Congregation OM ShalOM

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Sermon: “Returning to the Wellspring”

Beloved friends,

Today, I wish to speak honestly about something that weighs on many of our hearts. As Jews, Christians, and Muslims, we look to our sacred traditions for truth, guidance, and purpose. Yet we must ask ourselves: Are we practicing as our ancestors practiced? Or have we built monuments to memory while losing the living spirit that inspired them?

Judaism began as a revolutionary covenant of justice and compassion, a peoplehood rooted not only in law but in relationship with a living God, walking humbly, loving mercy, and pursuing justice. Christianity began as a radical path of love, forgiveness, and inclusion, led by a Jewish mystic healer who spoke truth to power and called people to the Kingdom within. Islam began as a transformative message of surrender to God’s will, justice for the oppressed, and uniting tribes into a single ummah under the mercy of Allah.

Today, however, we often see:

Judaism reduced to ritual without ethics, nationalism without compassion.
Christianity reduced to institutional dogma, political power, and exclusion of those deemed “unworthy.”
Islam reduced to fear-based strictures, with spiritual beauty hidden behind cultural patriarchies and political repression.

My dear friends, this is not what God intended.

In Buddhism, we are taught that form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. Ritual without spirit is empty. Spirit without grounding is unmanifest. The founders of our faiths did not envision institutional power. They envisioned lives transformed by love, humility, justice, and surrender to the Divine.

The Torah’s core is “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus’ greatest commandment was “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.”
The Quran says, “God commands justice, the doing of good, and generosity to kith and kin.” (Quran 16:90)

These are calls to radical compassion, humility, and justice.

In my opinion, organized religion today often distances us from God. We cling to doctrines and identities, while the living wells of spiritual awakening within us run dry. Like Moses striking the rock in anger, we seek to force meaning from rituals rather than speaking softly to the Divine within.

So what do we do?

We return to the wellspring.

We return to the silent prayer of the heart.
We return to feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, welcoming the stranger, uplifting the oppressed.
We return to love that knows no boundaries of tribe, doctrine, or label.

For Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are rivers flowing from the same Source. They do not call us to separate ourselves from one another, but to unite in justice, peace, and reverence for the One who created all.

Let us end with this prayer:

🕊️ Holy One of Many Names, strip away from me all arrogance and self-righteousness. Return me to Your original call: to love You with all my heart, and to love my neighbor as myself. May my life reflect the true spirit of my faith, and may my actions bring Your peace to this world.

Amen.

Interfaith Sermon: “Water from the Rock: Faith Beyond Hardness”

Beloved friends of all faiths,

Today, we gather in a world where so many feel weary and parched. Our spirits thirst for hope, truth, and peace. The Torah portion Chukat tells of Moses striking the rock in anger to bring forth water for a complaining, fearful people. Because he did not follow God’s command to speak to the rock, he was told he would not enter the Promised Land.

This story is echoed in every tradition. In Buddhism, the Buddha taught that anger is like holding a burning coal to throw at another – we are the ones burned first. In Christianity, Jesus taught that the meek, the gentle, shall inherit the earth. In Judaism, Moses’ story teaches that even the greatest leader is called to act with humility, to align with Divine will rather than personal frustration.

What is the rock within us? It is the place that has become hard from grief, fear, and anger. We demand life to serve us. We strike at it, desperate for results. But true blessings come not through force, but through faith, mindfulness, and compassion.

In this story, the miracle is not merely water from stone. The miracle is that living water – wisdom, love, and truth – flows when we speak with reverence, when we listen deeply, when we trust the Divine presence within all creation.

My dear friends, whether you call upon God, Adonai, Allah, or simply sit in silent awareness of the universe’s vast compassion, know this: within every hardness lies hidden water. Within every person lies the potential to bring forth life-giving kindness.

Today, may we each pray:

Source of Life, help me speak rather than strike, to listen rather than shout, to trust rather than despair. May I draw water from the hidden wells within my own soul, and may that water refresh all those I meet today.

Amen.

https://youtu.be/XHU022K1WWE?si=9VsZ_v6U74HMZQOr

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