Sabbath Messages | Sabbath Message: March 13, 2004
Good Sabbath
March 13, 2004 Among my memories of youth are the train rides I took, riding alone from New Jersey into New York, to see the Yankees play, no cares, just a couple of good hotdogs and great mustard. I took my dear brother Lewis a few times; and my wonderful Uncle Lou Adler, who personally taught me the world of major league baseball. What a man he was, of blessed memory.
Growing up included a train ride. Now, as most of you know, I regularly take the train between San Diego and downtown LA. However I promise to never complain about a talkative cell-phone passenger across the aisle. No, the value system is changed by the experiences of others. TV is now more explicit than fiction. The tragedy of contemporary hatred is that it has no limits, no conscience, and no mercy. It is the opposite of what any religion teaches except the murderers whose passion exceeds their humanity. I refuse to believe that they are made in the image of any god, certainly not mine.
God
Who are they?
From another planet that belongs to another god?
You ask me always to forgive,
Forgive me if I let You down this time.
I pause on this Sabbath to remember the passengers, those strangers, whose trip was interrupted by godlessness and passionate commitment to murdering all with whom they disagree. The pictures of the cars--parked at the train station in Spain--which will never see their drivers again, was loneliness personified.
"Vengeance has no foresight." (Napoleon)
"We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do so despise all who have not a single virtue."
(Rochefoucauld)
How they insult their god with their callousness towards His creations. In every generation they come; in every generation we must make certain that our young are not their future victims.
My heart breaks at the loss of innocence at the acts of barbarians, for that is the best word to describe how despicable are their acts, no matter their " reasoning ".
"If we could solve all the mysteries of the Universe, we would be co-equal with God. Every drop of the ocean shares its glory but is not the ocean." (Mahatma Gandhi)
"God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason." (Dag Hammarskjold)
Spain which has a history of intolerance, civil war and religious bigotry, is our ally and against a common enemy. The irony is that the violent intolerance out of which it evolved is visited upon its innocence. It was one of the first to explore the New World and gave relativity to so many Hispanics who moved next door, to be called "immigrants", seeking tolerance and economic gain. America is filled with Americans from all of the Americas--a common home to uncommon peoples. We are so fortunate to have been born here, or to have come here. The reason for our existence is to make certain that our liberty is shared while illuminating the hopes of all who are deprived of it.
My God, please make us sensitive to these, our real riches, and rise above the opportunities it also renders to the greedy. That is the irony, that greed always accompanies freedom while subverting its message, subdividing people from peoples, making them believe that their wealth is their blessing. But God warns of greediness, for without kindness there can be no happiness and without appreciation of freedom there can be no human fulfillment.
Humans were created in the image of a God of beauty, mercy and kindness. Religion, too often, separates us rather then comprehending that we were all the beginnings from Adam and Eve. Whether evolution cancels out this mythology and belief, it provides a reason and illumination for all of us who have followed.
Follow your heart, enlarge your soul and reach out to do kindness to others, this Sabbath
sandy
