Living
and Dying with Reverence
Rev.
LoraKim Joyner, DVM
January
25, 2015
Service
at the First Religious Society – Unitarian Universalist
of Newburyport, Massachusetts
In this service I lift up the
teachings of Albert Schweitzer’s Reverence for Life Ethic and how it can be
applied to the First Principle Project and the challenges of living in a
multispecies world.
Sermon:
Let
us imagine a family of humans walking along a road. A daughter walks slightly
in front and her mother gently and fondly holds her hand. Across the street
walks another family, a pair of chimpanzees. There too a mother holds with
affection her daughter’s hand.
Now
imagine that the human mother reaches behind her and takes the hand of her
mother, so now they are 3 – grandmother, mother, and daughter. On the other side of the road the chimpanzees
do the same. Then each grandmother takes her free hand and grabs the hand of
her mother, who takes the hand of her mother, for generation upon
generation. On each side of the road is
a very long line of great apes, spanning hundreds of thousands of years.
Then
something very special happens. The two lines begin to converge, they get
closer and closer together, until there is only a line separating them, and
then this line disappears and terminates into the hands of the shared ancestral
grandmother of both humans and chimpanzees.
It
is a blessing to see these two lines converging into one. It shows that we all belong to the family of
life on this earth, that we all have inherent worth and dignity, no matter our
species.
To
not reach out and join our hands with others is to say that those who come
after us do not belong, or those before us. It is to distance others from our compassion
and care.
Ultimately,
we become isolated, lonely.
But
we primates only have two hands. It is a
challenge to reach out to the many to welcome them, and to be welcomed. So we
often give up in exasperation or confusion, and we drop the hands of others.
Instead we use our hands to draw lines of separation, on one side are those who
live, and on the other, are those who shall die.
Where
to draw that line between those within the realm of moral concern has
captivated philosophers and ethicists for millennia, and divides many within
the animal well being movement, in which I am deeply embedded. One area in which I work for the benefit of
all species is the First Principle Project, a consortium of UU groups and
congregations that seek to improve the lives of all of us by engaging and
changing the UU Principles. We are
asking how our UU principles might guide us in living in a multispecies world
where science and the changing cultural paradigm tells us that there is no
sharp distinction between human and non. To spark discussion we specifically
are starting with the First Principle - changing it from the inherent worth and
dignity of every person to "every being." The goal is not to diminish the flourishing
of humans, especially those marginalized and oppressed, but to reach out and
grasp the hands (flippers, wings, paws, pseudopods) of others and lift them up
higher into human awareness and compassion.
To symbolize this shared interdependence of well being, the logo of the
First Principle Project is a human hand grasped by a chimpanzee hand
Where
it gets tricky is what we do after the shared ancestral grandmother. How far back
do we grant inherent worth? Does it extend to protoprimates that looked like
rats, fish, invertebrates, or unicellular animals of ancient seas?
Unitarian
Universalists vary as to where to draw the line of having and not having
inherent worth and dignity. Let's try a
little experiment here and see if that variation also exists here. Please look
around and see the other, and see the possible sharing and deepening that is
possible between us.
How many agree that all
humans have inherent worth and dignity?
How many would say that
all great apes, including early humans and pre humans have inherent worth?
How about other highly
intelligent social animals, such, dolphins and whales?
Now let's add other
species of vertebrates who are often smart and social - crows, parrots, other
species of birds, dogs, wolves?
Okay all vertebrates? Cats,
fish, amphibians, reptiles?
How about invertebrates
- such as tool using octopi, worms, insects?
How about trees and
plants? (Albert Schweitzer transplanted trees instead of killing them when
clearing fields)
How about rivers and
mountains, rocks? (Yes, here too Albert Schweitzer
saw reverence. He wrote of caring for ice crystals and said" Respect the
order that is, and do not interfere any more than you have to").
This
stuff makes for some pretty lively arguments, for we bring to it our very deep
love and care for life - ours, and others. There is a lot on the line, and
there is an urgent sense that we get it right. Billions of animals are
suffering every day used in production and situations for human benefit, and we
are losing our wildlife. We are staring not only at their deaths, but also our
own. The task to focus and change who we are can be overwhelming. How do we
have compassion for the many when our biology, evolution, and culture keep
pulling us to turn away from the beauty and worth of the other?
Rev.
Rebecca Parker said,” The task given to us here and now is to do
what we can to advance reverence for life and deepen the promise of love. this
is what congregations are for: to teach
us to give reverent attention to life”. I
like that, for in my experience within Unitarian Universalism, by discussions
and arguments alone we will not reach the Promised Land. We need something more, our lives for life.
Albert
Schweitzer promoted not arguments, but life through reverence when he said, "My
life is my argument." How does reverence help make our lives an argument? What if we used our two hands to not draw
lines, but to bow down before the beauty and grandeur of life? Might we use reverence as a means of leading a
prayerful life as the starting line for an ethical and compassionate life?
Some
have criticized Albert Schweitzer by saying that having reverence for
everything results in a water downed ethic. We risk slipping into relativism
and treat everything the same without using degrees of suffering or our absolute
need as a yard stick for our actions.
We might also dilute reverence when we superficially acknowledge
reverence or worth as permission for our actions. One example I hear often enough is that
reverence means saying a prayer before we kill or use animals, such as the
often cited example in some Native American traditions.
Reverence
is not a rote prayer and cannot be dismissed lightly. Reverence takes study, attention, and
risk. It means taking the time to know
the science, ecology, biology, and behavior of the animal before we act. What is the animal thinking and feeling? It means slowing down to take in deeply the
knowledge that evolution brought them here, and the spirit of life is shining
through them. It means holding in one's heart that your
direct actions and decisions are taking life or causing suffering.
The
order for reverence isn't eat, love, pray.
