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1.13.19_Dismantling_and_Transformation.mp3

The us expat writer hilda doolittle. Hd. Lived in london during world war ii. There she experienced the frightful nightly bombing by the nazi luftwaffe. Before the war ended she had already published a series of poems reflecting on that destruction titled the walls. Do not fall. It's an odd linguistically imaginative compelling collection melding her experiences in london with our trip in the 1920s. Egypt. In the opening poem as if on a walking tour of london's the devastation she compares it's rubble. To the egyptian ruins. There as here ruin opens the tomb. The temple. Enter there as here there are no doors. The shrine lies open to the sky the rain falls here they are sam's with eternity indoors ruin. Every. And yet the walls do not fall is no mournful lament. It is in a somewhat oblique way. Hopeful. It's there in hd very next lines ruin everywhere yeah. As the fallen roof. Leave the sealed room open to the air. So through our desolation. Easter. Inspiration.. Through. Tulum. Hd poetic reflection could sound insensitive ignoring the immense loss of life deep psychological trauma and widespread property damage in. Endured by londoners. After all who scams the mangled remains of phones. Businesses places of worship and then celebrates the fallen ruse. For the opportunity they offered to let fresh air into the sealed spaces. What kind of inspiration is it that stalks us through gloom. To seeing destruction. Imagines. Creation. Actually. It's a common thing. Showing up among other writers are just spiritual traditions and natural observations. Anahi snail in her journals says it explicitly. I turn destruction into creation over and over again. Mitchell found it necessary whoever must be a creator. Must first be. And annihilate. Popular contemporary chinese artist and activist hi weiwei. Is famous for a series of three photographs called dropping a pain dynasty urn. David is he releases. A 2000-year old ceremonial urn. And allows it to shatter on the floor. At his feet. Indirect respective of his words a quote of his appeared asserting. We can discover new. Possibilities. From the process. Dismantling. And she wants that for century bce taoist observed when you break something up. You create things. When you create something. You destroy it. How many of you think of yourselves as gardeners. Some. Imagine you discover among cultivated flowers shrubs or vegetable and invasive species. Kudzu ivy common weeds. What do you do. Water it. Surrounded with mulch. Carefully prudent. Well i assure you that you absolutely do not want me as your source for horticultural wisdom i do recall many walkthrough my grandfather's sizeable garden plot. A veritable garden of eden. Speaking with fruits and vegetable. Open. Dictionary. His hope. Always on the ready. The dig up and extract any unwanted plant that was threatening this tomatoes beans. Corn or cantaloupe. He wasn't in that attacked both destroyer. And created. The bringer of destruction and of abundant life it was what we saying earlier based on words of wisdom from hebrew scripture a time to plant. A time to reap. A time to kill. Desiree adaway is a nashville-based consultant. Trainer coach and speaker building she says brasilia equitable and inclusive organization. In words we heard earlier she right. We are born into a social system. Which teaches us to accept things as they are. We rewarded for accepting things as they are ripping graduated for accepting things as they are we become model members of society when we accept things as they are. And just how are. Things. Adaway offers a grim assessment. Oppression. Is the norm. Not the exception. Justice. Is the exception. Not the norm. Adaway doesn't indulge the historical amnesia. Some now use in their claim that the election results of 2016 somehow completely altered the course of the nation. The institution systems of this country are not broken. She asserts boldly. They are doing exactly what they are meant to be doing. The past couple of years members of this congregation have been reflecting deeply on our nation's history. We are discovering. Desiree adaway is right. Oppression is not the injustice is not luke's they wherever the exception there was no golden when are high ideals. Where the norm. Patriarchy sexism misogyny these were under written by the culture and constitution of this nation. Celebrated founding fathers express a shocking kind of xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment that would be right at home. In today's dysfunctionally unfunded government. Economic injustice arrived in jamestown. And became a guiding norm for the new nation. Heteronormativity with its accompanying homophobia and transphobia shows up with that first boatload of puritan invaders. Religious exclusivity was enshrined in many aspects of our culture well before we became an independent. And of course. Racial injustice. The oppression of black and brown people found unique expression on these shores. Where the whole notion of race itself. Was created. Here. In defense of that oppression. It found its most articulate spokespeople among some who are still being defended. Because. They were less egregious they were more but nine and their claims. They have the right to own. Oppression has been the norm not the except. Justice has been the exception not the norm. The system has work and it is working just as it was intended socially engineering things to offer the greatest benefit the greatest privileges for white straight men of means. Thank you very much. The systems of this country are not broke. Dave stewart still doing. Exactly. What they were meant to be doing. So write desiree attaway. They don't need to be fixed. They don't need to be fixed assistance to institutions this country they don't need to be said. They need to be dismantled. Taking apart. Under. Destroyed. So that in their place. They can be. Anouk. Scott kaiser offers an intriguing diagnosis with human condition are most serious difficulties with being creative. Are not a result of deficiencies in imagination. Nor are they principally due to apathy or indifference. The ultimate problem lies elsewhere be right we don't want to destroy. We don't want to participate in destruction. Any continues because we will not destroy. We are unable to create. Because we are unwilling to become destroyers we cannot become create ores one could in fact say that we aren't there to imagine new possibilities and realities as doing so inherently destroyed. I cherished but limiting actuality. Apathy and indifference kaiserreich apathy and indifference may just be and insidiously clever disguise. To escape the call. To create. By destroying. When i would leave my little peach colored shotgun double home on a modest block of annunciation street in new orleans. The go to either the central business district or onto the french quarter of few blocks of marengo. Turn right on the saint charles avenue and take it all the way into lee circle. Lee. I learned that landmark early in my time living there i know it was a grand round about the meeting place of major streets marked by a very large figure on a very high pedestal but i never really gave it much thought. I'd heard the stories about the massive figure of robert easley a taught that pedestal about his defiant arms crossed north-facing stance. Really. Who cared. Melissa. Some people did care. One such person was jazz great wynton marsalis his great-uncle alphonse event born in 1883 within marsalis live briefly as a young boy. He'd heard is uncle express often how much he did test. That statue of robert bailey. And all that it stood for. Finally not very long ago wynton marsalis asked them mayor mitch landrieu to consider removing the statue. Landrieu reflected on it. And what you concluded was it the whole statue. What's it like. Robert healy was used as it as an example he said december message to the rest of the country and to all the people that lived here in new orleans that the confederacy was a noble cause. Damn. That's just not true. Landrieu didn't send armed guards. Did the film the racist statues. Landrieu didn't create a bloated budget to avoid it being damaged. Landrieu didn't propose enshrining it in some brand-new edifice. Instead he arranged for a train. To come and hoist the 16 and a half foot statue off of its 68-foot pedestal where it had stood for 133 years. Removing any tire lady dismantled. When i was back in new orleans a couple of years ago i made a special point to walk over delete circle. What a powerful. Symbolic. There in that circle stands a 68 ft tall pedestal. With nothing on top of it. Is it. Hd with say it's open to the sky. It's an opportunity. For inspiration. The worker true societal transformation. Is impeded. Oh. Always mp3. Mothers who defend the indefensible. To avoid the work of dismantling. The work of true societal transformation is impeded always. By those who are out of fear. Continue to defend. Lost car. The great nobel prize-winning bengali writer rabindranath tagore. In a long poem exclaiming the hindu deity rama. Vishnu and shiva praise. Give us new. Forum. Sing our destruction. That wii game. New life. That's a critical component of true transformation. It's sometimes only out of the complete end of the old. Can come the birth. Of the news. That only out of destruction. Income creation. The only other dismantling. Make inspiration stock. So that we gain. New. May that be our prayer. Our work. Our hope. May we hear relinquish. Defensive. And denial. So that a change. May truly.

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1.7.18_failing_and_flying.mp3

Mid-april 1452 day in the tuscan hills. The son was born to a 15 year old orphan girl who had been seduced. By a wealthy lawyer. Unable to take his father's name he would instead be forever identified. By the small town where he was born. Thus he became. Leonardo. Da vinci. The years ago on an utterly miserable october de chile blustery sheets of rain falling relentlessly. The three members of our family we're the only passengers on a bus making its way from impoli up into the hills to the picturesque village. Givenchy. Not long after we arrived strong gales part of the ominous roiling sky and the valley below open. Into a stunning scene. Of shimmering light. Filtered through the clouds. We viewed the scene from the high-perch of the contiguity castle terrorist. An opposing structure begun in the 12th century. The mail houses the leonardo davinci museum. From this lofty local precipice one can more easily imagine that renaissance genius. Carefully. Enviously observing birds in flight. Writing and illustrating his codex of the birds. And creating multiple mock-ups of this famous. Flying machines models of which hung in the gallery just inside the castle tower behind us. How he wondered. How is it. That birds are able. Comply. And. How might technology. Enable us. To join them. The same aspirations to fly like the birds appear across time and cultures the prodigious. Persian poem. Chinami. Includes the tale of the mystical mythological shah cake avis. From the millennia and a half before the common era. According to the long epic. Caymus had a flying craft. Consisting of a throne. With attached. Polls. To which specially-trained eagles were tethered. Atop his wood and gold lying prone to flu. All. The way. It's china. Children's book author virginia hamilton. Crafted a magnificent book. From a slave narrative of liquid lucretia hayward. From saint helena island south carolina that begins. They say. The people. Could fly. Take that long ago in africa some of the people new match. And they would walk up on the air like they were climbing up on a gate and they flew like blackbirds over the fields. Similarly fantastic tales were told among the incas in ancient peru. A particular figures in azerbaijan and java. Are the emperor shun in china who used to oversized hats to fly. And even an imaginative tale of alexander the great. Harnessing hungry griffin's two poles attached to his throne. Enabling him. The fly. Imaginative depictions of humans flying like birds have taken the more recent forms of superheroes and super heroines. Those under the spell of one lord voldemort. Or for those of a considerably earlier generation. In the exploits of a certain flying. None. Perhaps no such tell has captured the western imagination quite like that of daedalus. And icarus. Imprisoned on crete barred from a land or sea escape daedalus trastos utterly remarkable wings. Prepare for himself. And a pair for his son icarus. Confirming that they did indeed enable him to hover in the air. Defended his son while instructing him on a safe. Flight path. Along the middle way. How many artists have captured those intimate moments. Be inventive. Father. Kimberly attaching the beautiful wings on his son. So that they might at long last. Fly free. They are as the story is itself poignant. So human eyes. But of course this tale soon takes a tragic twist. Humans attempting to fly like the birds then. One plunges to his death. Leaving the other breath. An inconsolable grief. This singing shows up in many artistic images as well the boy at humble. Flailing. Falling. A disastrous catastrophe in the making often head-over-heels icarus is in these images so clearly on his way to his watery grave. Is it a classic greek cautionary tale 1 warning against human. Hubris. Is it a reminder that we'd best note and keep our place in the order of things. Is it a warning intended to dissuade any others who might share that same foolish aspiration. To fly. I recently reconnected with poet. Jack gilbert's delightful twist a reading that calls out the obvious though often overlooked. Andre frames the meaning. Gilbert begins his poem entitled failing and flying with the statement. Everyone forgets that icarus. Also. Lose. Everyone forgets icarus. Awesome. Blue. Challenging us to rethink judgments declaring something anything. A failure. Gilbert ends with an affirmation. I believe icarus was not failing. As he flew. But just. Coming. To the end. Of his triumph. I love that too. Reframing that redeeming of this tale i believe in christmas not failing. Elsie. Fail. But just. Coming to the end of his triumph. Henry david thoreau's first published book was. Not walden. It was entitled a week on the concord and meramec rivers. It had such. Poor sales. That the publisher had to return more than 700 of the initial thousand copies that were printed to thoreau. With unmistakable discouragement. Thoreau famously informed his journal. I now have a library of nearly nine. Hundred volume. Over. 700 of which i wrote myself. He was. A failure. Likely convinced he'd make no lasting literary contributions. Whatever made farro. Think you could fly. He missed / 12. Thousand shots in his career. In fact in the history of professional basketball only five men if ever missed more. P lost over 300. Games. By his own account. On 26 different occasions he took a shot that would win the game. And missed. What ever made michael jordan. Think he could fly. Her book was rejected 12. X. One editor did so with breathtaking condescension urging her to visit a bookstore or amazon for him. To consult the writers. Hymn book. To consider joining a writing group. Where she could get helpful critique. Whatever made jk rowling think she could fly. Powerful abolitionist suffragists speaker and author francis. Ellen watkins harper. The child of free african american parents in a frequenter of both african methodist episcopal and unitarian churches understood just how hard it is to fly. So she said in her 1875 address i do not promise you fair sailing and unclouded skies. But. She refused to allow unfavorable conditions for flying. To ground her hopes. Apparent failure. She answered. May hold in its rough shell. The germs of a 6s that will blossom in time. And bear fruit. Throughout eternity. Apparent. Failure. Anyone here. Know anything about that. Failed. Relationships. Failed. Careers. Failed parenting. Failed ambitions. Academic pursuits. Aspiration. Failure. Not yet a week into the new year failure to keep your resolution. Failure to live up to our high-value. Not. So. Fast. Declares frances ellen watkins harper so fast ecostar owen jordan and rowling. Not so fast with that judgment invites jack gilbert. Fail before flying. Some fly. Before falling. There are so many beautiful images of daedalus and icarus preparing. And so many tragic images of icarus. Plunging to his death. You know it's hard to find. Depictions of icarus. Flying. Where are the images of a young boy and his dad who are flying like birds through the air because before he was falling failing. Flying. Where might you. Where might we. Not just continue not just survive but actually. Fly. Begin to embody a truly on dacious vision. Begin to rethink the conclusion that you that we have failed. Where my face. Beard judging you. To fly. How might we as a faith community support one another. In our efforts the flag tear down my whole back. But encourage. Firm. Life isn't judged. On the basis of standardized testing. In fact nothing much. If anything in life. I just. Current trends to the contrary. Not much if anything in life is effectively assessed by means of standardized testing. So often creeping in a petty pace from day to day. It sure doesn't feel like we're flying. And it sure can feel too often like we're actually failing. Jack gilbert invites us to take the loan. Not to rush to judgment. Yet again the wise counsel of lucille clifton pertains you have to get past your own fear. You have to get past. Your figure. It's alright to be afraid she continues it's alright to be afraid but if you draw back from what frightens you then you may as well.. What clifton do was the opposite of faith. Is not doubt. The opposite of faith. Is fear. Maybe. Maybe this is the year for you to leap. Maybe this is the year for you to strap on your wings in chillum. Maybe there's some fear that has been holding you back. Maybe it's time to try again. The risk again to give up being cautious defensive combative. Or protective. And take a real run at some. Dream. You know what. In the end. We all fall. The mortality rate remains exactly the same as it was in the new year that david was pinning this ancient myth. No one. Gets out. Alive. We all fall. Along the way. Before falling. Why not. Why.

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9.23.18_Living_Our_Tradition.mp3

You may have noticed this week some of you that one of our members posted an article on are closed member facebook page. Called choosing a stubborn love why i returned to my mostly-white unitarian universalist congregation. Michael hornsby the author of the article. Shared the experience of discovering his congregation for the first time. He writes it seemed my family had found a spiritual home. And we wasted no time becoming active in congregational life. We scooped ice cream organized potluck dinners help set up the annual halloween party. Served as greeters and ushers and service leaders. Enco facilitating the beloved conversations workshop. Hornsby's abiding commitment continues for years. Leading to his eventual election to his congregation board of trustees. Yet. Hornsby shearer's that nevertheless. I was never allowed to forget. That i was an outsider. There were several occasions when white people seem to think. I might be amused by a joke. About my skin color. Or about black lives matter. One white woman joke in my daughter's presents. That i scared her. You were even times when white people would start a conversation about race with me. Before even saying. Good morning. After years of relentlessly being shown inward and an action that he was an outsider. Ormsby left. His congregation. And after a time of searching and reflection over a year of distance and prayer. He concludes. First and foremost. I am a unitarian universalist. I explored other churches in the area. I am only truly comfortable following unitarian universalist principles. No other religion was a good fit for my spiritual needs. For me i truly aspire to be more loving in my heart. So i will go back. And try again. Mayuyu beliefs will not be so easily abandoned. The way i interpreted hornsby's article. He came back to his unitarian universalist congregation. Because he felt deeply connected. To the part of our face that goes beyond individual wants and personal searches for truth. Connected to something about our faith. That white people cannot own. Or interpret. Or welcome others into exclusively. It's hornsby said. I am only truly comfortable following you you principles. Buddy list one more reason why his stubborn love took him back to his congregation. In his words. I need human in-person connection. To look people in the eye shake hands. And give and receive friendly and braces. The pain and the beauty of michael hornsby's commitment. Both strike me. Opinion of course. Is that hornsby is kept at arm's length. From the heart of the community he loves. He finds himself predominantly in the company of white people who don't want to make room for his full humanity. If it means looking a long time in the mirror. What a painful way to experience a community that you belong to. The overwhelmingly beautiful and courageous and compassionate thing. Is that he stays. And continues to give and love for the sake of something larger than his individual experience. What a way to live our faith. I think many of us are drawn to unitarian universalism because of the individual search for truth and meaning that we hold so dear. But for those of us who stay in this face. I don't think that it's primarily that individual search that keeps us. Coming back. Perhaps that something more than our individual experience is what's called our living tradition. You may have noticed earlier when we picked up our gray hymnals to sing. That i didn't coin that phrase it's been used to refer to unitarian-universalism for quite some time and star singing in the living tradition. Typically we talked about being a living tradition because we are a religion without a creed. And the way we approach our ultimate truth is expected to evolve over time. In fact very little about our faith is fixed or written in permanent ink. With all this. Flexibility and change. How exactly does our shared sense of what matters most. Get passed down. Through people of course. Through writing and books. But also through relationships and conversations. Through meetings. Your congregation singing songs together. In this more literal sense of the living tradition our fee is passed down by living human beings. From generation to generation. Of course. The experience of living this faith in community isn't passed down from the oldest generation to the youngest generation and so forth in a neat and tidy fashion. More that our faith is constantly passed between and among generations as it's handed down. All of us in this congregation regardless of our age share a history with the lives that were here before us. We belong to the same motion. It's true that we pass on our fear and our bias. In our egos and our need to be right. But the living tradition. Is that something more than our individual experience. It's what we passed down when we aren't thinking of ourselves alone. We aren't putting ourselves above another. It's when we lift up our relatedness. Most profoundly. That we pass along truths that have a life. Of their own. Growing up in a unitarian universalist congregation i understood the truth that are most alive for us to be. That there is promise there's possibility in every human soul. Regardless of anyone's actions or inactions. Love is not a limited resource save for one group over another. And the work to make the world as it should be won't end with us. But it's ours to do. No one spelled out unitarian universalist history or theology for me until i read about it in seminary. Our faith was passed to me by the people in my community. Do relationships and conversations and singing songs together on sunday morning. Our faith was handed down to me while playing on my congregation softball team. When i was seven with oliver he was in his 80s. Who commiserated with me as we both inevitably struck out again and again at every came. Myrna who was a stand-in grandmother for our congregations children bringing cakes or pies to potluck with this huge sign that said children only. Barb and chris who were the coolest twenty and thirty-somethings i could imagine. Bar with her combat boots and chris with his in-depth knowledge of david bowie. How they sat with my youth group multiple times a week. Listening to us figure out who we wanted to be and how we wanted to change the world. And even the saturday work parties that my parents dragged me to and in retrospect i enjoyed. Where we would we'd and plants around the congregational grounds and then people of all ages. Eat pizza together. As a kid i learned are faced by watching adults live it. And more and more as an adult. I learn our faith by watching our kids and youth live it. We can read about unitarian universalist history and theology in books and resonate with it. We can read about people who lived our faith a long time ago or who live it hundreds of miles away from us. But i agree with michael hornsby i need human in-person connection. To look people in the eye to shake hands and give and receive friendly embraces. Because it isn't only our ultimate truths that we want to pass down. It's also the experience of the community that lives by them. It's that experience of community that we want our children and their children's children to have long after we are gone. As we stay together and our family dedication ceremony. We will hold before you and your children the shared values of this congregation. And will seek to embody those ideals in the lives we live. And our prayer. Is that we may build a community in which our children grow old. Surrounded by beauty embraced by love. And cradled in the arms of peace. Our living tradition is that something more than our individual experience. It's the ultimate truths and shared experience we passed down when we aren't thinking of ourselves alone. Kathleen and i. Have had our minds on the living tradition this summer as we begin thinking about what it might be like to start a family ministry here. We want to offer programming and worship and events that will invite families to discover deeper spiritual meaning collectively as a family. We want to provide opportunities for families to explore how to claim their role in the work of societal and environmental transformation. We want to provide times for families to build better community with one another and the congregation as a whole. Not parents caregivers grandparents experiencing congregate congregational life in one place. And children and youth in another. But altogether. And we are inviting everyone into this joyful work of building a family ministry here. Whether or not you hear that phrase family ministry and think that applies to me we need you. Because one person one generation one segment of our congregation can't carry our living tradition alone. It's in our coming together that we keep our faith. Alive. A feat that reminds us that there is promise there is possibility in every human soul. But love is not a limited resource save for one group over another. And the work to make the world as it should be will not end with us but it is ours to do. We need all of us. Because it's not only our ultimate truths we want to pass down. But the experience of a community that lives them. Blessed be. Amin.

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4.1.18_Open_Wide_the_Doors.mp3

Even when we don't want to leave often notice them. Desperate. Frantic. Disheveled. Neither one's at the airline ticket counter. The bulging suitcases unzipped. Their belongings all a tumble. Personal items laid bare to the prying eyes of the world. As they shift contents from bag to bag. Trying to lighten it below the airlines luggage weight limit. The cramming various items into their carry-on. Itself already swollen and strained hoping to avoid an exorbitant charge. Then we meet them there kind again at the gate as we board. Those schlepping a collection of bags that would strain a sherpa. A rolling a massive suitcase sizable enough to contain the collected works of shakespeare. And their orderly outraged when the airline attendant predictably calls them out. Indignation. The playacting of surprise as if suddenly they've been singled out. To be subjected to a completely move and utterly arbitrary set of regulations. Wait. Did i say them. Well perhaps someone here has been. One of those people. Not to put too fine a point on things but i suppose i should say perhaps someone. Bounce. Has. Also been that person. Just. One more book one extra jacket another pair of shoes i'm sure it will all fit. Until. It doesn't. Couple years ago i was boarding a very long over. Do flight. Trying to sneak my not exactly dainty camera bag. Alongside a briefcase. And the suitcase. Onto a flight. Only the gum up the whole operation when i was called out for my offense. To add to my chagrin. Once i was finally onboard i ended up directly across the aisle from an old friend who i had not seen for years. Immediately made the connection. You were that guy that was holding us up with three bags. Robert frost captured a similar experience in his poem the armful. For every parcel at stoop down to seize. I lose some other off my arms and knees. And the whole pile is slipping bottles buns extremes too hard to comprehend at once. Yet. Nothing. I should care. Aleve. Behind. Early on in walden henry david thoreau mocks fellow concordia whose very lives are lived that way. I see young men my talents money right whose misfortune. Whose misfortune it is to have inherited. Barnes houses. Barnes cattle and farming tools. 40 notes. These are more easily acquired. Then gotten rid of. How many a poor immortal soul have i met thoreau smirks. Will nike rust and smothered under its load. Sleeping. Down the road of life. Oh such a sad face. Billy's henry thoreau. To be encumbered. My so much. Batalha renee broussard offers an imaginative set of instructions. The beginner lengthy poem about those enslaved hebrews on the eve of their long-awaited emancipation. She begins with a simple line. Pat. Nothing. Nothing bring only your determination to serve and your willingness. Tubi free. Tubi. Free. This is a story. Of liberation. Other people formed into being by an inspiring upsetting passover tale. It's a mythic account. A complex. Ambiguous. Morally problematic tail offering as with all other such stories a glimpse. Not so much into how life should be. But rather. In the how life. It gives us no unsullied exemplars. And it's at least as psychologically complex as those greek myths. Or the star wars and indiana jones episodes of george lucas. With no more claim to historical veracity than any of these. And while there may be some inclined to take such tales literally. To believe their claims at face value. And accordingly to be variously inspired or incense. I long ago stopped being one of them. Rest assured. No. Actual frogs. Locusts. Or people. Or harmed. In the making of this myth. We revisited not to shape belief. But to invite. Reflection. To remind ourselves both of our religious past and perhaps of who we are as human beings. To ask. How might this be our personal story. Might be. Most certainly not. Must. For we are not that sore. Anyone here today. Wishing to be free. Freer perhaps. Free of some situation. Some impediment. Some limitation some restraint. The poet's summary may be operating instructions for us. Pack. Nothing. Bring only your determination to serve in your willingness. Tubi free. That's not what happened in the exodus account however. Only days after their miraculous liberation. Only days into their desert wandering. Beer extra baggage. Surfaces. Here will let poet dorothy solo have to say. Security. Became a thing of the past. Things got tough. Consumer goods were scarce. The people grumble. Would to god we had died in the land of egypt. When we sat by the fleshpots. And when we did eat bread to the full. The people grumble. If only we had some meat. Remember the fish we ate in egypt for free the cucumbers melons onions garlic now all we ever get is. Mana. Can you imagine. Actually nostalgic. Egypt. Actually wishing they could go back re-enter captivity lower the gate closed the door settle back into the old oppressive. Yet. Familiar. Way of saying. Baggage. Holding on the deeply ingrained in motional baggage dragging the past through the sands pushing the past. Download nowhere to be found road of there now liberated not very liberated lives unwilling. Unable. To let go. And here it is the today's two tails. Intersect. The other that grounding. Founding story for our christian friends. Colleagues. Neighbors beloved family members some of whom are members of this congregation. The one. About resurrection. About life. And bear. And life. It to a wildly imaginative mythically rich account when not easily flattened out into any kind of literalism. But if you actually read these sacred stories. You come to understand it. This is less about alleluia. Then about anxiety. Miraculous grace tempered by mournful. Goodbye. The stories about resurrection form 1. Long. Farewell. None is more poignant than an encounter. Between mary magdalene and jesus in the garden early on that first easter. Mary. Deep in grief over the death of her teacher and friend. Comes to visit the tomb. She's a mansion mistakes for a gardener. Then she recognizes him. Jesus. Alive again. She reaches out to embrace him but she hears those words that ring down through so much of the history of western art. Noli me tangere. Don't touch me. Don't clean to me. Don't try to hold onto me. Let me go. My teacher former us poet laureate robert hass. Captures that poignant. Poetically. For magdalene of course. The resurrection didn't mean should got him back. Hitman. She'd lost him. In another way. Do not hesitate to leave. Your old ways behind. Fear. Silence. Submission. That's how those poetic passover instructions continue. Only surrender to the need of the time to love justice and walk humbly with your god. Ben. Begin. Quickly. Before you have time to sink back into the old slavery. Said she right. Set out. In the dark. When thirty years after her departure universalist minister leading suffragette olympia brown return to her beloved congregation in racine wisconsin. To preach. She routed her remarks and words from a hebrew song. Lift high the gate. Open wide the doors give liberty to all. H she said ours is a religion rooted in liberation. Radical. Liberation. What. Keeping you. From being as free as you might be. What doors still remains closed. What restraint still. Remains in place. It might be. As it was for those emancipated wilderness wanderers it might be nostalgia. Belonging to hold onto how things have been. Fix lean-to some recent or distant past. Your energy is focus not forward. Put back. Ethan. Even egypt. Somehow seems better. Then the road on which you now find yourself. It might be fear. A debilitating hesitation to take a risk. The claim a new possibility. The claim your fullest potential. The throw the doors. Wide open and set out. It might be. Resentment. Holding onto an old hurt. Weighted down by the desire for revenge. Do exact some pain that might even the score. Similarly anger bitterness a daily dose of bile that causes you to belittle and deride others. It might be old habits. Or maybe an addiction. An inability alone to conquer that which holds and hampers you. Prep shane. Regret embarrassment about some. Moral failing. There might be a failure of imagination. A refusal to invest in the spiritual discipline of deep probing. Deep listing the praying that the. That might open the door to some do more fulfilling way of life. Did maybe greed. Some insatiable desire for more and more. It keeps you from experiencing the satisfaction of generosity. We cannot open why the door to fullest freedom. With as frost put it. An armful. Stuff to which we are now cleaning. We cannot open why the door to fullest freedom while trying to hold on to what has been. As the lines of connection with my mom. Continue to fray. As dementia takes her. Further and further. From the capacity to comprehend. And connect. I find myself both profoundly sad. And not infrequently. Sorting through so many old memories. The easter's of my childhood were wonderful. New clothes. Church. Glorious music. A sense of deep connection. And meaning. Then. Sunday dinner with my beloved grandparents. Gather. Around that familiar table. I cherish all of them. The memory sustained me in my perennial sadness. But i've long since let go of what easter meant to them and to me. That's faith unraveled for me years decades ago. No longer prove sustaining or inspiring. I had to let it go. That was not easy. And there are still days i miss. Such assurance. And. Hope. And it's placed over a long. of time i have found my way to something. Something quite different. Something that challenges me that lisa clement my life. It didn't however require me to sever all ties. The disconnect entirely. The burn every bridge back to the tradition of my childhood and adolescence. Instead it has invited me to live imaginatively. Define dented the kind of meaning. I know find also in poetry. The meaning of imagination. And of beauty. Easter is no apex in the landscape of my spiritual life. But there is yet a place for it still. For me. And for many of you. Justice passover of a very different sort. Still occupies a place in the spiritual lives. Of others of you here. The journey is for each of us. To take for ourselves. Define bust meaning and the experience of being fully alive where they are most robust. It's not for any of us either to prescribe. Or. Proscribe. For any other. All weekend dude. Is let-go for ourselves. Open our own doors. In journey forth. In our own face. Again. And again i find myself returning to those guiding words of david white. They ring with special relic. Today. You must. Learn. One thing. The world was made. Tubi free. The world was made to be free in. Give up all other worlds. Except the one to which. You belong. Sometimes it takes darkness. And the sweet confinement of your alone mess. But learn. Anyting. Or anyone. That does not bring you ally. Any. Or anyone. Let does not bring you alive. It's too small for you. Too small for.

