have held pain. Blessed be these hands that have embraced with passion. Blessed be these hands that have tended gardens. Blessed be these hands that have closed in anger. Blessed be these hands that have planted new seeds. Blessed be these hands that have harvested ripe fields. Blessed be these hands that have cleaned, washed, mopped, scrubbed. Blessed be these hands that have become knotty with age. Blessed be these hands that are wrinkled and scarred from doing justice. Blessed be these hands that have reached out and been received. Blessed be these hands that hold the promise of the future. Blessed be the works of Your hands, O Holy One.
The Better World A Sermon by the Reverend Mark W. Christian Delivered to the First Unitarian Church of Oklahoma City Sunday August 20, 2006 Last week, in the first part of this sermon series, I told you that a key focus of this church is to “Grow Souls.” You might recall William Ellery Channing’s observation that the spiritual life involves growing in our “Likeness to God.” Perhaps you remember the Hindu formula for salvation—Atman equals Brahman equals no rebirth” with its radical assertion that transformation occurs when we experience that the soul we possess is identical and inseparable from the soul of the world. If there is one thing I hope you draw forward from last week’s sermon on “The Better Soul” it is that the reason this church exists is to “Transform People Who Transform the World.” Transforming People Who Transform the World. There are two parts to that equation—transforming people and transforming the world. Last week we started with the soul and I guess there is something of a “Chicken and Egg” thing going on here. Which comes first, the Chicken or the Egg? Which happens first, which is primary, transforming people or transforming the world? I used to favor the latter over the former—thinking that our proper religious focus centered on changing the world. When we make a better world, individuals can find a healthier niche in which to live and thereby become better souls. There is a certain logic here—and while it is valid, I am of changing opinion regarding the primacy of focusing solely on transforming the world. Perhaps this focus on changing people by changing the world constitutes the “You Are What You Eat” or the “Rising Tide Floats All Ships” approach to transformation. I have had a change of mind in this regard. This approach is analogous to “Trickle Down” or “Supply Side” economics. Like those economic theories, the “Fix the World First” approach to transformation looks very good on paper but tends to lose something in application. I have begun to worry that where Supply Side and Fix-the-World-First fall flat is that they fail to fully take into account the broken-ness of human beings. In a perfect world, filled with perfect people, we could simply create more opportunity, build better systems and improve efficiency and everyone would live happy, healthy, hopeful lives. Somehow it doesn’t work out that way, does it? My change in heart and focus has evolved with time. Specifically, starting with the individual and not the collective has grown within me as I continue to confront my incompleteness, my broken-ness, my fallen-ness. I think I used to favor starting with the world so that I didn’t have confront, confess and atone for my sins—the sins of my past and the sins I still have. I would give time and energy to anti-racism causes so that I didn’t have to confront ways that racial superiority and privilege still live in me. Be a voice for the homeless meant that when I go back to my comfortable home, I can let my casual sense of safety and superiority cover me. Speak out for moral causes and “Goodness,” so that I can rest easy believing I have done some good while living comfortably with my own greed, pride, anger and lust—to name just a few of those seven deadly sins. Now I see I have to begin with me—and the church has to begin by transforming people—one by one by one. There is something ironic about this desire to focus on systemic change in a tradition that focuses on individualism in almost every other way. Many years ago, I had a conversation with a colleague who expressed his intention to move Unitarian Universalism back in alignment with 19th century Universalist theology and practice. Putting aside the wisdom of that goal, the concern I shared with him was logistical. This person is every much the self-imposed loner—an individualist in most every sense. In those days he was not active in a church or other community of believers but somehow he was going lead and transform a movement. How, I asked, through sheer will or divine fiat? I suggested that even in the church it is better to begin by changing one or two other people, then a small group, then a sanctuary full, then a couple of churches—and then maybe the movement would come around. If we limit ourselves to changing the world, not only do we doom ourselves to inefficiency, we miss the opportunity to confront and atone for our shortcomings. If the “Fix the World First” approach to transformation, with its tendency and complicity to ignore and mask personal sins, is akin to the supply side of rising tides then what is the alternative aligned with? Perhaps starting with the individual is akin to the notion that “Good ingredients make a good dinner” or “Perfect practice makes perfect performance.” Starting with the individual, of course, can miss the mark, too. The trick is not to settle for practice without performance or filling up on ingredients and forgetting to make the meal. The key as a religious community is the demand that individuals must use their personal transformations—their gifts, their skills, their presence—to make a better world. We exist as a community to transform people who transform the world. We must keep both goals in sight if we are to fulfill our purpose. There is, of course, another kind a paralysis with which we must contend at this point. Equal to worrying about the speck in someone else’s eye while ignoring log obscuring our view is the tendency to internalize and relegate cultural transformation solely to the personal sphere. The joke pointed at ministers here is that sometimes we go from “Preaching to Meddling.” Decorum suggests that there are things you just leave to the individual and never confront in an open and public manner. When we, as a community, give too much store to that approach we become complicit in sin and injustice. When that happens we transform neither person nor world. Still, there is another pitfall