Sermon

INTRODUCTION: Three persons arrived at the Pearly Gates of heaven at the same time. St. Peter came and asked if they would mind waiting for a moment before entrance? He also informed them that there was a basic spelling test required of all applicants to heaven. He was gone quite a long time, but finally he returned and called one of the new arrivals in and asked if she had minded waiting.

"Oh, no," she said, "I've looked forward to this for so long. I’m a practicing Muslim and I love Allah and I can't wait to meet the prophet Muhammad. I didn’t mind waiting at all." St. Peter then said, "Well, I have one more question. How do you spell 'god'?" She swallowed, having experienced, while still living, the ignorance of Westerners, who didn’t know that Allah is simply Arabic for “God.” Nonetheless, she went ahead and spelled “god” in Arabic: “A-l-l-a-h." "Very good,” St. Peter said. “Go right on in."

Next, he went outside and invited another new arrival to come on inside, and said, "Did you mind waiting?" The man said, "It was not a problem. Besides, I have been a practicing Jew all my life. I’ve learned to be patient.” St. Peter then asked if he would write the name of “god?” The man responded, “Oh, no! As many of my fellow Jews, we treasure and revere the name of God so much that we do not spell it or write it out, so as to preclude its ever being erased.” St. Peter said that was good enough and sent him into heaven.

Then he went back out and invited the third person in and asked her if she had minded waiting. "As a matter of fact, I did," she replied. "Actually, I’m a Unitarian, and I didn’t believe this place really existed, and even if it does, I’m not sure I should be here." St. Peter said, "I’m terribly sorry. Do you mind a brief test before entrance?” She said, “That’s fine. Who wrote the test? And why would you have a spelling test of all things to get into heaven? Besides, surely in heaven, men aren’t still the ones in charge. By the way, is this Pearly Gate thing handicap accessible?” St. Peter shook his head and said, “I understand now why you’re our first Unitarian.” Then he asked his spelling question, “How do you spell…Czechoslovakia?"

Speaking of spelling, my sister sent me an e-mail of an actual 9.1.1 phone call made. The man reported to the dispatcher that his wife had been attacked by a wild pig. The dispatcher asked where he lived. He answered, “1417 Eucalyptus.” The dispatcher asked, “Would you spell that please?” There was an extended pause, and the dispatcher repeated her request for the spelling. The caller answered, “That’s okay. I’ll just drag her down to Oak Street. That’s o-a-k.”

Sometimes in life, it’s the really simple things that throw us for a loop; other times, they are much more substantive. I know we’ve all felt relief that the flurry of recent hurricanes wasn’t any worse than it’s been for SW Florida, but at the same time, it’s terrible what has happened to those living in other parts of the Gulf of Mexico coastline.

Sometimes life throws a curve that we are unprepared for…maybe it’s family, relationship, work, or the weather. Regardless, it’s caught us unaware…we’re off balance…needing a shoulder to lean on…a handhold to hold on to…. Sometimes, it’s for the most basic of needs, such as food.

I’m not sure whose idea it was, but last week All Faiths held a food drive to benefit the Harry Chapin Food Bank, which in turn benefits the 122 agencies they provide food for. We learned from Al Brislaine, their Executive Director, that there are more than 100,000 people in our community who are reduced to seeking food from the agencies they supply. Our congregation not only came up with more than a $1,000 for them, but with the help of the community, we also collected a 1,000 pounds of food.

Coincidentally, after today’s service, we will be eating the meal that Steve and Chris Fisher cook every month for the homeless in N. Ft. Myers at the All Souls Episcopal Church. Chris and Steve said that when they started doing this sometime back that the numbers always go down in the summertime, and then increase to as many as 200 to 250 during season, in the winter months. This year, however, they are already serving more than 200, and it’s still summertime.

But it’s not only food: Every day as I drive back and forth from my residence, the neighborhood is now dotted with homes where the grass is knee-high and the owners have been foreclosed on; and an unusually high number of homes sport “For Sale” signs.

Let me take just a moment here. We need to realize that in a great many of these cases, it’s not because of anything these homeowners did wrong, necessarily, but our government in Washington fought regulation in the marketplace, and greed ran rampant. As a result, greedy giant companies are also now facing bankruptcy. And the homeowners in Cape Coral and Ft. Myers, and Lehigh and Bonita Springs are paying the consequences.

I can remember a time in America, when no matter how tough things were, and even if one had to file for bankruptcy, your home was your homestead, and it could not be taken from you, no matter how many debts you had. But three years ago, after eight years of lobbying by the banking and credit card industry, the laws were rewritten. Low-income working people, single mothers, minorities, the elderly, those who no longer have a job, or are facing crushing medical bills – they lost their safety net. They lost their homes. This despite the fact that the number of personal bankruptcy filings was decreasing!

The new bankruptcy law specifically removed homestead exemptions. Whereas some portions of the new law were delayed, the homestead provisions went into effect immediately upon the signing of the bill.

And yet if you go back and read the spin put on the bill, would you believe that the purpose of the bill was to benefit homeowners, not the banking and credit card industries. In fact, before signing the bill in March 2005 – that’s just 3½ years ago – can you believe that our president said, "These commonsense reforms will make the system stronger and better, so that more Americans — especially lower-income Americans — have greater access to credit." Just 3½ years ago, that kind of bologna was being peddled. It was never about lower-income Americans, but giant corporations and the wealthy.