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10.22.17_born_from_a_continuous_I_dont_know.mp3

After 39 and a half years of wandering in the desert mrs. boses secretly ask for directions. There was a survey by a. British insurance company. In the time just before everyone's phone had a gps. They concluded that. Men. We're driving an additional 276 mi every year wandering around refusing to ask for directions. 26% weighted. A half an hour before asking it 12% refuse to ask for help. At all. The company determined that in the course of their driving lifetime. Men with spend approximately 3. Thousand dollars. An additional gas charger. All because they couldn't. Make themselves say. I don't know. Where i am or how to get where i'm trying to get to. It may be taking our unitarian universalist motion. Of a free and responsible. Search. Pattern or 22 far. Or as the old joke ass. Why does it take one. Million sperm. The fertilize one egg. Cuz they don't. Apps for directions. I don't know. 3 little words. That are seemingly for some. The hardest ones of all to say. To admit that we don't know. Be the one who isn't in the know. The realized particularly when it really matters that i. Really don't know. It's an uncomfortable feeling for most of us. No matter where we locate alone a gender spectrum. And perhaps they can feel especially threatening. In the context of our often simplistic sectarian divide. To admit. This is a social. Or political situation. In which we simply. Doing. Something. Voting for something. Speaking out against. Something. Advocating for something. It's easier than acknowledging. Right now. We just don't know. There's a portion of them buddhism. That as is often the case in that tradition turns common thinking on its head. Dairy finder basic teaching called don't. No mine. Don't know mind it is regarded. Not as a deficit. Or shortcoming of sometime. But rather as a potential asset. Jeff titus is a psychotherapist in zen master who also goes by the name bonnie song. Explains in the talk from the empty gate event center in berkeley. The empty gate. Pain center in frederick. We want to know. We think we know. We think we're supposed to know. There's all of this bias. Towards knowing. But we don't really know. Simbu dusty explains that this radical teaching. How about admitting that we don't know. And go from there. If we really live that. It changes every. Song as guiding teacher continues. Don't know. Doesn't mean. Stupid. It means. What is it. Suddenly our eyes are open. Vibrating with energy because we wonder. What. Rather than. Oh yeah i know that. So is this not knowing actually gives us life. Energy to the world we live in. These zen practitioner see i don't know not and some weakness but it's an opportunity for curiosity. By not clinging to what they claim to know. I can actually open myself up to the possibility of seeing a given situation in a whole new life. Or being in don't know mind. Make for syndication to learn in a whole new way. I'm guessing. That's what the masterful and creative scientist neil degrasse tyson. I need to describe the fifth of the scientific impulse as. We're not afraid to admit what we don't. There's no shame in that. The only shame is to pretend that we have all the answers. Imagine. Copernicus clinging to conventional knowledge. Pretending it all made sense. Rather than admitting. You didn't know. Imagine. Maria mitchell. Or jane goodall katherine johnson. This fighting that there's scientific role was simply to master. What was already known. I don't know didn't signal for them the arrival of some walzem dead end. But rather the need to search for adorable. An opening to a whole new pathway of scientific. Knowledge. I recalled. Reading a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of prick and watson's announcement of their discovery of the double helix structure of dna. Unit francis crick rather humbly asserted the major credit that i think jim and i deserve. It's for selecting. The right problem. And sticking to it. Their problem was firmly rooted in what they didn't know. In what they were then ribbon. To discover. So many ways. That i can now see with greater clarity. My own personal spiritual journey. Has been perennially driven so weird. Body often uneasy awareness of. I don't know. Outlook. With these gratitude and warrant so that large. Loving. Creative congregation of my childhood and adolescence. But there was in retrospect. A perpetual. Uneasiness. No i couldn't. Quite make sensor. My call to ministry came in the form not a confident. surety. But out of curiosity. An awareness. Of not knowing. The search led me all the way to a little village in switzerland. And then back to your two more seminary studies in the states. All the while on news. Really. Two big bowls of dacious lee progressive congregation where i gained experience in concert. Then to another. And another still wonderful communities good work to do. A clear sense of calling. Always. Accompany. Buy a knowing sense of. I don't know. When i finally conceded that i could no longer minister. Within the tradition that had been buying for my whole life. Unitarian universalism emerged. Is a welcomed way to continue my profession. In a whole new setting. All the way to the west coast in the heaviness of berkeley. Filled with so many new learning. And. So many new awareness is that i didn't know. Now. Years here among you. But firmly planted in purpose. And. Wondering. Curious. Confused. The realtor. Not. Knowing. Well this tradition. May offer me my final contact for professional ministry. I can only hope. I am to some of your disappointment. List professional left personally interested. In claiming unitarian-universalism as the aiken. The place to which i have at long last arrived. And much more interested. In what item. The great god commerce show speaks for me. Probably for many of us. Describing such a journey. I am being driven. Hobart. Into an unknown land the pasco steeper that are colder and sharper a win from my unknown goal the strings of expectation. Feel the question. Shall i ever get there. Their where life is found a clear pure. In the silence. But a welcome companion on this wild and wonderful journey has been delayed polish poet vishwavani szymborski. How i have loved to rye and really writing. When she stood before the world on the nobel stage chicho's in characteristic modesty. Do a test message brand insight. Put 24 personal awareness. Obnoxious. Associate tested about you that little phrase i don't know so highly. It's small but it flies on my tv. It expands our lives to include the spaces within us. As well as those other expenses and which are tiny earth painting. Jim borescope juxtaposes her evaluation of i don't know. Over against that she calls him all sorts of torturers. Dictators. Fanatic. Struggling for power the way of a few shouted slogans. Babe. And whatever they know is enough for them once and for all. They don't want to find out about anything else. Since that might diminish their argument spoilers. Perhaps it is in the intervening two decades. Since this ravishing borska offered her observations in stockholm. That misguided inclination. Has now trickled down from those most malicious miscreant. And into the general population. Phonesuit. What does his claim to understand is enfeebled by a congenital case. In curiosity. Bo2 simplistic political allegiances. Ars. And. The coliseum's refusing foreclosed possibilities of other ways. Outside of the straight-ticket simplistic. Sectarian. Or that. Those whose views of history. Remain guarded and enshrine. About the crying and even denouncing those calling now with ever louder voices for the need to acknowledge our nation and its heroes. Deep investment in inches. Those who see social ill. And assume such solutions as there may be. Can only emerge from an acceptable range. Of action. And a proper regard for the process c and the institutions long-established by the status closed and its powerful power brokers. It's time. Now. For more of us. To admit. You don't know we don't know. But those now paying attention. We're aware that our agenda for this year as a congregation is rooted in that assessment. Holding in abeyance what we can do what we should do and asking instead about what we do not know. Best father szymborska offers hope for such an approach affects you believe it can portend a breath of fresh air in the form of inspiration. Whatever inspiration is between. It's born from a continuous. I don't know. Where is that. In. Where is that. Not the clinging to what we know. But we've known. So what we're comfortable knowing. Where are you deeply aware that i. Where might we direct our collective congregational. Awareness that we don't know. It is unnerving. Unsettling. Far easier perhaps the hold forth. Opine explained. Complain. Judge. Take. Action. What is james russell lowell wrote in that long-ago pulling of his. New occasions teach newton. Hi make ancient good uncooked. They must onward still an upward who would keep abreast. Perhaps we might think of this as our season of. Gas station. Out of the calling into question. How did the unseating of old authorities old. Heroes and heroines. Add a roosting understanding ourselves as 1/2 in fact don't know. We might find something. More. More just. More equity. More. Compassion. Rap for us. 2 we can experience. Inspiration. New life. Born. Out of a continuous.

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11.5.17_Speaking_Justice_in_the_Language_of_our_Faith.mp3

It is very good to be with you again. One of the pleasures that i have as the director of the college of social justice is that i am called upon to travel around the country fairly often and to join our communities at worship in the wide variety of religious homes that we have across this country. And i have found this year in particular as perhaps. Many of you have found as well that i need to be at least once a week. In a community gathered together more than i have needed it in the past. I am looking for courage. And wisdom. For the meeting of these days as the hymn suggested. We struggle i think to make sense of the changing. Ever-changing political climate around us. As well as the disasters that have been happening in recent months. And it often seems like the physical hurricanes that are slamming into communities are met with the daily news by political hurricanes that are slamming us around in one way or another. In difficult times therefore it is particularly good to be in a space where we can gather ourselves. With the music. And some silence. And perhaps some prayer or meditation and find some moments of calm. And a chance to remember the things that matter to us most. We are in the midst of a long hard season in our country. In our communities. And especially for already targeted groups. Immigrants. Black activists. Muslims. The divisions across our country have become very stark and obvious. But of course they rest on foundations that have been many many years in the making. And so the contentious. And those divisions are not going to disappear any time very soon. Though many true things can be said about the current state of our union surely the words from mother teresa. In one of our readings is one of the truest things we could say. We have forgotten. That would be long. To each other. One of our greatest tasks i think. Is to remember. And help others to remember that we do in fact belong to each other that we belong with each other and in fact that our concept of kinship. Is meant to be a very large and inclusive one. Remember. Is a marvelous word its latin roots mean to bring back intensively to mine. But member. Also of course means to be part of something as in the members of a church. And so remember. Calls us not only to bring something back to mind but also to recollect ourselves to and with. One another both senses of the word. Our religious homes our houses of worship are meant to be places for that kind of dual recollection. They are places we come to be together but they are also places we come to remember what matters to us most. When we feel bombarded by difficult news during the course of the day. Or the wii. Our attention gets pulled in so many different direction. We can feel overwhelmed. And the need to just shut down. Are churches are places designed to help us stay awake. We give ourselves to them because we know that at least some of the time something will happen here. The calls us again to attend. Shift of perspective. Or ringing of the heart bell. That will help us stay awake. Author barry lopez right. Human beings are creatures in search of proportion in life. A pattern of grace it is balance and beauty we want not triumph. But we have an appetite for distraction. A tendency toward forgetfulness. We forget what we want it to mean. That phrase we forget what we want to mean. We have an appetite for distraction. But we also have a deep hunger to be of youth. To stand up against injustice. To relieve suffering. Defined a way to speak our words in kindness rather than in fury. We want to mean something. We want our little gift. The count. Towards something that might leave the world. A marginally better place. Because we passed through it. Remembering this. Remembering it amid the relentless busyness and distractions of our lives. Spiritual grounding. That is where. We can cultivate the dual intention. Of deepening our own awareness and awakeness and goodness on the one hand. While also trying to turn our attention and energy outward. To make the world a little bit better as well. The work of the unitarian universalist college of social justice which i lead is meant to be right at that intersection between spirituality. And social justice. All of the programs that have been devised to support the mission of the college of social justice which is to inspire and equip and sustain spiritually grounded activism. All of the programs. Share two things in common the first. Is that they are all grounded around experiential learning. That is based on the idea. Did the kind of learning. That can sometimes literally change our lives. Comes to us not to books or movies or lectures or sermons but through a face-to-face encounter of sometime. With a part of the world's reality that we had not known before. So they're all based around experiential learning the other thing that they are all grounded in. Are the core values of unitarian universalism. That's sometimes we think. That unitarian-universalism doesn't actually have shared. Core values. Because we know how why the spectrum of belief is within our gathered congregation. But there really are some cool things that we teach. But i believe other things most called for in the political and historical moment that we are now living. These are the things we are most called to remember. For our lives out there in the world as well as our internal growth. The first of these. Is the truth our faith teaches. About interdependence not only with one another or with people of our own nation or culture or language for color. But with all people. And with the earth itself. Unitarian universalism uses the image of the interdependent web which is an easy thing to conjure in our mind's eyes because we all know what the perfect. Webb's look like of an orb-weaving spider early in the morning. On the eve of a porch or out in a meadow before any damage has been done to it and the dew is caught in. This lovely shining thing. But the interdependence that our core values point us toward is more complex than that physical web we know so well. And it is not always right. And shining. There are difficult question. Good lie along it's sometimes tangled strands. One of the best ways i have ever heard those questions articulated. Was by a latin american liberation theologian by the name of gustavo gutierrez. Gutierrez. The two most important question any person of faith can ask ourselves in order to guide our actions in the world. Actually appear in the early creation story that is held in the book of genesis the first book of the hebrew scriptures are what we call the old testament. If the part of the story that talks about the garden of eden and adam and eve but it's the particular part of the story that recounts in in the frame of a myth. The first act of human violence. It's when cain murders his brother abel because of jealousy and then runs off and hides in the garden. Out of shame and confusion. God comes looking for kane. And then ask the to question first. Where are you. And second. Where is your brother. Gutierrez taught those same two questions are falling into our lives all the time. Like an invisible rain. Where are you. Where are we. In that tangled matrix of privilege and power. What grace. What goodness have come to us. Surely by an accident of birth. And then where is our brother. Where are the siblings of ours. Who are so awesome caught on the raw side. Of those same equations of privilege. Empower. Asking these questions well. Is not an easy spiritual practice. Attending to them carefully. Asking them with real attention. Can make us deeply uncomfortable. But it is what we are called to. By that first core value of our faith it is what our interdependent web. Closest tube. Not too long ago i helped lead one of our experiential learning programs this one specifically for ministers and religious educators in our congregations and we traveled to the border region between arizona and mexico. It's a challenging journey. Partly because one of the things that happens on it if people recognized often for the first time. The immigration policies in our country have mortal consequences. But part of this experiential journey we walked some of the desert pads followed by migrants. In which or in this one county of which. Over 100 bodies are pulled every single year. One county in arizona. At the end of this experiential. Journey. The ministers were gathered around a makeshift altar preparing to return home and we had placed on it pebbles that had been gleaned from that desert walk along the migrant trails each person was invited to take one of those pebbles and then the speaker few words about what they would be bringing home with them from the experience. One of my colleagues when it was his turn. Got up and took his pebble and then sat back down and did something unusual he took the shoe off his foot. Put the pebble in it and then put the shoe back on his foot. And he said. These days that we have spent together have been. Eye-opening and heartbreaking and deeply uncomfortable. I'm putting this stone in my shoe because i am not willing to go back to being comfortable. In the face of disguises. It is there so that my physical discomfort. Will continue to evoke my soul's disquiet. Which i regard. As holy. This holy disquiet is not an easy practice. But it can bring us into the light of our second poor truth. Which declares the wholeness of every single person. This is the radical declaration. But no human life. Is inherently worth more than another. Yeah. But no human being is. Disposable. It challenges. The categories and the labels that we used so often. And so unconsciously. By which we diminish one another. And separate ourselves into small circles we can define as. If every person is inherently worthy. Then every person is worthy of inclusion. In that circle. Inclusion. Is a soul enlarging practice. When we start to really see and challenge the barriers in our own minds and hearts that get erected by fear. Or have it or plain old ignorance. The space in which we can begin to move. Becomes more ample. We push out the edges of what we sometimes call our comfort zones. In june jordans beautiful language. We recognize. Your sky mayburn with light. Well mine at the same moment fred's beautiful to darkness. As we corner the circling universe of our experience. In honoring the truth. Of different lived experience. We breathe the easier air of connection. And companionship. We hear the stories told in other voices catch a glimpse of reality as it is seeing through other eyes. Our understanding expands. With this practice of vlad curiosity. We can bring to one another. The times do which we are living are in urgent need of this embracing practice. The capacity to see and to recognize kin. Across every barrier of distance and language and culture. Is a deeply inherent 1in us as human beings we know that. Because of our own experience of kinship with strangers and also because of all the shining moments in which that has been an active. In our history together. The stranger who runs into a burning building to save someone he never knew. The woman who devotes herself to challenging and injustice that never fell directly on her. The possibility of kinship is inherent in us as human beings. But our ability to see and honor connection is matched or exceeded by. Our enthusiastic embrace of the most violent forms. Of division. This to. Is bread at the bone. We are easily frightened. And our fear can drive us to extremes. Cheer. Is being used as a tool of political division. Now today. To a degree that i at least have never witnessed before in my life. It has been used to other. Our fellow human beings into categories. Which are dehumanizing. And therefore can be reacted against. Immigrants. Mexicans. Muslims. Felons. Activist. Journalist. And lest we feel the faint stirrings of self-righteousness i will hasten to add that those of us who choose to seat ourselves on the left side of the aisle. Are well practiced in this habit to. We willingly other. And diminish people. We regard and label as the alt right. Trump supporters. Evangelical christians. Tea party activists. We should. Passionately. Opposed laws and policies that diminish other people. I'll make a god out of profit. But our willingness to make other people. Into two-dimensional enemies. Is a kind of tribalism. Driven by fear. And each one of us carries that impulse within us. It is part of being human. However. Even when we are afraid. We get to choose between the closing in of that tribalism. And the opening hours. A kinship and connection. Our faith calls us to that opening out. The third-quarter truth of unitarian-universalism is that we are all works in progress. We are not yet the human beings we aspire to be. I sometimes frame it as we are all simply half baked. We are flawed. And we stumble. We hurt one another and we fail. But our universalist ancestors did not declare that they could not believe in hell. Because they thought human beings were perfect. That became part of their teaching and their theology because they realized there was a better response to human imperfection. Then damnation. To recognize and to bow. To the notion that we are all flawed. But in progress. Brings in its wake some therefore clauses. Therefore. We should practice grace. Rather than defensiveness when we make mistakes. Since making mistakes. Literally comes with the territory of being human. Therefore. We must engage in forgiveness of others. Because we ourselves will so often need it. And therefore. We must engage in the kind of deep looking. That will allow us to see our own shadows. Especially when we're carrying ourselves out into the political sphere to try to make change. Now think for a moment back to that song that we sang together. God of grace and god of glory. Too often the songs that we sing. Especially about making justice in our world are full of the steady confidence that we are the good guys. Out there to change the world that we know where we're going and we can get there together. They are often really inspiring and most of them i actually love to sing. But listen to what a different feeling is evoked by those lyrics we sang this morning. Tour the children's warring madness. Bend our pride 2v control. Shame our wanton selfish gladness rich in things and poor install. Try not to trip over the theology. And listen not to what the word say about god. What they say about us. Our madness bend our pride. Heal our wounds. And then. Grant us wisdom. Encourage. Our faith calls us to a spiritual honesty. Mindful. Mindful. All of those things we hope to change out there also have seeds. Or tendrils. In here. Changing the world. Is inseparable. From the willingness to be changed. Ourselves. Are unitarian-universalism has always been focused on this life and on this world. Calling us board action. Commence the torn places as well as we are able. But this face of ours has never simply been about what we are called to do. It is also about who we are called to be. We are called not only to be people of action. But also people of attention. Willing to awaken. Willing to remember. To be reminded. About kinship. To remember what we want. 2 min. A jewish proverb teaches. A human life is like a single letter of the alphabet. It can mean little. Or it can become part. Have a great. Meaning. May we allow ourselves to be. Park. About great meaning. I'm in.

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8.18.19_blessing_prophecy.mp3

When my husband steve and i were waiting on the arrival of our child. We poured over books and websites full of potential names. So much felt out of our control when exactly would this baby arrive. Would he be healthy. Being able to choose a name. For our child felt purposeful. And reassuring. It was a very difficult. Pregnancy in a difficult year in our lives. My husband and i felt shaken to the core by a number of personal losses and struggles. When we considered the world we were bringing a new life into. We worried. What would this planet this society. Be like when he was 10. 30. 80. I prayed a lot that year for strength. I prayed i might discover again what it felt like to be resilient. And i prayed that regardless of the struggles are child might face in his life. He would have the spiritual and emotional fortitude. Two-faced it all. So as we prepared to welcome our child into the world. We decided to name him. Ethan. Ethan because that name means enduring strength. The name felt like it could bless his journey through the world with tenacity. And resilience. Perhaps by giving him this name we could weave into existence a prophecy that he would always indoor. Strong of heart and spirit. In the face of all life threw at him. This is what it meant to name my child. To bless his way to try to ensure a positive future. I have never chosen a gender non-binary name. Or name for a girl. But i imagine it to be a complex task. For all the meaning and connotations that come with naming a boy. The meaning and connotations of girl's name seem even more intricate. Fraught with potential bias from the start. Too feminine. Too masculine too cutesy. Too intimidating. What names are blessed with going for. I'm a little girl. What name to weave as prophecy around her guiding her toward as much possibility opportunity safety and meaning as possible. Women are already given so many offhand names. That we have to sort through in addition to the names we were given at first or choose for ourselves. As we see images supposedly representative of who we are throughout pop culture. And hear various terms for women throwing about. It's hard to separate what we see and hear from who we really are. Old maid. Spinster. Hag. Nag. Dumblonde. Arm candy. Bombshell bimbo. Tomboy. Which bich. Doll. Temperatures dipped airhead valley girl. Women of color are exotic. Women who proved to be less than accommodating or less than mild-mannered. Are labeled feisty. Or bossy. Often when a man calls another man and abusive or insulting name. The word he uses means something. Feminine. Women's given names have been intricately loaded for some time. In one of the courses are congregation offered last congregational here. We studied the history of the united states through the lens of cultural justice. And through our study. We came across a book first published in the early 1700s called the new england primer. And in that book. There was a section entitled some proper names of men and women. To teach children to spell their own. Men's names are listed as abraham frederick. Elijah. Women's names among others. Are listed as charity. Patience. Mercy. Temperance. Prudence. Names that describe the way girls and women should be. All of which brings me to my own name. My parents gave my sister a non gender revealing name. And they gave me one of the most womanly names i can think of. I've always considered my name to be one of my most valuable possessions. I'll have to ask my mom if she and my dad thought of my name as a way to blessed my way through life as a prophecy of what i might. Become. Mom's never mentioned thinking of my name as blessing or prophecy. The so disappointing but she said that mainly they chose the name eve because with the combination with my last name stevens for even stevens was too irresistible. But in my mind my name has always felt like a blessing and a yet-to-be fulfilled prophecy. Even if in western culture the name eve is loaded at beth. What we know of the mythical eve in the book of genesis. Is that a serpent tells her to ignore a male god's warning. And eat the fruit. Of the tree of good and evil. Eve eat the fruit. And shares with adam who is right there the whole time by the way and does not say a peep when the male god in the story discovers that eve and adam have disobeyed. His command. God says to eve. I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Yet your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. The story of the creation. Adam and eve has had vast influence over how western culture establish norms of sexuality and gender. Analysis and interpretation of the story of adam and eve over the centuries has been used to deny the existence of gay love. Or the spectrum of gender. When it comes to the identity of women. Through this same analysis and interpretation the figure of yves became the prototype. For all women. What could be gleaned from the story about the nature of eve. The content of her character her tendencies and actions. Became proof of the nature of all women. In the dominant interpretation the mythical eve demonstrates that all women are morally suspect. Weak-willed not as intelligent. Easier to fool and prey upon. Left to their own devices women are temptresses. Seductive. And deceitful. Able to sway even the most moral of men from their principled path. In paintings of adam and eve the serpent's head is often depicted as a woman. Face. In other words the mythical eve has long carried the weight of western cultures hang-ups and anxieties about women. Especially women with power. I always much preferred and have endorsed the feminist interpretation of what happened in eden. I marvel at the intelligence and courage of a free-thinking woman born into a patriarca coexistence. A world literally created and controlled by men. In that creation story an all-powerful male figure establishes the rules of existence. And the male human he creates. Completely buys into these rules. Adam is loyal to the system and unquestioning. Make a choice outside of the ones men have established for her. She breaks the rules. Chooses knowledge over an unquestioning existence. She reaches for what she's been denied. Boys thought of my name as a blessing a prophecy of what i could become. And eve. An independent-minded strong creative and curious woman willing to risk everything to challenge unjust. Authority. I had to admit to that cultural justice group last year. That i was fearful of studying the history of patriarchy in the united states. I'm still not even fully comfortable using that word. Patriarchy. It feels dangerous and unpleasant to name. And i have lived most of my life being as accommodating and pleasant as possible. Not wanting to step outside of the behavior deemed appropriate. For women. My second favorite job after ministry of course. Was waiting tables. I got to talk to people be around food all day you're so busy that time flies by and you walk out with cash in your hand the beautiful thing. But the downside in my experience was that i worked for abusive owners each time. This one man who owned the restaurant i worked at after college would call the women who work for him her endlessly derogatory names like it was nothing. I never asked for time off because i had witnessed other women reduced to tears after being yelled at in front of everyone when they got their nerve up to ask for time away. In this miniature world built by a tyrannical man who pulled the strings. I did not speak up. Against him. Applauded no subversive response i didn't help organize the women and the other women in protest. I felt. Powerless. Unable to think outside of the box he'd created. When in 10th grade one of my teachers looked at how many signatures were in my yearbook and laughed and said are you giving out behind the bleachers i did not stand tall and demand that he examined what he had just said to a sixteen-year-old girl. I laugh too and i hurried off. Not wanting him to notice his wildly inappropriate gas and feel embarrassed. But the older i get. The more contagious the courage of other women becomes. Speakingout. Speaking up. Telling the truth is we are not supposed to notice or speak aloud. All women experience the legacy of being compared to the mythical eve. Treated as intellectually or emotionally inferior. More easily duped. Less reliable. Labeled temptress at one time or another. The old women can claim eve as an ancient mother who encourages them to raise their voice and think outside of a box they did not. Create. Our daughters are named into a society built to underestimate. And undervalue them. We must do our best in our loving ways to bless their way forward and secure possibility and opportunity as fixtures of their future. The more i learn about the history of women's oppression the more i reach for the wisdom of my namesake. And pray that i'll find. And raise my voice at last. To help build a new. Way. Blessed be. I'm in.

