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What Should We Care About?
A Sermon Given
by The Reverend Roberta Nelson
on January 24, 1999
at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
Bethesda, Maryland
What should we care about? Mr. Falker cared. But had he not met Tricia (Patricia Polacco) again many years later he
might never have known the impact of his caring on her life. Teaching is generally like that. You care but seldom do
you know how it will turn out. You teach with faith in your heart and mind.
Last week during vespers at Meadville/Lombard theological School, David Bumbaugh, who preached here a couple of
years ago, shared this story. In 1963, a call went out to clergy of all denominations to come to Selma, Alabama to
support the struggle for voting rights. David told us, he heard the call, but did not think it was for him. A few days
later, James Reeb was killed, and the call went out to Unitarian Universalist ministers to join the march, he heard the
call, and still did not think it was for him. The following Sunday, before church began, two members of his
congregation approached him and asked if he was going to Selma. "No, he had a young child, another on the way and
besides, he had no money." They handed him a ticket. This time he heard the call and it changed his life.
How many times have we not heard the call? Times when we were too busy, too frightened, too cynical, too caught up
in our every day lives, too worried about the final outcome. This is a struggle we all face. All our worries are real.
Sometimes our response is one of guilt or anger or pain. Dr. Thomas Groome in Educating For Life talks about
"dangerous memories". He defines them as memories that can disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed in us,
can challenge complacency and renew commitments.
Shortly after Chris and I were married, we were approached by a group in town working on equal rights in housing to
test some realtors to see if they were treating all possible home buyers equally. Answering the call in that situation was
not easy. We were new in town, Chris had recently begun a recovery from mononucleosis, and I was relatively new as
the religious educator at the First Parish. We did answer the call because all my growing up I had been taught to work
for justice.
Deciding what we should care about demands that we prioritize. We cannot be and do all things for all people.
Depending on time, finances and circumstances, we will choose how we can respond to the numerous opportunities that
present themselves. There are also times when we can not respond and we need to feel that it is all right too.
In recent years my major focus has been on children - our children here at Cedar Lane, the children in our larger
community, children in our world. On a daily basis I read of the horrors bestowed upon the most vulnerable among us.
I salute and financially support the work of the Children's Defense Fund and Unicef. They serve as our social
conscious, providing us with information and action opportunities.
Since shortly after the New Year I have been trying to help my daughter Heather and other former Peace Corps
volunteers who served in Sierra Leone West Africa respond to the horrors of a civil war that has raged on in one form
or another since 1991. Because it is one of the poorest countries in the world, little attention is paid to what happens
there. We all know that women and children have suffered numerous atrocities. I can not ignore the call of six year
old, Flora, who raises the stump of her arm and asks the relief worker, "Will my fingers grow back?" Adolescents are
conscripted into the rebel army or join with other marauding teenagers armed with knives to slash and burn. Sierra
Leone is but one example of what is happening around the world. Currently more than 300,000 children under the age
of 18 are fighting. We need to support the law prohibiting the recruitment of children under 18 years old. Children
everywhere, whether through child labor, sexual exploitation or abuse carry their scars for life. The editorial piece in
the Washington Post speaks more eloquently than I can about the situation:
This war is costing Sierra Leone its children. The displaced children who have grown up in the ravages of war, who
know no other way of life. Children who are taught to kill, maim and terrorize. Children who at the age of 10 know
the power of the man behind the gun. Children who have seen their parents and families murdered. Children who are
trained as vicious, single-minded terrorists. Children who are the future leaders of Sierra Leone.
Nasserie Carew
Mitchellville, Maryland
These children are the leaders of tomorrow. We ignore the issues at our peril.
Geoffrey Canada, author of two Beacon Press books and president of the Rheedlen Center for Children and Families,
has dedicated himself to the nurturing and concern for children. In his recent book, Reaching Up For Manhood, he
undertakes a plea that we pay attention to the boys in our society. This does not mean that girls do not need attention,
it is the priority he has set for himself. He writes, "If we are to save the next generation of boys, they need to be
connected to men so that they see examples of the possible futures they might live out as adults. "It is my belief", he
continues, "that the most powerful force in a child's life is a caring adult and that we must get involved personally if
we are to change the outcomes for children who face the most difficulties. There are enough children who need our
help that each one of us can find the right match."
Think for a moment, what is your basic understanding of justice and how did you come by it? The major religious
traditions of justice may vary. However, in the teachings of all the great religions, faith demands justice. It is also true
that religion has been used to legitimize the worst of injustice -- wars, racism, sexism, persecution, bigotry, oppression,
hate and violence. Our prophetic tradition calls us to action.
I am deeply indebted to Groome's chapter, Beyond the Scales: A Faith That Does Justice, for some of the insights,
ideas, and challenges that I am about to share. I am presenting them as a means of inviting dialogue and conversation
so that we as a religious community will embrace the idea of choosing to act within the possibilities of our own lives.
Justice must not foster a better than thou attitude. We must remove guilt trips, they are debilitating and do not lead to
action. Guilt can be paralyzing. No one of us has arrived there are too many unsolvable or almost unsolvable
problems that demand our attention we need everyone to share the responsibility. We can not allow constant striving
for success to diminish the small efforts that are worth while. Most issues we deal with may not be completed in our
lifetime. Even so, we must redefine success. We all have something to contribute.
When we can recall our own memories of injustice or oppression and see its relationship to others we can develop an
empathy for those who are poor or oppressed. I am well aware that it is painful to remember such experiences. We
are the most uncomfortable or pained to share with others those which we fear could result in our being judged or
blamed. Liberation theologians challenge this idea that the "privileged" can be committed to justice. I believe we can
by owning our own experiences. Direct experience can keep us from being insulated. Careful listening can open our
hearts to others' experiences. Right relationships can model the way we should be with one another. Our religious
heritage is rich with women and men who worked to alleviate pain, suffering and oppression. This living tradition can
undergird our reaching toward justice. What we teach and how we teach reflects our deepest commitments and teaches
us to think for ourselves, to be thoughtful about ethical issues, to reach for the wisdom that seeks the truth.
Allow your life to be a work in progress
From beckoning birth to dawning death
we are in process,
And Always there is more to be done
Do no let the incompleteness weigh on your spirit;
Do not despair that imperfection marks your everyday;
Do not fear that we are still in the making.
Let us instead be grateful that the world is still to be created;
Let us give thanks that we can be more than we are;
Let us celebrate the power of the incomplete;
For life is always unfinished business.
-- Richard Gilbert
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