A Generous Life

 

Well, it had to happen some day.  I am amazed that it did not happen until the third year of my ministry.  I am substituting this Sunday for the minister at my UU Fellowship.  He had already picked the topic – “A Generous Life.”  I have never before written a sermon based on a topic that was assigned to me.

 

I’ve been working on it much of today, and have just finished a draft – which I intend to polish tomorrow.  What an intriguing experience it has been!  To take someone else’s topic, try to do justice to the intent of it, yet still to make it my own.

 

What fascinated me the most was when I realized that there is a profound difference between a generous act and a generous life – at least as I see it. 

 

A generous act is almost automatic for most of us.  A child falls into a well, and we drop what we are doing to help.  Or after 9-11, when so many contributed so much to the Red Cross and other organizations.  Or after Katrina.  People were moved to great acts of generosity.  And it should not be made light of.  That generosity was important and I’m sure made a real difference in many, many lives.

 

But after 9-11, after Katrina, as a country, as a whole we found it so incredibly easy to go back to whatever our lives had been before.  We were again, a divided nation, Republican and Democrat, Christian and Muslim, rich and poor.  Our generous acts were like a cloak, if you will.  We put it on, then we took it off and put it back in the closet.

 

Generous acts we are accustomed to.  But as I thought about it, it seemed to me that while our culture values generous acts, we do not value so much the generous life.

 

We will pay lip-service to it.  I think the life that Jesus called us to is a generous life.  The life that Hillel called us to was like-wise a generous one.  The same with the Buddha, and so many other of the spiritual leaders we so revere and yet, in our daily lives tend to ignore.  Or worse, these days at least, we call it by that dreaded word: Socialism! 

 

So I find myself back again with values. 

 

President Obama, for the sin of trying to find a way to provide health care for every citizen is branded a “Socialist.”  And I wonder if anyone actually understands what socialism is any more?  Socialism is to Communism what Capitalism is to Fascism.  Is that really what we mean?   But I digress.

 

Values.  I think at its heart, the “generous life” is about values.  The generous life values “us” more than “me.”  It may be that simple.  And that hard.

An Interfaith Life

 

This Sunday I am preaching on the subject, “The Interfaith Life.”   Having stared at a blank screen for over half an hour now, I think I’ll try blogging on the subject and see what comes up.

 

There are two aspects to “The Interfaith Life,” or rather, two that I want to look at.  The first seems straightforward enough.  Our congregation at the Interfaith Church seems called to worship together in an interfaith setting.  Clearly there’s something unusual about this, as we are a small community and there are at best only a few interfaith churches in the United States, and perhaps we’re it!

 

So what calls us to come together?  What do we gain from it?  What feeds us?  And once all the positive things are said, and there are some wonderfully positive things to say, the humbling question is what makes it so difficult?  What do we see that others don’t, and what do others see that we don’t?  Yikes!  No wonder this is hard to write.  This is already a full sermon and then some.  And we’ve yet to broach aspect number two.

 

The second aspect is clearly more complex.  But I think it’s the biggie.  What do we take back out into the world from the services at the Interfaith Church? 

 

To answer that, I think we need to answer what may be an embarrassing question.  Is the Interfaith Community Church simply a hodge-podge of differing religions, attended by people who don’t really want the “stress” of any one religious point of view?  If that is the case then we come on Sunday just to enjoy the diversion and diversity.  When we go home, we go back to whatever world we live in.

 

Or is there some unity to be found within the diversity?  This is what I am about and why I’m involved.  But is it truly there, or is it more of a hope, a wish?  If there is unity to be found within the diversity, then when we return home we not only bring interfaith with us, we bring Interfaith with us.  That’s really what I’m asking, isn’t it?  If we did bring Interfaith home with us, what might that look like?  What would it look like if we live Interfaith, rather than dabble with it on Sunday mornings?