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1.14.18-_Bree_Newsome.mp3

Coming next to our pulpit to read and then speak is artist and activist bree newsome. Breathe outside of washington with family ties here in charlotte. She's a graduate of new york university's tisch school of the arts. Where she distinguished yourself as a filmmaker. Adding distilled to her earlier earlier accomplishments as a pianist. Composer and playwright. Super kmart and she became involved in the occupy wall street movement and then joined us. Deer in north carolina for tomorrow monday movement. Much of breeze activism has focused on incidents of young black people. Being unjustly. Killed. Issues related to structural racism. She served as the western pill organizer for ignite in c and is a co-founder of the tribe a grassroots organizing collective. Based here in charlotte. Now. Many people in our nation. And indeed around the world. First came to know of bree newsome. When she. Help. South carolina. Solve. Ascertain. Dilemma. While some deserted and deliberated. About what to do is that confederate battle flag on the statehouse grounds. Bree simply climb the flagpole and personally removed it. I come against you. In the name. Of god. This. Flag. Comes. Down. Today. Frieza celebrated and much in demand national speaker. She rides here today from new orleans she. Leaves later today. For atlanta where she will speak at the ebenezer church for its king observance tomorrow. Impact brie as i mentioned before the truth of the matter is marcus actually. Answered i invite the two of you together so that he might get a chance to see you for a couple of hours. It is with appreciation for your courageous witness. And with our collective admiration for your work. That i'm proud to welcome you now to our pulpit here. My friends. Bree newsome. Thank you thank you so much thank you to jay for extending the invitation i have seen jay out in the community definitely on the frontlines of social justice so thank you for inviting me to speak today thank you for the warm reception that we've received here today from the church. Thank you to my family for coming out today have always been so supportive as i've flown from thing to thing to supporting what i was an artist supporting when i was suddenly getting arrested in civil rights protest so thank you to my parents my grandmother my sister my brother-in-law my niece's i might also see in the audience several people whose faces i recognized from doing work in the community here and it's wonderful to see you all here too. I want to hear two readings with you today the first is from paul's letter to the galatians. He says. You my brothers and sisters were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. I'm the second reading comes from a speech actually of martin luther king's called beyond vietnam which he delivered in 1967. He says. This call for a worldwide fellowship. That list neighborly concern beyond one's tried race class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. Piss off misunderstood this off misinterpreted concept. So readily dismissed by the knee cheese of the world is a weak and cowardly force. Has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When i speak of love i am not speaking up some sentimental and weak response. I'm not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I'm speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as a supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This hindu muslim christian jewish buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully sung dump in the first epistle of saint john. Let us love one another. For love is god. And everyone that loveth is born of god and noah's god. He that loveth not know it's not god for god is love. If we love one another. God dwells in us and his love is perfected in us. Let us hope. That the spirit will become the order of the day. At the heights. Of european colonialism. There was a french slave colony called santo ming. It was known as the jewel of the antilles. Because it was one of the most prosperous colonies in the entire world. At one point sendomeng accounted for a third of the entire transatlantic slave trade. It's estimated that nearly three-quarters of a million africans were enslaved ascender me. Where they were forced to produce roughly half of all sugar and coffee imported into europe. Of course these. People who had been kidnapped and forced into servitude on the island of saint-domingue were not paid for their labor. They're not even titled to own their bodies. The island was cut with governed by the code noir. Are the black code. A system of brutal violence instituted by king louie the 14th used to subdue the enslave population. By the late 18th century. However. The spirit of revolution and independence begin to sweep through the american colonies as subjects revolted against the tyranny of the crown. This revolutionary idea. All men are created equal by god and therefore endowed with right by their creator and not by their king. This revolutionary idea began to take hold of the minds and heart throughout this so-called new world. The spirit of revolution was sparked also in saint domingue. Where the black population outnumbered whites 12:50. And so. Disinflate black population rose up. Overtook they're white and slavers and gained their liberation. However. When news of revolution in haiti. Which the president. What was now the united states of america. Thomas jefferson. Didn't embrace the self liberated africans as brothers. Big of a free black independent nation in the west pose a direct threat to both the system of slavery and the ideology of white supremacy. Jefferson of course was a slave owner himself. And slave rebellions are both a constant threat and a constant fear within the united states. And although black americans fought in the revolutionary war in america. The american revolution ultimately stops short of including black americans in this new freedom. However the haitian revolution was both a slave revolt revolt and a rebellion against white supremacy and anti-black racism. Katie since that time of revolution. Has been engaged in a prolonged struggle to maintain its sovereignty ever since. Its former formal colonial power of france. Sate sate sate yumi. Change it with crippling debt. At one point the usa even occupied katie. Kitty's also been the site of a great deal of missionary and humanitarian work because of its rampant poverty and underdeveloped infrastructure. Casey. The island once known as the jewel of the antilles. What's in the headlines again this past week. 40 reasons one. It was the anniversary of a horrific earthquake that devastated the island in which the island has been struggling to recover from in the past 8 years. And also because of disparaging remarks from the president of the united states. Germany who expressed horror and disgust at the president's choice of words and denounced him as racist. There are others who saw nothing wrong with what he said. I'm in there yet others who found his lakewood defensive but openly questioned whether or not his underlying premise was in fact. Off the mark. Using profanity was impolite of course but his statement wasn't incorrect was it. I mean that the problem was that he simply lack the compassion he lacked the compassion of various humanitarian groups he lacked the compassion of the many christian missions which depart for haiti. It sort of understood in our culture that billionaires are to engage in philanthropy. Be there a handful of people who are excessively wealthy in a world where millions are excessively poor and so engaging in philanthropy is both wise public relations. And it's also viewed as a measure of justice. And it's an indication that this billionaire class has compassion for the condition of the masses. Tomorrow mini will commemorate the life of martin luther king by engaging in acts of service or philanthropy are making donations to organizations that do these things. Now i want you to hear me clearly because what i say next might throw some people. And i don't want you to think that what i'm about to say is to dismiss the importance of philanthropy or or service or acts of kindness. These things are very important. But hear me when i say that. The heart of martin luther king jr's message in his mission was not philanthropy. It was love and there's a difference. Love is a much more radical more transformational action that encompasses much more than acts of kindness or monetary donations. Another different kinds of love of course. Makes it clear in his beyond vietnam speech that he is not talking about the kind of romantic love. Barbie very specific kind of divine love. The kind of love that is at the center of virtually every major world religion. The kind of love that is demonstrated in the life of jesus into which paul is speaking to in his letter to the galatians. The two essential elements of the kind of love king of speaking to. Freedom or agency. Injustice. Why freedom and justice. In his letter to the galatians paul writes quote. You my brothers and sisters were called to be free. In other words. One of the ways god shows his love for us in his in granting us the freedom to choose love or to not choose love. To choose love. Is to become one with god through a conscious decision to love others as god loves us. Free will. Is an essential part. Of this kind of love. If i force you to love me. That's not love. If i force you to obey. That's not real obedience. That's oppression. That's what the slave masters of saint-domingue did and using violence to force obedience from the enslaved. Ptosis. Do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather serve one another humbling in love. Do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh so we have an option here. It is freedom that we've been given. We can either indulge ourselves and our immediate wants and needs which at one point was the desire for sugar and coffee. Or we can choose the other path to humbly serve in love one is the path of the world and the other is the path of the divine. Why isn't divine to humbly serve one another in love. Football answers that in his next sentence he says for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command love your neighbor as yourself. Now the law to which paul is referring is not the law of the romans. He's not speaking about the decrees that are issued by the emperor about what festival should be carried around what particular gods. He's talking about a larger cosmic universal truth. The same truths which martin luther king is speaking when he refers to there being a moral arc of the universe. When you are loving your neighbor as yourself you can cause your neighbor no harm not simply because you are doing your neighbor no harm but because you wish your neighbor nohar. Unless you wish yourself harm which is another conversation i would want to have with you about why you're wishing yourself harm. But if you were to love someone else as yourself you would do them no harm and therefore that is the fulfillment of the purpose of any of the laws that we make. The purpose of passing a law against robbery or murder any of these things is to protect one another than to love one another is at the filament of all those laws both written by man and as endowed by our creator. No. We need to be careful. About fighting ourselves and our acts of charity. Define ourselves and our acts of charity is the opposite of grace and humility. If you pride yourself on your acts of charity and means that someone must remain impoverished in order for you to achieve your sense of pride right. If i am a good billionaire. Did that necessitates there being someone who i must be good to their must constantly be someone was in paris and in need of my beneficence. That is the opposite of desiring justice. Martin luther king said that justice is love in action. True love is not simply an emotion that i feel i don't simply feel. For you and your condition is not simply empathy that i'm feeling. But it is an action it is a verb. Hey love for haiti therefore. Would look like justice for haiti. It would look like katie no longer needing to monetary and aid from the very nations that forced it into its impoverished state. With racism and imperialism. It would look like haiti having a form of sovereignty and agency that it has been denied since its slave revolt. Here in charlotte obviously we're still dealing with the aftermath of an uprising in our city. We're dealing with. As jay was speaking to earlier this reality that a child born in poverty in charlotte is statistically likely to get poorer over the course of his or her lifetime. What does it mean if we were to love a child born into poverty in charlotte as ourselves. I think it would it would require us to do more than acts of charity and kindness. It would require us to do what was necessary to bring about actual justice that would give that child an agency and a freedom that it his ancestors have been denied for centuries in this land. Inside this off misunderstood concept of divine love is an absolute necessity for the survival of man. As i mentioned i just came in from new orleans yesterday and as i was getting off of the plane i saw the breaking news about the situation in hawaii where for about a period of 15 minutes or more. Did people in hawaii thought there was a missile. Heading for their island in this was. Not something that we had clearly you know this was something that was clearly on their minds because of this the situation that's going on right now between the tensions on the korean peninsula and this constant concern that we have about being on the potential verge of nuclear war. I believe it was einstein who said that our technology has evolved beyond heart humanity. Here we are at a point where a misunderstanding. A hateful tweets. Accidentally pressing the button on a machine. Could lead to a global disaster that could result in the death of millions. King says that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere that we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny and that whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly he's not saying that is simple philosophy he's not saying that is a simple heartfelt statement of of concerns but as a very real reality. Our technology has surpassed our humanity. We cannot survive as a city a nation or global community without the deeper abiding love for one another. Tight literally. We commemorate king this year again i'm not saying that philanthropy is bad. I'm not saying don't do community service. Attack of the same thing 2915 service i'm in organizer so i spend a lot of time trying to make a peel too good-hearted philanthropist i'm not saying don't do all of that tomorrow. Something must reach deeper. Let's honor king. By truly trying to live out the type of love that he was talking about. The one that truly embraces the idea of the truth. We are all created equal. We are endowed with right not by a government. We are endowed by our creator by the simple virtue of being a human being and what a beautiful thing to be. Lettuce love one another injustice and in giving freedom and agency to each other here in charlotte. Thank you. Thank you.

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5.27.18_What_It_Means_To_Be_Kind.mp3

Little girl wants to know why and her mother hears the charging and complexities that live inside that question why my suffering. Why do some people have food and others have none. Why do some people die of cancer while others survived might have children get stung by bees infuriating as it is we cannot answer that way. We could turn to history statistics sociology and economics to show how any quality was created. The medical field can tell us about cells multiplying and tumors forming. An entomologist can tell us how he's respond when they feel threatened still have yet to find the answer to the larger why behind the suffering. The answer that would satisfy our deepest existential searching and reveal so much of the what is hidden behind the curtain of mystery. The world was made gorgeous tender broken dangerous. We know. why. Human beings have learned a response if not an answer the response to suffering in the world is kindness kindness that sting. But sometimes taste grits learning to practice kindness is a discipline and as with all discipline it requires intention and is easier to admire in others and engage in arabic. Any comfort in my to be nice and pretend that awkward things aren't happening but even that is one thing to stop at that is being kind kind kind. Conscience and love conviction very much enjoy when someone is polite and opens the door for me or is it makes me feel comfortable and welcome. Pain and preserving our own comfort and risking nothing telling ourselves were just being nice kindness is making ourselves vulnerable as we reach out to meet the vulnerability of another kind. Kindness is something more than just being nice. Drinking or using so much that they seem detached from their own core. Drifting away from all that mattered to them. Has a backbone if we want our loved ones to begin or try yet again. To walk the beach and dangerous recovery can be. We have to name what is excruciating to name you are not okay. You are not yourself you're hurting people this can't continue it's hard enough to break through the barriers of pretending that nothing is happening bespeak a painful truth that nevertheless needs to be spoken. But kindness demands more than saying what everyone else is afraid to say kindness means admitting our connectedness admitting is that we are kindred it's hard or broken. And it's sitting with whatever is sad for messi within ourselves and offering our own incompleteness as we reach out to there's not a judgment delivered from on time not only saying you need help but it didn't. You'll find a treatments at work don't work. Kindness would be pushing away from the shore of our own conifer our own need to make everything okay and plunging with them into the deep end. A rheology like ass. Nausea is undeserving and it's so hard to focus reading a familiar book doesn't bring that much he's with someone. And standing on the same ground and hitting our deep connectedness there is suddenly room for laughter even goofiness and not making everything about cancer only then there is plenty of room to be fully human in together. Diamonds the tender gravity kindness because we live in a chaotic and troubling time because there is illness and poverty because children are stung by bees. We need, that she reminds us it is only when we have caught the thread of all sorrows and seen the size of the cloth. Together in the experience of being human. Only then can we understand kindness as the truest response the only thing that makes sense anymore. You only watch and hurriedly away. Power of our connection and we're brushing up against the sacred in such a mundane setting. So imagine the intensity of our connectedness with people we know well and love. Devoted to our connectedness before we know what it means to be kind recognize our own experience in the suffering of others root ourselves in that place where truth finds compassion and conscience needs love. Then and only then can we practice kindness the world was tender and dangerous we know not why. How shall we live in this you and i and everyone plus it's the.

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12.23.18_Lessons_of_Imbalance.mp3

The story we are going to share with you comes from the cherokee people. It is called grandmother spider. Feels the sun. In the darkness the people were frightened. They turn to the animals for comfort. The animals had site for in their world that was sight and darkness. Thoughts having pity on the people. Said. There are places in the world where there is light. But the ones who have it. R-truth read it to share. Are people are frightened. They cannot see. Who will bring light. To our people. Possum stood tall and brave my tail is large and i can carry the light there. The animals agreed. So possum being very brave and strong journey to the sun's house. It was beautiful so light and full of life. Possum snatched a piece of light from the sun and hid it in his tail. Tune a strange warm spread through his bottom. Burning hotter and hotter. Smoke began to rise and possum knew he was on fire. The sun had burnt his hair right off. He stopped to rest at the river's edge to put the fire out. The greedy people who had the son found possum holding his bear tail and took the piece of the sun from him. To this day possums tail has no hair. Buzzard next stood tall and strong my wings are strong and i can fly to the sun's house take a piece and put it on my head to light my way home. So buzzard flu and flu and flu and flu until he reached the house of the sun. It was so beautiful and there was light all around. Buzzard flew to the sun and took a piece when she wasn't looking. He placed it upon his head to light his way. Soon he began to feel a warm upon his head the one quickly got hotter. He began to sweat and sweat the burning was so great. He swooped low to the ground to rest in the greedy people saw him. They snatch the fire from his head and took it back to the sun's house. To this day. Buzzard head is bald and red from where the sun burned her mark. Now is all the animals who love the people and wanted to help them. That was grandmother spider. Weaver of stories and songs. The smallest of the animals who love people. She stood tall to the other animals. Let me try. The other animals loved and respected grandmother spider. In spite of her tiny size and frail body. She could weave words and music. And her weavings were the strength. That held the animals and the people together. First grandmother spider made a jar from the earth. Trying it with her breath. Under the cover of darkness she next rover web. One side of the earth to the other. Grandmother spider was so tiny and frail that those greedy people paid her no mind. When she reached the house of the sun grandmother spotted reached far and snatched a piece of the sun. Grandmother spider. Tiny and frail. Brought the song to the people and a jar of clay. So there would be darkness no more. Of all the animals who love the people. And wanted to help them. There was grandmother spider. In spite of her tiny size she could weave words. End music. And her weavings were the strength that had held the animals and the people. Together. How fitting that the heroine of the story the one who brings warmth and nourishment to all is a weaver of webs. A wise spider who understands intuitively in her body. Grandmother spider who is better able than most to see how the threads of life. Come together. The fate of human and tree and fox. Woven into one. Claw. Grandmother spider never seems to forget the web that connects her to all. There are people in our world who can see better than most how intricately our lives are connected to the land into the water. They notice how the oceans change and pay attention when they hear that the shells of mussels and clams and urchins are becoming more brittle in acidic water. When trees are cleared they pay attention to the effect on the snowy owl here and the howler monkey there. They noticed more than most the change in the rhythms of the land and the water. The loss of balance in ecosystems. There are those who look further still not only at how animals and insects rely on forest not only at how people relate to the earth. Into the animals. Not only at how people relate. To one another. There are those who weave the threads of each all together. The story of flint michigan's water crisis invites us into just such an intricate weaving. This story could start in the 1940s when nearly six million gallons of oil were released untreated into the water. In the 1970s chemical companies out of large amounts of mercury to the mix. All of this plus runoff from steel mills and power plants along the river became part of the sediment in the flint river. Ingested by plant and animal life. Then a few years ago after a series of budget cuts the city of flint decided to save money by switching from supplying residence with water from lake huron. To sourcing water from the flint. River. But the water from the flint river was poorly treated and eroded lead from aging city pipes. People begin to notice red welts on their skin after they showered and their hair begin to fall out. As a new york times article described the water coming out of people's taps was brown and orange visibly full of particles. Frothy and foul-smelling. Plants. And pets. Began to die. On a hot day children playing in the spray of a water hydrant restrict with coffee-colored liquid. Eventually a group of pediatricians at michigan state university decided to conduct a study. Apollo led in the water was affecting flint's children. They took. Blood samples from children under the age of five years of age from all over the city. Their concern among others was how lead-poisoned children's bodies at a faster rate than it affects adults. And of course. About how lead damages children's brain development. Irreversibly. As the michigan state study reads in its conclusion. The neighborhoods with the greatest elevated blood lead level increases. Are also the most disadvantaged socioeconomically speaking. The areas in which the highest water lead levels were recorded. Had the highest population of african-american children. The neighborhoods in the far north and south of the city for most middle-class and white citizens reside. Observe the decreasing trend of the blood lead levels. As these residents could afford certain preventative efforts in response to the use of flint river water. Most noticeably from purchasing bottled water. Though we are connected. Forest ocean. Animal human. Poison does not spread evenly through the web of life. For human beings poison collects most in the places where our lives are most uneven. The days of short sunlight we are living in right now these longest night of the year asked us to sit longer than we might like. With imbalance. The imbalance of day and night but also the imbalance of ecosystems opportunity. Safety and health in human lives. In the midst of our celebrating the return of the light the longest nights invite us to notice and feel the darkness 2. To not put all of our energy into looking high and low for evidence of spring while it's still winter time. In the story of grandmother spider fox says. There are places in the world where there is light but the ones who have it are too greedy to share. Our people are frightened. The story of grandmother spider celebrates the sun being shared with all how she sneaks into the house of the greedy and carries back a piece of the sun in the jar she made from the earth's clay and her own breath. How to bring warmth and light not to a few but to all. The story celebrates the coming back of the light. But it's before the sun is stolen before the sun is claimed for all there in the dark. But grandmother spider weaves together words. And music. Strong enough to hold the will of the animals and the people together. And it's in the darkness. But they gather. The people with fox and possum and buzzard. And staying there together talking through the night. Some commit to risking. Their tails. And heads. And wings and hearts. In an effort to bring warmth and nourishment. To all. We must. Seek balance we must seek safety and opportunity warms and nourishment for all. Perhaps balance is best thought though. By sitting with imbalance. And resisting the urge to turn away too quickly. Perhaps we find balance by holding hands with people who will sit through the longest night together and let something different take root in the darkness. If we spend all of our attention waiting for light to balance dark or only celebrate the return of the light. In our waiting and celebration we might miss what the longest knights have to teach us. In words we heard earlier from kathleen mcteague mystery shimmers and shines in the world. In even the darkest corners. It's there where the roots push life into soil and rock. They're in the silent pulse beneath the bark. Something beating. In the dark shelter of our hearts. The small shine. Of hope. In these longest night of the year. Maybe not turn to quickly from imbalance. And instead sit with it longer. Gathering taking hands in the dark weaving together story and song to hold our will study. Blessed be. I'm in.

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3.13.16_vocation.mp3

John thomas biggers was born in 1924 in gastonia north carolina. In the shotgun house built by his baptist. Preacher schoolteacher father. His mother did laundry and cook for white families. Belt support john and his six. Older siblings. Biggest plans to become a plumber. Changed when he took his first art class. He would in time become. One of the great u.s. artists. Of the 20th century. In 1950. John biggers won first prize for his painting the cradle. At the annual exhibition. Of the museum of fine arts. In houston. However. Aggregation. Policies. Only allowed black. Visitors. Into the museum on thursdays. He could not attend the show's opening. So it was particularly poignant. When in 1995. A retrospective exhibition of john biggers work entitled the art of john biggers view from the upper room with organized by that same houston museum. Dimarzio director of the museum wrote in the exhibition catalogue john biggest leads us with his powerful imagery. Disimpaction discourse his intense energy. And his all-consuming belief in the human community. And it's mystical interaction with the natural world. I was among the many fortunate. The view that exhibit. But i knew of biggers and was somewhat familiar with his art i was unprepared for what i encountered. On display in the atrium level gallery review of biggers in mint murals. Stretching 10-12 even 20 feet or more. Full of vibrant recurring imagery pulsating with palpable energy. It was an experience i have only felt in one other setting. Standing before picasso's mammoth guanica itself spanning more than 25 feet in width. I felt strangely exhilarated. And in galt. Reminded of the magnitude of the human creative spirit and. Of my own finitude. Rendered by someone with the talent and spirit of john biggers. This kind of. Much larger than life art invite us in. Anytime's. Overwhelmed. Rare's the artist who dares attempt such a massive work. Rarer still the ones who gained renown for them. Without question john biggers is in that esteemed number. At the opposite end of the artistic spectrum i recall a visit last spring to san francisco. The young museum. With a rare day entirely to myself. I lingered long in one particular room in that museum african gallery. They're in subdued lighting carefully illuminated glass cases lined the walls holding small carved. Figures. Indominus prestige figure from cameroon. Spirit sculpture from the democratic republic of the congo. A mother and child trying figure from nigeria. The seductive power figure from the republic of congo. A male-female effigy from cameroon. Here's. Here's the thing. I had to lean in really close. Ascertain the subtleties that made these figures so expressive. A minuscule martir. The slightest shaping there. Only buy clothes patient attention. Did the full beauty of these figures emerge. With each in its own exquisite intricate way was beautiful. In his enigmatic novel. The year of the death of ricardo rays portuguese nobel prize-winning writer just say saramago. Recognizes there are those who value broad ideas above all. Who prefer panorama's in historic fresco. Where is others. Appreciate your skin disease and contrast between small. Breakfast. This just may offer its one way into the notion of vocation. Calling. I grew up in a richly merited religious tradition full of magnificent. Mystical multivalent stories. Prominent among these. These myths. We're the ones about individuals. Do you call. Summoned into service by some divine encounter. Moose's out tending sheep on the backside of nowhere. To meet up with a burning not burning bush and in a holy exchange here's the call to lead the hebrews to the freedom land. Isaiah. Picking up in a phantasmagoric experience full of all sorts of surreal images and right in the midst of visual overload he hears a voice. It called him into service. Mary. Unpretentious palestinian paid a surprise visit by an angel during the considerably more surprising news that she is being called to mother the messiah. And the malevolent headstrong stall. Humbled by a blinding light on the way to damascus accompanied by compelling completely reorienting. Each of these figures exemplifying what it means to be called. With larger-than-life rising well above the landscape not just have anyone on new. But if mother could ever live. It was easy to conclude that what it meant to be called. What it meant to have a vocation women have some special purpose for one's life with so dramatic. Overwhelming majestic and mysterious and monumental. It left most of us out. Those with some special vocation had their whole lives reorient. They came away completely changed. And new. From that moment on. Just what they were supposed to be about. I suspect it was that same understanding that prompted poet george ella lyon to plead oh lord. Spare him the call. She capitalizes. Call. Oh lord bear him to call. You're looking for bats. In a pond stocked with catfish. Pass. Kim. And so it was hearing how called palpitation played out it's been fairly clear to me it was the kind of thing one hope. Not to you. And. I never did it. At least. Not in that. So what did that mean. I was off the hook. But those of us who've never heard some dramatically summoning voice does that mean our lives have no particular purpose. Or are we left perhaps freed up to wonder without guidance simply to search. Insert. And question. Search the lure. There are those monumental women and men whose roles in history rise well above the rest of us. The buddha. Jesus. Muhammad. Galileo. Leonardo. Rembrandt. Newton. Einstein. Closer to home harriet tubman and sojourner truth frederick douglass in jane addams. Susan b anthony. Rosa park. Martin luther king. We might think of them as. As the mural. The panorama is the frescoes of history. Beers was the majestic sweep. The dramatic work. The beitel location just the right person. It just the right. They embodied the kind of call that i heard about. As a child. Something. Extraordinary. Extra. Ordinary. What year is i learned. Another kind of call. Not-so-obvious perhaps. Not nearly so impressive. Not as impactful. Certainly not as noticeable or memorable. We might think of it more like those. Carved figures. More like a beautifully rendered wheezing. Exquisitely fashion bethel. That call. Like little marks on wood like simple beaded work. It's thursday. That call is to a finely-tuned carefully conceived if also fairly ordinary life. That location. Location not to be confused with profession. With earning a living that vocation. Is to embody with the greatest integrity possible. The things we hold dearest. The commitments we find most consequential. The things to which. We are giving our heart. Poet carl dennis speech to such a calling when he asks. Am i leaving the life that my soul. Wants me to lead. No pyrotechnics. No booming voices. Just a call to lead the life. That my soul wants me to leave. An ordinary life beautifully ordinary. Ordinarily. Beautiful. Sheraton laval has rendered the words of the first century philosopher epictetus into accessible. They found a different sort of call to a different view of vocation. Epictetus in labelle's voice summons s2. Here take this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to. This person. This challenge. This deed. It's a call to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in. Right now. Care take. This moment. Imbue. This moment. With beauty. Betco lens with something that could sound so painfully prosaic where it not so needed in these tumultuous times. Epictetus urges. Give your best. And always. Be kind. What is that circle. What is that my car. Simply though there's practice. Little very simple about it to lead the lights at my soul wants me to leave to care take. This moment. To give my best. Mb klein. Perhaps a practical example might exemplify. Mini or troubled by the almost daily reminders of the reality that in our objective races. Society it is not at all clear that black lives actually. What can i do some of you have asked. What's my role some of you have wondered. What you might even inquire to what am i being called. It's it's time tell easy it is to assume that all actions must be dramatic. Let's demonstrate extraordinary. To be sure as never before we need leaders. We need elected leaders who are unequivocal whose record both past and present. Demonstrate clarity of conviction. And commitment. But that's not the only called. Many of you know that one of my primary spiritual disciplines. Entails rising early to read poetry. 23 years ago now i made a very conscious choice. I needed to immerse myself in the poetry of contemporary african american women. I needed to have the opportunity to hear their take on things this see their perspective. To listen perhaps. For a call from them. Wonderful friends i have made remica bingham and nikki spinney and claudia rankine alongside lucille clifton. Nikki giovanni. Am i changing the world each morning that i take the time to read. Well. I am slowly changing how i see and understand the word. Recently adventure doubt a bit to stand alongside certain young. Angry energized activists tear. Giving voice to their convictions that black. Queer. Poor trans live really do matter. But i'm doing so in a particular way. Convinced that this gendered straight white men. Have had to say for far too long. I'm there to listen. W quietly supportive. Presents. Am i changing the world with my silent auction private support. Not really. I'm just trying to care take the moment. Lead a life that my soul wants me to leave. What might that call be. For you. Let me be clear if you have a dramatic vocation. If you heard some panoramic mural kind of calls by aldine embody it with courage. Be. Bold be courageous. Speak up. Speak out. But it's not this still a place for you. Some place some way of being some simple act that is yours to do. Everyday each moment. Don't. Wait. Don't assume there's something more dramatic. It's going to come along. Be your best. Be kind. Just before his death. The great rabbi abraham joshua heschel gave an interview. 30 and he was asked if he had a message. For young people. Hessel's. Wise words sound a call to all of us young and old. Remember. Special fit. Remember. That there is meaning beyond absurdly. Be sure that every little bead. But every word has power. And above all. The rabbi said. Above. Remember to build a life. As if it were a work of art. That's. Application for each of us. For each. Imperfectly beautiful. John biggers once said of his work. The role of art. Is to express the triumph. Of the human spirit. We do not have to succumb to. Be weighed down by. Have our lives defined by. Those who now regard some human lives as without words. Those deprecated. Does subdue mean. Those who derive. And such. Pinterest. Let us lead lives. Like works of art. Medexpress. The triumph. Of the human spirit. Embodying the endless call. To eat moment. To serve the common good. And to make our own days. May it be.

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Vivian-Brenner-7.22.mp3

I was raised by a scientist and a mother who read voraciously. My parents father's parents were conservative jews in norfolk. Virginia. But my father began questioning the existence of god in his team. Benny was in the infantry in wwii and witnessed and participated in the brutality of war. He told me. In the middle 1980s because it took him that long to be able to talk about it. But this experience confirmed for him that no god would allow such atrocities. My mother's parents were immigrants from eastern europe between pogroms and the government-sanctioned persecution of jews. Grandma was from the ukraine and grandpa was from the german border of poland. Grandpa jacob was in the veiled anarchists. If this helps at all government. And religious institutions. He was an early union organizer and to test it all government. I'm sorry he was an early union organizer in new york city. As a child. I recall him spitting on eddie government buildings and religious institutions such as we walked by except for library. With his union buddies saw him spitting they told him to stop doing that in front of a five-year-old. Grandpa jacob came to new york in the early 1900s with little money and was fluent. In. Polish french and yenish but was unable to read or write in any language. He went to night school. To learn english in to learn to read. And earned a living as a tailor. He married grandma zenaida she was from the ukraine. And they have three daughters. Jacob save money. And bought a set of used encyclopedias. He spent a year reading the whole thing to make up for lost time. I remember him being quite serious in his beliefs but never violent. So i was raised by to skeptics. Who taught me to question challenge and debate. How to use the scientific method to look for truth. Both parents had no use for religion. And considered it a crutch for people with limited ability to discern right from wrong. I don't agree with them now. But this was the atmosphere in our home. They both had strong ethics and insistence on doing the right thing. For no other reason than it was the right thing to do. We lived in durham county in the late 50s until 1964. And there were two jews in my school my sister and me. In 5th grade the kids would walk behind me. When i was at my desk and touch my head. When i finally asked why they did that. One kid told me they were looking for the places where i shaved off my horns. I was shocked and frightened and told my mother who did her best to reassure me. Another kid used to follow me in the halls whispering epithets about jews. So no one else would hear him. I can still see that kids face 60 years later. My parents thought we should have. Some kind of religious background. So they were early members of the reform jewish congregation in durham. We had about 50 members and that friday nights. In the quaker meeting house in durham. Let me move to washington dc in the middle 60s. It was a time of assassination. Vietnam. Watergate. And the pentagon papers. I was idealistic views. And marched and saying at work for civil rights. And an end to the debacle in vietnam. The lies that perpetuated the war. And the murders of her dedicated leaders were blows to me and to many others. We would tear gas to beaten and angry. I didn't go to college until i was 24 cuz i hated high school. And didn't like studying. A smart friend of mine suggested an introduction to philosophy course. Since it would show me a different way of thinking. It was such a shocking experience. My fellow students ground and fought and didn't grass much of what they were reading. It was as if all my lights were turned on. Aristotle sartre descartes hagel. Play-doh and spinoza became my mentors. When's the minister was a history of religious thought. Where i learned that not all religions were as my parents taught. It was the start of opening my mind to other ways of perceiving. Finish part of my growth was to find out about values. Never having traveled abroad i had a feeling we americans are spoiled. I live in very differently than most other people. I went in the peace corps and i lived in a remote village in st lucia in the caribbean. I learned what it is like to carry water up a hill in buckets when the community water pumps broke. Hot baths and showers were for the wealthy. I work with local potters basket-makers and woodcarvers. And handicraft center. Breadfruit mangoes fresh bananas fish caught that morning coconuts and pineapples were bountiful and delightful. This is not to mention the experience of being the only white person from miles around. Which had its own valuable lessons. Later i joined the washington ethical society in washington dc. And became an active member. What i enjoyed the members and made many friends. I had differences with a later. Which is the same as a minister here. Who treated women as objects for his own gratification. No members in the 1980s were willing to step up and speak out about his behavior so after eight years i left for the sour feeling. That is not to say that all ethical societies are like that that was that one particular person. Here's later after moving to charlotte and building a life with dick kistler we were looking for someone. To perform a marriage ceremony. After hearing jay speak. And volunteering for a few projects we decided we like the community. The focus on social justice and the kindness of the members. Two things that have had the most impact. On my 10 years in this church is. My volunteer work at the crisis assistance ministry where i teach a class on tenants rights. Two people threatened with eviction. Knowing their legal rights is north carolina's citizens enables people to defend themselves in court. The other. Activity was the undoing racism class that i took this year. With other members of this congregation. That is help me understand so much more clearly. How is tatoosh analyzed racism is in our culture. Well no community or minister is perfect. This group suits me well. I have been encouraged to grow. To gain better understanding of with spirituality is. To work diligently for equal rights for all of us. And to share my bounty with others. The challenges we face is a convocation. Can be addressed if we face our shortcomings and grow from them. For a person who grew up with cynicism and mistrust. This place has gentled my spirit and giving me directions.

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Lisa-Lackey-8.5.mp3

So i'm hi my name is lisa and i'm a media specialist. As a young person. I had this notion that my purpose my life's work would somehow find me. I would wake up one day and i would just know. I felt like adults are always asking me what do you want to be when you grow up. I had my pet response ready a veterinarian a writer and artist. But honestly i didn't hold much stock in any of those answers. I knew in my secret heart that something would drift my way or emerge in my being. Or better yet my brilliance in some direction would be discovered in this blinding flash of light and i'd be mentored along towards my destiny. That hasn't really happened. When college finally made me claim a pass i became an english major a wonderful four years of reading and writing and diving deep. But when i graduated i wasn't any closer to knowing my destiny than before. I waited tables i dabbled in work completely unrelated to my abilities. I discovered an aptitude for talking my way into job. I was in oregon demonstrator and i can barely play the piano one example. After enough of that i went back to school for my teaching degree. I love books i liked young people i would teach high school english that was about the extent of my thought process. I think i was still waiting for that flash of light. But i did love teaching i love sophomore english and especially the creative writing classes. But when i became pregnant with my daughter my energy flag. The constant weight of teaching english 3 hours worth of papers to grade. Comment on use a rubric. It just seemed like a bad idea with little kids at home. My mother-in-law was a veteran teacher and she told me that she would always wish that she had become a librarian. So being at home i'm deep into the genius of dr. seuss and david shannon and ferdinand the ball. The idea of sharing stories and getting kids excited about books seems like a really wonderful creative. Purposeful way to spend my days. And it has been. I'm except over the years the introducing kids to book parts has become only a fraction of what i do now. To remain relevant. Welcome. To remain relevant in the age of google and digital information but title librarian has been changed to media specialist. A few years principles were given the option of trading us more expensive master's degree media specialist for to assistant positions. A lot of them traded us away. On the rest of us took on as many duties as we could to increase our value. Tap dancing as fast as we could to make it harder to live without us. In many cases those additional duties were added to our already big workload but nobody could say no. Our mantra became be flexible and do whatever is necessary. And although the fear attached to this approach was kind of stressful it made it impossible not to grow and to learn. The curriculum taught today in the library is now based mostly around technology. Technology. We teach increasingly younger kids how to use their devices kindergarteners are taught to use ipads. But more importantly we help kids learn how to sift through the massive information there to find what they need. Teaching the thinking skills behind those decisions is challenging. But more challenging for me is staying on top of the changing options in digital technology. As a media specialist i'm i have to hold a leadership role in my school. But i'll admit it's somebody who's nearing sixty it's a difficult. Maybe even impossible to stay ahead of the technological aptitude and especially the ease with technology of a lot of our 20 year old teachers. Most of you probably heard the native versus immigrants analogy about the digital world the people born after about 1980. We've always had digital technology and their lives are native to it. In a way that those of us who grew up old school will never be. I'm an immigrant to technology it's a second language to me. I can be proficient but i will never approach it with the ease and the playfulness that the natives can. So where does that leave me. In place of learning hard everyday to be sure. But also needing to freshly value my strength. I teach digital digital piece to children because they do need those skills to be successful in life and in school for sure. But i relished even more the chances to read stories with them. To go down a rabbit hole with a third grade boy about dinosaur extinction. I'm texting with my kindergarteners you are my sunshine my only sunshine that's the first song of that i teach them and another one is i'm picking up the baby bumblebee. That's another favorite the part they love most is when you get to pretend to squish the baby bumblebee they love that and to tell the truth that's where my heart is. Thank you.