with which to concern ourselves. People who study human systems and organizations—families, businesses, churches—have adapted a theory from biology to the workings of human beings in the world. “Homeostasis” describes the tendency of a system to avoid change. Homeostasis, applied to human behavior, states that human systems will go to unusual, and sometimes contradictory ends, to self-replicate. Taken alone, either the change the world first or just change the person approach to transformation are tools of homeostasis. Standing alone, each derails real change while giving the impression that something is happening. I remember a sign in a professor friend’s office that claimed getting anything done is like “Mating Elephants.” It is done at high levels, with a great deal of noise and takes about two years to see any results. I don’t think there is a better example of homeostasis. Even if you see something wrong in the world and think you can fix it—you can’t. That is work for “higher-ups.” If a problem has been identified and there is a lot of noise and fuss—then we can rest assured that a solution is in the works—right? Finally, if you aren’t seeing or feeling a difference in the world you just need to wait a bit longer for results. A watched pot never boils—OK? Wrong on all accounts—unless what you want to do is avoid change! Don’t get me wrong—it does take change in leaders to make a real difference…sometimes. Real change does create loud noise and a visible disruption—smoke, flames and heat are often generated by real change. These things do cause a ruckus and, of course, real change does take time. I guess the importance of “Transforming People” and “Transforming the World” is never to quit doing one while waiting on the other. The way to avoid homeostasis in this endeavor is to never let appearances derail transformation. One the movies that I will watch just about anytime I come across it speaks to this. “Pay it Forward” stars Kevin Spacey as a Social Studies teacher who challenges his students to change the world. Haley Joel Osment plays “Trevor” who starts with the notion that almost everyone is willing to repay one’s debts. He couples that with the idea that one good deed deserves another. Trevor comes up with the idea of turning things upside down and inside out. Specifically he sets out to do good for three other people because of help and favors he has been granted asking that they, in turn, do the same. Instead of repaying a debt to the debtor his idea is to pay your debt forward to someone in need. This is precisely the opposite of the mating elephant scenario—it is done at the lowest level, with no fanfare, and you never even look to see if there is a positive change. You pay it forward and live by faith. Of course not looking for results is much harder than it seems. That “Living by faith” is problematic for us, isn’t it? The expectation of results leads to brilliant exchange between Trevor and his teacher. “Are you saying you'll flunk us if we don't change the world?” Trevor asks. “Well, no,” replies his teacher, “But you might just scrape by with a C.” There are many areas where a “C” is a passing grade—but life isn’t one of them. In the movie, the Pay-It-Forward change in the world is only be seen by a journalist, himself a beneficiary of Trevor’s chain of events. The success of the plan can only be see when one works from effect to cause—not cause to effect. The thing that we are led to understand in the movie—and the thing that I believe is a central part of why we exist as a religious community—is that you don’t set out to change the world because the world is in need of change. It is—but along that path lay the traps of mating elephants and rising tides. You pay forward the goodness you have found. We seek to make the world a better place not because it is broken—even though broken-ness abounds—we make the world a better place because life is a gift. “This day is a gift” we say and in this community we believe you live into the gift. If, moving from cause to effect, you try to live “out” of the gift I can tell you that your energy and generosity and hope will be exhausted. If you decide to live out of the gift you will always be looking for the next fill-up, the next fix, the next promotion, the new something or someone. Living “into” the gift is different. Living from the effect, the given-ness of the gift, is something all together different. Once we begin to act as though the gift is eternal and infinite then we can find the courage and resources to live into the gift—making this world a better world. I will not tell you that this stance is without risk. It’s not. In the movie Trevor dies as a direct result of goodness he is paying forward and creating in the world. There are no guarantees in this world. After we proclaim that this day is a gift—freely given to us it’s important to remember that we go on to say that “This is the day we have been given, to live in, to love in and, in time, to die in.” Making the world a better world is not assured but our lives and our deaths are. They are givens. They are unchangeable facts…it’s just that some of the details are negotiable. The faithful question gets down to how we will use our lives—these days we have been given. I challenge each of you to “Transform People Who Transform the World.” Start with self-transformation. Make your soul a better soul—but don’t stop there. Transform the souls you encounter. Invest goodness in the world in any way you can. Give to the needy. Feed the hungry. Champion the oppressed. Protect those who are in danger. Give your humanity to those who feel marginalized—knowing that even someone in with all the outward signs of success can be marginalized give of your humanity, give of the life force that is in you and in them and in all things. Do these things through this community—but importantly—do this when you are away from here, too. I believe there is a soul of the world and it runs through all things—all people, all living things, all things—bees and trees and continents and constellations. We are connected to these things. We are all the same stuff. Live into these things. Live into the gifts. Live into life. Live into God. And then, writes Judy Chicago— And then all that has divided us will merge And then compassion will be wedded to power… And then all will live in harmony with each other and the Earth And then everywhere will be called Eden once again And then, I tell you, our world will forever be a better world. AMEN
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