Letting Your Lights Shine

April 30, 2006
Westminster Unitarian Church


NAMASTE
The divine in me honors the divine in you
Your Buddha nature, You Christ nature. God nature.
Your inner light. Divine light.

Opening Words from Sufi Mystic poet Rumi.

Keep walking, though there’s no place to get to
Don’t try to see through the distances.
That’s not for human beings.  Move within,
but don’t move the way fear makes you move.
Today like every day we wake up empty and frightened
Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading
Take down a musical instrument
Let the beauty we love be what we do
There are 100’s of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Responsive Reading: Wild Geese- Mary Oliver

Reading: A reading from The Reverend William Ellery Channing’s Sermon LIKENESS TO GOD. Preached in 1828 on the occasion of the Ordination of the Reverend Farley by the Westminster Unitarian Church, Providence. Rev. Farley Westminster’s first settled minister. This excerpt has been updated for gender.

To honor [God] is not to tremble before him…It is to become what we praise. It is to approach God as an inexhaustible fountain of light, power and purity.

I regard this view of religion as infinitely important. It does more than all things to make our connection with our creator ennobling and happy… there is danger that the thought of God may become the instrument of our degradation...That religion has been so dispensed as to depress the human mind, I need not tell you; and it…tends to crush human energy and hope.  

…I reverence human nature too much to do it violence. I see too much divinity in its ordinary operations to urge on it a forced...nature.

To grow in the likeness of God, we need not cease to be men and women. This likeness does not consist in extraordinary or miraculous gifts..but in our essential faculties…Our proper work is to approach God by the free and natural unfolding of our highest powers- of understanding, conscience, love and the moral will.

No preaching I believe is so intelligible as that which is true to human nature, and helps men and women to read their own spirits. ..
 
Let the minister cherish a reverence for her own nature. ..Let her hold fast, …[to] a faith in the greatness of the human soul---that faith which looks beneath the perishing body, beneath the sweat… the vices of the sensual and the selfish, and discerns in the depths of the soul a divine principle, a ray of Infinite Light, which may yet break forth and shine as the sun…let her strive to awake in men and women a consciousness of the heavenly treasure within them,…

That all will be made better , I am far from believing. ..Still I believe that such a minister will be a benefactor to the human soul...This past week has been a joy for me. 


SERMON: LETTING YOUR LIGHTS SHINE

NASI CHAMPUR  means Mixed Rice. In Indonesian.
My family is Nasi Champur. We are a mixed rice family. My husband was raised Jewish. I was raised  Catholic. Our children are UU’s.  At times they are Evangelical UU’s. 
I love them.  I love all our children.

My son Dan has a friend. They row together. They are in HS together. They often agree to disagree on ideas religious. But there a problem. His friend believes Dan is going to Hell. Dan disagrees. There is no such thing. Still…Dan finds this unsettling.

Dan said,  “I can accept everything they believe except when they say I’ll go to hell.  Then he said this. 

“I can make room for their beliefs. They can’t make room for my beliefs.”

I looked at him and in my best practiced pastoral way, I said, “ Get used to it.”

People change us. We change each other. People I have worked with, served with, learned with, prayed with, have called me out, into the light of larger love.

In last week’s sermon, I was among several UU clergy who two years ago I went to New Paltz, to support colleagues. We officiated at weddings of those weddings of gay men and lesbian women. We leaned into the power, the light, of faithful love, restored some wholeness, let a ray of that Infinite light break forth that day. This is a story of one of the ways I got to New Paltz.

After the weddings, when I returned to my car, there was a flyer under the wiper.  I opened it: “The idea that God is so merciful and loving that everyone will somehow make it into Heaven … is TOTALLY FALSE”

The militant agnostic in me rose up and  talked back to the paper.
I don’t know and you don’t either…” .
I don’t know. They don’t either.

Universalist John Murray preached against that theology over 200 years ago. But it lives on and it does its damage- in the heart and in the world.

About 8 years ago, I was a chaplain in a hospital Burn Unit, I asked the nurse on duty, a good dedicated hard working courageous woman, if anyone needed a visit.
 
She said that there a man was accidentally burned on a camping trip. I wont use his real name…He might need a visit from a chaplain. Then she added, he wanted to be called, Shelley.

He wanted to be treated as a woman, called a name of his choosing…Shelley.  Shelley was transitioning, changing of his gender identity from male to female. He was on a journey.

Did I hear something in the nurses voice? Discomfort? Edge?

"Well, sure. I'll go."  After all I am the UU clergy person. We affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every human being. We accept one another.  Shelley would enflesh "inherent worth and dignity" for me.

I knocked and went in. She was in bed, burned on arms, and some of her face and chest. She was weeping.

I introduced myself. I listened. If we have the opportunity we cannot help but tell our stories.

She was camping with her son and his friend… There was an accident.
I heard the physical pain..and…the emotional and spiritual loneliness. 

Then Shelley whispered, this to her chaplain.
 
  "Does God love me?" Does God love me?

In that question were years of rejection. Not experiencing, not believing herself her to be whole, accepted, acceptable. Of being fearful. There is risk when we open a closet. To others. To ourself. She opened the door to light and new life, and to loss, of what had been, what would not to be, for her, for her family. Things would change.     

