Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - A UU sermon I'm giving on 22 Jan

"Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn! Look to this day! For it is Life, the very Life of Life. In its brief course lie all the Verities and Realities of your Existence. The Bliss of Growth, the Glory of Action, the Splendor of Beauty; For Yesterday is but a Dream, And To-Morrow is only a Vision; But Today well lived makes every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness, And Every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope. Look well therefore to this Day! Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!" - Kalidasa, circa a long time ago

(Light the chalice, sing some hymns, make announcements)

"I am only one
But Still I am one.
I cannot do everything.
But Still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something I can do." - Edward Everett Hale (or Helen Keller, trying to figure out which one actually said this)

(pass the all-important collection plate)

I want to impart three very important messages this morning, and to make sure that I hit all of them, I’m going to tell you them up front. Number 1: You are somebody! Number 2: Apathy is contagious, but so is compassion. And number 3: Sometimes, you have to start a fire to fight a fire. Now, I hope you wrote those down, because there will be a test later.

I passed a man on the street, today. His hair was shaggy, his clothing was torn, and his face was dirty. I learned that he didn’t have anywhere else to go. And I thought to myself, somebody should do something about the homeless! And I went on my way.

I passed a man on the street, today. His cheeks were sunk in, his belly was empty, and his hand was outstretched. I learned that he hadn’t eaten in three days. And I thought to myself, somebody should do something about the hunger! And I went on my way.

I passed a man on the street, today. His breathing was labored, and his strength was almost gone. I learned that he hadn’t seen a doctor in three years. And I thought to myself, somebody should do something about the sickness! And I went on my way.

I passed an empty spot on the street, today. And I went on my way.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have some news for you. You are somebody! When somebody should say something, say it! When somebody should do something, do it! When somebody should put their foot down, and say “I’m not going to allow this evil to pass unanswered”, then put your foot down!

When we lived in Colorado, my family and I got the chance to visit the Garden of the Gods. For those of you that haven’t been there, it’s a breathtaking rock formation in the foothills of the Rockies. Towering red stone marvels stick out of the earth. One of the guides gave us this advice, which should be familiar to anyone that does a lot of hiking. “Take only pictures, and leave only footprints.”

Some people would say that we should live our entire lives by this advice, but I say hogwash! What good are footprints? They tell what you’ve seen, where you’ve been. Are we defined by our experiences? If so, then our souls are not our own. They are wholly the result of our surroundings, and belong completely to the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and textures that we come into contact with.

But I believe that we are more than that. And we should be more than that.

Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

This inactivity has to come from somewhere, and I say it comes from apathy!

But where does the apathy come from? It seems like it’s everywhere these days. Who hasn’t heard “whatever”, or “I don’t care” from their kids, or even other adults! Are people really walking around in their own world? Are they really able to turn a blind eye to all of the suffering that surrounds us? What gives them the right to introvert their focus, to let the world slip by unnoticed?

People have limits. They can only take so much before they start tuning everything else out. The age of information has done many things for us, and one of those is to saturate our lives with news of the world. With a few keystrokes, I can read about a flood on the east coast, or an epidemic in Asia. Everyone knows the media likes to focus on bad news. How else are they going to sell papers, or commercial spots? All of this influx of information can boggle the mind if you aren’t careful.

Most people do care, and want to make a difference. But our efforts get in the way. We want to feed all of the hungry, we want to house all of the homeless, we want to save all of the whales. But it’s not that easy. When we jump in, full of enthusiasm, and find that we can’t do it all, some people get discouraged. There’s no way we can do it all, so why try?

And finally, apathy sets in when we don’t see the results of our labors. I give a dollar every week, and they’re still asking for more! My dollar isn’t really helping!

Once you know the causes of apathy, you can begin to fight it. William Osler, the first physician-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital once said, “By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy – indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of self satisfaction.”

I’m going to give you some advice, which may seem a bit counter-productive at first. Fight the apathy in yourself, and leave others to fight their own. You cannot make someone else care about an issue, no more than you can change their minds. An argument is just two people waiting for their turn to talk.

If you can take a cause to heart, and truly apply yourself to it, others will care about it as well. As they see you making a difference, they will want to be a part of it. Making a positive impact on the world, and truly believing in your cause, changes a person. People walk straighter, smile more often, and give off an aura of contentment. It is exactly that change that people will notice, and your compassion, your drive, will infect those around you.

You don’t have to save the world. Choose something small, and change that. It takes 40 days to form a habit, which is probably where Lent comes from. Catholics choose to give up a vice every year, during the 40 days of Lent. Now, the idea is that during those 40 days, the change will get hardwired into them, and they’ll never fall victim to that vice again. So, why doesn’t it work?

They only do it once a year. And because they only do it once a year, they try to make it worth it. They pick the really big things. I’ll give up booze, I’ll give up gambling, I’ll stop thinking impure thoughts. These are all worthy goals, but the change is so big that they can’t maintain it.

