Sermon

INTRODUCTION: In last Thursday’s New York Times, you may have read about new searches and discoveries being made in our cosmos, as the result of analyzing three years of data received from the Hubble Space Telescope. The article said that giant stars 100 times as massive as our sun formed, exploding and scattering elements like oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and iron into the hitherto empty outreaches of space. These were the material for a new generation of stars. The article also spoke of a quirk of Einsteinian gravity, the shifting of wavelengths, and the ongoing expansion of the Universe.

The next morning as I walked in the early morning darkness, I looked up in the sky at some of the stars in our Milky Way Galaxy that still were shining, so numerous as to be far beyond my capacity to count them.

I thought of the astronauts in the International Space Station that’s being assembled as I speak. It’s orbiting Earth at 17,000 miles per hour, 220 miles high overhead. As the astronauts work, they’re being guided by Mission Control here on Earth. Ever since the station was launched in 1998, it’s been a continuing construction project.

Three times this past week, one of the two astronauts outside the Station dropped a bolt, or nut, that was part of the process of installing a massive 240-foot solar array. But not to worry: They were told by Mission Control that the bolts, nuts, and springs flew off into space without damaging the station. For each next step, they checked in with Mission Control and wound up removing some 240 bolts in all.

As I thought about when our Universe came into existence, and compared that with how our Space Station depends on guidance and direction from Mission Control on Earth, I wanted to raise my hand in the cosmic classroom, and ask whoever is directing this course in Universe 101, “What about us…we out here on the fringes of the Milky Way on this little planet? When the Big Bang banged, what was the plan for us? How were we supposed to get along? What were the pieces that we were to put together? What was to happen if we dropped something or several some things? Whatever and whomever and however this planet got started and life began, did the directions include self-installation, a do-it-yourself kit, or did that get lost in transmission?

Because if it matters to the Universe about our progress, somebody somewhere needs to know that on this planet, we are goofing up big time! Does anybody know what to do?

For example, we can provide technology to send a woman up 220 miles to work in space, but we can’t provide healthcare for millions of mothers in America who have fulltime jobs but don’t make enough for hospitalization insurance. In America, one of the most blessed parts of the planet, we’ve learned how to send an army to invade Iraq, but we haven’t learned how to send food, clean water, medicine, and hope to three billion other residents here on this planet who live on less than $2 a day. We talk about creating peace in the Middle East, and then we spend billions in making war and causing havoc throughout the Middle East.

Was this the way it was supposed to be back in that long distant morning when the suns began to shine, planets to orbit and galaxies to form? If not, what happened along the way?

We’re not only killing each other in battle, but slowly making our planet less and less habitable, either by making the air we breathe less breathable, or raising the water level of the oceans through global warming.

Those are questions we would like answers to. And if there’s no chance for starting over, and we can’t transfer to another planet, or soar off into the stars, then what are we supposed to be doing? What’s the meaning of it all? Did we miss orientation day?

These are really the questions that inform worship: who, what, when, where, why, and how? Those aren’t religious questions: they are human questions. Religion talks about answers, not questions. These are questions being asked at this very moment by the starving in the Sudan, and the dying in Darfur. They are the questions being asked now by those stricken with AIDS in Africa and in impoverished countries across the globe as millions die because mega-wealthy pharmaceutical firms insist on making huge profits off the dying. They’re the cries of those whom America has jailed without charges and held for four years without recourse to trial in Guantanamo Bay, which is the concentration camp we’ve built on the tip of the island of Cuba. They’re the fellow human beings we’ve tortured in American CIA camps around the world. They’re the innocents dying in Iraq. Remember: Every time a mother’s child dies in Baghdad, America may not think it’s important enough to keep count of that death, but you can be sure his mother did, his father did, his sister and brother did.

Anytime we come to worship, it’s not to navel gaze, or to act as though we can ignore the rest of the world. Rather, the meaning of worship comes from two Old English words, which mean, “worth shaping.” And from “worth shaping” comes “worshipping.” To be religious is to believe that life is “worth shaping.” That it matters how we talk, and how we walk our talk.