We are all in a closet somewhere. I remembered a Feminist Theology class led by a wonderful affirming Catholic Feminist Ethicist nun.

When we broke into small groups and went around the circles opening up our closets. Many young women were tentatively revealed that 'maybe" they were feminists. One tearfully radiant young woman, spoke of how as a Catholic and a lesbian struggle to affirm herself within her faith community. I wept with her.
   
I had no problem with saying I was a feminist. Still I feared they might stop loving me when I revealed my truth. I was not a Christian.  They kept me in their circle. People change Us. Relationships change us.
 
I sat beside Shelley’s bed. Would I encircle her in love and acceptance? 

"Shelley Asked : Does God love me?"

I thought of Moses growing up in his closet. He believed that he was Egyptian. Enjoyed comfort, privilege , safety. Trying to avoid his calling, arguing with God that he was not good enough. He had to let go of his own false self image and risk becoming who he was born to become.

He protested to God his talents and skills. He had to be convinced.

I thought about the struggle out of slavery, crossing the red sea, losing faith, wandering in the Desert for years.

I saw Shelley, her open face, filled with question, Shelley was in her desert, wandering in pain and fear, seeking freedom. Wondering if she should turn back …if it was a terrible mistake.  If I have to suffer this much, she seemed to ask… Does God Love Me?

I thought this. If you don’t think God loves you, I cannot convince you. I cannot save you. Save yourself.

Then I thought of Jesus on the cross. That is what they said to him.
And over the years, I have thought about the cry - why have you forsaken me?
I have come to believe that we are never forsaken, no matter the outward appearance.

But we sure can make life a living hell for each other.

Shelley asked me: Does God Love Me?

IT IS NOT EASY TO GET USED TO SPRITUAL REJECTION 

Channing wrote “that religion has been so dispensed as to depress the human mind I need not tell you…”

There is no “good news” in a message that says 90% of human beings are going to hell and they cannot do a thing about it. There is no justice in it either.

When we talk about who is saved, chosen, who is loved by God, beloved of God, we talk about who, we as people, consider fully human, in this life: Who has rights in this life. Whose is entitled to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Here are some UU thoughts on Heaven. The shorthand version goes something like this:
Universalists believe God is so good we all get to heaven.
Unitarians believe that human beings are so good we all get to heaven.

Remember musical chairs? There is one less chair than there are players, When the music stops, you race to sit down. If you don’t get a chair you are out.  You are out for the whole game. There is only one winner.

This is the UU version of musical chairs that the youth play. Same ratio of chairs to players. Same music. Same journey. In this one, everyone sits.
If you do not have a chair, you find a lap.
Each time the music stops, everyone sits. No one is out.
And in this there comes a time when there are no chairs left. Everyone sits. Everyone has a lap. Everyone is chosen. Saved.
Everyone is loved.
There is no out.
   
SHELLEY ASKED ME: Does God love me? 

I thought about our UU struggles, complaint, with ideas and words like God?  With each other and the world.  Tell me what you don't believe and I'll tell you what I don't believe."

You know the Joke?
A Unitarian Universalist dies and goes to heaven, and there are two signs. One arrow points "This way to God." Another pointing in the opposite  direction, "This way to have a discussion about God."

I don’t know what happens after we die ..and neither do they! And neither do you.  
I don’t know that. You don’t either.

We do know that we die.  Theist, Atheist, agnostic, Pagan, Christian, Muslim, Hindu , Buddhist or Jew. We die. And so we must love…

Ghandi said, “An eye for eye makes whole world blind.”

So I offer you a quote I learned from Frank Hall, in Westport. I will locate the author. "Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don't want it. What appears conceit, cynicism or bad manners is always a sign of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.  You do not know what wars are going on, down there, where the spirit meets the bone." 

A man I knew in Westport, Roger, came into my mind this morning as I saw the sunlight blazing through the stained glass window from your Adelaide St. Church.  I saw the anvil, the  hammer, the glowing steel. Roger died last Spring.  He lived on with a  borrowed kidney, had cancer.

I asked him once how he came by such compassion. He said- “It was hammered into me. Hammered into me.”
 
I have come to believe that Congregational life sometimes hammers us more often invites us to get used to it, get over it, get on with it.  Get over the true enslavements that separate us from our brothers and sisters of every faith…

Congregational  life, invites us to practice loving the world, despite itself. 

Wasn’t that Jesus’s great message?
Love your neighbor. Even if they don’t want it.
Love your enemies.  Even if they think you are going to hell.

We change each other. We change each other’s hearts.  As we practice,  our hearts come nearer to beating in unison with the beating heart at the center of the universe. Universal Love. As we practice, we change, our hearts.

Practice changes what I preach.
Don’t wait until you feel loved.
Don’t bother proving that you are lovable or good.
Practice loving.
Love something back into life.
Love what you feared was dead inside of you back into new life…
Love what is left…of you , this world.

Even when you wake up empty and frightened…
You woke up …
You do not have to be good.  They do not have to be good .
The world offers itself to our imaginations, not because we are good- because we are alive.

