"Greetings, Sinners!" - the Reverend Alison Hyder
August 10, 2003 - the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House of Provincetown
Opening Words: by Aung San SUU Kyl, the Daughter of Burma’s hero Aung San, and the leader of the National League for Democracy. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavor, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions, courage that could be described as “grace under pressure.” … grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure.”
MEDITATION: by contemporary Arab poet Huda Na’mani (Houda al-Namani)
- “Love Poem”
In your
quest or request God is remote.
Yet He alone can be your anchor and your space,
the pulse and the parts,
the vine and the separation.
If God
were a man, I would touch His robe
and burn into Him.
If He were a man, I would kiss His feet
and kneel or lie before Him.
I would cry, bleed, die . . .
But He is not a man,
not a body.
You yourself
are God because He made you,
classified you, gifted you and sailed within you.
You yourself are God because He sees you,
knows you, speaks to you,
enlightens you, bears you,
throws you, treads on you,
scatters and sunders and bolts within you.
You yourself are God because you exist.
The world is a moth in God’s hands,
and the moth is greater and more beautiful
than you because it is
smaller and larger than you.
Between
you and God are time and light.
Between you and God are sun and stars.
Between you and God are heaven and all created things.
But God
is not you, and you know best that God is not
because you are naked without God.
His fingers stretch from your head to your heart.
His hands are in your blood.
Your face and all the seas are but a bit of sand.
Yet you say you are God!
Do you dare to say that you will kiss God’s robe,
God’s chest, God’s feet?
Do you dare to say that you are God, and God is you?
Do you dare?
Do you dare?
READING: from the Hasidic Jewish Tradition.
The Baal Shem Tov was a mystic and a powerful master and teacher. He always had disciples around him striving to attain the highest degree of learning so they could come into the presence of God. Every afternoon this fortunate group gathered to listen to scriptures read by the Baal Shem. They believed that if one listened attentively, with acute powers of observation ad scholarly understanding, one might actually eventually reach the same state of holiness as the Baal Shem Tov.
So day after day the group listened to the remarkable lessons. Each of the students felt as if he were growing constantly more learned and wise, and that understanding was just around the corner. But each day, after the Baal Shem Tov had been reading for only a few minutes, one of the students would suddenly jump up, begin clapping his hands, singing and hopping around, grinning like a fool. The other students thought this man had shockingly few powers of concentration and was probably a simpleton. They couldn’t understand why the master would even allow him to sit for the readings. He was distracting and rude.
Each evening
they spoke of this man among themselves. They decided he must be a complete
dolt, and that the Baal Shem Tov was allowing him to attend out of kindness.
However, after this had been going on for some months, the students lost
patience. One day, as the man danced around the room, the students asked
the teacher, “Why do you permit this man to study with us? His wisdom
and judgment are obviously inferior!” “Indeed?” smiled
the Baal Shem Tov. “You find him ignorant. And yet, so absorbed
is he in the meaning of these lessons that after only a short time he
is filled with the love of God and can’t sit still. He dances in
joy. You, on the other hand, have felt nothing of God even after all these
months of learning. Which of you should be judged the wiser?”
SERMON: “Greetings, Sinners!” - Rev. Alison Hyder
Recently, our President put his faith into action when he denounced gay marriage. There is nothing wrong with that – he has a right to his own beliefs. But he also put the legal system into action; Bush has lawyers working to prevent the United States from legalizing same-sex unions. Meanwhile, Pope John Paul II, not content to forbid Catholic sacraments to gay people, published a 12-page document that says that countries must enact laws to defend marriage between men and women, and that (to quote from the document,) “in no way can other forms of cohabitation be placed on the same level as marriage, nor can they receive legal recognition as such.” [“Considerations to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons” by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith] The Pope has threatened to deny communion to those Catholic politicians who promote gay marriage, such as Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. He may go so far as to excommunicate them.
Canadian politicians aren’t listening. Prime Minister Chretien remarked, “I believe in the separation between Church and State.” Unfortunately, our American president does not. He believes firmly that his own form of Christianity is the only answer for this country, the only safeguard against degeneracy and decay.
“I’m mindful that we’re all sinners,” Bush declared, “and I caution those who may try to take the speck out of their neighbor’s eye when they have a log in their own. I think it’s very important for our society to respect each individual, to welcome those with good hearts – to be a welcoming country. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean that somebody like me needs to compromise on issues such as marriage.” [Press conference, July 30, 2003]
Obviously, Mr. Bush finds it much easier to quote the scriptures than to live them. While he is busy trying to impose his beliefs over our lives and families, he wantonly effects the destruction of people and cultures, of natural habitats, and of market controls that protect the public good. Of course, curtailing civil rights and invading privacy and personal freedoms are completely in line with the sort of authoritarian, legalistic dogmas that fundamentalists favor. They distrust life. They dismiss any views, any values, but their own. And if they imprison innocent people or bankrupt the country’s resources – well, they mean it for the best. We’re all sinners, after all.
