An Island of Sanity

Joanna Macy and Christ Johnstone, in their book, Active Hope, suggest that we can look at the world from three different story lines (stories being the way our minds make sense of the world):

• Business as Usual
• The Great Unraveling
• The Great Turning

Business as Usual essentially means going about our lives thinking that things aren’t too bad, so we carry on as we always have. It’s somewhat like having your “head in the sand.”

The Great Unraveling recognizes there are serious, and life-changing (or maybe even life-threatening) issues facing our world today. By acknowledging The Great Unraveling, we’re recognizing that not only have disasters happened, but we’re also “bringing into awareness the trends and patterns that will make our future worse.”

Some things causing our unraveling include: the climate crisis, pollution and destruction of the natural world, prevalence of lies and misinformation, wars and violence, dismantling of democracy, inequality.

The Great Turning is a growing commitment to act for the sake of the planet. More and more we see new companies, new non-profit organizations, new research, new ideas, new steps toward sustainable living and making connections with diverse groups of people.

Just this last week I heard the news that LEGO corporation will be using 100% recycled products for their bricks by 2032 (up from 22% today). And I joined the Global Interfaith Compassion Challenge, a 21-day journey with people from all over the globe and all faiths, sharing music, poems, and reflections from different faith traditions. Plus there is an opportunity to share thoughts on these reflections and a weekly Zoom call. Over 1,000 people from fifty-three countries are participating.

Let me share a paragraph from Margaret Wheatley’s book, Restoring Sanity:

“Frivolity, aestheticism, hedonism, cynicism, pessimism, narcissism, consumerism, materialism, nihilism, fatalism, fanaticism and other negative behaviors and attitudes suffuse the population. Politics is increasingly corrupt, life increasingly unjust. A cabal of insiders accrues wealth and power at the expense of the citizenry, fostering a fatal opposition of interests between haves and have nots. The majority lives for bread and circuses; worships celebrities instead of divinities… throws off social and moral restraints, especially on sexuality; shirks duties but insists on entitlements.”

 Does this sound familiar? Sadly, yes. However, this quote was originally published in 2012, in William Ophuls’s book Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail. Wheatley writes, “Ophuls describes the behaviors of all complex civilizations in their last stage, the end of their power and glory… No matter the culture, geographic location, religion, or who’s in power, all civilizations decline in identical ways, a very predictable pattern of collapse.”

Corroborating this finding is the work of Sir John Glubb, a historian (and former military commander) who, Wheatley states, in Who do We Choose to Be?, “studied thirteen empires in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, from Assyria in 859 BCE to modern Britain in 1950… It didn’t matter where they were or what technology they had or how they exercised power. They all declined in the same stages and it always took ten generations, about 250 years.”

It's obvious that we are in this last stage of decline, but I am not trying to be all “doom and gloom.” What is important is that we have a choice. We can bury our head in the sand and stick with the storyline of Business as Usual, we can become overwhelmed in the storyline of The Great Unraveling, or we can choose to be sane leaders (as Wheatley says), recognizing the harm being done to people and our planet and yet devoting ourselves to creating Islands of Sanity. In this way, we become part of The Great Turning.

Honestly, I think this has always been the point of Sacred Journeys - to be an Island of Sanity in the Great Sea of Religion. We wanted to set ourselves apart from the mainline, conservative, evangelical, fundamentalist strains of Christianity. We wanted to think, challenge, learn and grow. We spent many of our first years studying and growing into the label of progressive Christians. We’re solid there now.

While all of that still fascinates me, there is a more compelling force moving in the world and it is time to focus (more) on The Great Turning. It is time to turn our task from being an Island in the Great Sea of Religion, to being an Island in the World.

As a metaphorical island, we become a safe place, a refuge from the destructive craziness of the world. Wheatley says, “It needs to be an island because there is no other way to preserve and protect our best human qualities.”

While this Island of Sanity offers the gifts of possibility and refuge, our goal is not to hide from the world, it is to grow as a community whose commitment is first and foremost about being there for one another. Our end goal is to work in harmony with one another, to contribute and doing meaningful work in serving the human spirit.

In Hebrews 10:24-25, Paul wrote, “Let us always think how we can stimulate each other to love and good works. Don’t stay away from the meetings of the community, as some do, but encourage one another...” Paul created Islands of Sanity, in the form of small house churches wherever he traveled. They were intimate communities of support and caring in the midst of persecution and oppression.

Everyone who comes to this island is welcome. We are not voting anyone off the island! Instead, we are working to stay as healthy as possible and to awaken people’s innate and great qualities of generosity, kindness, and creativity. Is this not what Jesus did? And what Paul did after him?

This is what I will focus on for my next six sermons: generosity, kindness and creativity. How do we nurture them and how do they change and connect us?

In the meantime, know once more that, at Sacred Journeys, you are in a safe space, a supportive place, a place of sanity in the midst of the chaos and struggle around us. Here may we find strength, hope, comfort and courage.

Love & Light!

Kaye