There Is More Hope Somewhere
There Is More Hope Somewhere
Rev. Douglas Taylor
May 21, 2017
There is more hope somewhere,
In the midst of the realities of sorrow and pain
There is more hope somewhere,
In the face of tragedies and heartache and shame
And I’m gonna keep on, till I find it,
Because I believe it’s true
There is more hope somewhere.
The world we live in is not made of sunshine and daisies. There is suffering and heartache, cruelty and disease, systemic injustice and natural disasters. Yet it is also true that there is tenderness and compassion, friendship, beauty, grace, and love.
A hallmark of liberal religions such as Unitarian Universalism is our insistence that we face the world with our eyes open, to engage in the travails of the day allowing that engagement to impact our faith and vice versa. It is hard to sell a gospel of hope while acknowledging a discouraging reality of suffering and injustice. Yet that is exactly what we do here. We offer a gospel of hope in the face of the world’s terrors and each individuals suffering. That’s how it works for us, or at least how we strive to have it work. The hope is grounded in reality, acknowledging both the good and the bad, the tenderness and the cruelty. Our hope is not in turning away, but in seeing it all.
“Ours is no caravan of despair.” (Rumi) Unitarian Universalism is a hopeful religion. If we began, as others do, with a statement that human nature is fallen and basically sinful it would be easier to explain evil. But we don’t do that. We, instead, boldly proclaim we are not born sick, sinful, or fallen. We say we are born blessed and able to bless others. Ours is a hopeful religion.
And yet there is an argument against hope that aligns with UU theology. I first grappled with this argument through the story of Pandora. The Greek story of Pandora is in that category of myth and creation story told to explain the existence of evil and suffering. Interestingly, Pandora’s story also asks, “what is the role of hope?”
Typically we read the Pandora story to say that hope is a final, almost forgotten blessing. But here is an interesting interpretation that claims otherwise. Is hope left in Pandora’s Box to indicate that it is readily available to us all or is it another item on the list of bad qualities like illness, war, and suffering? Do we read it pessimistically or optimistically? What if hope is not a final blessing but instead a final cruelty, stringing us along? “Not only are humans plagued by a multitude of evils,” one commentator suggests, “but they persist in the fruitless hope that things might get better.” (Beall, E. “The Contents of Hesiod’s Pandora Jar: Erga 94-98,” (1989) 227-30) Perhaps our propensity for hope is simply one more cruel trick of the Gods to keep the game interesting, lest we all quit.
I hope my secret crush likes me back, I hope I passed that test, I hope we win this war, I hope someone rescues me, I hope climate change is exaggerated, I hope my check won’t bounce, I hope I remember how to spell Connecticut correctly. Is hope a trick to keep us from facing reality? Perhaps our propensity for hope as a species is simply one more cruel trick of the Gods to keep the game interesting, lest we all quit if we realized it was hopeless.
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast,” says poet Alexander Pope; and there is scientific research that suggests we are hard-wired for hope. Yet Sigmund Freud suggested hope was merely a delusion. Karl Marx’s quote about ‘the opiate of the masses’ applies for the concept of hope as well for religion in general. And Nietzsche, at his nihilistic finest wrote: “Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.” Nietzsche, Marx and Freud are pointing out how hope can be a tool to keep people trying when evidence suggests failure is the only possible result. Hope, in the worldview of Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche, is merely a shallow and unfounded optimism; an aspect of our human psyche that can be used against us.
It makes me wonder if there is a different translation for the version of hope I usually talk about around here. You know how in ancient Greek there are 3 or 4 different words we translate as love? Perhaps there is something like that for hope. …Alas, that is not the case. I checked. There is really just the one Greek word for hope and it means pretty much what we think it means. We don’t have a separate word from another language for hope that means ‘false hope’ compared with another word that comes out as ‘true hope’ or ‘deep hope.’
So here is where I go this this. As Unitarian Universalists we try to keep our beliefs and practices grounded in our experiences, framed by reason and connected to our compassion. Thus we believe in a hope that is grounded in reality. We hope, but we do not ignore what is really out there, what’s really going on. The hope we preach here is a compelling call to engage with the world because we have a crucial role to play in making life meaningful and beautiful for ourselves and those around us. For all the atrocities recorded in the news, there are countless deeds of courage and love that are catalogued nowhere – though accumulated in the heart of each person. A hope in that reality is never false.
There is more hope somewhere,
In the midst of the realities of cruelty and oppression
There is more hope somewhere,
Because on balance the suffering is not the whole story
And I’m gonna keep on, till I find it,
Because the evidence is mixed, which means…
There is more hope somewhere.
Don’t be lulled into denial, thinking the fears of the world can’t touch you. That leads to false hope. But also don’t be tempted to despair thinking that all our hopes are unrealistic. Instead see our hope in our capacity to engage in both the joy and the sorrow and thereby to make a difference. Having navigated that argument against hope, let me entertain another one; similar perhaps but with Buddhist nuances.
In her book “When Things Fall Apart,” Pema Chodren spends quite a bit of time talking about the Buddhist perspective of fear and fear’s impact on our living. At one point she talks about a Tibetan word that combines Hope and Fear. She says it is a common enough word, I assume because it is a common enough experience.
“Hope and fear is a feeling with two sides.” Pema Chodren writes. “As long as there’s one, there’s always the other. This … is the root of our pain. In the world of hope and fear, we always have to change the channel, change the temperature, change the music, because something is getting uneasy, something is getting restless, something is beginning to hurt, and we keep looking for alternatives.
In a nontheistic state of mind, abandoning hope is an affirmation, the beginning of the beginning. You could even put ‘Abandon hope’ on your refrigerator door instead of more conventional aspirations like ‘Every day in every way I’m getting better and better.’”
