How to interrupt this viscous cycle? What tool shall we use, and where shall we insert it?
For me the Dalai Lama has marked the way. “My religion,” he once said, “Is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

Kindness trumps greed: it asks for sharing. Kindness trumps fear: it calls forth gratefulness and love. Kindness trumps even stupidity, for with sharing and love, one learns.
Kindness is not on political agendas. Kindness is not on financial agendas. Kindness is not on scientific agendas. Kindness is not on technological agendas. Why not? It’s inexpensive, simply understood, and universally approved.

The 21st century must feature kindness – to the earth and all its species – or there will be little hope for the 22nd.

Roberta: The second reading is Bhiksuni Pema Choron, a Buddhist teacher and abbess in Canada.

Spiritual awakening is frequently described as a journey to the top of a mountain. We leave our attachments and our worldliness behind and slowly make our way to the top. At the peak, we have transcended all pain. The only problem with this metaphor is that we leave all others behind – our drunken brother, our schizophrenic sister, our tormented animals and friends. Their suffering continues, unrelieved by our personal escape.

In the process of discovering our true nature, the journey goes down, not up. It’s as if the mountain pointed toward the center of the earth instead of reaching into the sky. Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward the turbulence and doubt. We jump into it. We slide into it. We tiptoe into it. We move toward it however we can. We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we will let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. With us move millions of others, our companions in awakening from fear. At the bottom we discover water, the healing water of compassion. Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die.

Cosette: And finally this from Colorado poet Joseph Richey.
There are the ways a world ends:
The Tibetan – the Kali Yuga marked by the tyranny of materialism while bearers of sacred teachings are persecuted;
The Manacean – eternal spiritual warfare as snake devours tail;

Roberta: The Aztec – the return of the Iron Age reigned by Prince of Darkness, Lord of the Smoking Mirror;
The Incan – the tools of humans rise up to destroy the earth;
The Hopi – Koyaanisquatsi and life swirling further out of balance;

Cosette: The Technosapien – Y2K bug scrambles our languages back to Babel;
The Arapaho – consumed by water in another Great Flood;
The Mayan – the year 2012 Cataclysm;

Roberta: The Roman – death by over-entertainment;
The Greek – Pandemonium
The Islamic – the Jihad;
The Christian – Armageddon, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse trample the deviant and heretical masses;
 

Cosette: The American – not with a bang but a whimper.
Amid such ill foreboding and mad daily crossfire, hear the choir of courageous angels sing: “We shall overcome. We Shall overcome. We shall overcome some day.”


Prayer – Rabia Terri Harris is the Coordinator of the Muslim Peace Fellowship in New York

Creator of the Universe
Preserve us from our own presumption.
Do not let us close ourselves into ourselves, but open us continually into You.
Let us be more in love with You than with our notions of You.
Let us stop claiming to know everything so that we may understand something.
Increase in us kindness.
Make us people who care and who take care,
Who venerate the truth and recognize each other.
Draw us with an irresistible beauty!

Amen.

Wisdom From the World’s Religions: Right In Our Own Backyard
A sermon by Rev. Roberta Finkelstein
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick
Sunday April 9, 2006

“Each of the great religions has a distinctive note, to be likened to the strings of a harp. In Hinduism it is the note of spirit: a universe throbbing with divine energy and meaning. In Buddhism it is the wisdom of self-discipline: quenching the fire of desire in the cool waters of meditation. In Confucianism it is reciprocity: mutual consideration is the basis of society. In Taoism it is to conquer by inaction: be lowly and serviceable, like a brook; become rich by sharing. In Judaism it is exodus from bondage: the covenant of responsibility in freedom. In Islam it is the note of submission: ‘Our God and your God is one, to whom we are self-surrendered. In Christianity it is that all may become one; ‘This is my body broken for you. In as much as you have done it to one of the least of these, you have done it unto me.’” Thus saith Jacob Trapp, UU minister of a generation ago seeking to bring our movement into the global village.

