The Rev. Maureen Frescott
The Congregational Church of
Amherst, UCC
March 19, 2017 – Faith
Promise Sunday
Luke 12:22-34
“Live Long and
Prosper”
Live Long and Prosper...
Many
of you may recognize this greeting and the accompanying hand gesture as being
from the iconic science fiction series, Star Trek.
What
you may not know is that this is actually a Jewish blessing.
In
the original Star Trek series, this gesture and greeting was associated with
the character known as Mr. Spock.
Spock
was a Vulcan, an alien race that revered logic and shunned emotional displays.
In
an early episode of Star Trek, the writers had Spock visiting his home planet
where the audience would see him interacting with other Vulcans for the first
time.
The
character of Spock was played by actor, Leonard Nimoy, and when Nimoy saw that
the script called for his fellow Vulcans to greet him by putting their hands on his shoulders, that didn’t seem quite right to him….Vulcans were not touchy-feely.
So he suggested they do
something different.
He
said to the producers, “What if we use a hand gesture – like this….”
They
loved the idea, and it quickly caught on with the fans as well.
Within days of the episode airing, Nimoy said people were waving to him on the street using the hand gesture and saying, "Live long and prosper!"
And 50 years later, we're still doing it.
Two
years before he died, Nimoy was interviewed for a documentary where he talked
about the first time he saw this hand gesture.
As
a boy, he attended a synagogue service with his father and his Orthodox Jewish
grandfather.
At
the end of the service, the rabbi and the other male leaders stood up in front of
the congregation and put their prayer shawls over their heads.
Nimoy
said his father told him, “Don’t look.”
Nimoy
noticed that everyone present was either putting their hands over their eyes,
turning their backs, or putting their prayer shawls on their heads to block
their view.
As
he held his hands tightly over his eyes, Nimoy said he heard the leaders and
everyone in the congregation chanting and shouting.
It
was chilling, Nimoy said. He knew something eventful was happening and he didn’t
want to miss it.
So
he peaked.
And
when he did, he saw the leaders up front with their heads covered and with both
hands extended out like this….. towards the congregation.
Nimoy
said he had no idea what it was,
but
the sound of it and the look of it was magical.
This
is the shape of the Hebrew letter shin. It’s a 3-pointed letter, and it’s the
first letter in several Hebrew words, including:
Shaddai
(one of the names for God),
Shalom
(the word for hello, goodbye and peace),
and
Shekhinah, which Jews define as the feminine aspect of God that was created to
live among humans. (In
Christianity, we call it the Holy Spirit)
The
Shekhinah is also the name of the ritual that Nimoy witnessed as a boy that
inspired the Vulcan salute.
It’s
a benediction, or closing prayer, that calls on the feminine aspect of God to
enter the sanctuary and bless the congregation. The congregation is told to not look because the light and
power of this presence is said to be too much for our human eyes to handle.
The
Shekhinah hand gesture wasn’t the only thing that Nimoy borrowed from his
Jewish heritage.
The
phrase “Live Long and Prosper” and the traditional Vulcan response of “Peace
and Long Life” was based on the Jewish blessing “Shalom Aleichem” (peace be
upon you) and the traditional reply of “Aleichem Shalom” (upon you be peace).
This
gesture has now made its way into our popular culture, as a kind of an insider
symbol or way of acknowledging, “Hey, I’ve seen Star Trek, I know what that
is!”
Leonard
Nimoy admitted that this made him laugh and brought him great joy, because as
he said,
“People
don’t realize they’re blessing each other every time they do this!”
Leonard
Nimoy’s faith inspired his creativity.
The
experiences he had growing up in an Orthodox Jewish community was something he
valued and carried with him, to the point where it inspired his work as an
actor – even if the role he was playing was that of a pointy eared space alien
living and working on a 22nd century starship.
As
part of our Faith Promise service today, we’re asking you to think about what
it is you value about your faith and how that faith comes to inspire you and be
expressed through you - and within this community.
What
is it that brings you here on a Sunday morning when there are so many other
things that you could be doing with your time?
