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Date:
04/25/04
Where: Unitarian Universalist Community
Church of Santa Monica, CA
Several years
ago I acquired this container for 25 cents -- at a
yard sale on Long Island. As my friends and
family would attest, I’m pretty good at “drive-by
assessments”…slowing down to 5 mph to scan the
lawn for items I might need! Piles of toys and
baby clothes mean I can speed up again…books and
furniture and tools of any kind mean I’ll be
squeezing into the nearest available parking spot!
This was not
only how I furnished my apartment during lean
years, but it was how I connected with people,
with history…learning about the layers of value
attributed to material goods: past or potential
value, sentimental value, creative value. What
abundance there was!
It was like
going to a museum, looking at dusty old artifacts
of some prior time…except here I got the human
story! Sitting under an umbrella somewhere near
the hedges was the person wearing the little
change bag.
They told me
WHY they were having this sale…where they were
moving to or how they’re adopting a child and need
more space. They told stories about where some of
these items came from, what they were used for,
the memories attached to them -- and how they feel
about letting go of them.
This little
container didn’t have much of a story that the
owner could share. “It’s old, belonged to a
distant relative who traveled a great deal. It
has a crack in it – isn’t worth much at all….25
cents will do just fine.” I didn’t argue!
But when I got
home I took a closer look at this new purchase. I
saw that it was actually hand carved. And, yes,
it DID have a crack on one side…but SOMEone had
drilled two small holes on either side of the
crack and threaded a tiny piece of leather through
the holes to mend it…barely perceptible!
Someone had had
a vision about this small simple bowl, cared so
much about that vision, that they took the time
and energy to find a way to transform it, to give
it a new life, a new kind of beauty. SOMEone had
chosen to DO this and, at least one person years
later had chosen NOT to simply throw it way!
Why not just
throw it all away? Why not simply toss aside that
for which we no longer have use…to which we have
no personal attachment?
There certainly
seems to be a growing awareness regarding the NEED
to simplify our lives. Many of us experience
ourselves as having A LOT, too much in fact! Too
much sensory input, too much responsibility,
stress and even too much stuff! Working so hard
to maintain what we have, we complain there’s not
enough time or space for it all. Self-help
sections in bookstores address, but also ADD to
our accumulated clutter… and the self-storage
business is huge!
As are our
landfills.
A great deal of
what we DO end up throwing away can well be reused
or refurbished, but CHOOSING what to do with our
abundance is not always a simple process!
The choice may
well arise in response to overflowing closets or
landfills, and at that point it’s pretty crucial
that the choice-BE-made!
This past
Thursday, as some of you may know, was Earth
Day…the 34th annual national celebration of the
richness and the fragility of the Earth.
In the time
leading up to that day newspapers print all the
ugly statistics regarding the damage we have done
to the earth and to ourselves by carelessly using
and abusing the earth’s resources. It’s pretty
ugly…and for some people those statistics ARE what
it takes to start thinking about what to do.
Guilt works. A
lot of people respond to guilt, even if they don’t
like it! I know I do, at times.
In 1970 when the
first Earth Day celebration was held, my girl
scout troop spent months studying graphs and
charts and pictures of slimy rivers and moldering
trash heaps. I’d never seen anything like that in
real life, but I acquired a healthy dose of guilt,
and that motivated me to do my part.
At the age of
11, that meant washing the peanut butter off my
aluminum foil wrappers when I was done with my
sandwich…so the foil could be reused over and over
again! I even scavenged the neighborhood for all
the discarded soda pop-tops I could find and made
a chain-mail vest out of them! For a while there,
I got pretty creative with garbage…and I never
threw anything away. I would have felt too
guilty.
When I was faced
with relocating to Chicago three years ago, and
then to Los Angeles last year, guilt resurfaced in
a big way! I couldn’t possibly take all of that
accumulated abundance with me – and I couldn’t
bear the idea of it ending up in a landfill after
all!
I had my own
yard-sales, wore my own little change bag and told
my own stories about the stuff I was passing on to
others…but it was hard. I did what I could,
sorted and donated as much as possible, but I
still felt guilty…and a little anxious.
What I’ve
learned since is that Earth Day is about more than
ugly statistics and guilt. It’s about more than
slimy rivers and moldering trash heaps. It’s
about vision!
It’s about
looking at ALL that inhabits the world and
searching, as Mary Oliver did in her poem, for
SOUL. “Who has it…what about the moose…what about
the maple trees…what about the roses and lemons
and their shining leaves? What about the grass?”
It’s EVERYWHERE!
What about those
who don’t experience abundance at all… those who
walk past our homes, past our jobs, past the front
door to this church…surviving on very little, TOO
little?
Life is sacred.
Starhawk writes “All people, all living things,
are part of the earth’s life, and thus are sacred”
…HOLY.
Now I realize
what some of you may be thinking…HOLY is a word
Unitarian Universalists don’t use often. But I
think we really need to!
HOLY comes from
the Hebrew words kadosh and kedushah…combining
“separation and dedication”, individual uniqueness
and relationship. (DeLange, P187) HOLINESS is an
acknowledgement of individual worth and of
interdependence! To BE holy is to manifest both
of those elements…and EVERYTHING does!
Everything has a
“value beyond it’s usefulness for human ends” (Starhawk).
Life is sacred,
the earth: Holy …people: Holy, moose and maple
trees and roses and lemons, their shining leaves,
the grass…and we: HOLY!
And if that’s
true, which I believe it is, why are we throwing
away our future, of all things? Why are we
content to dump medical waste in our waterways?