Pema Chodren in “When Things Fall Apart,” pg 39-40)
What Chodren is lifting up is how the very concept of hope is rooted in dissatisfaction with the way things are. Hope looks ahead longingly; it is not about being mindfully present in this moment. Hope is about how ‘what is’ is not enough, it is about wanting more.
There is more hope somewhere,
Because we are afraid we don’t have enough already?
Now, being fair, there is something deeply true about this. Hope is a constant companion to fear. People cling to hope, out of fear. The two go together. However, hope is a powerful motivation leading us to work for a better world. A better world than the moment we live in now with its injustice and terror, heartache, illness, and suffering. Hope leads us to make changes. Rather than accepting our lot in life, we strive to improve it.
But to do so, there must first be dissatisfaction, trouble, concern, fear. If everything were fine, what purpose would there be for hope? Hope may be an antidote, but every antidote assumes a poison. Pema Chodren says to be rid of fear we must also be rid of hope. She writes, “If hope and fear are two sides of one coin, so are hopelessness and confidence.” (Ibid p41) To abandon hope, as she suggests, is to not let the fear prod you into reaction. It is to let go and trust in something larger than hope.
Acceptance is the key. The first Noble Truth is that suffering is true, accept it. The other three Noble Truths are not about hoping to change things so the suffering stops. They are about accepting the suffering and not letting it rule you.
If the first argument against hope, from Nietzsche and friends, claimed that what you hope for is not real; this second argument from Buddhism is that what you hope for is not yet. Don’t focus your energy on what is not yet, focus instead on what is. Accept it, but don’t be ruled by it. I feel comfortable arguing away the concept of false hope, arguing in favor of a grounded hope instead. I have a harder time arguing away this second piece.
And I think it is because what Pema Chodren says about acceptance. Can we accept what is? Where we are right now is holy and beautiful. Every person is a spark of the divine, every corner of the earth is a garden, we are always on holy ground. Hope, as we preach about it here in Unitarian Universalism, is not a devaluing of the ‘here-and-now’ in favor of a glorious hereafter. It is a hope grounded in finding the beauty and holiness that is already here among us.
What if the world you long for is already here? What if our hope to build a better world is not because this one is fallen or lost in sin, but simply because we love what already is here as beautiful and good and just, and will do our part to keep it growing.
I cannot, as Pema Chodren suggests, abandon all hope. I am not Buddhist enough to do that. But I see the wisdom in keeping my hopes based on what already is beautiful and bountiful before me today. Hope need not be borne only of dissatisfaction and fear. Hope is about a vision of love and peace and justice growing into more love and more peace and more justice.
Our world is on fire with strife and turmoil. Terrible experiences of war, disease, injustice, and pain are ever present in life. But that is not the whole story. Because there is also love and there is also kindness and there is also beauty and grace and generosity and joy and sacrifice. And these do not cancel out the terrible things and the suffering. Instead they ride alongside the suffering. All that is good and holy and beautiful deepens the well and strengthens the walls. Our ultimate hope is not that the suffering and injustice will be cancelled out, but contained; not halted, but held.
Our hope is not in turning away from the realities of injustice and heartache, or in seeking to fix them. It is in facing these things with clarity knowing that we have the resources to make a difference. This is not an optimism that hides from reality. It is a realism that sees an ultimate hope for the fulfillment of grace.
There is more hope somewhere,
For there is an abundance of beauty around us now
There is more hope somewhere,
Even as difficulties surround
And I’m gonna keep on, till I find it,
Finding it in our simple lives lived with love
There is more hope somewhere.
In a world without end, may it be so.
Twilight Virtues
Twilight Virtues
Rev. Douglas Taylor
May 14, 2017
I was a teenager when Twilight Zone came back on TV in what is now called the “first revival.” The Spielberg movie had just come out (1983) which was my personal introduction to the show. It was remarkable to stumble onto these artful, concise stories. I was drawn to them for their odd and mildly scary atmosphere. And, I loved that they were more concerned with telling a good story than simply making the audience jump in fright.
Not all the stories were spooky or scary either. I remember one – it turns out to have been Meredith Burgess’ first appearance on the show – called “Time Enough at Last.” And to be honest, as a young, bookworm-ish and awkward introvert, I identified (perhaps over-identified) with the protagonist’s plight. The guy just wanted to read his books. But his boss and his wife and the bank customers where he worked kept getting in the way. He squirreled away one afternoon in the vault at the bank where he worked and that was the moment the bomb was dropped and WW III happened killing every person on the planet … except the protagonist. When he discovers he has all the books still, he is overjoyed. Oh! So many books, and finally time enough to read without distractions. Then his glasses break and all is lost; “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”
I later came to appreciate Rod Serling’s genius. “Time Enough at Last” was more unnerving than scary. He was using the medium of 30-minute television episodes to teach us to think. It was disguised as mere entertainment, as fantasy and science fiction, with aliens and bizarre circumstances, but there were lessons and messages about life and society and human nature hidden for those who looked to see them.
And, after all, telling stories to show people about the virtues and vices of humanity is far better that preaching at people about them. “Show, don’t tell” young writers are ironically told. Stories, like those Rod Serling gave us on the Twilight Zone, settle into our memories like good parables. The lessons may be uncovered right away or after years of living into them.
Our Binghamton connection to Rod Serling is a point of local pride. Sure he was born in Syracuse, but he grew up here and graduated from Binghamton High School. And we here can take pride in his connection to Unitarian Universalism is as well. Sure he was not a Unitarian as a kid, he never came to this church. But as an adult he joined the Unitarian church in Columbus OH and was very involved at the UU church in Berkley CA as well. He is one of those perfect examples for us because his life’s work, his lived values align with the deep values of Unitarian Universalism so well. It is a joy to lift him up as an example of Unitarian Universalism – The Twilight Zone was a little odd, fairly ethical, and it made you think. Unitarian Universalism is a little odd, fairly ethical, and encourages its adherents to think.
