Sermons 2024-25

You Did Not Create Us to Kill Each Other

Rev Douglas Taylor

September 22, 2024

Sermon Video: https://youtu.be/YhArffGrIUs

Yesterday, September 21^st, was the official UN designated International Day of Peace, or World Peace Day. The original proposers of the day back in 1981 were Costa Rica and the United Kingdom. It was 20 years later that they locked the celebration’s date onto September 21^st specifically and began calling for a day of ceasefire.  Celebrations, and commemorative events began developing around the world as well.

“A survey by the Culture of Peace News Network found internet reports concerning more than 942 celebrations of the International Day of Peace from 93 countries around the world in 2023.” http://cpnn-world.org/new/?p=32258

Perhaps this year, we will see reports of over a thousand events from over a hundred countries for yesterday’s celebration of the International Day of Peace. I’ll watch the news for reports.

Spirit of Peace and Life, may our World Day of Peace stand as a symbol of humanity’s common vision of a world at peace. May it remind us to seek peace and harmony in our lives as well as in the world community. May peace prevail on earth.

One significant feature to the day is the call for ceasefire and non-violence in places around the world experiencing conflict. And yet our wars continue. The decades long war in Myanmar has killed over 12,000 people so far this year. Nearly 22,000 people have died this year in the current version of the war in the middle east. Russia’s war with Ukraine has seen just over 34,000 deaths in 2024. The insurgency in Maghreb has also passed 10,000 fatalities so far this year. The ongoing Sudanese civil war and the Mexican drug war are also on the list with under 10,000 each for this year. “The List” I refer to here is simply the Wikipedia list of “ongoing armed conflicts” around the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts

Our world is too steeped in violence and war. And while the United States is not actively engaged militarily in any of these wars, we are involved in several of them through humanitarian aid and military support – such as with Ukraine and the Middle East. One part of our individual work for peace is to apply what pressure we can on our institutions and government officials to promote peace.

Ultimately I must share, I am not a full pacifist. I understand the ways in which careful use of force can aid in the creation of peace. I acknowledge that there are situations, Ukraine is an example, in which it is not enough to simply say ‘no’ to a bully. And the use of force, for defense and to stop a bully’s aggression, is warranted. I know this makes the conversation more complicated because now we may need to parse out exactly where best to draw the line, but I believe that is the world we live in and this is the real struggle we face. Where do we draw the line to say this violence and war is acceptable, and that is not? I’ve given a general answer for where that line might be for me, and I hope you will spend some time struggling with that question yourself – not just with wars, but perhaps all forms of violence.

War, however, is my topic for this morning, with World Peace Day, and I want to spend some time with the aspect of war that is tangled up in religion. Religion is a common element in war. It is often mis-used and perverted into a tool to perpetuate war. I am among the camp of people who believe the only legitimate interpretations of religious beliefs, doctrines, and scriptures are those interpretations that are life-giving instead of life-denying. As such, when religion is used to promote violence and war, I see it as a perversion of the truth in religion.

Consider the Israel – Hamas war; it presents as a war between Islam and Judaism. It is, of course, also a war about nationality, a war over land, a war fueled by political extremism, but religion is a huge part in the conflict.

Religion can be a call toward peace, a call for harmony and grace. Religion can also be used as a call for sectarianism and division; a call to do violence against the heretics and the unbelievers, the heathens and the infidels.

This, despite Islam’s claim that Peace is so central to their faith the word Islam translates as Peace. This, despite Christianity’s claim that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. This despite Buddhism’s claim that peace is the path. The behaviors of violence witnessed in the name of religion do not align with the language of loving peace offered by those same religions.

Spirit of Peace and Life, may this day of peace shine as a reminder that every day can be a day of peace. May our religions speak their true messages of peace for all people. May peace prevail on earth.

Thankfully, there are numerous voices among religious leaders calling for peace and peaceful behaviors, urging people toward deeper understanding of one another. Pope Francis recently shared these remarks at an interreligious youth event in Singapore:

“All religions are paths to reach God. They are—to make a comparison—like different languages, different dialects, to get there. But God is God for everyone. If you start to fight saying ‘my religion is more important than yours, mine is true and yours isn’t’, where will this lead us? There is only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christians; they are different ways to God.”          (September 13, 2024)

It is interesting he used ‘different languages’ as a comparison. We can learn to talk with each other, we can learn each other’s ‘languages’ without fearing them, and then communicate with each other about important things we share.

