Standing On the Side of Love, by Rev. Linda Olson Peebles, Feb. 14, 2010

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Standing on The Side of Love

by Rev. Linda Olson Peebles, Feb. 14, 2010

         This is National Standing on the Side of Love Day. It is a day for us to become very public and explicit about our religious commitment to LOVE. It is important because in this nation, fear and insecurity has caused hatred and anger and prejudice to grow. We are in a season of uncertainty, a winter of discontent that puts all who are vulnerable at risk.

         The UUA SSL Campaign states: “In these … times, nothing could be more important than standing up for those whose voices are least heard… and remembering the most vulnerable and marginalized among us. … We boldly stand on the side of love in the face of fear.” On this day in this season people are taking a stand and recommitting to go public in their own communities to speak up for LOVE in response to injustices of all kinds – to speak up and work for marriage equality, for just comprehensive immigration policies, for fair hiring and labor practices, for compassion for the imprisoned, for support for differently-abled people, for rights for gays in the military, for universal access to basic human needs – food, shelter, education, and health care.

         In all of the world’s religions, love is upheld as a central tenet. On Valentine’s Day we celebrate its expression in our life in all forms. And we must also protect and stand up for Love in our civil laws and our society.

I offer this Buddhist prayer, in the name of Love:

             May I become at all times, both now and forever,

             A protector for those without protection,

             A guide for those who have lost their way,

             A ship for those with oceans to cross,

             A bridge for those with rivers to cross,

             A sanctuary for those in danger,

             A lamp for those without light,

             A place of refuge for those who lack shelter,

             And a servant to all in need.

         What a time we are in! I am feeling just a bit disoriented. How about you?

         I call it “snow daze” d-a-z-e ….. Four storms in 10 days! All-time record snowfall! But maybe the snowy disruption of my routine pattern of life only has revealed a disorientation that is always here – there is just so much to take in! Let’s place ourselves in time here: The month is February. Today is Valentine’s Day. The 14th. As February began we’d had our glorious Martin Luther King Day celebrations, and then the State of the Union address, which reminded us of all the challenges and hopes and disappointments and fears our nation and our world face.

         February brought us Black Hisotry Month and Chinese New Year. And we’ve had Ground Hogs Day – he did see his shadow, and sure enough winter showed us it will be around for a while. And by the way, all this snow not just here, but in the whole country, plus the rainstorms in Southern California and in Vancouver at the Winter Olympics, remind us of another global anxiety we all must face up to – the climate is changing due to industrial society’s impact on the environment.

         We’ve had the Super Bowl (even tho some of us couldn’t watch it because of power outages, and almost no one made it to the parties, but it set an all time viewer ratings on TV). The Super Bowl was an emotional victory for the New Orleans Saints, reminding us that even four and a half years after the devastation of Katrina, we still are moved by all that storm meant to us and our society.

         It also reminds us that Tuesday is Mardi Gras, whose New Orleans celebration has been commemorated in this church for all the years of Rev. Michael’s tenure here. (Michael will be back in a couple weeks – watch for your first Michael-sighting soon!) Mardi Gras, a time of celebration, release, letting the good times roll and the spirit loose and the saints go marching in …. Mardi Gras right before Lent – which begins on Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, which is the time in the Christian year of inner reflection, soul searching.

         Oh, and I forgot - tomorrow is Presidents’ holiday, but I hear the parade in Alexandria is cancelled bcause of the snow! More snow! And it is now a month since the earthquake in Haiti, where the suffering continues.

         And it is Valentines’ Day. No wonder I’m in a daze!

         Back in January, back before all this snow, I found myself being witness to a public display of LOVE.

         I was in Front Royal, a town that feels far away from Northern Virginia, but is just some 70 miles west of us; in Warren County, a place that has not been able to keep up with its Northern VA neighbor counties in terms of affluence, human services, progressive cultural trends. I found myself in a church fellowship hall sitting on old folding chairs, at long tables, crammed in with 150 people.

         While this could have seemed like any ordinary church dinner, it was SO different! First of all – not only were all ages represented there, from babies up to octogenarians – but there were people of many racial and ethnic identities – blacks, whites, middle eastern, Central American. And many different religions, conservative to liberal to progressive, and different economic and social classes. And people of different mental and physical abilities. In a town of pizza and burgers, we were eating homemade middle eastern food. And in this Episcopal church hall, where the meal was blessed by a Black Methodist preacher, and no one frowned at the chantings and clicking sounds made by a young man with autism, in this gathering we watched an entertainment program – of belly dancing. Exotic, jewel- and veiled- costumed, hip-swiveling belly-dancing.

         This was the fourth annual event like this. I asked the organizers (my brother and sister-in-law) how the Warren County community reacted to this – and they said that other than the few phone calls each year telling them how sinful it was to have exposed bellies in a house of god – the public support and attendance had gone up each year.

         What, I wondered, could have brought this diversity of people together? The answer is – LOVE.