In 1968 Serling was invited to deliver the commencement address to Binghamton High School’s graduating seniors. He developed his address around inviting the graduates to be tough enough: tough enough to take a stand for a cause, tough enough to compromise, near the end he offered a little about his own religious perspective. He said,
… And lastly, are you tough enough to have faith in the things worthy of faith? A belief in your own particular God … an adherence to the tenets of your particular religion … all this with a decent regard and respect for the God and religions of others. Believe without proselytizing. Believe without peddling. Believe without working both sides of the street, trying to sell to others that which is uniquely your own. But most major here—simply believe. There’s no alternative to faith … and God help us, there’s no salvation without it. http://www.rodserling.com/01281968.htm
That is an elegant appeal for plurality, for tolerance and religious freedom, for “Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth…” as it is worded in the 3rd of our 7 principles. Hold fast to the truth as you know it, to faith as it is given to you, he was saying; but make space also for the faith and truth of others. These are values we Unitarian Universalists held in the late 60’s and we share these values still today.
Now, to be clear: Serling did not make a television show out of our Unitarian Universalist values. There is nothing explicitly UU about the Twilight Zone. Instead he made a television show through the lens of his own values which align so well with our UU values. He railed against prejudice, he exposed the dangers of social conformity, he invited us to question our assumptions about authority and power and beauty. He asked us to think. I could say the same for other Unitarian Universalist luminaries and activists and leaders through the years.
I have a clip from a series on the internet called “Nightmare Masterclass.” The creator of this series analyzes media with a focus on the dark and odd pieces, often in the horror and terror genres. This clip is from a piece published at the end of last year about Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone called “Lessons from the Twilight Zone.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzRiMw0eKSk From 7:08 up to 10:10
It is interesting to me that nearly 60 years after the shows began new analysis, new interpretations, and new programs continue to be offered around Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone – this sometimes too-campy, old, black-and-white show from the 50’s and 60’s.
This clip I have offered addresses some of the background of censorship Serling had to contend with while writing for television. It also demonstrates how people underestimated the impact he could have through that medium. In a way it’s true his shows didn’t “cop a plea or chop and ax,” it was not so crass as that in the way he addressed the serious issues of his day.
I suspect that is a significant part of the continued appeal. Serling could be subtle enough to get through the censors and yet clear enough to get his point across. He referred to global annihilation by hydrogen bombs in “Time Enough at Last.” He had people taking Instant smile as a way to avoid sadness (at the cost of sameness) in “Number 12 Looks Just Like You.” He anticipated the dark side of automation in the work place in “The Brain Center at Whipple’s.” “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is a classic example of mob mentality. “Eye of the Beholder” is going to continue to pop up in Philosophy class syllabi and discussions. He did an episode called “He’s Alive” in which Hitler’s Ghost coaches a promising young neo-Nazi on how to control a mob.
Let us start by your learning what are the dynamics of a crowd. (The shadowy figure says,) … when you speak to them, speak to them as if you were a member of the mob. Speak to them in their language, on their level.
Listen to this monologue from the earlier 1960’s, but listen with the ears of today:
Make their hate your hate. If they are poor, talk to them of poverty. If they are afraid, talk to them of their fears. And if they are angry, Mr. Vollmer, if they are angry, give them objects for their anger. But most of all, the thing that is most of the essence, Mr. Vollmer, is that you make this mob an extension of yourself.
Say to them things like – things like, “They call us hatemongers. They say we’re prejudiced. They say we’re biased. They say we hate minorities- minorities. Understand the term, neighbors: ‘Minorities.’ Should I tell you who are the minorities? Should I tell you? We! We are the minorities!” That way, Mr. Vollmer. Start it that way.
In the 1960’s having ‘Hitler’s Ghost’ talk like this was seen as a gimmick, not a serious rhetorical tool. So it still counted as subtle. Today, with the amount of hate speech rattling around in our current political and social climate, it is perhaps a little less subtle as we watch.
Some of the most important lessons Serling offered us as his viewers were around issues of authority, truth, prejudice, fear and civilization. I think part of the lesson I find in these old episodes is an acknowledgement that these issues are not new today. Certainly they are different, but they are not new.
Or as Serling put it the opening narration of The Obsolete Man:
This is not a new world – it is simply an extension of what began in the old one. It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time. It has refinements…technological advances…and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the super-states that preceded it – it has one iron rule: logic is an enemy and truth is a menace.
Rod liked to speak for truth and took a certain pleasure being a menace. He once said “The writer’s role is to menace the public conscience.” Serling would certainly be in the camp of people who say “Question Authority.” But he also refused to oversimplify, so he would likely add something about looking for truth as a guide for judging authority.
On the topic of truth, he urged the audience to think, think through what is happening, think about the implications, think things all the way through, and most importantly think about your own life. Following closely on that, his stories reveal that to be a thorough thinker we need to listen to the thinking of other people as well as to our own thoughts – if only so we don’t get trapped in prejudiced thinking.
All of which circles in to what I take to be one of his driving lessons, his primary lesson: beware of prejudice. Prejudice not only locks us into categories, it has the potential to hurt us and kill us. And he would go so far as to say if you are not fighting against prejudice you are complicit in the harm it brings.
