Sermon

INTRODUCTION: Several years ago, while providing interim ministry at the First Universalist Church in Minneapolis, one of the parishioners there told me of an incident that had happened with her 5-year old daughter, Tonya:

On this particular Sunday, Tonya had gone to Mass with her aunt, her mother’s sister. When Tonya came home, her Mother asked her, “How did the service go?” “Fine,” said the five-year-old. “The priest godded me.” Her mother suddenly stopped, and said, “He did what?” Tonya said that the priest put his hand on her head and said, “God bless you.” And in five-year-old Tonya’s world view, “he godded” her. At first thought that is a version of five-year old fast-food language – “super size” me. However, there may well be a wisdom and understanding in that description far beyond age level.

Hold that imagery for a moment while I read our contemporary scripture, which comes from an obituary in a recent issue of the NYTimes.

As most Times readers agree, the obituaries of the Times are generally fascinating biographies of genuinely interesting people. The one I want to reference this morning recounts the passing of musical scholar and composer, Christopher Small. He evidently left behind several impressive and well-reviewed books in the musical field. One was the book, “Musicking.” In it, he argued that the word “music” is really an action, not an object – a verb, not a noun. Hence, the title of his book: Musicking.

In describing what he meant by coining this word, the NYTimes obit writer explained that Small “framed the book around the rituals of a symphonic concert in a modern hall: namely, the concertgoer’s experience of the building’s size and interior spaces, the ticket-taking, the seated arrangement of the players, the standards of excellence in individual performances, and the inevitable opining after the concert about whether it was any good.”

“Mr. Small’s aim,” the writer added, “was to decipher the signals that are everywhere being given and received.” Small stressed that all people involved in a musical performance – the musicians, audience, roadies, publicists, cleaning crew, etc. – are part of its ritual.” In other words, the act of “musicking” is more than just musicians performing, but it’s everyone who is in anyway involved with a musical event. They were or are “musicking.”

Now let’s put together the two incidents I just mentioned to you: the 5-year-old being godded, and Christopher Small’s coining of the word, “musicking.” They introduce the first of the three connections that provide the title for the sermon: “The Three Connections to a Meaningful Life!”

A quote we’ve utilized many times, which might well be part of the All Faiths canon of scripture, comes from Albert Einstein. He wrote:

"A human being is a Part of the Whole which we call ‘the Universe,’ a Part which feels limited in time and space. The Part experiences ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separate from other Parts and the rest of the Universe. That is really a kind of optical illusion of consciousness….

In the same way, I would also suggest that many of us struggled at one time or another in our lives to break free from the superstitions of childhood religion. In dismissing the notion of God as the Great White Father on a throne, with a long grey beard, and wearing bifocals, we may also have tossed the notion of the pervasive nature of divinity as well. That’s why one of the presuppositions informing the litany that Jeanne Ezell led so well this morning was very simple: to disabuse us all of the simplistic notions of “god,” that many of us may have carried forward, much in the same way as we continue to feel that we are separate and apart from the rest of the Universe. So let me ask you these questions that presuppose a much different theological understanding of God:

1. In the new physics, as explained in Werner Heisenberg’s famous “Uncertainty Principle,” a subatomic particle is not quite real until it is actually observed. QUESTION: Is it possible that this is a participatory Universe in which we are engaged in making “god” real?

2. Before those of us who are atheists overreact to the use of the word, “god,” let me say this: A “vocable” can be a random sequence of sounds or letters, rather than a unit of meaning. In other words, any word sound or combination of letters is meaningless until we give it meaning. Question: Is the word “god” the original Vocable…a sequence of three letters without any meaning…that is, until we make it so?

3. In most vocabularies, the use of the word “god” is meant to imply some variation on the theme of a divine being, infinite in wisdom, love and power. QUESTION: What if instead we thought of god as a verb, that is, a process, of which we are a positive or negative participant?

4. Santayana declared that every species has an innate sense of trust and confidence in the created order. I think that’s one of the reasons we feel so strongly against those who abuse children or torture pets, because they destroy that most basic gift to the species: trust and confidence about their place in the world. QUESTION: Is our most difficult task recognizing the divinity that is within us all, awaiting expression?

On Friday, Karol Kronseder, Joyce Schaffer and Tom Gehringer were at the monthly board meeting of the McGregor Clinic, which serves more than 750 AIDS and HIV patients, more than 40% of whom are women with children. Three days before that meeting, on Tuesday, I took Regina, our Office Manager to the Clinic. I wanted her to see and know that when people give their clothes every third week of the month, here’s where it lands. The clinic is so packed that one of the Case Workers has no desk of her own. She rotates to wherever a desk is empty, and when there are none of those, to the front office working with a computer on her lap.

