{"id":2755,"date":"2023-05-07T14:52:07","date_gmt":"2023-05-07T21:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/?p=2755"},"modified":"2025-11-07T11:51:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:51:19","slug":"begin-at-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/?p=2755","title":{"rendered":"Begin at the End"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Too much of our activism is “re-activism”. We’re responding with sorrow or outrage to the latest incident. That sort of public emotional catharsis has its place, but we should be working pro-actively, too. We need to set our own vision, map out our strategy, and recognize that big goals require sustained effort.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch a video of this worship service<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We\u2019ve been talking this year about the three spiritual questions of Identity, Meaning, and Purpose:  Who am I, Why does it matter, and What should I do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As we focus now on the third of those questions, \u201cWhat should I do?\u201d we address the question of purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            What should I do?  What should we all do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            If I know who I am (the question of identity) and I know why my life matters (the question of meaning) then how should I live?  If my goal is wisdom, or joy, or beauty, or order, or whatever you have identified as the ultimate for you (and there is more than one ultimate, as we know), how should I live my life?  If my life\u2019s meaning comes from being related to a larger goal of creation, how should I respond to the far-off call of the divine voice urging me in a particular direction?  What should I do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And if we know who we are as a community (our communal identity), and we know the values that gather and shape our community (the meaning of this community), then how should we work together toward the goals we seek?\u00a0\u00a0How should we align our congregation with the cosmic flow toward the ultimates?\u00a0\u00a0If we are here to help the divine spirit of creation achieve its purpose, then how should we respond?\u00a0\u00a0What should we do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            As I said last week, a church is gathered to do many things.  That\u2019s the way of churches.  People join a church to do many things:  education for their children, hoping to make some new friends, to learn something, to connect with the transcendent.  Maybe they\u2019re going through a tough time and are looking for some spiritual care, or just some kindness.  Maybe they\u2019re here because they have love to give and are looking for a place to share it.  Some are here just because being a Unitarian Universalist is part of who they are and they couldn\u2019t imagine not belonging to the local UU church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            For some people, a UU church is a place to gather with like-minded people to harness our collective power in the service of some social justice goal:  to care for persons beyond our church community, to relieve human suffering, to make the world more just.  As we say in our sixth principle, we share \u201cthe goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The church needs to be all those things and more for the varied people and the varied reasons they choose to join us.  That\u2019s our purpose, multiple, not singular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What I have been doing for the last few weeks, and will for a few more weeks to come, is to offer, for whatever purpose you\u2019re pursuing, some suggestions about how to achieve it successfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Because our purposes are so varied, I can\u2019t answer for you, what you<\/em> should do.\u00a0\u00a0So instead, I switched the question to, \u201cWhatever you think you should be doing, how best to do it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            These strategies come from my own experience with some of the big social change work that I\u2019ve been involved with:  care and treatment for people with HIV\/AIDS, passing the Americans with Disability Act, marriage equality, a living wage.  But, I think these strategies are helpful whatever your goal.  Whether it\u2019s social change on a global, or national scale, or a local issue, or even if the change you seek is your own personal growth, or spiritual growth, I think these steps are good advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            First, the foundation, I think, for any kind of healthy, positive change toward the good, the true, and the beautiful, whether in our own persons, or in the larger world, is building community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s why I started with a sermon about the importance of relationships, a lesson I learned from watching my mother and father meet in our livingroom with the neighborhood property owner\u2019s association, and with their involvement at their church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            By the way, you know my mother died a year and a half ago, but my father is still alive, and still very connected to his community.  And now that he\u2019s living alone, those connections that he made and nurtured to his neighbors, and his church are more valuable than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            And then, earlier this week, my dad, who turned 91 last month, told us that he has agreed to serve on the board of his local Kiwanis club:  a two-year term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            God bless him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            He\u2019s still a powerful example to me of the importance of connection to community, for the support we all need, and for the life of purpose we all need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So whether you\u2019re trying to change the world, or merely change yourself, nurture your relationships, build your community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            As Neibuhr says, \u201cNothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Then, last week I advised that our communities can be quite broad if we allow ourself to work with anyone who wants to work with us on a narrowly defined, shared goal, and not turn away helpers who disagree with us about something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Certainly my father\u2019s Kiwanis club in rural, western, North Carolina, is going to include a lot of people who disagree with my father\u2019s liberal politics.  