"What Makes a Person Moral?"
by the Rev. Krista Taves
April 15, 2007
Reading
As Unitarian Universalists we draw on many religious sources. We draw on the wisdom of the world's religions. We draw on our own direct experience of the divine. We use the guidance of reason and the results of science. And, we draw on the words and deeds of prophetic women and men that challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.
Our reading this morning draws from the words and deeds of two prophetic men who are making a significant difference in the cultural and political landscape of the United States - Jim Wallis, a public theologian and editor of Sojourners Magazine, and Jon Stewart, anchor of Comedy Central's The Daily Show.
Like many Christians, Jim Wallis has become frustrated by the very narrow definition of religion that has come to be front and center in politics and the media. His ministry is focused on restoring a more flexible, compassionate and progressive religious sentiment to this country by returning to what he considers the moral heart of the gospel, social justice.
Jon Stewart's Daily Show is also deeply influencing this country. It is estimated that more Generation Xers and Generation Nexters watch the Daily Show than they watch the regular news. While some bemoan this as the dumbing down of American culture, this last week on the Bill Maher show, Dan Rather suggested something quite different. He stated that regular news programming has been taken over by the entertainment industry. This has left a serious gap in American news media. It is difficult to find solid journalism, where deep questions are asked and stands are taken. This vacuum is being filled by comedy news, like Bill Maher, The Colbert Report and the Daily Show. There is in comedy news a deep, often irreverent and truth-bearing commentary on the state of our society, something we're not getting very much of in regular news, and this is why these shows have become so popular. It is filling a deep hunger in us for relevance and meaning. In religious language, The Daily Show is providing a challenging prophetic message because it calls us to see beyond the particular stories of that evening to the larger picture of how we are to be in relationship with one another. It shows us a vision of ourselves at which we can laugh, cry, grow angry, and hope for change.
Every night Jon Stewart interviews someone of importance in our society. It could be an actor, a writer, a politician, an activist, or a religious leader. In the clip you are about to see dramatized this morning by L. and I. Jon Stewart is interviewing Jim Wallis about the question of moral values. What is a moral value? And how are we to live if we want to be moral? Let's see what they have to say.
The Daily Show; Jon Stewart Interview with Jim Wallis, Jan 18, 2005
(condensed for Sunday service)
Jon: My guest tonight, an evangelical and faith-based activist who is the editor of Sojourners magazine; his latest book is "God's Politics -- Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It." Please welcome Jim Wallis. Jim!
[Music, Applause, Cheers]
Jon: How are you?
Jim: I'm good, how are you?
Jon: I'm doing very well sir. The book is called "God's Politics--Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It;" It's based on Jesus' teachings that you apply to the political arena.
Jim: Well, it's hard for me to believe that Jesus' first priorities would have been a capital gains tax cut and the occupation of Iraq, for example. So you wonder how Jesus has become pro-rich, pro-war, and only pro-American.
Jon: I wonder, does putting religion in it, add an element that is off-putting because of history's relationship with religion being one of a lot of blowing up of people on both sides. Why then does this philosophy for living necessarily also have to be tied into the religious aspect.
Jim: People who are religious must make clear that religion does not have a monopoly on morality. Martin King did this best. The night before marching the streets, he had Baptists like him, he had Catholics, Abraham Joshua Hoesch, the rabbi, Agnostics, they're all in the room; everybody felt a part of the conversation; cause you had to be prepared spiritually to face the, the water canons, the dogs, the clubs in the streets. So it wasn't a religious moment, it was how to find the spiritual resources to do what, in fact, was right. So we need a better conversation in America.
This whole morals values conversation... are there only two? Only abortion and gay marriage? Well, I'm an evangelical Christian which means [I value] three thousand verses in the Bible about poverty. So I would say, fighting poverty is a moral value. I'd say protecting the environment, God's creation, is a moral value. I'd say how and when we go to war, and whether we tell the truth about it, is a moral value. Is torture a moral value? So let's have a better conversation about this.
Jon: How then does this moral value conversation become hijacked by the Religious Right when there're all these [religious people] that believe as you do, that poverty is as equally a moral dilemma as defense of marriage. Why do we not hear those voices loudly? Is it a question of the media or that they don't exist in the numbers you imagine they do?
Jim: Social movements are what change history. Abolitionists, slavery, civil rights, women's suffrage. We're talking about building a movement now.
A friend of mine, she was an African-American woman, from the streets of DC, so smart she went to Yale got her PhD. Went back to the streets and she was the best street organizer I had ever seen. Hip-Hop, Rap, she hugged and scolded and loved a whole bunch of kids to change their lives. She left a commission and it was this: Don't say that all these problems are too big. Don't say we don't have any Martin Luther King Jr's any more. Don't you get it? We are the ones we have been waiting for.
