Show me the way to go home (Phil sang this song).
I woke up Tuesday with that song on my mind, and knew I wanted to begin my sermon with it. Unless you are clairvoyant you might not see the link between the lyrics to this song and my sermon title "Politics what's in it for me? So I'll explain. In this sermon I wish to advocate for participation in politics as an act of enlightened self interest. I also want to help us think about politics in a new way, a way that would have us participate as religious people. And I'm going to suggest that as religious people we will participate in political process in order to live out our values and to grow spiritually.
Thus, show me the way to go home. Show me the way to enter what we might consider the least spiritual of realms and to discover our very souls in the process.
Show me the way to go home. This sappy little song indelibly imprinted in my head as a result of by the movie Jaws becomes for me the ultimate religious sentiment song. Hooper, Quint and Brody played by Richard Dreyfus and Robert Shaw and Roy Schneider gave it to us as a drunkards song. Facing the challenge of a lifetime, swaggering, arguing and fear having subsided, the men settle into a bonding 'oh hell let's drink song." Show me the way to go home. I'm tired and I want to go to bed. ..Wherever I may go you can always hear me singing this song. Show me the way to go home.
Does it seem like a stretch to go from that song to spirituality of enlightened self interest and politics? Hopefully it's not as far a stretch as you might imagine. Often the deeply spiritual, the deepest religious sentiments lie right beneath the surface of mundane and even drunken refrains. The spiritual journey is one of going home. More importantly it is one of seeming to have lost our way and of wanting to go home. Life can be full of fear and challenges. It can be full of anger and power struggles and getting intoxicated. Demons lurk in the deep that will eat us alive. And perhaps the greatest desire in us is for a lasting peace, the safety of arriving home.
It's odd that our deepest desire for peace often drives us out into adventure and struggle. Not getting involved, not taking on the challenges, not calling out the demons Ð that's just not an option- not really. Certainly not for any of us who would choose to get the most out of life.
We do want to get what we can out of living and so we enter the political realm. Politics is the way that a group of people make decisions. Its not just federal, state or local government where groups of people make decisions. We get involved in the politics of group process everywhere we deal with people; in the workplace, in our families, and yes, within our beloved congregation.
We enter in these political realms in order to get the most out of life. We might feel like avoiding the conflicts of the political realm, but we value some things so much that we find the motivation to get our hands dirty. It is for this reason that the political realm can be a field for spiritual growth.
Yes I am advocating for mixing politics and spirituality. I am suggesting that espoused beliefs and values mean nothing until they get applied into the political realm. I know that many people wish we could keep religion out of politics. They see the damage caused when citizens blindly follow a belief system without responding to the needs of the people and the realities of the current situation. But the answer is not to banish religious leaders or religious people from politics.
There never has been a time that religion wasn't political, and there never will be. Agreeing to stay out of the political realm would make religion irrelevant. Some suggest that religion's sole purpose is to prepare us for life after death. However, religion exists to serve worldly ends. At it's best religion exists in order to assist people to transcend or alleviate suffering. At worst it exists to crush people's spirits in order to make pawns out of them.
Religion can help people find meaning and purpose, peace and fulfillment, happiness and contentment for living in this world, a world that has death and suffering, a world where there are sharks in the deep.
Sharks, UCH! what a horrible creation! God what were you thinking when you created them? And thanks Spielberg for bringing them forward into our psyche. After watching Jaws I couldn't swim in the ocean without hearing Bum-bum bum-bum bum-bum.. Swimming, the most fun thing in the world. Floating the most luxurious experience of safety and being supported by life.
Why do there have to be sharks anyway? And why does there have to be terrorists, and enemies and war? And why do we have to get involved in politics to get anything done? Can't we all just get along?! Can't we simply agree?... on anything? Why don't we just see the need for universal health care, or to stop global warming or? Can't we just tell the idiots that they are wrong, and then educate them? Can't we make them see the solutions that should be obvious? Can't we quit the political baloney and just do the right thing?
Sorry it just doesn't work that way, not in this world! In this world it takes time and effort to put things together and get them moving in a healing direction. So you can have yourself a little hissy-fit or a temper tantrum any time you would like but if you want to get anything done you have to be willing to face opposition.
Notice I said "face opposition." I didn't say get rid of the opposition. The desire to get rid of the opposition has led to much violence- often in the name of some greater good. That fantasy leads to violence faster than you can say "Goin to get rid of Sadaam Hussein and win my daddy's approval." And it's not just the emperors of the world that want to get rid of the opposition. Probably every one of us has been habituated to want to get rid of the bad guys to make everything okay.
A slightly tamer version of this fantasy is: "If only they would just listen to me, then everything would be okay! Anybody suffer from that one? I've had that thought a time or two... million. I need a good temper tantrum and several hissy fits every month before I am willing to show up for the next lesson. Capeesh?
One of my big lessons has been to come to terms with the truth that everything we do for ourselves. Even when we are "only thinking of them." we act because we want to fulfill some value or need inside us. we do everything we do because we believe it will contribute to our happiness.
