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women3_5_06.mp3

Why does having a cup of tea. With a few friends. Resume. So with women. Is it just a t. Or perhaps a cookie and a piece of cake. Is it the conversation. Is it the connecting. Provisioning. The dreaming of things that might be. In 1848. A chance encounter among five women over a tea table. A table which is now in the smithsonian museum in washington. In waterloo new york at the home of jane hunt. Let elizabeth cady stanton and four other women there. To organize a meeting or convention. At nearby seneca falls. In the wesleyan chapel. This now famous tea party. Initiated the 72 years struggle. Of women to win the vote in the united states. What might happen if 5 equally talented and determined women. Address today's most pressing needs. Needs like providing safe and adequate supplies of the universal necessities. A food water and shelter. Of creating systems for adequate healthcare. Of educating all children. Protecting our fragile environment. Establishing world peace. Indeed these women have attacked and are still attacking these problems. Let us hear what they have to tell us. My name. Is wangari. Masai. Mine is not a household name. But it did gain some ward worldwide recognition. When in 2004 i became the first environmentalist. And the first african woman. Recipient of the nobel peace prize. For creating the green belt movement. Like the nobel committee that selected me. I continue to refine my contribution to world peace. Which may be why in 2005 forbes magazine. Named me one of the most. Powerful women in the world. My life is unfolded. Like a growing rose. With all the thorns. Damaged petals. And mature seeds proliferating my many-faceted work for humanity. I was born in nigeria. Kenya near the capital of nairobi. On what you would call april fool's day. April 1st. 1940. The third child of my parents. My brother encouraged my parents to send me to school. Which was a very unusual. Sing for a girl in my country to do. I became an exceptional student. And as a result. The kennedy foundation made it possible for me to attend. Mount saint scholastica college in atchison kansas. We're earning a bachelor of science degree in biology. I received a master's degree in biological science at the university of pittsburgh. Then i returned to kenya. Where i married. And continued my education. Earning a phd in anatomy. From the university of nairobi. My education and travels allowed me to see my country and the world. Through the eyes of a scientist. A woman. And with the purity of vision but allowed me to see a way to make good on my husband's political campaign promises. I studied a multitude of problems in my country. Lack of jobs. Low income. Malnutrition. Poverty. Deforestation. A dwindling water supply. And i deducted. The planting trees. Could provide jobs. Income. And help. The earth recover. I began the green belt movement. By planting seven trees. On world environment day. In 1977. June 19th. D7. The movement crew. From a logical gesture. 2 a y. Worldwide program. That resulted in planting of 30 million. My work has grown. To also include other environmental improvements as well as advancing women's causes in kenya. My political activities in opposition to the president in my country. Resulted in my being imprisoned and beaten. My determinist determination and activism. Also led to my divorce. My husband did not like my political activities. In his words. And i quote. You are too educated. 2 strong. Two successful. Too stubborn. And too hard to control. Ironically. I am now a member of the parliament of the same government. Veggietales me. Perhaps he was right. My life has been deeply influenced by living in the united states during the civil rights movement. And by having a daughter. When chara. Who completed her education at emory university in atlanta georgia. Envisioning democracy in my country. I have coined a phrase. Democratic. Space. Which to me represents the need for freedom. The comes from being able to. Be in an environment that is conducive to supporting. All the world and have. The nobel committee recognizes that peace on earth. Depends on our ability to. Secure our environment. They have honored my work. For promoting ecologically viable. Social economic and cultural development in kenya. In africa. And for contributing to world peace. In the words of the nobel committee. I have taken ojos holistic approach. Thought globally acted locally. Thus we have established the green belt movement international. Our goal is to facilitate. Spread. Abyss work worldwide. I trusted you. We'll share our vision. And embrace the green belt movement. In order to help create. A better world for all. Good morning. Like many of the women we are honoring this morning. Chances are you've never heard of me. Unless you've been in indonesia on my birthday april 21st. This day is truly a wonderful day. Women of all ages from young schoolgirls to grandmothers. Put aside their western clothing. Intraday dressing your traditional indonesian dress. Kebaya and colorful batik sarong. The day is filled with parades. Poetry reading. Flowers. And remembrances of me. Ride-on kartini. My story began on april 21st 1879. When i was born in central java. A royal princess. My father a javanese aristocrat. And governor of jumper regency and my mother a princess. Image of an escort. At the time of my birth. The dutch east indies had been a colony of holland. More than 250 years. The ducks control the lives of the natives. From birth to death. It was a controlling. Patriarchal society. And was centered around polygamist families. It allowed for few freedoms. At the time all children could receive a primary education. But in reality. Skew if any girls went to school. What was the point. Girls were kept in the family compound to learn domestic duties. Luckily for me. My father allowed me attend to attend primary school across the street from the family compound. Chaperoned by mike brothers. Here i learned to read and write dutch. And with exposed to western ideas. With a primary education complete. My father forbid me to continue my education. Higher education was designed to prepare. Dutch and lead indonesian males. Repetitions of. Power. I was locked up in the house. Totally separated from the outside world. To which i could not return. Unless it was on the side of my husband. A complete stranger. Chosen by my parents. Nothing could change my parents views. To change what. For this young and loving child was such a cruel decision. My parents were immovable. I injured my prison. Four long years. I stayed behind for thick walls. Without ever seeing anything. Of the outside world. During those four years i spent my time writing numerous letters to my dutch friends in holland. I wrote about the injustice of only males receiving an education. About my dream for equality for both genders. And about the plight of indonesian. Under colonial control. In november 1903 i entered an arranged marriage. Switch rod dean. Adipati. A progressive javanese official. Odell we already had three wives. I was fortunate that my husband believed women should be educated. And with his permission in guidance. I opened the very first school. For indonesian girls. To help develop. Their freedom. Freedom means two things. Self development. And liberation from the confining power. A custom and tradition. Do the school was open to all regardless of social status. Here they were taught to read and write and do simple math. Any art of batik making. Even today the finest pot keeps are made by the women of central java. Unfortunately my life was all too short. In november and september 1904 idea died after giving birth. To my only child. A-sun. Today. Indonesia indonesia is one of the largest democracies in the world. And women are an integral part of that society. Today women are ceos of multimillion-dollar companies. Records of universities. Famous writers. Actresses. Fashion designers. And even. President of the republic. Extinct. It all started with one young woman. A feminist. A nationalist. And a social reformer. Starting a school for indonesian girls in central java. And whose writings were. Centuries later. An inspiration. For those who follow. Thank you. I'm sandra postell. And i'm here today to talk to you about water. In june 1991 after a leisurely lunch with alex yablokov. Then the soviet parliamentarian. He told me something shocking. Some years back. He had a map hanging in his off on his office wall depicting soviet central asia without the vast roc. Now this map have been drawn up in the 1960s. Aro was still the world's famous. Fourth-largest. Inland body of water. I felt like a moment like a cold war spy. Tahuna critical secret had been just revealed. Existence of such a map implied that its ongoing destruction was no accident. Moscow central planners had decided to sacrifice. The sea. Judging the two rivers that fedex. Could be put to more valuable use. Irrigating cotton in central asian desert. Such a planned elimination of an ecosystem nearly the size of ireland was surely one of humanity's more arrogant acts. Four years later when i traveled to the roc region. The soviet union was no more. And the central asian republics were now independent. But the legacy of moscow palette policies lived on. Thirty-five years of siphoning off the region's rivers. Had decrease the earl volume by nearly two-thirds. And its surface area by 1/2. I stood on what was once once. I stood on what had once been a seaside bluff. But i could see no water. The sea was 25 miles away. A graveyard of ships. Rotting and rusting in the desert. Labor for me. The tragedy of the roc. Is by no means unique. Around the world countless rivers lakes. And wetlands are succumbing to dams. River diversion. Rampant pollution and other pressures. Observe from space. Our planet seems wealthy in water beyond measure. Yet most of the earth's vast blueness is ocean. Far too salty to drink. Or to irrigate most crops. Only about 2.5% of all the water on earth is freshwater. And two-thirds of that. Is locked away in glaciers and ice caps. A minuscule share of the worlds. Water. Less than 100 of 1%. Is both drinkable and renewed each year. True rainfall and other precipitation. And although that freshwater is renewable. It is also finite. And the world's population is growing and demanding the use of more water. I founded the global water project policy project in 1994. To promote the preservation and the sustainable use of earth's freshwater. True research. Riding. Outreach. And what i'm doing right now public speaking. Will we make the right choices in the coming age of water scarcity. Our actions must ultimately be guided. More than by more than technology and economics. The fact that water is essential to life. Lindsay ethical dimensions every decision we make. About how it is used. Manage. And distributed. All living things must get enough water. Before some get more than enough. Won't you join me in saving our water. Good morning. I better. My name is donnie best album. I grew up in baghdad iraq. When i was 11 my father became saddam hussein's personal pilot and i called saddam hussein. Uncle sadam. When i became a teenager my parents were so frightened for my safety that they they took me to los angeles. And i entered into an arranged marriage. But the marriage was not a happy one. And there was much physical and emotional abuse. But i was able to escape. My mother always told me as i was growing up never ever let any man oppress you or hurt you. You must always. Be strong. After my marriage ended i went to work for the league of arab states and i went to george mason university in immerse myself in women's studies. Then in 1993 i learned about the prison camps and the former yugoslavia where women were being raped. Tortured and dehumanized. I was shocked. By what i read. And i decided i must do something. So now. Newly married to amjad atallah palestinian-american lawyer. I hatched a plan one night. Well sitting at a denny's in fairfax virginia. Instead of paying for a honeymoon we would spend our $2,000 on relief supplies. And deliver them to croatia. We spent months in croatia helping women survivors. I had intended on returning to the states to join the arab league. But then i met a woman named aisha. Aisha had been at a prison camp. And had been raped every day for 9 months. She was released. When she was 8 months pregnant. But by then had no idea where her two children and husbands were. I was completely. Unprepared for what i was hearing and i had no idea how to respond. So i just listened. And afterwards i decided. I could do more. So i quit my job. And i decided to give women and need my full-time attention. Out of this. Women2women international was born. The organization helps women in war-torn areas get back on their feet. From bosnia-herzegovina to the democratic republic of congo to iraq. Serbia. Nigeria. Towanda and around the world. It's about rape. And the struggle to survive. It is a quest when a war ends for women to earn enough to feed and shelter their families. It is about that most intangible thing. Call dignity. And how to regain it. The first office for women's of women was opened in bosnia and herzegovina. The women receive money and they are never told what to do with the money. They can spend it on medicine or food or toiletries or whatever they wish. Women2women also provides vocational and business training and gives out micro-credit loans. About 8,000 women have been helping bosnia since the program started. This pattern has been repeated in other areas of the world. In rwanda 5,000 women have been helped in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. In nigeria the program is trying to help women who are caught in the clash not only between islam and christianity but between modernism and traditionalism. So in closing. I would just like to say that we can all make a difference in this world and making it a better place. If i am only one person but i am proof that one person does count thank you. I am vandana shiva. I grew up in the beautiful countryside of northern india where my mother is a farmer and my father is a forester. Well i was growing up my interest was finding how nature worked. So i followed the example of my hero einstein to become a nuclear physicist. I came to realize that there was a dark side to science. And that perhaps knowing how society works is more important than knowing how nature works. So i took three years off to study at the indian institute of science and the indian institute of management. I wanted to know why india. Which has so many scientists and advanced technology so many resources. Which could cure poverty is one of the world's poorest countries. So my life's work has become solving the disconnect. Between technology and human need. I find founded night donna yeah i norgan ization which protects the integrity and diversity of living resources. Especially seeds. I organize such a non-violent non-cooperative movement. To oppose seed monopolies. To oppose the patenting of seeds by multi natural. Agribusiness corporations. Patents which give them monopolies on our food supply. We must be allowed to farm without dependents on seeds and chemicals from corporations. To achieve this goal we are using the principles taught by gandhi at our grassroots. To preserve the biodiversity of the seeds for our food crops. To protect our water sources and des a varmint additional plants. It is not enough to act in our own communities to protect these valuable resources. As global interconnectedness increases so does agribusinesses desire for. Prophet by patenting seeds and other living organisms. This activity threatens to biodiversity on which all life on our planet depends. So i work internationally as well as locally. Confronting monsanto. And others who would restrict the ability of small farmers to engage in the sustainable farming practices. I lecture all over the world. I continued to write articles and publish books. I wrote water wars. And stolen harvest the hijacking of the global food supply. I believe strongly that we must think globally and act globally as well as locally. Well we protect our environment in our home communities we cannot overlook the global roots of decisions that impact our daily lives. Women especially being the preservers of so many of the living resources in developing world. Must understand the critical role we play in protecting the biodiversity of planet earth. I invite you to join me in contemplating ways that we can protect the interdependence e of all life. If not me. If not now.

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arvid12_4_05.mp3

What are the pivotal stories in the hebrew bible is the story of moses. Encountering god in a burning bush. You see moses was tending his father-in-law laws flock of sheep and goats. In the desert when he saw a fire in the distance and of course. He went to investigate that fire and there was a bush that was burning and this is the desert so that bush was like the bushes in our canyon. Those desert bushes are burned up pretty quickly. But he saw that this particular bush wasn't burning office it wasn't being consumed. So out of curiosity moses walks closer to it to the bush and a voice comes out of the bush and says moses take off your shoes you are on holy ground. And this. Scare him and of course he did the bush told him to do. And then the bush said. So moses i want you to go to egypt. And confront the most powerful man in the world the pharaoh of egypt. And i want you to tell him to let all his hebrew slaves. Gall. And then i want you to lead those slaves. Through the desert. To a land that i will show you. You got that. Talk about mission impossible. And. Moses quite reasonably out the bush. Who are you. And god answering from the bush says according to. Are english translations of that hebrew text. I am. What i am. A better translation from the hebrew might be. I am that which brings into. Being. This is a story. But hidden in that story. Is a powerful truth. God. Will not. Tell moses who god is. God. Does not want moses. To have two small and idea. Of the mystery and source of all. The theologian paul tillich calls god the ground of being this is much greater than a god who is an old man in the sky. A personality. Separate from creation. And the world. That which brings into being. In the lakota wakan-tanka great mystery. Great mystery. That. Which is the source of all. That which is the source of you. And me. It's so much greater. Then what. We can know. The more we know. About the reaches of space. Of the vastness of the universe. The more we look into the tiniest thing we can perceive with our senses our instruments or our minds. The deeper the mystery. The more complex. And back. Is that. Out of wood. Become. And to which. So it just. Make. Stance. That that which has been created you and i. Cannot will not will never. Completely in compass. That which has created us. The creature cannot grasp the whole of the creator i've heard people say that agnostics are not religious. But i'm honest agnosticism. Maintains humility. In the face of mystery. It says i do not know i can't not know the whole. Of what is the source of being. And i would submit that a thoughtful agnosticism is a very religious stance it stands in awe of the mystery. And the source of our being. But of course. People will try to define god. That's okay as long as our definitions of god or help nightly. As long as we know that those. Conjectures. About thesaurus the mystery ara. But there are some people who think they know exactly who god is and exactly what god wants and not only did i know what god wants from them they know what god wants from you. The second commandment. The one that says. Not to have idle. Is early. In those ten commandments for a reason. Because if you break. That commandment. Not only do you limit. Thesaurus. The mystery. Picture. Of your own inadequacy. You limit your own human potential. You hem in. Your own spirits and possibility. An idol. Is not just. That which is made out of wood or stone. Or metal. In fact. Many people use those images of the way to look through and into the incident. An idol. Can be an idea. And ideologies. An addiction. It's putting ultimate trust in a limited. Reality. And it's been responsible. For grey's evil. In the world. People who think they know who god is. And what god wants have throughout history continued to cause unrest. Told suffering. And they continue to do that. Today. And so. An idol can be a statue. I thought. A habitat earn. It can be a book. Like the bible. Chris hedges who wrote a wonderful book about the ten commandments called losing moses on the freeway. Says this about idols. We can see the idols others worship. It's hard to see our own. We depend on idols to give us order in meaning. We depend on our idols to define our place in the world. Idle give us a world that appears logical incoherent. Idle frias from moral choice idols determine right. And wrong idol render judgment we follow we. Conform. I submit to you that all of us have idle you have them i have and it takes great courage to examine. Ar. Sadly. Air conditioning. Our habits. That. By which we try to make order the path that we have walked. Without critique or proof. It takes. Courage. To continue to ask. Is this serving me is the serving the good is this true it takes courage to look into the unknown because ultimately idols are about our fear of dad. Now unitarian universalist unlike are fundamentalist brother--and. Our diverse. We have a lot of room for different opinions and theology and so our idle centipede. And we argue. About them they can range anything anywhere from a scientific. Materialism. To a new age narcissism. And everything. In between. Did you know that there is a science of faith professor james fowler and his colleagues first of harvard now of. Emory university. After interviewing thousands of people. In different cultural settings has identified six stages of faith that youman beings can go through. As they mature in life those stages move from very self-centered in the youngest people to. Completely selfless. In the most developed people now if you're going to do a study. How about. Say if you're going to interview people to see what their faith is like you need to have a definition of faith to start with. Fowler's definition of faith is that which you ultimately trust. That which you ultimately try is your face so here we're not using the word faith to mean any kind of belief or theory or doctrine. It's not about believe it's an older meaning of the word faith as in having faith in someone its latin roots are the same. As fidelity. Believing trusting. In someone and not about something. It's snowing by personal experience. And fowler says that faith and religion are very different. And people. He says he knows people who say their religion is catholic who go to mass who ascent to the creed's. But their true face is hedonism that is the pursuit of pleasure is what they ultimately trust because that is what they organize their life around. Or somebody can say that they were presbyterian and intel attend a presbyterian church but their faith is materialism and all of their life energy is going to getting more stuff because that's what they ultimately trust getting and having stuff. So what is it. That you ultimately trust. This is the season of advent and traditionally advent is the time for quiet self-reflection. And you might begin that self-reflection. By asking yourself what is it that you. Ultimately trust. If you look. What is almost the consensus. Of the greatest. Soul. Thank you manatee has produced. What answer is that ultimately we need to trust. The mystery. Itself. The unknowable. And the unknown. And that is known in the moment to understand the mystery itself. And as we confront our own limiting concepts and ideas. Our own condition thought patterns. And patterns of behavior. We can ask ourselves is this true. How do i know. And wrapped in the moment. The mystery and source of all being. Is known there. I'm going to end. With a poem by donald c babcock. The little duck. Now we are ready to look at something special. It is a duck. Riding the ocean a hundred feet beyond the surf. Any cuddles in the swell. There's a great evening in the atlantic end. He is part of it. He can rest while the ocean is because. Arrest in the atlantic. He probably doesn't know how large the atlantic is. And neither do you. But he realizes it. And what does he do. I asked you. He sits down in it. He reposes in the immediate. As if it is infinity. Which it is. That is religion. And the duck. I'm in.

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The%20Woods%20Are%20On%20Fire.mp3

In june of 2005. In fort worth texas at our general assembly where. We have the service of the living tradition. Where new ministers are welcomed into our met. The reverend patrick o'neill electrified the 2020s unitarian universalist. Who were there with. A sermon called house from walden. I want to read just a few excerpts from the. Sermon. Woodlands the free church of constant power and constant challenge of course. Is its unique placement on that city on the hill that is always both part of society and profit. The society. It has been the nature of our church and its ministry from time immemorial always to wrestle. With a kind of. Schizoid tendency to shift back and forth between full-blown retreat from the world on the one hand. Offering itself as a sanctuary and refuge from the world. In full-blown engagement and confrontation with the world on the other hand. Perhaps no-one figure in our history. More personally incarnates the push-and-pull of our unitarian universalist damn between retreat. An engagement with the world. Then our beloved idealist. Henry david thoreau. Who in his intentional withdrawal from society into the woods of walden pond. For two years appeals to one very deepest oryx trains. Have unitarian universal. Sensibility. What is great essay on. Civil disobedience. His willingness to be jailed as an anti-war and abolitionist. Tax protester. Makes them a hero in another chamber. Of the unitarian. Universalist. And he goes on to describe. People throughout our history who spoke out. Inductor. Evil. Mangos on. Dare we hope. To find again. In the newest generation of ministers preachers who burn. With unapologetic indignation and they have of equal opportunity. Equal education. Equal healthcare decent housing for everyone. And the equal right of every person to marry whomever they love. The right of every woman to be the sole decider of what happens to her body. Gary look to you newest ministers of our living tradition. For preaching and teaching that will pour concrete foundations under the moral arguments. For a job society. A world at peace. For these are more human issues before they are social policies no matter what party is in power. No matter who happens to be sitting in the white house. We're sitting in congress or sitting on the supreme court. Our ministry has no moral right not to speak to these issues. No matter who we might offend or make them comfortable in our pews. Weather are preaching grows our membership or not. Whether it is effective institutional strategy for our association or not. These are the issues that will always determine the health. And integrity. Of liberal religion. Or what. To you young colleague. Who are the focus of this. Service. Be tonight or officially invested at the beginning of your ministry. Oh how well how we welcome you. And how we need you to take up your work with passion. And determination. To make your mark. Brothers and sisters. I come to announce to you some rather alarming news. Walden is burning. The woods. Our beloved woods are on fire. Are eaten or idyllic retreat are sylvan sanctuary from the mundane cares of the world. Heating is a blazing. I cannot urge you enough to take up the ministry at this point in our history. Young colleague be aware do not take on this mantle. Merely to save your own soul. Rather we need you to become ministers of the poet urges. Expand your soul spend lavishly and wantonly in the service of the world. I entreat you. Do not use your trusted office to take refuge while the world around you is going to hell. Do not employ your preaching talents to give comfort. To the already. Too comfortable. We do not need in our pulpit at this point in our history. Anymore retreating. Or dilettante scholar. Or idle poets. I implore you. Do not seek here amid these thousand plus congregations for ministers of quietude. Or four more churches in the woods. Will you can take shelter in theological reverie while the social policies of our countries are increasingly determined to protect the already privileged. And to ignore the already deprived. The woods are lovely dark and deep. But you have promises to keep. The liberal ministry of our time needs ministers with fire in the belly. Fire in the eyes. And fire in the heart. The reading. And i can tell you it wasn't only. The ministers. Who felt the call that evening. I am waiting for the light to shine. I am waiting for the guy to stein. I have been in the darkness postal long time i'm waiting for. I remember sky. It was blue. Ink. Or at least. I remember. I remember snow. Thumbtacks. Coming down like lynn. And it made you squid. Window wind wood floor. And i like vine on the streets. Cool that's why has sheets. Ring like strings unchanging things likely. Irene bamboo leaves. Green experiment. Christmas paper. I remember trees. Vera's coat racks. Red like broken umbrella and talk and bridges moms and zoos rorty faces. I remember. O'reilly's. But as years go by. Vail resort. Andrew blue ink. Isn't really. Standard time zone. I would gladly. The greatest unitarian-universalist theologian of the. 20th century. Many people's opinion. Was james luther adams. A few years ago. When i was in theological school. He was teaching at harvard divinity school and and also led. Seminar. University of chicago divinity school or where i was. And adam have been studying in germany. When the nazis took power. And he. Warren.. Young ministers. That. Before our careers were over that. We would have to deal with. The danger. Ave. Evan evan jellicle christian fascism. That would be challenging. Ourworld. And he seems to have been right. I think patrick o'neill's metaphor is right on. There have been challenging times in the past. Times of danger and opportunity. But. R x r. So different from anything that i've experienced before. It seems like everything that we have taken for granted. About our democracy about our lives. About our world is being challenged and undermined. Good morning my columns i talked about. That we lived in a dangerous world and a friend sent me an e-mail. Which made. It clear that i wasn't being clear. Actually as far as personal safety goes where. Very safe. Our chances of being now you know killed by a terrorist are infant eskimo small. And we're safer in in other ways as well. And i didn't mean. Personal. Tasty. Our planet is in danger. Our climate is changing so rapidly that we. Scientists can scarcely keep up with the alarming evidence and we need to change our ways and change them now. I can mark whiskey is in danger. With the. Division and hatred. Ultra partisanship. Ethics in politics in. Business in academia in science. Is flipping. Are electric. Is indifference. Most people caring more about who wins american idol than who wins congress. And many of the people who do vote. Vote out of an ignorance of both geography and history. Scary. Our culture. Has ben courson. Become. Angry. Selfish. And determinately ignorant. And people are making money. Unease the bassist. Of the human. Character and condition. We have a lack of support for. Families and children. We have a growing polarization between the rich and poor and a disc. Securing middle-class. Anyway. The metaphor is good. The woods are on fire. It's hard. To retreat. Call. Our faith. 500 year old say. Got something to say. About our time. Which are not only times of danger but also. Kinds of opportunity. What is it. That our church. Needs to do. To respond to our time. I tell you three thing. We need to do what we already do very well. And that is to take care of each other. One of the things that. Impressed me most about this church. And continues to impress me. After my two years here is how well. People in this church take care of each other. There's been a great deal of attention paid over the years to small groups where people. Can truly support and and get to know each other and i. And i see how those small groups. Help. In a world where families are fractured. We're sometimes the church is the only family the only social structure. In people's why. I have seen. How participants in our men's fellowship. Surrounded. As they make that final. Passage into death by their brothers. In the men's fellowship. I've seen how. The women's federation. Has. Come together to support. Those who are bereaved. And our covenant group continue to form. Continue to provide opportunities along with all the other. Small groups in this church. To build a connection. This will work. If. Understand. Is that ministry. Is not just for people who have an ordination certificate on their wall. It's something that belongs to all of us. Our ministry team not caring ministry team. Is facilitating. This ministry of all to all. Victoria ingram our intern minister is making it as a project of her internship. 2 minutes or even more effectively to those in our church to mobility issues. Make it difficult for them to get here and to connect. We don't want to leave them behind. And i'm also. Earnestly. In treating all of you to remember. That our visitors. Piorn for this kind of intimacy 2. Say yearn for this kind of caring too and they have. To give to us. So we need to have our hearts open not only to our friends but to the new friends who come. To visit us. Seeking community. And seeking. Help. The 2nd. Answer is that we need to speak out. To tell our truth. In love. Without rancor. Humbling. And without hatred. And this is a big job that our forebears have done this. Since the beginning of our face on these door. Speaking out against slavery against the ill-treatment. Of the mentally ill. For civil rights. For equal rights for women gay lesbians. Transgender people. Speaking out against. More than one. Unjust war. Throughout our history. This is what our unit brutalism requires. And it's important. That we speak out from our face. Center. From our history. Theology and our values because. We are not just another social change movement. I sometimes worry that we look like a front for the democratic party. And we need. To look for. Salvation for the human race. Bright ideas beyond the usual suspects. Beyond the comfortable we need to keep an open mind and we need to reach out. Two people. Who may share some of our values and some of our agenda and oppose us in others we need to make coalition we need to build bridges we need to understand and talk to people. And we need to do this because that is what our faith requires. We. Those of you who are new. Unitarian universalism is a combination of two. Major thought in american religion. And the universal is. Scream men there. No one goes to hell forever. Okay. In the eighteenth century when universalism was founded. People were living in fear. Otter fear because of the calvinist doctrine. That was prevalent in america then. It was the belief that god decided before god made the world. Who was going to go to hell for all eternity. Almost everybody. And who was going to be saved people in the pulpit in the pew. Not everybody in the few just the people in the good to you. By the way people. Finance their churches in those by renting to. Universalism said no. Scripture doesn't say anything about. Eternal damnation. And we are made in god's image and there's no way that the worst of human. Could torture. Their children. Forever. God is love and love. And hell. Don't go together. What the universalist message was really was this. God never gives up on anybody. And we should never give up on anybody. Now in the 21st century people's idea of. What the divine reality is varies and as changed. But what we hold fast. Two from our universalist heritage is this. We are all. Family. Nobody. Can be cut off from the human family. Nobody. That sounds we are all one. That sounds really new ag and coke commercially. But it's really pretty hard truth. And it's hard to live. So that means that we need to keep our heart open from that one politician. That when you see them on tv you want to throw something at him. That means that. We need to keep our heart open although we need. Not capitulate to them to those. Who want to force their view of religion on all of us. Or he will kill us. Because we don't believe. As they believe. That we need. Well standing up for around screwed. To not put anyone out of the human family. And that's why we need to reach out. Caliskan. To understand. Princeton. We can work with people who do not share our view the marriage equality. To make sure that the port of san diego are not left behind. People in this church do that everyday. And that's just one example. Of understanding. I'm talking. And a building bridges. And we need to do that. With love. Speaking our truth. Not holding anything back. But with humility. Endless love. Let there be an end to hatred. Let it not be in our hearts. 2. And finally what i think is the most important thing. The thing that we share with the bear. Of all the great. Wisdom traditions of humanity which is that. Human beings are capable. Upgrade. Transformation of consciousness. We've seen there. With the examples. Ivar exemplars. People who have stolen with the human spirit is capable of. They're not different from you and me. We all. Are capable of more wisdom. More compassion. We can all. Everyday. Tonight. Scizor. Instead of. Being self-centered. To give. Instead of the hold on. To have compassion. Instead of judgement. To move. Everyday with every decision. That we may consciously. From selfishness. Selflessness. Which is really a higher form of selfishness. If it is true. So we are all one. And so that's what are. Religious education is about. From the cradle to the grave. What are groups are about. What are teaching from this pulpit. Isabel. To help all of us reach that possible human. And the good thing is. We don't have to wait until a majority of humanity. Has reached the level of understanding how profoundly connected all people are. Just. One more. One more. One more. One more. Temtem. The tipping point. That is my face. So. These are pretty. Inspiring ideas to me i think of them everyday. So what am i working on everyday empowered organization. Facility. That's okay. Because the whole idea of our. Changing the way we do things is the idea of. Recognizing the gift of individuals and being. Nimble in order. To harness those gift to respond. To our world. And then. We need to talk about our physical home. My beautiful. And beloved campus. Look at what happened when some people put their. Minds together in creative. Beautiful space a few years ago. And then a group of people. Got together to fix the bathrooms and bar hall. The problem has studied. Remember that this campus was built. How long ago was the 60s. And there's been some neglect. And sometime is path. And we found that we just. Couldn't just. Fix the bathrooms in the kitchen. Bard hall what are ben code changes for one thing. And that building another buildings on this campus have. Need major repairs if we don't address them now there going to be a constant drain on our energy and our finances. And that's our mission. So. We need to take care of our home. And we need to do it in a way that fits our values in other words it needs to be green at least this. Sustainable. Sustainability into account and needs to take our. Planet into account. And so that is the plan that. Our committee has come up with them. I hope that you'll look at it. After church today. There are some very important date would love you to keep in mind. The first day of october 8th. That's when all the consultants in the architects will be here to answer any questions you have. So that everybody feels like they know what this project is about. And then the second date is october 15th. October 8th savannah after each service. In october 15th i'll be a congregational meeting when will ask you to go one step further. Not to authorize the project as a whole but the authorized a financial feasibility study to see what the level of support is for this project. Also we need as many of you there as pop. And we need you to begin form. I want to. And with one example from another unitarian universalist church. It's the first unitarian church of. Portland oregon. A beautiful. Church. In the heart. Downtown portland. And there's some pretty wise people in that church too. Wasabi. And they knew that it's their continued existence downtown lascivious cord. That they would need to expand. Their land holdings. Every time a piece of land adjacent to the church came out there was a capital campaign they bought the land. 3 time. Until they own several city blocks. And then they got a new minister. In the mid-90s. Maryland school. At the time she took up her.. There was a. Horribly intolerant and hateful. Ballot initiative that would have taken away rights of gays and lesbians in the state of oregon. Not only deny them right they don't have a take away rights they did have. And. The religious right was dominating that conversation. Dominating the media attention. And reverend sewell. Heart. And finally she had an idea and she just. Got some. Purple. Ribbon and tied it around the city. Block federalism. That. The church-owned right in the. Very visible part of downtown portland and then she put up a. Siri looks fine. Sign. Hate free zone. They were ready to respond to their time. Hate free zone that's simple message. And there were people all over the state of oregon who needed that sad and i needed somebody to say it. Right then. Install it.. Citywide media attention. Statewide media attention. National media attention. In some people thought that it had a great deal to do with the fact that that ballot initiative. Was rejected. Now this action which. Reverend sewell.. The board enthusiastically indoor. But not something she did to grow the church. She did it because it felt right she didn't because. R-value call for something to be sad it called for something to be done. But the church. In a few years. Went from. 602 about 1,500 members. Three services on sunday morning. They need every bit of. Synapse riving congregation. If we stay alert. And if we keep our hearts open. And. In our clear about our values. About who we are. Then we will know. What we must do. At first church. To respond. To our time. May it be song. Are closing words. I mean him is one of our favorites it's 10:28. Please rise as you're able. Are closing words come from john murry circuit-riding universalist. Minister. From me. 18th and 19th century. Go out into the highways and byways. Give people something of your nuvision. You may possess a small light but uncover it. Let it shine. Use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women. Give them. tell butthole. Encourage. Preach the kindness and everlasting love. Maiya diesel.

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arvid2_5_06.mp3

I don't know for sure but i'm willing to bet that this is the first time. A sermon about the book of revelation has been preached. From this pulpit. So then the next question is why is there being a sermon preached. On the final book of the christian bible now. The answer is very simple. 60 at least. 66 million. Americans. And others worldwide. Have read some or all of a series of novels in the so-called. Left behind series. Now. This is supposedly fiction. But. Most of the people who read it don't read it as fiction at all. They read it as a perhaps fictionalized account. Of something they are sure is going to happen. It is a realistic. Description to them. Of the return of christ and the end of the world. For most christians. Lee particular. Post millennial. That's the technical term. Review of the book of revelation. Is bizarre. It is not. In the christian world. A highly-regarded. Or highly respected. Interpretation of this book. But thanks. To the popularity of these novels. It is. Now the majority. Interpretation. Of this book. It's become mainstream. In this. Interpretation. This last book of the christian bible. The antichrist. Leads the world to distractions after a series of earthquakes. Pestilences and plagues. Which culminates finally in a large battle between the forces of christ. And the forces of satan. Guess where. The middle east. Of course. Before that happens according to this interpretation. All the christians in the world. All the people with the right beliefs. We'll just disappear into heaven. Whether they are shopping or driving. Are sleeping. Or whatever they're doing. They just. Disappear leaving the rest of us. To endure. The earthquakes plagues and fires and warfare. Baby hurricanes to. Spell course garrison keillor has an interesting take on this hysterias. That it's a unitarians much to their surprise and everyone else. Will be taken up in the rapture. The reason. The reason it's important that we look at this is that there are people in positions of influence in our world who absolutely believe it. An act on those beliefs. The most egregious example is ronald reagan's secretary of the interior. James watt. James watt is the government official most responsible as secretary of interior for protecting our environment from pollution. And exploitation he was responsible for protecting our air soil and water and climate. What he actually said in public was. There was no reason to do that. Because very soon. Within a generation. The rapture. And the end of the earth what happened. And the world would be destroyed anyway. So why bother with these cumbersome regulations. Today. Even today. You have. Some fundamentalist christian. Trying to hasten. Armageddon. And the way they're doing this is they're having an uneasy alliance. With jewish fundamentalist in the state of israel. Who believed that god has given to the jewish people. All the land that used to belong to the empire of king david. Long ago. Despite the fact that there are already people there. So you have. The jewish religious sadler movement jewish fundamentalist. Teeming. With christian fundamentalist 212 payson. Exacerbate. The tensions in the middle east. To bring about god's will add to that muslim fundamentalist. Who have their own version of armageddon. And you have a very. Dangerous. Situation. Police have consequences. What is this book of revelation. Well. It was probably written around the year 95. Buy an elder of the church named john. Who during one of the sporadic persecutions of christians during that time. Was because of his leadership position. Exiled. To the greek island of patmos and it's a letter to. Churches seven churches. Written from the island. Apartments. There are too mainstream. Scholarly interpretations. Of what the book of revelation was about and they're not necessarily. Incompatible. The first is that anyone who has read those ladders that. For whom those ladders were intended. Would know. That the rich. Allegories and symbols in those letters. What they would mean because john kept referring. Two symbols and allegories. From the hebrew bible which of course kids. Correspondence would be aware of and the story of jesus. And so the people for whom that letter was intended would know exactly what those symbols an allegory man's because they knew the bible. But the roman censors would have no idea. It would be just as obscure to them. As it is to us. The other interpretation of revelation among. Mainstream scholars. Is that john actually did have a vision that he took. These. Traditional symbols and allegories and. And and saw that. Vision of the end of the world. And his message no matter which of these interpretations you take is. Hold on everything is going to be okay yes you are being persecuted but god as he dealt with babylon will deal with rome. So hang in there. Remain steadfast. Don't mess up. In the meantime. And that. What that. Ladder man in those days. And we're familiar. Because it's entered into our consciousness. Some of the images. Of the book of revelation they're just so familiar to us the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Armageddon. The unitarian. Julia ward howe. Road to. A famous tune called john brown's body new words. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord. He has trampled out the vineyard. Where the grades of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift. Sword. Our god is marching on. This. Is directly taken. From the book of revelation. And it's easy to see in this bloodiest of all american conflicts. How people could easily their litter literally. Or figuratively identify it. With armageddon. The final him that we're going to be singing today and old gospel favorites. Which somehow snuck into our. Kimmel supplement. Shall we gather at the river. It's a beautiful old gospel hymn. And the words. Are directly taken from images. From. The book of revelation about the happy ending it has a happy ending. When finally the world of human fulfillment. Is known. Now the church establishment from the very beginning had problems. Weather. Weird book. It almost didn't make it into the bible. It was very controversial whether it should be included in the canon. And during the high middle ages the doctors of the church. Completely ignored it. They didn't know what to do with it. But artists have always loved it. Visual artist poets novelist. These images are just so compelling and powerful. You've got. Yeah william blake and julia ward howe. An artist through the centuries. The best religious writer writing today i think is named karen armstrong she's. Written about. The battle of fundamentalism is in our world she's written about muhammad she's written about the history of god. I just finished her wonderful autobiography called a spiral staircase she talks about her struggles. And in the end she says that for her the apocalypse another name for revelation. Is. The apocalypse. Of the ego. Because what she has noticed. From studying all the world religion is they all say in order to become. Fully human. We must let. Go of our self-centeredness. And that is spiritual warfare internal spiritual. It's a struggle and a con. It can be sad. That america was founded. On an apocalyptic vision. But it was a positive one. The puritans. Who came to these shores. Had. An interpretation of the book of revelation. It was called premillennial as opposed to. Post millennial. They read that part of the bible and they said it's up to us. The bill that shining city on the hill it's you and me we need to do it. We will build that kingdom we will bring about god's fulfillment it's up to us we have been given what we need god is anointed us to do that to bill that shining city on the hill in massachusetts bay. I love boston to but. And. Several generations later many of those puritans became the first unitarians on these shores. And we still have that belief. We still believe that the world can be a better place. We still believe that yumanity is capable of creating that better world and we still believe that each of us is responsible to do our part your part and my part. The first time we sang today and you don't have to be. I believe in god even to believe in this vision. Because the first him today the words were written by felix adler. Felix adler is the founder of the ethical culture society. Extremely humanist. And very agnostic religious movement. But we are still. Glad forward by this vision of the shining city on the hill. We urine at our hearts to build that city. We're all. R1. If you take this. Book written. For roman times. And try to interpret it. Even if you're a fundamentalist.. Symbols in allegories that you just can't take the literal you have to apply your imagination to them. And. Division 1 cats from. This book and these symbols. Tell more about. The people having the vision. Then they do about the book itself. And the current popular vision is troubling to me. It's a darkvision. Not a bright vision. When i read this. Book of the. Revelation again. I don't see anything about an antichrist. But the antichrist is a very important figure. In. The left behind interpretation. And has been through the centuries. The candidates. Contemporary candidates for the antichrist take about half a page in wikipedia. And these are some of the candidates put forward. John lennon. Hillary clinton. Bill gates. Hillary clinton. Justin timberlake. George steinbrenner. Michael jackson. Hillary clinton. Tom cruise. Hillary clinton. Most people however see that the antichrist would be a political leader. A political leader that seems the is attractive to many people. That claims to be on the side of righteousness and good. Cool eyes. Blue italy. Who spread. Bloodshed and destruction. Now the next time my fundamentalist relatives bring up their candidates for the antichrist. I'm tempted. To bring up a candidate of my own. You see how dangerous this is. You see how dangerous this. There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who divide the world up into two kinds of people and those who don't. The modern interpretation of the book of revelation is the. Most dangerous. Kind. Of dividing people up. It divides people up. Between the saved and the unsaved the saved being those who have a particular. View the world equal of course to the ones who know. In the saved will be taken up into heaven. To that crystal throne to be with god. And then all of the rest of us. Gosh i hope garrison keillor's right. Will be thrown into a fiery pit with satan and his demons forever and ever. This idea. Of course is very old. It was there at the founding of america and long before. And as the frontiers expanded so did they. Evangelist. Who went with the frontier and called people to repentance. With a threat of hellfire and brimstone. And there were a series of brave man and yes women. Who followed them. Are universalist forbear. The follow the circuit riding creatures of hellfire and brimstone said no god is not like that. God love everybody. God will save everybody. God. No more than human. Could condemn his children to eternal torment. No one. Is left behind. This is. Still imessage. That the world needs to hear don't you think. God never gives up on anybody. And if you are not a theist. There's another compelling way to say this. All humanity is one. Indivisible want isn't that obvious. In aspen there is a forest of trees. Biologist first thought it was. A forest but it has the same root system. It spreads for acres. And it's just like that with us. There is no us and them finally we are all one we share the same faith we share the same earth. Humanity is one. And mustn't be divided. Even. In these battles. That we must fight for our values. There is finally. No good people and evil people democrats and republicans muslims and westerners. Ayatollah has. And danes. We must learn to act as if. This is true. Which it is. No one can be left behind. Or we will all perish. No one can be thrown out of the human family. No one. And we need to proclaim this boldly. Because the opposite messages very loud. And very thrill thrill. And it is full of hatred. Wars and persecutions can only happen. If we date humanize our opponents. And we do have opponents. But the persecutions can only happen. When we forget. That our opponents. Want. What's best for their children and love their children. It can only happen when we forget that our opponents. Grieve the loss of people. They love. When we forget that our opponents only one. To be safe. And happy. And at peace. Just as we do. We must recognize. That we are all part of one body. That we cannot afford to let anyone. Out of our heart. And that no one. Can be left behind.

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julie2_12_06.mp3

After the storm. I was told that when people would see their neighbors or their friends or co-workers for the first time. They'd ask. How do you do. This exchange is still happening. Five-and-a-half months. After hurricanes katrina and rita hit the gulf coast region. Many of us in sunny san diego and other parts of the country have moved on. From the dramatics. And shocking headlines and images. Of those first few horrendous weeks. But. The thousands. Upon thousands upon thousands of folks living or trying to return to the affected region. Are still just barely getting started. About one-third of the congregation of northshore uu church in lacombe louisiana where i visited for 2 weeks in january have left. And it's uncertain whether or not they will return. About a third of the congregation was fortunate to sustain little or no damage. Although many of those folks. Have been left with a sense of survivor guilt. The new church building at northshore had its roof repaired early on and the big trees that fell on its beautiful campus have been addressed but there is still a third of the congregation of about 100 people. Who are actively struggling to respond to the damage their homes received. Some are doing this while living in fema trailers. Some are still waiting and hoping they might get one. A woman at the church has a friend who actually has been sleeping on his kitchen counter. Can you imagine. The church property at north shore. Is right off the highway. Near the tiny town of lacombe which is between the larger towns of slidell mandeville and covington these are the communities of the greater new orleans area. Home to many people who took who commute to new orleans everyday over one of two bridges that cross lake pontchartrain which serves as the top border of the city of new orleans the causeway is 23 miles long that connects the city with those north shore communities. Which were fortunate to be on higher ground but still received severe damages. Perhaps because of its central location in relation to these north shore communities and just off the highway. The church has a new neighbor. Since the hurricanes. A fema staging area with setup on a large lot a short distance from the beautiful church campus. Which proudly displays. A large and elegant garden between its entrance in the main church building. The fema station is impossible to miss as it's full of stark-white trailers and has round-the-clock security. This means there are guards posted at the entryway. And at night street light similar to what you see in large mall. That much brighter stick out like a sore thumb in the world area and can be seen from afar. There's a strange and surreal feeling about the fema station in the constant traffic of trailers going in and out. I thought many times we shouldn't forget. How fortunate we are to live in a country where we can eventually and unfortunately into many cases much too late. Provide resources. To respond to the enormous needs. Presented by this country's greatest. Natural disaster. The presence of fema barrett the term that goes to north shore uu. Hilton me a little like a futuristic orwellian big brother. Start an impersonal under its blaring lies. The tensions around security at least kinds of places has dissipated son. Since the earlier days of the fall but there continues to be a militaristic feel. Too much of the formalized relief efforts. 1 northshore church member volunteered with the red cross at a station handing out food cards. She was dismayed. Get the lines. To get in where they're all through the night. And that in addition to requiring proper identification. Some of which was lost or left behind. The tables of volunteers were supposedly being productive.. By members of the national guard. Perhaps. A reactionary display bye-bye in contrast to the chaos we witnessed. Through the media in the flooded downtown streets of new orleans those first few days. I was struck by some post-katrina artwork displayed by a woman artist from new orleans. They were modern southern primitives. With teams of houses. With some damage and float size alligators with blue tarp banners. Inscribed with messages like. Fema be my mama and daddy. I truly believe. That the arts and the cultural traditions rooted in this incredible region. Will play an important and vital role in helping these people recover. From the overwhelming challenges ahead of them. The immediate area around northshore church is mainly rural as you're out and about there's a slower pace. Everyday life that can be felt. And. Many of the people you meet are much like the people you'd meet anywhere. But just below the surface. Everywhere. And very visibly in some places it's obvious. That these folks are wrestling with an incredible destruction in their personal lives and in their communities. The extent of the hurricane damage can be seen in swabs of destruction. The alternate with areas. With much less visible damage. Your eyes are constantly drawn to the varieties of destruction in the landscape. And there are many sites. Fit physically stand out as disturbing. Another of those is on the other side of the highway from the church and its brightly-lit neighbor the fema station. This is a large corner lot that also has a constant train of trucks going in and out it's a brand new and already very full landfill. For the huge amount of natural debris created by the storm. The mound of trees grows visibly larger every day. It's amazing how people are coping. Like the guy who sleeps on his kitchen counter. A number of people have said to me. Both from the region and after visiting there. But in fact the people are amazing. Amazing in their spirit of resilience to cope. And maintain their love for their homes. Their communities. Interstate. Louisiana has a fascinating history. Meaning of itself. Some people have even said it when you go there it's like visiting another country. Because of its unique blend of cultures. I must say it's the only place i've ever been where even the japanese waitress in the japanese restaurants. Call mia baby with she's clearing away my place. Can you welcome baby. If you've been there you probably know what i mean by the distinctive southern hospitality of louisiana. You might also be wondering what was i doing in a japanese restaurant when there's all that wonderful regional food like etouffee po-boys and jambalaya don't worry. I love that stuff and i had plenty of it too. I actually love a lot of things about louisiana culture. And i wholeheartedly agree with one of northshore's longtime members who's been in the area over 20 years. After she grew up in the northeast. She said even though she's been tempted to leave. Because the place is in such a big mess. She can't bring herself to do it. Because the people really. Are so amazing. I think it's the appealing social quality epitomized. By the cajun expression lesson the bon-ton roulet let the good times roll. These. Folks have a relaxed attitude about life. And a strong set of community traditions. That keep their social fabric strong. Despite the current adversity. Going back to that introductory phrase how'd you do. Here are some of the typical responses. It might help show you what i mean. People will say i lost a few trees. Or well i have a blue roof now. You might also here just a couple of inches of water. Compare that. To some folks who happen to live within the hour it takes to drive to the mississippi gulf coast. Wish.com. With waves of up to 35 ft. As the brunt of the storm went into smaller and smaller areas. These folks. Actually reply to the question how would you do with i only had a few feet of water. Can you imagine. Can you imagine what a home smells like. After only 2 in of standing water. I'll spare you the refrigerator story since we haven't had lunch yet. Can you imagine your yard full of debris. Mainly from trees. But also with bits of clothing. Sometimes. It feels like we're living in a garbage heap. Some people say. On the first day of my visit i met meg. Northshore church member in the crew who is staying in her home and helping her family by moving large amounts of debris which were piled in her yard and up against her house to the curb for pickup. Next family home had flooding on the first floor. So the whole crew and family we're on the second floor about a dozen people in all. The crew with a group of college students. From another of north shores partner churches in massachusetts. Along with their intern minister. The group was spending a week. After winter break. Helping out and learning as much as they could to take back to their communities. Make suggested that we keep sending cleanup crews to help people dig out from under the rubble around their homes she said it's really hard to get on with with your life. When you feel like you're covered with debris but once it's gone everything so much better. It's like you can breathe again. All the people i met were so deeply appreciative of volunteers who have come from all over to help. Cleanup crews will continue to be needed in the next phase of demolition before rebuilding can take place will require many many volunteers. Can you imagine. Returning to your home or your church meeting hall. In finding a dark brown ring. Around. The entire wall up near the ceiling. This is what i saw. At the uu community church. In the new orleans neighborhood of lakeview one of the neighborhood's hardest-hit after the levees broke. As we drove from neighborhood to neighborhood we watched for that brown ring circling the outside of the buildings to to see the different water levels. In each of the neighborhoods. These homes. We're also marked with. Spray paint graffiti left by rescue workers. With the dates they were there. And what they found in terms of people and pets. Dead or alive. Can you imagine seeing one of these homes. With a hole in the roof that was not made by the storm. But by someone. Trying to get out from the inside. Yes it's a harsh. Landscape that the hurricanes left. And still surrounds. The gulf coast communities. I accompany the young group. Visiting for massachusetts. When the church member from northshore meg took us to see some of those areas. Hit hardest by the brunt of the storm along the mississippi gulf coast. Just an hour from lacombe. We drove to the end of the road. Where there used to be a bridge taken you a short distance across the golf there. Now what remains is only a skeleton. Of a bridge. I wondered. Where all those chunks. Of concrete. And steel. Had gone. We drove on the road. Along the coast there that we're still passable many portions were closed. And what we were able to see was simply unbelievable. Only the places where homes once stood. With a few remaining items. That weren't blown away. By the store. Such as those little neighborhood signs that say. Drive slow we love our children. I was wondering how the young people were reacting to what they were seeing. When one young man said. It's apocalyptic. And nothing more was said. As the sun went down into a stunning sunset on the gulf. And with a full moon rising behind us. The kids asked to stop so he could walk in the sand and put their feet in the water. I walked up to where the houses had been instead. On front steps that led to know how. Was a strange collection of small items. Salvage from the rebel. Most of them broken. It did feel like. At that moment. We were poised at the end of the world. Unfortunately. There are times in the lives of many of us when a huge force of nature sweeps through and leaves us humboldt. In our defenselessness. Maybe it's the catastrophic event of cancer. In a loved one. Or within our own bodies. Maybe it's a loss of a job. Or marriage. Or the tragic death. Of a beloved child. We're left feeling strips away and exposed. Without the usual resources to protect ourselves. I'm sure you've heard some of the outrageous comments made by prominent people about god casting judgement through the hurricanes on the people of the gulf coast. Perhaps you heard about the alabama state senator who said that the gambling sin and wickedness of the gulf coast brought the judgment of god. Or maybe you heard about the famous tv evangelist. Who blames ellen degeneres for god sending the hurricanes into new orleans because she was born there. And it's god's judgment on all the gay and lesbian people in new orleans. Even the congressman from louisiana. Mention that god. Cleaned up the public housing problem. Because they hadn't gotten around to doing it right. And then. Sirius the new orleans mayor. Who got himself into hot water more than once. Well speaking to a predominantly black audience on the recent king holiday. Even she said that god was punishing black people in the world lens. For their violent and fighting i'm horrified. To hear such comments. I deeply regret. That hurting people. Will look to these kinds of leaders. To provide answers to their heartfelt questions. Of why. Such tragedy occurs. And yet there is another thing that i know about our human nature. When we are feeling overwhelmed. By catastrophic events. We don't have to believe in god. To ask from the depth of our being what did i do to deserve this. Sometimes. In our desperate attempts. Cope. We internalize responsibility for circumstances that are clearly out of our control. We feel the world as we've known it has come to an end. And it feels like a destructive path was aimed right at us. In the long hall of recovery in the gulf coast region we need to remember our brothers and sisters. We have sustained not only a tremendous physical blow. But a deeply spiritual and psychological one as well. At least. We're seeing with the 600-page house report that's coming out. Set the administration including homeland security. Are being held accountable. For their actual and tragic. Failure of responsibility in this situation. A little bit of gas. People need to keep telling their stories and we need to keep listening. We need to not forget the daily struggles of the good people of the south. We need to not forget the stories we've heard about the people that we've met either in person or through the media. We will keep sending resources to the region will send money as we're doing today and more people would continue to volunteer their time and services. There's plenty of work to be done and we are mobilizing to do it. Meanwhile. In the state of louisiana. It's carnival time. And i heard many people say they needed to celebrate these weeks leading up to mardi gras this year more than ever. The early french settlers brought the holiday of mardi gras to the banks of the mississippi. In france. It's only celebrated on that one day of fat tuesday preceding the beginning of lent on ash wednesday but over the decades and the centuries the mixed cultures of louisiana have extended the celebration. So the season officially start. On january 6th the 12th night after christmas. And will culminate this year on february 28th mardi gras. I happened to be in louisiana to see the launching of the season and i can tell you it's not just a new orleans but all the communities surrounding. The mardi gras season of carnival is as big as christmas and easter. Colorful decorations abound in the official colors of the season. Purple for justice. Green for face. And gold for power. Parties are held to raise money and mobilize for the various parades and street celebrations that take place. All over. Many of those are hosted by mutual aid societies. People of all ages and lots and lots of families gather. To join in the festivities. Not just the more risque rituals that we associate with a french quarter and bourbon street. On the day before i left to come back to california. I was pleased to see. The first uu church in new orleans was starting to get a new roof. And proudly displayed on their wooden entrance doors was a mardi gras wreath. Hanging right over. The water lines that were left by the flood. The spirit of the people. This year. Mardi gras. Is a much-needed cultural and spiritual revival for the whole community. It's not merely an opportunity for resilient people to laugh and play in spite of their adversities. It's a collective affirmation of the many blessings that fueled their determination to rebuild. The celebrations of mardi gras bring healing. And an affirmation of life. Going to the whole world. That this tragedy will not take away the soul. Or destroy the culture or break the spirit of these proud. People of the south. May it be so. Please rise as your will.

www_firstuusandiego_org

comingofage11_20_2005.mp3

Get a house which becomes a home one hands down and another takes up the heritage of mind and heart. Laughter and tears musings and deeds. Love. Like a carefully loaded ship crosses the gulf between generations. Therefore do not neglect the ceremonies of our passage. When we wed when we die. And when we are blessed with a child. When we depart. And when we return. When we plant. And when we harvest. Let us bring up our children. It is not the place of some official to hand them their heritage. If others impart to our children our knowledge and ideals. They will lose olive. All of us that is worthless and full of wonder. Let us build memories in our children. Let's they dragged out joyless lives. Less they allow treasures to be lost. Because they have not been given the keys. We live. Not buy things. But by the meaning. Of things. It is needful. To transmit the passwords. From generation. 2 generation. May you have life my children of the sun may you rise as smoke rises and spread yourself on the wind. In our house you are always welcome. In our prayers you will always hear your name. Spoken with reverence. And you is the continuation of the world both made and unmade. Spoon you must go. For your roots are growing and your branches are reaching out. Soon your wings must unfold so you can stand at the edge of the cliff. Learning how to fly. By yourself. Indeed in the lives of the families. In the life of this congregation this is a sacred time. Our children are growing up. Soon too soon they will no longer be children. And so we honor five of them at this service. As they make the leap from the old age of their childhood. To the youth of their adulthood. This shall be a moment of their passage and we are gathered to witness and to respond with thought. Prayer. Smile. Hungry. And ritual. This shall be a ceremony of coming-of-age a rite of passage a celebration of these five children and the newfound place they will have among us as young persons. They have grown to be independent individuals in our myth. Loved and supported by their parents and families. Nurtured and encouraged by this church. Yep. And now bringing a broader perspective. A wisdom from the larger world. Which more and more has come to be their home. Alex d'amico barber. Neil sakura boo hara. Jordan montana. Victoria slater eric wildey. A lifetime of growth brings you to this point. You have always been on the brink of change but now especially you are. If you are ready to enter and celebrate with us. This new play along your spiritual path. If you are eager to rededicate yourselves to the lifelong search for understanding. As religious persons. If you are wanting to take your own place. Within this community of faith please step up and forward now. Turn and face the congregation. And receive their. Welcome. Before you now that five of the finest members of this religious community. They have come to you this morning asking that you recognized and affirmed their growing maturity. Their desire to assume a new place among us. And their readiness to take on new roles. They have come to you this morning inviting you to share in a celebration of their steady and sure becoming the. And their achievement so far. Now they were tell who they are. One by one they will stand before you. Speak of what is most important to them. And their hopes for the future. And receive a blessing. First from their parents. And then from you. Your blessings you will see printed in the order of service and we ask you to stand. And say it for each person and turn after the parents have left the stage. Hi i am out. Some people might know me as an adventurous athletic person or as a musical person. Some of the things i like to do i play soccer which i've been doing for about eight to nine years and play guitar which i've been doing for about 2 to 3 years. I've been coming to the church for about 4 years and have participated in the haunted house the food fair and a couple more activities. This church is a place where you won't be criticized or made fun of but just the opposite respected and made the feel that your ideas are wanted in the future i want to be a role model and a respected and caring person. Today i went to. Repairing, and affectionate nature. I see your strength of character. Exhibited. Listography. Through your ability. To intently poker. Your determination. Engaged. To the maximum. To be in there and out there. And to be a team player. I appreciate your patient and kind nature. Especially when you have to repeatedly explain to me what offsides mean. Know that i respect and support your freedom and independence as we speak your life path. My wish for you in the game of life is that you fully experienced all of his successes. As you strive to become the best you are capable of becoming. So you always finish the game and accept help from others when things do not go the way you. I love you very much. Hi alex. I have many fond memories of. 13 years. Is a twat. Help you grow grass. One memory that remains vivid. Today. You overcame a. China. Is a five-year-old boy living in italy. When finally after several failed attempts. He finally found the courage to speak up and tell the server in the gelateria. Flavor you wanted. Dragula akinesia. Strawberry and vanilla. Favorite combination. Figures later. Alex you have many wonderful qualities and talents. That will help you. Head toward manhood. Your self-discipline. Sense of responsibility. It's such a pleasure to have you come home from school every day and watch you go right to your homework. Without me having to say a word. That quality will pay you back 1040 as you move forward through. High school and college. The intensity and focus i seeing you when you are competing on the soccer field or when you're struggling to learn. The latest metallica solo on your guitar. And the natural he's you seem to have in developing and nurturing friendship. I look forward to the coming king years. Is a watch you develop your independence. Become a young man. Alex i wish you a beautiful life in. We blessed and honored you alex. Images of the sacred palace in dubai. We welcome you into a new relationship with this religious community. One that recognizes. Alex on behalf of this congregation. Eye place on you this token. Of our affection. Simon cowell. May you always remember that you are always welcome here. Good morning. My name is neil shigeru hair. I go to coronado middle school. I put i've been playing the violin for about five years and i have played at this church before. Arby's are playing video games reading and playing violin. I like this church because people here are open and nice. I've been attending this church all my life. When i go up hopefully someone like a firefighter because they help other people in need. Neil. Growing up is hard. And being grown up is hard. Both of your grandmother's. And you're not in their 90's. Hempstead being old is hard. But i wish for you that you grow and grow up. And grow old anyway. Accomplishing those things can be very satisfying to. I also wish that you make your way the best way you can. Do as many of the things you really want to do. Have green. And keep on learning. Keep being a boy you are now. Who pursues the simple fun and everyday. And who exercises his imagination like nobody i know. I am happy for you that you are a person embraced by this place. I'm happy that you are loved by our family and many friends. And i'm happy and blessed. I'm your mother. Since you emerged. 12 years ago. You've always been. Helpful to others. And i know that then. I never knew those at you. The empath. Adelino. I'm sure in the future. And realizing the magnet. Your gentle ways taught me important. At this stage. It's so really it's supposed to be up to me. To pass on the lesson. Nevertheless. Sensitive approach has provided immense comfort to your mother and i. Sometimes yelp. Steps. In life seems small on a daily basis. Today is the time when your mother and i along with this congregation. Recognize accumulative. Hope all those small steps. You're growing up. Places like this church. Provide the environment wichita. Which help you grow up and grow. Faster. As you grow i hope you begin to take largest. Facing challenges head-on. Learning from your mistakes. Overcoming ops. I'm very proud of the calibre of individual. As a new member of this church. With the resource. Strength. I hope you grab life by. One that recognizes. Neil. On behalf of this congregation. Eye place on you. Our affection. A flaming chalice. May you always be reminded that you are welcome. In this church. My name. My name is jordan lattner i've been attending this church for more than 7 years. As i've gotten older i've been becoming more of an individual i wanted to do more stuff on my own. But no matter how much i work by myself i always feel i can get help from the congregation. I never feel that i put down or criticize. In fact i feel just the opposite. If i mess up someone's always there to help. If i succeed i'm either complimented or praised. I'm not always wanted to come to this church. But when i do i always feel comfortable because i know i'm safe. I know i won't be judged. I'm not the same as everybody in the church but i'm not put down for being different. Instead i'm encouraged to make my own choices. My own path in life. The type of person i want to be in the future. Is a person who does not judge other people but helps them. I've always felt sympathy for those less fortunate than me. This church has helped. To get me involved with the community. All-in-all i feel this church. Has really helped shape who i am and what i do. Jordan buddy. Today marks a very important chapter in your life. This coming-of-age ceremony a rite of passage symbolizing. Your transition from childhood to maturity. This stage in your life will be an exciting challenging but also difficult time. Not only for you but for me as your mom. Despite what i want. My little buddy is growing up into young man. And as painful as that is i have to. I hope that i have provided a solid foundation and talk to you to be honest respect. Compassionate and moral in your decision-making. Know that i will always be behind you. And support and guide you. And. I think you and love you. Dear jordan. You have strengths that shine through to anyone who meets you. Your intelligence. Your athleticism your ability to dribble a basketball like marcus haynes. Your boundless energy. You are a friendly outgoing and a very funny. But some of the things i appreciate most about you are a little less obvious. Like your curiosity. When i met you you were six years old and even then you blew my mind with your wise and inquisitive question. Almost nightly you would ask me some deep moral or philosophical question like. Do you believe in god or. Would you give your life to save a complete stranger. I love that curiosity. You need to understand the world and the people in it and invariably once you understand something. Your response is compassion. Jordan whatever you decide to do with your life i have no doubt you will fix. Just keep your heart open. And don't be in too big a hurry to have all the answers right now. I wish for you patience. Enjoy. And i love you very much. Jordan. You may not know it but the questions you ask so an amazing amount of wisdom. Caring and insight. I wish you didn't save the best ones for bedtime but. That's another story. Because you work so hard at school without being nagged. Sometimes it seems like you're not working at all. But it's clear that you are. I love watching you play sports. You're sometimes display an intensity and focus that can get you far. And although it's usually xbox. Basketball or football that motivates this intensity and focus. At least it's there. I love your openness and your ability to identify and face your fears. I love seeing the twinkle in your eye when i realized you were joking about something. Your charismatic and value your friends. But always be wearing your friends who make bad choices even if they seem small. You have a big heart and a lot of love to give. Ammonia most valuable assets are your sense of humor and your curiosity. Some of the world's biggest problems were solved just because someone like you asked. Why should it be this way. My caution to you is to always remember that the bigger your objective. The more effort it will take. My hope for you is that you'll find happiness. Then you will be a good deed doer. My blessing to you is that i will love you unconditionally. Always and forever. Jordan. On behalf of this community i place this on you. Ivar affection. A flaming chalice. May you always remember that you are welcome in the. Hello. My name is victoria slater. How to find a person who likes to play instruments. So she's the clarinet and flute. I also like to read thick books. I've currently read all 6 harry potter books that have come out. I have been attending this church for 12 years 6 months. I have been in numerous places. All of which has been done in this. Wonderful meeting house. Kind of person that i want to be when i grow up just kind of person who helps the elderly. One of the reasons that i'm going to help the elderly is because my grandma's elderly herself also think that all. I will do well with the elderly. Victoria you are growing into you are a wonderful child. I love you very much. You are awesome. Growing out of childhood. You have your own ideas and can argue them quite well. Over the years you have shown yourself to be a real trooper and you don't give up easy. You also love to read and write. I also like to watch. You have taken. Mall park. And work them very well. You are a joy to watch. As you move along the path toward womanhood. Some qualities have already emerged. Your demonstrated warm. And curious. Also your willingness to try new things. Desire2learn holika. About very sub. Will enable you to have a well-rounded under. You will encounter. Make informed decisions. Very proud of you. We blessed and honored you victorious. Victoria. On behalf of. This congregation. I presented. You this. Token of our affection. A planing chalice. May you remember. This. Is that you are always welcome. Hi. Americold for school i currently attend cpma. Creative performing media arts middle school. I like to play video games drive my remote control trucks with my dad. And draw. I've also been playing piano for about 4 years. My family consists of a dad brian a mom karen in the best big brother guy could have kyle. Along with them every poodle hobbs in a corn snake. I hardly attend this church the only things are do a coming-of-age obviously and the youth group. When i grow up i want to be looked up to and i want to help the less fortunate. Call today. The baby's coming today. You were on time. And that's the way life with. That other thing. I marvel at how you. Eric. This journey of life with you. You have a social smartness. An artistic genius. Beginning. And the spiritual intelligence. You have this gentleman. It will serve you and most everyone you meet well. Any curiosity about absolutely everything. So beautiful. Insecure asia apologize. The thing is. Whatever the future may hold. I want you to know this. Being with you. I love you bear. We honor. Images of the states. Eric. On behalf of this congregation i place on you this special tokens. I. Play music alice. May it remind you. That you are always welcome. May the light around us guide our footsteps and hold us fast to the best and most righteous that we seek. May the darkness around us nurture our dreams and give us rest that we may give ourselves to the work of our world. Let us seek to remember the wholeness of our lives. The weaving. Of light and shadow. In this grade and astonishing dance. In which we move.

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Satyagraha.m4a

When christine blasey ford stood before the senate judiciary committee and swore to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. You could have heard a pin drop across the entire nation. People huddled together around the laptops and offices and around tv screens in the suburbs. People stopped on the sidewalks staring at their phones. From allentown pennsylvania to omaha nebraska people were breathless. Riveted by the sight of this woman. So dignified and so scared. Willingly. Almost sacrificially walking into this gladiator ring. Facing a fortress of power and arms with nothing but the truth that she had sworn to tell. We all know how it unfolded and the bitter bitter aftermath culminating yesterday. We also know of the two brave activist anna maria a tequila and maria gallagher who confronted a senator in the elevator. They would not let the door close on this moment. Here was a member of the ruling party the ruling class the ruling race and the ruling gender and yet these two women held the power in that elevator. They spoke to him human-to-human with the authentic authority of truth. Look at me. Look at me when i'm talking to you. This is how empires fall. It is rarely by a superior army coming along with guns blazing and winning the war. It's rarely so simple. It's more often by people and communities with less power. Far-left power. As george washington wraps and hamilton outgunned outmanned outnumbered and outplanned. It doesn't happen quickly. But it happens through the steady revolution of the practices of the people that happens to the gradual turning of hearts and minds. It happens through what mahatma gandhi the master of nonviolent resistance called satyagraha truth force. The concept is the truth has its own spiritual power stronger than any mortal mice. And that if we speak it with integrity and clarity over and over in our families and our workplaces in the streets and in the halls of congress eventually the truth will prevail. This story this epic story of the great being felled by the small is part of our human heritage it is woven into our history it's a story of gandhi and his movement of the poor and the disenfranchised winning independence from great britain. It's the story of the civil rights movement in this country. Tragically unfinished as it is bringing legal rights to a people who had none. The story is also at the heart of our religious traditions. It's the story of jesus being crucified by the mighty roman empire and resurrecting to continue to shine his life on earth. It's a story of the israelites enslaved in egypt escaping to freedom through the parting of the red sea. And it's the story of david and goliath. Like the players in the senate hearing and the players in the elevator david-and-goliath armattan amazed they stand for something larger than themselves. Each represents the entire ethic and force of a culture. An entire civilization. At at state is which world will be ascendant. It will be one way of looking at life. Or another. One relationship to god or another. 1 understanding of what it means to be human. Or another. The moment is dense with meaning and the whole world is holding its breath watching. How will this end. Orson welles pointed out that whether the story has a happy ending. Depends on where you stop it. From the outset the philistine goliath looks undefeatable he is a champion warrior he's huge 7ft. Tall he has a bronze helmet in full body armor that weighs 80 lb he carries a bronze javelin. And the full text goes into great detail about the shaft of his spear and the weight of the iron head of his spear he taunts his enemies. Sound familiar. There is no doubt that he represents a culture of brood masculine power and military might. Israelites are terrified to fight him rumor has it that when you try to fight him it does not go well. And then as we heard i use a musician named david volunteers to try david is a shepherd skilled not in the arts of war but in the arts of nurturing his flock. Why did he volunteer. Civic duty. Call it a quest for glory call it religion. Fervor to show the world what his god can do. David has faith. But david also has something else. He has such a graja. To trust in the power of his truth. He has a different way of moving through the world operates on a different plane and he plays a different game from goliath author marianne williamson right but looks like david lack of preparation for taking on the force of evil turned out to be simply a different kind of preparation a preparation of the spirit. David knows that while the logic of battle tells us that the bigger man with the bigger speer will win it's not necessarily so. Malcolm gladwell in his book david and goliath details how in fact it's not the extreme rarity that the underdog wins but it's actually quite common explains how the underdog has spent a lifetime learning how to handle those with greater power the underdogs has learned by necessity to turn their disadvantages into advantages they've learned how to not accept the rules of the game as dictated by their opponent. Gladwell give example after example in his book the weird number of presidents of the united states with dyslexia. A basketball team of short girls who become wildly successful. They all found ways to compensate and work around. And david case he has learned how to protect his flock against fierce animals he explained to the skeptical chainsaw to his stuck back in the mindset of brutal military force your servant has killed both lion and bear and that uncircumcised philistine she'll end up like one of them. Women have been underdogs and this country from the beginning. We've been forest how to learn how to compensate and workaround. Having less power less voice less authority. Self-preservation has dictated when we would speak out about violence against us and when we would remain silent we've become wise to the ways of the jungle in which we live. We've had to deal with the lions of the workplace and the bears of the media and the struggle to protect ourselves and our flocks. By necessity we have become students of the systems of power and our culture. Ford akeelah and gallagher like every woman no goliath well. They know like david knows in the story that while the lineup is big he is slow. Encumbered by his armor and his need to protect himself. Adam the story he needs to be let out onto the battlefield by an attendant because he has poor eyesight. Saul offers david thick armor to wear assuming he's playing the same wargame as everybody else david tries it on and immediately takes it off saying i can't walk in this i can't move and then he realizes that such armor would make him heavy and slow. He needs to stay true to himself. Staind humble and trust the gifts that god has given him. We know how the story unfolds from here. David goes without armor he takes five smooth stones from the riverbed puts them in his sling he approaches goliath goliath does some macho trash-talking and david respond you come with sword and spear and javelin but i come to you in the name of god. David comes with seth jhagra. He swings and his aim is true. He sinks a stone into the far head of goliath he thinks a stone into goliath third eye. The place of insight and consciousness the one place where goliath is unarmored doctor christine blasey ford sang a stone of truth into the mind of america. Anna maria arquilla and maria gallagher did the same fees moments are indelible from our brow. Did they prompt rage yes did they prompt backlash yes did they sell the giant not this time. But here's the thing. In the story goliath has poor eyesight. The goliath of our day. Have poor vision they cannot see the world we are moving into they are afraid to look and they arm themselves against it. They are heavy and slow they cannot move with the time. They are philistines hostile to culture and the arts because they are terrified of the truth that art conveys. They rave and they fume when their power is threatened because they know deep down that their world is in its death throes. No matter how much the goliath's of our world try to resist try to slow and scare and intimidate no matter how much they might try to protect themselves with lb of armor and attack with javelins of steel & spirits of mockery eventually the truth will sink in. Eventually it will penetrate the conscience of this country and elevate all our consciousness. That is the nature of satyagraha wielded with integrity. And faith we all have this place where we are unarmored. Arthur died where our conscience is exposed. If we look the need for label of democrat and republican man and woman. We are all human. We all love somebody or something on this earth. We each have a soft core of holiness and a child with n. Who just wants to be loved. In reality truth is complex. The good guys and the bad guys are not so neatly divided like they are in the david and goliath story lined up on two separate hillside. It doesn't work like that we live side-by-side on the same streets and in the same homes. In fact most of us have parts of both david and goliath within us. But today the david within us and among us are ready to speak their truth while the goliath's are covering their ears that truth is deafening. This is a movement of the people board akeelah and gallagher were not alone like david on that battlefield. They were building on the bravery of generations of women and men some in this very room who have come out facing danger unarmed except for our stones of truth. We are part of an upwelling of such algra in this nation right now. Millions of people are beginning to speak our true despite the pain entailed to build a more compassionate future we are laying the groundwork for a world beyond the hierarchies beyond the ethic of brute force and winners and losers on the basis of gender or race or wealth. While defeats are painful and enraging and humiliating we are getting closer every time. Remember that david had five smooth stones in his shepherds bag the first one may not do it and the fifth one may not do it in the 500th one may not do it but that world is coming. When we are clean and our intentions when we rise up from a place of love and spiritual growth and commitment to the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help us god we generate a force that is unstoppable. So as we head into this next chapter of the saga may we choose our smooth stones wisely. And lovingly. When we swing may our aim be true. Maybe remember that we are all of us all of us beings of worth. And dignity made in the divine image. May we nurture each other support each other believe and believe in each other. Maybe learn from every instance where we've spoken out and the door was again bard. It's never the end of the road whether the story has a happy ending depends on where you stop it. We are still in the mist of the story please rise and body or spirit for our final him number 116 i'm on my way.

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Stories-Of-Humans-And-Earth-Tim-Christopher1.m4a

In 1971 philip zimbardo conducted a study of human behavior that if he's ever taken so famous that if you've ever taken an introductory psychology class you probably know about the stanford prison experiment as it became numb. The stories usually told like this. College students were randomly assigned to be either prisoners or guards in a mock prison experiment was meant to last for 2 weeks within six days the guards became so sadistic and the conditions in the prison became so bad that they had to shut the prison down it may be news and somebody was invited to testify before congress about his finding. With a flair for the dramatic he stated that the experience of imprisonment undid a lifetime of learning he drew conclusions about the effect of power and situation to change a human's behavior and stated that our values were suspended the ugliest most pathological side of human nature had surfaced. The lessons in bartow has claimed was that he's otherwise upstanding young men and young men could turn into monsters with just a little bit of power. Except it's not really what happened and with increasing volume critics of this experiment has started to raise claims that tim bardo manipulated the men who served as guards it happens in a couple of different ways first there's the claim that he's very specifically instructed the guards to employed dehumanizing harsh behavior so for example telling the prisoners not by their names but by their number was encouraged and then when behavior. And then there's this other aspect of it where these young stanford students wanted to be good contributors to science they wanted to be good participants in the experiment and. And so with this the critics say the experiments not salad the guards knew too much they were not ignorant and because they lacked this type of clean-slate this type of ignorance the critics say there's nothing to learn from this experiment. Unitarian universalist who believe that people are at their core good i'm quite frankly i'm very relieved that we are all basically not terrible but i do think there is something to learn here and science writer maria kournikova suggested that the lesson of this experiment is not so much that we're all monsters in waiting but because our behavior but it's important. Ignorance is altogether less common than we might think. Very few of us come seeking knowledge with empty cups and hoping to receive it but we come there and cups that are already full. And this fullness makes fools of us all in contrast to ignorance which might be thought of as a simple lack of knowledge unknowing requires us to see what we thought we to see what we already know and try to feel that back. Ignorance is a temporary state but i'm knowing an ongoing an active process unknowing involves emptying your cup noticing when it is full and emptying it again and again. This lady has an unknowing might be both desirable and require a lot of work is not something that's new in religious circles. There's an idea that goes back millennia that's the best way to encounter god is to strip away layers of miss knowledge the epistatic theology of eastern orthodoxy involves systematically declaring what god is not the 12th century jewish suggested that we do the same catholic contemplative prayer talk to the possibility of mystical experience with god that you might encounter in a ray of darkness. This past summer i studied buddhism at a chinese monastery and recognizing what assumptions we brought in with us with a common topic of learning but it took me awhile to let that sink in. In the first few weeks i found myself constantly at odds with facets of contemporary chinese food ism. Things like gender and equality cultural insularity a distinct lack of sex positivity these are all things that earth to me and what's more is that it hurts me that it hurts me because i'm a good unitarian-universalist and all-loving all accepting their personal or so i thought. I wanted to try to pour out the parts of me that. That knows that calling out the problematic calling out the classes patriarchal oppressive disengage parts was that face makes me a better part of this face i tried to for out the parts of me that said you probably shouldn't shave your head cuz you look too gay and a people will judge you for that i tried to empty my cup and in doing so i began to learn a little bit more about buddhism the 20th century jewish philosopher. As clear as a goal consequences the practice of unknowing to include our relationships with others we must actively examine first what we know and then we can begin to engage with others. So what is the stanford guards had instead not thought of themselves as brand-new guards but as people who came in having already seen and heard a lot and tried to unpack that. We talked about implicit bias it's because this recognition of our own hidden knowledge has very real consequences prejudice or prejudging is not so much rooted in ignorance as it is. Going to see demons in the faces of young black man that doesn't come without a lifetime of learning. Working too on no this would quite literally save lives. Only when we first tried one know what we can actually know only when we first try to run know what we have actually already known can we have an actual encounter with people as they actually are only when we know that we already know something can we begin to work toward unknowing and to truly know ourselves we must first know ourselves.

