Text of sermon given at the First Parish on Sunday, September 16, 2001

I wrote this sermon on Tuesday morning in ordinary time, before...

I wrote this sermon on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday, and up until this very second in extraordinary time, after...

"Before" and "after" have become the markers of this week. We yearn for the ordinary that we took so for granted, and find ourselves submerged in what is for us, thank God, the extraordinary. But I must remind you, that this is not extraordinary for some people in other parts of the world. There are many who understand our suffering only too well. They have suffered much, and for far too long.

My heart goes out to you, to our nation and to our world.

Our hearts go out to those who have been so badly injured, who have died, to their families and loved ones. Our hearts are with the workers who are doing the hands on work in those areas of despair and destruction. I ask you to generously support them - each in your own way.

Tuesday was a terrible, devastating, wasteful day. The likes of which most of us have never known - and I do not wish to minimize that. People are enraged, grief stricken, crazed! Some in their terror are saying awful, outrageous things about what they would like to do! - and are in fact, horrified at what they are saying. They talk out of their enormous fear and pain. I understand. I trust they will not act.

This sermon is about love - and fear. The topic was chosen weeks ago. Before...

In order for me to bring you this message which I have wanted to abandon all week, but which seemed to refuse to abandon me - I must to ask you to do something extremely difficult, for if we don't approach it this way, I am sure you will not be able to hear my words. You will be trying to apply them to this overwhelming situation. And in fact, we are too raw and the task at hand is formidable. It takes practice, and from my perspective, it must first be practiced at a very ordinary level in order to prove to you that it works.

At least, this is how I have experienced it, and I have been working with this tool for 15 years - and only once before under such demanding circumstances.

So to some degree, I apologize. I apologize for making demands on you at such a time; to push you just at a moment that you don't want to be pushed. But it feel like such an urgent message and if it changes one person's life in the weeks ahead, at the most basic level in the most ordinary situation, it might be worth today's effort. It might just be the start of something very good.

I am going to ask you - this is the hard thing - to come fully into this sanctuary, this safe place, and be fully in the moment.

Here in this moment - no past, no future - we are okay.

The reality is that this moment is all we have. I am going to ask you to listen with your whole being to this lesson. I feel like a facilitator. I offer it to you as a life promoting tool, a way to be in our world in the days ahead.

This message is something that I have struggled with all week, but truly believe.

I am going to ask you to consider the possibility that there are only two real human emotions. Love, in its many forms - compassion, kindness, out reach, understanding,, and fear - in its many forms - rage, despair, jealousy, hatred. It is my hope that by introducing you to this perspective, that it might change your lives. And, if enough of us, believe this, it might so increase the peace in our world, that ours would be a world at peace.

My primary source for today's sermon is "A Course in Miracles". It is a study course designed to aid us in changing our perception of life and this world. I am obviously not an advanced student. I think if I were, there would have been no initial internal conflict over whether this was an appropriate topic for today, or not.

Some of you are familiar with A Course in Miracles, I am sure. The original manuscript was completed in 1973. The introduction to the course says: " This is a course in miracles. It is a required course.

Only the time you take it is voluntary.

Freewill does not mean that you can establish the curriculum.

It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time.

The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught.

It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance.

The opposite of love is fear..." To set the stage, I must tell you that A Course in Miracles came into being in what might be considered a very strange way. The content was passed to a psychologist - Dr. Helen Schucman - through dreams, and while she was awake. She heard a voice.

Now I'm not a "New Age" person, but I don't dicker over this stuff. I am a firm believer in the words - "God works in mysterious ways..." The voice she heard, so we are told , the communicator of this information, was said to be Jesus. She believed it to be Jesus.

Dr. Schucman's story Journey Without Distance explains the details of how this came about. It is very interesting and I recommend it to you.

Of particular interest to me is the fact that this woman was a Jew, raised by a devout Roman Catholic governess, and at the time of receiving the information, professed to be an atheist. She did not want to talk to or about Jesus. She was a research psychologist - logical, rational, reasoning, with no interest in channeling. She wanted no part of automatic writing. And hearing voices! For her, well you can just imagine. She was the least likely person to come up with this manuscript. She was closed and rejecting, and angry about it.

