Sermon: The Years of Repair<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jane Palmer, for First Unitarian Universalist Church of Berks County<\/p>\n\n\n\n
January 3, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s customary at this time of year to sum up the year that\u2019s just ended, but we\u2019ve had quite enough of 2020, haven\u2019t we? We\u2019re going to have some fun today because, boy do we need it. We\u2019re going to create something gorgeous. It might be a little bumpy at first, possibly un \u2026 comfortable, but trust me, it\u2019s gonna turn out all right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So rather than focusing on 2020, I want to look at bigger blocks of time — the last four years, the last four … hundred, and, god willing, the years to come. The years of repair, I hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A good friend just said to me, \u201cI can\u2019t wait for this to be over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He meant the current administration, and I feel that, but I thought, wait, what is \u201cthis\u201d exactly and when will it be over? On Tuesday when Georgia votes? On Inauguration Day? Or when we all get the vaccine? Will it be over then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Listen, I know we need to take a break. I\u2019m going to take a big one myself this year. I understand the longing to get back to \u201cnormal,\u201d like being able to hug people, and go to restaurants, and not have chaos spewing out of the TV machine every night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our minds and public spaces alike have been crowded with awfulness for too long. Depending on our inclination and the extent of our resources, we have focused on avoidance, resistance — or survival. I\u2019ve been in the resistance, fighting against cutbacks in the social safety net, extremist judges, and so on. Most of us have a few things we wish were over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer is no, \u201cthis\u201d will not be over soon. Yes, we will have a different president, and I\u2019m all for that, but the pandemic won\u2019t be over, nor homelessness or mass incarceration, or climate collapse, or greed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right now we stand at the beginning not just of a new year but what could be a vast reimagining of what\u2019s possible. We can hand over the reins to a new set of professionals, nice ones this time, and hope for the best, knowing big change probably isn\u2019t possible. Or we can imagine a healed and healthy world, abundant and generous and forgiving, and start to build it today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In which case we have to face some facts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starting with the fact that this country we love so much and whose principles we hold dear was founded on land stolen from native people. Right here, this is Lenape land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our magnificent country, the richest in the land, was built by the labor of enslaved people whose descendents have been systematically exploited, disenfranchised and incarcerated ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For half a century, our dominant narrative has held that the market should dictate what\u2019s worthy, that if you pulled yourself up by the bootstraps you could be successful, and that \u201cjob creators\u201d should get tax breaks but government support made working people lazy..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This particular era began with the 2016 election, and a lot of people, including me, were shocked, I tell you, shocked. This was not the America we knew! We were horrified by the loss of decency. We anguished over Muslims at the airport and kids in cages. We worried that folks were losing their health insurance, especially because that could be us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then there was Charlottesville, Parkland, El Paso, Las Vegas, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Nashville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was Rayshard Brooks, Breonna Taylor, Stephon Clark, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown. Black men, women and children, murdered by police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then Officer Chauvin murdered George Floyd in broad daylight, and white folks began to realize what everyone else had known all along, that liberty and justice is for some but not all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, our institutions crumbled. Were they built on sand after all? Or just norms. Those of us who had lobbied the daylights out of our elected officials realized that they didn\u2019t give a damn what their constituents want or need. They consorted, maskless, with Nazi sympathizers, dismissed our votes, and gave trillions of dollars to big corporations while millions of humans lost their jobs, healthcare, homes, and lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then there was the coronavirus, leaping like wildfire from China to Italy to New York City and the next thing we knew, the doors slammed shut and every interaction put us in mortal danger, especially if we were Black or brown or in prison or seeking asylum or poor. If there was any shred of doubt about how broken, how cruel and unjust things were, the pandemic has laid it bare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You tell me. When is this going to be over?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were wrong about America,\u201d said John Pavlovitz about the most recent election. \u201cNumbed by a cocktail of optimism and ignorance, many of us imagined this was a sick, momentary aberration and that sanity would surely come to the rescue. We were wrong to believe that white people weaned for decades on supremacy, would suddenly embrace disparate humanity and make more space at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yeah no, it\u2019s not going to be over soon. And you know what? We the people deserve better. There\u2019s plenty of money to go around; it\u2019s just that it\u2019s held by a handful of billionaires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Strategy, says Marshall Ganz, is about turning \u201cwhat you have\u201d into \u201cwhat you need\u201d to get \u201cwhat you want.\u201d I want us to focus on the what we want part of that, not all the reasons we can\u2019t get there. Because, in the immortal words from South Pacific, \u201cif you don\u2019t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true.\u201d So let\u2019s imagine a country that works for all of us. Who\u2019s to say it can\u2019t be done?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Naomi Klein writes, \u201cThe coronavirus has already ushered in changes few imagined or foretold just a few months ago. Entire high-carbon, high-consumption industries are on their knees: cruise ships, airlines, fashion. The Movement for Black Lives has redrawn the political map, and nurses are local heroes. If this isn\u2019t the time to advance a vision of the world governed by radically more humane and inclusive values, when is?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This. This is the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m going to show you a 9-minute film called \u201cA Message From the Future II: The Years of Repair.\u201d The film features the art of Molly Crabapple, with the political storytelling of Naomi Klein, Avi Lewis, and Opal Tometi. The cast of narrators includes Tometi, Emma Thompson, Gael Garc\u00eda Bernal, and the Nigerian poet and activist Nnimmo Bassey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ll watch this film and then do some imagining ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n