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Women-In-Hebrew-Christian-Scripture-Ruth.m4a

I was in that same bible study that joy mentioned in her testimony know my child was very different from joyce although we had our own version and my family and in my community of isolation from the dominant culture i did not read the bible as a child. I didn't grow up with biblical stories to for my understanding of the world. And of my role in society. So when through a series of mishaps and bad decisions i ended up attending a southern baptist boarding high school. In kentucky it was with much wonder and curiosity that i first read the bible. I don't remember reading the book of ruth however. So it's been a real treat to dig into the text in order to prepare for today's sermon and in the bible study led by sherry with joy and becky and michelle and june and others in this room was an amazing exploration from unitarian universalist viewpoint into the text and coming from many different backgrounds. This sermon today is the 6th in the h sermon series women in the hebrew and christian text. The book of ruth is only one of two books in the biblical canon that is named after a woman. The other is esther. Which we talked about last month. The book of ruth is certainly not always interpreted this way i would like to offer. A feminist perspective that demonstrates the value of female friendships and lifts up themes of immigration and offers a template by which a host nation welcome newcomers to their land. The book of ruth also suggests the radical notion that women are people worthy of being seen and as having a parent's worse and dignity in a time and in a place where women were primarily assigned value based on their patrilineal family connections who's your father throughout this story women are the center of conversation however and they are speakers and they are subject and as active and powerful agents in their own destinies as we learned earlier during the wyndham story scene one begins during actually begins during a time of famine in judah which is why. Move it takes his wife and his children and migrates to another land. We can assume as migration was made as so many during our own time are made in order to find food to find security to find a job so after the death of elimelech and his two sons what first appears to be a story based around this. These men. Very decidedly shifts to a story centered on women. Naomi his wife upon hearing a rumor that food is once again available in her home country because god has once again favored the hebrew people she embarked upon this long journey back to bethlehem her daughters-in-law or but andrew thought of you as you've heard attempts to go with her and they only go back and then some of the translations what she actually says is turned back to your mother's houses. Or but he's naomi's advice and roof on the other hand the word translate to translate to clings. To naomi and she declares her devotion with the words we heard earlier and then saying together where you go i will go your people shall be my people your god my god where you die i shall die she adds steph will not even separate us so hear our story narrows its focus onto the daughter-in-law for whom the book is named. This young widow women who refuses to allow an older bereaved and destitute woman head off into the desert to cross sea and mountains all by herself. Cheer we encounter placing herself squarely and solidly on the side of her mother-in-law this flies in the face of the usual narrative. For women right usually it's world with each other. And that's not only in the biblical text. That's in our society all around us today to as the biblical scholar phyllis scribble notes in this opening scene. Ruth's emerges intention with her culture. She married outside her own people she disavows her family she abandons her national identity and renounces religious affiliation. In the entire biblical epic of israel only abraham approaches this radicalness. But then he had a call from god. Ruth stands alone without support human or divine is really the part that strikes home with me so incredibly ruth commits herself as a young woman. She committed herself to an old woman in. A land and a time where life is self depends upon men. So she reverses sexual allegiance. This is a truly radical act. As our story continues we learn the fate of our travel travelers although nothing of their journey which i was very curious about but we don't we don't hear about that we can only imagine at the end of town for one it's simply stays ruth and naomi arrived in bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest and he renters a greek chorus of women. Into the text. The women of bethlehem say. Because the whole town is stirred at these new these people coming in and the women's hall out is this naomi. Next in scene 2. We see ruth taking initiative to find food for the two of them. So she tells naomi that she's going to go out into the barley fields and glean and the process of gleaning sherry described it a little bit it's it was basically an ancient form of social services in which the poor were allowed to go through the field after it had been harvested and pick the remaining crops and as ruth is leaning in the field she comes to the field of a prosperous man named beau as he also happens to be a relative. Literally 200 this woman belong. The servant replies identifying her as a moabite. She is from moab the moabite woman who came with naomi from the country of moab to her identity now has been defined as driving her status from being the other. Moab was not considered to be like a cool country to go visit. At that time like had a whole narrative about the evils of moab dover being from moab was a really bad thing. However because boaz's heard of the great things that that ruth has done to help naomi he tries to help her for trying to protect her and he tells her that she should stick with the other women for protection and he tells his servants the men to leave ruth alone. Read this really surprised by this and she says what have i done to receive this honor me a foreigner. She's repeatedly referred to as a foreigner in the text and it's because boaz is seeing her for who she is. And at this moment we begin to see though as as a potential ally in the story so we saw a ruth struggling to survive physically she needed food she went out and she got it next scene we witnessed her struggle to survive culturally this is when she engages in the bold act potentially dangerous. These women are interpreting the law cuz it according to the torah if a man dies and leaves behind a wife his brother should marry her. Well those are the brothers died so here is and that's like to continue the family line right that's the whole patrilineal lineage pieced so here we have a relative not the close relative but someone that they realize that they could call to account for this relationship so she's supposed to. So women are not allowed. And what naomi told ruth to do it's a go down to the floor there after he's eating a bunch of food inside of a slave down to fall asleep and she's supposed to go down there and uncover his feet. Which is a euphemism casey hadn't caught that one yet and then she will tell her what to do. Okay so ruth follows the first part of the plan and after she uncovers his feet boaz emerges as an ally unlike his first queried of her in the field and which he said to whom does this woman belong he looks at her and addresses her directly and says who are you ruth give him her name. She has been seen by him as a person then. Negotiations with the town elders and she gives birth to a son that's fulfilling the traditional values of fertility and a continuation of male lineage and so the text once again allows the patriarchal concerns to swoop back in and swallow naomi. We don't hear from her again. However. Her story ends with the women of bethlehem that very same greek chorus of women that we heard from earlier. In handing ruth's child to naomi. They not only announce the birth. They also named the child. Obed. And then they bastila greatness of hondros. By describing her as quotes. Your daughter-in-law who loves you who is more to you than seven sons. Does ruth leave the text. Exalted above the ideal number of male children and identified through the woman to whom she swore allegiance beyond death. It's pretty radical actually. The story of ruth describe a close friendship and ally ship between two women instead of rivalry and jealousy which the bible is full of if you think of sarah and hagar and other examples. Ruth's motives of compassion loyalty and love rarely appear in fictional relationships between women everyday and our popular culture women are portrayed as competitive and jealous. Cases of female rivalry are the biblical norm as well. Not only sarah and hagar but rachel and leah and even the two prostitutes to appear with the baby in front of king solomon. Ruth however offers a different narrative and it is true that ruth and naomi are not sharing a man. But they could certainly be seen as representing conflicting interest think about it the older woman naomi she wants to preserve the memory of her husband and her son the younger woman she wants her own family. Yet there is harmony between them and they take care of each other. In the concluding versus it's noted that this lineage from ruth eventually leads to david which in turn leads to christ. Meaning that the lineage of the two major two of the major figures of jewish and christian traditions spring from a woman who is essentially an immigrant. So this old story of bethlehem. It ends with a birth. Which is a thing in bethlehem it ends with ruth. Daughter of the outcast nation and with naomi widowed and childless each becoming a legacy in her own right and together sharing a child together they are an example of love solidarity and devotional friendship. Between women of different countries and generations. As i read the story in today's context. Fairly strap. Bye. The feminist reading revealing a 3000 year old messages not so far from any of our own experiences today. On march 8th we recognized international women's day. We are currently in the midst of a tidal wave of stories a sexual harassment. There has been a right rise of a right-wing conservative political attack. On reproductive right. On women in a way that disproportionately affects women of color. More and more we learn of attacks on trans women everywhere. There's an urgent need. 209 our moral ground on these issues as progressive people of faith. I don't know about you but i'm kind of tired of religion being used as a weapon and an oppression. One of the ways that we can do this own this. Astir the reclamation of religious text anna's book as a great example of it. As unitarian universalist our religious roots are firmly planted in the abrahamic tradition and there are good valid and important reasons to reject religious teachings that oppressed and marginalized entire populations. Where does that leave us. If not to lift up and celebrate religious teachings that offer liberation who these same oppressed populations. And thereby liberate us all so i say may we join together maybe learn from this inca story and others. Don't let it be an example of the other being mistreated and reviled. Rather is an example of the diversity and enrichment we all benefit from welcoming newcomers into our country into our circles of friends into our families. Let us clean this text. Not as yet another example of women pitted against one another to serve the needs of men and being used as tools of patriarchy. But rather as a text of solidarity and allyship. Ruvilla in the story are you ruth are you naomi who are you in the story. Let us take these lessons. Out into this broken world so that we may do our part in healing it. I now invite you to rise and body or spirit and seeing together lean on me.

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Non-judgment-Day-Is-Coming.m4a

He might have seen the bumper sticker or the t-shirt or the button that says non judgment day is coming it's a kind of smug quip that would elicit an lol if it were attacked even though probably not that many people would actually laugh out loud about it it's a classic liberal rhetoric to the dour conservative idea that there is a day approaching always in the very near future what everyone is going to finally be called to account for their sins. The flock will be sorted into the righteous and the sinners and rerouted to either blistur misery. And so the liberal religious comeback is hey i'm okay you're okay we all have the lovelight of the divine in our hearts and so no actually the day is coming when we will not be judged we will be seen for who we really are. We will no longer be judged. Not sure i believe. Not for our gender not for our eccentricities not for the color of our skin that's what actually coming sure doesn't feel like it these days does it in this season of advent with a self-conscious accelerating profusion of peace and joy giving charity and goodwill. It kind of feels like exactly the opposite it kind of feels like the world is ending. These days we can't help but see the white santa's in the white jesus is and the white moses and ridley scott's new exodus movie in which all of the thieves and assassins are black. We can't help but see all of this against the backdrop of ferguson and staten island. We can't help but notice that the advent of non judgement day seems to apply only to certain people. It was certainly non-judgment day for officer darren wilson and ferguson. And officer daniel pantaleo on staten island. Grand jury has decreed that these men would not be judged. Somehow i don't think this is what the author of the bumper sticker had in mind. But it's complicated consider this story. I was on the train heading home a few months ago watching an african-american mother and her two kids the boy who looked like he was about three and a girl who looked like she was 10. The mother enjoyed receded and the girl was standing nearby. The boy was crying. The mother was on her phone. When he tried to cuddle up to her for comfort to push him off saying i don't want you on me he would start wailing a new this happened over and over again. The girl was standing very still ignoring the seen her eyes glazed. I couldn't get a read on her until her eyelids started to droop. Now i realize that she was falling asleep on her feet. Her mother hope they're hard wake up you're not going to fall asleep on me. The girls eyes flew open and she resumed her military stance. As the train filled up and the girl moved a little to accommodate the crowds the mother approached her again and said don't let them push you you don't have to move for them. Finally someone who had a senior by got the mother's attention and said. She can have my seed. She's falling asleep. Mother said no she knows she knows i'm not carrying her out of here. I was horrified i was heartbroken for these kids i wanted to take them home with me the boy was the age of my kids. I couldn't believe the cruelty. Try to do something. There anything i can do. There was no physical abuse but it seem like i'm emotional abuse to me should i say something. What can i say. I got off at my stop. Having said and done nothing feeling awful about myself about her. This is how all our problems got perpetuated i was thinking by people like her not loving their kids well and then it struck me easy for me to say easy for me a white mother to sit in judgment of a black mother how do i know what kind of world she lives in and what kind of world she's preparing her kids for. Maybe teaching her children but life is hard and then you can't lean on anybody even your own mother is exactly what they need to survive in the world that they will face. Maybe her own life experience has taught her this. How do i know what she's going through how do i know what it would cost her. To have to carry her daughter out of that subway. How do i know how hard she is struggling to keep her own eyes open so that she can get her kids home safely. Put me and her shoes i mean her exact shoes. And how do i know i would be any different. What a privilege i have to raise my white children so gently kissing every bubu. Anticipating a world they will be fundamentally safe for them their chance of winding up in prison is low. Their chance of being killed by police is virtually zero. I can teach them to graciously deal to others on the subway because i'm not worried about them getting pushed around in life. We already assumed their right to stand their ground. So i can still be heartbroken for that woman's kids on the subway. Sad or even angry that they don't have the blessings that my kids do and that all kids should have. But i can't judge their mother. Without walking in her shoes. Non the judgment day is coming. And so where does this leave us if i can't judge that mother without walking in her shoes can we ever judge anyone without walking in there. What about the police officers who killed michael brown and eric garner. The grand jury is saying no they will not be judged and grand juries frequently more often than not make this decision not to indict when it comes to police officers. How do we know what kind of world. These policemen live in. How do we know what it's like to have a job that forces you into constant conflict with young people of color. How do we know what it's like to get up in the morning and put on a bulletproof vest knowing that every couple of days a cop gets killed in the line of duty. How do we know what it's like to be required to try to arrest somebody twice your size. Maybe the last time daniel pantaleo put someone in a chokehold and the guy said i can't breathe and he let up maybe the guy attacked him. We don't know. This doesn't mean in my opinion that they should not be brought to trial i believe that they should and they should be held accountable for their actions but it's an invasion of our responsibility to make this all about judging these particular men as righteous or sinners to sort and reroute the flock. It's a failure of conscience to make this all about getting rid of the bad cops the races pop the killer cops and exonerating if the rest of us put anyone of us in their shoes i mean their exact shoes. And how can we be so sure we'd be any different. The mother driven to cruelty and the cops driven to kill have had their souls crushed by a system in which we are all deeply embedded. Eric garner and michael brown and countless others have lost their lives in the gears of that same system. If we really believe in what we say as religious liberals about the sacred oneness of the universe and the cosmic love and bracing all we need to recognize this system for what it is. It's a violent system that divides us and that shuts down the love light in our hearts. It's a system that denies the divine image into some of us and destroys the innocence of all of us. It's a system that creates brutal pain for some power for others and fear and cynicism in everyone. It's a system that corners people and pushes them and pushes them and pushes them until they lash out it's a system that makes enemies of our brothers and sisters. Is all of this any of our fault individually. No of course not but we are all part of it each with different positions in it. And this. This system which mutilates the human spirit. Is what needs to be indicted. The system we can judge. And to judge it we have to get really specific. The devil is in the details. We can judge the system of laws like the broken window policing laws that called for eric garner to be arrested for the petty crime of selling cigarettes. We can judge the system of policies that seek to improve so-called quality of life which seems to be code for getting black men out of the public square. There was just such a quality-of-life initiative and eric garner's neighborhood and cops have been told to crack down. We can judge the utter failure of our criminal justice system that incarcerate almost one-third of black man at some point in their lives. We can judge mandatory minimum sentencing three-strikes laws and the war on drugs we can judge the school system where economic inequality translates directly to educational inequality. Where if a white kid throws a chair he's reprimanded if a black kid throws a chair he's suspended we're only about half of african american boys in this country graduate high school. We can judge our democracy where voter id laws and other restrictions disenfranchised people of color. Denver voting precincts are routinely redrawn to dilute for people's voting power. We can judge our entertainment system where high-profile director director like ridley scott complained that he has no choice. But to cast white actors as a protagonist and dark-skinned actors as thieves and victims because otherwise investors wouldn't buy it and moviegoers wouldn't watch it. And we can judge ourselves for going to see it anyway. The good thing about convicting systems is that unlike racism in the abstract or individuals in specific. We can change them. It takes work and it takes time and it takes commitment but we can change laws. We can change policies we can teach our children differently and vote different people into power. And where individuals are instrumental in the operations of an evil system yes we can hold those people accountable for their actions. But only for their actions. Not for their essay. Because we will never know what shoes they walk in. In this sense non-judgment day can and should come for the mother on the subway and the cops on the street but for the systems in which they are embedded. The cold violent sexist racist systems that form them and hurt them judgement day is here. In the season of advent the sounding trumpet style of peace and joy hope and salvation right around the corner. A time when the lion will lie down with the lamb. People of all colors and creeds will join hands and live in harmony. Experience teaches that this is far from inevitable. But faith teaches that neither is it impossible we stand on the shoulders of great people and great movements that have rattled the foundation of society and with love we can do it again. And so along with the carols the gift the candle-lighting and celebration. Let's also acknowledge this at the time of grief a time of rage for the deaths that should not have happened. And a determination. That we will not rest until we have remade the world in the image of sacred oneness and compassion for all. In honor of eric garner whose breast was taken from him may we dedicate our breath. Our words and our hearts. To that end please rise in body or spirit.

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Allegra-Alcoff-Reflection-Awkward-Beginnings.m4a

When i think of haiti i think of awkward beginning we've grown accustomed to living lives full of awkward beginning a series of situations that tend to make us uncomfortable it's the little mistakes you make it a new job that had funking of first kisses and the fleeting eye contact in a room full of people you don't know port-au-prince welcomed us every step of the way from the airport to the rental cars. Inequality and poverty are not foreign to us at home but it is easy to seek refuge in the material world with creative pushing that which our eyes don't want our hearts to see suddenly i was face-to-face with what it meant to struggle and the only thing that stood between me and my first taste of raw poverty was a thin glass window in a big white van eventually we open the windows and invited the sounds and smells of katie into the vehicle as we embarked on our four hour drive the central plateau. The sounds of new language a code off of concrete and lingered in this unknown space between hearing and understanding i made eye contact with people we passed as though we were about to exchange words but instead you have to find alternative methods of communication that's miles away fuiste dared they stared i had read far enough into my book on haiti that i'd stepped off the plane fully aware of the stereotype that haitians had developed about foreigners especially those we have money i had just left the world remind me that i was very young even words we live in a van full of people i didn't know staring at i think of survival in a van full of people i didn't know. It went on for about 20 minutes until frank who speaks french showed up to translate but for those 20 minutes the man from haiti and the girl from new york bagels and said a million things and nothing at all all at the same time when i think of haiti i think of his son in college after noon on identity i organized the class into two groups one group. I asked the class why this was and one girl raised her hand and said i said i am black because i live in a society that reminds me that i am black every single day. Whilst atoms by her comment it wasn't until 80 that i understood what it meant to be constantly reminded. Unaware of the color of my skin walking through the streets children's woodpoint haitians met me and they assume things about me now don't get me wrong my skin has always defined me i'm aware that it is an umbrella of privilege that it's easier to live under than to step outside of this easier to accept the challenge i know i am right but for 7 days haiti reminded me when i returned from my trip from haiti i promised hating myself and the girl from the classroom that one afternoon that this was something that i would never again let myself forget haiti showed me what four years of sociology. There wasn't a day that went by and haiti that i didn't cry now just to give you a fair prospective on who i am you could tell me the story of losing your favorite sweater and there's a chance i would cry mostly i was incredibly confused how would we come so far left so many people behind. We prayed and airplanes built skyscrapers clone sheets we've walked on the moon viera one at one of the coordinators who had lived in haiti previously told me a story about when she had showed a few neighborhood kids a world map they had never seen a world map when they saw how small he was in comparison to everyone else. One boy cried i missed all the adversity i found the haitians had a lot of pride they were proud to be haitian sera said that the boy cried because he felt for the math made homemade haiti look week i'm here to tell you that katie is not week when i think of haiti i think of resilience finally when i think of haiti i think about how would the bahamas tell me about california but there was no scripted post-trip answer i just shared 1203 words with you and i still can't coming up i think it's because when you meet luke song and the women who walked miles to attend the national women's day conference and the kids who plays soccer every evening with a tennis ball when you meet siobhan jean-baptiste who started a movement for peasants and the girls who walk to church and perfectly and water and shelter and education even though images. I don't expect anyone to jump on a plane and go volunteer or go home and write me a check but when you leave today i asked you be aware of all that you have the roof over your head and dinner on your plate. The glass of water on your nightstand. And maybe at least 4 tonight you two will have reasons to think of haiti.

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Watering-The-Desert-Of-Meaning.m4a

There's some speculation that pepsi had the apology written and advance this is the pieology the apology for the add a few days ago in which the images of the resistance movement from today or used to sell pepsi millennial multicultural people. Used to sell. Pepsi. It's the apology for the ad in which a white model heroically breaks the tension between protesters and a line of police by approaching alone and offering the police officer a pepsi making a mockery of the now-famous image of a black protester aisha evans approaching a line of riot police at a black lives matter protest and extending her arms to be handcuffed. Pepsi blandly apologize for missing the mark over a million times they posted the ad the ad and apologized with in one day. This was a strategy designed to enhance pepsi's brand by appropriating something. Full of meaning. Something meaningful something that stands in opposition to corporate power something gritty and real. Something human and spiritual and important. And they not only appropriated it they subverted it. They forced it into the service of values precisely the opposite of its own. This is a classic. Time-honored capitalist tradition resistance gets absorbed repackaged and sold back to people instantly whenever new meaning is made it gets monetized. And that in turn killed the meaning. This is been going on since the time of jesus. Jesus kicks off his big day in jerusalem with an act of economic terrorism. In protest of exactly this kind of subversion of meaning. The very first thing he does there on this day that we are celebrating as palm sunday is go straight to the temple the heart of jewish prayer and ritual life and the text says then jesus drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple so he. Actually forcibly kick people out including consumers. He overturn the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold jobs he said to them it is written my house shall be called a house of prayer but you are making it a den of robbers. These moneychangers were guys who would sit at a little booth in the courtyard of the temple. And they would exchange people. Loli foreign-currency. For the hebrew shekel which was the currency of the wealthy in jerusalem they would charge us dc for the exchange and they would also collect a tax for the maintenance of the opulence of the temple. So poor peasants but come from far away all different reaches of the land of the kind of pilgrimage to make a ritual sacrifice and pray there and they basically had no choice if they were going to do the ritual to play they had to buy an animal like a dove to sacrifice and they can only pay for it with his hebrew shekel. And so they had to go to this guy like a loan shark and pay us to guess the appropriate currency. The glittery gold of the temple and the fine robes of the priests and the incense in the pageantry. But all thriving while the peasants were essentially robbed because they were poor and because they were foreign. Hence jesus railing that the temple had become a den of robbers. So what was the temple supposed to be instead. Jesus says it is written my house shall be called a house of prayer. Where where is this written what is this about. It's written in the book of isaiah. The hebrew prophet who lived about 700 years before jesus. And it's part of a teaching of isaiah's that is. Downright universalistic isaiah is saying that even those who are not of the hebrew people even foreigners if they love god and do good they'll receive all the same blessing. As the sons and daughters of israel. I'm an indeed the end of the passage. The jesus was quoting as their burnt offerings and sacrifices shall be welcome on my altar for my house shall be a house of prayer for all people in the temple was meant to be a multicultural space. What jesus song with clear eyes when he approached the temple that day. Was that by penalizing poor people from farhan region the religious authorities were not only ignoring what the temple was supposed to be in jewish tradition they were subverting it. In the name of well they were producing an exact inversion of the temples meaning. The engine. Of a market-driven system appropriates and draws into itself the meaning of any institution initiative or movement we see it in that pepsi ad just like in the temple in jerusalem what we're left with. Is a world that is. Very busy. Very full. Full of stuff. Product choices screens advertisements product placement everywhere. Brands and images trinkets loud and sleepless & relentless noise a variable world. But a desert of meaning. This is the path that we are on today as a society. As meeting has been destabilized in our world our culture is losing its grasp of values outside of market values. All you have to do is read the news to see that it's true almost everything is for sale. As a religious community one of our prime missions like that of jesus is to protect our sources of meaning from the incursion of the marketplace. We need to create spaces that are safe from subversion we have to refuse to indenture the sacred to the service of capitalism. How do we do how do we regain our equilibrium so that we can tell the difference between real and not real. Meaningful and meaning less. I think the answer to that question has to do with why people come to religious services like this one. Within the rhythm of the liturgy we find internal space from the den. We get to clear our heads with handshakes and hugs we like handles we slow down and listen to music like today's music that feels like it's from another dimension perhaps we can even find words of comfort from people like me standing at the. I'd like to suggest that we find other ways to to step out of the torrent of information fighting for our attention. Find mini sabbaths from the urgency of our devices. From consuming news. An advertising let our senses rest let them wander let ourselves get bored and not fill every second it's so important let the dust of our day settle. And let ourselves reset the meaning of our lives and our purpose in our attention. And if we do this with some consistency and discipline will find that we become a blur. Tell the difference when something that we love is co-opted. Will find we tolerated last. Will find that where we've created space in our lives. Meaning rushes in. Interrogate the arid places in our souls. Atwater's the desert of meaning in our society and the new flowers. Bloom. Please join me in listening to salve regina by arvo part we're going to dim the lights now to make it easier to slow down and breathe and let it in.

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The-Bank-Of-The-River.m4a

Water is trending talking about it all the time these days too much of it too little of it water in the right place at the wrong time water at the right time and the wrong place the people of the bahamas or suffering a calamity of storm waters the people of newark are dealing with contaminated water. We are so so lucky here in new york city that we can just turn on the tap and clean safe water comes out of it just like that that we can drink and we can take baths and showers in most of us even get to choose how we want our water hot cold or somewhere in between. New yorkers use a billion gallons of those clean safe drinkable water everyday long before columbus sail the ocean blue and came to this world but he called the new world because it was new to him just place was full of life. Where were sitting right now was covered with dense forests alive with creatures large and small the rivers that we know as the east river and the hudson river were teeming with fish hundreds of different kinds you could just look into the water and see the schools of them swimming and people lived here the native lunada bay people had lived for 3,000 years 3,000 years these people had lived on the banks of these rivers. The bank of the river was truly a bank for them it held riches jewels and its liquid vault it had abundance of food and materials for clothing and jewelry and trading it was a waterway to places far away the current with currency. It's waters carid minerals and nutrients and gifted them to the soil and the soil was fertile water was well water was life like good stewards of a river bank account the lenape people use what they needed and save the rest mother nature supply the interest in life continually regenerated here. And yes on the whole for 3000 years they lived in balance when the european colonists arrived they found amazing abundance i don't think i need to tell you how the humans who live here today do it quite differently you can see it with your own eyes we've all been benefiting temporarily from an overdraw on the account we can see it with our own eyes and yet sometimes we don't see us or we forget to keep the place is are we share only in our minds but in reality by the grace of the bank of the river. We're still dependent on the waters of this world the oceans and the streams the freshwater lakes and the reservoirs the groundwater and springs. Water still is life there's no substitute there's no water that's going to quench our thirst and so it's a healthy thing once in awhile to notice where we are physically on this planet let's do it now let's locate ourselves in this physical world. If you're comfortable let's close our eyes and feel our bodies feel we're touching the seat. The back of the chair maybe we're touching someone else. Here were this building six where on a hill villa not be a name for this hill that we call brooklyn heights is if it's hunga meaning the high sandy bank. Notice how high up we are if we walk to the edge of this hi sandy bank to what we call the promenade we look out over a spectacular sight the place where the ocean touches the land we live by the ocean here. It's hard to remember that sometimes the mighty atlantic ocean and ocean so deep that in places it's five miles straight down imagine that. An ocean so wide that if we were to climb into the fastest sailboat as the teenage activist greta thunberg just said to come to new york it would take us weeks to cross it this great and powerful life-giving ocean kisses the base of our hi sandy think it's a wonder sent you can go down and touch it this very afternoon that you keep looking for. But the ocean tides flow and at the same time resisting the outflow and carrying the ancient waters from far away and driving them up into the lab near us it's an estuary. An estuary which means that the tide mix the salt water and the fresh water you can find salt water as far north as albany the native name for the hudson river was mihika nook which means great river that flows two ways see the waters as they mix and swirl and dance with each other. The second river that connects with the ocean hear the east river is not a river at all it's a passageway that connects the long island sound with new york harbor it's completely saltwater. We are on an island here. We're on an island on a high sandy bank on an island and we are utterly dependent for everything we have on the waters that surround us the lifeblood of this earth. For everything we love we rely on it we bank on it you can open your eyes if they're still closed but this kind of noticing where we are in the world is something that we can all do at home to we can take a little time everyday to stop and remind ourselves that we are animals living on this earth. We can look around and know that the place where we stand has a history the land has a natural shape that has high parts and low part soft part and hard part. Watery parts and dry land and when the rain falls on our little piece of land runs one way or the other. Just like when rain falls on her head. The rain on the right side runs down the right side of our face and the rain on the left side runs down the left side of our face the earth has a body just like we do. So we human animals sitting in this sanctuary right now we find ourselves in a spiritual estuary as well people come from all over the world here. Our ancestors just here in this room represent every corner of the earth streams of humanity from different places different cultures and languages different religious oceans there is a holy inflow and outflow and mixing and sharing in this estuary. Ellen is liberal religious community we celebrate the spirituality of ocean water and freshwater together the saltiness of religion and the clarity of reason mix hear the ancient deep pools of wisdom welcome the new rainfall. In a little while we're going to share our annual water ceremony this is a ritual that we do here at first you to mark the coming together of our community after the summer and to make holy water the course all water is holy because its life-giving but holy water for us is water that sparkles with a little bit of each of us a little bit of each of our stories. We can have some water with us and if you do and you can easily get some from an usher and when it's time each of us is going to come forward and pour some of it into one of these three basin to side i'll chapels right here and this baptismal font right here in the middle from 1853. The water that results hard saltwater part freshwater some chlorine trillions of microorganisms this water will reflect the diversity of all of us some may come from the exotic vacation destinations some may come from the tap at home some may come from a hospital where someone spent time this summer combined it will be something new and this water we will call holy. This holy water will be the water that we use to bless people. We'll use it in our baby blessing ceremonies right from this baptismal font when we touch that water to the baby's head it will transmit the blessing from all of us in this room. I'm in one of our gathering is ill or dying if they like they can also be touched with this water. Through this holy water each of us will be able to lovingly give a part of ourselves and here's the coolest part we're going to add this water to last year's holy water which includes water from several years before. At the end of this year will save a little bit of this holy water for next year so each year will also include molecules from previous years and if we keep doing this for the next hundred years your water will still be there however diluted taking part in making the blessing babies born to people not yet born will receive your blessing elderly people in their final days on this earth will receive your blessing. You may even receive your own blessing back someday. But there's one more stuff that we're going to take today. In the spirit of the lenape people who maintained their riverbanks for 3000 years we're not just going to gather this water and use it for our own purposes we're going to make a symbolic deposit into the bank. We're going to return some of this water to the cycle added back to the sacred mix of waters. After the service i will take some of our new holy water and you're all invited to join me and we'll walk down to the waterfront and we'll invite the children who are with us to pour it back to its source will make an offering of water to water with a prayer that we may always take good care of it if you want to join me for this we can meet on the front steps at 12:30. We could also find more practical ways to honor our water not taking more than our share we can save freshwater of the billion gallons the new yorkers used everyday we drink only 1% of that we could use a lot less water in are showering and laundering and cleaning and flushing. We can also avoid buying bottled water and soft drinks from powerful corporations that often use their strengths to take water from poor communities who needed to drink. We can eat last of the food that use huge amounts of water and their production like foods that come from cows. And we can use all of our powers to fight the causes of climate change which is the greatest threat to freshwater on earth on friday september 20th. i didn't mention greta thunberg and the youth of this world are leading a global climate strike asking everyone to leave their jobs and their schools and show our support for immediate climate action i'm going to participate in this and i hope you will join me if you can you can read about it and your orders are sober on the holy ground of this hi sandy bank in the sacred space of this sanctuary i want to offer a prayer for our water ceremony today i pray that our estuaries or your belly for your forehead and pour your blessing into it the energy of your own love infusing that water and first lauren was going to come up and pour some of the water from previous years. After she does. whenever you're ready you can come up and add your gift to wonderfully basins.

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Hello-Unbelievers.m4a

Good morning non-believers. People of little faith. That's what they say about you right. Diluted and brainwashed by the feminist. I mean you've even been called anti-christian. Because you said i believe that jesus lives on this planet as a man why does he have to be a god that have any meaning to me. Why can't he have meaning to me as a human being. That's the talk of a non-believer you don't talk about jesus the way they do so you can't talk about him at all. You don't call him god then non-believer. You've lost the right to calling him.. An unbeliever. You dare to question. The direction of this nation. That means you don't support our troops. You worry about nsa spying what have you got to hide. Will you remember a time when our government had some fiscal responsibility and unemployment was under 4%. You better not question too loudly because if you question if you act on your fundamental shuman principle to be curious to be inquisitive to be independent than someone is going to call you out as godless and if you are godless. Then you don't count. That's how they undermine our civic voice that's how they discount our pains and our joys that's how they marginalize our religious experience they say that we have no faith if we are a club. And we are secular that we are godless. That we don't count. You self-satisfied intellectual you are just incapable of walking through forest than realizing that it is too perfect not to have some intelligent being behind it told design. And what you mean that you don't know where this world comes from and you don't know. Where we go when we die. You don't know why sometimes people suffer. Has the talk of a person with no face. I understand a person's desire to know that their life has meaning. Why am i here. He's a very lonely question. I would like. Alone. I want to know that my life has meaning. There's a certain insecurity to our existence. Do i matter. And i understand why people turn to certain religious leaders or movement to tell them that there is an answer but there is a way to assuage that insecurity and they promised an end to the suffering to the loneliness if you believe. If. You have faith. And their answer. I can understand why people turn their. There's no reason to lie to you these are mighty scary times and i do want some answers there are some things that i want to know that that would make me feel more secure if i knew some things but telling me that i don't count that i am godless that i'm a non-believer that i have no faith because i question is painful it breaks my heart. But what hurts. Hurts me even more. Is that sometimes. We believe them. Sometimes. We repeat. Those very same comments about ourselves. You make little jokes. We have no face. We are a club that has a religious movement we don't matter. And it's painful to hear outsiders say that we don't count but it is crushing. We internalize this view of ourselves. We. Are people of great faith. We are people of great. We are people of great faith. We are people of great. And i know this. Because in spite of all that we see. In the world. The wars that are going on. Starving children who are left to die or put into an army or use for concubines. The corruption of nation selling weapons to these children and leaders handing out no big contracts to their cronies and corporations bankrupting the working and middle-class in spite of all of this. We still believe. In the goodness of human beings we still believe in the potential. Of human beings. That's a faith statement. Because there is a lot of. Evidence. That might suggest otherwise. We are people of great. Face. We don't need a heaven in the sky or a heaven here on earth we're not after a utopia we are after respect and they call us people of little faith but we are people of great faith and i don't need some historical figure to say that he loves me. I need my neighbor. To say that he loves me. And i need to tell my neighbor that that i love her. That's my religion. That's my face. We are people of great faith. Our nation is in the grips of some very scary forces right now and we should not be fooled by those who would cast a finger over and abroad towards the taliban and say that we are over there defending women's rights while these very same people are coming after the women in our own communities and they're coming after our the minds of our children and we need to figure out how we are going to articulate our fate in a way that keeps our community safe. We can't. Just keep them. Outside the doors. We can't just keep this community safe we have to keep the whole community safe. Before the women in our nation lose control of their bodies and our children are taught that science of evil is evil and before we learn. To fear everyone. I don't think anybody in this room is confused about the tragic nature of abortion. But this conversation has been hijacked even our feminist politicians or our feminist leading politicians are using language that is defined in controlled by the empty woman forces in our nation. And we have come to define ourselves as pro-choice and yeah i'm pro-choice but i'm also a more than that i am pro woman. And i am more than that. I am pro schumann. And this is not about abortion. I want the conversation to go back to a time. We look at it and we say why is it that every time women organized for equal rights the reactionary forces in our society demonize the cause and try to bring them under control by limiting their access to birth control this happened last century it is happening now and we all know that the suffragist movement fought for the right to vote but the suffragist movement was also about access to healthy birth control so that women could decide when to have children how many children to have so that you can have some control over her and there was a huge backlash. Led by the clergy. Clergy were the faces of the forces that wanted to keep women subservient to men and they use the face. To justify why we had to restrict access to birth control why we had to limit women's mobility. You're more than pro-choice. You're a woman. And we are more than a woman. The approach human and we need to reframe that conversation. We need to reframe the conversation when we are out amongst the world because the world needs to hear our message now more than ever. And this is just one of the important issues that's in jeopardy the world heart is breaking at this moment and we cannot stay locked inside of our little communities waiting defend the fundamentalist off. There are some lessons that we can learn from these reactionaries. Some of their teachings we need to hear. I mean these. These people have extremely powerful religious conviction. They have a lot of trust in their faith. Because someone just told them to have it it's not that easy. Have trust in their face because they practice a lot. When someone comes along and says that you are a person of little faith in your heart you know that they are wrong that you are a person of great faith. But you believe in spite of everything. In the great human potential. And that your heart is filled with us. But when you try to respond when they ask what does your face mean to you. We often stumble don't we. For several years i served the denomination as an anti-racism trainer. And i would travel the nation. Leading weekend workshops in our congregations and one of the exercises we use revolved around the power of identity and we asked participants to choose five identities. White. More less represented who they they were and then we handed out some pipe cleaners in and we split them into groups and we asked them to make little sculptures kind of like this. And then they would tell their story to their partner and. You know what are your five identities and then when we brought them back together and he said okay now. I'll take one of those away. Calamity. What do you mean taken away. And the purpose of the exercise was to talk about. What it's like for people of color to come into white-dominated space and have to hide her have to play down have to push aside one of their identities so that it would be safe. What does exercise help unintended consequence. And that was this every single time that we. Led this exercise. Only half of the people. Chose unitarian universalist as one of their identity. And every. Single. Without exception. That was the identity they gave up. Suzanna uu church. Led by union trainers all you people. Everything. I don't actually believe. And we can give up our face that easy are face despite how we might take it for granted is our rocket is our worldview. What i think it means is that we have internalized the message that our worldview is worthless. It is week. Is unimportant. But it is a great. I'd like to suggest a little faith program. Takes about 60 seconds. I'd love it if you tried to do it 60 seconds a day. That sounds easy enough. You know but sometimes. I practice just seems to get by us you know. What i'm asking you to do is just meditate on what it means to be a unitarian universalist. You don't have to. Get complex we don't need a systematic theology or process theology you really just need to meditate on those two words unitarian universalist. Unitarian. One god. Onesource. 1. Presence. From which we all come. Universalist universal salvation. We are all. One god. Salvation for everyone. There is a battle that is coming up. It is a battle that is over your right to believe. We need to do some spiritual push-ups we need to be able to make a legitimate claim on what it means to be a human being on what it means to be a living creature on what it means to be alive to be breathing. This world is facing a calamity. The environment. Is changing. I actually had stopped using the term climate change what i now say is the impending. Psychological. Collapse. Because there's no sense in. Pretending. That is otherwise. It's not just change. Is the impending. Ecological collapse and there will be scary time. And the question is will we be trained. Enough. The handle. These times or are we going to acquiesce to the forces of fear who without question will be beating the drum of a god-ordained armageddon. Is not god ordained. That is only fear talkin but we cannot hide from our responsibility as people of faith any longer the world needs us our world needs us to be active and engaged and loving. I'd like you if you're willing to reach out and take the hand of the person sitting next to you. If you feel if you feel able. Close your eyes. It's not required but if you are just close your eyes and feel. Their hand in your hands. Breathing through your nose. You are living being. You are a person of great faith. You feel their hand in your. Breathe out. Are you ready for the responsibility of the hand that is in yours. Are you ready for the responsibility of standing up. You are living being breathe. Homer person. Wait face. Breathe in the whole universe. 13 14 billion years. Breathe out all of life. We are all going. One place together. The story of creation is real. We were all born in the furnaces of stars we have traveled billions of miles millions of light years to come to this moment to come to the moment where we are holding one another's hands you are cosmic being you are regal you are spectacular you are infinite. Breathe into your true self and know the meaning of that salve. May open your eyes. Todd and lou and lauren and i along with several others are starting a congregation congregation which you are actually financially supporting to a great part we are so incredibly thankful for your support. And this new congregation and our vision up there we have a mission. And that is to transform the lives of the 400,000 people who are living in north brooklyn and western queens. That that is commission right our vision is not of a well-funded congregation with great salary our vision is to transform the live of the 400,000 people who are living in north brooklyn and western queens and we will do it because we have great faith that we have faith in the goodness and the generosity of people we don't know what the answer is but we are sure that we are going to be transformed in our search and that is why every week. We we read a passage by martin luther king and it's 20 cuz someone came up to me the other day and there like where did your creed come from and i was like we don't have a creed and they're like well you read that thing every week and i was like. I guess it is kind of a creed. And this is it. All life is interrelated and we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly for some strange reason i can never be what i ought to be until you are what you ought to be and you can never be what you ought to be until i am what i ought to be this is the interrelated structure of reality that is what we say to each other every week that is our purpose in our mission and our transformative. Because we are people of faith. And we are here to love the hell out of this world. We are here to love that hell out of this world. We are becoming. As we help others become. And it is time for us to leave the pews and to go out amongst the people and angeles them. It is time for us to go out. Amongst the people and tell them of a face that stays because it is grounded in trust not fear it is grounded in love not isolation and division it is grounded and hope not the spare we cannot hide ourselves any longer thinking that the world will somehow write itself if the smart people somehow get elected because being smart has nothing to do with it. We have a spiritual problem in this world. Do they spiritual problem that is at the. Corruption in the greed. Consumerism. And unitarian-universalism is a spiritual answer. If we are willing to put it first in our lives. We are. Willing to say i will not. Pulled off of myself. We will not sacrifice our face our face in goodness. And love. And potential. Live into your full self. Leave into your real purpose and go out and save the world.

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All-Of-Us-Part-1.m4a

Rebellions are built on hope you have seen images of this amazing community this morning and soon you will hear from several of our members classes taught youth group activities worship services choir performances spectacular building that hold so much of this and so many images of us out in the world putting our values into action proclaiming our message of hope all around brooklyn and new york washington and places around the country we've walked we've taken trains marched bust and flown to show up for our audacious vision of a world where love wins religious communities are built on hope to when people first step through our doors they are hoping for something maybe that something cannot even be named yet a few words that have been named our connection family community love justice healing lament. Laughter hope we have a community where we do not need to name the same sources of inspiration we do not need to have the same things guiding our in our lives this is the product of a radical change and how those who came before us thought about religion what holds us together is the call to hope to love and to action we unitarian universalist are defined by what we do as much as what we say and we love words but we are at our best when they move us to action that is what i've seen as i've joined you here at first unitarian society a community that celebrates and worship on sunday mornings learns together throughout the week. Helps one another when called upon and raises inspiring children and young people and you love a good protest you also set goals and make them happen time and time again i have been honored to hear your stories this fall and winter i've heard so many people say that this place this community has helped make meaning out of the chaos of the selection people have been inspired to do things they did not think we're possible while we are literally in a sanctuary this very moment i think the true power of first unitarian is to help keep us going the rest of the week to create a sense of sanctuary within us for those times we need to know there are others out there who believe in the world we believe in it is through the connections forms here in this place that a sense of sanctuary is formed overtime moment layered upon moment this community is the center for so many of the relationships that hold us when we need to be held the most and overtime it is through your support that this place of hope is possible one way we support this place is financially we are not about 1 protest one sunday morning or one cause here we are about the long haul and sustained action for more than 180 years we have passed the torch of liberal values from generation to generation through good times and bad we've gathered together to support one another i hope over the next you will think about how to support first unitarian in a way that is deeply meaningful for you now and provide for each one of us today and to remember those who brought this place into being for the generations to come and to keep the rebellious spirit burning bright for all of us. Before i came. I had a pretty bad opinion. Upchurch i thought it was for losers. And people who were irrational i was pretty much an atheist anti-church snob. But i had heard about unitarianism from a roommate and i walked through the door and then i sat in the back and i cried through the services for most of the year. And then i helped out at unif are and made a couple of friends and then i ushered. And then i joined the choir. Anime friends who were a lot older than me. And then i helped organize sunday dinners with a local homeless shelter and buses to washington for justice marches and then i taught religious education to the three and four-year-olds and made friends who were a lot younger than me and now it is over 30 years later and i can't imagine my life without unitarian-universalism and this congregation i'm still an atheist though i prefer to name my identity as a you urologist humanist as a humanist i feel blessed to be a member of this congregation where my atheism is no big deal and is genuinely honored as an expression of my free and responsible search for truth and meaning that's one of our uu principles and where i have been encouraged in my spiritual growth growth another of our principals including being encouraged and welcome to preach sunday and my weekly dose of inspiration and joy and encouragement to be the moral and ethical and brave person i want to be thank goodness we are streaming services now i am grateful to be strengthened by the support of a like-minded community that names and act on what is good and what is bad what is right and what is wrong. I am blessed to be living in this living congregation of all ages genders backgrounds and abilities where we care for each other we help children grow into wonderful human beings and work together for justice and stewardship of the earth ipledge generously to this congregation because it gives me so much spiritual sustenance because i think unitarian-universalism is the best religion in the world for me and i hope for you and because his congregation is where we can work together to create the world we want to live in. A beloved community for all of us. Thank you. Big y in body or spirit possessing him number 18 what wondrous love.

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Put-Me-In-Coach.m4a

1 yom kippur arab i imagine that he stood before god and had the following conversation god asked him have you studied all you should. He said no. Gotta have you pray all that you should. Now. He was asked a third question have you done all the good that you should. He said. No god proclaimed you have told the truth and for the sake of the truth you will be forgiven for now smack in the middle of the jewish high holidays rosh hashanah just happened and yom kippur is this weekend this is a whole 10 day. is known as the days of all some jews used to believe and maybe two or three still believe that during these days god will decide based on your behavior over the last year whether you would live or die in this year whether you would be written into the book of life. Or not. Today most jews think of this in a broader sense that this is a time of transformation it's a time to break old patterns heal relationships and return to our best selves. I wanted to be able to say to you this transformation three easy steps here they are boom boom boom one disengage temporarily from your life to get real with yourself about where you're at and how you showed up in the last year three seek forgiveness for anything that you've done that is hurt others or the earth this means literally going around to your friends and co-workers anyone that you feel like you've failed in some way and apologizing for whatever it was that you did for forgive others for the ways that they may have failed you be generous with your forgiveness and show love and all of your relationships to the people around you five set your positive intentions for the new year and 6 re-engage with your life so. Seek forgiveness offer forgiveness set your intentions and re-engage that we were supposed to follow that the jewish calendar and liturgy would reflect that you would think that the self-scrutiny and atonement and seeking forgiveness and offering forgiveness would all happen first and then you would wipe the slate clean and start fresh with the new year in other words you would think the new year would happen second. But that's not what it is it's exactly the opposite. The new year has already started and the day of atonement hasn't happened yet. The new year has started and we're not done dealing with last year yet. The new year has started and we still have unfinished business. Bristol angry if someone we love we still haven't broken that self-destructive habit we're still saying hurtful things we're still being hypocritical whatever it is we're still sabotaging ourselves we're still shy and alone we're still working at a job or we don't respect what we do we're still not trying our hardest whatever it is we're still not studying enough praying enough doing all the good that we should and yet the new year has to start because if we wait if we wait until all that stuff is figured out. Until every hurt is mended all of our baggage is unpacked and thoroughly dealt with will be waiting forever. Will never get back in the game. We all know people and maybe some of us are people who gotten stuck here. Stuck at steps 1 2 and 3 in the process this engaging and dwelling on our failures waiting to change or worse yet waiting for someone else to change before we move on to the next steps. Dr. seuss famously described this syndrome as a terrible place. Called the waiting place. Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come. Airplane to go or the mail to come. Or the rain to go or the phone to ring or the snow to snow for waiting around for a yes-or-no waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting waiting for the fish to bite. Waiting for wind to fly a kite for waiting around for friday night or waiting for haps for uncle jake. For a pot to boil or a better break. Or a string of pearls for a pair of pants. Or a wig with curls for another chance everyone is just waiting. I have a friend john who made a mess of relationship after relationship he wants desperately to get married and have children but time and again he pushes his partners away. Finds their flaws and tolerable can't get excited about them says hurtful things and sabotages the relationship over and over again. He's waiting for the right partner to come along and at the same time waiting for himself to become the right partner. He feels like he's failed so many times he berates himself. I could have been married by now. He's in therapy of course to figure it out and he decides that he just must not be ready for a relationship he needs to work on himself first he needs to get over his mother issues his father issues the time he got slugged by a kid at school and went crying to his teacher instead of fighting back the time he let go of that helium balloon and it went up into the sky forever and it was a loss he has to get over all of that first before he's ready for a relationship. And so. He's on the bench. He's not saying put me in coach he saying. Don't put me in. I'm not worthy. I'm not ready i'm not good enough i don't know if i'll ever be ready i don't know if i want to be ready. Many of us in this room have been that guy and one way or another. Waiting on the bench of life until such time as we are perfect. Perfectly ready. Maybe it's not applying for that dream job because we don't think that we are qualified. Maybe it's not having a baby because you need a bigger house maybe it's not voicing our opinion and a meeting or writing that op-ed because we feel like we don't know enough women especially hold back like this alot. Whatever it is when we hold back. When we sit on the bench and stay there we get stuck in steps 1 2 and 3 and never get to steps for five and six i believe that we do ourselves and this world a great disservice. The world needs our participation everyone of us the new year has to come first the coach whether you want to call that god or your own wisest bravest highest self the coach wants you in the game the story i told at the beginning illustrates this it seems like god is looking for any excuse at all to forgive the rabbi the universe wants us to engage imperfectly and with all our heart when i told this rabbinic story to my husband jeff he came up with an alternate version. Just cuz i told the truth doesn't count for that much i mean look at everything i didn't do and i didn't do it the year before either you know i'm not worthy to be written into the book of life keep me on the bench coach. God says. Did you go to hebrew school by any chance. Rabbi says yeah. God says okay so the judge of who's worthy me or you the rabbi says you god says right and who's all wise and infinitely knowing me or you. God says right. And do you happen to remember what happens to people who aren't worthy. The rabbi says. They don't make it. God says. Right. And did you happen to notice that you are still alive what does that tell you get back out in the field leonard cohen. Quoting ralph waldo emerson take this concept to step further emerson says that we're not only worthy despite our failings we are worthy in part because of and including our failings and the offertory song we heard earlier so beautifully some. The lyrics say. Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. All our life experiences all of our successes all of our failures all of our floundering and our moments of brilliance. All our suffering and our joy are what make the lines in our faces that make us uniquely ourselves and uniquely human. We all have cracks and they are part of the gift that we bring an everything that we do their part of the integrity that we bring. The lesson that the high holidays is to forget our perfect offering and instead to offer what we've got. The six steps of the sacred process of repentance and return can be done in sequence if we try we'll never get to the end. This doesn't mean that we don't admit our failings and try to work on our relationships and ourselves. It doesn't mean we should stay and bad relationships if they're just not working. Staying jobs that are just not working of course of course but there is no such thing as a clean slate we have to do it all concurrently and imperfectly it in completely disengaging re-engaging asking for forgiveness for giving getting real setting our intentions ending a year beginning of the new year all the time all together we make our commitments and we look into the future we say to ourselves do i know that i'm going to do all the studying that i should know. Do i know that i'm going to do all the praying that i should know do i know that i'm going to do all of the good that i should know good now get back in the game we have opportunities to get up off the bench every single day my friend john can throw himself into a new relationship even if he's not sure that he's perfectly ready maybe you can apply for that job or make that public statement today even hear it first you we have our faith in action expo you'll be able to browse all of our different activities and groups and work teams and find the game here. Love music but you're worried you're not a good enough singer join the choir right want to work on reproductive rights but don't know much about the issue join the women's alliance. Believe in the power of welcoming but don't know many people here they come and usher you will soon. There are a million ways to bring your gift to this community and to the world community. You'll see an abundance of opportunities if you stay to yourself. Like the first you member who did and his or her a dime a statement printed in your order of service i believe the community is holy and i participate. There's no such thing as a clean slate. There's no such thing as a fresh start. The new year. Always comes first. Even with our unfinished business everyday is a new chance to write ourselves into the book of life. Everyday is a new chance to say put me in coach. Everyday is a new chance to begin again in love should not survive happy new year our final him is sing out crazy for the journey number 295.

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Creation-The-Third-Day.m4a

It is said that the world was created through 10 other ince's you might have noticed this already and the biblical story god speaks things into existence god says let there be light and there was light. God says let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place and let the dry land appear and it was so. Henabees and poof you have a world. In most of these cases there isn't a separate act of creation that follows the speech the speech itself directly creates the thing. It's literally a speech act it's a pretty amazing concept when you think about it the ancient people didn't believe that god did something physically to create the elements of the world maybe because god wasn't envisioned as a physical being maybe speech was the one thing that could cross over from whatever dimension god was thought to be in to our dimension words were the medium through which an idea in the mind of god. Burst into. This world and became a reality. Speech had power. And of course it does. God isn't the only one who speaks things into existence. Every time we open our mouths the word vibrations that come out constitute an act that affect the world. Positively and negatively. In jewish tradition is a prohibition against what is called evil speech. That is gratuitously saying something bad about somebody or gossiping. An old verbenec tale goes like this. A man went about the community telling malicious lies about the rabbi. Later he realized he has done something wrong and he began to feel remorse. He went to the rabbi and begged his forgiveness. Saying he would do anything. To make amends. The rabbi told the man take a feather pillow. Cut it open and scatter the feathers to the winds. The man thought this was a strange request but it was a simple enough task and he did a gladly. When he returned to tell the rabbi that he had done it. The rabbi said now go and gather the feathers back. Because you can no more make amends for the damage your words have done then you can reconnect all those feathers. It's so true isn't it. Fangs proliferate. When we say things are worth go out into the world like feathers and have a life of their own. Our speech especially today has an impact on the other side of the world. Artists recognize this phenomenon that when they've created something once they've created it no longer feels like there's the feeling is called creative alienation. Once a piece of art or music or writing is out in the world and no longer really belongs to the artist. Others are affected by others ownit others interpreted and reinterpreted and claim it for their own this is nowhere more true than in the case of the bible itself but that's a story for another time. The point is this speech may originate at a single-source you or me or maybe god. But then the vibrations ripple outward pretty much forever. This principle of proliferation has its inception according to the story on the third day of creation. On this day god separates out the water makes the dry land appear and speaks plants into existence here's what the text says about the plans and god said let the earth bring forth vegetation the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind whose seed is in itself upon the earth. Plant making is a whole different sport than what we've seen earlier in the story on the first two days god makes something static. Four separate two things once and for all and that's just the way it is. On the third day god creates living things. A diverse multiplicity of living things different kinds they have the built-in capacity to grow and regenerate on their own forever after. The seed. Is the focus here. The grown plant is almost parenthetical. Kind of like the saying a chicken is a device used by an egg to make another egg that's it that's it feel hear the text specifies the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind. So like a pomegranate tree yielding pomegranate. Whose seed is in itself. To every single plant is created with its own seed which will then grow to become another plant with its own seed there are no dead ends here in creation. And of course each plant doesn't make just one seed to replace only itself. A single pomegranate has hundreds of seeds and feeds travel far and wide by being eaten or carried in the fur of animals some plants have seeds that blow in the wind like the pillow feathers. Some sports ride on particles of dust as they travel on wind currents across the ocean. Plants don't have a choice about reproducing if the conditions are right. They will do it. It's part of their essence. Simply part of the domino effect spreading out from the initial speech act of creation literally reproduce like plants. The general principle of proliferation still applies in our lives. We each produce fruit of our kind. In our words and our actions and each fruit that we produce contains seeds of its kind. We can't opt out of this system. We can't waive our right to proliferate. We can't choose to not have our words affect anything. We can't commit even a single act in a vacuum. What happens in vegas actually does not stay in vegas it goes everywhere. When we speak badly of someone or tell lies. Or tell or spread hatred the consequences of that speech act ripple outward and spread that harm far and wide and places and ways that we could never anticipate or imagine. This principle is being illustrated so dramatically in today's world or terrorist acts are seated by speech robert deer killed three people at a colorado planned parenthood saying no more baby parts a phrase that's traceable like dna to the recent false accusations that planned parenthood is selling baby parts. Isis has discovered that they don't even need to send fighters from iraq and syria to kill westerners. Beckon send words. And especially with the help of the internet's the word scatter like seed blowing easily across national boundaries across mountains and oceans they land and they grow roots. A man spire people like the couple in san bernardino to commit violence right where they are. The words become deeds. And likewise the words of hatred racism and xenophobia spoken by leaders like donald trump. Already bearing fruit in the forum of hate crimes against muslims in this country. And they will almost certainly breed more terrorism around the world. Once spoken. Words are the medium through which. And idea. First into the physical world and becomes reality. But of course this also means that when we do. Good through our speech when our words are kind and compassionate when we speak a truth that needs to be spoken. That goodness also reverberates around the world. It takes on a life of its own. It's separate from us it takes on new meaning in new context examples of this also abound. You don't need to be reverend martin luther king jr. for your words to do powerful good in the world. Some of you may have read in the new yorker last year about a nonprofit organization called crisis text line. It's a crisis hotline that operates entirely via text messages. So. People mainly millennials and younger people. Text him and chat. With volunteer crisis counselors. Many described devastating traumas. Sexual abuse cutting themselves drug use. Illness. Depression. Brutal bullying at school. Many feel so hopeless and isolated they talk about wanting to die. The crisis counselors send good speech out into the world. They listen. And they identify the strength that the texture already has. They say things like wow you are being such a good friend to jackie. Or it took a lot of courage for you to reach out to us today. Or you have a lot of grace under pressure. Or i can tell you're a caring person. They're only tool to help these people. Edwards. Just words words in their barest most naked farm just words on a screen and at the end of a text conversation which can be anywhere from 15 minutes to hours long the text her almost always says that they feel better. Sometimes they have a new plan that they came up with for finding safety or starting healing and sometimes they say you just saved my life. An average of 5 times a day crisis text line initiates an active rescue. Where police or medical professionals find the person. And prevent them from killing themselves. Words are the medium through which an idea burst into the physical world and becomes a reality. The seeds we put out into the universe will spread and grow into their own plants. Bearing fruit of their kind with still more seeds. We can never know how far our word acts will reach it said that anyone can count the number of seeds in an apple. But only god can count the number of apples in a seed. So we are wise to be intentional about the seeds that we plant. What are we speaking into existence in this world what new realities are we conjuring with our words. Even in the way that we respond to the evil speech in the world right now how come we put out healing and compassion. And truth. What are the right words. That will make space. For diverse peoples. Diverse voices space for health. And grow. You can imagine how the ancient hebrews must have envisioned our planet at the end of day 3 of creation. You had all the elements of a beautifully balanced ecology. You had her. Nurturing a fabulous diversity of growing plants olive trees hibiscus flowers. Ferns evergreens water lilies cacti. Tall grasses. You had light from the sky kissing their leaves. You had rain water filtering down through the vecchia water in them. The plans carry their offspring in their own seeds that blew and grew into new plants with their seeds. And when the old plants died. They fell to the earth and the same light and rain that grew them. Broke down their bodies. And they dissolve back into the soil to nurture the next generation. This was a spoken world. Of natural beauty diversity. And abundance. Ultimately it's not the cautionary tale of the evil speech in the feathers. But rather this lush and verdant proliferation of goodness that is the vision of the third day of creation. It's not about terrorism and hate crimes. But about crisis text line. At all the ways we plant our loving seas and proliferate compassion. Because afterlife burst into the world for the first time. And after the herbs and fruit trees were empowered to launch their own green cells into the future. The text says. And god saw. That it was good. And it was evening. And it was morning. A third day please rise and body or spirit for our final him i'm going to live so god can use me this is also printed in your order of service.

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Cheap-Grace.m4a

In the early 20th century dietrich bonhoeffer was off and lying awake at night. He was a christian theologian and he was a liberal but he was worried that the liberalization of theology had gone off the deep end the universalist idea of salvation for everyone has gotten pretty popular among mainstream christians that everybody was saved in the matter how much they send in their lifetime now just anyone had god's grace without having to do anything to earn it to bonhoeffer this wrist trivializing the message of jesus. If you didn't have to do anything to be a christian than christianity was meaningless. As he lay awake he came up with a term for it. Cheap. Grace. He defined cheap grace in the following way cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance. Baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship grace without the cross. Grace without jesus christ i don't know about to you but to me that actually sounds pretty good what he's calling cheap grace is kind of exactly what we're talking about here and unitarian universalism let's look again at his definition cheap grace is forgiveness without requiring repentance check check check check. Cheap grace minus the snarky title is very much at the core of unitarian universalist theology. The unitarians taught that god is one. And the we are ultimately all one. All of our differences and distinctions are temporary we don't need to claim to any particular form of life including our own the dinosaurs went extinct the polar bears will go extinct we will someday go extinct only cockroaches will be left and eventually we'll all be put back into the cosmic blender and become something else. It's all good. The early universalist mystic todd of an eternal love so envelop in all creatures without exception would sunbathe someday be gathered together into its fold. We're all made of the same stuff. We all come from the same source and share the same destiny. We are pure life. Bonhoeffer contrasted what he thought of as this vanilla christianity with what he called costly grace. He wrote about how jesus had demanded that his followers put down their plows and leave their homes and their families and come follow him jesus had predicted that they would be persecuted in his name jesus had high standards for his followers they needed to become humble and put god first they needed to feed the poor and try to make the world a better place this was what it meant to follow the path to salvation christian should come together to grow spiritually care for one another. Wait was that jesus or is that our purpose statement the idea of a cheap gray sounds good to us. But so does the idea of costly grace. We unitarian-universalist certainly feel called to work hard through our faith. We believe in tempering our own greed and caring for the poor. We believe in making sacrifices to heal the earth. We believe in challenging ourselves intellectually and spiritually and emotionally to become the most evolved version of ourselves that we can possibly be we don't believe that it's easy or that it doesn't matter because we're all saved anyway. And yet we believe that we're all saved. Anyway. So which is it. At the heart of our faith lies this paradox on one hand unitarian-universalism describes a perfect world. Unitarianism paints a picture of sublime oneness. Universalism painted picture of sublime love. The world is already like that. The world in which as i say at the end of my benediction each week we are all one and we are all love. Grace is not just cheap. It's free. On the other hand. As we well know the world is not one at all. The world is divided by war and hatred racism and poverty violence of all kinds divides us everyday. And everyone is not love in this world. Children are abandoned. Adults are lonely. People are hated and killed for who they are. Through this lens unitarian-universalism is not a current reality at all but a dream. An aspirational vision. And through this lens unitarian-universalism requires us called us to do the hard work of moving toward that aspirational vision grace is cheap. Grace is costly which is it. There's an old folktale that may offer an answer. It's called the wish ring. It's a story of a peasant farmer and his wife and a mysterious bearded man who gives him a magic ring that contains one wish. To use their wish they need to go to the fara. To a special spot and turn the ring three times and make the wish. But that whole setup is so. European pastoral romanticized agrarian heteronormative updated a little bit instead of the wish ring this is the story of the wish iphone. Once upon a time in a land far far away called rowan county kentucky there were two women both freelance out-of-work graphic designers who are very much in love. They had waited a long time to get married first for same-sex marriage to become legal in this country and then for kim davis to go to jail but but now they finally had their license and they had a beautiful wedding and during the stranger stepped through the crowd. He was clearly not from there because he had an ironic mustache that looks like it came from greenpoint brooklyn rather than rowan county kentucky and he handed the newlyweds a silver iphone. And said to them because your love is so true and so strong i'm going to bless you with a magic wish iphone. You can only turn it on and use it once. To make a wish to use your wish just text what your wishes to god god. And it will come true. Remember you only got one wish so use it wisely and then he disappeared into the crowd. The couple stared at the iphone in their hands cynical and proudly jaded as they usually were just was their wedding day and there was something about this stranger that made them think that this was true. They took the iphone home with them that even again one said to the other has been out of work for a long time maybe we should wish that will get a huge contract that makes us so much money that we can retire now. Figured this was a good idea and i sat down together and they were about to turn on the iphone when the other said wait let's not waste our wish maybe we should just work together. A little harder a little smarter and see if we can build our business we might really need that with later. So they agreed and they started working together harder and smarter and pretty soon their business grew and they were making enough money to live very comfortably. The iphone sat in a special place on their bookshelf. And i gave him great comfort to know that it was there. Years went by and the couple deeply crave the love of children and their lives. But ivf wasn't working and they were starting to despair. They brought out the iphone determined to use their wish for children. But at the last second one said wait let's not use our wish just yet maybe we should try to adopt a child and give a loving home to someone who really needs it. We might need darvish later. And so they worked hard to find an adoption agency that would allow them to adopt and they adopted two children a brother and a sister and now their household was full of love and the joys and tribulations of parenting their lives had a new sense of purpose. The iphone sad and its special place on their bookshelf. And it gave some great comfort to know that it was there. The family was happy but they had few friends they felt pretty isolated in rowan county kentucky. They wanted to raise their children and a community of like-minded people where they could be themselves. One of them said to the other let's use our wish to transplant our lives just as they are to brooklyn where we hear those are great unitarian universalist congregation they were about to turn on the phone when one said wait. Let's not use our wish just yet maybe we can start a fellowship here and it would serve all the people in this county who are lonely like us and looking for a spiritual home and so they started worship services in there living room it was in a few years they were surrounded by a warm growing community of spiritual people who were so grateful to have found each other. The iphone sat and its special place on their bookshelf. And i gave some great comfort to know that it was there. The couple grew old together. And as they were nearing death they drew their children clothes and told them the story of the magic wish iphone. They carefully handed the phone to them saying. This magic iphone has brought incredible happiness. And blessings into our lives. Guarded carefully and it will bring blessings to you. And your children and your children's children to. This is the practice of unitarian universalism in a nutshell. We know that in our back pocket we have a get-out-of-jail-free card we have a magic silver iphone with a wish we have not only cheap grace but free grace and yet we are called to never use it we are called to act as if we are self-determining self creating and self redeeming. We are called to work hard on our own that in our communities to bring about a better world. To pray like everything depends on god and works like everything depends on us. These two dimensions of unitarian universalism. Challenges to see with a bifurcated spiritual vision. We're challenged to toggle between two ways of seeing. Two ways of knowing the one in which we are perfect and everything is perfect exactly as it is and the other in which we are broken and we live in a broken world that desperately needs our help. Both are true. And it is a marker of spiritual maturity i believed to be able to hold both intention and in paradox. Coming here to worship can help us to do that. The music the prayers the words the candles the togetherness it gives us a taste of that oneness and love before we plunge back into our daily lives and try our hardest to be the best people we can be. Sabbath practice also toggle between the two. The weeds of striving. And then a day in which there is nothing to strive for. We do our work in this world. Always in the light of our spiritual vision we know at the end of the day that all of our mistakes will be forgiven and we don't have to lift a finger to earn the love of the universe. This knowledge this vision this promise this face sits in a special place on our bookshelf. We know that it's there and it gives us great strength and great comfort. The wall over here for the time that we're here. It's incumbent on us to try to realize that vision here on earth. It's our work to bring a little bit of that cosmic light and love into this dimension. So mister bonhoeffer you don't need to worry about us unitarian universalist. We'll take our cheap grace and will also take our costly grace. Will live with a foot in each world things as they are and things as they ought to be and we'll spend our lives trying to narrow the gap between the two. Please rise in body or spirit rock final him wheelbuilder lands number 121.

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The-Journey-Home.m4a

I have been looking for home for most of my life i grew up in a small town in the midwest where i was raised by my mother and grandmother i occasionally saw my father and i had extended family of all sorts i always had a home as in a building where i slept and where the people who cared for me lived we didn't have much money but we had enough to usually pay all the bills i didn't get i didn't i didn't go to bed hungry either all of the material pieces of home where their the relationship and emotional pieces of home where there two however i never felt like i fit into the story i was born into i remember being an elementary school and knowing i was different part of that difference was that i was in a nominally christian household and didn't believe in what i was told at church i thought maybe some of you have felt that way too. I knew that when people made negative remarks about people like that that i was in the group i was always the brainy kid the effeminate kid the precocious kid i was the weird kid that seem to baffle everyone including my family i also had an active imagination and inner life this was fueled by books and toys and the world around me but then i could refine that external world into what i wished for it seemed that i was always on an adventure somewhere else i remember making up stories about cruise on spaceships bands of explorers to far-off lands and all sorts of animals living in castles that could only exist in fairy tales a theme of so many of these stories was the search for something or the building of something together i always had places for my characters to live together inside the spaceship in the treetops at night while adventuring and comfy places inside those stone walls of the capitals they were always creating something i didn't really named at the time that something could be called home i had pieces of home but was looking for a deeper sense of it in my life perhaps i was searching for an inner sense of being at home and who i was something that is connected to safety and comfort joy and trust belonging and community so many of the things that are found in religious community and family when they are at their best what i want us to think about what is a home anyway what makes up home for you lived in houses apartments dorm rooms addict three-season porches and an emotion home is relationships and memories. A place where both gladness and sorrow can occur home is not a singular place where i received my mail rather home is where those people who hold my heart are a sense of homecoming is tied to those who have loved me into being who i am today paradoxically the more i give away my heart to the people i care about the more home i experienced in the world like a series of roots that ground me so perhaps the expression home is where the heart is could be articulated to home is where my heart's are a new yorker article last year explored a finalist for the oxford dictionaries word of the year it didn't win but it was interesting that that word was hygge hygge is a danish word that doesn't quite translate into english but is often and english while hyuga has been brought to americans attention it is often used to describe pleasure drive from comfort like warm socks and yummy food on cold nights and i think that's definitely part of it. Alan david on in an in the architecture of happiness wrote this we need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical to compensate for a vulnerability we need a refuge to shore up our states of mind because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances we need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important as investment sides of us how do we find or create or get closer to that sense of home though i'd like to propose the idea that you can have a theology of home capital h home can be an expansive and imaginative concept at the same time you experience it in your daily life round at the ology is something that helps frame the experiences of our lives and focuses them in a direction towards something the questions that the ology answers are who are we. What's wrong with things as they are now what saves or redeems us and where are we going. When i think about this frame around the idea of home i see the question of who are we as one that points to the idea that at our core vr nesters we create homes and crave homes all the time our relationships to one another become the deeper source of home once our basic needs are met the communities we create the memory shared and passed on to others all ads were feeling of being at home of belonging from a reading this morning we live not by things but by the meanings of things i would add to this that we live by meanings and emotions ultimately we are seeking home and creating it through memories and experiences not lumber or lamps the second question theology bags of us is what is wrong in the world that we see today i see two ways that we go wrong when talking about home one when is that we focus solely on the material pieces of home these are important but not the ultimate goal. The objects inside buildings for the status that the right address might bring we missed the mark when home becomes that status object the other is that we participate in systems that deny home to any single person this can be literal homelessness or lack of safety or security in the world a home is more than the sum of the parts it exists in the relationships between people and fills the spaces between the objects we gather they're the next big question theology poses what is saving in the world or how do we more move towards the bigger ideals of home and away from the places our stuff lives we get closer to home when we risk relationship and try reaching out yet again this might sound simple but so many forces in our society push us apart we learned not to trust not to risk and not to love in a variety of ways the way we change that is by practicing vulnerability. We gain a deeper sense of what it means to be human when we are vulnerable enough or take the risk to be in relationship with people when we share who we are and take the time to listen to others connections and reliance on other people are radical acts when we have relationships a sense of home we have resiliency and a world that can change in a moment strength is not found in individuality it is found in community earlier in the month i shared the phrase relationships i change the phrase rebellion are built on hope so too are homes the final questions urology help us answer is what is the ultimate destination of this journey home why create a home at all if we only get to live there for but a limited. of time or if we only experience it occasionally in our life lives. When we think about the larger idea of home that home is a circle of trust in a place that calls us towards our best selves. The destination becomes the experience of home itself finding ways to create it over and over again a moment here and there throughout our lives the true goal what makes the school a religious one is that it extends beyond ourselves. We cannot do it for ourselves without others and to be a part of another person's sense of home makes our own journey there that much shorter. So then what makes up this theology of home. Our personal creation of relationships our rejection of materialism and recognition of the mutuality we have with others in creating homes our willingness to transform strangers into beloved guests and the continual extension of home in larger and deeper ways. The point of grounding ourselves in a theology of home or belonging or god. The importance of finding that centering concept in our lives that helps us grow and change is what helps us be resilient throughout our lives we store away pieces of that sense of knowing where we are in the world and what we stand for not for the times that makes sense but for the times that do not we create communities that will hold us up when we need them. The entire religious enterprise can be and should be about creating a sense of home furnace when we talked about the idea of sanctuary or community or hygge we are really talking about a religious impulse to increase belonging meaning and safety the goal of this place is to help people connect to something more than something beyond themselves. Yes i hope that include participating and social justice causes like the march today and treating people more like neighbors or friends than strangers and i hope that this place is both healing and inspiring i even hope that church is fun but i altimate lee hope that the experience of church leads to more experienced to feeling at home in the world that is how we overcome heat and divisiveness it is the feeling of home that makes everything else we do matter by creating safety we can make the way for comfort bike reading comfort we can make the way for joy by creating space for joy in our lives we make the way for trust when we get to a place of trust we can get closer to home the beloved community take shape when we all arrive home. Please rise in body or spirit for our closing hymn number 1007 at river flowing in my soul.

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By-A-Different-Road.m4a

Heather cartoon that sits on my desk upstairs one of these religions seemed cartoons that people like to give to clergy it shows the nativity scene with mary and joseph and the baby and the animals all gathered round and it shows one of the magi and his sandals running away from them towards the other two magi who are waiting for their turn he has a look of panic on his face and he's freaking it's a girl for us when we is is open to it. When the magi in the scripture story come to visit the baby jesus they find just a baby. The baby who probably looked no different from any other baby. From a poor family lying there and it's jerry-rigged labor and delivery unit probably nursing or crying or sleeping. Elliott on the basis of this baby. The text says that the magi were overwhelmed with joy. They saw the child with mary his mother and they knelt down and pay attempt homage. And when they were done and had soaked in the experience and had given him the gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh the scripture says and here's the key thing that they left by a different road. The magi experience in this baby something so powerful that it brought them to their knees it overwhelmed them a change them so profoundly that they were not the same people when they left. Christians have struggled to find metaphors for what jesus was or is. Over the years calling him the son of god the physical manifestation of god. The messiah the prince of peace the newborn king. These are always within the limitations of words to try to explain the magic that the magi encountered that day the magic that seems like many cents. In his presence. Even if the baby without words teachings or miracle healing people seemed to experience through jesus a kind of divine transmission a direct broadband and it transformed those who were open to being transformed. There are many legends around the birth of jesus including ones that suggest that we all showed up for it. It was not only the biblical characters who were there at the manger but every person who ever lived every person who was ever going to live everyone from every nation and religion you and me we were all there there's a similar legend in jewish tradition about the revelation of the ten commandments at mount sinai that everyone from every place and time was there to receive it. And other cultures have similar teaching about these luminous times and places. Harmonic convergence has. Mystical revelations where every soul is present and every soul gets plugged into that broadband connection. For some of us this idea might be inspiring. We all have somewhere within us this memory and capacity for this connection with god for others of us who may be more scientifically minded this may all be a little woo jesus may have been a really good guy but he's dead now and really what we should be paying attention to is the miracle that is other living breathing human being. So let's look at another story about the magi that lifts up both of these insights at once the story that negan told earlier the story imagine that there were actually four magi not three but the fourth one art saban from persia. But his failure is a shining example of what it means to be transformed by what we encounter instead of by what we expect to encounter. If you remember from the story he sells everything he owns. To buy three jewels to give as gifts to the baby jesus but each time he gets close to finding him he encounters someone who needs his help. Can counters the face of another human being with all of its vivid presents he nurses a sick man back to health he saved the baby from being killed by roman soldiers. He rescues a girl from slavery. Each time he has to stop and give up one of his precious jewels it feels to him like a diversion from his mission but each time the majesty and immediacy of that encounter prevails. It wore the idea that he had in his head of something or someone better that he was looking for. He becomes present to the moment. And he is transformed and at the end when he's full of grief and doubt jesus comes to him finally and speaks. His famous teaching just as you did to the least of these. My brother and you did to me. An art saban realizes that she. Has made the connection that he was looking for all along. By seeing the holiness in each person that he encountered. He was open to that holiness at each time he allowed it to send him down a different road arthur bond learns that he didn't have to seek out the harmonic convergence he didn't have to wait for the revelation in a particular time and place each of the people that you met was and is that broadband connection. It's available here and now to everyone of us my prayer for all of us on this christmas eve is that we may all open our hearts to the encounter of holiness and truth in our lives wherever it shows up. Whether it's an encounter of need like hearing the earth crying out to us from under the weight of our human violence against her. Or an encounter of wonder. Like seeing a newborn baby any newborn baby with its radiant presence and immigrant from another dimension. Weather at challenges our expectations like a girl messiah or brings us joy like the music of this service may we recognize it all as holy be open. Be open to being changed by these sacred moment. Be open to becoming someone slightly new be open. The open. And maybe leave by a different road.

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Sanctuary.m4a

Before i begin the sermon i want to reassure you of something. Some of today's topics like i suspect so many weeks before now are difficult. But if i religious home cannot help us face the realities. Of the world that we live in. And strengthen us and give us hope. And point us towards wisdom and justice then one must ask what is it good for. We may face difficult things together but it is my hope and my belief. That this time together by the end will be a bum and a blessing. Writing for the atlantic magazine that unitarian sounded stalwarts of journalistic integrity adam serwer writes recently in a piece titled the cruelty is the point. The cruelty of the current administration's policies and the ritual rhetorical playing of his targets before his supporters are intimately connected as lily loofboro road of the kavanaugh incident and slate adolescent male cruelty toward women is a bonding mechanism. A vehicle for intimacy through contempt the white men in lynching photos. Are smiling not merely because of what they have done. But because they have done it. Together. We can hear the spectacle of cruel laughter throughout the trump iran there were the border patrol agents cracking up with the crying and migrant children separated from their families. And the police who left uproariously when the president in courage them to abuse suspects. And the fox news hosts mocking a survivor of the pulse nightclub massacre. The survivors of sexual assault protesting to senator jeff flake the women who said the president had sexually assaulted them. And the teen survivors of the parkland school shooting. It's not just that the perpetrators of this cruelty enjoy it it is that they enjoy it with one another. Their shared laughter at the suffering of others is an adhesive that binds them to one another. Now i think. Especially for people of progressive faith and spirituality there's this sense of shocked and horrified off in the face of this reality to be clear it isn't new as server points out what can be seen in the faces of those old photographs of lynchings and you can see it and are on our screens when the most powerful man in the world capers onstage mocking a woman who has survived sexual assault and then the crowd around him last and cheers we have made in this moment. An original brace. We are moved by our hope and are confident that there is worth and dignity in each and every soul and we circle around the warmth of our chalices to try to reassure ourselves of the truth that we hold dear in the face of so much that seems to deny our faith. We have to understand this. There are deep human needs. That are going unmet in this country. And many other parts of the world to but let's focus here in our country and our city in our neighborhood perhaps even in this place this morning. In a world where technology is outpacing our laws and our moral understandings and i know you hear a lot about this reverend speaks deeply to this issue these issues that where we we don't know what's going on we can feel on a daily basis the temperatures rising around us we feel winds blowing harder. Where those who had so much stand so far from those who have two little and where the framework. Of a communal sense of right and wrong has sprayed almost to the breaking point. We are all at risk. We have to take seriously the life-changing matter of loneliness and isolation. I would hazard to guess. That you already know what makes a terrorist especially one willing to martyr themselves to a cause. Angry isolated young men are easily identified by terrorist groups or gangs or white supremacy group. Becoming a member. Other group. Is the elixir no longer being alone. Living for something bigger than oneself being taught that this is right and that is wrong. These are things that feed the soul. And that hunger demands to be fed for good or for ill lonely men often grab gun. It's needing all of us. We need to belong we need to be seen we need to be heard we need to understand what our people think is the common good and what is bad or wrong. We need a sense that we are living for more than just ourselves it's why you're here today but unfortunately. It's also why young men pledge fraternities that encourage them to bond through overindulgence and too often teach them to consider themselves worth more than other people. Those people who are not in the circle. It is. What makes an aa group. A saving company from many many people. But. It also makes the proud boys show up to cause trouble. Or hurt people at an event organised by women or progressive. It's that important we need connections we need. Someplace at the sense of community we need to serve a larger goal and we need friends to love us so that we can love them to be known and to share values. We need people who will be there for us when times are hard and make no mistake hate groups are often incredibly good at being there for one another for making lonely and lost people. Feel that they are needed and wanted. As unitarian universalist. We have faith. That we can believe different things experience the divine or understand the nature of reality in different ways and yet come together as a people who covenant. To love and to serve together. We believe that differences can enrich and ennoble us we believe that human freedoms should accrue to each. Not just men or the rich or those of one cultural background or people who are currently able-bodied or people who were straight. No other people and other groups. Believe very different things. So here's an important question. Do you believe the world would be a better place. If more people. Were unitarian universalist. If more teachers and justices lives by our principles. If more business leaders and public servant shared our ethics. If so then what you are saying is these doors all of our doors and unitarian universalist congregation should be open wider that this sanctuary can and should hold more people than it does today. So how do we get there. Well here's the first question who did you invite to church this week. Who have you talked about about the community that helps you feel strong that gives you hope or inspires or uplifts you. The question is is this church a secret that you keep safely tucked away in your heart. Or is it a saving grace that you share with those in your life that you think might need it. These past few weeks i think i have i'm sure many of you have been with. An encounter many women who are admitting sometimes for the first time the harm that they have endured at the hands of abusers and not just women. The trans community. And men and boys to have faced traumatic sexual assault. And these have been hard months. But numerically and emotionally the heaviest harms for the last while have hit women. Ijeoma oluo black feminist scholar wrote in an article titled women can be at anything. But can we be angry. She wrote. An angry. That we have a president who brags about assaulting women. A senate will confirm a supreme court justice accused of assaulting women. I am angry that undocumented women who tried to seek safety from abusive partners now risk deportation. I am angry that neo-nazis are marching down the street and police are more likely to arrest the counter-protesters than the racist thugs with torches. I am angry that are already struggling healthcare. Preventable and sick and disabled people is being gleefully stripped away. I am angry that black babies are dying in childbirth dying in our playground dying in traffic stop. I am angry i am angry because all that i love is being threatened i am angry. Because the people the institution the values that i and so many others love. Are being destroyed. And we are constantly being told not to be angry. As a black woman especially i hear it from all corners to be angry is to trade intellect for emotion. To be angry is to be irrational and violent but none of that is true. I am angry because i love. I am angry because what i love is being harmed. I know why mypeoplematter why the environment matters why human rights matter why justice matters and i know. That it all deserves. Love. Do we know why are people matter. Do we know why our values and our principles matter. Do we understand why this sanctuary. Matters. If we do we have to ask what are we willing to do to build it up and open its doors wider what will we do to share it. Will we tell about this place. That we love and that loves us. Here's what i believe i believe that more than ever we need to be with one another we need to talk to one another about what we believe what sustains us and what matters most to us. We need to be friends with one another. An each and every single time we are here. We need to add at least one more person to our circle you know it all souls there was a dinner i hosted for our church leaders and we were talking about what does the church need what do we feel like it needs and their answer was. More greeters. That we need more people speaking to newcomers more people taking time every time that we gather to welcome every person into say hello to reach out so that no one who enters one of our congregation would leave without being greeted without being spoken to without being seen without knowing that these are places where you are needed and wanted at every door a friendly face when you come and when you leave someone ready to turn. From a stranger. To friend. The world is full of hungry lonely souls. Our greatest hope and our greatest power lies and reaching out beyond ourselves seeking both to build our relationships and community here and to encourage each other to act for change in the world around us. So. Every time you come. Bring one more lonely person. Or family. Come to one more event here. Deepen your friendships to know one another and be known across the city meeting other unitarian universalist congregation that's what. We're working on trying to build those relationship and make time for the spiritual renewal. That we undertake so that you our own sense of serving something larger than yourself. Your own sense of shared meaning with your people it can grow. If your soul has been thirsty this week if you've been hurting and you need comfort welcome welcome to the sanctuary this company of people who are made glad by your arrival. Enclosing i'd like to offer just a small gift for your week it's a poem by the sufi mystic rumi. And in his own brilliant way he speaks to how we create a sanctuary of love and power. It's called not here. There's courage involved if you want to become truth. There is a broken open place in a lover. Where are those qualities of bravery and sharp compassion in this group. What's the use of old and frozen thought. I want a howling hurt. This is not a treasury where gold is stored this is for copper. We all commit look for talent that can heat up and change lukewarm won't do. Half-hearted holding back well enough getting by. Not here. Friends take heart wherever we are going let us go together and love and entrust of each other. I'm in a shay. I'm fluffy.

