Sermons

'Looking Backward or Ahead:'

"Looking Backward or Ahead:
A Community of Memory, A Community of Hope"
A Sermon by Charles Blustein Ortman
May 19, 2002
At the Unitarian Church of Montclair
67 Church Street, Montclair, NJ 07042
973-744-6276 WWW.UUMontclair.org

Oh [and] don't you know that the stars are swinging slow, And the seas are rolling easy as they did so long ago.

And if I had a thing to give you, I would tell you one more time That the world is always turning toward the morning.

These words are from a song that was recorded on a homemade CD given to me by Michael McTigue last September, just a couple of days after the attacks. Michael put together a thoughtful collage of pieces that I listened to over and over again and found to be very comforting during those early days of adjustment. Particularly, I found these words by Gordon Bok to be consoling, "That the world is always turning toward the morning."

This is really the last full sermon I'll be delivering before our church year ends on June 9th. There are three more services between now and then, services that I am confident will be both inspiring and uplifting. But still, this is the final opportunity of deep exploration I'll have with you, in an extended format. And so it's my hope this morning to reflect a bit on the passages of this past year in a way that might help us toward some closure, and point us on a course toward a more hopeful future. We are a community of memory and a community of hope. I will never forget the evening of September 11th, when we opened the doors and the church slowly filled as many of you came along, dragging yourselves really, not knowing where else to go. Not a bad default, I think, not being able to come up with a better place than here. None of us really knew what to do. But on that night and then through the weeks that followed, we came together; we pondered our experiences, sang songs, gave witness to one another, and were inspired by beautiful and often ageless music. We've been a religious community together - religio meaning bound. We were bound; we have bonded, with one another in an effort to get a better grip on the values and the principles we hold dear, to get a better hold on the faith and the hope that keep us in spirit. Our world seemingly went mad, and we came here to find sanity, to find meaning. With all the gripping and the holding, and the finding somehow we have made our way through this year. And we've done so, I think, magnificently.

The Book of Isaiah says, "Comfort, O Comfort my People...speak tenderly..." And so we have. We have sought and offered comfort; we have spoken tenderly with one another. And Isaiah says more, "...learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan...." These too we have sought to achieve, and in doing so, we have even more fully aligned ourselves with the healing powers of the universe, with what Martin Luther King referred to as, ..."that something in the universe that unfolds for justice..." By being in a religious community with one another, we were able to hold together through those darkest days by holding on to one another. The way in which we have inched our way toward healing and hope though, has been by remembering ourselves - who we are and what are we doing here. We are a liberal religious community seeking transformation, not only in our hearts, not only in our homes, but also in our community and in our world. I think what has helped us begin to heal, and what will keep us in the process of healing, is our adherence to the longstanding tradition here of thinking beyond our own immediate needs to the needs of the world around us. Our healing is tied to our relationship with that something in the universe that unfolds for justice.

Before saying more about that though, I'd like to say just a few words about the theological growth that I've observed in the congregation over the past several months. We often tout ourselves for our liberal capacity to affirm and promote the religious perspectives of others. I've wondered sometimes though, if we've really been so historically tolerant of diversity right here among ourselves. My wondering has ceased a good bit during this past year. We've all had to stretch ourselves in order to gain any perspective that would allow us to make meaning of the year's events. Many of us have found ourselves on new philosophical and theological terrain. Not that we've necessarily found new constants to rely upon, but perhaps we've been more willing ourselves, to wonder and to wander into new territories, looking for answers to our questions in places we've been less willing to search before. And so I think the outcome has been to be a bit more respectful and accepting of where others among us might need or want or happen to go in order to find meaning. Like Dr. King suggested, we're better able to see that it doesn't matter, "...whether one speaks of it as an unconscious process, or whether one speaks of it as some unmoved mover, or one speaks of it as a personal God. There is something in the universe that unfolds for justice." It matters far less, I think we've learned, how we envision that principle, or energy, or entity than it does whether or not we strive to participate in its overarching beneficence. Goodness need never be bound by names that limit its potential. By embracing each other, by being more accepting of each other's ideas of the ultimate, we've grown; we've learned to embrace ideas that have allowed us to become more than we once were. Theological growth opens the possibilities of a fuller and more meaningful life. When we have a clearer idea of how our lives connect with the possibilities of goodness in the world and even in the universe, we have a clearer idea of how we want to spend those lives.

