Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Emerald Coast
"Blessing the Curse--Even Squirrels!"
Rev. Rod Debs
April 24, 2005

The story of Exodus from Egypt is perhaps the most important in Judaism. When this story was told around Hebrew campfires for hundreds of years before it was written down, everyone joined in on the parts they had memorized. This morning you can join in too. When you hear the name of the hero, Moses, or when something good happens in the story, I invite you to cheer (*) quietly -- the way people who are deaf cheer---like this: shaking their hands. When I say the name of Pharaoh, the villain, and when bad things happen in the story, feel free to hiss ($) too.

The Exodus story: The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt $ working on massive construction projects $. There were so many Hebrew slaves that Pharaoh $ was afraid the Hebrews would rise up in revolution. So Pharaoh $ ordered midwives to kill all baby boys $ born to Hebrew women.

Once upon a time, Moses * was born to a Hebrew woman and hidden in a basket floating in the river. He was discovered by Pharaoh's daughter who adopted Moses * and raised him as her own son in Pharaoh's palace.

When rich Moses * was grown, he saw an Egyptian boss beating a Hebrew slave $. Moses * knew he was a Hebrew; he was so angry at the Egyptian's cruelty $ that he killed the Egyptian boss $ and ran away to the mountain deserts. Moses * became a shepherd and married a herder's daughter *.

One day, Moses * was tending his father-in-law's sheep in the mountains when a bush burst into flame and kept burning and didn't burn up. Moses * heard a voice telling him that his people were suffering in Egypt $ and that he Moses * should go rescue them.

Moses * said, hey, I'm not a good enough talker to do that. The voice from the burning bush told Moses * exactly what to do, and then it said that Moses' brother Aaron would speak for him.

Moses * said, who is this really? The voice in the burning bush refused to give a name, but gave Moses * a riddle: `I am that I am,' `I will be that I will be.' To this day Jews refuse all god-names, because reality is just too awesome and fabulous for names.

There are many Moses stories in the Hebrew Scriptures: The ten plagues, escape from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, water from a rock, manna from heaven, the tent of meeting, the ten covenant commandments. Do you realize that the hero of the Exodus story is someone who murdered a man? I find this really curious that the greatest person in Israelite history and religion was a murderer. Further stories have him complaining and arguing with the voice of god. Once when he was told to hold his staff above a rock to find water, he angrily struck the rock, and for that he was forbidden from entering The Promised Land. He died on a mountain overlooking Palestine.

One might say that Moses had a recurring problem with controlling his anger. And yet, it was he who was chosen at the burning bush to lead the Hebrews out of slavery, through the desert for forty years, and to the Promised Land. It was the angry Moses who received the tablets of the covenant. In fact, the only human to see god and live was Moses, who in his youth murdered the Egyptian.

The Hebrew religion has many flawed heroes like the raging Moses. The question I raise is this: Were they leaders in spite of their flaws? Or were they leaders because of their flaws?

Long before the printing press, when all the scrolls of Torah were hidden away, Hebrew people used to memorize and sing Psalms or chants together. One Psalm goes like this: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the (keystone); This is Yahweh's doing, and we marvel at it. This is the day which Yahweh has made, a day for us to rejoice and be glad.” ( Psalms 118:22-24, NJB)

I don't know if you've ever tried to pile rocks, but if you come across a rock that is shaped funny---no matter how you turn it, it sticks up and can't be laid flat---well, that's the kind of stone you toss aside. But when builders are making an arch, at the very peak of the arch they need a very special stone that points down on the bottom and will fit in between the arching sides; they need a keystone. They need the stone they rejected before, not because it is better than the others, but for the very reason it was most useless before.

I think of the murderer Moses like the stone that the builders threw aside. Moses was able to stand up to Pharaoh and demand, "Let my people go," not because he was more virtuous than other Hebrews. Rather, he directed his rage and his palace-trained arrogance to face down the power of Egypt. And when confronted with the continuous rebelliousness of the Hebrew people, complaining in the desert for forty years, the raging Moses was able to smash the tablets of the covenant, and face down the Hebrew people's worst mutinies. "The stone which the builders rejected has become the keystone."