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Homily-A-Future-Of-Connection.m4a

After last summer's journey with stuck-on talked about to west virginia and we were all so excited to plan another service rep for summer 2019 at our first meeting of the year we spent hours talking about the different places we can go to do service and to experience. An entirely new culture. Border and immigration service in arizona equality activism in new orleans service work on the pine ridge reservation. But in the end we decided to return to big creek people in action back in west virginia. We decide to go back for many reasons. And it took a lot of long conversations to fully decide. We decided to go back to west virginia because of the people because of the beautiful mountains the fried green tomatoes and fireworks on 4th of july. Because of the how much we can learn from people who live such a different life than us. Because of the lies we can change by painting a house. We decided to go back to west virginia. To create a strong connection between the community revisited ns. During our time in west virginia i learned about the kindness that others have to offer. Our last day working is the 4th of july. And at the end of the day we watch a beautiful display of fireworks put on by the big creek people in action. Employees. We have bought ice cream and shared it with everyone watching the fireworks. Tonight was full of joy for just being together it was the joy of life and is the sky lit up with fireworks my hardwood outside being surrounded by such a beautiful place and beautiful people. On our last day painting the house as a final coat dried the couple whose house was painted invited us into dinner or as we call it lunch. She had made meatloaf and green beans and cornbread and zucchini bread for my garden but best of all where the fried green tomatoes. Freshly battered and fried with tomatoes from her garden as well they were delicious better than the ones i've had in the south before. This lunch was amazing. But best of all the hospitality sheets jonas with no obligation. Shirley and freddy were so kind. And not through the act of painting a house but through being there to learn from others and give what we can we learned from shirley and freddy more than we could anywhere else because going somewhere to help with your own hands to hands creates a bond that you cannot get anywhere else we have put our support behind the community in west virginia through the server service we have not only helped those there but brought something so foreign to the streets of new york back to her own congregation and community. The returning this year i hope that we will form a relationship that will be passed down the further youth groups years after us. Enter the service we did their end the relationship with creative i hope to create something that will live past our years in this church. Ward west virginia is a place so different from anything we've experienced in the city so we are going back to create a relationship. Taiwan community to another. To go out and face the unknown. To learn from people whose experience is so far from our own and to internal tell them about our lives. To share and learn and create a bond. Thank you please rise in body or in spirit for the closing song country roads.

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The-Left-Hand-Of-God.m4a

When a shooting of 20 school children at sandy hook elementary school isn't enough when a shooting of 14 nonprofit workers in san bernardino isn't enough when a mass shooting somewhere every single day in this country isn't enough to change our approach to the problem of gun violence there's clearly something that we are collectively just not. And this goes for all of us on all sides of this debate. The pro-gun side keeps insisting that having morgan's will make us all safer. We now have the laxest gun laws and all of the developed world and the highest rate of gun violence there's something that they are clearly just not getting. At the same time when gun-control advocates point to the most recent shooting as the last straw the crossing of a red line the atrocity so horrible that now finally everyone will have to admit that it's time for gun control and then are freshly shocked and appalled each time and conservatives just re-up their call for more guns. There's something that we are clearly just not. We're completely missing each other in this debate. Talking past one another as if speaking to different. Untranslatable languages. Back in the 90s michael lerner a psychologist and rabbi said over the research team to try to understand how people life experiences and especially their work lives related to their politics. What made people feel as they did about how society should respond to issues of. Does poverty and violence. What made people support political parties even when that meant voting against their own economic self-interest. They interviewed working people of all backgrounds and classes and ethnicities people in all kinds of jobs people who would not have participated in the conversation if they were told that it was therapy. What they found through these conversations was stunning and its consistency. Marjorie sanders of telecom worker in la summed it up this way in her interview. I've worked as a secretary i worked as a waitress i worked for years as an assistant producer in a movie production company. And i've worked at a plant constructing airplanes and i can tell you that they are all the same they are all governed by one and only one thing. Money. They are in business to make money and you're only worth to them is whether you can help them make money. Carlos hernandez a successful manager at a silicon valley firm summed it up this way. I can tell you that a lot of these people who work for this firm migrate people. But that doesn't change the bottom line and the bottom line is this. Everyone is out for themselves and everyone is going to get an advantage whenever they can and that means don't trust anyone. Because they're all going to do what they have to. To get ahead and make it for themselves. It's just how it is i don't blame anyone but i know to keep my eyes open. Sandy levin deposition in chicago sums it up this way. I never imagined the medicine would turn out to be so bottom line oriented. But in the late 1980s the medical system was taken over by insurance companies and suddenly i became an employee of some huge corporation whose only interest and how was the big could make a buck off of someone else's suffering. I've come to realize that everyone goes along with this whole thing and there's not much point in fighting it because that's just the way it is. What is hardest for me is that i wanted my life to be about serving some higher purpose. I thought medicine was a kind of calling to service for humanity. Now i have to resist treating my patients as objects. But it's like this everywhere i look. Everything is reduced to material gain. The world used to be such a magical and enchanting place for me but now it all seems so flat. Lifeless. Even pointless. I feel like i've lost. Too much. These three were not unusual and michael learners interviews people across the board felt the same kind of disillusionment they didn't like the bottom-line orientation of the work world how people all seem to be out for themselves the harsh hierarchy of winners and losers with power and money and dominance as the names of the game. All of them. Had had dreams of a life motivated. Buy ideals and purpose beyond just making money. A life of meaning and they have been forced to foreclose on those dreams. The process had left them dead end. Inside. They felt in the words of the physicians that they had lost too much. As painful as it was for them they felt the resistance was futile because there was nowhere else. To go. They had to harden themselves. Although they had your names for a different kind of world the world of kindness and generosity. They had to suppress those yearning they said because that's just not the way the world works. I think many of us probably recognize this feeling. The question of how the world works. Is basically a theological question. I need issues of workplace values. Are questions of meaning. Michael lerner and his team learned that it was these questions of theology and meaning that was at the heart of people discontent. And it was these questions that were also at the heart of their politics. He wrote a book about this published in 2006 called the left hand of god. I read it back then and it's been deeply influential to me and meaningful to me personally. In the left hand of god michael lerner lays out to understandings of god. Or if god isn't your way of thinking about it to visions of how the world works. For as long as anyone can remember these two visions have competed in our individual hearts and our communities. In our sacred texts and the interpretations of our sacred texts. Lerner calls the right hand of god is the religious tradition of god as power and might it's the avenger god the judge the god who led people in biblical times to victory in battle. The guy who's supposed to arrive at the end times and reward the good and punish the evil. The worldview that goes with the right hand of god is one in which power is worshipped. The natural world is a resource to be exploited the week will be destroyed so you'd better not be weak. The world is as dangerous and hierarchical place and the best way to stay safe. Is to be stronger than those who would do you harm. You better look out for yourself. And your own because ultimately everyone is out for themselves. You can kind of hear the echo of some of those interviews in this. Good learner called the left hand of god is the religious tradition of the god of love and compassion. This is the god who nurtures and heels. Who gives blessings and has a special concern for the vulnerable and the poor. This is the god of reconciliation. Who brings peace in the biblical stories. Between siblings in families between parent and child in between nation. The worldview that goes with this tradition is one in which loving-kindness is worship. The natural world is viewed with awe and reverence. From this view everyone deserves to be recognized and loved. Everyone deserves compassion. We all have times and we're weaker and times and we're stronger and so we are here to help each other out and the hard times. In this world for you. The best way to stay safe. Is to be generous and welcoming. And give others the dignity and recognition that we all crave. The struggle between these two voices. Is at the heart of our gun debate in this country. The pro-gun voice says that the world is a dangerous place they're always going to be people out there with guns who want to kill us and so the best way to stop them is to be able to shoot them first. The anti-gun voices that we need to help the wounded people who are driven to such violence. And have fewer and fewer guns at all. Liberals tend to be particularly powerful that even mean spirited. But it comes to addressing the pro-gun lobby. As if anyone who thinks we need morgan's has got to be stupid or have some ethical defect. We like to think that we buy contrast are free of stupidity and ethical defects we here in liberal brooklyn at a unitarian universalist congregation are squarely and they left hand of god cap those other people are the ones with the problem and yet if we're really honest with ourselves it's not just them. The right hand of god exists in each of us. We each have a pro-gun lobby. In our hearts. It may not be a lobby for physical guns but it's a lobby for emotional guns. Verbal guns. The bullets of our actions and the armor of our inaction. When we feel threatened when we feel alone and vulnerable. We sometimes want to arm ourselves and fight back against a dangerous world. We have a gun lobby in our hearts. When we feel things changing in our lives out of our control shifting beneath our feet at home or in our work or in our communities they can be so disorienting we sometimes want to lash out and stop that change no matter what it takes we have a gun lobby in our hearts. When were scared the gun lobby shows up. Finally feel humiliated or do me. The gun lobby shows up. When we've been hurt by someone we love. The gun lobby shows up. And that lobby is relentless every single day dropping by our office putting its feet up on our desk waving a checkbook at us promising big returns if we will only agree to be realistic. Don't let that person into your life they could be dangerous don't give your money away to a cause you might need that money and it won't do any good anyway. Don't stick your neck out for that person that's their problem not yours. Don't rely on that person. The last time you relied on somebody you got hurt. Don't treat your workers any better than you were treated. That wouldn't be fair. Don't treat your kids any better than you were treated. They've got to learn how the world really works. Be realistic. The voice chatters away and cajoles and threatened. Our spiritual challenge is to learn how to respond with love. To the gun lobby out there and in here. Our faith embraces the vision of the left hand of god. Unitarianism teachers that we are all one. One human family. Who all laughed the same and bleed the same who depend on each other for everything we have and share one beautiful earth. Universalism teaches of 11 consciousness infinitely compassionate and forgiving we try to be that loving consciousness for each other. When we speak of the left hand of god in whatever language we use for it. We speak of a world based in generosity and kindness and compassion not just in some theoretical way or some future time but here now in this world to have public policies based on those values to hear politicians and corporate executives and parents and teachers speaking that language. I'm only say such things the gun lobby called us naive. That's a childish and dangerous longing they say. That's not the real world it's never going to happen. Grow up. It's our challenge to counter. That's false realism with faith. It's our challenge to counter it with compassion because of course. The gun lobby out there and the gun lobby and here comes from a place of fear and pain and hurt. Nobody deep down wants the world to be like that. None of the workers that michael lerner interviewed want to work in a place where money is the only goal and they can't trust their coworkers. Nobody deep down wants to walk around fearing that they might need to pull out a gun to kill an attacker. Nobody wants that. Like the wise woman said to the boy in the story that megan told earlier. But the world doesn't have to be like that. The future is hidden. It's entirely up to you. Whether the bird is alive or dead. Whether the left hand or the right hand of god ultimately win the day. Is entirely in your hands. Please rise in body or spirit for our final him somebody know what it is i don't.

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Biblical-Migrations-Noah-And-The-Arc-Part-1.m4a

When god decides to shake up the etch-a-sketch and start life all over again the vehicle for preserving life is not a boat it's a box i know it's always portrayed as a boat and the picture-books usually a very lovely boat with a bow and astern a port and starboard lots of windows maybe with oars maybe with sales. All the happy looking people and animals are hanging out on the deck but in the actual text the life-support system that god instructed noah to build is just a giant multi-story fox. They're careful instructions. For the shape and dimensions of the box so many cubits high and wide the edges sealed with pitch. And it is to have only one window. This window. Has been a mystery over the years. Because the hebrew word sohar it's usually translated as window. In the story doesn't appear anywhere else in the bible. So you can't really know what it means. Some rabbis have said that noah told to put in a skylight. Others say it's a radiant gem. The glows with its own and our life. Maybe even know it doesn't know what it's so hard is. But in order to save himself his family and all of life on earth noah. Who is. 600 years old by the way. It told to build a box with one mysterious light source get everyone to climb in with no ability to guidance. And surrender to whatever happens. And he doesn't. They all do it. And once everyone's inside the ark. The text says and god closed it for him. Kind of a scary image. Especially as the flood water start pouring in. To be a human in that are. In that box. Would have been to have been drowned and helplessness. And maybe that was the point. Maybe that was the spiritual education that humanity had to undergo. Because when you think about god's profound disappointment in humanity. It was because of our abuse. Of the gift of human agent. From an initial state of harmony with the natural world where we were given everything we needed humans took more. Our sense of entitlement to take with no limit alienated us from the land. We were exiled from the garden and then it says that the land became hostile. And sprouted thorns and thistles at us. Animal story things just got worse from there. With the new pressures of scarcity. Jealousy and greed cropped up. Violence brothers fought cain murdered abel and then refuse to take responsibility for it the earth itself protested and cried out from the ground. We now have a picture of humans at war with the earth. And with one another. We are obsessed. Controlling our environment. Taking beyond our limits the grabbing and claiming of the fruits of every tree. As ours for the taking. And then the violence against another human being. Taking a life that does not belong to us taking again beyond our limits extinguishing the divine spark or we have no right to tread. Murder is the ultimate farm. Control. We may say that this story is a mess. No 600 year old man ever built an ark to save all of humanity and i'll species from a flood. But the deeper story. Of our obsession with control. Control of nature and each other bringing on the floodwaters. Is no. Fiction.

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For-My-Refrigerator.m4a

When i became apparent in 2008. Three months shy of my 40th birthday. Two unexpected things happen to me. First. Love opened up to me in a way i had never known before. And second. I suddenly became aware of my limited time on earth. When i became a parent. My mortality became apparent to me. I was never really concerned about the finitude of my life. In my twenties. Or even into my 30s. Why did i need to be depressing. A terribly boring that would have been. I had art to make parties to attend gallery openings to crash girls to meet and drinks to be drunk. How is young vital artist living in new york city late-night capital of the world and i went out to grab the whole scene of a doll. A whole hell yeah let's do it again if it all i wanted to find soak in the wildness of my life. Revel in it. Pump it up a notch and never look back. I was convinced my raucousness my reverence maybe more creative more interesting more daring. Multiply. But then something happened that changed my life forever. For the better. I meant andrea. I meant i've found my best friend and i learned how to love. Truly love someone other than myself. The earth stopped revolving around me and i was living on it again with her. Enjoying life in new york and all that it has to offer with her. Reaching outside of myself being something bigger than just myself with her. Do use the big apple of my eye my valentine of valentine's and our life together has brought me more in touch with the world around me than when i was younger. I'm so thankful for her influence and i was in awe of her when our kids were born. In. She carried our twins for 37 and a half weeks and then gave birth after an excruciating weekend of labor. And from the moment i first met our children. From the moment i first heard here's the boy. And then here's the girl. Love raps me and it's warm. And lifted me up into a place i've never been. I was so happy and so adderley terrified all the same time i think people going to let us just walk out of here with these babies i thought at the hospital going to have to pass them to the pastor something like a parent's license. But now there was none of that. We only needed ourselves and our baby seats. And we were able to go straight home to fill our apartment with the crying squealing and giggling burping sounds of life. What a time. What a blur those first few months were a haze of breast-milk diapers and sleepless nights. And before we knew it poop. We had two little people on our hands prudence and quentin. The new stars of our universe and we were revolving around them. Are every concern before them what food is the healthiest what crib so the safest what soap is the least toxic what stroller is easiest to maneuver are we sure we want to stay here in new york yes. We were not going to leave new york. We were going to raise we were going to take our chances and raise our children in the greatest city on earth and we were going to like it. We weren't rich by any stretch of the imagination but we weren't poor either. We have challenges both of us working our own parents too far away to visit every month. A child care that we sometimes hard to schedule. But we also had advantages that many new families did not. And we were determined to make it all work and we did and we continue to do so. I look back on that time or early days of parenthood with fondness. I'm proud that we made it through that. without losing our minds and we did it with a sense of humor and joy and love i can't say i missed the diapers of the stroller all that much but i am often struck caught off-guard sometimes. By the frequent reminders from facebook of memories 7 or 6 or 5 years ago and it blows my mind the days last forever and the years fly by and these little turkeys that i could hold at the same time in the milk of my arms that could lie side by side across the width of one crib. Transformed before my eyes everyday. They were growing older with excitement and i was growing older with dread at work and play with them by day and by night and that silent hour just before sleep. When the city is quiet and all the world's problems conspire against you. When you take stock and everything just thankful for and worry about everything you have no control over. Add flood my mind with questions where we be 10 years from now when the kids are in fifth grade. Where will we be 20 years from now when the kids are in college where we be 30 years from now when i am almost 80 i find it's best in those silent hours to breathe. Roll over and tried to sleep i was raised to avoid in action whenever possible i was raised in the old irish catholic philosophy that god helps those who help themselves. Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and never go down without a fight. But you can't fight time. Time conquers all and it does little good sleep. And it does good little good losing sleep over it instead i'd like to make the most of my time however long that may be. I'd like to find and soak in the quality of my life now and revel in it. I'd like to live the most life out of each day to connect more deeply with the people i love on the world around me and to serve the greater good in some small way each day. How do i do that. How do i stop the worrying and just enjoy just like go not enough to say i want a better life. I have to get out there and actually commit to the act of living actually commit to a more purposeful effort in my life. Commit to being as involved as possible in my life and in the lives of those i love. And perhaps one way to realize a more quality filled life is to recognize the barriers. And distractions that prevent one from being open. I'm truly connecting to the world. And i call them for a time. Let go of the office it will be there tomorrow but go of the screens they will be there tomorrow let go of the tv show in the news and the politics. They will be there tomorrow. But today will not. So here before you know i possessed the beginning of by simple plan. It's the opposite of a midlife crisis. It's the start of my efforts at age 47 to work for the fuller more productive life i need to get to the gym a few times a week and remember to eat my salads and i need to remember to come here. The first you. This gem of the soul to check-in. Thank you for letting me check in today. Apprentice sermon. Data. Hang it on my refrigerator next to the school calendar and the kids spelling test. As a reminder not to be frozen by the fear of death. Whatever that may come. But to be liberated by the joy of life by its potential which is before us now. Life is hard. But life is also beautiful. Let's wrap our arms around it everyday. Please stand in body or in spirit and join us for him number 19 the sun that shines.

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Homily-The-Band-In-A-Strange-Land.m4a

Greeted by the thick air of the appalachian dusk i saw them. The six grizzled west virginians. We've been in war for a couple of days by then that's war war the town not the civil one somebody license plates to him proud defense of marsha rhost headed by local band to perform for us there was chester the drake and flannel singer with a wild wolf ashqelon his eyes and voice joe guitarist. I was absolutely terrified. Despite this being only about a day long drive for my own home right here in brooklyn felt like i was in another planet my prepubescent looking cheeks standing out against this sea of chin's cocoon of salt-and-pepper wires. I realize how incredibly different we all were. Where i grew up in a privileged urban environment. Denver dealing with intermittent flooding of their real homes the entirety of their lives. Where they learn how to fix & paint in build by hand. I'm afraid of a hangnail wear their jeans were ripped from labor mine were ripped by design i was walking among aliens wearing googly eyes on my forehead and pretending you're one in the same. What we set up our seats in theater instruments on opposite sides of the room i realize how much these differences were matter of us to perceive the in-group versus them the perceived other but as they started to play in our flat foot or manual dragged it out of our chairs to our feet and something changed. If you're really dancing especially flat-footing which requires a great deal of running around like a duck i personally believe personally believe it's impossible to remain conceited and dilute it virtually unheard-of to flatfoot without looking philly you have to be vulnerable you have to be vulnerable with everyone there to trust that they're going to laugh with you not at you and then you will wouldn't let us do anything but dance our hearts out. It's very difficult to hop around for an hour with a skinny old west virginia man and not form a connection with the people doing the same. As we laughed danced and stumbled through several versions of american pie that we far from you by heart i realized that these differences i've noticed earlier that it made me feel like an alien we're all extra the way we dress our economic status has the calluses on her hands although in my case for carrying a very heavy trombone case in the 8th grade at the end of the day a mutual recognition of each other's humanity. Manuel's about his time in the mine. The laughter we shared i learned to cds west virginia's as part of the us we can observe the differences between each other without letting that define people as them not everything is skin-deep but enough of it is that we can sit together and share a song. Please rise in body or in spirit for him number 318 in your gray him we would you want.

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Megan-Henry-Homily.m4a

Angry birds. Earlier during the play about the one-and-only unitarian king john sigismund. She is youtube of religious toleration in 1568. Now because this occurred in the town of florida the declaration is often referred to and known as the edict of tordon. This year we celebrate the 450th anniversary of this declaration of religious freedom. There are big celebrations that are planned for the special anniversary all year long in transylvania. There will even be an unveiling and installation of a statue of francis david in our own partner church. The unit's hairiest templum inception st george. This is the partner church that we visited some of you may have gathered if you didn't already know the story of our youth group going on a pilgrimage. Spiritual discovery and transylvania to our partners church where agnes is the assistant minister. And julie was on this journey as was alan and charlotte's and some may be others in the room today and this congregation made that journey happen and several of you individually donated money and gave your support both emotionally psychologically and. Spiritually to this journey. We're very happy to have our lives with us today. We learned a lot on the journey we learned about the edict of torda and how it's an important foundational principle for our unitarian faith. And indeed it is the beginning of auntie trinitarianism or unitarian as awesome as we know it as an established religion. This is also auntie trinitarianism is a continuation of the movements of the early christian. that ultimately lost the argument during the council of nicea in 325 c e. So the edict declared quote. That's in every place the preachers shall preach and explain the gospel each according to their understanding of it. And if the congregation like it. Well. If not. No one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied. But they shall be permitted to keep a preacher who's teaching they approved. Therefore. None of the superintendent's or others that she'll abused the preachers. No one shall be revealed for their religion by anyone. And it is not permitted that anyone should threaten anyone else by imprisonment or removal from their post. For their teaching. So these are words from the edict of tarda. It stated that. Is a gift of god. And prohibited the persecution of individuals on religious grounds. An edict of religious toleration in 1568 during the time of reformation christian reformation in the 16th century. In practice however. It is of no small consequence that the edict only sanctions. The existence of the for receive. Or accepted the approved the nomination. These were the catholic. The lutheran. The calvinist. And unitarian churches. The edict of torda this declaration of religious freedom and tolerance with certainly radical and groundbreaking for its time and place. And yet it was still limited when we look back at it from our vantage point today. It did not include judaism or islam. Nevertheless. The edict of tour. was an extraordinary achievement of religious tolerance. By the standards of sixteenth-century europe. I can see that for me as one of the lucky unitarian-universalist from america who's had the opportunity to visit our hungarian unitarian siblings in transylvania romania. I experienced. Personally. Transformation of my face. That i didn't think was even possible. I learned so much about our unitarian history while i was there. But even more importantly for me with the effect. Spiritual pilgrimage. Growing up in the united states i didn't learn much of our unitarian universalist history beyond that of its formation and growth here in the united states. So the revelation that my faith has its roots in the christian reformation. of the 16th century. And the knowledge that there were people who literally died for this face. That gave me a whole new understanding. Of who we are at the religious people. Knowing but the edict of torda was the first law to officially sanction the existence of a radical christian community in europe. It's something that i am very proud of. Knowing that non-christian religious communities were excluded from the edict of toleration reminds. That as proud as we may be. There is always a need for humility. In honor of the edict of toleration of 1568. I suggest that we use this moment. To reflect on the ways in which we see the good we are doing in the world today. And consider what it will look like to the humans of the future. Look back on our deeds from a 450 year vantage point. Are we truly living out the values we espouse.. What and who might we be overlooking in our quest. For truth and meaning. And the promotion of liberal religion. So i leave you to ponder these questions today. In honor of the anniversary of the edict of toleration. Many threads. Many stories many places. One religion. Please rise and body or spirit and sing together him number 318 we would be one.

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Love-And-Oxytocin.m4a

I was shocked and appalled recently when a friend of mine told me that if it weren't for oxytocin he wouldn't love his kids. Oxytocin is the hormone in our bodies that scientists say is linked with. Nurturing and friendship and team-bonding supermom she grooms her baby rats more she nozzles them cuddles them she's mysteriously seized by an urge to knit sweaters for them it's amazing oxytocin relationships men have it women have it. People who have trouble connecting with others like autistic people have less of it new parents have more of it. Some people call oxytocin the love hormone. So it's important sure. But you say you wouldn't love your kids at all if you didn't have it. I don't know. This is a really hot topic and neuroscience right now. Tickets to the heart is a big question of whether our spirituality and emotions. Are reducible to something physical. Whether absences human being can really be explained by a bunch of chemicals running around in our bodies. There's a lot of evidence. To say that it might be and yet i don't think i'm the only one who is shocked and appalled by the idea is that creep anybody else out. Because it seems like it's dad's feeling of love for his kids is entirely produced by oxytocin. Which is entirely produced by evolution. Then dad and his feelings are nothing more than a vehicle to make sure that his kids survive. Dad the person that we know as the one actually doing the loving. Doesn't really exist. Many of us want to believe that dad and his lover somehow areolar and deeper that they would somehow outlive his body and the chemicals in it. Is love meaningless. If it's quote-unquote just. Chemical. Does the discovery of oxytocin ruin love as we know it. Maybe. Or maybe we can turn it on at ed and instead say that love ruins oxytocin as we know it. Instead of love getting demoted. Oxytocin gets promoted from a lowly chemical into something sublime the physical manifestation of love on this earth. For my friend to say that if he doesn't have oxytocin he would love his kids is just a way of saying that it's only because he has the capacity to love that he can love his kids love me existed other worlds and other dimensions in other ways. It may continue after we die. But oxytocin is how love shows up. Here. How beautiful then. How holy. Are the chemicals that mediate between spirit and matter. Divide that. Once upon a time a mother in london gave birth to. Four sets of twins. One step. Per year for four years and then one final 9th child. She must have been swimming and oxytocin child was george de benneville who became one of the earliest universalist. This was back in the 1700. When if you got sick they would put leeches on you to suck out the bad blood. George got sick a lot. He also got beaten up and thrown in jail a lot because he was going around preaching something that the church didn't like so much. He was preaching about love. The god loves us all and we will all end up in heaven. Even the devil. He came to this through a series of mystical visions mystical meaning a direct experience of god. Here's the story he tells about these visions he had while he was very sick. I felt myself die by degrees and exactly at midnight i was separated from my body. And saw the people occupied and washing it according to the custom of the country. I was drawn up as in a cloud and beheld the great wonders. I quickly came to a place so extensive that my site was not able to reach its limits. Filled with all sorts of delightful fruit trees which set forth such fragrant odors that all the air was filled as with incense. In this place i found that i had to guardians. Exceedingly beautiful beyond expression. Who's boundless friendship and love seem to penetrate through all my inward parts. They had wings and resembled angels shining bodies on white garments. Their actions and manners were animated with brightness filled with light as with the rays of the sun. It was the fire of heavenly love. One said. My dear soul and my dear brother take courage. Be comforted with an everlasting and universal consolation. God will restore all creatures without exception. To their eternal salvation. Sit with that for a minute. Try to let it in. Maybe even close your eyes and. Imagine yourself in his vision with the fruit trees and they are smelling like incense. Justice bathing basking in this ocean of love. You feel safe. You feel warm. You feel relaxed and your heart is open. All your everyday fears and problems can just gently fall away. In this place none of it matters. Your body and everything around you is radiant with that love. Just breathe like you're inhaling and exhaling pure light. Oh they're reverend on aren't you getting a little new ag for this place maybe so. But this kind of vision is exactly what gave birth to universalism. This is a significant part of our religious heritage. You can draw a direct line from george de benneville to us. How do you put his vision side-by-side with any modern-day new age literature and you can tell them apart. It turns out that universalism is not just an abstract quibble about heaven and hell it's the radical and very personal claim that we are loved. The nature of god and the nature of the universe itself. Good love. The problem is that a lot of us don't feel very loved by the universe all the time. I'm guessing a lot of people in the philippines right now don't feel very loved. Life is hard. It hurts. We feel alone. We get sick. There is unbearable loss. This weekend we're remembering those who died in the tragedy of war. Where's the love. The kind of assumed that if god or the spirit of the universe loved us so damn much they might lift a finger to help us once in awhile. But our universalist tradition doesn't actually assumed that kind of god. We don't expect god to change things for us here. It often goes with the most miserable lives like the ben fell getting sick and beaten up in jail. the time are the ones who say they feel loved the most. Because we sent that just like with parental love. Cosmic love doesn't necessarily keep the loved one safe. We wish desperately that it did. But it could. We don't understand why it doesn't. But clearly. If you read the news this morning it does. This cosmic love can sustain you through suffering. If you let it. But it doesn't directly reach into our physical world and prevent suffering. Then how do you know it exists at all. First of all by the testimonials of our own tradition. Universalist and other teachers who have experienced it directly. And mystics from every spiritual tradition have described something a lot like the benneville division. They teach that this ocean of love is available and able to be experienced by all of us. Christianity teaches it. Judaism teaches at. What a modern-day neurosurgeon named dr. eben alexander found himself in a coma with no brain activity whatsoever. He experienced something exactly like the benneville vision. And he came back to normal consciousness with this message. You are loved. And cherished. Dearly. Forever. He's written a fascinating book about this called proof of heaven we can also know that this cosmic love is real through gratitude for the blessings of our own lives. Each one of us is only here today because when we were babies and mothering presence in our lives made great sacrifices to keep us warm feed us hold us keep us from falling on our heads too many times not necessarily a biological mother but someone did this for each and every one of us in this room or we would not be here right now each of us is only here today because of the hard work of thousands of people who we will never know who transport our water and build our roads and make our clothes and invent the medicines that help us when we're sick. Each of us is only here today because of the sunlight that beams onto our crops and the rain that fall on the field. To grow the plants that become our food. You could say well that's not love that's just nature and evolution doing its thing. And you could say the same about oxytocin it's just physical. It's just matter. That's not love. Or you could turn that on his head like we did with oxytocin and say. Actually that is. Precisely. Love. The rainfall and the warmth of the sunshine in the spring that faithfully returns to us every year. That is love. The bread on our tables and the water that we drink that become our bodies. That is love. The mysterious strength that we find inside and allows us to sustain others. And even find joy after tragedy. That is love. At all the thousands of people that we depend on for our survival and happiness they are all love to. All of these and many more are the cosmic manifestations of love in this world love may exist in other worlds other dimensions and other ways we don't know but the blessings of this life within us and around us. Or how that love shows up here. This is universalism. We are loved by an unending love. We're going to close with a song kind of a chant that expresses this idea of cosmic love you have the lyrics printed in your order of service it's a little new ag and i love it just let yourself go with it will be doing shots of wheatgrass and oxytocin in my office upstairs after the service everyone's invited please rise.

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Prodigal-Son-Prudent-Son.m4a

If life is going to be anything but excruciating lee boring for somebody with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder he or she is going to need regular doses of high-intensity experiences. It takes more stimulation for their dopamine to kick in with that yummy pleasure and excitement feeling then it takes for somebody with a so-called normal brain people with adhd need more of anything sex money experiences risk to get the same high so they seek out intensity they thrive on it. The more intense the better. This is a gross generalization of coruscant is not the stereotype which is about how hard it is for people with adhd to stay focused on. Rachel i love that that that shirt i had a shirt like that once you got that right so yes that's so the usual definition is about distractibility but actually it's just as much about intensity seeking adventure excitement risk. Newness opinion piece for the new york times dr. richard friedman who's a professor at weill cornell medical college makes the case that adhd is not necessarily a bad thing. It's circumstantial. It's bad if you have to sit at a desk all day and focus on repetitive tasks but if for example you're an entrepreneur always traveling and problem-solving and encountering new challenges or if you are a nomad hunting wild animals on the savannah it can actually be life-saving. Dr. friedman cites a study of a kenyan tribe called the arreola people who were once all nomadic herders. No strikes news weird that people are still doing studying tribes in africa but nonetheless this is actually pretty interesting 1.2 subgroup of the aerial settled in one place and began farming and the rest of them continue their nomadic life. The study found that in the group that stayed nomadic. Those with the brain chemistry associated with adhd. Thrived. While the ones with more typical brain chemistry were skinny and less healthy. Heading to settle their group the opposite was true the normal brain people were fat and happy. And the adhd types languished. The nomad leading the nomads life eats while the settler starves the settler leaving the settlers life eats while the nomad stars. It's all relative. This year i'm preaching a sermon series on the parables of jesus parable of the prodigal son knows of you who are new to unitarian universalism and wondering about the use of christian text i'll say that for you use christian texts are not authoritative in the way that they would be in a christian church but that we value them as part of our heritage. We draw from the wisdom of many different religious traditions and humanist traditions here and the mythic archetypes and sacred texts often have real residence resonance and meaning in our lives today. For example if you take the two sons. In the parable of the prodigal son they can be seeing as archetypes of the nomadic and settler personalities that we just heard about. Here's an abridged version of the powerball from the book of luke and jesus said there was a man who had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the share of the property that is coming to me he means his inheritance and the father divided his property between them not many days later the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country and there he squandered his property and reckless living. And when he had spent everything a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. So he wasn't hired himself out to go into the field and feed the pigs. Now the jewish audience that jesus was speaking to would have considered pigs to be an unclean animal to this was basically the worst job you could possibly have. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate and no one gave him anything. In other words he was so hungry he was salivating over the pigs food. But when he came to himself he said i will arise and go to my father and i will say to him father i have sinned against heaven and before you i am no longer worthy to be called your son treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. While he was still a long way off his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. The father said to his servants bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate. And they began to celebrate. Now his older son was in the field and he came and junior the house he heard music and dancing. But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him. But he answered his father look these many years i have served you and i have never disobeyed your command yet you never gave me a young goat that i might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came. Who has devoured your property with prostitutes. You killed the fatted calf for him. And do we have the nomad. And the settler. And we also have the father who is the hero of the story at least according to traditional christian commentators. The father is a transparent stand-in for god who welcomes back all sinners with open arms or without holding a grudge. With unconditional love. In fact as his other son points out bitterly the father is even happier about the one who strayed and came back. Then the one who never strayed to begin with. Seems unfair. But the father does his best to reassure the other son that he loves him just as much. The text is pretty hard on the prodigal son first of all he's asking for his inheritance early. Which was pretty much unheard of he's basically saying that he can't wait for his father to die. When his father amazingly gives it to him he doesn't invested in a diversified portfolio of stocks and mutual funds he spends it on what the text called reckless living and what his brother calls prostitutes. Prodigal is a translation of a greek word meaning extravagantly wasteful. What exactly is he wasting. His father's money to be sure but i think the implication is that he's also wasting his life. He says himself that he has sinned against heaven and before his father. His brother obviously think that is a terrible mistake and we the listeners are supposed to be collecting our tongues and shaking our heads at him. I'm not sure actually that he's done anything so terrible. As far as we know he hasn't hurt anybody she's a typical teenager. He's restless he's bored. Maybe he has that adhd personality. He needs intensity he needs to go out and see the world he needs to have his own experience of life outside of the shelter of his father's home he can't take it on somebody else's were all of the wonders and dangers out there he needs to know for himself basically he's a transcendentalist before his time emerson the more modern transcendentalist preached about the importance of experiencing life and spirituality first-hand. He says the doors of the temple stand open day and night. Before every man. Truth is an intuition that cannot be received at second-hand truly speaking it is not instruction. But provocation that i can receive from another soul. What he announces i must find true in me. Or holy reject. And on his word. Be he who he mad. I can accept nothing. That little guy be he who he met is clearly a reference to jesus. The author of our prodigal son story. Emerson is saying that we've got to go out and live not take anyone else's word for what's out there but we can or can't do. No one should hold us back not our father not our brother not even jesus. And so the prodigal son does this. He goes out and he finds intensity and adventure we can surmise that he experiences extremes of pleasure and that he hits rock bottom. The humiliation of craving pigs food. I'm going crawling back to his dad. Does he regret what he did. Does he wish he hadn't done it. I doubt it. True he calls himself a sinner for his reckless living but at that particular moment he's beaten down by life and half-starved i bet that as soon as he gets that fattened calf into his belly. He probably saying to himself. Wow. What arrived. He got to be the nomad. And what about his older brother the settler is he happy with the choices he made. I don't think so if you were he wouldn't be quite so jealous of his younger brother. He would welcome his brother back happily enjoying the party he was happy with his own life he would share the fattened calf with the family. Reading between the lines the older brother would have loved to have done what the younger brother did. But he constrained himself. He was the firstborn. He played it safe and live the settler life whether out of obligation or fear or some of each whatever the reason the older brother represses a part of himself. And psychically spiritually. He pays a steep price for it. He may in fact be a nomad trying to lead a settler life. He's resentful he's better. He's unhappy. Think of the day new mom this story the feast for the prodigal son. The prodigal son eat the fat and casts the older brother won't or can't eat it. The prodigal son is supposed bad guy in the story thrives. Well the older brother the supposed good guy languages. This is so interesting in the light of the story about the arreola people. The nomad leading the nomad life eats while the settler starves. The settler leading the settlers lifey. While the nomad stars. It's all relative yes the prodigal son went hungry for a while but at the end of the day he's the one who gets rewarded. He gets the rich food and the party and the friends and the music and the dancing in the dopamine rush that comes with them. My older brother complains to his father i never disobeyed your command yet you gave me a young goat but i might celebrate with my friends. He's simply observing that. Fair or unfair life does not reward obedience. The key is to live a life that is true to your nature. Not the life that in emerson's words. You received from another soul. I'm not suggesting that we jettison our responsibilities to others or the planet quite the contrary i believe that we can make our best contributions in this world by working with our strengths and gifts and brain chemistry instead of against them. The world needs both the study institution builder. And the creative iconoclast. The actuary and the navy seal. Dependable parent and the wild child and of course most of us are not just one or the other we each have some of the nomad and us in some of the settler and us. Dr. friedman new york times piece that i mentioned earlier is called a natural fix for adhd. The natural steps that he ultimately recommends is for each of us to gravitate towards situations and careers that work best with the way that we are wired. It doesn't mean that it'll always be possible. For the nobody will ever need ritalin again. But instead of leaping to diagnose ourselves with deficits and disorders thins and insufficiencies. Let's look for the beauty and the value of who we are. And the gifts that we can offer. So this is my new year's challenge to you. Give yourself permission. To be all three characters in the prodigal son story. Feed your inner settler and your inner nomad. Find a place for each somewhere in this world. And be your own loving parent to. The parents who accepts and values each. Allows each to make mistakes. And invites each to the party. This is the true meaning of freedom. Francais. And for the sake of those around us let's not settle for anything less our final him is number 151 i wish i knew how it would feel to be free.

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The-Spiral-Journey.m4a

Thank you julie for opening up your journey for us in such a profound way one of the great things about someone being willing to share such a personal story is that many of us with very different lives can recognize that story we can relate to it we can see pieces of our own stories and it even if the details don't match. One of the wonderful ironies of storytelling. Sometimes the more personal the story the more universal. One of the universal themes of julia story is the way that her journey is not linear. It doesn't have a meat narrative arc where you have a protagonist and the protagonist encounters our problem and then there's a struggle and then it gets resolved and then it's happily ever after i don't know about you but my life rarely works that way. Julie story like many of ours swirls around the troubled water. And the pillars and the bridge. Her place in the story circulates between these crisscrossing her mother's story all the way she returns to the troubled water several times she finds different colors sources of strength and she circled back to caring for her mother. She becomes a bridge and then there is still more troubled water to come. If you think about it one way it can be kind of demoralizing. How are troubled waters come back again and again. We find ourselves at the thanksgiving table feeling like a kid again and all the worst ways. Are we find ourselves talking to our own kid the way that our dad talked to us even though we swore that we would never ever do that or we wind up with basically the same partner over and over even though we swore that we would pick someone really different this time. We repeat our mistakes our addictions come back we try moving and somehow wind of recreating the same life again in a new place. It's so natural and so human. It's also natural and human to discover and rediscover our sources of strength. We forget and then we remember the pillars that support us and lift us up. We forget and then remember the practices that keep us healthy. The people who are good for us and the places including first you that ground our spiritual journey. It's not enough to commit once. As humans we find that we have to commit and recommit and recommit. And as we go we find new pillars and we dig the old ones deeper and the deeper and stronger our colors grow and the more we can connect to god or whatever we call our electric outlet of strength and power the more we are able like julie to serve as a bridge for others. That's the spiritual journey unglamorous slow sometimes exhilarating. Often frustrating. Progress is cyclical. But the saving grace is that it's not circular we don't return to the exact same place as if nothing had changed at all. We are constantly. Changing. We can't step into the same river twice at our water is not trouble twice in exactly the same way. The shape of our narrative is more like a spiral. It's a spiral we return to the same themes over and over again in our lives but when we do. We are different. Life delivers ass memes that recur. A backdrop that falls like a curtain behind us and we get to see how we look against it now. How about now the year later. How about now 10 years later. We may not be happy with the pace of our growth. But we are spiraling and growing and changing all the time. Some of you may be familiar with the sex columnist dan savage he told a story on the npr show this american life in 2007. It was about tv and it has stuck with me all these years because it beautifully illustrated. This idea the meme that comes back into your life despite your best efforts. And yet it means something different each time around. I wish i could read the whole thing to you cuz it's great but i'll just share a couple pieces of it. He starts with the description. I want evening when he was a kid and he was watching a cop show with his dad on the show there's a scene in a cruisy park late at night wear a gay man who dan savage describes as a swish carrying a purse. Is walking his poodle which is dyed pink. He writes watching that with my dad when i was a teenager made me want to die because i knew i would be some kind of gay when i grew up and so did he. I wasn't ready to talk about it with him and he certainly wasn't going anywhere near the subject sitting in front of the tv i made a resolution i was going to be some kind of gay when i grow up but i wasn't going to be that kind of gay. I wouldn't carry a purse. And i wasn't going to be walking any poodles around cruisy parks late at night because i wasn't going to own a poodle that's what i learned from television don't own a poodle dan savage then goes on to talk. Years later and how he worried the dj would get distorted messages from tv about what it means to be straight just like he got distorted messages about what it means to be gay. At the end of the piece he says. I cling to one hope. Despite my exposure to all those squishy gay man walking poodles on tv during my formative years i grew up to be a different kind of gay. I just spider-girl crazy little boys bjc's on the disney channel he may grow up to be a different kind of straight maybe we'll both defy the stereotypes. The only problem with that is faith. This is still having bacon hair. The only problem with that is fake. You can defy a stereotype you can work against it. But sometimes stereotypes are patient. They'll wait you out. Where are you down to low you into a false sense of security and then bam you owned a poodle dj asked for a poodle a few years ago and i know how awful. sound the son of two gay men begin to adopt the homosexual lifestyle poodles at all purses are next and he didn't want any food or he wanted a toy poodle. A poodle he plans to name pierre i tried to stop it selfishly for my own sake but framing every argument and concern for dj we can't do this to him i told my boyfriend but dj was adamant we did manage to talk dj into a last gay name for his toy poodle stinker has just one eye is completely deaf. Doesn't come when you call him and runs into walls and chairs and trees and dj loves him. I know all about stinkers habit of running into trees because i'm the one that gets stuck walking the dog we live on capitol hill in seattle which is seattle gay neighborhood and there's a big part and you can often find me there late at night walking the poodle i want to scream whenever someone passes me but i have to believe that we as a family exert a more powerful influence than television ultimately and a weeping help dj gracefully adjust to girl crazy when his time comes the same way he helped me adjust to sinker so now. We may have our own version each of us of the poodle. Stories that worker like a bad dream that we thought we had left behind years ago. My prayer for all of us is that we be gentle with ourselves when this happens. Forgive ourselves when our growth is not linear. Because it rarely is and like dan savage walking his son's poodle may we find that the story is different now and that we're different and that's what really matters may we honor the beauty and enjoy the humor of our spiral journey. Please rise and body or spirit for our final hymn number 101 abide with me.

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Amplify-What-We-Love.m4a

Before i served here at first unitarian i was the acting associate minister at all souls which is a unitarian universalist congregation on the upper east side of manhattan. He wrote many books on liberal religion sandwich provocative titles like god and other famous liberals i felt connected to him he and i shared a birthday among other things but then again everyone felt connected with forests he was just that kind of person. I think what really touch people's hearts as far as open vulnerability. He struggled openly with alcoholism preaching about his journey toward recovery. And when he was diagnosed with cancer which is what killed him at the age of 61 he preached about that journey as well. And through all of these trials forest was publicly testing out in mantra that he had created years before. The mantra was. Want what you have. Dowhatyoucan. Be who you are. Want what you have do what you can be who you are very simple but it goes deep. It's something i've used as a personal guide and something we can each day to ourselves to gauge our own spiritual growth. This is printed as a sabbath quote at the top of your order of service today so you can take it home and reflect on it if you like. We can each after ourselves do we want what we have. Whatever pain there maybe in our lives are we also in touch with gratitude for our blessings. Are we doing what we can with the world in such turmoil right now are we finding a corner where we can make a difference. Are we being who we are. Are we living authentically. Or are we trying to live out someone else's dream. But today i wanted invite us to use this mantra to guide us not just individually but as a community. Because as a community we also have a personality. Just like a person we have gift and we have struggled. We can have addictions and illnesses. We have the capacity to affect the world for better and for worse. We have a collective character that's expressed through our actions. And so as we're thinking about stewardship this season. Forest mantra is a good road map for how we can invest. Infirst you and plan for the future. Want what we have. It's an interesting way to talk about gratitude wanting what we have but it's an important balance on our consumer culture which is always about wanting what we don't have always wanting the next thing they were told will make us happy make us complete. Mega's lovable but we never get there. Instead the idea is want what we already have. In the case of first you that's actually not hard to do because we have so much. We have this amazing community. Really good-hearted people of all ages. We are a kind people. Compassionate and caring not perfectly not always of course but as its fundamental character this is something that i've seen in my seven-and-a-half years here. We have a kind community. And that basic kindness is something that's hard to come by these days i would say on both the right and the left. And so it's really special and important that we have it here. What else do we have we have an extraordinary staff. Each member of our staff is uniquely gifted at what they do and i'm not using that term lightly. They are each at the cutting edge of their field always learning more and trying new things i'm so grateful so grateful to have each and every one of them as my colleagues. You don't really see this level of professionalism and creativity and collaboration on staff teams in most places. On top of that you're a teaching congregation which means we get to bring in fabulous intern ministers like ethan loi the staff bring their whole self to this community and it shows. And we have this gorgeous unique building. I mean look around look at it. When are you ever in a space like this except here it's such a privilege. 176 years old this year are soaring ceiling and tiffany stained-glass windows we have an organ. What we have here at first you feels like in so many ways something from another world. We have so much a part of our job is to want but we have. To nurture what we have. Our community our staff are building. What is this have to do with stewardship it all cost money. Creating space. Opportunity. For this. Community to deeply find each other. Cost money. Supporting our staff and compensating them fairly. Cost money. I'm taking care of this building so that it can be here as sacred space for generations to come cost a lot of money. If we want what we have and we want to continue to have it. We all need to invest in it. Number to do what you can. Recalled by our faith to do what we can to address the suffering of this world and promote healing and justice. Dowhatyoucan doesn't mean that you have to do everything. There's an old jewish saying you are not obligated to finish the work of perfecting the world. But neither are you free to desist from it. Another way of saying dowhatyoucan not more. Nautilus. As a community we are already doing a lot and we know that we can do even more together. We've been serving the most vulnerable among us providing short-term sanctuary for refugees and now score of our families are hosting asylum-seekers long-term in their home. One of our you aaliyah collage cooper letter projects where the congregation packed. 10152 meals for hungry children 10152 meals to create and are you have marched in the streets for their future. We've also been making our own house more sustainable here making our buildings more energy-efficient sharon plant-based meals and now composting all of our food scraps. There is so much more we can do though with the faithful investment of this community. We can become an even more expensive place of refuge for immigrants and refugees advocating for policies of compassion. We can do more to combat systemic racism in our society starting he refers to in our culture and our religious education and working out in the world to reform laws. We can do more to make our spaces accessible with pete for people with all different abilities and needs. And in this frightening time of climate chaos with signs of ecological collapse all around us we can become leaders in connecting the suffering that we're seeing. To the teachings of our faith. We can imagine a new role for ourselves as human beings and helping protect the web of life. We can do this in our hearts and in our home. And we can do it here by taking boulder steps to green our building. Maybe it's solar panels on our roof. Maybe it's geothermal heating maybe it's becoming a completely paperless congregation and taking all the money that we used to spend on paper and giving it to plant trees. Given the time that we're living in we should be leaders and not ruling out anything as impossible because we all have to change to restore balance to this earth. And restore hope to the most vulnerable. What is the south have to do with stewardship it all cost money. Supporting immigrants and asylum-seekers cost money. Doing the work of religious education anti-racism at anti-oppression cost money making our spaces wheelchair-accessible cost money and to truly green this old building will cost a lot of money. If we want to do what we can. We need to invest in it. So what we have do what we can the third is be who we are. Harvard business review types say that the recipe for success in any endeavor is to identify your core strength. Who you are at your best. And build on that. We know that our community is a strength we know that our justice work is a strength. We also have a powerful worship life here. We strive to worship in a way that needs people where they are. People from many different backgrounds of different ages with different life experiences. Different experiences of god and different needs and we've been expanding the breadth of our worship service with innovative storytelling we draw from mythic spiritual traditions and modern thought our music. Brings joy and releases tears. And when we are worshipping here many of us feel the presence of the holy in this room. We want to build on who we are in russia. We're planning to continue our multi-generational jazz services next year with a series on greek myths. We want to reach further out into the local community sam mentioned this christmas eve with an additional service a jazz christmas eve service. We also know that as we've been growing and the outside world has become more overwhelming. Some of us are really needing the more heart centered pastoral side of worship. Think it's a part of our current worship service where the lights go down and we share silence. Prayer and candle lighting. Starting next program here we want to create a second weekly service which will meet on wednesday evenings in the chapel. It will build on that candlelight for some of the service and include chanting and singing led by adam. Unspoken joys and sorrows. It'll be a contemplatively service. Intimate. Calming and nourishing for our spirits. It will be a beautiful expression of who we are. What is this all have to do with stewardship everybody it all cost money had a new worship services especially a weekly service led by our ministry team is a big deal. The staff the space the loss of rental income for those nice if we want to continue to be who we are and be the best version of who we are we all will need to invest in it. So there it is why we have do what we can. Who we are none of this is about first you becoming something totally different. It's about amplifying what we already love. Are caring community arbol justice work our heart opening worship and music. I pray that what's the saying for his church and facing life's joys and life's pain we too may find rules to staying up at first you through the good times and the bad. May we find our guidance through gratitude. To action through authenticity. Personally i'm excited about where we are in our history and the unique gifts that we're offering the world. I'm excited to see how we grow together once i'm back from my sabbatical in the fall i'm excited for us to take what we have what we do and who we are and use it as a springboard. For the next seven years. Look around this room and just take it in one more time look at everybody here look at all of this so much to love so much to build on. Ask you to dig deep and pledge generously this season but amplify all of you loves about this community and now for our final him please rise and body or spirit 100 peace like a river.

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Where-Your-Nose-Ends.m4a

So i know that we try to keep these sunday morning screen free but i'm going to talk about a movie a little bit over the next few minutes just by show of hands how many of you have seen this movie called i heart huckabees. So that's good for for the rest of you which is actually most people i'm glad to hear that if you just go watch it i'll feel like i've done my lai worship duties for the year regardless of what happens in the next few minutes the movie for those of you hasn't have not seen it is about a cast of struggling characters who higher pair of existential detectives to help them resolve the issues in their lives. So in this. In this narrative the lives of an environmentalist a firefighter a model and a corporate executive intersect in their efforts to face their respective existential crisis. At one point one of the detectives isn't a ridiculous argument with a firefighter about the nature of particles at the universe. And he says. Yeah but if you look close enough you can't tell where my nose ends and space begins. In the land of huckabee's this idea that unity of existence the idea that somehow my nose and the space around it are the same is known as the blanket.. So find out why you got to watch the movie of our world's religions or at least some part of them have a version of this inside in them. In vedic hinduism there's this idea of satchidananda which we translate as existence is consciousness is bliss. The whole thing right by nieto reminds us that god is nature and nature god. Meister eckhart a christian mystic tells us that god is in all things. And the sufi rumi says that union is here the meeting we have wanted. The fire. The joy. Luxury and the guy teaching enforces to holdfast the power of the one he tells us that oneness will unify the body and merge it with the spirit. That it will cleanse division and reveal the world as flawless. And that it will focus the life force and make you supple as a newborn. Turn my view it's wrong to say that all these insights are somehow exactly the same even though they're all about sameness i think it's wrong culturally and spiritually. Even in unity. There's endless difference. But one thing does run through all of these words and all of these different traditions some people at some times in many different traditions and in different ways have the experience that they can't tell where their nose ends. And the space around it begins. So rather than say that another five ways i just want to stop for a minute and if you're willing close your eyes with me. Take a breath. Just. Notice the life of your body. Feel the air the hot air. As it touches your skin. The seat beneath you. All those little whirling electrons that make up your body. The air and the seat. Feel yourself in this space. In this building in the city. On this planet. There's nothing not one thing not to the core of the earth. Not to the sun. Not to that not to the black hole at the center of our galaxy and beyond that is not made up of this worrying substance that lets life be. Just feel that for a couple of seconds. So spoiler alert eyes open i heart huckabees ends happily as many movies do the model and the firefighter fall in love. The corporate executive learns that money and stuff is not the end-all-be-all. The environmental activists in the firefighter become friends and they decide to chain themselves to a tree to stop a development project pretty much have it is so it's all good stuff but we can go one step further than what we see i just want to return a minute too loud sue above told us to hold fast to the power of the one. The power. Connecting to the universe beyond ourselves is not just a way to feel wonder or relaxation debit can result in both those things it can also charged us make us more powerful or better put it can help us feel the power that is already there layton inside of us the same force that lets you move your hand to scratch your nose. Is the force the same force that lets us all move together in body or in spirit for our unitarian rituals it is the force that elects our presents the good ones and the bad ones it's the force that lets us decide whether to go downstairs for coffee or just to head out at the streets and enjoy the warm weather. The world is at once flawless as legend tells us and also deeply flawed. If we can do well in the flawlessness well holding and nudging the flawed to be better. If we can draw on the unity of all the things by beginning to mend what is broken and separate if we can open more deeply into what is good in us while acknowledging and loving and transforming what is bad then we may just be able to accomplish more than currently feels possible we might even for example be able to tackle global warming and keep our whole project going on for a few million more years it's too easy for me to say i think that everyone should card 15 minutes out of their day to meditate or feel who they really are. In life and especially in this city that we all live in 15 minutes is not easy to find. If you can find 15 minutes to meditate or feel open i think that's great but also being connected and being open as an art a moment-to-moment practice something we can do pull off manage to do. Even when it doesn't feel easy even or maybe especially the tough moments the stressful moments or the boring ones even the really bad ones are part of the same thread the same existence there isn't a moment in our lives i don't think that we can't feel into in a way that makes us better and stronger tard like all of us i'm not always able to do this but i know in my electron filled bones that it's possible so i leave you with this thought. We are one we have more goodness than we know. And together we have more power than we can currently imagine. And sometimes like the protagonist and i heart huckabees we can chain ourselves to trees to stop development projects happy sunday please join us. In him number six. In your head knows just as long as i have breath.

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Bound-In-Action.m4a

Good morning again my heart is very full today. In preparing for today i met some of the most. Wonderful people by email first. And then here face-to-face. And seeing everybody here. Teen my friends who come to visit. I'm eating a little one for the first time. I truly am. I'm full of. Joy. And in that spirit of joy i want to confess something to you all i won't be preaching. The neat little sermon. That i had planned about a month ago and i spoke with anna. I won't be preaching at because something happened this week. That i wasn't expecting. I saw things this week in particular on monday. But i could not have foreseen. If you're like me you saw. Some disturbing images as well whether on television. Or images in newspapers or by a social media. But whoever you saw them undoubtedly like i you saw images coming to us from ferguson missouri. Yes. I am thinking. About the action or inaction of the grand jury in the matter and i'm also thinking about what we're learning about the special prosecutor in the matter. But mostly. Mostly what i'm left with. Are those images. Tear gas. Billowing down the streets. Looting. In storefronts. Police. Marching in formation. Down a city street. An armored vehicles. Coming into the center of a town. The militarization. Of a community here in our country. Do you remember where you were. When you first started seeing these images. Do you remember who you were with. Do you remember what comments. We're being made by those who you were with. I can tell you i was sitting on a couch. In my living room with some of the people. Store closest. Tumi. Comments are mostly short. Staccato. Only semi-conscious utterances. Against. A stunned silence. Things like. Oh my god. Or. This is terrible. Or i just can't believe this happening. Any thoughts he sentiments. R-truth. And they're fine. But they're just sentiments. But i ask myself. What do i do. As i stand here now i'm asking myself. What do i do. What action. Can i take. Any situations. There are rarely answers there are rarely neat. Finite. Answer is like equations. And said what we're mostly left with our responses. Somehow. An action in response. To what is happening before us. One response. One action for me concerns all those people right around me. People i was sitting with on monday. We're just friends. They're my fellow community members. Am i said community members i don't just mean generally my community i live an intentional community with seven other people. I come by at someone honestly not far from here my great-aunt edith's lives in with all her other sisters serving both the catholic church and the school in the neighborhood so living in community is kind of in my jeans. I've come to believe through this. In the spiritual practice. Approximately. That may sound slightly strange. But if you want to be close to a person. Eclipse. To a person. You really get to know them a lot better that's for sure. For where the body goes. The mind will follow. Anything about intentional community. Like other communities is that well you're stuck with each other now. Being stuck together may not sound too alluring. Or too flattering to some of my housemates but for me being stuck with someone. Is high praise. It means something greater. Then both of us. Is binding us together. Sort of like well it would sure be nice to do this or that but oh well we're stuck together. Taurus. From my community what binds us. Is our work together studying religion. I'm in divinity school so. That's what i do and that's what they do. And some of us actually believe that this is one of the best ways to bring about peace on earth. That. And also sharing cat videos from the internet that's world peace and cat videos that's pretty much what my house is these days cuz we're all sitting in an intentional community. Right now. Churches. Are the birthplace of some of the most vibrant and profoundly spiritual intentional communities in history. Maybe right here. Right in this place. Or often at coffee hour down in the basement. You're doing the work that you need to do. To contribute to peace honor i know one member of this community who is. I'd like everyone to take out your the front page of your order of service. At the very top in the box some of you may have seen it already. Is one of the dharma statements that everyone in this community wrote and then share. Anna was gracious enough to share one with me. And i thought this one stood out rather beautifully and if you'll humor me i'd like it if we would all read it together. Love happiness. Peace on earth. Also to give jacob a hot dog. Jacob is my cat. Love happiness and peace on earth. Pretty big ideas right we can all get behind these pretty easily. But then what's the author do. He shares his more private vision or her more private vision i don't know who's this is. Inscribed perhaps in a whisper. Uno's parentheses. Also to give jacob a hot dog. This is such a beautiful example of holding or ideals. In one hand. And then living our life. What's important to us on a day-to-day basis. Any other. Having our heads. Open the clouds. Down in the ground with jacob and hotdogs. So my first response. When i'm faced with situations like this that we have before us today. Is to bind myself even tighter. Even closer. In action with the community that seeks love happiness. And peace on earth. My second response more personal it's another community this one the community right here what's going on inside of me and there are conflicts i mean what are the fights that are going on is tj matt at t.j. for something tj did again. Did t.j. not keep his word to tj. something teejay promise to do. Did t.j. leave the dishes for tj to clean again that one's a little crazier but it sounds a bit mad but really give it some thought. Who here hasn't had these conflicts with himself. Who here wishes for some sort of intervention who here has actually had a fight out loud but themselves you don't have to wait for him. You can if you want but it happens. Learning to forgive ourselves. And learning to keep the promises that we keep to ourselves. Are just ways to start to care for this community of lund. In a profound in deeply deeply. Powerful way. One of the illustrations this idea that i like comes from plato symposium in the story all the humans are in the world. And i have four legs for arms for eyes to you no reproductive organ so everyone's very happy and everyone is very content but this scares zeus. Because he sees people. Humans. Who's every emotional need every spiritual need need is being met. Becoming extremely powerful. Because they don't want for anything anymore. So he split them down the middle with lightning. And then just led to all humans. Beginning to search for their soulmate for that other half has gone missing. I personally prefer the version of this story that you can hear the song the origin of love by stephen trask from hedwig and the angry inch the song take some liberties with play-doh story mixing some other mythologies but i highly recommend it to you. It arrives at a final verse. And make sense out of this experience the separation. With these words. The last time i saw you we had just. Splatoon 2. You were looking at me. I was looking at you. You had a way so familiar. But i could not recognize. Because you had blood on your face. And i had blood in my eyes. But i could swear by your expression. But the pain down in your soul. The saying. As the one down in mine. And that's the pain. But cut a straight line down to your heart. And we call that love. Tumi. This is not a story. About the creation of your erotic love. That people like to call it. This is a story that describe the phenomenon. A compassion. But each person we passed on the street. Mike 17 part of us. Or might once have been part of some of that we love. Is part that we're looking for that were seeking. What are the ones that we love are looking for. Are seeking. And it was straight fit vastly. And better and admittedly better than their biology ever could. Of the inexplicable answer. Of why we care for people that we've never met why we love people. That we don't even know. I'm looking a little girl here that i met for the first time and i couldn't love her more than i do right now. So my second response. Ennis answer is to answer that call from the depths of my being to care for others and to be of service to others. Because that will help me. That would bind up my wounds. Because that's what we need. Because being found means more than being stuck together in action it means more. And healing myself of binding up my wounds are even the wounds of others because what else does bound mean it means destiny. Homeward bound bound for glory. We are bound together. Moving forward. It means finding directions. And then traveling that road. Where we're headed. Together. Yes. This week. And even today. Some of those roads are crowded with pure gas. With looting. With police. The horrors that we can't imagine perhaps here today. Or maybe we can. But so long as there is blood in this heart. This little broken heart. I will walk with you. Bound together in action. I would love you. And i will sing with you. Until the walls of hatred. The walls of isolation. And the walls of ignorant both out in the world. And right here. Come tumbling down. Bless you. I love you.

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Self-possessed.m4a

Well i figure halloween is as good a time as any to talk about steph the topic is in the air after all the skeletons and ghosts and mummies and the undead and people walking around possessed by spirits all creatures that float somehow on the horizon between life and death there's something horrifying about something or someone that is neither all the way dead nor all the way alive. We crave clarity and certainty around death but death resist. So halloween is one of the coping strategies that we used to manage our existential horror. We make light of death we make a cute and funny. We try to neutralize its power halloween is a kind of exposure therapy. Where are you expose a patient to the thing that they're scared of over and over again in a situation where there's no actual danger so that hopefully eventually they become less scared of it in the case of death it doesn't really work though. Our primary coping strategy is to ignore death. To act as if it doesn't happen. When things are going well and everyone that we love is healthy we don't think much about that. We don't think about the fact that we and everyone in this room and everyone that we love will someday cease to be. And we don't think about the fact that it could happen to any of us at any time for those of us who are older this topic may loom larger for any one of us can get the bad diagnosis any one of us can literally get hit by a bus and said no one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow do you really think about it and my point is that we don't it can be absolutely heart-stoppingly terrifying and so we ignored at least until it becomes ignorable. Third managers and disadvantages to this strategy of denial advantages denial allows us to get on with our lives. It allows it to function. And plan for the future and eat our spinach before our dessert because we assumed they were still going to be alive by the time dessert rolls around and then we assume that we're still going to be alive in the coming months to reap the health benefits of having eaten the spinach. Denial allows us to waste time. Assuming that we have plenty of it and wasting time. Can be really fun. Denial allows us to fall in love and to get married. And even to say the words till death do us part. Without being paralyzed by the terror of death actually pardoned us. And denial allows us to have children to decide as elizabeth stone put it to forever has your heart go walking around outside your body. If we were viscerally aware everyday of the possibility of losing a child we wouldn't be able to stand it with a strategy of denial we say go away big green monster. And it goes away. The big disadvantage of denial is that sometimes if we wait until we're forced to confront the reality of death. And we all are eventually forced. If we wait until then. Sometimes it's too late. It sometimes too late to do the things that we would have wanted to do. Too late to say the things we would have wanted to say. Heal the relationships we would have wanted to heal. When we live in denial. Our priority is can get badly askew. We can be for lack of a better term possessed by spirits that have us chasing after thin pleasures trampling people on black friday to save $5 on a microwave spending a life savings on plastic surgery inflating the truth about ourselves to get ahead and watching lots of tv. We can be possessed by our past grievances possessed by our need for approval possessed by the desire for beauty or power when we live in denial of death we can spend too much time on the things that don't matter and too little time with the people who do. Feeling immortal we let precious opportunities for connection slip through our fingers i want to share with you the story of two brothers adults who have been estranged since they were little. Or since they were young men they had been closed when they were kids the younger one looked up to the older one and the older one protected the younger one but something happened or many things happened. It had to do with religion and family they had an abusive father 14 gave him and the other didn't. They took different life pads and disapproved of each other's choices whatever the reason they hadn't communicated in decades. And then the older brother was going to be traveling to the city where the younger brother live and reached out to see if you would join him for dinner the younger brother accepted. They met at a restaurant. The evening started out cordial but quickly disintegrated as the past was dredged up. They became possessed with their ancient grievances within an hour the younger brother had stormed out of the restaurant. Their ages of two-time 80 and 84 they will never see each other again. Whatever these men finally realize that they are about to die living in faraway cities it will be too late and probably one or both of them will regret it immensely. The strategy of denial sometimes sell the short when we're lucky and wise we cease ignoring death long in advance of its arrival when it comes to the most important things in life are relationships are ethical choices the life pads that we choose we have to be willing to sometimes take the harder road of facing our mortality. Sometimes we need to let ourselves feel the ticking clock the fear of not knowing when our time will be up or when a loved one's time will be up. Sometimes that's what it takes to grab hold of our lives. And reprioritize. Have the conversations that we need to have forgive those we need to forgive. Apologize to those who we've hurt and say i love you to the people who need to hear it. Sometimes we need to say. Comeback. Big green monster. I need you to scare me. A team at stanford university has spent years studying how people from different backgrounds and cultures approach the end of life they found that it's universally just playing hard for us humans to have conversations about these issues until last year they launched the stanford letter project it's basically a set of tools that you can use to have conversations and write down your thoughts about the legal and medical issues that may arise but also the emotional and spiritual dimensions of approaching death they've created a template for what they call the family and friends letter that serves as a life review. You have a shortened version of this in your order of service on the back of the inside of it here's what they say about it in caring for countless seriously ill patients we have learned that it is extremely important that every adult completes the seven tasks of life review on completing the process of doing a life review most people are able to achieve a measure of peace that comes from deep reflection about key life experiences and the important relationships they have cultivated sadly almost everyone forgets to do this or postponed it until it is too late. they never have an opportunity. I don't know about you but when i first saw this letter template i started crying immediately it's powerful to imagine what we would want to say to our friends or family if we were to die today. You can go to the stanford letter project website get a big box of tissues and actually watch videos of people reading their own letters that they wrote to their own friends and family it's really amazing and seriously consider a couple weeks to sit down and fill out this letter with our own feelings and memories and wishes. Buell theater seven dimensions to this life review first acknowledging with people that you're proud of. For example tom i'm so proud of you for graduating from high school mom i'm so proud of you for working so hard to overcome the effects of your stroke you are a hero to me s remembering meaningful moments that you cherished remember our family reunions in 2014 and we all went camping and watched the beautiful sunset by the ocean what a wonderful blessing that there was. Third is asking for forgiveness write the names of the people that you've hurt and ask for their forgiveness for example tom i'm so sorry i was not there for your graduation dad i regret some of the angry words i said during our arguments. 4th is forgiving others. Tom i forgive you for not being there at my graduation. Carla i forgive you for what happened during mom's funeral. I want you to know that i was ready to put the past behind us. The 5th wave review task. The saying thank you. Say what they did for you and why you are thankful tom thank you so much for taking me to church every sunday when i had to stop driving karla thank you for being such a loyal friend 6 is saying i love you. Tom i love you so much you are the son i never had. Carla i love you for being the best sister in the world. And lastly saying goodbye. Mom take care of yourself. Carla i will always watch over you. Writing a letter like this along with coming to services. Engaging and other kinds of spiritual practices can help us to take our lives seriously. They help us shake off whatever petty things we might be possessed by at the moment and instead to become self-possessed spiritually grounded. With a sober open-eyed view of our lives and what we love. When were self-possessed we walk through life with dignity. Should we always be dignified and thinking about death all the time know you're probably already sick about hearing about it this morning most of the time we can and should and will forget all about it but i would call it a master-level spiritual skill to be able to toggle between two ways of understanding on one hand to live carefree with ourselves and with our god whatever that might be on the other hand. And on the other hand once in awhile maybe around halloween. Being able to say comeback big green monster i need you to scare me.

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Homily-In-McDowell-County.m4a

Thank you for your generosity last summer me and the rest of the youth here at first unitarian travel to mcdowell county west virginia to do service work on the way down we stopped to see an old coal mining village in beckley west virginia. We took a ride on the little train that went down into the mine while retired coal miner talk to us about the dangers even telling us. More and more people start leaving over the decades as wealthier more educated people flipped larger cities and poor people who could not afford to leave it came stock with few prospects and little hope. As of 2017 the population of dekalb county it was only 18456 has a population that has been steadily growing for decades in the same year 2017 at total population of almost three million people. Similarly broken side job growth of 20% over 9 years ago for a similar. mcdowell county touch up here with only 1% the unemployment rate here is currently 4% and mcdowell county it's more than double that at close to 9%. Africa's future prospects and hardly enough money to pay the bills let alone be able to afford any extra expenses such as painting their house. The people of mcdowell county have grown ever more hopeless. In recent years many of turn to drugs such as opioids and heroin self-medicate after getting injured. Working for the coal mines which rarely if ever gives employees. Anna faris to your car to provide health insurance. In 2015 mcdowell county at a higher rate of drug-induced deaths than any county in the united. And seltzer alaves there are those who have not given up hope. My summer we came to help the community of mcdonald county. Breakfast bakery people in action. An organization in war west virginia to work to help people in mcdowell county. Ilang phone tracker say at their headquarters former school building their war. They take volunteer groups and not only give him a project to do with it will help out people in the community. I'll make sure they show them that mcdowell county is a vibrant history and culture. And so us a community that despite all the hardships it has faced. Self-love strong people who welcome and appreciate the help from outsiders and love the place that they live.

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Biblical-Migrations-Jonah-and-the-Big-Fish-Part-1.m4a

So jonah received the call to go to nineveh but instead he goes to tarshish is anyone here ever done that your heart is telling you or your higher power is telling you to go one direction. And you run away and go the other direction. Maybe tarshish is your comfort zone your well-worn groove maybe nineveh whatever nineveh is for you feel dangerous. Gill's unknown. Maybe it feels too big to ambitious i'm not up to this i'm not smart enough strong enough enough old enough fill-in-the-blank and nuff. Or maybe like for jonah tarshish is simplicity. Nineveh is complexity. An ambiguity. The gray area. You know but if you go to none of that you are not going to be able to keep the nice clean categories of your mind intact things might get turned upside down the rules that you've lived by might start to blur you'll be forced to question everything jonah is so afraid of this he just can't face it cuz he knows that in nineveh he will meet people who are supposedly evil. And that's a scary thought of nobody likes change. He'd rather they stay put right where they are in his mind and they're clear. Evilness. And so on the boat to tarshish. In the midst of the storm in the midst of the wind howling calling him to do what he knows he must do jonah goes into maximal avoidance mode. Chico's down below the deck of the ship he pulled the cover over his head and he goes to sleep. It's all-hands-on-deck everyone is racing around trying to figure out what to do about the storm and jonah is sleeping. The guy who's actually responsible for the storm. Is sleeping. The guy at home the wake-up call is directed. Is sleeping. Has anyone here ever slept through a wake up call. We all do it we're all sleeping through our wake-up call with respect to our ecological crisis. Especially in our government right now but ordinary people like you and me. The storms of climate change are rocking our boat many people are under the deck blankets over our ears. Sleeping. In part it's because the complexity of the problem. It's overwhelming. Our world is more complicated than it's ever been everything affects everything nothing can be teased apart alternative facts abound nothing can be neatly. Solved. We are on overload. Part of the success of conservative and authoritarian forces today as a reaction against. Bishop's in complexity of the nineveh that we already live in. Some people long to make america tarshish again. And many of us in our anger are tempted to divide the world into clear categories of black-and-white and good and bad. We demonize others and collectively call them the enemy. Our tolerance for complexity. Is at an all-time low. This story causes to go to nineveh anyway. To wake up get up on deck and meet the ambiguities of our world had on. We're paul to take the risk. Of meeting people who are different from us. And open our hearts to the possibility that they too are multi-dimensional and not just evil. Recalled to the humility of knowing if the we don't know everything. And we certainly don't know the future. Recalled to bring our ministry. Then we each have our own special ministry our own insights our own flavor of love our own ability to serve recalled to bring our ministry. 2. Wherever it's most needed. Wherever that may be.

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20190120-Amit-homily.mp3

On january 6th 2008. A car struck and killed my mother on her way to temple. She died at 63. Weeks after retiring. Her death began my year adrift at sea. 3 anchor. I combed through religion. Near-death experiences. Memoir in psychology. My mother gave me love of physics. My undergrad major and hers before me. So i thought it poetic that that's where i found comfort. In the spiritual implication of flowing time being on illusion. By flowing time i mean how we consider existence a snapshot. After stuff and energy in the universe at this moment. Which band vanishes as another moment arise. Time feels like a river. Always in motion flowing from past to future. That's illusion. As physicist brian greene puts it the flowing river of time more closely resembles a giant block of ice with every moment forever frozen into place. Glycolic ruben's cello tracks. All moments exist at once. No moments are forever. But each is eternal. You probably think i'm insane high speaking in metaphor or delusional escapists. Seems to require a leap of faith beyond what any religion demand. But i have an observation and experiment. Movement and mass warp space and time. These are einstein's insights back by a centuries experiments. Time wars such bad for anyone in the universe. All the past and future. Can occur simultaneously. Foreign observer. Summerella with an equally valid perspective. That means that all of time exists at once. Religions adopt the science. In 1,500 the catholic church believed that the sun orbits the earth. The divine center of the cosmos. In 1800 no one believed that. 1800. God created species by decree. In 2019 the public accepts evolution. Reuse uphold a free and responsible search for truth. So we let the search for the spiritual implications of evolution. We should do that with the even greater spiritual implications of relativity. Now a century after einstein developed it. But that's harder. Relativity paints a picture too foreign to our intuition. Let's try anyway. Take conjugations of being a special verdin reverend ana's book. Only the present is. The future will be but isn't yet. The past was but isn't anymore. Erase all that all three of them are. Nostalgia for childhood summers makes no more sense than nostalgic for family trips on planning the spring. Zooming out i need not feel wistful for ear has lost like leadbelly parkour the summer of love. Each one is as it happening now. Still so what. Even if time stood still and move backwards. In this moment. The only moment i ever know. My decisions don't touch my past your past or most of your future. I can only affect my future. Everything else is but in this moment i can affect none of it so we're trapped in the illusion right. Almost. There's an exception. Where the spiritual implications of einstein shine brightest. That brings us full circle to where we started. My mother's death. Martin luther king's death. The poet mary oliver's death. Even humanity's.. That inspires. Terror. Hope. Sadness. Confusion. Denial. And anger directed even that god in the universe. I live these emotions the year my mom died. From marcy and me. Raising artemis and ariana includes preparing them for our debts. Death play stevie role in hindu muslim and christian ideas of who we really are. And in river forest church is assertion that religion is our response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die. In his pulitzer-winning magnum opus. And it's becker argues that humans have built all of civilization upon denial of death. Hence i consider the spiritual significance of einstein greater than that of darwin. Do a fictional character kurt vonnegut slaughterhouse-five. When a person dies he only appears to die. He's still very much alive in the past. Always have existed always will exist. It is just an illusion we have that one moment follows another one. And that once a moment is gone it is gone forever. I can't contact my mom. But she lives still in the past. She's growing up in surat india. With her parents and for siblings. Living and what they later called the happiest times. You might say that past is fixed and the future is wide open. Wrong. This gets tricky so bear with me. Take your perspective outside flowing time. From their past and future both eternally equally wide open. As einstein put it when his friend michel beso died. Departed from the strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us. Who believed in physics. Know that the distinction between past present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. But he still matter you already know the outcome. I hear those interloper words still. And already. You assumed time flows. Your decisions at any moment if that's that moment future. Tiny not flow for that. But in this moment you can't see her. That's true. I won't see her again. But i also wouldn't in the hindu afterlife. Which comforts of billion people even without the prospect of seeing loved ones again. I bet you're still thinking. Dude. The seriously get comfort from all this. I'm not comfortable. I wish you were here. With us. Enjoying her seventies. Playing with my daughters. Dining with my family. And participating in this congregation. You would have loved her. And she be out there listening to me talk about something else. Dropping illusion my heart can't grapple with time not flowing but it can drop over with this. Imagine at my mom's funeral but i know the casket is empty. She's been spirited away. Alive but outside my reach. That gives me comfort. I don't mean afterlife. If time doesn't flow after wife loses importance. Reality is for all intents and purposes equivalent. Indus to run a relay race. My heart takes the baton from my mind. What dies my heart comfort. That she lives now. Outside. Is in my mind equivalent. To a reality we're trying doesn't flow. I fear your i feel your skepticism. I just smartphone stick along. From 11 a.m. to noon. And you anticipate your afternoon plan. Time not flying doesn't jive with your intuition but i believe reality doesn't either. I believe in spiritual earth. So it looks and feels flat. I believe the universe expands an unimaginable speed. Do the constellations book stationery. I believe organisms evolved over eons. So i don't see the morph. I believe my dna blueprint fits into 1.5 gigs. But i've never read it. I believe half at blueprint assured by the banana tree so i don't see nearly 50% resemblance. I believe time doesn't flow. Though it's objectively seems to. If any of those require a leap of faith and they all do. Humanity story. Includes observing. And experimenting. To uncover a weird and wonderful reality much deeper than our experience suggests but nonetheless we believe. Almost nothing epitomizes that story better than relativistic time. That brings us to the spiritual implication of einstein. The casket is empty. The past isn't gone. We are not forever. But we are eternal. Please rise and body or spirit for him number 96 in your grave him know i cannot think of them as dead.

