My birthday reflection at Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace

 

I wanted to give the reflection this morning because I just celebrated my 75^th birthday yesterday and I wanted to share this special milestone moment with you. Some people are surprised, or at least say they’re surprised, when I tell them I am 75 years old. They say I look younger. I usually respond that my wife keeps me young, but I also believe that I feel and act younger than my years because I have a purpose in life, a commitment to justice and peace.  Rev. Dr. King famously said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

As you know, I am not silent when it comes to opposing war and injustice. I am glad I can add my voice to the beautiful and powerful chorus of peacemakers here at ICUJP.  I’m deeply grateful for your friendship an your support for my housing justice work as well as for the work we do together to promote justice and peace.

This summer is significant because Jill and I decided to take a break from our housing justice work and go on a four-month sabbatical, starting May 1^st until September 1^st.

Some have asked what we intend to do while Bert Newton serves as interim director of our nonprofit, Making Housing and Community Happen. We plan to get much needed rest, go on a couple of retreats, hang out with friends and family, and have fun biking, going to concerts, gardening and raising a batch of chicks that came in the mail this week. In three months, these adorable peeps will mature into full-grown chickens that will lay multicolored eggs. That’s why they are sometimes called Easter Egg chickens. You can see these chicks for yourself if you come to my birthday party this Saturday from 4:00 – 9:00 pm at our home in Pasadena. You are all warmly invited.

My serious project this summer is to complete a book I started fifteen years ago when my wife Kathleen Ross and I took a cancer journey together from June of 2008 until the summer of 2009. I’m calling this book “Nothing Can Separate Us” which is taken from Kathleen’s favorite scripture passage in which the apostle Paul says: “I am convinced that neither life nor death, nor powers nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor heights nor depths nor any created thing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.” This book describes how Kathleen and I coped with the challenges of cancer, how we grew spiritually, and how we faced death and its aftermath together in the spirit of love and faith. I hope that this book will help others to experience some of the amazing grace and love that we experienced during our 20 years of marriage and especially during the final year when we came closest to each other, to God and to our dear friends and family. I have also added a chapter about the grieving process and discovering a new life with my amazing new wife, Jill Shook. Jill and I also went on a cancer journey—one that ended happily so far, since Jill is cancer-free.

Kathleen was a Methodist pastor for 26 years, and as you know, I am a Quaker educator, writer, and peace activist. While both of us were deeply rooted in Christianity, we were also active in the interfaith community and had many close friends from various faith traditions—Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Bahai, Hindu, Sikh, etc.—who gave us love and support during our cancer journey. Our story shows how many people of faith have a heart-felt realization that we are all one family, and act accordingly.

As I read through the caringbridge journal we kept during our cancer journey, I was struck by how we turned this challenging experience into an opportunity to advocate for universal health care as well as for complimentary medicine and spiritual healing. We spoke at numerous churches and were part of a movement that had an impact. Five months after we began our cancer journey, Obama was elected, which was cause for great rejoicing since he was able to move our country closer to universal health care. We still have a long way to go—and we could lose Obamacare if the Republicans sweep the White House and Congress in November—but for now we are better off Healthwise than we were in 2008. I also found this entry in my cancer journal:

 Other than hospital adventures, my other big event of the week was going to the office of Congressman Henry Waxman with a delegation of religious leaders to speak out against torture. This was part of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. Our organization (Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace) organized a dozen delegations to go to Congressional offices in the LA area. We hope to exert pressure on President Obama to issue an executive order banning torture and allowing the Red Cross to visit all US detention facilities. We also want Congress to appoint a select committee to investigate America's use of torture since 9/11. (According to Jane Mayer's excellent book, "The Dark Side," the US has been involved in torture in ways that have ruined our reputation in the eyes of the world and hurt our efforts to stop terrorism.)

We are hopeful that with our new President and our newly constituted Congress we can finally put the shameful legacy of the Bush years behind us.

As you know, this didn’t happen. We are still fighting the good fight to end torture and close Gitmo. The work of ending torture and war may not be finished in our lifetime, but as Wes Jackson said,  “If your life's work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you're not thinking big enough.” There’s also an old rabbinic saying: "It is not our responsibility to finish the work of healing the world, but we are not free to desist from it either.” I thank God that I am doing this life-giving work with you, my dear friends.