Sermon: "Live Long and Prosper"

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.