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(c) Rev. Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

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The specter of death seemed to follow Martin Luther King, Jr. throughout his relatively short life.  At the age of twelve, he was asked to  watch his younger brother for an afternoon.  But his brother slid down a bannister when Martin was not watching and crashed into King’s grandmother – who suffered a heart attack and died.  Young King was shaken by her death.  Blaming himself, he fell into a deep depression.  Two days later, in an attempt to kill himself, he jumped out of a second floor window.  He was badly bruised but otherwise unhurt.

Seventeen years later, in 1958 while signing copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom, he was approached by a white woman who asked if he was THE Martin Luther King.  He said he was.  She replied, “I’ve been looking for you for years” and then stabbed him in his chest with a pointed letter opener.  It almost penetrated his heart.

Ten years after that, on April 4th, 1968, Dr. King was in Memphis, Tennessee to lead a protest march by striking sanitation workers.  He had been feeling the weight of his many years as an activist and the constant  opposition he faced.  For several months he’d had insomnia and migraine headaches.  Many of his colleagues later said they believed King suffered from depression.  

In a sermon delivered the night before the protest march – and his assassination –  he seemed to have a premonition.  “Like anybody,” he said, “I would like to live a long life.  Longevity has its place.  But I’m not concerned about that now… I’ve seen the Promised Land.  I may not get there with you.  But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.  And I’m happy tonight.  I’m not worried about anything.  I’m not fearing any man.  Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Using a Biblical analogy meaningful to African-Americans since the days of slavery, King was likening himself to the Bible’s Moses – and his black followers to ancient Jews who had been slaves in Egypt.  When ancient Jews worshipped a golden calf, the Bible story says God punished them, including Moses, by ordering that all those alive at that moment would never enter the Promised Land of Israel.  Only their descendants, after all of them had died, would do that.  Forty years later, when Moses believed he would soon die, the story says he ventured to the border of Israel and climbed a mountain so he could look into, and at least get a glimpse of, the Promised Land.

Many people said Dr. King that evening sensed his death was near, but he was encouraging his followers to trust that they and all oppressed people will eventually reach the Promised Land.

The next day, the sanitation worker protest march added to King’s dismay.  The march ended with a riot, despite King’s pleas for non-violence.  Returning to a second floor room at the Lorraine motel, he was somber and he made plans for a soul-food dinner.  He asked one of his advisors to have the hymn, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” sung that evening at a church service.  King washed his face and at 5 PM stepped out on the motel balcony.  The sun was setting.  A rifle shot rang out.  King was hit by a bullet and pushed back against the wall – his arms outstretched.  His spinal cord was severed and he died almost instantly.  Dr. King was 39 years old.

Five days later, in Atlanta, Georgia and later at his alma mater Morehouse College, funeral services were held.  At the service in the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he ministered, Coretta Scott King had him eulogize himself.  She had a recording of King’s last sermon at the church played.  In that sermon, Dr. King requested that at his funeral no mention be made of his accomplishments, awards, or honors.  “Let it instead be said about me, that he tried to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, be right on the war question, and love and serve humanity.”

Later that day, at Morehouse College, King’s final hymn request was honored.  HIs favorite singer, Mahalia Jackson, sang “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.”

Dr. King’s simple wooden casket was then loaded onto a crude farm wagon drawn by two mules – used to symbolize his work for the Poor People’s Campaign.  The three and 1/2 mile funeral procession was attended by over 100,000 people.  Leaders from around the world were there.  President Johnson sent Vice-President Hubert Humphrey in his place.  The procession passed the Georgia capital where then Governor Lester Maddox had earlier refused to have flags lowered to half-staff despite the day being an official national day of mourning.  Maddox had many times called King an enemy of the people.  The governor stationed 64 helmeted troopers on the capital steps to prevent a riot that of course never happened.

King was buried in a cemetery mostly reserved for African-Americans.  His body was moved in 1977 to a plot just between the King Center and Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Six years after his assassination, Martin Luther King’s mother was herself shot and killed while playing the organ at Ebenezer Baptist church.  The assailant was a mentally ill man who hated Christians.

While Dr. King obviously believed his accomplishments were to have solely heeded Jesus’ teaching to serve the least of humanity, he nevertheless did much more.  To name just a few of what King accomplished in just ten short years of activism, he led the successful Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, which ended segregation in that city and in the rest of the South.  He delivered one of the most inspiring speeches ever on Civil Rights – the famous “I Have a Dream” speech.  He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy of non-violence and equal rights.  He formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that still promotes Civil Rights and the philosophy of non-violence.  His work was crucial in passing the national Civil Rights Act of 1964 which banned employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin.  He equally helped pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965 protecting the right to vote by all citizens.  He strongly advocated for the Immigration and Nationality Services Act also of 1965 which allowed expanded immigration from non-European nations, and he was instrumental in passing the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which banned all forms of housing discrimination.   He also founded the Poor People’s Campaign, an organization still at work to end greed and economic inequality.

Today and tomorrow, when we remember and honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the only national holiday for someone who was not President, I suggest we reflect on his legacy and perhaps hear what that means for people of color.  Many commentators say that King’s legacy has too often been framed by whites, like me, and their perspective of him as an advocate non-violence.  It often seems forgotten that, like Jesus who he tried to follow, King was a radical.  He proposed a wholesale end to systems in our economy, government, media and culture that exploit people of color and the poor.

But how Dr. King is seen and remembered is itself segregated.  Many people of color see Dr. King’s legacy as one not yet realized.  King himself said that the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights were not statements of fact, but were tragically statements of intent.  As women, blacks, hispanics, Jews, Muslims, the other-abled, the poor, and LGBTQ persons can all testify, America’s founding principle of liberty and justice for all – are not yet reality two-hundred and forty-four years later.

Since that is so, just what is the legacy of Dr. King?  Is it that he achieved many great things, but not the ultimate prize for which he gave his life?  And if that is the case, what profound teachings did he leave humanity that will finally get black people and many others to the Promised Land of peace and justice?

While Dr. King’s nonviolent activism is most remembered, it seems his belief that greed is the real reason behind racism and oppression, is a bigger legacy.  In the last few years of his life, he focused more and more on economic inequality and the Poor People’s Campaign to solve all oppression.  For him, that was in keeping with the teachings of Jesus – that hate comes from exploiting another person for one’s own advantage.  Ta Nehisi Coates essentially agreed with this view in his book ‘Between the World and Me’ – that this congregation read two years ago.  Slavery and racism, Coates said, were and are rooted in greed and using black bodies for economic gain.

But Dr. King, from his spiritual perspective, saw a broader problem.  Humanity’s negative inclination to exploit others is universal.  King was always an advocate for black people, but he also advocated for everybody who faces discrimination and injustice.  Indeed, his very last protest march was not for racial justice, but in behalf of striking white, black, and brown garbage workers.  And his plea for what should be said of him at his funeral perfectly illustrates his thinking about his life purpose – to do as Jesus called everyone to do – feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, and heal the wounded.  

That follows his theology.  God loves all people, but her heart is broken at the sight of those who hurt.  If we are to be human gods and goddesses, which I believe is our life purpose, then it is our duty to show love to everybody and most especially to people who suffer.  That’s what Jesus taught.  It’s what King believed and did.  It frames, for me, the reason for what is currently on our front sign, “Black Lives Matter.”  Black lives are not more deserving of love than any other life – but clearly many of their lives ARE threatened.  They hurt, and compassionate people respond. 

To fully understand whatever King’s legacy might be, I believe it is to understand his views transcended racism and segregation.  As he said, “God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men, and brown men, and yellow men;  God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race.”

This fits with another quote from Dr. King that offers further insight into his theology and his thinking, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’”  That perfectly states his Christian beliefs, his understanding of life purpose, and his activism.  For Dr. King, God calls us to share her love by serving others.  For me and any of you who are not religiously inclined, it’s not a supernatural god who calls us to serve, but rather our relationship as fellow humans that does so.  Every person shares the same 99.9% of DNA – as proven by the human genome project.  Since that is so, empathy impels us to feel and understand one another’s pain, and then seek to alleviate it, because we are all profoundly related.

As a white man, I am unable to know or fully understand the pain of African-Americans.  I have no experience of what it is like to live, breathe, and work knowing many judge me by the color of my skin.   But in the realm of empathy, I know what it is like to be judged for something I cannot control – my sexuality.  I’ve felt multiple instances of bullying and marginalization for being perceived as less than an assertive, straight, athletic, male.  I’ve also seen the pain of my daughters when they’ve been marginalized for being female: boys who abused them, or teachers who demeaned them by steering them away from the sciences and toward more supposedly feminine studies.  I’ve also sadly seen how some people reacted to my mom and her dementia when I used to take her out in public.  Her odd behavior had one restaurant manager ask us to leave.

Once again, Dr. King understood all of this marginalization and much worse.  He once wrote, “The more I observed the tragedies of history and man’s shameful inclination to choose the low road, the more I came to see the depths and strength of sin.”

The troubling fact of life is the cruelty people can so often show to others.  But the high road, the one so often less taken, is the path of empathy, compassion, love, and reconciliation.