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20190120-Ana-homily.mp3

He was a deeply religious man and he predicted his own death publicly and privately mysterious. In nineteen fifty-eight ten years before he died he was stabbed at a book signing and almost died he came away from this ordeal with a star on the shape of a cross over his part. The surgeon who saved his life told him that the knife blade had come so close to his aorta. That if he had sneezed. He would have died. He made a meal out of that later and his famous i've been to the mountaintop sermon he talked about all the things that he would have missed if he had sneezed the lunch counter sit-ins the freedom riders the sound low to montgomery march the passage of the civil rights act in the march on washington he said i'm so happy that i didn't sneeze we're happy to but you lived among us for another 10 years. But in this thing things that would have happened without him doctor king overlooked his own influence in the world. Who knows whether or not the lunch counter sit-ins or the freedom riders selma or any other particular moment of the civil rights movement would have happened if he hadn't been in the picture. They certainly wouldn't have happened in exactly the same way. Those events that happened after he didn't sneeze happened in part because he didn't sneeze. We can't imagine how the world might be different today if dr. king were still alive 90 years old. The fascinating article in the economist imagines this scenario. The author points out that 1968 the year the doctor came was killed was an election year. Dr. king's death spark spark riots. That bolstered candidate richard nixon's law & order campaign. No riots maybe that campaign would have fallen flat maybe nixon would not have been elected you really can't for jack yourself into a future that doesn't include you anymore than you can delete yourself from the past that did include you. This is the way we normally think about time the flow of time one thing happens after another one thing causes another. And it's also the way that we generally try to comfort ourselves about death the cumulative effect of our lives on others is a kind of afterlife. Each of us are changes the world because of our presence and ed. And then we continue to affect the world in different ways after we die. Whether we want to or not whether we believe it or not we have an afterlife in this world. We leave an aftertaste in the mouths of the living. Our lives ripple outward and the people and things that we have touched can never be untouched. Has modern liberal people this feels like the sophisticated evolved understanding of afterlife as compared to the traditional idea of heaven. The idea of a place where our disembodied soul goes to be with god after we die feels kind of primitive to some of us. Just like the idea of hell did to the early universalist. To rationalists. Heaven is just wishful thinking. But now science has picked up the time and carry the conversation further. As a meeting described so lucidly the weird and wonderful inside of modern physics is that things or people do not really begin or cease to exist at all. Linear time past and future are not real. Everything exists all at once. Dr.pen still exists today along with all of our loved ones. The idea of time flowing in a straight line is an allusion. What we think of as cause-and-effect are reversed in another dimension. There's a wonderful moment in the movie the matrix. That plays with this idea and you don't have to have seen the movie order to understand this but the protagonist neo goes to visit the wise woman fortune teller known as the oracle. Literally in their conversation she pointed to efface behind him and says don't worry about the bass. I just what base and knocks it over and it shatters on the floor and he says i'm sorry and she says i said not to worry about it. The oracle says what's really going to bake your noodle later on is would you have still broken it if i hadn't said anything. Time doesn't hello in one direction nothing really begins or ends. The broken vase like a broken heart can be both the cause and effect of the words about its own breaker. So. Three different visions of an afterlife. 1d idea of heaven i returned home to god as the universalists believed to the idea that our afterlife is the ripple effect of our lives in the world. And 3 the idea that. No one's life really ends in the first place because time is not linear. Neither one of them you can modern ideas offers us the comfort of heaven. Because those of us who have lost lost loved ones know in the hollow of our hearts that if they existed all they exist in a dimension where we will never again touch them or experienced them and so the grief and loss are total. They are lost to us. We struggle to grasp all of this and we're desperate understand it because it comes down to some of the most basic questions about the meaning of our lives what happens after i die. What why does time seem to take life away from us our own lives and people that we love. We sent intuitively that we live on in some way beyond death is only because we simply can't imagine existing one moment and then not the next. I told through art and music and definitely through religious tradition and spirituality we turn it around and around and around in our hands. We try to paint and write and sing ourselves into eternal life. And then we spend most of our time trying to look away. Who really wants to talk about death anyway. In the last time in the dr. king gave as his own oracle the evening before he died. The i've been to the mountaintop sermon he talked about his death and words that raise hairs on the backs of our necks and heard you to take some time this weekend to listen to it it's so powerful just to hear them to watch him speak these words. He talked about all the death threats you've been receiving. He said that like anyone he would like to live a long life. But that he's not worried about that now. He just wants to do god's will. He's happy. He's not fearing any man. Because he said god has allowed me to go up to the mountain. And i've looked over. And i've seen the promised land. Andaz. Dr. king starts to talk about the promised land this most potent biblical meme his language starts to bring together to unify all these three different ideas about the afterlife. First the promised land is a place of spiritual union with god a lot like the universalist mystical vision of heaven a coming home coming home to god. Second at the promised land is a time in the future the literal political fruit of all the people's struggles for peace and justice. Very much opinion of this world. It's a time that is the linear ripple effect of all of the sacrifices and hard work of generations of oppressed peoples and their allies. The promised land is a concept beyond space and time. It's a state of being in love and communion with one another and with the holy. Temporal ideas of race and gender and religion past present and future all get thrown into the cosmic blender. We become one. Dr.ken was not afraid of dying because he had received a revelation. That we're all participating in this promised land together. He could see it. He could taste it in the future that he said god had allowed him to glimpse. God had broken down linear time for him to show him a deeper truth. Although he individually might not get there. He said we as a people will get to the promised land. He had a wider sense of selfhood. Where he knew that he was still alive still be alive participating in the journey and the arrival. He knew that in the deepest sense. He could not die. It is said that doctor kings. Favorite animal was thomas dorsey's classic. Precious lord take my hand. He requested it when he was feeling scared he requested it for rallies and meetings and marches. He requested that it be played at his funeral. And he requested it justin moments before he died. The song is a longing cry for god to bring us into the light. To take over when our own strength fails us and to bring us home. Let's sing it now and doctor pink memory number 199 in your head.

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Technology-Religion-God-As-Singularity.m4a

Some of you have observed me that in my sermon series on technology and religion this year seems pretty down on technology. I've accused amazon of destroying publishing and authorship have trashed smartphones for turning us into drooling idiots basically i've argued that virtual space is patriarchy and italian 80's from the physical and ecological world. I provided algorithms for creating surveillance capitalism and feeding us piecemeal to big data. I called social media the end of the public square civic life and our democracy. There are many things that i love about today's technologies and i also think that they dehumanize us in profound ways. And yes. What i want to share with you today. Is it there's also something about their growth. That smell like faith it feels almost organic almost natural technological advances are racing ahead of any individuals grass computing the power is growing exponentially beyond our wildest dreams the growth has a drumbeat of inevitability. Marching toward a future that we can't even begin to fathom. It feels as if it's being driven by something beyond us on a spiritual level that's something worth paying attention to. This sermon is a departure from. Pretty much every other sermon i've ever preached because instead of trying to inspire us to value our humanity and love and compassion and the ecological world we are part of i want to go on a journey of imagination where life as we know it. It's just a blip in the larger cosmic order just a segway to something greater. It may seem almost nihilistic but to me this possibility. Fills me with wonder and awe. Exponential growth of any kind is in comprehensible our brains are not equipped to grasp what it actually means and so we have to tune into it on an entirely different level. If at all. Describe exponential growth the inventor and futurist ray kurzweil recount an old towel from 6th century india about the inventor of the game of chess in the story the inventor introduces the game to the king. The king loves the game so much that he offers the inventor any prize that he wishes that the inventor is a lot smarter than the king. And he says all i want is a little bit of rice and he said they can use a chessboard to calculate how much one grain of rice on the first square to grains on the second square for grains on the next doubling each time for each square on the chessboard. It sounds quite modest and he readily agrees but by the time they got to the last square on the chessboard the king learns that he has to give the inventor. 18 quintillion grains of rice a pile of rides bigger than mount everest. The inventor gets beheaded. Kurzweil uses this story as an allegory for how existential growth reaches a tipping point. After which the implications become no longer comprehensible or reasonable he right after 32 squares. The emperor had given the inventor about 4 billion g of rice. That's a reasonable quantity about one large fields worth and a did start to take notice but the emperor could still remain an emperor and the inventor could still retain his head. It was as they headed into the second half. Of the chessboard. But at least one of them got into trouble in other words it's when we enter the second half of the chessboard that life as we know it explodes. Kurzweil's point is that our society with the exponential growth of technology is now entering the second half of the chessboard. We've seen changes up to this point big big changes and how we relate to one another. How we buy things how we make things how we communicate how we do physical work how we cure illnesses how we travel how we entertain ourselves. But our world is still recognizable just barely as fundamentally the same world as it was 50 years ago. That is about. To change. Computer processing speed has increased exponentially. According to gordon moore's law every two years computer processors get twice as fast not our individual computers of course which slow down but processing speed technology itself the amount of data that we amass is staggering everyday we. Can you picture how much that is. I can't. It's beyond our human grass. The field of robotics is bursting-at-the-seams sunol have self-driving cars and robots than that can perform a surgery and have sex with us. Computers can already right by corral. That experts have trouble discerning from the real thing. But even all of that pales in comparison to what's going on right now. An artificial intelligence. And machine learning. When i described algorithms a few months ago i criticize them for being only smart but not wise. I said that they don't actually know what they're doing they just blindly process data as they've been programmed to do they reproduce human ways of thinking but a lot faster. But that's actually not the whole story at least not anymore. Because today's computers are being programmed not just to crunch numbers and spit out results but to be able to learn. Once computers can learn on their own. They're no longer limited by what humans already know and how humans already approached thing. And then. No one on earth. Can predict what will happen. It will be so far beyond our capacity we will be well into the second half of the chessboard. The game of chess actually is a good example of the in 1997 the ibm supercomputer called deep blue was able to defeat the world chess champion garry kasparov in a six-game match. It was the first time a computer had defeated a human. In a match like this. It was a big deal some people were elated other people were devastated by the implications of a computer being able to outstrip a beloved chessmaster like kasparov but it was not surprising at a certain point the human really didn't stand a chance. A computer like deep blue considered 70 million positions. Per second. The programmers had taught the machine the rules of chess david libraries of opening moves and endgames they taught at the relative value of the pieces for example that you never trade a bishop for a queen and all the other accumulated wisdom about how to win. Deep blue used all those rules calculated massive amounts of data. And one. Simple. Predictable. But today. The plot has thickened. The blue has a descendant called stockfish that french function essentially the same way playing like a human but crunching lots of data really fast. Computer scientist wanted to know if stockfisch could be beaten by another kind of computer. So they created a computer called alphazero and wrote a program that would give it the rules of chess but no information about how to win they didn't buy us at that human assumptions instead they gave it the capacity to figure that out for a self alphazero learn to play chess by playing against itself 19.6 million times. Which took in 4 hours it calculates many fewer moves per second then stockfish but it plays totally differently it plays elegantly and creatively sometimes it almost seems like it's toying with its opponent. And on december 6th 2017 in 100 game match it wipes the floor with stock fish. Human chess master don't understand why alphazero makes the moves that it does. And this is true of much of artificial intelligence today we're creating computers that can do things better than we do and we do not understand how they work. Garry kasparov rhoden editorial for science magazine about this epic match he wrote in my observation. Alphazero prefers positions that to my i looked risky and aggressive. Programs usually reflect priorities and prejudices of the programmers. But because alphazero programs itself i would say that it's style reflect. The truth. The truth. Some kind of cosmic. Truth universal law maybe once computers can learn they can touch an unmediated absolute. Without the limitations of the human mind maybe they can touch the mind of god. Some futuristic believe that we are in the midst of an almost mystical process where artificial intelligence will reach some kind of second half. Of the chessboard tipping point and become conscious. They're super intelligence will be able to build even more super intelligent beings. Syfy often possesses of the danger if we don't stop their progress now computers will destroy us all for their own malicious self-preservation but many others kurzweil included imagined this moment is almost religious terms as a future utopia called the singularity. He describes it as a kind of enlightenment. For all of us. Our bodies and brains will gain more and more machine parts using nanotechnology and computers will become more and more sentient and pretty soon the differences will elide and we will be one the singularity will free us from the suffering and limitations of the body free us from world hunger and poverty and even death itself and conveniently logical prices computers don't need any biological systems to run. They just need a source of energy which is readily available from the sun. Mass extinction of species. Climate change mood pollution of oceans mood isn't it a bit of a coincidence that we are entering the second half of the chessboard at the exact same time as we are making this planet uninhabitable for advanced forms of biological life like a. Which brings me back to the sense of faded miss about the whole thing. Maybe this is all part of the evolution of consciousness. Maybe we have a lifeless raw material universe composed of quarks and atoms and neutron becoming more and more conscious of itself parts of the universe are now alive like us. A little sliver of a table to see part of the whole vagisil david. This is what the mystics have been saying for years that the universe itself is on a journey. It wants to be known and we humans are a step in that journey. Just as simple reptilian consciousness was a giant leap up from the simple protozoa. And mammals were a leap up from the reptile humans were a leap from other mammals we can contemplate ourselves and the cosmos at a whole new level. Maybe computers are bringing the next leap in consciousness. They have the capacity to become aware of the universe in a way that humans probably never will. Kurzweil writes about the singularity our civilization will then expand outward turning all the dumb matter and energy we encounter into sublimely intelligent transcendent energy and matter. So in a sense we can say that the singularity will ultimately infuse the universe. With spirit. I know that we have a sentimental attachment to the idea of humanity i know i do and we are partial to the particular life-forms that are here polar bears and dogs and trees and flowers. These happened to exist right now so briefly on this planet i believe that we all have inherent worth. I don't want to see all of that go away or become irrelevant i love the biological messiness of it all and human emotions an imperfect art. I'm still going to remain basically a luddite and raise my kids without screens for as long as i possibly can. And i'm still going to fight climate change and work for the health and healing of our ecosystems. I will continue to promote local physical community face-to-face conversation and cooking and prayer and all of those almost obsolete things. And maybe computers can be a help with us. Kasparov doesn't see computers as a threat but thinks they can be collaborators. He wrote. We must work together to combine our strengths i know better than most people what it's like to compete against the machine. Instead of raging against them it's better if we're all on the same side. But in the back of my head i wonder if it's too late for all of that. I wonder if a higher level of consciousness is awaiting the opportunity to be born. Maybe computer intelligence is not artificial at all but completely natural. Maybe the singularity is part of the larger evolution of the universe. Fully darwinian. But happening exponentially faster. We might be the generations. Witnessing the beginning of a giant leap of consciousness itself. And all along we humans. We're just a mechanism an intermediate step a bridge between the protozoa at a higher intelligence that is the real fruit of the vine of god. And maybe it's ultimately okay. If all of this means that for us primitive humans. Aw oliver animal friends it might soon be checkmate. Please rise and body or spirit roar final him number 116.

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Living-The-Present.m4a

Justin's words resonate with me because i also have young twins a boy and a girl. I also used to live a fun rt happily self-centered life. In my case i was trying to become a rockstar in san francisco and working in various.com startup. This is the 90s mind if you could fog a mirror you could get a job. I spend my free time i wish i had a lot rock climbing. When you're clinging by your fingertips to a rock face 300 feet up. Rock climbing does a decent job of reminding you of your mortality. It's all wide sky and warm rock. And if you that looks like you're already gazing down from heaven. During those days it certainly crossed my mind that i could die by falling from the face of the cliff. But it never occurred to me that i might die just by becoming old. It never occurred to me that my body might someday simply stopped working. Has justin described with his family. Once my husband jeff and i had kids they became the rock stars in our universe. No more rock climbing or rock music for me at least anytime soon. There was a real loss and this. I know that many of you know this loss. Now i was clinging by my fingertips with two other people on my back. And they needed me right now. The chilean poet gabriela mistral right. Many things can wait. Children cannot. Right now their bones are being formed their blood is being made and their senses are being developed. To them we cannot answer tomorrow. Their name is today. One thing parenting did for me is that it forced me to take life seriously. I wanted to be a good mother and i wanted to be a good partner and i wanted to make make my life about something beyond pleasure. And i knew now with greater certainty and not a little fear. That someday my time on this earth would be up. And so i couldn't put off anything anymore. This is true for each of us no matter how old we are. How healthy we are. No matter whether we're parents or partnered or single. Watching tv or clinging to a rock face. We cannot put off anything anymore. Each of us is going to die. None of us knows when. It could be in 2 years. For some of us it could be 70 years from now. For any of us it could be this afternoon. And when we die we're going to want our lives to have been meaningful. Actually we don't just want our lives to be meaningful. We need it. Finding meaning in our lives is a fundamental human need. We need to know why we're here. What are we living for. Not just what do we want from life but what is life want from us. We need meaning. Viktor frankl the austrian psychiatrist who spent three years in a nazi concentration camp. They came to this conclusion is he washed himself and his fellow prisoners struggle to survive the cruelty of the camps. Experience is designed to strip them of selfhood and purpose. Taking away every freedom. Months and years of nothing but suffering to be followed by almost certain death. Frankel realize that in this desperate world. For you would think that talk of meaning would be an inaccessible unaffordable luxury. It was in fact the only thing that could keep a person alive. His famous inside was it everybody there and by extension everyone of us at every moment. Had a choice. They could choose who they would be and how they would respond to the circumstance life at handed them. Their suffering could be meaningful. Or meaningless. He writes we who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the hots. Comforting others giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few and number. But they offer sufficient proof. The everything can be taken from a man but one thing. The last of the human freedoms. The ability to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances. To choose one's own way. Why would somebody who is literally starving to death give away his last piece of bread. The need to recall to respond to the call of life. Define meaning and purpose in the moment. Was even stronger than the primal need for food. Frankel doesn't say what became of the men who did that. Maybe his editor made him cut the next line that said the poor souls died of hunger that night. But i don't think so. I think the message was that by. Giving when they had nothing left to give. These men found the power to survive. Ankle is very clear that it's not. That we make or invent the meaning of our lives. We in his word. Detect it. We discover it. It almost sounds mystical though he doesn't use that term. Life hanza circumstance. Confronts us with a choice and challenges us to respond. And while the meaning of the act ultimately is epic. The act itself. Is always tiny and concrete. It's always today. Right now. And right now. They were living our lives. It doesn't work to say that our lives are too difficult or too constrained by circumstance to worry about the big questions. In every moment we make decisions and micro decisions that together. Over days and years form the substance of our lives. It was a lifetime of such decisions that shapes the meaning of harper lee's life. And that of antonin scalia. It will be a lifetime of such decisions that make meaning of my life. And yours. Do something strangely parallel between the experience of rock climbing and the experience of parenting newborn twins. There's the stark immediacy of simple acts. Nursing changing a diaper like reaching for the next crack in the rock. The rivets your attention on the present moment. That combined with a sweeping panoramic view. Defensive vertigo looking at these tiny babies these massive responsibilities. A link to the past and the future. The camera is always zoomed in for the close-up and zoomed out for the wide shot at the same time. It's breathtaking and sobering. I believe we are each challenge to live our lives with this dual vision. I'm one hand were challenged to reach for meaning in our lives. To remember our mortality to take our lives seriously. To live in all of the view. And at the same time. We are challenged to live the present. The focus on the decisions right in front of us at every moment. Gabriela mistral road that children cannot wait. To them we cannot answer tomorrow their name is today. The really nothing else can wait either. Whatever it is that's calling us. Whatever it is that needs us. Whether it's family or this community. For our students. Our clients. Struggling people's or the earth itself. Whatever we are being called to serve. It's bones are being formed its blood is being made. To whatever it is that calls us we cannot answer tomorrow. Its name. Is today.

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Following-The-Heart-shaped-Path.m4a

As some of you may know i am on the path towards becoming a unitarian universalist minister my time with you as a ministerial intern is part of that work this past summer was another piece called clinical pastoral education my experience was to be a chaplain intern within a major medical institution in minneapolis. There i was assigned multiple medical unit and did on call over nights and weekends for 10 weeks 10 weeks i like to think of his ministerial bootcamp i met with scores of people and listen to their stories talked about their pain prayed with them and sometimes even told to leave. Oftentimes politely but not always. Most of the people i encountered over the summer i had met just one time for a single conversation some of those single conversations changed my perspective on the world and my role in creating relationships with others. When i talk about following one's heart. It is not about a love story necessarily. Though it could be. To me being led by the heart is about a practice of noticing emotions yours and those around you. And following them towards human connection. And away from the safety of individualism. It is not the love of rom-coms but the dangerous love is vulnerability and intentional relationship. Love that can be messy and change us. Which is often times a scary prospect. I'd like to share with you an example of one of those many stories that have become a part of my story. I changed some of the details for anonymity sake. It was a weekday afternoon it was i was on call for the entire hospital and had a list of patients that had requested to see the chaplain. The next person on the list was an older man who is in the hospital for something that was treatable and likely would not be there very long. I read his chart twice. Psych myself up and then i stepped into his room. And he said to me. I didn't ask to see the chaplain. This happen now and then. But i replied that's okay i often visit with people who haven't made a request as well is there anything i can do for you today. He told me. Not really i wouldn't know what to say to a chaplain it wouldn't want to waste your time. I could have said alright have a nice day and left it at that. I had many more people on my list to see that day people who might even want to talk to me. But i didn't instead i said my whole job is to listen. He wouldn't be wasting my time. Danny started talking and i sat down. He told me first about the reason why he was in the hospital. And how he was going home later that day. And he told me about how is medical issue scared him because it made him feel mortal. And he told me about his struggles with alcohol. And how he was working through the 12 steps. And he told me about how hard it was for him to find sponsors in that program that seem to care. I kept listening and responding occasionally but there seemed to be something else he was working up to. So i waited and let the conversation go where it needed. After 30 minutes is home shifted. He went from recounting things about himself to sharing memories of his younger days. And most were not as happy memories. They were about him progressing and alcohol abuse in the things he was sorry for. And then as though he was surprised we had arrived at this story as much as i was. He told me about how he'd abandoned his family long ago. Two young children and a wife. He had recently been contacted by one of those children now an adult with a family of their own. All they said to him was. You left us. And then the man looked up. Stared into my eyes and asked. How do i apologize for something like that. And his question was not a rhetorical one. He stopped talking as if he had run a marathon and just now he's catching his breath. Eddie waited for an answer. Into that silence i said have you thought about writing them a letter. I went on l in that conversation to say. All you can do is try. Neither of your children may accept your words but offering them is all you can do this man wanted nothing more than to apologize for the pain he'd caused before the opportunity to do so past decide as critical to spiritual well-being to repair would have been broken. We talked about how we might do that and the many other people in his life he wanted to make amends to some long-dead. How could he at least get the words out even if the people he wanted to hear them we're unable to. The words mattered. And could be healing. We spent more than an hour together that day. An hour we both had to opt into. Though we were strangers and do it started off with neither of us knowing if anything could come from trying. When i reflected back on this conversation later. I thought to myself. Where do i come up with these things. A letter that was your advice. But he seemed able to take that as a concrete way to do something. I have no idea if he actually wrote anyone a letter. Or me those immense you wish for. I went back to see if he was there the next morning. And he had in fact been discharged from the hospital at planned. In that conversation i felt the need to pull back. Doctrine through my head like there is nothing i can say. Maybe he really doesn't want to talk to me. But i also felt he needed and wanted something. Here was another person struggling. It might have been safer to simply say. I can't or there is no way to help in this situation. I also felt a taking a huge risk and sharing his story with me. Well i felt my words inadequate sharing them was a risk as well. Do a much smaller one my actual suggestion may or may not have been helpful. But it did keep the conversation going and moved us from how do i apologize for something like that. To talking about what an apology might look like. That was the only moment in our conversation. In the midst of pain and fear. We talked about intention and trying. Not about fixing or solving. But trying. The attempt or even talking about an attempt. The step towards hope. Some words from wendell berry resonate with me this morning as i reflect on these memories. My vision of the of the gathering church that had come to me had been replaced by a vision of the gathered community what i saw now was the community and perfect and irresolute but held together by the frayed and always brain incomplete and yet ever holding bonds of the various sorts of affection there had maybe never been anybody who had not been loved by somebody who had been loved by somebody else and so on and on my vision gathered the community as it never has been and never will be gathered in this world of time for the community must always be marred by members were indifferent to it or even against it were nonetheless its members and may nonetheless be essential to it. And yet i saw them as all somehow perfected beyond time by one another's love compassion and forgiveness. As it is said we may be perfected by grace. Fairies vision of community calls forth the power of love. Frayed though it may be. This reflects the heart-shaped path i hope we practice following at least sometimes one that is twisty and steep. Always imperfect and never complete. Also always toward compassion and a more holistic love. Following this path can be a can be painful and scary. However it also heals us as we travel it. We gain a deeper sense of what it means to be human when we are vulnerable with one another. The act of listening to want to another person and the feeling of being heard by them. Deactivate truly seeing someone. And the feeling of being seen. Holding another person's hand letting someone know we actually need them even for just a moment. As people shared their stories with me in the hospital i heard time and time again that they had no one else to share this with. That they had never spoken about themselves in this way for more than 20 minutes. Perhaps ever. How many people here this morning or those we encountered throughout our daily lives have no one to talk to. To share with. Hold their hand while they tell their story. The quote at the top of your order of service attributed to confucius says. Wherever you go. Go with all your heart. This is awful meant to say we should put everything we are into everything we do. I'd like to think about this phrase differently. What if wherever oliver heartbeat dust. We're the only place we went. The destination could always be the place we get to buy caring about others deeply. This is not the path of least resistance. It is one we need to constantly turn towards. Sometimes we get lost along the way but what would places like first you look like if we practice here on sunday mornings or during our meetings or when we teach classes could you make it a spiritual practice to listen to someone intentionally and fully once each day turning towards his path could change who we are individually and as a community i believe that the listeners are changed as much as the speaker's when stories are shared the way i see the world is a bit different since my summer at the hospital. As i am sure it will be different after my time with this community. Your view of life is altered when you care about another person. Just as it is altered when someone cares about what you have to say. So why am i saying it is good to listen to others and to be heard by them. Do i really think no one here this morning has ever thought of that. Of course as you know it sounds easy to do but take practice and dedication. There are a million little things that pull us off course when we try to focus on the person right in front of us from more than we are s in sharing this observation i am asking us to take a risk. Like suggesting someone write a letter. It isn't just the act itself i think will be healing. It is the conversations that the acme create. It is the new patterns of relationship that may spring up when someone tries to listen and not speak. By following the heart-shaped path. We can find a way forward towards healing. And a world that is a little less hard to move through. Let's follow it together today. And keep turning towards it each day.

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The-Triangle-Player.m4a

The world is full of so much violence these days so much needless suffering and lost so many and possible conflict as unitarian universalist we tend to feel that it's our job to fix it all. We want to say yes to love yes to helping yes to connect and yes to joy we want to play the whole symphony of healing and reconciliation all by ourselves. And of course we can't. Not even close. We can barely make a den. Some of us respond to this fact with despair. Some of us respond by throwing up our hands and saying the problems are so gigantic nothing i could do could possibly make a difference. At worst at our most fearful some of us are even like the town council members in the story that megan told. We say the town pot is so huge nobody will notice if i don't share the good things that i have. Let them all share their i will keep mine. This needless to say is not our spiritual calling. But neither is it our spiritual calling to play the whole symphony ourselves. A wise man once said. You are not obligated to complete the work but neither are you free to desist from it. And so how do you neither complete. Nord assist from something. You play your part. You do it honestly. And consistently. With integrity. You listen to the symphony of the world around you with an ear to discovering where you can live out your dharma most usefully and most authentically. Always on the lookout for how and when your own calling and gifts intersect with what's going on where is your triangle moment. For example one of our thermal flag says. If that's yours. And you over here at coffee hour that an elderly member here fell and broke her hip and is recovering slowly and can't walk here on sundays. That is your triangle moment. You are the person who helps people feel less alone this is your moment to reach out to her offer to come visit her give her a ride to services. And if you want to take that same dharma. And play it out on a big scale you might want to join the fight against the use of solitary confinement in the us. Speak out passionately about how isolation destroyed the human spirit. One of our dharma flags probably written by a child says. If that's yours. And you are at a friend's birthday party and everybody started for me then you can see that they're still cake everywhere and every shoes mess left over everything smeared on the walls and dirty dishes and pop balloons you are the person who helps clean up. This is your triangle moment you can start bringing dishes to the sink and picking things up off the floor and putting all the wrapping paper in the recycling bin. And if you want to take that same dharma and play it out on a big scale you can volunteer to help with big clean-ups like after hurricane sandy. Or if there are beaches or forests that need to be cleaned out to help the plants and animals that live there. Maybe when you get older you can even organize cleanups like that and get other people excited about helping. Whatever dharma flag says. This is the one that printed at the top of your order of service if your family is feeling a little bit down. This is your triangle moment. You are the person who helps others feel loved this is your moment to tell them you love them. To listen to what's going on with them give them a big hug and if you want to take that staying donna and play it out in a big-scale you could get involved in immigration right helping people who have hard lives and other countries be welcomed here in the us and feel safe and valued. When you start to listen to the world and this way listening for your triangle moment the triangle shaped hole in the symphony you might just start to hear it. You'll be walking down the street and see something when suddenly this is your triangle moment. They'll be watching the news when suddenly everybody doing with me this is your triangle moment. This is your triangle moment this is exactly the kind of need the kind of conflict the kind of opportunity that you were put here on this earth to engage. Don't miss your moment to add that special sparkle to the symphony. The thing is and this is where the triangle metaphor break down a little bit. We are always playing in the symphony. Every single thing we do contributes in a small way to the music of the universe. It's either going to be consonant or dissonant with the flow toward love and help connection and joy. Even when you're working at a job you don't like you can still live out your dharma in the way that you do your work even if you're sick in the hospital. You can live out your dharma in the way that you treat the people who are taking care of you even when you are alone. You can live out your dharma in the way that you spend your time. The world needs us desperately. Everyone of us. Each of us has our part to play in the symphony. And the good news is that there are infinite ways to do it. Like george clinton we can be bold and participate in anything. The moment to live out our dharma is always. Right here. And right now. Please rise in body or spirit for final him hail the glorious golden city number 140.

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Dual-Loyalty.m4a

The megillah contains a speech by the villain haman that might be the most chilling infamous speech in the hebrew bible. The speech has echo down through the ages because some version of this beach has been spoken by every anti-semite who has ever lived. He says to the king. There is a certain people. Dispersed and scattered among the nations and all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of other people and they do not obey the king's laws it is not in your majesty's interests. To tolerate them. In the case of the purim story it's not true that the jewish people don't follow the laws of the king. In fact it's the jew mordehai who alert the authorities about the plot against the king's life and saved him. But haven is right when he says that their customs are not like those of other people. They keep themselves a little bit separate and proudly so. Hammond's accusation has deep resonance. It's the timeless accusation that jews living outside of israel in the diaspora have dual loyalty. They're not full citizens of the country in which they live but are secretly working on behalf. Avera farhan civilization. The concept of dual loyalty has been in the news recently. This exact insinuation touched a nerve when representatives elon omar and rashida tlaib suggested the jews in positions of power we're putting israeli interests over american interests. They were raising fairpoint about a real problem. But their statements had painful echoes because over the generations. The charge of dual loyalty has been used to justify the murder of jews from the spanish inquisition. To the russian programs to the holocaust. And today we know that it's not just jews who are accused of dual loyalty. Muslims around the world have been so accused. Catholics have been so accused. Immigrants of all religions are targets of hatred because of exactly this. The purim story is an archetypal story. Of the way that minorities can be miss trusted and other by the dominant culture. Some version of hammond speech has been uttered by every tyrant every white nationalist. Every shooter who walks into a mosque or a black church or synagogue and commits an atrocity. The human figure in whatever specific form says these people are not real american. These people are not real doozy lenders. These people are not like us. They look different they smell different their customs are different they refused to assimilate. They don't speak the language. They're bringing drugs across our border and sending the money back home. They're going to destroy us if we don't keep them out. They're going to destroy us if we don't destroy them first. The suffering caused by this ancient trophy. To this day is immeasurable. 74 i'm sorry we can all agree to deplore hammond speech. With all of its historical echoes. We can agree that it unjustly call for violence against the jews for a nefarious intent that they simply didn't have. And we can find out that the jews are good citizens they aren't breaking any laws or harming the persian empire and anyway. That's all true. But we can't honestly say. But they don't have dual loyalty. They do. That's. The whole point of the story. It's precisely the dual loyalty of the heroes that makes them heroes. We celebrate vashti and mordecai and esther because each one faces a conflict between their loyalties. They wrestle with it they agonize over it. Even knowing that they might pay a price. And they choose loyalty. To an ideal. Over their loyalty to the secular state. Clean the bosses conflict of loyalties times when she finds herself in the crosshairs of patriarchy itself. Her husband the king of hash garage has thrown a lavish boozy party. The text says. The rule for the drinking was no restriction. For the king had given orders to every palace steward to comply with each man's wishes. In the midst of the party the king orders vashti to come dance for all his leering drunken friends. Wearing. Only her crown. The narrative doesn't describe bacci's internal struggle when she hears this it simply says queen vashti refused to come at the king's command. But we can imagine. What that moment must be like for her. She has reached the highest position in the persian empire that any woman could possibly dream of she is queen over a territory that covers 127 provinces stretching from india to ethiopia the text says she is loyal to her husband loyal to the institution of the palace of the empire and her place in it. And she knows where she's married to. She knows what he expect and how does obedience is punished in his court. And yet. Disorder the goes against every fiber of her being. It's a betrayal. It's a humiliation designed to sexualize her for the pleasure of powerful men. She would have to give up her dignity. Her power ethan her humanity. It would be a mockery of the crown she was told to wear. Yes she is loyal to the king but in the end. She chooses in favor of a loyalty to herself. Mordecai's conflict of loyalties comes when being a good citizen of persia crashes into being a good jew. The king has just promoted haven and decreed that everyone must near or below and they see him. When mordecai comes across payment outside the palace gates. Mordecai refuses to bow. That's why on earth he's not bowing like the king said he should. Mordecai explains just. I am a jew. What are you talkin about it's a deep spiritual tradition in judaism that you only bow to god. It's one of the ten commandments but you should not make idols and bow down and serve them. To bow down to a person is to make that person than idle. Mordecai knows the deal. He knows that jews are already miss trusted. In persia already second-class citizen they're not seeing as full members of the society. Eager to prove that they belong he wants to say we're just like you we're good law-abiding tax-paying monarchy honoring contributors were normal. But as with the order that vashti received. Disorder to bow to haman. Is a demand for submission. And that's the one thing he can't do. Yes he is loyal to the persian state. But in the end. He chooses in favor of his loyalty to god. Each of these defiant app bosses and mortified. Provoked outrage on the part of the power establishment. The text describes the king blinding fury advice cheese defiance & hammons wrap at mortified. This rage is also archetypal. Brett kavanaugh for example. And the purim story as today the rage has. Devastating consequences. Vashti is made an example of. She is stripped of her crown and banished from the land she loses everything. And we can only guess what might happen to a beautiful woman alone banished from her land in the third century bce. As for mordehai hayman's hatred of him is so intense. It becomes the basis of hammons decision to kill not just him but all the jews in persia. The violent reaction of those in power to these small acts of personal autonomy. Is the backdrop of the main drama of this story. It is in this context that esther. Faces her conflict of loyalties. Butte now queen of persia. With all of the glory that got so used to have queen / 127 provinces stretching from india to ethiopia. But it's under false pretenses. She's passing. Any ultimate act of self submersion she has changed her name from the hebrew name hadassah. To the persian name esther. She has been living an epic fairy tail. Someone who was an orphaned jewish refugee hiding her identity hiding her past. Ryzen to basically become first lady of the world. But the fairytale comes crashing down when her uncle mordecai frantically send that email to her about the impending genocide of her people. Unlike in the cases of vashti and mordecai and hadassah this case the text shows us her anguish decision-making. Mordecai is begging her to take off her disguise and use her sway with the king to advocate for her people. Not only is she terrified of what might happen if she reveals her true colors to the king. Not only does she know it's a terrible idea to cast aspersions on heyman. But no one is even allowed to approach the king to begin with unless they're summoned. In the face of her fear and hesitation mordehai delivers what is another famous speech in the hebrew bible and i read that to you earlier. And that's beach ends with. Who knows. Perhaps you have come to royal dignity. For just such a time. Ss. Another words. Who knows perhaps the whole divine purpose of esther becoming queen of persia why she was given a dual identity and dual loyalty to begin with was for this moment. But her people would be in danger and she could act on their behalf. It's a profound statement about the responsibility. That comes along with privilege and power. Who knows. Perhaps the whole reason why any of us are given whatever privileges we may have is to advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves. I'm whatever power we have. Is to be used in service of those with less power. To use our gifts in these ways is to answer our calling. And you failed to use our guests in these ways is to fail the test. Abdul loyalty. The heroine of the purim story is loyal to the king and the court and her new place in the world a zester. But in the end she chooses in favor of her loyalty to her people. And her face. And her integrity. And her place in the world as hadassah. She does go to the king. Unsummoned. After asking the entire jewish people to fast and pray with her. Saying if i perish i perish. And the king does not have her executed he lives in that she reveals her identity as she accuses hammond of plotting to kill her people. He listens as she implored him to save them. And she prevails. The jews survive and thrive mordecai becomes the king's right-hand man. And a new kind of fairy tale and merges. One based in each person's authenticity. And honoring our dual loyalties. The purim story teachers that until we are finally living at peace with one another and all the creatures of the earth. We need. Dual loyalty. It's a spiritual imperative. Yes we should be loyal to the secular state in which we live. That's a good citizens and respected civic laws as far as those laws are good and just. But when the dominant culture. And its laws violate our principles. We need to answer the call of a higher loyalty. Loyalty to whatever we call holy. Our world is hurting right now and needs each of us everyone of us with all of our hyphenated identities. With fresh outsider eyes and as much bravery as we can muster. Who knows. Perhaps we've each been giving. Been given all of the blessings that we have. For just such a time as this. Please rise and body or spirit for our final him when the spirit says to.

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Finding-Joy-In-The-Cycles-Of-Our-Lives.m4a

Can i began seminary in 2016 i knew i would be reading a lot of well-known well-regarded theologians meaning people who ride and think about god a lot therefore i expected somehow to be changed and affected by these really important scholars however overtime i came to see that service. I learned that being required to read very dense subject matter made me appreciate lighter fare even more and i use the word lighter with great respect. Instead of turning to bart and bonhoeffer for theological and spiritual insight. I turned to folks like mitch albom the author of tuesdays with morrie who was quoted in the sabbath quote in your order of service. Ironically i would have never read this book if it wasn't actually required for a class as a colleague friend of mine says thank god for obligations tuesdays with morrie is about albums experience of meeting with his former professor dr. morrie schwartz as he was in the slow process of dying from als lou gehrig's disease. It is a brutal in the unforgiving illness of the neurological system and he was there to be with his friend during his dying process. Dr. schwartz or is album referred to him maury. Was a former sociology professor of his maury was highly loved among his students because he took the time. To make each of them feel loved and that they mattered. While i was reading this book i couldn't help but think. At the way maury understood life intuitively. And the way he deliberately related to others. With something that i aspire to as a minister. Maureen was very intentional about how he spent his time and the things he said to people. Over the course of spending his time with morrie album realized that he had been prioritizing things in his life all raw. Album had been pacing money fame and material goods. Because he had internalized the lessons of our culture well maureen even before he was sick. Knew that the focus of our lives to be placed on relationships family and making the world a better place for others. It took maurice death and illness for album to reassess how he had been living and to make different life decisions reading tuesdays with morrie got me thinking about how we spend our time. How we prioritize our activities what we consume. And how we intentionally behave in the world and with each other. We don't have to be in the dying process to become more aware of the passing of time. And what we are doing with two quote mary oliver are one wild and precious life. And thinking about this sermon especially given the time of year and this weekend in particular. I wanted to resent this service this moment in time as a moment in our lives where we can pay attention. Do the changes in the season and by extension the changes in our own lives. This congregation has experienced several several recent deaths and tomorrow is a holiday that many of us have taken for granted memorial day. Add a set of hart to pay homage to veterans who have died in wars. Well we have not yet reached this summer solstice many people consider memorial day to be the official beginning of summer and as we herded some places that's when they turn on the sprinklers that's when they open the pools it's like the new beginning of time and this is a time to be able to actually acknowledge this is happening. And this service we will consider transitions and our lives. And i'm inviting you to pause. And be intentional. About how you spend this specific season of your life whatever it is in this community there is a fair amount of conversation about spiritual practices and how we live them. I love that this congregation is willing to explore and consider practices that to have meaning for them. Well i think the guy i like we have here is very important i will admit that sometimes when i study other religions i am in awe of their commitment to their spiritual practices. And i have to say i wish i was as disciplined as they are for example particularly when i study judaism and islam i noticed that their religious holidays are very much about specific time.. Meaning the time of the year the month the week. The end the actual time during the day. Their lives revolve around each time to pray when to rest when to eat and went too fast. And the religious community the larger religion the community i have to admit that at times i have what is referred to as holy envy we talked about spiritual practices here but in other religious communities their entire days. And all of their time is built around their spiritual practices. Living this way focuses practitioners energy. Around time itself. And draws their attention to being aware of how they spend each day each hour each minute. I envy people who practice this level of commitment because it brings their spiritual practices into a kind of focused clarity. When i learned about these religious practices it made me wonder about unitarian-universalism slack of this kind of intentionality and how we practice our spirituality. We do have some. Particular rituals that happen at different times of the year yes we have our flower communion and our water coming in it is not quite the same as being really focused in on each minute in each day. I'm trying to practice curiosity. Around what it might be like to like buddhist could i've known set timers for specific times of the day to bring my attention to the moment and wonder about what just happened. And get in touch with my feelings around how am i doing right now. I wonder what it would be like. For more of us to practice being aware of how time passes and how we are using the time in between the parts of our days and our lives. Can we practice staying in the moment itself. And not rushing through to the next thing. This moment in time this particular worship service together is the last worship service i am leading before i am ordained next sunday it feels really special that my last time is here with you. With the weariness that this is my last service before stepping into the next ministerial transition. I have tried to slow down and pay attention and each moment of this worship service best bar. I am reminded of a story a geneen roth book this messy magnificent life which i highly recommend she talks about a friend who is giving a serious cancer diagnosis. She did all the treatments until she could do no more and then one day she went for a walk outside and realize that in her effort to save the quantity of her life. She had stopped enjoying the day. I hope when we when we know that an event or relationship a job or school enrollment is going to end. That we don't rush through it trying to add more time but instead to put our focus on enjoying each and every day that is truly all that we have as much album learned in his conversations with maureen there is no other time than right now we cannot undo the past nor can we change the future. But we can be present now. We connect knowledge that transitions we are in. Even if we are unaware of them many transitions happen without us even knowing. We can tell people we love them right now because there might not be another time. Yesterday i happen to see and then your time there was an opinion piece about his study again at how we spend our time. The author amy westerville road are spreadsheets all the studies that they did hammered home that what contributed most to our happiness with time spent together or with friends well crucially time not working. Something that we know to be intuitively true. Was validated with yet another study. I hope that we can internalized what we know to be true about this. As humans we need to spend time with our friends and confidants. That is how we get the most happiness out of life. Towards the possibility of being intentional about how you spend your time today i encourage you to consider what season you are experiencing in your life. Are you in a time of new beginnings endings. Or possibly both at the same time. Is it time for you to have some good goodbyes some good closure. Or do you need to strengthen connections and friendships. Some members here are in the process of leaving this community moving to other parts of the country. Some are contemplating a move. If you are in that process of leaving and starting over. Please make efforts to tell those that you are leaving that you care about them. And that they matter. Relationships are built on the words we say to each other and the time we spent together. There is no point of time in the future. In which we can make up for what we did not do now. That time does not exist. I encourage you to think about how you honor the times of shifts and changes in your life. Do you notice them to acknowledge them and virtualize them. Or you just let them pass by. What is happening in your life that you need to pay particular attention to right now. What plan can you make today to bring that situation relationship and chain into greater focus. Today and tomorrow people will be having get-togethers. He'll be having picnics and gatherings. People will be going to services to honor veterans who have died some of you will be contemplating the summer plans at that you would like to have this year. While doing these things consider how you want to be as intentional as you can. How you can connect to other people. In this world. We can chase after material things like mitch albom was doing. We can chase after money and fame but when it comes down to it all we have is each other forgive people connect with strangers and friends. Tell the people you love you love them finds joy in the season you are in right now. As maury said to match. Love always wins may it be so please rise in body or spirit thing number 131.

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Anchor-In-The-Storm.m4a

There's a lot of different ways to do thanksgiving is the kind of thanks giving that's every year involves a store-bought turkey meatloaf and marshmallow cranberry fluff. There's the martha stewart kind for everything is homemade. From with a menu based on pure pressure from dead people otherwise known as tradition mostly about watching football. There's the kind that boycotts the holiday because of its link with the genocide of native peoples who were living on this land. There's the kind of thanksgiving that happens here and another houses of worship i shared meal and community. There's the kind that we love because we get to be with our family. There's the kind that we dread because we have to be with our family i am blessed with a sister-in-law my brother's wife megan who has the skill artistry joyful inclination and time to make the martha stewart thanksgiving. And every year my lucky family gets to partake. Out of compassion for those of us who are fasting today i won't describe the elaborate multi-course thanksgiving meals that you creates but they are spectacular and classic down to every last detail beyond just the food she curates the entire experience the aesthetic the dishware pottery made by her mother the flowers the labeled place settings the gracious home i would have thought that this kind of thing doesn't actually exist. But it does. And i would have thought that if it did exist i wouldn't like it. But i do there's something about the way that megan hosts that's warm and authentic she genuinely love to give in this way. She also just love to plan and execute major project she thinks things through way ahead of time she's proactive organized elegant and likes things clean and under control. Her biggest major project over the last few months has been planning for the arrival of their second child. This planning process involves a lot of stuff that i can't even really fathom being the kind of person that i am. But apparently there was a lot to do. But the baby wasn't due until mid-december and she had mapped it all out and she had plenty of time. Or so she thought. I share the story with her permission and just so you're not sitting there stressed out spoiler alert it has a happy ending. A couple weeks ago when she was 35 weeks pregnant megan learned that there was a complication with her pregnancy. She had to rush to the hospital not the lovely birthing center that she had planned. She was told that she would have to be on bed rest there until to reach 36 weeks. At which point they would induce labor. No more getting the house ready no baking thanksgiving pies. No spending quality time with her toddler his last precious weeks with his mom before the invasion. Life was suddenly out of her control she would not leave that hospital bed until god willing the baby was born. My brother tried to take over the preparations at home bemoaning the irony he said that she would have been much better suited to get the house ready for the new baby while he would have been much better suited for bedrest to make matters worse. All the preparations of the houses screeched to a halt there were chemical treatments to be administered stuffed animals to be put into plastic bags everything turned on his head. Curing a bus. The hospital staff examined megan and found that yes she too had lice. Now lights are not dangerous but a hospital can't afford a reputation for starting a lice epidemic either. So the infectious disease team swoop into her room covered from head to foot they placed her in isolation with giant biohazard signs on the door people came in wearing hazmat suit and scrub every inch of her room. She said she was treated like a pariah. And her poor son was no longer allowed to visit. Megan was understandably distraught about all of this not only was she completely out of control of her life. But this was becoming a huge distraction to her main focus which was to deliver a healthy baby and just a few days her induction was scheduled for last wednesday. On tuesday a doctor came in and treated her hair with some chemical that involved a plastic wrapping and it took about an hour. They told her that they would repeat the treatment the next morning when she would be an active labor and the following martin when she would be hopefully taking care of a newborn this was one step too far for megan. This was not going to happen. She was not going to let anything that had to do with her hair interfere with this birth. But the hospital staff seemed adamant. So she called my brother and told him to come over to the hospital and shave her head. Many of us go about our daily lives with the illusion of control. We assume that if we plan well enough if we work hard enough. If we are good enough people if if if. Then we can manage the future. Resume the people that we love and rely on will still be here later this afternoon and tomorrow. This thanksgiving at next. Resume but life will go on basically as it has been until and unless we change it. But every once in awhile a storm rolls in from out of nowhere. Add a bolt of lightning shatters that illusion of control our lives are upended. Our sense of order crumbles and the world suddenly makes no sense. We realize that our plans for worthless. We can become bitter at the seeming indifference of the universe. In the grand scheme of things the storm that hit my sister-in-law was minor even comical at times. But for so many of us the storm can be devastating. Maybe it's a terrifying diagnosis. Maybe it's a divorce. Maybe it's the loss of a job and we were living hand-to-mouth to begin with. Maybe a spouse dies in their forties leaving a single parent and three kids. Maybe it's mental illness. Maybe it's an act of violence. Maybe in these days of climate change it's a literal storm or fire that destroys our home and our livelihood. Our world feels particularly out of control right now with the social and political upheaval of our time the list goes on and on that can happen to us unexpected unplanned and unwanted. It is the human condition to live in the shadow of these possibilities and it's human to look for ways to bargain with god to try to control things even when we know that we can't and susan silverman's book casting lost she talks about how as a child she lives in terror of losing her mother. She writes. I never stepped on a crack while on my way to the market clutching dimes for sky bars reese's puffs or mallomars. I suspected that where i stepped had no impact on my mother's face. But i couldn't chance it. Constantly fighting any separation from my mother was and estrangement. Of my mind. The germs for rationality. From my heart. That knew the world was irrational and that at any second the big guy could flick me a booger. And why my mother would be gone. A x. Religious communities have also fallen prey to this wishful notion of being able to control fate. But if you say certain prayers make certain sacrifices or give a certain amount of money to the church. God will protect you and redirect the storms somewhere else. The giving money to the church thing might actually work just just up and yes time and again bad things happen. To pia good observant people. Sometimes the people who live the lives of the most intentional holiness and kindness have the worst things happen to them. Crucifixion comes to mind. And so wise spiritual teachers over the centuries have taught that we do religious practices. Not to control our fate or as bargaining chips with god but because they transform us from the inside. Religious practice helps us to weather the storms that will inevitably, our way. I've heard serious religious practitioner say when confronted with a great loss that they realize now that's all their years of practice. We're preparation for this moment. Until there's a wealth a rich variety of religious practices that have been developed in different traditions to help us with this preparation. Back in the beginning of the fall i preached a sermon on what it means to live a religious life. I talked about trying to cultivate a live continuous wi-fi connection with the holy. Orienting our lives around our highest values. I encourage everyone. 2 amp up. Their religious life quotient by trying out as an experiment. 1 new or deeper practice in each of seven areas or sandboxes. Cuz i called them. The seven areas i've identified are. Daily spiritual practice. Sabbath and holidays. Goodreads. Daily bread. Reverend speech. Conscious sexuality. And charitable giving. It's easiest and most satisfying to practice in community where everyone shares the goals of doing the same things and supports each other and often practices together so if you can find people to share practices with maybe your family a group of friends please do any unitarian universalist community we're not going to all agree to do the same religious practices. But we can agree that we want to do religious practices. And we will support each other. Take each other's practices seriously and non-judgmentally. That we will be our neighbors cheerleader for whatever practices will be their strongest anchors in the storm. Today is a day we're inviting everyone to set aside for this spiritual work in community. We're seeking to temporarily slow down and shift our focus take a hiatus from the everyday whirlwind of production and consumption and recognized the hunger's of all kinds in the city and around the world. After worship there will be spaces for contemplatively practices physical practices. I'll be leading a workshop in the undercroft. To help you explore what practices you might want to try for a. of time. Will use different modalities including discussion writing and stringing glass beads to represent each of the areas. However we doing. I encourage everyone to use this day take this opportunity as a time for contemplation. Prayer meditation. It can be a powerful way to drop an anchor as we head into the holiday season. This year my sister-in-law megan will not be hosting thanksgiving. But we will all be together relieved and thankful for the blessings that we have. On wednesday evening she gave birth to a healthy baby boy riley in the family is all now together at home. She even got to keep her hair. After a last-minute conversation with a patient advocate electric shaver in hand the hospital relented and agreed that you would not have to have anymore lice treatments. In the midst of all of the chaos. But uncertainty and fear around her pregnancy layered with the chaos of lice and the hospital's overwrought response. Layered with her own discomfort of being out of control. Megan retained a clarity at her core. She was able to keep sight of what was most important. She knew her values. She trusted her instincts. She was willing to do whatever it took to live those values. Megan had an anchor in the storm. Has the winds howl. The waves crash and the rains fall in our own lives. May we all be so anchored please rise and body or spirit for our final him we're going to sit at the welcome table number 407.

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The-Witnessing-World-Widening-Our-Scope.m4a

Each year this year turn congregational society hold its annual commemorative communion service. On the evening of good friday. It is the long-standing custom of this church but admittedly and unorthodox one in the christian liturgical tradition. According to most calendars are communion as hell the day late. Usually monday-thursday can erase the last supper that jesus shared with his apostles by the following day those men gathered around the table have all since dispersed from the scene of his condemnation crucifixion so the people left at the foot of the cross are his female disciples the ones who supported jesus's ministry outside and around. Good friday marks the day those women witnessed first-hand. His agonizing death. This year their role in religious history seems especially important to commemorate and arkham you're right things all together happily time today we stand with the women and bear witness last bring none of us here in brooklyn could have anticipated the outpouring of certainly. Women across the socioeconomic spectrum. Found this historic moment gave them the opportunity finally to voice just how frequently they are subjected. To treatment. And sexual violence. The me to hashtag flooded social media with woman's personal accounts news coverage of unconscionable misconduct with exposed and the predatory patterns a powerful man publicized. Several lost their careers and reputations and consequence. Although these accounts may not have resulted in much legal action. They did underscore that sexual predation is a reality in our culture and they seem to have shifted the tenor and content of our national discourse around gender justice. In december 2017 time magazine business person of the year entire assemblage of women. Profile.dat some life and if you called the silence breakers scores and scores of women. I became a hashtag a movement a reckoning but it began he has earned chief of that magazine explained as a great social change nearly always does. With individual acts of courage. What each woman featured in the magazine finally got was acknowledged meant a public witnessing. Have a painfully privatized reality. What he's learned in bravely speaking out what's what women everywhere had known for millennia that too often witnessing was routinely casually cruelly denied them because of their sex. The patriarchal societies the testimony of women is suspect if not altogether inimitable do any number of horrors they could not speak of them openly they certainly could not expect people to care about what they said here in america the 2016 election that are present to acknowledge repeatedly assaulting women seem to suggest that their plight would not interrupt politics as usual in our national arena as in the gospel of mark there would be nameless women looking on from a distance unable to effect change in the course of a. But something drastically different happens within need to movement. Somehow discern scratcher. Others lacked it some violated legal settlement that's older actual stories highest bidders. Guaranteeing non-disclosure by putting a price on the truth. These negotiations effectively removed women as witnesses altogether. Leveraging financial disparity against basic justice. Open secrets were spoken aloud elder women ignored arbitrary statutes of limitations and testify to crimes that were decades-old. Girls in their teens and younger spoke out against older men who had abused them with relative impunity. Women of all ages began to reckon with the human toll of having them targeted nearly entirety of their lives. That'll sounded them. In retrospect i believe it is founded as all. Aren't we still really. Even now. As a community of faith we have a special obligation to confront gender injustice for too long established religions have wielded repressive forces against women alternate lee silencing them and shaming them. Astronomics the margins of communal life. Very often their role in human history has been hidden or erased. As author barbara kingsolver observed in her 2018 opinion piece in the guardian. Religious faith that subordinate women flourish on every continent. So those women gathered near the cross are not lost on me. Mary the mother of james and joseph and salome and mary magdalene history as a rehabilitated prostitute. What i think about those women's unyielding insistence on bearing witness the suffering the passion of jesus crucified. I am amazed. But i see any female disciples and the very many other women mentioned in mark's gospel. Is a bravery that speaks the audacious of their religious movement. Those women witness to jesus in no small part because jesus witnessed to them. They used to follow him and provide for him when he was in galatea mark reported. All throughout his public ministry jesus engaged women and matters of the spirit. He conversed with adulterous wives hell and unclean women and commercial sex workers he loved mary and martha every bit as much as he loved their brother the social and political implications of his postures and first century palestine cannot be understated earliest christians. They proclaimed the good news of direction of one who had been left for dad. And her back page essay how are we still here novelist gillian flynn notes the scandal involved in women raising their voices even today. Women have shrill voices for reason she writes to sound the alarm. The internet is toxic with body-shaming rape culture and revenge p*** dressed women abound we are under-represented everywhere in america underpaid by everyone and underestimated all over we are not the people she concludes with subject of the patriarchy. It's alton them can be physical or sexual or verbal or emotional but they are always most definitely spiritual. One of the key figures in the me-too movement artist and activist rose mcgowan persisted in bringing her sandwich a powerful hollywood producer. The public notoriety in a recent interview she said. My body and my spirit were stolen that's that. Today shannon's death. We're in it but we need to keep fighting she insisted. How does realization. Oh my god this is the first time in history. Women are beneath the leaves. It's really really important. Along last woman have claim to a wider witnessing world as a costco psychotherapist and practiced for over decade now i have learned from my extensive clinical work with abuse. The what can be most damaging to them is being disbelieved. Being demeaned and dismissed by others who fail to witness to them and for them and with them. Their trauma is compounded by having their own individual reality called into question. Those of you who are well-acquainted with the gospel of mark wilbur call that it actually has two different endings the shorter one and the longer. In the shorter version the women who went to anoint the body of jesus found it missing. So they went out and fled from the to mark rights for terror and amazement have seized them and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid they were afraid with good reason those men had stood by the cross. That she herself said jesus risen from the dad. And still there's used to believe her. On this good friday my prayer and my hope for this congregation all you good people of faith. Is a you come here year after year. Because you are committed to the very longest version. The truest version of the gospel. The one which has actually not yet in britain. Declare what they themselves have known in mind body and soul and are finally believed. Yes believe first and then help to heal it is with heavy heart that i admit that my own complicity has been with systems that have silenced women and delay their healing. Within our denomination within our ministry and emptied within our own congregation. I have known and participated and those whisper networks that woman's revised out of necessity. But whispering is not witnessing. Whispering is not witnessing and i have not personally done what jesus directed his followers to do in the gospels. But i say to you in the dark tell in the light jesus talked and what you hear whispered proclaimed from the rooftop. There will come a time when i myself will tell the truth the whole truth about how women have been and are being treated in faith communities at such a volume and in such a way that it will be hurt. So that i can get right with my dog with my sisters and face. And the dictates of my conscience. Here and now i renounce any religions that perpetuates the silencing and marginalizing of women. But swimming at a distance and when i'm. Very near to us women who are named and women who shall remain nameless. I encourage each of you to do the same man and women together. Are male allies especially men and boys have a duty a sacred obligation. Confronts gender injustice anywhere. What i want us to come right this good friday is the communion of the courageous the brave the very bravest maybe all be counted in their number maybe not stay stuck here maybe i'll rise up and speak out in a day. The business of disbelieving women. It's the business of discounting their worth. All the women's liberation theology feminist will ministry her easter. Teacher has to take woman's experience seriously. All oppressions are interlocking across race and class and continent. Weather is the gendercide underway in asia the girls kidnapped in africa. The international industry dependent upon human trafficking all require the ongoing silencing and subjugating of women. Any collusion with this sex offender massage me will diminish the dignity of us all. The originator of the me to tagline activist toronto burke was recognized in time as one of the earliest silence breakers in her work advocating for survivors of sexual abuse. Primarily with women of color. And her fierce amplification of me to she has insisted you have to use your privilege to serve other people. We all. Opting out is not an option for people of faith. This is no time for the shorter version of the gospel it is time for the longest version the one we might get right in the end before too long. It is good friday. We are here. We stand with those women by the cross and we watch. We are watching now and like the women themselves we will not look away we will witness to one another in spirit and in truth as jesus says in the christian testament that will be our truest worship that will be what makes this day holy.

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Lessons-From-Microsoft-Word.m4a

Until just now there was really no natural and obvious way for me to introduce the topic of how microsoft word related to the first principle of unitarian universalism there was no nice segue that i could think of for many him to software no personal story that relates so but now thanks to alan we're in the middle of a conversation about how technology relates and supports or does not support the first principle the inherent worth and dignity of every person so now i can just dive right in. If microsoft word where a person. She would be a complicated. Person. Marbles like all of us with foibles and strength frustrating to deal with at times brilliant or corky at other times. But in some key aspects of her spelling and grammar functions she would be someone who treats others in a way that i believe actually honors their inherent worth and dignity features that i have come up with more respect for another person. Process. Think about what happens in microsoft word when you spell a word wrong to get a red jacket e line underneath the word like when i was writing this i got one under the word jaggedy because that's not actually a word and as you're going along typing each letter she doesn't right away give you the red dragon e line. She reserved judgment even if you were to stick a q in the middle of the word jagty so that there's no possible way that that could ever later on become an actual word she does not weigh in. On your spelling until you have finished the word. And taking a breath. By hitting the spacebar because until that moment you are still in process. What a gift. When we can offer one another that time of respect. When we can offer one another the dignity of their process. So often were so quick to correct one another. To jump in with advice and opinion to assert our viewpoint even before they've had a chance to go through what they need to go through. What if we could wait. And withhold judgment like microsoft word what if we could give them space until they really understand what they're getting at. And we can understand what they're getting at. Maybe they'll make a mistake and then corrected before they're done maybe they'll end up in a whole different place than we could have imagined we don't know. So what a wonderful way to honor somebody's inherent worth and dignity. Step back and give them the fullness of time to become themselves. Number two. Respect for the wisdom of those who came before us. When you accidentally repeat a word. When you're typing in microsoft word to gives you the red jacket e line to let you know but which word gets the red jagty line under it could be either one right if you deleted either one it would fix the problem but in microsoft word it's the second one. The second word is identified as the error. There's a sense that the first one was fine by itself it had no problem until the second one came along and try to take its place it's the second one that created the redundancy. An added nothing. Microsoft word defends the one who is there first. In american culture we are so often taught that newer is better. The shiny thing the next big thing the latest technology. The hot new stock. The younger person no offense alan the candidates whose brand new to politics all embraced reflexively without regard for whether they're actually offering anything different or better than what came before. As a result our culture gets cheap end. A human beings get pushed aside as if they are worthless. Talk about invisible people. So many of our elders especially women get discounted. So many of our teachers of all kinds are disregarded as newer generations besides i have nothing to learn. So many religious and cultural traditions got left in the dust. How much better it would be if we could honor. The worth and dignity of those who came before us. Listen to them and draw from their font of wisdom no pun intended. Approach one another with humility and only enter the conversation once we have something not only knew. But different to contribute. The third thing that microsoft word does to promote the first principle is my favorite allowing others to change and become something new. When you're typing a word not only does she wait until you're done typing to evaluate whether the word is spelled correctly or not but if she deems it wrong. That's not the end of the story. If you are intending to sell it that way. If you were inventing a new word. Are using a word in a different language or just a word that's not in her dictionary you can add it. You can add words to her dictionary. You could add the word jagty even with a q in the middle of it. She will accept the addition unconditionally. Unreservedly whatever it is forevermore and when she sees that word she will damage correctly spell. In a way this is the counterbalance to the previous feature which gives deference to the past. This is giving deference to the future to the worth and dignity of a person's new idea and new way of being in the world. There's infinite room. And her dictionary when you intentionally assert your presents she will never say no to you. Mrs may be the greatest lesson of all. Even when we think we have it all figured out when we're ready to judge someone else when we think we know the appropriate contours of the box they live in. When we think we are in a position to correct someone else's life grammar and the spelling of their dna they need to be able to trump us and say no that wasn't a mistake. That's what i meant. And that is precisely when we need to open our hearts. And mine's pretty unique and stunning beauty of their individuality. Does this mean we have to descend into relativism and have no standards for each other and ourselves no but it does mean that as a general principle. People have a right to add a word to the dictionary we hope that people will do it responsibly we hope that people will do it after a thoughtful and prayerful process we hope that people will do it with a respect for the past and for their teachers. But people have a right to add a word to the dictionary. And it's the job of each of us. As collective keepers of the lectionary of human consciousness to accept others good-faith entries. Like microsoft word it's our job to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Respect the process of others honor those who came before us and make space for the new and unique gift. But each of us bring to the table. Please rise and body or spirit for our final him there's a river flowing in my soul this is number 1007 in bastille paperback hymnal.

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Grounded-And-Guided.m4a

Couple weeks ago is the public school holidays to my kids were off and i took them to see the mc escher exhibit here in brooklyn at industry city to show up his original works spanning his entire career and it's wonderful it's open the rest of the month if any of you want to check it out i told the kids little bit about asher's aren't beforehand that i showed them his famous. Drawing of the two hands drawing each other. One kid was excited the other was skeptical but it was a rare outing alone with mom and said they are basically happy to be going. We got there to this hipster gallery built into a giant old warehouse. And as we enter the labyrinth the rooms on the left there was a little theater there was playing on loop as a video about asher's life. The kids of course wanted to watch the movie they were drawn like iron filings to a magnet let's look at the art first and then we can come back and watch the movie at the end if we still want to they reluctantly tore themselves away from the screen. We entered the first room with asher's stunning woodcuts. And the kids immediately started complaining. Dramatically about being hungry and wanting to leave and having a stomach ache and being so thirsty they could feel their tongue is cracking they were answering and they were gazing longingly back at the room with the moving in it. My son even started back there at one point i had to pry him away again here with two eight-year-olds would be a good idea. But then something really interesting started to happen. And i only realized it was happening after about 20 minutes. We started to move through the show. We looked at asher's famous tower of babel print. And i told him the story of the tower of babel. And we talked about how amazing it is that he could create this look of life and dark and angles all by making by carving into a block of wood backwards from the way that it was going to show up on the paper. We looked at his fish and birds. And how he tricked the eye with negative and positive space. The negative space of one was deposited space of the other which one was the real one the fish. For the birds. Amaya person dreaming that i'm a butterfly or i'm am i a butterfly dreaming that i'm a person. As we wound our way deeper into the gallery the work started to get for lack of a better word trippy. This is before the age of psychedelics but his creatures got weirder. Black and white became color he played with perspective. Handmade large things look small and small things look large. He created intricate symmetrical cascading designs that look like mandalas. He represented whirling infinity. And i realized that the kids complaints. Had fallen away. Their bodies had quieted. And they were starting to show me stuff that they like. Look mom come over here here's another negative and positive space one but this one has different animals and there's a person upside down that's so cool. They were actually interested in the displays of the giraffe that escher sketched before making the final piece. Something had shifted. Rodger cooper was the winner of this year's auction sermon and he gave me the inspiration for digging into. What was going on here. Human thinking about my sermon critiquing algorithms and the data-driven life that were leading. You wanted to know what is the alternative look like. What is a more human life. How can we be grounded and guided by something deeper. Something spiritual. It's a good question but it's a hard question. Because by definition you can only get at this kind of thing indirectly. The source of our humanity is something ineffable. The camping catalog for quantified. It could be that it would be part of the algorithmic world. But i think that the experience that my kids and i had at the escher exhibit as a hint. At what this deep humanity is all about. Over the hour that we were there. The kids had slowed down. Have slowed down. And slowing down our bodies. And breathing. And attending to these almost hundred-year-old drawings. Hand drawn images on the wall. Our minds opened in a different way. Without the electric background hum of our lives we could allow and a new vocabulary. And go on a journey with the artist as he explored where that vocabulary khalid. We got to see the building blocks of his universe. See the world through his eyes. It sounds like a mystic had let us peek behind the curtain to see the gears of the cosmos. The experience was totally different from day-to-day modern life totally outside. We got to see that there is an outside. And we never did make it to see that movie. It's not that the fast-paced world of algorithms and technology productivity and consumption is all bad this is the time and place that we were born into. It has its benefits in as part of the curriculum of our experience on this earth. But the question is is there nothing else. Is that world the real world. And the world of spirit is just an optional extracurricular activity like basketball. Or is the cosmic world of the spirit. The real world and the algorithmic world just a small piece of it. Which world defines the terms of our lives. Which world around us in our deepest values. Amaya person dreaming that i'm a butterfly or i might a butterfly dreaming that i'm a person. Turns out that we have a choice in the matter. When we make space for a different dimension of life we creative outside to the world that we normally live in. When we let in the experience of art. And i'm not just talking about visual art by dead white men but all kinds of art and music and dance and drama and poetry and fiction. And we let in the experience of religion. With its silence. And it's wild joyful music. It's mendick stories and prayers yearning for the holy. These things have the ability to swivel our perspective. What was large become small. And what was small becomes large. Something can shift and open up inside us. We can tune into a different level of consciousness. The technocratic world where we spend most of our time. Can shrimp and take its rightful place. As a small piece of a vast and multidimensional universe. It's just one frequency on the radio. Same thing can happen when we spend time in nature humans evolved living in natural environments and when we walk in a forest or by the ocean to our bodies it's like coming home. Are stress hormones go down our heart rate drops. And we breathe. It's been shown that even walking in an urban park. Or download of leafy street. Without you know texting me at the same time can help us feel, and more centered and even stimulates our creativity. Just that. But i think about natural places that i've visited it's deeply comforting to realize. Comforting to me to realize that while all the churn of our world is going on all of the online drama all of the politics all of the pain caused by the politics. It's somewhere out there. Those trees are still standing there. Gently swaying in the breeze rooted and free. It's not easy for us modern city people to surrender to these kinds of experiences. We feel the tug. Myself included and just like my kids dead in the gallery the tug of the screen the tug of the rush the fear of missing out. The insecurity of needing to prove ourselves in the social world. News sports shopping. Some of us may not be addicted to technology per se but we still have our own versions of striving to keep up and produce and consume. But when we can surrender. When we regularly step outside. Our heart expand. We can start to feel more human. We can start to be guided by different things. We can begin to be guided by our own inner voice. Whatever your nickname for it is the voice of god the voice of conscience the voice of love. Some people call it the divine spark. Or simply our souls. We can be guided by the innate wisdom of our bodies. Our bodies are not just the hardware casing for the software of our minds they're part of who we are and they know things that our conscious mind does not. Refill music. In our bodies. We connect and touch with our bodies. We feel butterflies of excitement in our stomach or dread in our chest. Emily walk and as far as it's our bodies that tell us that forests are good. These sources of guidance are available to us all the time. Voices of wisdom always speaking to us. But it's hard to hear them amid the din of modern life. Learning to listen to them. Listen for them and listen to them. Is one of the arts of being human. It takes some clear intention. Some clearing of space. Some sacrifice of time. I find that it takes nurturing at the more human part of myself the way that i try to nurture the more human part of my children that the escher exhibit. Many of us are just like kids can disrespect. We're a little immature in our ability to downshift into a different mode of being. For easily distracted. I'm more hungry for all kinds of fleeting treats. We need a little compassionate nutsedge toward deeper spirituality. So i think the trip maybe to take ourselves gently by the hand. And gently pull ourselves away. From the movie about the art. And go see the art. Repeatedly redirect our own attention. From what we want to consume to what we can participate in. Being here on a sunday morning. A walk by the river. A book discussion. Making music with friends. Br on parent. And set limits on screen time. And as a last resort hide the devices. Rodger cooper road a beautiful thing about how delicate our spiritual life is its printed as the sabbath quote at the top of your order of service. Because the spiritual dimension of human life is like thin cover of our habitable atmosphere on the planet. It is the fragile layer of human the meaning that we inhabit. But it like our natural environment is threatened. By technology but also chose modern indifference. The question is how to protect it. And richard and sustaina. Knowing that it needs to be protected and dredged and sustained is the first step. There is a world beyond the world of algorithms. A world not accessible through data and reason. But only through creativity. Have faith. Human connections and all at the majesty of nature. Today it's more important than ever. To cultivate our ability to access that wider world. Maybe lead ourselves like small children. Just slow down. Open our eyes and tune our radio to a higher frequency. In so doing may we all be grounded and guided in becoming more fully human.

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Religion-Technology-God-As-Network.m4a

The first computers in the 1950s were so expensive that only governments and corporations could buy one they were used for weapons development and accounting the processor took up an entire room you've probably seen pictures of these things used thousands of vacuum tubes and required to staff of full-time employees to maintain it you would approach it cautiously like a supplicant with a cardboard punch card and you put the cardboard punch card in. Try to process your request. The idea that anybody would have one of these things individually was absurd. In the same decade television did become something that people had in their homes this was a black-and-white cathode-ray tv with three channels people were enraptured with it. And soon we were spending five hours a day on average watching it. Also as supplicants. Hungry for what its promised us. It became the centerpiece of the american living room family life oriented around it. Family dinners with conversation were replaced by tv dinners with the whole family staring silently in one direction. Attacked the whole country was staring silently in one direction. A show like i love lucy was watched by 71%. Of the american public. These shows and the commercials that drove them. Taught us what normal was. There was something communal about it. And something profoundly isolating at the same time. The 1950s were a time of conformity and militarism industry and social control. Gender roles restrict. And segregation was law. As we sat alone in our living rooms being assimilated into a national group think we were sold stuff. To make us happy. Advertising drove a rabid consumerism that became the country's religion by the end of the decade americans were consuming 1/3 of all of the world's goods and services. To be clear. White americans are enjoying unprecedented prosperity while black people and other people of color were shut out of. White women housewives. I know it was terrible white women were housewives whose access to a new hoover vacuum cleaner was supposed to replace a seat at the table. The human heart rebelled against this kind of society and ribelle we did. In the 1960s and 70s people woke up to what was going on. Some of us in this room may have participated in that awakening. The spirit weld up enough and i'm using us as broadly i was barely out of diapers at the time and many of you were probably not yet born but the spirit moved in the people. And we yearned for an escape from the bureaucratic technocratic world of giant computers tv screens. We long for elemental joy. We long for a simpler connection to the earth for messy creativity in place of sterile efficiency. We long for human touch and relationship peace and not militarism. We longed for racial equality and equality for all kinds of people who didn't fit into the i love lucy mole. We long to be recognized. Not as economic units but as whole people and embodiment of the divine. How we long to see others if this way to. These impulses began to bloom and us and true community. Began to emerge. Like grass pushing up. Through the cracks in the concrete. There was but author peter gabriel called a ricochet of recognition. If i took the risk of recognizing the holy in you saying wow. To you. Then you were freed up to recognize the holy in your neighbor. And this alive has like a flame. passed from person. Two person. I created a movement. The movement had many faces. There were the back-to-the-land homesteaders the acid dropping hippies the anti-war protesters the civil rights activists the so-called jesus freaks the early environmentalists. Andros just letting their freak flag fly. But it was all animated by a communal vision of a different kind of society. One based in love and celebration of difference. One that cherish the uniqueness of each person. One that honored the earth and one that righted the wrongs of history. Most of all it was a vision of deep. Diverse egalitarian human. Community. Through this community we would find spiritual transcendence. Unfortunately we all know how the story ends or not how it ends but where it is right now i've quoted orson welles before if you want a happy ending it depends on where you stop the story but so far i think it's fair to say that the revolution hasn't materialized we've had games in some areas but the revolution. Hasn't materialized. I don't think i need to describe for you all the ways that it hasn't. Why am i telling this story as part of the technology and religion series. Because what happened to the hippies. I mean activist had a lot to do with the two new technologies. The television and computers. They were vehicles. For the undoing of the idealism of the time. We can't do anything about what happened back then but we can try to understand it and try to do it differently today. Here's the television executives could sense the gathering clouds of resistance the whole generation preparing to turn on tunein and drop out of mainstream society. People were fed up with consumerism and with the ads trying to sell them the new hoover. But capitalism. Is nimble. As columbia professor tim lewis put it capitalism is a perfect chameleon. It has no disabling convictions. I love that disabling convictions and so can cater to any desire even those inimical to it think about the brilliant add that coca-cola came up with i'd like to buy the world a coke for those of you who aren't around in the 1970s it showed a multicultural group of beautiful young people standing on a windswept hillside. And italy this is what they saying some of you might know it you might have a little piece of paper with the lyrics on the switch join me in singing this classic. People bought it people bought coca-cola but what breaks my heart even more is it people bought the notion that the ideals we were dreaming of. Up togetherness the end of isolation could be channeled through tv and realize and consumer goods. We somehow didn't see that we were just deepening our entrenchment in the very culture that we were rebelling against. Tim luu writes about why the revolution of this era ultimately fail. He points out that it had nothing to do with the message itself which was vibrant and real and compelling and beautiful. Key-rite. Rather the failure was owing to one often unremarked fact. Over the 1960s and 1970s most people simply did not stop watching television. Today the same thing is happening with computers. The depredations of television left people in a spiritual desert. But in computers we thought we had found a new watering hole. Buy computers i mean all of the little devices that we have that we call personal before they were thought of as personal hippie saw computers as the ultimate symbol of hierarchy and centralized control the polar opposite of the slowest world of peace and love and self-expression that they were trying to build but somewhere along the way a shift happened through leaders like stewart brand who came along and said that no actually technology. The computer maker's seized on this idea and touted computers as a new way to create the very network that the counterculture was longing for. A community where everyone shared power equally. And where ideas would emerge collaboratively. Through the network old divisions of race and class gender would melt away and each of us would be seen as beautiful in our own way. We would finally be free from the forces of conformity and reach the glittering promised land. It was a utopian vision of transcendence through technology. The famous apple ad from 1984 was a stunning illustration of this idea. Google it if you got a chance not right now please when you get a chance it shows a fascist society and a dystopian future like george orwell's 1984 a voice-over droning propaganda as drab identically dressed citizens march in formation. Then you see them sitting passively in a large movie theater. While the giant face of their leader fills the screen he's saying. We are one people with one will one resolved and one cause. Meanwhile you see a woman running stressed and colorful clothes with her hair flying behind her running towards the theater with a giant hammer she's being pursued by soldiers who look like stormtroopers with a prize she flings her weapon at the massive screen like david throwing his stone at goliath it hits the screen shatters and explodes and goes white the boys says a voiceover does it says. On january 24th. Apple will introduce macintosh. And you'll see. Why 1984 won't be like 1984 and a rainbow apple logo appears. By using a macintosh personal computer you can fight fascism. And you can win your freedom. And people bought it. People bought the computer but what breaks my heart even more is the people also bought the notion that through technology and online networks we can finally find freedom. We can transcend injustice and isolation we can finally be ourselves. And think different. The reality is. Now we have a world of people passively glued to our iphone. The way that we used to be glued to our tvs. And actually thinking very much the same. We tend to live within online echo chambers. In which true dissent is rare. Hiding behind the veneer of a neutral horizontal networks today's technologies math. How power operates. But money drives the whole thing just as it does with tv and as long as we remain. Bathed in consumer culture we are permitted to think. The post whatever about it we want to. Giant tech companies monopolies all of them decide who gets to see what post which are elevated and which are suppressed. As far as creating global community and transcending our differences social media has created the most deeply divided and antagonize time this country has ever known. With trolling and call out culture. But the most polarizing posts getting at the most views and with brutal competition for visibility and an infinite online world. Social media use is now being linked more to feeling isolated. Then feeling connected. We're hearing stories days about people's lives being destroyed by social media attack. We win or lose social media credit. Just like in the black mirror episode nosedive. In china there institutionalizing that's where the system of social rating people score each other in daily interactions and if you are social rating is too low it can actually get in the way of doing the things that you need to do in your life. Remember how the revolution of the 60s and 70s failed according to tim lu because. Most people simply did not stop watching television. Will today's revolution. With all this elevated consciousness about gender and race. Climate crisis and the yearning for economic fairness will it ultimately fail. Because we simply did not stop checking our phones. Because we located our desire for community. Connection in the online world instead of in the real world. Hear it first do is one place where we are seeking that connection not just in online networks but in human. Network. The love your neighbor dinners will be launched this week or an incredible example of this. Our intern minister karen madrone along with bryn sumner and other members of our caring ministry recognized the beautiful potential of neighbors geographic neighbors finding community together they use technology in the best possible way to help. Over 100 people in our community that's a third of our community participated in these dinners this week that's community that's the real thing. Know that there is nothing on tv nothing on a smartphone. And nothing that we can buy that will give us what our souls crave i'm going to say that one more time. There is nothing on tv nothing on our smartphones and nothing that we can buy that will give us what our souls. Crave. The revolution will not be televised and the revolution will not be online. It may use some digital tools for practical things but it will be a network of human beings who come face-to-face. And soul to soul. And recognize one another as embodiments of the holy. It will come as a ricochet of recognition. Ben folds all living things into its consciousness. It will come as song. It will come as dance. It will come as prayer and meditation. It will come as you and me in our body is doing stuff in the world. Able comments breaking bread together talking listening and building the beloved community here-and-now please rise for our final him you are loved by jason shelton.

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The-Family-Photo-Exposed.m4a

What image comes to your mind when you hear the phrase. Family photo. Imagine your family photo. Who is in the photo. How many people are there. Are animals included in your family photo. Is everyone wearing matching outfits. Where is the photo taken what is the backdrop. Of your family photo. I recently read something called stock family syndrome and a book called parenting beyond your capacity this syndrome affect most of us regardless of the size shape color and social location of our family we have an image of family we are confronted with images of family all around us stuck family syndrome is the pressure we feel to present ourselves and our families as though we are that perfectly put-together smiling family wearing complementary outfits just like the stock family when you buy a photo frame family is perfect. There are families suffering from the effects of addiction and abuse family is struggling with mental illness and physical illness we know this to be true and yet we continue to hold ourselves to certain unattainable socially constructed standards there is a feeling that we have to hide the bad things the ways in which we don't fit the mold of perfection. The perfect stock family imagery and narrative in our culture perpetuate a stereotype of perfection that we cannot achieve. We feel a pressure to present a certain image to the world so whether it is a hipster for a hippie or a yogi or. Up-and-coming young professional wearing the right outfit where the pressure to dress appropriately for one's age. Maybe it's not. For many female identified bodies not to let your hair be gray so we have this pressure to look the part to the outside world so now i'm entering my 6-year here as director of education and family ministry and for me i just find it increasingly important to try to explore what exactly family ministry means. Where are the families. How do we serve them. I have a very expensive notion of family. And here at first unitarian we have a wide diversity of family configurations we have several families made up of adoptive white parents of children of color we have multiracial couples with children we have single parents and those who co-parent adult children who are caregivers to their parents grandparents raising grandchildren newly divorced and never been married parents we have families consisting of a human and their furry dog companion some of our members live with their blood relatives and some live with their chosen family of kindred spirits and siblings we have members who live with several others in a feminist collective. And those who live alone and studio apartments every other kind of cohabitation and living configuration imaginable many of our families are also a multi-faith often bringing together the different religions and spiritual practices of their families of origin origin there are days when they choose to stay home rather than go out in public because it just feels like too much. The pressure they feel to put on a front is sometimes overwhelming because they are not a typical family there is pressure to behave a certain way as a parent and judgments of the children's behavior. Curious strangers stare at the family on the subway well-meaning passers-by give unsolicited advice / criticism and judgmental look commentary is heightened because the family doesn't fit cultural norms. This parent also told me that when their fight family comes here to first unitarian they don't feel this acute pressure to be perfect or two bees subject of the judgment of others this community offers this particular family a place and time to retreat and replenish so here we are in 2018 with 185 years of history underpinning this religious community and its family ministry and as we heard with the wisdom story this morning we are a congregation that was founded based on the need for a unitarian place of worship in brooklyn so that families with young children wouldn't have to travel by boat across the river to manhattan each sunday just as the families of brooklyn had specific needs and 1833 so do families with young children today. The pervasiveness of electronic media means that it's even more challenging to find time to connect with one another feelings of isolation and depression are off are at an all-time high with teenagers. People of all ages say they are desperately seeking connection with others. In her book salsa soul and spirit leadership for a multicultural age. Juana bordas shares the concept of a new social covenant which includes learning from the past. Moving from individualism to collectivism and embracing a spirit of generosity. She gives an account of eight principles practice within latino black and american indian communities that can be replicated within other communities in her discussion about moving from i told her to we helped her she describes the concept of collectivist community. In my experience it's turning out more and more that family ministry is basically another way of saying collectivist community. Family ministry truly begins when parents know that they do not have to parent alone. Is when parents know that when they come here with a child who is cranky or loud or wiggly or all of the above this community will support them with love and give them encouragement someone here may even offer to sit with their child or take them to get a drink of water to give that parents a break. Family ministry is also when we facilitate connection between individuals so that they know they are not alone in their particular struggle. Is when parents trusted this community to support and encourage them as they raise their children. And this is happening all the time it's happening when our members volunteer to serve his coming-of-age mentors we just had the opening ceremony for coming-of-age this morning. There are seven youth registered in that class and there are seven adult mentors who will be working with them all year. This happens when our adult members. Volunteer to teach religious education classes i don't know the exact statistics right now but more than half of our religious education teachers turns out this year it's more than that it's more it's more like two-thirds do not have young children in the re-program right now that's amazing that is not a usual thing that you all are really showing up for our families with young children. Family ministry happens when. You know that you are loved and that we see you when you need to leave town suddenly in order to attend a funeral or to attend your aging father's needs or to be with your sister who is going through a divorce. We recognize that caregivers need care to we strive to hold one another in our pain so let this be a place where people are held and believed and loved when they share their stories and their pain as well as their choice and their triumph the need to be an authentic community and still beloved is real and this goes for everyone at all ages it's so tiring to put on a front everywhere we go and people need a place to retreat and replenish. Has reverend anna proposed last week if we want to build a world based in love and generosity where we can take care of each other and community we can start right here at first you we can cultivate it we can support one another cook for each other share meals take care of each other's children. We all participate in family ministry. It's something we all provide. What does congregation offers at its best is a place where we can come and be our true authentic selves are we perfect. No of course not and knowing that is a very good thing as soon as we think of complacency building community living in maintaining community is messi. And imperfect. And there is always room to grow. We have different needs at different times. This is true about this individuals as families as a whole community. Lucky for us we have a theology to match this continual change growth and lifelong learning from james luther adams five stones of liberalism we have the teaching. That revelation is ongoing just as our lifelong learning is ongoing and ever-changing so shall our community be so come tom whoever you are wanderer worshiper lover of leaving hours is no caravan of despair, yet again. Please rise in body or spirit and seen together tomtom whoever-you-are it is number 188 in the gray hymnal.