The Twilight Zone was all about the messages being conveyed rather than the spooky or Sci-Fi way the message was delivered. The message is what mattered. He fought against the messages of hypocrisy and greed and prejudice within our society and our own souls by shining a light on the consequences of such attitudes. He offered us warning-signs, instructive fictions, and occasionally not-so-cryptic cautionary tales. He said:
The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices … And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone. The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street
You and I here gathered participate in a religious community committed to building a better world, seeking more life-giving truth, and encouraging more compassion among our fellow travelers. And quite often we get to have fun in doing that. After services we will watch and discuss two of the original episodes together.
Come, let us gather around the wisdom of the Twilight Zone for a few moments, and then let us rise and reveal our own capacity to tell the truths our world needs to hear with confidence and style as Rod Serling and others like him have done throughout the ages.
In a world without end,
May it be so.
Excitement of Change
Excitement of Change
Rev. Douglas Taylor
April 9, 2017
Friends, there has been much in our common life subject to change lately. We began our church year with an intentional up-ending of a few key aspects of our congregation. We chose to explore changes to our facility, changes to how we structure our Social Action work, and changes to how we do faith development and our Sunday mornings. Yes, partly we undertook these changes in response to realities that were changing around us; but still we made a conscious decision to explore these changes. We picked them. We chose them.
And then there was a presidential election in which the nation had a choice between (to over simplify) continuing somewhat along the lines of the previous 8 years or up-ending things in favor of something completely different. And friends, our nation chose to go the route of up-ending things.
And on top of all that, things happen in my life, changes take place: changes I set in motion and changes that send me reeling. Surely you have had your share of personal changes large or small over these past several months. Personal changes tend to take priority when they loom large in our lives. It sometimes amazes me that we each have time for sustained effort at building a better world or responding to national and global situations. Our individual dramas take precedence. And yet we do have time and energy to bring to communal and societal concerns, so somehow it works! Change happens.
Now, generally speaking, Unitarian Universalists are game for change. We have a proclivity for novelty, we like experiencing new things in terms of our theology and ritual. We are not a people who suffer rigid tradition or settle for centuries-old answers to life’s deep questions. And don’t get me started about social change! We love social change; we are often at the forefront of progressive movements. That is our wheelhouse! Yes, Unitarian Universalism is a wide-eyed, this-world-focused, change the world, and have-fun-doing-it type of people.
But friends, I must admit, sometimes I am not so sure about it all. I lose some of the excitement and end up with just the anxiety. I get worn down with all the newness, Innovation Exhaustion perhaps. Occasionally I lose sight of the vision we are aiming for and find myself feeling lost on the emerging edge; and all the change feels like mere chaos. Has anyone else felt that? Do you also slip sometimes?
The experiences of resistance, fatigue, fear, discomfort, and anxiety are all par for the course with change. There are ways to navigate change that ameliorate these negative experiences, ways to bring the excitement back, ways to stay grounded in the chaos of change. When I begin to feel off-balance or anxious, worn out or resistant, I have a handful of practices and perspectives that help me regain my center and stay open to what may come.
In the reading we had this morning, “Doubting Thomas,” my colleague Angela Herrera offers a valuable insight. She begins with that delightful passage from the Gospel of Thomas, (and don’t worry if you don’t recognize the passage, the Gospel of Thomas is not in the Bible. It is one of the books that didn’t get included which we have since discovered.)
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth with save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth with destroy you.” Herrera does not spend her time on the question of what is within you. Instead she focuses on the question of what happens when you do or do not bring it forth. Namely, as it relates to my topic, it will change you.
And indeed, she suggests there is value in that process of honoring what you lose when you change. “…we avoid change,” She writes,
– holding what is within us at bay, burying it for the comfort of our routines. This might save us, but only by aborting the person we could have become. If we would really live, we must be willing to die within the seasons of our lives. … The question is: Will you be reborn?
Every new day is also the ending of an old day. Every new relationship is the ending of who you were before that relationship. We tend to be enamored with the new change, excited about a new job, a new idea, a new possibility opening. Unless, of course, the change is not something we want, then we are not the least enamored.
Herrera suggests there is value in honoring what you lose when you change. That is easier when the change is not something you want. And so, honoring what is no longer comes quickly. We honor loved ones who have died, we celebrate their life. But this is more than simply holding on to what is gone, refusing the reality of what has changed. It is about honoring it as you let it go. And that is easier to do when the change is indeed something you want. The wisdom is in doing it for good changes and for bad. And, if you spend a few minutes pondering changes in your own life you might be thinking right now that few changes are exclusively all good or all bad.
In honoring what we let go, we can embrace today’s changes as reality. And perhaps, without judging each change as good or bad, we can feel that ‘excitement of change’ in letting go so we can see and even shape the positive side of moving forward. As we consider new ways of doing our Sunday morning experience, new configurations of our building and of our Social Action structures – take what time you need to honor what was, and let it go. This practice can alleviate unnecessary anxiety or resistance. And highlight and focus any necessary anxiety and resistance, depending. My point being – what’s past is past. Resistance against reality is useless. But resistance in the name of a vision for moving forward is another matter entirely. Learning to let go will help bring clarity.
As I am a learned clergy, when I offer perspective ‘on the one hand’, you can be sure that soon after I will add perspective ‘on the other hand.’ It is said one can shorten any preacher’s sermon by tying their hands behind their back. So, on the one hand, letting go is of great value. On the other hand, you would do well to learn to hold on.
“We are constantly changing. It is one of those universal truths. As faithful human beings, we grow and we change.” These are the words I often use to begin a homily when a couple has asked for one at their wedding. I am not usually asked to do a homily, but from time to time a couple will ask me to share some spiritual reflections on the topic of marriage. And my standard wedding homily has become ruminations on the dynamic aspect of change in a relationship when the couple decides to make a commitment ‘til death do we part.’
