Today’s topic is flotsam and jetsam. I’m exhausted. Too much holidaying, involving mostly rich foods
that do not sit well and keep me awake into the night. Top that with a 3-hour helicopter orbitting over the
neighborhood starting around 3:30 this morning. Helicopters in the night are not unusual. Often they come
in, keep an eye on a perpetrator until the patrol cars arrive — 20 minutes or so. This morning the helicopter
circled and circled and circled. We kept hoping it would go away. I got the idea that it was not the police
but a disgruntled moron who was buzzing his ex-wife’s house. The alarm went off at 5:30. I showered and
dressed to the sound of the chopper. At 6:00 I called the police department to find out what the heck was
going on. Apparently some cretin broke into a car about 1/2 mile away and the police were still trying
to capture the suspect. Three hours of helicopter for a car burglary??? How many blocks of houses and
condos were kept awake for that? Does this kind of chase justify the crime? This morning as I drove to
campus at 6:30, I certainly didn’t think so. What if it was my car? Well, I have had a car broken into before.
That happened up in benign Mount Vernon, WA. I’m not sure any police even came. Certainly no helicopters.
How would I feel if my house were broken into? A lot differently I’m sure. However, I am almost sure that our
house has been cased. I mean why not? We live in LA. Often we’re not home. The thing is, there is nothing of any value in our house. Our TV is 13″, the stereo a hand-me-down from Dave’s parents. Dave’s snowboard is
used, no one steals skis anymore. Our computer is ca 1998 — ancient. What you can see if you peer into our
often open windows are bookcases full of books. No one risks breaking into houses for books. Most of our neighbors
have dogs so if anyone did want to break in the alarm would be sounded and someone would notice eventually.
I picture robbers carefully removing the screen to one of our open windows, climbing in, being greeted by one of
the cats, then looking around and wondering why they even bothered. Still, if someone did bother to break
into our house, I’d want helicopters but it better not take three hours!
And now some jetsam: The following is an excerpt of the sermon Father Bacon gave following the election.
The first part of the sermon is about All Saints Day, which is not a tradition I remember from the Lutheran
Church I grew up in. This exerpt is a good model for all of us to follow, whether we’re Christians, christians,
or simply decent human beings:
DATE OF SERMON: 11/7/04 PAGE 4OF 4
GOSPEL: MATTHEW 5:1-12
PROPER 27C
And now let me tell you what happened to me on Thursday morning. I woke with a gift that
seemed to come from God—a sense of energy and newness and purpose. The Beatitude “Blessed
are they who mourn for they shall be comforted” had actually taken place in my own soul. I gave
thanks to God for this Church. I gave thanks to God for our mission together. I gave thanks for Jesus
Christ who stood within the prophetic tradition. The Eighth-Century prophets and Jesus never
defined moral values in terms of individual salvation; they never defined moral values in terms of
bigotry or retaliation. The Eighth-Century Hebrew prophets and Jesus of Nazareth always defined
all moral values in terms of whether their impact contributed to liberty and justice for all.
I have never in my priesthood been more excited about the future years of talking about and
living out both spirituality and moral values – spirituality and moral values that are accountable to
“the fundamental truth of our time and of this morning – that of the inter-connectedness and the
mutual inter-dependence of all human beings on this planet”. All policies and theologies and
choices that religious groups advocate for in the future must realize that “there is no way to care
about any group of human beings without caring about every one else”.
(Lerner, Michael, “Tikkun at Eighteen: The Voice of Radical Hope and Practical Utopianism,” Tikkun,
November/December, 2004, p. 34)
Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.”
On this All Saints Sunday let us recommit ourselves to a moral vision rooted in the divinely
knitted global community.
I want to say that while we courageously point out any negative impact that choices and
theologies and policies have on women, gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, the poor, and our
uninsured and our uneducated children, it will not be helpful for you and me to demonize anyone
who sees moral values in ways different from the way we see them or to portray our adversaries or
those with whom we disagree as fundamentally stupid or evil. Elitist self-righteousness is
incompatible with the fellowship divine. While the fellowship divine cannot stand silently by and
with neutrality while there is any dehumanization of any group, it is very important for you and me
to engage those with whom we disagree. To lock eyes with them, to say and mean, “I love you, I
honor you and I respect your dignity as a member of the unbroken circle of the fellowship divine and
I want you to know that it is not moral to discriminate against any class of humanity. And it is not a
moral value not to share our resources with the poor and it is not a moral value when you claim Jesus
as your personal Lord and Savior the one who called for peacemaking—it is not a moral value to be
a war-maker instead of a peacemaker.”
We must this day affirm our common humanity…the circle that is unbroken, remembering
the deep spiritual lesson of this day that “our own well-being depends on the well-being of everyone
else on the planet and our own well-being depends on the very well-being of the earth itself – a
lesson rooted deeply in the spiritual wisdom of virtually every religion on the planet. We are called
to be stewards of the planet; we are called to love the stranger; we are called to pursue peace and we
are called to create a society based on justice.” (Rabbi Michael Lerner, “The Democrats Need a
Spiritual Left,” Thursday, November 4, 2004 found at CommonDreams.org) When you and I live
lives that embody these moral values we will indeed be basing peace on the only security there ever
was—that all are one in God for all are God’s. If we do that we will be known as peacemakers, the
sons and daughters of God.
Amen.