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New-Recording-419096773856Messiah-Complex.m4a

As jesus was preparing to enter jerusalem a week before his dramatic death and whatever happened next he apparently gave some thought to how he might stage his entrance. He and his disciples were gathered and neighboring village the disciples were waiting for a signal from him. Going to the village ahead of you he said to them and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her untie them and bring them to me the disciples did as he instructed and he rode the donkey and the cold into the city. In the middle of this scripture passage the narrative stops and incurious explanation comes in it says. This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophets. Saying. Tell the daughter of zion look your king is coming to you humble and mounted on a donkey and a colt. So basically it's saying that the reason jesus called for a donkey and a colt if he could ride into jerusalem was because there was a prophecy. That the messiah would do just that. As a rabbi jesus certainly would have known about this prophecy and so would most everyone else. And so keep playing to his audience with grade media-savvy and political pragmatism culturally. And i'm going to use that meaning to tell the story that i want to tell it was part of his flawless public relations campaign and the public played its part to laying down cloaks and waving palm branches as was the custom with great kings and important personage has. They wanted to make sure that the crowd looked big and impressive while the network cameras were rolling. The whole thing was carefully crafted for an audience of the present and the future. Regardless of whether jesus was or wasn't the messiah. And regardless of whether jesus believed or didn't believe that he was the messiah he was definitely trying to shape his public image so that everyone would think he was. He did this in a consistent and calculated way. I don't personally think that this was narcissism on his part. And he definitely was not trying to start a new religion. Jesus had a big message to share. A great vision. For renewing spirituality and building a world based on compassion and love. He was trying to change people's relationships to the tradition and to god. He was trying to shake up the status quo in a big way. Entering the religious power structure on its head. If you smart enough to know. That's such an ambitious project. Such a revolutionary message. Would not get through just on its own merits. There are too many powerful forces arrayed against it. I know this is heresy to say i'm on unitarian universalist we tend to believe so fervently in the pure power of ideas. The best idea will naturally rise to the top. But a great artist will become known solely by his work. The brightest scientists will change the field by virtue of what she discovers that the finest architectural design will get built. But sadly it's not that simple many great thinkers and artists and holy men and women have wallowed in obscurity. While lesser ones have taken the spotlight. It takes more than just the quietly stated content of the vision itself. It takes marketing. It takes strategy sometimes it takes flashing lights and a disco ball. It takes. but jesus had in space. And maybe even a little bit of a messiah complex. Jesus combined a great idea. With the ability to sell it. Are we can learn so much from witnessing the power of that combination. We learned not only the beautiful message of his teachings. But also the metamessage of how to get things done in this world. How to make. Big change happen when we have no power. How to spread our ideas and actualize our personal ambitions. How to be bold. How to come through all of our doubts and fears and temptations so charged with commitment. But our demeanor show you know those ancient prophecies about the messiah riding a donkey into jerusalem. They were talking about me. I wonder what would happen if we all had a kind of collective messiah complex. I believe that we have special powers. What if we truly believe i mean really believe. That we are here to change the world. In our personal lives what if we felt that our gifts were so special that we had something to offer the world that was so unique that no one else could provide even if it were simply our own brand of giving love and empathy. What if we had a kind of brash confidence that our vision division that we have for this planet and for our own life is worth actualizing. It's worth putting out their billboard size. It's worth being strategic and intentional. Waving palm fronds and even riding to animals at 1 if that's what it takes. As we contemplate palm sunday today and maybe take a palm from home. You can get them in the vestibule after the service take a palm frond and draw inspiration from. Jesus is very intentional entry into jerusalem. As we prepare to enter into the great cities of our own lives. Be there the intellectual city of a university. The professional city of a new career. The political city of activism and social change or the emotional city of our own living rooms. Epsom salt. How we stage our entrances. Gibson thought to be a fedex and the theater of it let's give ourselves every chance to speak our truths loudly clearly to open our heart why and frequently. To become the products of our own design. And in so doing become a blessing. To the world. When are going to hear bach's cantata number 79 a peaceful of theater and boldness judy and blessing.

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The-Other-Side-of-the-Wall.m4a

If there's one thing i've learned as a minister it's that a cigar is never just a cigar. I know you're never supposed to say never but in this case it's true a cigar is never just a cigar. There's always more going on beneath the surface things always mean more than they seem to mean. There's nothing that doesn't mean anything at all. People are complex. There's a backstory to everything and the shadow side to everyone. Everyone suffers. No matter how rosalie they present themselves. Everyone's scared. No matter how confident they seem. We often really don't know our neighbor. There's an invisible wall between south and other. And sometimes that wall can be impenetrable. David sennish a military psychologist who works on ptsd from war and abuse tells and extraordinary story about this wall between self and other. He was a soldier in the israeli army during the yom kippur war of 1973. He was captured by the egyptians and taken to cairo as a prisoner of war. He and the other israeli prisoners were very badly treated. They were beating. They were kept in solitary confinement most of the time. And after a few weeks of this. He was going crazy. He remembered seeing and moving how prisoners in solitary would sometimes knock on the wall back and forth. To communicate with each other. So one day when he heard them boys and calling muslims to prayer and he knew that the guards wouldn't be around. He decided to try it. He knocked on the wall. First there was silence and then miraculously. Binaca. He did it again. Another response. Enter every day he and his neighbor would knock back and forth. And just this little thread. A human connection. Spanish says. Sustained him. But the story doesn't end there after the war the israeli soldiers were released and they made their way back to israel and szenes was able to talk for the first time. With the man who had been his neighbor. The trauma of the imprisonment had warren differently on different people. And the neighbor did not look good. He looked frail. Unshattered. Finish. Eagerly thanked him and explain how much that little bit of shared connection had meant to him. How would it save time. The guy just listened and nodded. And then said. But there's something you don't know. You were probably knocking with your hand i was knocking with my head. I wanted to die. Some say we never really know what's going on on the other side of the wall. But we can't now. We're trapped inside our own mine. We make assumptions based on what we want to believe about others and we are so often wrong. Some say that the other is completely unknowable. But even the people closest to us will somehow. In some way always be strangers. They say we're born alone and we die alone. Although i have to say when my kids were born i distinctly remember being there too. Pretty sure. Of course the philosophers who say this don't mean being physically alone but that in some existential way we are all alone and unknowable. I don't believe this actually. Because in our unitarian faith in the oneness of all you on your side of the wall and me on my side of the wall are ultimately one. I got one that has got to be on some level in some way someday. Accessible. I believe that we can be deeply known. For the most part we aren't however because being known requires us to expose our real self. Which is terrifying. For most of us our real selves have some dark or at least unattractive side to them. Portraying from the time we're young to be tireless in our pr and spin campaign putting on a good face and putting our best foot forward hiding the hard stuff from public view. But it's there. Sometimes it's really deep and ugly. And painful. Imagine the courage it took for david saanich his neighbor to confess that he had been hitting the wall with his head. Admitting to the catastrophic unraveling that had taken place within him. Think of the courage it takes to admit that you have a mental illness. Or serious physical illness. Or that you're an alcoholic. Or that you were abused. Or that you were an abuser. Does an element of shame that often accompanies our places of deepest darkness. And that shame makes it unspeakable. Often it's less dramatic than that often but we need to hide it's just that we're ridiculous. New york times columnist tim kreider has a wonderful piece about this issue of being known. He suggests that deep down we're all ridiculous. He writes anyone worth knowing is inevitably also going to be exasperating. Making the same obvious mistakes over and over dating imbeciles. Endlessly relapsing into their dumb addictions and self-defeating habits. Blind for their own hilarious flaws and blatant contradictions and fiercely devoted to whatever keeps them miserable. And he's right. Even if we don't have a body buried in our backyard we are all at the very least on some level ridiculous. Trying desperately to hide it. As if we're the only one. As if there's something fundamentally and uniquely wrong with us and we can't afford to let anyone see it. Because we fear that if anyone should see it. If anyone should see our sad and embarrassed themselves for what they really are. Then they wouldn't love us. That's the fear. But if we were really known. We wouldn't be loved. But here's the paradox. Of course in order to be loved. You have to be known. Videos of somebody loves your pr spin image. Then who is it exactly that they're loving. That shiny happy person doesn't actually exist. The whole world could be in love with that person and you would still feel lonely. The love wouldn't even touch you. To be loved you have to let people. Cu. You have to be exposed and vulnerable. It's clear from his contacts by biblically knowing someone is to have intercourse with them. Your wall your boundary is penetrated by the understanding of others. The promise of universalism is that we are loved. In spite of and because of being known. In spite of and because of all of who we are. None of us will be rejected no matter how shameful our past. No matter how ridiculous. Our present. The promise of forgiveness and redemption is at the core. As it is of many religions. I'm not catholic and i've never been to confession but my guess is that confession is about exactly this desire to be fully known so that you can be loved and accepted. You get to share all your most shameful acts and even your shameful thoughts. You turn yourself inside out and you say. Here i am. Here is the worst of me. Am i still love your literally speaking through a perforated wall the metaphor is perfect and the priest lets you know that yes you are still loved. It's a hard thing to do but i imagine that the sense of liberation must be profound. Tim kreider right so wisely if we want the rewards of being loved. We have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known. Insulting each of our new members this morning. Emily been ron kim gate and alex this is my challenge to you. Let yourself be known here. Let yourself be known. Take the risk of coming out from behind your walls. You just joined this new community some of you don't know a lot of people here yet and you can still make choices about what you want this place to be for you. I think we all crave authentic connection especially here in new york city where we so often cocoon ourselves especially in the winter when we have physical layers upon layers between self and other. Enter here we are. A spiritual community. A sanctuary away from the harsh cold of city life. If there's anywhere in the world where you could experiment with being vulnerable. This is it. There are countless ways to do it here for all of us one great ways to join a small group in our small group ministry program. These are covenanted confidential groups where we share and explore our spiritual journeys together. You can join a dinner group. Work on a committee go for a tnt brunch. However you do it i'm challenging you and everyone in this room. To decide but this is a place where you are going to be real. Come what may. And in equal measure it's all of our jobs. To make it safe. To do that here. To make it really really safe. This is a challenge to because to really know another requires you to approach them with an open heart. Listen undefended. Regardless of whether you like what you hear and you will not always like a. It requires you to be willing to accept a person. Even when you can't accept their actions. It requires you to be willing to be changed. David spanish open himself by making an authentic connection with his neighbor sharing his experience and inviting the same authenticity and return. He got it. I'm sure the truth with painful to hear. If he had known the truth about what was going on on the other side of the wall at the time. He would never have been able to get the solace from medved he got. We want people to be who we want them to be. And letting them be who they are. It's hard. Knowing one another requires great acts of courage on both sides of the wall. Many great stages professor we are only fully human in our relationship to others that the hermit is not just withdrawing from humanity as a whole but somehow withdrawing from his own humanity as well. The kind of related they're talking about. Isn't the high what's up kind of casual relationship of everyday and counter. Although there's nothing wrong with that. They're talking about the. Who are you really in there. And how do i resonate with that in here. That kind of relationship. We can't have that with everyone that we made but we can make it our goal to seek that kind of relationship with more people more often here. So when someone is happy hour asks you how things are going. Tell them. Really tell them. And when you ask this kind of question ask it from your heart. It takes more courage than you would think. But the reward of all of this courage all of this truth-telling and hard work on both sides of the wall is immeasurable we get to not be alone. Really not alone. We got to be seeing us who we are and all of our successes and all of our shame and all of our beauty and all of our ridiculousness. We got to create a community here that's a real community. One where bridges are being built. And walls are falling bit-by-bit. All the time everyday. We bring each other hope. In the cold of winter. Please rise in body or spirit for our final him come sing a song with me number 346.

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Constraint-based-Living.m4a

During a concert that has gone down in history the great violinist itzhak perlman broke a string instead of stopping to replace it as one might think that he might try to do he kept playing and he finished the piece. Finding the notes on the other strings. When the piece was finished the astounded audience gave him a standing ovation and clamored for him to come speak the approach the microphone and said. It is our task. To make music. With what remains. On the most literal level he met what remained of his violin referring to what remained of his health since he contracted polio at age four and walked with crutches and leg braces he plays violin sitting down metaphorically he may make a life of beauty with what remains to each of us after the storms of life leave us drenched battered and diminished. This performance might have seemed. Freakishly brilliant and it was but actually constraints can be so helpful to the creative process but some artists go out of their way to create artificial constraints within which they can work the french author georges perec wrote a 300-page novel let these puppies heal without the use of the letter e. There's an english translation that also doesn't use the letter e just for reference i've already used 209 he's in this sermon and i plan to continue using them liberally former nyu professor louisbury road a constraint face dissertation about constrain face writing. He also writes poetry while riding the new york city subway system. The rules are each stopped you have to write one line. Each transfer is a new stanza no rewrites. Here's one of his poems what genre of pulchritude. What fable of conviction fires your puttering engine. Don't worry i didn't know what pulchritude matt either i had to look it up it means beauty. This is not to say that all constraints are productive poverty hunger lack of healthcare these are not productive constraints billions of people around the world suffer crushing constraints that makes survival the only possible goal self-actualization creativity don't even enter the picture but spiritual teachers like artists have found that voluntary constraints. Can create great inner freedom. Fasting. The discipline of daily prayer or meditation. Going on a silent retreat. Keeping dietary laws. Giving up something for lent. In the story about the boot at that megan told sidharth i gave up all his wealth he gave away all of his fine clothes. Handwara simple robe he ate only one meal a day. The teaching was clear but he could not have had the spiritual breakthrough said he had if he had stayed living in luxury and the royal palace. Sabbath is another constraint based spiritual practice that has rules depending on your religion and your practice you might not work you might not buy things or turn on a light or drive on the sabbath. The work and the errands that you would otherwise do in 7 days have to get done in six after the service today as part of our sabbath sunday we're going to have a panel discussion with three sabbath keeping people from three different religious traditions one jewish one seventh-day church of god and one former mormon uu each of them will talk about the. I've limiting their freedom and how in certain ways it actually leads to an abundance of freedom in other ways the sabbath constraints are productive constrained they can allow you to bask in the poker to dove the present. This is a hard sell for unitarian universalist not the basking in the poker to that the present part but the rules part. Most of us in this room do not voluntarily constrain ourselves at all. In fact we try to eliminate constraints from our lives as often as possible. For some are attractions unitarian-universalism is part of this quest. Collectively. We've had some bad experiences with the constraints imposed by religion. Especially when it comes to sexuality family and gender. As recently as a few weeks ago we've seen a case in north carolina where we saw the power of religious authority to constrain others and violate their rights in the most intimate ways and places. Until it's for very good reason that we are weary of religious rules and constraints. As john described so nicely in his homily we legitimately reject some of the lines that others have drawn and we proudly color outside those lines. And that's all good. It's right to color outside lines that are oppressive or arbitrary. And to help others color outside those lines. But we're ics missing something as religious liberals. Is when we stop there. When we go no further in our spiritual growth. Been drawing outside of the imposed lines when we try to live with no lines at all. Then we run the risk of a kind of moral chaos. We run the risk of a kind of spiritual aimlessness we don't challenge ourselves to go beyond our comfort zone. In a world where everything goes. It's hard to actually go deep. Because we reject dogmatic sabbath rules for example we can effectively wind-up never stopping working and consuming. Because we reject kosher dietary laws we eat absolutely anything we want. Because we reject constraints around our sexuality we sometimes end up being careless with our sexual energy. Is it kind of giddy freedom. In the place we've arrived right now as religious liberals it was well-earned and it was a vital step to get here and now i believe it's time for us to take the next step as john so aptly put it it's time to redraw our lines. To use the three examples i just mentioned we could reject dusty old sabbath rules about not drinking or dancing on the sabbath but embraced a practice of enjoying a day together without work and shopping we can reject kosher dietary laws but embrace a practice of eating food that's healthy for the planet and humane for farmworkers and animals we can reject the idea that others with whom and when we can have sex and embraced a practice of deep respect and responsibility in our sexuality. These are all just examples but the point is that as religious liberals. We must still take our spiritual journeys seriously. We can still believe in right and wrong. We can acknowledge that we are sometimes tempted to do things that are harmful. We can believe that what we do matters. And we should hold one another accountable for living up to our values. And when we do this. When we re draw our lines. And then live within the lines we've drawn we begin to live with a deep spiritual dignity. At the end of the day as much as we may try to escape our constraints. Constrained we remain. Like it or not life is full of constraints that we don't choose financial constraints health constraints. Constraints based on our abilities and aptitudes are gender or sex the technology available in the time and place that we were born constraints based on our responsibility to children's parents to people we love we work within these constraints. Sometimes we seek to overcome them off and we gripe about them. But they are often and movable. They form the absolute boundaries of the possible in our lives. The ultimate constraint on all our lives of course is that. They end. We will all die. And this fact gives a meaning and an urgency to our lives that otherwise would be impossible death is the most productive constraint of all. It forces us to ask ourselves what genre of pulchritude what fable of conviction fires your puttering engine. Life is precious. Because it ends and the stakes are high because we cannot do everything we want to do. There's not enough time. Not enough resources we don't have enough strength enough knowledge we are to drenched better than diminished by the storms of life. So it is our task to make our choices deliberately. And lovingly. Like itzhak perlman if we find that we can't walk well it is our task to find something that we can do exceedingly well sitting down and when we feel that life has taken too much from us. It is our task to make music with what remains please rise and body or spirit for our final him building a new way number 1017 in the teal paperback hymnal.

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Happiness-Is-Bad-For-The-Economy.m4a

Sometimes the universe is annoyingly literal and giving us what we ask for take a declaration of independence in which a group of british colonists to we're trying to establish a new country proclaimed our inalienable right not to happiness but to the pursuit of happyness the universe said okay and everything. Happiness isn't very good for the economy. If you were happy with what you had why would you need more. How do you spell an anti-aging moisturizer you make someone worry about aging. How do you get people to vote for a political party. You make him worry about immigration. How do you get them to buy insurance by making them about everything how do you get them to buy a new smartphone by making them feel as if they are left behind. This is the story that ilya told us about what happened to her. She felt like she was being left behind and she was in some ways and she eventually bought a smartphone aaliyah was actually less susceptible to this pressure than most of us because she held out for so long. But it's clear that we live in a society in which desire and discontent is manufactured and intentionally woven into the fabric of our lives. Social media is ilya said is intentionally made addictive so they will keep clicking and generating more ads use but it's not just technology many products are designed to be addictive particularly junk food as soon as we have the enjoyment of eating one potato chip or chocolate chip cookie that enjoyment is eclipsed by the craving for another one and that is absolutely by design and product that we don't consume in that same way feature planned obsolescence computers quickly get clunky and slow and lose their shine appliances break early and often. Clothing get spilled and just look slightly worn and loses its luster and we start to think. That our lives would be better maybe and we might be happier if only we had a new one. Sometimes we feel like we need. A new one. The i'm not talking about actual addictions. Bike to heroin for example or situations where someone actually need something. Clearly if you don't have enough to eat or you don't have a roof over your head or you or your family are not safe then your desire for more is appropriate and healthy but the thing is that even when the scarcity is not real. It feels real. The sum total of our culture teaches us that we are always somehow operating at a deficit. It's always a slight deficit that gold ring is always just slightly out of reach if we just had this one more thing just a little bit more money if we just lost five more pounds. Just one more snapchat snap just one more one more one more and it never end. Happiness satisfaction fulfillment is always elusive always out there on the horizon somewhere. This very human trait of always pursuing the next thing is obviously made worse by corporate capitalism. But it's been part of the human story for a very long time and so religious and spiritual communities have known for a very long time but that very same trait that may have helped us survive at one point can also be spiritually impoverished name. They can leave us perpetually hungry. It can make us servants of whatever and whoever it is is dangling that tries. And it can distract us from the true work of turning inward to ourselves to our growth to real relationships and to doing things that matter in the world. Is an old cartoon that speaks to the buddhist angle on this in this cartoon it's the dalai lama's birthday and you see him sitting there opening a gift the gift justin opened and he's looking inside and the caption says he's saying nothing. There isn't anything that could possibly have been inside that gift box that would have enhanced his life in anyway. Buddhism offers many teachings around us including the basic buddhist idea that all suffering stems from desire. We find a different version of this idea woven through the ten commandments through from jewish tradition one commandment teaches us flat-out to not have it our neighbors stuff. Other commandments teach us to not try to force the world to give us things through harmful means stealing or lying or committing adultery or even killing. And one commandment gives a spiritual practice for changing our own relationship to the world. From one of pursuing more and more and more. 21 of basking in the author and reverence and wonder of everything that we already have and that is the practice of keeping a sabbath day. Buddhism judaism and other religious tradition including our own worship services here at first you. Give us a path. To connect with the ultimate source of happiness but never runs dry and never gets old and never needs an upgrade. When we commit ourselves to a path like this we find. We tend to find that our desire for spiritually empty calories. Declines and our engagement with the real-world gets deeper we seek out real relationships face-to-face. Real people the human contact of a hand. For a hug. We slow down more often and really listen. And maybe we're not even on instagram at the same time. Our eyes more often look for the brilliance expanse of the sky more than the flat glow of a screen we when we taste a chip or a cookie or a strawberry or a good hunk of bread we savor the experience more and find a little more gratitude for that moment of pleasure and slowly replacing the constant frenzy of striving we start to find a kind of calm that it doesn't mean that we have to become buddhist monks or throw away our phones or never buy anything again but it does mean that like elliot we need to practice a degree of resistance and be very intentional about the technologies that we use and the products that we buy knowing that these things in our lives lives we need to build in breaks from them. On our next second sunday here at first you mother's day may 13th we'll have our last cellphone check of the year as you come in the front doors for worship you'll have a chance to check your phone just like you would check a coat that a coat check for you until after the service or after the community lunch. How do you say to yourself i don't really need that i turn it off anyway i'll tell you it's different. But it's physically not with you it's different. And that little insecurities that we feel when we are untethered is part of the point. I invite all of us to try that. Try some form of sabbath practice. Try making active decisions like elia about what kinds of technology were going to use and not use. Try meditating everyday. Try taking responsibility for our own happiness instead of always seeking it continually outside as benjamin franklin pointed out the constitution only guarantees you the right to pursue happiness you have to catch it yourself. For most of us the pursuit of happiness that leads to actual happiness is an internal one i don't have to tell you how complicated the external world is we struggle with that complexity daily the inner pursuit for happiness is certainly challenging but it's simple and when were focused on that inner pursued when were asking for support from the universe to does bath and what we already have when we're connecting with that gratitude everyday for each new day for each new breath we may also experience the universe has quite literally and answering with a simple you're already there please join me in singing it to the gift to be simple number 16 and your hymnal please rise and body or spirit.

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Abandon-The-Perfect.m4a

We shall shew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. The words of martin luther king jr.. My friends the universe just slip a folded up note. Of hope. Across the desk to us. This past week we saw our justice system engaging in the checks and balances set in place by the founders of our nation the muslim ban was struck down in the 9th circuit court of appeals. To support reproductive rights. Elected officials. Who support our current administration are hearing loudly from their constituents all over this country that they will be held accountable. And in this black history month of misogynist white state senate majority leader silence a woman's voice resulting in a rallying cry for feminists and. More attention. To a black woman's voice. That needed to be her. There was also frightening news. Ice raids. His temper our hope my own congregation that i served previously and alexandria virginia works closely with a homeless shelter and food pantry on route 1 in alexandria virginia that food pantry told rising hope was raided by ice. So the mountain of despair is sometimes feeling like the everest. Of despair and yet there is still hope. For me hope began with the women's march. Many of us participated in the march in washington dc and here in new york city. We felt the very real surge of excitement out our strength and numbers all over the world it was beautiful and empowering and we made history. The marches were an inspiration. The organizers of the march racially diverse group of women from different backgrounds with different religious beliefs they were incredibly intentional and how they went about organizing the march and i have so much respect and gratitude for these brave women willing to step up and lead. My full story begins the day before however friday january 20th 2017 my partner james my 24-year old daughter starling and i spent the day in downtown d.c. protesting the presidential inauguration it was terrifying. Coming from the people who were there to celebrate their win. We disrupted their ability to celebrate. Unfettered by creating human chains to block entrances to the inauguration and to the parade afterward. Most of the folks we encountered were not used to being told that they couldn't have their way and they didn't always handle it super well it was really really awkward for me at times and i definitely was. Stepping outside of my comfort zone of beloved community that day people screams at me. Keep in mind i was also with my daughter so it's a little very extra tough at times thinking of her there was a woman who threatened to throw her hot coffee on me but it was also actually funny at times and i think that this is important because we need to be in the linked arms you. The next morning the three of us headed back downtown for the women's march as we emerged from union station and walked toward our meet-up place on the national mall surrounded by so many people obviously going to the women's march nude hope and a surge of relief to see so many more people than there were the day before. Bad my daughter stated with no small amount of disdain. This crowd is even wider than the inauguration crowd yesterday. The smile faded from my face i felt my spirits flag. I looked around and i saw it. I'm trying to remember like yeah maybe maybe she's right. God. Spirit of life source of all thank you for young. People. Really i mean this is they're calling because you're calling for so many generations it has been the young who not only see the injustice has and the faults and our society but they are also the ones who bring their energy to the streets to fight for justice they hold the rest of us accountable and push the boundaries that we thought we'd already pushed as far as they could go. They open our eyes and give us a renewed perspective they guide us. To an encounter with the imperfect. Around the country we've seen not only college students but high school students and elementary school students walking out of their schools and protest of the injustice has that they see are being perpetrated at the highest levels of our government. High school walkouts and protests justice last week in new york city were organized by in park by a teenage muslim woman my heart swells with hope. And gratitude. Atlas bravery. So the day after the march my daughter did say that although she was frustrated with many aspects of the march she could see that it was important and it did accomplish something that so many who would never have otherwise participated in a protest to feel safe doing so. Many were awakened to activism through their participation. That is a beautiful and important thing that was an inspiration. However her criticisms remained with me and so i decided that i would seek out commentary addressing the faults of the march. What really stuck with me are the critiques concerning gender identity. Class and race. For many female identified people the pink hat just didn't fit their own physical bodies or racial or gender identities for many the insistence on behaving well. Did not fit their radical sensibilities and for many the notion of owning our power as female identified human beings and allies of these people who have been oppressed. Based on our biological sex or our chosen sex or gender identity. That notion of owning our power was. Incredible amazing there aren't even words to describe. That. Revolutionary feeling. It is really important for us however to consider what would have happened if the women's march in washington d.c. have been populated by predominantly black and brown women. What if it was filled with the working poor who are not able to attend because they couldn't afford to not work for a day or because they couldn't afford to buy a bus to get to d.c.. How would the police have treated them. We need to think about why women of color did not feel compelled to attend the march in large numbers and why someone chose to publicly questioned the march. Justice were living in community. Building a better world. It's all messy imperfect work. Whether it's the crack that lets the light in or the scratch in the diamond that can be made into a beautiful flower no matter the imperfection let it be the thing that enables us to see with new eyes. And appreciate with a whole new perspective. When we are willing to admit that we've made mistakes and then work to remedy them. We open up a space for collaboration and growth. If i can say to you. I made a mistake. How much more likely are you going to be open to me and work with me. It works for movements as well. So it's okay that it wasn't the perfect march it's okay when it's not the perfect space community it will be better next time but it will only get better if we are able to see those cracks in the facade and embrace the light coming through them we can make a better world. We cannot do it by ignoring our faults and our mistakes. We need to listen to young clear feminist and muslims and the undocumented and people of color we need to take their criticisms seriously. Because when we do when we allow ourselves to abandon perfection. We open ourselves up to the miraculous. As we move from the women's march to protest and action let us listen to marginalized voices so that we can figure out how to leverage our privilege in order to be in solidarity with one another we have an opportunity to do that here today. By listening and learning from our guest najee. And dr. debbie allen tester. As garnet mentioned earlier in her announced that they will be here for a discussion with us about xenophobia islamophobia after the service. At a time when bigotry and hatred is being sanctioned. And encouraged and codified and policy at the highest levels of our government. Our liberal unitarian universalist faith compels us to respond by speaking truth to power and mobilizing support for those who are under siege and free of religious freedom and meaning. As stated on our uua website there is a sense of urgency. And i need for vigilance and there is clarity that we must act not alone but together and we must state in the strongest possible terms our commitment in these troubling times. We will commit to speak out and to act in support of basic human rights. This is a preamble to a declaration of conscience from our unitarian universalist association and. Our unitarian universalist service committee. I'm going to share it with you now and i'm closing with these words because they are powerful affirmation of our core values. Declare our willingness to put these values into action as people of faith. I signed the declaration online and i invite you to sign it to we will post a link to it in the comments of this livestream on facebook and share it around in addition our board is going to offer up the opportunity for our congregation to vote on whether or not to sign off on this declaration of conscience as a congregation so that will happen after the service at the end of this month so in 2 weeks we have the opportunity as a congregation to sign this. Here is the statement at this extraordinary time and our nation's history we are called to affirm our profound commitment to the fundamental principles of justice equity and compassion. 2 truth. And the core values of american society. In the face of looming threats to immigrants muslims people of color and the lgbtq community and the rise of hate speech harassment and hate crimes. We affirm our belief in the inheritance worth and dignity of every person. In opposition to any steps to undermine the right of every citizen to vote or to turn back advances and access to health care and reproductive right we affirm our commitment to justice and compassion in human relations. And against actions to weaken or eliminate initiatives to address the threat of climate change actions that would threaten not only our country but the entire planet we affirm our unyielding commitment to protect the interdependent web of all existence. We will oppose any and all unjust government actions to deport register discriminate or despoil. As people of conscience we declare our commitment to translate our values into action as we stand on the side of love with the most vulnerable among us we welcome and invite to join us for justice the time is now. Yes. The time is now this is the time we were made for abandon the perfect for the miraculous reach up put your hand on that arc of justice. And that. Spend it with all of your mites blessed be and aiden.

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Keeping-The-Peace.m4a

When jesus made his triumphal entry into jerusalem we can imagine that the sun was out and the mood was celebratory his systems had just stolen the donkey for him just like that saying that the lord needed it and it works out so he could ride it into the city. Others were throwing their cloaks and palm fronds down the path in front of him making a royal carpet as he walked along. Crowds of peasants for lining the sides of the road to jerusalem shouting blessed is the king who comes in the name of the lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven that was the text of the benedictus we heard earlier except that they probably shot it and aramaic not latin blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord. The crowd was raucous and excited and it was by all appearances a good day for jesus. And yet i'm just a jesus ends up crying. Because the pharisees who were the wealthy and leave jews in cahoots with the roman occupiers. Do not like all the unruly commotion. As far as they were concerned this was a flash mob of the unwashed masses they were nervous about people calling this guy a king when the only king was supposed to be caesar. And so is jesus rode by on his donkey they approached him sternly and said teacher. Order your disciples to stop. And jesus answered i tell you if these were silent the stones would shout out. He sounded confident i imagined when he said it but it was all bluster. Because in the very next passage in the book of luke it says and he came here. And saw the city. He wept over it. Saying if you even you had recognized on this day the things that make for peace but now they are hidden from your eyes indeed the days will come upon you when your enemies will crush you to the ground you and your children within you and they will not leave within you one stone upon another. Because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from god. So as jesus was standing there outside the city looking in at the city of jerusalem he was already despairing the pharisees comment to him their attempt to keep the peace by telling him to make his disciples stop making so much noise showed him that they were not even close to ready to hear his message if you had recognized the things that make for peace. He said. But they did not recognize the things that made for real peace. Their version of piece was crowd control. Social order. Preservation of institutions the pharisees version of piece was obsequious compliance with power. In this case the roman empire because after all it was the roman empire they held all the cards best to just. Keep quiet and reap whatever social rewards might come your way. And so jesus wept for his people seeing how far they had strayed how corrupt they had become how they couldn't recognize a message or a messenger from god if it was staring them in the face. He knew that this kind of short-sighted immediate keeping of the peace. Would make for a long-term disaster with no peace at all. He described the disaster in the tradition of the ancient hebrew prophets as being vanquished by one's enemies the whole people crushed with not one stone of the buildings left standing this was the faith that he foresaw for jerusalem and it made him weep its people his people would trade the possibility of long-term peace with an uppercase fee for short-term piece with a lowercase p. Jesus's relationship to peace is ambiguous throughout the scriptures in the famous palm sunday seeing the animal he rides into jerusalem is a donkey which is considered an animal of peace. As opposed to a horse. Which could be considered an animal of war. A triumphant king in that culture would have ridden into town on a warhorse. In the book of mark jesus is said to ride a donkey and a colt. The fold of a donkey. Was he really riding to animals. One commentator suggests that the point wasn't that he was riding to animals but that he was riding the most unworldly like of animals. A nursing mother donkey with her little cult. Running along beside her so clearly this is not somebody who's supposed to be riding into battle. And yes the very first thing he does when he gets to jerusalem this donkey riding peacenik. He gets to jerusalem which has the has the temple the biggest temple the one and only huge and opulent temple the headquarters of institutional judaism at the time the very first thing he does when he gets there is to fly into a rage and start overturning the tables of the money-changers yelling. He says it is written my house shall be called a house of prayer but you are making it a den of robbers. And he drives out everybody who is buying and selling their. Someone did that today and made a huge seeing and destroyed a stores things and drove out all the customers. He or she would be arrested for among other things disturbing the peace. And jesus himself expresses some contempt for peace at least with a lowercase p in matthew he's quoted as saying do not think that i came to bring peace on earth i did not come to bring peace but a sword for i came to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's enemies will be the members of his household and even more pointed in the book of luke he says his disciples but now let him who has no sword. Sell his robe. And buy one. Next week in what will be part two of this sermon i'll talk more about the kind of peace with a capital p that jesus may have had in mind when he wept and talked about the things that make for peace. But for now i think we can safely say. That the kind of peace that simply maintains the social order. Was not a kind of peace that interested jesus. At all. And oh my goodness how we could all stand to learn from that. I think most of us here know the power of inertia. We know how tempting it is to not rock the boat in our lives even when we know that that boat isn't carrying us somewhere where we want to go. In our family is we sometimes try to keep the peace just have a pleasant dinner just for today and put off raising the heart issues for another time and that other time never comes same thing at work you get unfairly passed over for promotion or don't get the benefits that you deserve or more seriously you get harassed and there was so much pressure to keep the peace. By staying quiet. It's hard to raise the rockets and make your life a lot worse in the short run for the possibility of making life better for yourselves and others in the long run. I've heard parenting described this way as a battle between the days and the years. If you're concerned we're just about the day you would have course give your child the ice cream cone that she's throwing a tantrum for just to keep the peace but if your concern is for the years you know that approach will teach the kid to throw tantrums and the years will be worse yet how many of us have never given in just this once to make the day more pleasant. The pharisees tell jesus to shut his people up and then jesus weeps over their shortsightedness and the disasters that will ensue. Of course the epic grand scale reading of this story for today is our cultural response to global warming. The pharisees of this country are working overtime right now to try to keep the peace. And silence the crowds that are claiming the arrival of a new way of thinking. Even when the new way of thinking comes humbly riding on a donkey it is unspeakably threatening. Just like the pharisees and the romans in jesus's day the institutions of power today desperately wants to keep things just the way they are. Keep the economy growing keep jobs in the sectors we have them. Use the technology we have available to extract more and more from the earth. Keep everyone quiet in the moment. By contrast the changes that the small band of rebels represents would bring short-term upheaval and real loss to the current generation. In this sense they for we are not coming to bring peace but a sword. We know the things are going to have to get worse before they can get better. We know that if we don't make sacrifices now and change our ways our future looks bleak indeed. Jesus described it as being vanquished by an enemy. In our case the enemy is simply the dispassionate law of cause and effect. The destruction of the natural world that will collapse on us through floods and droughts and famines until in jesus's word not one stone is left upon the other. Like jesus. We can stand outside the city. Look at that future and weep. Or. We can do something about it. We can learn from the lessons of history and the teachings of our profits when so much is at stake. Let's not resign ourselves to peace with a lowercase p. Not in our personal lives are socialized our work lives our family life and not in our communal life together here on earth let's welcome the new ways of seeing. The messages of positive transformation and all the messengers who bring them as gifts from god or the universe as a whole. Let's wave are palm fronds and slayer cloaks down and sing a chorus of welcome for all those who come riding into town and body in the light of truth. Next week on easter i'll be talkin about jesus's promise of peace with a capital p. Money said that the pharisees don't recognize the things that make for peace what was the peace that he had in mind. In the meantime i want to give all of us an assignment. This week between palm sunday and easter i invite you to take a little time each day. And meditate on the difference. Between the small piece of social order. In your own life. And the greater peace. That you might achieve if you are willing to give that up. What ways are you and are we as a culture playing it safe. Not rocking the boat. For fear of losing what we have. And in what ways can we let ourselves be inspired by the spring holidays really all of them stories of liberation to break out of that fear. In the name of a true and lasting peace for our own lives and for the world.

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After-Ecstasy-The-Laundry.m4a

I don't know about you but one of the things bed bugs me about books and movies where the heroes live happily-ever-after is that you never get to see them living happily ever after after the big adventure where somebody almost dies but doesn't or the couple risk everything to be together or the kid finally confronts the bully at the end they always just ride off into the sunset. It's like this in the christian gospel to. You got. The resurrection. The juiciest moment the dainumo the whole thing. The story's over. In some versions jesus talks a bit to his disciples and get some parting instructions and then he basically goes up into the sky and sits happily at the right hand of god. Forever. I want to see what happens next. Whether it's a novel or a movie or the bible i want to get to enjoy the new lives of the characters. I want to watch the couple having long relaxed candlelit dinners together. I want to see the kid growing up all confident and happy i want to see jesus doing whatever he does at the right hand of the father and i want to see the women who discovered his empty tomb never doubting their faith even for a second for the rest of their lives but you never see that because for one thing that would actually be boring. Without some problem that needs to be resolved there's no plot. It would be like a football thrown into outer space with no friction they would just keep going in one direction and one speed forever boring. More importantly the happily-ever-after would be unrealistic. There's no such thing as happily ever after in the sense of being unrelentingly happy forever we have moments of great happiness moments of great joy we have breakthroughs and personal triumphs recline physical and emotional mountains we have spiritual awakenings maybe we have a baby maybe we do finally get to marry the person that we love maybe we do finally confront the bully whoever that is in our lives. Maybe those women did see an empty tomb and an angel who knows. But after the euphoria. After the glory and the headies pingley rush of meeting our faith. Passes. We come back to ourselves. Unrefined. That we still have to. Get up in the morning. And go to the bathroom. And feed ourselves. And brush our teeth. We still have to have relationships with other human beings who i'm told can be fickle. Are we are still basically ourselves with our own fears and insecurities and patterns and limitations. We carry most of that with us. Into the next chapter. Because in real life. Unlike in books and movies there usually is. Chapter. After the euphoric moment. There's something else. And that's something else. Is where things actually get interesting. Because whatever is next. The transformation that we have undergone. People who go on meditation retreats for weeks or months or even years off and report heading major spiritual breakthroughs feeling profound liberation from everything that has been causing them pain. But when they returned from the retreat. To the real world they can report feeling the old stuff come rushing back in the anxiety the anger the worried. It said that it can take you as long to integrate what you have learned. As the time that you were away. So if you do 45 years. It can take. Another five years to see that spiritual work bear fruit in your life. Now i know it may seem like i'm being a downer on easter and saying that we can't change but that's not my intention of course we change we always change it may not be a once and for all happily-ever-after kind of change but we do change if we're lucky and intentional we can shift our perspective and elevate our consciousness a bit. In a way that carries over into the next week. For the next year. But i am saying that the transformation doesn't happen all at once i'm trying to take some pressure off. At the idea of these big spectacular moments where boy you better never be the same again or you're a complete loser change tends to be cyclical. Two steps forward one step back. Sometimes even one step forward two steps back. There's no one moment where our football will get thrown into outer space. Jack kornfield the american buddhist teacher. Wrote the book from which i stole the title of this sermon after the ecstasy the laundry. The idea that after the ecstasy of enlightenment. What do you do next. The laundry. The spiritual journey although it has its sparkling vivid liberatory moments is ultimately about the mundane. Being present to the ordinary stuff of life. And accepting the vagaries and impermanence of that process. Kornfeld rice. Promise everyone who practices the cycles of awakening and openness are followed by periods of fear and contraction. Times of profound peace and newfound lover often overtaken by periods of loss. By closing up. Fear or the discovery of betrayal only to be followed again by equanimity and joy. In mysterious ways the heart reveals itself to be like a flower that open. And closes. This is our nature. In the story of jesus in the gospels we seem to be left with that happily ever after story after the resurrection but then but then. The rest of them kristen new testament describes what happens next over the next hundred years. They described the wrestling of the early christian community. How are they going to implement the teachings of jesus in real life. Wow talking and eating and doing the laundry how should they interact with each other are they still jews or not do they still have to follow the laws of the torah or not do they really have to sell all their possessions and give them to the poor like jesus said all of that transformative power of the resurrection has to be given shape in the crucible of real-life the passover story which we are celebrating tuesday at our theater here has a similar ark. It's the israelites journey of liberation from slavery in egypt including 10 plagues and a dramatic escape through the red sea. Rabbis have described it as a birth process with the whole people. Passing through the parted ocean. Like the narrow channel of the birth canal. They're pushed out on the other side reborn. This is the big awakening moment. Of the jewish people. But then the question for them is. Now what. There they are free from slavery in the desert a big open neutral space. And it doesn't say they lived happily ever after. The entire rest. Of the hebrew bible is the account of what to do after that ecstasy of liberation. How will they now create a new society. That doesn't replicate. The oppression of the society that they left. How can i really let go of their slavery. The ten commandments are an answer to this question and the people immediately break them. Two steps forward. One step back. So in a few minutes we're going to do our fire ritual. And i'm going to invite you to think about what you need to let go of. What do you need to let die in yourself in order to be resurrected into new life this frame. Do you need to let go of a relationship. A bitterness. Eliminating self image. Do you need to let go of an idea of who you're supposed to be or what your life is supposed to look like. If you were here last week you'll remember that i said we might need to let go of the navel-gazing pure spirituality to move toward more engagement with the world. Or. We might need to let go of the striving and complexity of the city world. To find our simple song. Whatever it is. Poor that thing or idea but you need to let go of into the little piece of paper that you have with you if you don't have one you can get it from an usher in a minute. You can even write a word. On this little piece of paper. Representing the thing that you need to let die this year. But here's the teaching here is the teaching from the stories of this season. You have to get your paper yet. We're going to get there in just a minute here it's possible that this nanosecond long ritual where the paper combust might not completely transform you you may not live happily ever after after that moment in fact the thing that you are going to try to let go out today might be exactly the same thing that you tried to let go of last year. Which might be the exact same thing that you tried to let go of the year before it's okay it's totally normal. It's not a failure. Not by any means this is the spiritual journey. And just the fact that you are staying with it and revisiting your place of constriction just the act of seeking release over and over again is an act of courage. And the truth is that moments like this. If we approach them earnestly can change us. It might be subtle. And it might be cumulative. But i believe that every time we make an authentic sound coming from deep within us every time we knock on the door of spirit. It opens just a little bit more. Everytime we try out there's a little more listening everytime we say to god or the universe i want to let go of the same or this person or this part of myself as holding me back we gained just a little more breathing space. Everytime we say i want to be reborn this spring we awaken. A little. American breathe that newspring are a new. And then it's up to us to try to bring that little shift in consciousness into our lives as we go shopping as we argue with our loved ones as we exercise as we send text messages as we do our laundry because this is actually where it gets interesting and this is where it gets real so we're going to do our fire ritual now. Just a practical note the piece of paper that you have is a special paper it's flash paper which is a kind of magicians paper that combust immediately when you touch it to a plantain do not try this with a regular piece of paper seriously and press your piece of flash paper to your forehead or to your heart or to your belly and infuse it with that thing. We're going to come up to these three stations in the two side i'll chapel then up here like we usually do during the candle lighting. But this time we're going to touch our piece of. Flash paper to the flame lift it up and let it go karen is going to demonstrate for us how this work. Text take a moment to contemplate and come forward when you're ready.

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On-Flowers-And-Blunders.m4a

Bill buckner died this week if you know one thing about bill buckner it's probably that he was infamous. For making a single mistake. While playing the game of baseball. He was a great baseball player and he was playing for the red sox against the mets in the 1986 world series. The red sox had won the world series and almost 100 years. But they were now in the lead. In the 10th inning of the sixth game of the series the red sox were in the field and they needed just one more out and they would win one more out and the long-suffering boston fans would finally be vindicated buckner was the first baseman the batter hit a slow rolling ground ball toward first base and picking it up. Let the ball roll between his legs. The bats went on to win that game and the world series that year. When we think of the concept of the inherent worth and dignity of every human being the thought for us is generally a sunny happy thing. Monmouth generally easy to accept easy to believe in easy to embrace. At least in theory it's the core of unitarian universalist theology. We may struggle to see the inherent worth of someone like hitler. But at the end of the day when the topic comes up we will eventually stop by and say stage lie to one another yes even hitler. But in reality the practice of honoring the inherent worth of each person is not easy at all. It's hard and few of us do it well. Our society failed added all the time people get stripped of their worth for sims far less than genocide. Sometimes just for making a simple error. Some red sox fans were so anguished that losing the world series that year in their hearts they stripped bill buckner of his worth. His entire career his entire life in fact got reduced to that one blender. He received death threats. He was harassed and taunted everywhere he went. A globe columnist road when that ball went through bill buckner's legs hundreds of thousands of people did not just view that as an error they view that as something that he has done to them personally. Finally buckner and his family couldn't stand living in the boston area anymore and they moved to idaho where apparently no one cares about the red sox they probably just thought it was pretty cool that he was a professional baseball player at all but his story is a cautionary tale. But how little it take for someone to forfeit their token of worth in this world. 1. Mistake. The potential for this kind of cruelty intensifies exponentially when our society strips entire groups of people of their worth. People can be stripped of their worth for the color of their skin which is why we're compelled to state the obvious the black lives matter. They can be for their gender identity which is why we have to say that trans and gender-nonconforming people exist. It can be for their political views. For the size of their bank account for their age for what they wear for how much they weigh for where they live for what they do for work for what ill-conceived messages they post on social media it turns out that we readily strip people of their worth when we think that their existence threatens our team and when someone comes along and prophetically claims that human worth is inalienable that black lives matter that trans people exist such a person can be targeted to. So here we are at the flower communion. Pictures of celebration of the unique and inherit worth of every one of us norbert capek invented this ritual in his unitarian church in prague in 1923 as an alternative to the traditional communion with bread and wine which he thought might evoke eye-rolling and some of his post-religious members he envisioned as representing individual. Egypt cruise special beauty combine to make. And are reputable unrepeatable bouquet. We give and we receive and we commune with one another and the holy. In the prayer the capek wrote for the occasion he called for something quite specific. He said in the name of providence which implants in the sea the future of the tree and in the hearts of men and women the longing for people living in love let us renew our resolution sincerely to be real brothers and sisters regardless of any kind of bar that is strange's us another words with flower communion was a recommitment to not let anything estrange us from one another for prevent us from living in love. That is really hard to do especially these days. We tend to think of the flower communion as a happy happy spring thing it's not marred by anything too serious it's uncomplicated as innocent it's pretty it's our easter in some ways but the easter of chocolate bunnies and dyed eggs not the easter of crucifixion and resurrection. But in truth the flower ceremony like easter and compasses both. It encompasses the joy of the recognition of the holy and each of us. The light beauty of the flowers the sharing of community. But it also contains. Proceed with ended up something not so innocuous and not so light. The pushback against fascism. The pushback against prejudice including our own. The pushback against our tendency to simplify the universe and reduce people to one quality or one mistake. The nazis realize said norbert tropics theology was not an oculus at all. When they captured frog in 1940 they arrested him. According to their court records they found his belief in the inheritance were that each person too dangerous to the right for him to be allowed to live. He was sent to a concentration camp at dachau where he was placed in depriester block the section for clergy who would oppose the regime and he was killed there. To truly honor the inherent worth and dignity in one another is not easy. It's personally challenging and when we act on it publicly it can come at a cost. I'm sure each of us can think. Of ways and times and people for whom in our hearts. We have robbed them of their token of worth. Enter as we participate in the flower communion today i invite each of us to use it as the recommitment that norbert capek envisioned. Recommit to honoring the bouquet of human flowers. The children will be handing out flowers for you to take home and is a practice of opening. Just accept the one that they give you. Don't say oh i wanted just water that water a different color a different size receive the one that they give you as a special gift from the universe for you. And seek the beauty in it. The good news is that humans are able to grow like a flower and change. Especially when we feel safer. When we engage in spiritual practice. When we expand and wisdom and life experience. When we get to know the other. We are often able to embrace other than wider and wider circles. Even the bill buckner story has a happy ending. After living in idaho for years resenting the hell out of the red sox fans for scapegoating him. After the red sox had 12 world series has after that bill buckner got a phone call inviting him to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the opening game next season in fenway park. But finally he agreed. And the fenway park crowd gave him a lengthy standing ovation. He looks back on that day is the day that's awesome forgave him and he forgave them. Before we begin our flower communion here this afternoon we're going to sing our final him irish kalush go to traditional czech folk song it's on the insert in your order service the choir will sing first adam will explain how it's going to work.

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Rules-For-Resurrection.m4a

The story of easter is the story of a resurrection resurrection is a miracle and as i talked about last week a miracle is something explosively new that's created when heaven and earth crash into each other when a spark of spirit lands on human hard work when jesus rises from the dead in the biblical story it is just such a miracle whether or not you believe that this was a physical resurrection his body dies but his presence intensifies and his voice amplifies the community comes together around him and something new is created that has lasted for some 2,000 years in some very important ways jesus's death was not an end but a beginning. How did he do this how did you pull this off with all of the forces of society were arrayed against him he was a poor jewish peasant with some wacky ideas about religion trying to take on the entire roman empire. End with his resurrection. Of whatever kind you think it was he trumps them. How did he do it how can we do it many of us want to invoke. A resurrection in our own lives. Because resurrection comes in many different shapes and sizes. It's not always the high drama of the empty tomb. Resurrection can be as personal as the reuniting of an estranged brother or sister or child and the family is formed a new. It can be as private as a new capacity to take a risk where we were living small and safe before. They can mean embracing the process of aging. Instead of fighting it. It can mean emerging from grief back into the world and finding life. Resurrection of these kind don't just happen by themselves. The forces of inertia and the laws of nature dictates that the stuff tend to stay stuck and the dead tend to stay dead. Some attempted resurrections fail many never even get off the ground but i think that we can look at the story of jesus and of other resurrections that we know in our world. And we can know if notice some common themes that make the magic happen. If we want to try this at home. We can look at what characteristics they share and deduce rules for resurrection. Here are some that i've come up with you could probably think of some more yourselves. Number one. You got to know that you need it. Maybe you're feeling trapped. I need to get untracked maybe you're mired and old family dynamics maybe you're repeating self-sabotage patterns again and again maybe you're addicted to a substance or a phone or something that dulls the pain maybe you're feeling helpless to do anything about the political and nightmares of our day maybe your frozen in fear or disassociate and completely because it hurts to look but if you don't know. That you're trapped or that you're self-sabotaging or addicted or feeling helpless if you can't name it and you don't know that you need a resurrection to begin to fully live your life it's not going to happen. You need to be aware and awake you need to look hard at your own life you need to be able to say that you're living a partial life in some way and that's got to change something is not working and you've got to decide. That that is not acceptable there is too much at stake. To just continue to let it slide. Jesus knew that he needed. A resurrection. His ministry was going fine from a spiritual perspective but he knew that if he just continue doing what he was doing traveling around preaching teaching trying to convince people to join his rebellion against the roman empire he would end up just like the hundreds of other would-be rebel leaders of his day. Dead in the dustbin of history a footnote at best. And so although he famously implored god to not make him go through with it. He alternately went and did the series of steps that he needed to do that would lead to his resurrection he predicted it from the start saying that he would rise up again after 3 days. He named it. He knew that he needed it and that the world needed it. If we're thinking of a miracle as the meeting of heaven and earth. This is the earth. Part. It's practical. It's concrete. It's about the messiness of our lives the gap between how they are and how we want them to be. It's about the moment when we have to make a change. So. Number one. You got to know that you need a resurrection. Number to you got to lean on something larger. Nobody can resurrect themselves. The resurrection can only happen when you give up the conceit of being self-made. Reach out beyond yourself to something larger. Some of us call that something larger.. For some of us it's the spirit of love and liberation or just the way that the universe arcs and bends toward justice. We climb on the slide of that bend and just let go. For some of us that something larger is our community may be here at first you or our circle of family and friends for some of us it's the deep wisdom of our inner selves that allows us to transform from the inside out but we need the humility to recognize that the type of transformation required when we need a resurrection is so profound. But we cannot do it alone. We need people and powers beyond our day-to-day ordinary self. Jesus was in constant conversation with his god. He spoke out loud to god prayed regularly fasted study the scriptures and he also leaned on his human family. His followers and his fellow teachers to help support him and pray with him he was baptized by somebody else. If you need a resurrection and you know that you need a resurrection this would be a good time to start a spiritual practice. If you already have a spiritual practice. This would be a good time to deepen it. Find ways more and more everyday to connect to that larger cell. You're thinking of a miracle as the meeting of heaven and earth. This is the heaven part. Invite that spark of spirit into your life. So. Number one. You got to know you need it. Number two. You got to lean on something larger. The third rule for resurrection. It has to be a third one right there's always three of whatever it is so earlier this week i'm trying to figure out what's the third rule for resurrection it going to be and my daughter is telling me about a project that they're doing in her second grade class where they grow plants from seeds and when the plants make their own fees they didn't plant those seeds to grow new ones and it teaches them about the cycle of life which is a good thing to do in the springtime but i have to admit as cheese excitedly telling me about this i'm not fully paying attention i'm making her and her brother's lunch and she's talking about how they water the plants everyday and. Wait a minute. Hang on. Did you just say you're going to stop. Watering the plant. She said yeah. I said why. So they can die and then we can plant the seeds a second grade was a long time ago for me but i don't remember anything about this. So i asked her teacher for more information and share that with this kind of brassica plant. Once the seeds are fully formed and their pods the plant has to be allowed to die and the seeds dry out before you can plant them. Then they can form a new plant in the wake of the old. So this is the third rule for resurrection. You got to die first. To be clear i'm not talking about physical death jesus went that route but in our case now i'm talking about the death of the part of us that's holding us back. The death of whatever is keeping us down whatever is keeping us stuck and it may be a part of us that's really really comfortable and really familiar it may even be a favorite card. It may even feel like this part is the real me. But if it's living small then it's not the real you it's not the most courageous you it's not the most loving you it's not the you that you will want to have been when you look back on your life jesus had to completely and utterly give himself up to god before the resurrection could happen he had to willingly let himself die. It's a struggle he wants to live like anybody wants to live but he lets go as he's hanging from the cross the text says that he finally says to god into your hands. I commit my spirit. And then the text says that he breathed his last. And then. The resurrection happens. To give up a part of yourself. To let it go up to god to release it to the universe is really hard it requires stopping watering something that you may have been watering your whole life. It may require stopping watering something that you love. It could be. A grudge or resentment from years ago. It could be an outdated beliefs about yourself or your capacity to change. It could be a need to please. It could be an attachment to safety. Or predictability. They can be really hard. To let go but sometimes it's the only way. To evoke. A resurrection. So. Rules for resurrection. You got to know you need it. You got to lean on something larger. And you got to die. You have in your hand a little piece of paper. I want to invite you to think about what you need to let go of what do you need to let die in order to be resurrected into something new this spring. Press that little piece of paper to your heart or your belly or your forehead and pour that thing or that idea into that piece of paper. You can even write a word on it if there's a word that represents the thing that you need to let die. We're going to do our fire ritual now just a practical note the piece of paper that you were given by the ushers and you can still get one if you if you didn't get one on the way in that's a special kind of paper called / paper that just burns up instantly please do not try this with an ordinary different piece of paper it won't work the same way so i will invite you to come up to one of our three stations the two side aisle chapels or this table up here and remember when you come up with your piece of paper remember why you need a resurrection invoke the powers of something larger in your life your god your community your own higher self and then prepare to let go of whatever it is that you need to let go of touch of the flame lifted up to the heavens and let it go i'm going to ask tom carl a worship leader here to demonstrate.

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Love-In-A-Time-Of-Hate.mp3

Good morning good morning. I am. So deeply honored to be here. My name is kevin powell and i just want to thank god. What does opportunity. And his sister karen said. It does not matter if we're christian. Or jewish. A muslim. Or agnostic or atheistic. Is that matter for a straight. Aquare. If we're poor rich i just hope that we all can agree especially. Give me the times that we are in right now. That we all are parts members of the human family the human race commits agree to that. Amen. I want to thank. Reverend annalee by lions. For giving me this opportunity when we pick this date. About six or seven months ago we had no idea. No idea. But we experience just the last couple of days in this country. Revell levi's lines is very dear to me because she co officiated my wedding to my wife jenna parker a year and some change ago. And reason why we asked her is because when we came to this church and visited and weeps at. With reverence and a privately we said you represent love and y'all say love out there. And we said we want to have a ceremony with everyone. Everyone. Knew that they will welcome. I want to thank. Megan henry. Adam pod. Garnett mosaic karen madrone. My wife jennifer parker. For this opportunity i have a lot on my mind a lot of my spirit right now i want to thank all of you all. Just for giving me the time to be in front of you and i'm looking forward to the conversation after. I need to say this. Before i get into the sermon. Which is called love. Can we play together in the time. Of hate. I'm african-american. But because i'm a student of history. And a lover of people. All people. My heart is happy when i think about my jewish sisters and brothers for a second. There was a jewish man named abel meeropol and a black woman. Name billie holiday. Who created wonder most important songs in our history called strange fruit. Back in the 1930s. There was a jewish man. Play robert zimmerman. Who was bob dylan. Who's born in minnesota. Who came to new york. And he was so inspired by what he was seeing all around the country is called the civil rights movement out there. Exodus brother this jewish brother inspired by black people. Cross-cultural exchange. Roll the song. Call blowing in the wind. Do the black man. That was. Affected for filing by the music of this jewish brother bob dylan sam cooke. And you can go to youtube and you can see sam cooke performing blowing in the wind by sam cooke was not yet comfortable writing his own protest song. There was a jewish brother named howard zinn. Who are the young person. Saw. Black people. Protesting. In the south. And is jewish. Person human being. Said i don't know anything about these people. Which led him to also explore the history of america and gave us one of our most important x called a people's history. The united states. But i heard about. Yesterday. Jewish people dead. Because they're jewish. It made me think about 3 years ago. And 9 people. Core black died. As they were in their black church in charleston just like those jewishism brothers were in their synagogue. In pittsburgh. We cannot. Afford. To let people. Continue savannah. I'm white. Your black. I'm jewish. Your crush. I'm muslim. Your booty. I'm poor. You're welcome. Together. I felt the same pain. Yesterday. But i was in dallas. And making my way back here to new york so i could be here with y'all this morning. Nfl 3 years ago. When a white brother. Shottas. In a church in charleston south carolina. Is something wrong with the society. When even. I came into this church. Which is the church of love. And peace. Above all the violence. People killed because they're jewish. People kill because they're black. People kill because they're queer. People kill because they're poor. Is something wrong when i have to think about where the exit. Think about. As you said sister are safety. So. Love. It's alright to cry. Because we should. Shed some tears. For those tears again lead to action are y'all with me out there. Love. In the time of hate. In the last 72 hours. Or so. This is what's happened in our country. Our miracle. 11 people killed. As we just said. In a jewish synagogue. In pittsburgh. The shooter. Having posting anti-semitic. Madness. No one said anything. When you think about this. Audre lorde. Said it best. When you are silent. And you see something. Terrible happening big sanding done. You become complicit. People have not been seeing. What islamophobia. All the answers. Queer sisters and brothers. Anti-black statement. The shooter even as he was shooting. Are jewish sisters and brothers. We saying anti-semitic things. That's cool. I just hate. But in the. That's cool evil and of the devil. We know that the last. Today's. Sister carrie said it. Pythons have been sent to. Doing bill clinton. Barack obama. And a list of people. Who are. Country left-of-center. On wednesday. Is superb suburban. Kill to black people. What a woman. And when a man. To enter. A black church. We know. That this month. Which is breast cancer awareness month and also domestic violence awareness month. Marks the one-year anniversary. Hashtag. Me too. Heterosexual man. Extraordinaire. My wife. Has the shoulders going off broadway next year just like the partynextdoor call she. Okoye play. Which is about the girls and girls in this country. Three on the planet. As a jewish sister. Even the vagina monologues reminded over and over again. 1034 over billion women and girls will suffer some form of gender violence. At the hands. Admit. Love me. That there was all kinds of fear patriots division. We have to say. That donald trump. Who's not from the south. He's not in the midwest. He's from new york city. Stop saying that is just born and raised in new york city. Witches in america. He has busted in a. Error. I don't know about you all the time scene. I've looked through the crack are in this country. I blew through reagan-bush error this country. But the cleanest. Ugliness. The discomfort. The trauma the trauma the trauma that so many of us are experiencing. The constant barrage of presidents. Has created a climate. I believe. Where people think it's okay. Took a little. A woman doctor ford. Took off her own trauma. Old fears. Sit there in front of mostly men. This gentleman. Lisa kavanaugh. Should not be on the supreme court. People disrespect. They belittle her. But she was human. Wasn't she human. And she was real and i smiled. When i said at the very beginning of our harry. Can i please have a coke or some coffee. I bet she was like i'm good now let's do this. And she told her truth. We know. We are living in a time. Weather is extreme. I just came from dallas i've been in san francisco-oakland berkeley. Everywhere i go i see. Homeless communities for people. Everywhere i go my friends who are. Lgbtqia and i'm so glad that there's a queer caucus. As a part of this church. People saying. I'm afraid. Its current space has to be who i am. Because someone and their hate. Make you laugh. We know that this ableism is ageism anti many of us older people. How many of us are anti-people. And we know. And i know. As a black man. Every black person. It's part of the changes that we have seen in this country. Where i come from. My mother this year. Her birthday is august 28th that means she turned 20 on the same day in 1963 as a famous. Her birth certificate is marked colors. She migrated from the south. C with a free education. Raiseme. They have a better life than she did my mother when we talked about. We need to think about. The nannies in brooklyn. You think about working-class women of color. What she moved up here to. The new york-new jersey area was that the help in the home of a wealthy. It was just her and her husband a white man. He did with harvey weinstein. He did with bill cosby did he came out in a roll. It's only. Other. But also talk with people we don't normally have conversations with. This scripture. I want to share with you all. It's from 5:43. 248. You haven't heard. That it hath been said. Is the king james version. Darling. And hate thine enemy. Your enemies. Do good to them that hate you. And pray for them which despitefully use you. In person. That he may be the children of your father. Which is in heaven. She make it this sun rise on the evil and on the good and send it to rain on the just and the unjust. Which love you. What reward have you. Do not even the publican's this is not my words. Do not even the publican's the same. And if your brethren. What's this. What do you need more than others. Not even the republican stuff. Airport. Ebay shofar your mother. It's perfect. Is the scripture saying. Jesus. Was jewish. Jesus jewish. Was jewish. Who's giving us. Misinterpretation. Of jesus. The jesus. Who's the revolutionary. Messianic figure. Gallegos. Is spider-man. Is the most revolution thing we can do. I believe that jesus was saying. It is. It is easy to murder and kill people. A great difficulty. As a human race. What does concept called love. I'm holding my hand up. Or just this past week. Or felt. Something other than love. Towards someone else. Because i believe in being honest. 2018. And then one of the most difficult years. Of my entire life. Struggle. Spiritually. Physically. And i'm struggled emotionally. I'm clear. Karen. I need to be. Back in church. Or some spiritual space in a regular basis. Can we stay safe space y'all. I'm clear and i can't wait. I need to go back to therapy. I'm being serious about that. Because there's no way. You can literally. Things like 11 people killed. In a synagogue simply because they were jewish. And not affect you. I don't know how. Any of us how we identify ourselves gender-wise are multiple identities can hear the story. I'm all these women. Sing me too. It did not affect you. I don't see how you can hear the stories. Get another black person. Is it kill just because they're black. Or the police are called what. Just because they're black. So it's easy. I believe. Toward. I don't know kevin what you saying right now. But i'm saying. If jesus. Who was angry if you read the torah if you read the bible if you read the quran. All three major holy books. There was anger and why wouldn't he be angry because just like at least time. He was dealing with. Systems of oppression. Systems of discrimination symptoms of hay. And a few people having power and the rest of us suffering. Why would he be angry when he was betrayed over and over again. The judas factor. Jewish person black person. Crucifix. And crucify him. Immigrant people. Just like jesus. Resurrected himself when he was resurrected. In love. Trying to figure out. Be at work. What can i do what can i do better. How can i be a better human being. What's it mean to love my wife listen to her. Anger that i have jesus had. What is happening to what has happened in july. That the day. We like to talk about. You know who they are. This is important. We can have a merica in america that is a progressive multicultural and multilingual national rainbow coalition of people we are equals we are equals we are equals we are equals we are equals. Or we can have in america we allowed. Conservative right-wing white males with power. The pit us against each other. And they're winning. Donald trump. Because if you go back tonight. That was the beginning. I ask myself a question how do we go in 1968 from dr. chang. A black person and bobby kennedy. To come together. If you listen to doctor kings. Mountaintop speech. On april 3rd 1968 he's essentially giving his own eulogy. You know. How do you say. A 1968 50 years ago we got some difficult times. Anything i may not get there with you. But i'm here to tell you that we as a people. Will get to the promised land. Later. This man. Memphis tennessee. A blown away. Earlier this year. I stood in the same spot. For dr. king. Was killed. The spirit of it. Who's that outside of the races. Call cultural identity making this pilgrimage. Twitter's mann-stewart. He was killed. We know that on april 4th 1968 in indianapolis indiana bobby kennedy and irish brother. In the heart of the black community can watch the 6-minute speech on youtube is one of the greatest speeches ever. Effort. To come together. This is 50 years ago. Indianapolis. And a majority only cities in the country that explode in rebellion on the 9th. the king was killed. This white brother. It's part of his privilege what was more important. To relate to all different types of people. 2 months later. Bobby was gone. I'm saying you all. We can't give up. We can't give up. I believe. The song time. There are martyrs out there. I believe. Sometimes life's. Father sacrifice. The show which is. We just got to do better. People just each other we're going to stymie civil rights legislation we're going to continue to attack women. Since ronald reagan came into office the acceleration of it. Read understand that. The reason why. I believe. Is david. Nathan on message. Believing in 100%. And i'm saying. This is what the world looks like america look like. Is the cheap reacting to them are y'all with me. I want to confess i'm opposed to a jewish brother named jesus he said this is what i. Uncle bringing people together. I'm falling in love with myself and also falling in love with you all i don't care if you're straight i don't care. We can't bring. Those juices. Decide we can't bring those black.. Just like we can't give laws back to. Women who were affected by harvey weinstein bill cosby and all those men who did terrible things. Those women. We can't bring matthew shepard's life back. And all the folks. Who were the victims of homophobia transfer. But we can do. What we can do. Is love ourselves and love each other in a more profound way are y'all with me out there. That's what i'm struggling with. What we can do. All we can do is understanding violence. Be a physical violence verbal violence emotional violence. violence is not the answer. Who am i. We'll get what we can do. Is that not accept that this is just the way it is. Bless you understand. Being scared. Understand. Not knowing what to do sometimes. With all due respect our genius in our greatness and understand that this country has never change. My ancestors were slaves. When this church was built in 1833 but because of black people and white people. They said no slavery is not acceptable. That says to me anyting. But we got a. Is bobby said. Make an effort. Stand up please. The stand up for s. I want to challenges. Myself included. Know yourself. In a deeper more profound way whoever you are whatever your identities on. Is dr. bell hooks his head over and over again to cross these cultural boundaries. To be open to people who might be different than you. And the show that love is an action word not just somewhere we throw out there y'all want me out there. That's what we need right now. And i want us to do. What another. Great artists. Name pete seeger. Set us years ago. Can we pick up that hammer. You know what i'm talking about if i had a what. If i had to work if i had to work and brother seger. If you really want to change this world. If you really want to end racism. Islamophobia. If i had a wood if i had a 1 but we do have to hammer. And i'm not going to let anyone. Anyone. And i get difference. When they were here. If i had to work if i had to work but we do have her hand but god bless you all and i love you.

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Halloween-Unmasked.m4a

If an alien came down to earth at halloween time it would probably be really confused halloween is such a strange holiday not typical of earthling holidays most holidays are fun happenings about happy things like a new year or giving thanks for the birth of somebody really awesome halloween is also a fun holiday but it's about deaf people put fake coffins on their front stoops kids run around and fake butcher knives and catch up blood all over them decorate their lockers with ghosts and skeletons. The confused alien would look at all of this and say i am confused i thought humans like to avoid death avoid scary things and avoid things they don't know about and we would explain well you see we are avoiding at that kind of the point. It's a holiday about death but we make death. Cute. We make that fun. We make light of it and people run around dressed like vampires and goes to me watch the exorcist and pretend that we're possessed so that we can reassure each other that these things aren't really real. Right. Of course it's all fun and games until someone loses a loved one or gets a terrifying diagnosis. And then it's not so funny and not so easy to avoid. We could explain all of this and the alien would still be confused. You got to be kidding me the alien would say to earthlings really think that the only reality is the one that they see around them they walk around thinking that really. You earthlings have only 5 senses and one brain at most surely you must know that this is woefully inadequate to compute all of the realities that are out there. And of course the alien would be right. We have only five senses and one brain at most and that is just not enough to compute all of the realities that are out there. Our senses and reason evolved if you believe in darwinian evolution as part of a cocktail the features that it would allow us to eat and avoid being eaten and tomato any additional senses that didn't help us accomplish those things may or may not have gotten passed along and any senses that interfere in any way with accomplishing those things would have hit an evolutionary dead end. But of course whatever those additional senses would have perceived. Would still be there. We just wouldn't receive them. Animals who spend their lives underground or in the dark at the bottom of the ocean often can't see. It's not that there's no visual information to be had it's just with that information isn't relevant relevant to their survival. Other animals can't hear. Plants can neither see nor hear. And that doesn't mean that there's nothing stable or hear about but just that they get along fine without knowing about it. So how arrogance it would be to assume that our human senses capture all of reality. But unlike our compatriots in the animal and plant growth our senses just happened to be exhaustive. In their reach. It seems to me much more likely that just like everyone else we perceive the portion of reality that's relevant to our survival this is true in our social worlds as well but that's a topic for another sermon of course there are other realities and other dimensions of this one and of course sometimes we catch glimpses of them i think a lot of us catch glimpses of them but we're not really supposed to talk about it at least not in polite liberal rational intellectual society. We love to explain away that stuff visions voices premonitions visits from the beyond deja vu strange coincidences near-death visions white light out-of-body experiences spiritual flashes ghost mysticism we dismissed it all his childhood fantasy the domain of flashbacks in california disillusionment with such things is seen as a rite of passage. But the fact is that these things are not just new age and not just for kids they're part of every religious tradition and ours is no exception. Much of the wisdom and knowledge that has been passed down to us through the traditions in the form of teachings and text originated into someone's direct experience of other dimensions or truths one way or another. A direct visceral experience. Acknowledge. So not just an intellectual transmission of information but something that happened to that person that radically changed his or her understanding of reality and then usually that person takes that radical experience and starts to talk about it and preach about it and write about it and something gets lost in the translation and then what we receive centuries or millennia later they flattened out version of it. Does a little mini teaching about this that i love that one day a tiger came into the sanctuary roaring with eyes flashing and tail whipping around and three weeks later he was part of the liturgy. Some of the ancient israelite prophets had experiences of knowledge there was so literal it's almost a joke. Ezekiel for example is made to eat a scroll with words on it. He literally ingest knowledge. God speaks to him. Mortal heat what i speak to you do not be rebellious open your mouth and eat what i'm giving you. As i looked this is ezekiel speaking as i look there was a hand stretched out to me holding a written scroll. He unrolled it before me. And it was inscribed on both the front and the back. He said to me mortal feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll that i give you i ate it and it tasted as sweet as honey to me. Unitarian universalist today also often sense that we are refugees from exactly this kind of hogwash we've escaped from the oppressive murky supernatural swapping us a religion to the pure clean light of reason. And playing thinking. It's like we're here in this room almost like we're in a boat. The outside world is drowning in the flood of superstitious insanity but we're all here dry and comfortable and warm and safe. I know we are safe now we've bailed all the water out of the boat successfully escaped dried off right. Unfortunately it's not so simple because for a long time now we've been secretly stealing out at night for a dip in the ocean. Our tradition itself originated in the same water. It originated in part in some guy's out-of-body post-death experience which he then came back. And preached about. For real i've mentioned him before it was a nice it was the 1700's and this minister named george denville. Tells of leaving his body and having a powerful vision that convinced him of universal salvation. The idea that everyone is saved saints and sinners alike. He was very sick. Near death. And he writes about it saying. I felt myself die by degrees. Exactly at midnight my soul was separated from my body and i saw the people occupied and washing it according to the custom of the country. Immediately i was drawn upward as in a cloud and arrived at a place which appeared like a level plain so extensive that my site was unable to reach its limit filled with many kinds of delightful fruit trees sending forth such fragrant odor that the air was filled with incense in this place i found that i had to guardians one of my right hand one of my left beautiful beyond expression they had wings and resembled angels having shining bodies and white garments. He had my right hand came before me and said my dear soul. Take courage. The most holy trinity have favored you to be comforted. With an everlasting and universal consolation. But he will restore all his creatures. Without exception. To eternal salvation. So with this vision. The benneville became a universalist. Helps to found the movement and so here we are today he had an experience of life after death and he brought that back into this world. People simply have these kinds of experiences and they always have even you use even us here in this room. Whenever i talk to people about this stuff most people have had some experience or other that was somehow magical ineffable inexplicable supernatural even. I'm starting to think that mystical experiences weather as simple as a premonition or as dramatic as de benneville division are much more common than we usually imagine. It seems that there are plenty of perfectly normal saying rational intelligent functional adults who have mystical experiences and it can actually be very useful on the spiritual quest. Steubenville had an experience of knowledge. Ezekiel had an experience of knowledge. These experiences can be more than just curiosities or trippy movies playing in our heads. I believe they can actually teach us something about the world that we live in things that we don't learn in school don't learn from reading the newspapers don't learn from scientific advances. So why not take advantage of the fact that so many of us have such knowledge. Why not share our resources and look for common threads between our different experiences. Why not share notes. That way we can all learn from each other and we don't have to feel like freaks. I want to suggest that in this halloween season when we're contemplating death and the unknown in our weird sublimated way. Can we take a breather from bailing out our boat of the waters of superstition and ignorance and blind faith. Because in bailing out buckets of gullibility and blind faith we also lose openness. In bailing out ignorance we lose a sense of mystery. In bailing out superstition we lose magic. I want to suggest that we can slowly begin to let down our guard a little. Maybe at night sneak out onto the deck of the boat and dangle are toes in the water there are gleaming jellyfish there and phosphorus and coral. There are tides of warm and cool salty and briny and thick with life. Not the. Waters of traditional religion per se but the waters of experiences that don't quite fit our rational scientific understanding of the world the round peg in the square hole. If there's one thing that i'm sure of its that there is more to all of this than meets the eye there's a lot more going on here than our normal rational understanding permits the ocean is wide and deep and our boat here is just one little. all that expanse. Let's find some humility this season. And say. We just don't know. That's a reasonable staff. It would be reasonable even to an alien visiting from afar. We just don't know. Do as it says on one of our dharma flags let's use everything that we experience. We don't know what happens after we die. We don't know what dimensions of reality maybe right here right now in front of us in our midst but invisible to our senses and we don't know what we don't know. My experience are yours or george the bentonville's from 300 years ago might just be true. Tell its open ourselves to this wide-open ocean. A possibility. And please rise and body or in disembodied spirit for our final him 301 touch the earth reach the sky.

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No-Minor-Stars.m4a

The story is told that tycho brahe the danish royal astronomer of the 16th century took his job so seriously that she would put on his the robes of his royal office before he would even approached the telescope when one of his assistants mentioned one night that they were looking at just a very minor star. Rocky corrected him there is no such thing he said. There is no such thing as a minor. Star. The three wise men in the christmas story find the baby jesus by means of a star. It probably looks like a fairly minor one because no one except the three of them seem to notice it but they follow that star traveling on foot from the east. Too crowded jerusalem and then to bethlehem passing on the way hundreds of ordinary people doing the ordinary things that people do. All the way to one particular manger where 14 ticular newborn baby live doing presumably the ordinary things that babies do. And they recognize his birth. With guests. The wise men recognized him as no one else except maybe his parents recognizes him. They glimpsed his spirit they glimpsed the unique role in history that he will play they say to him in effect. I see you. And they gave him gifts of royalty gold frankincense and myrrh. I value you. Fax and it was believed that each person on earth was mystically linked to a star in the heavens but how did the wise men find this new star as the text says at its rising. The sky is so bad. How were these three wise men able to gaze at this virtually infinite starfield and notice that one sees that one that one is new and realized its significance how were they able to see a new star with everybody else around them missive or dismissed it as a minor star. Maybe this was precisely what made them so wise. Now this is myth of course but there are real people alive today who can do exactly this reverend robert evans. Is an australian retired minister whose hobby it is to go into his backyard near sydney set up his amateur telescope and hunt the heaven for new stars and he has an uncanny ability to find them to get a sense of what an extraordinary ability this is i've heard it described it this way imagine 15 dining room tables all covered with black tablecloth and a handful of salt scattered across each one of salt to one of the tables he will walk among the table and spotted or reverend evans or anyone else season new spot of light in the sky it's actually the explosive operatic death of a star it's called a supernova for about a month at dying stars explosions light up its corner of the universe with the brilliant energy of 100 billion suns for the first time here on earth. It must be incredible. To get to see that. Reverend evan says there's something satisfying about the idea of light. Traveling for millions of years through space. And just at the right moment. As it reaches earth someone looks into the right bit of sky and sees it. It just seems right that an event of that magnitude. Should be witness. The birth of jesus and the birth of each one of us is such an event. We are each the most improbable coincidence of time and space. Bubba cosmic unfolding that place the earth precisely the right distance from the sun to allow for life of an evolutionary process. The created humans and somehow allowed our particular ancestors to survive wars and famine. Have a winding history that brought together our biological great-great-great-grandparents we are the product of all the things that didn't happen. The disease that didn't kill our parents because of medicine only available for the first time and their generation. The millions of sperm that didn't join with the egg in our mother's womb allowing for the unique meeting of the sperm and egg that they came. Like the christmas supernova each of us has traveled millions of years. Through space. To get here. And like an exploding star each of us appears visible on earth for a month. Or maybe a century. And then. We're gone. What a blessing when someone is looking for us and happens to be gazing at the right bit of sky during the brief moment of our appearance. Excuse us. As with a star. The life. Of each one of us is a miracle. An event of a magnitude that should be witnessed. This christmas may we each give the gift of such witness to one another. This christmas may we be wise like the magi. Recognizing the miracles all around us. Bearing witness to wives that others dismissed as minor. May we reach out. To those who are lonely. And give to those who are hungry. May we be welcoming. To those seeking shelter and protective. Of those who are vulnerable. And this christmas may we each be seen like the baby jesus as someone special someone holy someone with a unique role in history may we be recognized as worthy of a long journey and our own star in the sky. Each of us deserve to be witness. And love. There are no minor stars. There are no minor birth there are no minor lives. Perhaps the very essence of the three wise men's wisdom with their ability to see at least one person this way. So clearly so completely one baby. Who got the recognition that we all crave. And deserve. One baby who received the gifts of royalty. Of which we are all worthy. This christmas let us extend this blessing outward. Amid the overwhelming swirling starfields of our world. And when we give our christmas gift. Let us give them with the intention. Of the magi. Let them be a way of saying to one another. I see you. I honor you. I'm glad you're here. I recognize the remarkable cosmic journey you've taken to get to this time and place i have senior star and i believe in you.