What
is it that brings you out on a Tuesday night to attend a Committee meeting –
or
on a Wednesday morning to engage in an Adult Ed discussion –
or on a Thursday
evening to sing in the choir or to serve at a Community Supper?
What
is it that motivates you to participate in this community of faith?
Is
it an underlying sense of obligation?
A
belief that you SHOULD go to church because it’s good for you?
Because
it’s good for your children?
Is
it because on some level you believe God is watching and keeping track of your
church attendance and all of your good deeds like some divine Santa Claus –
rewarding and punishing as needed?
Do
you come here because you love the message, or the music, or the mission, or
the people – or all of the above - because each in its own way inspires you and
lifts you up, and holds you up, as needed?
Or
do you come because you recognize that having your own needs met is only part
of the equation – because our greatest reward is found in our ability to be
there for others.
As
Jesus told his disciples, if we stop preoccupying ourselves with what it is
we’re getting and instead concentrate on what it is we’re giving, we’ll find
that all of our needs will be met, and then some.
How
often have we heard people say this in our church, especially during the Stewardship Moments
we’ve heard shared during worship?
We’ve
heard it from Sunday school teachers who claim they learn as much from the kids
as the kids have learned from them.
We’ve
heard it from mission trip participants and Community Supper volunteers who
express gratitude for the trust and hospitality they’ve received from the
people they were sent to serve.
We’ve
heard it from Congregational Care members who talk about what an honor it is to
be present for those who are sick or grieving or dying – because of the deep
connections we share with one another in the most vulnerable times of our life.
We
often hear those who give of themselves say that they receive so much more in
return, because something inside of us craves that very human connection –
that
sense that we have something of value to offer others - and we do so out of
gratitude because we value what it is that others have to offer to us.
“Where your treasure is,
there your heart will also be.”
As
Jesus told his disciples, what we value naturally becomes the recipient of our
love and our devotion.
Conversely,
if we look at the things we devote much of our time, energy, and money to, we
should have a pretty good picture of what it is we value, what it is we love.
Our
work, our family, our home, our recreational activities, our ability to travel
and explore the world around us.
Even
the taxes we often reluctantly pay provide us with services and protections
that we value and benefit from individually and communally.
It
some ways it’s easy for us to put a value on the things that are important to
us because often there’s a dollar amount that comes along with it.
The
cost of our Hampshire Hills membership or Netflix subscription.
The
cost of our children’s education – from kindergarten through college.
The
cost of medical care - when we need a new knee to walk pain free, when our
mother or father moves into an assisted living facility, when we’re told
enduring radiation and chemotherapy will possibly give us a few more years with
the ones we love.
But
it’s much harder for us to put a price tag on our faith.
Our
faith communities are an oddity in that they offer things that are difficult to
assign a monetary value to.
Things
like:
Worship that inspires us, comforts us, challenges us, and offers us a
framework to better understand our world.
Spiritual
enrichment and formation – for ourselves and our children.
A
sense of belonging and community that we may struggle to find elsewhere.
Pastoral
and communal support during the most difficult and joyous times of our lives.
The
opportunity to grow in our relationship with God, by being with others who seek
to do the same.
How
do even begin to place a value on all of this?
Perhaps
the greatest lesson that Jesus tried in vain to teach his disciples was that
love is not a commodity that can be bought and sold.
It’s
not a resource that can spoil or rust or run out because it has limited
availability.
It’s
not something that we can stash in a bank or store in a barn and save for a
rainy day.
The
love that God has for us, and the divine love that is expressed through us in
acts of compassion, and justice, and service – is so expansive and all
encompassing that all of our human understandings of scarcity and ownership and
transactional value do not apply.
Yes,
it costs money to run this church,
and
fund our ministry programs,
and
keep the lights and heat (and sprinkler system) on in this 243 year-old
building.
But
when you consider how much you can contribute to make all of this happen,
and
how much of your time, talent, and treasure – how much of your heart –
you
have to give to this faith community –
please
do so knowing that regardless of what you give or how much you give, God’s love
for you, our love for you,
will
not change.
As
Jesus said, do not preoccupy yourselves with what you receive because giving in
itself is it’s own reward.
“Shalom
Aleichem” - Peace be upon you.
Amen.