So often our culture presents the ideal marriage relationship as something other than reality – in love forever, a constant and full feeling of love at all times, for all time. And, as I say, the reality does not line up. We are constantly changing. Not only will each partner in the relationship grow and mature at their own rate and pace, the feelings of affection and attraction have more ‘ebb and flow’ to them than ‘constant current.’ So I give couples this warning. One time I got a little carried away and actually began my homily saying, “As you stand here on the cusp of a new day, I must warn you …” I may or may not have had a malicious grin when I said this. That couple took it in good humor but I have since made all effort to stay on script during such homilies.
The point I steer toward in these marriage reflections, the counter balance to change, I say, is choice.
We are not static, [I remind them] we change, grow, and mature. We adapt to the changes we choose as well as those we do not choose. People do not choose to fall in love, but they do choose to marry. Falling in love is not enough to sustain you through the years because you do not stop being a dynamic growing person when you marry, [I say to them]. You make a choice to commit to this one person beside you “through all the changes of your life together.”
And all this applies to situations other than marriage; particularly the point about choice serving as the counterbalance to change. There are changes we choose and changes we do not choose – but even for those we do not choose, we still can choose how we respond.
Acknowledging my capacity, my agency in the face of change helps keep me stay centered. Instead of lamenting as things happen to me, I can bow to the whims of circumstance and still act within my integrity. I can still let go of what was – and – I can hold on to my capacity to choose my way forward.
In many ways this is about finding what you still hold while all else changes. It is about discovering your guiding values, your integrity, the vision leading into the change in the first place. With the various changes and experimentations we’ve had here in the congregation have you made choices about them, have you responded, have you changed? You have a choice of what you hold while all else changes.
Knowing what you hold on to will help you weather the changes, help you stay grounded and headed in your chosen direction through the changes – even the changes you do not choose and cannot control. Let go, that you may be open. Hold on, that you may stay true.
And as I am a learned clergy, I will now deliver point number three, for every good ministry student doth learn that a good sermon shall have three points “Three shall be the number of the [points in thy sermon] and the number of the [points] shall be three. Four shalt thou not [offer], neither shalt thou [offer] two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out.” (from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975)
So, point number 3: the rubber band theory of change. There are, I am sure a multitude of versions of the rubber band theory; some of them probably copyright protected. What I am offering is a simple analogy rather than a full blown theory. And it is simply this: We can stretch ourselves to reach a goal. Like stretching a rubber band, we can stretch the systems and institutions, and that will create significant tension. When you stretch a rubber band it goes from loose to tight, right? Similarly, we can stretch; it is possible, and it causes tension.
And the other part of this is that eventually the rubber band will snap back to its relaxed position. Christian theologian and ethicist Paul Tillich suggested something very similar in his Systematic Theology book. In his chapters on Human Nature, he spoke of growth this way. Imagine a dot on a piece of paper as the center point of your Self. When we stretch, when we receive some challenge, some new learning, some opportunity to become “more fully actualized” – imagine an arrow arcing in a semicircle away from the point to a new spot … and then continuing in circle back to the original point of your Self. Much like the rubber band theory of change, we can stretch but we also return.
Now, Tillich goes a step further. And so he should, for we all know that change does happen while the rubber band analogy suggest a futility of change. No. Tillich says instead, using the image of a circle drawn from the starting point of Self out to a new learning and back to the start again, and suggests that the circle now defines a new center and thus a new Self.
Tillich says we do stretch, but we also then integrate new learning into our current Self which then creates a new Self. You are not the person you were ten years ago, ten months ago, or maybe even ten minutes ago. We are always growing and changing in small ways and large. And our outer most stretch is not the definition of who we are, it is the integration of that stretching into a new sustainable Self we are striving for.
Tillich’s process for the growth of the Self is also a fair outline for communities and institutions. We as a congregation have stretched ourselves in several ways. We would do well to remember to also work on integration each step of the way. Social and spiritual change does not happen all at once, it is a building and integrating evolution.
Friends, as we work our way through changes as a congregation, as a nation, each in our own ways as individuals, I caution us each to be wary of our reactions and the reactions of others. Resistance, fatigue, fear, discomfort, and anxiety are all par for the course with change. Such experiences are not to be avoided. There are ways to ameliorate these negative experiences, ways to bring the excitement back, ways to stay grounded in the chaos of change.
Let us honor what we lose that we may stay open to what may come; let us hold close to our guiding vision and values that we may stay grounded as we move forward; and let us allow time for integrating new learnings that we may keep our integrity as we and the world around us change; and a new day again dawns.
In a world without end,
May it be so.
Narcissus Revisited
Narcissus Revisited
Rev. Douglas Taylor
February 26, 2017
I have spent the past several years, the past several months in particular, speaking from this pulpit about the importance of compassion for the ‘other,’ kindness for ‘the least of these,’ forgiveness, and the importance of ‘loving your neighbor.’ All my words about being an ally and resisting injustice are rooted in the most basic and universal of ethical guidelines: the Golden Rule; the call to love your neighbor as yourself. And I am not going to step back from that, but today I am going to step deeper into where that all starts.
Self-care is essential not only for healthy living and spiritual wellbeing; it is also critical for sustained social action and justice-making in the world. The phrase from scripture says to love your neighbor as yourself. Thus, I must begin with loving myself.
It is your own center that you caress,
[Our choir sings this morning.]
Your own reflection gives you light.
And in this way, you show us how Narcissus is redeemed.
(Dirait-on from “Les Chansons des Roses” by Morten Lauridsen)
Our choir offers us this song as part of our consideration of the topic. “Your own reflection gives you light … Narcissus is redeemed.” I think bringing up Narcissus strikes at the very heart of the problem presented by the concept of self-love.