Shakespeare had Hamlet saying, “To be or not to be: that is the question.” No, it’s not. The question is, “How to be?” It’s the question that we are asking by our presence here this morning. How are we to live? I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings…but there were no instructions that came with evolution…our creation…our birth. So how do we go about shaping our lives?

The first thing we realize is it helps to have others to shape it with…to have a community of support that cares about being present as we struggle to make meaning and to do it together.

One of the religious traditions that we honor at All Faiths is Judaism. They are one of the first world religions with a written record suggesting that it helps to take time-out every seven days just to make sure our “worth-shaping” is on target, that the six days past and the six days ahead will be in sync. It’s what the Jews meant by observing the Sabbath –that one-day when we call time out. It is a day when we practice taking a regular, structured time to rest, to be with friends and loved ones, to sing, to think and reflect, to listen, to consider the meaning of our existence before it is over, to meditate and even to prayer. And in ancient Judaism, for inspiration, they said even God does it.

The point is we don’t have to reinvent the wheel: Somebody else has already been there and done that. They even wrote it down for us, and told wonderful myths about how it happened. The fact that we meet on Sunday instead of Saturday, or worship in the morning, rather than the evening is really not the point. That’s a cultural distinction. But the under girding point is the importance of taking time to take time-out…to worth-shape.

I read recently some guidelines for staying safe. They stated, "Do not ride in automobiles; they cause 20 percent of all fatal accidents. Do not stay at home; 17 percent of all accidents occur in the home. Do not walk on the street or sidewalk; 14 percent of all accidents occur to pedestrians. Do not travel by air, rail or water; 16 percent of all accidents happen on these. However, only .001% (one-thousandth of one-percent) of all deaths reported occur in worship services. Hence, the safest place for you to be on Sunday morning is in a place of worship.”

And when we come together in a place of worship, we also learn that we can shape our own lives as well. In fact, Spanish philosopher Jorge Santayana felt that our species is the only one that can look at the past, whether it’s six days or six years, and then determine that in the next six days or the next six years we want to live differently. We can reflect on how we’ve lived and then say we want to do better. We can worth shape our lives. That is we shape them based on values that matter to us.

In our order of service this morning, we’ve included a card that has the address of where we will be meeting, starting two weeks from today, Oct. 1^st. It also shows that our office information, phone, FAX and e-mail are still the same, over in the Edwards Building.

But we put something new inside that describes some of the ways we’ve come to understand ourselves theologically. They are how we’ve learned to worth shape our lives. So if you would, look at it with me for a moment:

We believe in the encompassing Mystery of existence, which many of us call God…

I’m sure it will not be a surprise for you to learn that we have people with Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu heritage and beliefs, as well as atheist, agnostic and humanist. We sit together, we sing together, we read together and listen together, and we care one for another, but also, “We believe in the encompassing Mystery of existence, which many of us call God.”

We also recognize there is a distinct vocabulary, a religious language of faith, which enriches our “worth-shaping.” We know that there are sacred writings that are revered and held highly by people around the world. We ourselves benefit from them, many of us have read them, and studied them. Which is why:

We believe religious language and sacred scriptures can be thought of as the poetry of faith, which is why we repeat creeds, sing hymns, meditate, pray, and affirm each other’s unique spiritual search…

I always feel free to use religious language, to talk about God, Jesus, Muhammad, the Buddha, to have meditation, to offer prayers and to quote from the holy scriptures of them all. They are the poetry of faith by which we explore how to live our lives…how to worth-shape them.

