Unitarian
Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis
Corvallis,
Oregon
Giving Thanks by Fighting Hunger
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Rev. Gretchen Woods
Opening
Words:
We gather from our separate places into
a communion of
precious spirits, each longing for
basic survival, for a
sense of belonging to something larger than ourselves,
and for ritual that reminds and re-enacts our connections
with one another and with the whole of Life.
Reading:
She poised on the cold edge of the bright blue dumpster, the
same blue as her high school blue, the blue that looked so right with the gold
stripe on the boys’ football uniforms.
Her boy, conceived on prom night 4 years before, stood
solemn in the cold October morning, fingers entwined in the red plastic mesh of
their shopping cart.
At that moment, the world went into fast forward, and many
things took place all at once. The
first shaft of sunlight to light the alley found it’s way to the back of her
filthy, cracked hand, where a sleek brown rat, as if following the bright shaft
heavenward, ran up from the stinking metal box, across her knuckles and to the
oily pavement below, disappearing into the sewer grate. The only physical
movement this millisecond allowed was for her eyes to follow the light into the
interior of the dumpster, there reflecting from crumpled foil packets, that
spilled the crumbled remains of baked potatoes.
She must have gasped because her boy, his lip adorned with a
worm of green snot, shot his eyes up at her, where she clung like a squirrel to
the rim of the container. At this very moment, like a nightmare lit up with
Klieg lights, a massive grey SUV turned into the alley, and her eyes turned to
meet the eyes of her best friend from high school, and their eyes glided past
each other with the silence of hindsight and regret.
If she had been able to turn her head then, she might have
seen that flash of brake lights, a fleeting intention, before the vehicle
lumbered into the bank parking lot.
Reading
from O. Eugene
Picket
For the expanding grandeur of Creation, worlds known and
unknown, galaxies beyond galaxies, filling us with awe
and challenging our imaginations: We give thanks this day.
For this fragile planet earth, its times and tides,
its sunsets and seasons: We give thanks this day.
For the joy of human life, its wonder and surprises,
its hopes and achievements: We give thanks this day.
For our human community, our common past
and future hope, our oneness transcending all
separation, our capacity to work for peace and
justice in the midst of hostility and oppression:
We give thanks this day.
For high hopes and noble causes, for faith
without fanaticism, for understanding of views not shared:
We give thanks this day.
For all who have labored and suffered for a fairer world,
who have lived so that others might live in dignity
and freedom: We give thanks this day.
For human liberty and sacred rites; for opportunities
to change and grow, to affirm and choose:
We give thanks this day. We pray that we may not live
by our fears but by our hopes, not by our words
but by our deeds.
We gather
at the beginning of the winter holiday season, preparing for the deeply American
day of Thanksgiving. We are called to count the myriad blessings in our lives:
basic survival needs met, a sense of belonging within this spiritual community,
and recognition of connections that help us to study, serve, and celebrate
life. We are truly grateful people. Yet, we also must acknowledge the
challenges faced by those within our community and those outside our community
who know hunger of many sorts.
How many of
us have been awakened by a hungry baby crying in the night? How many of us have
had occasion to receive or serve food at a homeless shelter? How many of us
have been or seen a “dumpster diver” foraging for food or clothing? How many of
us have been or heard someone calling for help while sliding into an abyss of
depression and despair? How many of us have turned away with fear of hunger?
None of us is far from the young woman in Lee’s reading, despite our apparent
membership in the middle class.
Hunger is
all around us. It takes many forms: hunger for basic human needs to be filled,
hunger for belonging, and hunger for rituals that remind us of our connections
to Life around us, to name just a few. As we prepare to celebrate a holiday
that expresses gratitude for all we have, let us first begin by acknowledging
in some part the hunger we experience as human beings and the call to respond,
to be responsible.
Abraham
Maslow offers a hierarchy of human needs, beginning with those most essential
for survival. We need food, shelter, clothing for our bodies, first and
foremost. Without those needs met, it is difficult for us to express our
humanity. For this reason decent labor for a living wage is absolutely
essential as well. In this town, that is hard to come by for many without very
specific skills, and sometimes hard to come by WITH specific skills. We are
called to help others find this meaningful labor.
True, there
have always been spiritual ascetics who eschew basic needs as a way to deepen
their connection to their inner knowing. Still, most ascetics, like the Desert
Fathers of the early Christian Church and the Buddha himself, end their
self-imposed denial of basic needs
saying, “Well, that was a waste of time!” Ultimately, self-denial is
less important to the process of deepening one’s inner knowing than simply
paying attention to who we are and to what life calls us to become. Mary Oliver
reminds us that “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it
loves.” Our animal selves know our survival needs and food is certainly one of
them.
Hunger for
food is not only for whatever food is available. It seeks food that truly feeds
the body, food with nutritional value. I wander through the grocery store and
note that most of what I see is probably not very good for me. In fact, much of
it is not really food that nurtures my best being. It all looks appealing, but
may not be useful. As I pay attention, it appeals to me less and less.
