Imagining 2021
Preached 1/3/2021 at SouthWest UU in N. Royalton OH
By Rev. Meg Mathieson
Happy New Year!
Because the theme for this month is imagination, I’m going to ask you to imagine right now.
Feel free to close your eyes if it helps, or to soften your gaze as you let your mind free. Imagine your intellect, your mind, your intelligence floating free of your heart and your head, like a vapor, rising above you, dissipating into the air….
You are free, you can imagine anything and everything. First, settle into the body of a polar bear. The first thing I think is coldness, but that’s because we’re human. I think a polar bear is quite comfortable and doesn’t feel cold. In fact, he might feel hot, even though he is standing on ice and snow.
You are a polar bear, hot in the ever-warming sun. Hot and hungry because there are less fish, less seals, less of everything that you used to eat. Imagine what it feels like to be a polar bear? Probably hot and hungry.
How about another animal?
How about a lion? When I was a kid I liked to pretend being a lion. Prowling around, this big, sleek, powerful cat. Feel the strength in your lion body, the smoothness of your movements. Can you imagine what it must feel like to be a lion? A wild lion, not one of the sad ones at the zoo.
But like the polar bear, the lion would likely also be hungry. There is less prey. The earth is hotter and the sun seems more oppressive than you remember from your youth.
You know where I’m going with this: global warming. The state of our environment, the effects of human actions on our mother Earth - the realities around us barge into our imaginings, bringing us back to reality. There is nothing on this gorgeous green planet that you can pretend to be that is immune, as far as we know, from global warming, clear-cutting, coal burning, etc.
Nothing and nobody is immune, and if you’ve been listening to my sermons this past year, you’re familiar with the idea that human rights issues and environmentalism are inextricably linked. What happens to our planet happens to us. And if we want to reverse the damage, if we want to help our mother Earth heal, we must heal ourselves. Individually, and as a species. And that is where racial justice comes in.
So let’s imagine something else: As we stand on the precipice of the new year, what do we want to imagine for ourselves as a liberal religious community? Who do we want to be this year? If you can propel your imagination forward 365 days, imagine that it is January 2022 - looking back on 2021, what would make you proud of SouthWest UU as a community? As a beloved community? What have we accomplished in 2021 to be proud of?
Certainly we want to be together in person again. But that’s something we do not have control over. What can we control? What can we do? For that polar bear? For that lion? For all of the species, including our own?
I want to start 2021 off by introducing you to the 8th Principle.
We all know that Unitarian Universalists do not adhere to a required creed, and what we do have is 7 Principles.
What’s the difference between a principle and a creed? Our principles do not require anything of us. They do not tell us what to do, but instead remind us of the beliefs that we hold in common, here, in this beloved community.
Our 7 principles remind us that we believe that each person on this earth is imbued with inherent worth and dignity and should be treated as such. They remind us of our faith in the democratic process and they remind us that we are here to support one another in our individual searches for truth.
What is not spelled out clearly in our 7 principles is that we know that we live in a greater society, outside of this beloved community - and that society oppresses some people for the benefit of other people. We know this, but it’s not mentioned in our principles. It doesn’t need to be. We all know this is true.
But what if we had one more principle that addresses this inequality directly and reminds us - again, not requiring us, but instead reminding us - of our common goal to work toward equity for all people?
We state that we believe that all humans have inherent worth and dignity, so why not take the next obvious step and also state that we want to work towards dismantling oppressions in ourselves and in our institutions. Can you imagine such a thing?
This is the 8th principle:
“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”
It’s a big deal. We aren’t moving very swiftly on this - I’m speaking on a national level, as UUs, we aren’t moving very swiftly on this - in part because it’s a big deal to adopt an 8th principle. We need to move intentionally and methodically. On the other hand, a handful of UU churches have voted and passed the 8th principle, including the church where I worked before coming here to SWUU, and the UU Church of Akron, our neighbor to the south, who voted and passed the 8th principle this past May.
I’m not going to be coy - I’m going to be very clear about this - I want to be a part of a congregation that votes on and passes support of the 8th Principle. Not without conversation, not even without questions or debates, but eventually, I want us to get there. I believe that we will.
I believe that we will because I know that SouthWest UU is a place where people care. This is a beautiful, holy intentional community where we care for one another and we care for the environment. This is a place where we care about whether the polar bears are hungry and we care about cleaning the environment. We care about clean air and clean water, and we care about those things in part because we care about the people around us who do not have access to clean air and clean water.
