Getting To Paradise
Given by James Covington on March 5th, 2006
At last, excitedly, we were aboard the plane at JFK airport awaiting our long anticipated journey to Tahiti and the islands of French Polynesia. It was a destination I had never considered before. Tahiti, Bora Bora, Tikehau—these were names of romantic rendezvous’ that I had only read about from time to time or vaguely associated with the movie, South Pacific. But because my wife works in the travel industry, bless her heart, we had been given an opportunity to spend nine days in paradise. And so there we were–Suzanne, our daughter Alexandra and our son, Eric, and me, comfortably seated in our plane, ready for take-off.
However, just after we had taxied about 100 yards from the gate, the plane came to a slow stop followed by an announcement from our pilot that the plane’s computer had warned of an engine malfunction and that we would have to return to the gate for the mechanics to check out the problem. So we returned to the gate, feeling, oh well, it’s only a minor problem and we will be off and flying shortly.
Unfortunately, after waiting on board for a couple of hours, we were informed by the pilot that the plane would not be flying that evening, that the engine needed extensive repairs that would take several hours of mechanical labor and that everyone would be shuttled by bus to the Holiday Inn, a five minute drive from JFK, to stay overnight and that the mechanical malfunction would be repaired by the morning of the next day. After waiting another two hours for our luggage to be returned, another half hour for the bus to arrive, we finally made it to the Holiday Inn for a late, late dinner, and finally some sleep.
At 3:00 a.m. the next morning, we were awakened and told to board a bus immediately to be driven back to JFK and embarkation on the plane that had supposedly been repaired and was ready for flight.
Alas, when we arrived the airport, the plane had not been repaired. The mechanics were still working on the engine. Twelve hours later, as we remained waiting at the gate/lounge, it was finally announced that the plane’s engine had been repaired and that we would be able to board the plane and head for Tahiti. As compensation for our delay and inconvenience, all passengers were promised a free round-trip ticket to Tahiti at any future date of our choosing.
Well, ok, that was a generous gesture and it definitely helped us all feel a bit better about things. So the plane backs away from the gate once more and heads for the runway. After a bit of waiting in line to get on the runway itself, we finally turn and the pilot races the engines for take-off. We are moving at a very comfortable and accelerating pace and the plane is about to become airborne, but suddenly the plane slows down and the pilot announces that once again they have detected a problem with the engine and will have to return to the gate for mechanical inspection.
Surely, you won’t be surprised when I now tell you that much stirring and cursing was beginning to transpire among the passengers, including this preacher. So, we return to the gate. After waiting another hour, we are told that once again passengers must disembark and will be shuttled back to the Holiday Inn for another night’s stay. And so it was. And so we did stay overnight at the Holiday Inn at JFK, many miles from Bora Bora.
The following day, 24 hours later, day three of our take-off to paradise, after once again being bused to the airport from the Holiday Inn and having waited there for another 8 hours, we were relieved to learn that at least we would be boarding a different plane this time and that all systems on this plane were definitely a “go.”
We boarded the plane a third time–less enthusiastic, less ebullient, less energetic, needless to say. But all passengers remained optimistic that this time we would be on our way to Tahiti. Indeed the plane taxies to the runway without a hitch. The engines roar smoothly as we race down the track and rise majestically into the air, up, up and away, at last.
We are in the air for forty minutes, when the pilot speaks to us once more with a tone of sorrow and apology. He informs us that there is a problem with the wing flaps, that the plane cannot ascend to the height necessary to remain in the air and that we will have to return to the airport once again. Fuel is dumped into the ocean, at what cost and pollution I can only speculate. As we approach the runway, we ominously note the fire engines and ambulances lined along its parameters. Suzanne and I are holding our breath, clenching arms and hands tightly together, “saying I love you” to each other, not knowing if the plane will land safely. It does. There are gasps of relief throughout the plane as it returns to the gate. Then near mutiny breaks out. At this point Suzanne and I are ready to abandon the entire trip. No way are we going to return to the Holiday Inn.
