The World As It Is

Less than two weeks ago, in our fire communion service, I read from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book about the Shkitagen: The People of the Seventh Fire, and about her father’s teachings of different types of fires. We used fire in our ritual of burning away the dried and brittle brush of our spirits, that which is no longer serving us, to make room for what might bloom. And then four fires emerged in the Los Angeles area, fed by the Santa Anna winds and whipped into the most destructive fires the state has ever experienced. The devastation feels unimaginable, overpowering and overwhelming. For those who have loved ones there you are fearing for or helping to get out of harm’s way, I send you prayers and wishes for well-being. Most of us can only watch from a distance and imagine the agony of losing everything we own, our whole community, a sense of place and history.

Watching the apocalyptic scenes, it’s hard to imagine how we will face the challenges of global climate collapse, as a nation and a planet. Though some are choosing to blame political rivals, which is ridiculous and cruel, I want to choose to continue to see the possibility of healing and hope.

In his book, A More Perfect Union, author Adam Russel Taylor writes:

“Life is filled with and defined by choices. This is true for individuals, communities, and nations. Choices are contagious – particularly courageous ones. We face a collective choice that will define and shape the trajectory of our nation for subsequent generations. I’m asking that together we make the choice of Beloved Community. Let us choose continual rebirth, hoping and believing that our nation can also be reborn and remade if enough of us choose the journey of Beloved Community.”

What choices do we have, in this moment, in the place where we are, with the resources we have, in terms of creating Beloved Community?

The Chicagoland area is expected to be a direct target of the next administration’s vengeance in terms of immigrants and refugees. How are we preparing to protect those most vulnerable? We are staying closely connected to the families we’ve been working with. We are continuing to cultivate our relationships with community partners. We are building coalitions among faith communities to stay vigilant. Rev. Scott Aaseng, Executive Director of the UU Advocacy Network of Illinois (UUANI), has sent out a call to our faith communities and our interfaith alliances to form rapid response networks, as we already have, and to commit to offering safety and sanctuary in a variety of ways. Though it will be riskier to do so, our commitment to living our values with courage and integrity must remain, regardless of (and especially considering) the dangers.

It will be difficult to not feel exhausted and overwhelmed by the targeted chaos to ensue. We will need to encourage one another to stay in the struggles that come, taking shifts for the resistance, and doing what we can with our collective resources. And there are rays of hope, things we can and are doing. For example, UCE is putting solar panels on our buildings. The Board of Trustees voted at their last meeting to use the bequest from Barbara Young’s estate to put up as many panels as possible on our two roofs to enable us to address our long-term energy needs and work toward our aspiration of zero emissions by 2035. The project has begun and should be running by next fall. Adam Gough and the Solar Panel team will offer an information session on the project plan in early February. Keep an eye out for that.

As part of our Meeting Our Interfaith Neighbors series, we visited the Midwest Buddhist Temple this week. Rev. Ron Miyamura, spoke to our group about Buddhism and shared a definition of enlightenment. He said it is seeing things as they are, not as you want them to be. He also explained that we can only glimpse enlightenment. As humans, we don’t attain it fully and finally. If you think you’re enlightened, you’re not!

In our struggles to accept the world as it is and not as we would have it, we must still engage in helping it to become more of what we think it can be. But we can only do that, when we journey together, in communities of care and commitment.

On the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day and this inauguration that feels like it flies in the face of everything Dr. King fought and died for, I invite us all to stay on the path toward enlightenment, journeying toward Beloved Community, and encouraging one another as best we can. I hope you’ll join me at the Music Institute on Chicago Ave. on Sunday afternoon at 3pm for and Interfaith MLK Day concert and program, and then for the Walk for Warmth on Monday, kicking off at 11 am from First United Methodist.

With love and appreciation,

Rev. Eileen