When Jesus said, I was hungry you gave me nothing to eat, thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was naked and you didn't clothe me, I was a stranger you didn't welcome me, and I was sick - you didn't come to see me, I was in prison you never visited me. They said, Lord when did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, stranger, sick, and in prison? And he said, as you've done to the least of these, you've done to me. Now, I take from that, our test of how much we love God is how we love God's children, who are left out and left behind.
Jon: So you are saying, that's everybody.
Jim: Everybody. Jewish, Christian everybody.
Jon: Faith without works is nothing.
Jim: Faith without works is dead.
Meditation
So often we think of morality as a set of beliefs. Do you believe that homosexuality is a sin or a gift from God? Are you pro-life or pro-choice? Are you for or against capital punishment? Do you believe in evolution or creationism? This kind of either/or thinking has come to dominate the moral landscape of this country. Jim Wallis and many others say there is another way. Morality not as either/or belief but as service, as the action that makes our values real and life-changing. As you do to the least of these, you do to me.
Sermon
Early this winter, we had a chance to really draw on our moral values. We were in a bit of a quandry. Our youth minister resigned just before Christmas. Although most of us were surprised, there was a general sense that this was right for us and right for him. It hadn't been a good match, for him or for us, and we were all freed from the burden of that truth when he left us. So the first moral value we drew on was the moral value of honesty. We looked at the truth and integrated it into our lives. Then, we needed to draw on the moral value of transparency, meaning being open about what you are doing and why. So we called a meeting so that everyone had a chance to ask their questions about what had happened and why. And then, we draw on the moral values of commitment and compassion. What was most important to the adults? What was important to the youth? What did our youth need from us? It was a time to draw on our deepest moral values, values that affirm that each of us has worth and dignity, that our lived experience is sacred and that in listening to one another we participate in the creation of the sacred. We drew on moral values like accountability and responsibility, and a deep openness to the various needs of all the people, including the youth and their parents and those who have taken on the sacred responsibility of teaching them.
The adults that came to the meeting came with a great sense of purpose because it is so important to us that you have a youth program that really meets you where you are at. We know that when you're a teenager, it is absolutely vital that you have a place to safely explore all the changes happening in you. Your body is changing, your ideas are changing, and you are moving into adulthood. Because being a teenager is both exciting and really hard, we want you to have all the support you need, in the form of strong adult mentoring relationships, friendships with other youth, and a trusting relationship with your minister, who in this case, is me. And we especially want you to have that support because many of us did not get that kind of support as teenagers. Many of us had parents who couldn't talk about those big things we were thinking and feeling, and we went to churches were it was one way or no way. Questions were not alright, and the only sex education we received was to not do it until you were married. This left many of us really unprepared to be adults. We want more for you than that.
The youth also came with a great sense of purpose. I know you didn't say as much as the adults, but what I heard is that you wanted to have a leader for your program who really understood you, valued you. And you want someone who gets you on a deep level.
One of the things that came out at that meeting, especially from the adults, is that we want the youth to have the opportunity to do hands on social action. We want to impart to the youth how important it is to give back to the world. One of the core components of our faith practice is service, giving back, being generous with our world. We believe in being generous with yourself, generous with everyone who comes into this church, generous with the community we live in, and generous with the whole world, human and non-human. This is what it means to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of all beings. We believe that you can't really be a whole person if you are only living for yourself. A person living only for themselves is cut off from creation itself. We may think we are protecting ourselves, but in reality we are starving ourselves, and it is by reaching out that we replenish the well of our being. So it is very important to us that we instill the moral values of service and generosity in our kids and in our youth.
So after the meeting the youth went down to their room for Sunday school and you had the chance to talk about what you had heard the adults say at that meeting. And as I understood it, and youth feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, all of you were in agreement that you wanted to do social action. Every Youth Conference you've been to, you've done social action, and you always come back inspired. You've worked in food banks and homeless shelters. Last fall you took part in a protest against the war in front of the Illinois Legislature. And you came back thrilled with the experience and aware that you had made a difference. There was a picture in the Springfield Illinois paper, and blogging about your action filled its website for days and days and days. You made people think! Each of these experiences left you hungry for more. Your well had been replenished and you were restless to experience more of what it's like to make a difference in the world.
But, as you reflected on what you heard at that meeting, you had some really good observations, and I want to share some of them because I think the adults have a lot to learn from you here.
