Sermon: ADVICE FROM THE CLERGY : On Rejecting Spiritual Bankruptcy

When we look around today, not only here at our city and our country but also at the world, we get a great picture of negativity. Everything seems to be wrong. The escalation of crime, the proliferation of drugs, the accelerating altercations between gangs, the ever-challenging presence of the homeless, all seem to point a finger toward a deep pessimism.

However, we within the religious communities can see beyond this gloomy picture and see a great meaning to life. A meaning that makes life worth living and wonderful. A meaning that inspires and challenges us.

The recent civil unrest has been thoroughly scrutinized. Committees and subcommittees have been formed, situations analyzed and reports made. Questions have been asked and answered on what happened, why it happened and how to redeem it. However, for us in the religious community, the situation is very clear.

While the problems of L.A. may be defined as intra-cultural or economic or racial or social, we in the religious community do not view that to be true. Racial tensions, economic discrepancies, unjust social conditions are not the problems of Los Angeles. These are the symptoms of a deeper problem--a spiritual one.

There is a great bankruptcy within our people. Many of us have lost our respective spiritual roots. Without these roots, we have lost the sense of the sacred. Without our sense of the sacred, we have lost the source of our values. Without our values we have lost everything.

In varying degrees we take our share of the blame for this as well. When we should have been working shoulder to shoulder for the common good, we were concerned with sectarian expediencies. When we were supposed to hear the cry of the poor, the sick, the homeless, the dying, particularly those of our brothers and sisters with AIDS, we retreated to the comfort of our own theologies, ministering with words from afar. When we should have been spending our energies in uniting the various communities into one large family, we were busy with our own groups, concerned with the polity of one over the other.

Now is the time for change. Mr. Riordan, we would like to walk with you on the journey of bringing about the healing and rebuilding of Los Angeles. Each of our traditions has many special gifts to offer the community at large:

As Jews, we have the gift of peoplehood, loving God and neighbor; as Christians we have the gift of intimacy with the creator who loves each one of us personally and unconditionally; as Muslims we have the gift of what it means to be totally submissive to a power beyond ourselves, constantly challenged to an ideal; as Hindus we have the gift of solidarity with nature and all of the cosmos and the responsibility of stewardship that this brings; as Buddhists we have the gift of a vision of peace that demands that any other compromise is only an illusion; as Sikhs we have the gift of being bridge builders, healing one community with another; as Bahais we have the vision of recognizing that unity is possible, not in spite of our diversity but because of it.

Today we do not celebrate a triumph of one group of people over another, or one political philosophy over another. It is a celebration for all of Los Angeles, for we are celebrating the triumph of freedom. Freedom of our country and of our system. We celebrate the beginning of another chapter in the life of the city--standing on the shoulders of the old and looking forward toward the horizon of peace, security and good will.

Peace, Shalom, Salaam, Shanti, Peace.