We care about the hungry lion on the savannah in part because we know that mankind is to blame for the environmental disasters that leaves poor Mr. lion with no prey. And we care about the poor poisoned children of Flint Michigan, as they are left to drink lead-polluted water for the same reason. Because we can do something about this environmental catastrophe.
We can, and we will. This year, in 2021.
Essayist Scott Russell Sanders wrote, (p. 32-34 of The Way of Imagination)
Let’s imagine that better world. Let’s greet 2021 as the year when all of our hopes and dreams are realized. Let 2021 be the year of global healing. We have been through so much, yet we still have so much light and compassion to give.
Scientists believe that the ability to imagine - the ability to make up ideas and stories, to share them, to believe alike and to dream alike - is part of what set humans apart on an evolutionary level. I can come up with a vision of the future, I can imagine it, and I can share that imagining, that vision with you. And together we can work towards it. Today let’s imagine a healed Earth where all creatures, including humans are free and healthy.
Let us set our intention for 2021, to work toward that vision of a healed, free, equitable world. So that when we are together a year from now, we are able to look back on 2021 with pride, saying, we did what we could. Maybe it was a small amount, but it was something.
And may all of 2021 be a year of healing and compassion.
I will end by blessing you with this poem by Aurora Morales:
Imagine winning. This is your sacred task.
This is your power. Imagine
every detail of winning, the exact smell of the summer streets
in which no one has been shot, the muscles you have never
unclenched from worry, gone soft as newborn skin,
the sparkling taste of food when we know
that no one on earth is hungry, that the beggars are fed,
that the old man under the bridge and the woman
wrapping herself in thin sheets in the back seat of a car,
and the children who suck on stones,
nest under a flock of roofs that keep multiplying their shelter.
Lean with all your being towards that day
when the poor of the world shake down a rain of good fortune
out of the heavy clouds, and justice rolls down like waters.
Defend the world in which we win as if it were your child.
It is your child.
Defend it as if it were your lover.
It is your lover.
When you inhale and when you exhale
breathe the possibility of another world
into the 37.2 trillion cells of your body
until it shines with hope.
Then imagine more.
Preached 1/3/2021 at SouthWest UU in N. Royalton OH
By Rev. Meg Mathieson
Happy New Year!
Because the theme for this month is imagination, I’m going to ask you to imagine right now.
Feel free to close your eyes if it helps, or to soften your gaze as you let your mind free. Imagine your intellect, your mind, your intelligence floating free of your heart and your head, like a vapor, rising above you, dissipating into the air….
You are free, you can imagine anything and everything. First, settle into the body of a polar bear. The first thing I think is coldness, but that’s because we’re human. I think a polar bear is quite comfortable and doesn’t feel cold. In fact, he might feel hot, even though he is standing on ice and snow.
You are a polar bear, hot in the ever-warming sun. Hot and hungry because there are less fish, less seals, less of everything that you used to eat. Imagine what it feels like to be a polar bear? Probably hot and hungry.
How about another animal?
How about a lion? When I was a kid I liked to pretend being a lion. Prowling around, this big, sleek, powerful cat. Feel the strength in your lion body, the smoothness of your movements. Can you imagine what it must feel like to be a lion? A wild lion, not one of the sad ones at the zoo.
But like the polar bear, the lion would likely also be hungry. There is less prey. The earth is hotter and the sun seems more oppressive than you remember from your youth.
You know where I’m going with this: global warming. The state of our environment, the effects of human actions on our mother Earth - the realities around us barge into our imaginings, bringing us back to reality. There is nothing on this gorgeous green planet that you can pretend to be that is immune, as far as we know, from global warming, clear-cutting, coal burning, etc.
Nothing and nobody is immune, and if you’ve been listening to my sermons this past year, you’re familiar with the idea that human rights issues and environmentalism are inextricably linked. What happens to our planet happens to us. And if we want to reverse the damage, if we want to help our mother Earth heal, we must heal ourselves. Individually, and as a species. And that is where racial justice comes in.
So let’s imagine something else: As we stand on the precipice of the new year, what do we want to imagine for ourselves as a liberal religious community? Who do we want to be this year? If you can propel your imagination forward 365 days, imagine that it is January 2022 - looking back on 2021, what would make you proud of SouthWest UU as a community? As a beloved community? What have we accomplished in 2021 to be proud of?
