Sermons
'How Can We Keep from Singing: A Homily of Hymns'
October 28, 2001Israel Bettan says of prayer that, "It is a direct approach to the throbbing heart of the universe." My own thought is that prayer is a person’s expression, to the universe, of his or her own throbbing heart. Maybe it's both, the communication of one throbbing heart to another. In either case, it is heart felt communication. It is also said that, "to sing once is to pray twice." Today we aspire to double duty.
Our service this morning is a singing service. Pete Seeger says, we're trying to put the world together before it blows itself apart. So here's the plan -- to elevate some of the questions of our hearts to a conscious level through the spoken word, and then to raise them again to a more soulful level through song.
Martin Luther King talked about the, "...ineffable language of the heart," as being impossible to articulate. So, I'll invite you not to be too overly concerned about the words we’ll raise in song this morning. Instead, the invitation is to raise your hearts in song. That way, your own words may be better able to find voice too, when you need them.
It was sacred song and worship that got the civil rights workers through the most difficult days back in Selma and Montgomery. Perhaps now, song can do the same for us.
A FRIEND ACCEPTED:
I'd like to relate a story from a friend of mine -- a friend to many of us here, Rosemary Bray McNatt. For those of you who don't know her, Rosemary did her ministerial internship with us here in Montclair a few years back. Now she now serves as Minister to the Fourth Universalist Church in Manhattan.
A few days after the attacks on the World Trade Center, Rosemary found her way downtown to Ground Zero. She had to jump through all kinds of hoops to be credentialed and certified as a Red Cross Chaplain, because there were lots of unqualified people, calling themselves chaplains, just itching for the chance to proselytize the volunteers and the victims. We can be proud that our Rosemary was there to do her part to help out.
She called me a number of times during those days just to touch base. Much of what she told me was filled with the kind of horror that you might expect to come out of Ground Zero, but one of her stories was filled with incredible hope.
She said that it was really tough for the police, the firefighters, the state troopers and the military personnel who were there to do their jobs. They had to see and smell and touch things that no one should ever have to see or touch or smell. They had to feel things that no one should have to feel. So they would come and talk with her about it.
"It was the first time in my adult life," she said, "that I have ever been in conversation with police, firefighters, state troopers, or military people, when I didn’t feel that they had the feeling that they were just talking to another black woman. I wasn't a black woman at Ground Zero. I was a person who was there for them. And they were grateful for that. It was the first time that ever happened. It was the first time, as a black woman, that I felt my race wasn't the most important thing to white people in positions of authority."
Sometimes things move us along in unexpected ways. Perhaps the hate of the terrorists served as an ironic catalyst to help unlock and unblock the natural compassion we have for each other as human beings. Perhaps, as a result of what’s happened, we can be even more effective now, in continuing our efforts towards antiracism. Perhaps, as a result of what’s happened, we can be even more effective now, in continuing our efforts towards oneness.
Hymn: "We Would Be One"
We would be one as now we join in singing
Our hymn of love, to pledge ourselves a new
To that high cause of greater understanding
Of who we are, and what in us is true.
We would be one in living for each other
To show to all a new community.
We would be one in building for tomorrow
A better world than we have known today.
We would be one in searching for that meaning
Which binds our hearts and points us on our way.
As one, we pledge ourselves to greater service,
With love and justice, strive to make us free.
GANDHI’S VIEW OF ME AND YOU:
Mahatma Gandhi knew a great deal about the human character and about the human condition. He was able to use what he knew to create something that had never been attempted before. He was the first great world leader to attempt to institutionalize peace and justice through non-violence.
He understood that a common thread of humanity could be found in our weakness as human beings. He taught his people and the world how to transform weakness into power. "Suffering," he wrote, "Suffering is the badge of the human race…and suffering is pain given meaning."
Pain is a given in the human condition, but only suffering can elevate pain to the level of sacrifice. When pain is incurred in the name of some higher value, the higher value either provides meaning to the pain, or it is somehow served by the sacrifice.
We all have pain in our lives. It comes from many sources. Some of it we bear alone. Some of it we share with others.
How do we suffer our pain? Does it turn our hearts to stone? Or does it invite us into deeper living and deeper loving?
Maybe by singing out our pain, like a song sung blue, we can keep our hearts open to life’s greater possibilities. Maybe by singing out our pain, we can actually promote peace and justice through non-violence.
Hymn: "What Wondrous Love"
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul?
What wondrous love is this, O my soul?
What wondrous love is this that brings my heart such bliss,
And takes away the pain of my soul, of my soul,
And takes away the pain of my soul?
When I was sinking sown, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking sown, sinking down,
When I was sinking down beneath my sorrows ground,
Friends to me gathered round, O my soul, O my soul,
Friends to me gathered round, O my soul.
To love and to all friends I will sing, I will sing,
To love and to all friends I will sing.
