A BETTER WORLD FOR
ALL
September 24, 2006
Frank Carpenter, D.Min.
FALL MEDIATION
Now is the time for turning.
The leaves begin turning from green to red and orange, and blow in the wind.
Birds are beginning to turn, heading south once more.
Squirrels are storing food for the winter
For leaves, birds and animals turning comes instinctively,
But for us turning does not come so easily. We humans need spirit and ritual to call us to turning.
Muslims begin Ramadan
Jews begin Rosh Hashanah.
It takes an act of will for us to turn, to break with old habits.
Today, let us turn; let us remind ourselves of the higher cause.
Let us turn from selfish concerns to the well being of all.
Let us sacrifice our petty interests for a better world for all.
Let us turn, let us turn again to hear the call of justice and peace in our lives.
In silence, let us listen to our conscience.
Peace be with you.
SERMON:
Sometimes our religion, Unitarian Universalism, is described as more of a generic religion than anything else. As some wit commented, when Unitarian Universalists pray, we begin “To whom it may concern.”
The truth in that is we want to be inclusive. We seek to honor all people’s spiritual journeys. Part of our name is Universalism. The operative word of Universalism is ‘all;’ “ALL!” The operative faith statement of Universalism is that all people will be saved. All, everyone, not one is excluded from our hopes and dreams. In the words of the poet Tennyson, we trust
That
nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life
shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete;
There are no evildoers so rotten
that they shall not be brought home; no sinners so corrupt they shall not be
lifted up in love. When I say all, I
mean all.
But is this a religion?
A hundred years ago the Harvard philosopher
George Santayana said, “another world to live in – whether we expect ever to
pass wholly over into it or no – is what we mean by having a religion.”
Another world to live in, a
better world to live in, is what a religion is all about. Is there a better picture of faith? For us as liberals in religion, another world
to live in, a better world to live in means another world to live in for all, a better world to live in for all.
But as the philosopher suggests,
for another world to be possible, we need to be able to get there. Can we get there from here? It reminds me of the story of a traveling salesman,
downeast
He was trying to find Uncle Jeremiah’s
general store outside
‘How do I find my way to Uncle Jeremiah’s
General Store,” asked the salesman.
“Weeeell” the old timer said, “Let
me think.” After a few puffs of smoke he began, “go down here to the old red
barn and take a left at the stump…” and he trailed off. “No, go that way over there to the old oak
tree, take your right to Aunt Sarah’s house and go a piece...” and he trailed
off again..
He gazed at the salesman through
his smoke for a few more puffs and then past judgment, “Come to think of it,
you can’t get there from here.”
Can we get there from here? Can we get everyone into our ark and float
through the stormy perils ahead of us?
Near the end of her book BATTLE FOR GOD, Karen Armstrong says, “At the
end of the twentieth century, the liberal myth that humanity is progressing to
an ever more enlightened and tolerant state looks as fantastic as any of the
other millennial myths we have considered in this book.” (page 367)
Perhaps as the liberal myth of
progress has come to seem more idealistic, others have grabbed for the steering
wheel.
Robert Jay Lifton has studied
many of the fantasies that people have about bringing on another world, of
ending this world in the name of a better world. Timothy McVeigh blew up the
A Japanese group, Aum Shinrikyo,
released sarin gas in the
We should in keep in mind that
Robert Jay Lifton does not compare bin Laden and al-Qaeda with any medieval,
marginal Islamic cult, but with groups such as Aum Shinrikyo. He describes them as apocalyptic groups,
groups that are possessed by the nightmare of nuclear devastation.
Lifton remarks:
Apocalyptic
violence becomes the ultimate form of collective regeneration. We may say that death is totalized, is focused
upon as the source of this regeneration and the decisive indicator of apocalyptic
achievement. Whether through killing or
martyrdom, death becomes equated with immortality. Any such killing or dying is understood as
part of God’s control over history. In deciding
who lives and who dies, zealots are invoking what they claim to be God’s project. The principle of death and rebirth becomes rebirth
through killing and dying.” (SUPERPOWER
SYNDROME, Page 22)
For such groups, the path to “another
world to live” in is simple. In Lifton’s
words, it is purification through violence.
Through the cleansing of traitors and other evildoers, we get to a
better world. There are good guys, saints, and there are evil guys, sinners.
But clearly this is not a better
world for all. It is not about equality but dominance. It is not about compassion
but hatred. It is not about justice but
fear.
And it is not clear what makes
this a better world to us, a world that can only be built on the deaths of so
many. Our vision of a better world, a juster world, a more equal world, a more compassionate
world, our vision of a better world may be as much a matter of faith as others.
But we can see ourselves getting there, however great the toil. In His book Hegemony and Survival, Noam Chomsky points
out that third world advocates of civil
society, the World Social Forum, is ‘dedicated to the belief that “another
world is possible.”’ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/23/books/23chombox.html?_r=1&oref=slogin We are not alone.