The story of Narcissus has been reduced to a warning in our culture today. There are various versions of the Greek myth but in essence, the man Narcissus falls in love with his own reflection in the water. In one version Narcissus spurns the affections of a would-be lover and as that lover dies he asks the gods to curse the vain Narcissus. The curse the gods choose is that Narcissus must fall in love with the next person he lays eyes on, and then the gods trick him to look at his own reflection in the water. Narcissus is vain and loves only himself. The story is a warning from antiquity against the vices of self-love and vanity.
Occasionally an ancient story like this can still shed light on contemporary experience. I spent a bit of time looking for updated or modernized versions of this story, something that might capture the struggles of today’s society but echoing themes from this old Greek story. All I could find was the psychological profile of a narcissistic personality disorder.
Self-love in our contemporary times is characterized as a disorder. I soon feared my sermon might be reduced to a complaint against narcissism in our nation. Yet since I am here anyway, let me say: I think it is a mistake to try to be armchair psychiatrists labeling celebrities and politicians with mental illnesses. What we really want to do is name moral failings as moral failings.
And while such political commentary will not be our focus this morning, it is related in this: the old story of Narcissus has, unfortunately been reduced to a single interpretation. It is a warning story: be not vain like Narcissus, don’t fall in love with yourself. As such, there is little nuance nowadays between feelings of self-worth and selfishness. Yet the choir sings this piece about how “Your own reflection gives you light. And … Narcissus is redeemed.”
Narcissus redeemed? What would that look like? It would perhaps be something about self-love being a virtue rather than a moral failing, yes?
The only way I see to redeem Narcissus is to shift the story away from the theme of romantic love and certainly away from the theme of personality disorders. Can we perhaps shift the story into the perspective of ethics? The self-love I would speak of in redeeming Narcissus is not love as a romantic feeling, affection, and attraction; rather it is love as unconditional positive regard. Here I am making the distinction between two Greek concepts which are both translated into English as the word love: Eros and Agape. There are indeed several Greek words translated as Love in our English language, but for today let us focus on these two
The teachings of Jesus, in particular the ethical sayings found in the Sermon on the Mount, have stirred the souls of many religious people – Christian and non-Christian alike – through the centuries. It is in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:43-48) that Jesus says to love your enemies. He asks “If you love only those who love you, what good is that?” The Greek word in these verses is not Eros or any of the other Greek concepts we translate as love; it is Agape.
The most famous discourse on Agape love is found in Paul’s first letter to the congregation in Corinth. “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude … It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” People use this passage at weddings all the time – but it was not written to lovers, it was written to a congregation. In this letter from Paul, the word he uses is Agape, the same word the gospel writer used in writing down Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
Of course, Jesus spoke Aramaic, not Greek – so I can’t tell you that Jesus was steering at this particular interpretation of Love, only that the authors of the gospels intended us to see it as such. Though, in fairness, the context of Jesus’ words about loving our enemies does fit with the Greek concept of love as defined in the word Agape.
The story of Narcissus – a Greek myth – is about a man falling in love with his own reflection. I strongly suspect the Greek word in the story is Eros. It doesn’t make sense as any of the other Greek loves. I suspect redeeming Narcissus might be found in a version of the story in which the character finds self-love in the form of Agape – self-respect and dignity which had not been present before.
Agape love, what Jesus, Mother Teresa, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others talked about, is not a feeling; it is a choice, a decision to treat others in a particular way. It is not a romantic feeling; it is a choice to be concerned for the well-being of others, to treat them with dignity and respect. A person may be difficult, mean, even cruel but you can still choose to offer this form of love to her or him by extending respect and a wish for that person’s well-being. With a modern global perspective, we might translate Agape using the Buddhist concept of loving-kindness. While loving-kindness is not quite synonymous with what Agape is meant to convey, they both carry the tone of unconditional regard.
So, do you extend that respect and treatment to yourself? Certainly the basic version of the Narcissus story warns against an unhealthy form of self-love: Narcissism. But perhaps there can be a story about the healthy version of self-love; a love that expands our capacity for all the other forms of love.
And maybe narcissism is merely the pale shadow of the true self-love every human being can and should have. The healthy version of self-love is that if you are comfortable with yourself, secure in who you are, then it is easier for you share your love with others. The pastoral and the prophetic mingle at this point. The ethical injunction to “wish for others what you wish for yourself” goes both ways. If you wouldn’t talk about others that way or treat others that way, why do you say negative things about yourself or treat yourself so poorly?
And here is why this matters. Public health issues ranging from addiction and depression to body image and cutting are rooted in some degree of self-hatred, a stark absence of this healthy form of self-love. Perhaps you do not have a connection to these things in your life, but such ills are becoming more prevalent in our society.
In our reading this morning (“The Radical Politics of Self-Love and Self-Care” by SooJin Pate) the author writes,
Love turned inward heals the scrapes and wounds you’ve accumulated through daily living. Love turned inward weaves a cocoon of protection, where you can recharge, rejuvenate, and restore. Love turned inward conjures a reservoir where you can tap into your own power and manifest the highest expression of yourself.
http://www.thefeministwire.com/2014/04/self-love-and-self-care/
When I caution people to be gentle with every soul they meet and to recognize that everyone is walking through their own private struggle – some successfully and some not so much. I extend that admonition not just for how you treat others but for how you treat yourself as well.
Self-love is the first ingredient of basic ethical behavior. Treating others as you would want to be treated begins with a positive appreciation of how you treat yourself. Hillel, the famous Jewish sage and scholar, articulated the balance of it when he said:
If I am not for myself, who is for me?
And being for my own self, what am ‘I’?
And if not now, when?
