Delivered on November 8, 1998
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Harford County
Rev. Lisa Ward
Note: This topic was presented as a narrative. The following outlines the material from which the sermon was taken. - ed.
The Universe responds. What you ask of it, it gives.
I remember when I used to dismiss the bumper sticker "Pray for Peace". I realize now that I did not understand it, since I also did not understand prayer; which I know now to be the active affirmation in the physical world of our inseparableness from the divine; and everything, especially the physical world, is divine. War will stop when we no longer praise it, or give it any attention at all. Peace will come wherever it is sincerely invited. Love will overflow every sanctuary given it. Truth will grow where the fertilizer that nourishes it is also truth. Faith will be its own reward.
We are indeed the world. Only if we have reason to fear what is in our hearts need we fear for the planet. Teach yourself peace. Pass it on.
Two young cooks were preparing recipes that required using the one remaining orange left in the kitchen. "I must have it," said one, "or I cannot make orange muffins." "But if you use it," said the other, "I won't be able to prepare the glaze for my chicken recipe." They decided to settle their conflict by splitting the orange. The cooks went to their separate areas to create what they could with their half. The muffin maker scraped the peel off the orange half , the glaze maker squeezed the juice from the other half. What's wrong with this picture?
Clearly, there was a better solution -- each could have used different parts of the whole orange. Because the cooks were so focused on their individual needs, their greatest concern was for fairness which translated to them as identical response. However, if they had focused on better understanding one another, each claim would have been more fully met -- not with identical response, but with equal regard. (This example was passed on to me by a colleague who had read the book Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury.)
Fascinating isn't it? How so often a conflict can be resolved, or at least somewhat dissolved by simply taking time to step back and see the other's point of view, or taking a deep breath and relaxing physical points of tension that might block an openness toward understanding, or by simply listening to the essential need within the dance of point and counterpoint, without the urgency of the emotional charge.....So much easier said than done.
So often we humans operate on a world view of scarcity, the vision that there just isn't enough to go around, the assumption that there isn't enough room for everybody. This entraps us in the "either/or" dialogue rather than "both/and". There was plenty of orange for both cooks. They were simply blocked from that understanding in their sense of scarcity rather than abundance. Blocked by their individual vision and their sense of responsibility toward the individual task rather than embracing the possibility of creative resolve. And probably pressed for time -- as we all seem to be these days, feeling unable to let the solution rise from the time demanding discipline of equal regard. And the solution was o.k.. Neither the muffins nor the glaze were as rich in flavor as hoped, but both got the job done and both felt a sense of fairness.
This touches on the difference between 'tolerance' and 'acceptance'. The difference between coexistence and cooperation. Tolerance conjures up an image of being polite in community, reserving the right of honest exchange for the sake of 'keeping peace', and saving our true selves for our close friends and family at home. Acceptance is the work of embracing the whole of our lives together, negotiating difference and finding common ground.
I find in the dialogue concerning racism that there are different world views of scarcity and abundance. The polite world view asks for a concept of a 'color blind' society, which basically seeks a tolerant world where the dominant culture ignores difference. I prefer the dialogue of a 'color rich' society, full of the messy, creative, enticing, irksome counter play of difference. A learning environment rather than a controlled one. It's about truly seeing the other and believing that there is room enough in our realm of understanding for new knowledge. And its about examining our priorities, what it is we really want to happen to find a mutuality within the abundance of diversity -- what we are willing to give up, what we are willing to see differently, what we're willing to hear and what we are willing to say.
The journey of mutual regard is difficult. It is not easy to truly see ourselves let alone another. It takes, above all, the art of being fully present.
This last Thursday night I had the pleasure of meeting with some of the new members of this fellowship who we will be officially welcoming next week. Part of the session was devoted to speaking aloud what it is that compels us to be Unitarian Universalist and to enter this community. The overriding sentiment was the sense of community here and the ability to search through spiritual concerns in a free and open gathering. We found that one of the most compelling aspects of this fellowship is our striving, as author Nelle Morton has phrased it, to 'hear each other into speech'.
"If it is language that makes us human," UU minister Jacob Trapp reminds us, "one half of language is to listen."
The other half, of course, is to speak. And another Unitarian Universalist aspiration articulated in the new member gathering was to say what we mean, mean what we say and live out our convictions in our lives.
One focus in our religious work together is world community with peace and justice. We are in the business of hope. Training each other to speak aloud the truth of abundance. To praise life and its possibility. To work toward mutual regard. Part of our work is to teach each other peace so that we can pass it on.
Robert Kennedy, in an address delivered in South Africa spoke of the power of one person passing on peace:
"Each time a person stands up for an idea," he said, " or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, that person sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their peers, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change."
One image that illustrates this phenomenon that stays with me occurred in international witness in 1989 during the uprising of Chinese students in Tiananmen square. I bet some of you know which image I speak of. That man. That one man in Beijing who stood alone to barricade a line of tanks lumbering down a street toward the Square. He put himself, without weapon, without vehicle, without a chance -- in front of an approaching column of metal, armor, ammunition and deadly purpose. A line of tanks. Viewers from all over the world watched this eerie, almost surreal moment, while this man, comparatively small and fragile squared himself against the moving tank. Although the challenge seemed fruitless, it was a poignant, passionate, disarming moment. The tank lumbered slightly to the left as the agile man easily moved to place himself in front of the tank. The tank moved again to the right and the man moved again to stand his ground. The man then climbed on top of the tank and shouted something seemingly at the tank. The tank paused and then began again, and the man, again, used himself as a shield. It was not until that interchange, I remember, that I realized there was someone in the tank. I mean, I knew that some person or persons were driving the tank, but it was not until this moment that I truly saw and felt in my heart, two people, eye to eye, if you will, aware of each other, at a standstill. The human element became the power. The recognition became the issue. And, for that brief moment, the violence stopped.
I thought of the courage and determination of the one risking his life in front of the tank. I thought also of the driver, who could have easily mowed the man down, for by then the order had been given to resort to violence. The driver did not follow through on that order. Probably a great risk on his part. The tank had completely stopped for the moment. The line of tanks behind idling in place. The human element. The recognition. Transcendent. And for that one beautifully poised moment, indestructible.
Friends came to lead the man away. The tanks then resumed course. The struggle was not over and there was much bloodshed. But that moment is impressed on the minds of many throughout the world. That moment, shown again and again on the news for at least a week, not only highlighted the man's conviction for peace, but also touched on hope for the human element, hope that a connection is powerful enough to derail the destructive tendencies within us all.
"Peace is not a passive but an active condition,"Mary Rinehart affirms, "it is a gesture as strong as war."
It is not often that our one stand stops institutional machines from working, nor that a shared problem could be solved like the orange by simply dividing the needs differently. It is not often that our one voice is heard over and above the multitude. But our one voice, our one gesture does effect the multitude, our one effort does send ripples of hope, however small, however simple.
The only way a community builds is person by person, friendship by friendship, extending a sense of family. All the workings of a greater community are found in our smaller groupings. We train our communities each time we learn from one another, we support our communities each time we care for one another. Breath by breath we can infuse the spirit of generosity, abundance and peace when we face our struggles together and strive to hear each other into speech.
So I ask myself this morning, How can I pass peace on?
To prepare our meditation, I offer words from the Tao Te Ching, attributed to Lao-Tzu:
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.
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