Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, Oregon

"The Courage to Live Life"

Sunday, November 30, 2008
by Rev. Sarah Schurr

The UU Church in Knoxville Tennessee was visited on July 27^th 2008, by Jim Adkisson, a gunman who opened fire on members of the congregation. This occurred while they were performing a children’s musical. Many in attendance were injured, some badly, by the time church members wrestled the shooter to the ground and held him until police arrived. Two people died of their wounds. It seems that the gunman was a man who was violent and angry by history and lately he had trouble finding a job. He was angry at the liberals for ruining our country and felt the need to put his feelings into this senseless action.

You know, there are times when a minister must put aside usual sermon topics, and preach about that which life presents, to try to help the congregation make sense out of things that frighten or anger or confuse. Anger, confusion and fear may well have been in the heart of Jim Adkisson, the man with the gun. But today I want to talk about another player in this story: Greg McKendry. Greg was an usher in the church that day and was a board member of the church. When the gunman began his rampage, Greg McKendry was the first to try to stop him. Many witnesses have stated that they saw Greg stand in front of the gun blast to protect those who were behind him. He used his body was a shield to guard others in the sanctuary and was killed in the process. The night of the tragedy I was telling this story to my husband as we took an evening walk and he said, “ Wow, We can only hope we could have that kind of courage in that situation”.

Courage. Bravery. These are the characteristic used to describe a hero. A hero, someone who risks his or her own life and safety, who goes beyond what is expected, for the greater good. Thinking of my conversation with my husband that night I ask, “how do we find and call on those brave and heroic parts of ourselves?” Many of the people in that Knoxville church were heroes, living out our UU values in a really bad situation. When the gunman paused to reload, people in the church took their chance to overpower him. The Knoxville Congregation tackled the gunman and held him down until the police arrived. The news reports do not say they got the gun away from him and then shot him. They do not say that some possible congregant who had carried a concealed weapon with him to church that day used it to stop the shooter. Reports indicate that Jim Adkisson, the gunman, expected to die in his rampage. He had left a note in his car explaining his motives of punishing the liberals. He came there to die, and to take a few of us out first. But the people of that Unitarian Universalist congregation didn’t kill him. They held him, keeping him and others alive, until the police came. Their regard for his life and their regard for themselves as rational and peaceable people marked the way this community behaved. Not on a well thought out philosophical level, but when folks were acting on adrenalin and instinct. Regard for human life was built in for these people of faith and this UU community.

This compassion reminds me a bit of the reaction of the Amish community after the terrible shooting that racked their community two years ago. In an extraordinary act of strong and heroic compassion the families of victim sent comfort to the family of the perpetrator, knowing they grieved the loss of a loved one as well. Amazing. I once knew a UU family who did reach out to the drunk driver who had killed their child. They built a relationship with that man, and by doing this, helped the drunk driver seek help and simultaneously helped themselves move past the hate and anger to a place of greater wholeness. I think that their relationship with the person whose irresponsible behavior caused the death of their child took a great deal of courage. It is not the easy road or the expected one. But it is consistent with our UU values, of working toward a world of justice rather than a world of blind retribution. It is a path of heroism.

News headlines are filled with stories of heroes, if you are open to the inspiration. We all heard accounts of people in the World Trade Center on 9-11 who risked their lives to help evacuate strangers on the stairwells or those in the plane that went down in Pennsylvania who overpowered the hijackers before they could destroy another building full thousands of innocent people.

I also find inspiration in stories of the civil unrest in Central America where Liberation Theology provides grounding for heroism. At the radical edge of Catholic theology, Liberation Theologians believe it is the role of the church to give preferential treatment to the poor and oppressed and that this is to truly live the teachings of Jesus. These are people who are living their religious faith and their faith calls on them to take great risks. This theology put them at odds with the ruling Central American governments, as well as the Vatican, on many occasions. One the great heroes, one of the great martyrs of the Liberation Theology movement, was Archbishop Oscar Romero. In the 1970’s he served as Archbishop of El Salvador. When he was chosen Archbishop, he was not expected to be much of a radical, but he was horrified at the way priests and nuns who were fighting for the poor were being persecuted and even killed by local leaders. He became an outspoken advocate for the poor and against the status quo. Romero taught that we all needed to do what we can to fight injustice. He soon became the target of those in power. Romero was killed by a shot from Salvadorian death squads on March 24, 1980 while celebrating a funeral Mass for the mother of an outspoken challenger to the government. The shots were fired at the end of a sermon calling on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God's higher order and to stop carrying out the government's repression and violation of basic human rights. According to an audio-recording of the Mass, he was shot moments after the homily, which he had concluded with a prayer thanking God. When he was shot, his blood spilled over the altar. Romero knew that he was a likely target for the death squads, but he believed he had dedicated his life to God’s work and his fear of death would not stop him from doing what needed to be done.

