12.6.15
Reflection to mark the burial of our time capsule at UU Church of Midland. We’ve indicated that the capsule be unearthed on the hundredth anniversary of this church: 2054.
“The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
Who thinks they know who originally said this..? – and before you answer, let me tell you it was not Martin Luther King, Jr.
Yes, King said it, many times. But he was quoting Theodore Parker.
Theodore Parker was a Unitarian minister … very prominent in the history of our Unitarian tradition. Born in 1810 and dedicated to social progress and the abolition of slavery. In one of his published sermons, he said:
Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right (as in “the true and good”). I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.
Is the arc bending toward justice?
After this service today, we will bury a time capsule that was dedicated last year as part of this church’s 60th anniversary celebrations. We intend for the people of 2054 to open it 40 years from now at this church’s 100th year anniversary.
Will those people (maybe even some of us!) open our time capsule and celebrate that, indeed, the arc has bent a little more toward justice?
Here in 2015, sometimes things seem worse, much worse.
But are they worse, really?
This week I needed hope, and I found hope in a surprising place. I read the 2014 annual letter from Bill and Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation.
They said that things are getting better!
By almost any measure, the world is better than it has ever been. People are living longer, healthier lives. Many nations that were aid recipients are now self-sufficient. You might think that such striking progress would be widely celebrated, but in fact, [we] are struck by how many people think the world is getting worse.
It’s true: Many countries which 50 years ago (within the lifetimes of some of us here!) didn’t have basic necessities for the majority of their people, now do! That’s actually rapid change!
Of course, inequality still exists in all countries, but more and more people are actually surviving past infancy, getting enough to eat, going to school, and living longer.
More and more people are freed from focusing solely on where their next meal is coming from… or how to get adequate birth control so they don’t have to give birth to a baby they can’t feed… or how to keep their children from choosing between starvation or life as a child soldier…
When people are not stuck in these life or death situations, they have more freedom to put their amazing human potential – their skills and their passion – into helping humanity solve problems. But you ask, how do we know that they will work for good? …Certainly, we have many examples of people who have in fact way more than basic necessities and they don’t work for good…
But remember we are not talking about the exceptions here but the generalities: The arc of the universe. …And having basic needs met means gaining independence and agency… which brings dignity… and from dignity generosity and empathy can bloom.
So my prediction for 2054 is that we will see more generosity in our world, more empathy, more love.
Sure, there will still be many problems. Climate change, for example, will have wrought much harm, and we undoubtedly will still be wrestling with how to solve it. And we will be living in an even more connected world, so we may be even more aware of the world’s troubles. But perhaps we are also more aware, if we look for it, of the world’s progress.
So, for our time capsule, I have written a letter to our friends in the year 2054.
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Dear People of 2054,
Has the arc continued to bend toward justice?
Have LGBTQ people gained more and more rights, and more freedom to be who they are without shame – in fact, with celebration?
Have the strict codes around gender continued to loosen so that formidable women are encouraged and vulnerable men admired?
Have women’s rights continued to improve, so that not only have women gained access to positions once reserved for men – such as my place in this pulpit right now – but we have protected rights to make decisions about our own bodies, and we need fear less and less about rape and abuse?
Have people of color in this country continued to gain more rights, respect, and power? Do #BlackLivesMatter?
Have more and more white people undertaken the journey of learning about their privilege and what it requires of them?
Have there been more and more truth and reconciliation projects to heal deep trauma and pave the way for the kind of justice that shifts the balance of power?
As wars are fought and natural disasters wrought, do more and more people continue to welcome strangers into their homes and communities with open arms and assistance?
Here in Texas, and all over the country, have more and more people learned Spanish, not necessarily because they are forced to by changing demographics, but because they celebrate the Hispanic, Latino, and Chicano culture of their friends and loved ones?
Is the environmental movement continuing to gain awareness of the interdependent web of life and what it requires of us?
Are more and more people willing to march and lobby and protest for the causes they care about?
Are more and more people making changes to their daily living – veganism, fair trade, recycling, volunteering… – because they know that change begins in small ways?
Are more and more people finding ways to communicate more lovingly and constructively in their relationships and their families because they know change begins at home?
People of 2054, my question is really this:
Are more and more of us Standing on the Side of Love?
Are more and more of us aware that, while the problems in the world remain, and run deep, it is Love that so far has bent the arc toward justice?
Tell us, People of 2054: what truth, what justice, what healing, what new revelation has Love brought you?
And, People of 2054, do you still stand on the side of Love?
Benediction