Margaret Mead once wrote – "Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has."
This quotation has been widely used as motivation and as a challenge for change … I even have t-shirts and book marks that have it emblazoned on it.
There is great truth to Mead’s comment, and it is not hard to find numerous examples of people who have come together and as a small group enacted tremendous change through their commitment and passion.
About the time I first encountered Mead’s comment, I read the book Blood Brothers by Palestinian Priest Elias Chacour. Blood Brothers was written as Chacour’s memoirs of growing up as a displaced Palestinian following the creation of Israel in 1948.
Written with a hopeful, and realistic tone, Blood Brothers speaks of seeking and attaining peace in a troubled land, between people who know what it means to stand on the margins.
One of the most powerful stories Chacour tells is the recounting of an encounter he had just prior to his ordination in Paris. He writes:
My mentor shared the story; "... if there is a problem somewhere , this is what happens. Three people will try to do something concrete to settle the issue. Ten people will give a lecture analyzing what the three are doing. One hundred people will commend or condemn the ten for their lecture. One thousand people will argue about the problem. And ONE PERSON - ONLY ONE - will involve himself so deeply in the true solution that he will be too busy to listen to any of it ... NOW," he asked gently, his penetrating eyes meeting each of ours in turn, "which person are you?"
That one no doubt inspires others who roll up their sleeves and get involved too … and in time, real and substantial change begins …
By focusing on what’s important – the problem – the need for solutions – the need to care for others … almost anything is possible. AND, I honestly believe that’s the point of Jesus’ appeal to the Disciples, and to those of us who are part of this continuum of faith we call the Church.
It is about focusing on our commonalities – not being the ten, or the hundred or the thousands who are distracted by debates and discussions about the rightness or the wrongness of the problem, the issue, and possible solutions. But instead, we are to be about LIVING our faith, and getting on with caring for and caring about others.
I often connect the quotation from Margaret Mead and the story from Fr. Chacour with the story of the young man who searched out the great Rabbi Hillel in search of answers.
The story is that a young man went to his own Rabbi and asked him to teach him the whole of the Torah while standing on one foot … the Rabbi reacted with anger and drove the young man away. For long months the young man wandered from town to town, village to village searching out Rabbi after Rabbi asking each of them the same thing – “Please sir, would you teach me the whole of the Torah while I stand before you on one foot?”
And Rabbi after Rabbi reacted with anger – slamming doors, swinging brooms and even striking their fists at the young man … until one day he came to the village where the great and learned Rabbi Hillel lived. With hesitation the young man knocked on Hillel’s door and found himself standing before the renowned man … “sir,” the young man hesitated,“could you teach me the meaning of the Torah while I stand here on one foot …”
The story tells us that the Rabbi stood for a moment, stroking his beard thinking, then his face broke into a huge smile … “young man, this thing you ask me is easy …” and the rabbi revealed the meaning of the Torah (the teachings given to the People from God): “That which is hurtful to another, you do not do … all the rest is commentary.”
Focusing on our difference is hurtful to another.
Debating the causes of the problem while others continue to suffer is hurtful another.
Failing to share our faith and act on what we believe is hurtful to another.
Yet, there is EVERY indication that we can and should and MUST be hopeful about the future and what we can do and be about in our faith.
The call today to the Church – to you and I, is about sharing our faith, is about living with hope … a Century ago as Canada was expanding, we had a Prime Minister who was insistent that the 20th Century would belong to Canada – given the vast spaces being opened up to settlement, the new communities being founded, and the unprecedented wealth of natural resources and people that was available it seemed possible, and likely that Laurier’s prophecy was right … even the Church got caught up in the idea that the future looked bright …
Looking across the vast prairie region that was being settled, the Church elders wondered what good could possibly be served having three or four churches facing each other across the main street in every little town and village that was forming in these new provinces … so they started to talk about working together – forming one larger denomination to serve the communities rather than three or four smaller denominations committing within these small rural settings.
The yeastiness of this time is remembered in our Manual – the book that lays out all of our rules and procedures as a United Church – the introduction records the words – “The Spirit of Fellowship, which has always been distinctive of Canadian Life, found expression in the political union of Canada in 1867 and in a succession of unions in the various branches of the Christian Church from 1817 to the early years of the 20th Century … these unions would … deepen the sense of Christian Fellowship and revealed more clearly the hindrances to the Christian Church through the unnecessary overlapping in the work of different branches …”
This past week, one of my colleagues commented at our ministerial lunch that “looking around our communities at the various churches, we’re ALL so small in number I can’t help but wonder why we can’t be gathered in one big tent to do the work we have before us …”
And therein lies the challenge ... to focus on our commonalities and to leave aside our differences while we work diligently at common goals … and it’s a very Scriptural thing – almost directly from the lips of Jesus himself. We are to strive to become one …
In the modern Church though, we’ve allowed ourselves to become distracted and largely overwhelmed by mundane worries and concerns … instead of thinking outside the box, and trying like that young man before Hillel, to challenge the way things are, we get caught up our fears and worries for the future, rather than looking around us and marking the achievements and accomplishments of the present.
Over and over, researchers and Church leaders have noted that the dominant emotion being felt in our society, and in our Church today is FEAR … we live in a constant state of fear … if we honestly think about the last decade or so, we can chronicle quite a litany of fear … SARS, terrorists, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, natural disasters, HIV/AIDS, poverty, crime, financial meltdowns, economic downturns … the list goes on and on and on … our media hasn’t helped any of it with their constant use of startling headlines and provocative words.
Even the Church has absorbed this fear and allowed it to guide us and our way of interacting with the world … this past week I started reading former Moderator Bill Phipps’ book “cause for Hope” and was struck at the simplicity of the challenge before us as Church … it’s ALL about the message we offer … we need to be a place of hope and life and love.
A message of fear doesn’t feed the soul, or invite others to join. Instead it comforts you for the moment, but in time that fear wears away at you, and leaves you uncomfortable and often MORE frightened …
Today, and last week, as we celebrated the gift of Baptism we are REMINDED what our faith is ALL about … it’s right in the Baptismal service: “Child of God, blessed in the Spirit, welcome to the Family of God.”
That’s it … that’s the WHOLE of our faith in one easy sentence – whether we’re nine months old, or ninety years old – we ARE a child of God, blessed in the Spirit, and a member of the Family of God.”
All the rest is merely commentary … our calling, as we rise from the waters of Baptism, is to go out into the world and SHARE that understanding and experience with others … we are to invite others to remember their place in God’s family, and to join us as we celebrate the unconditional love God has for all of us …
There is no room for fear in the Love God offers … there is no need for debate or discussion … it’s ALL about being that One person who is so busy living their life and sharing their faith that they don’t have time for any of it … Today we celebrate that in that moment of Baptism we are called to BE that person …
May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us
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