For whatever it is worth, I believe Martin Luther King, Jr. is a prophet for the ages – someone who walked in the moral footsteps of Jesus and Gandhi.  Perhaps not surprisingly, all three were people of color, all three were radical advocates for justice and human equality, all three were murdered and martyred for their beliefs.

I conclude with Dr. King’s words – ones that encapsulate for me his life, his death, and his legacy:

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.  I believe that unarmed truth, and unconditional love, will have the final word.”

(c) Rev. Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

Click here to listen to the message. See below to read it.

In almost all polls taken over the past several years, Martin Luther King, Jr. enjoys a 90% approval rating.  What is surprising is that at the time of his assassination in 1968, King had a 75% disapproval rating in most major polls.  He was disliked not only for his activism for racial justice, but also for his stand against the Vietnam War and for his support of the Poor People’s Campaign – a movement he began.  

Dr. King perceived the underlying reason for racism in America as due to economic greed and exploitation of African-Americans.  To address such exploitation, he proposed a massive 50 billion dollar fund be established by the Federal government to assist blacks and poor white people.  If poor and oppressed whites were persuaded to join ranks with blacks in support of such a huge assistance fund, they could form what he called a grand alliance to once and for all realize the promise of American opportunity and justice for all.  

And King’s opposition to the Vietnam war was similarly motivated.  He believed the use of poor black and white young men to fight America’s wars was unjust.  His advocacy was thus not just about race, but about overall justice for every marginalized person no matter their race.

These social justice views of King, which are often overlooked today, were a primary reason he had so many enemies.  He threatened not just racial segregation in America, but this nation’s framework of privilege for wealthy elites – all built on taking advantage of people of color, immigrants, the poor, and even the middle class.

Based on those views of Dr. King, powerful forces of wealth in this nation – the media, corporations, and the very wealthy often portrayed King as a communist and extreme radical.  By 1968 when he was killed, their efforts had been successful given the number of Americans who disliked him.  Dr. King had many enemies.

President Franklin Roosevelt once said that he hoped history would  judge him not by his friends, but instead by his enemies.  The actor Paul Newman echoed FDR’s thinking when he said, “A man with no enemies is a man with no character.”  And the novelist Victor Hugo equally once wrote, “You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea.  It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines.”

If these men were on to something, that having enemies is often the mark of someone who is making a difference for good, then King was truly great. Perhaps worse for King than the large number of his enemies, were the many people who acted like friends, while they secretly attacked him.

President Lyndon Johnson was one of those.  He is often credited for getting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed into law and for being a friendly collaborator with Dr. King.  But Johnson had a long history as a Senator from Texas opposing Civil Rights.  He privately demeaned King by referring to him as that, “goddamn, ’n-word’, preacher”.  Andrew Young, one of King’s closest advisors, said this about Johnson, “On the surface we were being smiled at and granted grudging support; below the surface we were distrusted, resented and undercut.”  Many historians believe Johnson only supported the Civil Rights Act only because it had first been  proposed by President Kennedy, and Johnson jealously wanted to outshine JFK.  Historians also believe Johnson cynically believed he would win many black votes – despite his history as a racist.  

It’s also been mostly forgotten that the Civil Rights Act became law because of Republican Party support.  The measure would have been soundly defeated were it not for over 80% support by Republican Congresspersons and Senators.  In other words, many Democrats were not truly friends of Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement – and Republicans were.

Equal to some Democrats being enemies of King, so too were many white politicians and leaders in the North.  When King began his efforts to improve conditions for urban poor – particularly in Northern cities – he was hated all the more.  Many people in the North criticized the segregation policies of the South.  But when Dr. King rightly pointed out how many communities in the North did the same – just with more subtle and nuanced ways – he was then hated by many northerners.

When Dr. King led protests in Chicago against unfair housing practices like high rents for tenement housing, and red-line exclusion of black people from certain neighborhoods, he was met with violence that he said was far worse than what he had ever experienced in the South.

One of the institutions of power that was permitted to attack Dr. King was the FBI.  As its leader, J. Edgar Hoover openly harbored racist views.  He’d grown up in the South and it is believed by many historians that he had black ancestry.  Many historians also believe Hoover was secretly homosexual.  As some people do, Hoover likely transferred his self-hatred hypocritically on other people – and Dr. King was a target.  The FBI conducted a secret and unconstitutional effort to regularly bug King’s home, offices, and motel rooms – all in order to portray him as a moral fraud.   

At one point, the FBI sent to King’s wife Coretta a tape recording of King having an affair with another woman in a Washington DC hotel room.  With the recording came a note telling Mrs. King that her husband would soon be exposed and that, to save his reputation, he should do the right thing and end it all – an encouragement for Dr. King to commit suicide.  Similar tape recordings of Dr. King allegedly engaged in affairs were sent by the FBI to other black ministers and Civil Rights leaders – all to destroy King’s reputation.

Another effort to attack King was to expose Bayard Rustin, one of King’s close advisors and the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.  Rustin was a gay man – and Dr. King knew this.  When the FBI threatened King with revealing a romantic encounter Rustin had with another man, unless he was fired, King refused.  He stood by Rustin as a colleague and as an expert grass roots organizer who almost single-handedly was responsible for the huge success of the Washington DC, I Have a Dream, March.   

My overall point for detailing King’s enemies is to emphasize how targeted and threatened he was during most of his activist years.  His home was bombed, he was shot at, he was hit many times with rocks and bottles, he received numerous death threats, he was falsely arrested by multiple Police Departments for ridiculous violations like loitering, and he was even stabbed in the chest and nearly killed over ten years prior to his death.

It is not exaggeration to say that Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most hated man in America from 1956 to 1968 – when he died.  He didn’t just have a few enemies, like most people.  He had millions of them, many of whom were very powerful.

Most important for us, however, is to be inspired by and try to emulate how King reacted to his attackers.  In one sermon, King spoke from personal experience on how he believed people should follow the spiritual ethic of loving one’s enemies.  

First, he said people should look deep within themselves to perceive how they are imperfect.  We each have flaws, he said, that enemies use to their advantage.  If we are honest, we should admit our flaws, try to correct them, and thereby confound our enemies by becoming a better person.

Second, King suggested we should look for the good in our enemies.  To do this, King said, will dispel any toxic hatred within oneself.

As I discussed in last week’s message and as we just heard in his own words, King deeply believed love is the only power strong enough to defeat hate and win over an enemy.  But he was also practical enough to understand how hate ultimately harms the one who hates.

Third, King suggested that the best answer to an enemy is to let your  work speak for itself.  When we are working to achieve good things, there will always be people who want to defeat our efforts.  If we resolve to work all the harder at doing good, and not be dismayed or distracted by enemy attacks, we provide a perfect response to an enemy:   your attacks cannot defeat me.

Fourth and finally, King encouraged people not to respond to an enemy by attacking them in return.  Instead, he advised we leave it to God to determine consequences for an enemy.  King’s advice echoes what virtually all spiritual people believe:    good always overcomes evil.  

That follows what I believe about the Buddhist and Hindu concept of karma.  Both believe that it is the sum of one’s actions and words that will determine his or her fate.  For people who are motivated to put good into the world, and who do their best to achieve that, good things will happen to them.  And the reverse is true for those who perpetrate negativity and harm.  Such is a universal law of life, in my mind.

As an example, this month the world honors and celebrates Dr. King’s birth.  J. Edgar Hoover and King’s many other enemies are largely forgotten – and if they are remembered at all, it is not flattering.  For me, our real afterlife comes in how we impact the world long after we have passed.  Many of us may not be remembered as Dr. King still is, but the true measure of a person is the lasting influence their lives have.  The good we do today, the charity we give away, and the sacrificial service we offer to others will pay dividends long into the future. 

One-hundred years from now, will the good work we perform today still be impacting others – however indirectly?  If it does, we will be living onward in beautiful and eternal ways.  As a great prophet for the ages, Martin Luther King, Jr. now enjoys his good karma, and his Heaven, in the lives that his words and actions still improve.  His many enemies now suffer an opposite fate. Their legacy and their eternity are relegated to the garbage heap hell of history.

The reality is that our legacy – how the universe is affected by our lives – is NOT determined by how much fame, power, or money we amass, or how much nastiness and hate we cause.  Our eternal legacy is, for example, in the changed life of a child born into poverty whom we help or advocate for.  Because of our work, she gets an education and enjoys opportunities to succeed, have children of her own, and pass onto them values of diligence, charity, and goodness – all so that they in turn will teach the same to their children.   And on and on.  Our name may be forgotten, but the soul, and the effects, of our goodness will be eternal.

Dr. Martin Luther King understood that truth.  His enemies were many and the attacks they threw at him stung, but his enemies did not enjoy final victory.  King’s faith in himself, the righteousness of his cause, and the goodness of his methods, will all live forever precisely because they were founded on love and empathy – even for his millions of enemies.

I wish you each peace and joy.