 

Our faith is the core of who each of us is as an individual.  To live Interfaith is to live a life that truly respects the core of others.  To be committed to Interfaith we must therefore be committed to our common humanity: not simply in our thoughts but in our lives.  It means tearing down not only the walls that divide us religiously, but all walls that divide us.  Racial walls.  Ethnic walls.  Economic walls.  Gender walls.  To live an Interfaith life is to feel our common humanity, even when we can’t see it.  To respect, not merely “tolerate” our differences. 

 

That’s hard enough.  Those walls, religious, racial, ethnic and others, didn’t get there arbitrarily.  They got there because they provided a sense of security.  And identity. 

 

Us and them.  In many ways the history of humanity is the ebb and flow of how we define who “we” are and who “they” are. 

 

Maybe that’s why Interfaith is so hard.  It’s tempting to many, I think, as a philosophy.   But it is difficult as a spiritual practice.  Very difficult.

 

Yet if we are to take Interfaith home with us and live it, it must be a spiritual practice.  Interfaith must become who we are, not simply what we “believe.” 

 

Can we break free from the “us” and “them” mentality?  Good question.  I hope so.  I have a vested interest in believing that it is possible, for I have given my life to it.  But it is a real question.  And it has no obvious answer.

 

The next two days are going to be interesting!  I know now my message on Sunday won’t have the big answers.  Maybe a few little ones?  And several large questions.

Again, Values

 

Now that the “stimulus” package has passed and there is at least a glimmer of hope regarding the economy, I want to return to the discussion we’ve been having over the last several weeks: values.  And yes, I’m still not a happy camper.

 

I blogged a few weeks ago regarding “Consumer Reports” and our society’s addiction to the “best buy” regardless of who was taken advantage of in the making of the product or, in the case of stores like Wal-Mart, who got taken advantage of in the selling of the product. 

 

“Green” has taken on some advocates, but it still isn’t well defined.  Even the meaning of “organic” has been diluted (thanks to the Congress) rather than strengthened in its meaning.

 

YES there are exceptions.  The growing movement for “Fair Trade” and it is a wonderful movement, is such an exception: but it is still small.

 

I want to see larger.  I want to see a markets that sell food and stores that sells clothing and furniture under the banner of “Earth and Worker Friendly Shopping”.  I don’t need “made in America.”  The truth is, we still have sweat-shops right here in the U.S.A..

 

George Soros, are you listening???  Want somewhere truly positive and important to put a few hundred million?  How about creating “Earth and Worker Friendly” standards?  (and then staffing the researchers to ensure compliance from those who seek to follow them).  We need specific standards that demand the people picking the crop or manufacturing the item we purchase are not only paid a fair wage, but also have decent working conditions and reasonable hours.  We need specific standards that demand that crops are planted and harvested and items manufactured in ways that are sustainable, that do not poison the planet, let alone the consumer.  Fair Trade, which is an aspect of this but only one aspect, could be incorporated within it. 

 

And then we need stores, markets, shops, that will not carry any product that is NOT certified as “Earth and Worker Friendly.”  I don’t want to have to read the fine print every time I purchase clothes or food.  I want to be able to shop where I know whatever I buy will meet these standards.

 

And as difficult as the above is, the truth of it is that we can’t stop there. 

 

Yes, it’s impossible to buy responsibly if the responsible products are not available.  But we also need to educate the American and indeed the world consumer.  We all need to truly understand that the cheapest item is NOT necessarily the “best” buy.  The best buy is the item that is not only good for me, but also respects the human dignity of the people who made it possible as well as protecting the future of our children.  Any product that does NOT respect the human dignity of the people who made it possible, and any product that does NOT protect the future of our children is a HORRIBLE buy – no matter how cheap is it, how well it works or how long it lasts.

 

Values.  Do we really have them or not?  Nothing in this life is free.  Real values aren’t free.  Indeed, real values can’t be found on the cheap either.

 

If you agree, I hope you’ll direct as many others as you can think of to this blog.  This needs to be a movement.  A huge movement.  A values movement. 

 

The time has come to act.  As my spiritual mentor, Rabbi Hillel, said it: “If not now, when?”

 

Valueless Society

 

I fear I’m going to be rather political this week.  But my dander is up.  It’s not too often that I am angered, disgusted, frustrated and saddened all at the same moment.  But this is one of those times.