Here's another Hebrew story: Over three thousand years ago, invaders from Crete called Philistines began building great cities on the Mediterranean Sea coast of Palestine. The Philistines were so technologically advanced that they over-ran the Hebrew herders whenever they expanded inland.

Once upon a time there was an unusually strong Hebrew by the name of Samson. Some Hebrews like Samson believed that if they cut their hair, their god-given strength would be cut off too. So all his life Samson never cut his hair, and sure-enough, Samson grew stronger and stronger and stronger, until he was the champion, the Arnold Swarzenegger of the Hebrews.

But for all his prowess, Samson had a flaw. He was an easy touch for beautiful women. He took a fancy for one particular Philistine woman. Philistine soldiers came to her and threatened to kill her and her family unless she found out the source of Samson's strength for them. So she begged Samson endlessly to no avail. The Philistines burned her home, killing her and her family in it. In revenge Samson went on a rampage killing hundreds of Philistines. No one could injure Samson.

Soon Samson fell in love with another Philistine woman, the beautiful Delilah. This time Philistines offered hundreds and hundreds of silver shekels if Delilah would find out the source of his strength. At first when Delilah asked Samson for his secret, Samson teasingly told her that if he were bound by seven new bowstrings he would be helpless. She tied him up just as he had said, and cried out, "The Philistines are upon you!" When Samson easily broke free, Delilah pouted and whined that Samson had lied to her. Delilah begged to know the secret of his strength, so Samson said if he were bound by seven new ropes he would be helpless. So while he slept Delilah bound him in new ropes, but at the alarm, Samson broke free again. Over and over Delilah cried to know the secret of his strength, but Samson only teased her and kept quiet.

The beautiful Delilah eventually wore Samson down with her appeals. Samson said truly, that if his hair was cut off, he would be as weak as any other man. This time when Samson again awoke in Delilah's bed his head was shaved. When he was immediately attacked by Philistine soldiers, he found himself helpless to resist. The Philistines bound Samson in chains. They gouged out his eyes. They chained Samson as they would oxen to a mill-stone to grind grain in the center of the city where all the Philistines could laugh and taunt the Hebrew champion who had killed so many.

But during his humiliation, his hair grew. (Hebrews liked this part of the story!) On the day of sacrifice to the Philistine god Dagon, the once-mighty Samson was led in chains by a tiny child to the center of Dagon's temple where thousands of Philistines jeered and shouted for his blood. Samson asked to lean against the temple's central pillars and pressed his arms against them. With a prayer he pulled the pillars and all the temple down upon himself killing thousands of Philistines as well.

There is an old folk saying: The cart in the ditch ahead is warning to those behind. The story of the flawed hero Samson was meant as a warning to young Hebrew men, not to marry women whose families and loyalties lay with enemy Philistines. But notice this as well: A virtuous Samson who didn’t pursue the women, could not have been the warning lesson to young Hebrew men.

Stephen Hawking, who is widely regarded as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein, had a terrible school record until he came down with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease). Hawking was told he had two years to live. As a half-hearted PhD student, he didn't know what to do. He became depressed and brooded. At one point he dreamed that he was going to be executed and then thought of all that he could accomplish if he were reprieved.

Stephen Hawking did get somewhat of a reprieve. His two years of dying turned into thirty-two years of brilliant creative work on the "theory of everything." Stephen Hawking married and fathered two children. He now holds Newton's chair as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University though he is no longer able to control voluntary muscular activity except in his little finger. Stephen Hawking says,

“I suddenly realized that there were a lot of worthwhile things I could do, if I were reprieved. Another dream that I had several times was that I would sacrifice my life to save others. After all, if I were going to die anyway, it might as well do some good.” (Stephen Hawking by Kitty Ferguson, 1991)

The question that haunts me is this: Is Stephen Hawking the world's most brilliant theoretical physicist in spite of his debilitating disease, or, because of it? As you and I build our lives with many-shaped stones, talents and flaws that make us who we are, is it only our talents that contribute beneficially? Or could it be a flaw, the stone that society throws away that becomes the keystone?