I am
delighted that the South Corvallis Food Bank, which is situated where the
largest population of need exists and has been under our umbrella up until
earlier this month, makes it a point to provide the best quality food possible
for the money supplied by donors. Through them, we not only supply food, we
supply food that nourishes and nurtures. All too often human beings are given
food, but it does not feed the body, much less the spirit.
Our hunger
for food – and the hunger of our neighbors for food - needs to be acknowledged
and served. It is too easy to drive into the bank, like the school mate from
Lee’s writing, rather than stopping to lend a hand. I am appalled that Congress
has again cut basic services for citizens in need, while the administration
continues to push for another tax cut for the rich. When will we regain our
basic humanity as a nation? What ever happened to “compassionate conservatism?”
Hunger, the need for shelter and clothing, the need for basic health care and a
solid public education, all are basic needs that the government of the richest
country in the world should – must – address effectively. We must demand
nothing less. Otherwise, our administration weakens our basic resources: the
human beings who make up our citizenry.
But
survival hunger is not the only hunger human beings face; we also face a hunger
for belonging, for recognition and appreciation. Belonging is not simply being
a part of a group. Belonging carries the expectation of being known and called
to bring your unique gifts to play in the game of the whole. There is safety as
well as challnge in this sort of belonging. Peg Hoddinott writes of this
hunger:
Look at me. Please, see me.
Not my clothes or stubby nails
Or homely face.
Open your heart so you can see mine.
I do not ask you to agree with
Or understand all you see
For I don’t even do that.
Just look at what is really there
And allow it to be.
Such
recognition and acceptance begins to slake the hunger for belonging.
But hunger
for belonging goes beyond recognition. It includes appreciation and
encouragement of who we are. It honors our gifts and talents, calls them forth
to expression, and reminds us that we add to the quality of the whole. Again,
Mary Oliver:
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
How we
hunger for knowing our place in the family of things, to feel our value and
worth among a community of like-minded souls! This is a consummation devoutly
to be wished.
And it is
within community that we re-enact rituals that assert our connections with one
another and with the larger “family of things.” While some of you may squirm at
the notion that there might be value in ritual, consider this: we enact rituals
all the time. They are often very important to our sense of connection with one
another.
When Judy’s
first son, Scott, was a toddler, Judy developed a little ritual of rubbing his
back, then patting him on the bottom just before she left his room at bedtime.
One night she rubbed his back, but left before the little tap on the butt. As
she turned to check him one last time before turning off the light, she saw him
reach back and pat his own bottom before settling in to sleep. That’s a ritual
of love and connection that needed to be complete for sleep to happen. With my
own sons, it included back scratching and reading sci-fi or fantasy before
lights out. Neither my youngest son, nor I, could bear to finish that last book
we were reading the night he left for college. Rituals assert our deep
connections with one another.
They also
remind us of the incidents that define our sense of value. Louise always
reminds me, “It isn’t Christmas Eve without “Peace, Peace,” the song we have
sung together for many years now. I can assure you, we shall sing it again. And
Christmas Eve services here must include child dedication and lots of readings
and music. Those ritual repetitions deepen our connections with one another and
with our deeper love of Life.
Thanksgiving
is a time of acknowledging the many blessings we experience in our lives. It
also needs to be a time to acknowledge hunger – and we to respond to hunger
more deeply as the light wanes and resources seem fewer. Out of our gratitude
for the riches life has heaped upon us, however small, we take action for
others. Today, over 60 of our people, including many of our youth, will be all
over the Corvallis area, delivering food to those who might not have any
Thanksgiving Dinner otherwise. We are involved with expressing our gratitude
for our hunger being met, by reaching out to those not as fortunate.
Let us do
this with humble gratitude, for none of us is truly very far from not having
our basic needs met, from deep hunger. Though some of us may have fine
educations and decent jobs, this culture makes it hard for any of us to have
true security for all our basic needs. Let us be grateful for what we do have
and act to help others with their needs.
And,
paradoxically, let us be grateful for the times when we know hunger, so that we
may empathize with those who currently feel it, whether for food or for
belonging. Someone made space for us in this community – and we are called to
make more space for those who may follow. May our gratitude enable us to build
an ever more healthy community that opens its arms to those who seek a place to
study, to serve, and to celebrate life.
And may we
open also to rituals that truly bring meaning into our lives, repeatedly
honoring people and experiences that remind us of our best selves and our
greatest hopes and values manifested. May those rituals point toward
experiences of connection that is incontrovertible, so that we do not need
belief, for we shall know, with respect, responsibility, and relish for
the process.
So Be It.
Blessed be!
Order of Service
“Giving Thanks by Fighting Hunger”
Sunday, November 20, 2005
9:30 am & 11 am
Welcome and
Announcements
Prelude
Chalice
Lighting
Opening
Words:
Opening
Song #349 “We Gather Together”
Reading
Candles of
Joy and Sorrow/ Offering
Reading
from O. Eugene Picket
Celebrating with Music:
“The Promise of
Living” Copland
Sermon:
“Giving Thanks by
Fighting Hunger”
Celebrating with Music
“People of Hunger”
Tony Alonso
Spoken Response
Closing Song
#69 “Give Thanks”
(verses 1 & 2)
Closing Words
Closing Song #69 (verse 3)