What if God is One of Us
The original recording was not available, so here is a re-recording
of the sermon given on May 28th, 2023 at the
Unitarian Universalist Church of Brevard
Last Week, we started talking about some of the proposed changes
to Article II, which if you don’t remember, Article II is the principles
and sources we often cite as the foundation of our association.
The thing I said I liked about the proposed revised article II is
the assertion that Love should be at the center of all that we do.
Centering Love, sounds like a great concept. Sounds simple right,
do everything in love, treat others as you want to be treated.
Or better yet, treat others how they would like to be treated.
But what does that look like in practice? I’m still working that out,
so in essence, this is me “doing my homework” and “doing the work”
toward living our principles.
A couple weeks ago after service I was doing one of my favorite things,
singing songs with our Music Director Diana. And as we were
shuffling through songs, “What if God Was One of Us” with Joan Osborne
came on. Now as a child of the 90’s I used to listen to this song on repeat,
and it got me thinking. With our recent talk on love, what does
it mean to live that love in the world? What does it mean to treat each other
with that inherent worth, that sacred divine love, that dignity and respect?
Now before we begin this rabbit hole, a couple disclaimers.
First, this is my interpretation of this song through the lens of centering love.
This is not necessarily what the writer or performer of this song
intended for it, this is my interpretation only.
Second, there are a lot of questions, but not a lot of answers,
and in that respect it may be the most UU talk I have ever given.
Third, I am going to talk about divinity and use the word GOD in this talk.
Don’t get hung up on the word God or divinity if those are not your words.
When I say God I do not necessarily mean the all seeing, all knowing
and loving God in the sky, although you can. If that is your image of God,
great, then use it for you. If you see many gods, or a divine unknowable
presence in the universe, then use it for you.
If you love humanity, and see each other as brothers and sisters worthy
of respect and love, then use that love of humanity when you hear
the word god. Don’t let the word I use, inhibit your access
to the message of our love for humanity, and faith in one another.
Now, having understood we are talking about our love for humanity
and each other, let’s talk about God. “What If God Was One of Us”,
“What If God IS One Of Us”, or “What If God IS ALL Of Us”?
What if we choose to live every day as if all of us are divine,
if all of us are sacred beings, worthy of love and respect.
Sounds great right, sounds easy, but it’s definitely not.
As the chorus says:
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryna make his way home?
Each one of us has that divine spark of life and is worthy of love.
When I look at the regrets of my past, it’s not the things I didn’t buy,
it’s not the snide and catty remarks I didn’t make; it’s the days
I didn’t spend time with my kid because I was tired. It’s the times
I didn’t speak up because I was afraid and intimidated.
It’s the connections I didn’t make because I didn’t want to make the effort.
It’s all the time I let fear or exhaustion, or apathy lead me, instead of love.
As one of my favorite songs from Rent says “How do you measure a year,
you measure, in Love”.
I have a choice to lead my actions toward love. And if I choose
to acknowledge that every person, every creature, every being has a
divine spark and is therefore worthy of my love and compassion,
am I now obligated to treat them with that compassion,
regardless of their actions? Is that even possible, to recognize
the divine love in everything all the time?
What about people who say and do things that don’t match
with our values? Can we listen in love? Can we challenge
each other in love? Can we love people we disagree with?
Even them? All the time? It would be exhausting. We are human.
Ideally yes, we strive to these ideals, but we are human, not just divine.
And we are filled with emotions that will inevitably cause us to
not be our best loving selves all the time.
I think of that stranger on the bus.
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryna make his way home?
Recently a video went viral, showing Marine Daniel Penny
choking subway passenger Jordan Neely, who died from those injuries.
Now Daniel said he did not mean to kill Jordan, but the sad truth
is this incident ended in Jordan’s death, regardless of his intentions.
Witnesses say that Jordan did not threaten anyone, but was upset,
hungry and saying he was ready to die. He was, a man in crisis.
And he was worthy of love.
How often have we seen this same scenario in society?
How often have we seen people in crisis and passed them by?
How often have we seen someone upset and reacted in fear, instead of love.
Daniel acted in fear and not in love when he killed Jordan.
Jordan was a man, worthy of our love and compassion.
Now following that same logic, Daniel is also deserving of
our love and compassion. We are not always our best selves.
We do not always recognize the divinity in others and do
not always act out of love.
That does not excuse Daniel’s actions, he clearly went too far
even if he had good intentions of protecting his fellow passengers.
He went too far, and Jordan paid the ultimate price. But he is not evil.
It is easy to vilify someone, it is harder to love them,
and understand that people do terrible things, but that does not erase
their humanity. He did not act in love, but we can still show compassion,
while at the same time acknowledging his role in this terrible tragedy.
And Jordan was absolutely worthy of our love and compassion as well.
Society did not show him the love and support he needed,
and ended his life too soon. I ask myself, how often have
I been approached by someone clearly in need and I moved away in fear?
Too often. Why do I choose to listen to fear more often
than open my heart to act compassionately? Sure, there is a time for caution,
and that is valid, but it’s a process, to learn how to act
compassionately and to act in love.
To admit that all of us are worthy of love. That all of us have
that spark of divinity, “What if God”, is that person on the bus,
just trying to make their way home? Just trying to survive,
just searching for compassion?
And what if we choose to see that? What if? And it’s a choice,
every day it is a choice. What if we make that choice more often than not?
What if we try to center love in everything we do. It’s a process,
it’s not easy, and it will never be perfect. But in the words of Yoda
“Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter”.
And we strive to be our better selves, to live intentionally with love
at our center whenever possible. And that includes loving ourselves
as well as others. Showing ourselves compassion. We will fail
at centering love, repeatedly, and often. But we can try again,
and again, and again.
(Meditation)
I invite you now to close your eyes.
Take a deep breath in, and out.
And as you continue to breathe, envision a warm light
growing from inside your heart.
Feel its warmth.
Feel the divine spark of love within you.
Acknowledge it, embrace it, let it grow, and grow,
until it creates a bubble surrounding you.
Feel your love growing beyond yourself,
feel yourself reach out to the other people in the room.
Reach out and share your divine love with them.
And recognize they also share that divine spark within them.
Let these sparks merge and mingle.
Feel their warmth, feel their love, and expand it
beyond our walls to our community.
Breathe in, and out, and feel that divine spark.
Expand that love further, feel the connection of
our wider community, our state, our country, our planet
and all the beings who share this blue bubble with us.
Breathe in, and out and feel the divine spark of us
all merge and mingle.
(pause - breathe)
Now, slowly feel that spark coming back into your heart,
bringing with it all the divinity that has merged
and mingled within it.
Bring that love into your heart, and let it continue to grow
within you as you carry that with you.
You may open your eyes.
May we all remember to center love in all that we do.
Blessed Be, thank you.
