Now What? – Julia J Aegerter – Oct. 20, 2002
I don’t know how many of you are concerned about theU.S.escalating its war withIraq. (Show of hands – How many do?)
I know I found myself feeling discouraged by the congressional vote to give the President the ability to start a war.
The effect of staring globalization in the face is also overwhelming for me. I cannot pretend that everything will be all right. Do any of you feel that way?
I think that becoming overwhelmed is one of the effects of staring truth in the face. That is why many people shy away from knowing the truth, preferring to turn their faces and become preoccupied in their own little worlds. It is so tempting.
Yet that is not the path that chose me. Nor is it the path of a religious liberal. Each of you has chosen to examine the beliefs you were taught and to choose for yourselves. You will decide for yourselves what you will keep and what you will discard. Because you have done that and found your way to Unitarian Universalism, I know that you are not capable of burying your heads in the sand.
Each time I have raised issues with you, I find that you have asked, “What can we do”. And so I imagine that today you might be asking, “Now what, what are we to do?”
InNew Mexico, one of the priests was fond of quoting Einstein; he used to say, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.” There is wisdom in such a remark. And so I think that one thing we need to do is change our minds. And change the mind of the world.
I am struck by the fact that ourUnited Statesgovernment has been undermining governments all over the world and although this has not brought any peace to the world we keep at it. And yet again Pres. Bush is beating this tired old drum of war and deposing a particular man to make the world safe. We have messed with thePhilippines,Iran,Cuba,Nicaragua,El Salvador,Mexico, andColombia. Are any of them experiencing peace? Are we? Are we safer now than we were 25 years ago?
A sage once said, “When the only tool you have is a hammer – every problem looks like a nail”. I am afraid that this speaks volumes aboutU.S. foreign policy. It seems that we only know how to solve problems with force.
Our Unitarian Universalist heritage encourages us to use love as a motivational force in life. It is also the position advocated by many of the world’s great religious teachers. Jesus said, “Love your enemies.”
Loving your enemies may not seem to be rational. Are we to love Sadam Hussein? Do I think by loving him – he will change his ways – No probably not. But I do believe that if our country had tools in our kit which respected the sovereignty of other countries, helped them rebuild after tragedy, let them determine their own boundaries, and if we lived by our own constitution, treated our own citizens and neighbors well we would be a lot safer and there would be a lot fewer people who hate Americans.
It may be a naïve vision but then again the vision we are currently living out of is not working.
To change the world we need to change our hearts. Lao-Tse said it many centuries ago –
If there is to be peace in the world,
there must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
there must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
there must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
there must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
there must be peace in the heart.
Today I think we are called to do two things:
Become more peaceful ourselves
And witness for peace in the community and world.
In the coming weeks – I will be talking with my clergy colleagues in Evansville about how we might witness for peace – I will also use the next couple of weeks of sermons to develop ideas of how we might become more peaceful ourselves.
Henry Nelson Wieman, a Unitarian Universalist theologian posed the question – what transforms as we cannot transform ourselves, to save us from our self-destructive propensities and to bring us to the highest good of which we are capable? He said the answer of the great religions is God. God transforms us”
Wieman then went on to say that he was an empiricist, and that for an answer to mean anything to him he had to experience it. And so for him the thing that was most transforming was a certain quality of communication. The type of relationship of which Buber spoke, the I-thou relationship.
Weiman called this way of communicating “creative interchange.” For him, such an experience was God.
In speaking of this type of conversation he said, “It is more than the acquisition of facts from the other. It is a way of relating in which one gets from the other and gives from the self , appreciations, sentiments, hopes, fears, memories, regrets, aspirations, joys, sorrows, hates, loves, pieties, and other features which makes up the total experience of every human being.”
Weiman believed that it was commitment to this type of communication which would save us.
One of my concerns along with concerns for the world should we continue to pursue the destructive path we are on is a concern for what will happen to us locally. How will this congregation weather a war? And how can we do it well.
We could ignore the differences among us and say – let’s not talk about it. We could confront each other and scream or call each other names. We could withdraw from participation and withhold money in order to get our way. There are many ways to behave and many ways congregations did behave during the Vietnam War.
I would like to suggest another way for your consideration.
Once there was a convent where some of the sisters felt the convent needed to take a stand against a particular political issue – we’ll call it widgets. Other sisters did not want the convent to take a stand. They felt as strongly as the sisters who were against widgets but did not believe the convent should be political. And still others, albeit a minority, were in favor of widgets.
They met and discussed this situation as a community. Try to imagine such a discussion. Perhaps you have heard them here during the Vietnam war. Perhaps it was about something happening in the community and some wanting to take a stand – others not. What happened?
In many congregations discussions would have become heated. And the outcomes rather messy. The legacy in most congregations is “we” do not take stands because we are afraid of controversy.
But that is not the way things ended at the convent. They found a creative solution to the dilemma motivated by their principles and also there commitment to community. It was decided that the sisters who wanted to march would march. The sisters not in favor of marching would pray. And the sisters who were in favor of widgets would make lunch for the others and have warm drinks available for the protesters when they returned home.
This was a decision which respected the conscience of each member of the community and also took into account the need for the community to remain a community. While they could differ on issues – they cared for each other as individuals.
I suspect that in the days ahead if theUSfollows a path to war. Many of us will be torn over what to do. Some may choose to take public stands; some may even choose to break the law. Others of us may be against the war but disagree with the actions some choose to pursue. Still others may be in favor of war and feel this is the best course to pursue.
I hope that when those days come we will gather to listen to each others stories and how we came to the decisions we did. That we will be able to see each other as people who we can respect each other and that we will find a way to be a community which is supportive of each other.
If nothing else comes of the Vietnam War experience I hope we have learned that we may be against the war but not each other and not the soldiers who chose, or are chosen to fight.
We are not called to be successful at our endeavors my friends. We are called to be faithful. In other words our self-worth and ego need not be tied up in whether we succeed in forestalling a war – or getting everyone health care – or food, or cleaning up the environment.
But we are asked to live out of our values – to measure what we do in light of our conscience and being ever open to what others might teach us.
And if it is peace, love and faithfulness which guides our actions – we need not despair.
The reward itself is in the action. We will find hope. We will find companions for the journey. And we will find that we hold the key for a meaningful life.
Amen and may it be so.