“Chaos and Love: One Step at a Time”
By Rev. Alexandra McGee
Followed by words by Wendy Repass, Worship Weaver
This text served as a general outline for my words, which became somewhat extemporaneous.
Today we have a sermon in two parts.
After I reflect on the nature of chaos, Wendy will offer ideas for dealing with chaos. Over the last three weeks Wendy and I have been talking, listening, brainstorming, and being quiet —- as we listened for the guidance of the spirit of what to say this morning. We have aspired to speak Love in Truth.
Our message is that chaos is part of life, and that one way to deal with it is to stay in the present moment, listening to the still, small voice within, and look for ways to offer love in each present moment.
- GENESIS CHAOS
Many religions around the world describe a chaos from which things arose. In the Hebrew Genesis story, “Now the earth was chaos and waste, darkness was on the surface of the deep, and a dark fog draped over the deep while God’s spirit-wind hovered over the surface of the empty waters.”
And in the Hindu tradition, in the philosophy of Samkhya, we hear that many different particles were swirling, and then they were enlivened by a spirit of play. This energy gave them form, although the form continues to change.
My friends, these ancient myths give us some hope—chaos is part of the whole rise and fall, ebb and flow of life. Let us look for the spirit and not the rigidness.
We can look for how the formless evolves to forming and then to formed. We can hold space without rigidity. And trust that things can re-form.
- NIA
ONE STEP AT A TIME
I am reminded of a exercise dance form called Nia. Like many exercise classes, there is an instructor up front, and there are songs to which we dance. For each song, there are instructions about when to lift your arms and when to kick your legs. But, there is in one song is spent learning to dance with chaos. In this song, the instructor tells the participants to walk anywhere in the room, at any speed, to stop and start any time, to turn left or right as they wish. The instruction is to be formless.
In the exercise, it might be tempting to try to bring some form to the chaos. This might mean retreating to the edge of the room, or to insist on walking in a straight line. But this would be a rigidity that excludes, or endangers. Instead, the solution is to be in the present moment.
For newcomers who feel overwhelmed, the instructor says, “Look for an open space. Look for a place where you can step that you won’t bump into someone. And go there. And then look for the next open space. And the next.” The trick is to relax.
It works.
It works just like the streets of a busy city work or the county fair works when many humans are packed together, milling about, going where they go, making room for each other.
Now, it is true that this kind of chaos is chosen. The swirl and upredictability of the Nia song, the city street or the county fair are temporary.
Chosen chaos also happens during productive times such as housecleaning — things get stirred up and moved around, and then settled back with more order.
Sometimes though, in life, we face chaos that is not of our choosing. I would like to offer a story about that.
- HERIONES
STORY: HERION(E)
This past week the Academy Awards were given, and one of nominated documentaries is called “Heroin(e).”
This has two meanings. The word herion refers to an illegal drug, and is a type of opioid. But, the word heroine can also be spelled with an “e” on the end and then refers to a hero, of the female type. A heroine.
Listen to the story of three women who are responding to the opioid crisis in their town of Huntington, West Virginia.
One is the fire chief. The first female fire chief in West Virginia. They get about six calls a day to respond to overdoses, in which a person has died or is near death. Many of these people are repeat users, who are in a rehab program, and are relapsing. She shows up again and again because she believes in their power to overcome their addiction.
Another woman in the documentary is a Christian woman who originally wanted to take Christian literature to prostitutes on the street. She quickly discovered that what they need instead is a brown bag with food in it, a little bag of hygiene items, and perhaps a ride to the homeless shelter. She goes out again and again one night a week to offer these items, riding around in her car to where she knows she will find folks who are using. Her goal is to build trust with them and help them build trust in themselves.
The third heroine in the film is a judge in the drug court. She shows tough love as she keeps people accountable to their parole officers, their personal goals, and their own children. At the end, we see a graduation of people who have stayed clean for over a year. One of the men graduated had earlier been revived twice in one week by the fire chief.
My friends, each of these women found themselves in chaos.
Each of these women was taking one step at a time,
Staying in the present moment,
Responding with what they had.
That is how they responded to the chaos of the opioid crisis in their town.
- LISTENING CIRCLES
UNCHOSEN CHAOS
What is hard in life is when the chaos is unchosen and seems to last
And last
And last.
Our nerves fray.
We become exhausted.
We start using coping mechanisms that may or may not serve us.
Perhaps you have found yourself in unchosen chaos at times in your life — a complex illness, a tragedy in a marriage, a workplace turned upside down, a war, a refugee camp, a town visited by lethal racist attacks, a church staff person attacked by a racist letter.
For those of you who are newcomers, there was such an incident two weeks ago here.
Here in our congregation, the presidents and staff, and other leaders, have been doing their best to lead amid chaos in the past two weeks. They wanted very badly to offer listening circles for people to share what they were feeling. A listening circle is a tool used in groups to allow people to process a shock.
It can be very effective at times like this. It is an opportunity to be heard, and to hear. To let multiple truths be present. To hear those who process emotionally and those who process logically. But it needs skilled outside facilitators. So, plans are moving along, one step at at time, to put these listening circles in place.
My friends, we did not choose this chaos. But we can let the spirit guide us. One step at a time.