For religions, violence and the urge for dominance begins with making a group into ‘the other,’ with the dehumanizing of a set of people. It begins with “mine is true and yours isn’t.” But if we can remain human with each other, there remain opportunities for peace. If we can meet and talk, the whole world becomes possible. Catholic theologian Hans Kung has said, “No peace among the nations without peace among the religions. No peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions”

We must be able to talk with each other and see one another as fellow human beings. Circling back to the example of the Israel – Hamas war, one significant impact in Israel of the walls and the check points and the two-tier justice system and the rhetoric is to keep Palestinians and Israelis from meeting each other as fellow human beings. Certainly part of the point is to create safety for one group and cause harm for the other. But another impact for both Israelis and Palestinians, is that is dehumanizes the people on the other side of the wall. It keeps the two groups separate and not talking to each other.

For dozens of years, countless Non-Government Organizations and other grassroots unofficial groups have worked to bring peace and to bring change for Palestinians and Israelis. Certainly there are many outsiders lending support, but most notably there have been a significant number of Palestinian and Israeli people working together to build bridges of understanding and to dismantle the structures of violence and injustice through whatever means possible.

Some are activists, some are business people, some are former combatants, and some are artists. I remember learning a lot about the situation ten years ago when the Children of Abraham hosted a program and a speaker on the topic. I learned then about schools that were teaching both Arabic and Hebrew. I learned about theater groups and music groups comprised of people from both sides creating art with a message of unity and peace. I learned about a publishing house putting out graphic novels to reach as many people as possible. All working non-violently to build a better future for all the people in their area.

I imagine much of that work is lost in the rubble after this past year. One poignant lesson I take from this is that it really is through the efforts of regular people that anything meaningful can be achieved. However, if that work does not also move the governments to participate in the work for peace, there will be no peace.

Spirit of Peace and Life, may we always stay open to the possibility of peace though our words and our actions.  May the violence and horrors we still find in the world neither dishearten us nor tempt us into cynicism. May peace prevail on earth

What can we do to keep each other human through these wars?

Some players on the world stage do not want peace. They want power and money and one way to obtain that is through the chaos and destruction of war. Be mindful of the motives of your leaders. If you want your neighbor to stop attacking you and threatening you – seek out their motive, what do they fear? What are they trying to protect?

In the Middle East, those seeking war and resisting a peace process are doing so out a yearning to eliminate a perceived threat. I don’t think it is unrealistic to say they want to make their people safe. But the path they are choosing is the path of war – to eliminate the perceived threat.

It certainly seems as though Netanyahu’s Israel is not seeking peace. Neither is Hamas leadership for that matter. But pressure from their partners such as various Arab countries and the United States could push them toward the negotiating table and toward a two-state solution which would bring dignity to the many different people in the area.

But this leads me back to that question: What can we do to keep each other human? I don’t have any influence on the leaders in Israel or Palestine. But I do know Jewish and Muslim people here at home, and I can do my part to ease the division, to keep my colleagues and my neighbors human. I don’t have any sway with the current US administration to pressure our leaders to use our leverage for peace. But I can reach out to you all here and to elected officials closer to home with my message of hope and peace. We can write letter and attend rallies of solidarity. We can build our own grassroots networks here that can build peace in the places we have influence, and trust that it will have an impact, and trust that it will grow.

We must call up the true words found in each of our various faiths leading us to peace. We must challenge those interpretations of the religious texts that call for violence. We must challenge those beliefs that call for separating out those who are different, that dehumanize others. We must call out for peace with all our hearts.

Spirit of Peace and Life, may our minds be set on peace with freedom and justice. And may a song of peace take root in our hearts and sing to us gently through all the tumultuous days ahead. May peace prevail on earth.

In a world without end

May it be so

—

Note: My sermon’s title comes from a line in the prayer I read this morning. The prayer was composed in mid-October 2023 – shortly after the war began – by two religious leaders together, one Muslim and one Jewish. https://www.jenroseyokel.com/p/sunday-poem-12-prayer-of-the-mothers

“Prayer of the Mothers” By Rabbi Tamar Elad Appelbaum and Sheikha Ibtisam Mahamid

Translated by Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie

God of Life

Who heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds

May it be your will to hear the prayer of mothers.

