9/11/2001 is very much with me this year. Maybe it's the fire in the Deutsche Bank building, maybe because September 11 falls on a Tuesday, as it did six years ago. Who knows why. How is it for you? Let's mark this anniversary, first, with a moment of silence, bearing witness to all who have died or lost people they loved.Could Have by Wislava Szymborska It could have happened. It had to happen. It happened earlier. Later. Nearer. Farther off. It happened, but not to you. You were saved because you were the first. You were saved because you were the last. Alone. With others. On the right. The left. Because it was raining. Because of the shade. Because the day was sunny. You were in luck - there was a forest. You were in luck - there were no trees. You were in luck - a rake, a hook, a beam, a brake, a jamb, a turn, a quarter inch, an instant. You were in luck. Just then a straw went floating by. As a result, because, although, despite. What would have happened if a hand, a foot, within an inch, a hairsbreadth from an unfortunate coincidence. So you're here? Still dizzy from another dodge, close shave, reprieve? One hole in the net and you slipped through? I couldn't be more shocked or speechless. Listen, how your heart pounds inside me.
I feel sad, angry, frightened today. What are we doing? What have we learned? I have profound disagreements with the choices my country has made, and continues to make. As Susan Faludi notes in Friday's New York Times op-ed page, "9/11 invited us to . . . bury our awareness of our vulnerability under belligerent posturing and comforting fantasy." Out of this response three trends, already present in our national psyche, grew stronger.
The first is the tendency in this country toward ideological simplicity. Things are black and white, good or bad, right or wrong, for us or against us. Such thinking has been used to justify torture, the firing of United States Attorneys; the prison in Guantanamo. I know what I think; don't distract me with the facts. We do not analyze issues coherently, favoring instead a headline approach. Give it to me on one sentence. The principles of compromise, respect, finding common ground, articulating shared values give way to a spirit of winning at any cost, derision for one's opponents, name calling, and misrepresentation of their thinking. People who opposed the war in Iraq were charged with a lack of patriotism, for example. Or with being unsupportive of the troops. For those on the left, I think there is nothing that George Bush could do right, even if he ended the war this morning. We do not take each other seriously and make little or no effort to understand points of view not our own.
I resist this. For me it's about honoring the inherent worth and dignity of each person; a free and responsible search for truth and meaning; compassion in human relations. I want to engage the complexity of the issues facing us so that the conclusions I reach can be well informed and bring about the best outcomes. I do not want to belong to any ideological camp if its doctrines will dictate my own thinking and openness to another point of view. Is there room for purple in our red and blue states? This ideological simplicity is tearing us apart. I resist.
The second disturbing trend is the manipulation of the public through emotion, fear and anxiety. Osama bin Laden is in the news again. What color is the terror alert? Orange? Red? What aggressive actions will we take against Iran in order to make ourselves feel safe? Feel strong? Feel powerful? Same sex marriage is condemned on the grounds that it will destroy heterosexual marriage. Doctors who participate in the termination of pregnancies are called " baby killers." Opponents of a single payer health care system cry "socialized medicine." Serious social issues are presented in terms emotionally manipulating; fed by a network of lies, half-truths and misrepresentations. Fed by ideological simplicity.
I resist this. Don't scare me into taking a position or an action. Don't present the worst case scenarios as the norm, which is my concern with some of Michael Moore's movie Sicko. Don't threaten me with the lie of an attack from an enemy with weapons of mass destruction so that I will get behind a war that my own country initiates. Don't tell me that I am safer today than I was six years ago. Don't tell me that we haven't made more enemies in these intervening years. How can the people of this country, so susceptible to manipulation, possibly be strong? How can our leaders so disrespect us? How can that serve democracy? I resist.
Lastly, the third trend is corruption. Corruption on many levels: moral, economic, governmental, social. Is it hyperbole to claim a kind of moral disconnect that our congress, which allows for itself excellent health care benefits, has yet to address the health care chaos for the rest of us, with unprecedented numbers of people completely uncovered? Is it hyperbole to claim a moral disconnect that the Attorney General of the United States could not adequately explain why some US Attorneys were fired, even when confronted with contradictory testimony from other governmental figures involved? Is it hyperbole to see moral disconnect in the pay of some CEO's, and in their severance packages, when the real income of the majority of middle and working class people has decreased? Is it hyperbole to claim moral disconnect in the steadfast way we have ignored the genocide in Darfur?
I resist this. I want us to live up to our ideals and ethical values, at the very least each person's inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And I want to raise the question of whether we disconnect from ourselves morally when we succumb to ideological simplicity, or manipulation through our emotions, fear and anxiety, or when we do not insist upon integrity - our own as well as that of our elected officials.
In the years since 9/11/2001 we have become more fearful, more ideological and more corrupt. I resist all of this. That's what I can do: I can resist and I can join with others in building communities of resistance. There is much I cannot agree with in my country today. Nevertheless, I have power and I can use it. Just today, how many people do these words touch? Does my life make a difference? Of course it does. Does it change the world? Not nearly as much as I would like. Is that a reason to give up? No.
Who am I and what do I become if my living does not reflect my values? Who am I if I am not the peace I long to see on this 9/11 anniversary? Inch by inch and row by row, on 9/11/2007, I still make this peaceful garden grow. May we take to heart the words of Holly Near: "I am open and I am willing. To be hopeless would be so strange. It dishonors those who came before us, so lift me up to the light of change." May we take to heart the words of Mary Oliver: "There are things you cannot reach. But/you can reach out to them, and all day long . . . . I look . Morning to night I am never done with looking.// Looking I mean not just standing around , but standing around as though with your arms open/ and thinking: maybe something will come." "Can we be like drops of water, falling on the stone? Splashing, breaking, dispersing in air; weaker than the stone by far but be aware, that as time goes by, the rock will wear away." (Holly Near) Resist. May it be so.