I say we should have Lent 365 days a year! If you do it year round, it isn’t special anymore. You can apply yourself to making miniscule changes that will stick, and become a part of your personality. Don’t overdo it. I say, do fret the small stuff. I can assure you, it will become a part of you.

A few years ago, I made a conscious effort to stop using grocery bags unnecessarily. I didn’t stop altogether, I just promised myself that I would refuse a bag if I could carry my purchases to the counter unassisted. Before long, everyone that worked at the places where I shopped would see me coming, and know that I didn’t need a bag. I could have ten items on the counter, and they wouldn’t even bat an eye towards putting them in a bag for me. I’ll bet it made the person behind me feel pretty silly to get a bag for a single pack of gum!

Don’t be afraid to make a change in your life, to devote yourself to a cause.

Now, to the skeptics in the crowd (myself included), this sounds like an urban legend. I haven't been able to verify the truth of this account, but I'm going to pass it along anyway. Please don't allow your doubts to cause you to miss this message.

Gunnery Sgt Mark J. Francis, USMC, wrote about this recent event.

Americans have been sending toys to the children of Iraq ever since the war started. And when they can, our soldiers will carry them along on patrols and hand them out. One day, Sgt Francis was in a convoy, traveling through the streets of Iraq. They had to stop, because a little girl was sitting in the middle of the road, and she wouldn't move. So, they started to drive around her. As he passed her, Sgt Francis noticed that she was clutching a teddy bear. He stopped, got out, and went over to check on her. She smiled at him, and pointed to a land mine that had been hidden in the road!

(hold up a teddy bear)

Is your life worth the $5 it took to buy this bear? Is your son, or your daughter's life worth the 5 minutes it took to put it into a box destined for Iraq? Well, on that day, somebody's was. We'll never know exactly who sent that bear, but that doesn't matter. And the person who did send it will never know the fate of the gift, but that doesn't really matter, either. Because it happened, and it made a difference.

Don’t be afraid to make a change in your life, to devote yourself to a cause. Don't be afraid to take a risk. Sometimes, you have to start a fire to fight a fire.

In 1949, Wagner Dodge was a member of a 14-man firefighting team in Montana. Together, they parachuted into the area of what was supposed to be a relatively small brush fire in Mann Gulch.

Now, to make a long story short, they suddenly found themselves cut off from escape, as a towering wall of fire sped towards them at an estimated speed of 30 miles per hour.

Realizing that an escape would be impossible, Wagner Dodge reached into his pocket and pulled out some matches. He lit a small fire in the grass by his feet, and allowed it to spread. Yelling at his companions to jump into it, he lept through his own fire, kneeled down, and covered his head.

Now, maybe they didn’t hear him, maybe they didn’t trust him, or maybe they were just too scared to think straight, but nobody joined him in the fire.

The wall of flame from the wildfire rushed over them, and washed right past Wagner Dodge, leaving him unharmed. Everyone else perished in the flames.

Ok, I want to try something now. Everyone, close your eyes. Using your mind’s eye, look inside of yourself, at your soul. Imagine it to be a swirling mass of colors.

The gold represents your joys and triumphs. The blue is your comfort. The gray is your doubt. The red is your anger. The black is your fear. I’m sure there are other colors in there somewhere, but I’ll let you figure out what those are. I’m still trying to figure out what my polka-dots means.

Now, clear a space in the middle of your soul. Not black! That’s fear, remember? It should be a complete void, absent of all colors.

Once you form the void inside your soul, create a small flame. Just a little flicker, like you would find on a candle. Steady the flame within the void, and then we can continue.

Ok, now, start separating out those colors, the ones that are negative. Pull out the anger, and feed it into the flame. The flame shouldn’t grow larger, but it should grow stronger. Feed it the doubts, fears, jealousy, greed, rage, whatever you find within yourself that you don’t like. With each negative emotion that you feed into your flame, it grows more and more solid.

Now, shape that flame into a solid bar of iron, running from your head to your toes. Extend it down, into the earth. All the way down into the core of the earth, this bar can reach.

Now, whenever you feel hopeless, lost, or confused, you can remember that you are connected to the earth. Form the void, the flame, and the bar. Steady yourself in this way, and nothing can shake you. Ok, you can open your eyes.

Don’t be afraid to take action. Don’t be afraid to start a fire. Don’t be afraid to make a difference.

(sing another hymn)

I invite you to join hands as I issue this call to go forth.

United, we stand a chance against the perils of this world. Burdens shared by all become burdens to none. Our strengths compliment one another, our efforts together allow us to accomplish miracles above what we can do alone. We may not be able to save the world, but we can save a piece of it. And, we can serve as examples to our fellow people, bringing change for generations to come. May it be so.