On Monday afternoon, I met at Harry Chapin Food Bank with Rabbi Barres and three representatives of the Pt. Charlotte UU Congregation to discuss an event next Spring, when we hope to have every congregation that will, to have their members give at least a $1 each to put food on the shelves at Harry Chapin.

Earlier that morning I gave the invocation to the Port Authority Commissioners, who are also the same as the Lee County Commissioners, knowing that the following day they would be faced with passing a state ordered resolution forbidding them to put up No guns allowed signs in parks, on beaches, and in airports. The next day I went to that Tuesday meeting, now the County Commissioners, and spoke against their accepting that resolution. I was proud that our member Brian Bigelow, as well as Commissioner Ray Judah voted against it.

Just three weeks ago, we all gave support to the bike riders headed towards Lakeland, Florida to confront hopefully the CEO of Publix to assure that the agricultural workers of Immokalee are given a halfway decent wage, and protected against the abuses so current in those fields. Peggy JSingh and Evelyn Evans have faithfully travelled once a month to Immokalee to purchase fresh vegetables that each of us buys the next day here after services.

Come Thanksgiving season, Doug and Dianne Cartwright will be heading up our drive at the Nations Associations to provide a Thanksgiving Dinner for some 500 or so mostly Hispanic families. They will also be given bags of groceries to take home.

By the first of October, we will be asking our membership to indicate what kind of financial support they choose to make to All Faiths for the next six months. Incredibly, for the past ten years, twice a year I’ve written a letter asking what you anticipate giving. So far, it’s been a lynch pin in getting us to this good day.

And think about all the time, energy and money that so many of you have given to transform this facility we are so proud of. It’s amazing how many have worked so hard, and how many have given so much.

But let me tell you something about all this giving and all these good deeds: We all think we’re giving to the needs of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, to McGregor Clinic, to the Nations, and to All Faiths, because they need it. And certainly, what we’ve done has made a distinct difference.

But do you know who really needs the giving: You and me. Built into our DNA is a need to give to others. What Midge does, what Ed Elrod does, what each of our leaders in the services here today have done: It might have seemed they were doing that for us. But in reality, they were doing it because they need it…we all need community and we need to give to the many, many communities of which we are a part, including the planet.

The most miserable people on Earth are those who don’t give, don’t share, don’t care about the oppressed, or those in need. They are also the ones who do the most damage.

Being concerned for others at this particular time in America is vital. If I had time this morning I would address the incredible threat to this nation that the radical right-wing of the Republican Party known as the Tea Party represents. In their view every progressive step forward that America made in the 20^th Century was unconstitutional. Since Ronald Reagan Regan became president in 1980, there has been a gradual erosion of the safety net for the needy, plus a diminution of the guarantees afforded us by the Constitution. But I digress.

So let me say loud and clear: the first connection for a meaningful life is one, to be anchored in the Cosmos, to have brought forward that innate sense of self-confidence that we not only have, but are able consciously to affirm and be aware of.

The second connection is to know we need to give to others. The third connection is this:

A meaningful life must, in some sense be one of being involved with and/or giving to things worthwhile. But equally important, for it to be meaningful, we must also feel that what we are doing is worthwhile.

What that means in essence is itself the third connection: namely, an awareness that we are giving to worthwhile causes, which we also feel good about giving to. Let me repeat: The third connection for a meaningful life is one, an awareness that we are giving to worthwhile causes, and two, that we feel good about doing it.

In Washington, DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about an hour. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After about three minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About four minutes later: The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At six minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At ten minutes: A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent – without exception – forced their children to move on quickly.

After he had played for 45 minutes, only 6 people had stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money, but they continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After one hour, he finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell played to a sold-out theater in Boston to which tickets averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music he performed in the subway.

The full story though is this: Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was sponsored by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

Which says to me that some of life’s most meaningful and precious opportunities may be awaiting our discovery…in places we would least expect…and from people we may really be greatly underestimating.

In a moment, I will ask you to close your eyes, and breathe in and out three times, and then open your eyes and smile at the person near you. Ready?

One more: Put your palms together in front of you and turn to someone near to you and say,

[1] A sermon presented on September 18, 2011, at All Faiths Unitarian Congregation, 2756 McGregor Blvd., Ft. Myers, FL by the Rev. Dr. Wayne A. Robinson, minister.

[2] Susan Wolf, “Meaning in Life and Why It Matters” is an excellent resource on the topic.