by Rev. Terry Davis
Delivered at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation
on March 29, 2015
Those were some pretty wild myths and theories that Paul read about the moon.
It’s hard to believe that some of them – like the faked moon landing – persist today. Thanks to science and space exploration, however, we’re more able to discern the fact from the fiction.
We’ve learned, for example, that rather than making our planet and its people a little looney, the moon actually has a stabilizing effect on the Earth. It helps moderate our planet’s wobble on its axis which, in turn, leads to a relatively stable climate . . . and creates a tidal rhythm that has guided human beings for thousands of years.
We’ve discovered that the moon orbits the Earth in 27 days and that its own orbit causes the same side of the moon to always face us. More than 100 spacecraft have been launched to explore it . . . and it’s the only celestial body that has been visited by humans.
While science continues to demystify what was once Earth’s most mysterious satellite, I still feel a sense of awe and wonder whenever I look up into the night sky and see that magnificent, shining orb beaming back at me. When I look out of my car window as I drive along on a clear, dark night, I still like imagining that the moon is really following right along beside me like a steadfast travel companion.
There’s something magical about that big hunk of gray rock that hangs high in the air nearly a quarter of a million miles above us.
When the Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale wrote, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars,” our world was still years away from the Apollo 11 moon landing and Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s dramatic moonwalk. Peale’s words reflected the essence of his ministry and its persistent message, which was that anyone could overcome any of life’s biggest obstacles through the power of positive thinking.
Peale believed that positive thinking could transform the impossible to the possible. We shouldn’t be afraid to go for something that’s a long-shot, he reasoned, because we’re bound to land somewhere great no matter what.
All we have to do is put our minds to it.
As someone like you who’s a member of the human race having a human living experience, I’ve had my shares of ups and downs. There have been times when I’ve given something my all and achieved the results I was seeking. And, there have been times when my best wasn’t good enough and I failed at my goals.
When this happened, it was hard not to view myself as a failure. As a result, I’ve traditionally approached the philosophy of “if you think you can, you can” with a mixture of optimism and skepticism.
I’d like to believe that anything is possible if I set my mind to it. But sometimes that attitude doesn’t seem terribly realistic. What about those circumstances outside of my control – like politics, illnesses, or just other people? Life has lots of variables, and I can’t always be sure that my positive attitude will turn the tide in my favor each time.
As wildly popular as Norman Vincent Peale’s philosophy of positive thinking was back in the 1940s and 50s, this approach to life’s difficulties was also met with considerable criticism. With a few notable exceptions like the Protestant ministers Billy Graham and Robert Schuller, many clergy members accused Peale of being a false teacher. They believed that he put greater importance on human mental activity than the activity of an all-powerful God at work in the world.
In short, Peale was accused of preaching self-centeredness versus God-centeredness.
As we shoot for the moon in our lives – as we try to live each day to its fullest, lose our self-centered fears, and take actions that move us more fully into a life of deep meaning and satisfaction – what do we need to take with us on the journey? Do we need a faith in the positive thinking power of our own mind? Or do we need faith in God or in some power greater than ourselves?
When does it make sense for us to heed our intellect and the findings of science?
And, when should we just chuck the data, take a deep breath, step out on faith and go for it?
In my message to you this morning, I’d simply like to assert that faith in both the human mind and the spirit . . . or, in other words, in the explainable and unexplainable . . . are critical to living a richly meaningful and useful life.
As Unitarian Universalists whose Fourth Principles calls us to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning, I would venture to say that finding a way to integrate both our rational thinking and the seemingly irrational urgings of our spirit as we pursue our highest aspirations isn’t just an invitation.
It’s our responsibility as people of a progressive religion that’s often referred to as a thinking faith.
For me, that’s thinking . . . faith – two words, equal emphasis.
To highlight the importance of attending to the wisdom of our intellect and our spirit when we’re shooting for the moon, I’d like to visit one real moon story for a moment.
When Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on lunar soil, he uttered the immortal line, “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” With that historic moment on July 20th, 1969, the once long-held belief that landing a man on the moon was a long-shot idea was shattered.
Armstrong’s accomplishment offered us hope for our dreams and tangible proof that we could achieve them. With small steps, we could make giant leaps.
What once was the impossible could one day become the possible. It’s not looney to shoot for the moon, because we might just get there.
Interestingly, although Armstrong helped the world realize one of its long-time dreams, he didn’t personally think of himself as a dreamer. He once said, “I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer, born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace and propelled by compressible flow.”
And, yet, his ambition to become an astronaut and shoot for the moon – literally – wasn’t born out of his mathematical and scientific mind but, rather, his urging of his spirit. He also once said, “Mystery creates wonder and is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” In other words, paying attention to those things that stir our spirit can ignite the sparks that engage our rationale minds and desire to learn.
I imagine that, even with NASA’s massive budget and expertise, that there was more than a slight degree of uncertainty about the Apollo program. Armstrong admitted to having his doubts. “I was elated, ecstatic, and extremely surprised that we were successful,” he said later of the feat.
