O God, you made us in your individual picture and redeemed us by Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the entire human household; take away the vanity and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the partitions that separate us; unite us in bonds of affection; and work by our battle and confusion to perform your functions on Earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races might serve you in concord round your heavenly throne; by Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Jesus stated, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall!” Now when Jesus had completed saying these items, the crowds have been astounded at his educating, for he taught them as one having authority, and never as their scribes.
– Matthew 7:24-29
Joined by many throughout the nation, now we have gathered this morning to wish for unity as a nation – not for settlement, political or in any other case, however for the type of unity that fosters group throughout range and division, a unity that serves the frequent good.
Unity, on this sense, is the edge requirement for folks to reside collectively in a free society, it’s the stable rock, as Jesus stated, on this case upon which to construct a nation. It isn’t conformity. It isn’t a victory of 1 over one other. It isn’t weary politeness nor passivity born of exhaustion. Unity just isn’t partisan.
Slightly, unity is a method of being with each other that encompasses and respects variations, that teaches us to carry a number of views and life experiences as legitimate and worthy of respect; that permits us, in our communities and within the halls of energy, to genuinely look after each other even once we disagree. These throughout our nation who dedicate their lives, or who volunteer, to assist others in occasions of pure catastrophe, typically at nice threat to themselves, by no means ask these they’re serving to for whom they voted prior to now election or what positions they maintain on a specific challenge. We’re at our greatest once we observe their instance.
Unity at occasions, is sacrificial, in the way in which that love is sacrificial, a giving of ourselves for the sake of one other. Jesus of Nazareth, in his Sermon on the Mount, exhorts us to like not solely our neighbors, however to like our enemies, and to wish for individuals who persecute us; to be merciful, as our God is merciful, and to forgive others, as God forgives us. Jesus went out of his strategy to welcome these whom his society deemed as outcasts.
Now I grant you that unity, on this broad, expansive sense, is aspirational, and it’s quite a bit to wish for – a giant ask of our God, worthy of one of the best of who we’re and could be. However there isn’t a lot to be gained by our prayers if we act in ways in which additional deepen and exploit the divisions amongst us. Our Scriptures are fairly clear that God is rarely impressed with prayers when actions aren’t knowledgeable by them. Nor does God spare us from the implications of our deeds, which, in the long run, matter greater than the phrases we pray.
These of us gathered right here on this Cathedral aren’t naive concerning the realities of politics. When energy, wealth and competing pursuits are at stake; when views of what America ought to be are in battle; when there are robust opinions throughout a spectrum of prospects and starkly completely different understandings of what the best plan of action is, there will likely be winners and losers when votes are solid or choices made that set the course of public coverage and the prioritization of sources. It goes with out saying that in a democracy, not everybody’s specific hopes and desires will likely be realized in a given legislative session or a presidential time period or perhaps a technology. Not everybody’s particular prayers – for these of us who’re folks of prayer – will likely be answered as we want. However for some, the lack of their hopes and desires will likely be way over political defeat, however as an alternative a lack of equality, dignity, and livelihood.
Given this, is true unity amongst us even potential? And why ought to we care about it?
Properly, I hope that we care, as a result of the tradition of contempt that has turn out to be normalized in our nation threatens to destroy us. We’re all bombarded every day with messages from what sociologists now name “the outrage industrial complex”, a few of it pushed by exterior forces whose pursuits are furthered by a polarized America. Contempt fuels our political campaigns and social media, and plenty of revenue from it. Nevertheless it’s a harmful strategy to lead a rustic.
I’m an individual of religion, and with God’s assist I imagine that unity on this nation is feasible – not completely, for we’re imperfect folks and an imperfect union – however ample sufficient to maintain us believing in and dealing to understand the beliefs of the USA of America – beliefs expressed within the Declaration of Independence, with its assertion of innate human equality and dignity.
And we’re proper to wish for God’s assist as we search unity, for we’d like God’s assist, however provided that we ourselves are prepared to are likely to the foundations upon which unity relies upon. Like Jesus’ analogy of constructing a home of religion on the rock of his teachings, versus constructing a home on sand, the foundations we’d like for unity should be sturdy sufficient to resist the numerous storms that threaten it.
What are the foundations of unity? Drawing from our sacred traditions and texts, let me recommend that there are a minimum of three.
The primary basis for unity is honoring the inherent dignity of each human being, which is, as all faiths represented right here affirm, the birthright of all folks as youngsters of the One God. In public discourse, honoring one another’s dignity means refusing to mock, low cost, or demonize these with whom we differ, selecting as an alternative to respectfully debate throughout our variations, and each time potential, to hunt frequent floor. If frequent floor just isn’t potential, dignity calls for that we stay true to our convictions with out contempt for individuals who maintain convictions of their very own.
A second basis for unity is honesty in each non-public dialog and public discourse. If we aren’t prepared to be trustworthy, there is no such thing as a use in praying for unity, as a result of our actions work towards the prayers themselves. We’d, for a time, expertise a false sense of unity amongst some, however not the sturdier, broader unity that we have to handle the challenges we face.
Now to be truthful, we don’t at all times know the place the reality lies, and there’s a lot working towards the reality now, staggeringly so. However once we do know what’s true, it’s incumbent upon us to talk the reality, even when – and particularly when – it prices us.
A 3rd basis for unity is humility, which all of us want, as a result of we’re all fallible human beings. We make errors. We are saying and do issues that we remorse. Now we have our blind spots and biases, and we’re maybe probably the most harmful to ourselves and others once we are persuaded, unquestionably, that we’re completely proper and another person is completely improper. As a result of then we’re only a few steps away from labeling ourselves as the great folks, versus the dangerous folks.
The reality is that we’re all folks, able to each good and dangerous. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn astutely noticed that “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties, but right through every human heart and through all human hearts.” The extra we understand this, the extra room now we have inside ourselves for humility, and openness to at least one one other throughout our variations, as a result of in truth, we’re extra like each other than we understand, and we’d like one another.
Unity is comparatively straightforward to wish for on events of solemnity. It’s quite a bit tougher to understand once we’re coping with actual variations within the public enviornment. However with out unity, we’re constructing our nation’s home on sand.
With a dedication to unity that includes range and transcends disagreement, and the stable foundations of dignity, honesty, and humility that such unity requires, we are able to do our half, in our time, to assist understand the beliefs and the dream of America.
Let me make one ultimate plea, Mr President. Thousands and thousands have put their belief in you. As you advised the nation yesterday, you’ve gotten felt the providential hand of a loving God. Within the title of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the folks in our nation who’re scared now. There are transgender youngsters in Democratic, Republican and unbiased households who worry for his or her lives.
And the individuals who choose our crops and clear our workplace buildings; who labor in our poultry farms and meat-packing crops; who wash the dishes after we eat in eating places and work the night time shift in hospitals – they is probably not residents or have the correct documentation, however the overwhelming majority of immigrants aren’t criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbors. They’re devoted members of our church buildings, mosques and synagogues, gurdwara, and temples.
Have mercy, Mr President, on these in our communities whose youngsters worry that their mother and father will likely be taken away. Assist those that are fleeing conflict zones and persecution in their very own lands to search out compassion and welcome right here. Our God teaches us that we’re to be merciful to the stranger, for we have been as soon as strangers on this land.
Could God grant us all of the energy and braveness to honor the dignity of each human being, converse the reality in love, and stroll humbly with each other and our God, for the great of all of the folks of this nation and the world.