For you did not create us to kill each other

Nor to live in fear, anger or hatred in your world

But rather you have created us so we can grant permission to one another to sanctify Your name of Life, your name of Peace in this world.

For these things I weep, my eye, my eye runs down with water

For our children crying at nights,

For parents holding their children with

despair and darkness in their hearts

For a gate that is closing

and who will open it while day has not yet dawned.

And with my tears and prayers which I pray

And with the tears of all women who deeply feel the pain of these difficult days I raise my hands to you please God have mercy on us

Hear our voice that we shall not despair

That we shall see life in each other,

That we shall have mercy for each other,

That we shall have pity on each other,

That we shall hope for each other

And we shall write our lives in the book of Life

For your sake God of Life

Let us choose Life.

For you are Peace, your world is Peace and all that is yours is Peace

And so shall be your will and let us say Amen.

—

How to Disagree with a Friend

Rev. Douglas Taylor

September 15, 2024

Sermon Video: https://youtu.be/E7u-Nl8y-vc

I wonder how many of you did not watch the recent presidential debate (Sept 10, 2024) back on Tuesday night. If you didn’t watch it, I’m guessing you’ve heard about it, picked up some news or conversations about the debate.

Do you know who won? I’m pretty sure I know who won. But I’ve learned the answer depends on who you ask. Generally, the winner was whoever you were hoping would win. This is one of the deeply frustrating features of modern politics. Not only are we divided in our politics, we seem to be divided in our recognition of reality.

As a side note I will notice that what we witnessed last Tuesday, while billed as a debate, was not in fact a debate. It was entertainment. A real debate has rules and judges, and the candidates would actually debate their policy differences with facts, reason, and evidence. But that is not what happens in what we call presidential debates now. All of which is simply more fuel for the division among us politically.

I keep hearing the presidential race is tight, it could go either way, the point spread is easily within the margin of error for a standard poll, it’s too close to call. In other words, the division is not overstated by a vocal minority who happens to have seized a modicum of airtime. The division runs deep through the country. 

It can be hard to engage with people who have an opposing view. And I am not talking about internet trolls and random people you may bump into in the real world. I’m talking about friends and family members with whom you disagree. It has grown harder in the current divisive climate to have an open conversation or reasoned disagreement with a friend. We’ve grown hostile and are pushing the extremes.

And I want to pause for a moment and clarify the scope of my invitation today with a James Baldwin quote. James Baldwin, writer and civil rights activist who died over 35 years ago. This past summer would have been James Baldwin’s 100’s birthday, (2024) on August 2. And I’ve made a commitment to myself that I will bring a Baldwin quote in my sermons at least once a month for the course of this church year to honor his legacy and his message to American religion and life.

Baldwin said, We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

I am not advocating that we push ourselves into harmful engagement with friends or family on political and social issues. And I will concede that there are multiple ways that our political discourse as our country has grown harmful. There is violence and the threat of violence happening against women, against the LGBTQ+ community – particularly our *trans siblings, against school children through gun violence, against Haitian immigrants in Springfield OH – indeed against all the citizens in Springfield OH at this point … all due to “disagreement” rooted in someone’s oppression and denial of their humanity and right to exist. So, when I encourage you all to engage with your friends and family across the political divide, I need you to hear the caveat that if there is harm against you in so doing – then don’t.

And, our political divisiveness is a problem. Interestingly, it is also a path toward the solution. Historian Kathryn Schulz suggests our division is not the root of the problem, merely the context. She writes, “The United States only stabilized as a nation when it gave up the dream of being a one-party utopia and accepted the existence of political opposition as crucial to maintaining a democracy.” [from Being Wrong, Kathryn Schulz, 2011; p314] 

Her point being that different political perspectives are crucial for our country’s stability. This is why Freedom of Speech is such a key feature to democracy. We need to engage our differences in our common spaces, particularly in the political arena, so that the best ideas have a chance to rise and we can continue to move forward together.

But that version of political engagement is not what we are doing anymore. We’ve stopped meeting each other, stopped listening to different viewpoints. We’ve grown stuck in our conceptions and misconceptions with no way of uncovering the difference between them. It is a problem.

But it’s not a new problem!

A Bill Bishop book from 15 years back talked about this. His book “The Big Sort” is focused on a longitudinal study of census data and election results data at the county levels spanning five decades. (The Big Sort, the clustering of like-minded America, Bill Bishop, 2008.) 