(c) Rev. Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

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During the summers of 1944 and 1946, at the ages of 15 and 17, Martin Luther King, Jr. travelled with other Morehouse college students to Connecticut to harvest tobacco.  The students were well paid for their work which helped them pay for their educations.  What is interesting about the trips is how they shaped King’s views on segregation and racism.  In a letter home during his first trip, King wrote, “After we passed Washington there was no discrimination at all.  The white people here are very nice.  We go to any place we want to and sit anywhere we want to.”  Many years later, King wrote, “After that summer in Connecticut, it was a bitter feeling going back to segregation.  It was hard to understand why I could ride wherever I pleased on the train from New York to Washington and then had to change to a Jim Crow car at the nation’s capital in order to continue the trip to Atlanta.”

For King, his summers in Connecticut ingrained in him a deep anger at segregation – and more importantly a desire to fight it however he could.  King later wrote in a magazine article, “I grew up abhorring segregation, considering it both rationally inexplicable and morally unjustifiable.  I could never accept the fact of having to go to the back of a bus or sit in the segregated section of a train.  The first time that I was seated behind a curtain in a dining car,  I felt as if the curtain had been dropped on my selfhood.”

King was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia.  His given brith name was Michael King, Jr.  His father, who was Minister to the Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, travelled to Germany in 1934 and was inspired by the Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther.  As a result, King, Sr. began calling himself and his son, Martin Luther King.  The names stuck.  And that re-naming was symbolic of Dr. King’s life.  His values, and his views about racism, were strongly shaped by Christianity.  

King was highly intelligent and skipped both his freshman and senior years in High School.  He matriculated at the age of fifteen to Morehouse College and graduated at the age of 19.   He first intended to be either a lawyer or a doctor but near the end of college, he had an epiphany.  He later wrote that he had suddenly realized that the Bible “contains many truths which cannot be escaped” – and so he committed himself to become a minister to promote such truths.  At 21 he graduated from Seminary and at 25, he earned his doctorate in Theology.

Many years later, King wrote about his Seminary years, “At this stage of my development, I was a thoroughgoing liberal.  Liberalism provided me with an intellectual satisfaction that I could never find in fundamentalism.”  

But King soon perceived shortcomings in theological liberalism.  Its belief in the goodness of humanity was misguided, he believed.  “The more I observed the tragedies of history and man’s shameful inclination to choose the low road, the more I came to see the depths and strength of sin.”

King saw the nature of humanity through a Christian perspective.  His views, however, were a combination of liberalism and fundamentalism.  His fundamentalist side saw racism as sinful and something to be vigorously fought.  But his liberal side believed people who perpetrate acts of injustice can be fought not by anger and physical force, but by love.  Understanding this dichotomy in King gives insight into why his later protests were so successful and why, still today, he remains a figure whom many people believe followed in the footsteps of Jesus and Gandhi.

For King, segregationist laws are evil actions committed by otherwise good people.  Even so, racism is an affront to God who created a perfect and peaceful universe.  King embraced a viewpoint many people criticize as naive – hate the sin but love the sinner.  For King, such a viewpoint reflected an awareness that history is a long succession of people’s inhumanity toward others – and that such behavior must be attacked.  Importantly, however, methods for attacking evil must be carried out with loving concern for those who practice evil.  King always said he had no quarrel with racists as individuals.  But he took vehement stands against their racist beliefs and actions.   

This viewpoint was well stated by King.  He said, “The gospel at its best deals with the whole man, not only his soul but his body, not only his spiritual well-being, but his material well-being.  Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.”

King therefore saw the effort by blacks to win full equality as a spiritual endeavor.  Implicit in his belief was that those who endure the pain of racism and who struggle to end it are on the right side of God.  As he said, “God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men, and brown men, and yellow men;  God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race.”

For King, the teachings of Jesus offer a bright path to justice.  I believe that’s something to remember in understanding many African-American views even today.  Christian principles guide many of their attitudes.  For them and for King, Jesus was more than a religious figure.  He was an activist liberator who fought against hatred and inhumanity by teaching and encouraging God-like love.

Crucial to King’s thinking was therefore understanding how Jesus opposed the discriminators of his day.  Jesus fought against haters not with an army of warriors, but with the power of love.  That is not just cliche.  It’s true.  I, along with many experts, believe substantial portions of the Bible detailing Jesus’ teachings are historically accurate.  It was only much later writers, each with religious agendas, that added supernatural myth to the truth of Jesus’ life.

It’s because of that fact that we today can heed Martin Luther King’s encouragement to follow the example and teachings of Jesus.   And the primary principle of Jesus that King adopted was non-violence.  Jesus did not physically attack his opponents.  He expressed love for his enemies and a hope that if they could understand God’s love, they would change their sinful ways.  Jesus did not die a martyrs death during armed conflict.  He surrendered himself for sacrifice as an example of non-violent opposition.  These were lessons that fully informed how and why Martin Luther King, Jr. believed what he did about non-violence.  Fight hate forcefully – but with love.

Like Jesus, King’s fight against hate was not with syrupy sentimentality.  King’s non-violence was active and it was practiced with full awareness of the the evil that can exist in human hearts and minds.  As he said, “I want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love, love is one of the pivotal points of the Christian faith.  There is another side called justice.  And justice is really love in calculation.  Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love.”

After earning his doctorate in Theology, in 1955 King was appointed Minister to a church in Montgomery, Alabama.  Soon after his appointment, blacks in the city began a boycott of the city’s bus system because of its segregation policies.  Despite being relatively unknown, he was asked to be the movement’s spokesperson.   He immediately perceived the significance of boycotts as a way to fight.  King said, “I am concerned about our moral uprightness and the health of our souls.  Therefore I must oppose any attempt to gain our freedom by the methods of malice, hate, and violence that have characterized our oppressors.”

He drew much of his inspiration on HOW to fight evil from Mahatma Gandhi.  He saw how Gandhi’s Indian policy of non-violence, called “satyagraha”, was a model to use.  Gandhi’s satyagraha against British colonialism used love-force as a way to fight.  It is not passive and meek, but instead quite forceful.  One looks for the falsehoods in an opponent’s repression and then calls attention to the truth of their immorality in a non-violent way.  The goal is to change an oppressors heart and thereby change his or her actions.

Many white Christians in 1956 Montgomery supported segregation.  King and the bus boycott pointed out the Christian immorality of laws that forced blacks to sit in the back of buses, or use separate and inferior facilities.  King pointed to Jesus’ actions and teachings to highlight the hypocrisy of white Christian society.  Jesus taught and modeled love and equality for the marginalized – the poor, the lame, the blind, lepers, women, non-Jews, and those of other races.  It was simply a matter of comparison for King and his followers to point out that segregation and discrimination are not loving, and are contrary to Christianity.  Boycotts were this a non-violent form of aggression designed to highlight immorality.  Even more, King emphasized that for blacks to continue submitting to segregation, was to themselves participate in a moral wrong.  The Montgomery bus boycott was not just a way to peacefully fight back, it was a spiritual statement – “We will not participate in your immoral actions.”

King later said about his time as leader of the Montgomery bus boycott, “I came to see for the first time that the Christian doctrine of love, operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence, was one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.”

The Montgomery bus boycott led King to adopt six preconditions for non-violent action – ones that remain guidelines for non-violent protest today.  First, a person or group must thoroughly educate themselves about an injustice.  Second, a person or group must educate others about the injustice and why it is morally wrong.  Third, one must remain committed to non-violence even in the face of violent opposition.  Fourth, one must negotiate by bringing the oppressed and the oppressors together.  Then, according to King, a person or group should “Use humor, intelligence and grace to lead to solutions that benefit the greater good.”  Fifth, if negotiation fails, an oppressed person or group should initiate non-violent action – like a boycott.  Sixth, a person or group must always act and speak peacefully and constructively.  That includes peacefully agreeing to disagree – while continuing efforts to end injustice.

My hope is that a better understanding of King’s principles of non-violence will inspire more people to act the same.  Most people never act physically violent.  But many do, on occasion, speak with verbal violence.  Using sarcasm, anger, demeaning words, or by raising the volume of one’s voice, people can attack and bully others.  Many justify their verbal violence by arguing they are fighting for justice and what is right.  Others refuse to negotiate with oppressors because that signifies, for them, a surrender to evil.  But the examples of Jesus, King and Gandhi point to a far different conclusion.

Creative and forceful non-violent actions are not weak.  They are instead paradoxically strong.  Indeed, it is far easier to hit or verbally bully someone than it is to peacefully argue against their actions.  That does not mean King, or non-violent advocates today do not understand the nature of evil and the frustration oppressed people feel at the ongoing reality of inequality.  When talking about blacks who rioted, King counseled against those methods.  But he equally said that riots are the voice of those who have been unheard for too long.  Despite their anger, King believed in the redemptive and healing power of love to fully defeat hate and evil.  Throughout his life he refused to believe a moral outcome justifies immoral violence to achieve it.  Even more, violent actions are never successful for very long.  Violence only embitters opponents and motivates them to attack in response.  That, as King said, creates a continuing cycle of violence.

