Reading:

From Bill Sinkford's ¹ pastoral letter. (http://www.uua.org/president/060406_darfur.html)

Sermon:

Every year around this time - for thousands of years - Jews are called to remember the miracle of their liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt. As it is written in Exodus: "You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of Egypt. You shall observe this day through the generations as a practice for all times." (Exodus 12:17)

On the 15th of the month of Nissan, a month in the Hebrew lunar calendar, Jewish families and friends gather for the ritual of the Passover Seder. At the Seder, the story of Passover is retold in a way that engages the whole family. It is told as if we, the listeners, are participants in the story, beginning with "We were slaves in the land of Egypt." The story is to be understood not as ancient history, but as the central story of Jewish identity in present times. The telling of the story at the Seder is also a way to teach Jewish values to the children and to remind adults of them.

I remember my family's Seders so well. My parents often welcomed strangers into our home, perhaps a Jewish graduate student at a nearby university. We sat around the dining room table, set with a white tablecloth, polished brass candle sticks and our special holiday china. I remember the goblets of wine, one at each place and one in the middle for the prophet Elijah. There were with the symbolic foods of matzah, charoses, morror and a hard boiled egg. In our house, as in other Jewish homes, the elders told the story of the ancient Hebrews and their struggle for freedom.

Before the Passover dinner even begins, the whole story is retold and the gathering sings the traditional songs of gratitude and praise. The Seder service is printed in a book called a Haggadah, which means "the telling." There are as many versions of the Haggadah, but there are some basic elements in each one. We're told how the Hebrew people enslaved in Egypt had lost their freedom but not their identity. They knew themselves as descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, a tribe of herdsmen from Canaan with their own unique culture. And they kept their different customs even through the centuries of living in Egypt. They kept their names and language, and clung to their belief in the God of their ancestors, the one true God.

The Haggadah roughly follows the story in the Book of Exodus, but also includes stories and lessons by later rabbis. It begins with the enslavement and the coming of Moses and recounts the ten plagues visited by God on the Egyptians. We come at last to the liberation from Egypt and the 40 years of wandering in the Sinai desert.

But strangely enough, the story in the Haggadah ends there. Where, I wonder, is the Promised Land in the Haggadah? Jews are reminded that liberation is costly and must be earned. Even after being freed from physical bondage, true freedom of the soul must be cultivated. It takes time, just as building a democracy and a free society takes time. Liberation, whether personal or social or political, is not easy. It requires struggle. Sadly, in every age, freedom of a whole people is lost somewhere in the world and must be re-won with great struggle and cost in human lives. Until all humanity is free, we have yet to reach the Promised Land.

As a young child who sat through many Seders growing up, I can honestly say the Seder, with all the stories and rituals is long. It may have been just 40 minutes and not 40 years, but it seemed like an eternity until dinner... as I smelled the chicken cooking in the kitchen! It took some discipline to sit there so patiently. It was only later as an adult that I came to appreciate the symbolic significance of my hunger. We were hungry, at least temporarily, like the Hebrew people wandering in the desert were hungry. We were hungry for an hour or so as many people around the world today are hungry... not only for food, but for freedom. As a people who have suffered anti-Semitism and oppression throughout the centuries, as a people who's very existence has been threatened again and again from pogroms and holocausts, Jews are taught through the Passover story to identify with oppressed people everywhere. "Never again!" say Eli Weisel and other the victims of the Nazi holocaust. "Never again will we let the world stand by and watch another genocide happen."

We are challenged today to respond to the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. . The U.N. has labeled the Darfur situation the world's worst humanitarian disaster. Since 2003, over 400,000 people have died and over two and a half million people have been displaced from their homes. Many are living in refugee camps in Sudan and Chad, where international aid alone is keeping them alive. And they are subject to continuing attack from the government-backed militia, the Janjaweed. Three and a half million Africans in the area are at risk of starvation. Each day, over 500 innocent people die from violence, malnutrition and disease. The world stands by immobilized and helpless as the woefully inadequate African Union peacekeeping force fails to provide protection. Humanitarian aide workers are finding it harder and more dangerous to reach the people.

Juan Mendez, the U.N. special adviser on prevention of genocide, said, "Despite the passage of time [since the Rwanda genocide 12 years ago], nations still seem unwilling to commit the troops and money needed to stop mass slaughters," "Governments have repeatedly promised 'never again' in the years since the Holocaust and the Rwanda killings. They have gotten better at nurturing peace processes, but are still reluctant to do much more... My sense is there's the same kind of wariness. 'Let somebody else do it' is still very much in place," Mendez concluded.

Ruth Messinger is the Executive Director of the American Jewish World Service, an international development and relief organization. She wrote in a recent article on Darfur:

"The Jewish response is growing. The Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, an umbrella coalition comprised of 45 national Jewish organizations, created a Jewish Coalition for Sudan Relief that has raised about $170,000. A number of Jewish organizations have joined us as members of the Save Darfur Coalition. Until conditions are established that permit the voluntary, safe, and dignified return of those displaced by the conflict, and violators of human rights are held accountable, our diligence must not wane.