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11.19.17_the_heartfelt_desire_to_honor_the_wonder.mp3

There was a long ago november. My last autumn is a student at furman university. Attended a campus-wide thanksgiving convocation. Primarily to hear chaplin l.b. johnson. A man i admired and loved. We didn't know then that it would be his last public address. Craggy wizened face. Broad baldpate surrounded by tufts of white hair. His body ravaged by the cancer. That would end wheat take him from us. Aldi move slowly deliberately to the podium. Leaned into the microphone. And calmly declared. Still remember it clearly. I cannot. In good conscience. Preach a business-as-usual. Thanksgiving sermon. This year. Our beloved chaplain proceeded to offer a lengthy litany of all the many reasons he just couldn't summon up some warm homily about a bountiful harvest brought home. The boys just distress over the reagan administration cynical trickery in his trickle-down policy widening the already gaping gulf between the haves and the have nots. Did the cried our nation's military industrial complex with its insatiable appetite for more and more of our national budget. He denounced our nation's role as arms dealer to the world. He continued to athearn recitation of social ills standing in his very waning days still so firmly rooted in the best of progressive religions long prophetic tradition. All of this he said made him unable. To indulge in some traditional getting. Now. So very many years later. I echo lb johnson's lumber. 50 year olds. Unseemly. To engage in an aggrandising celebration in the time when the balance of things kilz evermore precariously toward the haves and away from the have nots. When the specters centuries of systemic racism shows up week after week in act of police brutality. When a nation of immigrants is closing its doors departing and building new barriers. When in story. After story we're being reminded that patriarchy. And sexual assault have no ideological or political boundary that men have abused and are still abusing their power. That women that other men that transformed suffer at the hands and from the bodies of those now asking us to accept their long-overdue self-indulgent apologies. I don't think i have it in me today to muster from mayflower mythology. I'm fairly confident that many of you might find it difficult in these times to sit through a simple business-as-usual thanksgiving sermon. A pilgrim story never rooted in the remotest sort of reality now rings with a very supremacy and exceptionalism that march and mars so much of our nation's history. Two of us has even the scantest spiritual appetite for one more serving from that flawed feast. What then. Do we do today. This week. Suffer in silence under the enormous weight of our enormous concerns. Ragin ragin rage against the dying of the right. Simply stated adam. Mercury self righteous judgement at those giving things further / arrogantly dismount the noun sink the thoughts and prayers of others. Theologian sharon welch offers us another option. Another prospective it doesn't ask us to cross our fingers are check our minds at the door it doesn't indulge in denial. It is at least for me a course of considerable. Of course we must challenge injustice. But sharon welch write the ground for challenging exploitation injustice and oppression is not a vision of how the world could be or will be in the future in the rain of god or after the revolution the ground of challenging injustice is. Sharon welch contemporary unitarian universalist theologian believe the ground of challenging injustice is. Is gratitude. Is she says the heartfelt desire to honor the wonder of that which is. The charis to celebrate to the light in the mini gifts and joys of life sharon welch does not believe we can despair or rage our way to something hopeful. She believes the courage. The transformation that persistence actually. They actually spring from a deep reservoir of vitality and joy joy and living fully and well joy and breathing she says walking running dancing making love the joy of touch smell and taste the joy of music that soars laughing raging desiring the lighting exulting in the wonders of life. It really all comes down to this sharon wilks believe it is only when we are truly deeply grateful for this world that we will regard it as worth saving. It's only when we feel some deep capacity to appreciate our world that we will be motivated to make it a better place. Ironically them for us today sharon welch's suggesting that the antidote to despair. Anecdote to despair is after all paint evening. Seeing appreciating engaging our deep heartfelt desire to honor the wonder. She's not suggesting that everything is okay. Not. That app. She not suggesting one more business as usual thanksgiving sermon. She is suggesting that if we cannot appreciate what is we will not sustain a vision of what can be if we cannot feel deep gratitude we may not undertake the hard work of justice making. If we are despondent and despairing cynical and caustic belittling and bemoaning we deplete our capacity to make. It is. It is the beautiful. It is worth. It's the world's still filled with wonder. That is worth struggling for. It's the world that can feel render speechless in on that is the world worth transformers. Assata shakur. Battleship cooler. Tears and courageous warrior for justice. A woman who has endured so much that is so wrong. Which still able to see it. The world she affirmed in the profoundest affirmation. The world. In spite. Oppression. Is a beautiful. Who are we.

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Kelly-Greene-8.27.mp3

I received an email from the unitarian universalist family invited me to join them and resisted hates in charlottesville this week our member got company made family agreed to help friday night. I knew my job. But i didn't expect this to be a publix. i expected to face a kk neo-nazi and other. And i did not finish my lovable to anyone and it her the inherent worth of dignity of every person these patriots were gathering in loud opposition to what i've been arguing. I felt it my duty to stand up for that this wasn't about. For those of you whose only specially brave people would willingly stand up the silent age group. Please know that i am that person who is very my head and your shoulder while covering up my ears to avoid any phones that fake to play a violent screen i have never been replaced. I am not physically strong and i am not trying to use any weapon. When three men dressed in camouflage and carrying assault rifles rushed past us as we walked on a mostly empty street at about 9 a.m.. The library. I don't know where i thought it was going because this close. But i knew decided to attack us. There is no one and no. Before 10 a.m. outside the united methodist church that stays open as a safe haven for anti-racism activist. And chanted slogans like june will not replace us. Church pastor metal detectors on arm. The police stood behind the bad guys not in between them and hunt. When they scored and then through our group the police did not intervene. When people started fighting and screaming and fighting over to stop it. I fell really do anything to help. So what i did i said behind a wall. Paradise. Instead. They were beating the head. And everybody everyone in person i saw that baby bleeding from the head. After i called white women getting beaten by allowing it to happen and resting no one. I felt absolutely clear that i google fit. I'd rather sit there and sit against haiti. And i. Free safety of the church lisa are white supremacists growing them drink. People attack if you're interested liquid cleaner get cleaned up. I'm able to figure out how i went safely get to my card that was several blocks away i came increasingly anxious. Technically minded recently noticed my hair and cared for me. At what we thought like a second time around. Surrounded me. And walked this to one car and then drove us to my car. We heard other fighters breakout. Throughout my life i felt this congregation with me. I knew i had the support and prayers of so many of you. And i had a password. Cathedral downtown charlotte. Because everybody look so similar. Welcome to everyday black purses. Now i've already. Is that because i exist. Given. Does that mean i'm going to do it again. I'm taking a little break and trying to care for myself. Ar. If i don't.

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10.29.17_Shining_Parts_of_the_Soul.mp3

There they were. Poet robinson jeffers. Is why sona their twin sons. In a simple stone house on at then isolated point overlooking carmel bay. I'm facing point lobos. Is fame rising to its apex in a 1932 time magazine cover story. And then slowly descending do no doubt to his misanthropic self-professed. In humanism. 4 jeffers. Humankind was entirely to sell spencer. An obsession for which the rest of the planet suffered mightily. Is increasingly acerbic curmudgeonly wave difficult for even his most ardent admirers. The significant social circle. In which he once found himself. No longer favor. It's company. Luna did not distance herself. By all accounts the to whom it under to put it kindly awkward circumstances where soulmate. Sharing and deep and abiding love for one another. She was his muse toughest taskmaster. Critic support system and his dearly. Dearly beloved partner in life. I have thought of you night and day beautiful and if treasure you up for a lifetime he'd write to her. Pure gold you are dearest by every test. I'm going to try to do better than i have. And become a me. For you. They're on that precipice between the crash of the sea in the rise of the stony healed the jeffers shared that lifetime of love. Until. Sadly. Luna. Three years robinson senior died. He was. The ref. Heartbroken. The seaside cottage and it's tall rock tower containing her now silent piano. Echoed with sony stereo. In time. In time robinson jeffers would do what poet do. Fastest deepest emotions through words head pain. Preferring a sentiment that sounds for all the world. As if he is trying to convince himself. Do. Are earth and air. You are in the beauty of the ocean and the great streaming triumphs of the sundown you are alive and well in the tender young grass rejoicing when soft rain falls all night and little rosie fleece clouds float on the dawn. Luna's life had come to an end as all lies do. And it had not come to an end at all. It infuses everything he saw and heard the ocean to sunset the grass terrain the clouds at dawn. Luna lived on in life irrepressible vitality. Thundercat still be seen and felt and heard. All things. Come to an end. No. Take the lawn forever. Jeffers bold declaration of life after death. Takes its place in the lineage of another heartbroken widower and raider ralph waldo emerson. Coloring well outside the lines of the religion he'd inherited from his stern unitarian minister father. Emerson's on hedy intellectualism was moderated by romanticism softest way. He watched and listened to the world about and within and he found such a deep resonance between the two. So in time he named that great mystical animating force the energy emanating from all as. We see the world he said piece-by-piece as the sun the moon the animal the tree. But the whole. These are the shining part. Is the soul. Brittany emerson we don't have. A soul. Uniquely personal completely if ephemeral part of us that resides in us until the end and then takes flight off into some other domain. Whether we are shining part of the goal. The only sold there is the as emerson called it the eternal one. Within us is the soul of the whole around us is the soul of the whole bionda. Is the song. Alcohol. Precision. A very short span really we live as shining part of the soul. Shining part. Abby. Animated by a life force that we experience from others especially from those we love. That we experience from music that serves as an words that inspire. That we experienced in each object an instance of beauty in the as jefferson has it earth are ocean sundown grass rain clouds at dawn. It's all of a piece one great as we've unitarian universalist would learn to call it when great interdependent web of all existence. All shining part of the. Then. Not. Surprisingly. And entirely to our surprise. It in. The lives of those we have loved those in whom we experienced schultz old skimmer. End. Oh. Things come to an end. And. They go on forever. Soul christian abide continues our connection the binding ties of love and memories don't pray at death. Don't ever spray entirely. They are held to hear emerson tell it to hear jeffers echo at they are held in and as the biggest most irrepressible source we knows that web. Contemporary african american poet abbas johnny picks up the mantle from emerson and jeffers remember he. Death should suck the marrow from your bones. Remember. You were born a child of light wonderful secret. And you return. To the beauty. You have. Always. You returned to the beauty you have always been. This morning. We gather in a world damned. By the death of those we love. Live. Hempcon. Tudor inn. This morning. We gather in a world luminous. With the lies of those we know as shining parts of the soul. Lies that go on. Forever. Into our lives and into our world their light their live still shine. The darkness has not. The darkness will not. The darkness. Anna. Ever eclipse these hutu us where. And our. And will remain. It's shining. Fart.

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Kathleen-Carpenter-8.19.mp3

Quebec cover you see behind me. It's called a pocket guide to korea. It was presented to my army officer father upon our family's arrival in south korea in 1970. It was meant as a guide for army personnel for interacting with the korean people. I invite you to listen to a couple of excerpt. And consider the advice given in light of our congregations plan partnerships with marginalized groups. Living and working in korea will require a certain amount of adjustment on your part. It is important to remember you are the foreigner in korea. The country was not designed as a home for americans. Even though the korean people have tried to accommodate our needs. And our case as best they can. They admire some of our ideas and methods. But they do not admire all of them nor do they want all of them. The korean people have a deep pride in their history culture customs and way of life. Just as we have an hour. Don't brag about how much better we do things are about the material aid we are giving to korea. The koreans are grateful for our assistance. And don't need to be reminded of it. If a korean mentions the subject. You can point out that it is in the interest of the united states. As well as of korea. That the country becomes strong and maintain its independence. That's always listening to my friend elsa speak about her experience in indonesi i thought well there's a lot of that that also impacted korea especially in terms of japanese occupation. So ask anyone today what they know about korea. And chances are they have a very positive image of a modern nation with a thriving economy. Which is trim. That's why it's so hard to remember that less than 40 years ago. It was still a nation devastated. By occupation and war. I think of korea as kepolen of asia. A relatively small country with a strong ethnic identity located between two world superpowers. In korea's case those two superpowers are china and japan. Both of which have historically coveted the korean peninsula. From the turn-of-the-century until wwii. The japanese did more than cut it. They occupied korea with brutal authority. At the end of the war. Korea was divided up in a fashion similar to germany. Between the allied countries have to the allied countries in the south have to soviet union in the north. Less than five years later in 1950. War broke out when soldiers from the. North korean people's army crossed over the 38th parallel the boundary between the two koreas. American troops would soon enter on behalf of south korea. And chinese troops on the back hatch of the soviets to north korea. Three bloody years later. An armistice was signed. So. When my family of six arrived in south korea in 1970. It was to a very different country than it is today. Upon arrival in seoul. We were picked up and trip in 3 hours to camp walker. An american army post near the city of tego. I can still remember looking out the windows of our staff car as we drove through the countryside. In stunned silence. Instead of cars. The two-lane road was filled with carts pulled by oxen and ponies. And smokes doing buses. The buildings in the villages and the rice paddies were out of something like a pearl buck novel. Rod stewart ran down the sides of the roads. And when we finally arrived at the gates to camp walker smell children swarm dark are begging for money. And everywhere. So many people. None of them look remotely like me. Culture shock does not begin to describe it. And then. One day later. Still in a daze. My sister and i were told to grab our suitcases and head down to the post team club. Where we along with a couple of dozen other teenagers of whom we knew none. Where to take a bus down to the train station. Take the train and our south to pusan. Take the bus to hialeah compound the army post. In pusan. And there we were taken. Two are repurposed army barrett dorm. And pusan and. Excuse me. If you can go to the next slide. The one on this side is my repurposed storm. The quonset huts on this side or pusan american high school the quonset hut obviously were also repurposed. I was to continue this return routine for two years of departing on sunday afternoon for school and returning friday evening. I wasn't introverted socially immature freshman. And those first few days and few weeks were mine numbing leak terrifying. At so many different levels. Couldn't tell you which was scarier. The new reality of where i was living. Or the fact that i was in a dorm with a group of older team to all sea light years older than me. Mini in torn jeans and headbands and total 1960s hippie attitude about sex drugs and rock and roll as they originally appeared. Well they might have engaged in a few more nefarious activities than i. We shared a powerful bond simply by living under such unique circumstances. A bond that prove stronger than social standing or the common interest that separate highschool teens back in the states or in larger schools. And yes. That's me in the polyester pants suit i was not cool. Any reflection on my time and korea. Has to acknowledge my identity as a military dependent. Which meant that i lived in but not quite in the country of korea. I lived on us military compound surrounded by soldiers. 1in haygood with my family wanting pusan with my classmates. However. Unlike our parents who all seem very happy to just stay on compound. We teens love exploring the country. The shock of poverty soon faded. And the excitement of new experiences and lots of freedom to explore. Suna beckoned us. Every weekend we took off and korean taxis to downtown taegu and nearby parks. We didn't speak korean and very few few korean spoke english. But we communicated just fine. With rare exceptions we were treated with kindness. Or at least a polite tolerance. We were constantly surrounded by young koreans. Waiting to practice their english on us or have their pictures taken with us. There is no doubt that these experiences contributed to my desire to travel and meet people different from me. There are always people eager to connect. And tell their stories if you seek them out. When i arrive in korea. And 4 months after. I never believed i would be sad to return to the states. But i was. Life has a way of surprising you. Sometimes the most challenging of situations turn out to be the most life-affirming. I still get misty-eyed and i don't know if i can do this. When i hear the lyrics to john denver's 1969 hit because i live those lyrics in 1972 when returning to the states. Leaving on a jet plane. Don't know when i'll be back again. Oh babe. I hate. Tube.

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5.26.19_bless_the_poets.mp3

Elizabeth browning rights in a sonnet. To a beloved. Words that may be familiar to you. How do i love thee let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach. I love thee with the breath. Smiles tears of all my life. And if god choose i shall but love thee better. After death. She is steadfast. Enamored. Her vow of faithfulness to the one she loves will not waver in life. And will not fade. After death. Pablo neruda right stirring lie to a beloved. Take bread away from me if you wish take are away but do not take from me your laughter. He too is captivated. There is beauty in such ardent devotion. There's no trace of uncertainty or questioning in these words. Naruto writes of his intense longing for what brings him most alive. I love that courses through him in his waking hours and haunts his dreams at night. The spark that lights him from within on dreary days. We are fortunate when loves bliss. Overtakes us. And it's well worth writing countless poems about the experience. Even if we know that love requires more than this exhilarating rush of devotion. If it is to endure. Despite the particularly contentious presidential race that was going on in 2016 as you may recall. The most read article. In the new york times that year. Was my philosopher alain de botton. And this most read article was about. Relationship advice. The bottom says we must fiercely resist the idea that true love must mean. Conflict free love. That the course of love is smooth it's not. The course of love is rocky and bumpy. At the best of times he says. De botton insist that if you are waiting to find the person who is without. Flaws. He will never disagree with you. Or cause you pain. You'll be waiting a very long time. If we wait for a love that is without struggle. Without disappointment without conflict. We will never love. James baldwin grew up black gay and pour in harlem. He observed the intricacies of how americans related to one another within and across skin color sexuality and class. Baldwin spent his adult life pushing himself to write with excruciating honesty about what he observed. He illustrated cause for hope. And the joys of being human. He pointed out in critical detail what was corrupt unjust and cruel in our society. Baldwin wanted to write in a way that would make it impossible for americans to lie to themselves. Baldwin wrote i love america more than any other country in the world. And exactly for this reason. I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. And when i used a search engine to look for this particular quote. I found that it was indexed under three different themes. Descent. Protest. And patriotism. Patriotism which is to say love of country. A love of country movingly described in familiar songs of devotion. Oh beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain. For purple mountains majesty above the fruited plain. America. America god shed god's grace on the. And crown thy good with brotherhood. From sea to shining sea. And my country tis of thee sweet land of liberty of thee. I sing. This dream that is well worth singing about well-worth longing for. Get baldwin was wise enough to know that to wait. For love that is without struggle. Without disappointment without conflict means to never love. Baldwin's love of country with complicated. And enduring. He wrote the rule of the artist. Is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If i love you. If i love you i have to make you conscious of the things you don't. See. Baldwin's patriotism required descent. Protests. And critique. Baldwin love of country called him to make americans aware of the things we don't want. Toosii. This reveals dissent and protest in our shared history. In a different light. Protests not as a form of disrespect. Of the american dream. Descent not as a means of degrading american values. But critique as the insistence that the american dream of freedom and equality. Should extend to all. People. In 1968 hundreds of women marched on the atlantic city boardwalk. Just outside the convention center. Where the miss america pageant was taking place. Protesters held signs saying things like. All women. Are beautiful. And cattle parades are demeaning to human beings. The organizers of the protest wrote a list of reasons for their protest. And shared the list with miss america pageant organizers. They said they were protesting because. There has never been a black contestant. Nor has there ever been a true miss america. An american indian. They said. They pointed to the ways the pageant promoted the lie that beauty is the measure of a woman's worth. The protesters rejected the idea that women were to be unoffensive. Blend. An apolitical. He denounced that impossible double standard that women are to be both sexy. And wholesome at all times. They're colorful and jarring protest was meant to extend the borders of the american dream. Beyond being white. Or male. In the poem we heard earlier langston hughes insist that we question how true it is to call the united states the homeland of the free. Who said free he asked not me surely not me. Hughes critiques the claim that this is the land with liberty. And justice. For all. In 1950. A senate subcommittee submitted a report that would contribute to the firing of more than 1,200 federal employees. The conclusion of their report red. There is no place in the united states government. For persons who violate the law. Or the accepted standards of morality. Or otherwise bring disrepute to the federal service. Buy infamous or scandalous personal. Conduct. It is the opinion of the subcommittee that those who engage in acts of homosexuality. Are unsuitable for employment in the federal government. And constitutes security risks in positions of public. Trust. Yet in the midst of this homophobic persecution. A small but committed group of gay americans. Came together to make their fellow americans more conscious of the things they did not see. And in 1953. 1 magazine. Was published for the first. Time. The magazine articles short stories editorials and book reviews were written from a gay perspective. The writers use pseudonyms so as not to lose their jobs. Or invite harassment from law enforcement. Month after month is gay people were fired from government service. Each issue of one magazine defiantly illustrated. Lives of dignity. And creativity. Being lived by gay americans. Protesting offering up a dissenting voice amidst attempts to dehumanize the gay community. Risking safety and livelihood in the effort to carve out space for gay people. In the american dream. When langston hughes writes i'm the one who dreamt are basic dream. Who dreamt of dreams so strong so brave so true that even yet it's mighty daring sings. Hughes is taken. With this dream. Inspired by the spark of longing for a promised freedom and equality yet unseen. Hughes is willing to ask more of the country he loves. More than unkept and broken promises. Hughes knows that enduring love is not without conflict. Or struggle. Hughes knows he must question in his words the same old stupid plan. Of dog eat dog. Of mighty crush. The week. Hughes new is baldwin new. That his role as poet. As artists. Insist on a more honest if challenging form of love. If i love you i have to make you conscious of the things you do not see. Hughes will not settle for a land of false promises and dishonest commitments. He says old let my land be a land where liberty is crowned with no false. Patriotic. Wreath. There is a bumper sticker i saw last week on my way home from the airport that you may have seen a few times. It's written in bold block lettering. And it says america. Love it. Or leave it. Love of country like any love. Will have its moments of inspired bliss. The patriotism baldwin and he was call for patriotism at its best. Allows for disappointment. And involve conflict. And struggle. Patriotism love of country at its most resilient moral compassionate and enduring. Cause us to see our unkept. Promises to critique. And to resist what is unjust. This form of patriotism counters with a more complex message than america love it. Or leave it. Words that show a true love of country. America. Love it. Stay. And fight for it. Blessed be. Amen.

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10.30.16_pathos.mp3?_=1

It begins with. Plotting low strings. Slowly intently intensely moving up the scale back and forth. Is it somehow trying to summon the wherewithal to embark upon the arduous symphonic journey. That lies ahead. It's the better part of a minute before singers join. Intoning heavy-laden lyrics. Grant them eternal rest. And may perpetual light shine on them. Mozart's requiem. In d minor. A dramatic work drawn from the depths of a dying composers so it's unfinished manuscript. The final gift from the brief. Frenzied flurry of a life. Mystery and intrigue surrounding the paste commissioned anonymously created in between the demands of other works still being lined out literally on the very day of his death. And completed by a student for a benefactor with less than noble intentions. So much remains uncertain about the magisterial requiem. This much is clear. It is. A math. Of remembering. When that lanes with full force into a faithful form. Marking profound. Los. Naming in ways no words alone might do. The immensity of three. And the sustaining power of the hope. Rooted. In religious devotion. From that intense synthroid at escorts us through vista after venue over our emotional landscapes. Lifting us up to the hills from which come help. Pausing with in green pastures. Beside still waters. All the while walking us through the very valley of the shadow of death. 1. Strain one consistent strain binds it all together. Beauty. Beauty. A musical genius still in his mid-30s who suspect as it turns out rightly that he is writing his own requiem. Stairs mortality directly in the face and responds. With beauty. Such profound emotionally rot inspiring lasting. Beauty. So it is for we the only lonely ones on this planet who despite all our denials know full well our mortality. Throughout human history. The unexpectedness of this just may be lost on us throughout human history we have woven together in a tight tapestry. Death. And beauty. The pace off of beauty. The beauty. Repeat.. Shining force. Right edward hirsch. All poetry has its roots in religion. In the earliest point seemed to have been composed. For ritual occasion of celebration. Good morning. Hurst goes elegy among the first forms of the ancients. And reminds us that the sense of overwhelming personal lost that powers the poetry of lamentation seems to exist in all languages. And all poetry when finds it in hebrew. In chinese in sanskrit. Zulu. The poet. Across the language and culture inhabiting that deepest of human emotion and inscribe in it into lions of such sublimity. David ancient roman before the common era. Lamenting. Linus sad strings on the dome loot july. In silence forced to let their master died his mother weeping does his eyelids close. And on his urn. Fears her laugh. Gif. Wittmann offering final acclaim to a fallen president when lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd. And the great star early drift in the western sky in the night. Amor. And yet. She'll mourn. With ever returning brain. And contemporary poetry jane hirshfield both music and poetry. In italy she right. On the day of the dead they ring. Bell. From every church and village in every direction and she names. The beauty. Unspeakable. With beauty. Naked acclaim of the dead. On the living. It was in. Freedom. The cemetery in the village of joining the one where i was attending seminary in switzerland. But i would discover the practice of strolling among the deceased. A perfectly acceptable swiss exercise. I was too young to fully understand though i did join in. Ambling among grave including that of novelist and nobel laureate too much mine. Now. Cemeteries are one of my favorite settings for photography. Places of trikes. Simple and sometimes exquisite beauty. Imagine the unspoken volume. The commentary of time immemorial we humans have faced death. Found in death find even in grief such beauty. Life refined life removed life restored life. Recreated in tributes of soaring symphonic work. Elegant elegy. Memorials marble tender tombstones and richest of all by far our own beauty field memories. For what. What in our experience is more evocative. Then beauty. Just. Last weekend. For the first time in a while i intentionally chose to be for a bit. Far from the maddening crowd. Late on saturday evening and. Into early sunday morning. I sat outside. In a solitary quiet place. Place that has become an essential retreat for my weary soul. I was huddled against the surprising chill. The enveloping silence broken only by the faint chirping of lethargic cricket. I'll lean back. Looked up into the black dome overhead. And i simply gaze. At the start. It was all. Jolene. Before long a deeply poignant feeling came over me. As much as i love even crave solitude. I felt myself longing for companionship. Would that my dear richard could be there alongside. Not to engage in any conversation at all. Just. Just to be there. How many nights we had set out. Away and stolen weekends together and it's similar solitude in texas rolling hill country. They're on a broad back deck overlooking along ravine in stretched out over us a wide wide texas sky. Aaliyah. With those very same stars. And a connection so deep so. Intimate. It no longer needed word. Alas. One of my life other cruelties. My dear richard died last year. The death of utter cruelty. The very early onset of alzheimer's. I missed him that night last week. Misty not because of pain. Or because of grief. But because of beauty. And because of beauty he was back with me again. Alongside in my memory. Where he yet lives. And will forever remain. So it is. We in the northern hemisphere come to this time blessed in its most special regions with a beauty unseen in other seasons. So evocative the net turkish writer mehmet maria tilden will posit the best kiss in nature is not between romeo and juliet. But it is between a dying autumn leaf. Water jug. And now at its dying nature turns colitis.. Translate common green in the shimmering orange. And yellow and red. And gold. Contemporary african american poet kevin young lament grief. Might be easy. If there weren't. Still sucks. Beauty. Would be far simpler if the silver maple didn't arrest its leaves into flame. Perhaps. But who of us would wish to unravel what has so long been entwined. The adjoining of beauty with grief. With loss. With death. The beauty of pesos. The pesos. A beauty. We come on this saturday. To remember. Call yet again to our minds hold in our hearts speak into our souls soft whispering the names of those we have loved. And lost. We do so in the lineage of those who have long-term to beauty. Asbo signal. And solace. Photographer karen sillas asked. Must we suffer. To experience beauty. And responds. You know. But she hastens to add. We must be aware that beauty can offer a light. To dispel the darkness. If only. For the brief. What is it. Peruse. What brings your lost loved one back. Resurrect them. Yet again. For beth ann fennelly. It's the memory of a day with her dad. At wrigley field. With his thick. Arm circling my show. And. For you. In particular bloom. The particular song. The particular setting. A particular smell or sound or sight or taste. So laden with beauty. That longing is awakened. Even as quietcomfort connects us. Once again. Today as we do on this sunday each year we embody one of religions most important function. We become the community of the rememberers. We create a communal clearing in the forest of our individual lives. In which to remember. To remember. In the rustling of leaves. And in the beauty of autumn. We remember them.