In a way, from my perspective, this added validity to the text.

I find parts of the Course interesting, some clarifying, edifying and lots, downright baffling. Over the years, but not too recently, I attended and when requested, started study groups, but must say, I have never fully committed myself to it. I have gleaned certain helpful things, and perhaps most helpful of all is the saying, "The opposite of love is fear." I find that these words alone - when I can recall them - do change my perception of difficult situations - at least in ordinary time.

But sometimes, like now, it is still hard for me to hold fast.

And in spite of it, I move forward with a sense of urgency that is based on trust.

There are only two basic human emotions. Love and fear. The opposite of love is fear. Fear, not hatred, as we are taught. The phrase informs us that if we are in a tense or untenable situation, we are not feeling positive toward others or vice versa, or the way we are approaching each other is less than lovely, chances are, we are afraid of something. If you are not at ease, not open, not enjoying, whatever the other situation or emotion might appear to be, the bottom line feeling is FEAR. If I appear harsh, critical, jealous, resentful, mean, I am scared. If you are disappointed, hurt, disturbed, destructive or hateful, you are afraid of something.

Come into the moment. Let go of yesterday and tomorrow for this one moment. Try not to judge this message. And see for yourself! Simply listen. You can judge later. You can practice later. You can even reject it later.

But try to be with me now.

Last Tuesday is too overwhelming a place to start to apply this message. We are raw. The message is straightforward, but too hard to grasp.

Let me give you a few usual, common examples of where and how to apply it.

You've lost a spouse to divorce, a partner has walked out, a friend has turned his/her back on you, or a family member has perhaps rejected you.

How did you feel? The loss of their presence led to what? Anger, hurt, resentment, maybe a desire to get even, pain? Lots of emotion. A roller coaster. Not unusual in such times.

Or, what about at work? A time when there was a power struggle, or you were passed over? Or, your suggestion was ignored, or you felt ignored? Maybe you felt discouraged, sad, depressed, frustrated, undervalued or helpless? Maybe you were very vocal. Maybe you withdrew. Maybe you became passive aggressive.

These day to day situations don't feel good, but they do happen in ordinary life. In life before last Tuesday. And in fact, might only get magnified by last Tuesday's disaster - if we aren't careful.

The final example, a child or dear one has not lived up to your expectations. Maybe doesn't abide by your social standards. You feel disappointed, disapproving, bewildered, maybe diminished or embarrassed. S/he reflects poorly on you. The breech widens between "me and thee." Strong feelings abound.

The question today is - Are they the true feelings, or are they just our first line of defense? We have not been taught to look deeper, to ask ourselves what these "ordinary" feelings that I have just mentioned are really grounded in. And I think by not doing so, great damage can result, has resulted. We misread one another and ourselves, and in the misreading, shoot something back that only makes things worse.

And that's why of speak to you of this today. We cannot afford to make things worse any where in our lives.

I am wondering if this simple tool could in some way, with practice on the ordinary difficulties of daily life somehow keep us from getting to the level of devastation we experienced last week. I am wondering if in understanding this message, we can recognize our own terror, drop it down a notch, and make better decisions on how to proceed. There is much talk of war, and retaliation.

But back to the moment. Just looking at your own life. Setting the pain of Tuesday aside, could these words be true? "The opposite of love is fear." Keeping it simple, can you recall the last time you were angry at someone specific? Can you recall someone flying at you? Telling you what you should or should not have done? Critical or hostile? Infuriating, deflating, unpleasant? Did it at any time, cross your mind that any of it was an expression of fear? Take a moment. Think of something that might have been going on before Tuesday. A sore spot.

If you had viewed the person as being afraid instead of say, being obnoxious, might it have made a difference in how it all got handled? In how you felt? Think about that.