It may be called “class warfare” but don’t ever forget: The agenda of too many of the wealthy power brokers in government is to make the poor think that their interests lie in supporting the policies of the rich – which could not be further from the truth.

Our only hope in this current election cycle is that whomever is elected will tack back to the concerns of the huge proportion of Americans without health insurance, those working fulltime but unable to support themselves, and the enormous number needing the most basic forms of help – including food!

Before I leave the subject, did you know that until the 1980s, America had a safety net that virtually insured that no American would ever have to go hungry? You know what it was: food stamps. But starting in the 1980s, food stamp restrictions have been put into place that now, even eliminate food for children. Why aren’t those the issues we’re talking about in this election cycle?

These are tough times. Tough times in our area…tough times at our work place or community…and tough times simply surviving.

I’ve had reason recently to revisit Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s pioneering work on the stages of grief. Back in the 1960s, she wrote what still stands as one of the definitive texts on the matter. She said the stages apply not only to death and dying, but also to any form of catastrophic personal loss such as losing a job, a drastic reduction in income, or the loss of personal freedom. It can include divorce, the end of a significant relationship, or even infertility.

She also noted that the stages don’t always come in the same order and not everyone necessarily goes though all of them. But they are a proven model of how our species in the Western world deals with grief. So if you’ve been going through any of the tough times I cited above, or through some that I didn’t mention, see if you can recognize which stage of the grieving process you are in, or have gone through:

One of the reasons for my identifying them is so that we can recognize when we are going through them, that what is happening to us isn’t unique to us. Others have gone through them, or are doing so right now. The fact that they’ve gotten through them means that we can too. The stages of grief are real for everyone, and sometimes it’s even necessary to work intentionally at moving beyond a given stage.

In one of her other classics, Handbook for the Soul, Dr. Kubler-Ross writes these profound words:

Over the years, I have learned that every life circumstance, even a crisis, can nourish our soul. Recently, the farm and home that I have loved so much for so many years burned down in a horrible fire. Everything that I owned, without exception, was lost. There was even speculation that foul play was involved.

At moments like those, we stand at a fork in the road. If we take the fork most commonly traveled, we collapse, we give up, feeling hopeless and defeated. We focus on the negatives, losing ourselves in the "problem." We point to our unhappy circumstances to rationalize our negative feelings. This is the easy way out. It takes, after all, very little effort to feel victimized.

We can, however, take the other fork. We can view the unhappy experience as an opportunity for a new beginning. We can keep our perspective, look for the growth opportunities, and find an inner reservoir of strength.

How do we do that? Norman Cousins, after being given a serious diagnosis and a brief prognosis, said two things about it in his book Anatomy of an Illness (As Perceived by the Patient).

That’s another way of saying, Claim life as it’s been dealt you. I think all of us have those “what if” times in our backgrounds. What if we had moved there instead of here, had that job instead of this one, married that person instead of the one we married, formed a sacred union with this partner rather than that one, gone to that school instead of this one? What if?

“What if” is the sabotage of our soul that denies us the joy of celebrating this good moment. Every job has its downs. Every area has its negatives. Every partner or spouse has her or his bad points. Perfection is a myth. There is no such thing.

The second thing Cousins wrote is: Defy the prognosis! Defy the limits on the future that have been predicted for you!

One of the lessons from the great play and movie, The Wizard of Oz, is that everyday is like a trip down the Yellow Brick Road. And we’re sometimes like the Scarecrow, Tin Man and or the Lion. We get into thinking that there is some external source that will give us courage, wisdom and heart to face the mountains before us.

Oz makes it clear though, that Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion already possessed what they thought they were missing. Their respective problems were they didn’t realize it. They didn’t grasp their own natures. So too for us: We already have courage, heart and brain.

So in these tough times, don’t forget it: With the right attitude, you have within you the potential for courage, for heart, and for brain.

There is a story that Michelangelo was once asked to judge another person's painting. Naturally, it was someone who couldn't light a candle to his genius. Nonetheless, Michelangelo proceeded to judge the other painting by pointing out some of the good features exhibited by the artist. Later another painter present accused Michelangelo of not being honest in his criticism. To which Michelangelo replied, "I criticize by creating."

I like to think that’s what we did 7½ years ago in February 2001, when we founded All Faiths on what came to be our Founders Day at Gulf Harbour Golf and Country Club, followed by beginning to have services on Sept. 16, 2001. One of the neat things about it is, we positioned ourselves to create rather than to criticize. And what a wonderful seven years it’s been. Thank you so much for the opportunity to serve as your settled ministry during this time.

We will pause for 7½ minutes of brief questions as a part of our Conversation Café. The Service and Support Council will provide microphones for you to speak into.

[1] A sermon presented September 14, 2008, as the second sermon in a series, “Tough Faith for Tough Times,” followed by the Conversation Café of All Faiths Unitarian Congregation, meeting at the Crestwell School, 1904 Park Meadows, Ft. Myers, FL, with the Rev. Dr. Wayne Robinson, minister – our 7^th anniversary!