You may be thinking, “But I couldn’t do that. I’d be afraid.” Fear is a good thing. It is part of a healthy survival mechanism and helps us not walk out in traffic or step too close to edge of a trail on Mt. Hood. Early humans who did not fear the saber tooth tiger did not live to reproduce. The capacity for fear is part of how we are made, as humans. But we can temper fear with courage. Sometimes we think of courageous people as people who have no fear in the face of danger. Dictionary.com defines courage as “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, and pain with out fear.” Aristotle said, “the courageous man will be one who is fearless in the face of an honorable death.” But I once heard a family doctor give the best definition of courage I have ever come across. As he was about to give a kid his shots he said “Being brave doesn’t mean you aren’t scared. Being brave means that sometimes, even if you are scared, you do it anyway.” I think shots were not the only thing that little guy was given that day. He also got a lesson in how to manage his fears and to do what needs to be done. He was taught about real courage. It has been said that courage is the greatest of all virtues in that it is courage that allows us to go out and act with compassion and trustworthiness in the world.

Not all stories of heroes have to do with human violence against other humans. Sometimes a hero is someone who can lead folks through a difficult time. Ernest Shakelton was a decorated explorer of the South Pole. Shakelton and 33 men set out in the ship named “Endurance” (a fitting name to remember, Endurance) They hoped to cross the south pole but they had unexpected bad luck. Their ship became lodged between two pieces of ice and was crushed. The expedition had to survive by traveling on foot. Shakelton’s extraordinary leadership skills saved his men. They called him, “The Boss”. At one point he told his men that to travel across the Antarctic ice, they needed to carry only the barest essentials in order to survive. And then Shakelton walked over to an open spot on the ice and deposited a hand full of gold coins and the medal awarded to him for deeds in a past heroic polar expedition. He encouraged his men to add to the pile. Things that they should let go, because they were useless out there in the cold and ice. The men lined up and the pile began to grow. One man went to add his banjo to the pile and Shakelton stopped him and said, “No, we are going to need that” and sure enough, on some of those cold nights the music they made together kept them sane and alive. Shakelton kept the men busy with games and contests as they faced the cold and endless miles of ice. He fostered a spirit of community. At one point they had to split up, Shakelton and a small group took a treacherous journey over mountains to find help while others stayed at camp along the uncharted Ocean coast. The camp group waited for nearly a year before they were rescued, but they never gave up hope. When Shakelton finally returned with boats to save those in the camp, their response was that they knew he would not leave them. They had faith that The Boss would bring help. His fair and consistent leadership kept them alive and hopeful and kept them from dissolving into anarchy and despair.

But where do these heroes come from? How can we be brave and step forward when a hero is needed. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel more like a frightened rabbit than a brave knight. How can I be brave and make the world a better place? How can I find my inner hero when she is needed? I think this is part of what our UU faith is for. To encourage us to be our best selves and to live a life of integrity. Our seven principles include phrases that point us in the right direction. We affirm that it is important to work for a world of justice, equity and compassion in human relations and the inherent dignity of every person. These principles tell us other important things as well. One, that everyone we meet is important and deserves justice and compassion. No person is a throw away person. Everyone’s life matters. But what goes along with that is that we matter. Each of us. Our life matters. We have worth. We have dignity. We don’t need to feel powerless, leaving heroics to others. Where some theologies are based on the idea that we need to confess to God about our unworthiness, we Unitarian Universalists gather as people of faith to affirm our worth and to assume the responsibilities that go along with that worth. This spirit fueled our historic Unitarian and Universalist heroes, like Dorothea Dix, going into attics and prisons to liberate the mentally ill and see them placed in modern hospitals and Theodore Parker who hid run away slaves in the church building.

