On a day when we remember the Gunpowder Plot - a vicious and terrifying story of religious hatred, persecution and violence (on all sides), we reflect on the continuing violence across the world, in particular in Israel and Palestine at this time, and the actions we might take to bring love and compassion to the world. The words are below, with a link to a SoundCloud recording on the left.
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There is a phrase used in several, perhaps many, Unitarian chapels. Sometimes as part of Children’s Chapel, sometimes as an element of the Chalice Lighting. Sometimes as a closing refrain.
Subtle hint here – we might use it a little more over the coming months.
And I’d like us to give it a go.
This is the home of the open mind.
This is the home of the helping hands.
And this is the home of the loving heart
And this is accompanied by actions to help us all remember the importance and purpose of our presence here.
(WITH ACTIONS)
This is the home of the open mind.
This is the home of the helping hands.
And this is the home of the loving heart
And, if you are willing, I’d like us all to try it once more now.
It’s a good start to focus thought. And I’m going to look a little today at the second of these elements.
This is the home of the helping hands.
An open mind, and a loving heart are very personal things. These are approaches and attitudes that can make a profound impact on your life, your loving response to others, and through that open loving approach, it can bring hope and joy to others.
But they remain very personal. There is no way I can look at someone and judge whether they have an open mind or a loving heart. Hearts and minds are hidden inside us. Deep inside.
And of course, open hearts, loving minds and helping hands are, I believe, strongly linked. You are more likely to have helping hands if you have a loving heart. You are more likely to have a loving heart if you have an open mind.
But, as I said before, hearts and minds are personal and unseen. Helping hands, on the other……hand?.....are something that will make a tangible difference to something in a physical and visible way.
And, I hope, we are speaking in truth, when we say, we are the
Home of the Helping Hands.
Unitarians are proud of their commitment to rational thought. Proud of their willingness to read and engage with different ideas and approaches to religion and spirituality.
However, I think this is only part of the story. Our calling, as human beings in this great, interconnected world of ours, is surely not simply to think. To ponder. To assess in an intellectual way.
We are called also ‘to do’. We are called to make a positive contribution to this wonderful world we live in.
This world is wonderful because of its potential. It is not, I suggest, a wonderful place to live for the entire global population.
Perhaps it could be. I hope and pray it could be. But it is not, at the moment. On this day, and sadly on every day, people will die from hunger. People will die from preventable disease. People will die from violent conflict. In many places. We are of course drawn particularly to the dreadful stories of escalating violence and terror for the innocent civilians caught in conflict in Israel and Palestine.
Today, there are people living in fear. There are people who have been bombed out of their homes. Cast out of their society. There are people arrested, oppressed, terrified of what might happen to them, to their family, to their children. There are people who see the future with little hope of the fortune and good luck in which we have mostly found ourselves.
And when we are thinking, with our open minds and loving hearts, how we might bring some love to the world – is it not to those who live in fear, those who are viewed as outcasts, those who have had the misfortune to be born into the wrong place at the wrong time?
Of course it is.
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We heard earlier a passage from the gospel written by Matthew. It is a recollection of story told by Jesus about the effect of good deeds and good intentions on humankind more widely.
A good deed, an action of love to one, or many, in need, is something that we are, I believe, called to by God, or by whatever name you might give that intangible something in which we are all bound.
The story Matthew recounts was one where, at the time of judgement, it is made clear that when an individual gives food to the hungry, gives water to the thirsty, visits the sick, or those in prison, then that action is being done to God.
For me, with a view that God is an indescribable ‘something’, a formless form that provides the source and inspiration of love and life, and is present within each and every one of us, then the notion that an act of kindness towards an individual becomes, for me, an action of kindness not just towards God, but instead an action towards all humanity. By simply living a life of love towards others, we are benefiting humankind in so many different ways. Ourselves, the community in which we live, the congregation with whom we worship. With those we are helping, with those who see hope in the help we are providing to others.
We are benefiting the community of humankind immediately, and this leads to, I believe, the salvation of today.
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We meet today on 5th November. A day less likely than any other to fall on a Sunday – I can’t explain the maths behind this today, but trust me, it’s true. So a Sunday Service linked to Bonfire Night is a rare occurrence.
Which is a shame. There is so much to learn from this day.
Did anyone here see the BBC series, Gunpowder? Five or six years ago. It told the true, and brutal, story of the Gunpowder Plot.
It was an amazing production. It stuck closely to the known truths of the story, and did not hold back on the terror and torture endured by those involved. It has not been shown again, so far as I can tell, which is a great shame.
Underlying the whole piece was the hatred of one religion for another – or one denomination for another. There were hangings, there were those hanged, drawn and quartered, there was the ritual burning of Jews in Spain.
And there was the torture of Guy Fawkes and others.
It was barbarous. It was horrific. It was true. And these were practices that had no place in a humane, loving and compassionate society.
Yet, sadly, we live in a world that has still yet to rid itself of religious hatred, yet to rid itself of oppression and hatred for difference, and so sadly, yet to rid itself of torture.
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Here in Dover we are at the centre of the refugee stories that ring out across the country and political speeches. It is through Dover, and the beaches along the coast, that those desperately fleeing war and torture often first arrive. Seeking shelter, seeking warmth, seeking compassion.
We will no doubt start to see more soon. Fleeing the destruction of their homes, their streets, their neighbourhoods and their cities in the Gaza Strip and more widely.
When we see war and horror on the news, it can be too easy sometimes to think it is happening to others. It is a problem, as terrible as it is, far far away.
Yet it is not. It is happening to human beings. Just like us. As Guru Gobind Singh put it in our second reading, we are all uniform in ourselves. Part of the same creation.
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There are many ways we can help. We can give money, and the Refugee charities, and the Red Cross amongst others are very good places we might give.
We can volunteer skills, we can collect things. We may be able to host events here. We can volunteer.
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However, the most important thing – the catalyst for all the above – is to recognise the humanity and needs of our fellow human beings. To bring love and kindness to others – to all others. To make this broken world whole.
And in doing this, we are answering that inner call to the Divine, that still, small voice that tells us, no matter how hard we often try to ignore it, that still, small voice that appeals to our innate call to serve our fellow travellers in this world.
I’m going to quote Biblically again, from the Book Of James – a reminder of our need to add deeds to our faith. It’s one I’ve quoted before, because it’s a fantastic statement. Interestingly, it’s also rock-star Alice Cooper’s favourite piece of prose. And in my book, that makes it worth reading:
In the letter of James, in the New Testament, James asks,
‘what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you have faith but you do not have works. If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them ‘ go in peace, keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet does nothing to supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? Faith, by itself, if it has no works, is dead’
I firmly believe that, from whichever religious path you come, or from no religious path at all, the sentiment in James’ letter must be a guide for us all.
Our faith in life, our faith in humanity, our faith in the possibility of a better world can only be realised through work and deeds. We are part of this broken society, and we are part of the solution.
We are Unitarians. This Unitarians congregation is the:
Home of the open mind,
The home of the loving heart,
And the home of the helping hands.
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Remember, Remember the Fifth of November. A day to re-energise ourselves in the abolition of torture and hatred worldwide, to support those that come to this country in fear for their lives. A day to remember our own humanity, and the humanity of all those we share our world with.
May the terror of our own history be the reminder of the need to help others recover from their own.
This is the home of the helping hands
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