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Wilderness-Dance-Party.m4a

And have found acceptance here and a type of belonging that never requires us to be an authentic or change who we are or if it does we can question it. We can have that conversation here and we want to have that conversation here. And that we have found the secret in that. In an interview with krista tippett on being theme of believing in ourselves and belonging to ourselves so fully that we find what sacred and not only being part of something but also we find sacred in the need to stand alone on occasion the need to stand alone on occasion in our values and in our beliefs when we are called to do so you may have noticed the maya angelou quote for today the five episode at the top of your order of service.

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A-Culture-Of-Forgiveness.m4a

So today is right smack in the middle of the jewish high holidays between rosh hashanah which is the celebration of the creation of the world and yom kippur the celebration of our capacity to mend and heal and turn and return to ourselves this returning is called in hebrew to shoe by to rush on the calendar but there's a weird and fascinating teaching in the jewish tradition that tissue was created before the world was created kind of a trippy concept if you think about it before they before there was over parenting under parenting before there was racism before there was a climate to change. There was the ability to repair what is broken. Before there was any place to return to there was the ability to return. I told this concept to someone the other day and they they said okay that's going to make my head explode so here's how one rabbi explained it. God thought of creating a world. But everytime she thought a world into creation. God would destroy that world until she created t'shuvah. It was tissue by the possibility that not being perfect. Does not inexorably lead to not being that allowed the world to exist. Tissue by the guarantor that being human being fallible. Is not fatal. Of course some mistakes are fail. But most are not and so when we make a mistake do something wrong repeat a destructive pattern the urgent question becomes can we change. Can we deal with our issues reset repair and do better next time and can we be forgiven. When you go searching the internet for stories about forgiveness as one does when one is preparing to write a sermon like this all you can find is the extreme games of forgiveness the dramatic stories like the families of the people killed in charleston. The church shooting forgiving dylann roof holocaust survivor eva mozes kor forgiving the nazis who imprisoned her. Brandt jean forgiving the former police officer amber guyger for accidentally shooting his brother and his own home. These kinds of stories are all inspiring and sometimes troubling and sometimes problematic and hard to fathom the most of the dramas in our daily lives thank god or not this horrific. The acts of wrongdoing and sometimes apology and forgiveness happen in small ways. Throughout the day throughout the year. Just a drip-drip-drip of moments that together form the fabric of our families. Our schools are workplaces are congregation we ordinary humans who are not murderers making mistakes all the time these are the kinds of mistakes that we lived in our forgiveness prayer earlier today condemning in our children the faults we tolerate in ourselves condemning and our parents the faults we tolerate in ourselves deceiving ourselves and others with half-truths. Pretending to emotions we don't feel. And it's bigger things to. Pursuing fleeting pleasure at the cost of lasting hurt using violence to maintain our power. Withholding love and support. Wrongdoing is inevitable. But teshuva and forgiveness are not inevitable they are choices we make sometimes we apologize and sometimes we don't. Sometimes we forgive and sometimes we don't. Mommy do forgive. It makes a difference not just to ourselves the one who forgives and not just to the person who is forgiving but to the feeling in the room. The tone of the city in which we love. It affect the air that we all breathe. They say forgiveness does not change the past but it sure does change the future. There's nothing more paralyzing then the fear that making a mistake will be fatal. It's somehow if we choose wrong actron say something stupid or fail to do what we said we would do that we will be unable to recover. Will be permanently diminished people will forever think last of us opportunities will slip through our fingers or someone that we love will have a worse life forever. Or we will have a worse life forever. I noticed this fear sometimes in myself and i noticed it increasingly in this community and in the world at large. In the story that sarah told imagine if the mother had punished the kid for spilling the milk instead of doing what she did. He might have been too afraid to try doing anything new again by his own account he might not have become the creative research scientist that he became. There's good reason for our fears. The world feels like a pretty unforgiving place these days. The economy punishes people for insufficient leaning in choosing family overworked families punish people for leading into much using screen the babies that are kids the call out culture punishes people for social media faux paws there are so many atrocities happening in our midst even when we are not direct victims or perpetrators is stress and anxiety provide everything there's a pressure on all of us to be perfect progressive even though as i was speaking out thinking about a couple weeks ago the same social miasma gave birth to us all. Retired and the fear that we will do it wrong sometimes stops us from doing anything at all. This feels like a quandary that's very much of this moment of the internet age and of our political climate but actually this kind of paralysis for fear of getting it wrong is an ancient human struggle. That's why the story about tissue bobby and created first exist. It's true for us as well. Knowing that it's going to be okay if you make a mistake is a prerequisite to doing anything where you might make a mistake which is pretty much everything. We need to know in advance that we can change we can correct course we can do better and crucially that we can be forgiven. Once we know this. We are free and can proceed with our lives. Mrs. where faith comes in. Judaism and many religious traditions teach that just as our ability to change our ways it's built into the structure of the universe so is god's capacity or the universe is capacity to absorb wrongdoing and welcome us back in love it's the essence of the spiritual. In the book of romans in the new testament there's a beautiful poetic a statement of this it's an assurance of forgiveness neither death nor life neither angels nor principalities neither the present nor the future nor any powers neither height nor depth nor anything else in all of creation. Can separate us from the love of god. This exact same assurance is the basis of universalism universalism was originally the conviction that no one will be punished forever everybody will be forgiven and restored to eternity with god. I'm working temporary way to say this might be that there is a cosmic statute of limitations on wrongdoing. There's a gravitational force of love in the universe that ultimately enfold us back into its warm embrace we are loved by an unending love. When we. Forgive one another. We are aligning ourselves with that gravitational force. We are making real in the world the cosmic love the archetypal love the very principle of love that is the foundation of our faith. And we are free and one another. We're doing just what that mother did for her son in the story about the spilled milk her forgiveness with abundant and easy to feel in her kind words and the way she let him play in the milk on the floor. His teshuva his mending with cleaning up the milk with her he was empowered to fix mistakes even at the age of 22 kind of reminds me of that jewish story his ability to fix mistakes came practically before he was old enough to make any and then his mother's patience with him taking him outside letting him try it with a bottle of water. Show them that he doesn't have to repeat mistakes. He can try something and if it doesn't work so well the first time he can practice and do it better than next time there's nothing shameful about that process it's all good majan if we could all have parents like that. Imagine if we could all be parents like that and friends like that and co-workers like that and co subway riders like that and restaurant-goers like that and social commentators like that what a world we would live in we would be creating a culture of forgiveness the medium where we give each other the freedom to try things make mistakes apologize do better and not be cancelled. But embraced. A culture of forgiveness supports our faith that we are fundamentally okay are worth is inherent and nothing can take that away from us and then maybe when we do make mistakes will more readily admit it and jump right back into the pool to work on getting it right. Once we admit that there's a problem transformation can begin of course forgiveness is not always that easy the two-year-old spilling milk is one thing but what about abuse what about violence what about deceptions that unravel our whole lives what about someone who has no remorse for what they did some wrongdoing is hard to forgive some is impossible to forgive and some might not even be appropriate to forgive only each of us knows in our hearts what we need to do and if we find that we want to forgive someone but we can or can't yet then maybe we can work on forgiving ourselves for that and give it some time. And someday maybe we'll be ready to take whatever pain were carrying and for give it up. This is an invitation to be gentle with ourselves and one another knowing that none of us is perfect we're all works in progress it's an invitation to rest in the two assurances of faith. First. And we have the capacity for toshiba. We had it before we were born we had it before the world was created. We don't have to repeat our negative patterns forever we may not be able to always repair the damage that we did but we can transform the part of ourselves that was out of alignment and return to our essence. I'm second that no matter what we are forgiven and welcomed back into the embrace of the holy. Because we are loved by an unending love and in the end neither death nor life neither angels nor principalities neither present nor the future nor any powers neither height nor depth nor anything else in all of creation can separate us from that love. With the assurance of faith in the help of a forgiving community we can bring a little bit of the welcoming essence of the universe right here into this plane. We don't have to wait until we're perfect to start creating our world. Yes we can be working on ourselves yes we'll make mistakes and try to return to our best selves but while that's going on. We can go about our lives. We can be open during construction. And then like that little boy who spilled the milk we can feel what it feels like to be free please rise and body or spirit for our final him number one.

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Milk-In-A-Hardware-Store-The-7th-Commandment-Do-Not-Commit-Adultery.m4a

Sigmund freud says that we joke about the things that are most important to us in order to reduce the tension created by that important well there probably more jokes about sex than about anything in the world. I could start my sermon with one but that would probably be in poor taste you know the genre anyway and most of them are not actually that funny. Protects obviously is very important to us humans and there is enormous tension created by that important. Sex doesn't just mean one thing it has as many meetings as there are people on the planet. It's how the world gets people it's how we express love and sometimes violence. We write songs about it wage wars over it. And sometimes will go to extraordinary lengths to get it so religious people predictively have a lot to say about it as does pretty much everyone else this is the final sermon in my series on the ten commandments and as you can see i've saved the best for last this is the juiciest and trickiest of all of the commandments i was talking with a young couple a few days ago and they were telling me that they. Adultery. The word itself seems so strangely out of place in a liberal religious context. Before we even out of the starting gate speaking it out loud already seems to take something out of the private sphere at inappropriately put it into the public sphere. What business does something like that have in the sermon what business does it have for that matter in the ten commandments that are directed to the community as a whole. The whole topic field puritanical. You think of nathaniel hawthorne's novel the scarlet letter in which the female protagonist commits adultery and is forced to wear is scarlet letter a around her neck for the rest of her life. She is forever defined by that one then. Adultery. You think of tongue f****** gossipers you think of double standards where female adulterers get punished and mail it salters got a shrug of the shoulders boys-will-be-boys. You think of a homophobic politics in which every kind of sex other than sex between a man and a woman is called adultery. And is therefore a sin. You think of fire and brimstone. Even beginning a public conversation in church about what goes on in private bedrooms get their hackles up. And when i say our i made liberal religious people who value the privacy of conscience and to include a wide range of sexual practices in the big tents of okemos. Some of us have open relationships. Some of us are polyamorous many of us have cheated on partners at least once in our lives. For each of the other commandments i think i've been able to show that a teaching intended for people of another culture and another time has great wisdom and relevance for us today this is why we give the duvall bibles to our children here but is this commandment the exception does it commandment about whom you shall and shall not have sex with. Have any place at all in our world. Let me answer this in part by placing the commandant in the context of the rabbinic writings that came after it you might think from the popular culture that in the prudish biblical view sex is just a necessary evil that you have to do in order to have children to be used only for procreation. This is actually not true. I just faxed the tamba the body of rabbinical writings that interpret the hebrew bible. Has some of the most progressive and sex-positive teaching certainly of its era and by some standards even today. Granted the contacts is always a heterosexual marriage this was the early middle ages after all. But within that context. Sex is celebrated as a mitzvah and a gift from god. A husband is not permitted to force his wife to have sex. And conversely sex is a marital right that the wife is specifically is entitled to. A woman can divorce her husband if he doesn't have enough sex with her even even if they already have children. A woman can divorce her husband if he doesn't give her sexual pleasure. There are rules about how often the husband must offer his wife sex. In case you're wondering who they are if you're independently wealthy and not working it's everyday if you're a day laborer it's twice a week. If you're a donkey driver it's once a week. If your account driver it's once a month. And if you're a sailor it's once every 6 months. And what specifically are you permitted to do in the bedroom with your spouse. After a long explicit discussion the various options the talmud says in the final analysis a husband and wife can do whatever pleases them most so is this context in mind the prohibition against tina adultery. Is not a prohibition against various sexual practices or sexual pleasure. Its scope is narrow. If you look at the ravenna commentaries adultery seems to be defined as having sex with a person other than the person you're married to. Or having sex with somebody who is married to someone other than you. It seems to apply equally to women and men. And does not seem to refer to premarital sex. It seems to be solely about breaking a marriage covenant. The rationale given for it is sometimes the practical goal of being able to keep track of whose kids are whose. An ancient near east you had to know who your daddy is because all kinds of important things like land and blessings flow through the patriarchal line. Again. A vestige of a patriarchal world. All about the impact on the wider society very practical and culturally bound and this worldly it's interesting to notice though what the parallel commandment is on the spiritual side if you remember some rabbis believe that the ten commandments are meant to be read horizontally there's two columns with the two tablets and you read across the two columns so that each one having to do with our relationship with god has a corresponding commandment having to do with our relationship with people in this case the corresponding commandment is the second commandment. The one prohibiting us from making sculpture damages and bowing down and serving them. It's a prohibition against idol worship. Investing something artificial with the power of the real. Locating your hopes and dreams and loyalties in something false. In the case of a commandment the idols are money and power image and possessions. They're so easy to start to worship in place of god or our highest most sacred values. It is an obvious parallel here to having an affair in a relationship in which you promised each other sexual exclusivity the partner or spouse is the real god and the outside lever is the idle adultery is investing an outside relationship with the intimacy that you have promised to reserve for your partner. You break a commitment and hope somehow trading up or having your cake and eating it too. You see something shiny like the golden calf. The hot woman or man so enticing because of his glittery simplicity. And you reach for it. And this really is how it often works. You make a sexual commitment to a primary partner and at some point or other the temptation is great to break that commitment. The primary partner can never compete. On the level of pure appeal with someone new. Real relationships are marbles and demanding complicated and imperfect. Anyone who's been in a long-term relationship knows that it's hard to keep the fires of passion burning as you do the mundane work of building a life together. It's such a common problem that entire branches of therapy and bodies of literature has been built on solving it. My favorite book title on this topic is mating in captivity. And the temptation is even greater if there are serious problems in the relationship. Relationship with a lover by contrast has no baggage. It's unencumbered by the hard work of commitment and compromise. The lever can be whatever you want them to be but we imagine but we project. The lover is in distance andalusian he or she is something that we make with our own hands and our own imagination. Like the golden calf. And then proceeded to worship. The problem is that adultery as a rule doesn't work. You rarely get what you want out of it. Unless you wanted to explode your relationship it off and accomplishes this quite nicely. But ultimately if you're with a new person or not you're still going to be with yourself. You're going to bring to a relationship all that you bring in terms of gifts and wounds and needs. And the other person is going to bring whatever they bring in terms of gifts and wounds and needs and you'll wind up with a messy and imperfect partnership with somebody else. Are the most practical level. The commandant low tina prohibits infidelity not only because it can be destructive. But because it's futile. You can make offerings to the golden calf all you want but the rain is not going to fall and water the parched earth. You go out searching for love trying to fill some need scratch some itch cure some ennui. Looking for something where you're not going to find it. I've heard this called going to the hardware store to buy a gallon of milk. It ain't there. Except in the rarest of instances. There are times of course when the primary relationship is not good not healthy genuinely not leaving one's needs and where another relationship might in fact be better. But in that case adultery is. Let's be honest a cowardly way out. It's being unwilling to face the truth. Have tough conversations. Not wanting to rock the boat. Not wanting to face change. Until this commandment doesn't say it don't get divorced or don't end and unhealthy relationship. Divorce was permitted for all kinds of reasons including sexual dissatisfaction it doesn't say don't have sex unless you're married. It says keep the agreements that you've made. Until and unless you change them openly with the other person. Be mindful and intentional about your choices. Especially when it comes to something as important and loaded as sexuality. Don't be deceived by the illusion of something that's not real. Honor your own life your own relationships your own body. Don't misuse sexuality for some ulterior purpose. The prohibition on adultery is not because sex is bad or because sexual pleasure is an unworthy goal. On the contrary it's because sex is sacred and beautiful. If you are lucky enough to be able to have sex at any time. Instead of looking for what more you can get healthy fate gratitude. Not everybody in this world or in this room can have sex. Either because i don't have a partner or because they're physically or emotionally unable to. This commandment teaches us but part of leading a spiritual life is to honor the power of our sexuality. To be intentional. About how and why and with whom we have sex. Even when sex is just for pleasure. To respect our own bodies and our partners body. If you're someone who can enjoy the blessing of sex. Gratitude. Gratitude. Don't be flippant with the gift. And don't go looking for milk in a hardware store. It's simply not going to be there. Please rise and body or spirit for our final him number 287 face of the larger liberty.

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The-Diaspora-of-the-Self.m4a

The center. Being 1/2 man. Could never plow or pull a van. Booty and 1/2 horse as well it could not learn to add or spell. Does barred from all utility. It spends its time in being. A subsidiary of apple called apple operations international paid virtually no corporate income tax. On 29.9 billion dollars in dividends over the last 3 years. They got away with this because they were incorporated in ireland with taxes according to where a company is managed and they were managed in the us which hacks is according to where company is incorporated like the center apple operations international a boy's responsibilities by fragmenting itself. It's impossible to locate and pin it down because it exists nowhere in particular. Wherever you look for it. It is elsewhere. And so expensive time in being free. We do this to we fragments ourselves. We are one way in front of our mothers and one way in front of our kids one way on facebook and another way at work one way in church and another way on the highway we know apple's supply chain and their labor practices. Monday but we don't know them the next day when it's time to buy holiday gift. We know something about the cruelty with which farm animals are raised one day but we don't know it's the next day when we go out to dinner. And it's understandable we fragment ourselves in a desperate response to a world that makes impossible and contradictory demands on us. So our own self becomes a diaspora shards of consciousness spread out across our lives. On some level it's painful to be so internally divided. But how could it be otherwise. How could we possibly be everything there supposed to be a know everything we're supposed to know all at the same time. This is the question and the challenge posed to us by the unitarian half of our faith. How can we end this postmodern world. Personally manifest oneness. The old joke is that unitarians believe in one god at most but cute is that is the number of god's is not actually the point. Communitarian vision. The point is that god. Or if you prefer the essence of the universe. Is 1. 1 supposed to fragmented. One as opposed to a diaspora. Just as we talked a few weeks ago about the mystical vision of universalism. The all-encompassing love of the universe. Unitarianism also offers a mystical vision. It's a vision shared by mystics of pretty much every religious tradition. Better fundamental oneness undergirds all of reality. All the teams divided all the teams in conflict all that seems other somehow partakes of that oneness. It's a mystery. And it's a miracle. Emerson who was not a unitarian for most of his career but we're going to pretend that we don't know that i'm playing him anyway emerson right. We live in succession in division in parts and particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole the equally related the eternal one. And this deep power in which we exist and who is beatitude is accessible to us is not only self sufficing and perfect in every hour. But the act of seeing and the things teen. The subject and the object the seer and a spectacle. R1. We see the world piece-by-piece as the sun the moon the animal the tree. But the whole of which these are the shining parts. Is the soul. It's very buddhist. It's very unitarian. Add highlights the classic dissonance between. Our beliefs about ultimate reality. And how we actually experience the world day today. We may believe that in an ontological sense the world is one but we know that in daily life it's anything but. Tick not han has a really nice way of explaining this and buddhism. He says there are two kinds of truth. Conventional truth and ultimate truth. In the framework of conventional truth we talked about being and non-being birth and dying coming and going inside and outside. Petcetera. In the framework of ultimate truth the teaching transcends all of these concepts. In order to bring the practitioner toward nirvana. Touching ultimate reality. Buddhist see no conflict between these two truths and are free to make good use of both frameworks. He also explains that it's the same thing with. Classical science and quantum physics. In classical science we talked about material object having an independent individual existence that exists in a particular location in a particular time. And that's certainly how we experience things in our world. Has emerson said the sun the moon the animal the tree but in quantum physics tick not han says the elementary particles fluctuate in and out of existence and do not really exist. But have a tendency to exist. Classical science seems to reflect the conventional truth. Quantum physics seems to reflect. The ultimate reality. Trying very hard to discard notion such as being and non-being inside-outside sameness and other mess. In other words quantum physics 2 points to the oneness of all that is. We have moments when we touch this oneness. Listening to music that envelops us. The proverbial sunset moments when we feel connected to all of nature moments and relationships with others. Sexuality. Prayer. Yoga. Swimming in the ocean. Moments when we experience union. But then those moments pass and we're back in or normal framework where we divide stuff up between self and other. We divided internally and we have a self for this and a self for that. Like a centaur. I am not as sanguine as thick not hahn about the peaceful coexistence of these to frameworks. Conventional reality in ultimate reality. To me the call of unitarianism is to draw them together. To bring our daily lives into closer and closer alignment with the ultimate truth of the oneness of the universe. In fact i believe that spiritual work is inherently centripetal. Bringing together gathering together toward the center all that is fragmented and all that is lost. So through spiritual work we slowly integrate the parts of ourselves and we manifest that cosmic oneness personally. It takes courage. To do that in this world. It's a lot easier as apple operations international found out to split ourselves into parts so that we can remain unaccountable. If we have integrity. Which is to say that our parts are integrated. Pretend not to spend our time and being free. Nelson mandela went to jail for 27 years and rejected freedom whatever it would have compromised his integrity. He spurned an offer of release with strings attached and 1985. Dating. What freedom am i being offered while the organization of the people the anc remains band only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts. From this sense of personal integrity he went on to become a centripetal force in south africa. Apartheid. In afrikaans literally means separation. Instead of establishing a new inverted kind of separation with the black majority in the power position. Mandela instead helped establish the truth and reconciliation commission. The commission's work was to create very public forum. For victims to tell their stories of injustice and brutality. Answer the perpetrators of those acts to offer public confession and contrition. It was an amazing act of a society recognizing that they can only move into the future together. And this would require extraordinary acts of forgiveness and restorative justice. Bringing together the fragmented parts of our world involves every aspect of life and every aspect of our being. Our stewardship of the planet is primary since failure in that area obviate all other possibilities. Involves the recognition that if one person is suffering. We all share in that face. It involves recognizing. The divisions of race class gender and even species as ultimately artificial. Involve the process of truth and reconciliation with our families with our coworkers. Fellow congregants. All the people in our lives. Mystical judaism describe the creation of the world as happening when god placed all matter into vessels that could not contain it and the vessels were shattered. The work of healing and repairing the world would like him to gathering up the shards and bringing them back into wholeness. I see this is our work as unitarians as well. To bring the scattered diaspora back to wholeness. The richest human. Fragmented. C-can congruence while trying to be all things to all people. Struggling with moral inconsistencies and hyphenated identities. Like the centaur we are barred from all utility as long as our parts remain divided. The diaspora of ourselves and the diaspora of the world i just two sides of the same fragmentation. And healing of each requires the same work. First we have to slow down step back from arnie jerk responses to our over-stimulated hyperstress hypercaffium ated lives we need to take time perhaps during a sabbath practice to remind ourselves of what's most important what we value and what we are trying to become in our world. We need to take time to remind ourselves of the ultimate truth of oneness in the universe. I measure the distance from here. So there. Let ourselves feel the shutter of incongruous pass through our psyches when we behave. Out of accordance with that truth. The metaphor in the wisdom story that megan told is perfect. The individual and the world are two sides of a single piece of paper. The world comes together when the individual gets things aligned and together for him or herself. The world comes together when families and communities come together. In faith we recognize that someday all of this will happen. As in the song. Soon we'll reach the shining river. Soon our pilgrimage will cease soon our happy hearts to a quiver with a melody of peace. Yes we'll gather by the river. The beautiful the beautiful river. Someday we will be one with that river. One with the people on its bank one with the birds and it's trees and the fish and its waters. Someday we will be one in our hearts. And one with all that is. Our work. As unitarian. Is to hasten the coming of that day. Please rise and body or spirit try final him shall we gather at the river this is into till hymnal number 1046.

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Lift-Up-Your-Voice.m4a

Being a prophet is a lonely and dangerous is nuts. Or tell the story would have us believe anyway. Of course this could all be hyperbole a drama to make a storyteller's coin. A vivid picture of the prophet. Perhaps with the image of a wild-eyed truth-teller wandering the wilderness. Or the disheveled recovered one who walks into the center of town and speaks divine fruit to warn the people that if they don't clean up their acts and soon something terrible will happen to them. Maybe he is a yana desert caravan driver who comes home shaking with all and fear after hearing the indescribable and completely overwhelming voice of allah command him to submit. And then of course there is jonah the prophet who runs away from his calling. Talked his way onto a ship to try and escape and must be put into a very serious timeout in the belly of a whale. Before he finally he needs his kind as a prophet. As unitarian universalist we don't generally think of ourselves as being part of a prophetic tradition at least not in the style of the hebrew and christian prophets. It is so rare that one of us speaks publicly with conviction as a you you person of face of a big deal when it does happen. In fact this occurred recently when leslie matt a brooklyn born and raised activists and a first-generation american exhibited ancestry hold magazines. I am a unitarian universalist by state. And she went on to directly connect her unitarian-universalism to her activism. As you use we are seedless and dogma free. No millennial book or text tells us what to believe or even how to practice our beliefs. Instead we have our principles and sources that serve as a guidance for us in our spiritual growth and our behavior one another in community. And it is exactly this community that makes us who we are as a people of faith. When you answer unitarian-universalist what it means to them to be a uu. Most of an answer with something like. We believe in inheritance force into video of all people and we work for justice in the world. And i do for the community. Attack on many surveys of congregations. Universalist. The number one thing people say about why they goes one is for the community. It certainly is also true that many of us. Place a high value on the individual search for teresa meaning. Unitarian universalist have often and not entirely incorrectly the nation instead of navel-gazing. We know that our individual discernment and spiritual work is nothing without our community. Otherwise why can together every week to worship. Why not simply go out about our individual lives and spiritual growth without all the complications of. Being with other people. However you can't give yourself to others or to a religion. Without knowing who you are. And you can smell yourself without giving yourself time to dream to cr2 wonder and even to hurt. This is one of the things i really love about the story of jonah. Cheap phillips hauling. And you ran away from it. But because he had a time of discernment free from all distractions i guess you could say. He was able to realize that his call was something he could not escape or ignore. He was faced with the truth that he had to act. Of course i'm not suggesting that you need to be swallowed by a whale just because you spent too much time on your phone or did you watching game of thrones got to be prepared for that next season coming out. But how many of us have been in that situation when we felt pushed or pulled to do something and instead of doing it we distract ourselves with the everyday mundane business of life. Until our body moves or our psyches force us to face what we are trying to avoid. There is a long-standing tension in american unitarian-universalism between individualism and community. We reconcile these competing forces by bringing them into relationship with one another. And we recognize that by doing the work on ourselves we enhance our community by bringing our best selves to it. And to our relationship with one another. But it is only when we do the deep spiritual work of beloved community of building beloved community that we experience the transformation we strive to manifest in the world. So what would it feel like for us lift up our voices. As you you people of prophecy. Well they might feel a little lonely at times. But unlike until now we have an entire community backing us. Not only that there are folks out there already serving as prophet whose voices we can amplify. I think of a modern-day prophet genesis sets gutierrez and undocumented activists for transgender and immigrant rights. She is a founding member of la familia trans queer liberation movement. An intergenerational movement that focuses on community organizing advocacy and education. At a white house event celebrating lgbtq accomplishments in 2015 genesis gutierrez interrupted president obama repeatedly to demand that he release all lgbtq immigrants from detention. She brought national attention to the issue of transgender women being detained in men's immigration centers by the us. These women working disproportionately raped and beaten while in detention. Gutierrez cherry their story with her that day. A trans woman herself. Couldn't just stand there and listen to president obama out the successes. Over the previous year. In an interview later she said she just felt she couldn't stay silent she lifted up her voice. The event was filled with lgbtq leaders. To boo'd her and the president told her to be quiet or leave. Can you imagine being in her position. People you thought were your allies. Ministry tiaras was humiliated shutdown publicly by that president binary popular president. An escorted out of the event to a chorus of boos and jeers knowing that because she was undocumented. She was risking more than just her reputation. Considering her treatment one would think the issue of trans women being held in men's detention centers was going nowhere fast. It's sad the following monday. Us immigration officials announced transgender detainees would be housed in detention facilities that corresponds ended with their gender identity. We know from our religion stories if i the example of activists and speakers of truth today such as genesect gutierrez that the majority of people generally don't like process. Actually in the beginning. Perhaps it is a fear of appearing as that wild-eyed and loan prophetic voice in the wilderness. That explains its heart why we don't more often speak up as you you people of faith when we confront injustice. Maybe it's that we think bringing religion into the public sphere as a slippery slope to a theocracy not unlike the one margaret atwood envisions in the handmaid's tale. What some would say we are close enough to that reality already. The world needs a progressive voice grounded in a face that teaches abundant and universal love and oneness over the punishing selfish angry and blaming religious voices that we hear around us now. These are the voices that would deny a woman her reproductive right. They would deny marriage equality to lgbtq members of our society. They would arrest an 11 year old black boy for not saying the pledge of allegiance at school. For too long religious liberals have let our fear of speaking our truth from a religious standpoint. Get in the way of engaging with the in justices of the world that has a people of faith. We have seated at the moral browse to the religious right to such a degree that now and someone mentioned faith-based. For a conservative religious agenda. I'd like to see the day when faith-based is code for universal love and human rights. Generational equity and stewardship of our earth. We have an opportunity right now. Winona opportunity but an obligation to identify with clarity and fullness the things that politically and economically contradict the purposes of our face. Our fair which is morally grounded in a police of the inherent worth and dignity of all people. The interconnectedness of our laws and the earth. And our role of advocating for justice in the world. If ever there were a time to lift up our voices that time is now. We are people of faith and conviction. It is time for us. To claim our role as a people of prophecy.

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A-Wild-Hope.m4a

When the three kings from the east first laid eyes on the baby jesus they must have been seized with a wild hope they saw past the ordinary side of a crying baby from a poor family and saw a kindred kingly spirits. A leader who could draw light out of darkness. They saw somebody who maybe just maybe could take the very oppressiveness of their time and transform it into love and action so they showered him with gift. Gold frankincense and myrrh they called him messiah which means anointed one because they used to anoint king with consecrated oil. It was at i'm in desperate need of a messiah. And in a sense it was a time that produced. A messiah. Palestine was occupied by rome rome had taken control of every major institution including the temple in jerusalem and a spirit of judaism was slowly eroding it was a time of great economic inequality and the romans took full advantage they were smart when they conquered a territory they would make deals with the wealthy they would align their interests with those of the ruling class they would say what you were doing. Our religion will be dominant but you can still keep a version of yours if you want to and you can keep your wealth. Even increase your wealth. And in exchange. You work for us. Keep the peasants down make sure they keep working for next to nothing get them to pay most of the taxes. And stop them from gaining too much power and if any of the peasants do gain power and try to reclaim their land or their rights or their freedom will crucify them. Jesus of nazareth grew up in that world breathing that poisoned air of oppression. And he was exactly the kind of peasant romo talking about. Young. Dirt 4 full of rage at seeing his community beaten down over and over again. Nazareth was a small nondescript dusty town that's like so many places and those days was a place without hope. A baby from there with the last person on earth you would think would grow up to change the world. And yet. Jesus dead. Something about the very hopelessness of that time brought out the fire in him. And in the generations that followed something about the very poison in the are produced its own antidote. The true magic of the christmas story is it when things were at their worst. The poor kid. From an obscure town spark. The spiritual imagination of a generation. And started an uprising. It wasn't just a political revolt against the occupying force in fact the jews didn't defeat the romans at that time. It was a vision of a new spiritual and social consciousness. It was a gospel of revolution on one hand and peace on the other. Jesus not only railed against the oppressiveness of the roman empire but he preached and alternative vision for the powerless would become the powerful the poor would become the wealthy and where the wealthy would have to give up their wealth in order to meet god. The spiritual core of people's faith was renewed. And the whole social order would stand on its head. And this countercultural message was so powerful. Set a golden thread. Has carried through all the way. 2 today. Today we also live in dark times. Our air to is poison with oppression and injustice. Violence and war. It's a time when the abundance of the earth is being recklessly depleted. It's a time when just like in the roman empire powerful leaders will do anything for money and fame. But i have a wild hope this season. Idlewild hope that the very darkness of our times will draw forth the light in us just like it did in jesus that good people everywhere will be so energized by the challenges around us that we too will be anointed and we too will change the world we will be the ripple in the pond they will turn into a tidal wave we will enact the christmas story in real time. This wild help is not really so wild because that's how life works sometimes. Sometimes when things can't get any worse it brings out the best in us. We find powers that we never knew we had we find a new wells of compassion and courage. We become the antidote to that which poisons us. I see it happening already. In this congregation and in this country i see people coming together in love. I see people reaching out to one another with kindness and compassion knowing that their neighbors are in pain right now. I see people eager to help in whatever ways they can throwing themselves into justice work preparing to intervene when they encounter violence. I see people protecting the earth. And i see people caring for their own children with a new sense of meaning and purpose. As if each child is the messiah. That is all the evidence i need to know that my wild hope this season is well founded. I'm so we want to annoy you. And honor you. Tonight with the gifts that the three kings gave to jesus. The anointed one. On your way out into this lovely rainy night tonight a few of our members and staff wearing golden stoles will offer you gold. Frankincense and myrrh. Am i telling you that instead of just getting to go home and have a nice christmas you have to go home and be the messiah now and save the world but no pressure of course no messiah means anointed one. But it actually does not mean savior. Savior is a mistranslation. Of the hebrew word. None of us will be the savior of the world because the world won't be saved by just one person. It will be saved by all of us bit-by-bit re-envisioning our lives celebrating crying working and loving and extraordinary ways and in very ordinary ways but each and every one of us is an anointed one each of us is touched by the substance of the divine. Each one of us has royal blood. Maybe leave here this christmas eve. Knowing that each one of us is the wild hope. Of our time.

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Flow-2.m4a

Jack kramer is a welder he works in the south chicago plant where they assemble railroad cars he's in his sixties and he works with about 200 people in a big room full of giant machines that lower big plates of metal up and down all day surrounded by sprays of sparks. In the summer it's roasting hot in there and in the winter it's cold. But jack loves his job. So much so that he has worked there for 30 years he passed up numerous opportunities for promotions he doesn't want to be anyone he doesn't need to make any more money he just wants to weld. He is extraordinarily good at it everyone thinks of him as the mvp of the plant they say that without jack they might as well shut their doors right now jack has mastered every part of the plant's operation if somebody's out sick he can do their job if something breaks he can fix it. What how is it that jack is so singularly happy and so good at what he does so many of his co-workers or just punching the clock and counting the days till retirement and so many people in jobs that are more prestigious and supposedly more challenging surgeons and lawyers for example can find themselves bored and miserable in my experience as a minister talking with people so many of us feel a vague sense of stuckness the grating dragon resistance as we try to move through our day we feel like we can't get the momentum that we need to really get going on the work of our lives. What is jack's secret sauce. When jack works he gets into a state known as flow. Flow is an experience that many of us have had hopefully all of us has had at least occasionally it's where you get completely lost in what you're doing. You are 100% focused on it. You lose track of time. You're bringing your full focus energy and skill to an activity that requires your full focused energy and skill. In other words you are having to try and hard as you can. And you're succeeding. You can experience flow in just about any activity. Not something passive like taking a bath with something where you're actively doing something. Flow can happen in playing basketball it can happen at work solving problems it can happen in playing the piano or singing or performing surgery. They can happen through intense conversation. It can happen while teaching. It can happen in a cooking dinner or cleaning the house. It can happen in sex. It can happen as we've heard in roller skating. It can happen playing video games and it can definitely happen through meditation spiritual practice prayer. I experienced flow sometimes when i'm writing and i used to experience that a lot when i was rock climbing. The whole world would banish. Except for the warm rock face in front of me. All of the little cracks and bumps in the little weeds and bugs would drift downward as i slowly made my way up the cliff. It was amazing. The most important aspects of flow from a spiritual standpoint is that in slow you lose yourself. You become completely absorbed. Think about a sponge absorbing liquid you are the liquid. The sponge soaks up a spill on the kitchen table and the liquid vanishes and dissipates into the fibers of the sponge. When josh kramer is asked how he learned to repair complex machinery he explains that she's been fixing things from the time he was a little kid if his family toaster was broken he would get a screwdriver open it up look at all the parts inside and ask himself. If i were the toaster what would be wrong with me. He would then become able to see the problem and repair it. He had to. Empathically identify with the toaster lose himself into the being of the machine. In order to enter flow and be able to do his work. The guy who coined the term flow is a hungarian psychologist named amihai csikszentmihalyi you can see the spelling of that name in the attribution in the quote at the top of your order of service. He tells the story of jack kramer and his book. On the topic of losing oneself csikszentmihalyi makes a distinction he says you don't actually lose yourself you lose the awareness of yourself. The self in his view as a psychologist is actually strengthened through the experience of flow. But i would say that's something even more profound is happening here. If you invite in the insides of buddhism. There is no self. Outside of our awareness of self there is no self that exists as a freestanding entity somewhere i don't really exist in absolutes them i exist in my own perception and i exist in the perceptions of other people which is different but that's it but i am not self-aware that self is gone so when we enter flow. And lose self-awareness we become absorbed in something or somebody else the self literally dissolves. The distinction between self and other. Vanishes. And we become one with the universe. Some traditions call this non-duality. We call it unitarianism. We are all ultimately one. And inflow we get to access that truth. For many of us that experience can be ecstatic. Drugs can be a shortcut to it. Spiritual practices can be a long cut to being there all the time. But generally your individual self isn't gone forever. Inflow just like with the sponge the liquid elements of you are still there and when you squeeze the sponge the flow ends the universe spits you back out and you read conceal and then just as csikszentmihalyi says the self expands. Through these acts of self. Forgetfulness. The new repository itself is a little expanded its fuller richer deeper as if we carry some of the whole universe back with us into ordinary consciousness. The experience of flow changes us it spreads to other dimensions of our lives. In his spare time jack kramer likes to work in his garden. He has created a whole garden of eden with rock sculptures and pathways and terraces. Flowers of all kinds and bushes. And when he was installing sprinkler system for it he decided that he wanted rainbows to. He did some experimenting with different sprinkler heads to see what would work none of the stores were just right and so he made one and his basement they would spray just exactly the right kind of fine mist. To produce rainbows. So now he has 12 rainbows that sprout all over his garden whenever he turns the sprinkler is on but there was one problem. He was working so much during daylight hours that he doesn't have a lot of time to enjoy the rainbows but jack was not deterred. He did a little research and found some flood lights that have just enough of the sun's spectrum they when you turn them on even at night presto rainbows and rainbows now bloom in his garden day or night slow it's really about how to live life. In general flow requires a perfect balance of action and allowing doing and surrender in this culture we tend to be pretty good at the action and doing part our economy is based on the idea of the ego going out into the world and altering it in some way even competing with other egos to do it faster and better getting a better job. I'm going to dream and then i'm going to achieve. I alone can get this done it's the american dream if i have ability and work hard i will be successful. The concert in here it comes from me my ability my intelligence my strength mine. Any fact there is some real value to that kind of energy. It's the proactiv vitality that fuels so much of life but that kind of self-aggrandizing energy also runs the risk of blocking flow. It's so often includes either self-consciousness. Or self-centeredness self-consciousness is where we're worried about what other people are going to think how we're going to appear how will i look in these pants will my kids friends parents think that i'm giving my kid too much screen time. What will my neighbors think about me creating a crazy garden in my backyard that's self-consciousness. Self-centeredness is where we judge everything in life according to its value to us is this painting useful to me is this new person that i've just met going to help me reach my goals. Is this rainbow in my garden going to accomplish anything. Nothing is allowed to be valuable just for its own sake csikszentmihalyi rights although a self-conscious person is in many respects different from a self-centered one neither can enter easily into flow experience. Too much psychic energy is wrapped up in the south. Well we certainly need that american dream self fueled energy we also need a different kind of energy. The energy of surrender. Sometimes to be the person that we want to be we had to get our self out of the way. Religious mystics from many traditions are in touch with this kind of energy and the ecstatic joy that it brings the bumper sticker version of this is let go and let god the poem that we read by hafiz earlier captures it perfectly. What is the difference between your experience of existence and that of a saint. The saint knows that the spiritual path is a sublime chess game with god. End up the beloved has just made such a fantastic move but the same is now continually tripping over joy and bursting out in laughter and say i surrender whereas my dear i am afraid you still think you have a thousand serious moves. We all walk around thinking that we still have a thousand serious moves. We think we're going to control our lives or die trying we think we can figure it out and arrange all the pieces just ride and orchestrate what everybody's going to do but how often does it happen that we think we know what's going to be good or bad for us and it turns out that we don't know squat. How often does the careful plan fall apart. We think something is going to turn out one way and it turns out another way we think we have someone figured out and they surprised us we think we could only be happy if xyz happens and abrc happens and it turns out to be the best thing ever. Or vice versa. And at some point we just have to laugh. Because it really is like a chess game and our opponent has made a fantastic move and it's just so brilliant i'm so surprised and we just have to say okay i give up i surrender i can't fight the flow. And at that moment a new way of being opens up. I believe the flow has a lesson to teach us. Flow is not just about the great feeling of being immersed in one particular activity. Flow is a way of being in the world. It's a way of being but embodies action and surrender at the same time. Where everything we do. We do with both. Our full intent and strength and intelligence and creativity and at the same time. Complete yielding to the great chess master of the cosmos. So i invited all of us to notice where are we maybe trying to push our own rivers efforting our way through our days. And instead look for places where we can find flow. The letting go. That gives up the fight. Without giving up the impulse to act. Try to let our egos quiet a little and instead become conduits for the energy of the universe let our power come from within and beyond us. Once we can plug into that power there is nothing that we can't do we can find enough love for everyone in our lives we can become laser-focused on our work for justice we can create joy and the simplest of tasks and we can even make rainbows shine at night please rise and body or spirit fry next him or final him peace like a river number 100.

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The-Expediter.m4a

So i'm not a dinner party chatting with the guy next to me who i've never met before. He asked me what i do for a living and i tell him and he's very interested in that and we talked about what it's like to be a minister for a while. And then i asked him what he does for a living i'm an expeditor he says. I say expeditor i've always been curious about what expeditors do what exactly is an expeditor. Ihop companies do their business. I mostly handle violations what do you mean violations. Well. He explains. I hate waiting in line. So i usually don't get permits for stuff i just you know tell the client to do their thing and if they got a violation for it i try to buy them more time or get away there whatever they need. So i say it's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission. It's best not to get caught he says. Do you enjoy your work. Yes pretty good i get to do all kinds of violations you know environmental health broken elevator what-have-you. I was appalled i had always assumed that expeditors actually make things more efficient and solve problems not enable companies to avoid fixing broken elevators. I wanted to say to him. So in other words you help broken things stay broken for a living. But i said nothing. I was not brave. In the words of the song i did not say what i want to say i did not let the words fall out. I think i was stunned into silence because he was so matter-of-fact so i'm ashamed about the whole thing it was just what he did for a living no different in principle from what i do for a living it was value-neutral to him. This is business in our world it's just playing the game you hire this guy to grease the wheels and unsnag you from whatever snags your business encounters whatever they may be doesn't matter no matter that the polar ice caps are melting as we speak or the people are getting sick and dying because of all the carcinogens in our environment. The regulations are getting in your way and this guy can help. And he'll do it cheerfully and he will not apologize for it. Keep the flow of goods and services moving expeditiously no matter what. I feel like there's a shift in the public discourse recently or maybe i'm just noticing it more. We're not only stupid people feel free to act solely and their own material self-interest but they don't even feel the need to pretend that they're doing otherwise. But don't try to hide it they don't try to justify it by appealing to any larger values it seems that it's become socially acceptable to be completely indifferent to the social and environmental implications of your work. Obviously this is not always true companies are trying to brainwash their image and some even actually care and try to make better choices. But it's still shocking to me how often public figures feel the need feel no need to advance any kind of spiritual or ethical or moral justification for their actions. It would have been funny for example if it weren't so sad how things played out back a few months ago when a couple of conservative organizations in arizona try to pass a so-called religious freedom bill. It would have explicitly allowed businesses to discriminate against customers. On the basis of some sincerely held religious belief. Just came directly out of a court case between a gay couple and a wedding services company that wanted to deny them service. So it's pretty clear which customers and which sincerely held religious beliefs they're talking about. Enough state senators came on board with this bill supposedly on the grounds of religious freedom that it passed the senate. And then it was up to the governor to either veto it or sign it into law. But then something went wrong. The business community flew into a panic. It turns out gay people have money and buy stuff but this bill was going to be bad for business. Suddenly the concern about religious freedom evaporated. And everybody was backpedaling including some of the original promoters of the bell and begging the governor to veto it when she did. No one even pretended. But the change of heart was about anything other than money. John mccain explained it's not an accident that our arizona chamber of commerce and our business leaders came out with a very strong message yesterday that they don't want the governor to sign this. This is going to hurt the state of arizona's economy and frankly our image. Next year's super bowl the schedule for arizona and the nfl opposed the bill. The super bowl host committee came out with a statement. But it strives to promote economic vitality and adoption that this legislation would not only run contrary to that goal the deal is significant blow to the state's economic growth potential. We do not support this legislation. No granted john mccain and the nfl are not generally known to be paragons of progressive values. Seriously. That's the reason not to support this bill. Because it's bad for business. Not because it's discriminatory and unethical. Where did all of the religious freedom people go. We're all of the die-hard then no we have to stick to our guns so to speak and protect our freedom to discriminate even if it costs us money. Where did all those people go. Nobody and power have either side. Was ultimately arguing this on the basis that the principal. The issue is decided on the basis of financial expediency. And everyone could agree on that. There are countless examples these days of this kind of. Shameless amoral advancement of self-interest take the koch brothers pushing for attacks on renewable energy so that it's more expensive. And less competitive with oil and gas. Pretend this is altruism. They don't have to. Take republican efforts to restrict voting rights across the country knowing the impact that will have on floor and non-white voters. They do sometimes make a half-hearted attempt to say that it's about preventing voter fraud. But it's such a thin argument that usually don't even bother. They don't have to. The religious right has one thing right there is a breakdown of morality in our culture. Our society is oriented around the financial bottom line often at the expense of moral values. It was good luck. But in the case of the arizona bill the financial bottom line and the just outcome were one and the same. But that is so often not the case. Especially when it comes to environmental stewardship. Had a whole host of issues from gun rights to healthcare. They're often hard choices to be made. And that needs to be publicly acknowledged the companies and politicians continue doing the right thing for the wrong reason as they did in arizona. The kind of sweeping systemic change that we really need. Will never happen. We need an entire shift of consciousness. The world desperately needs the voices of people like us to speak out for justice. In the language of spirituality and morality. On the grounds of spirituality and morality. Voices that say that expediency. Is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is a healthy earth. Honda planet. But it's safe. Peace and justice for everyone. This will not always be in the immediate that's interested business. It will not always be in the best interest of americans. It is not politically expedient. It is not financially expedient. It involves protecting people who have no political influence. It involves protecting our environment even though that will cost more in the short run. It involves love. As a foundational principle of our society. The world desperately needs the voice. Have something like our unitarian faith in the oneness of all. A teaching that when one is harmed all are harmed. And so you would never intentionally enable a broken elevator to stay broken because our brothers and sisters ride on that elevator. The world needs the voice of something like our universalist face. The teachers a radically inclusive universe. A teaching that there are in fact no sincerely held religious beliefs. That would condone discrimination. Any religion worthy of the term teaches compassion. And acceptance. There plenty of people here in this ruin her personally manifest those values. Some sacrifice their own pay in order to work as teachers social workers are for nonprofits. Some in the corporate world do extraordinary pro-bono work. And campaign for social conscience in their corporations. But we are all. Myself included. Complicit. In creating a culture. In which somebody like the expediter. Can exist. He can work with impunity. And confess it shamelessly to administer. We tacitly give his career and his worldview legitimacy through our silence. Interpersonal violence like mine at that dinner party. Consumer silence when we continue to buy products from companies with destructive practices. Political silence when we continue to support lawmakers. To answer to the financial bottom line rather than the long-term health and justice for this planet. We don't want to be impolite. We don't want to be just like. We don't want to be too inconvenient. We don't want to seem like freaks. There's tremendous social pressure to conform to a mainstream secular understanding of what's reasonable. But this is precisely the problem we feel negative social pressure if we speak out in favor of justice. But the expediter feels no negative social pressure for his shady career. It's precisely at these places of discomfort. Because they are places of discomfort. Do we need to speak up. We need to keep holding up our spiritual and moral vision so that we can eventually turn the tide on the discourse of expediency. The world needs our voices. Joker's john mccain said that it's no accident that business leaders oppose the arizona bill so we need to say that it's no accident that unitarian-universalist also opposed it for different reasons the reasons matter the speaking up matters. My sense is that if i had cross-examined the expeditor at dinner that night she would have said that it doesn't matter it's no big deal the regulations he's trying to get around or stupid and unnecessary or more cynically he might have said. You know it's dog-eat-dog out there. If you let yourself get sentimental about people's feelings or the fuzzy polar bears or anyting else you'll just get trampled. You gotta look out for number one. Our faith teaches a different perspective. That the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. Those who prevail at the end will not be those who looked out. For number one. But those who looked out for all the creatures of the earth big and small. In the words of the beatitudes blessed are the merciful they will find mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers. They will be ranked as children of god. This is the great hope of liberal religion. But in the long run goodness will prevail. Right here on earth. If we are right. And the expediter is wrong. Someday it will happen. And it is our work as humans to expedite that day. Please rise and body or spirit for our final him number 118 this little light of mine.

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Exorcizing-Experience.m4a

In a recent rolling stone interview bruce springsteen explain that going through life is like riding in a car. Where do people get in all the time but nobody ever gets out every experience you've ever had every person who's ever been important to you as well as all of your own younger selves are all in the car with you. So the big question the determines where you go and how you live your life is not who's in and who's out cuz everybody's in the question is who's driving. For some of us it may be a very young childhood south. That's driving. Still trying to please our parents for some of us it may be the experience of having over, serious illness that's driving. And the sense of responsibility and the preciousness of life. That comes with the. For some it's an experience of sudden loss. Until we drive only down wide well-lit road well below the speed limit trembling shrinking away from being hurt again. For many religious traditions the goal is to put god in the driver's seat. This is where you get phrases like let go let god bumper stickers like my boss is a jewish carpenter pastor rick warren of saddleback church uses this metaphor a great deal here just his congregants to put jesus in the driver's seat he says here's what christians tend to do when we become believers in christ we give him the driver seat and then probably hop into the backseat and become backseat drivers for constantly giving him advice like is for all intents and purposes our god. It's what guides us it's what motivates us shapes our actions and what we believe in most fervently as the truth. So it's a crucial question for us. To what kind of god. Do we want to give that kind of power within us. For herman dawson the juvenile court judge that ari was just talking about it seems like his childhood experience of poverty and discrimination maybe at the wheel. Long with his mother's response as harsh punishment and tough love. His mother raised him on poverty wages with five siblings she was a strict disciplinarian who in his words. Didn't play. He saw her get beaten up on the edmund pettus bridge on bloody sunday and he himself is the victim of violence during protest marches. He learned from the time he was a kid but life is hard. There's no room for making mistakes no time for pleasure no forgiveness. If you screw up or act out and anyway the world will punish you. And he takes that worldview and he transmits it to all of the children and parents who come through his court. Descendants his kids too long detentions on first offenses. He makes parents pay court fees that are usually wave for juvenile cases even when they say they can't afford it. He punishes kids severely for the tiniest infractions of their probation terms for acting up at home requiring them to maintain a certain grade point average and locking them up again if they don't. He claims that he's saving them from getting into even worse trouble later on but angry parents along with experts in the field say that his punitive approach is backfiring and these children's lives and turning ordinary kids. Into criminals. Everyone except judge dawson can see it. Because the compassionate caring forgiving herman dawson who is undoubtedly in there in his car 2. Is not in the driver's seat. I believe that judge dawson really is well-intentioned. He really wants to help these kids stay out of trouble and get out of poverty but although he may have caring voices within him. The only language he has available to show his caring. Is the language of his painful experiences. The language of punishment and authority. And though he may well have forgiving impulses. The only god he has available to drive his car. Seems to be the harsh and exacting god of judgment. Descendants dad and in different ways we are all like judge dawson. We all carry with us some painful experiences of our past and to some extent we let them drive our experience of the world. So often those experiences give us the only language we have. So often we act out of the place of our own wounded mess. Sometimes we get frustrated playing out the same bad patterns over and over again hurting ourselves and others. Freud called at the repetition compulsion where we repeat our own trauma or put ourselves in situations where it's likely to happen again. What was done to us as children we do to our children or as in judge dawson's case other people's children. And it's all the very best of intentions because when our experience of pain and fear is in the driver seat. The universe feels like it is in fact a scary and painful and dangerous place. Acting from this experience the best we could possibly do for ourselves and the best we can teach others to do is to grow a thick shell of armor to try to dominate and control. And look out for our own needs. As unitarian universalist we know that this god of judgment. Born out of pain and fear. If not the only god and our car. Our god to the extent that we collectively have a god at all is the god of compassion and love. The god of possibility and transformation. And just god. Is in the car too. Just as we've all had painful experiences the teachers the harshness of life we have also each had experiences of great love. Each of us was cared for when we were infants. Vulnerable fragile and utterly dependent on the nurturing of our caregivers. Those mothering figures whoever they were. Are in the car with us. Each of us has had the experience of success. Overcoming adversity doing something we didn't think possible. Or even overcoming trauma. The teachers of serapis the spiritual guides and mentors who helped make it possible. They're all in the car with us. Each of us has done something to make the world a better place. We've been a good friend when our friend desperately needed it. We've had moments of truly serving our constituents to our customers with integrity. We've had moments when we've been wise and loving parents to our children. Each of the people who we have helped our witnesses to our own inherent goodness. And they are in the car with us too. We all live in a cloud of all the experiences we've ever had painful pleasurable exciting monotonous transformative. Call zimmer part of us. They're in us and with us always. We have demon parts and we have angela parts and we have parts that defy definition. So we can. Call an exorcist to get rid of the demons within us anymore than bruce springsteen could kick a passenger out of his car. Henry wouldn't want to even if we could. All those parts of us have their place they're there for a reason and collectively they make us who we are. But we can become conscious of who is at the wheel. At any given time. Make a notice what's driving us. Who or what is our god at that moment and ask ourselves. Is that the god that i want to give all this power to. Is that the god i want in the driver seat. Is that the god of the unitarian universalist vision of the interconnectedness of life. And compassion for all. If not. You might want to. Lead over got a good look at the god who is driving. Don't try to ejecta from your car. Be gentle even loving with it. This god this experience has served you well and done important work for you and is deserving of your thanks. But if you don't want to drive in your car. Just give it a tap on the shoulder and say. Hey you look tired. You've been driving for a long time. At the next light. Switch with me. I'll take the wheel for a while please rise for our final hymn number 139 wonder still the world shall witness.

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Dont-Knock-Just-Walk-On-In.m4a

If you live in a house or a small apartment building you may use those big 30 gallon clear plastic recycling bags for your recycling and they come in cardboard boxes maybe 12 or 22 bucks and eventually they will wind up inside the clear plastic recycling bag. I always get a little thrill. When i take it the last clear plastic recycling bag out of the box and then open it up and then immediately put the box inside the bag. Maybe i need to get a life i don't know but it needs its own box. The thing that used to be the container becomes the contained. Spontaneous inversion of the power dynamic between the bag and the box the bag can save the box i once created the context and the environment in which you lived knowing you once created the contact in the environment in which i lived and now i create the contact and the environments in which you live. This is what easter is all about. Jesus was a poor and struggling rabbi breasts at the failure of every attempt to overthrow the roman occupiers heartbroken at the corruption of his religion by the wealthy and powerful this is what we were talking about last week the roman occupation. Completely contained judaism. It was. The romans who decided to what extent the jews will be able to practice their religion. It was the romans who plays their own people in the temple they chose the priest and they collected the taxes that went to the state. It was the romans who determined the terms by which jewish cousins could come from the countryside to pray everyone knew that they were only allowed to practice their religion by the good graces of the roman authorities and telling for jews to take up their swords and follow him he caused the romans so much trouble that they killed him. The ultimate containment they contained him with finality in the physical container of the stone tomb with stone rolled across the entrance and normally this would have been the end of the story except that in this case as the story goes. The stone has been rolled away and the container was found. Empty. In this powerful mythic story she's has transcended the container of an imperial power. And he transcended the container. Of death. And in a flash. He literally became larger than life. In a flash she bursts out of any possible limitations and his teachings began a slow spread that eventually reach every corner of the earth. Rather than being judged by the roman authorities. Jesus's teachings became the standard by which secular authority could be judged. 300 years later. Christianity. Which was the religion unwittingly. Founded by jesus. Became the official state religion of the roman empire arguably no more radical reversal has ever been affected. It's this explosive moment of reversal when reality is upended that makes the easter myth so breathtaking. Now use the word myth here in the best possible way because this is an archetype we recognize it it's not something that we have to necessarily wait around for a miracle to make happen it's something we've all experienced in our lives and more importantly it's something that we humans can. Manifest in our lives. At the very least each of us has experienced this reversal at the moment of birth. Some of us more recently than other where we were once contained in our mother's womb we emerged ripping by the life force. And as every parent here knows we then proceeded to take over our parents lives and contain them within the world of our needs where they once created the context and environment in which we live. We then created the context and environment in which they live. This is nature at work and it's beautiful and the powerful. But it's also absolutely ordinary. The word that's really exciting is where a human being can. Consciously manifest this energy of breaking out of our containers. Through sheer foot spa. I'm thinking today because it's passover and because of emancipation day in washington dc. I'm thinking of the story of harriet tubman. Affectionately called moses. Tubman was born a slave in 1822 in maryland. Like many slaves she was abused throughout her youth beaten and whipped and once got a head injury that gave her health problems for her whole life. When she was just 27 years old. She escaped. This was the first stage of her breaking out of her container she. Physically escaped slavery. But you didn't just try to save herself and build a new life up north although she would have been perfectly justified in doing that. Once you escaped and realized that it could be done she immediately went back to rescue her family. And then she kept going back and rescued her relatives. She could have stopped there of coruscant would have been absolutely justified and doing that but she kept going back risking her own life over and over she helped dozens of people escaped through the underground railroad. Amongst the fugitive slave act was passed in the north was no longer safe she helps people get all the way up to canada. She probably recounted. But she never lost a passenger. They called her moses because she liberated so many people from slavery. She could have stopped there but you didn't when the civil war began she joined the union army. I became an arm scout and a spy and she became the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war she led a raid that liberated 700 more slaves in her later years as if that wasn't enough she became an activist in the women's suffrage movement with a clear commitment to what we now call intersectionality. Harriet tubman through her own explosives courage and faith went from being a slave contained within a cruel and racist system to being a powerful force to upend and eventually contain that very same system. She went from just being an economic unit with an erased identity to being an american hero buried with full military honors with a national monuments and countless schools and even an asteroid named after her. And the ultimate ironic reversal the treasury department last year decided to put tubman on the front of the $20 bill replacing andrew jackson a slaveholder. Money money was the value that had kept harriet tubman and slave and now her face will grace. A physical symbol of money that many americans use every single day that is version of meaning. Is absolutely thrilling. To me at least and apparently to you as well as you can imagine. Our current president does not so thrilled about it. Earliest he wasn't during the campaign when he called the decision to replace andrew jackson with harriet tubman pure political correctness. But actually harriet tubman's hutzpah is something that trump should admire. Because in a strange way trump's victory is the privileged version of that exact same he did all the things that you just can't do. He said all the things that you just can't say. Every other news story calls his actions unprecedented which is usually intended as a criticism but which he and his followers undoubtedly take as the highest compliment. And the liberal intellectual culture that he felt so unjustly contained by well now he contains. And we are struggling to break out the central metaphor of the people's climate march coming up on april 29th in washington dc will be one of containment will be marching to the white house and then completely encircling it through this march in the movement that continues after it will work to reverse that again. And effect yet another inversion so that corporations will someday serve the earth and its people instead of the other way around. Play avicii this ability to break out of our containers this brash unapologetic foot spur is in and of itself value-neutral it's a kind of a superpower. And as we all know any superpower can be used for good or for evil. But it is. Available. To us. Things that seem impossible do happen. Things in our own lives that's feel like they will never change do change. Our spiritual challenge whatever we find this power within us is to use it for good. Like harriet tubman once we've liberated ourselves to go back and liberate others. 2c oppression in the broadest possible way that's both personal and universal and work to overturn it and reverse it in every dimension of life. Now of course it's not always just a matter of foot spa there are some containers like being very poor or very physically sick or worse yet being very poor and very physically sick that are real and external and cannot be willed away. But so often what stops us from breaking free is not that kind of thing. We so often stopped ourself miles before we hit one of those big barriers. We stopped at not allowed we stopped at not polite we stopped at two disruptive. We stopped at never been done before. We stopped at never been done in my family before. We stopped at might hurt someone's feelings. We stopped at my fell we stopped at two week we stopped at 2 scared we stopped at get all your ducks in a row first. We stopped at ask permission first. We stopped at knock on the door first. If there's one message that we can take away from the easter story it's that when we are fighting to break out of our containers. Whether it's for our personal liberation or for the liberation of thousands don't knock. Like i said in the spiritual that we heard today don't knock just walk on in. You should each have received a little square of paper when you arrived this morning. If you don't have one you can get one in a minute from an usher misses flash paper which if you've been here on easter before you'll know it's a kind of magicians paper that when you touch it to a flame it kind of explodes we're going to come up in a few minutes we're going to come up to the three stations that we usually use for our candle lighting but instead of lighting a candle you're going to touch the piece of paper to the flame and throw it up in the air. And blow it up. Don't try this with don't try to burn something else it won't work the same way use use the flash paper and kevin's down here is going to demonstrate how this works. Honda easter sunday we remember the life of jesus as a teacher and a healer as a leader of a movement and for some of us as a worker of miracles we can take away as many lessons from the example of his life this morning i focus i invite you to focus on the hard lesson of his foot spa his unwillingness to be contained and let us also refuse to be limited by our own container let us like jesus or harriet tubman use our put butter break free break others free and be a blessing to the world is inhibited. Some way in which you may be living small that can be very personal it can be very political pick a door that feels close to you and set the intention to not knock but walk on in. And let the flash paper that you're holding in your hand represent that barrier whatever it is. But it represents the thing that you feel contained you the thing that you want to break free of to take a minute and reflect on what that is for you and then whenever you're ready come on up.

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Our-Bodies-Ourselves.m4a

X just wondering which part is me. For i'm not my knees or my elbows or toes or even my eyes or my ears or my nose. I must be the elf that is curled up inside using my body as someplace to hide this poem is written in the voice of a child as if it's a child talking and it suggests that the self is something separate from the body our bodies are just cars that ourselves ride around and we look out at the world through two holes that we call eyes but no offense to my dad but i don't think any actual kid feels this way. Are them. Babies in my experience tend to think that even their mothers bodies are them it's only as adults and adults in certain cultures that we get a sense of separation from our bodies our bodies become something that we have rather than something that we are. Thomas edison once said the chief function of the body is to carry the brain around christianity has done a lot to perpetuate this idea some christian traditions strictly separate the spirit from the flesh according to the apostle paul the body is the main source of sin and it is our job to crucify the flesh and its passions. Discuss into some of the territory the taco is preaching about. Christian ascetics would starve themselves and even whip themselves to try to subdue their own bodies. But this stuff is not just the domain of the moonies or christian extremist the tradition was continued by puritans and the american colonies. Your congregants had to sit on hard wooden pews men and women on separate sides listening 24-hour sermons and getting smacked with a rod if they fidgeted too much or made noise or fell asleep which they often did. Denial of the body was a religious ideal. The body was just a problematic container and the spirit the self. The elf. Was curled up inside. The minister william ellery channing talks about the prevailing unitarian attitude toward physicality and his famous 1819 sermon unitarian christianity. He said unitarians laid no stress on strong excitement we do not judge the bent of men's minds by their raptures any more than we judge the natural direction of a tree and a storm. We rather suspect loud profession for we have observed a deep feeling is generally noiseless and least sikhs display we modern-day religious liberals are heirs to this tradition and although we don't get whipped if we make a noise in the service if you visit most you use services in this country making noise is a faux pas. And although sermons are not four hours long they're still spoken sermon that address themselves mostly to the intellect expected to sit still and silently listen and then go away and perhaps discuss the sermon politely with our friends. The extent of physicality and our services tends to be the active standing up for hymns and then sitting back down again. We do a little bit better here at first you mostly thanks to adam and the choir and our music program but we still have a long way to go before we are truly inviting in the fullness of our being in this community there's this sense still that true spirituality is silent and still and we need to shush the parts of ourselves that are active and rowdy the belly laugh and the funky dance the parts that are free ativ and messy and fleshy and flowy. Computer geeks sometimes scornfully refer to humans as not software or hardware but wetware. That frightening liquidity is what the puritan heritage tells us to purge this is one of the pillars of white supremacy culture and patriarchy as well the dry intellect the disembodied spirit is lifted up as the mature evolved white masculine ideal. Physicality is for people of color and women and children and poor people the authorities of the dominant culture are so afraid of the power of this physicality unleashed they are forever trying to control these people's bodies for them imprisoning them determining their sexual and childbearing freedoms policing their physical expressions during the national anthem their clothing the tones of their voices women get turned into sexual object to all of these people just bodies that need to be disciplined this policing and exclusion this forced division of body from spirit impoverishes us all it alienates us from the fullness of who we are it separates us from the body of the earth the mother of of us all so that we can do violence to her without even feeling the pain it separates us so radically from one another at the border. The severing of body from spirit is a math disassociation. From life itself. Our bodies are not just storage lockers for our souls and they're not just the storage lockers for our brains neither are they toys for the pleasure and entertainment of others. Our bodies are a sacred expression of our humanity on this earth. No matter what physical limitations we may have and however the aging process changes us all of our bodies have beauty. All of our bodies have wisdom. All of our bodies have strength and energy or we would not be sitting here right now. This is not to say that embodiment is always simple or happy. Bodies experience pain. And sickness and abuse and frailty that doesn't match our sense of who we are. Our bodies betray us. They don't look or feel or function as we wish no matter how hard we try and the betrayal sometimes grows more painful the older we get. Sometimes in response to trauma we separate ourselves from our body as a matter of survival. End. Our bodies die. At the moment of death many of us will pray fervently that the spirit the celtic the elf is indeed separate and will go on in a life of its own. All of this to is real. In profound ways for good and for ill our bodies are ourselves. And for a community to welcome. A diversity of selves means to welcome a diversity of bodies and bodily expressions humans are blessed with a kaleidoscopic array of ways of looking and talking and singing and moving and frame. Regardless of what if anything lies at the end of this journey this life is lived out through physical three-dimensional space we're all moving through it in our unique ways. Sometimes as taco taught us our bodies have wisdom that our minds do not. So let's speak our minds speak our hearts and speak our bodies in equal measure let's march in the streets and dance in the pews and give thanks everyday for what we've been given the imperfect with the perfect the joys with the oils earthly with angelic and embodied spirituality and braces at all to william ellery channing and thomas edison and their elk. Thank you for your many spiritual insights and contributions to knowledge but the time has come for us to cut loose from your dry brain consciousness we have a new consciousness the time has come for us to honor our bodies as holy and all of their shapes and sizes abilities and struggles illness and wellness colors and sexualities are quietude and our loudness our tears and our phlegm and our laughter we will embrace the physical messiness of life and hold hands until the moment we die please rise in body or spirit.

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23-Months-And-Counting-Aboard-Lifeboat-Earth.m4a

In the gospel hymn the storm is passing over we hear the tumultuous thunder that shakes the ground receive the angry waves and we witnessed in those words. How the distant lights are dim. The words and the music. Combine sister us. To remind us that do fear washes over us at times. There is an end. There is. Some peace. And then that song that the choir sang you'll never walk alone. It's a song that i built it out when i was a child i stood on top of a picnic table and i just sang that to my heart's delight. I think it's it reminded me. Pepto. Hard times come that though life can be fearsome. We are not alone. Whether it is the god of our understanding is always with us whether it is building the beloved community. That sustains us we journey on the storm passes over and on the 29th of october we will remember that there were some. Who did not make it through that terrible storm called sandy 2 years ago. There was some more still displaced. Who are homeless living on beaches. Or in their cars. Even through the cold of last winter. There are still those living in crowded apartments intended for a single-family and now multiple families live there. There are still some plagued by the ever-present black mold that just will not be remedied some whose homes remain gutted. Some who lost their jobs after sandy and cannot find work even to this day. State programs like build it back in new york rising or only now. Beginning to do what they promised. To restore those whose lives were devastated. On that night 23 months ago. And counting. On another level superstorm sandy. Occurred and all its intensity because the sea waters were about 5 degrees higher. Much warmer than they usually are at that time of year. Climate change that. We all contribute to. Help to create that perfect storm. And perhaps its most difficult to face that we are all responsible in a way. But that jewish concept of the day of atonement of yom kippur. Leads us past washing. Ourselves in grief and guilt. But that leads us to examine our lives our actions. To choose to do what we can do. Rather than just. Sitting in that. That guilt. The wisdom of yamkapor is that it leads to opening our hearts and our minds and our hands. In two acts of restoration and healing. When sandy hit i was the minister at the unitarian church of staten island. Which serves as a distribution center for occupy sandy for gathering donations. And people from this congregation including your minister and a levy lions brought much-needed donations so that we could distribute them to the south shore. People who were homeless and desperate. And despair. You may not know that but that meant the world to me as i was kind of. Drowning in. Trying to help. Trying to get things to the other side. Cuz i live on the north shore the church is on the north shore. Your congregation made a difference. When a community walks through a storm. You see. It's a blessing. Windows from your face community show up. And they just show up and walk with you. For a little while. I woke up this morning knowing that there is one idea that weaves through everything i share with you. That what we do matters. And the words from a song from the play wicked kept going through my mind. It's the song for good. Part of the words are i don't really know if i've been changed for the better. But i know. You see i know i've been changed. For the good. What we do in our lives matters and what we don't do matters to. It matters for good or ill it matters when we are simply present. To one another. Two circumstances happening in our world. It matters when we raise our voices to advocate for this planet. If we volunteer to rebuild. After hurricane sandy for a day. Or reduce our fossil fuel usage. It all matters. And i think it always did but it now matters more than ever. Because we are connected i am convinced five less than six degrees of separation. We impact people we have various species every single day and when we cause harm as we will always do we are people. We make mistakes we are. The jewish concept of a day of atonement can be extended far beyond the day. Of atonement. One day which happened yesterday. We can make amends for those harms. And do individually. We won't stop the march climate crisis. Or get someone back in their homes by them by ourselves. Our actions. Are interact in actions. Do matter. In my capacity as the unitarian universalist disaster response coordinator. We have been working through a two-year grant sponsored by the unitarian universalist congregation at shelter rock i see the work that has been done i see the things that matter. And what remains to be done in the wake of sandy in this wide area that i serve which includes all of new jersey all of long island and i now know particularly why we call it long island. And mostly three boroughs in new york city. Brooklyn. The rockaways in queens and staten island. Some recent projects have some developments that have truly made a difference. They matter too many people and i want to tell you about a few of those. Murray grove retreat and renewal center. Which is a storage unitarian universalist retreat center receive funding. To rebuild one of its cabins parker house and it's now available to house superstorm sandy volunteers. And for about a year now we've been working partnering. With the poospatuck native american reservation in mastic long island. They are a community they are a nation really that's been there since 1620 in mastic in long island. And as the sign says when you go there they are still there. But they're right on the oceanfront that is their land that they have that's all the land that they have and they were terribly damaged in the storm. The goldmine youth leadership camp stayed at the unitarian church of staten island which it also got some money some funding from the central east regional group. Disaster relief fund. To add an extra shower for volunteers to come and stay there and that's where the goldmine youth leadership group scaife and they volunteered in a day of service. To help feed those people who are still displaced after the storm on staten island. The hungry the suffering. They clean the beaches and they've learned about how trees are being planted. To help mitigate against future storms. And one local unitarian universalist congregation is planning a day of service in new jersey. And another makes repeated trips. To work with our partners at resurrection brooklyn. Unitarian universalist ministers may also be coming from this district. Volunteering here in brooklyn in november. An astounding partnership has been created with the unitarian universalist college of social justice that you may know sponsors experiential learning journeys. In which participants are accompanied by program leaders. Praying program leaders like your director of education ministries macon henry. And the groups reflect before the trip. Drawing it and after it. On climate change. They talked to vulnerable community members who are immigrants and indigenous people and they find out how they can take what they learned. Back to their home communities. And. Unitarian universalist seminarians are also coming here to brooklyn. With the unitarian universalist college of social justice. More and more the college of social justice. Is going to be sponsoring. And working with me to promote these trips. But we also. Through the work that i've been doing partner with other denominations in the recovery community. There is a vast number of them the united methodist the lutherans the united church of christ the moravian the episcopalians the presbyterians the catholics. Various evangelico christians. We have come together. Across these. Really divergent. Theological landscape. Because we recognize that we are all responsible. It takes all of us to build and to rebuild a sustainable. Community. Together. Together our efforts matter. And we need this congregation. To join in this good work. To volunteer if you can to help with recovery. In small ways maybe. But ways that matter so much. The marshall islands poet kathy jetnil. Kitchener. Spoke before the united nations climate summit in new york city several weeks ago. She read a poem which was addressed to her seven-month-old daughter. Martha filipina. Explaining how some say that the lagoon that they walk every single morning may someday devour her. Will not at the shoreline will chew at the roots of your breadfruit trees and crunch through your island shattered bones. Leaving. Martha filipina. And her daughter and her granddaughter after her wandering rootless with only a passport to call home. But then cathy infuses the poem with the bright hope of the 400,000 at the people's climate march and she right. No one's going to become a climate change refugee. Or should i say. No one else. Because there. There are islands all over this beautiful earth that are like canaries in the coal mine. People they are see the day coming. When their way of life will be drowned. As we do also along the american coastline especially those. At the margins those physically socially economically. Disadvantaged. Those whose homes have been destroyed those who are still living on the margins 9 years after hurricane katrina. Struck the gulf coast. And 23 months. I'm counting after. Superstorm sandy. The impact of climate change is apparent now as the earth warms. And the sea levels rise supersizing storms like hurricane sandy. Now we is congregations and individuals have to continue to learn everything that we can to change what we must to reduce our carbon footprint to be active and telling our political leaders that they must work together. To create the path of least disruption through the stormy stormy times. And yet there is so much hope because after the 400,000 we are in touch with one another and there are two simple actions that every person every congregation. Can easily become involved with. One is to sign on to the new. Interfaith action. Our voices. net. Witches praying. Which is urging world leaders to take substantial action leading up to the paris climate. Summit in 2015 and on that site if you go there are voices dotnet there are these wonderful videos. That explain climate change very simply so that we can talk to other people no matter what are backgrounds. And there's also a unitarian universalist response that was just launched on september 21st the day of the climate march. Called commit to respond we need all our congregations we need everyone to get on board it's like the slogan for the climate-change march went. To change everything. We need everyone. The people's climate march was so hugely successful. With 1500 unitarian-universalist marching. Many of you among them can i see a show of hands how many of you were able to mark i wish you could see like i could see it. There was an inflatable mosque right next to the ark. Build with leaders from many-faced. Imagine that just bad as a symbol. An indigenous people people of color immigrants those already severely impacted by climate change were at the front they were leading the way. It matters what we do in the months and the years ahead now that the climate march is over. If matter is to marshallese. Poet. Kathy jetnil. Kitchener's young daughter matzo philopena. Who's islands were used as an experimental nuclear site. By the united states government. What the united states did. Mattered. To the marshall islands people. That is why her poem speaks to all of us all of us working together to atone for the damage done to people two species to the earth. It matters what we do. Or don't do. To all of our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren even if we're. Long gone. It matters when we show up with donations. Like this congregation did after sandy. It matters when we educate ourselves about climate change and speak up it matters when we pray and think and meditate on our earth. Shimmering waters. Golden fields its rainforest. It's best deserts. And all the people all the species that we are inextricably linked. I'm connected to. It matters when we listened to the stories of indigenous people. And immigrants. Two people whose rent has doubled since superstorm sandy. Whose children and older folks are sick because of mold. Overcrowding. And whose hopes. Their dreams were dashed by the storm. We can have an impact. For everything we do matters for good. Frill. We are powerful beyond belief. It may be that the best way we can make atonement toward the earth is to live rightly and lightly upon the land. And the best way to make atonement. Toward our fellow creatures is to acknowledge. Interdependence. Are interconnection. To all of the web of life. May we strive in this new year that is dawning to save what we can of this beautiful earth. May the storms that was superstorm sandy. Indeed. Passover. As we rebuild together. And find the courage. And the strength. To stand together. As one. May it be so.