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9.30.18_Ultimate_Loyalties.mp3

It was from kathleen norris's wonderful book dakota. That i was first introduced to the notion of spiritual. Geography. Norris left her burgeoning role in manhattan's poetry community. Return to her grandparents on in an isolated town on the border between north and south dakota. She discovered there on that vast barren. Harsh. Plane. This. Is my spiritual geography. 6 planes that by spiritual geography she means. The place where i wrestled my story. Out of the circumstance of landscape. And. Inheritance. Journalist tavis smiley expresses that same sense of deep connection to a very different place. In his book my journey with maya documenting his long friendship with writer maya angelou. Miley describe their trip to ghana. When he was a young adult. The plane landed with a thud. At that very moment. I was farther away from home that i had ever been. And yet i heard myself saying words that made complete sense to me. I'm. Home. Not just as residents not just as a place where when happens to live or where dakota place to which one is chosen to retire but home as a spiritual. Geography. A place where one wrestles ones story out of the circumstance of landscape and lineage. In a deep spiritual thing. Put another way might reconsider that home is someplace to which we feel some devotion. Tongue. Perhaps. Loyalty. I've been thinking a lot about spiritual geography and about home lately. About what it means to find. Home. Leave home. Go looking for home. Lose home. Come back home. No one can't go home again. No doubt that is. At least in part because just a few weeks ago in sudden and unforeseen circumstances my dad sold our childhood home a place where i lived into which i have since returned. For more than 50 years. Home. Spiritual geography is. For me. Both complex and relatives too many. Fairly clear. Sometime in the mid-1920s. My maternal grandparents. Met as young college students. In greenville south carolina. Well their journey took them to various places afterward they returned and settle down together in greenville. Eventually building a beautiful home where they would both live into their sixties. Sensitive 90s. Sometime in the 1940s. My paternal grandparents move to greenville. My mom and dad met in junior high school. Begin dating while greenville high students. And eventually got married in the church in greenville where my maternal grandparents had met. After their own sojourn elsewhere. Davidson in the greenville. And settled into a life there. Because of all of that. I was born and grew up. In greenville. South carolina. The greenville of my childhood and adolescence was most assuredly not. The now increasingly cool city. A bike trails and brewpubs. Galleries in gastronomic delights to which some charlatans retreat. Getaways. It was not that. Lake greenville. What time. Is my hometown. So to this day it means something to me. I feel a different kind of connection because it's a place that has been home to my family for almost a century now. Benedetto deeply into genealogy. I discovered at least two branches of my family we're in south carolina well before the revolutionary war. I've personally visited grave site to forebears in south carolina generations back. Old south carolina names. Boatwright. Brabham. Fox. Kirkland manuel. Fill lines in my family tree. From the upstate through the midlands and down into the lowcountry my family's connection to south carolina. Is the. Having spent summers on the south carolina coast. And summers working in the south carolina mountains. Having the opportunity now to escape to a 19th century farmhouse. In south carolina that my great-grandparents built. To this day i feel a different kind of connection. The place that has been home to my family. 4/2 and a half centuries. Acclaimed poet nikki finney. Daughter of the first african-american chief justice. Of the supreme court in south carolina. Russell far more articulately than i with the complexities of our scared. Homestake. Leaving along academic career elsewhere 5 years ago she opted to come back to south carolina. And to be with her family in the end she said. You have one home. You felt pulled by a loyalty to all of what that means. For her. I'm aware some of you here. Have a similar sense. A similar sense of spiritual geography. There are those of you who feel a particular connection. The certain cities or states. Certain regions are settings certain places where you have wrestled and where you continue to wrestle your own story. Emits landscaping lineage. When asked. Where is home. You haven't answered. And it is one that is freighted with spiritual significance. Whether you call it that or not. You're places to which you feel devoted. To which you feel a certain. Loyalty. Here's a part of that for me. I'm now lived in quite a few different cities. In a half-dozen different states. The particularities of my devotions to my hometown and my home state don't in any way require that i find the lives of green villians. Or the lives of south carolinians. To be of greater worth. Lindo's. In other cities or states. Some of you are familiar with the description of north carolina as a vale of humility. Between two mountains of conceit. As a native of one of those prideful mountains. I assure you. That i do not regard those in this humble valley. As living lives of any less. Value. Manastorm recently ravaged the coastal community supposed to be. I didn't find myself thinking the loss of some lives was of less concern to me. Based on the state line. Then i'll separates the two carolina. And because of that i couldn't ever support a worldview that imply that i must choose. Then i must prove my devotion by favoring goes from my hometown over others are people from my native state over those from other states. And yet. When it comes to nationality. Such a choice for men. Or i would argue too. Seems to me. Perfectly. Good. Listen carefully. I'm not questioning devotion. Loyalty. Patriots. I'm not at all suggesting that feeling some deep connection to this country is an inherently bad thing. Distance my feelings for a hometown and state come from years of experience and a long lineage so too many feel that same loyalty to this country. The question. The. Spiritual. The one we ask not nearly enough. When is you like for example immigration is concerned is. Where do you place your. Ultimate. Lawyer. Or in the language of our own liberating religion whose lives have ultimate. Work. And dignity. You say when we forego that question. We are often presented with certain truisms. Whose truth we may fail to question. Things like. A nation has every right to protect its borders. We have every right to punish families who attempt to cross these borders without the proper documentation. We must limit the number of immigrants. To protect us workers. Those who fight to protect and defend our national borders are our real heroes. Us corporations have every right to do business wherever it is most profitable. People crossing our borders without proper documentation are trying to take advantage. Enter coming to take what rightly belongs. 2 +. That will no doubt frustrate some of you that my intent today is not too proposed policy. Artistdirect my division at certain people are parties. You may even think it unfair that i'm not trying to offer. Practical solution. What i'm trying to do is suggest that millennia of tribal thinking. Is never going to be transformed by continuing to offer those kinds of unexamined truism. Unless and until we have to bring a spiritual perspective to these questions as king. They ask about values. To which we feel ultimately loyal. We will continue to find ourselves embracing truism at odds with what we claim. Really matters. Years ago i was a founding member of a corporate responsibility committee for a major catholic healthcare system in houston. In that role i joined a border witness trip flying down to brownsville to join the other members of our committee. Brownsville isn't the far southeastern point of texas. Its city limits also a national border. Closer to matamoras mexico than charlotte is to gastonia. We spent several days on both sides of the border talkin with those directly impacted by issues of immigration. What day we ventured back into a massive. Shantytown. Formed on the outskirts of maquiladoras. Massive us factories set up just over the border. And mexican. To take advantage of that more profitable setting. The better houses were made of crude concrete blocks. The lesser ones of found material. Wood metal scrap cobbled-together. On the outskirts they were open ditches through which flowed frothing liquid runoff. From the factory. Within the barrio they were open ditches of sewage alongside with children played. The homes that neither running water or electricity. We stopped for a pre-arranged conversation with a couple there. The man worked assembling motorola. Electronic equipment. The woman a symbol dashboard. At a ford motor plant. Like your neighbors they had been enticed to the border. Like corporate recruiters. Promising them a better life. Then could be had in their rural interior village. What's there. They discovered the truth. The favorite trap. Working long weeks for very little money. No longer able to return to their homes. Dependent. But us corporation. His primary interest. Was getting the cheapest labor possible. In a place with the fewest environmental restrictions. As a way of maximizing their profit. Happy's workers been able to go just a few. Mormile. Across. The border. The benefit to their lives. Would be reflected in diminished profit. For the corporation. I feel. Discuss. At the living conditions. The worst i have ever seen. And at the economic arrangement that declared unequivocally. That their lives were clear. Lear. Worth less than. The members of our committee wrestled with what we. Etsy. What defense was there for the situation. How were we ourselves participants. In this problem. However we created a capitalist system that says if you have money already as these corporations obviously do you are free to make money anywhere in the world. But if you are simply a poor laborer. You are confined to the nation. Where you were born. Why is it that money can flow freely across national borders while vulnerable women with fragile children are caged. For doing the same thing. The real question. The real spiritual question within and beyond our borders is. Lives. Really. When we hear explore an issue like immigration. It is not for us primarily a political discussion no matter what some might mistakenly think and others might mistakenly hope. A question should always be things like. How does the claim that we have. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence. Of which we are apart. Challenge us to think differently. About an issue like immigration. I remain convinced. Little black baptist preacher. Headed right when heroes as our national profit to call fuller. A genuine. Revolution. Of value. He's the one who insisted our lawyer. Our loyalties. Musk. Out stretch our sectional. Concern. He's the one. The reverend. Dr. martin luther king jr.. Who challenged us to extend our loyalties beyond one's tribe race. Class and. Angie said. Makes you. Ultimate. Loyal. Beyond. Even beyond. Nation. It may be human kind. It may be our planet. Only.

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Bob-Bushorn-7.8.mp3

Well. Here i am. Are you are. Nothing that i'm feeling a little intimidated. Well the talent in this congregation the great. Play led services i've heard my pass and buy our eloquent ministers. The funny little four-year-old i know. Was recently informed that she's going to have a baby sister. She was silent. We ask her later. Mirror what do you think of that. Said my toes are tingling. Planet fitness. My toes are tingling right. But let's face it there's a lot of talent. In this congregation. A lot of creativity among us. Nudist intimidated to speak knowing the kinds of talented people we have here. Where we are a bright congregation. The flip side of that coin. We can be sometimes a little opinionated. Rather opinionated. Well everyone. Aerotek near me. + 80. I'm not so sure about any. But seriously. As we all seek to cultivate. Connections for justice. Our makeup is a congregation our strength can also could be a barrier. This reminds me of a joke. What is a unitarian. And if you look on. There are websites for unitarian jokes and there must be a hundred what is a unitarian church this one is. What is a unitarian. Someone who faces. All the brake questions. With an oakland. No. I'm pretty sure unitarian rotate. Into a surprise discovered there is an afterlife. Danger and charge told him. Because you were an unbeliever in a skeptic. You'll be sent to the bad place. Which in your case is a place where no one will ever disagree with you. And there will be no need for debate. Like our opinions we like to debate. But i want to say this morning is just this. Unlike the story. We can't really just totally empty our cups. The thoughts opinions and knowledge. But we can either. Cling to them. Holden leidlein. That's a big difference. The company ology only goes so far. Ascend teacher says this. The don't know mine doesn't mean stupid. The names what is this. Sunday our eyes are open. Curious because we wonder what. Rather than i know that. Search about our eyes being open. A suzuki roshi said a beginner's mind is wide open and questioning. An expert's mine is closed. So this not knowing actually gives us life. He gives us presents. He gives us energy and openness to surprise and discovery. And i know mine set. Shut down everything and we get stuck in the mud. The philip reminds with all this stuff and it gets stale. And dad. And that can be a real non-starter for connecting. Courageously. But emptying our minds. Completely empty my mind's opinions bias emotionally-driven reactions. May not even be possible. The nobel prize-winning psychologist. And one of the founders of behavioral economics daniel kahneman. Has come to believe after a lifetime of studying how youmans. Make errors. Because of bias. He's come to believe that bias. Maybe so big then we can only learn to see it. Learn to pause and be cautious about our feeling of certainty. Wabi able to remove by us but just learn to see it. The whole ideas. Emptying line. Has problems. They can backfire. Perhaps many of you had to experience you. You can't fall asleep at night and you've got to get up early in the morning and you're telling yourself don't think don't think don't think. Go to sleep. And what happens it just makes more of the same. So that could really backfire. Have you ever tried to hold a beach ball underwater. For a while and i let go of it. i had a great time with. Our grandkids recently in the pool and holding beach ball underwater and i could get it down. To the bottom of the pool and hold us by feed and then kind of amazing by letting go and it's shoot way up in the air. A couple times were able to get it to shoot out of the pool. Really fun. It can be like that. Trying to enter the nine can be like that. When you trying to force out thoughts with willpower. They can have even greater force. But some of you were looking a little skeptical. Maybe you want some solid empirical evidence. And ghostbusters 2 has character. The unemployed scientists vegan. Somehow had the amazing insight. That the demonic vigo the carpathian. Could read their minds. And then create the next. Demon in the shape of their thought. So they all agree. We won't take anything of mines clear our minds clear our minds. The next thing they see is a giant malicious stay puft creature stopping its way through the city. Dripping spaulding marshmallow. And crushing truck cars and buildings. And if you remember. At that point raise the dan aykroyd character had a pretty sheepish look on his face. I don't know myself. So we know what he was thinking about. But. Hopefully the beginner's mind this whole concept. As i understand it doesn't mean to abandon our knowledge. Go to black out our thoughts and opinions. To literally have an empty cup. The beginner's mind or the development online. For mindfulness. Is not an absence. But the presence of awareness. Of whatever is there. Not an abscess but the presence of an awareness of whatever is there. I don't know mine as i understand it. Is this to loosen the clinging. The certain attachment. And this this durable. We can learn to step back. Trailer to see our own thoughts and opinions. Through the space of mindfulness. To see them not as fixed and final but thoughts. We can see her thoughts and opinions as though they're from behind behind a waterfall we're going to recess cave and were able to look out. And there are thoughts. They're still there but we're looking at them. And their thoughts. And then they say. Or words. I want a door pinions and thoughts are just fingers pointing at the moon. So useful. But not the moon itself. And a completely different from a completely different context to great. Viktor frankl. Who survived. The concentration camp experience and amazingly live to. Right. Profoundly about freedom. Send up a lot of his thinking in this quote. Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose. Her response. In our response lies our freedom. That buffer. Is a space between a mindfulness. The space between us i don't know. Space between of the beginner's mind. I think. Buddhist teacher american teacher table rock. Is talking about the same thing that she talks about the divine space or the divine pause that buffer. To my favorite metaphor. For clearing space while allowing thoughts. The singer from behind the waterfall. Seeing the flow of thoughts. What's the perspective of watching the thoughts and opinions. From a little distance. Who's the point of view of watching our own thoughts. And seeing that our thoughts are thoughts. Opinions are opinions. So useful but seeing them from a little distance. The thai teacher. The venerable jean-charles says this. You have so many opinions and you suffer so much. From them. Why not let them go. There's a rather famous quotation. And i think it's a true quotation from the historic buda. Diminutive. Because we don't have the nonverbals to go with it we don't know he was wagging his finger or kind of chuckling. I like to think in this quote he was kind of laughing who's kind of chuckling a little bit and smiling. As he said these words. Seeing misery and those who claim to views. A wise person should not adopt any of them. A wise person. Does not buy a pinions become arrogant. But. Those who grasp after views and opinions. Wander around the world annoying everyone. So i hope he was laughing and he said. And hopefully as we cultivate connections for justice. We won't be wandering the city annoying everyone. Will be listening. So how how come we cultivate. I think there are many many ways. Of course the classic traditional way is through formal meditation. And retreats. But also there's. Day-to-day ways. Maybe taking a walk with a child. Then getting really good and into their mind space. Maybe becoming totally absorbed in the natural world on a regular basis. Maybe along quiet walk or run each morning or evening. Maybe for you. Quiet deep listening kind of prayer. Maybe for all of us that can be through deeply humbly. Listening to someone else's viewpoint. What's a space. The buffer between hearing. And responding. So what i'm going to say then is justice. When we cling to our own opinions and views it weighs us down. And sometimes we annoy everyone. And we have the freedom to hold them lightly. This is an important part. A being ready to cultivate connections. With respect. And humility. May we connect like this. With the courage. Of you military. And it was wisdom. Of the beginner's mind. Play weconnect for justice. For the benefit of all living things. Happy song.

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4.7.19_no_water.mp3

51 years ago this past wednesday. In memphis tennessee. A crowd gathered in mason temple filling every available seat. To hear the reverend dr. martin luther king jr.. People stood looking over the edges of the churches balconies in the sanctuary doors had to remain open because more people still spilled out into the adjoining hall and kept coming in from off the streets. It was raining hard. Many of the people in the crowd were sanitation workers. Residence of memphis who collected garbage in the early hours of the morning. People who worked overtime. And we're not paid for it. To memphis sanitation workers had recently died. Crushed to death when the garbage truck they were operating malfunctions. City officials had refused yet again to improve working conditions or pay. And so these sanitation workers had been marching in the streets. 4 weeks. Holding signs that read simply. I am a man. Now they were on strike worried. Hopeful tired. Determines. The people who filled mason temple that evening. Had gathered because they could not stand to hear again from city officials. That their lives were expendable. That their health. And safety. The quality of their lives was not a priority not even a concern. As if. There was an understanding held by white city officials. An understanding half-spoken often implied. Did those pushed to the margins of a society. Collect and tuck away from site the refuse and excess of that. Society. An assumption has spoken often implied that this in fact was the function. Of those confined to the margins. Of a society. King had feared a poor turnout a number of things having not gone according to plan. As exhausted as king was that evening. A new strength seemed to come over him as he stood to address the crowd and looked out into that sea of faces. King said aloud what those assembled new. But the city's relationship with its sanitation workers was no relationship at all. King said we aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. He said we are saying. That we are determined to be men. We are determined to be. People. We are saying that we are god's children and that as god's children we do not have to live the way we are being forced. To live. Throughout the 1960s. The concerns of the black residents of the huff neighborhood in cleveland. Echoed the concerns of the sanitation workers in memphis. Inhofe demonstrations and marches were organized to demand that city officials recognized black labor unions. And a dire need for better working conditions. And better pay. The people of huff also organized against the substandard segregated schools their children attended. The lack of safe places for their children to play. And a rat infestation of public housing that continue to go on ignored. It was as if. There was an understanding held by white city officials an understanding half-spoken often implied. But no change. With needed. That these were the conditions fitting and proper for those confined to the margins of a society. In the summer of 1966 a black man walked into a bar in huff and asked the white bartender for a cup of water. Water being necessary for human life. It probably felt like a simple request. The bartender refused and then took a piece of paper and wrote in bold letters in the language of hate. That his established would not serve you water if you were black. In the hours that followed riots broke out burning much of the business district of hoff. To the ground. Back in memphis an earlier demonstration by sanitation workers and their supporters. Had not gone according to plan. Protesters broke windows and police used teargas on the crowd. That night 51 years ago and mason temple martin luther king said. Let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants. Who happened to be. Sanitation workers. King said that's always the problem with violence. The press very seldom get around to mentioning the fact that 1300 sanitation workers were on strike and that memphis is not being fair to them. It went the same way in huf the only story that was told was the story of. The riots. We heard earlier adam robers smith call to avoid despair in the midst of environmental justice work. He said let us make change because it is the right and respectful and loving thing to do. Let us make more room for other forms of existence that share the planet with us. Human plant animal. Mineral. Robert smith calls us to not lose hope in the struggle for environmental justice. It's not only difficult to have hope. When we face how deep the degradation of the environment goes. It's also difficult to feel hopeful when we realize that we continue to reserve the most unsafe. And toxic living conditions. For the people we confined to the margins. The people who will suffer the effects of pollution and climate change. Tenfold. The night before his death. Martin luther king stood in front of a large crowd assembled in mason temple. People weary and searching for hope. That night king to was exhausted. A close friend of the king family says. Then on the way to the airport to fly to memphis. King looked over at her and said. I'm realizing now that this country is not right for what we are trying to do. And yet when king found himself there in the presence of so many people willing to risk their livelihood their physical safety their psychological and spiritual well-being. Just stand up. For what is right. A new strength. Flowed through him. As he said when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it there is no stopping point short of victory. As it turns out the people of huff to. Were among those caught up with that which is right. They continue to come together and to organize in the decades following those riots demanding a safer and cleaner living environment better opportunities for their children. And today the seeds of hope. Nurtured for years in that community are slowly showing signs of growth. An environmentally sustainable workers cooperative has taken root in hof. Hospitals and universities in cleveland have partnered with nonprofit and city government. To start businesses that are owned by employees. Including a green energy business in an urban farm. But the most successful of these businesses is a commercial laundry facility. That is earned the leadership in energy and environmental design or leed gold certification. The facility has been hired by the cleveland clinic. In case western university for their laundry needs. Taking over from the old laundry facility that added to the environmental degradation of the cleveland area. This cooperative is already reducing the use of toxic chemicals in the elimination of hazardous waste in the community. The people of huff who organized in decades past demanded that labor unions be recognized by city officials they planted seeds. Of change. Today because the people who work in this laundry facility also own it. They come together to ensure their own living wage and reasonable work schedules. And the wealth that they create through their business stays. In the community. Unitarian universalist theologian sherry prudhomme explorers the evils of environmental degradation. She weighs the contents of human nature as she muses about our ability to make meaningful change in the face of overwhelming odds. Selfishness greed and apathy certainly are part of the landscape. Of what it means to be human. Get prudhomme says evil is not some innate quality of a fallen humanity. But wrong relationship. Human beings make choices that harm or support others in the community of life. On earth. She says neither evil nor good is the essence of human nature. But rather a way of being. An acting. That's the choice to bring more good into the world rest in and with. All of us. 51 years ago this past week. Martin luther king addressed a crowd of sanitation workers and their supporters in memphis. The tenacity of moral will in the people assembled there gave him a hope and confidence that it felt so distance to him when he arrived. He saw people caught up with that which is right. And their presence as he put it gave him a glimpse at the promised land. All we need remember as we faced the long odds that come with the work of environmental justice. Is that the choice to bring more good into the world rests in and with. All of us. We get to choose as individuals and as a congregation how we will be in relationship with the earth. And all of earth's people. As king put it that night. Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. Let us not be compassionate. By proxy. Blessed be. Amen.

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10.20.19_antidotes_to_apathy.mp3

Bb white puts his eight-year-old son to bed each night at 7:30 whether or not it's dark. He wants to make sure his little one can get as much sleep as possible before the sounds of explosions startup. Just like a bomb going off the way bb describes it. They never sleep with their windows open. Even on deliciously cool nights between summer and fall. Bb white lives in albany new york in the ezra prentice public housing complex. All diesel trucks passing through the city are routed through beebe white neighborhood. And global companies an oil-and-gas company has its crude oil terminal located just yards from that same housing complex. No one barbecues outside in the summer phoebe white says. Because of the sour smell that comes off the storage tanks. The engines in the oil terminal are permitted to run all night. The air pollution is significantly worse in this neighborhood than in other parts of albany. The residents are left breathing carcinogens not surprisingly asthma and emphysema rates in this neighborhood are unusually high. Regardless. Global companies is looking to expand its operations in albany's south end. I used to live in albany new york 3 miles away from the ezra prentice community as it turns out. I lived on a street lined with r and towering trees and impressive brick houses. Well insulated from the street noise comfortable in every season. Despite our proximity i never met bb white or his little boy. I read about them in a newspaper after the legal nonprofit earthjustice filed a lawsuit against global companies. Charging them for the effect their operations have on the health and quality of life of the families living nearby. It's not that the ezra prentice housing complex was out of sight exactly. I drove by that part of albany fairly regular lady. But baby wipes reality was carefully sectioned off from my own. Our lives didn't. Easily overlap his grocery store wasn't my grocery store has a post office wasn't my post office. Even if we heated our homes in the same way relied on the same concoction of benzene and ethanol to travel from point a to point b. Him on a bus. Me in a car. The trucks and trains that so disrupt the lives of this father-and-son largely transport what's needed to make those of us living in comfort. More comfortable. Well bb white and his son live in the place that houses the residue of our daily lives hiding the sour smelling consequences outside of my daily awareness. Author apricot irving right. A crisis. Measures how we respond to those around us how connected we are what we do. When were afraid. And here we are in the teeth of a mounting climate crisis. A crisis that lays are corrupt social infrastructure bear. Every power outage every flood reveals more and more starkly the intimate details of inequality. Yet it has been powerful. Seeing so many teenagers out in the streets skipping school speaking from public platforms with clear urgency about climate change in the strain on the web of life. I'm sure you've seen some of the signs these young people have been carrying a protest around the world. Some say things like. Climate is changing why aren't we. Others are more blunt our house is on fire. While others read i'll take my exams when you take action or if you don't act like adults. We will. I've heard young people being interviewed on radio or tv breaking down in tears their voices shaking with frustration so heartbroken that we the adults in charge seem to not be listening. When they look at us it seemed they see an entrenched sense of futility. People with power doing too little doing our best to hunker down into life is usual convincing ourselves that we can still look the other way. And pretend it's not. Happening. Wendy's young leaders look at us. They see apathy. And i bristle at that thought. When i hear the word apathy i think of someone who doesn't care. An indifferent person passions dulled to a halt passive lethargic. Apathy is a grave dilapidated couch. One where the cushions cake on equality that is more like quicksand than cotton food even though you aren't that comfortable it's extremely difficult to get up once you've sat down. By that definition i don't think of us as apathetic. German liberation theologian dorothy zola has written at length about apathy. Not so much individual indifference but collective apathy social apathy. Zola was intent on better understanding why horrible things take place in society full of trouble yet. Compliance. Witnesses. Through her work zola discovered that she's what she found to be a hidden twist. In the experience of apathy. She writes a pacea is a greek word that literally means non suffering freedom from suffering a creature's inability. Just suffer she writes apathy is understood as a social condition. In which we are so dominated by the goal of avoiding suffering. But it becomes a goal to avoid human relationships and contact altogether. She continues and then an inability to perceive suffering develops. Not only one zone but especially the suffering of others. The consequence of this suffering free state of well-being she says. Is it people's lives become frozen solid. Nothing threatens any longer nothing throws any longer with the characteristic pains that all growth involves nothing. Changes. Zola's hidden twist to apathy. Is it apathy reveals how staggeringly much we do in fact care. How deeply we long to relate to one another how inherently wired we are for connection and relationship. But because caring involves pain. And relationships involve struggle. We develop layers of apathy around our hearts to protect us. The consequence of course is at the more sturdy and robust are layers of protection become. The better we are at shutting out pain. The less we experience compassion. And reverence for life. Apathy is a way of self-medicating are empathy a way of numbing the inner resources that would lead us to a change in consciousness a strengthening of commitment. I assure you that is i spent years driving by the noxious air pollution in bb white's neighborhood in albany. With my car windows firmly rolled up. It was not that i didn't care about bb white little boy not that i didn't think they both deserve a better quality of life. Basic safety a good night sleep healthy lungs. In a life-giving breeze through the window every now and then. In the course of things i insulated my existence from theirs. It would have changed the landscape of my everyday life to feel what they felt it would have uprooted so much of what i take. For granted. Starfleet revealing the fault lines of inequality that run beneath my ease of life. In the story we heard earlier based on a hindu myth. For pilgrims go to visit a sage. A priest a philosopher and merchants and a poet each pilgrim immerse one way or another in the calais in justices of daily living. Message tells them a cupboard gods are sickened by the way we human beings misuse our power for greed instead of compassion. Wonder where to hide this source of power this divine spark. They debate hiding it in the deepest sea on the highest mountain. The dark side of the moon. But in the end they decided that human ingenuity seemingly uncovers any and all wonderful and dangerous things. And so the gods decide to hide the divine spark where we will never look for it. Inside of us. Play wonder how on earth something is vital and brilliant as the divine spark something as electric and life-giving could stay hidden in our own psyches generation after generation. But perhaps it isn't all that surprising. After all being in touch with the divine spark isn't all enlightenment and inspiration. Joy and peace oneness with beauty. Finding that divine spark within us is like unwrapping layers of insulation from around our hearts leaving ourselves vulnerable to all we cannot control. Revealing. That divine spark means exposing the nerve endings of our compassion. It means knowing the suffering of others as our own. It means being fully immersed in our own. Humanness. So long is the divine spark animator of compassion and reverence for life stays hidden. There will be no shift in our consciousness no change in the way we live our lives. Is dorothy zola says. The consequence of insulating ourselves from suffering. Is that our lives become frozen solid. Nothing grows any longer with the characteristic pains that all groves involves nothing changes. As the pilgrims listen to the sages story it is only the poet who weep uncontrollably is he hears about the callous misuse of power in our world. Only the poet who allows a gritty foul-smelling reality to succeed in. It's only the poet who feels intimately the poisoning of life for the profit of a few. And it's only the poet in his sorrow. Who reveals his heart in all its fullness and commits himself to transforming the world. No doubt we will continue to struggle collectively for the courage to care enough about one another and the earth the courage to profoundly shift our way of life. We struggle because before pilgrims in the story live inside each of us. Like the priest we often look elsewhere outside of our own capacities for deliverance. Like the philosopher we can ponder forever theories of social change building castles of peace and justice in our mind. Without the sweat of mixing mortar for laying bricks. Like the merchant. Each of us knows how to jealously guard our own interest while still craving more. And like the poet. Each of us can take up the hammer. The power to give new shape to the world with words of wisdom and beauty with songs of protest. With tears that melt away our resistance to reality and bind us more strongly together across viewpoints and way of life. When the temptation of apathy is strongest. When we feel small and anxious. No match for the coming and changes in ocean currents no match for the grip oil has on our lives or the suffering. Of the most vulnerable among us. Even then. The poet calls to us from within. To take into our hands what we can control. Which is how compassionately and reverently human. We choose to be.

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5.19.19_glad.mp3

From a spring in minnesota's lake. Itasca. Mississippi river begins its more than 2,300. Mile journey. The gulf of mexico. Making its way out of the midwest. And just passed this point outside of memphis tennessee. Mighty mississippi. The enders on the southbound course. It's at that point. That the river forms the iconic. Mississippi delta. A leaf shaped 200 miles section. In the northwest quadrant. Of the state of mississippi. Bounded on the west by the mississippi river and on the east. At the tallahatchie and yasmin. Rivers. That flat terrain of black soil. Offers some of the most fertile ground. On the earth. Native americans lived on that land for centuries. Then as treaties were signed the first third of the 19th century. Land speculators for both the north and the south. Began investing. In the mississippi delta. Enslaved africans. I brought to the delta. I'm through outside. Run into transform forest and marshes. Intervest. Very profitable. And of course. Most profitable crop the king of all. Lot. And lot. And lie. It created immense wealth for the planter elite and. Immense suffering. For those whose labor. Slavery in the mississippi delta according to historian edward baptist. Was that the cruelest and most. Torturous. This land this land is saturated with the blood and the sweat in the tears. Of countless and nameless. Thousand. And life after emancipation. In the post-reconstruction jim crow mississippi delta. But still. Filled with pain. Remarkably. Remarkable. S. Delta environment. Produced another product. Something. Never before experienced. In the world. The deep deep emotions of pain and of suffering. Put the raw unvarnished strains of. Gospel songs. Melded them with a rhythmic sensibilities of africa. And created this nation's most unique musical form. The blues. How and when this musical alchemy took place. Remain something of a mystery. How the music of the church. Mutated into what then was often called. The devil's music. It's not entirely know what is absolutely certain is it by the early 20th century. The mississippi delta have fostered a musical form that transform the experience of music in this nation and around the world. Laying down the lips that would give rise to jazz and country and rock and soul and funk and would influence other musical forms. As well. The blues said the great b.b. king. The blues. Is that tonic for whatever ails. A cathartic expression weaving the straw of pain into such golden expressions. Even if it must be admitted that the gold in the case of the blues is often. A b furnished. Suffering. Because. Glad. Which brings us to one. Nehemiah. Curtis. James. Known since his childhood as skippy and then eventually. Simply as. Skip. No life better exemplifies the expression of the blues. As a result of challenge and pain. Then that. Skip james. Born in june of 1902. In a plantation. Just outside the delta town of bentonia where his mother worked as a cook. And where his father abandoned the family when he was but five. Years. Skip james's mother. Bought him a guitar for $2.50 which you learn to play himself taking on the style of previous bentonia blues. Danny learns piano. Benny learn to accompany himself. He developed in erie. Distinctive style of falsetto singing. That makes his music easily distinguishable. Among the early. Delta blues. Dubstep james life offers ample material for five sermons at least don't worry not today you can find it in the prodigious. Biography by stephen call based on interviews. Wizkid james it's entitled i'd rather be the devil. Skip james. And the blues. A construction worker. And longer throughout the south in his team. A sharecropper gambler a bootlegger upon his return to bentonia in 1931. Skip james took a train. From mississippi to wisconsin where he would record 18 songs. For the paramount label. Then. Upon his return. Bentonia. He was a sometimes preacher. Sometimes pimp. Moving about a notice forgotten until he was rediscovered in the blues revival of the 1960s. His lasting musical legacy. Comes from a single song. Carved out of a life of immense pain. It is a boy. Simple surprising decal declaration. I'm so glad. If you recognize that title at all it's likely because it was covered by the eric clapton back band cream. And then in the version i learned as a team. From. Deep purple. I'm so glad skip james. Thick layers. And i'm glad i am glad i am glad. Today perhaps that maybe lesson. Enough. We are. Empire. Allah. We all suffer. None is a new none escape. And depending on the situation or the circumstance. It can sometimes feel like enough. Thedooo ascend. These times for those. With our worldview are not easy. Each new day every week seems to bring about some new reason to feel utterly incense in rays. Outrageous. We are bombarded by relentless attacks on our vows. On what we hold dear. And then for some of us has a hole. Other dimension. Lost. Grief. Personal pain. Family pain. Friends in pain. We've all had our turn. Singing the blues. I am finding. These days. That those raw mississippi delta blues are the perfect soundtrack. Brattle i am experiencing life. No the real skin all of this is. Back pain. Can begin to define. The clouds keep rolling in. And day after day finds us in the storm. What would it even mean in times like these two. To make our own days glad. We need. At least i know i. A regular reminder. We cannot wait for everything to turn out right. Before we find some glasses. Bees. These are. The days of our lives. And it is these days that we must make glass. If there are to be. Any glad days. Adam. Story of the mississippi delta is a story of pain. A place as fraught with pain as any in our country. But the mississippi delta is also the very place that gave rise to our nation's most enduring musical instrument. Skip james. Sing it all. The ones about hardship about violets about broken love about being lonesome. Did poured out his pain in his haunting falsetto voice. Indian. It's his simple little bouncy assertion. I'm so glad. For which he is now. Remin. Maybe. Maybe in these times. There's something in that song.