To love and to all friends who pain and sorrow mend,
With thanks unto the end I will sing, I will sing,
With thanks unto the end I will sing.
THINGS WE TELL OUR CHILDREN:
There are a number of messages fed to our children through the diet of our popular culture, messages that don't serve them very well. There is one particular serving that many parents, duped by the culture, heap upon their kids mercilessly, "Never talk to a stranger, and never trust stranger." If there is any single message that might sink this great ship, Earth, this is the one. You might want to interpret children here as any children you know and love, but you might even consider it to be your own inner child.
Contemporary theologian and author, Parker Palmer, writes in his book, The Company of Strangers:
"The key figure in public life is the stranger. The stranger is also central in biblical stories of faith -- and for good reason. The religious quest, the spiritual pilgrimage, is always taking us into new lands where we are strange to others and they are strange to us. Faith is a venture into the unknown, into the realms of mystery, away from the safe and comfortable and secure.
"When we remain in the security of familiar surroundings, we have no need of faith. The very idea of faith suggests a movement away from our usual securities into the distant, the unsettling, the strange. Even if we stay at home, even if we are not on a conscious pilgrimage, the stranger who comes into our lives may well be a pilgrim bearing news.
"Through the stranger we may have something of the unsettling Spirit brought into our domesticated lives. When we meet the stranger, we are engaged in public life, and through such engagement, gifts of the spirit will be brought into our lives."
It is by meeting and greeting the stranger that there is hope for ourselves and for our world. When we greet the Moslem, the Jew, the Christian, when we greet the poor or and the downtown, when we greet the one who is unknown, it is then that we open ourselves to the infinite possibilities of ourselves, and to the infinite possibilities of true community.
Hymn: "We Can Become" (To the tune of Amazing Grace)
Community, supporting friends, hands joined in unity...
Rejoice, my friend, in fellowship in living, full and free.
Oh, let us live with humankind as sisters, brothers, true.
We’ll share our joys, our sorrows share, becoming as we do.
We all can grow. We can become our finer selves set free...
Risk what we are, sure in our faith in what we yet can be.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a soul like me;
I once was lost, but now am found was blind, but now I see.
MATHEW, CHAPTER V:
Seeing the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him.
And he began to speak and taught them, saying:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness sake, for they shall be satisfied.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see [The Fullness of Life].
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons and the daughters of [Life].
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on account [my teaching].
"Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so others have persecuted the prophets who came before you.
"You are the salt of the earth…
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
"Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
Let your light so shine before everyone, that they may see your good works and give glory to [the Source of Goodness] that is in heaven [and here on earth]."
These are the Beatitudes, somewhat adapted, but only slightly. They are an admonition to do what we must do, to take the next step, to do it for righteousness sake, and not to get overly puffed up about ourselves in the process.
How can we do that? How can we know what's right? How can we do what's right? We have to dig deep or swim deep. We have to come to know the deep, and there to gather ourselves, our wits and each other…in the spirit.
Hymn: "Spirit of Life"
Spirit of Life, come unto me
Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion.
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea; move in the hand,
Giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold me close, wings sent me free;
Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me.
A PATRIOTIC STIRRING:
It's not wrong for us to love our children. It's a good thing; it's essential. Our love for our children creates a culture of expectation for them. We want for them to know that the world is a loving place, and we want them to be lovers of it. We want them to know that love is about relationship, sacrifice and responsibility, and we want them to be loving participants in it. We want them to know that creation is good and beautiful, and we want them to be creatively wise in their enterprises. We want our children to know that they have our esteem, and we want them to be generous with their own. We want them to know that the world is one of plenty, and that their place in the world is their birthright.
We do not serve our children well if we teach them that, above all others, they are deserving of love. We fail our children if we help them to think that they are entitled to receive out of proportion to their giving. We do not help them prepare for life in the world if we encourage them to use their gifts and their talents to exploit others, or to turn their backs on them. We don’t serve our children well if we inform them that their value as a human being is greater than anyone else's.
It's not wrong for us to love our country. It too, is a good thing; it too, is essential. And we should care for our country at least as well, and in many of the same ways, as we care for our children.
Our nation needs our love, if we are to continuing striving to be the best nation we can be. Let our stirrings of patriotism be not filled with arrogance, but with noble and high expectation.
In this wonderful world of plenty, may we do our part to be diligent partners in promoting beauty, truth and justice, "...until all success is nobleness…"
Hymn: "America the Beautiful"
O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!
America, America, God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shinning sea.
O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat, across the wilderness!
America, America, God mend thine every flaw;
Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law.
O beautiful for heroes proved, in liberating strife,
Who more than self, their country loved, and mercy more than life!
America, America, may God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness, and every grain divine.
O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears!
America, America, God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with sisterhood from sea to shinning sea.