Beloved Community as Spiritual Practice:

Building the World We Dream About

Sunday, September 16, 2007, 11:00 a.m.

First Unitarian Church of San José

Worship Leader: Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones

Worship Associates: Marla Scharf, Roberto Padilla, and Aralyn Tucker

*Learning Danos un corazón with the FUCSJ Choir,

Music and lyrics by Juan Antonio Fraser, Dan Zulevic, director

trans. by Rev. Nancy

Chorus:

Give us a large heart for loving,

Give us a strong heart for struggling.

1. A new people, creators of history, builders of a new humanity,

A new people who embrace life like the risk of a long journey …

Chorus

2. A new people, struggling in hope, traveling with a thirst for truth,

A new people unbridled and unchained, a free people who demand liberty …

Chorus

3. A new people, loving without borders, beyond any sense of race and place,

A new people, alongside the poor, sharing with them roof and bread …

Chorus

*Singing # 188 Come, Come, Whoever You Are

Story for All Ages Let's Talk About Race, Rev. Nancy, Marla Scharf,

by Julius Lester, adapted by Rev. Nancy and Roberto Padilla

Reflection Aralyn Tucker

Last year, our youth group decided to take a summer service project trip to South Africa. It was decided that the trip was to take place during the summer of 2007, this past summer.

We planned to provide service in an area called Drakensburg in northern South Africa. We would spend a day doing service in the Drakensburg, digging a six foot hole for a septic tank so an orphanage could have proper pluming.

Sounds simple, right?

Well, we children weren't sure if we could get it all done in one day, but the adults believed in us, so we got to work, digging our hole.

Just as quickly as we got to work, we realized we were in over our heads. Our hole not only had to be six feet deep, but it also had to be nine feet wide, and twelve feet long. As we were digging, the local school got out of class, and the girls went off to fetch the daily water supply for their household after talking with us. The boys began to ask of they could help us dig. We agreed, and within thirty minutes, they had dug deeper than we had all day, which was about three hours. With the locals digging, and us standing around, begging then to let us work, we fit the ‘lazy American' stereotype perfectly.

That is what I want to change in this world. I want to free myself from the “lazy American” stereotype. I want to free the Africans from having to deal with everyone thinking they all have AIDS. I want everyone to realize that we are all human beings. We may not have the same political or religious beliefs, but we are all human beings. Linda Ellerbee once said, “People are pretty much alike. It's only that our differences are more susceptible to definition than our similarities.”

Even though we might not always get along, we still need to remember our similarities.

Even though we are faced with different hardships everyday, we still are the same race. We should attempt to end all stereotypes. I know it's not easy, but if we all try, the world could be such a better place to live, and to grow in.

Reflection Marla Scharf

I am a visual artist at heart, although not with very much developed skill. And in considering how I might express one of my visions of the Beloved Community, I did some Google searches on art.

“How to make a mosaic,” the web page proclaims.

But first, it gives a definition of the word:

mo·sa·ic

Noun.

1. A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.

2. The process or art of making such pictures or designs.

It goes on to advise:

“A mosaic cannot be rushed. It is created one piece at a time. A splatter mosaic is not really possible. A mosaic needs patience; the solid bits are placed individually, onto the prepared surface. The materials are limitless: pebbles, stained glass, beads, ceramics, tile, shells, and marble, found objects, and mirror—textures, colors, tiny shapes in a never-ending stream. A mosaic is incredibly durable. It seems to connect us with our ancient past—to what our ancestors did thousands of years before. In a mosaic there is past and there is future. Perhaps it is the opportunity to ride the continuum that has captured our hearts. Or perhaps in this time of war, ecological disintegration, and technological isolation, mosaics create an oasis of humanity.”

In my vision of a beloved community, I see a dazzling, light-filled, breathtakingly beautiful mosaic, a gigantic, all-encompassing mosaic, where each of us can see, can really see, and deeply appreciate each piece. We know that each piece is of immeasurable value. We know that each piece is part of a larger whole, a larger whole that would not be whole, indeed would not BE, without each piece shining through, and being seen and appreciated as its unique self.

*Singing # 1017 Building a New Way

Sermon Building the World We Dream About

Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones

“We are working to be free,” the song says; from “hate and greed and jealousy, we are working to be free.”

