Joining Role and Soul
"From within this world my despair is transformed to hope and I begin anew the legacy of caring." - Rev. Dr. Thandeka
We have only started.
Friends, we are at the beginning of what is likely to be a long haul fight for the dignity and respect of each and every person, for decency and engaged democracy. A fight to let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed.(1)
Much will be asked of us - of you - in the days and weeks to come.
Our job right now is to ensure our minds and hearts and souls are
open and nourished and ready
so we can respond and lead
from a place of faithful purpose.
A few days ago,
Throop member George Patton
reminded me of song lyrics by Donovan:
Happiness runs in a circular motion
Thought is like a little boat upon the sea
Everybody is a part of everything anyway
You can have everything if you let yourself be …
In every faith tradition -
Unitarian Universalist
Jewish
Christian
Buddhist
Hindu
The great teachers remind us that if we desire a strong
mind/heart/spirit connection,
we must learn how to let ourselves BE in the moment,
and remove ourselves from always doing,
from always being focused on the outcome.
But in this past week,
it’s been pretty difficult to
just let ourselves be,
no matter how strong our meditation or prayer practice.
Have you been feeling that way?
We in this congregation
hold such a range of emotions
about what the election results say
about the America we live in.
We wonder,
what is the core of this nation,
that could elect a person
who built a campaign on
hate, divisiveness, sexism,
racism, xenophobia?
In an article focused on post-election trauma,
one woman said that as she watched the televised returns come in,
with one state after another turning red
to reflect Trump’s victory there,
“it felt like America was bleeding.” (2)
Of course,
for a lot of Americans,
it’s felt like our country has been bleeding for a long time.
Langston Hughes described it powerfully.
Muslims, African Americans, immigrants …
the hateful words
and aggressive actions aren’t new to them.
What is new is that
the eyes of a larger population
- a white population -
are now opened to it in a whole new way.
I’ve talked to a lot of you in the last few days.
Many of us have still been deeply immersed in our grief and anger.
It’s as if we’ve been sitting shiva,
the Jewish custom of setting aside seven days
to mourn the death of a loved one.
But we’ve had our days of mourning.
It’s time to set aside our grief
and turn to the world,
the streets of the city,
the worn tapestries of (3)
profit, power, gain. (4)
It’s time for us to assess, analyze, organize and mobilize.
And for each one of you,
my guess is your big question isn’t DO I take action in some way -
but WHICH direction do I go in?
Already, there are a million and one ways
to resist the onslaught of hate,
to resist the appointments of white supremacists
and climate deniers
to key posts in the new administration.
Just in the last week,
I’ve been to multiple community meetings
focused on organizing and mobilizing our progressive resources,
and we fill pages upon pages upon pages of newsprint,
with incredible and worthy and needed actions
of resistance.
We have Hands Around City Hall,
Million Woman Marches
Calling Our Congresspeople to protest Bannon’s appointment
Asking city leaders to name Pasadena a sanctuary city
Defending reproductive rights
Shielding muslims from registering
Ensuring freedom of the press
Lobbying for voting rights
Remaining in the Paris Climate Agreement.
One gathering I attended captured 80 worthy policies and people
to defend and protect -
and there were still participants ready to share more ideas.
The passion of people leaves me breathless and hopeful …
and breathless and exhausted before we even start.
There is so much at stake.
We are concerned about the real lives of real people.
And I want to jump in and do all the things,
all the actions,
to never sleep or clean my house or do laundry
or any of the simple, mundane tasks of life.
I’m ready!
Deal me in.
And yet … I know that’s not sustainable.
And ultimately not helpful to anyone.
As I said at the beginning of the sermon,
you and I are looking at long haul work.
We didn’t get here overnight.
We need to cultivate patience, determination, and strategy;
we need to remember that sometimes our job
is to follow someone else’s direction;
and we must hold onto hope.
Every single one of us has a role to play.
Our spiritual work is determining what is ours to do,
and what is ours to let go of?
What we don’t want is to become paralyzed
by overwhelm.
