Open to the Spirit

Today’s word: Together

1“The more we get together, together, together, the more we get together the happier we’ll be. Cause your friends are my friends, and my friends are your friends. The more we get together the happier we’ll be”. That camp song still resonates with me. I also remember my parents teaching us that when we do chores together, they are so much easier. That was so true, especially during potato picking season. This simple truth can be seen in school theatre productions and writing assignments. My favourite example of this comes from a group of grade five and six students who wrote a mystery novel that was published and each class member wrote a chapter. I cherish mine.

I have a wonderful memory from a few years ago at a Passover Seder supper. It was hosted by a local church, but presided over by a rabbi from Chicago. He and the minister were close personal friends. The local imam from the mosque and a few of it’s members were also there. Together, we had a wonderful night. At the end the rabbi and the minister share a giant hug.

This wisdom about togetherness has been lost these days by politicians and certain hate groups who promote divisiveness. Their message, “we are correct, and everyone else is lying” has spread wider and wider. Why do so many want to divide us? Why have public vaccinations been portrayed as an attack on our freedom? Historically, some of the most progressive moments in our democracy came from minority governments where parties had to cooperate and work together. Maybe it’s time we remembered that simple message from childhood. The more we get together the happier we’ll be.

2Many years ago, I spent a summer studying Jewish texts in Jerusalem. On the first day of the program at the school where I studied, we spent some time matching ourselves up with Hevruta, study partners--people whom we would work with each day of the program. Each day would be spent examining a text, and exploring ideas together with this person, guided and assisted by our teachers and other people in the group. I was placed with someone who was very kind, but much more knowledgeable than me. He had been studying these topics for years, and I knew that he was much more versed in the texts than I was. Admittedly, I was a bit nervous at first, and remember thinking to myself:

What on earth can I offer to this learning partner, he is just so much smarter than me!?

Hevruta, the traditional Jewish experience of deep study and partnership with another, is based on the power of learning together with others, but also friendship and guidance. On its most basic level, a hevruta is a study partner, but it is so much more. They are not necessarily someone at the same level or even with the same values or outlook as you, but they are someone who becomes a true equal by opening themselves as much to being a guide through the learning as they are a receiver of the other’s unique perspective.

It is believed that even if one person “knows” more than the other, simply being able to ask questions provides as much wisdom and knowing the facts, or having the answers. In fact we are told that “One who learns from one’s friend a single chapter, or a single Halachah, or a single verse, or a single expression, or even a single letter, must show him or her honor.” What if we really had to live by the words of this idea? If we learn even a single expression, a single letter then we have to show others respect?. If someone makes even one small point, asks us one challenging question, then even if we still think we are right, they deserve our respect and honor.

We spend our whole lives together with others, but we don’t always find a way to honor and respect those who might challenge us the most. Yet everyone, from those we love to those who frustrate us, everyone can give us that letter of learning just by being different and challenging us to look at ourselves and our beliefs. And this deserves respect. When we learn together with others, when we live life with others, when we share joy and share challenges together with others, we grow in wisdom.

3Today, depending upon how you’ve been counting, marks the 626th day of Covid time. Back when it all started, and our life as usual ended as the lockdown was declared, limiting our interactions and bidding us all stay home and keep our distance. Many of us wondered when, if or how we’d ever get together again with family and friends or make new acquaintances at a distance. Since then we’ve made countless changes in our routine, struggling to hold it all, including ourselves and our lives, together. How have you managed to navigate this pandemic? Most importantly, how have you risen to the challenge to find new ways to be together?

Writing this on Thursday I can smell the stuffed turkey in the oven; various veggies chopped or peeled await their turn as this small household of two prepares to celebrate our second annual Zoom Thanksgiving with the American side of the family. No visitors again this year on either side of the border; though it’s officially open and we’re all multi-vaxxed, a reluctant but healthy caution rules the day. Instead we’ll repeat last year’s festive gathering, each of us creating our own meal and decorating our tables, raising a simultaneous toast on screen. We’ll describe then enjoy our separate meals together from wherever in space we are. Like any holiday feast, there will be grandparents, grown children, grandchildren, friends and relatives – and various nonhuman companions. We’ll bow our heads in prayer. In descending age order we’ll take turns around the virtual table to recount a whole year’s worth of blessings. And the theme this time will be the same as last year, maybe even deeper, full of a profound gratitude that despite all that has changed, we are still together. As we’ve been together since first the Covid protocols were announced, gathering online for weekly family meetings. We’ve been following a format that has by now become so familiar, sharing our joys and sorrows, naming our intentions for the coming week, inviting and offering support as needed for our everyday lives. Celebrating birthdays and accomplishments and listening with love. It’s become for this family a holy time – a time not to be missed, a new take on the old-fashioned Sunday dinner which you’d dare not miss for anything foolish or frivolous. It’s become a spiritual feast over time, all the more poignant and profound because we come together across huge distances. And we are closer now, feel more together, than ever before. My hope for us all is that we rise to the challenge and use our creative energies to invent new modes of togetherness. Because whatever else has changed, we are still all in this together. It’s the only way we’ll ever get through.

4

We have just 3 voices today, so I thought I would add 2 teenage voices. Marcus Young and Kristen Wilson wrote this faith statement, a few years ago, and it adds the perfect final take on our word “Together”

CONFIRMATION CREED

God is a musician who brings people

together

Everyone is a different note with a

unique sound

The church is a festivity of happiness

and a bundle of joy

Jesus is the leader ,who is trustworthy

and cares for our emotional wounds The Spirit brings us light and shadow When you feel alone, look around you

there is always someone there in the circle of sound that we have

created

When we’re all together we make a

beautiful song to fill the world with the music of God.

Rev. Mead Baldwin pastors the Waterville & North Hatley pastoral charge; Rabbi Boris Dolin leads the Dorshei-emet community in Montreal; Rev. Lee Ann Hogle ministers to the Ayer’s Cliff, Magog & Georgeville United Churches; Rev. Carole Martignacco, Unitarian Universalist is retired from ministry with Uuestrie and now resides in St. Andrews by-the-sea NB, but keeps one foot in the Townships by continuing with this column.