Sermons

Creating a Community of Hope
Sarah York, Interim Minister
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Ft. Myers
Thursday, March 20, 7:00 p.m.

"Prayer cannot bring water to parched land, nor mend a broken bridge, nor rebuild a ruined city, but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will."
--Abraham Heschel

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed God's grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed God's grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

Prayers: Muslim Prayer, Christian Prayer
Congregational Singing #401: "Kum ba yah"

(Please place a light in the window of your home. It can be a Christmas string, a candle, a lamp, or a lantern. This is a way to create a community of solidarity and hope, and to support the young men and women who are in the Persian Gulf region.)

READINGS:

Deadline by Barbara Kingsolver

The night before war begins, and you are still here.
you can stand in a breathless cold
ocean of candles, a thousand issues of your same face
rubbed white from below by clear waxed light.
A vigil. You are wondering what it is
you can hold a candle to.

You have a daughter. Her cheeks curve
like aspects of the Mohammed's perfect pear.
She is three. Too young for candles but you are here, this is war.
Flames covet the gold-sparked ends of her hair,
her nylon parka laughing in color,
inflammable. It has taken your whole self
to bring her undamaged to this moment,
and waiting in the desert at this moment
is a bomb that flings gasoline in a liquid sheet,
a laundress's snap overhead, wide as the ancient Tigris,
and ignites as it descends.
The polls have sung their opera of assent: the land
wants war. But here is another America,
candle-throated, sure as tide.
Whoever you are, you are also this granite anger.
In history you will be the vigilant dead
who stood in front of every war with old hearts
in your pockets, stood on the carcass of hope
listening for the thunder of its feathers.

The desert is diamond ice and only stars above us here
and elsewhere, a thousand issues of a clear waxed star,
a holocaust of heaven
and somewhere, a way out.

Native American Prayer (Nancy Wood):

Spirit Walker, with long legs poking out of rain clouds
Along the mesa tops,
Listen to our prayers for understanding.
Spirit Walker, with strong arms embracing the wounded Earth,
We ask forgiveness for our greed.
Spirit Walker, with footsteps echoing like promises
Across the aching land,
Give Fire and Ice to purify us.
Spirit Walker, with tears that fall as Snow and Rain,
Heal our forests and our rivers,
Our homes and the hearts of all creatures.
Spirit Walker, heed the cry of every living thing
And bathe the Earth with harmony.

Christian Prayer (Parker Palmer):

Heavenly Father, heavenly Mother,
Holy and blessed is your true name.
We pray for your reign of peace to come,
We pray that your good will be done,
Let heaven and earth become one.
Give us this day the bread we need,
Give it to those who have none.
Let forgiveness flow like a river between us,
From each one to each one to each one.
Lead us to holy innocence
Beyond the evil of our days-
Come swiftly Mother, Father, come.
For yours is the power and the glory and the mercy:
Forever your name is All in One.

Muslim Prayer:

Save us, our compassionate Lord,
From our folly, by your wisdom,
From our arrogance, by your forgiving love,
From our greed by your infinite bounty,
and from our insecurity by your healing power..

Jewish Prayer:

Grant us the ability to find joy and strength,
Not in the strident call to arms,
But in stretching out our arms
To grasp our fellow creatures
In the striving for justice and truth.

Hindu Prayer:

Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace.
Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe.
Peace. Peace. Peace.

Mindfulness Must Be Engaged by Thich Nhat Hanh

When I was in Vietnam, so many of our villages were being bombed. Along with my monastic brothers and sisters, I had to decide what to do. Should we continue to practice in our monasteries, or should we leave the meditation halls in order to help the people who were suffering under the bombs? After careful reflection, we decided to do both—to go out and help people and to do so in mindfulness. We called it engaged Buddhism. Mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what is the use of seeing? We must be aware of the real problems of the world. Then, with mindfulness, we will know what to do and what not to do to be of help. If we maintain awareness of our breathing and continue to practice smiling, even in difficult situations, many people, animals, and plants will benefit from our way of doing things. Are you massaging our Mother Earth every time your foot touches her? Are you planting seeds of joy and peace? I try to do exactly that with every step, and I know that our Mother Earth is most appreciative. Peace is every step. Shall we continue the journey?

Reading by Adrienne Rich:

My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.

Reading by W.H. Auden:

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

Buddhist Prayer (Thich Nhat Hanh):

Evoking the presence of the Great Compassion,
let us fill our hearts with our own compassion—
towards ourselves and towards all living beings.
Let us pray that we ourselves cease to be
the cause of suffering to each other.
With humility, with awareness of the existence of life,
and of the sufferings that are going on around us,
let us practice the establishment of
peace in our hearts and on earth.

Unitarian Universalist Association
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