The major finding of the study was that for the past half-century, Americans have been sorting themselves into homogenous geographies. In the 1950s, the book states, people with college degrees, for example, were rather evenly distributed across the United States. Nowadays, college-educated people are disproportionately concentrated in major cities like Berkeley, California; Cambridge, Massachusetts, and similar places along the east and west coast. In these communities, people tend to be more interested in politics and less likely to attend church. They tend to listen to National Public Radio, vote Democrat, and own cats. 

People without college degrees tend to be found in places like Lubbock, Texas; Gilbert, Arizona; Lafayette, Louisiana; or Allentown, Pennsylvania. These communities tend to be less densely populated and have bigger lawns. People in these communities watch Fox for their news, they own guns, volunteer and participate in clubs and churches, vote Republican, visit relatives a lot, and own dogs. 

These demographical descriptions are 15 years old now and I imagine they have shifted a bit – the I suspect the trajectory still holds. We have been, over the past few decades, sorting ourselves into geographic clusters of like-mindedness. The internet over the past 15 years has not helped. Despite early predictions that the internet would globalize our neighborliness and democratize our access to information, it has done nearly the opposite – because we are more easily monetized when we are more carefully compartmentalized.

One pertinent observation from this longitudinal research is that like-minded groups tend to enforce conformity and grow more extreme through a self-reinforcing loop. Mixed company tends to moderate while like-minded company tends to polarize. 

As political liberals and conservatives keep themselves in enclaves, they grow more zealous and become more distrustful of each other. Churches, even our diversity-loving liberal Unitarian Universalist churches, do not escape this clustering of like-mindedness. Many is the time I have heard a person comment about how great it is to have found a church home and to be around like-minded people. And yet, mixed company tends to moderate while like-minded company tends to polarize.

And, this is old news. We knew this was happening for at least a generation. This leads us to the title of my sermon this morning: “How to disagree with a friend.” We need to break out of our like-minded enclaves and hear each other.

I’m going to give a shout out to a new board member, Bob Neigh. Bob sent me a note about a group called Braver Angels and he encouraged me to look into them because he knew I would be preaching on this topic.

Braver Angels formed shortly after the 2016 election with the goal of political depolarization and civic renewal. On their website, https://braverangels.org/ they say: “Braver Angels is leading the nation’s largest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement to bridge the partisan divide for the good of our democratic republic.”

They have a podcast and information available, they host events and workshops, they supply members with talking points for engaging across political differences. Their leadership is explicitly comprised of a balanced number of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.

They describe their approach https://braverangels.org/our-mission/ this way:

We state our views freely and fully, without fear.

We treat people who disagree with us with honesty, dignity and respect.

We welcome opportunities to engage those with whom we disagree.

We believe all of us have blind spots and none of us are not worth talking to.

We seek to disagree accurately, avoiding exaggeration and stereotypes.

We look for common ground where it exists and, if possible, find ways to work together.

We believe that, in disagreements, both sides share and learn.

In Braver Angels, neither side is teaching the other or giving feedback on how to think or say things differently.

The one that really struck me is “We seek to disagree accurately.” I love that. Just as some basic advice you can work with for a one-on-one conversation with a friend or family member, can you offer that ground rule? I want to talk with you about this, not to change your mind or have you change mine. I just want us to disagree accurately. Can we do that?

Another one that seems easy but in practice is proving quite difficult – Can we treat people who disagree with us with honesty, dignity, and respect? I can see how it is helpful to have a non-partisan organization hosting the conversation. These ground rules are theirs; we don’t have to start with an argument about making these ground rules. The Braver Angels organization can host the event and participants just need to agree to participate. Wouldn’t it be helpful for us to bring that here to Binghamton?

My mother Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Strong had participated in something like this, many years back. She was an outspoken Pro-Choice advocate in Syracuse while serving at May Memorial UU Society in the 90’s. She was invited to participate in a conference hosted by a Common Cause group focused on the abortion issue. She wrote in one of her sermons about the experience; how they spent the first part of the workshop just meeting each other without knowing which side they were on. Then they split off into sides and engaged each other from their perspectives of pro-life and pro-choice. But by then they knew each other as human beings, which greatly aided the conversations.