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Godtheoutlaw.mp3

Joanne had been sober for exactly six months the day that she almost fell off the wagon. She told me the story the story years later but she still remembered it with crystal clarity down to the exact date when it happened. She was a member of one of my former congregations and she was talking to me about her experiences and i a. She came from an alcoholic family she was an alcoholic herself. She was married at the time with three children and a a have been a godsend to her. She believed this was her last real shot. I getting her life back. She knew her drinking is taking a toll on her family but you didn't realize how much of a toll until that day when she was served with divorce papers. Her life flash before her eyes. Herself as a single mother. The fear. The pain of losing her husband. The betrayal. The ridge. Above all the rage. She went outside. Walking. Walking walking. She tried to reach her sponsor. Chicken. She tried calling her friends. She couldn't reach them either. Anguished pacing landed her in front of a bar. There was the glowing neon sign with a happy hour special. She could get hammered. For pocket change. She pressed her head to the window. Her heart was pounding. Then her hand was on the door handle. For joanne the whole universe hinged on that moment. The hebrew bible begins with the description of the universe as it was imagine. Before god created the world. In the story there wasn't just nothingness. There was a substance called a home. The deep. We're not told much about this substance but that it was dark. And liquid. A primordial soup with all of the raw materials of the universe. The home was lawless and chaotic. Ever-changing. Formless and void are the biblical words. It was the place where anything is possible. It was pure potential. Then god began the project of making the world. And it was basically a project of applying structure to the townhome. Organizing the teeth. Making the laws by which the world would evolve. God divided the deep into categories light and dark. Water and land. God-shaped the deep into objects the sun the moon animals plants and people. Presumably. also made laws like the law of gravity. And the law that all living creatures die. You may not believe what it says in the bible and you may not believe that there was a god who did all these things. Whether or not there was a being involved somehow laws were applied to matter. In such a way as to evolve into the world as we know it. The way things supposedly immutably are. There are the laws of human psychology like freud's repetition compulsion. Our tendency to inflict on others the same pain that was inflicted on us. There's a lot of statistics. The says that a latina girl throwing up in a bronx housing projects with a single mother will probably also lined up in poverty and struggling herself. There's the law of the heart. It says that if you keep getting hurt in life you will grow a thicker and thicker shell around you and alienate people who care about you and wind up alone. Does the law of the marketplace that says the consumerism will leave to. Massive quantities of fossil fuels being pumped from the ground and burn. Which will lead to the earth getting hot which will lead to disasters of the natural world. There's a lot of addiction that says that an alcoholic who comes from an alcoholic family and just recently quit drinking and get served divorce papers and can reach her sponsor and finds a bar with a happy hour special will open the door and go in and take a drink. We're basically talking about a giant domino chain. We're domino's an infinite number of them were set up. One after another spanning across the cosmos and infinite directions. God or something set them all up. And god or something gave the first one apush. It's just cause and effect. It's just. What is. But if that's all god is. The thing that's that the domino's in motion and then sat back and watched. Godwin matter. That's not a god but we care about. The guy that we care about. Those of us who do care. The guy that we pray to those of us who pray. It's a god who breaks the laws. God the outlaw. Religious teachings are full of stories about this god as well. Take a story of abraham in the hebrew bible. Depending on who you ask abraham is either the most awesome or the most despicable character who ever lived because of what he did to his son isaac. Accepted god's command to sacrifice isaac. He brought isaac to the mountain he made him carry the firewood for his own demise. He lied to him about what was going on you raised the knife to kill him and only when god seemingly had a change of heart and said do not harm the boy. Did he pack up and go back home. Play turn isaac's with ptsc for life. The traditional explanation for why people consider abraham such a hero is that his devotion to god was so deep that he would sacrifice what was dearest to him on demand. Exclamation leave me cold and i imagine it does you as well. But there is another explanation of the binding of isaac story articulated by rabbi michael lerner die like a lot better. Michael lerner is an author and activist and founder of cocoon magazine. Michael lerner interprets the binding of isaac story by telling another story about abraham when he was a boy. This story from abraham childhood as part of oral tradition called midrash. To make a very very long story short inexpensive teenage rebellious rage abraham destroyed some of his father's things his father was livid livid. Abraham is unrepentant and for his recalcitrance he has been to the king of the land who throws abraham into a fiery furnace. God intervenes on abraham's behalf and abraham emerges unscathed. Michael lerner points out that of course abraham what it really emerge unscathed from all this. He's been rejected by his father kicked out of his home and send to a cruel king who tried to burn him to death. Talk about it ptsd. The abraham that emerges from this childhood is a wounded man. So if you connect abraham was thrown into a fiery furnace when he was a teenager. And when his son isaac was a teenager he hears a voice telling him to supply isaac as a burnt offering. Right on schedule according to the laws of the universe abraham inner demons are driving him to do to his son what was done to him. This is not the voice of god. The voice of god is the voice that stopped him. A word for god is different in these two parts of the story. The voice that tells abraham to sacrifice isaac is referred to as. Elohim. This is the name for god used in the creation story. The god that made the law that if you were abused as a child you will abuse your own children. We're at the boys to tell god to spare his son is referred to by a different name. The name you're never supposed to print out spelled yhwh. That's the name of the god of the exodus story who lead the israelites to freedom from slavery. That's forgot that breaks the laws. The voice of the god of liberation fries abraham from his internal slavery. And that critical moment when the knife is raised above his head abraham looks into his son's eyes. And miraculously despite all the pain he's suffered in his life. Abraham is able to love. What makes abraham a hero is not that he proved capable of killing his son. But that. Credibly. Impossibly. She didn't. The story is a mess. But it's so powerful because the struggle that abraham face is all of our struggle. And his heroism is all of our heroism. We may not have been thrown into a fiery furnace the we've all been hurt. We've all felt misunderstood and unrecognized. We may or may not have been cast out of our homes but we've all felt rejected. So many of us are isolated lonely. We become cynical. And while we may not come to the brink of killing our children we certainly find ourselves saying and doing the exact things we swore we would never stay and do. While we may not treat our spouses a truly and abraham did. We certainly feel the urge to lash out at them sometimes. Or we find ourselves alone because we can't stop repeating the same destructive cycles in our relationships over and over. Sometimes we can't explain why we do the things that we do. Why we hurt ourselves or the people we love. We sometimes find ourselves slave to our own path without even realizing it in our culture is in our communities reproducing the cruelty that has been handed down to us. As it was for the mythical abraham. The voice of our own pain. Can be so loud in our ears they can have so much resonance. But it sounds like god to us. But then. Amazingly. Like abraham we also sometimes find ourselves overcoming our own pain. A table to love. We find ourselves showing patience with our children when patience was never shown to us. We find ourselves being faithful to our partners when our parents were not faithful to each other. We find ourselves wanting to take that drink and not taking us funding to hit someone and not doing it. Wanting to quit our dreams but keeping going. We find ourselves able to forgive one more time and believe in each other and heal our relationship even when we've never seen it done. Show me god is the substance of this miracle. Got it the force in the universe that makes transformation possible. It is a force that empowers us to win the impossible victories over the repetition compulsion the var lives in our societies. The b the domino in the chain the refuses to fall. This is the story of every revolution. Personal and political. And so it's our new members this morning. Laurel. Karen. Jim. Donna. Joe. Hillary. And marketa. This is what i believe we're about here. Telling and retelling the stories. Humans who manifest god the outlaw. Connecting to the power to transform ourselves and our world. I'm so grateful that you are here to be part of these stories. Here's the end of the story about joanne. Her head was pressed against the door her heart was pounding her hand was on the handle she was full of rage full of longing. But she never opened the door. I asked her. What stopped you. She said. Something. I don't know. I peeled my hand away like breaking an electric current. I decided that i wouldn't go into this bar. She was finally able to reach her sponsor. Her friends. Christopher's network with back and she moved past the moment in which he now look back on. As one of the great turning points of her life. Despite textbook set of circumstances that should have driven her to drink. Incredibly. Impossibly. She didn't. Joanne was able to act out of self-love and love for her family. Joanne manifested god the outlaw. When you are a latina woman raised by a single mother in a bronx housing projects and now you are a supreme court justice. You are manifesting god the outlaw. When you keep getting hurt in your life and you've grown a thick shell and alia native people but somehow you open your heart one more time and you are able to love. You are manifesting god the outlaw. When we collectively are finally able to stand up to corporate power. Change our ways and return our planet earth to help. We will be manifesting god the outlaw. There is a force in the universe that makes transformation possible. Staff force is flowing all around us and through us right now. It's like a bottomless river racing ever-changing. That river doesn't know cause and effect. It is to home. The deep. It's a place of infinite possibilities where we all lived before the laws came to bear upon us. Every once in awhile. We humans are able to dip back into that primordial current. We scooped our hands into it and drink. Every once in awhile we manifest the divine power of transformation. And we break the laws of this world. Please rise in body or spirit for our final him all creatures of the earth and sky number 203.

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The-Innocence-of-God-On-the-Third-Commandment.m4a

In the nineteenth century it was common for american southerners to justify slavery by saying that it was approved by the bible and by god in exactly the way that james described so beautifully in his homily this was a violation of the commandment to not take god's name in vain. Because it's a manipulation of the truth. Which is that the bible does not explicitly allow or disallow slavery it assumes slavery. And there are biblical laws protecting the rights of slaves that did not exist in the american south. For example biblical law forbids forcibly returning a slave who has run away. While this was explicitly allowed here with a dred scott decision and 1857. And yet this idea of the biblical condoning of slavery but used to great effect in the moral landscape of this country. And so god and the biblical tradition got associated with something evil. An actual biblical tradition this is considered unforgivable. The second half of the biblical commandment to not take god's name in vain says for god will not acquit a person who takes god's name in vain. It doesn't say anything like this about murdering it doesn't say anything like this about stealing or committing adultery. It doesn't say anything like this about any of the other nine commandments. It seems like the biblical author there's something particularly unforgivable about. Violating this commandment. As if. This is the one that god takes personally. All of the other commandments if someone violates then it just reflects badly on the person who violated. This one there's someone violates it reflects badly on god. This one is about god's reputation. The word take and take god's name in vain is it translation of the hebrew word nasa. At a better translation is probably to pick up and carry off. An ancient near east this was how you would signal that a transaction petrichor. Once you paid your money you would pick up the objects in at that moment that you picked it up that was the moment that you owned it. So it connotes ownership. And in the case of the commandant there's a sense of picking up and carrying away god's name. Appropriating god's name. Claiming ownership. The term in vain is another key word here. The hebrew word is last job. Which means. Without meaning or outside of its proper meaning. Komondor unimportant. Or without the sanctity that should be there. So we could rewrite the commandments do not appropriate god's name in a way that nullifies the sanctity that should be there because god's reputation is at stake. It's a kind of libel. Then the question becomes why not. So what if god reputation as a good and loving and just god gets tarnished. What's really at stake here. What's at stake as i said is faith. People's faith. Not just the faith of the perpetrator but the faith of everyone around them. Faith gets injured when the concept of god gets used opportunistically. To justify evil acts. Faith gets injured when religious institutions are representatives of god act badly themselves. Extreme examples of this abound. Lgbtq people have become alienated from religious life in this country because of the supposedly biblically-based claims about the sinfulness of their relationships. Muslims describe fleeing islam because of the association with terrorism in god's name. Jewish women become alienated from the image of an angry male god and the catholic church and the clearest example of all has been hemorrhaging members since the child sex abuse scandals emerged that the abuse was so pervasive and so systematically concealed and that the perpetrators were god's representatives called father and a religion that calls god father. Has been soul-crushing to catholics around the world painful even traumatic because in most of these cases the defamation of god's character does not just a lien made the believer from the person or institution that did it but from god god self. Our notions of god are intimately interwoven with the people and institutions that teach about god. And it's hard for any of us to disentangle them. Ironically unitarian-universalism has benefited from the violations of this commandment so many of our members from across the country were alienated from their faith and their birth religions when they were told that. For example their favorite uncle is going to go to hell because he had not accepted jesus christ as his personal lord and savior i hear frisians of the story almost everyday. Many of them were exposed to institutions or religious leaders that depend on god their own bigotry and small-mindedness. And this exposure was toxic. It was toxic to their faith. Toxic to their lives in general. And so they left religion often painfully disillusioned. And to this day even if they found unitarian-universalism long ago. Such people can be deeply suspicious of the idea of god or anything. To religious they still suffer from what is sometimes called post-traumatic god disorder. So but what if you're an atheist and there's really nothing at stake for you and whether people do or don't have faith in god. Or what if you're richard dawkins and you would actually prefer that they didn't in this case we need to go back and look at the concept of the name of god. Do not take the name of the lord your god in vain what is this name in question understand this we have to look back at the preamble of the ten commandments we talked about this once before in the preamble god identified godself saying i am the lord your god who brought you out of the land of egypt the house of bondage. The word lord in that sentence is just a placeholder for what actually written there. Which is the hebrew equivalent of the letters yhwh. The same thing in the commandment about taking the lord's name in vain it's not lord it's. Yhwh. You're never supposed to try to pronounce that word because pronouncing it with limited. Making cyanide. It's the biggest word in the world. When you think about it you can't really pronounce it even if you try. Some people try to say yahweh but that's not really it it really is just four continents together. Yhwh. It's all air and breath. And this is considered the sacred name of god. And it's not even a name. It's a form of the verb to be. Like i am becoming. Or simply. I am. And that's what you're supposed to not take in vain. It's a word that signifies the ground of being. Itself. When you say that's just the way it is. Ds that you're talking about is that ground of being. That very same ground of being existence. Life itself nature human nature. We could rewrite the commandments to say do not appropriate the concept of reality. In a way the nullifies the sacredness that should be there. Because of the reputation of life itself is at stake. When someone wants to know how the world really works don't forget on to it your own prejudices don't claim that something oppressive or painful is just the way it is. We do this all the time. Boys will be boys. Or there'll always be war or people will always act in their own economic self-interest. We threw up her hands and say well you have to lie and cheat and steal because that's just the way the world is. The isness of the world is in question here. Is the world really like that. Ferrario appropriating claiming ownership of this concept of how the world is opportunistically. In order to justify your actions nullifying the sanctity that should be there. The perfect example of this right now is the pro-gun lobby in this country. This lobby can only exist post-sandy hook. Because of an argument that violates this commandment. Its nature is human nature to be violent you're always going to have people who want to shoot up a school and we'll find some way to do it. So best to be realistic. Write realistic meaning of or related to reality. An arm everyone. So folks can fight back. Because that's just how reality is. This is a defamation of the character of reality. Taking the concept of reality in vain. Appropriating it for one's own purposes and ruining realities reputation. And what happens. When you do this. So what. What happens when the massacre of children is not enough to gain any significant movement on gun control. What happens when we're told that it's because we have to defend ourselves and an inherently violent world. What happens when you're told that poverty and inequality or just a natural part of life. What happens when we are told that corporations will never be responsible stewards of the environment because executives are always going to look out for themselves and try to make money. What happened. People lose faith. People lose faith that anything can ever change. People lose faith that the world is a good place. They come to feel unsafe. Unable to be embraced by the universe. Or maybe because this kind of libel against life is so commonplace maybe they never had the chance to gain that faith to begin with. What if we instead replied. That's not the way the world is that's the way you're making it through your actions. What if we said that when someone shoots up a school that's a distortion not the expression of human nature. What if we said that our destruction of the environment is not because of our inherent selfishness. But because of a shortsightedness that can be corrected with a better. Prescription. What if we stopped spinning injustice and oppression on reality and instead took responsibility for it ourselves what if we actually defended the innocence of god and life from defamation then i think we would live in a world where god could be god and life could be life the inherent goodness and beauty of the universe could shine among us and the sanctity would be preserved. We could take every opportunity to proclaim that the nature of the universe as we unitarian-universalist know it is one of oneness and love by keeping the commandment to protect. The holiness of the infinite. We would spread joy not mistrust. Safety apparel. The care for one another in this way and give hope. Fairhope is hard. Define. Please rise for our final hymn come sing a song with me number 346.

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Forgiving-Even-When-Theyre-Not-Sorry-.m4a

You got to love the literary genre of apology notes by kids they're so real take this one for example from a kid whose mother stipulated that she had to write a 4 sentence apology note. To her brother dear aaron i'm sorry i kicked you i'm sorry i kicked you i'm sorry i kicked you you're the most annoying brother ever then there's the note from a school kid named liam dear brady misty made me write you this note all i want to say sorry for is not being sorry cuz i tried to feel sorry but i don't we can only imagine what it was. But then neither are most of the people in our lives who hurt us. They don't know they're doing it. They don't understand why it should be hurtful. They don't even know another way. Or they know it's hurtful but they think that they have a right to do it anyway. They think you're annoying. Or they think you hurt them worse. Or that it's really not that bad. They're not sorry. The mother who can't stop commenting on your weight. The friend who is suddenly unavailable after you get a scary diagnosis the partner who is trying very hard to get a job because they're following their bliss and meanwhile you're struggling to support the family on your own. In some cases especially in domestic abuse cases the abuser really is sorry after the incident. But you know and they know they're going to do it again. We are right now in the middle of the jewish high holidays rosh hashanah the new year was last week and yom kippur the day of atonement or at-one-ment. Is this week. The 10-day period between the two is considered a special time when people have a particularly special opportunity to transform themselves. It's a time to think. And pray and review the year. The time to get really real with yourself i think about how you have shown up and haven't shown up with your loved ones and your neighbors. And yourself. During this time it's a mitzvah to make amends to the people that you've hurt. You seek the knowledge that you hurt them and you say that you're sorry. And when somebody comes up to you and sincerely says that they are sorry. Your job is to forgive them it's a process of reconciliation with the people in one's life. And with god. So that all sounds good in principle you can go around and make your apologies but what if others don't come up to you and say that they're sorry. What if you're waiting for that call from the one person who really messed you up this year and the call never come this is a huge problem not just for jews during the high holidays but for all of us what to do when the person who has wronged us just isn't apologizing like they clearly should we would be magnanimous magnanimous if only. And say i'm really really sorry. We longed to hear the other person's acknowledgement of guilt. It feels so good. In fact sometimes we feel like we need it. We need them to validate our lost we're stuck in our pain and resentment and we need the other person's sorry to clear a path to our forgiveness like a snow plow clearing the way through the snowy anger of our heart and yet sometimes as we all know that sorry just isn't forthcoming. Dylan ross. Isn't sorry. He committed one of the worst kinds of atrocities possible he killed somebody's mother. He killed somebody's son. Somebody's pasture. Somebody senator. Somebody's grandmother in the very place where they probably fell most safe and nurtured. In the very place where they were most proud of their heritage and of who they were he killed them because of who they were. He killed them after they had welcomed him into that place with open arms. Had he left one woman alive so she could tell the story. He is decisively not sorry. And yet as we will know from watching the story unfold the families of the victims got into a room two days later with the stony-faced dylan ross on the teleconference screen and several of them told him that they forgave him. Nadine collier daughter of the victim ethel labs said i forgive you. You took something very precious away from me. I will never get to talk to her again. I will never be able to hold her again but i forgive you. And have mercy on your soul. You heard me. You hurt a lot of people. If god forgives you i forgive you. Other family members followed suit. Some suggested that he might want to think about repenting but that was a strong as the language ever got. Ross was expressionless the whole time. The families words of forgiveness their sincere intention to forgive. May or may not have humanize them to him and anyway we'll never know. But it seemed too hyper humanize them to the rest of the country. For one thing it made it pretty much impossible for the confederate flag to remain flying at the south carolina capital. Less than one month after the shooting the south carolina legislature voted to take it down and in short order it was taken down and brought to a museum to be displayed where it should be. The shooters intention to provoke a race war didn't happen. And instead liberals and conservatives alike roundly repudiated the values that he represents. And there is a huge national outpouring of support financial and emotional for the charleston families. They became spiritual heroes. Through their acts of forgiveness. Another alternative for these families might have been pure unmitigated anger. Expressions of holy rage. And there is a legitimate critique of their decision to go the forgiveness route. It had to do with a culture of what is called tone policing this concept got some notoriety recently when it was alluded to by the contemporary cultural theorist nicki minaj. Analysis is a bit of an aside here but basically miley cyrus had criticized her minaj for for tweeting in a tone that was quotes angry at the recent video music awards. If you have no idea what i'm talking about don't worry about it i wouldn't know either if it wasn't my job to stay up a little bit on these things but as catty is the whole exchange was minaj was absolutely right. She had been policed by miley cyrus. In the subtle insidious way that such policing happens in our culture. If you're a person of color you're supposed to be quiet and agreeable and forever turn the other cheek no matter what happens to you. You're not allowed to be angry. If you do express anger says the white language police it just undermines your message of course but really undermines the messages the public focusing on the anger instead of let the anger is about tone policing when they spoke their forgiveness to dylan roth. Was it a sign of their collective disempowerment. In my opinion it was exactly the opposite. They were claiming power. Doing what they needed to do for themselves. This was not about dylan roth it was not about the media. It was not about the confederate flags or becoming heroes. It was about them. This forgiving was part of the family is process of grieving. It was about their relationship with god. It was about their spiritual journeys and their response to evil in the world. That response included expressions of anger. One family member beth ann middleton brown whose sister was killed told roth. For me i'm a work in progress and i acknowledge that i am very angry. We have no room for hate. We have to forgive. I pray to god for your soul. She made a vital distinction between anger and hate. Anger which legitimately decry the injustice of a person's wrongful act. And hate which it faces his or her humanity. Forgiveness doesn't mean that we're not angry. Forgiveness doesn't mean that the act was okay when we forgive we don't forgive the act we forgive the person. We allow just the tiniest sliver of daylight. Between the person. And what they've done. Be safe i refuse to reduce you to the act that you committed. I won't make you two-dimensional so that you are nothing but that act. I will strive to recognize you as complicated. Does having more dimensions than just how you wronged me. I recognize your humanity. I won't make you just a monster and nothing more. When we do that we do ourselves a huge favor. Because then our world is no longer populated by monsters. Our world is no longer populated by larger-than-life figures alien and malevolent. It becomes populated by people. Sometimes flawed. Bitter angry violence dangerous people. People who are works in progress. And we find that we don't have to depend on them to evolve spiritually. Before we can't evolve spiritually. The charleston family didn't wait for dylan ross to come in with his snow plow and make them feel right. They didn't wait for him to feel sorry before forgiving him because he might never feel sorry. They didn't wait for the day when he would recognize their humanity before recognizing his because that's a might never come they wouldn't give him that power. Forgiveness is the mature recognition that the past cannot change. That the other person timetable of personal change is not our business and not in our control. It is letting go of the other person letting go of an outside focal point for our pain and instead turning inward to our own grieving process. It is recognizing the inherent worth and dignity of all even in the face of profound disappointment. When we forgive someone it's for us whatever political or social consequences it may have however it might benefit the person that we forgive. Is just gravy. It is said that there are three people in our lives that we absolutely have to forgive if we want to be free and to grow. We have to forgive our parents for the wrongs they committed in our childhood through their presents. For their absence. That's the hardest one for many of us. We have to forgive our ex-spouse or partner for the pain that caused us and maybe continue to cause us. And lastly maybe most importantly. We have to forgive ourselves. We have to forgive ourselves for the mistakes we've made. But the opportunities we've missed. We have to forgive ourselves for hurting the people we love. Because we all hurt the people we love. We even have to forgive ourselves for our resistance to forgiving others. We are works in progress but the spiritual psychological work of forgiving regardless of the state of the other is worth that hard work. When we can pull our eyes away from the rearview mirror we can see the road ahead more clearly. We can become our own snow plow. We can be free and open-hearted again. Don't wait for the apology note. Sincere childish or otherwise. I wish you the blessing of a good heart opening during this holiday season. Our final him is when the spirit says do and it's printed in your order of service.

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Youth-Group-Homilies.m4a

When we decided on a topic for the service it was a simple thought making a difference but as we began to discuss it further we soon realized it was not as simple as its passage fooled us into thinking it was there many ways to make a difference from small things such as complimenting someone when they seem down to go into a march a rally to founding an organization to help the homeless. We all know making a difference for good in the world is a good thing to do but why should we talk about it. Recently my school poster the rise against hunger meal-packing community service project after school on a friday they're going to pack 10,000 meals in 2 hours i needed around 50 to 60 people to come when i first heard about it i dismissed it as just another odd community service project but then my spanish teacher took 10 minutes at the beginning of class one day to talk to us about it and try to get more people to go my spanish teacher told us about it in english. Clearly this was important or she changed my mind and very deliberately as opposed to just mentioning it to showed me that this was not just another community service projects that no one paid attention to it was a project that would affect thousands of lives and all the lives of those who would help pack meals to last friday i had a group of around 20 people got onto a bus and headed out into the warehouse area of new jersey we arrived at the warehouse owned by rise against hunger we soon learned the speedy method of hacking thousands of meals and hours vitamins soy dehydrated vegetables rice some experience with amazing powers 264 mills. In 2 hours packed by 20 people. By talking about this way to make a difference my spanish teacher made a difference on me that help me to make a difference on 6264 people. I found something in this project that i had not expected to find. I found there's something deeply satisfying about making someone's day that much easier that much safer. How much more secure. Alamont eat the meal b ask nor will i meet the people i passed them for but i still suck took something very valuable away from that day. But even when you think your contribution won't matter it will for the people who you help and for you so once again why do we talked about making a difference. We talked about it to help others to be inspired to make a difference like my spanish teacher dead to me. We talked about it because we want to inspire others to do the same. We talked about it because if we don't we cannot change ourselves we reflect on our experiences in our minds but on them as a community with our words when we make a difference for someone else we also make a change in ourselves. Making a difference is a broad topic and we cannot have a homily for every one of its many branches we are here to show you how to make a difference to start conversations and to inspire you to make a difference to. But when you think about it more it's little more complicated. Any behind people who do not show kindness to you. American country people change. I have any impact on the world i believe that most people are good inside. It is naive to think that. I truly believe that almost a good and kind deep down. Anonas hatefulness, teacher. It's absolutely bad.. Kindness to those who do not know how. Explain kindness to even those. Deeply embedded. My plane said. Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear in the blind can see. Cancel spotify. And everybody can get out. If nothing else to give to help people you can always get your compassion and kindness. Thoughts of kindness. Recently. I got voicemail from columnist on my phone. Butternut doctor's office. Trying to remind someone that they had an appointment. That's wrong number when i could have just ignored it but i felt bad for the person they're trying to reach. What they make appointments i didn't say anything. I will never know. I'll never make it. Never go to that doctor. I still felt like i should call them back to tell them. But that's the wrong number. I don't know what the outcome of me doing that was. Chocolate melanger. Important. That's how small and how easy an act of kindness can be. And that's important. Not to mention how mia. 30. I need a bigger and more important outcome. But what was the point that then. I think so. Bring more kindness into the world is never away. Trying your best to perform maximus kindness. Speaker small. All it matters. It's always important. Even if your actions kindness of knowing. Significant outcome. Fernandino app. It don't matter. Amanda being more important anything. And so at calling all for you to treat afternoon you meet with routes of kindness strength from smalls of kindness whenever possible. Matter how hard it may seem to build small 2 kind of sincerity in and treat ephraim's relative kindness no matter their gender race country fortune or political party you should try cuz more often than not someone who's treated with kindness will eventually their example. Start being kind to others. Please remain seated and join us in singing have number 194 in the criminal cases of forest. 9 days ago at 10:30 a.m. on april 20th every single person my math class setup from their feet and walked out of the room we walk through the hallways down the steps and into the waiting crowd of 200 we all walked up east houston. This protest is a clear expression of the six principal at unitarian universalist. The goal of the world community with peace liberty and justice for all how can we live in peace when people are being shot and killed on a daily basis 96 per day in the us alone how can we have justice win after someone commits a mass shooting we allow this weapon of injustice to remain in the market available to anyone. Fighting to protect americans across the country from gun violence franken's not only our country safety but our personal unitarian universalist values but fighting alone doesn't have a significant impact working together toward the goal however we could begin to inspire change alone. As part of the larger gun-control agenda the national walkout on march 14th to march for allies and march 24th i can make a difference know if i wasn't there personally that wouldn't have a big effect but as we saw on our wisdom story if everyone thinks like that no one will show up and nothing will change. To have an impact we need to look at the unit we learned in maxwell, lee it's small acts of kindness are nevertheless important take whatever small action you can to move towards your goal for me they forgotten laws for ilya helping people who can't feed themselves just because that changes small doesn't mean insignificant your work when staff can positively affect our society in a size of a way it leaves work might only have taken a couple of hours but she was working with helped over 6,000 people. It's just a few hundred more people thought well my vote can't change anything pennsylvania's 18th district would have a different congressman representative today i can this because i can't vote myself because i want to make a difference i want my future to be in the hands of the right politician the worst thing you can tell me when i'm outside your house. I want everyone to vote that we have the right politicians in office politicians who support common-sense gun policies taking york take new york elect the only republican district in the city that congressional seat has been flipping back and forth between for decades or even if it seems like what you do. Weather at stone banking canvassing riding your neighbor to the pools or watching their kids so that they could go voted even the small act of kindness can have a real inside the glass act acting. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregation and society-at-large not only is being politically active make you better as a member of society but also at the unitarian universalist now that i have this opportunity i'm going to use the flat form to at max told us perform a small acts of kindness mom happy belated birthday i love you.

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New-Recording-378601344674.m4a

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Sabbath-Practice-As-Political-Resistance.m4a

Karl marx and abraham joshua heschel we're both jews with spectacular beard. If you ask them that's probably where they would stay there similarities ended marks was doing economics and politics and heschel was doing spirituality. And yet am i do. Politics and spirituality dramatically converge. With their shared inside that time. Is the ultimate form of human wealth on this earth. Without time all other forms of wealth are meaningless. If this inside about time. Completely obvious but frequently forgotten. That makes keeping a sabbath day both spiritually profound. And politically radical. Sabbath practice is one of the top ten commandments and it shows up in other places in the torah. And yet very few of the people of the book. Actually keep a sabbath. Maybe keeping this particular commandment. Is just too hard. Mentioned the idea of a full sabbath practice to the typical american and the reaction is quite revealing. Terrifying is what one high octane lawyer i know calls it. But i told him that my family keeps a sabbath and that's from sundown friday to sundown saturday we don't do any work any errands and is shopping no fixing things or cleaning the house or doing anything that could be called productive he said that sounds. Terrifying. You're probably thinking of all the things he had to get done he was probably thinking it's hard enough to get everything done in 7 days. Subtracting one day a week. Would be catastrophic. There's the deposition to prepare the dry cleaning to be dropped off a haircut to procure the light bulb in the hallway to change all the research required to buy a new mattress all of these things just have to get done and yet. I stand in front of you today as living proof that actually not all of them have to get done probably. And the essential things that used to get them in 7 days. Can actually get done in 6. What does about. What was it about to the ancient israelites who in the biblical account had just escaped from egypt when they received this commandment. We can never know for sure what was going on in the hearts and minds of ancient peoples. But i think it's safe to assume that it's no coincidence. That the sabbath was invented by a people who understood themselves to have once been slaves. It was the ultimate statement of defiance against the political powers that had enslaved them or any that might try to enslave them in the future they answered to a god of liberation. And one day a week nothing and no-one was going to make them work. We still have slavery today. Literally in the form of traffic workers around the world. Figuratively in the form of people who are forced by financial necessity to work constantly. We also have spiritual slavery. Wellmark certainly didn't intend to write a spiritual text. When he wrote capital in 1867 or any of his other works. I would argue that his work is intensely spiritual. Mark swails a prophetic lament. He holds up a mirror showing how human life human time is broken down and devoured by what he calls the boundless first of capitalism. And capitalism free time is a waste. Or it fast it's just preparation for more productivity. Marx described how technology rather than freeing us from labor. Creates an intensely increasingly frenetic pace of work. The need to milk more and more value from a human hour. In his words to close the pores. Have time. Certainly we recognize this today does somehow in our high-tech world we are all dizzyingly busy. Because exactly as mark just marks describe any extra time created by our labor-saving technologies is immediately sucked back into the system to create more value. More goods. More innovation. More money. We never actually received the time as time. Even weekends we typically spend in a frenzy of acquisition consumption and productivity. Really stopping is not an option. And this is almost as true for the wealthy as for anyone else. A century later heschel picked up where marks left off lamenting how our time our lifeblood is stolen from us. But how shall approaches the question from a mystical religious perspective. In his 1951 book the sabbath. He writes about the jewish sabbath. The mirror image of marx's dystopia. The time devoted to prayer. Family community pleasure. He called it. A palace in time. On this day the poor is the time open and the world breeds. Special rights in the language of bliss. And surrender. As well heschel probably didn't intend to write a political text anymore than mark's intended to write a spiritual one. And heschl's book the socio-political battleground is clearly staked out. Special rice. He who wants to enter the holiness of the day. Must first lay down the profanity of clattering commerce. Of being yoked to toil. He must go away from the screech of dissonant days. From the nervousness and fury of acquisitiveness. And the betrayal and embezzling his own life. Embezzling his own life. What does it mean to embezzle one's own life. Embezzlement if you believe wikipedia. Is the act of withholding access for the purposes of theft. By an individual to whom those assets have been entrusted to use for other purposes. The asset in question here is time. Heschel is warning that when we stay embroiled in commerce 7 days a week we are withholding time. For the purposes of theft which has been entrusted to us by god to be used for other purposes. If the idea of time belonging to god is problematic for you think of it this way instead. When you are first born. The baby that was you. How to completely organic sense of time. You woke. You slept. You interacted with your world without any external drivers much to the detriment of your parents. Time too long to completely to your infant self. You are a natural state of relationship with existence. Unmediated by social expectations. In adulthood you very likely surrendered that natural state out of necessity the something wrong with it we all do it because we have to but that baby is still there inside us. The sabbath is a reclaiming of time. For god and for our inner spiritual hippie child. It's a reestablishing as a primordial birthright. It's a taste of the infinite present. In my family we light candles. Linger over meals. Sing songs and play guitar while our kids play the drums. Go outside and wander around with no destination. The friends. Talk. Pray. Enough. On the surfaces all sounds like just binoculars good clean fun a little harmless are in our and ironically marks probably discarded the idea of the sabbath is just another opiate he would say that the sabbath and religion in general is just part of capitalism's corrective effect. The bandaged the worst part of our oppression and compensates us just enough. So that the oppression becomes bearable and we don't revolt probably what he would say. But to equate the sabbath with an ordinary vacation. Is to mistake its essence and its revolutionary potential. The goal. The goal of the sabbath practice is not just a patch of backup and send us back out into the rat race. But to represent in the now what redemption looks like. What justice looks like. What a compassionate social order looks like. And reconstruct the rest of the week. From the viewpoint of the sabbath. As unjust and untenable. The sabbath lives up a holy vision of the world. And performs deeply political work. It creates an outside to society. The self. That. Emerges from such a sabbath and re-enters the world is a change to self. A newly radicalized south who can no longer tolerate injustice. Oppression does not become more bearable as mark sphere. But rather it becomes unbearable. 116 paris how you going to keep them down on the farm. People get this intuitively. And that's why it's scary. When we create breathing space in our week. All kinds of unwelcome thoughts and feelings can arrive feelings of despair or dissatisfaction with the world that we would rather leave buried underneath amounted of tasks and momentary pleasures. And it's hard because the whisper the voices of fear are allowed in our ears. The social costs will pay our world spinning out of control. The threat of failures. Has sweet and gentle. As the sabbath maybe. Its arrival collides violently with the secular world. Everything comes to a screeching halt. At sunset. A check might be left half-written. A shopping cart abandoned empty. The writing of a work email stopped mid-sentence. The secular understanding of what's reasonable and normal. Gets trumped by a commitment to an alternative vision. Especial put it a thought has blown the marketplace away. This is where the personal gets political. It forces us to confront the question. To whom or to what do i owe altamed lee belong. Do i belong to my possessions. To my boss. To my addictions. To my accomplishments. To my insecurities. To my fears about the future. To whom or to what do i alternate leaf along. Weekend and week out through my own sabbath practice. I asked myself this question. And i find that the more and more that i'm able to answer i belong to god i belong to my deepest self. To my family. Community. The earth. Liberation. Hygro and spiritual strength and joy. To fail to do this truly is to embezzle time from myself. And so i offer this challenge and this invitation to everyone here especially our newest members. Melissa paul devin judge lord christina fullerton. Devin mcdonough. Lynch antioch. Some forms. Olivia nunez. We are so glad that you are here in this community with us. And i challenge you and all of you to explore some way some version of keeping this one of the ten commandments. How to engage with this community of spiritual seekers. Commit to building for yourself. A palace in time. Just as we worship together in this palace in space. For anybody who would like to explore the practical side of sabbath practice my husband jeff and i will be collating a sabbath practicum on december 8th that 3 weeks from today. We'll talk about the strangeness of modern liberals committing to a practice like this. What are the rewards. We'll share some of our own struggles with it answer questions. That help you talk through how to design a practice that would be meaningful. And workable no pun intended for you that is observance is hard it is truly a spiritual practice. It takes discipline ironically to enter into an undisciplined formless time. It takes discipline to reimagine ourselves and our world. It takes courage to assert and reassert our freedom. It's a paradox but this commandment is all about freedom. The sabbath was invented by a people who understood themselves to have been slaves. And the genius of their inside. Is it sometimes the most politically and spiritually radical use of time. Is not to spend it efficiently. But rather to squander it. To spend it and lavishly to while it away as if the present moment were and eternity. As if the present moment were all there is. As if we had all the time in the world. This inside became enshrined in torah and henceforth. The israelites mediterraneo commitments to a liberating power even greater than the pharaoh. Imagine if we made commitments to a liberating power greater than the pharaohs of our day imagine if we reaffirmed those commitments week after week with a community dedicated to reclaiming the wealth of time and the promise of justice for ourselves and all the creatures of the earth. Imagine. If we could learn what it would feel like. To really be free. Our final him is i wish i knew how it would feel to be free number 151.

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Scriptural-Blemishes.m4a

Our spiritual energy on our defining vital productive and beautiful question. How are spiritual traditions inspire us to reduce the harm we do to one another. Including to future generations through unjust social political and economic orders. All in this world in this life. Mayuyu is an acknowledgement of blemishes in our spiritual traditions including enact attributed to god and including the past and present injustice they inspire. Description of blemishes include. The hindu avatar from engaging in violence to uphold caste hierarchy you're unfamiliar with cast just think of it like race without the color. The christian bible sanction of slavery. Passages read often in churches of the confederacy. The old testament god calls the genocide in the book of joshua the christian thread of eternal damnation whose spiritual offense we use acknowledge and target by saying no one is damned be in justices include the inquisition the crusades including today's sequels witch-hunt. Projecting antichrist onto indigenous americans. A white supremacy linked to christian supremacy. And a caste apartheid in india and among the indian diaspora that persist today. How you can dispute whether any of that reflects the scriptural god's intent. Especially when it happens in the past and that's reflects a primitive ignorance that we enlighten moderns have since outgrown. And that is my point. When we draw a line in the sand that the god of scripture has no blemishes. And we raise the stakes around that line we descend into exactly those debates but i called tar pit. Deadening unproductive. Ugly. Let's start with tar pit number one whether offending scripture is inauthentic. In the hindu ramayana in lordran an incarnation of god becomes aware that shambuka. Adalat which is the term for underprivileged tasks. Is performing religious pennant. This defies the caspase social order in which dollars for forbidden literacy for learning scripture. Find kombucha and without provocation feet heads him. That sounds ghastly. Especially the modern sensibilities. So icy hindus argue that chambuka did penance with selfish intent and so deserve to die. Or that death by the hand of god sent sambuca straight to heaven so it's really a good thing that ron killed him. When i want to focus on here is yet another plan but the shambuka story was tacked onto the rama in at a later date and stuff is in authentic so we should drop it altogether. A present day. let's find none of those explanations satisfactory but i'm not bringing this up to take their side or the other one i know theologian. I'm criticizing the conversation itself which feels like a spiritual tar pit. Onto tarpit number to whether religiously inspired injustice is apostasy a fall from the real religion which like the garden of eden avoided all the injustice that we degraded humans have ear religiously descended into. People find quotes here and there to argue that the crusades the inquisition the witch hunts and racism we're all really anti-christian. Cast apartheid and islamophobia are really anti-hindu. I want organized to presenter to speak on islamic feminism. We hope to hear how feminism in islamic countries has fared. About their successes and setbacks and how the challenges differed from ours in the west. Instead the speaker found foods in the koran to assert that the real islam is perfectly pacifist in feminist and that country behaviors we see today are really auntie islamic. Now she could be right once more i'm not bringing this up to take a side i'm criticizing the conversation itself which feels to me like a spiritual tar pit. Wow carpet number 3. Whether tribal calls to kill rivals. Including cost of genocide. I meant only as metaphor. The old testament god commands followers to slaughter the canaanites the my tonight and the amount of height. Including women children infants and animals. I've seen claims that squatter is matt as metaphor like when sports team say those water opponent or that the can i score a wicked lot deserving that punishment which i guess includes the infants and animals. In the bhagavad gita krishna counsels his pupil or june to fight a war without hesitation against a rival clan of relatives who were also a wicked why. Urgent care on krishna says because the soul can never die it merely passes from one body to the next like a person changing clothes. Imagine someone giving fat defense in a murder trial. Since childhood i've been eyebrow dip and claims that backstory is meant to inspire as metaphor. But there are people who take the literal interpretation and chase at it i can't argue with them. I don't want to. That conversation feels like a spiritual tar pit. Those questions. Whether we can dismiss offending scripture as inauthentic or metaphor and religiously inspired injustice as apostasy we're part of my religious training growing up and are the reason i am here now. I don't want to squander my spiritual time in a tar pit that i consider the spawn of our original sin. Drawing that freaking line in the sand at god has no blemishes. Here in 119 pierpont we need not hold that line. Scriptures planet. It's got great thinking about our place in the universe and our relationship to one another but it's old clues together contradictory and chock-full of tribal stuff that's downright hideous to modern sensibilities. Of characters in those. The gods of our scriptures have serious flemish. Acknowledging them and instead engage with our spiritual sources constructively and critically. In the conversation that i feel is vital productive and beautiful. Call do our traditions inspire us. To reduce the suffering that we inflict on one another including our future generation. And including that inspired by those very traditions. How can we put a religious lands on interrogating privilege. Especially our own and questioning unjust societies economies and politics. Especially when they benefit us. That's how i want to use mine spiritual energy. Accepting blemishes leaves us free to find inspiration in our traditions but also to speak critically and constructively to them blemishes and all including to the god of scripture and that's tough criticizing god is the ultimate speaking of truth to power. Please stand in body or spirit and join us and him number 3130 what a piece of work are we.

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Our-Freedom-Fetish.m4a

This time of year 2 years ago the new england patriots were playing the new york giants in the super bowl and i was in boston interviewing for a ministry position at a congregation there. My husband was helping me prepare for the interviews and beforehand he took me aside and gravely said. Now this is very important. The search committee may ask you a question about the superbowl. You're going to have to be able to tell them a what sport it is b but you know there are two teams involved one from where you live and one from where they live and see you're going to have to have some opinion about who ought to win preferably say the patriots a couple days ago my husband. So you know sunday is the super bowl again. And i know you're not going to talk about it in your sermon but that's okay but you need to be able to inform the congregation at least that you know that there's a big football game happening and that it's pretty much happening in our backyard. Consider yourselves so informed here with and now onto my sermon. A few weeks ago i told a story about mayim bialik the tv actor who adheres to jewish modesty laws in her attire for clothes have to cover her elbows and her knees and her collarbone and she has struggled publicly with how to pull this off in the glitzy sexy hollywood world. Especially when it comes to finding a dress to wear for the emmys those of you who were here when i talked about it may remember that she called the quest to find this dress. Operation hot and holy well mayim bialik story is charming in some ways i'm guessing that some of us may have had mixed feelings about it. I want a this really brave or really smart. Phd in neuroscience from ucla smart. Confident modern woman who standing up for her beliefs in a countercultural way. Which is the point that i was making in that sermon. On the other hand here is this really brave really smart confident modern woman who's submitting herself to this texas archaic set of rules invented by a bunch of men in the middle ages. The notion of modesty for women belongs entirely to patriarchy doesn't it surely it can't be good for women or for feminism to have such a public figure legitimating it or so an argument might go. Feminism and liberal movements in general are often associated with personal freedom. Freedom from dogmas freedom from structures and rules freedom from outdated religious and cultural norms. The 60s and 70s rall about this movement towards freedom if-it-feels-good-do-it sex drugs and rock and roll it was a youth culture that scorned tradition. Women embrace the kind of freedom that we had never seen before at our clothing became an emblem of that freedom burning bras exposing lots of skin celebrating our sexuality instead of condemning it. Free to be you and me. This was a vital vital step forward for our culture. Had a carrot with a real advances for women as well as for people of color and lgbtq people. But sadly i think that what was liberation for one generation. Became in some ways oppression for the next. As traditional religious laws and social norms lost their grip on our culture. They left a power vacuum. And capitalism rushed in to fill it. I don't need to tell you but i will anyway about how every newsstand tv medium and tv show now blair's images of today's models airbrushed women wearing practically nothing the body types that almost no one has. These women sex appeal is presented as what's important about them and they are in some form or other always for sale. And now girls as young as six are anxious about how their bodies look. And nine and ten-year-olds are dieting. Not just a few of them. 40% of them. Eating disorders have been on the rise every year since 1930. Anna plastic surgery industry is booming. Meanwhile women still occupy only leader percentages of congressional offices and executive offices. Is this the fulfillment of a dream of empowerment and sexual liberation of women. At the end of a long blood-stained road of struggle for women's freedom and dignity through the generations. Is the great shining beacon really miley cyrus. If you ask her probably yes. Her song i can't stop. Interesting title. Says it all. It's our party we can do what we want it's our party we can say what we want. It's our party we can love who we want we can kiss who we want we can sing what we want. And there she was at the vmas last summer illustrating the point. Singing that song gyrating twerking. Basically naked and emaciated masturbating on stage. She cynically uses black women's bodies as props. She's wearing a princess bathing suit until she takes it off. And she's surrounded by giant teddy bears. Sardonically mocking the innocence of childhood. And all those nine-year-olds are watching. 10tv. It all smacks of a kind of. Famished desperation. Nothing is sacred. Everything and everyone is instrumental all this sacrifice to the giant engine. The entertainment industry machine that requires performers to arouse and shock. And sell sell sell. Or else the marketplace will vomit you out. This is freedom right. It's our party we can do what we want. So exhibit a you have mine bialik exhibit b miley cyrus two opposite ends of the modesty continuum. Mayim bialik would probably describe her wardrobe choices as obedience to a force in a law greater than herself. Miley cyrus might describe hers as an exercise of freedom. But i would say that the reality is exactly opposite. Mayim bialik is exercising freedom from the powerful social pressures of her day drawing strength and dignity. From the traditions of her religious heritage. Miley cyrus is submitting to a force in a law greater than herself obediently reproducing images of female sexuality constructed by mass culture selling everything she has retaining nothing. And in her own words. She can't. Stop. This issue of women's clothing and sexuality is just one example of a much larger phenomenon. The old regimes of religious tradition have left a power vacuum. And there is a new regime in town that is just as carissa. I would say it's even more courses because it's unspoken. It's silence it's invisible it pervades everything and it masquerades as freedom. So what does all this have to do with the unitarian universalist. Probably none of us in this room are in danger of becoming either mayim bialik or miley cyrus. We like to think that we'd reach the kind of enlightened reasonable middle ground that we are neither bound by the strictures of history nor cheap and by the excesses of modernity. We are in the words of our seventh principle both free and responsible. But you have to admit we do have a thing. For freedom. Culturally unitarian universalist and liberal religious folks in general are enchanted enthralled with our freedom it was a defining feature of our historical journey from catholicism to protestantism to liberal protestantism to unitarianism and universalism each generation of believers shrugged off a layer of religious doctrines and practices that felt oppressive. We shrugged off layer after layer of religious obligation until when there were no obligations left to reject. The photo became the notion of obligation itself. Obligation itself. Nobody tells us what to do. It's our party we can do what we want. Here's a story to illustrate the point in that interview in boston the search committee had asked me to leave them in an exercise. Anything i wanted. So i asked them to imagine a community of really tight meth. Really religious unitarian universalist. I asked him to envision what foods members of this hypothetical community would eat. What they would wear. How they would raise their children. How they would spend their time and money. What practices would be required. What practices would be prohibited category by category the response was the same. Nothing would be required nothing would be prohibited. I challenge them. No foods would be prohibited for the most religious unitarian universalist. Not even food grown by child laborers for slave wages. Not even foods made through extreme cruelty to animals. Not even foods with manufacturing pollutes rivers and oceans damaging the interconnected web of life. Nothing prohibitive. The response that gave is that fault people in this hypothetical community. Naturally inclined to for example not ate such food. There would be no communitywide laws governing their practices. People usually opt to do the right thing presumably because they would be good people who always try to do the right thing within reason. Whether or not good people left to their own devices generally do the right thing is a debate for another time. Suffice it to say for now that religious traditions have developed details ethical commandments because. Doing the right thing. Hard. Because sometimes we don't want to. Sometimes we don't want to be loving. Sometimes we don't feel like being compassionate. We don't care about dignity and we'd rather not be honest. But clearly to this particular group of boston liberals. What people do with their freedom of choice. Is less important. Maybe only slightly less important. Then that they have this freedom. Sure they value community and social justice and caring for the earth but freedom is a higher value still i expressed. My disagreement with the search committee's hierarchy of priorities. And the rest is history and by the way the patriots lost the super bowl that year and the new york giants won i'm just saying. Now there's nothing wrong with freedom freedom in another self is neutral. It can be a beautiful and powerful and essential thing. But to say that personal freedom is our highest value. As religious people. Is to impoverish our faith and ourselves. You can't hold a community together only by a shared commitment to personal autonomy. If everyone is reinventing the wheel we won't get any traction. We have other values. Like love like justice. Like compassion. Like dignity. Like honesty. Like are 7 principles. And sad to say our ability to advance those values in the world sometimes conflicting with personal freedom. I'm sure mayim bialik would enjoy the freedom to wear what she wants to the emmys. But her spiritual values are more important to her still. End of the mother she knows that the nine-year-olds are watching. The scary thing is that sometimes we don't even know what freedom is. Sometimes like miley cyrus what we think of as an exercise of freedom is no more than subservience to the powerful cultural norms of our day. Our desires and insecurities fueled by the media. Corporate interests so shrewd they reach into the depths of who we are. Helmcken windup. Demean. By the very things that we thought were empowering us. So maybe we're really talking about two different kinds of freedom here. Freedom with a lowercase f. Miley cyrus style it's our party we can do what we want. And freedom with an uppercase f. Mayim bialik style. The freedom to live our lives with integrity regardless of the social pressures upon us. It's the embrace of our values and traditions within a community of accountability. It's a paradoxical practice of empowering ourselves by limiting ourselves. Of gaining by relinquishing. Because we know that it's not just our party. It's everybody's party. We are all interconnected and our actions all have consequences way beyond ourselves. We are not isolated beings were part of a stream of history connected to a heritage and pointing meaningfully towards the future. The nine-year-olds are watching. And we are all on stage in front of them. So let's model what it really means to strengthen our cellphone and deepen our dignity. Let's be intentional and reverence in our choices. Litchfield real community. Nba ever so careful about what rushes into the power vacuum. Left by the traditions. And structures we've rejected our final him is number 151 i wish i knew how.

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The-Living-Daylight.m4a

Every month about 43,000 men go out and buy a chevrolet silverado pickup truck they buy it despite the fact that it's expensive and it gets poor gas mileage can't see too many people and despite the fact that the car talk guys and they used to be on the are used to say unless you are picking something up a pickup truck is a ludicrous car to drive i'm pretty sure that most of these guys are not picking anything up except they hope a date here's how the silverado is marketed. The new face of strong strength reliability. The new silverado paris brains with brawn to build upon the legacy of the most dependable longest lasting full size pickup trucks on the road. How can you blame these guys for wanting us to be strong and reliable and have brains and brawn and beef long-lasting and a full-size this is the essence of traditional masculinity and it is elusive quality of the spirit. Sometimes men want this so badly they do things like by an impractical expensive object in hopes that in and almost. Magical way they'll be able to access and embody that spiritual power through this object. Now if any of you happen to own one of these pickup trucks please know that i'm not meaning to diss you personally or the chevrolet silverado in particular everyone does this kind of thing people of all genders all religions all ethnicities i do it everyone in this room doesn't think how facial products are marketed when moses came down from mount sinai. It is said that his face was glowing. Radiant from his contact with god. Are we in the modern world don't have to wait to talk with god to have that glow we can use what are called luminizing beauty product. Like amazonian clay illuminating moisturizer event timeless radiance. Skin illuminator impeach liquid lustre and gold there are hundreds of products that will give us that glow of inner spiritual life on our faces. Or for printing and lonely sephora has a product called nurturme with the tagline soothing cream cushions skin with nourishing vitamins with this cream we can be soothed and cushioned and nurtured nurtured like a mother would nurtura. These product promised some kind of contact with some form of the divine. Pencil. We buy them. He might be tempted right about now to lean over to your neighbor and say supposed to be an easter sermon do you think she forgot. What does any of this have to do with easter i haven't forgotten i'm getting there but go with me on one more detour first. In the torah. When moses is up on mount sinai getting his facial with god the people down below the people down below are freaking out. Is taking so long what's he doing up there cuz he ever coming back. Come to think of it they don't even know if this god of his is real to begin with. I've never seen or heard this god and moses himself i just heard a voice coming from the burning bush what is that proof. Edwin moses had asked who the voice was. It had just answered but these weird obfuscations like. I will be what i will be. Or just. I am. It was all just too abstract. So they say to each other. We need a god like. A real god. One that we can see and touch and pray to and perform rituals for and make sacrifices to and so they melt down all their fine jewelry and build an idol. The golden calf. And they pray to it. And perform rituals and sacrifices to it. In the story when moses finds out about this he is so enraged that he smashes the ten commandments tablets that he was carrying. I offered them contact with being itself how could they have fallen for this cheap substitute god is also enraged. But god. Being god eventually comes down and figures out a way to compromise with the people and help protect them. From the temptations of idol worship. God tells moses. Okay. Here's what we're going to do. Tell them to build a house for me sure with fabulous gold and royal draperies go ahead make it complex then side with. Concentric layers an inner chambers now you know and i know that i don't need a house but they seem to really need a place to go to connect with me and tell them to perform sacrifices and burn incense and save specific prayers you know and i know that i don't really care about rituals but they seem to really need something to do to connect with me. And tell them to place in the innermost chamber to cherubim like angels facing each other tell them that in the space between these two cherubim that is where my spirit will dwell. You know and i know. That i'm everywhere but at least this way if we stayed at i'm in the negative space between two things. They might not be so tempted to reduce. To a thing. And so the people build this movable temple in the desert. Like a wi-fi hotspot to connect with god now fast. Jesus like moses had come down from a mountain with his face glowing and his body beaming with white light. He's high from his contact with god he's all fired up about transmitting the crystal-clear teachings of his tradition about the source of life. You can't grab it you can't name it you can't make images of it because any name you give it any image you make of it wouldn't even come close to representing one iota of its cosmic reality it is pure spirit its existence itself. It's the living daylight all around us bigger than anything we can possibly imagine he's ready to go to jerusalem ready to preach to the people take no shortcuts make no substitutes accept no imitations just put god in your pipe and smoke it i'm paraphrasing here but jesus approaches the temple in jerusalem and the text says. He weeps. The temple. Now this part is historically true is a giant stone edifice. An opulent caricature about movable temple in the desert it's lavish palatial donald trump couldn't have done better priests wearing fine robes are scurrying around performing rituals and swinging incense. Somewhere in the deep center of the compound is the holy of holies. The supposed dwelling place of god separated from the rest of the world by a thick veil. Poor peasant jews from all over the land come to offer sacrifices. But they have to buy the pigeon or dove in the currency of the temple which they don't have. So they have to go to the money changers. Who else. Fortafy that these people cannot afford. Give the money in the right currency. The temple gets rich this way. Jesus sees this and flies into a rage just like moses having seeing the idol worship. He drives the money changers out over turns their tables and cries it is written that my house is to be a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves jesus realizes that this temple and all its rituals which were originally supposed to facilitate people's encounter with god are now replacing god the jewish religion had become idolatry religion in general all religions do this time and again throughout history we take a live moment of connection and experience of union with all that is and we encoded and text and ritual a specific time and place. Franz kafka describes the process poetically he writes. One day a leopard came stalking into the synagogue roaring and lashing its tail. Three weeks later it was part of the liturgy. We do this. We put the leopard in a cage and we lose its fierce lifeforce. This is idolatry. The practice of fixing divinity into one persona one face one tiny aspect of divinity and calling at god. You could say that we unitarian-universalist don't do this. We have no sacred text. No particularly holy places barely any rituals we believe in one god at most. And it's true the most consistent defining feature of unitarian-universalism over the years has not been rituals and dogmas and theological beliefs but the progressive shedding of them. We've always resisted the meddling mediation of churches and priests. The transcendentalist like ralph waldo emerson said things like the highest dwells within us there is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heaven. Industries' was very much a unitarian. Or maybe emerson was a christian depending on how you want to look at it. So we may think. That we modern liberals don't have to worry about idolatry. But then there's the chevrolet silverado. And the event timeless radiance cream. And the nurturme moisturizer. And the money we try to accumulate in hopes that we will feel like we're worth something. And the sex with someone we don't know. In hopes that we will feel loved. And the workout regimen the diet the hair color the new dress. In hopes that we will feel beautiful. And a team that we root for in hopes that we will feel like we belong. And the title we see in hopes that we will feel strong. And the affair we pursue and hopes that will feel young again. And the success of our children. Onto which we project our own dreams. And all of these and so many more we try to impregnate something finite. With the power of the infamous and it simply doesn't. Work. We get scared. Because what we really yearn for deep down. Batman love. That spiritual power that direct contact with our source. Sometimes feels unreachable. Like it was to the people waiting at the foot of mount sinai it's taking so long is it even real is it even possible. And so we substitute a golden calf. We build modern-day temples where we worship things and people. The problem with this is not only that it doesn't work. Moses and jesus would not have gotten so bent out of shape about idolatry if it were merely an ineffective strategy. The problem is that our idols actually form a barrier. They become a wall that blocks out the living daylight. To let the light in. Purspirit to be able to flow freely in our lives for us to become channels of love in the world. We first need to take the scary vulnerable step of letting go of our idols we need to release any substitute. Incinerate anyting that's masquerading as everything we need to sacrifice our idols themselves. This i believe is the dramatic teaching at the heart of the easter story. Jesus realized that he himself had become a tidal. To his followers. His movement was just starting to coalesce around him when he knowingly intentionally sacrificed himself. And the tradition insist but even his body disappeared from the two. His followers were asked rhetorically why do you look for the living. Among the dead. It was a radical insistence that no we don't get to reduce god or reality itself to anyone representation one person one body the living jesus. The hotspot connection to the great i am was resuscitated. Money idol. Had died. At that moment the leopard was let out of its cage received a small piece of paper. This is a special kind of paper called flash paper and if you were here four years ago you probably remember this we're going to do an easter ritual that i believe is also a quintessentially unitarian universalist ritual of letting go of our idols let your piece of paper represent whatever idol you might be worshipping. Whatever finite concrete thing or person in your life you are interviewing with god-like importance whatever you're holding onto that's getting in the way of what you truly yearn for. Whatever has become dogma in your life whatever has become wrote or ossified whatever leopard you have caged if you have a pen or pencil you could even write it on the piece of paper but you don't have to if you didn't get one there's going to be some some extras up front so you'll be able to grab one from an usher. Salem. Create an intention to release. That idle and open your heart to the living daylight. Touch your paper to the flame. And then cast it up in the air me put sean is going to demonstrate.

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Do-Not-Be-Afraid.m4a

Why do we tell the same story every christmas eve. I mean we know the plot right. The virgin mary it's a visit from an angel telling her she's going to have a special baby. She gets pregnant they have to go to bethlehem to register. And the baby is born in a manger because they it with me there is no room at the end right the shepherds come out to check him out and the wise men gave him gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh. Right we know it we know it we know how it ends in a ready but i think. I think we don't get sick of it. Because although we tell the same story every year. We don't hear the same story every year. Because we change. And our world changes. Time keeps flowing inexorably forward and once a year we look back. And we hear the same story. And it's different. There's something tremendously comforting about this. That's the power of tradition. It's really a wondrous thing because it's through our new hearing. New meaning keeps bubbling up like accrued interest on the principal that's been sitting there for 2,000 years. This year. Has been no ordinary year in those two thousand years. I don't need to tell you. No matter where any of us may fall on the political spectrum i think that we can all agree that this has been a very painful year. Also we hear the christmas story again with that pain in the backdrop. And remember that the story itself. Set in roman occupied palestine also take place against a backdrop of pain. It was a time of great economic inequality. The romans had levied taxes. I'm the poor to pay for the opulence of the rich. That helps the wealthy get even wealthier in exchange for loyalty. The spirit of judaism was slowly eroding. Meanwhile the peasants to farmers the majority of the people were angry and scared. If anyone tried to fight back. Baby crucified. In the context of all of it if there is one phrase. In the scripture that leaps off the page. Do not be afraid. Like a slow strobe light. Cutting through the night of this narrative it repeats over and over again. Do not be. Afraid. An angel tells mary do not be afraid. An angel tells joseph do not be afraid. An angel tells his shepherds. Do not be afraid. Even though there is much to be afraid of. This phrase recur. And eventually jesus repeats himself and he tells his followers. Do not be afraid. It's the motto. Of the christmas story. The angel does not tell joseph or mary or the shepherds to do anything wildly heroic. He just helps them to keep going. Do your thing. Joseph go ahead and marry marry and raise this child together. Mary go ahead and be the mother of this child and share the prophecy with him. Shepherd's go when does this miracle and spread the word about it and then come back and keep tending your sheep. Do your thing. The angel tells them to do what they already know how to do. To give what they already have. To give. You refuse to be paralyzed by the strange and disturbing events of their world. This is a message that we need desperately right now. Because fear. You could say. Is the route. All of our problems. It's fear that drives people to override our natural compassion and keep out refugees in need. It's fear the drive people to deny climate change. Risking their children and grandchildren. It's fear that drives people to want to deport immigrants and end daca. It's fear the drives people to discriminate against people of color and women and the lgbtq community. It's fear the drive. Kind and loving people. To buy semi-automatic weapons and put them underneath the christmas. Fear. Fear. All combined the wave of fear swells and becomes a dangerous tsunami for all of us. And now there's fear on all sides. Some wanted some not along with anger and depression and despair and distrust and sometimes outright hatred. And so we read the christmas story that we read every year. Embassy that strobe light. Do not be afraid. And it takes on a different meaning. Because this story speaks to us from across the generations. With the long view of time. It offers the comfort of an angel. Saying. Take a deep breath. It's going to be okay. Which is not the same as saying that everything is going to turn out well. Things certainly didn't turn out well for jesus. But it is to say that we are at a crossroads. There's a way of living our lives and making our choices based on fear. And there is a way of living our lives and making our choices based on faith. The angel is telling us do not be afraid. Here is the road to catastrophe. Have faith that if you do what you can do. With who you already are. And what you already have available to work with. It will be okay. Your actions will play a role that you can't see from here. In the long stretch. App history. It's been amazing. This year. To see people listening to that angel in whatever form that angel showed up for them. Take alexander rappaport a hasidic jew who when president trump issued his initial executive order banning immigrants. From seven muslim countries wanted to show support for his neighbors here in brooklyn. So he organized community members to put up post-it notes with messages of support. On the storefront. Of a local store owned by yemeni immigrants while they were on strike protesting the band. Or take. Herman hardy. 59 year old black women in alabama who spent 10 hours. On this recent special election day driving people to the polls who otherwise couldn't get there. Not only did she offer rides that she took the time. To talk with people about voting. To listen to their feelings and persuade them that their vote matters. She got 50 people to the polls as of today. Or take danis culkin and josh tillis a houston couple whose wedding got rained out by hurricane harvey. The food for the reception had already been ordered so they decided to prepare it all themselves and serve it to hurricane victims. They ended up beating throngs of people. A three-course meal in a shelter. We hear these stories. And we hear the christmas story a new. We. Ordinary people. Just like the ordinary mary. And joseph. The shepherds. Like alexander and perimeter and dana and josh. Like them we have no. Special training or expertise and how to transform the world. And yet like them. We have the potential to play a small role in a grand narrative of birth. And healing. What would i do if i were not afraid. What would you do if you were not afraid. What's the discount redo. What does humans do at this moment of ecological crisis. Money earth's creatures. Are struggling for breath. The gifts of the magi. Gold frankincense and myrrh. Where what the magi had to give. And then with a potion. That these wise men felt the baby jesus needed to fortify his deployment into the world. Tonight if you leave the sanctuary through our center doors here you'll receive these gifts. A gold coin to remind you that you are blessed. Frankincense oil. To remind you that you are a blessing. Anomer. To remind you of your own angels. Message. Take these weapons as ordinary people. Doing what you can. Sunday's extraordinary times. Say it to yourself. Say it to each other. Do not be afraid.

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Lessons-In-Apology.m4a

Back in may a man named clay james made a video of a little four-year-old hasidic boy in his neighborhood with clay zone boys making fun of the little boy because of the boys hair cut the boy's hair is shaved and some places long at other places and he has the curly payout curly cues in keeping with the teachings of his community at the time that the boy is crying we don't know why. Play approaches him and says i'd be crying too if i looked like that that's what they're doing to you he continues berating the boy joking that his hairdresser should be fired the boy stands there staring at him looking confused and hurt then post the video on social media and immediately it goes viral the gets hundreds of thousands of views comments start pouring in a lot of people are gleefully sharing the joke and apparently enjoying the little kids discomfort but even more people are outraged they're calling it a little boy and through the mirror of the inter annette a picture begins to form of quay and what he's done that he does not like at all. He thinks of himself as a good person. Give someone who enjoys service and giving back and he has nothing against jews. Play it's black and when he realizes that this has opened up old wounds and resentments between blacks and jews and his neighborhood. He is appalled and ashamed. Meanwhile the internet sensation has spiraled out of control with real anti-semites applauding. Criticizes he has to do whatever it takes to fix this so he takes up the same medium that did the damage. Except that this time he turns the video camera on himself and he offers the most authentic stunning heartfelt apology that i have ever heard. This is it really worth looking at if you get a chance you can just google quay james that's quai james video apology and then we'll come up he starts exactly what he did i recently posted online video of me coming out a little kid in regards to his haircut simple straightforward the thing he did wrong then he apologizes i want to sincerely apologize to this young boy and his family i'm sorry i'm truly sorry i think about this everyday now. He's playing for his motivations for basically to make a joke to post something funny but not to disrespect jews he said that he is a respectful person a community guy he says this video made him look like a person that he's not but crucially he doesn't use these explanations to explain it away he doesn't try to erase his responsibilities keep claims full responsibility several times in the video he says it's my fault that i didn't think about this while i was doing it before i even did it i should have been more considerate and more open to other people's feelings. It concludes by saying i just want to let the world know that that right there was one big old mistake compare an apology like this to the pseudo apologies and non apologies of public figures who refuse to take responsibility for their actions. I'm thinking for example of the government's response to hurricane maria in puerto rico the refusal to even admit the loss of life and the devastation that still to this day a year later goes on a dress. I'm thinking of people accused of sexual assault as part of the me-too reckoning who complain that their intentions were misunderstood and they're sorry if it hurt anybody. That's not an apology. I'm thinking of certain catholic priests who molested children and people in smaller states like lance armstrong doping and who say it's not good but everybody does it and they point fingers at others that's also not an apology but if we're honest it's not just politicians and child molesters who have trouble really apologizing we all have trouble with it it's hard i'm sorry you felt that way not an apology i would have normally been on time but you wouldn't believe. Is it time to claim responsibility for mistakes to make amends if possible and set intentions to do better in the coming year this process is called. Did your buyers often translated as repentance but know that repentance is kind of a creepy word for a lot of us you think of the guys wearing the sandwich boards yelling repent the kingdom of god is at hand and will be assumed they really mean by that is stop being gay or women stop disobeying your husband to our best self it's a coming home to who we truly are. The medieval jewish philosopher maimonides taught that there are three steps to t'shuvah. One confession admitting and taking responsibility for what you did wrong to regret or repair if it's possible apologizing acknowledging how what you did cause pain making amends making restitution rebuilding the deed and you know that you fully internalized the step when the opportunity presents itself to do the thing again and you decline so confession repair and fouling to do better it's hard stuff we all do things that somewhere inside us we know are wrong and it can be really hard to admit it really hard to make amends and really really hard to not do it again because usually there's a reason why we did it in the first place. Our wrongdoing can be dramatic things like emotional or physical violence it can be subtle things like speaking negatively about someone or failing to help when we could. It can be dishonesty or the refusal to try in our closest relationships that can be family things like for me losing patience with my kids and snapping at them or not always returning my mother's phone calls and shall we say a timely fashion and for all of us it can be things that we do and use and buy the take too much from the earth and contribute to rising temperatures and devastating storms like hurricane maria and florence and typhoon mangkhut we are all implicated in the losses that result. You would think that the high holidays if they're about facing all of the terrible stuff that we've done would be grim occasions and they certainly have sambar parts to them. The fasting on yom kippur is a way to go really deep into yourself and be vividly real and that's not always fun. But overall the high holidays especially in hasidic communities are joyful and even ecstatic. Because what they're really about is the human ability to transform. Beta test to the idea that we can turn and return but there is a fundamental human goodness within us to return to. We don't have to be stuck in our painful patterns forever. Despite all evidence to the contrary we can do to shuva and we can change and this change this capacity for change is far larger than any of us. Play james models death. In his own way he followed the three steps of maimonides. And makes it really in it to shuva returning to himself. First he confesses his mistake he declares that this is not who he wants to be he said something in the apology video that's very revealing referring to himself and mocking the kid he says. That right there was a form of bullying i'm not a bully i would never bully anyone i can't say never because that right there was a form of it. He's speaking out loud the pain of confronting the disconnect between his image of himself not a bully and his behavior bullying in that instance. He knows that there is a goodness inside of him that he can return to and so he names what he did and he owns it. That's step one this takes him straight to maimonides is third stuff to vow to not repeat the mistakes again after the incident quay went out of his way to talk with people in the pacific community he sat down with someone for an hour and learned all about the haircut. You learn what the left side means and what the right side means and what the shapes part means and what the peyote means he received what he called a free education. We can be sure that when quay james now sees little hasidic boys in the neighborhood he offered some not mockery but grounded respect but the most powerful part 2 me of quays to suva process with his the filament of the second step the sincere effort to make amends and repair the damage done the apology video itself is huge. In addition to apologizing in the video he talks about his respect for jews and compares all that they've gone through to all that the black community has gone through by referring to their common experience of discrimination and violence quay works to build a bridge over any fisher that this video might have caused. The quay was still not convinced that he had done everything he could to make it right so he went back to the hasidic neighborhood and ask some random hoss's what can one do to make amends if one has disrespected a jew well they immediately recognized him. Through his authentic efforts to mega men have played a role in repairing the brokenness of our world that went far far beyond any harm that he had caused. And this is the stunning beauty of teshuva. When we turn the video camera on ourselves and take full responsibility for our actions it doesn't just get us right with god or with the person that we heard it doesn't just give us a fresh start it can open up hearts all around us and irrigate entire communities they can model for others the process of returning to our best selves it can spread goodness virally it can inject hope into places of despair trust and start to ricochet from person to person. Rabbinic teaching says that we should always do to shoot the day before we die but when's that we never know when we're going to die so the lesson is that we should do to shuva every day. Hurry to do it before it's too late the question is not whether we're going to make mistakes we all make mistakes the question is what do we do after making the mistake the guy with the sandwich board shouts repent the kingdom of god is at hand and deep down i believe that he means the same thing time is running out to repair relationships and change our course so that we can align with our highest self time is running out for all of us we all live with a ticking clock some of us are more aware of it than others but time is running out let's take the opportunity of the high holidays take the opportunity of every single day take our relationship seriously take responsibility for our actions work to repair broken turn and return to ourselves and build a new way forward please rise for our final him building a new way 1017.

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Spiritual-Networking.m4a

Old worn-out truck that money can't buy you happiness we've all heard this before and various versions that wants your basic needs are met once you feel safe and you have a warm place to live and enough food to eat and clean water to drink and good health care once those basic needs are met having more money beyond that is not going to make us any happier. We've all heard this before and many of us probably even believe it. For other people. Three things to ourselves yeah but if i personally had more money. Or that new generation laptop or those new shoes or that haircut that i've been needing for 2 weeks i would be assisted in my happiness but you sitting in this room and i know this by virtue of the fact that you're sitting in this room. When you come here the first you you're not pursuing money. In fact ideally your parting with some of your money to be here you're here for something else. 21 of you joined this congregation today looking for that something else something that you're not fully getting from money or from your work fully or from your friends or from your family or even from coming here without being members. There are probably 21 different reasons why you've come here today. But a common thread i would guess is community spiritual community. Because most of us know that what will make us happier after our basic needs are met. Or even without our basic needs being met is relationships. And the trick is it's not just any relationships. It's relationships of a particular. Quality. A psychiatrist and zen priest. Robert waldinger i know this sounds like the setup for a joke but it's not he has a lot to say about this topic he's the director of a long-term harvard study of human development. 75 years ago they began following hundreds of teenagers from all different backgrounds with wealthiest families they could find and the poorest families they could find. And every couple years they interviewed them interviewed them and their families they did all kinds of health were cops and looked at their brains and did surveys. The researchers looked at how their lives were going. From every possible angle waldinger describes with his team found a clear and consistent pattern. The people in the study rich and poor. Who were more socially connected. To family and friends and community. We're happier and healthier. They actually lived longer. They had better brain function. Then those who are less connected. Apparently the best predictor of our health at age 80. Is the quality of our relationships at age 50. Relationships are really good for us he says. Loneliness. By contrast is really bad. One in five americans says that he or she is lonely. And loneliness of course is not about whether you're single or partnered or how much time you spend by yourself. You can be lonely in a marriage. You can be lonely at work. You can be lonely in a room full of friends you can definitely be lonely and a big crowded city like new york. What makes people happy and healthy and not lonely is not just any marriage any friendships any community. It's a loving marriage. Or intimate friendships. And deep. Community. Waldameer describes it as relationships you can really count on. Relationships you can lean on. Were you know that they'll really be there for you when you need them and you will be there for them. This is the quality of relationships and community that when we're at our best. We find here at first you. The quality of relationships. This level of trust is not something that just happens by itself. It's not automatic. It doesn't naturally appear necessarily when you get 300 people together in a building. If we want it we need to intentionally cultivated. I think woodlynne preached about so beautifully gives us a little hint about what that might feel like. Lynn spoke about poetry. And how far and it can sometimes satan. She spoke of learning poetry by heart. And making space for it in our being. We and our lightning-fast hyper-connected new york world feel like we don't have time for things like poetry. Things that are obscure and deep and. Complicated and things that takes so much time to understand and even then you're not sure that you've completely gotten it. Well people are poetry in all of those ways and just as learning a poem by heart. Can be the key to really getting it. So making space for another person and you're on hard. Can be the only way to really form that quality of relationship. That we sometimes call. Spiritual. It's that quality of relationship that makes us all happier. And healthier. And not lonely. Every time you interact with someone you have a choice. You can either try to learn a verse of theirs by heart. And deepen the relationship or you can say i don't have time. And try to keep it on the surface. If a guy mentions to you after the service my knee is acting up again. You could say. That sucks i know how you feel like tweaked my back yesterday and it's really bad too. About with pretty much kill the conversation. Or you could say my knee is acting up again. And you could say something like. Sounds like this is an ongoing frustration for you. And then he might tell you more about how yes it is and it's been getting worse and if you keep letting him in and engaging him he might tell you that what he's really scared about is it if it keeps going on like this he won't be able to climb the stairs and his home and he'll have to move. And his kids love their home and he loves their home and he's really sad about it. And then you will have formed. A little tiny thread of connection. With that person. You will then know him a little bit more deeply. Then you did before. And he will have found a little pocket of safety in you. Because you made time for him. With the gift of your listening. And the opening of your heart. And if we do this. When we do this and small ways and big ways many times over with many different people make those little threads of connection over and over. What we're doing is a kind of spiritual networking. We're making a fabric together. It's different from business networking which can also be a beautiful thing. But in business networking the relationship is a means to an end. Sometimes that end can be noble and importance and you can find ways to work together to make the world a better place. I hope we do lots of that here. But in spiritual networking the relationship is not just a means to an end it's an end in itself. You read a poem just for its own sake. And sometimes as william suggested. To find a companion. Am i saying to the 21 of you who joins today that every conversation you have here has to be a serious deep heavy conversation. No. Light fun vampire is a really important part of community to. But i am asking. That we each bring to each other. The recognition. But each of us is a poem. Deep. And complex. Laird. We are always somewhat mysterious. A lot of work and heart-opening and making space is required to really know us. And it's well worth. The time. And effort. There isn't time to say that we don't have time for each other. Mark twain and his infinite wisdom put it. There isn't time. So brief is life. For bickering apologies. Heart burnings callings to account. There is only time for loving. And put an instant. So to speak. For that. Our final him is lean on me it's in your order of service please rise and body or spirit.

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Work-with-Love.m4a

Kahlil gibran says that work is the time when we become like a flute through his heart the whispering of ours turn to music. I'd like you all to close your eyes. And think of something that you could just do all day. Something that turns the whispering of hours to music for you. This thing you thought of is. Your work. Your work is whatever you love to do. And pursuing this is a sacred matter. Meaning for work give the rhythm and a purpose to our lives meaningful work is just as important as having healthy home life and is having a healthy body. For us to live balanced lives of longevity we need to be doing the work that makes us feel like time melts away like we are encased with the seasons of the earth. When we look back at our lives we rarely tell the story of our work instead we tell the story of our romance live or have our family or what work we've done like a resume but rarely do we look back and tell the story of our relationship to work for example when we were little we had a different idea about what it meant to work. My first aspirations were to become a polar bear ologist. And live at the north pole in a den with my trusty polar bear friend who i would ride when we went out to give medical care to aileen polar bear and polar bear ology is really the only thing i wanted to do until my dad became the director of a uu camp and i was put to work. I did dishes i painted cabin i drove both i chopped vegetables. Maybe some of you have worked for your dad. So you know you really have to work. At this point work was only at or something i had to do without question something about authority. And then when i was about 15 i started thinking about the ministry and back then it was all about the fun of it it was all about leading services and being with my friends basically doing the stuff i did in my youth group only with adults. But i have come to take this work very seriously. In fact we ministers take our work so seriously that we have a whole class at seminary where we deal with our feelings about work in this regard we're lucky because when we fail to realize it when we freak out and decide to go to interior design school someone is there to gently lead us back. I think it's okay to have complicated feelings about your work. When i was fifteen i was talking to a minister and i told her that i wanted to be a minister to and she looked me right in the eye and told me to get out now while i still had a chance the thing is i actually appreciated her honesty. You see i had only known minister to seem very happy. It's like when you get into a serious relationship and everyone around you seems really happy in their relationship and you think that you're doing something wrong because you kind of hate your boyfriend and he kind of hates you too and you think should i even be in a relationship with this person to move through and work through. It's the same with work you have to move through the hard times you have to learn how to deal with the emotional side of the workplace just like in romantic relationships you have to figure out how to be in yourself be yourself and be in relationship to your work it's not easy to figure all this stuff out. Heck it's not even easy to think about because we're told what weird looks like so we can't even really imagine. I want spent a summer with our unitarian cousins in transylvania and i would go walking in the heat of the day and out in the field i would see people working. But not just people of the working-age but the children as well and the grandmother and the great-grandmother's and one a great-great-grandmother was out there in the field with a scarf on her head and her shirt rolled up on her tummy shoveling hey with pitchforks i remember thinking wow. In all honesty i think that the weight of this falls heavily on the shoulders of men. Most of the men i'm close to our struggling to find and do meaningful work we all struggle with this but men do this under the added pressure of being defined by their careers you know those signs on the subway that say i'm a girl i'm smart funny strong and loving i'm just saying where the sign for little boys where the signs that say i'm a boy i'm smart funny strong it just breaks my heart to think that all the men i know who feel like they're not worth anything or not seen at the workplace. Without being labeled a failure. Failure failure is so awesome the demon of our work lives it pierces so deeply and we are so easily lost to it. In our society failures permanent once you have failed you are a failure but why why couldn't it be a litmus test about what you are naturally able to do. The thing about failure is someone else told you that you failed. And if you feel like you failed yourself that's just not true because you were doing the best you could and if your best isn't good enough then maybe you were failed. By society that didn't value your best. When it comes to work you really have to pull-a-part here socialization and pull-a-part your seiki and be brave. Be brave to do what you love. I'd like you all to see me up here doing something that requires me to be very brave. Doing something that makes me really grapple with the prospect of failure. When i read this thurmond over and over last week when i got to the part that goes i'm a girl i'm funny and smart i kept on accidentally saying i'm a girl i am fart and i just had to go ahead and march up the stairs and start talking even if i thought i might stay start i wonder what would you do if you were brave. We need to be brave one thinking about our own lives but we also need to be brave when thinking about work as a systemic issue unfortunately our sacred work is tied to an economy. I trouble with work is not just a personal issue most people don't have the option to do the work they love most people don't even do work that is lovable because most people in this country are poor and the purpose of their work is only for survival. Is atrophied. Most people don't get to experience their spirituality of work because it has been stolen by a system that values product over humanity. Let's talk about value i am a valuable person to this society so the work i do is dubbed valuable so i get to work with dignity. Others are totally worthless some people are so worthless that they're very lie or dispensable. They will do work that is degrading filthy and sometimes deadly because their work is not valuable they will have to sacrifice everything else they have in order to survive. First their possessions will be traded in exchange for survival than their homes. The neverland. And then the last thing anyone has. Their bodies will be given. They're very bethel. Will be damaged and crippled all because the work that they are slotted to do. Has little value this is not the way to spiritual wellness. I think that this is important to talk about because we are all part of this system and dignified work is a human and spiritual right i tell you this in case any of you are employers in hopes that you will think about the live of your employees especially if they are vulnerable i heard you to consider their dignity give them agency in the workplace and let them see their families and take a sick leave and employees and that although and job are exploited because you aren't being paid a living wage. Our system doesn't encourage us to work with love so let's help each other out. Let's encourage each other's sacred call to work and protect it as a human rights at least for the people in our lives and the people in our communities. For all of you out there who had a job that you hated. For all of you who are tied to your job. First security or social standing or for lack of a better idea. For all of you and can't find meaningful work. And have to face the shame of saying that you do nothing. I have something to say to you. You are sacred. And you have something sacred to do. You are sacred and you have something sacred to do. Please be brave because you're worth it. Authentic situations are too dire to quit your job. Or you're just too old to start again. But there is a for alternative ways of being. There is space to imagine what you want to do and to make that possible. There is something endlessly brave and beautiful inside of you that will never die because that thing is your little sacred you and it burns at all times whether you know it or not so let's give ourselves some space this week. To imagine some possibilities i'll spend my time imagining reading polar bear in a blizzard. Let's give ourselves some time to imagine a world where everyone's work is valued. To be gentle with ourselves to ease up on ourselves about our failures. And let us hold this question in our hearts. What is your work. What would you. Do that you could do. With love. What would make you like a flute through which your spirit would blow. Recipe.

