Only Love
Jane Thickstun
February 11, 2007
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland

Reading

The reading is by poet and activist, Mary de La Valette.  It’s from a book called Prayers for a Thousand Years, edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon.

Let us understand
The gravity of our situation.
Let us understand
That our only redemption
Is love.

 Love for a small, endangered planet
On which we are utterly dependent.

Only love can transform us
From plunderers and savages
Into Earthkeepers and peacemakers.

Only love can show us
The integrity and rights
Of all other beings.

Only love can open our eyes
To the truth and beauty
That surround us.

Only love can teach us
The humility we need
To live on this Earth.

And only love can now save us
From extinction.
(p. 54)

Sermon

            Every year on the Sunday before Valentine’s Day, I talk about some aspect of love, or chocolate – which could be though of as one and the same thing.  This year, I want to talk about how we can save the world– indeed, the planet – with love, and that in fact it is only love that can save us.

            Love for this beautiful little blue-green planet, love for all the landscapes on it, love for all the plant and animal life on it, love for even all the human animals on it, love for every person of every nation, love for all those within our nation, even those with whom we disagree about its direction, love for all the people in our local community, love for all those we come into contact with, love for our neighbors, love for our families, love even, and perhaps especially, for ourselves. 

            When I was just starting  my second year of seminary, I did a weekend retreat in a remote place in Wisconsin.  I had been feeling the need to do so for some time.  I needed to get out of Chicago, out of the city, out to where the wild things outnumber the people.  I enjoyed walking in the woods and swimming in the pond, and at one point I surprised a flock of wild turkeys in the woods, who flew awkwardly up into the trees.  At night I walked out to the edge of a field, and communed with the stars, the trees, the grass, the soil, the air and all the rest.  I experienced an outpouring of gratitude and love for the natural world so overpowering, I committed myself right then and there to serving her.  I wanted – I still want – to be a voice for that and those who have no voice – who speak no human language.  I bowed down before the great power – the power of the great Mother and Father of all, and pledged myself to its service.

            Our lovely Earth, which sustains us, is in deep trouble now.  I hope all of you have seen Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, by now, but if you haven’t, get the DVD.  We are rapidly bringing about the destruction of life as we know it – binging about changes the likes of which have never been known – not even close.  A chart depicting the global fluctuations going deep into the past of the planet shows that nothing in the past has come close to where we’re headed within just the next 20 years or so.  We’re already seeing the effects in the loss of polar ice, leading to tragedy for polar bears, in the increase in devastating hurricanes, tornados, and other violent upheavals in weather patterns.  It’s like Mother Earth is getting angry.

            We have caused it, we are causing it, we relatively well-off Americans and others who drive gas-powered vehicles everywhere we go and engage in other equally destructive behaviors that we don’t think of as destructive at all.  The Earth will probably survive, but will no longer be a hospitable place for life as we know it.  We human beings will become extinct, and will take most other species with us.  We are causing the plunder of the Earth, and only we can stop it.

            At the same time, our world is being ravaged by wars, genocide, and viiolent conflict.  Disempowered people are lashing out.  There’s a sense that we can only feel safe when we have annihilated those we feel threatened by.  But in fact, we can only truly feel safe when we have overcome our fears with love, instead of acting from the fear.

            Only love can overcome fear.  Fear is the real opposite of love.  Fear is behind the deepest hatred, fear is behind all selfishness, all greed, all unkindness.  Fear makes it hard to extend ourselves in love.  We contract and seek to protect ourselves, at the expense of others if we percieve it needs to be.

            But Love – love transforms us from small, petty, fearful people trying to assert ourselves to magananimous, unselfish, grown-up people who in humility acknowledge our smallness and powerlessness, that humility that is the sign of a truly great soul. 

            Love will transform our world by transforming us.  We can care for our Earth properly only by loving it.  We can care for others only by loving them.

            I’m talking about love not as the oooey-gooey wonderful feeling that gushes in romantic poetry and Valentine’s Day cards.  I’m talking about love as more of an action, or a motivation for action.  In loving, we extend ourselves for others.  In loving, we seek to help others achieve their highest potential.  This may involve helping with basic survival needs; it always involes helping others feel listened to and cared about.  We love ourselves when we affirm our infinite value as creatures of the universe, and seek to achieve our own highest potential. 