She wrote:

It was an amazing experience.  From it I developed a very powerful relationship with a young woman who was Pro-Life.  We went on a radio talk show to share our beliefs.  I remember one caller was angry that we could even talk with one another much less understand and respect the other’s beliefs. 

… I know that in Syracuse, at least for a time, the volatile environment eased and the work that came out of the Conference and the dialogues between those of us who were Pro-choice and Pro-Life helped many who were open to listening with respect came to a deeper understanding of all the dimensions of this issue.

A better way is possible. A braver way. The vitriolic divisiveness does not have to be the only story in this election season. We don’t have to burn all the bridges with ‘the other half’ of our country’s population. (Actually, the other third. In the 2020 election 1/3 voted blue, almost 1/3 voted red, and 1/3 didn’t vote. – so you can hear that as a call to encourage more voter participation – which is a different sermon.)

And hear me when I say – this is not a call to quietly take some abuse from someone who does not care one whit for decency or your humanity. It is a call to engage in good faith toward understanding and mutual progress. And, remember, convincing us to get angry and push each other away is one of the tactics being used against us. Resist. Move a little closer and hold each other with a little more grace.

A better way is possible. But it is not found in huddling among the like-minded and bemoaning the situation. That can be personally healing and at times necessary. But to truly move forward, we need to lean in a little closer to these brave conversations.

In a world without end,

May it be so.

The Answer Is Love

Rev. Douglas Taylor

August 25, 2024

Sermon Video https://youtu.be/lWxpvceWSEU

Love: such a soft and silly thing in the face of the hard, cruel reality of life. It can be rough, this life we are living. There is trouble, and we Unitarian Universalists hitch our wagon to Love, but is that really enough? Compared with things like apathy and violence and abuse and the corrupt use of power; love seems little and inconsequential. But listen to this poem by Daniel Ladinsky, https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/6/14/fake-hafez-how-a-supreme-persian-poet-of-love-was-erased writing in the spirit of Persian poet Hafez. He writes:

I see violence; Hafez says ‘love.’

I see racism; Hafez says ‘hold hands.’

I see war and oppression; Hafez says ‘climb.’

I see cruelty and abuse and corruption of power; Hafez says ‘listen.’

I see apathy and greed and climate devastation; I see people taking sides against each other and anger circling; Hafez says ‘the terrain around here is far too dangerous for that.’

I see great need; Hafez says ‘don’t let go.’

Out

of a great need

we are all holding hands

and climbing. 

Not loving is a letting go. 

Listen,

the terrain around here

is

far too

dangerous

for

that.

“Not loving is a letting go.” Let’s talk a little more about we mean when we use the word Love like this. We Unitarian Universalists just offered a new articulation of ourselves in which we place the value of love at our center. We say “Love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values.”

I need to spend just a minute here on this point before moving along with my larger message. We Unitarian Universalists can be a tricky lot to pin down. Unitarian Universalism grew out of the progressive wing of liberal protestant Christianity in America. But we are not exactly a Christian church any more. We expanded beyond those origins into a religion that has a lot of Christian protestant echoes, but very little of that original content.

We are a merged tradition. The Unitarian side of our lineage proclaimed ‘God is One’ in argument against the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. The Universalist side of our lineage declared ‘God is Love’ as grounds for a dispute against Hell and eternal damnation. But really, in both cases, the core theological message that has run as a fine thread through our now merged histories is less about the nature of God and Heaven, and more about what it means to be human.

As a faith community, we UUs do not focus ourselves on a creed or shared dogma, we have a breadth of beliefs gathered together here on Sunday morning. While we still have that protestant formula of meeting on Sunday morning for a sermon and hymns with a prayer and a passing of the collection plate – the content has shifted. The reading, for example, is not always – to be honest, not often – from scripture. Last week I preached about the moon and I didn’t double check but I don’t think I mentioned God or any passage from the bible during that sermon. But show up here on another Sunday and you’ll hear me say Jesus’ name more in twenty minutes than you’ll hear from this pulpit the rest of the year.

I remember reading Rick Warren’s book “The Purpose Driven Church.” He talked about needing to focus a new church around a common purpose. He likened it to a radio station that had to select a genre of music. Would it be a country station or a hip-hop station? They couldn’t just play a random variety; people would stop listening. If you jumped from something new from Dua Lipa, and then played track 5 from Metallica’s Master of Puppets followed by a Bach concerto and then hit them with the latest Beyoncé – you would not have an audience. People would not come back to your radio station. Rick Warren argued, people would not come back to your church if you didn’t have a focusing genre of religion.