This is another in the series of sermons on the sources of our faith. Today we consider the 3rd source: wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life. I don’t want us to be spiritual dilettantes, tasting little bits of other faiths without taking them seriously. I also want to avoid over-generalizing. We need to seek the particularities of each faith, rather than looking only for the universalities. It may be true that every major religion has some version of the Golden Rule. But let’s not move from that insight to a tendency to just mush all the religions together and pronounce them indistinguishable. Later this spring, on Saturday May 20th to be exact, we will be hosting an interfaith peace festival. Representatives from several different faith communities here in Frederick will gather to talk about how each of our faiths understands peace-making. I hope that many of you will be here - to listen, to learn, and to help us with the set-up and clean-up and other hosting responsibilities. See any member of the Social Action Committee to offer your services, or watch for details in upcoming newsletters.

So, having offered my disclaimer about over-generalizing, I’m going to do a little bit of generalizing about the wisdom tradition. Wisdom is a strand of theology that is concerned with practical, every day life. How does one life as a decent human being? How does one find joy, love, and depth in daily life? "Wisdom has built her house, she has mixed her wine, she has set her table. She has sent out her friend to call, 'whoever is simple, turn in here!' Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave simple mindedness and live, and walk in the way of insight." That quotation comes from Proverbs, in the Hebrew Scriptures, but you can find wisdom literature in most of the religions of the world.

Author Huston Smith says that there are three facets to wisdom writings: ethics, virtues and worldview. Ethics in its simplest sense has to do with what is right and what is wrong. But we all know that there is nothing simple about making real world choices. People throughout history have tried – or at least purported – to live in harmony with wisdom teachings, with some – well let’s just say some mixed results. What about the Buddhist who puzzles over the rightness of killing the snake that threatens her life? Or the Jain ascete who walks slowly and carefully so as not to step on a bug? Could any of us live with this degree of philosophical consistency?

What we Unitarian Universalists know about the reality of life in contemporary America is that we live in a complex world and ethics are complex. It may be that wisdom has set her table, but it is a complicated banquet she invites us to. The real question in ethical decision making is not "what should I do in a given situation" but "what kind of person should I be?” Huston Smith tells this story about the Buddha. "In his later years, when India was afire with Buddha's message and Kings themselves were bowing before him, people came to him even as they were to come to Jesus asking what he was. How many people have provoked this question - not 'who are you' with respect to name, origin or ancestry, but 'what are you?' Only two: Jesus and Buddha. When the people carried their puzzlement to the Buddha himself, the answer he gave provided an identity to his entire message. Are you a God? they asked. An angel? A Saint? No. Then what are you? Buddha answered, "I am awake."

Being awake, alive, fully human is the spiritual essence of the wisdom tradition. First we must awaken to ourselves - our perfectly human, finite, vulnerable, imperfect selves. Then we must awaken to our gifts and graces, and to our limitations. Another way of saying this is that being awake is being humble. Humility, in its true sense, is to carry a balanced self-awareness. This balanced self-awareness leads us to the second aspect of wisdom that Smith talks about- the virtues.

"From humility one achieves greatness,” says the Tao. "The highest motive is to be like water: water is essential to all life, yet it does not demand a fee or proclaim its importance. Rather, it flows humbly to its lowest level, and in so doing it is much like Tao." A virtue often mentioned in the wisdom tradition is mindfulness - being awake like Buddha, having a perspective that is enlarged beyond our own needs. We might also call this charity, or compassion. The familiar biblical story of the good Samaritan, or the Hindu tradition of the Boddhisattva who has nirvana in sight and turns back to assist those behind her on the path – these are examples of mindful, virtuous living.

To be mindful is to understand that the life of wisdom must be lived in some sort of community, rather than in isolation. That brings us to the third aspect of the wisdom tradition - world view. We must be awake both to the transcendent and to the political and cultural realities of our times. The wisdom tradition in the worlds' religions urges us to be awake to the wonders and perils of our lives, to the needs and gifts of the people who surround us, to the glories of the planet we walk on, the water we drink and the air we breathe. Wisdom takes a long and wide view of life, and invites us to awareness of the interdependent web of all existence. You might say that the wisdom tradition is an ancient form of ecological theology. It asks us to be aware of the vastness and diversity of life on this planet, and calls us to gratitude for all that is.

