"Simplicity in Complicated
Times"
A sermon by Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman,
Delivered by Rev. Judy Tomlinson
February 8, 2009
READINGS:
Our first reading is from the Book of Ecclesiastes:
"For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose
under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to castaway stones, and a time to gather stones
together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from
embracing
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and time for peace.
Our second reading is a Thanksgiving Prayer by retired Unitarian
Universalist minister, Gordon McKeeman:
For simple things that are not simple at all;
For miracles of the common way-
Sunrise-Sunset"
Seed time- Harvest
Hope-Joy-Ecstasy;
For grace that turns
our intentions into deeds,
our compassion into helpfulness,
our pain into mercy;
For Providence that sustains and supports our needs;
We lift our hearts in thankfulness,
and pray only to be more aware
and, thus more alive. Amen.
SERMON:
I want to thank Rev. Judy Tomlinson for delivering this sermon
to you. It had been my hope to be with you myself this morning to
talk about this important topic. But a topic closer to home has
called me to Chicago to be with family on the occasion of the death
of my wife Judy Blustein Ortman's father. Somehow the eventual sureness
of death, and the several deaths recently experienced within our
congregation, make the idea of our Theme Month, Sustaining the Spirit/Sustaining
the Web, that much more of an imperative.
What I had hoped to speak to you about this morning, was the connection
of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution with ideas of where
we might find ourselves responding to his ideas in a world grown
even more complex times. Three thoughts about Darwin… Many
of you know that this coming Thursday marks the 200th anniversary
of his birth. Many of us are or have been unaware that he didn't
actually develop the theory of evolution. His major contribution
to the theory, a contribution that made the theory tenable, was
in identifying the vehicle by which evolution occurs, and we know
that vehicle to be Natural Selection. This idea provided the means
by which evolution could occur. It was accepted by the scientific
community, and nearly 200 years later, is accepted by the vast majority
of educated humanity.
The final point, which you may not have known, is that Darwin himself
struggled mightily in his later years with the impact his discovery
had had on the Church and on the beliefs of many of the faithful,
who he then saw to be dropping away from the church. Those on the
religious right today, continue to struggle with these same issues.
Those of us on the religious left have done better at integrating
scientific knowledge with our belief systems. But we should be quick
to recognize that we have a long way to go until we have integrated
our belief systems with the knowledge that we are continuing to
destroy our planet and the incredibly beautiful diversity developed
through evolution. When we have ceased to be so destructive a force
on this planet, when we have learned that the convenience of a wasteful
consumerism is inexcusably arrogant and deadly, when we have learned
that living simply and sustainably is our only hope to continue
our participation in Natural Selection, then we will have fully
integrated the important findings of Darwin's discovery with a faith
that is itself sustainable.
This is the second week of our focus month, Sustaining the Spirit/Sustaining
the Web. This morning we will continue our attempt to seek beauty,
the beauty of our earth, and to seek ways of reconnecting the beauty
of the world around us with that which we might find in our own
minds, hearts and spirits. So that we might be sustained in spirit;
so that we might do our part to affirm and promote the interdependent
web of creation, especially that part we know best, our earth. So
that we might indeed be encouraged and emboldened to live simply
enough, humbly enough to provide a future for our own species.
Kahlil Gibran wrote, "Where shall you seek beauty, and how
shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide.
And how shall you speak of her except [that] she be the weaver of
your speech."
We seek beauty both within and without. That's why we're here in
religious community. And in order to find beauty we need to listen
carefully for her guidance, both from our inner voices, voices that
yearn for wholeness, and from the voices of nature, where we might
also hear those same yearnings for wholeness. And we especially
need to listen at the place where those voices, those inner and
outer voices, converge.
In an attempt to construct bridges to our future, we might recognize
how true and healing religion and spiritual integrity cannot divide
reality into stratified partitions, but must instead show the way
to oneness and to interdependence. Sustainability, both of the spirit
and of the web, is an inescapable, deeply rooted, religious issue
that touches and impacts upon each of us. As such, there are no
areas of our lives that are not affected by this issue. There is
no place on our planet that is safe from our denial of it.
To think that we are above the fray is arrogant self-denial; it's
a denial of the world around us. We may not have created the mess
our world is in, but we do continue to recreate that mess everyday
in which we fail to realize that our inability to sustain the world
is a "failure to thrive."
I received three comments on these topics that will provide much
of the direction I'd like to follow as we continue this morning.
The first was an email that came from a church member who said,
"Call me an optimist but I do not believe we are all doomed
to starve and/or freeze in the dark because we have used up all
of the Earth's resources. I have considerable faith in the ability
of mankind to respond appropriately and to solve most any problem
that arises whether man-made or of natural origin."
I, too, am a believer! I, too, am an optimist! I believe in humankind's
ability and will to survive most any problem. I believe with all
my heart that humanity will rise to meet the challenges created
by a culture that's now bent on unsustainable development. I also
believe though that, if my faith in humankind's adaptability is
to prove warranted, some very serious choices need to be made, and
now. If my faith in humankind's adaptability is to prove warranted,
some very difficult transitions need to begin, and soon.
If we want to put an end to hope for any future for our planet,
we need only continue the charade that we are not bound-body and
soul-to one another and to this beautiful world. If our exploration
into sustainability yields any benefit at all, let it be optimism.
Let it be hope! We cannot afford false hope, though. No one else
is going to get us out of this mess.
