How Are We Called
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- Created on Sunday, 15 January 2012 11:42
- Written by Elaine Beth Peresluha
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is remembered for his heroic leadership of the civil rights movement – and much more- he was a man who lived his entire life in service to others, speaking out against poverty, economic injustice, and violence. Wherever he saw suffering, he did what he could to help, no matter who it was that needed him or why they were in pain. Through his leadership, he showed us what we can accomplish when we stand together he called us, black and white through his example- through the consistent integrity of his behaviors and his words. His faith, his deeds, his leadership, his words, written and spoken repeated the instructions- resolve conflict and injustice non- violently call us to stand up for the one who has the least, with love.
Unitarian Universalists have responded to the call- from the first days of the civil rights movement- U.U. has given their lives for racial justice- today, First Parish, and other congregations hold social Action as foundational to our faith. The Standing on the Side of Love campaign elevates compassionate religious voices to influence public attitudes and public policy.
Through community activism, a href="http://www.standingonthesideoflove.org/?page_id=774">social networking, and media outreach, people across the nation are equipped to counter fear and make love real in the world.
The Standing on the Side of Love Campaign was inspired by the 2008 shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, which was targeted because they are welcoming to LGBT people and have a liberal stance on many issues.
The Knoxville Community responded with an outpouring of love that inspired the leadership at the Unitarian Universalist Association to launch a campaign that would harness love’s power to challenging exclusion, oppression, and violence based on sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, race, religion, or any other identity. In July of 2010, we celebrated our one-year anniversary at Standing on the Side of Love. Thank you to all of you who have taken part. See our 2010 report (PDF) on the campaign.
For two years in a row, together, we re-imagined Valentine’s Day as a social justice holiday. The message, “standing on the side of love,” emerged as a rallying point for people of faith in Massachusetts during their early efforts for fully inclusive marriage, and later during the fight against Proposition 8 in California.
Thirty Days of collective visioning, daily actions, and reflections on Monday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We can sign up on the UUA website for short daily emails that will engage us in the campaign.
Begin a conversational Spanish class. Learning Spanish is a way to broaden and deepen one’s engagement with the world, it’s inclusivity- and your own awareness of cultures.
Check out the National Standing on the Side of Love Month calendar and all of the resources. You’ll see that each of our four weeks has a theme. Next week, we begin with Story of Self. Starting the month focused on self-reflection is an opportunity for those of us who hold ourselves accountable to humanity, and who devote ourselves to social justice, to truly center ourselves. Telling our story of self can help establish firm ground for personal conviction, leadership, collaboration, and ultimately the discovery of common purpose. All of us have a compelling story of self to tell, and our stories are ever evolving.
Dr. King knew that our dreams are what keep our stories developing and our collective story improving. Standing on the side of love for 30 Days of Love can lift up our dreams- by lifting up our stores. We can use them to inspire First Parish Listens- the Parish Interim Teams February Blitz. Tell your First Parish Stories- stand up for what you believe is essential here. What has the power to carry you into the next decade? Talk about why our experiences of First Parish- When has First Parish disappointed you, inspired you? What do you believe needs to work better? Bring your desire for trust, transparency communication good governance, financial solvency- and stand on the side of love- be called by what works well- to be the change you want to see- be transparent, trust, communicate and engage. Lift up your dreams.
For thirty days- Stand On The Side of Love-
Be open to transformation
For thirty days- work through your metaphorical road rage. Seeking justice in a world full of people who manipulate the truth for personal power, who demonize, and who harm others through a prism of sanctimoniousness can be exhausting for us. Sometimes love takes real effort when all we want to do is hurl expletives at the television
For thirty days- work through your complacency, fear, entitlement, or whatever else separates you from love of this world.
I believe in god in the power of a three-letter word to get our attention. My god is that power of Love that erupted with a mighty roar. That ball of living, breathing, light that exploded into a universe of fire and ice, suns and moons, plants and animals, you and me. Love and light have kept this earth spinning and people evolving- it has brought us through times of death and destruction to continue planting flowers and nursing babies.
When the eyes of our young people are opened to the injustices and the suffering in the world I want to assure them of a place where they can return home to cry, to be held, to gather strength, to feel empowered, to learn compassion. I want our young people to see us model how to respond to life's realities rather than turn away in fear. The Occupy movement inspires that sort of commitment. Standing on the Side of Love inspires that same commitment- we are called by all that is good in this world to stand up. Stand up to demonstrate to our young people that solidarity and strength grows out of our choice to join together in love, to confront the powers of greed and injustice.
What does it profit my brethren if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or a sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body what does it profit? So, faith by itself if it has no works, is dead. ... Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith" James 2:14-19
To be a Unitarian Universalist is to believe that:
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There is nothing more vital to our faith than to search with all our hearts and with all our minds for truth and compassion.
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We should never cease to explore, or be content with comfortable finalities.
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The spirit of religious freedom demands that we meet the challenge of our futures with growing insights, new skills and renewed enthusiasm religion can assure hope and the eternity of love and light.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a day to celebrate that hope- that love- that light
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Attend the Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast- Join the NAACP- offer your money and your presence to confront prejudice.
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Sign up for community service tomorrow and sign up for Thirty Days of Love on the UUA’s Standing On the Side Of Love website: http://www.uua.org/love/index.shtml
There will be sheets of paper with all the websites and opportunities available for you as you leave the sanctuary and in coffee hour on the membership table.
There is a power at work in this universe that pushes trees out of rocky crevices and flowers out of the cracks in city sidewalks. There is a power that affirms love and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds that takes children from abuse and abandonment into creative, productive, and compassionate adulthood. There is a power that heals hearts after the most devastating tragedies- and brings dreams to the grieving that they may again dance with joy. That power is what I choose to call God- it is what I pray to and for in my life- to have and to share- it is in the service of this power that I choose to give my energy, my time, and my faith. I will not lessen my life by feeding the power of hate or evil- that power at work in this world that tears down hope, shrinks hearts and discourages minds.
Do not live your life in fear of scarcity, in resistance, judgment, or hate. Choose love.
"The sum of all known reverence I add up in you
Those who govern are there for you it is not you who are there for them-
All architecture is what you do to it when you look upon it...
It is for you whoever you are...
It is no farther from you that your hearing and sight are from you:
It is hinted by nearest, commonest readiest.
We consider bibles and religions divine-
I do not say they are not divine,
I say they have grown out of you and may grow out of you still-
It is not they who give the life- it is you who give the life...
Happiness, knowledge, love, not in another place, but this place-
Not in another hour- but this hour."