The world is always turning toward the morning. The universe is always unfolding toward justice. We can choose to turn likewise. We can choose to unfold likewise. Or we can allow ourselves to be blinded and stymied by the lousy luck of the draw, which is so often the current history of personal and shared events. This year though, rooted in our community of memory, we have chosen to make the journey, to do the work of turning and unfolding, to go on. "Birth is a beginning and death a destination, but life is a journey, a going....a growing from stage to stage." (Alvin Fine) Hope is not just a stage though; it is the character of the journey. Hope is the child of growth. With each step we take we build faith and create hope that we will be able to take un paso mas - one step more - and then another, and another. There have been many steps taken by our congregation, steps that have led us through our own quandaries, so as to touch the lives of others. I think it's worth taking note of some of the ways in which we have connected in the unfolding universal process of justice, because we often aren't able to see how far forward we've come without looking back. I won't remember everything, so you may have to fill in some of the things I leave out. As I go through this record though, I'd ask you to recognize and appreciate your own participation in it -whether you were one of the people actually engaged in the activity, or by virtue of your being a supportive member of this congregation in its many efforts to aid the universe in the unfolding of justice. None of this could happen without all of us. In those first days, we reached out with what we had in order to help. We waited in long lines to give blood. We offered professional services like counseling. We welcomed nearly a 1,000 people who came through our doors on September 16th looking for a refuge in the storm, and we provided that haven for those who came. We collected over $8,000 for victims in New York City; we collected blankets to send to Afghanistan, and we reached out locally to protect our Middle Eastern neighbors, lest their safety should be compromised by fear and bigotry. In those early days we took steps to connect with our Moslem brothers and sisters at the Islamic Center of Paterson. Out of that initial effort arose the True Justice Group. With the passion of Jerry Fried and the facilitation of Leanne Shoenweisner, the group has been committed to a course of dialogue leading to greater understanding. The way has not been easy, nor has it always been clear. There are huge differences in the histories, traditions and thinking of Arabs, even Arab Americans - and Western Americans, let alone the enormous gulfs between the practices and principles of Moslems and Unitarian Universalists. Still the commitment has been to dialogue, and the course has been held. There will be a True Justice meeting in the Peierls Room yet this evening, as the life of this particular effort continues...step by step. Week after week we have rededicated our efforts in Religious Education to teach our children about religious tolerance and an acceptance of the inherent worth and dignity of all human beings. But even more, members of our congregation have stepped up to the plate two and three times per week, to volunteer in our After School Program directed by Frank Rennie. That program and those volunteers have helped to change the world by enabling our neighbor children from the Hillside School to learn their school lessons and much more... to learn that there are adults in this community, people who care about them, who want them to do well, and who want them to be happy in life. Another new way with new steps the congregation has grown this year is through the efforts of Deborah Khost and our Green Sanctuary Committee to help us synchronize our institutional behavior with our vision of sustainability. And to that end there's been still another group, led by Bill Brach and Janice Maffei, reaching out into the wider community in collaboration to promote dialogue among various Voices for Sustainability. Just this week, two dozen people met in this room, representing religious, academic, educational, governmental, environmental and corporate perspectives. Together they reached out to find common ground and to begin forging a common vision for saving our imperiled planet. Taking yet other new steps this year, our Undoing Racism Committee has studied additional implications of racism in the light of post September 11th realities. Members have explored new possibilities for dismantling the kinds of structures, patterns and traditions that maintain the foundations of racism and its many pernicious manifestations. Likewise, our Welcoming Congregation Committee has looked through new lenses at the meaning of oppression, especially as it relates to the gay, lesbian, bi and transgender communities. How do we try to enable that force in the universe that unfolds toward justice? By attempting to make the world better at our points of connection in it. I'm only describing some of the ways we've been reaching out this year. We can all share space in the ownership of these efforts because we've all supported the base from which these efforts have risen. Even the foundation of that support has taken on new dimensions this year as the Board, the Council, the Canvass, the Auction, the Alliance, Building and Grounds, Worship, and so many others have redoubled their efforts to secure the internal well-being of our church, so that we are able to reach out. We are all a part of this memorable, this hopeful enterprise. This is truly amazing stuff!

I don't mean to be saying that we've got this all worked out and that our work is done. It's not. What I'm saying is that there is good cause for faith, good cause for hope and that even in as bleak a year as this, our memory serves us well in building that faith and in promoting that hope. When we look back, we can see our efforts at serving our spirits by allowing ourselves and one another a sense of comfort and by speaking tenderly. We can see our efforts at tending the soul, through a long chain of events, with our faith in action, helping to do good, participating in the unbending, the unfolding of justice. I don't mean to be saying that everyone has participated as fully as they could, or as they might have wanted. You need to determine where you fit into the picture and then where you want to fit as the story continues. What I'm saying is that there is much of good report that comes from this place, that we have taken a most difficult experience and have transformed it into one of this congregation's most shinning hours. And there is still plenty of shinning left for us all to do. By sharing these reflections this morning, I'm not suggesting that we can be contented with yesterday's glories. I'm saying that it's good to look back from time to time, to remember what we've come through and where we've been, so that we might better lean on those very natural forces in the universe that are ever present, unfolding for justice and turning toward the morning.

"Life is a journey, a sacred pilgrimage, Made stage by stage.... Until, looking backward or ahead, We see that victory lies Not at some high place along the way, But in having made the journey, stage by stage A sacred pilgrimage... From birth to death to life everlasting." (Alvin Fine)

And it's so good to know that we're not on this journey all alone. We have each other. And we have in the universe, in the world, an unknowable propensity always bent toward the future, encouraging us to live, to live deeply, justly, fully and hopefully.

Oh [and] don't you know that the stars are swinging slow, And the seas are rolling easy as they did so long ago.

And if I had a thing to give you, I would tell you one more time That the world is always turning toward the morning.