In the Christian Bible, King James Version, we read: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Mat.5:48) Better translations today say, “There must be no limit to your goodness, as your heavenly Father’s goodness knows no bounds” (NEB). But our Unitarian forbear, William Ellery Channing did not have the benefit of modern Bible translations. Channing used this passage calling for human perfection in preaching against the Calvinist doctrine of the depravity of human beings. In 1828, Channing wrote:

“I meet perpetual testimonies to the divinity of human nature. . . . The divine attributes are first developed in ourselves, and thence transferred to our Creator. The idea of God, sublime and awful as it is, is the idea of our own spiritual nature, purified and enlarged to infinity. In ourselves are the elements of the Divinity.” (The Works of William E. Channing, D.D., 1877, p.292, 3)

Channing had no doubt about the existence of God, awesome and unfathomable. As for our human conception of God, that was something altogether different. Contradicting Calvinist views of human depravity, he saw in our human lives the origin of our idea of god: “our own spiritual nature, purified and enlarged to infinity.”. To realize perfection of this human, divine image, rigorously perfecting away the flaws, was Channing's notion of the goal of human life. Channing wrote:

“I would teach that likeness to God is a good so unutterably surpassing all other good, that whoever admits it as attainable must acknowledge it to be the chief aim of life.” (Ibid., p.292)

“Religious instruction should aim chiefly to turn (human) aspirations and efforts to that perfection of the soul which constitutes it a bright image of God.” (Ibid., 291)

Of all my library, I value Channing’s collected works most. His spiritual leadership in the founding of American Unitarianism is profound and deserving of all our study. Yet, dare I say that in his zeal to reject the Calvinist projection of depravity on humankind, Channing glorified an antihuman angelic perfectionism, equally blind to human wholeness. Channing misses a vision of humanity reconciled to the so-called imperfections within ourselves and among us as a community. The stones the builder would throw away could be the keystone; the perceived imperfections in us and in others may come to be indispensable gifts in life’s unforeseen circumstances.

Let me close with two stories. The story is told of a village plagued by a fire-breathing dragon. In the dark of night, randomly thatched homes are set afire by the dragon, fields of wheat burn before they can be harvested, and the people are scared to death. After months of living in fear, the townsfolk call upon Jerome to slay the dragon and so the normally kind Jerome sets out to rid the town of this terrifying enemy.

“(Jerome) finds the dragon and draws his sword, but the dragon asks why. It is, after all, his nature to breathe fire and burn villages. Jerome ponders this and they discuss things awhile and finally come up with a solution agreeable to all. The dragon will burn the town garbage every Tuesday and Thursday, and lie around and tell lies the rest of the week. Jerome does not try to convert the dragon or convince him to be "good," but instead helps him to be more fruitfully who he is, since dragons not only love to breathe fire and burn things up, but also like to be admired and appreciated.” (Carol Pearson, The Hero Within, 1989, p.123-4)

Reconciliation, reconciling ourselves to life’s realities involves rejecting the human curse, both mistaken notions of the human condition: Calvinist depravity and Channing's perfectionism. Each aspect of each person we encounter each day, including our own dragon tendencies, is a divine gift. We could struggle to kill the dragon or to douse his fire. But for us to be reconciled to his nature would be for us to find a place of wholeness where even the most threatening finds embrace, and then to marvel and rejoice in each dragon's precious gift.

There is great wisdom in the Psalm: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the (keystone); This is Yahweh's doing, and we marvel at it. This is the day which Yahweh has made, a day for us to rejoice and be glad.” (Psalms 118:22-24, NJB)

Oh, yes, the title of today’s message mentioned squirrels!

The famous Unitarian Henry David Thoreau, was a patient observer of nature. Thoreau noticed that the maxim, "Great oaks out of little acorns grow," doesn't really tell the whole story. The vast majority of acorns that drop from oaks only lie on the ground where they freeze in winter and rot in spring, without giving sprout. The only acorns that survive to grow again are those that the squirrels take away, bury, and then forget. Thoreau observed that the success of oaks depends not on the great productivity of the oak, nor upon the excellence of the acorn, nor on the efficiency of the squirrel in finding and eating every one. It is the squirrel's failure and forgetfulness that allows some acorns to flourish.

May we too find such wholeness and reconciliation, blessing even whatever curse life may present us.