Monday, September 13, 2010

Rosh Hashanah (Erev): High Holiday Sermon Series 5771

Throughout the High Holidays, I am delivering sermons that are all connected in one, unified theme. For those of you who weren’t able to join us for Rosh Hashanah services, I thought I would give you an opportunity to see what I spoke about. If you are able to come for Yom Kippur, you’ll have a context for the next sermons in the same series. And if not, you’ll still know what I spoke about. May you continue to have a Happy and Healthy start to your New Year, and have an easy fast at Yom Kippur!

Sermon #1 – Introducing the Series
I’m going to try something different these High Holidays. This is my seventh year leading High Holiday services, so when I say it’s different, I don’t just mean different from last year. And when I’ve told other people about it, including rabbinic colleagues, I get a few raised eyebrows. But many of you might already know what I’m going to say, especially if you read my article in the Honey Jar this month.
I’m going to maintain a theme throughout my High Holiday sermons, beginning this evening, running through Rosh Hashanah, and continuing until the end of Yom Kippur. In my Honey Jar article, I wrote about the theme of “Pride,” which in fact is going to be the common word throughout these sermons.
Now the way I see it, you have one of two questions running through your mind right now, and I’m going to answer both. If your question isn’t one of these two, then perhaps sit back and bide your time, and see if your question gets answered in one or another of my upcoming talks.
Ok, so what are the two questions? 1. “Why have a theme for all your sermons?” and 2. “Why pride?”
During the years I spent in rabbinical school, my classmates and I became very close. We studied together, we traveled to Israel together, we spent an absurd amount of time with one another, and we relied on each other for advice, help and support, tips, and occasionally strategies, methods and suggestions for our future careers. Several times, I found myself even reading books based on recommendations from classmates.
And one book that a number of people were reading was “The Purpose-Driven Church” by Pastor Rick Warren. This may surprise you, because it’s not exactly a Jewish book, but what we found was that a number of books within the Jewish community - all talking about improving synagogues, reinventing the Jewish community, changing our focus, etc, etc - many of them were based on ideas found in Rick Warren’s book. SO, we went to the source.
And one of the things I found was that Rick Warren talked about consolidating your message, finding a “Purpose” that “Drives” your organization. As a religious community, we need to distill down what we want to do into simpler ideas. Not because people can’t handle more complex ideas, but because everyone should be able to grasp it, and it should be able to permeate different areas of the community. I want us all to be on the same page, so if the message is somewhat basic, it can run through the school, the Men’s Club, the Executive Board, the Social Action committee, the Ritual Committee, Sisterhood, the synagogue play, and the rummage sale.
Now I didn’t get the message itself from Rick Warren, just the concept. I hope it doesn’t make you uncomfortable to learn that we can “borrow” ideas from other religions, even what some people might call more radical groups. There is no sense in reinventing the wheel when someone else has found a system or principle that works. We just have to change the language, the players, and the theology; but some of the concepts are really, really good.
So in our case, I decided to do a test-run last year. Throughout my charges to B’nai Mitzvah students, speeches at social gatherings, talks to the religious school and various synagogue groups, and wherever else I could fit it in; I talked about “Journeys.” My thought was that we are all on our own Jewish Journeys, life-long “trips” of exploring our relationship to religion and God, and that the congregation can be there for each of us as we move along on that odyssey. It is, after all, both a personal AND a communal experience. I still like that message, so you may find lingering examples of it throughout the upcoming year, but as we begin 5771, I’m adding a second word: Pride.
The first thing I want to say about “Pride” is that I’m NOT talking about the negative kind, i.e. “Pride cometh before the fall,” or the Pride you’ve heard about as one of the seven deadly sins. In fact, it’s fascinating to me that it’s one of the seven worst sins in Christian dogma. (Pause) I think I understand what they were going for, namely hubris, thinking that you’re better than other people, or maybe stubbornness and unwillingness to admit fault, which can lead to self-destruction.
However, what bothers me about it, is that the word “Pride,” across the board, now sounds like something terrible. I feel like we’ve thrown out the baby with the bath water. What about when someone says, “I’m proud of you.” Or “I was filled with such pride when I saw my students succeed.” Is that also part of the seven deadly sins? So yes, I know it’s the same word, and some people might think of the negative examples before the positive ones, but I am reclaiming the word! Feeling a sense of pride – in others, in our community, and even in ourselves – I believe is very, very important.
I hope that throughout these High Holidays, I can convince you of the same. As we move through each of our services over these next couple of days and again during Yom Kippur, please think about what “Pride” can mean to you. At this season of self-improvement, making changes, and learning to understand ourselves better, I think that it can do us a lot of good to reflect on what makes us proud.
Let us begin simply with that. A thought to hold onto throughout the High Holiday season. I’m curious and excited to see where we, together, take it from here.
Shana Tovah!

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