And, no wonder. The technology available on the Apollo 11 spacecraft was advanced at the time, but much less sophisticated than what we have today’s handheld calculator . . . and it was far, far less than what exists in today’s cell phone. Would you feel confident flying to the moon in an oversized handheld calculator?
It seems that Neil Armstrong’s honest admission of surprise also indirectly communicated his admission of faith. He took years of study and training with him on his fantastic voyage. He had faith in the science and math that mapped out the details of his mission. And, as a former Eagle Scout, Armstrong also took along in his capsule his World Scout Badge, one of only a few personal items. While he may have faith in NASA and the mission, it appears he also had faith in the spirit of discovery and achievement that had been with him as a boy and had guided him to that moment.
What was it that made Armstrong shoot for the moon? Norman Vincent Peale might have said that it was the power of his positive thinking. 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard, to whom the idea known as “a leap of faith” is attributed, might have argued that Armstrong’s belief in something unexplainable and even irrational helped him take a risk and embark on the adventure. Anthropologists, psychologists and other scientists might point to the astronaut’s family upbringing, culture, gender, and genes, which they contend provide the foundation for human ambition.
Whatever it was, Armstrong’s commitment to achieve the impossible was complex in nature and, therefore, is likely not easily explained by one overriding factor. He was confident enough in science and his abilities to try it. And he was uncertain enough and humble enough to be surprised by his successful outcome.
Turning to our own lives, can you think of times when you have shot for the moon? My guess is that there is more than one quest you can point to in your life that combined cold, hard facts with faith in something outside of your rational thinking. Was it starting a family? Ending a long-time relationship? Moving to a new city? Leaving a well-worn job behind to pursue something completely different?
It’s likely that, even if you had good supporting data to help you make your decision, there was also a degree of uncertainty about your choice. That’s because outcomes are always unknown – even if the odds are in our favor. Even if we have all the confidence in the world in what we’re doing, there’s always the element of unpredictability –whether it be the stock market, world politics, the weather, or – most especially –other people’s actions and reactions.
The less certain the outcome, the higher the perceived risk . . . which means if we’re going to act at all, we will need to rely on faith in something other than the data.
Driving into my office this past Tuesday, I heard a StoryCorps interview on my local public broadcast radio station. The woman being interviewed was Claudia Romero. Her grown son Daniel was the interviewer.
Claudia came to the U.S. from Mexico as a single mother to earn money. She left Daniel, who was a young boy at the time, behind with her sister. Her hope was that one day she would be able to return to Mexico, where she could buy a house for them all to live in.
But when Claudia arrived to America, she decided she wasn’t going back. Instead, she decided to shoot for the moon . . . she was going to get an education and pursue a better life in the U.S. She was determined to work until she could afford to bring her son here to live with her.
In the StoryCorps Atlanta booth, Claudia told Daniel about her journey:
When I came here, I didn’t have anybody. I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t have a place to go. So, I looked in the paper and found an advertisement for a family who needed a person to clean their house.
The family was very nice. They paid me very little. I was making about $120 a week, working every day of the week . . . cleaning, cooking, taking care of the kids.
But, they [taught] me some English. I really didn’t go to a school until about 2-1/2 years later to learn English on the weekends. Three years later, when I had too many kids to pay for daycare, we limited our expenses so that I could stay home and go to school. That’s when I went to school full-time.
Claudia said that had only a sixth-grade education when she arrived in the U.S. She eventually learned enough English to begin taking high school classes.
When her son Daniel asked her if she ever felt she had been discriminated against, Claudia responded:
I remember my first job as a nurse. I had worked very hard to become a nurse. Nobody had given me anything. At my first job, I had a patient who said, “So, where are you from?” and I said, “I’m from Mexico.” And, she said, “Whoa, you’re lucky you’re not putting your back out in the sun” or something like that. And I said, “I worked very hard” and I left her room and went into the break room. I was crying.
I also had another patient tell me once “I don’t like those dumb Mexicans.” And, I said, “That’s okay, because I’m not dumb.”
Claudia’s story of overcoming poverty, a lack of education, and discrimination to make a better life for herself is one where we can imagine that her intelligence, her positive attitude, her hard work and her faith came together in an extraordinary way. She shot for the moon . . . and got so much in the process . . . a home, an education, a career, and evidence that the impossible can become the possible.
The lives of Neil Armstrong and Claudia Romero offer us reminders that when we attempt to do something impossible, it is our thinking and our faith that move us forward. The outcome may surprise us or our journey to our destination may not be at all what we expected. But the beautiful thing is that it is possible to find the will to keep going, to keep trusting that we’ll either land on the moon or among the stars.
As we go from here, may our curiosity, our intellect, our imagination and our spirit equip us, enliven us, and embolden us to do what we thought we could not do . . . to seek pursue what we thought was out of reach . . . and to believe that the impossible may one day be so.
May it be so. Amen.
(image credit: “Hunter’s Moon” by Flickr user Luis Argerich)