On Love’s Side
Standing on the Side of Love is a public advocacy campaign organised by the Unitarian Universalist Association, whose goal is to harness love’s power to end bigotry and oppression against people because of their identity. The message, “standing on the side of love,” emerged as a rallying point for people of faith in Massachusetts during an early campaign for fully inclusive marriage. The Standing on the Side of Love Campaign was inspired by the 2008 shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, a congregation which was targeted because of the welcome they give to LGBT people and because of their congregation’s liberal stance on many issues. Two people were killed on Sunday, July 27, and seven others were injured when a gunman opened fire inside the church in Knoxville, Tennessee, during a Sunday morning performance of a children’s play. The man who shot these people had written a long letter explaining that his actions were because of his hatred of the liberal movement.
The Knoxville Community responded with an outpouring of love that inspired the leadership at the Unitarian Universalist Association to launch a campaign that would harness love’s power to challenging exclusion, oppression and violence based on sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, race, religion, or any other identity. They asked people to stand on the side of love in response to the many issues of our day.
I hope it’s not too jarring to move from a description of such a violent attack to some rambling thoughts about sports teachers. I’m not up to date with the teaching of sports in school and I am sure that teaching methods have moved on a bit from the grim realities I experienced as a child. But I’d better check first – do we have any sports teachers in the room? If not then I can be shamelessly stereotypical for a minute or two. With apologies of course to any sports teachers who might listen in to this podcast at some future date. But really, back in the days of my youth, sports teachers were considered to be a breed apart – people who did not feel the cold, and could not imagine that some of our bodies were not like theirs. At my Junior School we had a teacher called Miss Quash and she invented a posture improving method which we called Miss Quash’s torture – you could try it now if you like – it involved folding your arms behind your back as we stood in line. I remember Miss Quash’s look of incomprehension when I tried to explain why I could not climb a rope and the anxiety she produced in me when two of the sportiest pupils were asked to pick teams. I shan’t go into too much detail about how painful it is to be left till last to be chosen, in case it re-awakens painful memories in any of you. Let’s turn our attention to a much better method – for life anyway – that instead of waiting to be chosen for a team, a team of equal size, instead we get to choose the team we would like to be in. And today’s choice between two teams is the love team and the hate team. And thank goodness the teams don’t have to be of equal size. We know, don’t we, that if the world’s population had to choose a team right now, had to choose between love and hate, the vast majority of people would be in the love team, standing on the side of love, not standing on the side of hate.
But my goodness, don’t we need the love team to be the biggest team because one person, just one person, filled with hatred can cause a great deal of trouble for everyone else. The man who shot and killed two people at the Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville in 2008 was filled with hatred – a broken marriage, unable to get a job – an unpleasant situation for anyone to be in – but it led him to take action against the liberal church he held to be responsible for his pain. Such extreme behaviour does not happen very often in our world and when it does happen, it gets a lot of publicity. Far more frequent are the small yet still significant acts of love that help to make our world a better place and help us all – in the words of that Buddhist prayer – ‘to cross the ocean of life’ or as the Hindu proverb at the bottom of today’s order of service says “Help another’s boat across, and your own will reach the shore.”
Living has to be an altruistic act, where we acknowledge that the circumstances others find themselves in are inextricably linked to our own lives. To live only for ourselves is surely not what life is all about. The President of the UUA Rev. Peter Morales, writes movingly about love:
“Love reaches out. That is the essence of love. Love is our longing for deep connection. A search for connection is at the heart of all spiritual traditions and practices. The spiritual journey is a pathway into the depths of our being and also a journey of transcending the stifling confines of the self. Profound spiritual experiences are experiences of union – with others and ultimately with the great mystery of life. We are profoundly and fundamentally relational creatures.”
“We are profoundly and fundamentally relational creatures.” We cannot do this thing called life on our own and the more we can reach out to others – especially perhaps those who are different from ourselves – then the more we can break down barriers of fear and ignorance and replace them with connections made of love and curiosity about those who are different from us. That is what healthy relationships are made of. And a healthy church community is made of faith put into action, actions aligned with the values that underpin our living.
We may stand, sit, dance, sing, write letters, sign petitions, collect money, think thoughts, gather information, talk to others, listen to others – these are just some of the things I know people here in our congregation do when we put our values into action. Our faith is not just about Sunday mornings and coming to church is it – much as I appreciate seeing you all here today and every Sunday you can make it here. Our faith starts with us and our relationship with that which inspires and guides us, that which we hold to be of ultimate worth, the God of our understanding, the God of our hearts. Our individual faith is then shaped by this our beloved community and – strengthened by that identity we can then reach out to the world in all its complexity and we put our faith into action, we live our values, we base our actions upon them.
My closing question today – a question for myself as well as for any of you who would like to ask it – if we choose again today to join love’s team, if we choose to stand on the side of love, is there any one change that you would introduce in your life – a new action perhaps, a new way of thinking maybe, a new conversation you want to start? Let’s talk about those possibilities together …..
“When emboldened by faith, we dare to proclaim: we are standing on the side of love”. (Chorus from the hymn ‘Standing on the Side of Love’ – words and music by the Rev. Jason Shelton)
Rev. Sarah Tinker
Sermon – 16th March 2014