Guest at Our Table

November 12, 2006

Rev. Arthur Lavoie

CALL TO WORSHIP

Love cannot remain by itself—it has no meaning

Love has to be put into action and that action is service.

Whatever form we are,

able or disabled, rich or poor,

it is not how much we do,

but how much love we put in the doing;

a life long sharing of love with others.                                     Mother Teresa

READING

I contend that the Unitarian Universalist movement lives under a prophetic imperative, a religious mandate for the corporate address of the church to the systemic problems of society.  I cannot prove that; I do not assert it as a divine imperative; I only feel it deep in my bones.  Otherwise we will be trapped in individualistic self-interest. . . .

The term prophetic here refers to the scriptural tradition of ethical monotheism articulated in the Hebrew prophets . . . with their emphasis on Social Justice. . .  Prophecy in the Bible does not concern itself primarily with foretelling future events.  It deals rather with forthtelling the intuitively felt will of God for a specific situation in the life of an individual or nation.                                    Richard S. Gilbert, The Prophetic Imperative, p 4-5 

READING

And then all that has divided us will merge

            And then compassion will be wedded to power

And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind

            And then both men and women will be gentle

And then both women and men will be strong

            And then no person will be subject to another’s will

And then all will be rich and free and varied

            And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many

And then all will share equally in the earth’s abundance

            And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old

And then all will nourish the young

            And then all will cherish life’s creatures

And then all will live in harmony with each other and the earth

            And then everywhere will be called Eden once again.             Judy Chicago

SERMON

The line at St. Anthony’s was already forming around 11 a.m. when I arrived for my volunteer orientation, the line of hungry people waiting for a noon day meal.  Men, women and children, all struggling to survive, some having made poor choices, many just overwhelmed by economic and family circumstances that put them at the bottom rung of our society’s ladder.

So they come to St. Anthony’s, located in the Tenderloin, San Francisco’s poorest neighborhood, for a hot meal.  And they come for other services to help them survive, medical care, food and clothing, referrals for housing and treatment of various kinds.  But they also come to St. Anthony’s to be treated with a little dignity and respect.

It was made clear in the volunteer orientation that this was not a soup kitchen in the typical sense of that phrase, but a dining room and the people who ate there were our guests.  I’d volunteered in places like this before, but the experience at St. Anthony’s left a lasting impact on my life. 

At 11:45 the doors opened for families with children, elders, and those with mobility issues.  They were seated in a bright corner of the dining room with crayons and paper on the tables for the kids.  We, the volunteers then served these people, bringing them their meals, bringing milk for the children and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids who didn’t want the hot meal.

Then at noon the other guests were welcomed into the dining room to stand in the line and get their meals.  And they came, hundreds of guests, filing through in an orderly line, filled with gratitude for what will be the only meal some of them will eat that day. 

All of the volunteers, at some point in the course of their shift, are invited to grab a tray, get in line, and sit with the guests enjoying a meal.

Let me tell you, it’s not so easy to cast judgments on people when I am sitting and sharing a meal with them, listening to their stories, talking with them about their lives, their joys, and their struggles. 

When I treat someone as an equal, as a guest; when I approach other people with an attitude of openness and hospitality, it is much easier to see that my life is not so different from theirs.  When I have openness, compassion and hospitality in my heart, I am reminded again that there is not so much that separates us, and that the expression, “There but for the grace of God go I” is more true than I want to know.

“Be our guest, be our guest

Put our service to the test.”

Putting our service, our goodwill to the test can be a vulnerable and frightening experience.  More often than not we’d prefer to sit in the comfort of our own little worlds hoping that nothing will break down the fragile walls we have built around ourselves.

But the call to justice, the “prophetic imperative” that Richard Gilbert speaks of in our first reading is clear not just for Unitarian Universalists, but among all religious traditions.

Many of us are familiar with what has become known to us as the “Golden Rule,” the teaching of Jesus that states, “In everything do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  But there are similar teachings in every religious tradition.

We often have the mistaken notion that prophets are supposed to tell the future in some circus sideshow kind of way.  It is the prophets and the great teachers of every tradition who are called to continually remind people that our religious practice is meaningless without justice, without service.

When our lives become too secure and comfortable, when our focus turns inward, it is the prophets who are there to remind us that we have forgotten that spiritual growth must move outside of ourselves to be complete.  It is never enough to think of our religious practice only in terms of our own spiritual insight or understanding. If what we believe is not lived in the world, then it is shallow and has little meaning.