Certainly we want to be together in person again. But that’s something we do not have control over. What can we control? What can we do? For that polar bear? For that lion? For all of the species, including our own?
I want to start 2021 off by introducing you to the 8th Principle.
We all know that Unitarian Universalists do not adhere to a required creed, and what we do have is 7 Principles.
What’s the difference between a principle and a creed? Our principles do not require anything of us. They do not tell us what to do, but instead remind us of the beliefs that we hold in common, here, in this beloved community.
Our 7 principles remind us that we believe that each person on this earth is imbued with inherent worth and dignity and should be treated as such. They remind us of our faith in the democratic process and they remind us that we are here to support one another in our individual searches for truth.
What is not spelled out clearly in our 7 principles is that we know that we live in a greater society, outside of this beloved community - and that society oppresses some people for the benefit of other people. We know this, but it’s not mentioned in our principles. It doesn’t need to be. We all know this is true.
But what if we had one more principle that addresses this inequality directly and reminds us - again, not requiring us, but instead reminding us - of our common goal to work toward equity for all people?
We state that we believe that all humans have inherent worth and dignity, so why not take the next obvious step and also state that we want to work towards dismantling oppressions in ourselves and in our institutions. Can you imagine such a thing?
This is the 8th principle:
“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”
It’s a big deal. We aren’t moving very swiftly on this - I’m speaking on a national level, as UUs, we aren’t moving very swiftly on this - in part because it’s a big deal to adopt an 8th principle. We need to move intentionally and methodically. On the other hand, a handful of UU churches have voted and passed the 8th principle, including the church where I worked before coming here to SWUU, and the UU Church of Akron, our neighbor to the south, who voted and passed the 8th principle this past May.
I’m not going to be coy - I’m going to be very clear about this - I want to be a part of a congregation that votes on and passes support of the 8th Principle. Not without conversation, not even without questions or debates, but eventually, I want us to get there. I believe that we will.
I believe that we will because I know that SouthWest UU is a place where people care. This is a beautiful, holy intentional community where we care for one another and we care for the environment. This is a place where we care about whether the polar bears are hungry and we care about cleaning the environment. We care about clean air and clean water, and we care about those things in part because we care about the people around us who do not have access to clean air and clean water.
We care about the hungry lion on the savannah in part because we know that mankind is to blame for the environmental disasters that leaves poor Mr. lion with no prey. And we care about the poor poisoned children of Flint Michigan, as they are left to drink lead-polluted water for the same reason. Because we can do something about this environmental catastrophe.
We can, and we will. This year, in 2021.
Essayist Scott Russell Sanders wrote, (p. 32-34 of The Way of Imagination)
Let’s imagine that better world. Let’s greet 2021 as the year when all of our hopes and dreams are realized. Let 2021 be the year of global healing. We have been through so much, yet we still have so much light and compassion to give.
Scientists believe that the ability to imagine - the ability to make up ideas and stories, to share them, to believe alike and to dream alike - is part of what set humans apart on an evolutionary level. I can come up with a vision of the future, I can imagine it, and I can share that imagining, that vision with you. And together we can work towards it. Today let’s imagine a healed Earth where all creatures, including humans are free and healthy.
Let us set our intention for 2021, to work toward that vision of a healed, free, equitable world. So that when we are together a year from now, we are able to look back on 2021 with pride, saying, we did what we could. Maybe it was a small amount, but it was something.
And may all of 2021 be a year of healing and compassion.
I will end by blessing you with this poem by Aurora Morales:
Imagine winning. This is your sacred task.
This is your power. Imagine
every detail of winning, the exact smell of the summer streets
in which no one has been shot, the muscles you have never
unclenched from worry, gone soft as newborn skin,
the sparkling taste of food when we know
that no one on earth is hungry, that the beggars are fed,
that the old man under the bridge and the woman
wrapping herself in thin sheets in the back seat of a car,
and the children who suck on stones,
nest under a flock of roofs that keep multiplying their shelter.
Lean with all your being towards that day
when the poor of the world shake down a rain of good fortune
out of the heavy clouds, and justice rolls down like waters.
Defend the world in which we win as if it were your child.
It is your child.
Defend it as if it were your lover.
It is your lover.
When you inhale and when you exhale
breathe the possibility of another world
into the 37.2 trillion cells of your body
until it shines with hope.
Then imagine more.