It's pray, love, and then eat, but as Albert Schweitzer would say, only
if it is absolutely necessary to our lives.
Reverence
also means seeking support so that we can be vulnerable while taking risks, and
failing. This is a new territory we are
asking each other to journey into. Like
our first great ape ancestors when they left the African jungles for the
savannah, we need each other, and like those apes before us, this challenge can
grow our intelligence and emotional capacity of empathy.
With
reverence we do not judge one another for the tragic decisions we all make to
benefit at the expense of another.
Reverence calls us to be present to the inherent worth, benefit, harm,
and death in life. And in this crucible if awareness, we are made
more compassionate, more whole. The
dance of reverence is the two step, life, then death, then life, and the music
is the compassionate decisions that we sing in response to beauty.
This
song is not easy to hear, or to sing, but is life- giving regardless. Each responds to this song of life
differently, and I do as a wildlife veterinarian in Latin America. My work is a spiritual endeavor. To be able
to witness all the tragedy I see in the senseless suffering of parrots and
people, I must truly open to beauty as much as I can. At one time during the Guerilla warfare years
in Guatemala in the 1990s it because too much. I closed off, and had to leave
conservation work for over a decade. I
got better, reverence leading the way so now once again I work in several
countries. Reverence still calls me
mightily to task, such as this past year in Honduras.
I
came right up, for the umpteenth time, to that seemingly impenetrable wall of
harsh reality. Once again I saw most of
the wild parrots there poached illegally from their nests, torn from their
families while still so very young. Once
in captivity they are treated without much knowledge or intention, suffering
and languishing before dying. The people
too lead lives of desperation, seeking a better way while in the throes of
income inequality, drug violence, corruption, and the highest homicide rate in
the world. But the Miskto indigenous
people with whom I work are making a stand, reclaiming their lands and fighting
against poaching.
But
not all of them. One man defied the laws of his country and his village's
collective decision, and continued poaching.
One day he climbed a tall pine tree to take the two wild scarlet macaw
chicks from the nest. He made a mistake while climbing, and fell. He died at the base of the tree, as did one
of the two chicks he fell upon. A cross
and grave stones mark the place where he died, and I visited it with the
villagers one day. They began to cry,
kneel, chant, and pray. Though this man
had gone against their wishes and was threatening their biodiversity, he was still
loved. I was moved, and remembering a
Zuni Pueblo prayer I sing every day at home, I too began to sing:
I
add my breath
To
your breath
That
our days may be long on this earth
That
the days of all beings
May
be-long
Looking
down at one end of the tree was death, but as I craned my neck upward I saw a
beautiful giant of a tree and imagined the family of macaws roosting there in
the years to come. Then I looked back down at the base of the tree and saw this
man’s grandchildren, healthy, playing, and in healthy relationship with the
rainbow birds that fly above them.
He and his kind are responsible for much pain
in my life and the lives of many, but do not let our fear of pain deter us from
love. Out of an awareness of death and
loss, comes life and love, and family arises. We cannot choose who is in our
family, or in the family of life, but we can choose how we interact with those
whom we share our lives and planet. By calling all into the family, we choose
the way of reverence.
This
path is not easy, for to face harm and suffering in this world, especially when
we personally or our species are responsible can paralyze us. Life is too precious to spend it in guilt,
shame, or blame. We need joyful and
compassionate action, saying yes to truth, life, and love.
How
to do so and also solve life’s wicked problems is not clear. None
of us know the exact path that will stop the poaching, save a species and a people,
reverse climate change, or mend a broken relationship. Albert Schweitzer nonetheless invites us to
go forward by becoming a sibling to all who live, suffer, and die. In that relationship of reverence, I am clear
that we can be healed, and can bring our principles to life.
Take courage friends.
The way is often hard, the path is
never clear,
and the stakes are very high.
Take courage.
For deep down, there is another
truth: you are not alone. – Wayne
Arnason
And
are held in beauty and belonging.
Opening
Words
Albert Schweitzer says, "The human spirit is not dead It lives on
in secret. It has come to believe that compassion, in which all ethics must
take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living
creatures and does not limit itself to humankind."
And so we gather today to bring out of secret our
human compassion, and proclaim that spirit is not dead, but lives in the
breadth and depth of this gathered community.
Responsive
Reading #470
Readings
- From Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker
We must learn again to live with reverence.
It is response to life that falls on its knees before the rising
sun and bows down before the mountains.
It puts its palms together
in the presence of the night sky and the myriad galaxies and recognizes as
Langston Hughes told us, “beautiful are the stars, beautiful too are the faces
of my people.”
Reverence greets all humanity as sacred.
It genuflects before the splendor of the grass and the
magnificence of the trees.
It respects the complexity, the beauty and the magnitude of
creation and does not presume to undo its intricate miracles.
Instead, it gives life reverent attention – seeking to know, understand
and cooperate with life’s ways.
Reverence for life has to be learned.
It is not just a feeling – it is a way of life that is manifested
in more than an isolated moment of appreciation for nature or awe before its
destructive as well as creative power.
Reverence involves full-fledged devotion enacted in deeds of care
and responsibility. It involves
knowledge, study and attention.
Reverence
is a form of love that needs to be learned and affirmed. And this is what congregations are for: to teach us to give reverent attention to
life.
The task
given to us here and now is to do what we can to advance reverence for life and
deepen the promise of love.
Hymns: #203 – All Creatures of
the Earth and Sky
#83 - Winds be Still
#6 - Just as Long as I have Breath
Benediction:
We leave here now friends of all, inwardly united
with everything, the secret of life's beautiful interconnection brightly
illuminated with the light of our shared time together. And so our service has now ended, but our
service to the world has just begun. Go in peace and love. (adapted from Albert
Schweitzer)
