Sabbath Messages > Sabbath Message: September 17, 2005
Good Sabbath
September 17, 2005
"Moral action is the meeting place between the human and the Divine." (Roth)
Many years ago my Frances and I visited Rotterdam. We had fallen in love with Amsterdam and the Dutch; now I was assigned to visit the Building Centers across Europe and here we were in Rotterdam, which didn't have the vintage beauty of the other great Dutch city. I met with the former head of planning who told me that in WWII the city had been destroyed in every way but spirit. He said that planners from across Europe were called to help plan the rebuilt place; they were incredibly excited about planning a city that would not be suffocated by the automobile, from the beginning, some place with human scale. So what happened, the city was suffocated by cars and the project was a grand failure.
I was reminded of this 1966 experience by the destruction of New Orleans and the many thoughts about what to do with the place: reintroduce it but bigger and better and above sea level, or just abandon it to nature and go onto greener pastures. Then the president came and told us that it would be rebuilt, as money would be no problem.
"sharing the pain and suffering of others, knowing well that they who sow in tears shall reap in joy." (Psalms 126:5)
"having chosen life...we discover the endless creativity of life, its enduring capacity for good is this: as we share with others the treasures of living, we increase them for ourselves."
"One person with a belief is a social power equal to 99 who have only interests." (John Stuart Mill)
As I watched our president read from a written speech, I thought, "What would God do or say in so dramatic a moment?” Would God make a good president, with a protective staff of spinners surrounding, so that humanity wouldn't have to learn His true meaning, written centuries after the event? I thought about my fictional creation of God sitting down with Noah after the flood's destruction and asking "what should I do now...it's so easy to destroy my creations, but so much more difficult to learn the lessons for My failure...do I punish humans for My failure so that a fresh new generation can read about it, learn about it, from holy men, and build a society where neighbors treat neighbors as they themselves would like to be treated, or is it all Babel where many languages dilute the message and intent?
There is nothing simple about life--modern or ancient--for human nature fights with Mother Nature and mothers' children quarrel with each other for some simple reasons made into complexities. There is nothing so simple after we know the answers; why oh why does it take so long to know the answers; why are there so many spins of the truth and meaning or is that the nature of Adam and Eve revisited in all contemporary times?
"How does a man find his Father who is in heaven? Through love, through brotherhood, through respect, through truth, through peace, through bending the knee, through humility." (Midrash)
I went to L.A. for the groundbreaking of "L.A. Live", an entertainment extravaganza as cities seek to attain their greatness amid the ruins of their past failures.
Las Vegas, truly the entertainment capital of the world, is really one giant theme park because they know what they are. Los Angeles still seeks discovery of self as a different place, perhaps a giant theme park of lifestyle and relevance. Real estate is too often measured in square footage and cash flow, rather than relevance to where we are in time and space. Now we have computers that calculate what that cash flow will be so lenders can be attracted and satisfied.
But what about human values that transcend our today's, that have a reverence for yesterday through recognizing what hasn't worked, while having the imagination of what is possible tomorrow which will focus on the spirit of humans through the construction of our collective souls.
Ah but we are too sophisticated for that biblical innocence for we love angels but don't want to become one too soon. We hate troubles and fear illness but wont take the time to celebrate Sabbath so that we commune with our yesterdays, our families, our own souls. We are peculiar in our expressions of religious feeling that they are the only pathways to God, yet God is supposed to feel that we are already created in His image, and I believe that we are created in His, seeking His lessons in ethical and spiritual fulfillment.
New Orleans cannot become a cash flow exhibit; it will be recreated only if it becomes a special place that is spiritually connected with a God of kindness and forgiveness. It is expensive only in terms of the human strength, character and sacrifice it will attract. It can become the image of what is possible when togetherness becomes the work ethic and racial divide teaches the lessons of past mistakes rather than continuing failures.
"It is a terrible, inexorable, law that one cannot deny the humanity of another without diminishing one's own; in the face of of one's victim, one sees oneself. (James Baldwin)
Paradise is like an ancient pyramid, having to appear impossible to be built, stone by stone, one by one, with each one adding to the strength of the other. Thus humanity is released from the self-imposed tomb of all yesterdays.
Be aware of the Sabbath and dedicate it to refreshing one's values while restoring one's soul.
sandy
