This page was updated 03/10/2008

The Rev’d Dr. Jay E. Abernathy, Jr.
UU Congregation of Fort Wayne, IN
January 20, 2008

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. (Noble Peace prize acceptance speech)

If manufacturers are concerned only in their personal interests they will pass by on the other side while thousands of working people are stripped of their jobs or left displaced on some Jericho Road [the reference is to the Parable of the Good Samaritan"] as a result of automation and they will judge every move toward a better distribution of wealth and a better life for working people to be socialistic.

If whites are concerned only about their race, they will casually pass by blacks who have been robbed of their personhood, stripped of their sense of dignity and left dying on some wayside road. (sermon, "Strength To Love")

In the spirit of prayer as deep conversation with our values, we pray

For courage, to be more tolerant: for love, to over come our fears, and for

Joy to bring to the welcome table where we join with others in communion.

This holiday marks the turning point in our fear and hatred regarding others.

On this day we remember a man who taught love and hope in his life.

May we too bring peace, hope, and love to others, even the stranger. AMEN.

Truth and love, two terms you are probably not surprised to hear mentioned in a minister's sermon. But unarmed and unconditional?—they are two adjectives we seldom hear these days. What in the world is King doing here? Is he dreaming, for we know he had a powerful dream? Is he using hyperbole, as Black Preachers do? Or is he at best naïve, at worst a tool of communists (as he noted, tongue in cheek, trying to weaken these United States, foment internal rebellion, and destroy our traditional values?

As time passes, we forget the magnitude of King's role in the events of the Fifties and Sixties. 1968 was a long time ago, and America has gone through much since then. We are not the nation of dreamers we were then, nor have we the same sense of moral outrage and political will. We undertook no less than a redefinition of America, and we failed.

Yes, we failed. Relentlessly the Presidential elections since Reagan (and I include Clinton in this sad litany) confirm this with no room for quibbling. It is not that we did not succeed in some areas. Nor is it even that we did not succeed in making some structural and cultural changes that will continue for some time, perhaps for the foreseeable future. But the great goal has been compromised at best, while the minor successes have begun to fade into history—history, due to our cultural attention span, being anything that happened since we last bought a new car, got a new job, or began a new fad.

These words are from the sermon "Strength To Love" that I read earlier. They call us to a sense of identity wider than our race, our nation, our tribe, class, or neighborhood—even wider than our religion. And these days they are widely and, for the most part, deliberately ignored, if not laughed out of the conversation. Yet I am convinced that King’s sermon is about religious strength, the strength to stretch one's self-identity, one's affiliation, one's commitment to issues and associations wider than those one inherited. This takes a kind of faith, a kind of courage, and a kind of love—all tied together in no other social and personal experience, that I know, except religion.

And so we come round to why King used those very uncompromising, even threatening, words: unarmed and unconditional. We know that Truth (with a capital T) is unarmed, that is, that it does not contest life with hypocrisy, dishonesty, fraud, not even "putting to a positive spin on things." No, Truth is very simple, straight forward, and blunt. Truth is.

Love (again, with a capital L), too, is handicapped in the contest of wills with those who are willing to try any means to reach their goal. But I believe King was trying to get at the same point we UUs worked so hard (for years, really) to put into words in our Principles and Purposes. They say that we "covenant to affirm and promote: The inherent worth and dignity of every person;..." This is what King meant by unconditional love.

Here is story, told by the Unitarian Universalist minister turned author Robert Fulghum about his best-seller.

Sex... [and he goes on]. Crime… [and he goes on].

Power…. Skills.... Death... [and he goes on].

What do I know now? ... [and he goes on until he says,]

Here's the tough part of what I know now: that the lessons of kindergarten are hard to practice if they don't [also] apply to you. It is hard to share everything and play fair if you don't have anything to share and life is itself unjust. I think of the children of this earth who see the world through barbed wire, who live in a filthy rubbled mess not of their own making and that they can never clean up. They do not wash their hands before they eat. There is no water. Or soap. And some do not have hands to wash. They do not know about warm cookies and cold milk, only stale scraps and hunger. They have no blankie to wrap themselves in, and do not take naps because it is too dangerous to close their eyes.

Theirs is not the kindergarten of finger paint and nursery rhymes, but an X-rated school of harsh dailiness. Their teachers are not sweet women who care, but the indifferent instructors like Pain, Fear, and Misery. Like all children everywhere, they tell stories of monsters.. Theirs are real—what they have seen with their own eyes. In broad daylight. We do not want to know what they have learned. [repeat]

He’s right. The line between good and evil, hope and despair, doesn’t divide the world between "us" and "them." It runs down the middle of every one of us. If we keep thinking other people are evil, responsible for all the bad things in the world, then we shall never make this world better.

I do not want to talk about what you understand about this world. I want to know what you will do about it. I do not want to know what you hope. I want to know what you will work for. I do not want your sympathy for the needs of humanity. I want your muscle. As the wagon driver said when they came to a long, hard hill, "Them that's going on with us, get out and push. Them that ain't, get out of the way."

There is both Unarmed Truth and Unconditional Love in Bob’s story. Unconditional Love is not some naive and sentimental emotion that makes us all gooey eyed and silly acting. Unarmed Truth gives love a hard edge: "Them that's going on with us, get out and push. Them that ain't, get out of the way."

Love makes demands on us; sometimes we have to get out and push. Sometimes we have to get out of our easy chair, or off our high horse, and do some of the dirty work of living: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, bringing shelter to the homeless, freeing the captive.

Unarmed Truth and Unconditional Love are not easy goals. We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of believing that (if our thoughts are pure and noble, and that we do not in any obvious way enslave our fellow human beings or wear fur coats)—that we are nice and good people. This is pure hooey! I invite you to put "Unarmed Truth and Unconditional Love" on your agenda, mark out a few hours each week on your schedule and practice both—not at home, not in your will (although that's okay), not in voting for a particular party or candidate. No, I invite you to put on your work clothes, roll up your sleeves, and spend a few hours with your brothers and sisters who need your help far more than your advice, your strength far more than your money, your support far more than your political correctness.

It is a daunting challenge, this goal of Unarmed Truth and Unconditional Love, this idea of the inherent dignity and worth of every individual. It is not for everyone. But I believe it is the way to a more peaceful and just future for everyone and everything. I believe it is the way to a more fulfilled individual life, richer in meaning and purpose, and in satisfaction and joy (far more than life's material things can furnish). Truth is unarmed but mighty. Love, real love, is unconditional but is expressed in the conditions and situations of our lives. May we live both Truth and Love to the fullest extent possible.

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