 

As I write this the Senate is discussing the “Stimulus.”  And if it wasn’t all so pitiful it would be hysterically funny.

 

Imagine a house on fire, and the firefighters (a bi-partisan mix of donkeys and elephants) rather than fighting the fire are sitting about discussing just how much water is necessary to put the fire out.  Sitting there.  One group of firefighters desperately wanting a consensus while the other group orates endlessly that the first group is being wasteful of water.  Meanwhile the house burns to the ground.  Or, which is what looks like is about to happen, the first group gives in and agrees to use less water than is needed to put the fire out all in the name of compromise.

 

I can’t figure out which side is more pathetic.  Is it the Republicans, who set the house on fire in the first place?  Or is it the Democrats who watched them set the house on fire and said nothing, and now that they are “in power” are so unsure of themselves they are willing to let the whole thing go up in smoke unless they get at least some Republican approval.

 

I do have to mention that in one area the Emperor is without clothing.  The Senate Democrats stand in fear of the Republican filibuster.  That’s lunacy.  Think for a moment of the insane spectacle of the Democrats having a bill to put out the financial firestorm the country faces, and the Republicans trying to talk it to death … with every day more and more people losing their jobs.  If the Democrats called the Republican bluff and said, “You want to filibuster?  You feel like channeling Herbert Hoover, do you?  Go for it.” do you really think it would last very long? 

 

So where are the “values” that the Republican Party brags about?  They were willing to spend billions to invade a country (Iraq) that had nothing to do with 9/11.  But they are not willing to spend billions to get our own country back on track.  That’s values?  And where are the “values” of a Democratic Party that hasn’t the backbone to say, “This is what the country needs; we welcome and invite your support but with or without it we will do what’s necessary.”?

 

But all this is merely the end of a long week of frustration.  The President said he wanted to “limit” executive salaries for those corporations that have been managed so badly that they are about to go under and need massive taxpayer dollars to bail them out.  The limit, half a million dollars.  A year!!  And the screams that are coming up.  I mean really, who could possibly be motivated to do a good job if s/he is only to be paid half a million dollars a year??!!

 

And this same week comes news of the baseball player, walking away from a salary of over 20 million because, gosh that just isn’t enough!

 

And the rationalization that billions, that’s BILLIONS of dollars were needed to be paid as “bonuses” to the very same people who ran Wall Street into the ground.  Why?  Because, gosh, who could be expected to do a good job being paid only a few million a year?

 

Too few of us have stopped to think about what this says of OUR values.  So how much are teachers paid?  I mean, how much are our very best teachers paid? 

 

I would submit that no one is worth even half a million dollars a year.  No one.  Not the best baseball player.  Not the craftiest stock broker.  Not the CEO of a mega company.  No one.  Especially not in a country with poverty on the rise, with homelessness on the rise, with more and more people unable to pay for their medical care.

 

We have been sold a bill of goods and I don’t think we truly realize how deeply all of us, I repeat, all of us have bought into it.  The idea that success comes from having money – by the bucket, by the barrel, by the tanker.

 

The United States is NOT a great country because anyone can grow up to be stinking rich.  That is a valueless and indeed soulless comment. 

 

Yes, it is wonderful that the U.S. has been a land of opportunity.  And it is wonderful that people who aren’t born wealthy can become wealthy.  But if we have any values, ANY values left at all, the idea that we as a country would look upon a person who makes millions a year with anything other than disdain shows just how complete is our corruption.  It’s our corruption because it is our lack of sane values that makes it all possible.

 

I promise to return to less political subjects next week.  But I would leave you with this thought.  Where are our religious leaders? 

 

It’s Jesus and the money-changers all over again, and no one seems to notice, or care.  Not unless there’s a buck to be made.

 

There is more that is wrong in our country that a “mere” financial crisis.  Our values have atrophied. 

 

The values of Moses, Mohammed, Jesus, the Buddha and just about every other religious leader have all been mortgaged for houses that, as we are beginning to find out, have very little real value.