This is what you asked your teachers, "All those adults who said they want us to do social justice, what are they doing? What are their social justice projects and what kind of community work are they doing as a church?" And the answer was kind of embarrassing. Aside from splitting our collection, which I think is really important, and the small short-term projects taken on by some of our covenant groups, we don't do social justice. We are not really actively witnessing as a community to our moral values.
Like so many small suburban Unitarian Universalist churches, we get really caught up in internal church politics and the busyness of our overfull lives, and so our witness in the world keeps being put on the back burner, as something to do when everything else is taken care of. And because that never seems to be the case, and likely never will be the case because there will always be something else to take care of, we can keep putting it off. Right now the burning issue is our finances. And it's an important issue, no doubt, and one that must be resolved, but I'm worried that we will use it as another reason to leave untouched the issue of our mission to the community. When we prioritize the work of the church in this way, what message are we imparting to our youth and to our children? As any parent knows, our actions speak much larger than our words.
Our youth are asking us to walk our talk. And I want to thank the youth for making these observations because in doing so you have given us a gift. We need to hear what you see because we get so wrapped up in our stuff that it is easy to lose sight of what we are really here for. This church is here, this beautiful religion of ours is here, to save lives. We are here to transform lives. We come here to be transformed ourselves. We seek to transform those who seek us out. We are also here to transform the lives of people who will never darken the doors of this church. We are not called to simply wait for those who seek us out. So often Unitarian Universalism becomes what Rev. David Bumbaugh calls "the circling of the wagons." We look at our churches as oasis, as refuges, as places where we can retreat from the world, and we become like those circling wagons, creating a protective environment sheltered from the outside world. This is especially prominent in the Bible Belt, where we are a minority and come to Unitarian Universalism thirsting for community where we can be who we truly are. One of the indicators that a church identifies primarily as an oasis, is when the members will say that the defining feature of their church is that it's a place where likeminded people can find community. Now there is nothing wrong with needing a refuge, or an oasis. Life is very difficult and we need places to rest, to restore ourselves, to find that grounding that puts us right with ourselves. The chalice of our faith is here to warm us. But when we circle around that chalice too tightly, it blocks the light and others who might need our saving message or our helping hands are blocked from that light. Our tight circle also starves the chalice of the oxygen it needs to burn. In this way the very tight circle that was meant to protect us may even extinguish the light by which we warm ourselves. As Jim Wallis said in his interview with Jon Stewart, faith without works is dead.
We come here to rest. But what are we resting for? We come here to restore ourselves. But for what purposes are we being restored? We come here to be grounded in right relationship with ourselves. What is the purpose of being grounded and in right relationship if not to serve so that others can drink from the well of our faith, the same well that has saved us over and over and over again?
As the flame of our chalice finds the dark corners of this sanctuary we are called into the corners of the world to shed the light of our convictions and our moral values so that others can find the freedom that we have found, the life-giving thirst-quenching soul redeeming freedom grounded in a universal love that holds us in its embrace and heals us and makes us whole.
I have a proposal for you, all of you, youth and adults. I propose that we make a commitment today to cast the light of our faith far beyond the walls of this sanctuary. I want to know who wants to come with me next year on a work trip to the Gulf Coast? The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee has a program in place called the Gulf Coast Volunteer Program, and they assist church groups in arranging work trips. We know the devastation is still enormous and that for the most part, the eyes of America have already moved on.
Let me tell you why I think this would be such a great opportunity for us. This is a church that builds. You bought a property with an aging awkward home, and transformed it into a religious community. Every inch of this property - from the grounds, to this sanctuary, to the renovations of the old building, has been shaped by the hands of those who love this faith and love this community. This shows me that this community knows how to create and sustain beauty. I would love to carry that legacy to those who are hurting.
I would love to invite our youth into that legacy, supported by adults who are deeply committed to living their values. I would love to invite into that legacy those who have joined this church since we built this sanctuary. You sit in a legacy that began before you arrived. Will you join it now? I would love to see those who remain circle around those who we send forth, doing everything they can to support those who serve in our name.
This is what I'm asking from you. I want to know by the end of this week who is willing to make a firm commitment to go. Ideally, I want half the people to be youth, and half to be adults. If there are enough people to make this fly, we will do it. If not, it goes back on the burner, and we will try again very very soon. But I have hope that we can and will do this. And we will come back replenished because we have drunk from the well of our undying faith.
"May ours be a faith that is more than just beautiful words and high ideals. May ours be a faith of vitality and commitment, a faith that burns in our hearts and blazes in our minds. May ours be a faith that shines to the world as the light of deeds and the witness of actions."
Amen.
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Send Questions or Comments to Rev. Taves: Minister@EmersonUUChapel.org
Updated: 04/29/07