But that is almost exactly what we do here. We have a Neo-Pagen focused service on the goddess one Sunday and a celebration of Veganism the next. My plan for September, after the Drum circle Sunday, is to focus on water and brokenness on the 8^th, how to have a good argument with a friend on the 15^th, where are we with the war in Gaze on the 22^nd, and a Climate Revival on the 29^th. Each of which present an opportunity for me to quote from the bible or James Baldwin or maybe Metallica. (Probably not Metallica – I’m not actually versed in their lyrics.)

This is because we do not gather around a specific book or creed or person or experience of the holy. But what holds it all together? What is the thread of faith or belief that binds us as one community if it is not the bible or Buddha or a particular belief? We gather around a promise and a shared set of values. The quickest shorthand of those values and that promise is: Love.

We have pagans and humanists, Christians and atheists, Buddhists and Jews and agnostics, and many others – as well as a bunch of folks just uninterested in all the labels – and here we all are shoulder to shoulder on a Sunday morning listening to a message together. How do we do it? How do we come together as one faith? The answer is Love. A fresh articulation of our values says Love is the answer.

So, how does that work?

To use the framework from Rick Warren – our purpose as a Unitarian Universalist congregation is love; to embody an all-embracing love to the world. It always has been. While we have a new articulation of this – our new Values and Covenants statement (https://www.uua.org/beliefs) with Love at the center – this has been our center all along. Take a look at the graphic on the order of service. (Word Clouds from Hymnals by Rev. Dan Schatz)

Do you know about word clouds? It is an art graphics concept that takes words and puts them into a visual artistic form. The more often a word appears, the larger it is in the picture. A colleague took the digital online version of our grey hymnal and put it into a word cloud with this result. Our hymnal is arguably a fair representation and articulation of our Unitarian Universalist values. The grey hymnal was published in 1992, over 30 years ago. And love was at the center then.

I lift that up to show that while it is new to say “love is at the center;” it is not actually all that new to have love at the center for us. Or, as James Baldwin once said: “…love brought you here. If you trusted love this far, don’t panic now.”

Let me say a little about what I mean by the word ‘love’ in this context. Love can certainly be about romance and intimacy. That kind of love is better understood as an emotional experience, even chemical and hormonal. That’s not the kind of love we mean when we say love is at our center.

We are more accurately talking about love as Agape love according to the Greeks or Loving-kindness when you hear Buddhists reflect upon it. This is a kind of love that is less about emotions or ‘falling in love’ and more about a choice to see people in a certain light, to treat all people in a certain way not because they’ve earned it or because they are attractive to you – but simply because that’s the kind of person you are.

I want to drop another James Baldwin quote on you. Baldwin was a writer and civil rights activist who died in 1987. This past summer would have been James Baldwin’s 100’s birthday, (2024) on August 2. While I was tempted to do a sermon focused on Baldwin’s life and message, I decided instead that I will bring a Baldwin quote in my sermons at least once a month for the course of this coming year to honor his legacy and his message to American religion and life.

In his book, The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin writes, “I use the word ‘;pve’ here not in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace – not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universalist sense of quest and daring and growth.”

I, too, am using the word ‘love’ not in that personal sense. I want us to heard the word as a call into relationship and connection beyond just the romantic or intimate connotations. I want us to hear love as liberation. Or as Baldwin says “the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” Our promise as a faith tradition is grounded in this idea of love – of an all-embracing love. It is a love that opens us up, in which we become vulnerable. There is an element of risk, something that calls for trust.

It is easier to not be open. We risk when we love and we can be hurt. It takes a certain level of trust to be open, a trust that we can grow from the hard experiences, at trust that we can fail and still learn and grow together from the hard experiences. It is easier to not be open. It is easier to not put love at the center to not be so vulnerable.

What does it mean to say Love is the answer when we ask the questions amidst the war in Israel and Gaza, amidst climate devastation, amidst the dehumanizing rhetoric and legislation we hurl at each other. To say love is the answer, to put love at the center, means we keep pushing back and reconnecting with each other across the wounds and the heartbreak to really see each other.

