Sermons

READING ~ SLT #596 Boundless  Goodwill –  A responsive reading
Let us cultivate boundless goodwill.

Let none deceive another, or despise any being in any state.

Let none in anger or ill-will wish another harm.

Even as a mother watches over her child, so with boundless mind should one cherish all living things.

Radiating friendliness over the whole world,

Above, below, and all around without limit.

From: Metta Sutta.
READING ~ from Kindness and Wonder, Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More Than Ever by Gavin Edwards. 2019 Harper Collins. Page 9.
[Mr. Rogers] “focused particularly on children, because they needed the most help, but he also knew that winning their hearts and minds would help tilt the planet onto a better axis, many years after they stopped watching his show.

We can be like Mr. Rogers. We too can make the world a better place, with love and forgiveness and kindness and wonder.”
SERMON

It’s Mother’s Day and all I can think about is children.

Every time children die because of the violence of adults, my heart breaks.  And it is breaking too often.  And then I think about the mothers of these children and the fathers of these children and my heart breaks for them.

Mother’s Day is more than a Hallmark Card and red and white carnations.

Julia Ward Howe, one of our UU ancestors, called on mothers to rise up against the killing of our children in her Mother’s Day Proclamation.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.   

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as the means whereby the great human family can live in peace.
Mothers. Can they bring peace to the great human family?

Perhaps.

The model of the mother and child as the epitome of love is as ancient as humanity.  Like a mother’s love for her child, so we ought to love all the children.

The Buddhist Metta Sutta has it this way ….Even as a mother watches over her child, so with boundless mind should one cherish all living beings.

As a mother watches over her child…..

You can bring so many images into your mind of a mother watching over her child, a mother cradling her child.  This is the basic human connection …. A mother, a parent, a caring adult, watching over the child.

When I think about how mothers love and protect and watch over their children, I think we need to cultivate that kind of love ever more deeply and ever more widely.  It is the boundless goodwill of the Metta Sutta that leads us to radiating love over the whole world,  above, below, and all around without limit.   Without limit.

There’s the rub.  Without limit.  Boundless goodwill.  Boundless mind.  Boundless Love.  Without limit.  Like a mother and her child …. But not just her child, every child.

One of the greatest teachers of this kind of boundless love in our lifetimes was Fred Rogers – Mister Rogers to so many children and parents.  Like most of you, I was already past the target age of Fred Rogers when he invited everyone into his TV neighborhood.  But my youngest sisters were the right age, so our whole family watched Mr. Rogers.

Mr. Rogers loved children without judgement or reserve…. Boundless Love.  Giving children a safe and trustworthy environment where they can grow and become their best selves is essential for the world we want to share and inhabit.  It seems to me, that’s the best mothering care we can give children.

Can you imagine what our world would be like if all children could grow up with the nurture and mothering care that Mr. Rogers gave his TV children every day?  One of the principles of Mr. Rogers is one of our Unitarian Universalist principles.  Every person – every child and every adult – has inherent worth and dignity.  This is a simple statement, but it is so very hard to manifest in our world today.  The forces and people wielding those forces that are working to mold and force children into the image of these adults for their own power and satisfaction rather than for the child’s good is harmful and dangerous.  I do not need to tell you that.  You see it every day when we learn about yet another law designed to deny children (and adults) their identity and self-worth because those children and their families do not match what legislators regard as the one and only legitimate model of human life.  For heaven’s sake, there has never in the history of humanity been one and only one legitimate model of human beingness.  To try to force a single story now is evil – just plain evil.

We need the simple and deep loving of Mr. Rogers now more than ever.

Here is what Fred Rogers wanted for every child…
FRED ROGERS’ SIX BASIC NECESSITIES OF LEARNING
In 1983, Fred Rogers introduced these six basic necessities of learning. This list may be a reminder that what children need for learning is simple and deep.

a sense of self-worth,
2. a sense of trust,
3. curiosity,
4. the capacity to look and listen carefully,
5. the capacity to play, and
6. times of solitude.

(Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at St. Vincent College)
That list works pretty well for me too.  Just because we’re all grown up doesn’t mean that we don’t still need now what we needed as little ones to flourish in this life.

You know, Mr. Rogers spent a lot of time talking with children about feelings and what to do with their feelings.  He spent a lot of time reminding children that the people who do the right things are also people who can do wrong things sometimes.  Mr. Rogers was able to have some hard conversations with kids because life can be hard. He always stressed the need to be honest and authentic with children.

For me, however, the most important lesson from Mr. Rogers and the one that I hope we manifest in all our dealings with children – and each other – is that each of us is likeable just as we are.  We aren’t without trouble and we are not without mistakes, but we are valuable people – as we are.  What a powerful truth to give our children.

It reminds me a bit of what Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron says, “You are perfect just the way you are ….   And, you could use a little work.”

OK, so we all could use a little work, but still, it’s vital that our little ones know that they are ok and that we like them – now.  You may remember Mr. Rogers singing to his audience.  I think he sang a simple and deep song every show.  Most of these songs he wrote and he was careful about the messages he was giving children.

Can I remind you?
It’s You I Like Fred Rogers | © 1971, Fred M. Rogers

It’s you I like,
It’s not the things you wear,
It’s not the way you do your hair
But it’s you I like
The way you are right now,
The way down deep inside you
Not the things that hide you,
Not your toys
They’re just beside you.

But it’s you I like
Every part of you.
Your skin, your eyes, your feelings
Whether old or new.
I hope that you’ll remember
Even when you’re feeling blue
That it’s you I like,
It’s you yourself
It’s you.
It’s you I like.
What a glorious message this is for children of any and every age – right up to 97 or 127.

And …Mr. Rogers says it’s not just you I like; it is you as you are right now that I like.
I Like You As You Are  – Fred Rogers

I like you as you are
Exactly and precisely
I think you turned out nicely
And I like you as you are

I like you as you are
Without a doubt or question
Or even a suggestion
Cause I like you as you are

I like your disposition
Your facial composition
And with your kind permission
I’ll shout it to a star

I like you as you are
I wouldn’t want to change you
Or even rearrange you
Not by far

I like you
I-L-I-K-E-Y-O-U
I like you, yes I do
I like you, Y-O-U
I like you, like you as you are
We seem to be giving too many of our kids the opposite message – you need to be different, you need to change, you are wrong about who you think you are.  This is devastating our kids and tearing our families apart.

Mr. Rogers said “Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me.”

Well, I think it’s equally fair to say that anyone who does harm to a child is a scoundrel.

Let’s be heroes not scoundrels.

When I think of mothers, I think how hard it is to be a great mother.

Mothers deserve our praise and gratitude – everyone who mothers anyone deserves our gratitude and respect.

Perhaps it is true, as Julia Ward Howe proclaimed, that those who mother well are the means whereby the great human family can live in peace.

We all are given the opportunity to be a mothering influence and presence for children and for each other.  as we do our mothering, may we be blessed with the care and love we learned from Mr. Rogers.

Blessed Be.   I Love You.   Amen.