Members and friends,
I am struck this week, as we approach the election on Tuesday, at how disturbing so many of this cycle’s attack ads have been. And how much money has been spent on them. Not struck as in surprised (I am not)… but struck as in a punch to the gut. We can be so cruel to one another.
We talked on Sunday about the difference between “calling out” and “calling in.” How both are necessary at times, but often calling in, especially in a relationship we have with someone who shares our values, is a lot more effective. I remembered a time this summer when my partner interrupted me to let me know a word I had used had a very different meaning than I thought, and was racist. At the moment I was annoyed and quite defensive. I said something like… “It doesn’t mean that!… I’VE never heard that use before.” As if I know everything! I insisted on looking it up myself (this is generally not a great look). Come to find out, unsurprisingly, she was right and I was wrong. I have since apologized. Talking about it after the fact, with 20/20 hindsight, was a good, humbling growth opportunity for me.
All this has me reflecting on how complicated we are as people and how telling the story of human life in a way that honors that complexity is hard and not often done well. We are tempted to attack those on the other side of the political divide. And even “cancel” those who share our values when they make a misstep. We’re hard on each other. And then, when people die, we often tell the story of their lives as if they never made a mistake or caused harm. Both ends of this spectrum gloss over the truth that we humans are complex and imperfect and messy and beautiful and sometimes awful, too. I believe this stunts our spiritual growth.
We’ll explore this all in Sunday’s all-ages worship service, “Sinners, Saints and Souls.” Unitarian Universalism is a faith that rejects the notion that some people are “sinners” and others are “saints.” We affirm instead the words of the late Unitarian theologian William Ellery Channing: We are all “living member[s] of the family of all souls.” How does this affirmation of our connectedness to one another, and our complexity, shape the way we are called to treat one another when we are alive and talk about one another honestly after we are gone? In this season of remembrance with holidays like Halloween, All Souls Day, All Saints Day, Samhain, and Día de los Muertos… when the veil between the living and the dead is believed to be thin… how might we remember honestly so that we might grow towards a deeper and fuller understanding of one another as complicated, beautiful, imperfect souls sharing this wild life together?
Our service will include writing the names of those we have lost and hanging them on a web of memory. If you’d like to bring a photo to include in our ritual, please make sure it is wallet sized. I am looking forward to being together and celebrating through memory this incredible family of all souls. Until then, may your nights and days be blessed.
In faith,
Rev. Tara