It means we have made a choice to treat each other well even when we are hurting. It doesn’t mean we will abide injustice or stand by as we keep getting hurt or more vulnerable people keep getting hurt. Love does sometimes say ‘no.’ But in so doing, we continue to reflect our light to each other. We do it toward the liberation for all.

James Baldwin, again, has said, “The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love – whether we call it friendship or family or romance – is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light.”

Our world, our lives are too precious for anything less. That is what love calls us toward. I’m not saying we do it perfectly around here all the time – or even well enough most of the time. I’m saying that’s how we are called, that is the promise we hold when we put love at our center. 

Out

of a great need

we are all holding hands

and climbing. 

Not loving is a letting go. 

Listen,

the terrain around here

is

far too

dangerous

for

that.

In a world without end

May it be so.

Moon Song

Rev. Douglas Taylor

August 18, 2024

Sermon Video: https://youtu.be/BWU0-RgOWwI

There will be a full moon tomorrow night (8-19-24).

It is known as the Sturgeon Moon. Nomenclature for the full moons follows local culture. Indigenous people around the great lakes call it the sturgeon moon, as that fish is in abundance in August. But if you are in the Southeast US, the Cherokee call it the fruit moon. In northern Europe, the August full moon is known as the corn moon, the grain moon, or even the lightning moon. In China, August’s full moon is the Harvest Moon – but around here we save that name for September. In the southern hemisphere the August moon is the snow moon, the storm moon, or sometimes the hunger moon. Naming the moon is done regionally, and is often about ourselves rather than about the moon.

Someone once said “Tell me how you feel when the full moon is in your window and your lantern is burning low, and I’ll tell you your age and if you are happy.”

I had a friend who used to howl at the moon. When we were teenagers and able to be out at night on our own, he could get us all howling with him with little provocation. It was a bit of childhood fun. In the way of teenagers, it was equal parts silliness and a serious claiming of our space together.

As adults, many of us do not spend much time thinking about or noticing the moon. Our society has put the moon in a box for witches and werewolves. It is spooky and hidden, mysterious and maybe a bit romantic when we want it to be. But mostly it is just a representation of the nighttime and rest. Which is to say – we do not give it much value in our society.

Or perhaps, more accurately, we hold it with a hidden value. But I tell you, we should love the moon. We do well to celebrate it and admire it and spend time learning from it and sing praise for its presence in our lives.

Storytellers and poets tell us the moon is mysterious and beautiful, changing and strange, compelling, and romantic. Why do we love the moon so? And yet our society dismisses it as lesser? What is the draw we feel toward it?”

Poet William Cullen Bryant: “The moon is at her full, and riding hight, Floods the calm fields with light. The airs that hover in the summer sky Are all asleep tonight.”

The moon is roughly 239,000 miles from the earth and about one quarter the size of our planet. The gravity of our celestial partner pulls our tides in and out around our globe, and is thus significantly responsible for keeping our waters in dynamic balance. By an interesting twist of physics, its orbital period and its rotation period are the same causing the same side of the moon to always face the earth. This means there is a ‘dark’ side of the moon, a fact which had left us a lot of opportunity for speculative imaginings – at least until the late ‘60’s when we sent rockets and satellites around to that side to take pictures. Did you know it wasn’t until five years ago (2019) that we landed an unmanned craft there to actually poke around.

There was a time when the moon was for more than witches and werewolves – it was also for astronauts.  For two and a half years, back fifty years ago, we sent people in rockets to the moon. As President Kennedy proclaimed, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” (1962 that US President John F Kennedy) That was a heady time.

24 people visited to the moon in that two-and-a-half-year timespan, half of them got out of the crafts to walk around a bit on the moon. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” (July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong) It was a time of demythologizing. It was a time of moon rocks and rocket fuel. 

Since that time, it has been deemed more efficient and effective to send robots to learn more about the moon and other places beyond our planet. While sending robots has been more efficient, having a human on the moon captures our imagination as few things can. And that, my friends, is the really exciting part of all this.

Around the time of the moon landings, philosophy professor Emmanuel G. Mesthene quipped, “Ten years ago, the Moon was an inspiration to poets and an opportunity for lovers. Ten years from now, it will be just another airport.” How wrong he was. Not only did the focus of our progress and greed shift away from the moon, but our romance with the moon never did and never will wane.

Modern poet Chrissie Pinney says, “She held the moon the way she held her own heart, as if it was the only light that could guide her through the darkest nights.”