For me, for this congregation, for anyone who desires to create lasting change in the world, I believe the lessons of Dr. King are timeless.  They remind me to try and think before I write or speak – something I don’t always do.  His principles also remind me that evil can never be ignored and must be fought – but that it takes creativity and strength of character to fight, argue, and advocate with love.

In this year 2020, a time filled with demagogues, tyrants and forces of hate that appear to get more and more powerful, fighting with love seems naive.  Were Dr. King to be alive today, I imagine he’d be terribly frustrated at the excruciating slow progress to end racism.  Even so, given his principles, it seems likely to me that he would still be preaching creative non-violence and, most of all, love even for enemies.

I wish you each much peace and joy.

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(c) Rev. Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

On this night of all nights, most of us want to spend it with people we love – and who love us.  In many cases, those people are our biological family members.  Indeed, the traditional image of families during the holidays is one of several children, a dog and cat, a mom, a dad, grandparents, and perhaps some aunts and uncles all gathering to exchange gifts or share a festive meal – one big, happy, and loving family celebrating together.

But that white picket fence image of family is, of course, just that – an image.  Like many traditional stereotypes of what comprises family, the one I just described has never been true – even as we like to think it was.  There have always been families separated by circumstances beyond control, or families missing a member or two because of death, illness, or estrangement.  In some cases today, children have no birth parents caring for them.  They’re being parented by grandparents or even people who have no blood link to them.  And many older people have no children, grandchildren, or nieces and nephews in their lives.  They can often spend the holidays alone.

In cultures besides that of the United States, the traditional concept of family has never been accurate either.   For many centuries, family in Japan meant the entire village in which one lived.  In indigenous tribal communities of Polynesia, Africa, and here in the U.S., children consider ALL elders as parents since child raising is a communal responsibility.  The tribe is thus one very large family.

And, of course, in today’s culture, the idea of family has assumed a much wider definition.  Parents of children might be two moms, two dads, or a single parent or grandparent.  For my daughters, their so-called modern family includes their dad and his same-sex partner – along with their mom and her new husband.  I also know many people for whom family is comprised of just friends.  For them, family is the people to whom they are close to by choice………..and not by biology.

I appreciate the concept among many today to refer to multiple non-biologically related people as “brother or sister.”  We apply such words to people we value and respect – whether or not we share the same parents.  I love how two well-known individuals, of seemingly very different backgrounds and views, model that ethic.  George W. Bush and Michelle Obama now refer to one another as sister and brother from another mother.  They’ve formed a close bond that transcends biology – much less politics and race.

Despite traditional and non-traditional concepts of family, there still remains a desire in our American culture to honor family togetherness.  That is especially true for the Christmas and Kwanzaa holidays we celebrate this evening, tomorrow, and the day after.  The original Christmas story itself honors the idea of family – a mom and a dad and their newborn child are joyously together – no matter their poverty and lack of proper shelter.   It must be noted, however, that even that first Christmas story idea of traditional family is not what it appears.  The Bible itself admits that Joseph is Jesus’ adoptive dad – and not his biological dad.

Kwanzaa, as a seven day holiday intended to celebrate African culture and heritage, lifts up family togetherness as its primary value.  Just like Unitarian Universalists have seven principles that guide their spirituality, so does the Kwanzaa holiday have seven principles that define and guide it.  And the very first Kwanzaa principle, Umoja, calls for those with African heritage to importantly honor the unity……..the unityof family and of community.

Beginning on December 26th, families of African heritage gather together every night to discuss that day’s Kwanzaa principle and to light one of seven candles in their kinara, or Kwanzaa candle holder.  The family then says a prayer and ends it, each night, by saying together “Harambee” – which is Swahili for “Let’s Pull Together”.  Unity of purpose, love, and family is a recurring theme in the holiday.

And that same theme defines Christmas and, indeed, all of Christianity.  From the beginning the Bible, through the Ten Commandments, and including Jesus’ statements, the Bible teaches respect for the family and its members.  People are to not only honor their mothers and fathers, friends and neighbors, they are also to love and honor total strangers.  When he was once told that his mother and brother were waiting to see him, Jesus pointed to the hundreds of people surrounding him and said, “Who is my mother and my brother?  Here are my mother and my brothers…”  His message, as we know, was one of love and respect for every person – not just blood relations.

That enlarged family ethic got lost for a time in the United States, but thankfully it has been renewed over the last twenty or more years.  I’ve mentioned that twice this past year I’ve guest spoken at the Unitarian Universalist church in Key West, Florida.  That church, called One Island Family UU, conceived of its name from Key West’s motto – “One Human Family.”  I love that motto.  It captures what Key West has always been about – to welcome and celebrate people of any race, religion, sexuality, or economic status.  

But more than a motto for one city, I think “One Human Family” is a motto for the world.  When the human genome was finally and completely mapped in 2004, it was astonishingly discovered that each and every human being shares 99.9% of the same DNA.  The .1% of DNA that humans do not share determine minor differences such as eye and hair color – and, of course, the amount of melanin in skin.  Such minor differences can be found even in biologically related families.  But the bigger point is that the 8 billion people comprising the human species are all closely related.  Everybody belongs to the One Human Family.

My message series this December has been entitled “Around a World of Holidays” – and we’ve examined inspiring values from December holidays in Scandinavia, China, Israel and, for this evening, here in the United States.

And what inspires me about Christmas and Kwanzaa as American holidays, is their mutual emphasis on unity and love not just for our biological families, but for our much larger community, nation and world families.

It is cliche, but still true, that family ought to be defined as where the heart lies…….with people who we love.  In that case, each and everyone of you are my family – as members of this congregation, as friends and family of members, and as visitors welcomed and embraced.

The Christmas and Kwanzaa challenge for me, therefore, is to tear down the false walls that define traditional family.  Christmas and Kwanzaa, as we celebrate them in America, call us to disregard the minor differences between us – and to literally think of each other as brother, sister, mother, father, aunt, uncle, cousin.  That is the message of the two holidays we celebrate tonight – that the human family wants and needs unity, respect, and love.

My daughter Amy and her husband are in town now – visiting from Denver.  My partner Keith and I had dinner with them yesterday.  And after this service, Keith and I will rush out to meet my other daughter Sara and her husband.  And tomorrow evening, it will just be Keith and me sharing a non-traditional holiday meal at an Indian restaurant – one of the few places open on Christmas.

And so I’ll be very blessed this Christmas.  Last night I was with family.  Tonight I’m with two of my families – all of you – and later with my eldest daughter.  And tomorrow evening I’ll have dinner with my other family – a man I love very much.  But in the days, weeks, months and years beyond these holidays, I – and all of you – will be with our One Human Family.  And it is with all of them that we must draw close, find common cause, and cherish.

I wish each of you, my sisters and my brothers, much peace, joy and a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and meaningful Kwanzaa.

(c) Rev. Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

Please click here to listen to the message. See below to read it.

After the death of Alexander the Great in 312 BCE, his vast empire was split up.  The largest portion, one which extended from Greece to India, was called the Seleucid Empire.   That Empire included modern Israel.

The Seleucid culture was primarily greek with a worship of greek gods and goddesses, a focus on the arts, nature, sensuality, and the idealization of the human body.  Its culture and its values clashed with the Jewish culture of Palestine which worshipped only one god, followed a strict code of religious behavior, and was moralistic.

In 175 BCE, Antiochus Epiphanes became Emperor of the Seleucid empire.  Antiochus as a leader was arrogant, drunk with power, and highly irrational.  People of the time secretly referred to him as Antiochus Epimanes – instead of Epiphanes – as a play on words.  Epimanes means in Greek, “the crazy one.”

Unlike previous rulers of the Empire, Antiochus took it as a personal insult that Jews did not worship him, and statues of him, as a god.  That, of course, was something Judaism forbids since there is ostensibly only one god – Yahweh.  Antiochus was also angry when Jews, following their religious codes of conduct, protested against Greek cultural practices to exalt sensuality and the human body. 

In response, Antiochus had huge statues of himself and Zeus placed inside the Jewish Temple – the most sacred place in Judaism where it’s  believed Yahweh’s spirit dwells.  To add further insult, Antiochus ordered that pigs be slaughtered inside the Temple making it unholy since Jews avoid any contact with swine.  He also convened a huge olympic style athletic competition in Jerusalem which followed the Greek practice of competition while naked.

All of this was intolerable for the Jewish people.  Their High Priest tried to retake control of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple.  Antiochus, in response, brought his Army to the city and began a massive slaughter of its citizens – what Jewish people still call the Abomination of Desolation – a term they have also applied to the Holocaust.

Judas Maccabeus, a young Jewish man, organized a small army to fight Antiochus.  Amazingly, after only a year of conflict, Judas and his army defeated Antiochus’ army and killed the Emperor.  And it is at this point that the traditional Hanukkah story begins.  

Joyous Jews rushed to their Temple to immediately restore its holiness after years of being defiled.  When they tried to relight its large menorah candelabra, they discovered there was only enough holy oil to keep it lit for a day – not nearly long enough to make and consecrate more.  But they lit it anyway and were amazed when it stayed lit for eight days – almost by a miracle.  This allowed them time to make more holy oil to keep it perpetually lit.  Every year afterwards, on the 25th day of the Hebrew calendar month of kislev, which is set according to moon phases, Jews celebrate their holiday of lights – also called Hanukkah. 