This is the district that elected Mark Meadows and Madison Cawthorn, after all.  But he\u2019s willing to serve on the board, and they elected him, because the Kiwanis club works on service projects in the local community they all care about.  When they\u2019re building a playground that includes equipment specifically designed to accommodate children of all abilities, or collecting used eyeglasses to send to a Doctors Without Borders group in Honduras, what does it matter who you voted for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            As Neibuhr says, \u201cNo virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own; therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This week, I want to offer the strategy that, whatever change work you want to do, begin at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Begin at the end means, begin your work with the end in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Begin because you have a goal and work toward that goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Begin because there\u2019s something you want to achieve.\u00a0\u00a0Work on your<\/em> agenda, rather than blocking someone else\u2019s agenda.\u00a0\u00a0Play offense, not defense.\u00a0\u00a0Be an activist, not a re-activist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Too often, I fear, today\u2019s activists are attracted to the spectacle of social justice protest, not the goal of social change.  We like the anger.  We like the shouting.  We like the outrage, the shaking fist, and the marching shoulder to shoulder with people who completely agree with us.  But the longer, quieter work of achieving a social goal isn\u2019t so attractive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Sure, the protest has a goal.  We know why we\u2019re marching.  We can write it on a sign.  But once the march is over, what have we done?  Are we closer to achieving our purpose?  Once we\u2019ve brought the sign home, or dropped it in the trash as soon as we left the march, what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            It\u2019s activism for the Twitter age.  Activism that\u2019s about shouting our outrage into the void, but not about the actual work of social change, which requires meeting with people who aren\u2019t already convinced, persuading them, and passing legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Because I live in downtown Los Angeles, just two blocks from the LAPD headquarters and three blocks from City Hall, I see a lot of protests, for a lot of causes.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not that I doubt anyone\u2019s commitment to the goals.\u00a0\u00a0But sometimes it seems as though having the march is the goal because that\u2019s as far as we get.\u00a0\u00a0And the steps beyond the march, to actually imagine a solution to the problem, create the policy, convince the law-makers, find the funding, pass the legislation, implement the new law and hold people accountable to it, so that the purpose of actually relieving the suffering of human persons can be reached, those further steps are never traveled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That goal is too far away.\u00a0\u00a0Our outrage can\u2019t sustain our work beyond the protest march.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019re responding rather than following our vision.\u00a0\u00a0We haven\u2019t begun with the end in mind.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, we see only the first, closest step.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019re so angry, let\u2019s grab a megaphone and shout on the steps of City Hall.\u00a0\u00a0But once we take that step, our resolve flags and we call it quits, while continuing to lament that the world doesn\u2019t ever seem to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Social change is hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            As Ghandhi said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cA principle is a principle, and in no case can it be watered down because of our incapacity to live it in practice.  We have to strive to achieve it, and the striving should be conscious, deliberate and hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Social change is hard.  It requires tenacity, not merely a spurt of anger.  It requires patience, and strategy.  It may even require more work than can be done in a single lifetime.  As Niehbuhr says, \u201cNothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we are saved by hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I was dismayed, as many of you were, I\u2019m sure, by the revelations that came out last fall when a tape-recording was leaked of three of our Los Angeles City Council persons discussing how to preserve their own power in the city redistricting process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Now there\u2019s something inherently corrupt in sitting city council persons having that much influence over drawing the districts that will get them re-elected.  But that\u2019s the process we have, so they weren\u2019t doing anything illegal by having that strategy session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But the scandal was the way the three city council persons talked disparagingly about other city leaders and the citizens of Los Angeles.  They laughed while making racist comments and crude jokes.  They insulted blacks, and people from central America, and accused a gay city council member of using his adopted son as some kind of a prop to increase his credibility.  It was disgusting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            One of the city council persons, Nury Martinez, resigned following the scandal.  