Ingathering Sermon 2002

The last thing I did this summer was work as ‘minister of the week’ at Star Island, a beautiful, very special retreat off the coast of Portsmough NH. I’ll tell you more about it in another sermon, but I can’t help but start by referring to it because it was such a rich experience and because water is such a constant presence on the island. Fresh water is scarce and so carefully regulated, and salt water is abundant and used for almost everything except showers and drinking water. Because the ecology of the island is delicate, staying there is an experience in intentional, environmental living that feels really good—for once, we are all living as gently on the earth as we might wish. And we are doing it together, like-minded people being mindful and sharing rules and responsibilities to keep each other and that precious, beautiful island, safe.

The flow of life is visible around you everywhere, and audible in the waves you hear from almost everywhere on the island. The sense of being in a time outside of time, in a time of living right together, is what folks there ‘the spirit of Star Island.’ And the spirit endures like a most-beloved holiday, and renews you for the task of living. It’s a concentrated dose of what a faith community is all about, and a lot like being here, together now, except instead of a few hours, it lasts 6 days straight. The water, the community, the renewal, are a lot of what today and our new church year are about, and make for a poignant reminder of what a village a congregation can really be.

Perhaps not everyone in this, our village of UUCSS, knows it, but we’ve just begun the month of Tishrei, and that means something special. “Rosh Hashanah.” The “New Year” is beginning. For Jews, this is January 1st. At this time in the Jewish calendar, people wish each other “La shanah tovah,” which means “a good new year.” It’s a wish, a benediction, a blessing, like all the others we toss around without noticing much: good morning, good night, and our own ‘happy new year.’

Rosh Hashanah is referred to in the bible as the day of remembrance of creation—it’s held traditionally to be the anniversary of creation, the birthday of all. It’s a birthday everyone shares, all of us, all our ancestors and the grass outside and trees and stones and sky and the animals and all their ancestors.

Rosh Hashanah is an upbeat holiday with celebration and special foods: round challah instead of the usual long ones Round challah is hopeful bread; it symbolizes the unending cycles of life, dipped in honey or else apples in honey, in honor of the sweet, fresh new year beginning. People wear new clothes and gather in festive parties of families and friends to welcome in the new year. Candles are lit with a special blessing: Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam, sheh’heh’cheyanu, vekiye’manu, vehigi’ya’nu lazman hazeh. “Blessed be the creator, sovereign in the universe, who has given us life and sustained us and has brought us to this day.”

Rosh Hashanah is followed by the ten Days of Awe, so called because they are a time of reckoning, for getting right with oneself and loved ones and the world, making sure we are starting the new year with a clean slate. It’s a time for apology. Many people, myself included, call our loved ones and apologize for anything we’ve done to hurt or wrong them and ask their forgiveness. According to Jewish tradition, forgiveness is not incumbent upon anyone unless it is sought by the wrongdoer. And even then, it’s a free choice. We can refuse our forgiveness. In very traditional people, forgiveness may be refused three times, and then the wrongdoer can involve the rabbi on their behalf, but the wronged can still refuse, even the rabbi. And if all is not right with the world on the mortal plane, if slates have not been cleaned between people, God has no power to intervene or absolve or forgive. Divine forgiveness is contingent upon human forgiveness.

At the end of the Days of Awe is Yom Kippur, the day when judgements are made, decisions final, when if you haven’t made things right by then, you’re risking it all. Jews speak of being written, at Yom Kippur, into the book of life for another year - or not, depending on how things go, and a lot of how things go depends on what people themselves do, change, repair, renew, end and begin.

My grandmother used to bake a special apple cake at this time each year, called ‘Rachmones.’ This is a Yiddish version of the Hebrew word for ‘mercy’. She didn’t call it rachmones for theological reasons. It was an actual, tangible mercy, for her household of males came home from the synagogue ravenous from the day of fasting for Yom Kippur and her apple cake, by gum, was as merciful as any blessing, any judgment ever was by the time they got to it.

Forgiveness is a deceptively difficult concept on any level, from the interpersonal to the world stage. Whether you agree with the Jewish model that it must begin with the wrongdoer seeking forgiveness, forgiveness is unlike most human emotions in a crucial way. It generally can’t be faked, and on all levels, from the interpersonal to the world stage, there’s no point in faking it. If we cannot forgive something, it will show, whether we want it to or not. If we cannot forgive something or someone, others deserve to know, especially the unforgiven. And not all deeds are forgivable. Not all should be forgivable—if nothing is beyond the pale, then nothing is really so bad, is it?

But the new year, our new church year, is a good time to check in with ourselves, with those we love or share a part of our lives and see if we are living as we wish. On a personal level, the themes of the Jewish New Year are worth some reflection. And don’t we all wish, maybe more fervently than ever, as we move to within days of September 11th’s first anniversary, for a happy, a good new year, and not only from me to you or us to our neighbors, but please powers that be, and world leaders, a good new year for the world.

Round challot and apple cake and the water that flows in the world and at this service - so much serves to remind us of how connected we are to this world and to each other, how life depends on itself to endure. And with all this essential interdependence isn’t it essential also to have such religious and worldly concepts as forgiveness and mercy and starting again. Despite the flaws inherent in each of us, and in this extraordinary, riven world we share, we are all free to start again, and again, and again, to call others to join us, to ask and offer forgiveness, to rejoice in a new year together, and to do better this year, to do better every year. Rachmones, mercy, it is as powerful and good as any blessing on earth.

It is good to be together. Happy New Year.