I’ve tried this month to find inspiration from December holidays around the world.  We’ve learned about St. Lucia day in Sweden which emphasizes the importance of being light in a world of dark nastiness.  We’ve also examined the Dongzhi Festival of China which celebrates the Winter Solstice and ideals of a harmonious, peaceful, and balanced Yin and Yang way of thinking.

For today’s look at Hanukkah, which begins this evening at sunset, I want to examine how it is specifically celebrated in Israel and what might inspire us from that.  Here in the U.S., American Jews celebrate the holiday differently than do Israeli Jews.

Significantly, Israelis repeatedly emphasize that Hanukkah is not a Jewish answer to Christmas – much like it can often seem that way in America.  In Israel, Hanukkah is honored, but it is NOT a major holiday.  Indeed, it took centuries for most Rabbis to even acknowledge the holiday since its story, while historical, is not included in the Jewish Scriptures – but it is surprisingly included in the Christian Bible.

A debate about Hanukkah in Israel is whether or not it is a religious holiday honoring a miracle of light, or a secular holiday remembering a victory over oppression.  Even more, there has been a strong pushback in Israel against the Americanization and commercialization of the holiday. 

In the early 20th century, American rabbis were concerned that Christmas was becoming culturally overwhelming for Jews.  It caused them,  and particularly their children, to feel torn between joining in the Christmas sprit, or being completely left out of parties, decorations, and gift giving.  The Christmas season was the one time a year when American Jews felt like outsiders in their own country.  And so American rabbis began promoting Hanukkah as an alternative December holiday for Jews.  They encouraged elaborate celebrations of the holiday by giving gifts on each night of Hanukkah, and celebrating each of the 8 evenings with festive parties and meals. 

In Israel, however, Hanukkah celebrations are far more subdued.  It’s a holiday and people leave work early on each of the eight nights, but they do so not to party, but to go home and be with family.  Gift giving is a very  minor practice and usually only one gift per person, if that, is received for the entire eight days.  One practice by some parents is to give children gelt – a yiddish word for money.  The practice began in the Middle Ages and children are encouraged to give a portion of what they receive to charity.  More common is to give youth gold foil chocolate coins instead of money.  Getting chocolate coins or money on Hanukkah represent receiving God’s miraculous love.

The emphasis for Israelis Jews is on celebrating light and goodness with one’s family or in small neighborhood groups.  Many blocks of houses or apartment buildings have communal menorahs which a few households gather around and light each night together.

For Hanukkah meals, foods cooked in oil are eaten – to remember the miracle of oil.  Jelly or custard filled doughnuts are the most popular food.  Latkes, or fried potato pancakes, are also eaten. 

Almost 80% of Israeli Jews – whether they are secular or religious – celebrate all eight days of Hanukah – indicating that Israelis take seriously the symbolic candle lighting ritual as one for reinforcing their beliefs. 

Most significantly to me, Israeli Jews purposefully put their menorah candles in a front window or, more commonly, in a glass box placed outside next to their house or apartment building.  Such a glass Hanukkah candle box is shown on the cover of your programs.  The desire is to publicly proclaim to the world that the family within is proudly Jewish, and that they believe in ideals of right behavior, defiance in the face of oppression, and honoring the goodness of universal love.

For me, that’s an ethic I want to better practice in my life.  How do I witness to the world values and beliefs I hold dear?

In ancient Rome, when Christians were persecuted and often killed for their faith, a common question was asked by believers to one another: “If you are arrested, is there enough proof in your life, and how you live, to convict you for being Christian?”  The question was a challenge:  just how strong and how committed are you to your beliefs?

If someone answered “yes, there is enough evidence to convict me,” it was sign they were courageous and committed despite the terrible risk.  In Nazi Germany and areas they conquered, soldiers used synagogue records of membership, bar mitzvahs, and weddings, as well as testimony from neighbors, to determine who was Jewish.  In other words, Jews who had openly practiced their beliefs were the most likely to be arrested, sent to concentration camps, and killed.

It’s that kind of courage many of us have never had to summon – to risk one’s life for one’s beliefs. 

In Israel today, where terrorist or rocket attacks from enemies are a constant threat, Jewish identity is in many ways a bold expression of their courage.  It’s for that reason that Israeli Jews literally let their light shine at Hanukkah as a way to express their commitment, and their trust, in good defeating hate.

By lighting their menorah lights and displaying them so publicly, Israeli Jews proudly proclaim their heritage, history, identity, and dedication to timeless values.  Despite suffering countless episodes of oppression throughout history, and enduring continual threats today, Israeli Jews celebrate Hanukkah as a way to remember and publicly state their ideals – that decency, modesty, charity, and faith are the right things to practice…….and that doing good is far better than just speaking good.  By publicly lighting Hanukkah candles, Israeli Jews, and many others, “walk their talk.”

For me, for all of us, that’s something that is both inspiring and challenging.  What principles do we stand for not just in here where it seems safe, but in the wider world where it is less safe?  Do we, in some public or symbolic way, proclaim our beliefs from our homes?  Does the way we treat others bear witness to our Unitarian Universalist ideal of showing dignity and worth to everyone – not just to those we like, but to those we don’t know or even dislike?  In other words, how am I courageously walking my talk?  How do I put into action what I say I believe? 

I imagine in many respects all of us try to behave consistent with what we believe.  We’re not perfect, just like few people are – but we belong to this UU church, and we share our time and money with each other and with charity and advocacy organizations, all in order to actually do what our hearts and minds believe.  But our challenge is to nevertheless continually better ourselves such that with each succeeding year, we increasingly live up to ideals of being kind, committed, accepting, generous, and peaceful.

What I want to do is publicly display my symbolic lights of belief in how I act in daily life.  If I believe in justice, if I believe in diversity, if I believe in always speaking and acting with compassion and empathy, then what am I doing to tangibly prove they are real?  Do all of my life actions bear witness to my heart – or am I perhaps the worst of sinners – a hypocrite?  That’s a challenging question for me and, forgive me, for each of you too.

I had the privilege to spend two weeks in Israel when I was in Seminary.  One of our church members recently returned from a trip there.  And so we recently shared our impressions of Israel – as an amazing nation of beautiful contrasts, of vibrant and happy people, and most of all, for me, is the courage and faith of its citizens in the midst of daily threats.

We face challenges in this nation too, but we don’t face the kind of existential threats Israelis do.  Canada and Mexico do not daily threaten to kill us all.  Many of Israel’s neighbors, who are only a hundred miles or less from their major cities, do that regularly.  That’s a threat much like the ancient Jews faced with Antiochus Epiphanes, and one that six million Jews experienced during the Holocaust.  It’s those kinds of dire challenges that have always defined the Israeli spirit – to be brave, to fight against oppression, and importantly to live true to their values.

In my comfortable life, in my dealing with far more modest difficulties, how can I be a similar light to family, community, and the world?  Let me, let us, be true to our beliefs and let us shine our small lights to help make a difference for good.   (pause)

One of the most haunting and beautiful tunes I know is the theme piece from the movie Schindler’s List.  It evokes the tragedy that has often been Jewish life, but it also has a spirit of persistence to it.  I asked Michael if he would play the piece for us and, while he does so now, I hope we each ponder our own commitments to ideals we cherish.  What do I stand for?  What do I tangibly do to practice my beliefs?  And, more so, what do I do to build peace, goodness, and kindness in a world with so much hate and anger?  Let us meditate, reflect, and enjoy Michael and Spencer’s beautiful music.   

(c) Rev. Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

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Sometime around 1500 BCE, ancient people living in today’s Britain finished an immense ring structure we know as Stonehenge.  They built a stone Temple that operated as both a place of worship and celestial clock.

On the day we know as June 20th, these ancients gathered to watch the sun rise exactly over what is known as the Heel stone marker of Stonehenge – a rock that faces northeast.  The sun’s rays then illuminated the exact center of the Stonehenge Temple.  This particular day’s sunrise heralded the longest period of daylight for the year,  or what we call the summer solstice.

Six months later on the date we know as December 21st, and exactly 180 degrees opposite the heel stone in the Stonehenge ring, the sun set exactly between two standing stones called the Sarsen stones.  This occurrence at Stonehenge is depicted on the screen.   That sunset marked the end of the shortest period of daylight for the year – or what we call the winter solstice.

Stonehenge was far more than just a 300 foot diameter ring of massive stones.  Experts believe it was the spiritual center for these ancient people.  It was where they worshipped and where they also kept track of eclipses, moon phases and, most importantly, annual seasons.  In addition to the ring of stone Temple, wooden posts marked a much larger outer courtyard ring that was the entry area into the sacred inner Temple.  A six foot deep trench extended through and then outward from Stonehenge that marked the diameter line between the summer and winter solstice stones.  It was used as a massive sundial so that the people could mark the days all year long.  And beyond the wooden ring structure was a burial ground surrounding the sacred place – much like people today bury their dead near places of worship.  And outside the burial ground was a large village in which thousands lived.