But there’s more: None of us…makes any effort to convince all of us…to believe like any of us. We love it because we have so many different paths on which we trod. Not because we enjoy difference for difference’s sake, but because we truly are added to by what others bring to the party. That’s why we say:

We believe that diversity enriches us all, whether it’s differences of gender, age, political affiliation, sexual orientation, race or religious heritage…

We have several gay and lesbian members. We think that they should be able to marry just like a woman and man are. With the rate of divorce and marriage, the miracle of modern birth control, and the fact that so many are living longer, few believe that marriage is only for procreation – having children. Rather, at All Faiths we believe that marriage is a blessing and the public validating of a loving relationship that is already there. There is no reason whatsoever to withhold affirmation of two people in love, regardless of whether they are women, men, or any combination thereof.

But the belief we just read was not only about diversity of sexual orientation: It mentions religious heritage. I was keenly disappointed this past week by Pope Benedict’s deplorable criticism of historic Islam. He quoted an awful 14^th century emperor, Manuel II Paleologus. It was provocative, prejudicial and irresponsible. As the chief spokesperson for the church that blessed sending soldiers by the thousands in the Crusades to kill Muslims before and during the time of the pope he quoted, he should know better.

At All Faiths, we are blessed when our Muslim friends join us for special days of celebration. They have welcomed us with open arms time and again at their mosque. We love to have the Muslim call to prayer open our service.

From the card, let me also note the phrase, “political affiliation.” All Faiths is not a Democratic congregation, nor is it a Republican one. Were it a Democrat doing the terrible things President Bush is doing, I promise I would be as critical of him as I am of this administration. I know there are those who say we should keep politics out of religion. Actually that was first said by Pharaoh to Moses. But we believe that a faith that doesn’t go beyond the church doors, or the doors of the synagogue, or mosque is only half complete. Faith engages the world and does not hesitate to proclaim with the prophet Micah, “Let justice roll down like mighty waters.”

Finally, we place a huge emphasis upon faith’s refraction into society. There are so many of you involved in our community in so many different ways. That’s why the card says:

We believe that ultimately faith is not so much the creeds we say, as it is the lives we live, which is why we seek constantly to be involved in issues that matter.

I serve on the board of the McGregor Clinic, which has some 540 active patients diagnosed with AIDS or HIV-virus. At our board meeting last Wednesday night, they mentioned two of our congregants: The director said that when they were first trying to get going, some people would help them, but didn’t want it known because of the clientele they were serving. But they said our member Jim Nathan said, “Please use my name if it will help in anyway.” They also are so proud of Dale Weber who just keeps working week after week to raise money for them and to get things they need. Thanks to efforts like theirs, McGregor Clinic is doing better than it’s ever done in its history.

CONCLUSION

Rosh Hashanah is coming up this weekend, and there’s a funny Jewish story I want to share. A young rabbi had a serious problem in his new congregation. During Shabat half the congregation stood for prayers and half remained seated. When they met to discuss it, each side shouted at the other, insisting that theirs was the true tradition.

Finally, in desperation, the young rabbi sought out the synagogue's 99-year-old founder in the nursing home and poured out his troubles. "So tell me," he pleaded, "was it the tradition for the congregation to stand during the prayers?"

"No," answered the old rabbi. "Ah," responded the young man, "then it was the tradition to sit during the prayers?"

"Well," the young rabbi responded, "what we have is complete chaos! Half the people stand and shout, and the other half sit and scream." "Ah," said the old man, "THAT was the tradition."

Five years ago at this time, Sept. 16, 2001, we started our journey as a community of faith. With the help of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics, and Humanists, we’ve created a unique community of faith, to which every participant belongs. And we’ve also developed our own traditions that we celebrate. One of them is to have a catered meal each year at this time in celebration of our startup five years ago. However, this year we decided to postpone our celebration until the middle of next month when we will be in our new facility at Crestwell School. Nonetheless, it’s been an amazing time for which we give great thanks and blessing on this 5^th Anniversary. Amen and blessed be.

[1] Given September 17, 2006 at All Faiths Unitarian Congregation, meeting in the Foulds Theater at the Alliance for the Arts, 10091 McGregor Boulevard, Ft. Myers, FL, by the Rev. Dr. Wayne Robinson, minister, as a reflection on his study leave this summer at Oxford University.