"A Yearning for the Great Turning"

Reading: from The Earth Charter (2000):

“We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.”

Sermon:

When it comes to the holiday season I have a split personality. Part of me is a scrooge who says “Bah, humbug!” to the commercialism, chaos, and superstition of a holiday with little meaning.  Sometimes I feel like the woman in the New Yorker cartoon who says to her friend, “We've decided to cut back and have Christmas every other year.”

The other part of me wants to give Scrooge a big hug and a nice present.  This part of me is captivated by the magic and mystery of the season, entranced by the stories of Hanukkah and Christmas and the solstice, seeking the deeper meaning in each.  I sing Christmas carols at the top of my voice, and I get teary-eyed when I watch “The Miracle on 34th Street” for the umpteenth time.   I need both of these personalities to get the most out of the season, but I seek a balance of the two.  I want one eye to be awake with wonder and hope while the other is staring with skepticism and doubt.

David Korten's book, “The Great Turning,” has helped me to see the world in a both a clearer and a more hopeful way.  Korten spoke at our UUA General Assembly this past June, and his book has become a must-read for many in the political and religious liberal community.   His ideas are revelatory, radical and revolutionary in the best sense of those words. They call for change at the roots of society and at the core of ourselves.

We tend to believe that our future is predetermined and that there is little we can do to change it.  But David Korten tells us that we must choose to align ourselves either with Empire, which will certainly cascade us into a Great Unraveling of destruction, or with Earth Community, which will lead us to the Great Turning of possibility and promise.  Both models have existed since the beginning of time.

Empire is the system of domination that uses racism, sexism, and classism to protect the interests of the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor and powerless.  Earth Community is an organization of partnership that “unleashes the human potential for creative cooperation.” 

I confess that I'm skeptical of black and white, either/or, overly simplistic dichotomies, but Korten's analysis recognizes that within every organization, every institution, every individual these two archetypes of domination and community struggle with each other.  Our purpose is to move ourselves and then our institutions away from the system of Empire towards Earth Community, but the struggle is treacherous.  Throughout history there have been rebellions and revolutions against those who have used their power to dominate and oppress others, but usually those actions either fail or succeed in becoming an Empire to themselves.

I like the “Prickly City” cartoon that shows Winslow, the coyote pup, and Carmen, his straight and narrow friend, sitting together when Carmen asks, “According to recent discoveries... everything in the universe is moving away from us at an accelerated rate.”  Winslow asks, “Can you blame them?” “Heck no,” responds Carmen, “I wanna know where to book my seat...”

It's easy to be overwhelmed by the multitude of crises in our world today, ranging from an oppressive war in Iraq to environmental ruin to economic collapse to any number of injustices.   How do we keep ourselves sane and hopeful in the midst of such chaos?

My hope comes from people being able to make decisions for themselves.  As David Korten writes, “When power resides with people and communities life and innovation flourish.  When power is centralized in distant government agencies or corporations, the life is sucked out of the community...” One of the central learnings of my life is that those who are most affected by a decision should be the ones to make that decision.  For me that is true freedom and democracy, and there's no excuse for any other options.

Many of you heard Vivek Pandit speak two Sundays ago about his commitment to empower the poorest of the poor in India who for the first time in their lives are allowed to make decisions about their own future.  Vivek is supported by the UUA Holdeen India Project, of which I'm proud to be a board member. 

I was deeply moved when I attended the Holdeen board meeting several weeks ago here in Washington.  An Indian man, Arbind Singh, made a presentation requesting funding for the National Association of Street Vendors in India, and he told us the plight of the tens of thousands of street vendors who have difficulty surviving financially.  As I listened to him, it dawned on me that these little one or two person businesses set up on street corners are struggling against a vast Empire of Walmarts, K-marts, and their Indian equivalents that see them as bugs that must be smashed.  That kind of valiant effort is going on all over the world, but the struggle for survival against such odds is incredibly difficult. 