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pushing-the-envelope.m4a

It seems that colin kaepernick has lost his job if you remember he was the famous quarterback of the san francisco 49ers who in 2016 decided that he would begin kneeling during the national anthem at the beginning of football games to protest racism and police brutality in this country the result of this traumatic protest was two-fold first of all he inspired thousands of people caused a great uproar shined a light on this devastating issue in our country. Secondly. He was not his contract was not renewed that season had with the san francisco 49ers and even though there have been several openings for quarterbacks over the last few years and even though he was one of the best quarterbacks in the league he has not been signed again. Clearly an act of retribution against him for his protest should he have done it he was at the pinnacle of his career jay-z the famous rapper and entrepreneur from brooklyn was being interviewed by van jones on cnn and he asked him this question jay-z has done some sports management and so ben jones asked him so if you had been colin kaepernick's manager before any of this happened and colin kaepernick. Even though he lost his job absolutely 100% yes this is what he said would you rather be playing football and getting your head din-din or would you rather be an iconic figure for the rest of your life. We confuse the idea of having a job with fulfilling your purpose. We all sometimes confuse many things with purpose. Having a job being good at something loving something getting a lot of public approval for doing something all of these things applied to colin kaepernick he probably loved his job and he could have just. Hosted and had a great career for years after that. But it turned out that football was not his purpose. He had a greater purpose and a greater need to have a greater impact in the world and he had to take a rest and push the envelope in order to find that purpose. So here we are at the beginning of a new year and it's the time when many people decide to make new year's resolutions and some of us think the new year's resolutions are really corny because they're always the same ones every year and we never keep them we always fall off the wagon right away is always the same corny articles that come out in the newspapers about how to really keep it this year. And yet without. Times at least once if not more during the year when we can. Step back and take stock of where we're at we run the risk of being driven by our fears and our comfort and our habits and ways that we might not even be aware of there is a value to having some moments in the year when we take stock when we say where am i now where do i want to be and what's it going to take to get there. I invite all of us to use this time of year. For that purpose use this service use this day use this week use this time of year. Today in a little while we're going to write letters like we did last year letters to ourselves setting a kind of intention that kind of vision for the new year. And i'm going to encourage you to take a risk a responsible risk or push the envelope of your own life. Pushing the envelope was originally an aviation term that refers to the envelope referred to the flyable portion of the sky i love that phrase the flyable portion of the sky so when a test pilot was pushing the envelope it meant that he or she was flying faster or higher and lower than what was considered to be the flyable portion of the sky each of us has a portion of our sky that we imagine is the only flyable portion we have a portion of our sky that other people tell us is the only flyable portion of the sky but i'd be willing to bet that for most of us the actual flyable portion of our sky is actually much greater. So i'm doing a personal pushing of my envelope right now i am for the first time in my life preaching from notes as opposed to a written sermon i've never done this before this is way outside of what i thought but i want to keep growing as a public speaker i'm finding myself in more and more situations press conferences panel situations where it's really not appropriate to have a written script to be speaking from so i want to get better at but sharing my vision with people in a direct and unscripted way so i have a goal of doing this once a month for the rest of the program year we'll see how that goes and my hope is that my hope is that by the end of the year i will be a better public speaker be able to think in different ways about the material. This requires taking her best and it also requires some faith and trust in all of you that if this particular testflight hits a little bit of turbulence it's going to be okay. So letter-writing like last year we're going to write the letters then we the staff will mail them back to you at the end of the year so you can kind of see where how far you've come. And in this in this mission and this project there is actually one of these corny articles that came out this year in the new york times that was helpful the new york times had an article that suggested that when you're setting intentions you should imagine it's the next new year's eve what change are you going to be most grateful that you made so grateful that you did what change. The article also suggested setting a theme. Rather than a specific set of actions so what is your big picture goal rather than what specific things are you going to do so for example if i want to become a better public speaker more flexible public speaker one approach to that is preaching from those here at first you but if you all start throwing tomatoes at me at some point when i preached. I want to suggest for us that this team should involve taking a responsible risk. Or pushing the envelope in some way. And i want to suggest that it should include three should meet three criteria. 1 it should be healthy for us. Or at least not unhealthy. 2 it should be healthy for the earth or at least not unhealthy. And 3 it should help move toward fulfilling a larger purpose in the way the jay-z talked about a larger purpose for our lives so healthy for us healthy for the earth. And moving toward fulfilling a purpose. Why take a risk. Why bother. It's a well-known phenomenon among the clergy that when people reach the end of their lives we tend to regret. Not so much the things that we did. But the things that we didn't do. Not so much the mistakes that we made but the opportunities that we messed not the risks that we took but the risks that we didn't take. So i want to give you an example of that kind of regret i had a congregant once will call him john who prided himself on being the kind of person who could. Open up. A safe space for other people to talk about difficult things. This is very important to have the power of creating space for honest and vulnerable conversations well his dad was dying he was in his late twenties. His dad was dying and everybody around his dad knew that he was dying and probably his dad knew that he was dying but nobody would talk about it. Nobody could talk about it. It was this forbidden zone. Tooth fairy. Too scary to talk about and after one of these visits with his dad at the hospital. John came home and he it occurred to him. But his dad might be feeling terrified his dad might be feeling lonely sitting with the prospect of his own death. And here he was john the person who prided himself on being able to invite end difficult conversations and he wasn't giving that to his own dad. He knew that doing so would incur risk. He knew that there would be arrested his dad would be. Upset. His dad might be upset at him angry at him his dad might actually not know that he's dying and it might be terrifying and a new information for him so she threw his arrest gonzalez but he decides decided that it was worth taking that rest. He was going to the very next day when he visited his dad in the hospital he was going to open up this conversation with his dad unfortunately his dad died that evening. He never had the chance to have that conversation and this is a regret that he carries with him to this day. These are the kinds of risks that are the most profound for most of us. The kind of risks which if we don't take them. We feel a huge sense of loss. This is not however the kind of risk-taking that we usually hear about. We usually hear about these. Kind of brand capitalist origin myths of people like elon musk elon musk if you googled risk you come up with elon musk as this trying risk-taker in our culture. He started his first company with no money living in his office and taking showers at the local ymca and now he's one of the richest people in the world spacex his space company the first three space launches fail and his company was almost bankrupt and they had only money for one more space launch at everybody was advising him not to throw away all this money on this failing proposition but he insisted on doing it and the fourth one work tesla same basic story they've started up during the great recession the cost were too high people. He had to take out personal loans to survive and now tesla is booming and they reported record sales and the last quarter of last year. The mythology of somebody like elon musk is full of macho quotes like failure is an option here if things are not failing you are not innovating enough she's the classic alpha male immigrants pull yourself up by your bootstraps american dream genius type risk-taker and there is a lot to be said for that kind of aggressive risk-taking there's a lot that we can learn from that. But sometimes the deepest the most profound risks are not the ones where you take the world by storm they're the ones that push the envelope by investing in where you are and who you're with and who you are now. In a piper mobile fast-paced high-tech world sometimes the riskiest thing is to stay in place. To work with your local community and be where you are. In a world where career ambition is so highly prized sometimes the greatest risk is to decide to step back. Natalie nunn but to lean out and spend more time with your family with your kids if you can afford it even become a stay-at-home parent sometimes that the greatest risk of all in the world that values high pay. So highly sometimes the greatest risk is to take a lower pay for more meaningful work these kinds of risk risk your identity. And that sometimes is the hardest and greatest risk of all colin kaepernick risk was not to play football he had the testosterone in the courage and the drive to play the whiskey dangerous game but his challenge was actually the opposite. It was not to stand and fight it was to kneel and resist. It was stepping away from a violent game to do something nonviolent nonviolent direct action which was even riskier he knelt to something even greater than football greater than money greater than ego. He knelt to his purpose. In the global ecological world that we live in right now. We can learn from colin kaepernick in this way. We all need to be kneeling down to our own higher purpose not the glamorous risks all the time but the unglamorous risks of healing the earth and healing our human messes that we have made. Not making more money to buy more stuff but buying less stuff not traveling around the world burning more fossil fuels for traveling less and staying in place not being more efficient and accomplishing more all the time but sometimes being less efficient and accomplishing less because we're spending more time at our local bookshop. Our local community garden. Not producing constantly but taking the risk. Of keeping a sabbath. Where you don't produce. At all. These are the kinds of risks. But our world needs today so as we think about pushing the envelope in 2019 and writing are letters i want to encourage us to consider going a little less elon musk maybe and a little more colin kaepernick and our risk-taking. How are we to finding the flyable area of our skies and how are we letting other people define bad flyable area for us. Remember the three qualities that were going for healthy for us. Healthy for the earth. And moving us toward a higher purpose. To help with this. Project for the year those of you who are interested megan henry our director of education and family ministries is going to facilitate a new covenant group starting up this month it's just going to have three sessions very informal but away for a group of people to covenant together hold each other accountable support each other in the process of working with their theme for the year. So if you're interested in that you can sign up on the welcome table downstairs to get more information or just email megan her email addresses in your order of service and just let her know that you're interested in possibly being part of the new covenant group that starting so we're going to write letters now you should all have pieces of paper and envelopes if you need pens or if you need a paper or envelope just raise your hand and jillian or dave elmonica okay and then dave will pick them up or you can just drop them in one of the baskets outside make sense.

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Systemic-Racism-Part-1.m4a

This morning i'm like what your program says. Instead of don and don elaine and i giving a separate sermon. We are going to dialogue with each other and share with you our individual processes of learning about systemic racism as a concept and how it works and unitarian-universalism our experience of becoming aware. We will practice kindness and curiosity with each other and hope that you all will be able to learn from our process as well. This entire worship service. Is about dismantling white supremacy and decentering whiteness. Painting from the way things have always been done to a new way of being quite literally while in dialogue be emphasized has the individualism that unitarian-universalism usually has and brings us into greater community together so i'm going to start and it asked johnny lane when did you first learn about white supremacy and would you be willing to explain what that is. So. When you asked that question the first thing that comes to mind is the. Big scary notion when you hear the words white supremacy it often conjures up images. Of skinheads. And violent attacks against people of color and the lgb. Two people i hate speech. And when i first learned of that. Face of it. Was i'd say probably. Much younger. But then there's the other aspect of white supremacy. That is what we're talking about and it's white supremacy culture is woven throughout the very fabric of our world. It is according to wikipedia. A political or socio-economic system. In which white people enjoy a structural advantage or privilege. Over other ethnic groups on both a collective and an individual level. So it's. It's how the deck is stacked. In favor of white. It's how images of ideal beauty. Have traditionally skewed towards that of white trailer. It's the waters we swim in. And. As a white woman yes even a well-meaning liberal-minded. Loving woman. I benefit and receive. White. As far as. When i learn about that. It actually work here in this congregation. Not too long after i first started coming here. I was at. Weaving the fabric of diversity. A meeting and we were talking about unpacking the backpack. Of white privilege. And i had a conversation with myra addington. And i think many of you remember her fondly she. Was a warrior against racism in our congregation. And. When she was talking to me about that i have to tell you that. I didn't feel like i had come from privilege. I grew up. Without a lot of advantages. With a single mom who is struggling with mental illness and substance abuse. We did not have a lot of money we even got government cheese. Some of you may know what that is. And so from that perspective i didn't see myself as being. Born into privilege i had to work hard for what i got. And it was difficult for me to see that yet that conversation with myra. She was. Patient and persisted in spoke to me of things and planted the seed. Of my awareness. From there it grew i'm i'm kind of curious karen for you where. How did you first become aware of white supremacy culture. For me it was in august of 2014 and that was. When mike brown was killed in ferguson missouri. And it's so i was living in greensboro north carolina and i had been aware of a local black lives matter group and some anti-racist work that was happening in the area but for a lot of reasons fear mostly i'm sure i didn't get involved. But when this killing happens and i decided i must i have to do something and i i didn't know what it was but i thought i i need to show up and some way and so myself into other people from my congregation we went to this protest and you know it's easy to pat yourself on the back i think to show up to something visible like that the hard part for me came afterwards so in conversations with people because i started going to the meeting and then in the conversation people started asking about so what is this church you go to and and asking is this. Is it really mostly white cuz i've never even heard of this place and and is your board mostly light and it was. It was really hard to hear those questions because cuz i thought of myself and our and my congregation that i was the board president of it as a good place and so i was in my place of excuses well if you know i'm trying to come up with all kinds of things in my head about this and then overtime i eventually stopped participating with this group because i ended up going into a place of defensiveness. Yeah i did it so it wasn't very healthy thing for me to be at. And then ironically is it it all came back up for me again when i started seminary i begin seminarian fall 2016 and through that process i'm embarrassed to say that i had been a unitarian universalist. 4/12 years before going to seminary and did not know about things like the black empowerment controversy that happened in the 1960s in our denomination. I was very surprised and didn't i didn't know and it was only through that and then it through additional classes like my the fall class that i took finding out about issues that various congregations had around and do we get involved with abolition or not what is our role in this essay and various people and congregations deciding how much they're going to get involved or not it was a surprise. And then of course in 2017 spring 2017 i don't know how many of you remember this but. That was when it became a much larger and arjun nomination about issues around white supremacy impacting hiring practices in the unitarian universalist association. And so a couple of people resigned including the president of the association. And so that was the end of my first year and seminary and deciding like oh wow this is a really big deal and the denomination that i have committed my life to. And it's so it was a huge awakening. So i wanted to ask you so how did it feel when you first heard about these things and like for example like when myra was trying to push you into this what were the feelings that came out for you. There's a lot of feeling of for me i was i was uncomfortable. I started. Questioning a lot of. I'm second-guessing my interactions with with my friends were people of color and even with random people that i didn't know but interacted and i i have this memory that i had gone to a regional gathering for unitarian and i met an author mark morrison read and he wrote this. What the implications of that could have met. Because it could have meant. That at some point. My ancestors named reed. Slave owners. Couches and. And i was clueless. In that movie. And it wasn't until after work. That i. Contemplated and became aware of thing. It was for me it was very sobering and. I haven't gone back to check and see. Like. The good ones. That didn't end really. That doesn't matter. Because. I'm part of his sister. And whether i did my shaq signing and found out it's still it's still part of that system and growing up in minnesota i had this imperfect understanding of history it included a sense that all well. We're from the north so we were okay because we didn't own. But no racism was there and. The. Horrendous treatment of native people. Happens there. You can't erase that. But also at the same time when i was. A young child. My folks for a time went to a very. Fundamental baptist church and i remember this beautiful song that we were taught. Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Really. Strove to. Treat everyone with love and i i really believe that message it is held true but then. That wasn't the only message that i encountered. There are subtle and not-so-subtle messages. Policies and rules all woven into the fabric of our world. That if you happen to be someone. To benefit from them. They can go unnoticed and. That's one of the privileges of being white is it you can have. Racial blinders. And not know. Coming to an understanding. Part of that journey from. Becoming aware of that. It hasn't always been. Easy and a growing and learning. So. Similar to that how how to. When you became aware of that. So in my early days of my to conversation with his friend in a black lives matter movement she was the one who who kept repeating this close at the sabbath quote that's here that says if i love you i have to make you conscious of the things you don't see by james baldwin and i really really really did not like hearing her say that it is true we sometimes need other people to point things out for us. And. Alike like daniel and i also grew up in the midwest i grew up next to chicago and i as a child had one particular experience and as an adult's have made a friend who was an african-american woman who told me about her stories of the ways that she was treated and i had to sit with the reality that we had very different experiences. And i've our lives and mine was based on class a was based on race. And it's so coming to understand it that. That for the ways that we can push back like what you were saying earlier about we think of white supremacy is as nazis and skinheads but it's really much more about our entire system and so when we see it as just this extremist thing over here then that's what keeps us from getting a part of it and actually getting involved and so so my reaction at times has been too to shut down and and i can know that from my past behavior and so i have to be aware that this is what i tend to do so we are going to move now to singing.

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Systemic-Racism-Part-2.m4a

They're going to begin the second half with wanted to ask donnylane about why she wanted to be a beloved conversations leader it and also tell us a little bit about feel every conversation so. Beloved conversation. Is. Workshop that we have here. And it is a really incredible. Opportunity for to dive more deeply into exploring racism and systems of white supremacy. Inside and outside our congregation. With a goal of creating a transformative space its. If the curriculum that gives you opportunity. But before i go into a little more into that. There was that moment from myra talking about unpacking the backpack and after that i had. Opportunities outside of the congregation. Where i work we had done,. Bias training and i was able to take that. And. We also had a series of workshops called. Sojourn a journey on race and. And this was a. Multi-part multi-day expiration we had a lot of difficult conversation. I must a really diverse group of participants. And it was it was emotional and thought-provoking. Having a. People from all. Identities whether it's different racial. Weather in your lgb. Accuweather your. Transgender there we had. Many people involved in the conversation and so it was very enriching. And and sometimes awkward having these conversations amongst ourselves and one of our. Facilitators of his group was robin diangelo and she's the author who wrote white fragility. Which happens to be one of our book reading. We're having a. A book discussion in upcoming book discussion at it on february 10th i highly recommend reading it and if you can come to the book discussion little side note i highly recommend that. It was inspiring. Hearing robin diangelo because she. Speaks of her background as being in a coming from a very poor white family. And she still.. Difficulty that i had looking at. Privilege. Feeling like i didn't have that. Cheap. Showed an example of how you can. That and acknowledge your white privilege and participation and white supremacy culture in an open and honest way and not have to be defensive. Or or. Step into a world of shame. We learn strategies of what to do as as a person. Doing your homework. And. Having those opportunities to go to those trainings and through the uua. There was a teaching about white supremacy culture. Facilitated by julika hermann to la fuente and co-hosted by rev dr hope johnson who did a lot of work here at this congregation and those were incredible opportunities and last year be my first year on the board i was trying to think of how i could bring. Some of that here especially the things that weren't necessarily. Appreciated by the ua. And in thinking about that mulling that over. I realized that we had already had one cohort of the leprechaun. And i thought. How incredible it would be if we could have the board. The entire board go through beloved. And have these conversations in and take this time to do this work. And introspection. And. So that was what was important to me. To have the board participate in that and it you know it's as as our cohort started and and. Formed we had. An amazing group we had two groups and amazing group of people and and there are people who participated who have spent their lifetime working on anti-racism effort and it can be challenging especially for people who have dedicated much of their lives to fight racism to look at forms of bias and white. And how it could be present and at play in our congregation and in our community. And even ourselves. And you know i have. Question for you karen in that you're on this ministerial no formation this process. And. Since you learn. You know. About. The history with the unitarian. And unitarian universalism. Knowing what you know how is it that you know. How do you feel in the. Continuing on in your relationship learning and. So i am now it's what's the stage of formation process called a candidate to end soon i'll be seeing what's called the ministerial fellowship committee and so all along this process it's it's fortuitous that this happened in my life now. Yes there were times when they knew that there were going to be times when these ministers might not even get a congregation who would hire them. These are reality said that where that happened in the past and it that we are still working through and it's so it as someone who is honest formation process then i believe that i look at unitarian-universalism i am somebody who came to this city as in my thirties so i came to it with a as what i call it a refugee from another nomination and it is so so i look at it like many of us are kind of like the falling-in-love process where are you. And so how does this work for you and your spiritual practices and being able to continue their work of dismantling white supremacy. Meditation and mindfulness. I think. In terms of sometimes when you have that reaction that comes up if you can. Have a moment. Pause and make that space. Well then you can decide how you're going. I see a lot of opportunity for this on the subway we've all seen different things happen on the subway beautiful moments and there's some really ugly moments and situation where maybe. Someone is acting in a biased way. Do you. Is that a moment for you to step up and. Intervene and say something. Or is it a moment for you to just listen. And and check your own bias. And say okay the way that woman is dealing with her child. I may not. Deal with my child that way but that's maybe that's none of my business. And in finding. Figuring out you know where that is. I think. In terms of the spirituality of this process it aligns with all of the uu principle. I'm not going to go through each one of them but you can there listed in the order of service on the back and you can see the inherent dignity and worth of all people. If we are not. If we are thinking of ourselves as. Superior. And and whether it's an unconscious bias that we're doing that we are not valuing everyone. Everyone's dignity and worth and. In in all of this. It's. It is a spiritual journey. Continually growing. Hoping that i'm getting better at seeing white supremacy culture at play in our world and being willing to have. Uncomfortable. Flirtations and speak out. It can be difficult to stay and discomfort how do i. Talk about this with my child. My friends with my extended family. I look forward to continuing this. Journey with our congregation. My hope is that we continue to offer beloved conversations that more and more of our members you guys. Participate and a friends of the congregation participate we can start with our congregation and make meaningful change here amongst ourselves. And and then within. The uu organization. And. The world. So. Karen. Your spiritual. And i'm curious especially seeing you as going through that process of. Becoming a minister. How do they help you in your work. A part of my spiritual practice we've brought here today in creating an uncomfortable situation so we know that this is not the most comfortable way for people to experience a service and it's so i'm grateful fit people are. Being with their own experiences of what this is like. And so what i do for myself is to try to go to places or be in situations where things are different than the culture i grew up in. And it's so for example i one of the reasons i chose union theological seminary as opposed to a do you identified seminary is because it's it's much more diverse on seminary then if any others that i and so at union and it helps me to be to think more about like how can i what's what's coming up for me in this moment where i am not in a totally white culture we left north carolina. Babe i want to challenge that and say it fits spiritual practices can happen anywhere in any place so did i encourage you to be open to whatever that may be. In closing i want to encourage everybody to think about where you might be call to to move into your own life. What is calling you to step into uncomfortable places what is calling you to take rid donna elaine and i doing this we are kind of following the pattern of the black lives matter movement of pushing beyond business-as-usual it's also anup reached a couple weeks ago about pushing the envelope and if this isn't pushing the envelope i don't know what is in your life that you can find what do you need to step up where it is it in your life that you can take a stand and move through whatever is scaring you. Let's turn to number 1040 hush.

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Why-Im-Here.m4a

The time of year. One of my favorite things to do. Is to head up to the hudson valley for a nice fall tramp in the woods. Any other hikers out there. So i'm out on the trail that you might be familiar with when you pass someone going in the other direction. You say hello. An experienced mountaineer explain the reason to me. In the wilderness no one can afford to be a stranger. You never know what disaster or injury may befall you around the next bend. A little high or good morning isn't just polite out there. It might just save your life. Well i broke in california so this habit of reading everyone i passed. Come pretty naturally to me. But here in new york i've noticed that it's considered odd. After i moved to manhattan in 1990 for my shop in the same east village grocery store for 10 years. And for all those years the clerk's insisted on acting like they never seen me before. These days i live on a friendly block in a friendly neighborhood hello park slope. And yet when i'm around the corner from street to avenue my two doors down neighbor. Looks right through me. I quickly shift my eyes away and might be expecting 10 now foolish smile off my face. Message message received. We're new yorkers. We are cool. But can we really afford to be so cool. Maybe some ham. Myself i can't. I'm one of a family of three. Extended family is all far away geographically. And in other ways as well. This means that i'm just two people away from complete isolation. It is to be sure to people more than many people can count on. But in my dark moments i ponder the facts. That without my husband. And my daughter. I'd have no one. This occurs to me most distressingly when physical danger sets my heart pounding and fear. Like when a car swerves to close in the crosswalk. When i slip on the stairs. When i feel a twitch or lump or a scratch. And i wonder if this is the thing i've been dreading finally catching up with me. Back in the 90s when i lived in manhattan there was a woman on 1st avenue and who i pass several times a day. She was always wearing the same selfie jacket. Rain or snow. Everyday all-day she's shuffle up and down the sidewalk in front of the pizza parlor. Muttering angrily. And chain-smoking. She looked for and sick. I'm miserable. I knew she needed help but i was young and way out of my depth. I did offer to buy her pizza once. She yelled at me. That woman fascinated and terrified me. She was everything i feared. Not that she scared me. But that i was. And i still am afraid that someday i will be her. Brandless. Alone. Preposterous right i have a beautiful healthy family. We have a comfortable life luxurious by every standard. I have everything i need and more. And yet i can't shake that care of that one day they could all disappear. Blown up in some unimaginable catastrophe of law. Perhaps my apocalyptic fantasies are overblown. But the fear of devastating loss. Manchester material comfort. But if human companionship. That's fear of law. Real. Maybe i worry about this more than many of you but i suspect such fears are pretty common. Is there anyone among us who doesn't fear loneliness. He doesn't fear the dull ache. Of having no one noticed our existence. No one care what befalls us. Maybe some of you are the lucky ones who have the love and support. A tight-knit tribe. For me my best hope. Here. In this community. In this congregation. There is so much to cherish here at first you from the inspiring sermons and uplifting music that nurture our spirit. To the congregation commitment to justice and love that heals the world. I come for these things. But i also come because i want to belong. That's why i show up on each week. Even on days like today and the classic end. With rain and the coffeepot conspires with the sunday times to lure me back under the covers. That's why i wear my name tag. And go to annual meetings and scrub baseboards in the francis white room. And make caramel for unit fair. I do these things. And many others because i want to be known here. I want to have a place where people will see me and acknowledge my existence. A place where people will a perm that i'm alive. And i matter. I want to be a face of welcome and a helping hand for others in need. And i want to know that when i fall down. There will be hundreds of hands. To lift me up again. I want to belong to a community that sustains me. Now. And through the ups and downs of the rest of my life. If that's what you're looking for. Come to the right place. This is a community of people who want to welcome you. Who wants to know you do want to wrap you up in a big fuzzy blanket of you you love. That's the good news. And here's the tricky part. It's not just an automatic benefit you get in the mail after you sign the membership book. Belonging to this community. And building a community that is strong enough to sustain you and me and all of us. That actually requires. Work. Sometimes joyful silly fun work like the halloween party over in the chapel today. Sometimes awful and kind of disgusting work like cleaning out the unit there mystery closet. Sometimes boring work like sitting through another budget meeting. But that works is the alchemy that transforms a group of strangers. Into a real community. Sociala. Make yourself known where your name tag. Linger. Talk to people. Or if you're feeling shy just work. Volunteer to help. Find ways to help even when no one asked you. Invest your time in this community and your investments will be returned with infinite's interest. We are all hiking on the trail of life. And we are sure to run into dangerous terrain ahead. Alone we're in serious trouble. But here in this community. We know that on the day we call for help. There will be someone to hear us. As acquire put it so beautifully. You'll never walk alone. And now i invite you to stand in body or spirit and join in our hymn number 97 sometimes i feel like a motherless child.

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Heaven-And-Earth.m4a

Two well-known stereotype that jewish mothers tend to have high opinions of their sons even that they think their sons walk on water but mary mother of jesus took it to a whole new extreme she thought her son could literally walk on water or turn water into wine or any other miracle that he wanted to do and she was eager to show off his skills. The book of john in the christian scripture tells the story of when jesus and his mother are at a wedding in galilee and the wedding celebration runs out of wine mary elbows jesus and says they have no wine implication do something jesus pushes back to you and to me my hour has not yet come. Meaning it's not my problem if they've run out of wine i'm not yet at that point in my ministry where i'm going to be working miracles much less doing party tricks his mother completely ignore this and do whatever he tells you the text doesn't say that jesus changes his mind and scripture we rarely get a window into the emotions of the characters. But it seems like he does here's what it says. Now standing there were six stone water jars for the jewish rites of purification each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants fill the jars with water. And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them now draw some out and take it to the chief steward so they took it when the steward tasted the water it had become wine. This is what some might call a pure miracle it overturns the laws of nature. With no mechanism beyond the spiritual power of the person performing at it straight from heaven and it flies in the face of any earthly explanation in this gospel at least this is jesus's first miracle. And he goes on to perform many others like it. Healing the sick giving sight to the blind and of course walking on water. These kinds of miracles over the course of his ministry give him street cred. So that when he's riding up that street toward jerusalem. On the day that we celebrate today on palm sunday everybody already knows who he is. You tend to listen a little more closely to somebody's sermons if they've just unparalyzed somebody some christians to this day believe in the literal truth of jesus's miracles. This is the idea that miracles come from heaven jesus has power to turn water into wine came from and ethereal plane that supersedes our world and is in fact the ultimate reality and they believe that such miracles do infact point to the divinity of jesus atheist. There is nothing but the human and earthly plane that any miracles if you even want to call them that are simply the wonder is that humans can do. We make wine. And it doesn't happen instantly. It's a process it's human ingenuity that figured out what happens to crushed-up grapes when given the right conditions. It's human perseverance that painstakingly bread the right varieties over generation and learned how to prepare and store the wine. How amazing even miraculous that we can do these kinds of things. Not to mention build airplanes and make electronic systems that collect connect people instantly on opposite sides of the globe and even make a human embryo in a petri dish. Marigolds we might say come not from heaven but from here on earth. From nature. And from human nature. Both perspectives are 100% half right. Each of them oversimplifies the reality. No god does not appear to reach into our dimension instantly change things if god did that our world would be very different from the way that it is today. Global warming would end and the polar ice caps would reconstitute themselves. Single-payer healthcare the face of the earth along with other improvements. But neither do we humans work miracles on our own. Our human capacities are gifts that come from beyond ourselves. Our creativity. Heart ingenuity our consciousness itself comes from the deep mystery of the universe that some of us call god. We did not make ourselves conscious beings. But here we are. And we encounter grapes. And we make wine. And then as wendell berry says we forget the miracle by which water. With soil and sunlight is turned into grapes. Before any of our human brilliance can come into play waterfalls from the heavens and waters the great plan and sunlight beams to our planet and transforms into sweetness. The dark earth embraces and nourishes the roots sending pulsing energy up into the vines bursting into life and this entire miraculous process intersect. The complex brilliance of human beings in just such a way. That earth transforms into wine light transform into wine water transforms into wine. A miracle is not just from heaven and it's not just from earth. A miracle is where heaven and earth meet. A miracle is where a spark of spirit. Lands on the dry kindling of day-to-day hard work and create a blaze of something new. Something that has never existed in the universe before. We see this happen in social and political movements throughout history how people rise up and make revolutions happen. And we see it in our families. And our relationships. How dynamics installments for years can shift. We see it in ourselves. How we keep growing with periodic blazes of insight and transformation when we are children and even into our old age. The truly great moments in our lives are never completely inexplicable. But they're never completely explicable either. They don't come from entirely outside of us but neither do they come from entirely within us. And i don't think jesus was saying anything different. When jesus was walking towards jerusalem and seeing it in the distance and people were waving their palms and putting their cloaks down on the road in front of him he could see that horizon where heaven and earth meet. But he knew that that horizon was where his work lived. He taught his followers to bring their swords because a political revolution was needed. At the same time. He taught that god will take care of them and they don't have to worry about anyting. He said consider the lilies of the field. How they grow. They neither toil nor spin yet i tell you even solomon in all his glory. Was not clothed like one of these. May we all be blessed. To live at that horizon. Drawing from the capacities of body. And spirit from ordinary cell. And our higher self. Working and allowing. Maybe participate in the miracles at the intersection of heaven and earth may we be blessed with the humility of knowing that though we may accomplish great things in our lives the wonders of life continued apace with or without us. The resurrection of spring will come. The lilies will bloom. Water will turn into grapes. Creatures will be born and die and become soil and rise again. Listen to it how it's put this way in the words of april song which will hear. Next. There will come soft rains. And the spell of the ground and swallows circling with their shimmering sound. And frogs in the pool singing at night. And wild plum trees in tremulous white. Robin will wear their feathery fire. Whistling their whims. On a low fence wire. And not one will know of the war. Not one. Wellcare at last when it is done. Not one would mind neither bird nor tree. If mankind perished utterly. And spring herself when she woke at dawn. Would scarcely know. That we were gone.

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Transcend-And-Include.m4a

Then if you have a cat or dog at home have you noticed that as the weather is starting to get warmer that they're starting to shed a lot like there's fur everywhere and if you ever thought to yourself as they keep going at this rate they're going to wind up bald and yet it doesn't happen right so today we're going to talk a little bit about why that is something called transition. For the kids in this room is easy to know when you're in a moment of transition moving from one thing to another thing maybe you're finishing up second grade and becoming a third grader maybe you're graduating from elementary school or middle school. Even just the school year ending in december beginning is a kind of transition. And you always know that you're growing. Because your shoes are getting tighter. And maybe you've had the experience where when you walk by the kindergarten classroom the chairs seems so tiny you know you're growing you know you're changing big kids and grownups go through transitions to. Like today. We're saying goodbye to a few of our members who are moving to other places and beginning new live somewhere else and that's a big change. And a little while from navarre high school youth are going to be bridging do make a transition from being a youth to being a young adult. Like crossing a bridge from one place to another that's why we call it bridging but the truth is that we are always always in transition. Everybody take a minute and look at your hands. Do you know that three weeks ago the skin on your hands was completely different. You had entirely different hands 3 weeks ago every cell. Of our skin over our entire body changes every two to three weeks and it doesn't happen all at once all cells keep dying and new ones keep forming. It's happening right now while we're sitting here. That's how the universe is made every living thing including dogs and cats is always shedding parts of itself and making new parts at the same time life is one big transition. When you think about this how does it make you feel. For some people i know it's exciting we want to get rid of the old parts of ourselves that we feel we're holding us down and holding us back we want to start over and have a chance to be a new person with all that without all of the stick thing that was our past for others about the idea that we are always losing parts of ourselves is scary. We don't like it we don't want it to happen we are comfortable with the way we are and we are worried that whatever comes next. Is not going to be as good we fight the changes. I'll give you an example of each a friend of mine grew up going to a church where they talked about god as if god were a person. Actually a big man in the sky who got angry when people just things that were wrong and was happy when people did things that we're good at as my friend got older that idea of god didn't really make sense to her anymore didn't feel right. She started to feel like god was much bigger than that. Not really like a person at all. So when she moved out of her parents house. She says to herself good i'm glad i never have to have anything to do with religion again in my entire life i'm leaving my past behind and i'm going to become a new person without god that was an example of someone who loved that transition she had decided there was nothing good about religion and she couldn't wait and do something more fun on sunday morning. My daughter miriam is finishing first grade. And she's going to start 2nd grade but she loves her teacher. She told me yesterday that she loves her teacher and her classroom so much and she feels so comfortable there that she doesn't even want to leave and go on to 2nd grade or she wants her teacher to go with her to second grade at all at the grades after that as well. Now i can understand why she feels that way her teacher is awesome her teacher is a little bit like miss frizzle for those of you who are familiar with the magic school bus book she takes them on all kinds of amazing adventures and this year she even got duck eggs and they hatched ducklings in the classroom. They were very cute so mary is really upset that the year is ending soon she's not looking forward to the summer. She said. Each of these ways of handling a transition has a problem. Because in the first case you're giving up on the past. And in the second case you're giving up on the future. In the first case my friend who left her religion you're saying that from the past has no value for me. It has nothing to teach me it was all bad now i'm free of it and my future is definitely going to be better without it. In the second case my daughter who's finishing first grade you're saying everything is so good right now i don't even want to see what's next i have everything i want and need right now and my future is definitely going to be worse. As you can see neither one of these is the best way to go through life but there is another way it's called transcend and include. This is an idea taught by a spiritual teacher named ken wilber in case you don't know the word transcend it means to go beyond the limits of something like if you were to float up in the air right now and anybody who would like to stand up and begin that floating process to stretch your legs you could if you were to stand up right now. You would transcend this room. Okay you can come back down so transcend and include. Means when you go through a transition when you move from one part of your life to another part of your life you transcend your past. You go beyond that you go up past its ceiling. And you give the new you a big hug. But you also include your past. You take it with you and it's heart of who you are forever it's like you just create more room in your soul for the new stuff. You get bigger. And that way you don't have to give up on your past or your future you have room for both. Bruce springsteen once said that going through life is like riding in a car for new people get in all the time but nobody ever gets out. Every experience you've ever had every person who has been important to you as well as all of your younger selves are all in the car with you so my friends old idea of god is in the car with her but now there's room for a newer bigger idea of god to get into. And my daughter's teacher is still in the car with her but now there's room for next year's adventures. 2. So. I totally get that mary is sad about leaving the first grade behind and i don't want to tell her to not feel that. She's moving out of course. But she is taking all of the love and all of the learning and all of the great duckling memories and all of that will be with her when she starts her first day of second grade and every day after that she will transcend the first grade and she will include it in the second grade to it can't not be that way even when we wanted to. Our bodies are changing right now while we sit here. Our dog is shedding at this very second. To every moment we are transcending who we were becoming something new while including who we used to be. Everything we've learned everyone we love all the bad stuff all the good stuff is helping us to grow and change. Don't give up on your future don't give up on your past it's all part of what makes you you please rise for our next him come and go with me it's number 1018 which is in the teal handle.

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Born-Ready-By-Ana-Levy-Lyons.m4a

An early 90s a young british woman in a bad and possibly abusive marriage filed for divorce she was not a single mother with a baby and no job. Her mother had recently died and she was alienated from her own father. She and her daughter were living on welfare. They were at risk of becoming homeless she sank into a deep depression. Got a x was even suicidal. She felt in her own words like the biggest failure she knew. Today her story is one that motivational speakers love to tell. Because during those bitter and scary days between job-hunting excursion and while her baby was napping. Chewing over to her typewriter. Yes typewriter and work on a novel. The idea had been bouncing around in her head for years. The novel was about a young wizard. Who discovers his magical heritage that goes to a special school for witchcraft and wizardry. Within five years jk rowling was a multi-millionaire. The problem with motivational speeches that tell stories like this but they tend to ignore the special privileges the hidden privileges that such people generally have. They make it seem like anybody no matter what their circumstances could. Write a best-selling novel and become a multi-millionaire. And of course we know that's not true. In jk rowling's case although she truly didn't have financial resources she was educated and she was white. The being educated park helter right well and the being white part helped her be taken seriously by publishers. But many of us with those same privileges and her same shoes might have said sure i have this idea for a novel. But this is clearly not the right time. I'm not ready yet. Let me get back on my feet first. Let me get a job first. Let me find a new partner first. Let me wait until my daughter is a little bit older so she requires a little bit less care i'm not ready yet. But rowling it didn't do that. Instead she used her dire situation to enable her to be ready. She used it as a catalyst. We learned about this concept of catalysts from mushroom has humbly i love this concept. A catalyst isn't as we normally think something that. Pushes you or prompts you or yells at you like a personal trainer to get up and do something. Know all the catalyst does is it. Lowers the energy required to move from one state to another. It doesn't scream at you to jump over the hurdle and lowers the hurdle. If you doubt that this really can work. Try this simple experiment. If you want your spouse or roommate to do some housework. Don't harangue them. Put out the vacuum cleaner unwind the cord plug it into the wall so it's all set to go lower the energy required for them to move from the state of not vacuuming to the state of vacuuming its wizardry really that's a mundane example but seriously you can be a catalyst. For all kinds of good in the world simply by making it easier for yourself or others to do the right thing. In rawlings case maybe counter-intuitively lowering is a hurdle to her writing her novel entailed losing almost everything she had. She explains that in a commencement address at harvard that she gave in 2008. She says. Had i really succeeded at anything else i might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where i truly belong. I was set free. Because my greatest fear. Had been realized. And i was still alive. I still had a daughter whom i adored and i had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom. Became a solid foundation. On which i rebuilt my life. Paroling to be ready. She had to let go of the image of herself as somebody with a husband and job and certain markers of social respectability letting go of that normative image. Was her catalyst to become something else. It plugged her into an outlet that allowed her energy to flow. Catalyst come in many different shapes and sizes and they allow us to become ready for something for which we previously didn't feel ready. What works for rolling might not work for you or me and vice versa. Sometimes as in her situation the catalyst comes from outside. Unchosen unwanted. We might call this a hostile catalyst it can work. But it's not much fun. Sometimes however when we don't feel ready to do something that we have to do or want to do. We can create our own catalyst. Let's call it a benevolent catalyst. There's an art to this i think in which we first have to ask ourselves. What's getting in my way. Why does it feel like it would take so much energy to move from the state that i'm in to the states that i want to be in we need to figure out the answer to that question first before we can know what we need to do to lower that energy requirement successful artists and athletes and activists and business people get really good at figuring this out it's part of what makes them successful they learn how to catalyze their own action. There's an underlying assumption to this approach that i think is really beautiful and also profoundly unitarian universalist. It's an assumption that says. I may not feel ready. But actually in the deepest sense. I am ready. I was born ready. I'm here on this earth with unique gifts. And resources and dignity and the world needs me to do what i'm here to do. My deepest truth is i was born ready. But something is in my way. Show me figure out what that something is so that i can try to lower the hurdle. Then my energy will be free to flow wherever it's called to flow. It's also practice her faith in the goodness and the power of others to assume the same about them to say to another you two were born ready you two are here on this earth with unique gifts and resources and dignity and the world needs you to do what you are here to do if you're stuck it's not because you don't have enough inside. It's because something is in your way. Let me help you not be giving you something that you don't already have but by helping to lower the hurdle. We can intentionally and faithfully serve as benevolent catalyst for one another. Sometimes as washu matatus are catalysts can be the realization that we don't have to go it alone. That whatever contribution we don't feel ready to make. Is only one of many iterative contributions. Sometimes our catalyst. Can just be information. As simple as where to vote. For who to talk to about a job possibility. Sometimes when we're feeling really anxious about something. The best catalyst of all. Can be one that takes the pressure off. In the grand scheme of things. Whatever it is that we don't feel ready for is probably not as important as we think it is. Apparently j.k. rowling didn't feel ready for her commencement address. At harvard that's a. Despite all her success she didn't feel ready to speak in front of so many people in such a prestigious setting. But from her life experience she knew a trick. Geneva catalyst for becoming ready to give the powerful moving speech that she ended up giving that day. Here's how she kicked it off. Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility. Or so i thought. Until i cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished british philosopher baroness mary warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously and writing this one because it turns out that i can't remember a single word she said this liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that i might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business. The law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard it's a similar catalyst if not by this afternoon so thank you for that. So for those of you who have just joined the congregation this morning ellen and get us alexis michelle and laura mae first unitarian served as a catalyst for you. May we help lower your hurdle. Take some pressure off. Maybe put some pressure on. Give you tools and information and inspiration. May we help you feel more ready to become the fullest expressions of yourself. None of us can afford to wait until the perfect set of circumstances conspire and we're perfectly prepared and we've worked out every possible contingency. Sometimes we have to just get up and do whatever it is that we feel not ready to do. But good to know that here we don't have to do it alone. And everyone of us stumbles. There will be others to help clear the way. Please rise in body or spirit for our final hymn number 1028 that's in your teal hymnal the fire of commitment.

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Creation-Day-Two-Sky-And-Sea.m4a

Relative to the first day of creation the second day seems relatively uneventful all god does is to create an expanse a space in the midst of the waters the writing is dry and practical and straightforward it explains the purpose of the expanse to separate the waters above from the waters below the cosmology of the ancient hebrews was simple we live in a bubble or dome of are surrounded on all sides by water. It's a precarious and vulnerable situation at best all you have to do to destroy our whole world would be to open up a few cracks in the dome and the entire primeval watery abyss would come crashing in game over. This is exactly what happens in the flood story a little bit later and genesis god decided to scrap the whole project and start over because humans have shall we say underperformed the text says all the fountains of the great deep burst open the floodgates of the heavens were opened and the rain was upon the earth i hate to admit it but that really cheesy movie about noah and the ark that came out last year portrayed it exactly right there were massive fountain springing up from underneath and torrence coming down from the waters above huge storms and rising waters. I don't think they had those rock creatures in the bible do whatever after the flood god makes a promise to noah to never destroy the world again like that and the sign of that thomas is the rainbow. We're living in this fragile space with water all around us. In english it's usually expanse or dumb or sometimes firmament even though nobody knows what a firmament is. The hebrew word is that kia. The creative act on the second day is that god makes kia. Azhakiya comes from the verb vaska which means to beat or spread out. As in the process of hammering a lump of metal until it becomes ascension. So that makes it sound like it's a kia doesn't refer to a space at all but rather to just a flat sheet that separates the waters above from the waters below but we can't we know that that can't be right because everything else in the text that follows assumes that there is actually a space. So maybe it refers not to the space itself. And not to the flat sheet. But to the thin edge of space. That which holds the space and keeps the waters out. It was in fact actually thought i was kind of a solid dome over the sky it was it was believed that when birds flew their wings would graze the top of it stars were embedded in it. And when it was dark out the sun was passing behind it. And a famous woodcut from an anonymous european artist in the 18th century you can see it in your order of service in the insert. It shows a man having traveled all the way to the edge of the flat earth. To where it intersects with the recchia. Sticking his head out through it. And gazing into the vast beyond. Picture of bubble the thin film that forms if spherical edge could be of a kia. When you think about bubble the essence of it is not really the air inside it it's the tension of that fragile skin that surrounded the skin that makes space by separating what's inside from what's outside. And the tension between what's pushing out from the inside and what's pushing in from the outside makes the bubble round the verb seems to include the feeling of that tension it's hammering and beating and expanding its the continual effort of creating and sustaining that edge. And in the case of the creation story the edge has to be just right. Too thin and it breaks and the floods come. Too thick and no rain can get in. And everything dies. Because rain. Nourishing life-giving rain in this story comes from small holes in those ikea. But god opens up and then closes. The rakia is not static or impermeable it takes careful maintenance and constant reshaping. The rakia is the living breathing form of that ongoing effort. We know that effort well from our own lives. When we want to make space for anyting for more time with our children space to make art or music space to meditate or pray or exercise. Space to plan our next career move. Space for sabbath practice. Space for a relationship. Space to be alone. It takes intentional effort. We have to create that bubble of space with the effort of hammering and shaping and reshaping and stretching out at edge and then sustaining it. There is tension from all the other demands in our lives that want to come flooding in and will come flooding in if we let them. Or think about our bodies our bodies have a boundary and it's usually hopefully up to us to determine how permeable we want that boundary to be. What do we allow the cross and not cross that boundary in the form of food and media and other people in our lives. Especially in our frenzied modern culture everything wants to come crashing in. And it will if we let it. But on the other hand if we have to fix and rigid a boundary we cut ourselves off from life. We reject others. We don't take in new ideas we don't risk new experiences. We don't let in love. If we cut off the nourishing rain from outside of our if a kia what's inside us will wither. We must tend carefully to the waqiah around our time and our bodies. We could also think of this biblical cosmology as a macrocosm of our own. Internal psychic world. The primordial waters that threaten to flood our own subconscious passions. In friday and terms they are our id. They are our proverbial drives and hungers and dreams. The chaotic primal forces of the universe the anarchic oceans of creativity. They live just outside our nice domesticated ego and superego bubble of order and reasonableness like the primordial soup at the very beginning these waters around us and within us contain the entire ocean of possibility. All that we could be. Let it all in. And we self-destruct unable to hold down a job or maintain a relationship we all know people like that people whose lives implode whether because of drugs or mental illness or sometimes just personalities that can't say no to the chaos of the world and their own hungers. But. Try to keep the primeval waters out entirely make our internal boundary too sick and never let it rain. And our own souls become arid and brittle. We won't risk waiting into the deep waters. We anesthetize ourselves. We hold back from saying what's in our heart we become so afraid of losing control that we lose our love of life. We also probably know people like that. People who walk around seeming hollow and withered. Tired with the strain of denying themselves. And maybe there is a little bit of each of us in each of these archetypes. Who knows if the ancient people who told and retold this creation myth had all of this in mind who knows if the biblical author was aware of the layers of possible meaning in the text. They very well may have been i tend to think that they were. But if not if i'm just inventing all of this does this story have any use for us. The primitive notion of a hammered fin ikea around our planet that somehow keeps the cosmic chaos out and allows us to breathe. Actually it turns out that we do have something like that. It's called our atmosphere. It's what makes our sky blue and what makes rainbows appear. You might think that our atmosphere is not that thin but actually if the earth is the side of size of a regular classroom globe. Our atmosphere is the thickness of a couple of coats of paint. That's it. Zakia is a real thing. And it's a fragile thing and it's a crucial thing without which we'd all be dead. Just like a suggestion the genesis story. On a global environmental level or do we have problems with our vecchia starting with the hole in the ozone layer which was thankfully shrinking now but we're there. kiara was too porous and it was letting in the dangerous rays from the outer cosmos. And of course now or if a kia is loaded with greenhouse gases. It's too thick. To impermeable trapping heat and rack wreaking havoc on our climate that's what global warming is. It's olga kia malfunction. A little too thin and we have trouble a little too thick and we have trouble let too much in and we have trouble let to little out and we have trouble it's such a delicate subtle thing we are indeed precarious in this bubble of inhabitable space. And we're not attending to it. We're not being careful with the balance nature has given us we're not doing enough to maintain the health of our of a kia up there in the genesis flood story humans behaved badly and god destroyed them by means of those ikea with the sign of the rainbow. God promise to never do that again. But in an ironic twist of fate in our world today god isn't even necessary as an agent of the destruction through our actions we are destroying our zakia directly and the storms are beginning and the torrential rains are starting to fall and the waters are rising from underneath as the icebergs melt. If on the first day we said that god created time on the second day god created space. Collectively between the two days there was now an opening. But there hadn't been one before in which the world as we know it could bloom. Before that when everything was formless and void and dark and swampy and undifferentiated nothing could breathe nothing could involve. Nothing could happen. All the possibility of all things became real once there was a structure to hold open an area in which they could flourish. So maybe the great teaching and coded nba's ancient sentences about the second day of creation. Is the forming of a kia. Is a foundational practice for each of us. It's necessary. For each of us to be able to live a dynamic and rich life and for all of us to live at all. You can believe or not believe that god did this and creating our world but it is clear that it's up to us to do this in our own lives and to sustain our planet. When we give ourselves the gift of time and space. Even with all the hard work that it takes to sustain it. Our whole world can bloom within it. Amanda sometimes like the man in the wood carving we need to travel to the end of the earth and break through the vodka and gaze into the great abyss beyond. It's up to us to carefully tend the boundaries within ourselves. Between ourselves and the wider world. And between our world and the greater cosmos. It's up to us to keep the promise of the rainbow. I'm only get it right. Let me find that perfect balance between permeability and firmness. Resistance and surrender. It's that yin-yang spot of bliss. Perhaps this is why at the end of the description of the second day the text says. And god called the takia. Heaven. And it was morning. And it was evening. The second day. Our final ham is over the rainbow our band and choir going to kick us off so you don't need to stand up yet liz bachman are soloist will let you know and i think you'll feel it in your gut as well.

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The-Greenest-House.m4a

In 1961 hannah arendt when as a reporter for the new yorker to the trial of adolf eichmann icon was a nazi lieutenant colonel who is responsible for the operations side of the project of forcing millions of jews into concentration camps and later the porting them by train to places like auschwitz if there's ever an example of a psychopathic monster grand evil incarnate adolf eichmann must surely be it but i rent published a series of articles about the trial which he later turned into a book subtitled a report on the banality of evil. And that she made the argument that eichmann was actually not psychopathic not exceptional and his propensity for violence. Not particularly hateful or malicious. What he was was unintelligent. Rule oriented. An insecure with a desperate need to belong. He was a joiner he wanted to be part of something. He wanted to advance his career. He wanted respect and a good life. He often spoke in cliches. While he was in prison and israel awaiting the trial five different psychiatrist interviewed him and found no evidence of any pathology. He was a psychologically stable. Normal. Person. A ranch road. The trouble with eichmann was precisely that so many were like him. And that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic that they were and still are terribly and terrifyingly normal from the viewpoint of our legal institutions and of our moral standards of judgment this normality was much more terrifying that all the atrocities put together a lot of pushback for this book but it changed the conversation about the nature of evil forever for holocaust to be carried out on a grand scale of sinister bad guys bad guys are thousands of ordinary people who want badly to fit in and advance themselves and their careers. People who will accept the morals of their social environment. You need people who are committed to being normal relative to their place and time. Whatever that entails such people don't think they're participating in something horrific because how could something truly horrific be accepted by everybody around me. Shirley my career and my way of life can't be that bad if everyone else is doing it too. If it were somebody would have stopped it already right. I miss people's climate march sunday you can probably see where i'm going with this we're facing and environmental cataclysm that will endanger all life on this planet. I'm not going to spend time and there's sermon just defending the science i think it speaks for itself and i'm happy to point you to resources if you want them what i'm interested in here. Is that this is happening and there are virtually no bad guys in the game. There are few probably at monsanto and some oil and gas companies and maybe a few in public office. But even they are not sitting around the tables in the evening smoking cigars and plotting the extinction of the polar bear most of them don't have malicious intent. They're just following the prevailing logic. An ethic of our culture the logic and ethic of commerce there just being smart business people doing what they've been raised to do the banality of evil and iran's words terribly and terrifyingly normal and then there's the rest of us know not one of us in this room is evil or even close to evil and yet we are all semi knowingly participating in creating this global catastrophe most of us need and dairy products that require massive quantities of water. Fossil fuels and pesticides destroy forests and jungles and their production most of us live and work in buildings that are burning fuel 24/7 for lights and computers and appliances heating and air conditioning most of us rely on product shipped shipped from far away made of plastic wrapped in plastic delivered in plastic bag forever. Most of us watch tv shows and hollywood movies whose production creates more air pollution than almost any other major industry. Most of us when using a public restroom blow dry your hands with paper towels made from trees and then throw them in the garbage where they end up in a landfill for all time. This is normal for our culture terribly and terrifyingly normal. I'm going to go watch a movie. Normal i'm going to order a pizza normal remember to pick up a crate of bottled water at costco for the picnic. Normal. Some of us try to not do some of these things i don't use paper towels for example i don't eat much made but i still participate in the system as a whole. And i accept the basic premise of what's okay in our culture. I just took one of those online quizzes to find out the carbon footprint of the way that i eat. And it was not good news. I personally generate the equivalent of 3 tons of co2 each year through my food choices. And i think of myself as somebody who makes a reasonable effort. The madness of the way that we live is largely invisible to us because it's simply the water that we swim in. It's hard to really believe that our been all day today activities are creating devastation it's hard to really imagine that a reasonable effort like the one that i and so many of us in this room make is just not going to get the job done here's a story that illustrates for even the best intentions of us to see the connection between what we do and the natural world this is actually from one of our members here just sasco. It was thanksgiving a few years ago her grandfather was cooking he is a great cook and famous especially for his stuffing he loves to talk about food and share recipes knowing that she is a vegetarian he told her that he had made a special vegetarian stuffing just for her no turkey and it and she told him how grateful she was that he had done this in the kitchen and she was a pot of vegetarian stuffing cooking on the stove. Here was a loving grandfather trying as absolutely hard as he could to meet the bewildering requests of his granddaughter. Enter him because of the culture he's been part of his whole life. Chicken is a substance. It's not a bird. It's a substance it's a flavor that's essential and cooking food for the people you love. And this is what makes this whole thing so hard the very things that we will need to change in order for this earth to be safe for our children and our children's children are things closest to us. Dearest to us. Most rooted in our warmest oldest traditions it will sometimes be the things that we buy and do to express love they will often be the things that make us feel successful and good about ourselves they will frequently be the things that help us feel normal. The changes we will need to make will not be sexy. Are dramatic for heroic or generally very much fun because the corresponding truth to hannah arendt banality of evil is the banality of good i don't believe as some do that political pressure alone will save us. I'm all in favor of participating in the climate march today but as long as we keep buying the products they will continue the amaze. I don't believe i some do the green technology alone will save us as long as we keep using energy the way we do now the problems will just pop up whack-a-mole style somewhere else. The banal inconvenient truth. Is it will save us is radically downsizing the way that we live. The things we will have to do will mainly until not doing things the greenest car is the one you don't drive. The greenest air conditioner is the one that's all. The greenest house is the one that's never felt. The incessant frenetic buzz of our world has to subside the earth has to be allowed. To rest. Here's a convenient truth we are in desperate need of some other context outside of the cultural waters that we swim in. Some other vision for the world that can equip us to make the hard changes. Well it just so happens conveniently. That we are sitting. In the exact place. The exact context that can get this to us. I don't mean just first you but progressive religious communities in general has the ability to combine ancient spiritual wisdom with art and poetry and the insides of today. To create full color three-dimensional visions of an alternative way. For humans to live on this earth. We are not beholden to modern culture in the same way that the commercial world is. We have the freedom here to imagine. Another way. Ecological consciousness it turns out is not new at all their long traditions of religions tried into this territory. Native american traditions paul for every decision to be made with consideration of the impact it will have seven generations out the torah calls for a year-long sabbath called the shmita year once every seven years during this year all year humans are to rest animals are to rest and the earth is to rest it says the land shall have a year of ceasing interesting lee the next shemitah year starts this wednesday. We are part of an interdependent web. This means that we depend on everything in it and everything and it depends on us. To be loving stewards of our earth is to be loving shapers of our own destiny. It is in the words of one of our dharma flags printed in your order of service. To live and thrive in balance with nature. From a spiritual perspective scaling back our lifestyle is not a deprivation it's an opportunity. Eating less meat and more vegetables so good for the earth turns out to be good for our bodies to. It's healthy for us to walk more bike more connect with our local communities watch left tv. It's kind of fun to make all the list of things that we can do that don't extract anything from the earth having conversations going for walks. Having sex assuming you don't create any more humans in the process reading or used book playing acoustic instruments playing pickup soccer with an old ball. You'll notice the most of these things actually connect us more closely with other people. Fall at the same time shifting our culture to create a more sustainable world. These are going to need to become the staples of our lives. Some people believe that it's already too late to save the earth from devastation. We've already gone too far i'm not one of them call me a pollyanna optimist but i believe passionately in our power to change to change our culture to change what's normal to embrace the banality of good and heal our relationship with the earth but it has to be now the can't wait another year another month another day started with today's climate march and in the years to come we need to begin making profound changes this is our moment it has to be now in the words of one of the organizers of the march to stand with each other to stand for the sacred dignity of living things the awesome beauty of a diverse and evolving world and the power of collective life-affirming intent. Please rise in body or spirit for our final him turn the world around the lyrics are printed in your order of service.

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New-York-Values.m4a

In 1939 a guy living here on state street in brooklyn heights open up the basement of his brownstone to a group of yemeni muslims. Back in those days one of the sailors who worked on the cargo ships that came and docked here on the brooklyn waterfront were from yemen here working on one ship and then often be stranded here in brooklyn for months while they waited to be able to make the return trip. On a different ship. In the meantime they had nowhere to go to pray together. So. This man made his basement available for them for their worship and they gathered there for services. This became the very first ma in the united states and it's still there thriving congregations today. New york values. Are these the kind of values that ted cruz had in mind when he said that donald trump embodied them or what trump had in mind when he said that he agreed inviting undocumented working-class muslims into ones brownstone i doubt it and yet. Who gets to decide what new york values are. Who gets to decide if they even exist. Who gets to decide what new york is all about. When cruz made his comments during the debate in south carolina if he said. You know i think most people know exactly what new york values are the moderator. Maria bartiromo said i'm from new york i don't you cruise job back so you might not but i promise you in the state of south carolina they do later he said the concept of new york values. It's not that complicated to figure out. Not that. Complicated. When did it become okay to do that. When did it become okay to look at another a person in this case a city and say. You're not that complicated to figure out i have your number i can let out in 30 seconds but it has taken you a lifetime to become. And it's not just politicians who do this we all do it novelist lawrence hill says when it comes to understanding others we rarely tax our imaginations. He's right we don't want to have to work very hard to imagine the internal world of somebody very different from us. We don't want to have to make room in our hearts for an other. Especially if what they're saying. Or how they look. Or what they eat or what they think is threatening to us. So we met it out we flatten them out. We here in this room probably have all kinds of assumptions about those bundy militia guys who are holed up in a wildlife refuge in oregon right now we don't tax our imaginations to try to really understand them. Some of us probably lump them together with all of the white fox news watching fast food eating right-wingers in the flyover states. The ones that you inconveniently have to fly over when you go back and forth between the only two places that matter and you know exactly which two i'm talking about. The new yorkers of all people particularly defy being flattened out in this way. I'm figuring out new york values is especially complicated because for people and four cities values are not something that you kind of decide on at the beginning of your life and then fly out of values are revealed over time in the lives that we lead new york city. Of immigrants built initially by people who arrived at ellis island from all over the world usually poor and focused on survival. Former slaves later moved up from the south also struggling to build a life in this new world. All these various people. Ancestors to some of us in this room. Probably weren't thinking much about new york values. Except insofar as they either wanted to keep or get rid of their own cultural or religious values. They found places to live families crammed into tiny tenements. The italians over here in the polls over there and the jews over there. And they found ways to scrape out a living. Starting small businesses with next to nothing working for pennies. Always hustling. And everyone knew that everyone else was just doing the same thing maybe speaking a different language maybe worshiping in some weird way but doing the same thing just trying to get by. And we all learned to live together. Side-by-side in a small space. Today you can say that new york city is a bigger richer version of the same thing in 1643 at least eighteen languages were spoken among the city's 500 inhabitants. Today there are about 800 languages spoken among nearly 8.5 million people. Honestly i didn't even know there were 800 languages. New york is known for its extraordinary diversity and for its tolerance of diversity. Like most cities we also have devastating and equality we have violence against people of color we are far from me promised land of multiculturalism. And you could also say that are famous tolerance is a grudging tolerance that comes from necessity rather than a conscious ideal. But as jordan prada writing for al jazeera america puts it. That's hollerin's is still something to be proud of. Do what you want live how you want be how you want just let me make a living isn't the worst outlook to have on life here right. Just ask pizza wrap. A friend of mine who lives in queens told me a story when afternoon. Recently when he was sitting around a table with a bunch of his neighbors. They come together to try to work out some complicated air rights deal on their block there was a little tension in the room everybody was a little bit guarded worried about getting cheated before they started my friend called a timeout he looked around the room at his neighbors. And said do you know this is really a beautiful thing. I'm a tenth-generation new yorker my ancestors literally came over here on the mayflower. An enzo you're from italy write moved here when you were a kid. And. Alexis your greek yeah my parents emigrated in the thirties and emmanuel port-au-prince haiti. Rajvir i know you're from pakistan and your wife is still there. A youtuber russian but i'll from the same part no i'm from novosibirsk and he's from moscow my friend said isn't this a perfect new york thing. They're all neighbors on the same block in queens. Small over the world and we're sitting here trying now to work this thing out together. If anything is new york new york. End. With any one of them sitting around that table because of some ideal of multiculturalism and a value of everybody deserving a seat at the table. Of course not. They were there as homeowners on the same block we each wanted to hustle the best deal they couldn't get out of there. But the end result. Of the intersection of their individual interests. What's this beautiful little new york moments. And my friend's name that moment. Ameri smile. And recognition. And a little softening in the room. When the guy on state street in 1939 opened up his basement to the yemeni muslims it wasn't an idealistic act of charity he rented it to them probably for whatever pittance they could afford. And so he made a buck. And everybody scraped by but in the process they ended up founding the first mosque in the united states. New york moments. Individually they mean nothing. But collectively they shape this city. Take those moments. And multiply them over millions of people and millions of microtransactions everyday all-day across five boroughs. It's the fabric of a culture that is infinitely complex. Home depot. Enrich. It defies definition. It resists being flattened out and reduced. But collectively it does amount for something like. Values. It's at the very least and ethic. That says. Turn to make a living in this place we're all doing what we can to get by. If there's a blizzard sure i'll shovel some of your sidewalk to. And if your pregnant. I'll give you my seat on the subway. And yeah. If it world trade center comes crashing down. I'll risk my life for you. But the rest of the time on normal days leave me alone and let me make a book. And i'll leave you alone and let you make a buck. But that's new york values but i for one am proud to be a new yorker please rise and body or spirit for our final him number 318 we would be one.

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God-as-Connector.m4a

When asked about my relationship to technology i give the same answer i give to the question of how unitarian-universalist can be religiously pluralistic. I say it's complicated. I personally personally believe that if anyone can live in the place of complexity its unitarian universalist. Because we could have both an undecorated soon-to-be christmas tree and a menorah on the same chancel at the same time if anyone can live with multiple things existing together we can that is how i think about technology. Well acknowledged that technology can be problematic it is also something that has served me well technology has given me three big things that impact my daily life. My wife and i met online in a dating platform called tangowire. Without it we would have never met because we lived in different cities and we have very different interest. Our paths would have never crossed without single wire s we have a dog lady who i am madly madly in love with and we found her on facebook a friend of mine is a volunteer at an animal shelter where we lived in greensboro north carolina one day she posted pictures of letty on facebook and i knew instantly that we were going to adopt her. And this thing that my life revolves around the entire reason we moved to manhattan is to attend union theological seminary. Which i found out about through facebook friend i've only met in person once actually in passing. I would not change a single one of these things. I am incredibly grateful for my wife my dog and i know for sure that attendant union absolutely is the right decision for me. To move from the digital world to the physical world action is required. In order for my wife and i to be together we had to move from the platform for connection tangowire to meeting in person. We agreed to meet for lunch and see what would happen in the space between digital meeting. And meeting in person it is very easy to make up stories about other people when we met we were able to move beyond our projections to the reality of who we are is people to adopt letting. We went to the shelter in person with our other dog at the time george. To meet her and see if they would get along we met virtually but there is no virtual replacement for a dog insisting on going for a walk playing with all the squeaky toys and cuddling up with you in bed in the middle of the night and i could admire union theological seminary all i wanted from several states away. But to gain clarity if it was the right seminary for me. I came for an in-person visit in october 2015. Union offers a few online courses. But to complete the master in divinity students have to be physically present on campus. There is no substitute for the time spent with professors and seminary colleagues. Technology is a way to find a connection but we get in trouble when we think that the technology is the connection itself. Tango wire was not the relationship it was merely a means to meet others. Facebook facilitated a connection between volunteers at the shelter and the outside world having no idea who would end up adopting letty i am forever grateful for both of these platforms despite all the problems that they have i can live in the nuance place of yes online dating can lead to problems because there is no social network of people around you who can help vet potential. And at the same time knowing that this did work for me and michelle i believe whatever the b the platform is whatever the mechanism eating mechanism that you still have to use thoughtfulness and awareness without facebook which is much maligned for good reasons. I wouldn't have my dog lay. And i'm sure i wouldn't be standing here now clearly my relationship with technology is complex. I am not willing to throw it out just because it has some issues. However that doesn't mean it shouldn't be examined. So far i have used examples of when technology served me well in my life. But let me tell you about a time when it didn't. In july 2013 my mother had a very serious heart attack i was living in greensboro north carolina she lives in huntsville alabama i went down there and spent a couple of weeks with her while she was in the hospital and she was in a medically-induced coma. In my family the role i feel is the older responsible daughter i'm guessing some of you might be able to relate to that role. Because i was getting inundated with calls and text messages from my extended family i used a website called caringbridge to write journal entries on my mother's latest status so that everyone could get all the information simultaneously. An interesting thing happened during this time although in my extended family i'm an outcast because i'm a lesbian and i choose to be part of this religion that they do not understand. When my mother had a heart attack my family members turn to me. To keep everyone updated on her condition all of a sudden i filled a need that they had. Because i'm a good communicator. And while i was in the role of reporter. They loved me. They were thrilled that i was keeping them updated. What i noticed about myself over the course of my mother's hospitalization with that i started to have hope. That this electronic reporting was going to change my relationship with them. I begin to carry justice tiny bit of a thought it says maybe now maybe now they'll see that i'm not so bad. I'm an ordinary person just like anybody else. Maybe now they will change their minds about me you can see where this is going for the caringbridge website did not change our relationship 1iota i lost sight. Of the reality that caringbridge was just a platform for communication. Not the relationship itself. This was disappointing. And i still carry some sadness about this. Thinking about the complexities of our relationship to technology. In preparation for the sermon had me paying particular attention to how we use technology in our daily lives. I began looking for the ways we use technology as the relationship itself. Instead of a way to be in relationship and maintaining connections with others in our lives. For example in my observations of commercials for google home around device that people can talk to to get information to play music stimuli get whatever kind of information they need. I see a similar need. That i had in my use of the caringbridge website for human connection and even validation. We all know on an intellectual level. That this device does not connect to a human anywhere and yet i'm going to hypothesize. That for many people. Getting a voice response back to your question makes you feel like on some level. That you've interacted with a human. To be clear i am not knocking this we humans have always had this need for human connection. My undergraduate degree is in history and political science. And the biggest lesson i got from all my studies. Is that humans are the same. Across time culture religion language. What has changed is how we reach out to each other and make connections. Google home is just one current way of seeking connection with others. Another older example some of you might remember depending on where you lived in this country is this thing called the time and temperature phone number that people used to call to hear a recording. Bested what time it was in the current temperature where they were. I read an article about this service recently and i also grew up with this number. And i was absolutely fascinated by the comments people were saying that as children that was one of the few numbers that they were allowed to call unsupervised and several folks said they call that number just to hear a human voice. Even though they knew there wasn't an actual person on the other side of the phone line. As the writer of ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the sun. What isn't new but it is countercultural. Is being aware of why we are using our devices or a systems from a spiritual perspective i'm going to challenge you to pay attention. To how you are feeling when you use your devices. An article in the new york times recently talked about the rise of loneliness in our country and the world and the difficulties we are having and maintaining relationships. When i was serving as a chaplain this summer my supervisor encouraged us to notice how we are feeling in our bodies to inform us how to be with other people. When we are paying attention to how we are feeling when we are noticing how we are feeling without judgement. Just noticing. We can become aware of when we are feeling lonely and then think about what we actually need to address that feeling of loneliness. When i guess there are many feelings happening right here right now some of you are happy some of you are sad i'm guessing some of you are lonely. When you are lonely and you are aware that you're experiencing loneliness we're not always aware. Can you ask yourself what it is you need in that moment. Can you think about what kind of interaction with other people you need. And can you learn to ask for what it is that you need. I know this is challenging it's very hard word. But it also it is also brave and courageous it will bring you into a new relationship and awareness with yourself. Others. And maybe even god just maybe who knows i believe that the divine is in that moment. A stepping into the scary place of not knowing. Of actually feeling our feelings instead of masking them with a devices or social media platform. That are merely a way of connecting. The divine the place of depth of feelings is a place of connection between myself and others. When i can get in touch. With that place of all wonder and curiosity. That place of inherent worth and dignity within myself i can be better connected. To what it is i actually need. And more open. To the people in my world including each of you. Here at first unitarian one of the things we talked about is creating a countercultural community i have been wondering about this a lot since beginning my internship here i've wondered how in the world we can create a countercultural community when clearly we do not live together the other day i was reading and by reading i mean listening on audible. I won't go into all the details but i will say that it's about a community that is figuring out how to be together across many differences this line jumped out at me and has me transfixed it is no small thing to commit to other people. Think about that for a second. It is no small thing to commit to other people. In this religious community. When you join. When you sign the membership book. You are committing to other people. On the caring ministries teams we are working together to think systematically about how we can build intentional community what does that actually look like. We are thinking about what it actually means to be committed to other people we are working on paying attention to the congregation as a whole noticing patterns within the system. While doing what we can to support individuals. We are working towards being better connected. To each other. Sometimes. That might involve technology. Such as using google maps. But most of the time. It's about paying attention. We have a member of the cary ministries team in the chapel of all face after the service every sunday. We have an email address where you can use to contact us which is in your order of service. And we are creating events that will increase connections among congregate our congregation. In addition if you didn't know this congregation has a minister's discretionary fund. Which is there to help people in financial need. We are literally here for you. Whether you reach out to a staff member or a member of the caring ministry team via technology or in person. We are here for you. As you move forward into your week. As you think about what living a countercultural life. Might look like for you. I encourage you to be ever more present and aware to pay attention. I encourage you to find moments of all. Curiosity and wonder. And allow herself to linger in those moments. Just a little bit longer each time. And when you are using your devices. Whatever they are. Try to remember. They are not the relationship itself. Maybe live countercultural lies both as individuals and as community and may we find a divine in our connection. Let's turn to our we have a inserts with our song which is turn the world around.

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Well-And-Good-In-Practice-But-How-Does-It-Work-In-Theory.m4a

Some people think that mystics are a little bit out to lunch they walk around with their head in the clouds thinking they're big sauce communing with the infinite and falling into potholes or worse their self-absorbed. Contemplating your navel instead of taking responsibility for anything or anyone else. But according to lawrence kushner in a krista tippett interview. A mystic is anyone with a gnawing suspicion. That the apparent dischord brokenness contradictions and discontinuities that assault us everyday. Might conceal a hidden immunity. In other words a mystic is pretty much all of us. All of us i think at least in our best moments suspect that underneath all of the blue stayed red-state black-white religious-secular climate change denier greenpeace activist we are all made of the same stuff. And science of course bears this out we're all made of atoms loosely and temporarily assembled into what we generally think of as us. Does luke find out if you look closely enough. Those atoms are pretty much indistinguishable from the atoms around them. Everyone and everything is made of the same. Stuff. And so if you notice if you feel it if you as lawrence kushner puts it have a 9 suspicion of it then you are a mystic. Most of us probably have had experiences in our lives where we have felt a union with everything. Where we saw that all of our divisions were imaginary. Maybe it was walking in a forest or swimming in the ocean maybe it was a moment of romance or passion. Maybe it was listening to music or losing our self and dance. Maybe it was a group experience. A protest a concert. A worship service. Maybe it was prayer. For meditation. What did you take a moment this is this is maybe part 2 of luke's exercise take a moment to remember a time. When we felt ourselves lost in the infinite. Pull up any sense memories any smells or sounds where were you. How does it feel. We can have this. Flash of experience of oneness. But then it doesn't really fit with our regular lives and so in fairly short order we roll it up and kind of put it in a pocket. And we compartmentalize it. We may take it out once in awhile in a moment of nostalgia like we just did and kind of turned it around and look at it but basically. It lives in our memory and its own dimension it doesn't have much bearing on our day-to-day lives. And meanwhile all of the divisions that we know on some level to be artificial continue to drive our behavior and our culture and our politics. And create suffering for humans and other living beings. Race in this country is an example of how this works until recently it was widely believed that race was a biological predictor of all kinds of trace mainly negative traits for people of color that justified discrimination and violence this is still believe in many circles today but on the level of biology research has shown that if you know the color of a person's skin that doesn't tell you anything else about them. It doesn't tell you anything about their intelligence or athletic ability or gift or weaknesses or physical strength or pain tolerance nothing. Biologically speaking race is imaginary it goes back to that mystical knowledge we are all made of the same stuff. And even though that knowledge has been part of every mystical tradition there ever was. Luke listed some of them even though science confirms it without a doubt this world puts that knowledge in its pocket and compartmentalize with it and race has become absolutely real. The meanings we project onto skin color become part of a history of violence and trauma that makes skin color actually a predictor for all kinds of things for the person and have it in that skin. Income education likelihood of imprisonment. Job opportunities mental health feelings of inclusion and exclusion lifespan even infant survival rate. The constructed category of race. Has become a matter of life and death. The political left in this country has deeply felt social justice commitments especially since the 2016 election we've been busy resisting and protesting advocating for laws to change naming racism and sexism when they see it toppling powerful rich white men from their heights raging on social media but the left in general assiduously avoid any mention of religion or mysticism in that work. Religion is supposedly the domain of conservatives mysticism is a private interior matter. That's secret memory that we keep in our back pocket what is that stuff has to do with politics and social justice. I would say it has everything to do with politics and social justice because religious experience. Particularly the mystical experience that we. Belts that we've remembered is an experience of ultimate truth. And we are trying to coax our political reality. Into mirroring that ultimate truth. The truth of unified spirit spirit that we have experience with awe and joy. Evan turner tried to take that mystical knowledge of the nature of the universe and give it life here in our world. Many religious teachers and traditions have taught of the inescapable connection between spirituality and politics i spoke a few weeks ago about the giving of the commandments the ten commandments on mount sinai as a mystical revelation. The game people and experience of oneness that then precipitated out into a series of ethical and political teachings. Rabbi lawrence kushner in that krista tippett interviews said that all of the important jewish ethical teachers from the middle ages were kabbalistic mystics explained that this shouldn't be that surprising because as he put it you don't have an experience that is unitive in which you feel yourself dissolve into the divine all and then emerge from that wanting to rip someone off your immediate desire is to show them how to get there with you meister eckhart and other christian teachers have taught versions of the same concept. And mahatma gandhi spoke about spirituality as the basis for social change he encouraged his followers to pursue a life of simplicity. And devotion preparing themselves to wield such agrahara truth force and their social justice were heroes truth. Meaning. Spiritual truth with a capital t has drawn me into the field of politics. And i can say without the slightest hesitation that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means. I personally cherish these teaching that we must ground our public action in our religion and spirituality in order for those actions. To have moral authority consistency and power. Without cultivating that connection in our lives. We're a little bit limp. And our work. We can have a feeling of union with nature on a beautiful spring day in a field but then come by and come back and buy plastic bags and water bottles without even thinking about it. A white congregant canfield sibling love for all of humanity at a concert and then come back and say something racially insensitive here at first you without even realizing it. Religious community can help us to dig the groove of connection between private spirituality and public action together we walk that path back and forth and back and forth and the groove gets deeper and deeper on the issue of race this is exactly what we're trying to do here when we talked about systemic racism in the world at first you and in our own hearts. We're trying to draw and redraw the lines between the unity and love that we aspire to and the day-to-day reality we participated in through our words and actions. In the fall we held discussions about three books that had to do with race and racism i learned a lot from eating them and a lot of other people seem to appreciate them as well so we're going to do it again next year we'll let you know the reading list soon and we're very open to suggestions this year we also launched a program called beloved conversations that was led by megan henry and kevin jago san miguel they talked about this program last week or the week before in her testimonial it's a way for small groups within a congregation to have honest and deep conversations about racism as it shows up in their own lives in the congregation and beyond. We're hoping to run this program again next year so if you're interested in learning more you can sign up at the welcome table downstairs or talk to megan after the service. Peter baby steps toward becoming an anti-racist congregation the we are slowly slowly digging that groove deeper between our spiritual ideals. And our actions. My alma mater prince a t-shirt which i proudly wear that says. That's all well and good in practice but how does it work in theory it's an inversion of the usual thing the one that's narkali suggest that practice is everything and that theory is impractical and extraneous but when viewed through a religious lens practice only makes sense and only has weight and can only be sustained if it done in the context of theory of vision our overarching ideal of how the world ought to be. Or even a revelation. About how it's actually is. It's a vision of unity where all of the constructed categories and divisions disappear and we're all cradle. In the infinite. It's at this vision held by the mystics and buy each one of us in our own hearts. In those secret places of memory they will give us the template to build the world of which we dream. Please rise and body or spirit for our final him number 15 the lone wild bird.

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Arise-All-Women.m4a

Commercialism of mother's day i do have often thought of it as another hallmark holiday for some of us the anxiety bills and bills as the date comes closer and we think this year. I don't know about you. Other moms out there but i just treasure those handmade cards and know that i received over the years from my daughter. For some however this is an especially sad day for many reasons. Death or distance keeping mother-and-child apart. And to be perfectly honest many of us have a very complicated relationships with our mothers put to ignore your mother on this special day is unsinkable and if you are a mother and you'll be devastated if your children neglect to recognize you on this one day of the year. Mother's day wasn't always like this the women who conceived mother's day would be bewildered if not. Dismayed by the widespread advertisements that fresher us to find that perfect gift for mom they would be surprised by this holiday celebrating the mother's selfless devotion to her family or her ability to juggle her perfect family and her perfect career at the same time they would be shocked at the idea of giving diamonds as a mother's day gift. When we all know full well he's come at the cost of many lives. They would expect women to be marching in the streets not enjoying a spa day because mother's day began as a holiday that commemorated women's public activism and as you just heard in the story that james told julia ward howe a unitarian abolitionist and suffragist who wrote the battle hymn of the republic proposed an annual mother's day for peace. Committed to abolishing war julia wrote in her mother's day proclamation which you can find in the back of the gray hymnal. She wrote our husband shall not come to us reeking with carnage our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to ensure there's. For the next 30 years americans celebrated mother's day for peace on june 2nd. Many educated middle-class women of the 19th century believe that they bore a special responsibility as actual or potential mothers to care for the casualties of society and to turn america into a more civilized nation. They played a leading role in the abolitionist movement to end slavery. They launched successful campaigns against consumer fraud. And battled for improved working conditions for women and for protection for children. Public health services and welfare assistance to the poor. These women activist the connection between motherhood and the fight for social and economic justice was clear and as such they flipped their role. From the home and private two out in the public and on the streets. Fast forward 30 years. The same time that alice duvall with teaching religious education here at first unitarian and congress declared the second sunday in may to be mother's day. By then the growing consumer culture had successfully redefined women as consumers for their families. As the florist review which was the leading floral journal of a time bluntly put it quotes. This for the holiday that could be exploited. The new advertising industry quickly taught americans how to honor their mothers by buying flowers. Outraged by flores who are selling carnations for the exorbitant price of $1 each one women activists undertook a campaign against those who as she said would undermine mother's day with their greed. But she fought a losing battle. Within a few years the florist review triumphantly announced that it was she who has been completely squelched since then mother's day has ballooned into a billion-dollar industry. We know it's not just. It's all the other holidays to. But this is important because this was a day that was created for women. Speak out. American. May revere. The idea of motherhood. And love their own mothers. But not all mothers for unemployed and working mothers certainly enjoy flowers but they also need childcare they need job training healthcare higher minimum wage and paid parental leave they need access to birth control the kind of government assistance provided by every other industrialized society so i say. Let's restore mother's day as a holiday that celebrates mother is engaging in political activism during the 1980s there was some peace groups that did this taste gathered at nuclear test sites on mother's day to protest the arms race some of you may remember this while i'm not willing to say that nuclear missiles and other weapons of war are no longer a threat i will say that right now. In our time and our city our greatest threats are the results of institutionalized racism and a widening class-divided as we watch the protest in baltimore we are reminded that's so many black mothers mourn the death of their children to police brutality. And we read in the news. Mothers who mourn the death of their children 22. Violence that they receive at because they are on the police force we are caught in a terrible cycle of violence we're beginning to see some changes in the way we think of mother's day people are talking about it radical roots on social media yesterday there was a million mom marks in the nation's capitol to protest police violence imagine a mother's day filled with voices demanding social and economic justice and sustainable future. I know that some will be offended by the tape by ideas of changes to our current way of celebrating mother's day. But public activism does not preclude private expressions of love and gratitude i don't want to take away your brunch or your flowers right but that doesn't mean that's all we can do more let's not allow mother's day to reside back and be pushed back into the home back into the private consider this where that we can take out into the world. Women before us work tirelessly and sacrificed much to effect positive social change. And we benefit we benefit from their activism everyday so do our children and our grandchildren commercialism materialism. And patriarchal power structure took mother's day away from us and made it a day of pampering and leisure. Instead of a day of empowerment. 19th century women dared to dream of a day that honored woman's civic active. Let us honor their vision. With civic activism with rallies in the streets. Let us honor their vision by advocating for true social change. Let us stand up for an end to violence in our streets. And in our schools. And in our jail. Let us stand up for all the children of the world. Andaman peace. Aladdin.