Our
First Year
I had thought this would
be an easy message to write. It wasn’t.
I honestly can’t remember what draft this is, but I can share with you that it’s not the first or second,
or third. How does anyone sum up such a ground-breaking year? How to put it into words?
We dreamed. Then we made it happen. What we started out to do, in this
first year, we have done. Oh yes, I know that there is still much that lies ahead of us. Including
bumps, detours and, I’m sure, a few “Oh my goshes.” Believe
me, I am well aware that, and I shall now show my age by quoting the Carpenters, “We’ve only just begun.”
But what a beginning. I hope you are as pleased as I. What
a beginning! Our goal was to create a new community: a community that moved past
tolerance, as worthy and important as tolerance is; a community that moved past interfaith dialogue, as worthy and critically
important as interfaith dialogue is. We sought to create a community of respect and celebration of our varying spiritual paths, where we could share, and feel comfortable in sharing who we are, not to convert,
not to convince, but to honor our common humanity.
As our choir sang so beautifully,
“Ev’ry nation, ev’ry tongue, and ev’ry point of view. Red
and yellow, black and white, of ev’ry shade and hue. All of us have pieces
of whole of what is true. Help me see the part of me that lives inside of you.”
That was our dream. That was our goal. Now let’s take
a look at the past year. It’s an insert in our Order of Service.
…
September 12th – Beginnings
September 26th – Forgiveness
Guest Bernadette Pauls
October 10th – Whose Country
Is This, Anyway?
October 24th – Is Greed
Good? The Spiritual Implications of Cheap
November 7th – Remembering Our Veterans/Soldier’s Heart
Guest: Sally Jo Gilbert de Vargas
November 21st – Honoring
Hajj
Guest: Mohammad Fani
December 5th – Honoring Chanukah
Guest
Shirin Venus
December 19th – Honoring
Christmas
Guest
Dick Gibson
January 9th – Celebrating the non-holiday: Day to Day Spiritual Living
Guest
Steve Crawford
January 23rd – Honoring MLK Day Jan 17th
February 13th – Celebrating
Love (Valentine’s Day)
February 27th – Interfaith
Marriage
March 13th – Spiritual Wounding/Spiritual Healing – Compassionate Listening
Guest Cathy Keene Merchant
March 27th – Honoring
Naw Ruz (Baha’i)
Guest
Bill Griffith
April 10th – Getting Ready for Earth Day
April 19th Honoring Passover
(Seder at Maplewood Presbyterian)
April 24 – Honoring Easter
Guest Bernadette Pauls
May 8th – Celebrating the Golden Rule
May 22nd – Honoring
Buddha Day - Visakha Puja
Guest
Cathy Keene Merchant
June 12th – Revisiting
the American Dream
June 26th – Our First
Year
Not bad. Not bad for the
first year. And yet we sought to do more.
We wanted, from the very beginning, to be rooted in our community and in this, our first year, we focused on helping those in our community who are hungry.
Many of us, as schedules permitted, have donated time to the Lynnwood Food Bank.
All of us have donated food. Depending upon how much we have here today,
we will either come close to or actually exceed donating 700 pounds of food. A
little church like ours, in our first year, 700 pounds. And next year we will have a volunteer, Volunteer Coordinator – as we seek to do more in our community
to live our Interfaith.
Living our Interfaith
is something we incorporated into our name. And I say “we” because
it was very much a joint decision. My idea had been “First Interfaith Church”
and the response was umm, no. “Living Interfaith Church.”
Church, because
we all wanted to reclaim the meaning of the word church, which comes from Old English and Old Germanic. It meant circle. We are a circle. However large we may get, we remain a circle and all that that implies.
Interfaith because our
faith is Interfaith. Some of us walk the spiritual path of Buddhism. Some of us
walk the path of Christianity. Some of Judaism, Baha’i, Islam, Humanism,
or “I don’t follow a specific path but I’m a seeker”ism. We
hold and honor all of these “isms.”
Our faith is Interfaith, our faith is in the belief that “all of us have pieces of the whole of what is true.”
Living, because we are
about walking our talk. To have beliefs and leave them on the shelf isn’t
what we’re about. We believe in the Golden Rule? Ok, let’s live it. We believe in engaging the world
with love and compassion? Ok, let’s live it. We believe in respecting and honoring each other’s spiritual journeys? Ok, let’s live
it.