Even as we restart manned moon missions, we will not surrender our fondness and fascination for the moon. And, if you did not already know, NASA’s Artimis Program is slated to send humans to the moon again this decade. So, keep an ear out for news of another round of moon landings soon.

Interestingly, one of the four astronauts slated for the Artimis Program is a woman. I think that is very fitting because throughout history, culture, and myth, there has been a strong feminine association with the moon.

Did you know, for example, about tally sticks? They are some of the earliest artifacts we have of prehistoric people measuring time. Tally sticks were often animal bone and a common form was to have 28 tally marks to count the days of a moon cycle. It is not that hard to connect the dots to know that marking a moon cycle is something women were doing to be able to track menstrual cycles.

We track the cycle of the moon and call it a month. The English word ‘month’ has an etymological connection back to the word ‘moon.’ And while today we use a calendar with a solar month, it was surely the original form to use a lunar month. There are cultures still that mark time with lunar months such as the religious calendars of Islam and Judaism.  

English is not the only language with this etymology between month and moon. Greek and Latin have this connection, as does Chinese. But it goes further: in English our words ‘measure’ and ‘menstrual’ share a common root – a root which unsurprisingly also ties back to the word for moon. Because the tally sticks of 28 marks were an early way to measure a lunar month and the reason to measure that was for our menstrual cycles.

I make a point to say ‘our’ menstrual cycles because women are too often listed as secondary humans in culture and science. But it seems clear that women were leading the way by following the moon. Perhaps we can break away from our binary thinking of either the sun or the moon – in which one is better and the other lesser. Men and women, light and dark. When we recognize the dynamic balance in all things and honor the darkness as much as the light – particularly in the interplay of dark and light – then perhaps we will not be so shy about the moon or misogynistic about women.

Tomorrow night is a full moon. It is also a blue moon and a super moon – quite special.

Blue moon is a concept to reconcile the solar calendar and the lunar cycle. A blue moon happens either when we have two full moons in one calendar month or four full moons in one season. If the lunar and solar calendars lined up perfectly, there would be one full moon a month and three each season for a total of twelve in a year. But 12 times 28 equals 336 days, which is 29 days shy of our solar calendar … which leads me to expect we would always have 13 full moons a year … but the lunar rotation is not actually 28 days as I had been once taught, it is 29.5 days – because the universe doesn’t really care about our even numbers. So, we really have a difference of roughly 11 days, meaning there is not a blue moon every year. But there is one this year. And it’s tomorrow night. But I don’t think blue moons are all that interesting because they are really just a math problem rather than circumstance of physics.

A super moon, on the other hand, is a circumstance of physics and worth noticing. And tomorrow night’s moon is also a super moon. A super moon is when the full moon occurs when the moon is closest to the earth. Remember, orbits are elliptical instead of circular, so a super moon is when the moon is physically closest to the earth – only 226,000 miles which is 13,000 miles closer than the average distance. In short – it’s closer and will appear bigger. We will experience a super moon for the next four consecutive months.

I add all this scientific information about the moon so as to encourage you to spend a little extra time with the moon over the next few months. Notice it, admire it, howl – if you are drawn to do so.

What can we learn about ourselves from the moon? Poet Anand Thakur writes, “Let the moon teach you the art of being beautiful and lonely at the same time.”

Perhaps you can consider the way the moon offers guidance for us during the darkness. Or the ways you also might have a hidden side, and how you might begin to explore it more. Or perhaps your lesson is in the changing faces of the moon, the waxing and waning through its cycles and yet it remains the same throughout. Or even the ways the moon effects its partner the earth with the ebb and flow of tides – how do you affect others around you?

Daniel Ladinsky, writing in the spirit of Persian poet Hafez of Shiraz, has said:

Admit something: Everyone you see, you say to them, “love me.” Of course you do not do this out loud otherwise someone would call the cops.

Still though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect. Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye that is always saying, with that sweet moon language, what every other eye in this world is dying to hear?

We can learn about relationships and connections from the moon, from all the universe really – but why not the moon? We can learn about our connections with each other and how we tug on each other’s tides. We are meant to be connected.

Go commune with the super moon tomorrow night. It is the sturgeon moon, a blue moon, your moon and mine. Look at that moon, maybe howl a little. Let its reflected light reflect in you.

In a world without end

May it be so.