Anyone who has ever read one of my newsletter columns, or listened to me speak, knows how much I love to name and to claim that we are building the “Beloved Community” right here at the First Unitarian Church of San José. I say this, first, because I see the love that is palpable amongst us all—I see a thousand acts of your caring for each other, both folks you know well and folks you don't; I see your love for this church—by which I mean for both this faith community and for this building —in the way you show up and volunteer and do the work over and over to bring this community into being and to keep this place thriving; and frankly, I see the love here in the way that you—visitors and friends and members of this congregation—are all beloved by me and by Rev. Geoff and by all those who serve you as elected leaders and professional staff. So that's the first reason I say we're a Beloved Community—because we got a whole lotta love goin' on.

The second reason I claim that we are building the Beloved Community here is because I see us striving to create a radically hospitable, radically inclusive community. I see us striving for it out of our love for each other and also because that's the kind of community that our Unitarian Universalist belief in the dignity and worth of every person demands. This is why we are a Welcoming Congregation—why we've gone through the learning and transforming process and are committed to keeping alive the thorough welcome and inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and straight persons. And this is why we have our Spanish-Speaking Ministries, because we want to welcome and include our neighbors in this multiethnic city and because no one group can claim to own or to be “more” Unitarian Universalist than another. So we use both English and Spanish in our worship, and we often say that we are one congregation in “many” languages—although actually, it's not “ many, ” it's two, unless you add in all the diverse ways that we talk about our beliefs …

So I like to say that we are a Beloved Community. And as I said at last week's services, it matters how we name ourselves, because that really does change how we feel and how we behave. By naming ourselves a Beloved Community, I believe we move closer to becoming one.

But it might help if we really knew what we meant by it—don't you think? Like so many beautiful phrases that sound powerful when they come out of the mouths of our poets and prophets, “Beloved Community,” when it gets overused and generalized, can seem sweet and sentimental—and either too hard to achieve or (just as bad) too easy . We need to define and re-imagine the Beloved Community so that this vision has real life in it again. Let's look at it more closely:

Here's where the term comes from: The philosopher and theologian Josiah Royce first used the phrase “Beloved Community” about a hundred years ago. But it was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., fifty-some years after Royce, who emblazoned the image of the beloved community on the world's consciousness. Listen to how the King Center website describes it: “ Dr. King's Beloved Community is a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In the Beloved Community, … love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred.” An “all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood,” where “love and trust … triumph over fear and hatred”—that's the Beloved Community.

But the Beloved Community wasn't just this grand global vision for Dr. King; it was also a deeply personal one. It was a way of life and of relating to each other that any one of us can put into practice. Any of us can create relationships based on the practices of nonviolence and on the kind of love— agape love—that, as King said, doesn't make a separation “between worthy and unworthy people” or “between a friend and an enemy.” It's a love fixed on creating community. It's easy to see why Dr. King was so drawn to Unitarian Universalism, because that kind of love is exactly what our faith is all about. Among us, it doesn't matter whether you believe in God or not, or whether you follow the teachings of Muhammed or Jesus or the Dalai Lama or your wise grandmother—that's not what unites us. What unites us is the way we live, the way we approach relationships, the kind of community we want to create.

Still, some forty years after Dr. Martin Luther King lifted up the vision of Beloved Community, how would you say we're doing in this country?

I think we all know the answer to that one. My friend, the Rev. Cheryl Walker, gave a sermon about a year ago that captures this answer really well. The sermon was called “Deal or No Deal,” and she's talking about the good and the bad things we see reflected about ourselves when we watch TV. So, she mentions last season's Survivor series….

Now, if you've never seen this series—and I haven't—all you really need to know about Survivor is that each year it starts with teams of contestants who are plopped down in some remote place and then put through physical and personal tests. There is a lot of drama among the contestants, and I guess the big suspense is who will get “voted off the island” each week. But as Cheryl describes it, this past year, in order to boost she show's ratings, “though that's not the reason they gave, … the producers decided to create teams based upon race. There was the White team, the Black team, the Asian team, and the Hispanic team, and we the viewers were supposed to root for a team based on their race. [The producers] said they did it to increase the number of contestants who were people of color. Of course, the simple way to do that would have been just … to increase the number of contestants who were people of color! But … instead … in order to increase viewership and ratings, which translated into money, the producers thought it would be a good idea to appeal” to America's “still-greatest challenge: racism” and its “greatest shame: the unfulfilled promise that we would be one nation .”

