A sermon by Rev. Fern Cowan Stanley
Preached at Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation
September 8, 2002
We Interim Ministers often use symbols of some sort to indicate our entry into a community we will be serving for a time, and then reverse the use of those symbols during our last service. Some have a small suitcase which they unpack during the opening service and re-pack at the end. But, this has not really appealed to my sensibilities. I have used various items for this purpose in the past, but what I have come up with this year comes from feelings I used to have when I had turned in the keys to the church I was serving, and then later, the keys to the apartment where I had been living. Since I do not drive, and until last year, did not have a home base, I was left literally key-less at this point. And it is a strange and somewhat lonely feeling, being keyless in this world of locked doors. Despite the knowledge that I would very soon have new keys, still there was a sense of rootlessness, of non-belonging that plagued me until I actually had keys on my key ring again.
I did a somewhat tongue-in-cheek newsletter column a few years back questioning whether we are really, real people if we lack keys. But as this notion settled deeper into my brain, I thought of homeless people and the common lack of recognition as human beings that these people have often said they have experienced, and the humor in the subject seemed to fade away. As I have continued to think on this, I have recognized that keys are symbols for the opening of all kinds of doors. They are the symbols of the in-group, of those in the know, of those whohave power. This needed further thought.
When I am trying to clarify my own thoughts about a subject, I often go to a dictionary, to some other reference book, or nowadays, to the Internet, to try and get at, not necessarily the root meanings of a word, though those can be illuminating too, but, more, at the common usage that has come into being. And when I put the word "keys" into a search engine on the Internet, I found that there were some 6.5 million entries. It seemed to me it would be the better part of wisdom to narrow my search. Having been raised as a Baptist, I seemed to remember words attributed to Jesus having to do with keys to the Kingdom and so I entered that phrase. Only about 12,400 entries showed up for that one and I looked at several of them. I found that my memory had not failed, for there is indeed a story of Jesus having given the keys to the kingdom of heaven to Peter, saying, "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." That is power!
In addition to this particular religious reference, though, I found many other references having to do with many and varied religious groups. But, clearly, in every case, the reference did have to do with having some kind of power either over oneself or others or over events. I was somewhat surprised to find that in addition to all these religious references, this phrase has come to be meaningful in a large number of diverse categories ranging from Walt Disney's World, to the teminology used by chemists, to methods of teaching music, to espionage, to computers in a wide variety of areas, and on and on it goes. But clearly, in these cases too, the meaning has to do with power. And I think the very word,"power" is somewhat frightening to many of us UU's. We shy away from the very notion of having power. And rightly so, I think, if we are speaking of power in the sense of power over others. This, in my view is not something to be wished for or sought after, and when and if it is given over to us, it is probably wise to kind of roll it over and give it back to those who sought to give it away.
However, power over oneself - when not taken to extremes, is I believe, a good thing. I do agree with that line in the Desiderata which says, "Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with thyself." But it is that "wholesome discipline" that I am speaking of when I promote power over oneself. There are things in our individual lives over which we do have control, and those over which we have absolutely no control. There are things which we cannot seem to control at this particular moment in our lives, but, perhaps, given some additional time and attention, perhaps gaining some particular key that we have not had to this point, we will be able to do so tomorrow, or the next day, or the next, as we work toward that wholesome discipline.
And then, there is power with others. Margaret Mead has said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it's the only thing that ever has." And that, to me, epitomizes the notion of power with. It's is not only the strength that can exist in numbers, though. It is, I believe, a power that exists when we recognize our connectedness with one another. When we recognize that the whole is more, much more, than the sum of its parts. Such recognition, I believe, can awaken in us a feeling of obligation to be care-full, full of care, in our relationships with one another. And even further, when such keys to the kingdoms of this world as education, knowledge, and opportunity, have been withheld from groups or from individuals, such recognition can incite us to work harder to correct such injustices by perhaps, sharing our own keys.
One further thought on the notion of keys to the various kingdoms we inhabit. And that is, what kind of shape are our keys in? Do we know where they are, and are they shiny and bright and perhaps, a bit well-worn from constant use, or have they been misplaced or allowed to rust? I'm speaking here of the keys to our compassion, our love - for ourselves, for others and for the good earth on which we live. I'm speaking of whatever it is that opens our hearts - to joy, to delight? Have these particular keys been neglected or lost in the day-to-day busy-ness of our lives? There is a Sufi tale of the holy fool, Nasrudin, who had lost the keys to his home, and was on his knees outside looking for them, when a neighbor happened by. The neighbor joined in the search, but after some time with no success, asked Nasrudin, "Exactly where did you lose your keys?" Nasrudin replied, "Inside my house." "Then why on earth are we looking for them out here?" asked the neighbor. "Because," Nasrudin, "there is more light here."
May all of us remember where we lost any of the keys that are missing in our lives, and may we labor long and hard in an effort to bring into this community, as well as into our individual lives, whatever light is needed to find those keys once more.