            Loving those we fear the most – some people call them enemies – can be especially transforming.  A change in attitude can do wonders for a troubled relationship.  Instead of lashing out in fear, we can see new ways of negotiating, we can see the other as just another fear-filled person or nation.  It’s the only way to peace.

            “We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion,” says Mother Teresa, the Nobel-prize-winning servant of the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta.  (The Joy in Loving, p. 400)  With love, we can be transformed “from plunderers and savages into Earthkeepers and peacemakers.”

            But the place to start is at home.  Mother Teresa, whose book The Joy in Loving I’ve been reading lately, says “Start by making your own home a place where peace, happiness and love abound, through your love for each member of your family and for your neighbour.” (p. 202) She also says, “I think the world today is upside down.  Everybody seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater development and greater riches and so on.  There is much suffering because there is so very little love in homes and in family life.  We have no time for our children, we have no time for each other; there is no time to enjoy each other.  In the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world.” (p. 201) Mother Teresa is very wise.

            And then there is a famous saying by Lao-Tse:

If there is to be peace in the world,
there must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,
there must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,
there must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors,
  there must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,
there must be peace in the heart.

(Lao-Tse, #602 in Singing the Living Tradition)

            Loving the Earth, loving the world starts with us, starts with loving those closest to us, making time for them, showing them that they are more important than all the work we do, all the things we own.  From there, our love expands in ever-bigger circles to include more and more until we love the whole world.  If we can love our parents, our spouses and our children, forgiving them for the hurts big and small and seeing them as beautiful creatures after all, we can see everyone as beautiful creatures, trying their best to be their best.  And we can see the world as a beautiful creation, a larger version of the dynamics we experience at home.  And of course this planet Earth is the most beautiful creation of all, and every rock, tree and river on it has intrinsic value just as we do, because it is part of the whole.  If we can love this widely, if we can care for this beautiful, delicate balance that sustains us, perhaps we can survive. 

            Sometimes it feels to me that we are becoming a more violent society, at least in America.  My little sister (through the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program) is fascinated by wrestling, and has wrestlers on her MySpace page.  She wants to be a wrestler if she can’t be her first choice – a CSI agent, or her second choice – an actor playing a CSI agent.  She is concerned to assert that wrestling is real, not fake, yet has no concern about the violence it endorses either way.  As a nation, we are involved in a war that we started with no immediate threat to our security, and the concern most people have is only that it’s not going well. 

            They have security guards and metal detectors in schools, gangs shoot innocent people all the time, people think they need guns in their homes to protect them.  We are taking the tops off of mountains, in order to get at the treasures they contain, a terrible violence to the earth and its beauty.  The TV shows that are being watched are ones where people are humiliated and thrown off the island or out of the talent contest. 

            Mother Teresa, sharing more of her great wisdom, says, “When we say no to violence, we always imagine a knife, a bomb, a gun.  However, to me, violence is caused by our attitude.  For example, telling people that they are lazy, and that they are this, and that they are that.  I think this is a great violence.  If you and I could only make that one strong resolution that we will say ‘no’ to violence, and say ‘yes’ to peace by our kindness, by our attitude towards each other, even in a small thing – a smile when we meet each other, it would help more than anything.” (p. 206)

            A smile when we meet.  A smile is a friendly recognition of the holy in the other.  A smile can uplift the one who receives it, and it can also uplifet the one who gives it.  It’s a proven fact that smiling can help change our attitude.  It’s hard to feel mean or fearful when you’re smiling.  And you can choose to smile, even when you don’t feel like smiling.

Likewise, you can choose to love.  Love is a choice, not a feeling you either have or don’t.
Only love, and the feelings will follow.
Only love, and the goodness it creates will reverberate throughout the world.
Only love, and we just might be saved.

            Love this planet like there’s no tomorrow, for there very well might not be.  Love your family members and your neighbors; love your enemies and those you despise, those you don’t understand, those you fear.  Love, for the world depends on it.

For only love can save us now.  Only love can transform us.
Only love can show us the integrity and rights of all other beings.
Only love can open our eyes to the truth and beauty that surround us.
Only love can teach us the humility we need to live on this Earth.
And only love can now save us from extinction.

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland is recognized by the Unitarian Universalist Association as a Welcoming Congregation. We welcome, affirm, promote and celebrate the full participation of all persons in all of our activities without regard to age, gender, sexual orientation, race or any other such category of exclusion.

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