A second council member, Gil Cedillo, had already lost his seat in an election a few months earlier, so he chose to keep his head down and serve out the last weeks of his term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But the third council person, Kevin de Leon, who serves the district that includes downtown Los Angeles where I live, refused to resign.  He kept his seat and decided to see if he could ride out the controversy.  For the next several weeks he avoided any public appearances.  He was entirely absent from city council meetings.  Other council members stated they would refuse to work with him.  Downtown developers also said they would refuse to work with him, another reason that he, a public servant, should have resigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            When he did begin appearing at City Council meetings, he was met, appropriately, with outrage from an organized group of activists who made sure he heard their anger.  They disrupted the meetings.  De Leon usually was forced to leave the room after only a few minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This continued for weeks.  Every City Council meeting began in chaos.  Activists were warned and then removed by police officers.  Little city work was accomplished.  De Leon was effectively silenced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            What didn\u2019t happen, though, was de Leon resigning.  Shouting at him, and shutting down the city council meetings wasn\u2019t enough.  But that\u2019s all the activist\u2019s had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Meanwhile, a recall effort was started.  A recall is a very difficult project to pull off.  It requires gathering an enormous number of signatures in a limited amount of time.  It requires great organization, great promotion, great funding, great leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Unfortunately, this recall effort had none of those things.\u00a0\u00a0It was started by a woman with no organization, who had already tried to recall de Leon two times previously.\u00a0\u00a0And even for this recall, she wasn\u2019t motivated by the racist comments on the tape recording, she just didn\u2019t like de Leon\u2019s liberal politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            So she was manifestly the wrong person to be mounting a recall campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But imagine for a moment, if those committed activists who spent weeks and weeks diligently showing up at every city council meeting ready to show their anger at someone in our community who would speak those kinds of hateful comments and yet claim a seat representing the public on our city council, had taken the passion, and organization, and the commitment of time, they showed in those city council meetings, out into the street and gathered signatures for the recall campaign?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Was the goal to make sure Kevin de Leon knows we\u2019re angry?  Mission accomplished.  Or was the goal to get Kevin de Leon out of office?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            What if we had begun with the end in mind, rather than simply voicing our present anger?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We\u2019re often told, in spiritual teachings, to live in the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s good advice.  Stay in the here and now.  Don\u2019t carry your past hurts and pains and shame and regrets into your present experience.  Let it go.  And don\u2019t worry about the future, either.  Don\u2019t fill yourself with anxiety for what might happen.  Don\u2019t postpone the life you have today because you\u2019re focused on a fantasy life you might have in the future.  The spiritual question is, \u201cWhat\u2019s alive in you right now?  That\u2019s the question that should fill your mind and heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s good advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s not enough.  Because effective change works requires holding on to a vision of the world we want to see when our work is successful.  Not just protest the way things are, but see the way things could be.  Yes, we must do our work in the present, but we have to have a goal to guide us.  We have to follow a purpose, and we have to order our work along a path that step by step achieves that far purpose.  If we\u2019re only ever looking at the spot beneath our feet, we\u2019ll never get anywhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be agents of change, we can\u2019t live only in the present, our hearts and minds must live in the future, too.  We need to embrace that future place of equity, peace, liberty, and justice for all.  We have to not lay buried under the oppression, despair and anger of the present world, but let our spirits live in the hope and the dream of the future world to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though days be dark with storms
And burdens weigh my heart
Though troubles wait at every turn,\u00a0
I know I can go on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And though the journey is long.
The destination is near,
So brothers take my hand
And sisters sing my song,
When hope awaits at every turn,
I know we will go on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            When our social justice work is an angry response to the way things are that\u2019s not activism, that\u2019s re-activism.  To be activists, whether in social change movements or in our own personal lives, we must be inspired by a vision of our own, a hope that comes from within, a panting desire of our own that sustains us, and sustains our work, \u201cThough days be dark with storms.\u201d  And when those storms come, not to be swayed by the wind and the rain of what other people are doing, but stay stuck steadfastly to the street beneath our feet, that takes us to our goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Begin with the end in mind, and let that vision carry you there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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