First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis

Order of Service for September 23, 2001

Benediction Words by John Murry

Order of Service for Sept. 23^rd

Now is the time for gathering together as a community.

Now is the time for gathering up our spirits, our hopes and dreams.

Now is the time for bring what we have gathered into this hallowed place.

Let us be gathered together.

Now is the time to stop, stop the hustle and bustle, the frantic pace of our lives.

Now is the time to stop being in charge, to let go of those things we cannot control—and they are many.

Now is the time to stop our fears from overpowering us, to let ourselves be as good and happy as we dream.

Let us now be present here, and nowhere else.

Now is the time for the turning of leaves from green to yellow, red, and brown.

Now is the time for the turning of seasons from the hot days of summer to the cool nights of autumn.

Now is the time for the turning of our world from violence to peace, from fear to hope, and from hate to love.

Let us turn towards truth and beauty together.

Welcome to the now. Welcome to the time of here.

Now is the time for gathering.

Let us kindle our chalice, a flame of hope and courage, a sign of life.

Please join in the responsive reading #657, "It matters what we believe." These words are written by Sophia Lyons Fahs, Unitarian religious educator.

Some beliefs are like walled gardens. They encourage exclusiveness, and the feeling of being especially privileged.

Other beliefs are expansive and lead the way into wider and deeper sympathies.

Some beliefs are like shadows, clouding children's days with fears of unknown calamities.

Other beliefs are like sunshine, blessing children with the warmth of happiness.

Some beliefs are divisive, separating the saved from the unsaved, friends from enemies.

Other beliefs are bonds in a world community, where sincere differences beautify the pattern.

Some beliefs are like blinders, shutting off the power to choose one's own direction.

Other beliefs are like gateways opening wide vistas for exploration.

Some beliefs weaken a person's selfhood. They blight the growth of resourcefulness.

Other beliefs nurture self-confidence and enrich the feeling of personal worth.

Some beliefs are rigid, like the body of death, impotent in a changing world.

Other beliefs are pliable, like the young sapling, ever growing with the upward thrust of life.

We stand today in the middle of the Jewish High Holidays. The New Year—Rosh Hashanah—was earlier this week and the Day of Atonement—Yon Kippur—is this Wednesday. Looking for something to say about this time of year, this time for reflection, repentance, and recommitment, and also something that spoke to the tragedy of two weeks ago and also the tragedy I fear is ahead in the "revenge" of the United States, I found these words by Michael Lerner, Rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in San Francisco and editor of Tikkun magazine. I know that his theology may not be yours, but I hope you can hear the deep truth in what he has to say to us. He writes:

There is never any justification for acts of terror against innocent civilians--it is the quintessential act of dehumanization, one that does not recognize the sanctity of others. [ . . . ]

It's understandable why many of us will feel anger. Demagogues will try to direct that anger at various "target groups" [ . . . ] The militarists will use this as a moment to call for increased defense spending at the expense of the needy. The right wing may even seek to limit civil liberties. [ . . . ]

To counter that potential of mass panic, or the manipulation of our fear and anger for narrow political ends, a well-meaning media will instead try to narrow our focus solely on the task of finding and punishing the perpetrators. These people, of course, should be caught and punished.

But in some ways, this exclusive focus allows us to avoid dealing with the underlying issues. When violence becomes so prevalent throughout the planet, it's too easy to simply talk of "deranged minds." We need to ask ourselves, "What is it in the way that we are living, organizing our societies, and treating each other that makes violence seem plausible to so many people?"

It's true but not enough, to say that the current violence is a reflection of our estrangement from God. More precisely, it is the way we fail to respond to each other as embodiments of the sacred. We may tell ourselves that the current violence has "nothing to do" with the way that we've learned to close our ears when told that one out of every three people on this planet does not have enough food, and that one billion are literally starving.

We may reassure ourselves that the hoarding of the world's resources by the richest society in world history, and our frantic attempts to accelerate globalization with its attendant inequalities of wealth, has nothing to do with the resentment that others feel toward us. We may tell ourselves that the suffering of refugees and the oppressed have nothing to do with us--that's a different story that is going on somewhere else. But we live in one world, increasingly interconnected with everyone, and the forces that lead people to feel outrage, anger and desperation eventually impact on our own daily lives.

When people have learned to de-sanctify each other, to treat each other as means to our own ends, to not feel the pain of those who are suffering, we end up creating a world in which these kinds of terrible acts of violence become more common. No one should use this as an excuse for these terrible acts of violence--the absolute quintessence of de-sanctification. I categorically reject any notion that violence is ever justified. It