Sabbath Messages > Sabbath Message: July 2, 2005
Good Sabbath
July 2, 2005
Freedom is a frightening idea; to empower people to practice what they are preached, to treat the neighbor equally with oneself; to bring the young up respecting liberty--its responsibilities and its protection of both angel and brute, all sensational in their possibilities
"First a person should put his house together, then his community, then the world." (Salanter)
"Who is a wise man? He who learns from all men."(Ethics of the Fathers)
I am concentrating on reading two books: David McCulloughs's "1776" which tells of those who marched with George Washington into liberty, mentioning the heroes yet undiscovered until now and others, who achieved fame out of chaos. Imagine a wild bunch winning against the disciplined redcoats, with overwhelming naval forces. We were led by an aristocrat of integrity, who looked the part, but very human; a practical man, with a vision of freedom that was still being defined as all good matters are.
As the University of San Diego's Master's class met to listen to experts in the community give their versions of ethics and getting things done, it became a microcosm of America: a community leader, Gale, borne out of poverty into award winning leadership, to build the ignored neighborhoods rising by bootstraps and courage, aching to share what great possibilities America offers its young and even its deprived; an ex-gang leader, Derek, shot many times, who told the youngsters not to lecture, but rather to understand the pathways that beckon innocence and frustration into crime and danger, and how he escaped it "by the Grace of God" as he lay bleeding from a bullet in his head--promising that if he survived, he would give himself to the community; a builder, who tolerates no chasm between his faith in God and his ethical treatment of employees and customers, Keith a very special gentleman who graces his industry and whomever he meets, who having recently lost his dear life-partner, looked into my eyes and told me to remember to "hug your wife, every moment you can" and my Franny, after I told her, remarking, "but you always have, my darling", and my heart went from sore for Keith's loss, to elation for God's blessing.
We discussed ethics with these young graduate students. Ethics is how you behave--until goodness and consideration become your second nature; at that moment you leave your half-brute, half-angel equation, and God happily welcomes you into His blessings.
"You have given me extraordinary power;
I am like one who has been anointed."
(Sabbath Psalm 92)
The other book is Tom Friedman's, "The World Is Flat", from the gifted author of "The Lexus and the Olive Tree", which if you haven't read it, you must. Friedman writes with a conversational elegance. This is a man who can reach any one by phone, spend time with that anyone, and harvest wonderful insights into the fast-changing globe. He lends us insights into a "flattening of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place". Tom is the kind that demystifies the mysterious, neutralizes the spinning of truth by political animals who care for their party more than they love America. Reading is a disease that allows you to burrow into the minds and actions of the famous and the unknowns, many of whom assume that they can control their philosophies by controlling busy you, for thoughtfulness takes time, learning takes time, reading takes time and having faith takes more than searching ones soul, it is the construction of the very soul-which also rises out of your ethical nature.
"There are three sights that warm my heart and are beautiful in the sight of the Lord: concord among brothers, friendship among neighbors and a man and his wife who are inseparable."
Weeping and laughing are shared by us all, for they constitute life and death. They are what happens in between--the actual behavior of each of us--which carries with it the momentum of ethical living, ending in the incarnation into immortality.
I've made my daily life into one in which I am surrounded by young, ambitious people, who wish to accelerate their knowledge of life, achievement and friendship, rather than war and suffering. But the pathway, in between, is filled with "land mines", laid by evil and greed, which are always lurking, like disease carrying germs. The roadmap that allows safe passage is with the faith and love and kindness that propel us through life, making it better for those around us and the generations yet to come.
Be free, this Independence Celebration. Look at and through the fireworks, for they are just the sounds and the reminders of the flashpoints of where we have been and worlds yet to be lived, in the peaceful and inspirational--perhaps angelic--balance of our lives.
Happy Day and Happy Tomorrows
sandy