As a Temple, Stonehenge physically marked celestial events that have taken place since the universe was born – when the big bang exploded our sun star into its present position.  Drawn into the sun’s gravitational pull was the earth which then began its timeless orbit around it.  Because of an elliptical orbit and pull of the sun’s gravity, the earth rotates on a slight tilt – 23.5 degrees off center.  And it is that tilt that causes the earth to experience two solstice days – ones when the upper and lower hemispheres of the earth are either tilted the most away from the sun, or tilted the most toward it.

This coming Saturday, at exactly 11:19 PM, the earth’s northern hemisphere will be tilted the most away from the sun that it will ever get.  Balanced against that, at the exact same moment, the southern hemisphere of the earth will be tilted the most toward the sun.

What astronomers know now is that the earth and the sun operate according to laws of physics.   Ancient people, however, had no scientific understanding how the sun and earth operate in relationship to each other.  In their pre-scientific minds, supernatural gods controlled the cosmos and therefore the solstice days happened because of those gods.  The people believed they had to worship and express gratitude to the gods on in order to insure the sun and its vital light would return according to the precise harmony and balance they’d always observed.  Without sunlight, the ancients knew that all life would perish and so they anxiously awaited solstice confirmation that increasing darkness would end, and increasing sunlight would begin.

Would the gods act as they were supposed to – or would they be angry with people and refuse to renew the balanced cycle of seasons?  Such thinking led to the powerful spiritual significance given to Solstice days – particularly the Winter Solstice since it marks the darkest, and thereby perhaps the most frightening, day of the year.

I mentioned last Sunday that I’m using my message series this month to look at seasonal holidays around the world.  Last Sunday we learned about and celebrated Saint Lucia Day in Sweden and its themes of light and dark.  Today, I want to look at the Dongzhi Festival of China which happens this Saturday and is a holiday that celebrates the Winter Solstice.  Next Sunday, we’ll consider Hanukkah as it is celebrated in Israel.  And, on Christmas Eve, we’ll look at inspiring lessons from Christmas and Kwanzaa in the US.

The Dongzhi Festival is considered the second most important holiday in China – after their New Year.  Translated literally, Dongzhi means “extreme of winter,” which is exactly what it honors – the shortest and often the coldest daytimes of the year.  Ancient Chinese, like their contemporaries at Stonehenge, believed the Winter Solstice was a day on which to worship and give thanks.  For them, the two solstice days perfectly represented their spirituality.  According to the ancient philosopher Confucius, everything operates in harmony and complimentary balance.  The two solstice days – each six months apart, symbolize this harmony that exists in all things.  All of the universe operates in a kind of gentle coexistence.  Dark and cold, for instance, blends into light and warmth in an unending harmonious cycle.

This philosophy is what the Chinese call Yin and Yang harmony.  Opposites, like summer and winter solstices, operate not in competition, but rather in a synchronized coexistence.  Life is a continual interplay between opposites – between up and down, in and out, male and female, joy and sadness, peace and war, life and death, Yin and Yang.  In that regard, the Dongzhi Festival is a celebration of Chinese beliefs – how harmony, balance, coexistence, and cooperation are the essential ethics by which people should live.

For the Chinese, Yin and Yang opposites define each other.   For example, dark defines light.  We cannot understand light unless we also understand its absence.  That is the same between love and hate, male and female, conflict and peace.  An old Chinese saying states: “When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created.  When people see things as good, evil is created.  Being and non-being produce each other.  Difficult and easy complement each other.  Long and short define each other.  High and low oppose each other.  Fore and aft follow each other.”

What this means is that the Chinese believe nothing is absolute.  Nothing is totally good or bad, dark or light, up or down.  There is blending and a mix of both.  Everything is interdependent such that opposites need the other in order to be understood.  As one thing increases, the other decreases.  That continuous flowing does not end, but rather cycles back again.   This, the Chinese believe, is how the natural world functions and it is best exemplified by the June and December Solstices.  

And such harmony in the universe is an example for the Chinese – and us – for how to live.  Work diligently but take time to rest.  Eat hearty  but also fast and don’t eat in excess.  Accept challenges and difficulties as parts of life, but also try to learn and find good from them.  Be yourself if you are a man and express masculinity, but do not stifle the parts of you that are feminine.  In warmth, appreciate cold.  In death and dying, celebrate life.  In the totality of all experiences, be harmoniously balanced because that is how the universe operates.  We are to be centered, flexible and aware that life is lived in the so-called grey zone – nothing is perfectly good, right, or just. Like the universe, things exist in harmony or Yin and Yang.  They are about finding peace and contentment in a complex universe of opposites.

Such harmony is understood pictorially by the Yin and Yang circular symbol – which you can now see on the screen.  The white portion of the image circle flows and eventually blends into the black.  We also see a black dot in the middle of the white area – just as there is a white dot in the middle of the black.  For the Chinese, this exemplifies how life and the universe function.  Applied to the two solstices, the longest and shortest days of the year merge into the other.  They are not opposed to one another, but rather supportive and part of the other.  Yin and Yank call us to be the same – in blended coexistence with one another. 

Instead of advocating extremes of opinion that often oppose other extreme opinions, according to Confucian thought we are to yield to one another’s thoughts and assimilate them into our own.  In other words, don’t compete, but understand and cooperate.  Find ways to live in a way that allows you to be a part of other lives and all of nature – just as they are a part of you.

The Chinese Dongzhi Festival is therefore a festival founded on the Yin and Yang philosophy.  Nothing in nature better represents harmony than the balance of summer and winter, light and dark, warm and cold.  For the Dongzhi Festival, people celebrate its ideals by putting on new clothing, leaving work earlier than normal, giving gifts to family, and then festively eating and drinking into the long night.

In southern China, people celebrate Dongzhi by eating a symbolic food consisting of sweet white rice balls filled with salty sesame paste – representing the Yin of spice blended into the Yang of sweet.  In Beijing and northern China, people eat dumplings or flour shells filled with seasoned meat and boiled in broth.   Tradition has it that a doctor working during the Han Dynasty around 200 BCE prescribed dumplings to help fight the chill of winter that often hurts people’s exposed ears.  Chinese dumplings were therefore shaped like ears – and still are – to symbolize acceptance of cold and hardship.

The lesson from China’s Dongzhi celebration, for me, is to accept the Yins and Yangs of life with calm.  When we find ourselves in disharmony, we need to gently but purposefully restore balance.  Too much of even good things is ultimately harmful and so we must be thankful for bad times all so we can know and understand happiness.  

That’s a primary reason cultures all over the world have historically celebrated the Winter Solstice – a day when people could, if they were pessimistic, mourn the darkness.  In ancient times, huge feasts were held because farmers usually slaughtered and cooked most of their livestock knowing they could not grow enough animal feed in the coming winter.  That would seem a risky and scary thing to do but, at Stonehenge, experts believe the Winter Solstice was a day of worship and of celebration – both fearing and praying against the dark, while celebrating and thanking the gods for their blessings.  If we think about, we ought to do the same.

In China, the day is a time to be reminded of nature’s balanced intricacy.  The universe does not act chaotically, but instead offers assurance and regularity.  Winter, especially in ancient times, was difficult  but it also heralded the goodness of Spring and Summer.  Death in winter and in life is not an end, but a beginning.  It is this continual cycle of dying and birthing that should bring comfort to everyone – and a model for life.  Be centered.  Be at peace.  Cooperate.  Coexist.  Embrace opposites by not choosing either extreme.

This Chinese or eastern spirituality is very different from western spirituality.  For many in the west, there exists absolute good or evil and that has led many to often see other people or things in extremes.  Someone is either saint or sinner.  An idea is either just or it’s immoral.   What that can cause is a failure to empathize and understand the complexity of people and of viewpoints.  It seems that people the world over need to better reflect on life being a mix of good and bad, just and unjust, beautiful and homely, male and female, light and dark, conservative and liberal, theist and atheist.  Much like the Winter and Summer Solstices are not total opposites, but rather blend into the other, I encourage thought about Yin and Yang philosophy and how we are called to live in harmony, balance, peace, and cooperation with everything. 

I wish you each, this coming Saturday at 11:19 PM, a happy and harmonious Winter Solstice moment, and a joyful Dongzhi Festival day.             

(c) Rev. Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

On June 5th, 1944, at 9:30 in the evening, at an airbase north of London, 200 paratroopers took off in unarmed C-47 planes.  The paratroopers had been told their mission only hours before.

The planes, with no navigation lights, headed east across the English Channel.   They flew at an altitude of 300 feet.  Soon, the planes came across a vast armada of thousands of ships – none of them with navigation  lights either.

The paratrooper planes later encountered small civilian boats that flashed green lights – letting the planes know they were on course.  Soon, the pilots saw below them the waves and beaches of Normandy, France.  They also began to run into heavy clouds which obscured their view of the ground.  And, enemy anti-aircraft fire soon erupted

Within minutes, red lights flashed in the cargo holds of the planes alerting the 200 paratroopers it was time to jump.  One by one they stepped out into the propeller blast and pitch black sky.  They were quickly  jolted upward as their parachutes engaged.  The paratroopers drifted 600 feet to the totally dark ground.  They were the first Allied troops in France in over four years and the very first combat soldiers of D-Day – one of the most important events of the Twentieth Century.

