Love Is The Hokey Pokey Of Life

[The following was delivered at an Interfaith Civility Service we held on April 15.]

When I was a kid many years ago, I think in the basement of my childhood church, we learned the Hokey Pokey. Maybe you learned it as a kid too. You put your (I can never remember if you go right or left): “You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in and you shake it all about. You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about.” It’s too bad all of life isn’t as simple as the Hokey Pokey, isn’t it? My friend Fred Wooden from Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids has a t-shirt that says: What if the Hokey Pokey is what it’s all about? Unfortunately, we know it’s not.

Lately it seems like incivility – and worse - is what it’s all about. A Congressperson is spat upon. African American Congress people are called the N-word. A gay Congressperson is called the F-word. Those victims were all Democrats. But incivility, or worse, is not restricted to one political party. A Republican Congressperson has a bullet shot through a window of his office building. Threats upon the life of President Obama increased 300 percent compared to the number of threats made against President Bush. Barack Obama is a Democrat, of course. But again, that kind of thing is not restricted to one political party. We remember that an assassination attempt was made many years ago on the life of President Reagan, a Republican. Incivility – and worse – covers the political spectrum. Just as terrorism covers the religious spectrum.

9-11, which happened nearly 9 years ago, involved Muslim terrorists. The Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing, which happened 15 years ago next week, involved a Christian terrorist, Timothy McVeigh. So incivility and terrorism span the political and spiritual spectrum. Are incivility and terrorism what it’s all about?

Not according to many religious leaders down through the ages. 2,000 years ago Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” More recently, the Dalai Lama, the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, said, “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” Every religion that I know of – Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and more – everyone of them says, follow the Golden Rule. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

Incivility isn’t what it’s all about. Terrorism certainly isn’t what it’s all about. Love is what it’s all about. Love is the Hokey Pokey of life. Whether you go to your right or to your left, politically or spiritually. Love is the Hokey Pokey of life. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what it’s all about.