CONGREGATIONAL LIFE invites us to take a journey that may heal us, make us whole, save us. It may takes years and years, forty years, or our whole lives. Me too.

In a congregation, over time, we bind ourselves to each other. We learn that there is more that binds us together than holds us apart.
We get to practice living “as if “ we are bound together in love.
That takes time. Not so easy a thing as crossing the red sea or calling a new minister. We must keep walking. We will practice Love and moderate our fears over time.


So let us let our lights shine. Light of universal compassion. Love.
Even if things are not perfect. Especially because things are never perfect.
Life is not perfect. And yes some of us are better at finding complaint than others. But at its best, for me, Congregational life lets us practice loving- however imperfectly- each other, and the world. And that saves me, helps me experience moments of wholeness. Of heaven on earth.
 
We are loved not b/c we are perfect, not in spite of our imperfections, we are loved because of our imperfections.

I have learned about you this week. One thing I learned is that the ministry of Fred Gillis lives on in you. 

As you can see I am not Fred. I am Barbara. Taller than Judith, shorter than Fred.  Thank you Dan and Natalie-

You have learned this week things about me. One thing certainly is that I am not perfect. I am just a human being, like you, on a journey, like you.

I also sense in you a capacity to embrace imperfection in a minister.
I hope that that makes us perfect for each other

Within your souls is a ray of Infinite Light,
It is the heavenly treasure within you.
Let it shine.
We are many lights lights- one chalice.
We need not think alike to love alike.
We are responsible.
To ourselves, each other. The earth.
We need each other.
 
I was responsible to Shelley.
Shelley needed me.
But the greater truth was I needed SHELLEY.

I could say it was hand of Life, Creation, God, or the Goddess inviting me in. But it was Shelley’s bandaged hand, shining tears, her question-  that invited me to see the Infinite Light within her.
 
People change my heart. Shelley is one who changed me. Who called forth my light. My love.

Back in that burn unit. Shelley was my Christ. My Buddha. My Moses.

So are you. And you. 

Whether it is a two year old telling me about the puppet show, a ten year old, walking the dog,  teens sharing pizza, folks fixing the dishwasher,  meals, teaching the children, creating beauty, founding this congregation, shaping up the place or an elder, Margery, who when I stood up to say hello at the tea, looked at me, opened her eyes, and smiling said,  “My you are so young!”   I lit up. We both did.

You are how many in this room? There are 174 ways to kiss the ground.  But we are greater than 174.  With us are the lights of the spirits of those scattered in the memorial garden, or in our memories.

And the long line of people, thousands of congregants and some ministers who have served WUC nearly 200 years.  U and U prophets and people. One was Channing. Let me call upon his voice.

I reverence human nature too much to do it violence. I see too much divinity in its ordinary operations.....To grow in the likeness of God, you need not cease to be men and women… This likeness is in your essential faculties…

I will hold fast a faith in the greatness of the human soul--- which looks beneath the perishing body… and discerns in the depths of the soul a divine principle, a ray of Infinite Light, which may yet break forth and shine as the sun…

I will strive to awake in you a consciousness of the heavenly treasure within you, a consciousness of possessing what is of more worth than the outward universe…

That all will be made better, I am far from believing.
But I believe that such a ministry benefits the human soul.”

The wild geese are back. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world call to you, harsh and exciting, like the wild geese…


It is Love..
Love in the throats of wild geese,
in the laughter over tea, or pizza, or punch bowl, 
love in the tears, candles, in the garden..
love that called me to you, into new life, with you.

During the RE pot luck, there was this question: Do you see God in people?  I said “ Yes”
Someone said, “I guess if you are a minister – you gotta see God in People…”

See, it is not Moses, Jesus or Buddha that we follow.
See this: you are Moses. Buddha.  Christ.  You are Shelley. 

Shelley asked it this way, "Does God love me?"

If the question, "Does God love me?"... mean you can let your light shine, be a light for someone else, let someone else be a light for you, in this world, then the answer is "Yes!"

If it means knowing that you are not alone, that you are not forsaken, that you are loved, loveable, divine, even when you face cancer, surgery, disability, or face down abuse, then the answer is "Yes!"

If it means you can stop crawling, repenting, regretting your life and accept it, forgive it, and live it today then the answer is "Yes!"
 
If you can love your children, just where they are, and not insist they be your way, or the way you should have been, then “ Yes”

If it means that the only one you dare speak your truth to, really, is
God, and that gives you courage to speak your truth to yourself, then
"Yes!"

If it means that you do not seek anyone else's permission to claim your place in this world, then "Yes!"

If it means you can keep walking, even if you don’t know if you cannot see and don’t know if you can make the distance, then "Yes!"

If it means that you can make beautiful music, with your life, for the beauty of this world, then “ Yes.”

If it means you have faith that HB light can grow in our likeness to God’s light, then “Yes.”

If it means that you can kiss the ground ….of your being, then "Yes!"


      Shelley asked me, "Does God love me?"

      "Does God love you?"

      I answered "Yes... Yes.... Yes!"




Copyright  2006, Barbara Fast.


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