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By John T. Crestwell, Jr.
February 9, 2003
It is good to be here [Davies Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church
in Prince George's County, Camp Springs, Maryland] with you today as
we continue our search for truth and meaning in life. A few days ago
I wasn’t as happy as I am today. I drove through Anacostia in
Southeast, on Martin Luther King Avenue. This is not far from where
I grew up. In the last twenty years not much has changed there. It’s
sad because this avenue is named for a great man and yet the
opposite of what he stood for is occurring. There’s still too much
trash in the streets; too many rundown and decaying buildings and
homes; too much poverty. And there are churches on every corner. In
one area there’s a church that is right beside an open lot that was
full of trash. You mean to tell me that they cannot clean this lot?
They love God but seem to despise their community? I counted fifteen
churches in about one mile. I like what King said, a lot of churches
are “high on creeds and low on deeds.” All of this perplexes me
deeply. Even more, it’s the condition of so many of the people
there. So many will live and die and never make it out of the
ghetto. A few will, but most will never experience the depth and
breadth of life, that many take for granted. As I stopped at the
traffic lights, I would look at several folk—many were layered with
designer clothes. So, so many are products of a digital media
culture. The Madison Avenue agencies have fed the idea that the
clothes and shoes they wear are more important than nourishing the
mind that can help move one beyond this existence. Now, I’m guilty
of being a puppet of the mass media too, and Sharon will tell you,
for a long time I lived by the phrase “Fake it til you make it.”
Some of you know what I’m talking about…
But the issue is really much deeper. When I struggled with my
identity as many in Anacostia do today, living beyond my means, I
was seeking to be more than I was. Somewhere deep inside, I felt
powerless in a world that seemed to not care about my life. I wanted
more. I can see where so many feel helpless and hopeless when their
reality is welfare, drugs, alcohol abuse, drive-bys, murder,
unwanted pregnancies, it’s all over their community, and the list of
vices and tragedies goes on and on. Oh, I can see why they live
vicariously through Fubu, and Tommy Hilfiger and Nike, and Mercedes
Benz and Lexus. Their souls are crying out for freedom, for power to
have more control and so they see the materialism as a vicarious
escape. I like what Robert Clemetson, lead organizer of the IAC
said. We talked this week and he said when he ministered to drug
dealers and the poor, they self-medicated themselves with drugs and
alcohol to escape their living hells. He said they did not have the
psychologist or psychotherapist and so they turned to various vices
to escape. They felt powerless.
So the issue at hand is an issue of power. That’s the sermon title
today. Power. Power to control your destiny. Power to choose your
own path. Power to let folk know who you are and what you believe.
Power, to love and be loved in return…
For a longtime power has been seen as something evil. Even the great
English historian, Lord Acton, as we heard this morning, responding
to the eventual Bishop of London, regarding the papacy in Rome,
said, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” He saw a dominant and
powerful empire that controlled the mind and money of so many. He
was frustrated. And all he could come up with was that “Great men
(people) are almost always bad men (people).” Power for Lord Acton
was corruptible.
Robert Greene wrote the book, “The 48 Laws of Power”, and in his
book he argues that everyone seeks power. That even those who say,
“I don’t want any power, John, I just want to do my part. I want to
be humble. I want to serve.” He says, “That’s a power move! Watch
out!” He saw this as a tactic to gain power. Greene calls life a
“power game” and his best selling book gives 48 laws to win the
power game of life. Greene’s secular view of power says that we have
to be “subtle—congenial yet cunning, democratic yet devious.” Some
of you know what I’m talking about…
When you look the word power up in the thesaurus most of the words
seem negative: control, supremacy, rule, command, muscle, and
dominance.
Yes, it seems that to have power is to invite evil in your life. It
appears that if we allow power to be a part of our lives, this will
lead to our egoistic demise.
BUT, there are other examples that teach us a different perspective
regarding having power. I have been working with the IAC, as I said,
and many of the leaders are reading a book by Dennis Jacobsen,
titled, “Doing Justice.” I like some of what he has to say.
Jacobsen, first does what good writers do, he looks at the origins
of things. He goes to the Spanish derivative of the word power,
which is poder. It translates as, “the ability to act” or “to be
able.” This gives us a new meaning that is broader than the
traditional narcissist meaning. For Jacobsen, power is essentially
neutral. Rather, you decide what direction to go, in the service of
justice or injustice.
