A sermon about Israel to-day

I don’t know about you but I feel outraged by what Israel is doing to Lebanon.

I try to put it into perspective against that great tap root of the Christian faith - the Old Testament - the Hebrew Bible.

Is this the Israel of the Old Testament acting out the wrath of God in fear and trembling - creating fear and trembling on her enemies as the Psalms promise ? Is laying waste to a country just part of the religious tradition? What sort of God is that to worship, I ask myself.

Critics will say that it is nothing to do with religion - religion and war, religion and terrorism have nothing in common - it is wrong to put the two together.

I suppose the argument is that when it comes to war and terrorism - then the morals and the ethics of our religion have to be set aside - the commands to love your enemy and love your neighbour are suspended.

Should it be that when you step into the synagogue to worship or step into the church to pray, you step out of the real world and leave behind all its challenges and concerns? I don’t think so.

Our spiritual life should be a way of life within the whole of our lives. We should not keep them in separate compartments. If we are true to ourselves we cannot keep them in separate compartments.

Today I see the Israelite as a person who is beating his neighbour to pulp for throwing stones into his garden. I see the Israelite stamping on his neighbour’s head as he lies on the floor and then tearing his house down around him.

Maybe if the Israelite kills his neighbour and demolishes his house, the stone throwing will never happen again - except the neighbour has brothers and cousins and friends - and they will be outraged and they will come in anger with stones, bigger stones and more of them.

In the unfolding story of the Israelite and his neighbour Lebanon, there is no Good Samaritan walking along the road - and more than that the Israelite has the mark of Cain put on his head - not by God - but by America.
‘so the Lord put a mark upon Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him’

My newspaper had an article about terrorism - there may be ideological issues between nations and groups - that will always be so but when it turns to violence - the violence and the support for terrorism comes out of those places where there is suffering and poverty.

Terrorism is a cancer fed by poverty, injustice, resentment, exploitation and prejudice. It is a cancer that grows in the refugee camps of the internally displaced peoples. It grows where one community treats another with arrogance and contempt. It grows where one group of people or one race of people are dehumanised and their voices are not listened to because they are not considered worth listening to.

I hear the voice of America talking the myth of democracy that will never work in the Middle East; and the myth of justice based on the right to bear arms and enforce freedom by the sheriff’s six shooter.

And I hear the voice of my religion calling back those two commandments, ‘love your enemies and love your neighbour as yourself.’

How on earth are we to do that? We find it hard enough to love our own enemies and often we find it hard to love our neighbours - especially if they throw stones at us. How easily the coin of emotion can be flicked from one face to another - on the one side is love and the other is hate.

If this was a Quaker congregation, they would be united in saying that they stood for non violence and peace - that is one of the tenets of the Quaker faith.

But we are Unitarians - not Quakers. We do not have a central authority that speaks in our name (unless we pass a resolution at the annual meetings). We are a society of spiritual individuals. Unitarian congregations are not led by anyone - not even their ministers. All that ministers and preachers can do is hope to inspire and encourage - even challenge the spiritual within us - that seat of spiritual authority that is within each of us - as James Martineau that Unitarian grandee put it more than a hundred years ago.

Unitarians have to ask themselves how they respond to those commands of Jesus to his disciples, ‘love your enemies; love your neighbour’. and What does it mean to be a Good Samaritan in 2006?

Because you are Unitarians, you will each have your own answer. You will each have your own opinion about everything - about what is spiritual and what is justice and what is outrageous.

We gather together because we are aware of our spiritual needs. We gather together in the company of like minded people to worship together, to celebrate together, sometimes to weep together - but we are always a society of spiritual individuals. We like being amongst friends who almost agree with us; whose values are almost similar to our own.

We like being individuals. We like having our individual faith DNA. We have come from different backgrounds and experiences - so our faiths are bound to differ.

There are two things that sustain me in my faith. The first that there is a spiritual power that encompasses the whole of life throughout all the universe. It is a power of love and comfort and it is a power that strengthens us individually to deal with the uncertainties of living.

The knowledge of this power lies like a seed within everyone - somewhere along the way as we live our lives, it germinates and begins to come to flower.

This power helps me to overcome the instinct to throw stones at my neighbours and helps me to try understand those who throw stones at me.

It is a power that makes me feel helped when I need help and gives answers when I need answers.

This power connects me spiritually to itself. What shall I call it? If I say God, I think of the fear and trembling of the Old Testament God - so I really just use the word because I don’t have another one that will do.

It does not make us perfect - but it gives us a vision of perfection that is worth trying to achieve. Worship is a recognition and a celebration of that power. A recognition and celebration of that vision.

The second thing that sustains me in my faith is that other vision - of a world at peace, working in harmony, advancing science and civilisation for the benefit of all. Of a world community that rejoices in in the individuality of its peoples but they can live in harmony - and where there are differences they are settled in the senates of the people and between governments peacefully by discussion and compromise. I believe this is achievable if we have the will to achieve it. I suppose it is a political ambition - but it is based on the faith that that is the purpose of our being on this earth.

But what can I do? Just me? I can try to live according to my faith - as best I can - and the results aren’t perfect by any means - but I buy my fair trade tea and coffee and my organic bananas. I got involved with the United Nations Association and ran General Assemblies for sixth formers, I got involved with the Inter Faith Movement. I support Bolton against racism and I organised groups of Muslim children to go to Hucklow.

It is not a lot - small pond stuff - but I always remember a girl we supported who went too Tanzania to teach on a gap year. When she came back she said that she loved the work but it only really made a small difference - but, she said, there were six hundred of us in the country - all making a small difference and that adds up.

What we each do individually, adds up. It is on the totaliser. You are not the only one - you never are.

If you have a vision for the world. I can only say stick with it, live it as best you can - because in the end, it adds up and the day will come when the beautiful country of Lebanon will be able to live in peace with its neighbours and Israel can listen to its God and turn its swords into ploushares.