If I see you as angry at me and feel hurt, I might get angry back - or I might withdraw. But if I see you acting angrily, and choose to remember that your anger is rooted in fear, compassion or a least a desire to understand, is more readily accessible to me.

When I first heard this message, I had to go back out into the world and try it for myself. You may have to, as well. But I am telling you, it works. The hard part for me is keeping it in mind. All I can say about that is that it has gotten better with years of practice. Practice helps us to act in difficult situation rather then react.

At the superficial level, on an ordinary day, many of us are pretty good at blaming others and justifying our outbursts. But isn't that just the point? We cannot afford to stay at the superficial level. I think to do so will only lead to more situations like Tuesday's.

We must go deeper. Deeper in our understanding of ourselves and one another in our personal lives. And out of that, I believe we will be capable of bringing the power of such understanding to our world. Maybe only one person at a time! I don't know, but think about that.

Whether you agree with me at this point or not, clearly we do agree that our world is a mess. And that, the old way, the usual way, leads us to awful places; to heartbreak, to a broken world.

I am not asking you to just go out and forgive and forget, but I guess I am asking you to consider the possibility that in ordinary and extraordinary situations, ironically those who feel most powerless and afraid destroy things in ways unimaginable! There has got to be a way to prevent that. There has got to be a way to recognize and respond to such a sense of powerlessness and fear before it reaches such magnitude. We have got to come from a different place, a different perception of each other if we are to have a different world.

We can't go back and make the pain of Tuesday disappear - but how are we planning to go forward? How if we go forward in the same old way will things change? I want justice to be served just as much as you do. Don't get me wrong.

But I want a better world for our children and our grandchildren.

Maybe if we can train them up to this simple message - The opposite of love is fear. - maybe over time, we and they, through the power of such understanding, will be able to realize a world at peace.

It seems to me to start here and now is urgent business; is what we are called on to do. To start with our own families and friends and co-workers, right this minute is a step in the right direction. To set aside ego, and try to get below the surface to the pain, to the fear, will ultimately gives us greater understanding and hopefully, a better way of dealing with things. This must happen now. You and I must start this way of thinking right now. And maybe our way, will carry over; will help our President and his advisors make good decisions for our nation and for our world in this time of sadness and enormous fear. I believe there is power in this message that had reached our world via whatever means, and that the power within such understanding can change our present and our future if not our past.

Love is everything positive, compassionate, helpful, understanding, healing. Fear is everything else - and we get to choose how we will react and respond to it.

Admittedly, we are already in way over our heads with this one. But, in our fear, we do not want to become those murderous people. We do not want to buy into their approach to life! We do not want to become more warlike than we already are - in our world, in our communities, in our homes! We do not want their heinous act to define us; to make us over in their image.

Let's be careful how we choose to proceed - as individuals at home, as a nation, as a whole.

Let's not give up on the possibilities of love - in its many forms. Which I believe does include a call to justice.

In spite of how you may be feeling today, the concept of love is not trite. This way of love is not mushy.

This may feel too much for you today. I don't know. I've had all week to work with the possibilities, and years to consider the message - "If it isn't love, it's fear." But I fear what we might do next if we don't work to grasp some understanding here and now.

To leave it to tomorrow, could be too late. And to not at least try it, right here at home, seems unconscionable.

And maybe, maybe, teaching this way to our children, to our babies, will prevent their world from bursting into flames.

The truth is, we can only change ourselves. But lets face it, if each one of us works on ourselves, wouldn't we all win.

Until then, when it all seems insurmountable and you are exhausted and confused and feeling without hope; when you are frightened and feeling loveless, when you feel you will never understand and can bear no more, remember to get your self out of the way, and let the Power of Unconditional Love come to you, and work through you until your fears subside. amen

Giver of Understanding and Insight, of Love, Help us to recognize the fear behind our sometimes outrageous behavior - before harm is done.

Help us perceive others not from their war cry of anger and pain, but in their outpouring of fear - before it is too late. Help us to reach out to, rather than strike back at, one another, that the mysterious miracle of love shall abound; That the mark of compassion might universally be upon us every day in our every deed.
amen

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