By Rabbi David. A Mersky, D.D.
(Text of sermon from May 15, 2016)
Good Morning!
I am humbled, filled with gratitude and awe to stand in this place on this day at this hour. I have been here many times before, but always as the rabbi of the Class of 1965 gathered with my classmates to begin our reunion with an hour remembering our deceased brothers and sisters. Today, through the generosity of spirit of the clergy, leaders and members of this wonderful congregation, I am here in my own right.
Until our most recent reunion, not quite a year ago, I stood here with our erstwhile classmate, Peter Gomes who graduated Bates in 1965 and ever after welcomed us to this church ebulliently—did Peter ever do it any other way? He embraced us as his classmates considering himself—as we cherished him—one of us.
When we were younger, and Peter called us to worship, we gathered to celebrate our individual and collective accomplishments even as we remembered those who had died too soon.
As we have grown older, as my friend and classmate, Maria Tymoczko has taught us,
We come to look at the photographs of [our youth] with wonder…We see the events of our past—public and private—on the wide screen, panoramic, or viewed
from the wrong end of the telescope, small and discrete and remote.
Maria’s words ask, “How do we view our shared past?” “How do changes in our perspective inform our aspirations and hopes for the future?” In the context of a memorial service, we reflect, whether we like it or not, that one day, we, too, will become part of our family’s, community’s and people’s past. The task of identifying the values of our past—that inform our hope for the future—is a question for now—the present. As we look backward and forward, we pray that we might create and embrace a present which will become a past worthy of remembering.
This morning, as we read in Acts, we “dream dreams, and our children and grandchildren see visions of the future.” And, in the context of Pentecost and its meanings in our faith traditions, I want to explore an academic as well as two religious perspectives that inform our understanding of leadership, leadership that each of us must provide to achieve a bold vision for the future—a reconciled humanity.
Zeh ha-yom ‘asah Adonai—this is the day that God has made. In the Christian calendar, this is Whitsunday—Pentecost—the day that marks when the church was first gathered.
Pentecost, however, has much earlier roots. It was in fact one of the three great pilgrimage festivals when Jews were commanded to arise from wherever they dwelled whether in the Land of Israel or in the Diaspora and come to the “place which God will choose to make the divine name dwell,” as we read a few moments ago in the passage from Deuteronomy. We make Aliyah—we come up to Jerusalem for the Festival of First Fruits—Chag ha-Bikkurim, also known as the Feast of Weeks—Shavuot.
For Jews, every pagan festival such as First Fruits which the people observed was overlaid by the rabbis of old with a historic, religious motif. In the case of Shavuot—the Feast of Weeks—fifty days after the observance of Passover—the event that it marked was the revelation at Sinai—z’man matan torateinu—the time of the giving of Torah—the Ketubah or wedding contract that marked the covenantal union between God and the Jewish people. Those who stood at Sinai were the—erev rav—the mixed-multitude of former slaves who were redeemed from Egypt by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. They would soon commence a clarifying, soul searing experience of wandering in the wilderness for forty years. But now, standing at the base of Sinai, when Moses descended with the Tablets of the Covenant—the essence of the Torah—they became B’nai Yisrael—the Children of Israel—the ones who wrestle with God. And the first fruits that they brought to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer to God—grains and olive oil which sustain abundant life—were linked to the words of Torah and eternal values which ennoble life through spiritual union with God.
On Pentecost—fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, we read in the second chapter of Acts of the Apostles that the spirit of God descended on the 120 followers of Jesus who started speaking out loud in languages from around the world. Such a commotion ensued that thousands who were in Jerusalem at the time—marking the pilgrimage of Shavuot— the Feast of Weeks—came out to see what was happening. In the front of this gathering crowd, Peter spoke the first gospel message and succeeded in converting 3,000 who “were added to their number that day.” On Pentecost, the Church was born.
What was Peter’s powerful message? Well, it was not an original one. In fact, it may have preceded Peter and that first Pentecost by more than 900 years—depending upon where you come down in the argument about the dating of the Prophet Joel—the second of the twelve minor prophets in the Bible. The core message of that first Gospel—that bit of Good News—comes directly from the opening verses of the third chapter of Joel.
In Acts 2:17 which was read earlier, Luke, the author of Acts, has Peter quote Joel 3:1, And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
In this text, Joel promises something in addition to the material blessing that God would bestow upon the people for their obedience and faith. Now, according to Joel, prophecy—heretofore a gift that was the domain of the few—will be the possession of all. This promise was a clear characteristic of the Messianic age. No wonder Luke put these words in Peter’s mouth!
But, we have a problem. Peter “misquotes” Joel. In the original Hebrew, the text is reversed in the “b” part of the verse. In Acts as I just read, young men’s visions precede old men’s dreams. However, in the Biblical verse, Joel, the prophet says, “your elders shall dream dreams and your youth shall see visions.”
What is the significance of this reversal? For Joel, the dreams of the elderly inform the yet to be defined visions of the young. Joel foresees a future of a reconciled humanity rooted in the values of the covenant between God and Israel. Peter, on the other hand, places the vision of the young as primary—looking forward not backwards. For Peter and the new church, the past was not yet so important.
For Joel, as people from all over the world gathered in Jerusalem for the pilgrimage to worship God and bring the offering of the First Fruits, the revelation at Sinai is recalled and celebrated.
For Peter, the vision of the future was the focus.
Joel and Peter shared a vision of a world of a reconciled humanity in which God said “I will pour out [My] spirit upon all flesh,” from opposite points of view.
Now let’s bring three other perspectives to bear upon this shared vision of the future.
Diana Eck, well-known to this congregation, offers a contemporary, academic view that a reconciled humanity depends upon religious pluralism requiring a special form of leadership.