Our hope lies in our willingness to commit to sustaining the spirit
and the Web. Hope is cause for action not inaction. Hope is cause
for determination not denial. In its most absolute sense, the future
of life, as we know it, depends upon our hope and on our commitment
to realize that hope.
The second piece of feedback was from another member of the congregation
after an earlier sermon on this same topic. "Okay," a
woman said. "I get the seriousness of the situation; I get
the connection between the spirit and the web. Now what? What am
I supposed to do about it?"
That kind of response to a sermon often makes me feel that I've
accomplished my goal. I don't think we come here to adopt someone
else's answers, and then try to make them fit our own lives. I hope
we come more to be inspired, and to find the questions that might
help bring transformation into our lives.
The airwaves and printed media are filled with ideas about what
we ought to do. Many of them are excellent ideas and are things
we really ought to be doing. On some level though, I think this
is part of the problem: there is just so much to do. If we are willing
to step out of our denial, to accept that there is a major crisis,
one demanding resolution and atonement, we are immediately faced
with the enormity of the problem and the impossibility of doing
all the things that need to be done. It is overwhelming, and its
daunting enormity often scares us enough that we retreat back into
a place of denial.
The threat is real. The enormity of the threat is monstrous. What
can any of us do?
There's a little prayer in our hymnal that says, "I'm only
one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can
do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse
to do the something that I can do."
Have you ever been so severely struck by grief or by depression
that you can't even move? You can't even get out of bed? You might
spend your time there wishing that you could just somehow get your
life back, or somehow you could feel some of the fullness you once
knew. It's a very great distance from ruination to satisfaction,
though. Many, if not all of us, have made this journey, or someday
will. And we know that it's one that can only be made step-by-step.
It's a journey guided by our determination and by our hope. Our
hope is then strengthened as we begin to see our progress along
the way. First there is determination; then there is a step; then
there is progress; then we begin to have faith in our progress;
now there is faith working with our hope. And finally, thank goodness,
there is another step, and another, and another. And then one day
we find that we've moved out from the shadows and we're living in
the light.
We're not going to recreate a sustainable world in a day, or in
a week, or even in a year. But if we are choosing, day by day, step-by-step,
to do whatever we can, we will build confidence; we will create
hope, and we will sustain our faith. We will, little by little,
stop destroying our planet and start rebuilding it.
While I'm not here to tell you what you ought to be doing to bring
this about, I am here to offer suggestions, maybe even hopeful suggestions,
as to what we can do, especially as a congregation, to promote sustainability.
Before I do though, there is the third comment I received a couple
of weeks ago that like to bring into this conversation. The person
said, "I can't do this work on my own, and I won't. It doesn't
do any good for me to try to conserve resources on my own, unless
my efforts are tied to substantial public efforts to make all of
this work."
I agree and I disagree. If each of us is trying to do what we can
to do our part, energy - psychic and spiritual energy - is being
generated toward the effort to save our world. We know that if energy
sources are not renewed, they will disappear. Individual efforts
toward sustainability are essential if we are going to make a difference.
And yet, individual efforts alone will never stem the tide of extinction.
The culture of depletion is woven into the fabric of our institutions.
The remedies for it will also need to be institutional.
Our congregation is capable of mounting a substantial communal
effort to that end. I would like to challenge us to do just that.
Perhaps such an effort could prove to be a springboard toward even
larger public efforts. Perhaps it could provide the kind of information
and the kind of support we need as individuals and families to be
personally responsive and responsible.
We can create a Green Sanctuary here. We began this process eight
years ago, but we haven't really progressed in a way that we can
yet be proud of, in a way that can give us the kind of faith that
we are moving in the right direction. Next week our Green Sanctuary
Committee will be leading our lay-led service. Come; be here with
them; find out how you can become a part of helping this community
moving in a truly sustainable direction. It can make a difference
in our lives, in the life of this congregation, and in our community.
Maybe, just maybe it can become part of a larger public effort that
can succeed in sustaining our world.
And on a larger level… we have just elected a new administration
in Washington. President Obama has promised to move this country's
conversation and efforts on these issues into the 21st Century.
In this time of devastating financial realities, which are surely
related to our lack of a sustainable vision for the future, we need
to be sure that Mr. Obama has all the support and demand we can
muster, to implement his campaign promises into national programs
that will indeed promote sustainability.
Experiences in our congregation these past couple of weeks, remind
us that life is short. But that doesn't mead we need to shorten
our vision or diminish our faith in a sustainable future. The lives
of our children, their children, and all the generations to come,
depend on our ability to find ways of living simply enough that
we are not taking more from the planet than we are returning to
it. Our efforts on the behalf should be to find ways in which we
return more than we take.
What can we do? We can act together to make a difference where difference
is so desperately needed.
What can we do? We can do so much more to create a community dedicated
to sustaining the spirit and to sustaining the Web.
Adrienne Rich wrote, "My heart is moved by all I love: so
much has been destroyed. I have to cast my lot with those who, age
after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute
the world."
Let us be here to cast our lot with and for one another. Let us
be here together to do our part to reconstitute the world.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under
heaven…
And so…
For simple things that are not simple at all;
For miracles of the common way-
Sunrise-Sunset"
Seed time- Harvest
Hope-Joy-Ecstasy;
For grace that turns
our intentions into deeds,
our compassion into helpfulness,
our pain into mercy;
For Providence that
sustains and supports our needs; ,
We -lift our hearts in thankfulness,
and pray only to be more aware
and, thus
more alive. Amen.
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