Gathering the Waters
Each of us comes to this sacred space today to dip into the well that nourishes our hungry spirits. Each of us comes with our own cup of goodness to pour into the well. With this water, which we will place in this vessel, we also place our common hopes, our shared dreams, our mutual commitment to a world made whole. (Adapted from the chalice lighting in _Www.uupuertorico.org_ (http://www.uupuertorico.org)
Why water? Because water is the stuff, the miracle of life. Religious people have long known that and accorded water an important place in their doctrines and rituals. Roman Catholics believe that water made holy through liturgical blessing can in turn bless us. Thus they baptize with water. Earth-based spiritual traditions believe that water is sacred by virtue of its core place in nature and thus they purify with it. In Hindu theology the possibility of life on earth was due to the release of heavenly water by Indra, the god of rain. Islam, coming from the dessert where water was scarce, cherished it. In the 7th century Muslim law articulated that access to fresh water was the right of all living beings. (From a sermon by Allen Lindrup)
Why water? Because our bodies are 70% water and 2/3 of the planet is covered with water. Because the same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. "Every drop of water that we bring to our ceremony today has been on amazing adventures. Our water, this very water, has witnessed the birth of life as well as the death of dinosaurs, has been a part of the body of Buddha, Bach, Jesus, Michael Jordan, and the Queen of England. Each tiny molecule of water has been on its own unique journey. . . Most of our planet is covered by oceans, the cradle of life and water's true home. What does an ocean sound like? Now, you can't hear it, but all of the time, every day, the sun shines on the ocean, and water evaporates; it rises into the air to become clouds. If we listened very carefully, with our tiniest inside ears, what sound do you think we would hear as the earth breathes water up into clouds? But eventually, the clouds fill up, and the water comes down again as rain." (Lynn Ungar)
And because water is the source, the provider, the connecting link of all life, it calls us to respect life. To recognize that without water, there is no life. Today we think that in some distant primordial time all life rose from the ocean. The land now teeming with life still has need of water, although only 1% of that on earth is available as fresh water, the rest locked in ice caps or salted in the seas. We take water for granted. In the United States the average person uses 185 gallons of water a day! The average person in West Africa uses only 7.6 gallons a day. Over 1 billion people on this earth lack access to adequate clean water. Nearly 2.5 billion lack adequate sanitation. 80% of disease in the world involves contaminated water. (The source of this information is the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.) We bring water today, as a reminder that we are inter-dependent and that justice flows from our inter-dependence. Is access to clean water a human right, as Islamic law asserts? Is it a human possibility?Mary Oliver, Clouds All afternoon, Sir, your ambassadors have been turning into lakes and rivers. At first they were just clouds, like any other. Then they swelled and swirled; then they hung very still; then they broke open. This is, I suppose, just one of the common miracles, a transformation, not a vision, not an answer, not a proof, but I put it there, close against my heart, where the need is, and it serves the purpose. I go on, soaked through, my hair slicked back; like corn, or wheat, shining and useful.
Without water there is no life. And so we gather, bringing water as a symbol of life, as a symbol of our lives together, as a symbol of what our lives together on this planet must become. It's time for us to mingle our waters into one. Those who wish are asked to form a line in the back of the sanctuary, and one by one, come forward to add your water into the common bowl, telling us briefly where it comes from, or what it means to you. For those of you who have forgotten water, there is also a pitcher of "symbolic water" up here. Pour a little from it into the common bowl. It can become anything you want it to. After the service I will scatter the water around the perimeter of the sanctuary, thus allowing it to go deep and further nourish us.
(People come forward and add their water)
Let the waters flow through us in love and compassion, breaking the dams of indifference and setting free a flood of hope in a world leached dry by poverty and greed, hatred and war. Like drops of water falling on the stone, we offer our unique and separate lives to the common pool of our religious community, that together we might strengthen the currents of care, wearing away the monstrous rock of alienation, despair and injustice that no one of us could move alone. In Tehran and in Washington D.C., in Israel-Palestine, in the Sudan and in Kingston may there arise a spirit of wisdom, courage, understanding, justice and peace. On this sixth anniversary of 9-11, let the waters flow through us in love and compassion. Let them wash away the ideological simplicity, the corruption and the manipulation by fear that would disconnect us from one another.(May the life that is ours) bless these waters symbol of our journeys near and far, brought together in love. Bless these waters blended in common course That through sharing our stories we may come to know ourselves, That through gathering we may touch the hearts of one another. Let these waters of earth and sky bring our hearts together, and fill our sight with the brimming joys of life. Mark Morrison Reed (adapted) I am but a drop of water. Alone, I would disappear, Dried up by the scorching sun Or sucked up by the dry, thirsty earth. But together we can wear out stones, Carve out the Grand Canyon, Make streams and rivers, And find our way to the sea. (Kok-Heong McNaughton)
This year may our presence with each other in this congregation joyfully dedicate and welcome children into our midst, buoy us up in times of sorrow, refresh us with tides of gratitude, remind us of the inherent worth and dignity of each drop of life, and nourish the roots of the age-old dream, that justice shall roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Closing Words: Be Like Water by Kendra Ford run deep run clear fill any space to its own dimensions respond to the moon, to gravity change colors with the light hold your temperature longer than the surrounding air take the coast by storm go under ground bend light be the one thing people need, even when they're fasting eat boulders, quietly be a universal solvent