Why are we content to build cities on toxic
landfills, to bed ourselves in poison?
California has
the second highest number of toxic dump sites in
the country! Increased infertility, birth defects
and autoimmune diseases are said to be our destiny
and our home planet is quickly becoming a “wide,
windswept place…filled with the things that no one
wanted.” (Ward/Anderson)
What choices are
we making?!
19th century
American poet Edwin Markham wrote that “Choices
are the hinges of destiny.” They create the
movement of our actions, affecting our personal
and collective futures.
Destiny is not
some distant thing over which we have no control.
It is the fulfillment of our Holiness – the
fulfillment of our lives lived in the knowledge
that we each are uniquely valuable AND inherently
dedicated to each other…no one thing or person
standing higher or lower than any other.
In the story
shared earlier a dream prompted an idea: a vision
that the holder of the dream chose to respond to.
But the dream didn’t come from nowhere. It came
from his own environment, from the piles of other
people’s garbage, from the futile nature of trying
to clear it away - it couldn’t BE cleared away.
It could only be transformed!
One man, one
vision, turned a wasteland into a forest…into a
holy place where the vibrance of life was made
manifest!
Each of us here
in this sanctuary is born into, lives within AND
contributes to circles of environment that can and
must inspire vision! We are all called to engage
with these circles: the people, the animals, the
plants, the waterways, the landscape, the
histories….looking for the Holy, responding to the
Holy!
We’re called to
ask questions - to listen to stories and memories
of value, to help each other hear the ugly
statistics and develop the vision to support the
HOLINESS of life. All LIFE. To MOVE the hinges
of destiny, and thereby fulfill our own Holiness!
To me, this
means moving beyond guilt to love…learning to
“care FULLY and to let go thoughtfully…enjoying
the abundance of the earth and returning to it
with natural generosity.” (Kornfield)
Practically: it
means identifying, and identifying-WITH, our
environments. All of them.
It means doing
drive-by assessments, thinking twice before
consuming or discarding anything…including people;
supporting organizations like “Heal the Bay” and
legislation dedicated to a healthy planet, a
blue/green sphere where the vibrance of life IS
and remains manifest.
It means “living
content with small means…listening to the stars
and birds, babes and sages with an open heart.” (Channing).
It means embracing the truth of life’s inherent
value and inherent interdependence.
It means moving
the hinges of destiny through our daily choices.
So May it Be.
Amen.
************
SUPPORTING RESOURCES FOR THIS SERMON
Opening Words
Some Questions You Might Ask, by Mary
Oliver
Is the soul
solid, like iron?
Or is it tender
and breakable, like the wings of a moth in the
beak of an owl?
Who has it, and
who doesn’t? I keep looking around me.
The face of the
moose is as sad as the face of Jesus.
The swan opens
her white wings slowly.
In the fall, the
black bear carries leaves into the darkness.
One question
leads to another.
Does it have a
shape? Like an iceberg? Like the eye of a
hummingbird?
Does it have one
lung, like the snake and the scallop?
Why should I
have it, and not the anteater who loves her
children?
Why should I
have it, and not the camel?
Come to think of
it, what about the maple trees?
What bout the
blue iris?
What about all
the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?
What about the
roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?
What about the
grass?
*****
Children's
Story The Tin Forrest, by Helen Ward
*****
Meditation by
William Ellery Channing, from Earth Prayers, P108
To live content
with small means,
To seek elegance
rather than luxury, and refinement rather than
fashion,
To be worthy,
not respectable, and wealthy, nor rich,
To study hard,
think quietly, talk gently, act frankly,
To listen to
stars and birds, babes and sages with open heart,
To bear all
cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry
never-
In a word, to
let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow
up through the common.
This is to be my
symphony.
*****
Reading by Starhawk, from Prayers for
a Thousand Years, P205
The earth is a
living, conscious being. In company with cultures
of many different times and places, we name these
things as sacred: air, fire, water, and earth.
Whether we see
them as the breath, energy, blood, and body of the
Mother, or as the blessed gifts of a Creator, or
as symbols of the interconnected systems that
sustain life, we know that nothing can live
without them.
To call these
things sacred is to say that they have a value
beyond their usefulness for human ends, that they
themselves become the standards by which our acts,
our economics, our laws, and our purposes must be
judged. No one has the right to appropriate them
or profit from them at the expense of others. Any
government that fails to protect them forfeits its
legitimacy.
All people, all
living things, are part of the earth’s life, and
thus are sacred. No one of us stands higher or
lower than any other. Only justice can assure
balance; only ecological balance can sustain
freedom. Only in freedom can that fifth sacred
thing we call spirit flourish in its full
diversity.
To honor the
sacred is to create conditions in which
nourishment, sustenance, habitat, knowledge,
freedom, and beauty can thrive. To honor the
sacred is to make love possible.
To this (may we)
dedicate our curiosity, our will, our courage, our
silences, and our voices. To this (may we)
dedicate our lives.
Closing
Words Adapted from Jack Kornfield,
Prayers for a Thousand Years, P59
May our simple
prayer be that in all things we learn to love
well.
That we learn to
touch the ever-changing seasons of life
with a great
heart of compassion.
That we live
with the peace and justice we wish for the earth.
That we learn to
care fully and let go gracefully.
That we enjoy
the abundance of the earth and return to it with
natural generosity.
That throughout
our own lives, through joy and sorrow in thought,
word and deed,
We bring benefit
and blessings to all that lives.
That our hearts
and the hearts of all beings learn to be freed.
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