Unitarian Universalism has a perspective on human life that can inspire us to be our best self. One of my favorite bits of wisdom comes from Unitarian writer, Henry David Thoreau. I overlook the gendered language, given his time. A portion of the essay goes like this, “We must learn to awaken and keep ourselves awake by the infinite expectations of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep; for we are encouraged that a man can elevate his life by his own conscious endeavors…I wish to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life. I wish to learn what life has to teach, and not, when I come to die , discover that I have not lived. I do not wish to live what is not life, living is so dear”. I just love that last line, “I do not wish to live what is not life, living is so dear”. To live that which truly is life, may call on us to find the courage to rise to a challenge. In day to day life it may challenge on us to call that co-worker on their racist jokes or to look a homeless person in the eye and answer them when they ask for your spare change, saying you won’t give them money but you can give them your sandwich.

Most UU’s believe that we have only this one life. Few believe in the afterlife of a traditional heaven. We have generally been called on to bring about heaven on earth with the time we have on this planet. It is our one chance – our human lifespan. Those of us who believe in God are likely to see us, as UU President Bill Sinkford describes us, “God’s only hands on earth.” If someone is going to save the day, it is not going to be a celestial force who swoops down from the sky. It will be the bit of divine holiness that we all have inside of us that comes shining forth. Through the sacred power we all contain, we can all be the ones who save the day. We are called to use our time and our hands and our inspiration the best we can. I think that is why we so often hear the words of poet, Mary Oliver, in our worship services when she says, “Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

And yes, there is death. I also believe that the UU perspective on death can inspire the heroic in us and help us to be our best selves. Unitarian Universalists draw from a number of sources of religious wisdom. One of these sources is the spiritual tradition of Buddhism. The Buddhist teachers have this to tell us about our life and our death. “I am of the nature to grow old. There is not way to escape growing old. I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health. I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death. All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them. My good deeds are my only true belongings. My actions are the ground upon which I stand”

The great UU Theologian, The Rev. Forrest Church, is currently at the end of his life, dying of cancer. But he has written about life and death for many years and his words have resonated with many. He has recently published a book called “Love and Death. In this book he says, “when I was young, I thought death took courage. I was wrong. Dying may take courage but death requires little courage at all. It is love that requires courage”. He is a wise man. I often call on these words of Forrest Church some of my favorite religious wisdom, "Religion is our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die.” “Death is not life’s goal, only life’s terminus. The goal is to live in such a way that our lives will prove worth dying for.” To live a life worth dying for… that is our challenge. That is our call. To leave behind actions and memories that give our life meaning, which can really be the ground on which all our life stands. This is a call to live a life of courage and to find the hero inside of us, our best self who can, like Spiderman swinging in on a web or the Cavalry riding over the hill, make a surprise appearance when the going gets really tough. Our best and most heroic self.

Our Unitarian Universalist churches have an important job to do, and we, members and leaders, are the ones to see that it gets done. Some folks worry that other UU churches might be targets of violence in the future. Standing up for what we believe, in a public way, draws attention to us. But it also makes us a church worth belonging to. We have to continue to stand up and do what is right. We need to bravely bear witness to our beliefs and values. The week after the shooting in the Knoxville Church, Rev. Bill Sinkford said, "It will take time for Unitarian Universalists to mourn and to heal. But let me assure you that we will not change our beliefs or compromise our demands for social justice. Fear will not prevent us from standing on the side of love, and we will continue to open our doors and our hearts to all people.   This Sunday, just like any other, more than one thousand Unitarian Universalist congregations will be open for business, and our business is to welcome the stranger, to love our neighbor, to nurture the spirits of our people, and to help heal our wounded world."

I began this sermon talking about Greg McKendry, the man who was shot as he tried to save others. Looking deeper into the life of this man we find evidence of other acts of courage and compassion. For instance, Greg was a foster parent. This is what his young foster son said about him on the day of his death. "Make sure everyone knows that Greg McKendry was a hero, a total hero," May we all be aware of the total hero deep inside of us. That hero is needed to make a better world. May it be so, today and always.