Once on the ground, they carried out their mission to set up small beacon lights that pinpointed landing zones for the thousands of paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division who would soon follow.  These first 200 paratroopers were called “Pathfinders” – soldiers who brought light into darkness to guide the way for good things to happen.

My plan this December is to highlight seasonal holidays from around the world – from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, China, Israel and the United States.  I hope to learn more about the various cultures and also glean from the holidays inspiration for my life and perhaps for yours as well.

Today, I’ll consider Saint Lucia Day that’s celebrated in Sweden, Norway and parts of Denmark.  The holiday falls on December 13th which was the winter Solstice on the old Roman calendar.  St. Lucia day, this year, is this coming Friday.

Lucia is said to have lived in Rome during the late third century CE. During her life, Lucia practiced her Christian faith by helping the poor and oppressed.  Like all young women of the time, she’d been given a dowry of money which would go to the man who agreed to marry her.  Lucia, however, had figuratively married herself to Christ – and so she asked her mother if she could give away her dowry to the poor – which she then did.

Lucia became especially well known for bringing food, water,  blankets, and comfort to thousands of Christians who hid from religious persecution in the catacomb caves beneath Rome.  In order to use both her arms and hands to carry as much food as possible, she wore candles affixed to her head to light the way through dark passageways.  After helping and feeding oppressed people for many years, she was captured and then burned alive – becoming one of the earliest Christian martyrs.  She was later made a Saint by the Catholic Church.

While the story of Lucia has likely been embellished for religious purposes, word of her actions and her martyrdom eventually reached far from Italy and into Sweden and Norway.  It’s theorized the Vikings, who traveled extensively by ship, heard of her story and brought it home with them.

For people who lived in the northern latitudes and who annually face a long winter of near total darkness, Lucia’s story struck a chord.  On the shortest day of the year, when darkness seems to overwhelm everything, Scandinavian people nevertheless celebrate the expectation that the sun will shine again.  Saint Lucia is thus a symbolic harbinger of hope and light.

Even today, when the true winter solstice takes place on December 21st, Scandinavians still celebrate St. Lucia day on December 13th – the old winter solstice date.  The holiday is marked by festive meals with food and wine.  The highlight of each meal is when women and girls dressed all in white, to symbolize St. Lucia’s purity, enter a darkened room wearing wreaths with candles affixed to them.  In today’s times, women wearing white also symbolize female empowerment and the true goodness women have in a world with too much male generated darkness.  

The St. Lucia’s also distribute trays of sweets – intended to symbolize the good that will come.  They are the first in all of Scandinavia to usher in the December Holiday season.  They are pathfinders bringing light into a dark world. 

I earlier said that June 6, 1944, D-Day, was one of the most important events – if not THE most important event – of the 20th century.  That is not an overstatement.  It’s easy to understand the importance of what the pathfinder paratroopers and hundreds of thousands of fellow soldiers did that day.  Had their mission failed, had the Allied invasion of Nazi occupied Europe failed, human history and our own lives would be very different.

Even more, it’s easy to understand the proverbial darkness people living at the time must have felt.  Millions were being slaughtered in the name of Nazi racism.  The entire world was in the grip of a psychopathic demagogue bent on universal domination.  We see echoes of the same today and yet the situation was much, much worse in 1944.   Those who believed in decency and democracy could well have given up hope.  And yet they did not.  

Such resilience and hope is a message for me and perhaps all of us.  But more than just being a good message, it is also historical fact that darkness and evil has always existed in the world.  Humanity has always faced difficult times – many of which were far more terrible than what people face today.  Think of the Bubonic plague that killed 50 million people in the 14th century – with no treatment available and thus no knowledge of what caused it.  Think of what former slaves endured in their cruel existence on slave ships, or laboring in sweltering cotton fields.  Think of the hundred years war in Europe when that continent was continually riven by conflict, chaos and death.  In this nation, think of the Civil War when 750,000 soldiers were killed and half a million wounded or, think of the great depression when our parents or grandparents – and indeed the entire nation – faced complete ruin.  In each and every case, forces of light and courage did not give into to the dark.  Light, love and good have always eventually won.  And they will again.   

Most of the December holidays around the world are known by their celebration of light.  Indeed, that’s a hallmark of the winter solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa holidays.  They each celebrate light as symbolic of love, generosity, justice, and peace illuminating a dysfunctional world.  And St. Lucia day is no different except that it implicitly calls those who celebrate the holiday – and all of us who now learn about it – to be Saint Lucia’s ourselves.  We are to be pathfinders of hope and goodness in a world filled with hurt, oppression and looming threats.

The reminder for me, therefore, is that darkness and evil are ever present.  They existed two-thousand years ago and still do today.  Far more humbling for me, however, is the awareness that darkness is within me too.  The imperfections, pain and hurt in the world are a reality precisely because they usually come from humanity.  People are too often indifferent, angry, hateful, and cruel.  They can also be judgmental, hypocritical, and unjust.  How is it possible humans can celebrate holidays of goodness and light when there is so much darkness lurking in human hearts – including our own?  Indeed, I can easily point out concerns I have about darkness in the world, but I too easily overlook the darkness in myself.  

After learning about St. Lucia, my question is this: how can I be a pathfinder, a modern St. Lucia, in how I live?  How can I bring joy, peace, kindness and hope to everyone I encounter?  How can I be calm, courageous and filled with joy – all so that whatever dim l light I do project will offer warmth and comfort?

For me, being a pathfinder – someone who brings light into darkness – means I must first face my own darkness – areas in me where I hold grudges, nurse lingering anger, or form judgmental attitudes.  Such parts of me go against my desire to be more empathetic and kind.  The battle between light and dark is one fought in me – just as it is in the larger world.  And so I must daily resolve to be a light – to be a person of understanding and love despite my baser impulses.  I need to purposefully remember the small flicker of a pilot light deep in me – so that I may use it to summon my better angels.

Second, I believe the December holidays are annual reminders to step into the light.  And for me, that means not falling prey to the false December lights of indulgence, selfishness, and cynicism.  Evil seems to have a sinister way of making itself appear as light, when it is not.  Commercialization, greed, and over-emphasis on lavish parties and gifts during this season can too often become versions of false light.  They seduce us into thinking they are the reason for the season when the true lights of December holidays are far more eternal and beneficial.  

The winter solstice holiday is about the persistence of hope.  Hanukkah is about courage and optimism.  Christmas is about gentleness, forgiveness and humility – the seemingly weak things of this world being ironically very strong.  Kwanzaa is about justice, unity and equality.  All of these holidays are not celebrated for the sake of profit and overindulgence.  They instead emphatically tell us to literally become lights, to be pathfinders, to be Saint Lucias.  If there is to be light in this world, let it begin in me – with words and actions of empathy, forgiveness, love, and peace.

And if I am to be those things, then I must third, summon both the courage and the will to bring light into dark places.  I must learn to love those who hate, forgive those who attack, empathize with those who are angry, comfort those who are unwashed, and make peace with those whom I disagree.  It’s always good to be kind to family and friends.  It is far more challenging to venture into the figurative catacombs of today – prisons, homeless shelters, or the places where people I disagree with are.  I so often lament the lack of civility and kindness in our culture and yet I often don’t go out of my way to spread them or practice them in symbolically dark places. 

And darkness does indeed close around us.  Everywhere we look we perceive it.  And yet Saint Lucia Day and other December holidays tell us that it need not be so.  I believe the single greatest thing we can each do, the single most influential task we can accomplish this holiday season and in the new year beyond, is to illuminate our own small areas of influence.  To all whom we encounter, let us be a hope filled Saint Lucia.  Let us be courageous Hanukkah candle lighters.  Let us be forgiving and kind Christmas babes in a manger.  Let us be Kwanzaa lovers of justice and unity.  Let us, in all the ways we speak, act and think, be St. Lucia pathfinders of light and hope and love.

I wish you all much peace, joy, hope and light…

Michael begins piano background music.

St Lucias enter.

        In the darkness of this room, in a world filled with so much hate, violence, and heartache, now comes light.  Brought by young women dressed in white, the light comes in peace.  These young women come with hope for their lives, for us, and for the world. May we take a moment now to give thanks for forces of light in our midst and in our world.  And may we ponder how to symbolically take the light here now and make it our own.  Let us reflect, ponder or pray for universal light, hope and love. (Pause)

        And now, with real and figurative light in the room, let’s celebrate!  The St Lucias will now put down their candles and bring you treats that represent the good in each of you and in our world.  To celebrate this Swedish holiday, let’s turn to music from the Swedish band Abba – let’s celebrate to the tune of Dancing Queen!

(c) All Rights Reserved, Michael Tacy

Click here to listen to the message.