Our nation prides itself on standing up for the little guy.  We see democracy as the antithesis of the Empire, and so we've attempted to transplant our system of government around the world.  And yet when you study our history it's apparent that we have strayed far from those principles.

In another amazing book I highly recommend, “A People's History of the United States” by Howard Zinn, he presents American history through the eyes of those who are rarely heard from, such as Native Americans, slaves, minorities, and women.  This is not the history that most of us took in high school and college, promoting the views of the winners and discarding or distorting the views of those who were slaughtered or enslaved or made invisible.  This is the history of those who struggled against a greater power and lost.  The good news is that “A People's History,” is beginning to show up in schools across the United States, and I would like to see it be required reading for all students.

An especially lucid reminder of our government's motivation throughout most of our history is seen in a speech to an American Legion convention by General Smedley Butler in 1931, a few weeks prior to his retirement as commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. He confessed:

“I helped Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912.  I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1916.  I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916.  “In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested ... I had a swell racket.  I was regaled with honors, medals, promotions.  I might have given Al Capone a few hints.  The best he could do was to operate in three cities.  The Marines operated on three continents...”

Who is this what American foreign policy is really about, acting more in the interests of international corporations and our own obsession for Empire than democratic ideals. That motivation seems to be  the same today in Iraq – where President Bush is now negotiating to build a permanent military base -- as well as in our support of a globalization strategy that increases the economic advantages of the most powerful nations at the expense of those who have little power and money.

The world of Empire is certainly not confined to one nation or one part of the world. It exists wherever one group of people is dominating another. But wherever there is Empire there are those who resist its values of power and dominance in favor of values of partnership, cooperation, and community.  This ongoing tension between Empire and Earth Community is not only an international struggle but a personal and spiritual one.  The conflict between needing to rule over others and the desire to be in a community of equals exists within each one of us.

Even the God we believe in -- or don't – relates to our urge for Empire or Earth Community.  The wrathful God of Empire usually supports those in power and demands exclusive loyalty, using violence to extract vengeance on his enemies and unbelievers.  The God or Goddess of Earth Community is quite different, a loving and omnipresent Spirit beyond gender that lives and breathes within every creature.

Ironically the story at the heart of western civilization is one of a man who resisted both the God and government of Empire in his brief ministry, and he was crucified for both of these blasphemies.  His cult began as an Earth Community, like most religions do, rebelling against a hierarchical religious and national government and affirming a loving and forgiving spirit.  But eventually, like most religions, Christianity was co-opted by the powerful into a religious institution that Jesus would never recognize or condone.  He was transformed from pauper to king, from a man of peace to a warrior, from a rebel to a defender of the status quo, from a fearless man of deep spirit to a hallowed out salesman for a sufferable afterlife.

This concept of the Great Turning helps me to see that we are a part of a vision and movement as old as humanity, a vision of the Kingdom of God as Jesus prophesied, of the Beloved Community as Martin Luther King, Jr., proclaimed, a vision held up in every generation of a world where peace and justice would reign.  There has always been a deep yearning for a Great Turning. It also helps me to see that all the work we do for a better world, whether it's to fight racism and homophobia, or to help organize the poor in India or Guatemala, or fight the death penalty, or promote fair housing, is all part of the same struggle for the Great Turning toward Earth Community.

Today there is no messiah on the horizon and no savior around the bend, and we are tired of waiting.  Advent is a time of promise, and that promise will be realized only if we make it so.  It's up to us to create the Earth Community.  It's up to us to help bring about a new spiritual consciousness that recognizes the interconnectedness of life and that gives us the courage to resist the ongoing war against life and liberty.

So this is the Great Turning, a turning away from domination and greed, away from violence and elitism, and turning toward an affirmation that we are one human family and one Earth community.  But we cannot do this alone.  The odds are slim that we can do it at all.  But if we are to succeed, we must work together in community wherever we can find it, wherever we can build it, wherever we can strengthen it.

May this religious community, whose values are so similar to those of the Earth Community, be a part of the Great Turning.   Let us expand our vision and strengthen our hope as we work together to build a new land.

So may it be.