Well, after waiting another half hour or so after our third aborted take-off, we are then informed by the pilot and the vice-president of the airline who had come on board, that there had been a mechanic’s error in this case and that some switch had not been turned on for some reason and that the plane was in good running condition after all and would be leaving for Tahiti within the hour. This was a crucial point for us—do we stay on the plane and try again for a fourth time, or do we disembark? About forty passengers did disembark. Obviously we had to ask ourselves some serious questions. Is Someone up there trying to tell us something? Is this airline for real? Surely, nothing like this has ever happened in aviation history! Well, optimism won the day, mainly because of Alexandra’s insistence, and we obviously decided to stay on the plane. At midnight, for the fourth and final attempt, we at last ascended above the clouds and made our way to what I can now describe as what seemed to be the end of the earth, paradise. And we got there, not by crashing, but by fortitude, optimism and faith and good luck, which to some of you will no doubt appear more stupid than courageous.
Why am I sharing this harrowing ordeal with you? I also wonder. For one thing, I need to tell this story over and over to convince myself that it actually happened! And then, well, “stuff happens” (I could quote the more crass manifestation of “stuff happens,” but you get the point.) Or, as our erudite Board President said to me this week in a lengthy discussion after bearing the unfortunate news that our administrator had resigned, “It is what it is!” Yep. We move on. We cannot be in control of everything. Things happen. The Taoists use the image of life as floating down the river. The current sweeps us along, sometimes it feels dangerous, sometimes it feels like a hard inconvenience, and all we can really do is accept the ride for what it is. The cold hard fact is that there are a number of different factors in the world that affect our lives in direct and indirect ways that we have no control over.
Could the FBI have stopped the terrorist attacks on September 11 given the pieces of information they had? There is something deep within us that tells us that we could have stopped it. The biblical scholar Elaine Pagels notes in her book, Adam, Eve and the Serpent, that traditional interpretations of the Adam and Eve fall from Eden emphasize the choice they made. They could have prevented it. We could have chosen eternal paradise, but instead we wound up here. Stuff happens, sometimes no matter what, and sometimes because we make bad choices.
And that brings me to the next point. The Polynesian Islands are indeed quite beautiful. The colors and depths of the surrounding waters are precisely as you see them in photographs. Anyone who travels there will feel a world apart from the reality of life at home. And while that experience undoubtedly provided a restful and tranquil respite for all of us, it also highlighted for me all the troubles of humanity on this otherwise beautiful, glorious planet we presently inhabit.
I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to these pearls of islands if the polar caps continue to melt as a result of global warming. Would they disappear beneath the rising sea?
In the den of such peacefulness and beauty, I could not help but wonder anew why human beings could not treasure life and creation more and do more to preserve it and make it possible for everyone to live together more civilly.
But much of the world does live civilly. We are so inundated with bad news by the media, we can forget that there are millions of communities like our own, where people do live civilly together. We had access to international CNN TV and so I occasionally tuned in to the news of the day. I must say, the international version of CNN is much better than our own—more internationally informative as to the events and differences of opinions about what is happening.
So during our otherwise paradisiacal sojourn, I remained ever more attuned and sensitized to the natural destruction caused by mudslides in the Philippines and the political restlessness that followed; the bloody miscalculated war in Iraq; the ongoing travesty of the rebuilding of New Orleans; the ongoing genocide in Darfur, that has now spread into neighboring Chad; the Muslim outrage and violence over the Danish cartoons of Muhammad; and of course the recent election of the Palestinian Islamic party, Hamas, to lead the Palestinian people. And I haven’t even mentioned the corruption of our own government of the Abramoffs, the Delays and the people who bribe them.
I could probably speak at length about any these human calamities. As I sat drinking my virgin Bloody Mary on the deck of our cabin stationed atop the Pacific shores, I was also reading The Nation, The Economist, Foreign Affairs, Commentary and The Christian Century. My mind was reeling from the various points of view about the causes of our present world strife, the critiques of our present administration and the ways to resolve the world’s internecine violence.
But the main point of my sermon today is “getting to paradise.” I speak metaphorically and hyperbolically of course. There is no paradise on earth or anywhere else that I know about. Yet, in spite of the interminable strife and blood shed between humans throughout our millennia history, humans have also sought valiantly to wage peace and live in harmony.