"Leviticus teaches, "Thou shalt not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor." Failure to act properly now will result in endless, preventable and meaningless human suffering. In the words of Elie Wiesel, who addressed the organizing Save Darfur Coalition at its first meeting, "How can anyone who remembers remain silent...How can we reproach the indifference of non-Jews to Jewish suffering if we remain indifferent to another people's plight?" In short, Jews have an obligation to act in the face of genocide whenever, wherever and to whomever it occurs."

I say that we cannot reach the Promised Land until the innocent wanderers of Darfur have crossed the desert and found their way safely back to their villages and homes. Dr. Joseph Mandels is a member of the American Jewish Committee's international relations commission and is considered the AJC's leading expert on African issues. Recently, Dr. Mandels spoke during Friday evening services at a temple in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Referring to the 6 million Jews who were killed during the Holocaust, he said his community has a particular moral responsibility to speak out against the ethnic cleansing taking place against Africans in Darfur. But he did not stop there. Everyone, he said, carries a similar moral obligation. He told the Florida congregation, "Somebody said the worst form of evil is good men doing nothing,"

We, citizens of the United States and of the world, will not see the Promised Land until all slavery and genocide ends.

Rabbis, ministers, priests, imams and religious leaders across the country are calling for all people of good will to pressure the United States government and the United Nations to stop the genocide in Darfur. Faith groups and human rights groups have joined together in the Million Voices for Darfur Campaign. In the vision of shared purpose, many faiths have come together to observe a week of Prayer and Action, which ends today. Congregations were urged to hold a "Save the People of Darfur" Sunday in March or April. You heard the words in the pastoral letter from our UUA President Rev. Bill Sinkford. "Ours are the only hands on earth." It is up to humanity to do God's work in the world, to make compassion real. The UU Service Committee has joined with Rev. Sinkford in calling for action.

We are being asked as a congregation by the UUA and the UUSC to be involved. We are asked to reflect: To think about our moral responsibility as UUs and as residents of the United States for ending the genocide. To reflect on the role that racism plays in the lack of U.S. or broader international intervention. To inform ourselves about what the "righteous among nations" doing now to stop this travesty.

Then we are asked to move beyond reflection to action. But first I have some good news. Last Wednesday, many people of faith called or visited members of Congress urging them to take action to stop the genocide. The campaign was aimed at getting a bill through the House of Representatives called the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. This bill would reaffirm the finding of genocide in Darfur, would expand the funding for peacekeeping in southern Sudan and level penalties on those benefiting from ethnic cleansing. The bill also directs President Bush to demand that the NATO alliance form a military mission to protect the black population of Darfur from lethal attacks by the Arab Janjaweed militias.

As a result of bipartisan support and this intense lobbying, the House finally caught on ... either to the seriousness of the situation or to the people's passion about the issue. Wednesday evening the House passed the bill with a near unanimous vote. The bill next goes to the Senate and it looks likely to pass. In a rare show of bi-partisanship, Senators Hillary Clinton, Democrat from New York, and Sam Brownback, Republican from Kansas, have both supported resolutions declaring the atrocities in Darfur as genocide and appeared publicly at a rally to speak on the issue. There is hope.

The next part of the campaign is quite easy. It is simply filling out and signing one of these postcards to President Bush. The postcard reads, "Dear President Bush: During your first year in the White House, you wrote in the margins of a report on the Rwandan genocide, 'Not on my watch.' I urge you to live up to those words by using the power of your office to support a stronger multi-national force to protect the civilians of Darfur."

After the service, I have asked volunteers to distribute informational flyers and copies of the postcards to you. If you will please fill them out, we will collect them and mailed them to The Save Darfur Coalition. If you feel so inclined, you may also take more postcards and collect more signatures from family and friends during the week. Just remember to return them in a few days.

It is hoped that one million signed postcards will delivered to the President on April 30. That is the day of a planned rally in the capitol to stop genocide and to support international action in Darfur. As may be expected, we are all urged by the UUA and the UUSC to join the rally... or to support a rally in our community.

are joining together and the politicians are listening. We cannot lose heart. The Promised Land of a world of peace and justice may seem far away, but we are moving onward through the desert. Let us join our voices to those who refuse to be indifferent about the suffering in Sudan.

I end with this prayer from The Save Darfur Coalition:

Loving God, we know there are tremendous problems facing the world - natural disasters, civil wars, violence, disparities in resources, and sickness-

We confess that there are days when we look the other way, change the channel, or pretend the problems don't exist. We say that the problem is someone else's concern or displace the blame. We are not confident that we can make an impact and we fear failure for ourselves and on the behalf of others. We might even think that moving to make a difference will change us in ways that we will not like or make us uncomfortable. Before we begin, we desire to give up - on our opponents and on the victims. Forgive us for our faint-heartedness and selfishness, for failing to love others as we should, and for failing to believe that You have empowered us to protect our brothers and sisters. Remind us Holy One that some faithful persons refused to give up on us, and that You have not given up on any of us. Amen.

Sources:

http://www.uua.org/news/darfur

http://savedarfur.org.

Footnote:

The Reverend William G. Sinkford, President of the Unitarian Universalist Association.