According to Professor Eck, religious pluralism has these characteristics.
First is the “energetic encounter with diversity.” But diversity alone is not pluralism; how diversity is employed is the essential element. Unless different groups and individuals have meaningful encounters with one another, each is living within its own bubble, siloed, as it were, a condition that easily leads to isolation, misunderstanding and tension and all too often, conflict and struggle.
Second, an “active seeking of understanding across lines of difference,” distinguishes pluralism from tolerance. In Professor Eck’s view while tolerance is a “necessary public virtue” it does not require that the different groups know about each other. Tolerance does “nothing to remove our ignorance of one another, and leaves in place the stereotype, the half-truth, the fears that underlie old patterns of division and
violence.” Instead knowledge of each other has the potential to create understanding and some common ground.
Third is the “encounter of commitments” in which people bring their own identities and beliefs to encounters and are adept at seeking to understand other people’s different approaches.
Finally, the “language of pluralism is rooted in dialogue and encounter, give and take, criticism and self-criticism. Dialogue means both speaking and listening, and that process reveals both common understanding and real differences.”
Now, for the second perspective—this time from a religious point of view, I want to share with you the Jewish concept and practice of Mussar. The word Mussar itself means correction or instruction and also serves as the modern Hebrew word for ethics. But, Mussar is more accurately described as a way of life. It shines on the causes of suffering— and shows us how to realize our highest spiritual potential including an everyday experience infused with happiness, trust and love. Mussar provides us with both a spiritual perspective and a discipline of transformative practices.
There are three stages of Mussar practice that echo the teachings about religious pluralism of Professor Eck.
- First is sensitivity. This requires that we heighten our self-awareness and become increasingly sensitive to what operates within us as well as how we are motivated to think—say—and do the things that we do.
- The second stage is self-restraint. Once we are aware of our behavioral patterns, we need to try to rein in potentially damaging behavior and push ourselves to engage in nurturing behavior that may be lacking.
- The third stage is transformation. Through self-awareness and through self-restraint, we must recognize and reform problematic traits so thoroughly at their root that they no longer stand as a barrier to the way we lead our lives.
Finally, I want to share with you one more religious tradition for our consideration this morning. Ignatius of Loyola founded the “Company”—the Society of Jesus. He taught that there is a conscious, stated link between self-awareness and leadership. We perform our best, he wrote, in supportive, encouraging and positively charged environments filled with “greater love than fear.” The Jesuits’ principles address one’s whole life and not merely one’s work life. They make our work better because they make us better.
The principles are deeply rooted in the idea that we are all leaders and that our whole lives are filled with leadership opportunities. Let me say that again. Jesuits assert—and it is core to their belief-system—that everyone is a leader. Thus, we are all born with the capacity to be leaders, ever in need of improvement and refinement that evolve as we live, learn, grow and gain wisdom.
Look around, see the world we inhabit. What often passes for leadership today is a shallow substitution of technique for substance. The Jesuits, on the other hand, eschewed a flashy leadership style and focused instead on engendering four unique values that created substance. These pillars of success are
- Self-awareness,
- Ingenuity,
- Love, and
- Heroism.
Jesuits equipped their followers to succeed by molding them into leaders who
- understood their individual strengths, weaknesses, values, and world view;
- confidently innovated and adapted to embrace a changing world;
- engaged others with a positive, loving attitude;
- and energized themselves and others through heroic ambitions.
For Dianna Eck and those who engage in The Pluralism Project here at Harvard, for the spiritual perspective and discipline of transformative practices of the adherents and practitioners of Mussar, for the four pillars of universal leadership taught by the Jesuits the followers of Ignatius of Loyola, for each of these, self-awareness is the ‘ikar—the essential, core principle to committed and fulfilled engagement with the world — and to greater, more heroic leadership.
Genuine, innate leadership focuses on the possible, the future. It is informed by the gift of the Torah at Mount Sinai and the first gathering of the Church in Jerusalem.
Genuine, innate leadership, like the gift of prophecy that Joel promised nearly 3,000 years ago, is accessible to—indeed required of—each and every one of us. But in a world where everyone can lead, it requires a collective effort where we stay in touch through the encounter with the other.
When we model this kind of heroic leadership, it shows others the realm of the possible. It distinguishes us from those who aspire to lead, but as the false messiahs of every age, may lack self-awareness and surely self-restraint.
There are among us those who seek to lead, whose ambitions drive them to attain the highest office in the land. Their strident voices fill the land as they create environments of greater fear and anger than love. We can only hope that they might be imbued with the dreams of the past and the visions of possibility for our collective future. We can pray that they might become increasingly, quietly self-aware and self-restrained. We can lead them through our own exemplary behavior to encounter diversity, seek understanding across differences, and dialogue and encounter, speak and listen, give and take, be constructively critical and self-critical. Then God’s spirit will be poured out on all flesh and a world of reconciliation will come to fruition.
Benediction
If this moment comes to remind us to spend life wisely, not to squander it, then, let this moment also enjoin each of us to hold the world tight—as sensitive, self-aware leaders, exhibiting self-restraint.
Let us embrace life with all our hearts and all our souls and all our might.
For life is precious, inestimably treasured, and we tend to be wantonly careless of it. Let this moment call us to hold onto life and all whom we love with relaxed hands and open arms.
And so, as we take our leave of this sacred, special space, as we look to the past with a new perspective, and dream dreams, and go forward with a renewed spirit of the vision of a reconciled humanity, let us transform the world and those with whom we share it to a world of peace and not pain, to a world of love and not hate, to a world where we can structure a present which will become a past worthy of remembering.