Our own democracy is no doubt a result of that quest. Yet, even there, humans spoil the good. Reinhold Niehbur in his seminal book The Nature and Destiny of Man, asserts that because of the anxiety over human limitations and death, human beings will inevitably deny their state and commit sin through pride and self righteousness in the search for purity. Niehbur writes that sin is not an inherited corruption, but it is an inevitable fact of human existence. We will inevitably fail, fall short, rise up in anguish against our failings and commit crimes of injustice to regain our power and control. With this reality as the backdrop of our lives, humans will become embattled and paradise will be lost again. Sin does not result from the imperfections of society; it causes them.
Yet, Niebuhr also asserts that the human being can transcend himself. In spite of his partial and finite self, his partial and finite values, a human being can work for the common and infinite good.
I think that is what struck me the most in the Tahitian paradise. Amidst the super temporal nature of earth’s awesome beauty and power, I could feel in myself the desire for the good, the gratitude for the gift of life and the willingness to live in peace among all others.
This desire runs through most human beings and all religions. The Buddhists have what they call the six perfections: generosity, energy, persistence, patience, meditation and wisdom. These perfections also take into consideration that we are not the center of the world and that our egos do not cause the mountains to move and the clouds to rain, but they can cause terrible destruction and death.
The Islamic ethical imperative commands us to “show compassion toward our fellow human beings.” In Islamic tradition, more odious than the destruction of property is the willful creation of human strife, sectarian hatred, and social turmoil. In fact the Qur’an “urges us to respond to evil by doing what is more beautiful in behavior, so that the person with whom one bears enmity transforms into a close friend. This is the Islamic ethic imperative, to transform hatred into compassion.
It is not unlike the sayings of Jesus: “Love your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
This is our way to paradise, again, not to some fanciful depiction of heavenly existence, but to a state of civility and good will. Terrorist claims can be found in all the great religions. Jesus also said, “I bring not peace to the Earth but a sword.” Generations later these words were enjoined to sponsor the Crusades. And there is this from the Hebrew Psalms: “Babylon, Babylon the destroyer; happy is he who repays you, for what you did to us! Happy is he who seizes your babes and dashes them against a rock!”
Appalled by its letter, modern secularist have stashed away more than enough ammunition to dismiss any of the world’s scriptures, but they have totally neglected and dismissed the redemptive values of the spirit that teaches Christian, Jew and Muslim alike to reconcile with our enemies.
None of this comes easily or naturally to us. I know that. Yet it is our only path for healing and peace.
This message, by the way, is the central thrust of our Unitarian Universalist principles, particularly in the First Principle: “We believe in the inherent worth and dignity of all people.” That would be all people: people of all colors, of all nationalities, of all sexual orientations; people who are wealthy and people who are walking the streets with only the clothes on their back; young people and people bent with age; people who work with their hands for living, like my parents, and people with multiple degrees who mainly talk for a living, like me.
We are all here on this darkling plain, knowing so little seeing so little, suffering as people have suffered through the ages, but held all the while in the arms of the Beloved, who gives us a promise that will take us through trying times, and this is the promise: love is stronger than death, and in the end , all pain, all contradictions, all persons, strange as it may seem to us in our limited view, all will be reconciled in the Unity that is Love which I call the Beloved. That is my faith. It is my paradise.
So, in spite of our limitations and sinfulness, I will stay on the plane of humanity and allow it to take me to whatever hopeful destiny I surmise through my faith in the ultimate goodness of humanity in spite of our sinfulness.
I see a world coming in which the earth is counted precious and cared for; a world in which the most vulnerable among us have a voice; a world in which the color of your skin makes you interesting to others, not frightening; a world in which the economy serves the people, instead of the people serving the economy; a world in which our love and caring do not stop at the borders of our land.
We have a message that the world sorely needs, and it goes like this: there is only One Love, One Great Mystery, and we hold that love in our very flesh. No one is unworthy of this Love, and it is our task on this earth to watch for it and receive it and bless others, in turn. We have healing to offer a hurting world. May we have the strength of purpose and courage of heart to take up our call. It is in our hands, as it always has been and always will be. That’s the only way we get to paradise. So be it.