When I first went to volunteer at St. Anthony’s I went to fulfill a requirement for a course I was taking in seminary called “Beyond Soup Kitchens.”  I took that particular course because I wanted to explore some social justice themes and offer some kind of service in the community.  In my mind it was more about me helping other people.

What I learned through their volunteer training program and the rest of the work in that course is that it is not enough to provide for people’s basic needs.  That work is necessary, but not enough.  We are also called as people of faith to correct the cultural and societal conditions that create inequality and injustice. 

What I found through this practice of hospitality was an opening of my heart and a new understanding of the struggles that poor people face every day.  I went to help others and was myself transformed in the process.

What does it mean to welcome someone into our homes and into our lives?  And, on a deeper level, what would it mean, how would we be changed to work for a more just and equitable society? 

This holiday season that we are about to enter is a time to look beyond ourselves.  This time of celebration, of giving thanks, this season of birth and death, of beginnings and endings, of light and shadow is a time for us to think about people who live in the shadows.  This time of cold and winter is a time to offer help and support to those who experience, cold, bleakness and destitution of winter in their lives.

“Both Unitarians and Universalists watched with apprehension the rise of Hitler and fascism in post-World War I Europe,” reads the opening line of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee website.

Having close ties to the Unitarian church in Czechoslovakia, the American Unitarian Association set up a rescue and relief mission there in early 1939.  That mission only lasted about 6 months, and the people involved got out just days before the invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II.  They tried again with a rescue and relief mission based in Lisbon, Portugal and Marseilles, France.  

The Universalist Church of America had ties to Dutch churches, and in 1940, they set up a war relief committee that would eventually be based in Holland.  After the war, the two groups collaborated on their post-war relief efforts.  And in 1963, two years after the merger of our denominations, these two service organizations merged into the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee that we have today.  

The Service Committee’s mission is to advance human rights and social justice around the world.  And it often carries out its mission by partnering with local organizations that are better acquainted with the history, language, and culture of a particular region and its people.

“Fifteen-year old Amina lives in Tabata, a neighborhood of 28,000 people in the drought stricken Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam.

When Tabata did not receive aid from international institutions such as the World Bank, the worked with UUSC program partner the Tanzanian Gender Networking Program to campaign for international funds.  The campaign paid off—in water and much more.  Enough aid poured in to dig a borehole well and buy a pump.  Residents laid pipes throughout the neighborhood and established the Tabata Residents Water Committee.

Today this TRWC administers the system (now grown to three wells), and establishes rates based on ability to pay.  The community built a school, which gets its water free, and also launched a revolving loan fund to promote small businesses run by women.

Amina graduated from the school’s vocational training program with a seventh grade education and now works for the TRWC as a water seller, collecting fees.  She is able to support herself while making a positive contribution to her community.  And the Tanzanian Gender Networking Program continues to campaign for the right to water—safe, affordable, accessible and sufficient water for each person’s needs.”

                                                                                                One of the UUSC’s Stories of Hope

Every year at this time the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee invites members of all of our churches to participate in this “Guest at Your Table” appeal.  I invite you to pick up boxes on the back table as well as some literature about specific UUSC programs.  Put the boxes on your dinning room table and add something to the boxes as often as you are able, remembering that in doing this you are engaging in an act of hospitality, welcoming strangers in need to be guests at your table.

In January, after the holidays we will collect the boxes.  I’ll remind you then to please write a check to the UUSC so that I don’t have to sort and count everyone’s change.  A gift of $40 will give you membership to the UUSC and a gift of $75 will be matched by the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock.  All of this information is written on the bottom of the box.

George Bernard Shaw once suggested that every citizen of a civilized society ought to be brought before the bar of justice periodically to justify their existence. . . . .                                                                                                            Richard S. Gilbert, The Prophetic Imperative, p 5

There is a passage in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25 where on a mythic day of judgment the sheep and the goats are separated into those who are saved and those who are damned.

The criteria used for this judgment is not how much was acquired or the depth of spirituality but the commitment to service.

            “For I was hungry and you gave me food,

            I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,

            I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

            I was naked and you gave me clothing,

            I was sick and you took care of me,

            I was in prison and you visited me.”                            Matthew 25: 35-36

Our task our call is nothing less than to change the world, beginning with ourselves, one step at a time, one idea at a time, one act of service at a time. 

Whenever any of us is hungry, or thirsty, or estranged, or naked, or sick, or imprisoned, we all are until the causes of those injustices are wiped from the face of the earth.

Amen

Blessed Be