"Tag, You're It!"

by The Rev. Sandra L. Ingham, M.Div.

Pastor, Prairie Lakes Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ripon, Wisconsin

Wow!  Here you are!  You have reached a big milestone ­– and “Tag, You’re It!”  It’s your turn to figure out, in the words of the poet Mary Oliver, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Oh, of course, you will do many of those things that are usually done after graduation from college:  pursue a master’s degree or even a doctorate; fall in love; get married; buy a house; build a house; have children; and, oh yes, get a job. One of the first things that I suspect you will do is party, celebrate what you have accomplished.  That’s fine – you should celebrate!

And you’ll make new friends and keep some of the old ones.  And you’ll have fun – oh, I hope you will have fun and always remember to celebrate life and to be joyful for the many blessings that you have.  You will have many blessings, even when life seems darkest and bleakest.  And you’ll make some good decisions ­– and, despite our best intentions, some not-so-good ones.  Some days you will wonder what happened to your better judgment, to your common sense.

You will be ill.  You will be healthy.  You’ll be smart sometimes and stupid other times.  And you will be expected to adapt to all sorts of technological advances, many of which we haven’t even thought of at this moment in May of 2007.  You will have jobs that you hate and, if you are fortunate, jobs that you love.

There is a Swedish proverb that offers this advice to us as we travel through life.  Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours.

But, no matter where your life journeys take you, no matter how many good things become yours, no matter what befalls and besets you, I can guarantee that each day of your life, one question will present itself, will challenge you over and over again:  who is my neighbor?

I was in Madison this past Monday and Tuesday for a seminar.  As I was walking along State Street on my way to the building where the seminar was being held, a homeless man asked me for money.  This is not an unusual occurrence in Madison, and I do occasionally give money when asked.  What I always try to give the homeless in these encounters is acknowledgment of their humanity, a moment of my time.  Smiling, looking right at this man, recognizing his presence, I said to him, “Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t have any spare change at the moment.”

He almost dropped the container he was holding, he was so startled.  I am sure that he was astounded that someone was actually taking the time to speak to him and treat him as a human being, as a person, as a neighbor.  He looked right at me and said, “That’s okay, thank you.  You have a good day now.”  Then, for a few moments, we talked about the beautiful spring day.  Is this man my neighbor?  YES!  Are all the other homeless people in the world my neighbors?   YES!   Mine and yours.  What did Isaiah say?  “Is not this the fast that I choose … Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into your house…?”

Later, as I sat in a coffee shop reading a newspaper – you will notice that I seemed to have enough spare change for coffee and a newspaper, as I sat in the coffee shop reading about hate and violence all around the world, I thought about you – about this graduating class of 2007.  I thought about how all generations wrestle with the problems of hate and violence and, with notable exceptions, pretty much ignore the words of the wise people:  the Hebrew prophets, the Buddha, Jesus, the Dalai Lama, among others.  I am counting on you, now that you are “it,” to improve upon humanity’s track record.  To do that, you will have to continually expand the definition of who your neighbor is.

Let’s get back to my newspaper.  I am assuming that your well-rounded education here at Ripon College has given you a yearning to know what your sisters and brothers are doing all over the world, which means that of course you will be picking up the newspaper, whether it’s the “old-fashioned” printed version that I prefer for perusal in a coffee shop or an on-line version or even someone’s opinions on a blog about the news of the world.  I hope that you will not avoid knowing what is going on in the world because you think that it doesn’t concern you.  It does concern you.  Pay attention to what is happening in Darfur.  The people there – both the ones who are committing the atrocities and the ones who are running for their lives – all of them are your neighbors.

The challenge for you now that you have been tagged “it” is how to live your lives and do those things that I mentioned a few minutes ago – or at least some of those things – how to live your lives while continually expanding the definition of neighbor.  If the people in the Sudan and in Chad, the people who are immediately affected by what is happening in the Darfur region are indeed my neighbors, what does that mean to me?  What do I do with this knowledge?

Back to my newspaper one more time.   A current hot topic is immigration and illegal immigrants – sometimes referred to as illegal aliens.  We should be appalled at the use of that term.  No human being is an alien and no person should ever be given that label.  These are undocumented workers.  Do they belong in the United States or not?  Is there room for them here?  Those aren’t the real questions.  The real question is this:  Are people who are in this country without documentation my neighbors?  Remember Isaiah’s admonition to “let the oppressed go free.”  Undocumented workers are oppressed people.  Are they your neighbors?  YES!

What about gays and lesbians?  Are they your neighbors?  YES!  At this point, you may be thinking, I hope she’s not going to say that we also have to consider the possibility of including bisexuals and transgender people in our definition of who is our neighbor?  YES!  We do.  The GLBT – gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender – community is part of our neighborhood, too.  You have to be able to look past the trappings, the assumptions that you have about someone else, and see the person within.  You don’t have to approve of everyone’s every action to accept them as your neighbor.

Are you feeling a little uncomfortable?  Good!  Because you are going to fail miserably at recognizing who your neighbor is if you don’t feel uncomfortable as you expand the definition of neighbor and your understanding of who are the people in your neighborhood, a question that “Sesame Street” asked you consider, I believe.  Expanding our definition of who belongs in our neighborhood is also known as radical hospitality.  Jesus talked about this in the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Jesus practiced this radical hospitality, this generous interpretation of who is our neighbor, when he invited everyone to sit at his table.

The mandate to constantly enlarge our definition of neighbor was what the Hebrew prophets were talking about.  And, this expansion of our understanding of who is our neighbor is what the Buddha instructed us to remember when he said, all beings want to be happy.  (I think that all beings not only want to be happy, they also want to be loved.)

Everyone knows how to stay healthy physically.  That is not the challenge for the class of 2007.  Your challenge is how to stay healthy spiritually.  How will you live in a way that respects the sacredness of all life and responds to the divinity within each of us?  How, in your everyday lives, will you take the knowledge that we are all interconnected - that everyone is your neighbor - and that everything you do, your every action affects everyone else, has ripple effects that you cannot begin to imagine - how will you take that knowledge and put it to practical use?  How will you do that?

One way that you will do that is by remembering the teachings of the Hebrew prophets, of the Buddha, of Jesus, of the Dalai Lama, and of people like Jewish theologian Martin Buber.  In the middle of the last century, Buber warned us that humans will never achieve equality and liberty unless we remember the missing element - human kinship. Human kinship is the religious element.  Kinship grows out of respecting all of our neighbors, not just the ones who are most like us.  Last week, the Dalai Lama himself appeared in Madison and said that compassion is the key to happiness and tranquility in the 21st century.  How will you practice compassion in your daily life, thus deepening your understanding of our common humanity?

"Tag, you are it.”  Now, you get to take a turn at fulfilling the mandate of Isaiah; at fully understanding the implications of being a Good Samaritan; at embodying that compassion of which the Dalai Lama speaks.  But don't worry; you won't be alone in this task.  We are still here – your professors, your mentors, your teachers, your pastors, your families, your friends.  And even were we not here, the wise people will still be with you: Jesus, the Buddha, the Hebrew prophets, all the wisdom of the ages that gives you more-than-adequate instructions about what to do with all these neighbors you have.  You are not alone.

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"