Text Box: Interfaith Celebration Gathering Sunday, April 15, 2001 Interfaith Celebration Gathering Service Service agenda: Opening Prayer Readings Message OPENING PRAYER: Dear Mother, Father, Great Spirit, God, please hear my prayer. In this season of renewal, I ask that my heart be opened to see that all persons on earth are my brothers and sisters, and that we are all part of You. Help me to forgo the need to see myself as better than others by judging them, labeling them, and using these labels to distance myself from them. I ask this knowing that all I need do is ask and it is granted. AMEN READINGS: If you learn from your suffering, and really come to understand the lesson you were taught, you might be able to help someone else who's now in the phase you may have just completed. Maybe that's what it's all about after all... Anonymous Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong. Dandemis MESSAGE: You and Me From a supposedly true story told on the David Letterman show comes the following story. On a recent weekend in Atlantic City, a woman won a bucketful of quarters at a slot machine. She took a break from the slots for dinner with her husband in the hotel dining room. But first she wanted to stash the quarters in her room. "I'll be right back and we'll go eat," she told her husband and carried the coin-laden bucket to the elevator. As she was about to walk into the elevator she noticed two men already aboard. Both were black. One of them was tall...very tall...an intimidating figure. The woman froze. Her first thought was: These two are going to rob me. Her next thought was: Don't be a bigot, they look like perfectly nice gentlemen. But racial stereotypes are powerful, and fear immobilized her. She stood and stared at the two men. She felt anxious, flustered and ashamed. She hoped they didn't read her mind but Gosh, they had to know what she was thinking!!! Her hesitation about joining them in the elevator was all too obvious now. Her face was flushed. She couldn't just stand there, so with a mighty effort of will she picked up one foot and stepped forward and followed with the other foot and was on the elevator. Avoiding eye contact, she turned around stiffly and faced the elevator doors as they closed. A second passed, and then another second, and then another. Her fear increased! The elevator didn't move. Panic consumed her. My God, she thought, I'm trapped and about to be robbed! Her heart plummeted. Perspiration poured from every pore. Then one of the men said, "Hit the floor." Instinct told her to do what they told her. The bucket of quarters flew upwards as she threw out her arms and collapsed on the elevator floor. A shower of coins rained down on her. Take my money and spare me, she prayed. More seconds passed. She heard one of the men say politely, "Ma'am, if you'll just tell us what floor you're going to, we'll push the button." The one who said it had a little trouble getting the words out. He was trying mightily to hold in a belly laugh. The woman lifted her head and looked up at the two men. They reached down to help her up. Confused, she struggled to her feet. "When I told my friend here to hit the floor," said the average-sized one, "I meant that he should hit the elevator button for our floor. I didn't mean for you to hit the floor, ma'am." He spoke genially. He bit his lip. It was obvious he was having a hard time not laughing. The woman thought: My God, what a spectacle I've made of myself. She was humiliated to speak. She wanted to blurt out an apology, but words failed her. How do you apologize to two perfectly respectable gentlemen for behaving as though they were going to rob you? She didn't know what to say. The three of them gathered up the strewn quarters and refilled her bucket. When the elevator arrived at her floor they then insisted on walking her to her room. She seemed a little unsteady on her feet, and they were afraid she might not make it down the corridor. At her door they bid her a good evening. As she slipped into her room she could hear them roaring with laughter as they walked back to the elevator. The woman brushed herself off. She pulled herself together and went downstairs for dinner with her husband. The next morning flowers were delivered to her room -- a dozen roses. Attached to each rose was a crisp one hundred dollar bill. The card said: "Thanks for the best laugh we've had in years." It was signed: Eddie Murphy and Michael Jordan Like this woman, how often do we judge and condemn others without ever really knowing them? A politician does something we dislike, so we label him or her a ‘bad’ person. A criminal commits a crime, and he or she is labeled incorrigible. The attitudes we hold toward people who violate our laws, mores, regulations, rules, ‘shoulds,’ and/or our social Do’s and Don’ts do nothing but separate us from others. The one thing we must remember as we form our opinions about others is that the same Creator who created each of us also created the people we label ‘bad’ or incorrigible. The same God lives in each of us, whether we are consciously aware of His/Her presence or not. No matter how many mistakes we have made on our earthly journeys, each of our souls rejoins with the I AM that is our Creator God when our journeys are over. Big mistakes or little mistakes, they are all the same to God, who, if allowed, will use all of our mistakes for our growth. So, the next time you are tempted to: Put up barriers between yourself and others by using labels, Identify other people’s mistakes without looking at your own, or Act as if other people’s behavior defined their worth… Please remember that God loves all of us the same. There are no favorites. We do not go to the head of the class on Schoolhouse Earth by being ‘good.’ We do not go to hell or anywhere else by being ‘bad.’ Nor does anyone else. God loves the prostitute, the thief, the murderer, the chemical polluter, the crack addict, the drug dealer, the bigot, and the used car salesman. And God loves you. May God add a blessing to these humble words. AMEN © 2001 Rev. S. Suzanne Fisher