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5.21.17_eve.mp3

Had to say in the first service as well how grateful i am for your music and how excited i am to hear it more often. It feels like i have been waiting to arrive at this moment for a very long time. Ever since i applied to your second minister position and then waited. And hope. For the good news. That i would have the chance to join. This ministry. And the life. Of this congregation. I am delighted to be here sharing this morning with you. For the first time. We are meeting at a time of intense change in my life. Some of the change is bitter and painful. Some is overwhelmingly. Joyful. The bitter and painful part is that less than 2 months ago. My dad died unexpectedly. As you can imagine this has left me trying to find my balance. There is also overwhelming joy in my life that you may have heard about i am pregnant. And my husband steve and i are expecting our first child at the end of september. As you can imagine. This change will bring a very welcome but very new routine to my life. All of this change was part of my backdrop while i was interviewing with the ministerial search team. I knew beyond question how badly i wanted this job. I also felt i had a number of challenges to lay out on the table. For one thing i knew i'd be missing part of next church year because i be on maternity leave. And i knew that my contract with my current congregation in utica new york does not end until after next church year. I also knew that my husband needs to practice law in new york for four years before he is eligible to practice in north carolina. So these were the complications that i laid out to jay and the search team when i requested delaying my start until may 1st. Of next year. It immediately became very clear to me. That jay and the search team wanted to advocate for the best. Possible situation for a congregation they so openly love. Because my delayed start was far from their ideal. So standing here now. I am feeling immense gratitude for their generosity. And creativity. In making this work. Anyway. I want you to know. I feel that i have a dream come true situation waiting for me here with you next year. And i will be eagerly anticipating counting the days until my start date. You may have read in the letter that i wrote to you that i grew up. In the unitarian universalist congregation in clemson south carolina. It was growing up in that congregation that made me realize i wanted to become a minister. Watching how people came together as one community. To speak meaning and understanding. Take care of one another. And build a kinder world. My call to ministry has indeed been a dance. The times i have spent wrapped in the experience of unitarian universalist community. Have been moments of certainty and joy when my feet landed on solid ground. There have also been moments of losing touch which with a larger guiding. Rhythm. For me the most profound experience of losing touch with the rhythm of our faith. Came when i was in college and i had the chance to study abroad and uganda and rwanda. Growing up i have been taught in my religious education classes about the inherent goodness of people. I had also absorbed a foundational understanding. But at the end of the day. Existence is inherently. Good. In other words life is an experience worth loving. In uganda. We met. Child soldiers who were returning for the first time to their villages who did not. Seem all that much. Like children. We have been told before the trip to bring gifts for kids. But we all felt very foolish offering these traumatized children happy meal toys and. T-shirts from american sports teams. We spent part of the semester studying the whole riffic. And dehumanizing process that had been used by the lord's resistance army to turn children. Into soldiers. In rwanda. We lived with families who had lost loved ones during the 1994 genocide. We heard stories of neighbors killing neighbors. We observed a country deeply wounded still trying. To heal. I returned home with my faith. Shaken. I felt a very long way from the lessons i had learned in sunday school. How could we put our faith. Inhumanity. When human beings could be so cruel. And violence how could we say that life is a precious gift worth loving that the here-and-now. Is our heaven. But after a few months back home. I began to remember other details. Of my trip. My ugandan host mother. Putting her warm hands on my forehead. And praying over me. Before i went to school. Or how she brought her two-year-old son into my room unannounced every morning to wake me up. I saw how my rwandan family shared what they had. With their neighbors. I remembered watching people who survived coors i could never understand sharing meals and laughing. And giving thanks. For their lives. It slowly it dawned on me. The people in my home congregation the people who had lived our faith. And showing me what it means to be. Unitarian universalist. They did not have a passy passive flimsy shallow. Unexamined. Optimism. They fiercely chose optimism. In the face of life's most challenging realities. They bravely chose to side with hope again and again even in impossible times. My home congregation taught me that in spite of everything life is worth loving. And humanity is our hope. Realizing how unyielding and hard-earned this optimism is brought me back. To the rhythm of our faith and eventually. Ministry. As we heard rumi tell us earlier. Dance when you are broken open. That is what unitarian-universalist do. And for many reasons but perhaps above all this one. My home is in ministry with people like you. I want to be with you in moments when life does not make sense. I want to walk with you in your times of joy. I want to celebrate new ideas and possibilities with you i even want to stumble and regain my balance and learn new things from you. I am so excited. To join you in this dance that is shared ministry. And community. And faith. Blessed be. Amen.

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4.21.19_taking_sides.mp3

In 1970 filmmaker john boerman. Was trying to rework james dickies novel deliverance. Into a movie that a mainstream studio would be willing to make. Birdman sent the proposed streamplay to dicky. Who replied at great length first declaring. I feel quite willing to go along with. What you want to do. But then dickie proceeded to point out many things that the filmmaker had gotten wrong. His biggest complaint was with the proposed. Final scene. The last thing we need here is some kind of disney-esque. Subliminal dream imagery. The ending. Plainly. Won't. Dickey. Drives the point home. It is not that kind of story. And i doubt very much whether any story is that kind of stuff. It is not that kind of story a disturbing novel about an adventure gone. Way wrong. Turned into something as dicky derisively says far to hollywood ish. The last thing we want to do here. What. Kind of story is it for as john s done asks in time and mia what kind of story. Are we in. Not at all trying to read colombian. Nobel prize winner gabriela garcia marquez is masterpiece one hundred years of solitude. Within a few pages. I was. Completely confused. I thought i knew what kind of story i was reading but the site james dickey it is not that kind of story. Marquez i discovered as many of you know writes in the style of magical realism. The genre that is not restrained by the expectation that things must conform to life as we actually know it. Oh. What i understood this. Once i knew what to expect and not to expect marvel at that masterful. What kind of story are we in. Here. Today. What kind of story are these stories that exodus account of enslaved hebrews gaining their freedom. That easter account of an executed messiah who returns. From the dead. Just what kind of story are these stories. I can't remember a time when these stories. We're not apart of my life. They were as familiar and ordinary as those violently macabre fairy tales that i also learned as a child. When i turn 5 years old my beloved maternal grandfather gave me. Despite. I recall flipping through these thin pages. Pausing at each picture and slowly making out the words. I mostly learned these stories. In sunday school classrooms. We're patient teachers. Hold the tail. Aided by low-tech. Felt. Picture board. It was a long time ago. I don't recall anyone ever saying that these tales were literally true. But every word in the bible carried equal weight. So i didn't grow up thinking it all matter. Or that i should take seriously obscure portions of the bible bearing no relevance to our lives. In a warm safe architectural he's stunning edifice. Nestled on a wooded lot. In a wealthy suburb these stories and the religion they spawned created a comfortable and inviting order of things. God i was told. God. Is love. God love. Everybody. And only wanted for us to receive that love i love that was. Equally available to all. Religion was primarily an individual matter. A decision made deep in the private recesses. Of one's heart. Our religion mostly stayed out of politics. Was largely silent on the social order and so by default. Basically reconfirm the status quo. Being true to that religion men. Living a good life. I'm not insignificant part of which had to do with being concerned about those less fortunate than us. My parents. Other members of that congregation were often involved in acts of kindness. Engaging in various charitable efforts for the poor. Who. Or so it seemed to us receive this charity with gracious. Appreciation. Why they were poor was rarely mentioned and is acknowledged had mostly to do with some combination of misfortune. And bad choices. Was a kind compassionate giving environment. One i still remember with far more gratitude. Then regret. What kind of story were we in one and with god's love was freely available to all. Lol that was supposed to make us. More loving. The particulars of the dramatic exodus or easter account. We're far less significant than the faith we sang as kids. Jesus. Lowe's. The little children. Oh the children of the world red and yellow black and white they are precious. In his sight. Jesus. Love. The little children. Of the word. Then. I went off. The college. And started studying. Theology. It was a late 1970s. My progressive professors were brilliant scholars and often. Activist. They introduced me to the prevailing progressive thinking of the day. Liberation. Theology. Suddenly this book. Ran headlong into this book. Robert mcafee brown theology in a new key. Which is facing water deleon this peruvian gustavo gutierrez. A theology. Of liberation. From that clash. Came a loud and unmistakable message. It is not that kind of story. They must emphatically did not declare a comforting message about god's universal love underwriting a stable social order made up of the privileged and the port and which the have charitably shared with the have nots. Liberation theology arising from latin and south america melted christian theology with marx's politics. In places where militarizing colonial capitalism had left people without a voice and hopeless as brown right they now demand avoid. And that makes them poop. No longer content to wait around for top-down charity gustavo gutierrez insisted latin american people will not emerge from their present situation except by means of a profound transformation. A social revolution. Which will radically and qualitatively. Change. The conditions. In which they now live. I found this talk of a revolution. Based on the very same bible that i've been reading unsettling. More challenging was liberation theology defining element what those radical revolutionaries called the preferential option. For the poor. In short gutierrez explained the universality of god's love had to be held in tension with as he put it. God's predilection. God's preference. For those on the lowest rung of the ladders of history. In the unrelenting demand for justice based on the very same stories that i had always known the stunning assertion was. God. Cakes. God always. Sides. With the poor. Exploited. Oppress. Marginalized. Over against the wealthy exploited his oppressive people in power. This is urology didn't declare that. They're good people on both sides. This theology insisted that liberation. Awesome implies. A confrontation. So insistent were some of these theologians that liberation in place a,. Confrontation that they literally earned themselves. To defend the poor. These. Radicals. Rocked my world. Insisting. It is not that kind of story. They knew clearly why they were poor people. The poor but the heiress insisted are a byproduct of the system in which we live. And for which we are responsible. Been marginalized by our social and cultural world. They are the oppressed exploited proletariat. Robbed the fruits of their labor and despoiled. Of their humanity. He dismissed entirely gutierrez dismissed entirely. Charity. The poverty of the poor. Is not a call to generous relief. But it demands that we build a different. Social. Order. So the exodus story of enslaved people breaking free became politically symbolic to get the area. An egyptian right work is alienated. And far from building a just society contributes to increasing injustice. Enter widening the gap between exploiters and the exploited. Confronting the exploiters. With the only. To bring it back for you. So to the subversive subtext of a messianic figure killed by an occupying force in a state-sanctioned execution in order to quell his radical message. But who could not be killed off. Jesus message of lifting up the lowly and bringing down the mighty head radical political overtones. The powers-that-be will always attempt to kill such revolutionaries. And god. Set these liberation theologians. God will always. Side. With the revolutionary. My friends. For the past. 4. Decades. Since i first encountered it. This message has troubled me. I haven't been focused on literal lysing god or gods preferences. That's not the part that struggling. In fact i'm a little envious of those whose biggest concern their biggest concern seems to be what the word god does or doesn't mean. No the part i've been concerned about his diss. What kind of story. Are we in. Why is the social order. The way it is. For those disturbed by ingested by a power structure that still exploiting the poor. By political system this still oppressing the marginalized. Where might there be any hope for transformation. When modern-day pharaohs prop up systems that exploit workers depriving them of the dignity of their efforts. Where might we look for liberation. When modern-day romans occupied otherlands building barriers and bombing civilians in separating families where might we look for liberation. Ecology of liberation has a response. To those who are awaiting. To those who are awaiting the latest politician. The newest. Canada. The next. Nominee. Imagining that real hope can come from within the halls of political power and among those who already have influence and prestige liberation theology says this is not that kind of story. To those expecting that if we can attract enough new development. New enterprises. Raving economic engine. Generating enough shareholder dividends and enough corporate profits that the system will finally trickle-down equity. Liberation theology this is not. That kind of story. Imagining that if we can convince those. Who are impala. If we can just cuddle their fragile egos. An appeal to their self-interest. In some way that will prompt them at long last to release a few more crohn's. From their overflowing table. Instead liberation theology in skiff. Insist. Look. To the margins. Look to those who are finalists by the system. What do the outsiders to the outliers to the outcast look not to the cautious and the careful for the those who have so little left to lose. Look not the centrist candidate. Book not the centrist candidate. Who are carefully groomed so as not to offend. But 2002 know that liberation also implies. A confidential. Book not to the pharaohs in the caesars the violent keepers of orders the messenger. The messengers now again again and complain. But to those demanding now to be hurt. In finding in that demand. There. Do there's love in this message and there's hope in it too. Love & hope aplenty for all who are willing to imagine that the story we've been told. In the story that we've been telling. This might not be the only or even the best story for our time. Songs of freedom responding around the world can rise nagrand and triumphant chorus of liberation can become a rushing river enabling justice the role.. I'm grateful. Still today. Hello. Who told me these old stuff. I'm grateful for that welcoming place of nurture and support. And i want this to. To be a place of nurture. And support. But i'm interested in something else. We can nurture and support one another through our discomfort. As we struggle. These times are too urgent. Concerns are to great consequences to perilous. Threat to the settle now for some hyper individualized faith in which personal comfort personal comfort is our primary consideration. Gustavo gutierrez decried searching lyrical approaches. That favor social harmony. If you do. If you knew in your gut. That liberation. Also implies a confrontation. The confrontation even with parts of what we hold. Beer. Would you still help to sing. The song. A freedom.

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2.4.18_every_tongue_at_once_Of_Human_Pain_and_Resilience.mp3

The southside of. Highway 641 in rural allendale county south carolina there's a cemetery. Surrounded by a simple chain link. Fence. Since the last decades of the nineteenth century. Grieving neighbors in the bethel community. Have come there to say farewell to family and friends laid to rest in that sandy soil. Luan whispers and soft susurrations through tall pines on either side. Mourning doves call out their sorrowful song in the early dawn dampwood dufault and scented with honeysuckle entwined along the roadside. Way from the highway over on the far side there's a small plot with a modest marble enclosure. Containing a pair of unmatched miniature gravestones. When is mark howard e fox. The other simply infant. Sun. Both are identified as son of cs and alma fox. Howard one gravestone announces died december 13th 1932. Not yet a month-and-a-half old. The infant son died almost exactly 6 years later on december 8th. 1938. A single date on his stone suggesting a likely stillbirth. In-between those two tragic december's the grief-stricken couples unspeakable paul. Was lifted by the springtime birth. A little girl. I know this because. Csn elma fox where my maternal grandparents. Their little girl that daughter born between the deaths of those two sons. Is my mom. It was in the april of my seventh year the occasion of my great-grandmother's death when my family assembled in that cemetery under a tent just to the side of that simple plot. My dad escorted my sister and me over to those. Little gravestones. The softly explain that. My mom's two little brothers were buried there. The memory is still vivid as opposed because of the shock. Of that revelation. We knew my mom as my grandparents only child. We knew my grandparents as loving and fun-loving seemingly satisfied and content. Living life so very closely interwoven into our own life. How could there be another story. Author children. A whole other side to my grandparents lived about which we knew nothing at all. I never heard those losses discussed again. Until late in my grandfather's long life. By then i suspected that our intensely close relationship was due in part to my being the recipient not just of the love that he had for his eldest grandson but also the unrealized love 42 little signs. He never got to enjoy. One day as was often is habit. He reflected introspectively. I've had a good. Life. But this time was different. At last he confessed. Looking back. There were some difficult times. When i lost those little boys. It was so hot. After a pause he affirmed now though i realize the good has far outweighed. The band. They seemed so intent on assuring me that he has had been a good life. I was at that point in the conversation several years into my career as a minister i've been with individuals and families of ended and undone by all sorts of suffering all kinds of calamities all manner of pain and hardship and heartache and heartbreak. By then i knew my grandparents situation though astoundingly difficult was hardly unprecedented. In fact i was coming to realize that most. People. Are carrying. Some pain. Some difficult memory. Friends sadness some shame. Some burdensome hardship sound. Deep stress. Poet gwendolyn brooks admits. Everybody here is infirm. Everybody here. Is infirm. As a minister i've learned something else to an awareness that i've had reconfirmed over and over. My grandfather. Whose life included one of the worst tragedies humans can suffer the death of a young child. Weis. Actually described his life is good it was he said blessed. He wasn't alone in that either. Yes we humans endure so much yes everyone has some public or private pain from burden we have had to carry are still carrying will face. But. But we are also survivors. We endure we carry on. The human psyche is astoundingly remarkably resilient. As mary oliver puts it. That time i thought i could not go any closer to grief without dieting. I went closer. And i didn't die. Some of us sharing this morning's opening music will recall the iconic video that accompanied. Rem song everybody hurts. The band is shown riding together in a car that is soon stranded in the snarling traffic jam. Has a somber lyrics play when the day is long in the night the night is yours alone when you're sure you've had enough of this life. Make camera zooms in on the occupants of surrounding cars. Subtitles. Flash on the screen revealing their inmost thoughts. Imam cuz unruly child is tumbling over the seat plunders. I had no idea. Forlorn looking young guy thinks. They are going to miss me. The back of a station wagon we see a couple arguing and read. Here we go again. What is she thinking. A pickup truck driver in a ball cap. 17. Ears. A mustachioed blank-faced man how am i going to do this. 3 people dressed up tears in their eyes. She's gone. The world we re woman. There's nothing i can do. And the band sings. Well everybody hurts sometimes. Everybody cries. And everybody hurts sometimes. And everybody hurts. Sometime. Their message likely no surprise to anyone here today. Maine on the list serves as a helpful reminder. Everybody. Everybody cries if you are here today and you are hurting if you are one of the many people who admit to me often sheepishly that you're not quite sure why you cry and services here. You're not alone. Sometimes we may feel like everybody else has it all together. Or everyone else's life is so much better or easier or less painful. Probably not. To be human is to hurt. To be human is to carry at times some weight. The pain. M3. I think society. Of anger. Of other frustration. To be human as albert huffstickler wrote is that has some things. That we don't get them. It's what we have in common. Perhaps. Most in common. Imagine if as in the video you could read the thoughts of others. Imagine you could see the real deep down ponderings of those you love. Above sitting near you right now. Of the teacher down the hall. The couple in the apartment next door. The guy in the next cubicle. The neighbors across the street. Another stuck beside you in traffic here. Imagine. How am i going to make ends meet. Why couldn't have worked out. If i could only find a job. I feel so good. Only. I'm so worried about my child. I'm not sure how much more i can take. I'm so ashamed of myself. How can he do this to me. I just can't seem to stop drinking. Are using. I wonder what the doctor's going to say. Why even bother. Nobody cares. In a room with five people. 6. Grease callie's jane hirshfield and reminds us. Samuel heroes. Something. That daughter of cs&l mufasa. My mom. Now walks through her days in a dementia induced fog. Increasingly distancing her from us. Oh her eyes still light up on visits. He knows we have some connection. But then without warning. She'll begin to wonder. Offering observations questions we cannot follow experiencing frustration at our confusion. Beside her. My dad. Her beloved husband of 62 years. Smile. He sometimes rolls his eyes. He nods knowingly. This is what my days are like. I carry that weighty awareness into every single. Cognizant that while i am pouring myself into an expensive life here just as they would wish. Bear life contracts. A little more. Everyday. Aloft not momentous. But rather. Moment. My moment. My client moment. Meanwhile another tender part of my heart is loose in the world. Ikea. Now. Claiming a new identity. A new understanding. And expression. So bold. So clear. And. So. How will they. It is we're told the preferred pronoun now. How will they fare in the world. In which. So many. Can be so vicious. And what does it mean for me as a long-standing public advocate. The now be filled with pride. And rage and fear. And hope. That is so. Deeply. Facebook. Personal. Most of us know though we often forget what we here. See experience assume about one another. It's so often not the real story. Or certainly not the whole story. Who would have guessed csn alma fox seemingly so comfortable. Happy successful. Head to very empty places in their heart. That would never be filled. Let it never get over. Most of us know that we often forget that bluster. Insensitivity. Selfishness. Anger. Hatred even. Are so often the masks we humans wear in hopes of disguising our insecurities. Our fears our pain xcel energy. Everybody hurts. Everybody cries. We all try to cope. In some ways that are healthier and more mature than others. But for all of that we are so remarkably resilient. Resilience the word comes from a latin word meaning. The spring back. Resilience reflects a certain elasticity of flexibility the capacity to endure being pushed or pulled one way. Then somehow returning back to another. It is it really is one of life. Courageous. Miracles. We. Are resilient we spring back. Look at you. Looking for us. We have such astounding inner resources. Think of all that we have endured. Think of all that you are going through that we are going through. And yes we're here. Moving around carrying on spin coaches and considerate and creative. Have you heard poet mary oliver asked have you heard the laughter they comes now and again out of my startled mouse. Yes please comfort me. Let's sing and laugh and dance with me as well. Gwendolyn brooks didn't stop with her declaration that everybody here is infirm. She continues. Today i say to them. Faith hill. State of them lord. I am beautiful. Beautiful with my wing that is wounded my eye that is bonded or my ear not funded or my walk all over wobble i'm enough to be beautiful. You are xi'an. You. Ar. Beautiful. 2. She's right. You're beautiful. Not because you're perfect. Unsullied. Unscarred. Beautiful even because you are flawed and falling wounded. Hurt. I know many of your stories now. I know what you've been through i've heard your sorrow of witnessed your suffering and. Marvel. And marvel because there is something in you that has sustained you and carried you and kept you together even during those times when you were falling apart. What may be all the more remarkable about human beings is this we not only carry on. We care. With enough concerns of our own to occupy us we none-the-less reach out to another. Offered a hand up a pat on the back of shoulder to cry on a kind word a hug a milla card. Call. With our own needs yet annette we stretch ourselves we offer our energy our time my resources in the name of justice and equity. Out of concern for our fragile planet and its most marginalized people. We do the work of healing which is the work of making whole. Amending what has been torn. Attending what has been wounded. Early in my education toward ministry i was guided to the work of the dutch catholic priest on renowden. Now when we now know with troubled. My depression. Buy a longing for intimacy in conflict with his priestly vows. Find awareness of himself as a gay man. An identity he found very difficult to own as the truth about himself. His biographer michael ford suggest these intense struggles took an enormous. Emotional spiritual physical toll on his life. Perhaps that's why he could write in that first book of his i read a guide to what it means to be a minister called. The wounded. Healer. In it now and rights when we experience the healing presence of another person. We can discover our own gifts for healing. Then our wounds wounds. Allow us to enter into a deep solidarity with our wounded. Maybe when we are at our best that's what we are here. The collection of wounded. Healers. We are those who know life is indeed difficult. We are those who also exhibit an astounding resilience. The capacity not just to survive. Butterfly. And even in our woundedness. We are those who care enough to reach out to others who are wounded with words and deeds of healing compassion and transformative intention. After all. Everybody here. Is infirm. Everybody here is infirm. And. And. You are.

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10.8.17_just_sitting.mp3

It's the afternoon of. February 1st. 1960. For well-dressed black college students walk together down. South elm street in greensboro north carolina. Around 4:30. They enter the fw woolworth department store. Linger in the aisles. Buy a few minor items. Then they move. The long lunch counter. The area. A swiveling padded seats with those shiny. From. These men. Ezell blair. Franklin. Mccain. David. Joe mcneil. David. Richmond. Homely. And with steady. Dignity. Ben. Sit down. Years. Later. Franklin mccain who was called the instigator. Offered. His personal testimony. On that phone. 15 seconds. After sitting down. I had a wonderful feeling. I had a feeling of liberation. Public storage manhood. I felt a natural high i felt. Almost invincible. Mind you. I was just sitting on a dome stone. Now. Almost six decades. Later. We. What franklin did cain and his three friends. Could have never imagined. That one simple. Between mapleton pebble. Thrown into the serene water of white supremacy. In time. It would broaden and deepen. And strengthen. And it would roll down like the waters of a mighty stream. By august of the next year 70. Thousand people have participated. In the city. Resulting in / 3. Thousand arrest. They're those for fat like trees planted beside the water would not be. Sitting because ezell blair's mother insisted that it be so fitting. Enclosed like you're going to church. Spiritually grounded that they acted and spoke from a place of uncompromising love. Who sang with meat the full force of white supremacy with the sole source. Of nonviolent resistance. Historian. 5 web. In an essay analyzing the white reaction to the city and cites a 1961 poll in which. 80. 4%. Of the respondents expressed. Opposition. To both the tactic. Amber. Of the protesters engaged. In the city. Another poll understood that judgment on these act only 34% of those who called themselves integrationist in the scant 17% of self-described racial moderate. Regarded the form of protest as legitimate. Do you hear what i just said. Only 34% of those who describe themselves as integrationist. And 17% of those who describe themselves as racial moderate regarded this as a legitimate form of protest. Filling a top of stool in one sunday best determined to meet every indignity each emotional and physical threat with non-violence in order to challenge white supremacy is a tactic and is a name that is not an appropriate form of protest. Oh, the more generous critics called it youthful exuberance. From accepted as ignorant. But according to one poll just 12% were willing to believe that these demonstrators really were motivated by a desire for racial equality. Legislatures got in on the act digging up old statutes dreaming up new ways to get the police even more power dragging out the old cudgeled of states rights defending. Defending the privileges of businesses to serve and not serve whomever they wish. Retaliating. Retaliating against. The colleges. Regarded as the recruiting grounds by forcing the dismissal of professors and the expulsion of students. When congressman called the peaceful city in a planned and concerted effort to agitate. Appreciate dissension to the point of violence it's missing the demonstrations as publicity stunt. Another said those engaged in the city and conspired to start a race riot of terrible proportion. Seen the images to taunt the dehumanization the mental and physical abuse and to be sure the most virulent violent strain of rachel's the white supremacist were mobilized against the sit-in movement. Plan the white citizens council the police. Racist court judges. But it is telling. The system of white supremacy was also upheld by those concerned that this sort of unseemly thing would be. Bad for business. They argued according to cloud web that slow and deliberate policy with accomplished changed better than the impulsive. Of young black. What newspaper opined that reform will come from neither white nor negro agitators but from those who will keep their feet. Solid on the ground. And their heads cool and objective. All of this the overt and violent reaction the subtle quiet condemnation the serious and complicit call for cone all of this because some. Where. When you hear. As we have heard in this past year as we have heard in this past month as we have heard in this past week. The criticizing of certain acts of protest. As failing to meet someone's personal standard of appropriateness. Please keep this history in mine. The implication maybe i agree with your cause just not your method. Introduce the reality often is i'm more concerned about order than i am about injustice i'm more concerned about what you did then i am about what you're trying to call attention to i'm more concerned to protect what i like then to understand why you felt the need to disrupt it i'm more concerned about the language you use. The words you chose the terms i don't like because even without listening i'm absolutely certain they couldn't possibly apply to me. Then i am about a social situation that you are trying to describe. You remember what martin luther king jr wrote from that jail cell in birmingham to his white detractors. You deplore the demonstrations taking place in birmingham but your statement i'm sorry to say fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstration. King prize the white. Mater. Dwight. Who paternalistically he says believe. Kitchen set a timetable for another man's freedom. To live by a mythic concept of time and who constantly advises the negro to wait for. A more convenient season. Lamentably he recognizes it is and historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges. Voluntarily. Does it has ever been. Whenever the system of supremacy has felt threatened by any action. It has been dismissed as too controversial to practical too unrealistic those engaging in all forms of protest from the demurrer to the demonstrative have been called too angry to divisive too naive or idealistic too strident or insensitive or demanding with threats to the fix social order of things are concerned it's always the wrong time wrong method wrong forum wrong venue in which not enough respect is being given to the flag the truth the government the police the moms or the apple pie. Michael harriot has written. I seriously satirical satirically serious article he titled how to protest. Without offending white people. No. explain you can of jet2 inequality as much as you like. As long as it isn't exporting. Monster think about politics at sporting events. Or at political. Or inauguration. Or on social media. Portage schools. Borat actual protest. Everywhere. Define. And god forbid. This should be any fire. Or what is called violence whether it's really violence or not. Angela davis recognizing placing the question of violets at the forefront. Almost inevitable almost inevitably serve to obscure the issues that are at the center of the struggles for justice. We readily decry violent and discredit any protests that is not completely peaceful. Let me ask you this. Have you ever heard of police chief ass. Have you ever heard of police chief and. If they were completely committed to nonviolence. Never heard of prison warden ass. If they were completely committed to nonviolence. Anyone in the military ask if they were completely committed to nonviolence. Angela davis insist questions about the validity of violence should be directed to the institutions that have a monopoly on violence. The police the prisons the military. Tomorrow michael harriot satirical instructions there only two forbidden forms of protest. Violet. Everything else is fine. What if instead of judging. Critiquing questioning dismissing or ignoring all the ways that people are pointing up racial injustice. We wouldn't want to join in. What if we were to become so committed to real transformation. That we wanted to find a way to engage. And these tumultuous times days offering indisputable proof. That white supremacy is still very alive and quite well. Some say i'm not physically or emotionally able to march. Some say. I'm not comfortable being out there. Some say i don't feel safe in the street. My response. Mesa fry's summit. Marching and protesting in the streets is not required we must stop aggrandising that act and those who engage in it as the ultimate or optimal way to express one's concerned about racial injustice. If you can't or won't march protest walk or. Would you consider. Sitting. Ask those for young college guys about the power video. Fastest arosa about the power of sitting. Sometimes there's power sets great power even transformative power in just sitting. In the wrong place. At the right. Time. Just city. Not to hold forth. Not to prove our liberal credentials oradell a group with our revolutionary resume. Map to create our next facebook photo. Sitting. As an ally as an advocate to listen. With respect. Listen in the hopes of understanding more deeply that witch. For those of us in the dominant culture. We find so very hard to understand. Just sitting. Opinion editorial a letter to the editor is simple facebook post admitting our own complicity. Acknowledging our own privilege confessing our own captivity to the status quo. Just sitting with family with friends at parties dinner tables office gathering not in proud demonstration of how progressively are good to ask honestly and seriously improving what is it in. What is it among us. That resist real transformation. Just sitting turning off netflix. Indistinctly biased news reporting. And perhaps even the nfl. I'm taking time to read heart stuff. The things that don't confirm our standing as the good white people. But instead call us tomorrow. Just sitting. Perhaps. Fallen anthem is being played. Not disrespect. But in deep respect. For what it actually means to profess the ideal of liberty. Injustice. Just sitting in a courtroom in support of a local active. Signaling simply by where you sit your white body. Signaling to the principalities of our police state into the powers of our prison industrial complex it's supposed to look like you really do care. These acts will most assuredly not feel completely comfortable. Some will almost certainly ask are you sitting with them. Do you know what they say. Haven't you heard that kind of outrageous things they are calling for. Don't you know how vain acton. The language they've used. Are you aware who they have upset. Some will almost certainly say what you are doing it. It's the wrong time. The wrong place. The wrong tone. The wrong leader. Wrong message. The wrong. All. Sometimes. Steven.