The idea that we’re all born in sin is a Christian concept. It locates its roots and justification in the Old Testament, or what is more rightly called the Hebrew Bible. This is Jesus’ scripture, the Torah. But Christian authorities interpret the passages far differently than Jewish scholars. For Jews, the Torah is a record of the values and experiences that make them unique, and set them apart from other tribes. In trying to become a distinct people, the early Hebrews developed all sorts of laws and rituals to distinguish them from their gentile neighbors. It wasn’t just a matter of worshipping the One God, but of living consciously as God’s people. Religion must be practiced. And so the early priests created Jewish identity through a Jewish lifestyle.
Many things were forbidden to the early Jews. Leviticus, the book of Laws, lists pages and pages of duties. Some have to do with food and its preparation, some with treatment of servants and strangers, with religious offerings and prayer, and many to do with cleanliness and purity – washing your hands before meals, when in a woman’s cycle we can have sex, and which animals aren’t kosher to eat. It is clear that to the Hebrews, homosexuality (among men, at least – women aren’t mentioned) is declared to be ritually impure, an abomination.
The word “abomination” in Hebrew means “dirty” or yucky. These were the wanton kind of things the neighboring Gentiles did. With their laws, the Jews tried to separate themselves from the behaviors of the people around them and instead dedicate themselves to God.
The early Jews were concerned with cultural identity, protection, and procreation. In this context, homosexuality was a threat to Jewish survival. But there is a big distinction in the Hebrew wording between things that the Laws considered dirty and things that are intrinsically evil, like rape or theft or murder, actions that cause suffering or damage to others. An abomination is ritually impure, but not necessarily evil or a violation of the Commandments. [See Peter Gomes, The Good Book, and What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality, by Daniel A. Helminiak]
The early Hebrews believed that rules and rituals would help them maintain their identity and their coherence as a people of God. But although God is stringent, God always balances judgment with justice and compassion. Our imperfections are not individual, not solely our own fault, but are rooted in an imperfect world.
Unlike Christians, Jews do not teach that humans are inherently flawed or sinful. Rather, as Michael Lerner explains, the Hebrew word for sin - chyet - means “missing the mark.” We are like arrows aimed true that have gone off course. We can help each other get back on course, knowing that we will need constant reminders and guidance. And we will still make mistakes, still struggle to express love, to be generous and honest and unafraid. By asking God for compassion, we assert that this compassion is one of the most holy aspects of the universe, and that we will help bring more of it into the world. We do not need to be reconciled to God, for God accepts our full humanity. Instead, God waits for us to return to relationship with God. When we atone, we do not become perfect, but we release the shame that makes us afraid of God and keeps us apart.
Jesus took his Jewish teachings and emphasized the importance of creating communities of love. He affirmed the value of relationships – with God, and with each other. He said nothing about sexual expression, but condemned judgment and selfishness. Jesus was not concerned with “original sin” – a concept that would only be developed later by Christian scholars and priests – but rather with integrity and wholeness.
My colleague, Rev. Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley, was raised with a fundamentalist Christian view of sin and judgment. Rejecting these concepts, she struggled to describe the realities of suffering and evil. She discovered that her African heritage helped her to make sense of these concepts, saying “I have been intrigued by the concept of sin in traditional African religions because it so clearly spells out that sin is relational, not a private affair. A violation against the community is one of the most egregious of sins.” The same is true in Native American tradition, where all actions are grounded in relationships – not just with other people, but with all beings and all of life. One of the harshest Navaho accusations is to say “He acts like he doesn’t have a family.” This is the epitome of personal degradation and lack of responsibility, almost bordering on evil. [“The Demands of Harmony,” by Barrie Toelken, in I Become Part of It, ed. by Dooling and Jordan-Smith] In this view, a sin is anything that fractures community, that damages relationships or causes isolation and alienation. Hatred, vengeance, violence, and judgment – these are sins against humanity and against God. They deny the creative force of love and limit our full expression.
Rev. Bowens-Wheatley adds, “Our own [Unitarian theologian] James Luther Adams had a view of sin that mirrors many African religions to the extent that it involves community. He says that sinfulness expresses itself in indifference, in an unwillingness to be associational or to participate in the general welfare of the community.” [“Universals and Particulars in the Language of Sin,” preached at Community Church of NY, May 21, 1995] As Unitarian Universalists, we have always stressed service over belief. Helping others, seeking justice and improving human conditions – this is our religious calling. This is the way to satisfy God. Early Unitarians and Universalists didn’t worry whether Jesus was divine. They sought instead to live by his example and try to embody his holy goodness.
Mystics and transcendentalists of all traditions remind us that God must be felt to be known. Scriptures and rites are a path to God, but true wisdom comes when we embody God’s presence in our lives. The Baal Shem Tov realized that while most of his students were worrying about learning, only one truly experienced enlightenment. Only one danced his joy.