So, some forty years after Dr. Martin Luther King lifted up the vision of Beloved Community, the television producers of this well-known show thought it would be fun and profitable—and just plain acceptable !—to segregate folks by race and ethnicity, and then pit them against each other. And isn't this a reflection of a larger truth in our country? As numerous studies point out, our nation's schools are more segregated now than they were forty years ago, and the so-called racial achievement gap runs every bit as deep. The schools in this state are among the worst on both measures. It's not just TV that segregates folks by race and ethnicity and then pits them against each other. I tell you: we are all the losers, in one way or another, when the game is rigged like that.

So, what can we do to revive this vision of the Beloved Community and to bring it to fruition within our own relationships? What can we do, here and now, to be the Beloved Community that we long to be—what can we do to be that “dazzling, light-filled, breathtakingly beautiful, … all-encompassing mosaic” that Marla described, “where each of us can see, can really see, … that each piece is of immeasurable value”?

Well, I want this to be a practical sermon, so here's a three-pronged plan for this year to help us do just that—and I know that each of you will be able to fill out this plan with your own large hearts and minds:

First, in worship this year we'll be exploring how “Beloved Community” can be a “spiritual practice.” By this I mean that our worship services will take up those topics that you asked for last spring—from forgiveness, to gratitude, hope, love, despair, peace, social justice, current events—we'll take up each of these topics from the perspective of how we can practice being the people we long to be in our families, at home, in this community. I don't know exactly how this will play out from week to week, so we'll all just have to show up and join in this journey of personal and communal growth. So here's the practical question to take home from this worship service: What are we doing in our lives right now that helps to build the Beloved Community? What are we doing that does not help to build that community?

Second, we have a wonderful chance at our very own fall church retreat in two weeks to learn more about the Beloved Community's ways of nonviolence, with a keynote workshop from the Rev. Cat Burneo. Remember: it was nonviolence—not just desegregation, or racial equality, or any one kind of justice making—but nonviolence that lay at the very heart of Dr. Martin Luther King's vision of the Beloved Community. The practices of nonviolence—in our everyday communication, in every relationship— are the way we make agape love a real-life on-the-ground experience. So, practical bit number two: sign up for the retreat today during Social Hour.

And third, in early October, Marla and I will launch an exciting brand-new class called “Building the World We Dream About.” (It makes me happy just to talk about it!) This course uses film, video, arts projects, a little reading, and a lot of reflection and analysis and deep conversation to lead us toward one Beloved Community of many colors, many languages, many cultures. It will help us do the deeper “soul work” of personal transformation and of understanding systems of oppression, focusing on racism and ethnocentrism. It will help us do the work that Aralyn has called for us to do in her reflection! What's more: We can bring all our identities to this class—because no one of us is just one thing (Latina or Angla, Korean or Black, First Peoples or Indian, gay or straight, married or single, young or old). And the ripples of this work will spread outward, as class participants will be talking with and interviewing other congregants, and we'll be sharing our learnings with the whole congregation. There's going to be a “buzz” in the air! As one of our church leaders has said: If the creation of an intentionally diverse Beloved Community is going to happen in this twenty-first century, then we Unitarian Universalists—and especially we UUs here in San José—are the ones to do it.

If this class interests you, please fill out the registration form in your order of service and drop it in the bowl on the chalice table. And if it's not for you, then we invite you to be open to the ripples!

Oh, my friends, we are “building a new way” to the world that we dream about! So, wherever and however you would like to join in, let us begin again in love. Let us be that new people, the creators of history who are building a new way and a new humanity, embracing that long and risky journey-toward-wholeness with a large heart for loving and a strong heart for struggling. And why not? This is the direction we, right here, are leaning already. This is the direction of our joy.

Amen; let's sing! Please rise in body or in spirit and join in singing Danos un corazón—the hymn on the insert in your order of service.

*Singing Danos un corazón

Candles of Caring

*Singing # 1030 Siyahamba

Benediction Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones

We are leaning in the direction of the Beloved Community. We are leaning in the direction of our joy. This is sacred work, and it is ours to do. Together we can build the world that we dream about.

Amen, salaam, shalom, blessed be.

The information and quotations in this section of the sermon come from The King Center's essay, “The Beloved Community of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” http://www.thekingcenter.org/prog/bc/ .

Rev. Cheryl Walker, “Deal or No Deal,” sermon delivered at All Souls Church on Nov. 26, 2006, available as a podcast through www.allsoulsnyc.org .

Harvard Civil Rights Study, cited in Cheryl Walker's “Deal or No Deal”; also, Susan Sandler, “Another View: How schools' racial achievement gap can be bridged,” San José Mercury News, Sept. 2, 2007, 22A.