His theology by its very nature, its Christological, so he’s very
dichotomizing; he’s pretty black & white here, and I know as
Unitarian-Universalists we know there’s a lot of “luke warm water”
out there; many gray areas that move one from justice to injustice
very easily. It’s a matter of perspective; particularly if those in
power who make the rules and laws are unjust, then those rules and
dictates must be changed and some may see you as evil even though
you are working for good. So we operate on a sort of sliding scale.
Amen. But that’s not the point this morning. The point is that power
is not an evil word. We all have the ability to do something to
better our family, church, neighborhood, and our community. We are
all able-bodied people capable of changing our own destinies. We
have the power to change the world.
What in the world was it that gave William Channing the boldness to
speak out against institutionalism with the formation of the AUA, in
1825, as a lone voice for individualism?
What was it that gave Theodore Parker strength to fight for the
abolition of Slaves?
What gave A. Powell Davies, whom our building is named, the courage
to speak out against McCarthy?
What was it that gave a little man in India, Gandhi, the courage to
fight British imperialism?
There are so many examples…
It was a power deep from within, a deep conviction that moved and
stirred each one of them. They had “poder”—they had the ability to
act and they did. Jeremiah, in the Bible, had to speak out against
the sickness of his day. He said there was something in him that was
“like fire shut up in his bones.” It was an inner power crying out
to him, “make a difference Jeremiah. Do something about the trouble
in the land. Stand up for justice Jeremiah! And he could not rest
until he did.
We all have this sort power. It is a good type of power. It is
virtuous. And it is not just for prophets and preachers—it’s for all
of us; we all have the ability to do something positive with our
lives. We cannot let those who are corrupt have our word (power).
This is our word! This is a word for those who love justice. It is
for those who love mercy. It is for those who love equity. And if we
truly love justice, mercy and equity, we must seek to create the
beloved community. We have the ability to act!
In Christian theology, there’s a beautiful idea called “zim-zum”.
Don’t ask me where it comes from, cause I can’t remember. I believe
it comes from German scholarship. Just trust me on this one… It
means God loved humankind so much that God shrunk Godself down to
enter into the world in the man Jesus. God, in essence, humbled
Godself, out of unconditional love, to feel the struggles of
suffering humanity. God wanted to get in touch with humans and feel
their pain, their trials, and their tribulations. This poetry is
compelling. But don’t get caught up in the language or literalism.
There is a powerful symbolic message here for us. What we have is a
mythological projection of what humans interpret as the ultimate
sacrifice in life. When we give of ourselves, give our lives in the
service of others, there is no greater act we can do. This is deep
love. It’s the love of a mother who will struggle all her life for
her children. It’s deep love from a friend who helps a struggling
brother or sister out of a jam. It’s a powerful love that moves and
stirs us to act for those we know and don’t know.
The idea behind “zim-zum” is that there is strength in weakness.
True power is not in military might, in weapons of mass destruction,
but power is unconditional love that is given freely; the love that
is vulnerable and can be hurt so easily. As a parent with children,
I can’t tell you how vulnerable I feel sometimes. I have to care for
two and soon three beautiful lives. I have the will and power to do
it, but I feel weak and open. Now I have something to lose—something
precious to lose. And it weakens me. Sharon, my wife, knows what I’m
talking about. Many of you know too…
Zim-zum… I have to step down from my self-interest and because I
love them, enter my children’s world. I have to suffer by watching
them struggle with living, from the womb to adult life, as they try
to find their place in the universe. Oh… I wish I could help them
get through all the obstacles and to not make my mistakes. But then
a voice says, “No John. To live you have to let go.” To understand
victory you must have failure. This is the yin and yang in the
universe. Allow them to do their part. And it is this that tells me
that although I am weak, I am strong. In weakness I learn the true
meaning of sharing and loving, which is to sacrifice some of my
life-force, some of my being, so that my children and others might
live abundantly in our great web of interdependence, our great web
of mutuality—the circle of life. This is the deep symbolism behind “zim-zum”.
Giving in love is the greatest power on earth I know. There is
nothing else more complete or more divine than our ability to love.
Sometimes to gain power, we have to relinquish power.
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