Hildegard of Bingen reminds us:
We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others.
An interpreted world is not a home.
Part of the terror is to take back our own listening.
To use our own voice.
To see our own light.
This month’s worship theme is “manifestation.”
One meaning of manifestation is the making visible of something.
In this month’s covenant groups,
Everett and I asked,
Which values do you feel like you make
most visible in your own life?
During our covenant group,
the word that immediately came to my mind: community.
And those of you who have heard me preach before
know that I struggle some with that word.
And yet, my entire adult life has been marked by
long-time commitments to a people and a place,
and for bringing people together
in ways that help them find their own voice.
What value do you most manifest in your own self?
How can you lean into that value
to determine how you will resist oppression and hate?
How you will use your own voice,
see your own light?
Let your values lead you.
In the midst of her despair and trying desperately to find hope,
one of my colleagues created a list of mantras
she is repeating to herself every morning,
so she can keep moving forward.
One of the phrases on her list:
This is a global struggle.
There is no place to run from it.
Go where your connections are deepest,
that's where you have the most power. (5)
Mine deepest connections are right here.
At one of the community meetings I mentioned earlier,
the opening question was,
what are you holding onto right now?
Mine was Throop Church.
You all.
I’m proud,
heartened,
about the way we’ve been responding
with love and purpose.
Not only since November 8.
But in so many ways in our community:
- on environmental issues
- on affordable housing and homelessness
- on police oversight
One of our city council people made a comment about Throop:
“You all are forward thinking. You keep showing up.”
Eighty percent of success is showing up,
they say,
so we’re doing pretty well.
How will your values,
your connections,
call you to show up,
to stop the bleeding of America?
We will all make individual decisions and choices.
But we need to also show up as Throop.
These are the ways I want us to show up,
to use our voices and shine our light,
over the next weeks and days
as a collective Throop UU Church.
These will all be in our Tuesday Tidings
and Sunday Bulletins
and Facebook page.
to express our commitment to tolerance and free speech,
and our concern for the planet, followed by a call to action.
2. An Evening of Hope and Resistance with Congresswoman Judy Chu, December 12, 7 pm, right here.
We need to hear how Judy plans to move forward
with a progressive agenda,
and she needs to hear from US that
we have her back and are with her all the way.
3. We need to continue the work we have started, right here in Pasadena.
So show up at City Council tomorrow night to oppose unfettered use
of policy body cameras
and insist on policies that take into account the needs
of the community.
4. The number one thing we can do
to resist normalizing hate and bigotry:
Demand non-cooperation by
schools, police and city government.
At their board meeting this afternoon,
your board is considering
signing onto a letter
asking that all public K-12 schools,
colleges and universities
become sanctuary campuses.
5. And finally, a longer-term action that will require
much thought and consideration by you,
and your church leadership:
becoming a “Sanctuary" church,
which would mean that we in some way
host a potential refugee.
We have a lot to consider and think about.
I leave you with the poem,
“Gates of Hope”
by Rev. Victoria Safford:
Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope--
Not the prudent gates of Optimism,
Which are somewhat narrower.
Not the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense;
Nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness,
Which creak on shrill and angry hinges
(People cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through)
Nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of
“Everything is gonna’ be all right.”
But a different, sometimes lonely place,
The place of truth-telling,
About your own soul first of all and its condition.
The place of resistance and defiance,
The piece of ground from which you see the world
Both as it is and as it could be
As it will be;
The place from which you glimpse not only struggle,
But the joy of the struggle.
And we stand there, beckoning and calling,
Telling people what we are seeing
Asking people what they see.
May you plant your feet firmly at the gates of hope,
refusing to surrender your humanity
raising your light high
and shining it on the world.
1. Hughes, Langston. “Let America Be America Again,” used as worship reading.
2. Accessed at http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.752339 on November 18, 2016.
3.Thandeka. “A Legacy of Caring,” a reading used in worship today.
4.Langston Hughes. “Let America Be America Again,” used in worship today.