In our Responsive Reading this morning,
we affirmed once again the covenant we make with other Unitarian Universalist
congregations. We promote the inherent
worth of each human being. We call for
equality, justice and compassion in all human religions. We seek acceptance and encouragement in our spiritual
growth. Not only is this the better
world we seek, it is the path to our better world, another world to live in, a
place we can truly call home. Love is not only the goal, it is also the
way. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., “We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.” The whole project of destroying all evil is
itself the root of all evil. An eye for
an eye and a tooth for a tooth will only end up with blind people unable to eat
what little food is left. There are two
kinds of people in this world: those who divide the world into two groups of
people and those who don’t. Holding to
Universalism, that we are all in the same boat, we do not divide the world into
two groups of people.
We have dedicated ourselves here
at
The philosopher George Santayana
said, “another world to live in – whether we expect ever to pass wholly over
into it or no – is what we mean by having a religion.” What do we say is this other world to live
in, this better world?
It is a better world for all.
It is a peaceful world for all
This better world for all, this better
world for the next generation and the next is the high cause we serve here at
It is a better world for
all. It is a peaceful world for
all. And most of all, it is a world were
everyone is involved in making it a better world. You, me, everyone will serve this high cause
if it is to come true.
That is how we can get there
from here.
And this work does not wait for
us, but calls for us today.
This past week I attended the
monthly delegates meeting of the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of
Cincinnati. It meets regularly at St. Peter’s in Chains, downtown. It is at
these meetings that I have learned the most about the Collaborative
Agreement. After the riots and death
five years ago, The City, the FOP, the plaintiffs and the U S Depart of Justice
worked together to come up with an agreement to address many of the racial problems
perceived in
I have heard Wendell France of
the Citizens’ Complaint Authority. I have heard Assistant Chief of Police Rick
Jenke talk about the changes of the Neighborhood Police Program in the
city. I have seen Duane Holm’s charts diagramming
the Collaborative Agreement. I have
listened to Attorney Al Gerhardstein
talk about racial profiling in the city and praise Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk’s
strong and clear support of the Collaborative Agreement.
This
past Wednesday, the gathered delegates heard the court appointed monitor, Saul
Green, talk about where he sees
The
main issue facing the city is whether the progress made under the Collaborative
Agreement will last, or will end with the end of the Agreement next August. And Saul Green said when he has met with the
parties to the Agreement, the City, the Police, the Plaintiff, the FOP, he has
felt a distinct lack of energy. And what
does he ascribe this lack of energy to?
There is a real question whether the community cares. Does the city want just policing? The time is short to tell the City Council.
Do you want the Citizen’s Complaint
Authority to continue? Have your written
a letter to the City Council members asking them to continue funding?
There is a simple truth involved
here. As I said, our UU vision of a
better world includes everyone. It’s a
better world for all. Now, that’s true here in
Let’s look at this from another
perspective. In discussions about our national foreign policy, we are hearing
more and more cries for diplomacy. Military
force alone will not win the war in
The police are the strong arm of
the law, but they will fail if only the police are working for a safer
The City Council may be thought
of as the head, but alone without heart and strong arms, the City Council will not
build a safer
What is the heart of the City? What
pumps the energy of our city? It is the people; it is the citizens; it is civil
society. Only the people, all the people
of the city can make our city a safer city, a better city.
A
SAFER
If you are waiting for the police
to make
If you are waiting for the City Council
to make
If you are waiting for the
A safer
Stop waiting for someone else to
do your job. Go out and make
A number of us are busy working
with the Friends of the Collaborative.
Last January the congregation voted to become a Friend of the Collaborative. Sylvia Mersfelder, Gina Marsh, Gail Boggs, Marty
Harrington, Joan Robinson, Judy Cirilo are involved. There are committees on PR
and Youth and violence. If you don’t
like committee meetings, there are CPOP teams, letter writing to the powers
that be.
One of the people I have gotten
to meet is Al DeJarrnet. Al is VP of the
NAACP and serves on the Board of the
You can do that. Tell people that a safer
We include everybody in our vision of another world, a better world.
Gays and straights; black, brown
and white; rich and poor. Muslims, Jews, Catholics included.
Today Ramadan starts, a time of fasting
and reflection on the message of social justice that Mohammed brought.
Rosh Hashanah starts, asking for
inner, spiritual work, for personal transformation.
As the summer ends and leaves
change color and blow in the wind, I ask that you once again consider what is
your vision of a better world for all.
And what are you doing to get us all there?
The poet James Russell Lowell
wrote;
New
occasions teach new duties; time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still and onward who would keep abreast of truth.
So it is we all need times of reflection: time to catch up with ourselves and our times;
time to re-vision a better world; time to rededicate ourselves to a better
world for all.