Living Interfaith Church.
We are, of course,
a work in progress. It is my deepest hope that we will always be a work in progress. Many of us get together from time to time to discuss joys and bumps along the way. “That’s working in the service, let’s keep it.” “That isn’t working quite so well, why don’t we try this instead?” I so look forward to the sharing of joys and bumps. Adjusting. Tweaking. Sometimes more than “tweaking.” I love it that we so quickly and comfortably have become we, not me.
So that’s
this year, what about next year? The first service of our second year will be
on Sunday, September 11th – a fitting date to renew our commitment to each other and to Interfaith.
I know some of us have
been asking, are we going to put some effort next year into growing? Yes. We will have not only a Volunteer Coordinator, but a Growth and Publicity Coordinator. But before you build a house, particularly a brand new style of housing, you need
a strong foundation. This year, together, we have built that strong foundation. The new spiritual house that we would build can now stand secure on that foundation. This is no small achievement. It is huge.
There are moments when
I just pause and ponder and marvel at how far we have come in so short a time. Starting
with a dream, we have built this foundation. And with no publicity, and a website
that people have to stumble on, we have come far enough that people from New Zealand, Peru, Canada, as well as all over the
U.S., have written to me assuming we’re a well established church and seeking information on this wonderful thing: Interfaith
– as a faith. It’s mind-boggling, a little intimidating, but also
hugely exciting. People look to us. And
as we get better known, more and more will look to us.
It is my hope that
next year will be our last year here at Alderwood Middle School – not because Alderwood isn’t a good place. This first year, with a little help, we’ve made this cafeteria sacred space, and I’m looking forward to a good second year as well. A big reason I’d like to move is
we can’t have childcare. Children can come and they are welcome, but they
have to stay right here. I’m looking forward not only to our offering childcare, but also beginning an Interfaith curriculum – a curriculum that we
can make available to people all over the world. They want it. They are already asking for it!
To accomplish this, I
think we’re going to need some grants. We are, right now, a registered
non-profit in the state of Washington, and registered with
the Federal government as well. Right now, as a church, donations to us are tax
deductible. But to seek grants, we need to be a 501 (c) (3). By fall, thanks to some dedicated people, we’ll be ready to submit the paperwork. A curriculum for Interfaith education, where our children grow up to know their own family’s spiritual
path and to respect and understand the paths of others, doesn’t yet exist. We
will create it. The world needs it. Our
children need it.
I believe in our children. And I believe that we have a responsibility to them, and to their children.
Our final hymn,
is one of my favorites.
“We’ll
build a land,” the hymn says, “where we bind up the broken. We’ll
build a land where the captives go free.”
It has been a dream
for centuries.
There is a beautiful Apache
proverb. “It makes no difference what name you give to God, for Love is
the real God of all the earth.” Hello!
The Qur’an tells
us, “Behold, We have created you all out of a male and female, and have made you into nations and tribes so that you
might come to know one another.” Our differences are a chance to learn,
not a reason to fight.
From the Sutta Nipata
of Buddhism, “So what of all these titles, names, and races?! They are
but human inventions.” God has not divided us. We have divided ourselves.
From Luke, though it is
elsewhere in the Gospels as well, Jesus asks, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do
not notice the log that is in your own?” Good question.
From the Bhagavad-Gita
of Hinduism, “I look upon all creatures equally. None are less dear to
me and none more dear.” I think we’re on a roll here.
From Baha’u’llah,
the founder of the Baha’i faith, “O contending peoples and kindreds of the earth!
Set your faces towards unity, and let the radiance of its light shine upon you.”
And from the Mishnah
of Judaism, a creative interpretation of Adam. “All of humanity comes from one man for the sake of peace, that none
should say to his neighbor, ‘My father was greater than your father.’”
The dream of our
common humanity, the dream of unity within diversity is nothing new. It has been
dreamt before by every sacred path. It is time to make the dream real.
Let us help to build
a land where we bind up the broken. Let us help to build a land where the captives
go free.
This is the call
of Interfaith. This is our call. There
is indeed work ahead. Hard work. But,
to paraphrase Hillel, “If not us, who? If not now, when?”
Please, stand if the spirit
so moves you. Let us sing our hymn. #121,
“We’ll Build a Land.” The choir will sing the first verse,
for those who might be unfamiliar with it. Then we’ll all join in singing
verses one and two.