5.Riley, Meg. From a Facebook post.
Friends, we are at the beginning of what is likely to be a long haul fight for the dignity and respect of each and every person, for decency and engaged democracy. A fight to let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed.(1)
Much will be asked of us - of you - in the days and weeks to come.
Our job right now is to ensure our minds and hearts and souls are
open and nourished and ready
so we can respond and lead
from a place of faithful purpose.
A few days ago,
Throop member George Patton
reminded me of song lyrics by Donovan:
Happiness runs in a circular motion
Thought is like a little boat upon the sea
Everybody is a part of everything anyway
You can have everything if you let yourself be …
In every faith tradition -
Unitarian Universalist
Jewish
Christian
Buddhist
Hindu
The great teachers remind us that if we desire a strong
mind/heart/spirit connection,
we must learn how to let ourselves BE in the moment,
and remove ourselves from always doing,
from always being focused on the outcome.
But in this past week,
it’s been pretty difficult to
just let ourselves be,
no matter how strong our meditation or prayer practice.
Have you been feeling that way?
We in this congregation
hold such a range of emotions
about what the election results say
about the America we live in.
We wonder,
what is the core of this nation,
that could elect a person
who built a campaign on
hate, divisiveness, sexism,
racism, xenophobia?
In an article focused on post-election trauma,
one woman said that as she watched the televised returns come in,
with one state after another turning red
to reflect Trump’s victory there,
“it felt like America was bleeding.” (2)
Of course,
for a lot of Americans,
it’s felt like our country has been bleeding for a long time.
Langston Hughes described it powerfully.
Muslims, African Americans, immigrants …
the hateful words
and aggressive actions aren’t new to them.
What is new is that
the eyes of a larger population
- a white population -
are now opened to it in a whole new way.
I’ve talked to a lot of you in the last few days.
Many of us have still been deeply immersed in our grief and anger.
It’s as if we’ve been sitting shiva,
the Jewish custom of setting aside seven days
to mourn the death of a loved one.
But we’ve had our days of mourning.
It’s time to set aside our grief
and turn to the world,
the streets of the city,
the worn tapestries of (3)
profit, power, gain. (4)
It’s time for us to assess, analyze, organize and mobilize.
And for each one of you,
my guess is your big question isn’t DO I take action in some way -
but WHICH direction do I go in?
Already, there are a million and one ways
to resist the onslaught of hate,
to resist the appointments of white supremacists
and climate deniers
to key posts in the new administration.
Just in the last week,
I’ve been to multiple community meetings
focused on organizing and mobilizing our progressive resources,
and we fill pages upon pages upon pages of newsprint,
with incredible and worthy and needed actions
of resistance.
We have Hands Around City Hall,
Million Woman Marches
Calling Our Congresspeople to protest Bannon’s appointment
Asking city leaders to name Pasadena a sanctuary city
Defending reproductive rights
Shielding muslims from registering
Ensuring freedom of the press
Lobbying for voting rights
Remaining in the Paris Climate Agreement.
One gathering I attended captured 80 worthy policies and people
to defend and protect -
and there were still participants ready to share more ideas.
The passion of people leaves me breathless and hopeful …
and breathless and exhausted before we even start.
There is so much at stake.
We are concerned about the real lives of real people.
And I want to jump in and do all the things,
all the actions,
to never sleep or clean my house or do laundry
or any of the simple, mundane tasks of life.
I’m ready!
Deal me in.
And yet … I know that’s not sustainable.
And ultimately not helpful to anyone.
As I said at the beginning of the sermon,
you and I are looking at long haul work.
We didn’t get here overnight.
We need to cultivate patience, determination, and strategy;
we need to remember that sometimes our job
is to follow someone else’s direction;
and we must hold onto hope.
Every single one of us has a role to play.
Our spiritual work is determining what is ours to do,
and what is ours to let go of?
What we don’t want is to become paralyzed
by overwhelm.
Hildegard of Bingen reminds us:
We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others.
An interpreted world is not a home.