Actions of love, of praise, of creativity and achievement help us to experience the sacred and manifest the unity of all life and creation. God does not live in documents or laws, but in our hearts. That is the only place that is big enough and strong enough to fit. God must be embodied and incarnated within the verities of our experience. And that is why each of us must find our own truth, without shame or fear. No one else – whatever his title or power – can speak for the God who lives within us.
In the
Hebrew book of Deuteronomy, Moses says to his people, “How can we
recognize a word that the Lord has not spoken? If a prophet speaks in
the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place or prove true,
it is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously.
Do not be frightened by it.” [Deuteronomy 18:21-22]
In other words, we must still use our own judgment. The responsibility
for believing or rejecting a religious revelation still rests with our
experience and reason. We must test all claims against the truth of our
own lives.
And this is what scares the Pope, and has the fundamentalists all worried. Because they cannot legislate love, or control creativity. The truth continues to grow outside of their narrow and mean little boundaries.
Still, George W. Bush is correct in one way. Each one of us sins, because each one of us makes mistakes. We miss the mark. We’re impatient, irritable. We get angry and lash out at those around us. We hoard our resources and cut ourselves off from the source of generosity and renewal. Instead of trusting the divine spark of love within us, we isolate ourselves from others in fear or shame. We wound our souls with violence and abuse. We belittle our own gifts and potential. We try and fail, and sometimes we give up. We bury ourselves.
In one of his memoirs, Mark Doty recounts the moment he died to himself, in the incident that taught him shame and repression.
He was ten years old, and he and his friend Werner were in his room, dreaming of putting on a neighborhood show. Doty says, “…while I don’t recall the potential songs we rejected, I can’t forget the song I chose as my vehicle, the number I could completely throw myself into, which was a version of Judy Garland singing ‘Get Happy.’ … Somewhere I’ve found a red chiffon scarf, just the thing to hold for the performance, and a shiny black cane. I’m planning to locate black stockings and a tux jacket so I can achieve the whole look.”
Mark starts to practice, losing himself in the dream of glamour. He is possessed by the image of Judy Garland as he waves the long scarf around and shimmies to an imaginary orchestra, glittering brightly. He belts out the song, his voice rising with the words. “Forget your troubles, come on get happy, the Lord is waiting to take your hand! Shout Hallelujah, come on, get happy.” Suddenly his mother knocks on the door and appears, judgmental, demanding. “What are you doing?”
“You can’t do that for the neighbors….” She says, with a hiss, with shame and exasperation, Son, you’re a boy.
…Of course he knows he’s a boy, doesn’t need reminding. The fact that she feels she must tell him this means he has failed: he isn’t who she wanted, he absolutely does not know how to be who she wanted…
“You’re a boy” means I’m policing you right now, we’ve got your number, we see your deviant ways. …. You must be vigilant, impossibly vigilant, because you could slip anytime, you could make so many mistakes, you don’t even know what the mistakes are, since you don’t understand what it is you’re supposed to be.
You can’t hide from us now.
No – it means, Hide, hide as far as you can; what we already know we will put away from us, in a rigid little case, we will tuck it away in a hole… Echo of Kruschev on a TV screen, pounding and shouting: “We will bury you.”
Or worse, We will teach you to bury yourself.
You’re a boy: watershed between childhood and something else. I have been ushered into the world where adults live; I have been warned, have been instructed to conceal my longing. And though I will understand, someday, that without longing there’d be nothing to carry us forward, that without longing we wouldn’t be anyone at all, I can’t see that now. I’m a child, or I was until she said, You’re a boy. I am stunned and silent, caught in a shame that seems to have no place to come to rest. I have been initiated – whether because my mother wanted to punish or protect me – into an adult world of limit and sorrow. [Mark Doty, Firebird, 100-102]
It took Mark Doty years to rediscover that freedom, the dance of joy and exuberance that he knew as a child. Convinced of his sinfulness, his shame and confusion cut him off from his full self. Since he could no longer relate to himself, he could not connect with his family or the people around him. His truth was denied.
But over time, Doty discovered himself. He dug up his playful side, resurrected glamour and glitter and glory. He fell in love; he learned to trust his longings. And he found that his own truth was wiser and more sacred than anybody’s dogma.
No one person, no religion, owns God. God is not a doctrine. God lives within us, and finds expression in our joy, our fervor, in the ways that we manifest love through relationships of loyalty and respect. So trust the truth of your own experience. God is embodied in our breathing and singing, our caring and our tears, in a bold and glorious, shimmering dance.
The dance is universal. But the tune is all your own.
CLOSING WORDS: Huda Na’mani (Houda al-Namani)
Between
you and God are time and light.
Between you and God are sun and stars.
Between you and God are heaven and all created things.
Do you
dare to say that you are God, and God is you?
Do you dare?
Do you dare?