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1.3.16_snow.mp3?_=6

In the little houses the tenant people shifted their belongings in the belongings of their fathers. And of the grandfather's. So right john steinbeck in one of the sadder seen in a masterful grapes of wrath. He's describing hardscrabble victims of those dust bowl days. The ones who finally decided to cut their losses and head out for california. Maybe they ponder with cautious hope. Maybe we can start again. In the new richland in california. Where the fruit grows. We'll start over. Then. The stark. Voice of reality intervenes. But you can't start. Only a baby can start. You and me why we're all that's been the anger of the moment the thousand pictures that's us this land this red landed us in the flood years and the dust year. End the drought years r us. We can't. Start. We can't start. Again. A definitive declaration belied by the speechless feeling of this time of the year. Divine design to convince us that in fact. It is entirely possible. To start again. No sooner has the surge of christmas advertising subsided. Then this other predictable sales pitch takes its place. The height up hocking of health club memberships. Diet plans. Intriguing new exercise equipment. Electronic gizmos to goad us into action. Carefully counting every single one of our steps along the way. Wiley entrepreneurs are now waving their wares before those of us who use the occasion of new year's to recommit ourselves to getting into better shape. We've resolved that we're going to drop those extra pounds we picked up over the holidays. Get back into those pants we wore a few years ago or better still become the buff and beautiful body receive depicted in these. Carefully placed commercial. They've developed all the right products and plans and procedures. Just the things we need to accomplish our goals. And if we haven't made that particular new year's resolution. There's a whole other push for products like. Closet organizers. Storage containers firing systems for those of us newly committed the conquering all of that clutter in our lives. Happy new year. Now get to work. Or till working out. New years is one of the oldest and most enduring of all human celebration. We find new year's observances among egyptians and babylonians at least 4,000 years ago. The babylonian celebrated new year's in march. Initiate the new cycle of planting and harvest. The high priest would strip the king of all the trappings of his office. Sceptre ring scimitar and crown. And send him away for a few days. During his absence the people engaged in excesses. Marked by the reversal of all social order. The king within return a raid in his finery for the grand parade and the normal activities of life. Would come in for another year. In ancient egypt the new year's observant occurred in september. The celebration coincided with a flooding of the nile. Marking a new beginning for farmers by in risking. Their land. Mercier eliades. Discusses the religious importance of new year's in ancient sumerian culture. They believe that the cosmic order was continually being upset by the crying fault and errors of humankind. Failings which must be regularly expiated and purged with the help of various rituals. So in their mythology the world was annually regenerated by a new year's festival called aki till. Which literally means. Power making the world live again. Eliada adds more or less similar mythical ritual scenarios of the new year or documented in countless culture. Across lines of ethos. Geography and religion. In 2016 people will mark their new year's with with special rituals it's specified times. February 8th for the vietnamese new year. March 26th for the observance of nora's. The persian new year. 21st of june the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. Mahrez. Of bolivia. October one will signal the beginning of the islamic year. The next day october 2nd rosh hashanah. For the jewish new year. October 30th. For diwali. The hindu new year's observant. The 31st of october for samhain. The beginning of the annual cycle for druids. Anime eastern himalayas. The sea kameez new year will be celebrated on the 14th. And the 50. And the 60. Of december. Where you at babe new year's observances indoor. For millennia. Why now this ongoing widely variant attention. To new year's. What are we human saying about ourselves about our perception of life and time and meaning in this annual observance. Poet dana gioia surmises the new year always brings us what we want. Simply by bringing us along to see a calendar with everyday uncross. A field of snow without a single. Footprint. Is that it. Might that explain our attention to the turning. Against all awareness is that a completely clean slate and entirely unsullied field may not actually be possible. Ween on the list need offense of starting over. We all want a second. Or third. Or 13. 30th jan. An opportunity to begin. Again. Maybe it's this. We need regularly to renew our hope that the way things. Have been. It's not necessarily the way they. Mustang. Several years ago melissa and i made a wonderful winter time visit to yosemite national park. Does the valley floor was mild comfortable in shirtsleeves the surrounding mountains were covered in deep snow. Shimmering down from the surrounding rock faces. One morning we took a van ride up into those mountains. Where we joined the group for a snowshoe. After brief instructions. We set out into truly magnificent scenery. Threats before us. We're long trails of untrammeled smooth. Rolling hills unmarked by any kind of activity. Meandering paths through those grandwood. Wine white and pristine as far as the eye could see. That's the poet notion of this new year. Field of snow without a single footprint a calendar with everyday when cross. A whole new opportunity unblemished by old errors past mistakes or misfortunes. A new year with the opportunity to make our own paths through fields of snow without a single footprint. Now we could dismiss that possibility altogether. Technically echoing tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time. But my guess is. Most of us here don't really believe that life is a tale told by an idiot. Full sound and fury signifying nothing. Even if we know. We can't ever. Completely start over. Simply turn the page and walk away from all of our past mistakes. All of our regrets. All of our disappointment. And heartbreak. Perhaps that's why we continue to engage our imagination. That movie years. Aware that we can't ever fully start over we nonetheless want and need new opportunity. The redirect our courses. The altar old decision. The entertained new hopes and dreams. If we do not believe that everything is. We can still hope that shane. Evelyn. Signific. Is. This annual observance invites us to consider our own prospect for change. Literally or not we make resolutions. We reflect and refine assess and evaluate. We listen to our places of pain. And disappointment and dissatisfaction. And then. We make the choice to go in some new way. The chart a new course across a field as yet unmarked by some well-worn way of it. No wonder such a time is so significant in human history. It points us to those things that make us most fully. Human. This particular observance and its accompanying reflection reminder that life is not simply faded. And that we are not simply passive. Victims of circumstance. This time declares that our lives are in our own hands. And that we get to say about food and how we are. It's time offers us a new opportunity. To take responsibility. For what is. And. For what could be. If we were to engage in the effort to make it so. In imagining that life is now new we reclaim our power. To take charge. Of our own situation. That's the opportunity to which we are all called on this day. To take responsibility. For our own why. To address our own discomfort. I considered how we can chat. How we can change our own lives to make them more likely want and need them to be. Is there a field of snow without a single footprint out there now before us. Not in this sweltering. But there is a new year. A new mine. A new week. A new day. There is this new and never-before-seen morning beckoning each of us to reflect yet again. So might you take advantage of the opportunities. That are now yours. What hard decisions. Might you make. Back by commitment. Courage. Dedication. And tenacity. To change who and how you are. For the better. How might your living. How might your relating. How might your working. How might your. Finding. More closely reflect. Your. Deepest. Value. How about you listen for and respond to life call for you to embody more fully who you really are. And who this world needs you to be. In what ways might you now stop simply pondering. And actually start. Taking. Right now. The field of this year is marked by very few footprints. We stand on the threshold. At the beginning just. Opening the door. All the potential gifts and the challenges. That this year can hold for each of us. As always it takes imagination. The capacity to see beyond what is. Glanced through that doorway. Entrance to this new year. And see out there. Something else. Something. Better. Something worth striving. Adrienne rich right. Either you will go through this door. Are you will not go through. If you go through. There is always the risk of remembering your name. Things look at you doubly and you must look back and let them happen. If you do not go through. If you do not go through it is possible to live worthily. To maintain your attitude. Hold your position. Bravely. But much will blind you. Much will. Evade you. At what cost. The door. Excel. Makes no promise. It. He's only.

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6.11.17_prayer.mp3

For all of ralph waldo emerson's early unfettered faith in humankind the essay that many regard as his finest work is rooted in disappointment. It is entitled simply the poet. An exclamation of poets and their work. Offering unrivaled adulation. Poets are he write the liberating god's the poet is the speyer the namer and represents beauty the true and only doctor. Step into the world to the end of expression. The poet is essential. Since we are not really human without the capacity. For expression. However emerson. High ideals are unrealized. I look insane for the poet. Describe he bemoans the craving ahrlac we have yet no genius. In america. This for emerson was no small matter banks and tariff the newspaper and caucus methodism and unitarianism are flat and dull to dull people. All of the many wonders of this new nation you can plude are yet. Unsewn. On march 5th 1842 a rough brass newspaper reporter attended a lecture in which emerson offered beast.. The high ideal and the sad lack. He would later say i wish timbering shimmering shimmering emerson brought me to a boil. Sparked by this audacious acclimation this reporter began writing poems with fervor. And in july 1855 emerson would receive an unsolicited copy of his new collection. Title. Simply. Song of myself. Emerson would read well into the work before discovering that it came from the vet at point at that point completely unknown. Addressing whitman emerson pain one of the most famous letters in american literary history of song of myself i find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that america has yet contributed. It meets the demand i am always making i have great joy in it. I find incomparable things said incomparably well. Deal. emerson's hi-vision whitman created something unprecedented. And in the process became the progenitor of all future us polo. He also completely undermined. What mini thought they knew. U.s. poetry before whitman followed a sixth form. It had a predictable often too damn thick meter it had a fixed reinstein that offered rent that often rendered it singsong angley interest. Whitman undercut that scheme entirely i celebrate myself and sing myself and what i assume you shall assume for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. His opening line. Even in length. Completely unrhymed. Page after page after page the poem continue. While with ecstasy explicitly sexual and urge and her ginseng always appropriate urge of the world. Energy expresses graphically for both men and women. Encyclopedic with long list of people in places in thoroughly. Irreverent. Poet william carlos williams celebrates away whitman broke through the copied form. Ryder randall gerald would say whitman that he was the only being in the history of this planet. Who can write lines like this. The course of this nation that in many ways our world literature would be forever. Formerly alter. But not everyone celebrated. This. Houston. Poetry. We know what poetry supposed to be like in this simply isn't. Whitman complained that the critics are always after the style. Style style style dammit file everything must go. These naysayers knew exactly what poetry was. Centerpoint could only be one thing. What whitman wrote just wasn't poetry. It didn't skip the sixth form. Did agreed-upon assumptions which of course is precisely why emerson. Loved it so much. Innovation. Imagination creativity coloring outside the lines of 62 sumption of simple definition is always upsetting to the order of things and to those who favored having things. Orderly. Shoshito pepper. Created stunning images of sophisticated geographic abstraction and some responded. But it's not art. Sister rosetta tharpe hooked up a guitar to amplifier. Enstrom declared that noise couldn't be music. Martha graham rejected classical ballet vaulting leaks and precisely pointed toes. Prestige financial. Grounded movement. Strong determined. That is not. Damn. But youman it's precious. Honest. Authentic. Genuine human expression rarely fit into narrow definition. R6 determination. Where are most majestic expressions are concerned dictionaries are rarely very valuable. Their efforts at efficient explanation proves. Ineffective. Which brings us. At last. To the matter at hand. Prayer. What. Dictionary.com. Where is. Petition to god. A devout petition to god. So whenever anyone. Of any traditions for whatever reason using the word here. What they have in mind is a devout petition to god. Prayer is and can only be. An act of pia space in which one appeals to a divine being to intervene on one's behalf or on behalf of someone about home when is concerned. To believe in prayer is to believe that. There is some being with a miraculous capacity to override the laws of science and the course of history in response to some. Intrigued. And by necessity then the opposite must be the case. If one doesn't believe there's such a beating. If one doesn't believe that the intersection has the capacity to tilt things in our favor than one simply has no use for prayer. There are those at the opposite end of a very broad spectrum. The most devout. And the most dismissive. Who ironically share this kind of unimaginative. Thinking. These appeal to fix it. This simplistic assumptions threatened by the same kind of imaginative creative form busting info that gives rise to other kinds of human expression. Please hold that prayer can only be done in their way. Or. With equally unyielding fervor. But prayer is nonsensical. Since the dictionary definition of untenable to a sophisticated scientific. World. Having encountered such fundamentalist. On both ends of the spectrum. I've long since given up trying to sway those who thrive on such. Imagination. Creativity rarely alter. That kind of person. But i'd invite the rest of. To keep in mind that prayer just might mean more than what is contained in a simple dictionary. Printed on the cover of your order are word you saw projected as you entered. Holocaust survivor elie wiesel who lost all capacity simplistically about anything. Dim the words that in some way thing as closer to those suffering. It's prayer. Coretta scott king and words you heard just a few moments ago regarded prayer as the great sustaining force in african-american history and the wellspring of strength and inspiration for the whole civil rights movement. Her claim is echoed in that famous clip from rabbi abraham joshua heschel who marching alongside king asserted i felt my feet. We're pranking. African-american unitarian universalist minister adam lawrence dyer and words you heard wonders if love can prompt us to pray for him even if we've never pray. Are such assertions indicative only of those. Making devout entreaty to a divinity. Heart. Instead they are talking about the kind of beat. Human concern that arises in the face of injustice. Prayer is a kind of crying out. Both by and alongside those most deceptive. Monday evening of this week. A few of us heard voices. From the charlotte. One a community organizer talked about her work in supporting the long days and nights. Approaches. She gathered food water medical supplies. Treatment for those who are being tear-gassed again and again by our police. She created transportation. Communication channels. Psychological and physical responses to the trauma. And she said. With no hesitation. She pray. She pray. Whenever any are dismissive of those who praise such prayers. These risks. Creating even deeper. Between privilege. And peyton. Prayer is a crying. Open coming from those marginal. Prayer is an acknowledgment of need of lack of woman. Prayer is a downside of grief. Recover finger the man for something. I honor the power prayer has in such times and. I join in just those kinds of prayers. Prayers for the very spirit of life that lines might take this shape. My friend and colleague victoria safford the tales that remarkable sequence of circumstances in the evolution of our planet. Born out of a smallest star with animals and element in plants and. Vincent cassel. In such a wonderful world. What's wrong with come out of your mouth. What. Prayer is a gasp. An explanation offered and experiences of all and wonder and mystery prayer is the song that can rising up out of a overtakes. Prayer is the point the painting the dance the photograph. Offered as an echo. Prayer is the exhalation of. And experiences of extra. I honor the power prayer hands at such time and i join in just those kinds of players. Singing with all of art open. Find. When there are needs. Here among us. And there are needs in my own family. Amongst those i love most. Prayer is a name meaning of those needs prayer is a holding. Of those concerns. Prayers a way of expressing one's hope for healing. And for help. Prayers with kindness of compassion it's the voicing of the sentiment. Icare. I honor the power prayer has in such times and i joining jessica's kinds of braids. 4. For a balm. Ceiling tower. The love that can heal our soul and make us. My unitarian-universalist colleague manish mishra merced. A spiritual challenge. If we can liberate ourselves from notions of prayer that don't work for us. A new question can emerge. What understandings of prayer might actually. Ralph waldo emerson wrote his essay the poet because he recognized as he put it. Then we all stand in need of expression. This was a call for true and deep expression of that which is truest and deepest about. It was whitman form i had to ring capacity to give voice to the human experience that enthused emerson. I would suggest today. That we still live in need of expression. Let the most real things about us yet make their way up out of. Prayer can be our means. Giving heart. Hermine. Or voice. The deepest pain that we feel. To the truest connections that we experience. To the greatest joy and gratitude overflow. Answer. It just maybe. That it is the saying it's the naming it's the expressing that matters. Just. Emerson was suggesting. In the sky. Or wherever in the hearing of are expressing something if anything changes. Our feelings. Our aspiration. I sense of disconnection. Are lonely. A sense of purpose. Our hope. If any of that. Changes. Because we pray. All the better.

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6.9.19_power.mp3

One of the ways that i know summer is coming. Is not only because it's getting warmer outside and different things are in bloom and the daylight hours or longer. One of the ways i know that summer is coming is that if you go to see a movie. You will have at least three superhero films to choose from. And over the years of the plethora of movies based on comic books. My favorite series. Is the x-men. As a child of the 90s i remember watching the x-men is a cartoon series on saturday mornings while my cereal got soggy. You may or may not be familiar with the x-men through the multitude of films that have appeared about them in the past 20 years. But i'll just introduce you to a few of the x-men. There's rogue who as a teenager begin discovering that through touch she had the power to absorb the physical and psychic energy of others. Terrified and uncertain of what this all means road runs away from her small mississippi home. For a long time she wears gloves and a scarf and a hoodie always with the hood up. Hiding herself from the world. Shames. Scared and uncertain of what she is capable of. Then there's cyclops. After the death of both his parents cyclops spent most of his childhood in the state. Home for foundlings in omaha nebraska. The adults charged with caring for the young cyclops. Either abused or neglected him. By the time he runs away cyclops has discovered that he can radiate beans of concentrated energy from his eyes. Blowing things up. With a glance. But his emotional distress keeps him from being able to control his powers properly. There's a storm. The daughter of kenyan royalty and a british photojournalist she can manipulate the atmosphere and control the weather. When we first meet her in the comic books she is wrestling with the ethics of her powers and how to use them for good. Without throwing off nature's own rhythm and balance to profoundly. And of course if you have heard of the x-men even vaguely you've heard of wolverine. You have a heightened sense of smell. Who's able to heal his own wounds and a matter of moments. Has the ability to produce claus when he feels threatened. Wolverine as much as the rest struggles under the weight of his superhuman abilities. He spends long periods of time between missions self-medicating not sure of how to space the responsibility that comes with his power. Each of these characters is lost in their own way until charles xavier. Affectionately known as professor x. Find them one by one. And give them a home in the xavier school for gifted youngsters. There they take horses like leadership and tactics. The epics of power. Along with english science and drama. Professor x gently teaches the scared and troubled youth who come into his care. That they should not fear their own gifts. They should not hide their abilities from the world. Nor should they abused the power that comes with such gifts. Professor x teaches that instead of simply serving their own changing and impulsive interests. The super human beings can find a sense of purpose. And peace. By using their powers in service of the greater good a higher. Pause. Despite their ability to control the weather or shoot laser beams out of their eyes. The x-men are not. Unrelatable. Which is the beauty of superhero movies of course. We cannot lift cars with our minds but like the x-men we to experience doubt. In our abilities. Me to wrestle with whether or not we should ignore our gifts. Because they demand of us something inconvenient. Intimidating. And life-altering. When we discover our own power we to fear that we might fail to accomplish. What that same power would suggest we are capable of. Earlier when i asked what images and people and experiences came to your mind when you heard the word power. I identified with those of you who thought of power first. As negative. When i hear the word power the other words that immediately come to my mind. Our corruption. Manipulation. And abuse. But it was thinking of power. In the superhero sense. They revealed to me another meaning of the word. In the comic book contact if you looked up what powers a superhero has. You would find a list of their skills. Their abilities. Their strengths. If we think of powers as. Gifts. Or strength. Then power is the use of those abilities to affect. The environment around you. And then playing the piano or having the ability to teach. Algebra. Listening with patients. Compassion to someone who is in pain are all powers we bring. To the worlds. It is this definition of power that i found in our own freeman hall this week. The east coast leaders of the sierra club. Hosted a leadership development conference here in our building this week. You may have heard of the sierra club. They describe themselves as the most enduring an influential grassroots environmental organization. In the united states. J&i as ministers went to welcome our guests and thank them for using our space for their good work. And when we walked into the room. It looked like productive conversation had indeed been taking place all week. Poster paper quickly filled with no tongue around the room. And i couldn't help but notice that the heading of each paper said something like building power or mobilizing. Power. In my experience the sierra club attracts justice focused nature-loving types and i don't think of them as particularly power-hungry people. And sure enough they graciously gave me permission to take. Pictures of their notes so i could read them later on my own. One heading asks where do we build power where. And the answer is listed below included. Through a stronger sense of community. Trust. By showing people how much power they already have. Another heading asked with this power who are we accountable to. Answers included frontline communities. Ourselves. Each other. And the future. In words we heard earlier rebecca parker says your gifts. Whatever you discover them to be can be used to bless or curse the worlds. The mind's power the strength of the hands the reaches of the heart any of these conserve to feed the hungry. Any of these can hoard. Bread. If you follow storycorps you may have recently heard a conversation recorded between alexei romanov and his husband david farah. In the course of their conversation. Romanoff recounts a story of the first person who helped him find the courage to be himself. Alexei romanov grew up knowing he was gay. In his new york city neighborhood of the late 1950s. He was able to find the company of other gay kids. And they did their best to support one another in a world that was hostile to their very existence. At 14 romanoff began frequent paying bryant park. Rametta kind man in his mid-80s. Who shared his own stories about what it had been like to grow up gay in a small town in the 1890s. Romanoff and his friends came to call this kindly older man mother. Bryant's. Growing up mother bryant had refused to hide the fact. That he was gay. He'd been so ostracized by his community as a result that he'd had to leave home. For good. Romanoff remembered as a kid thinking how brave mother bryant was. To be honest. About who he was. Alexei romanov grew up. And met a man he loved and wanted to move in with. At the time it was illegal in new york city to rent an apartment to two men who were not related. When the prospective landlord asked romanoff. What's the relationship between you two. Romanoff suddenly remembered mother bryant. He remembered that mother brian had once said. When you're ready to leave this earth. As i am. If you haven't left your community in a better place than you found it. You haven't. Lived. Romanoff took a deep. Bratz. And replied to the landlord. He's my partner. And my lover. After a long pause. The landlord said. Okay. Here's the key. And romero said he looked up and said thank you mother bryant. I will never lie about being gay again. What would we call the power mother bryant shared with alexei romanov. The power to love another. Human being. Is it the power of honesty or courage that mother bryant and then romanoff used to free others to be themselves. It's intimidating to think of ourselves as powerful. If we have power we could fail to accomplish with that same power promised we were capable of. If we have power we could use it. Carelessly. Empower of course is not real. Unless it is exercised. Are gifts even if we are fully aware of their presence may lie dormant unused inside of us. Our creativity as vibrant as it seems has not brought something beautiful to life or challenged an old idea if we do not. Create. Our compassion as alive as it may feel has not sheltered someone in their moment of uncertainty unless we are compassionate. Well our curiosity may make our life more interesting. Unless it is voice. It cannot guide others deeper into a seemingly unsolvable problem. Well our insight. Is silence. It cannot contribute to conversation or shape. Outcomes. As we heard audre lorde earlier. My silences had not protected me your silences will not protect. You. Next time ask what's the worst that will happen. Then push yourself a little further than you dare. She says you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision. Would you may have never realized. You had. If power is not real unless it is exercised. Then we must ask ourselves if we are willing to claim our power. To use our strengths or abilities are voice. In service of the good and just. And kinds. Rebecca parker asked what will you do with your gifts. And she implores us choose to bless. The world. In making this choice know that you are not alone. It is that choice to bless the world the work of a liberating faith. That parker explains draws us into community. The endeavor shared the heritage passed on. The companionship. Of struggle. Is parker says none of us alone can save the world. Together. That is another possibility. Waiting. Blessed be. Amin.

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11.11.18_Language_of_the_Unheard.mp3

On march 14th 1968 jack f road west of the police chief of grosse pointe farms michigan. In a little over a year before he reaches 40th birthday a kidney ailment would claim his life. But on that night did play a minor role in our nation's unfolding history one that would be laughable. Were it not so sad. The car stopped on the way to grosse pointe south high school chief rogue got in the backseat in keeping with the plan he immediately climbed onto the lap of another man. Off they went the chief. And the passenger. Two grown men the one sitting atop the others lap. Almost two centuries earlier on december 16th 1773 angry colonists boarded ships docked at griffin's wharf in boston. In a carefully planned act of subversion they ripped open hundreds of chest and proceeded to dump about 92. Thousand pounds of tea. Into the harbor's chilly waters. It was an act of aggressive resistance. A spark that would eventually erupts into the raging conflagration of the american revolution. But lying some simplistic assessment and odds with the dubious claims of the contemporary tea party faction this act did not unite those patriarchal founders. George washington found it of hoarding. A display of vandalism demonstrating regrettable disregard. For property rights. Benjamin franklin called the subversive raid and act of violence injustice. Continuing that the east india tea company should be compensated for its losses. Tilly's. Privileged patriots. Those marauding malcontent. Head rebuild in a way that was not. Gordon moreland was there on that march 1968 9th. In grosse pointe farms. Did you had a minor role in history. Standing at the curb alongside the high school a dark-colored sedan pulled up alongside him instinctively reached for the car door and opened it. 3 surprise seesaw jack row the grosse pointe farms police chief sitting on the lap of another man. The chief slid off he and the other man emerged that the ladder barely able to walk. Stretching the man looked at moreland and said i appreciate you opening the door for me. John brown was an armed combatant. Violently resisting slavery in kansas. But it is his organization of the october 1859 raid on harpers ferry armory that secured his place in history. Bear brown tried to launch a violent uprising intended ultimately to undermine the institution of slavery. Captured and tried browns life ended on a virginia gallows. It was his peculiar doctrine henry david thoreau would say of brown. That a man has a perfect. Right. To interfere. By force. With the slaveholder. In order to rescue the slave. Anthro with dad. I agree with you. Mini however did not. Abraham lincoln and remarks directed at southern and slavers said of brown's raid it was so absurd. Let the slaves with all their ignorant. So plainly enough that it could not succeed. He equated it to the many attempts related in history at the assassination of kings. An emperors. Is mocking tone is evident when he summarizes and enthusiastic. Broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself commission by heaven. Deliberating. Adventures the account. Which eaton. And little and his own. Execution. The commanding brown for his abolitionist intentions. Lincoln deplored brown violence. Bloodshed. And treason. By abraham lincoln's judgment. John brown had rebelled in a way that was not. Jack roe and garden moreland with a supporting cast. The main actor that march. 19689 in grosse pointe farms. Bastille young black baptist minister named rev dr martin luther king jr.. King was by then a resistor with an intersectional focus long before we knew to call it that. His spiritual moral outrage. Over racial injustice. Had brought him into a spiritual moral outrage over poverty exploitation capitalistic excess and an indefensible war in southeast asia. He was increasingly combative and wildly. Wildly. Controversial. He was on that night just three weeks away from his faithful assassination on a motel balcony. In memphis. King of been invited to speak in grosse pointe farms a very conservative community by the local human relations council the group that included unitarian minister harry meserve. Let the community with you deeply divided. Summit attempted to coerce the school board into denying the use of the high school. For the speech. The streets were chaotic that evening filled with many furious at king and outrage. That he was in their town. Police chief jacroux was determined that nothing would happen to king while he was visiting grosse pointe farms. So stopping the car in which king was writing row got in the back seat and sat on king's lamp. To shield his body. For extra protection. Once the car stops gordon moreland open the door only to discover the odd seen the chief. City. On a man's lap. And to his shop. The man. Was king. The graciously thanked moreland before being hastily escorted into a back entrance. Of the school. Auditorium. On march 3rd 1913 suffragist alice paul and lucy burns organized the parade. Down pennsylvania avenue in washington on the eve. President woodrow wilson's inauguration. For decades women and called for the right to vote paul and burns were to take the movement in a new much more confrontative direction just as they had hope the parade route attention to their cause. Including from son who attacked the women along the parade route. More traditional suffragettes and continue to call for more traditional methods. Petitioning state legislators. And lobbying politicians. Carrie chapman catt long veteran of that more civil that more civil approach. Adamantly opposed to paul's actions. We do not. She had declared earlier have to win sympathy by parading ourselves cleaning department. My 1917 paul and burns and organize their national women's party. It was this group in january of that year who would be the first-ever. To engage in picketing. At the white house. Woodrow wilson had spoken of. Woodrow wilson had spoken of. Quote. The chill. Generalized feeling. Over me. When i see and hear. Women. In public. Asserted. Definitely. Irreconcilable. Opposed. Two women suffrage. Well the women take it at the white house hecklers denounced the women as. Guess what. Traders. Tracers. I can't even come up with new names. Trailers. Police arrested the suffragist. And when they refused to pay the fine ship them to a nearby workhouse. Where they protested their sentences with a hunger strike. Doris stevens. Another of the understanding heroines of the movement disposed in an interview a successful young harvard engineer said to me the other day. Believe. You realize. How much men. Objected to your picketing the white house. In all walks of life and i tell you. They didn't approve. But what you women did. Stevens replied. Of course you didn't like it. Imagine they would we knew they would disapprove. Never applied women fighting for their own liberty. We are approved. When we fight. These women. Please i'm really women. It seems that rebelled in a way that was not. And that march 14th. 1968 evening martin luther king jr spoke before a crowd of about 2700. Shoehorned into the grosse pointe south high school auditorium his speech entitled the other america with a wide-ranging explication of racial injustice poverty substandard housing segregated inadequate schools unemployment and underemployment he reiterated. Decrying the social unrest and spilled over in the cities literally inflamed by the rage of protest. But then king added an important commentary. It is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally. Irresponsible for me to do that without at the same time condemning the contingent intolerable conditions that exist in our society these conditions are the things that causes individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent. And i must say tonight to you added memorably. That a riot. Is the language. Of the unheard. Arayat. Is the language. Avion. Her. What are we. In our collective commitment to societal transformation what are we to make of the intentional acts of social upheaval in our time. One of those for example kneeling marching blocking traffic aggressively confronting the police tearing down statues both literal and figurative as acts of protest. And resistance. Boat. Vote. Leann rimes was relentless. And as these things go relatively successful. I've used and i will continue to use my voice to speak out against voter suppression and against partisan gerrymandering but my friends we do dude ourselves. If we imagine that the societal transformation to which we are committed and which we so desperately need will occur simply by electing the right people. I challenge you i challenge you to think of a single. Significant. Social change. That initiated. With politicians. Public education. Public health. Abolition. Protection for workers women's suffrage the freedom movement lgbtq rights environmental protections in all of these cases those elected to office did not lead they follow. Social change does not ever begin by electing the right people. Social change begins when people work for struggle for demand justice. Social change has come from calm and careful civil. Deliberation and compromise. Social changes followed a define process resulting in legislation in support of people's demands. And. Social change is also always included it has always included. Unrest in upheaval. 9th grade early civil rights leader to thomas fortune recognize agitators are inevitable necessary. Migrate militant abolitionist henry highland garnet. Recognize no oppressed people. Ever since you were there liberty without resistance. If we hear indulge a dishonest telling of history or in delusional hopes for the future aggrandising the political process as the initiator. Up change. May we be brought back to the truth. My reminders that it isn't. Ever. No one said it more clearly than audre lorde. For the master's tools. Will never. Will never. Dismantle. The master's hat. To sit in judgment on those who agitated macias. Without judging the reason such actions are needed is to align with the status quo. Change requires. Discomfort. Ruption. Dismantling. We can't protect what is we can't judge bye-bye what makes us most comfortable. If we hope to foster change. Even. Even here. Aspiring to embody the unitarian-universalism or to be the congregation of 5 years ago a decade ago a half-century or a century ago is at odds with a vision to which we have committed ourselves imagining that we can remain comfortable within or beyond these walls is at odds with the mission to which we have committed ourselves the opening phrase in our new mission is. Challenge. By our liberating. Fake. Some of us admitted that we were. Uncomfortable with that. Please acknowledge that the word challenge. Didn't sound very. Comfortable. Toward the end of his speech that night king repeated words he'd offered before. Somehow we must come to see that in this pluralistic interrelated society we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. Tied together all of it all of it so yes. Voting and politicians are parts of that network but only. One to which we cannot look to initiate. Transformation. When it is not election day. When we are urging vote vote vote vote. We can still be those insisting that the needs and the demands of the most marginalized. The most oppressed. Be heard. And he did. Demands voiced in syllables. And in on civil way. Demands embodied and careful collaboration and in angry adjectives. The man following set processes and procedures. And demands demanded by those who know clearly that the only and disruptive ways will they be heard. Challenged by our liberating faith. May we be among the ones. Listening to and learning from those who have not and who will. Find the proper. Waze. Two of them. May we be slow to judge. To dismiss the decry or to dement. May we be open. The understanding that sometimes. Sometimes. Araya. Maybe the only available language. For the otherwise. Unhurt.