Hillel lived and thought about a generation before Jesus was born. He is remembered for the story in which a gentile challenged him to explain the Torah while standing on one foots. Hillel said, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.”
The interesting thing is how Hillel is also using self-love as the root for ethical behavior. All the Golden Rule examples throughout the world’s religions make the same assertion. Confusion says, “Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.” And it is written that Muhammed said “None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” Buddhism teaches, “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” Aristotle said, “All friendly feelings for others are an extension of a man’s feelings for himself.”
Again and again the root is to begin with love for yourself, and understanding of what you want and do not want. From there you offer the same to others because you understand for yourself and you love yourself. From a religious perspective, spiritual health is the root of ethical health. Activists who would fight for justice would do well to know how to nourish their spirit as well, so they will be able to stay the course and not falter. Audre Lorde once said, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
To redeem Narcissus is to enact the same story, but with the shift from Eros to Agape. It is to learn to love yourself not in the vain, self-obsessed manner we equate with narcissism, but instead with the positive regard and respect of Agape love. It is to choose to respect yourself. To redeem Narcissus is to see your reflection in the mirror and see your best self – not as a delusion but as what is possible. To redeem Narcissus is to love yourself enough to believe you can make a difference and that others deserve the same love, the same respect, the same compassion – not less.
To redeem Narcissus is to recognize yourself as beautiful because all the universe is filled to overflowing with beauty. And every human is a reflection of the universe. Even the least of these, even your neighbor, even your enemies, even you.
In a world without end
May it be so.
Alhamdulillah
Alhamdulillah
Rev. Douglas Taylor
February 5, 2017
Rumi said,
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down the dulcimer. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
The poignant opening of this poem is remarkable this week. “Today,” he wrote from the 13th century, “like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.” Rumi was a Muslim from Persia – the geographical region known today as Iran. We in America and I am sure in many places around the globe, are very aware of the violent and extreme forms of Islam that are constantly in the news. Many Americans on both sides of the political divide are frightened of Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, and numerous other examples.
“Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading.” In Islam there is great stock placed in learning, in the study of the Qur’an as well as in the study of the natural world. Does that feel familiar to you? There is comfort to be found in figuring things out, in learning.
But Rumi advises to forgo the usual remedy. “Take down the dulcimer. Let the beauty we love be what we do.” Make of this world some beauty, do something you love and let that love be your response to the fear and devastation, the slander and ill news. “Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
This closing line is both a reference to Rumi’s Islamic prayer practice as well as an appeal to pluralism and tolerance among the religions. Rumi was a Sufi poet, scholar, and mystic. Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam, and perhaps the aspect most familiar to Unitarian Universalists. If we use a passage from an Islamic source in our services it will likely be from Rumi, Kabir, Hafiz, or some other mystic Sufi poet.
It must be admitted however that Sufism is far from the central perspective of common practice among Muslims. Still, it is a doorway into understanding, a place to begin. And it there is a great need in America to begin to understand Islam. Islam is the 2nd largest religion in the world and the fastest growing religion in the world today. Over two decades ago, a Newsweek article stated
No part of the world is more hopelessly and systematically and stubbornly misunderstood by us than that complex of religion, culture, and geography known as Islam. (Meg Greenfield, Newsweek, March 26, 1993, p 116)
That assessment holds still today, over 20 years later.
This past Friday the Islamic Organization of the Southern Tier invited the community and the news-media to join them in their regular Friday prayer service. Muslims pray five times a day, and I have attended those prayers a few times in the past. This invitation was to the main weekly event. Christians hold their services on Sunday mornings, Jews on Saturday, and Muslims have their primary weekly service on Friday. The service consisted of a sermon bookended by prayers, and it was clear that the final prayer was the feature.
The prayers are open, anyone is welcome to attend. After leaving my shoes near the entryway, I went up and sat in the back on the men’s side of the room. I wasn’t expected, or really even invited, to stand, bow, kneel, and pray along with the regular people. I simply witnessed and respectfully offered my own silent prayers.
As the men in the room sat on the ground listening to the Imam, there were a few young preschool boys making noise or looking around. Later, when most of the room was prostrate with their heads on the ground, one little boy was looking around with a big grin on this face. A few minutes later he was climbing around the Imam’s chair. Seeing that made me smile, and seeing the response of the community kept me smiling. No one scolded him or even commented on it. I heard that on the women’s side they experienced the same sort of thing; children were part of the event but not expected to mimic the adults by sitting quietly.
The prayers were spoken in Arabic, or the case of the call to worship it was sung in Arabic. Imam Anas Shaikh’s sermon began with a recitation from the Qur’an in Arabic. Then, throughout the sermon he spoke in English and Arabic. Whenever he quoted the Qur’an or a passage from the Hadith, Anas would saying first in Arabic and then in English. This is a distinctive feature on Islam. There is only one Qur’an and it is written in Arabic. There are no disputes about a mistranslation or mis-transcription or a lost version of this or that passage. There is only one version. Now, there are many English translations to be sure. I have five different English translations up here on the focal point. But Muslims learn the Qur’an in Arabic as well as their native language so every Muslim is taught the exact same Arabic as the beginning point. Whenever the Qur’an is used in worship or sturdy, the text is in Arabic or in both Arabic and English – or whatever other language is spoken.
For all the differences in the form and style of gathering, the content of the Imam Anas’ sermon was remarkably similar to the content of many liberal religious messages. He talked about how we can respond to hard times with resilience from the evidence of renewed unity. And he said that a significant task for all Muslims is to help others.
Imam Anas spoke directly to the Muslim Ban by order of the President’s Executive Order. He mentioned the outpouring of protest and support that followed as an example of renewed unity among Americans of goodwill. He encouraged his hearers to reach out the Jewish Community Center and Jewish people following the bomb threat our JCC and many other JCCs receive this past week. His sermon was about having hope and resilience in the face of difficulty, and about reaching out to help others. He grounded those two points in stories and teaching in the Qur’an.