(c) Rev. Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

A minister began her message by asking the congregation to raise their hands if any of them have enemies.  Many hands went up.  She then asked folks to raise their hands if they had just a handful of enemies.  Fewer hands went up.  She asked how many had only one or two enemies.  Very few raised their hands.  Finally, she asked if anyone had no enemies.  Only one hand went up – that of an older man seated in the back.

“Sir,” the minister said,“that is wonderful and it is testimony to your goodness.”

“Well,” said the man in a gruff voice.  “I’m 98 and I’ve outlived all my enemies.  The bastards are all dead!”

I love this story because it illustrates that it is virtually impossible to live, and not have at least a few people dislike you – or who you dislike.  Maybe you did something long ago that hurt someone and you’ve tried to reconcile.  Or maybe someone just doesn’t like your personality or disagrees with you politically.  Whatever it is, I would be surprised if anyone does not have at least one so-called enemy.

Having enemies has always been upsetting to me – even as I know I’ve done my share to hurt or disagree with others.  But what is most difficult is how I respond to people who are my so-called enemies.  I struggle with how to NOT return dislike with dislike – what Dr. Martin Luther King asked of his followers.

One of the teachings from Jesus is that we are to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and do good to those who hate us.  That’s an amazing request and one some folks would say even he did not always practice.  He called his opponents a brood of vipers, and he often angrily confronted the greedy, selfish, and mean-spirited.  Even so, he taught that when someone hurts you, you should turn the other cheek.  That doesn’t mean to offer your other cheek to also be figuratively slapped, but rather to turn away and not respond in kind to their hurtful actions.  In other words, when someone does something that causes hurt, don’t do the same to them and instead respond with understanding and even kindness.

That principle also includes forgiveness.  Indeed, responding to a hurtful action with kindness is a way to forgive.  And that’s why so many forms of spirituality ask us to forgive.  Jesus taught that we are to forgive someone a thousand times over if they continually hurt us.  That doesn’t mean to be a doormat.  One should have boundaries for what one will accept from another.  But boundaries are not hateful words or striking back.   Boundaries are simply ways to declare to another, “I forgive you, I won’t hold anger in my heart, but I will establish ways to prevent you from hurting me again.”

The overall ethic is to love everyone.  And how we love those who hurt us, or who do and say things that go against what we believe, that’s a very, very, very difficult thing to do.  It’s something we must constantly strive to achieve.

And that ideal of loving all – even enemies – comes from a theological concept called “imago dei” – latin for “in the image of god.”  The Jewish and Christian scripture entitled the Book of Genesis says that when god created humanity, she made people in her image.

This means that god imparted in people all of her attributes – the abilities to reason, love, be creative, self-aware, and exercise free-will.  In many ways, most religions believe we were, and are, created to be like the gods or goddesses of myths.

God making us in her image, as the Genesis myth says, indicates her desire to be connected to us through shared similarities.  She wants us be like her and exist like her in all of her glory and goodness.  In other words, everything that is great and moral about her is also great and moral about us.  And most importantly, imago dei demands that if any Jew or Christian does not love all other people, they implicitly do not love god since her image is in every person.

As Unitarian Universalists, we may not believe in a literal god.  But we do believe that whatever it is that created humanity, perhaps evolution, it made us special, unique, and good.  At least here on earth, humans are alone in the ability to do profound goodness.  We can be – and we many times are –  just as we imagine a god would be.  We can give sacrificially, we can love abundantly, we can be kind, gentle, peaceful and forgiving.  We have the truly unique ability to do and say breathtakingly good things.

Most importantly, we as Unitarian Universalists also believe that just by being, just by existing, every single person has inherent worth and dignity.  That is the very first thing UU’s hold as true – the first of our seven principles.  By itself, the first Principle and the concept of imago dei prove our inherent goodness because we hold as a belief the dignity and worth of everyone – including in our enemies.

And the key word in the First Principle is “every”.  We say to the world that we don’t just value those who agree with us, or those who are like us, or those who say nice things about us.  We believe in the worth and dignity of white supremacists, warmongers, criminals, and corrupt or sexist politicians.  In sum, we say we love our friends and we crucially love our enemies.  Our first Principle is an amazing statement and it rightfully is the foundation for everything we as Unitarian Universalists do and say.

When I served eighteen years ago as an Associate Minister in my first church, where I learned much of what it takes to be a Minister, I led many volunteer service trips in the US and abroad.  It was part of my portfolio of responsibilities because I not only had to organize and oversee the trips, I had to be a speaker in the small meetings we held each night on the trips.

At any rate, we traveled to New Orleans to help clean out flooded homes after Hurricane Katrina.  We traveled to and worked in Appalachia areas of Kentucky.  We worked in southern Mexico rebuilding a church, and we built multiple small homes in a town just south of the US-Mexico border.  We visited rural Belize three times building schools and houses – while also running medical clinics there with nurses and doctors from my church.

But the two most impactful trips for me were to Haiti where we helped build a medical clinic.  I’d seen poverty in the US and in Mexico, but nothing compared to the poverty I saw in Haiti.  It is listed as one of the three poorest nations in the world.  Many of its people live in unspeakable conditions – far worse than how farm animals live in the US.  There are vast areas of crude huts built side by side and teeming with hundreds of thousands of desperately poor people dressed in rags.  Raw sewage and garbage are everywhere.  The smell in these areas is horrible and overwhelming.  Schools and health clinics don’t exist.  Crime and disease are pervasive.  AIDS, for one, is a scourge in Haiti for men, women and children – and it still is since almost nobody can afford the drugs that have now made AIDS in the US a very manageable condition.

One day we visited a small care facility run by American nuns.  It was a home for infants who had contracted AIDS from their mothers in the womb, or during birth.  All of the children had been abandoned by their parents out of fear of the disease, and because they could not care for them.

During the visit I was handed an infant girl to hold.  The child was very thin and weak.  She had huge wide eyes – eyes that seemed even larger because of her emaciated face.  She didn’t cry or wimper but she just lay in my arms, mouth open, and she stared up at me.  I cradled her and brought her close in a feeble attempt to offer some comfort.  And I could not help but begin to cry.  Thinking of that moment still brings tears.

The girl was just one of many in the facility, but the way she stared at me was both haunting and deeply moving.  As much as I cried for her suffering, I realized later I cried because as I looked at her, she looked up at me – and I felt in some strange way the presence of god or of the divine.  I felt I was seeing the imago dei in her and she was somehow seeing it in me – as undeserving as I am for that.  

To see her suffering was for me to see god and understand the unconditional love the god force has for all people.  I say that even though I don’t believe in a literal god.  But I do believe that that girl represented all that is sacred in the universe – an innocent and hurting child representing innocent and suffering people everywhere.  And when women like the nuns who cared for those children, when we or anyone else serve similarly  hurting youth, we are honoring and loving all that is sacred.  Within pain, sadness and unfairness is holiness because it is impossible not to feel love when so confronted.  Love for these children, and love for what motivates people to sacrificially serve the weak, lame, dying, poor and marginalized is in so many, many ways love for the great force in the universe that created everything – be that god, capital “T” Truth, or the unifying force of everything.  All those can be defined with one phrase: god is love – and love is god.

Love is the imago dei implied in our First UU Principle that sees inherent worth both in wealthy founders of high tech companies – and in dying infants with AIDS.  It’s the power that respects both charity volunteers – and billionaire politicians who own golf courses, mansions, and solid gold toilets.  Love is the emotion we have both for family members and friends – and also for those who demean, hate or attack us.  Without love, we are nothing.  With love, we are everything. 

And so as cliche and trite as it might be, I suggest we cannot be Unitarian Universalists unless we endeavor to love everyone by seeing their inherent worth and dignity.  This gets at what I mentioned earlier and what all world religions believe.  None of us, none of us, can say we are good, caring, moral, and justice seeking people unless we do our very best to love ALL others.  How we put that into practice is a great question we each must ponder.  And pondering it is something I encourage for us all.  I humbly suggest love begins with seeing the UU version of the imago dei in everyone – their inherent worth and dignity.  Love is sacrificial service, it is kindness, it is admitting one’s own flaws, it is forgiving, it is gentleness, it is truth telling, it is generosity, it is the humility it takes to care for those we dislike, disagree with, or who hurt us.

And so dear friends, in just a moment I’ll ask you to reflect on what I’ve said and particularly on finding love, dignity and worth even in people who may be your enemy.  And then, I encourage you to write on the card found in your programs a note to someone who might be your enemy and tell them about the dignity you see in them, and the worth and the worth they have as a person.  Send it, email it, or give it to the person today or later.  Do this for more than one person if you wish.  And, please, don’t justify your past angry feelings for the person, defend yourself, or in any way rebuke or correct the person.  What I hope you will do is just express love and have that be the so-called lesson you impart.  I also hope each and every one of us will truly consider what it means to say kind things about even our enemies.  And perhaps this exercise will linger in our minds and in our hearts so that we will do our best to practice the UU First Principle and truly begin to see and feel the dignity and worth in everyone – and thereby show our love.

Please begin to reflect on my message and write on your cards if you wish.  Michael and Les will play some soft background music during this time.

I wish you each much peace and joy.