Until recently I resisted the idea that everything we do is done for ourselves. How anyone say that altruism doesn't exist? Look at Mother Teresa! Look at Martin Luther King! Look at Jesus! Didn't all these teach us to do what is right for the benefit of others? Isn't that what the world needs now, that kind of love sweet love?
"What's in it for me?," seems to be part of human nature. The world does need love, sweet love, but it needs a love born of enlightened self interest. When we can't be honest about our motivation, many problems ensue.
Funny, isn't dishonesty exactly what people hate about politics? That deception obscures real motivations, and prevents uniting for common self interests? Politicians give their bills names that conceal true motivation and purpose. The grandmothers crossing the street act, the sweet innocent daughters get an education bill?! ...the "Patriot Act" How can you be opposed to patriotism? Perhaps you are an enemy combatant! Sometimes the legislation does the very opposite of what it claims to be promoting! And how often is true motivation for the legislation the amount of money that will be delivered to the richest lobby?
Politics involves the need to present proposals in a way that gains people's support. If you want to persuade people to support your proposal then you have to consider what they will find appealing. What's the alternative? Do it my way or I'll kill you?
It's easy to see why we might conceal less appealing or more controversial aspects of our proposals. The problem is that it's a slippery slope. The challenge of spirituality is how to maintain integrity. Marketing or salesmanship is one thing. Deceit is another.
I trace my learning of the value of honesty and integrity to my early days as an activist. As a young adult, I entered the world of activism and the peace movement with great relief. It meant not being alone. I was so happy to find the fellowship of people -often Unitarians who thought for themselves. Ah God, finally at last some people who are willing to make some noise about injustice and the insanities of our society!
However, I also became concerned and disturbed by an inconsistency in our movement. I was so happy to find people who were willing to use their lives to try to help or even save humanity, but so many of these beautiful people seemed to be curmudgeons. There were many people who seemed to have a lot of trouble getting along with others. It seemed to me that the peace movement might have been characterized as consisting of those who were much angrier than most people. It was as if we imbibed in a communion of anger, and were bonded by it.
At that time I saw the movie Gandhi, and then read Gandhi's autobiography. Both had a great impact upon me. I remember reading of an American writer who tried to catch Ghandi as he was boarding a train. "what message do you want to send to the American people?, he asked. "My life is my message, Ghandi replied.
So it is for all of us. Our action and our life speaks so much louder than our words. How we live sends out a message. The question for our spiritual growth is "do we hear the message that our life is telling us?" Does our life reverberate with the old adage- "do what I say not what I do?" To the extent this is so for us, we are out of touch with what we really value, what we really need, what we really believe.
Everything we ever do is done in service of our own needs and values. It is not a bad thing to have needs. Actually what we value is what makes us human. It's a blessing to know and understand our selves and our intentions.
Julian Weisglass, UCSB Professor of Secondary Education gave many workshops encouraging and assisting teachers to be agents for change within their school system. He said that it is essential to understand what is in it for you, otherwise you will never have the strength to stick with it against the resistance and many hurdles you will face.
Michael Reynolds, founder of Solar Survival Architecture and subject of the movie "Garbage Warrior," explains his accomplishments as having come from the strong motivation of wanting to save his own ass. He calls it a powerful motivating force.
The driving force of survival needs are necessary but not sufficient for enlightened action. Sometime we can become so urgent with a particular strategy in order to achieve a desired outcome, that we lose touch with our deeper values. Great violence has been done by people certain that they were doing something important. Another reason that many of us avoid politics is that we've seen how groups in trying to carry out their mission sometimes lose sight of the rights and values of the individuals involved.
Enlightened self interest pushes us to recognize that the methods we choose to achieve our goals sometimes turn out to be more important than the goals themselves. Often we can not control the outcome of events. However we always have the ability to choose how we want to respond.."
One form of enlightened self interest is when we recognize that any and every challenge we face in life is an opportunity to grow in self awareness and self acceptance. When we get involved in politics, when we set out to effect change in our world, inconsistencies in what we say we value and our habits become obvious.
Getting involved in politics can be a way to distract ourselves from knowing what's really going on in us. Fortunately it can also be a way to get in better touch with what is true and real for us. This is perhaps the greatest answer to the question, politics what's in it for me. Of all the adventures, challenges and goals what could be more valuable that to gain a lasting peace through self awareness and self acceptance? Gandhi said that "happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.
I've been talking about politics as the work to bring about the kingdom of heaven. There is the work to bring about the outer conditions for the kingdom, the work to create the world of our hearts and dreams that we envision. There is also the kingdom that exists and unfolds from within. I won't try to tell you that one is more important than the other. Today's good news is that you do not have to choose between the two.
Politics can show us the way to go home. Getting involved in the politics of our government, our church and our families, will practically force us to pay attention to what we really value. With courage we can look at the inconsistencies between the values demonstrated by our living, and the values that exist in our hearts. From there it will be easier to remember what we want to value, easier to remember the values that are inscribed in the heart of our hearts. Allowing these to speak to us will show us the way to go home.
Blessings of wisdom to you who with courage enter into the political fray. Blessings of spiritual strength to you who take up spiritual journeying. Blessings of happiness and joy to you who take these up together. Happy Trails!