I have made the claim before and I will offer it again now. Any religious or spiritual path, well-travelled, can lead you into compassion, truth, and service. And conversely, any path can be rationalized to support a culture of disharmony, selfishness, and violence. I occasionally hear the question, ‘Does Islam promote violence?’ There is nothing inherently violent about any religious path. It is in the way it is practiced. There are passages in Jewish and Christian scripture advocating for violence. Five years back there were Buddhist monks in Myanmar leading violent mobs against Muslims. Many religions are coopted for violent purposes.
Is there a violent side to Islam? Of course there is. But it is not a central or common aspect of the faith. It is the extreme and has been rightly condemned by many. The problem is not in the religion of Islam. The problem is in the politicization of Islam. It is the state using the religion as a tool to oppress people and incite hatred, nationalism, and violence. The trick is many Americans have bought into the idea that the religion of Islam is synonymous with the political extremists and terrorists causing trouble in the world.
ISIS is essentially a militant group of fundamentalist using Islam who have taken over key areas of Iraq and claimed themselves to be the Islamic State. They have recently pushed into eastern portions of Syria. Thus ISIS is an acronym for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. This is why there are massive numbers of Syrian refugees – they are fleeing from ISIS. ISIS is unrecognized by other Muslim countries, they do not acknowledge its legitimacy. The United Nations has named ISIS as a terrorist group. ISIS is definitely a problem.
When I and other protest the Muslim Ban, we are not saying there is no threat. We are saying instead, this Ban is a poor response that will exacerbate the threat rather than alleviate it. I am not saying we should let any odd person in, I get it. I’m saying the vetting we already do is strong. This ban serves to keep these Syrian refugees in the path of harm as well as to create more opportunities for the extremists to recruit from the suffering population.
And part of what I protest is more than this moment, this particular executive order. I object to the negative prejudice against all Muslims as the enemy, as a backward and violent people. I protest the misrepresentation of a religion. The Muslims in our local community are largely wonderful people.
And there are numerous examples in history and in contemporary times of Islam having a positive impact on local communities, culture, and indeed civilization as a whole. If you think about it, four of the five Pillars of Islam which serve as the centering point of Muslim life are not beliefs; they are practices that help build community and personal discipline. The first is a doctrine, a declaration of faith in Allah with Muhammad as his messenger. The next four are practices prescribed to every believer: prayers five times each day, fasting during the month of Ramadan, Almsgiving to support the poor and needy, and the pilgrimage to Mecca.
For all the ways Islam is markedly different from other religions, certainly it is different from Unitarian Universalism, there are also some significant similarities. It is valuable and useful to explore the differences, for that is usually where the unique beauty of different religions and beliefs will be found. But when there is rampant Islamophobia and the dissemination of misguided stereotypes and falsehoods, it becomes very important to consider the similarities.
One of the obvious similarities between Islam and a lot of Jewish and Christian thought is the recognition of the ‘inner light,’ the divine spark within every person. That is one of our most helpful commonalities as well. There is a lot we can do together across our differences when we can start by affirming that every person has an inherent worth. It is a central belief in Islam.
Another particular common value we Unitarian Universalists share with Islam is the honored place of scientific inquiry and an appreciation of the natural world. Muslims have a proud history of scientific inquiry and discovery. There is an unfortunate pattern in the Western world of ignoring the history and culture of places other than Europe. Islam gave us quite a share of astronomers, chemists, mathematicians, philosophers, and doctors.
Go read about the Cordoba community in An-Aldalus, an Islamic city in southern Spain during medieval times. Read about the Ahmad ibn Tulun hospital in Cairo founded in 872. Learn about the history of Algebra – an Arabic word which means “reunion of the broken parts.” Read up on
…a surgeon named Al-Zahrawi, [from the 900’s] often called the “father of surgery,” [who] wrote an illustrated encyclopedia that would ultimately be used as a guide to European surgeons for the next five hundred years. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-considine/overcoming-historical-amnesia_b_4135868.html
This was all before the Renaissance in Europe.
One of the stories we tell about our Unitarian history in Europe has Muslim antecedents to it that are often overlooked. In Hungary in the 1500’s John Sigismund became the first and only Unitarian king in history. His most famous act was to issue the Edict of Torda which is noteworthy as the first edict of religious tolerance in Europe during the Protestant Reformation. We lift up this story from our history proudly. Tolerance is one of our watchwords – indeed we often chide ourselves to do more than merely tolerate other religious beliefs and customs.
But the Edict of Torda did not drop out of nowhere. The historical context that made it possible was built over a generation and more. The Ottoman Empire was receding from that area but when the Muslims had ruled that part of Europe they did so with a notable policy of religious tolerance.
Indeed, history records that
when Sultan Suleyman of the Ottoman Empire first learned of the birth of John Sigismund, the son of the King of Hungary, he felt it be such an important event that he sent a personal representative to stand in a corner of Queen Isabella’s room to watch over her and the infant. (Jason Goodman, Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire, p 86)
It could be argued that this foundational portion of our Unitarian history would never have developed without it being first sheltered by the tolerant perspective of Islam.
Back on Friday when I listened to Imam Anas’ sermon, I heard him recite one of my favorite passages from the Qur’an.
O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! the noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware. (49:13)
This passage encourages Muslims, indeed all humanity, to learn about different people. It essentially says the reason we have differences is so that we can learn about those differences. “There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” And Lo! The noblest people are the ones best in conduct.
In a world without end,
May it be so.
Rev. Douglas Taylor 