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And so, where are we as Americans? Are we Pavlov dogs? Are we living
at Maslow’s lower-level of needs, as a culture? Are we operating
today as primitive animals and not thinking rationally when it comes
to those fears our society throws at us all the time? I don’t know
about you but it seems to me we are a scared country! What are we
afraid of: suffering, death; or perhaps the wages of our sins across
the globe? What creates all this panic and hatred? Could it be our
mental fight to stay as far away from “real religion” (as Davies put
it)? What is keeping us in this fearful state?
Yes, here we are with the rise of fundamentalism as the answer to
the fear. But the answer cannot be in our going back thousands of
years to days when religion taken out of context, got folk burned at
the stake because they had differing views and special gifts. God
forbid if we are going back to those days! So where are we? How can
we create the Beloved Community when we are afraid of each other?
Christians hate Arabs, Arabs hate Jews, Jews hating Palestinians.
As Rodney King said, “Why can’t we all just get along?”
Well, Davies words spoke to me this week and that’s why I shared
them with you. Davies said that we are afraid of making our religion
real. We live behind fears to keep us from facing the real world. We
live behind dogmas and creeds and a warped tribalism, and obscure
beliefs; and all of this keeps us from the very heart of what
religion is. As Preston said last week, religion means “to bind”.
Religion should bind us together but the issue is if we live up to
this reality then we might have to give up some of our comforts for
the binding process to take place. WE MIGHT HAVE TO SHARE! We might
have to feed the hungry in Africa and around the world. We might
have to create a first-class public education system in America. We
might have to allow AIDS to be cured and stop benefiting from the
millions who suffer from it. We might have to give up our
superiority complex around the world; we might have to work with
other nations and have true dialog with people, instead of monologue
mentalities. Yes, we might have to be fair and just and equitable.
We might have to really be religious! So you see, the irrational
fear…we need it to keep us a part. We need it to justify the
illusion that there are raw material shortages so we can hoard
resources, we need to say that population must be controlled so we
don’t have to share space with folk who don’t look like us. We need
the fear factor so that pharmaceuticals and the medical industry can
cash in on our neurotic personalities. We need the fear so we can
continue to say that the Third World nations must stay
unindustrialized because they will put too many fossil fuels in the
sky and increase global warming, when in fact we Americans are the
majority abusers. But we have to say it to keep the myth real! Yes,
we have to live this lie, this fantasy, because the truth shall set
you free but we aren’t ready to be free. And so we accept the dogma,
we accept the Religious Right’s rhetoric; we accept the cultural
stereotypes when we create fixed or distorted generalizations to
others based in fear. Ultimately, we accept the “us against them
mentality” instead of the “we are together reality.” But somewhere I
learned that true religion is not found in creeds. True religion is
not found in affirmations of faith. True religion is not found in
water and flower communions. True religion is not found when you add
names to the membership book. It is not found in what you say but
in what you do. True religion is found when the heart is strangely
warmed and we realize that religion lives in the heart and soul;
when we understand that we are all bound together in a single
garment of destiny, as King said well. Yes, this is the religion we
need in our world, for it transcends the stereotypes and the fears
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And so, we are called this morning to move beyond the foolishness.
Our faith challenges us to do that. It calls us to look beyond the
dichotomy (the Black/White, rich/poor) toward the individual who is
a child of God, a child of the Universe.
There is a story in the Bible when Jesus fed the multitudes with a
few fish and a few pieces of bread. Well, many say he multiplied the
food. Modern scholars say that something much more profound
occurred… When Jesus held the food up and explained that he would
make the bits of food much more, the hearts of the people listening
were touched and they began to take the food, they had hidden in
their clothes, out to share with others. The miracle on that day was
not the magic of Jesus but the power of the people because they
discovered the magic of sharing and the abundance it produces. Yes,
we need a Christmas miracle in our world. And it will come when we
stop scaring ourselves; when we stop living in fear, anguish and
despair; rather in faith, and with hope and love and in that day,
the new heavens and new earth will become real, and will no longer
be utopian fancies. We have the power to turn this system around.
But it starts right here in this church. We must model the Beloved
Community here. Then perhaps we can model our love regionally and
nationally…
If we can help somebody as we pass along. If we can cheer somebody
with a word or song. If we can show somebody they are traveling
wrong, then our living will not be in vain. If we can do our duty
as servants of humanity ought. And bring a message of truth to a
world once wrought. And spread loves message like the Sages taught,
then our living will not be in vain. Amen.
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