         The event is a fundraiser for a non-profit learning center that has been dedicated to providing one-on-one caring education for children who cannot thrive in mainstream educational institutions – public or private schools. The children and youth served include those with autism, cerebral palsy, learning challenges, and emotional challenges. Somehow this little learning center – which treats each child as a person of dignity just as he or she is, as a person worthy of being loved - somehow this center of love has won the hearts of many people in Front Royal – across the spectrum of politics, religion, race and class. And these people have decided to stand up against the close-minded, close-hearted nature of some in Warren County. They have decided to stand up in love, for the love of all people in their community, even those who have been labeled and historically marginalized. And they have decided to stand beside people with whom they would not normally align – because sharing in a larger love can overcome differences.

         This can be a lonely world. An overwhelming world, a world in which all the storms and traumas, and ups and downs of life cause us to seek comfort, to seek something, someone to cling to for reassurance. That longing for connection is natural. Unfortunately, in our histories, too often that longing leads to people clinging to that which is close and familiar. I say unfortunately, because focusing our connections on a small circle, or an insulated group, can lead to a loss of love and trust in the larger world.

         We are called to grow to connect with the larger love. Emotional development moves us from the infant’s need for the parent’s intimate love, to the child’s need for family, the adolescent’s need for peers, the young adult’s need for a significant other and a community to help create family. As we grow and understand more, we discover that love calls us to see that our compassion must reach out to include all others – those we know and don’t know, those like us and those different from us. Our faith is that we are all interconnected, and our love must be publicly proclaimed for those whom society has not loved.

         Each of us is called upon, in our own way as best we can, to act out the love that is needed in this world. And to transcend whatever it is that has kept us from being the most compassionate people we can be. None of us is perfect in how well we can love and be loved, in how beneficent and gentle we are day to day. Each of us has wounds and weaknesses that hinder us.

         But – imperfect as we are – we are the ones who are called to personify love in the world. I believe that deep down that is what called us to dig out and be here today.

         We find a way to live in love when we join in a community of people who have chosen both to deepen their love inwardly and to focus their love outward. When we join in on that larger love, we become more fully ourselves. When we act on that love, we fulfill our lives.

         This day is not about just naming what we love, but also committing to take actions to show that love in solidarity. Let me suggest just three actions - our Page Two announcements offer dozen of other opportunities.

         The first way - the folks in Front Royal have pointed out that right now the Virginia legislature is on the verge of discontinuing the little funding they have for adult half-way house care and programs for adults with mental disabilities. We need to be in touch this week with our representatives, to tell them that disabled people have a right to “A Life Like Yours.” Go to the web site www.ARCofVA.org and find out more about this.

         A second way - is to work within this congregation, to build solidarity here. I love being in this congregation, as together we have been striving, in spite of risks and pain, to understand how we can be a part of a larger love – to be truly a community that values and is made up of people of many cultures – sharing a calling to Stand Up for Love in a hurting world. We need to be in solidarity with one another and for one another. And together we need to chart our pathway, dig ourselves out of the drifts of despair, through the mountains of cold indifference, and make the great effort to break through to get to the main thoroughfares of this world. I hope everyone will put this date on your calendar – Fri night April 9, and Saturday, April 10 – for very important conversation we’ll be having about UUCA’s calling in the world. Come and explore and plan the pathways with one another, as we determine the most important priorities for the pathways of our love in the next few years – what justice initiatives shall we give our hearts to as a community? I want you there!

         And third - I love our congregation being in VOICE – Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement. In VOICE, I can be with people very different from me, and feel so deeply connected because we have chosen to join in a larger love. We have decided to stand up for people who are forced to live in horrible facilities; for immigrants who are being unfairly treated by a broken system; for people who don’t have enough money to treat serious dental problems. On Tuesday March 2, VOICE is going to Richmond to bear witness to the governor and representatives. I hope some of you can come with me and Robert Buckman and other UUCA leaders who will be going along with our VOICE community, standing on the side of love in a wintry season of fear.

         From the moment we are born, we need to be held. And as we grow, we need to hold on to others. And a greater love calls us to reach out to those who have been ignored or unloved.

         I remember an act of love here, four years ago. In the winter of 2006, as the legislature of the Virginia Commonwealth considered the question of allowing same-gendered people the right to marry, this congregation made a public witness. We invited all – gay and straight – to participate in a ceremony of vows, a recommitment to love. The event, which happened out on our ramp after services, was featured in the Washington POST. The vote in Richmond did not go our way, but our witness for our loving solidarity gave life and hope to all of us who are hurt by injustice. Standing up for love was life-affirming!

         Here we are four years later – and the world is still in need of people who are willing to make a vow of love, a vow of love for ALL. And to re-new those vows over and over.

         I stand before you now and I say – “I vow to live for love.”

         Can you say that? If you are ready to – look at me right now and say – “I vow to live for love.” Look at someone near you and say “I vow to live for love.”

         It is Valentine’s Day. It is a day for the heart to be made public. To come out of frozen snow bound fears and to break through into the public square! Make this be a good day for Love.

         It is a Day to join the people of New Orleans, in their Mardi Gras, Super Bowl, Carnival spirit – and say that after the devastation of the storm, after the betrayal of the systems of oppression, after the long years of struggle, we WILL rise up again and we WILL rejoice again and we WILL bear witness to the power of love again. And we will say that When the Saints, When the Saints, When the Saints Go marching in – we will be in that number! We WILL! Amen!

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