Speaking of gratitude, I want to remind you that a basic assumption of this sermon series is that the statement of sources is not just a list of places you can go to search for truth. Each statement calls us to a response. A grateful response. To be faithful participants in this free faith is not just to read good books or think good thoughts. Every source we name makes a demand on us, and it is in living out our responses that we become faithful Unitarian Universalists. Direct experience of mystery and wonder means little if we do not allow ourselves to be renewed in spirit and to have our hearts opened more fully the forces that create and uphold life. Stirring words and deeds are just dry letters if we do not allow ourselves to be challenged by them to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love. And wisdom from any source is without value if we do not allow it to inspire our ethical and spiritual lives and affect our behavior.

The demand of the 3rd source is to live out our faith, both as individuals and as a religious community. Do you, as a congregation, have a full and dynamic ethical life? I want to push you a little bit on this point. At the Diagnostic Leap workshop last month, the leadership identified that as one of the areas of our program that needed shoring up. They wished for a more effective presence in the community, more meaningful and enduring interfaith partnerships. I agree with their assessment. The living out of your faith cannot be done by proxy. Somebody, you say, should be doing that work in our name, but . . . The truth is, the Green Sanctuary Committee and the Social Action Committee are sadly understaffed. They do a huge amount of work, in the name of UUCF, with a very small number of people. According to your mission statement, you embrace social justice as a corporate commitment. Rev. Eugene Pickett says that a mission statement, “ . . . lets people know what we are about as a religious movement.” I question whether people in Frederick really do know enough about what you are about as a religious movement.

But you can fix that. The month of April is Earth Month at UUCF. The Green Sanctuary Committee is looking for lots of help to spruce up the grounds and promote green practices. You may have noticed that the title of this sermon is “Wisdom From the World’s Religions: Right In Our Own Backyard.” When I chose that title, I was thinking about the fact that the world’s religions are no longer exotic and far-away phenomena. There are Buddhists and Hindus and Muslims right here in Frederick. But that subtitle takes on an even more literal meaning when I point out that one way to live out your faith is to get out in your own church backyard and help that hearty band of dedicated volunteers who are committed to making UUCF a more beautiful and inviting and environmentally sound place.

And there’s more. After Earth Month, May is the Month of Peace. The Social Action Committee has planned a month of activities about making peace in your own life and in the community. There will be weekly adult programs on Tuesday evenings, and the May 20th Interfaith Peace Festival right here. And over Memorial Day week-end, we are co-sponsoring Frederick’s Days of Reflection on the Human Cost of War: a Time to Mourn, a Time to Heal. We invite your attendance at all these events. In a most practical way, we need your old shoes. Part of the Days of Reflection features an empty pair of combat boots for every American service person from this area killed in Iraq. We have been asked to create a labyrinth made of civilian shoes, to represent the uncounted Iraqi women, children and men who have died. Joan Deacon and John Ditman have taken on this challenge, but they need shoes. If you have an old pair of shoes, please bring them to my office, where we will have a collection box.

So the opportunities abound this spring to live out your faith and honor the third source. All of these events are interfaith, community affirming, and have educational, spiritual, and action components. All we need is your presence.

In ethical living you fulfill your mission. You move yourselves closer to the vision of a thriving congregation living out your faith in ways that are visible and audible and palpable. As you plan your future together, please make sure that you are living proof of what that prophet of one of the world’s religions famously said, “By their fruits shall you know them.”

Benediction by James Broughton

Forsake your devotion to predicament and discord.
Break the tradition of rivalry and curse.
Quickly, while there time, uproot hostility.
Claim your humanity.
Insist on brotherhood.
Open your fists into embraces.
Open your arms’ length into loving circles.
Remove every roadblock to the peaceable kingdom.
Outnumber the hawks.
Outdistance the angels.
Amen.