Part of the terror is to take back our own listening.
To use our own voice.
To see our own light.
This month’s worship theme is “manifestation.”
One meaning of manifestation is the making visible of something.
In this month’s covenant groups,
Everett and I asked,
Which values do you feel like you make
most visible in your own life?
During our covenant group,
the word that immediately came to my mind: community.
And those of you who have heard me preach before
know that I struggle some with that word.
And yet, my entire adult life has been marked by
long-time commitments to a people and a place,
and for bringing people together
in ways that help them find their own voice.
What value do you most manifest in your own self?
How can you lean into that value
to determine how you will resist oppression and hate?
How you will use your own voice,
see your own light?
Let your values lead you.
In the midst of her despair and trying desperately to find hope,
one of my colleagues created a list of mantras
she is repeating to herself every morning,
so she can keep moving forward.
One of the phrases on her list:
This is a global struggle.
There is no place to run from it.
Go where your connections are deepest,
that's where you have the most power. (5)
Mine deepest connections are right here.
At one of the community meetings I mentioned earlier,
the opening question was,
what are you holding onto right now?
Mine was Throop Church.
You all.
I’m proud,
heartened,
about the way we’ve been responding
with love and purpose.
Not only since November 8.
But in so many ways in our community:
- on environmental issues
- on affordable housing and homelessness
- on police oversight
One of our city council people made a comment about Throop:
“You all are forward thinking. You keep showing up.”
Eighty percent of success is showing up,
they say,
so we’re doing pretty well.
How will your values,
your connections,
call you to show up,
to stop the bleeding of America?
We will all make individual decisions and choices.
But we need to also show up as Throop.
These are the ways I want us to show up,
to use our voices and shine our light,
over the next weeks and days
as a collective Throop UU Church.
These will all be in our Tuesday Tidings
and Sunday Bulletins
and Facebook page.
- Hands Around City Hall - December 3.
to express our commitment to tolerance and free speech,
and our concern for the planet, followed by a call to action.
2. An Evening of Hope and Resistance with Congresswoman Judy Chu, December 12, 7 pm, right here.
We need to hear how Judy plans to move forward
with a progressive agenda,
and she needs to hear from US that
we have her back and are with her all the way.
3. We need to continue the work we have started, right here in Pasadena.
So show up at City Council tomorrow night to oppose unfettered use
of policy body cameras
and insist on policies that take into account the needs
of the community.
4. The number one thing we can do
to resist normalizing hate and bigotry:
Demand non-cooperation by
schools, police and city government.
At their board meeting this afternoon,
your board is considering
signing onto a letter
asking that all public K-12 schools,
colleges and universities
become sanctuary campuses.
5. And finally, a longer-term action that will require
much thought and consideration by you,
and your church leadership:
becoming a “Sanctuary" church,
which would mean that we in some way
host a potential refugee.
We have a lot to consider and think about.
I leave you with the poem,
“Gates of Hope”
by Rev. Victoria Safford:
Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope--
Not the prudent gates of Optimism,
Which are somewhat narrower.
Not the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense;
Nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness,
Which creak on shrill and angry hinges
(People cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through)
Nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of
“Everything is gonna’ be all right.”
But a different, sometimes lonely place,
The place of truth-telling,
About your own soul first of all and its condition.
The place of resistance and defiance,
The piece of ground from which you see the world
Both as it is and as it could be
As it will be;
The place from which you glimpse not only struggle,
But the joy of the struggle.
And we stand there, beckoning and calling,
Telling people what we are seeing
Asking people what they see.
May you plant your feet firmly at the gates of hope,
refusing to surrender your humanity
raising your light high
and shining it on the world.
1. Hughes, Langston. “Let America Be America Again,” used as worship reading.
2. Accessed at http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.752339 on November 18, 2016.
3.Thandeka. “A Legacy of Caring,” a reading used in worship today.
4.Langston Hughes. “Let America Be America Again,” used in worship today.
5.Riley, Meg. From a Facebook post.