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5.13.18_Mother_Is_A_Verb.mp3

Inez. That was her name. Inez. How is it that i can call that little sliver back. When so much else. It seems so much more momentous is lost to me. Inez. Inez. Hudgens. Of course all i all we ever called her with ms. Hudgens. I initially encountered her when my sister 14 months in a school year my senior. Entered first grade at the sara collins elementary school through the portal of ms ms hudgens classroom. You're later weather through good fortune. Are some deal my parents brokerage. Miss hudgens. Became my first grade teacher. First. Great. Death. And chairs. And wide lined paper. In those big. Fat eraser list pencils. And. Books. Eat some new escapade of dick and jane's. Sounded out slowly. By just being born readers. Gathered in a circle of miniature chairs. At the front of the room. Dick said. Look. Look. Look up. Look. Oh. And we did. First grade and i had a teacher who made it also vibrant and engaging caring and challenging. Hi and poet are germany's way of it i was that little boy a dreamer still developing his country moving mountains merging neighborhoods in cities of skin and bone. Fascinated. If the word deserve means anything at all then of course ms hudgens mother me. Minister say she brought me alive. Kindled my curiosity. Stoked my love of learning. Set my world ablaze with wonder. Ms hudgens mothered me all of us in that handsome classroom with a y drug and a rolling coat closet with hooks. Where are yellow slickers. How deeply grateful i feel in the haze of warm distant memory. For her. Mothering. There would be others along the way. Dick dylan. 7th grade social studies subversive. Sent from boston. As an emissary. From my future. The trouble ingrained ideologies with his talk of socialism. And the glories of the labor movement. He smothered me into a whole different view of the world with the grim plight of george and lennie and those most equal of all oppress or pigs. On a farm. Jane wilson. High school latin teacher. To whose classroom i return year beyond require gear because she made language come alive for me. She gently insistently nurtured and awkward adolescents love of learning of the mother tongue. She mothered me. In a safe shelter of declensions. And discipline. Doug mcdonald. Freshman philosophy teacher. To talk with a perennial fire in his belly. That's erupted offended the fireworks of pedagogical extravagance. Smothered my mind until it vibrated with electrified energy. Nurture. And yes he nagged. Cold to the deepest parts of me like a front porch parent sounding an elongated summons into the deepening dusk. To come home. Home to a wondrous place i've never been before. We're heaping plates of plato. An aristotle. Said my hungry soul. He smothered me in that. Alma mater. In the most real sense of a beautiful bountiful mother. Today. On the eve of a mass uprising of our state's teachers. At a time when the value of public education in a public education teachers is so maligned i rise to offer my thanks and my praise. To those who mothered me as teachers. They brought to life the most life-giving part of me they nurtured and sustained fed and corrected all the while inspiring me to think and read and imagine. And discern. I'm guessing everyone in this room today has their own stories. Tales of those who participated in birthing some essential part of who you now know yourself to be. I'm guessing you have your own warm memories. I'm having been. Mother. Whether you thought of it think of it as such or not. It may be your own teachers in or out of some formal classroom setting. Academic. Are music or art. Or perhaps a coach. Scout leader. A neighbor a significant figure in your spiritual community. Some beloved family member. Call to mind now in silence those who have mothered you. Very best. Richest. Most robust. Sense of that bird. Please. That's clouds of witnesses serve as perpetual reminders that not a single one of us. Is self-made. None of us is the product solely of our own efforts. We're not amoebas. Self-contained reproducers. We don't ever birth ourselves. We're not insects. Self-sufficient at birth. Able to get on with it. Get on with our lives. Upon arrival. It simply doesn't ever happen that way. We. We are human. Those needing others to bring us to life. Care enteric. Challenge and console. Pride. And protect. Listen and guide goad and love mentor. Mother. Whatever recollections are yours on this hallmark hyundai. You must have memories aplenty. Of the ones who wear for you involved in the work of mothering. When them have there been times when you. Have mothered. First time here of course. This has been a quite literal role that you have played and of course we celebrate you. And not just on this assigned day. But the role of mothering is gloria steinem reminds us is not limited. At all. Where mothering is concerned the best of human possibilities come to our imaginations she says the mother is to care about the welfare of another person as much as one's own. The mother depends on empathy and thoughtfulness noticing. And caring. Isn't part of our purpose here always. No matter the audacity of our overarching vision isn't part of our purpose always. To call forth such ways of the. Invite the investments of our lives. In the welfare of others. The call each of us to be. Empathic. Tubi. Thoughtful. Tune body the best of human possibility. I know. So many of you and i know you to be. Mother burgers. Those who do care who are caring. Who helped bring others more alive. Who helped sustain and support nurture and inspire somebody in admirable ways a depth of understanding of a role in that interdependent web of all life. I've seen your acts of concerned. Heard your words of support. Known about your investments in your involvement. The myriad ways you. Mother. For example. Just last. Sunday evening. In such powerful ways. I heard our adolescence. Exclaiming their experience. In this year's coming-of-age program. Broker made possible for those by those of you who are mentors. That is. Lowe's. Mothering the youth into laying claim on their own personal waze. Afaik. Call to your mind and silence those. Who you. Have mothered. The very best riches. Most robust since of that ferb. When peter delacruz was just six months. Old. His father left him in the care of his nineteen-year-old aunt. A woman he called nina. His extended family was made up of migrant workers. The travel throughout the u.s.. Define farm work. Tomato fields in south texas. Cherry orchards in ohio. Sugar beet farm. In north dakota. In five years old young vito joined them in the fields where they at work side-by-side all day long and then share a family meal together. Afterward. He remembers it as. Equal parts. Hardship. And poverty. At an early age his caretaker aunt. Do herself still a young woman. Told vito that she would not marry. Until he entered college. He excelled in school because of nina's encouragement. Medina was 13 border patrol agents raided the farm where vito and his family were working. As he recalled. This caravan of about five or six olive green vans. Stormed into the field. And people were stampeded into a ditch. And beaten and handcuffed. And dragged away. I could hear he says the noise that the batons made on the heads and on their bodies. To this day i can smell the dirt. And the fear. Peter eventually left the tomato fields. In south texas. Prieto. And then for the law school at the university of california berkeley. Peter volunteered with the united united farm workers union. He began his legal career working on emigrant and farmworker right. Couple of years ago. Beetle delacruz spoke with his wife as a part of the national public radio series. Storycorps. The end of that conversation by a testing. There is a dignity. Miss sometimes. Gets forgotten. A shuman. Dignity it gets trampled on. And if we forget that. Then we forget our own humanity. So if the things that i do while i live this life help improved somebody's like then that for me said vito. That's enough. That i think is what gloria steinem had in mind and calling up empathy and thoughtfulness and caring for the welfare of another person. Not many of us to face the hardships of vito de la cruz. Or have the desperate need for mothering there was met by his self sacrificial aunt nina. Not many of us have embraced the life of mothering a canton vito's legal advocacy on behalf of some of the most vulnerable people in ireland. And yet. All of us have. In one way and another. Been mothered. Many times over. All of us have benefited from those who birthed something in us cared encourage protected discipline. Love. Where might you. Past that. Where does need. Simple are great ideas. Or obscure. Distance for right at your door. Call to you. Places of need. Those who lose sight praise. Asia monet. Let there be a hand. Cold. Call to your mind now in silence. Those who you might now. Mother. The very best. Richest. Most robust. Sense of that ferb.

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4.10.16_witness_creation.mp3

The great meadows wildlife refuge is a wetlands conservation area along the concord in sudbury rivers in. Near concord massachusetts. Only one steam july morning i walked the concord unit trail a lute through the wetlands out to the river and back food the forest. This was no ordinary. Self-directed stroll. With a few others i was guided on that walk by peter alden. Acclaimed naturalist and author of many audubon field guides. It was just after sunrise. The dinner plate size lotus pads in the water still held shimmering morning do collected in their recessed sensors. The area was animated. Fairly shimmering with the candidate and yet i was to discover far more alive than i realize. Peter alden oriented us. And off we went. But we only made it a few steps. We stopped any pointed out intricate details about the way grasses grow along the edge of the water. Something. I'd never noticed before. A few more steps and then a descriptor of a butterfly passing by. He paused. He had us freeze. Pop a red-winged blackbird. Swaying a top-end nearby stock. And so it went for the next couple of hours tiny plants and tall trees implicit insects and waterfowl a wildflower. The river's course extreme mode to tell is gaped peters gays. That place became all the more majestic as we saw it. Heard it. Even mel b. Do the keen senses of a person who's to his talent is. Knowing how to pay attention. Anarchist. Of attentive. As impressive as any other extraordinary gift of genius. Writer. Annie dillard would have approved. I've long loved what she said when asked about the meaning of life. Professing her face cheetah firm we are here to witness creation. Into a bit. You sure didn't notice each thing. So that each thing gets noticed. We're here to bring to consciousness the beauty and power that are all around us otherwise dillard eclairs. Otherwise. Creation would be playing. To an empty house. We humans. Occupy a unique role or at least we're equipped to occupy a unique role. We are. The noticer. We're the ones with the capacity. To pay attention. We are able to witness simply to take it all in the microscopic. Minuscule the middle-sized and. The majestic. We're uniquely equipped to experience earth. Sensual delight. The site. Caterpillars. Flower pads. Simple grasses butterflies lotus pads. And if we're particularly attentive. In just the right way and it just the right time night-blooming wild petunias. Luella octafluoride. The sounds of birds at dawn of frogs at night the truth in such a relation of the ocean. The thunderous pricing of colliding clouds. And even the solace of the breeze. Pushing through tall pines. The smells of cool dark earth. Honeysuckle. Jasmine. And even the smell of rain. Approaching on a summer evenings starting breeze. Mckay's. The season's early strawberries. Fresh corn succulent peaches. Crispy mushrooms. And even that briny taste. Ocean breeze. The feel. When animals suffer a trees rough bark the sand squishing between our toes. Abbey sharp sting. And even a breeze. Sterling against dark-skinned. These days. These things were here at s gerard manley hopkins. And but. The beholder. We can assume can't we. Ben and evolutions way of things this attitude for attention must serve. Some valuable function. Why did we slither up out of the sea. Flying down from the trees stand upright and develop opposable thumbs. Maybe annie dillard is onto something. What if we are here so that creation doesn't play. To an empty house. We are the ones with the capacity. To pay attention. But how often is that which is in us as potential actually realize. How often are we to could be the notices. Actually. Noticing. Not. Barry. Italy that was the assessment of the 20th century rabbinic master. Abraham joshua heschel. Normal consciousness special bemoaned normal consciousness is a state. Stupor. Anybody know anything about that. A state of stupor. In which sensibility to the holy real and responsiveness to stimuli of the spirit. Are reduced. We are at according to heschel too often oblivious. Asleep at the switch. Sleepwalking. Through our lives. Heschel didn't mean that literally wasn't thinking of us as zombies. Diagnosing some widespread outbreak of narcolepsy. I think he meant. We often. Aren't. Paying attention. We often aren't. Witnessing creation and abetting it. We're distracted. Inattentive. Unaware of the here and the now. A recent news story one of those tragically funny humorously tragic stories reported. Authorities believe a man who plummeted off a california cliff to his death may have been distracted by his electronic device. He wasn't explain at sunset cliffs of popular picture taking spot in san diego. Witnesses said he appeared to be looking at something in his hand. Presumably a cell phone a camera. Before he fell over the edge. Said a san diego lifeguard. He wasn't watching where he was walking. He was looking down at the device in his hand. If our own states of super aren't quite so perilous. What do we sacrifice. And not noticing. Alternatively what do we gain by the intentional disciplined choice to pay attention. What's at stake in either noticing. Or. Not noticing. And what does noticing have to do with stewardship of the earth. Ectopic together. For this whole month. Attention offers us to quite contrasting things. The first is the opportunity to experience as fully as possible. The gift of this gorgeous little plan. Devour. On the refund on jeffers is an acclaimed contemporary african american poet who speaks to this gift in an essay about her small georgia hometown of eatonton. April in eatonton she writes. Is a holy time. Suddenly the pine and pecans pink color. They've been that way from the very beginning but as i drive i haven't noticed until the sky turns blue. And demands that i bear witness. Then. I do bear witness. I look for the glass of my windshield and end of the rising that in its benevolent merchants brightness. Ar. Patrizis. The pointed leaves of the pecans. A white of the pine needles. I think that's what robert cording was referring to as those moments when we return to our senses. Those times when we are paying attention attention. And it. Pays off. Gift us with a glimpse of something beautiful. Charis. Surprising. Extraordinary. If we are to be stewards of this earth. Perhaps our first act. It's simply. To notice. It might start with a choice to live in an attempted relationship with our surrounding to look to listen to smell taste and feel. We cannot care. For that which we do not notice. And isn't noticing one of the most profound. Of love. Stewardship of the earth should never be good never begin with the question of what we will give up. Sacrifices we will have to make. Of what it will cost. Of what guilt will endure. Listen now council's. James weldon johnson. From out the palpitating solitude you might catch yet faint illusion strings. They are above. Around. Within you. Everywhere. Violently. Listen. Clear and still more clear they come a bubble up in rippling note and swell and singing tones. That's what happens when we take the time to notice. We hear the very music of the spheres. The swelling comes that harmonized with the songs of our heart. Of art. That's the first thing. Attention offers. The gift of beauty. Harmony. The gift. Really. Ourselves. Coming to know ourselves as never before. But let's be honest. That is not all. Taqueria. Noticing. Is the rift. Pain. Isn't it always does. To pay attention. Not to avert my gaze. To wake up in to stay awake. Is the give up a void. Denial. Earlier this year sperm whales washed ashore. You're a german coastal town on the north sea. These young bulls 10 to 15 years old weighed between 12 and 18. Time. A necropsy was performed scientist discovered. At the whale said large amounts of plastic waste. In their stomach. This week the german environmental minister acknowledged. These findings show us the effect of our plastic society. Animals inadvertently take in plastic. Another plastic waste. In suffern. And at worse. Starve. Wistful. If we choose. Connote. We cannot then deny the connection between our lifestyle choices. In the health of our planet. And her majestic creatures. Mystery. Well. It got my. Attention. In a month when we are inviting individual expressions of how we will contribute to the health of our planet i can no longer deny the potentially enormous cost. Of my choice. To drink from plastic bottle. With a bottle of seltzer on my desk as i wrote i am indicted by my choice to pay attention. I can't now avoid that clear to. Because. Now i've noticed. We can't save. What we can't see. We can't steward. What we ignore and avoid. Immense capacity to pay. Attention. Sometimes comes at a high. It stands us before stark realities before. Before the rape of the world. If you look you'll see it with your own. Eyes. If you listen you will hear her cry. If you care you will stand and testify and stop the rape. Otherworld. When we listen deeply. We hear the broken. Surprise. Sorrow. The death knell. When we listen we hear the warning. The implication. The ways we are the accessories. To the most. Penises. Deadliest defense. Is it any wonder that we so often. App for super. For anesthetist station for distraction for denial. Yet again it is not either or. Either beauty or devastation. But rather both an. Both wonder. And. Weather. Rachel carson who paid very close attention for a very long time speaks of the interweaving of gift and pain. Having noticed the pain of our planet she admitted there's certainly no single remedy. For this condition and i'm offering no panacea. But it seems reasonable to believe she continued. Let the more clearly we can focus our attention. On the wonders. And realities of the universe around. The list. Taste. We still have. For the destruction. A virus. Focus our attention she says but not on what is wrong. Not just on the pain and on the peril. Focus. Our attention. On the wonder. The wonder. Let get carlos to engagement to be steward in a deep way. To be fully human. Is the notice. I know of no better way to say it then how rachel carson expressed it. Listen. We need to take the time to sit under trees. Look at water at the sky. Observe small biotic communities of plants and animals. The close attention. Get back in touch. With the living earth. Being rooted in love for a real communities of life she continues in for our common mother gaia. Can teach us. I love this phrase can teach us patient. Patient. Which she says is a passion. That is not burnt out. In the season. But can be renewed season. After season. Nmds. Our revolution is not just for us. Before our children. The generations of living beings to come. What we can do is plant a seed. Nurture a seed bearing plants here in there. And hope for harvest. It goes beyond the limits of our power. And. Beyond the span. Navarro. What else can i add except. Mega pizza.

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3.11.18_The_Times_They_Are_A_Changin.mp3

It was fall. 1971. I was 11 years old. 57 you don't have to do the man. The white house was occupied by a wildly unpopular particularly tricky. Batman. Nixon had advised a political associate if you can't lie you'll never go anywhere. Then explain his own penchant for prevarication by asserting. I was not lighting. I said things that later on seem to be untrue. Who could have imagined. Met some might now actually fine. For those earlier times when a comparatively stable president. Pause from ordering up bombings and break-ins. Long enough to sit around making recorded slurs. With a later remorseful recently beatified evangelist. At any rate. I had a console turntable in my bedroom. I'd sneak into my sister's room and. Borrow a massive cream-colored album. 4 full vinyl discs 8 size of songs. A recording of a sold-out week of concerts at carnegie hall by the band chicago. This was. Free saccharin. Free 3-minute 10-second pop. This was the chicago of blaring horns wailing guitars and long songs with provocative lyrics. In fact by the time i had to make my way to the final eight side with a ringing sound in my ears there was a raging ballad called song for richard and his friends which was introduced in the concert as kind of a wishful thought about wishing president nixon would quit. Back on the front side of the first disk the band open with a 10-minute plus version of in the country. Transition defense see colors and then. The magic started. Keyboardist robert lamm launched into a free-form piano solo. That went on for quite some time. Before first the drums and then the full band joined as they finally broke into now familiar lyrics. As i was walking down the street one day a man came up to me and asked me what the time was that was on my watch. And i said. Does anybody really know what time it is. Does anybody really care. If so i can't imagine why. We've all got time enough. Decry. It was a cynical subversive message in that song. Liberating ballad about being pushed and shoved by people trying to beat a clock. It named the discontent and the disconnection of a generation in that time of terrific. Social upheaval. Released as a single off the band's second album it became chicago's third straight top-10 single and remains and enduring expression of that europe showing up from time to time still and movies and other aspects of popular culture. Now so many years later with an even more unpopular even more immoral man in the white house. A few of us stumble into this room with that same question on our minds. Does anybody really know what time it is. It's more obvious understandable question on this particular morning on friday. I heard a list and helpful public radio announcer explained that this was the weekend when we set our clocks. Back an hour. Perhaps that explains where the rest of our friends are. At home even more confused wondering who if anyone really knows what time it is. It's. Time change. Sunday is my colleague and friend james jehmco explains and where'd you heard read earlier this is one of the least. Favorite days for those in my business. We lose an hour of sleep. But wait worried that we still gotten it wrong. Appear before a. Somniferous assemblage. Some of them will use portions of this very time together. Temperature jim pig game back. Precious lost minutes of slumber. I notice. End today. You're forgiven today. And for the next few days many of us will stumble about in a stupor wondering whether anybody really knows what time it is. Perhaps to some extent we should be grateful. The sudden interposition of an abrupt change in the time gives us some mighty fine excuse for our grumpy torpor. But what of all those other weeks of the year. Safer that 1 months from now when we will at last have one hour. Read the positive. Back into the balance of our sleep accounts. What explains our uncertainty about the time when it isn't changing. Or. Might it be that in a very real sense the times. Are always. A change. Is an old joke that asks. What were eve's first words to adam. Honey. I think we're living in a time of change. And dust it has always been. Flux. Mutability transitoriness impermanence. From at least as far back as that ancient greek. Heraclitus the zone way of putting it with something to the effect that none of us can step into the seine river. Our life flows on. And on. An endless. Perpetual. Change. You may recall that encounter between alice and the caterpillar and lewis carroll. Alice in wonderland. The caterpillar in alice looked at each other for sometime in silence. Unless the caterpillar took the hookah out of his mouth and a dresser in a language sleepy voice. Who are you. Set the caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied rather shiley eye. I hardly know sir just at present. At least i know who i was when i got up this morning but i think i must. Have been changed. Several times since then. It's not quite that abrupt. We can identify with the confusion because we experience the change in real time. Consider for example. When i arrived here. In 2003. There was no such thing. As youtube. Netflix had not yet started streaming. Media online. There were no iphones. Or android phones either. Hulu had not yet been launched. Google docs didn't exist. You couldn't buy an ipad or a kindle. There was no such thing as facebook or thank god. Twitter. No one was wearing a fitbit or flying their own drone. In that. Primeval wasteland. Many of us numbered our friends. M at most the stamp. Dustin's. The word like. Head. Like a whole other meaning. Dream. Basically the same thing as creepy. Or brooke. Character. What's a virtue. Not something that was limited to 140. It was a grim. Primitive. Largely joyless existence. As i recall most of us. Spent what little free time we had. Sitting in the sand grunting. And drawing crude pictures with sticks. For all of my smirking. Consider just how drastically different our world is. For all of what has changed in the last decade and a half. And good luck. If you are trying to guess. What the next stretch of time will bring. Today. The time. It is a changing. Everyday. The times. They are a-changing. It is ironically the most predictable aspect of life. Young adult writer jacqueline woodson expresses it like this time comes to a slowly slowly. It sits beside us for a while then long before we are ready it moves on. Thor as jimmy sang it in another of the favorite albums of my youth. Castles made of sand slip into the sea. Eventually. School bus here today does not understand in some sense. Both change a concern that she has gotten the time wrong. And more poignantly. Her desire for as she says something i could count on. For all of our acclaim for the journey. Broward library affection for as we will sing again shortly the sentiment that i've been sailing all my life now never harbor or port have i known. Who wouldn't like a little something in life that doesn't change. It's simply stays the same. When we like to carve out some little piece of life where we could infect carve something into stone something we could count on. Not touching. Such is not the nature. Life is as may certain name that never still float. Enchanting. Life is as amy clampitt named it a wheel all that we know that we are made of his motion. To be sure. This. Congregation. Is changing. Because. We are consciously. Triune. To make changes. To be sure we're following a nuvision. Investing in a less comfortable. Less. Comforting. To be sure we set our sights not on mirror tweaks. But on expensive. Comprehensive. Transformice. But perhaps today is a good time to remember we were always going to change anyway. Things were never going to stay the same because throughout the decades of our existence. They've never. Stayed. The same. Right2know. They never stayed the same. Are wishful thinking notwithstanding has never been to any time when. We've always done it this way. Buddhist pema chodron reminds us everything is in process. Everything every tree every blade of grass all the insects. Animals human beings buildings. The animate and the inanimate. Is always changing moment-to-moment. And so it is for us. Everything about us. Is in process. Our structure. Our self-understanding. Our ways of thinking of singing of worshipping of educating our language the words that we use. On the words that we don't use. All of that is always changing. And it has always. Does anybody really know what time it is. I do. Well. At least this much i know. Even as time is changing. It is time to change. Because. No matter the time. They are always.

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2.23.20_abundance_scarcity.mp3

1983. Before it was ravaged by civil war and then fractured and the smaller nations. I travel to alabama beautiful country. With three yugoslavia friendly melee and steven. A road trip again late night in switzerland. And proceeded until high and the julian alps we stopped near a remote border between austria and yugoslavia. My friends. Got out. Put on backpacks. And began walking into their native country. Meanwhile now alone i nervously drove up to the crossing. You say in exchange for this long excursion. I had agreed to try to get our car. Through this particular port. Because. Well it was filled with books and electronic equipment and office supplies and other things that were either forbidden for you as slaves to have it. And along with all of our other contraband. We had. Coffee. Chelo's. And ceelo of coffee. Stuff under and behind seat in the truck anywhere we can sleep a bit more coffee might explain it because coffee was extremely scarce in yugoslavia. It could be traded for almost any. So i was a naive american smuggler all along all alone at a communist. Border crossing what could possibly go wrong smirking through these preposterous explanations for the uniforms yugoslavia guard who was interrogating me. Finally he released me to retrieve my passport confiscated earlier buy another gun. I cautiously drove into yugoslavia and once i was out of sight of the border i pulled over alongside the road. Waiting for my friends to appear on switch. And off we went on our adventure. What followed was a glorious to order of their homeland. Every star. Every star. What server. Some days because it's several simple snack dessert always. After a few days i asked my friends to explain to any. Once i was back in the states i could get all the coffee i wanted easily. There was no need for them to be using up their precious supply on me. Ledger bva and step over. They're killing us. One of these. It's how we do things. It would be really expensive. To refuse or to imply that they shouldn't service their coffee. Africa. Including time when are closed. With serve the four of us. Wawa making none. For themselves. Today's public ambience it is good to use best china treasure. The most genuine goblet for the oldest lace tablecloth. In the spirit of by yugoslavia. Remind app. It is good to serve. Stairs talking. Parker palmer writes the quality of our lives. Depends heavily on whether we assume a world of scarcity. Or a world of thunder. He wanders do we have a world where the basic things that people need from food and shelter to a sense of confidence and of being loved our ample image. Or. Artist goods in short supply. Available only to those who have the power. Isn't that one of life's. Fundamental question. Is that one of life's fundamental. Spiritual questions. Is this a world of scarcity. Oracle fund. Palmer's right isn't he how we answer that question has a great deal to do with equality. Not just a couple response use it. Enjoy it by all means sharing. Despite the wrist. After all the things that are used and enjoyed and shared are also the things that get broken. And lost. And it's not just dishes to get chips and glasses that gets shattered but it's also fever. They get hurt. And gifts that go unappreciated. An effort to get overlooked or undermined. What's the alternator. Not. Not. Not to employ the available artifacts of being a human being. That's like this poet. That is the quiet crash. Stipulated catastrophe. Deliver the scarcity mentality to assume i've got a hold on to what i have. Beauty love acceptance confidence are in short supply. The actors just most people are primarily out for themselves generally unwilling to share usually guided by some less-than-ideal motivation. Behave as if i must be on guard. Careful not to reveal too much. The b2 vulnerable. The frog sings with a closed fist rather than open poem. Deliver that kind of scarcity mentality may not result in some deadly catastrophe. But it will most certainly stipple one's enjoyment of life. It will most certainly foster anxiety. Annoying. Perennial disappointment. I'm still an almost endless supply. Acrylic unhappiness. A life that is focused on scarcity will this is a gift. It will start our spiritual. The rabbi jesus made that point in one of his parable. A farmer had a banner year way more than i was expecting way more than. Equivalent of being the beneficiary of a raging stock market. Showing record return. I'll tear down my barns and build cedar barn. Practice stuff from floor-to-ceiling create a gargantuan. Alas. This one is a tragedy. Althea is a steering committee. Twist. You. The message. On this very night your game is. You'll not live to see taylor. And what good will all this stuff be. When my wife melissa and i got married in a small ceremony with just immediate family and a few friends. We asked if they allow their attendants to be. However a few weeks later a gift arrived. It was from a friend who had been unable to attend. Comida hudson. Was at that time a federal prisoner. Surveying and incredibly long sentence. For a first-time nonviolent drug-related offense. I mean it was incarcerated as an enormous prison complex in southern california. We're we're entire a paltry hourly rate. Saving up for pain for several weeks. If not months. To purchase the material and then made us a matching set of heart-shaped. Ceramic mug. She didn't carefully packaged them. And ship them across the country as an expression of her loving support. We realize that the postage alone. Cost her several days. The work. Likely making this the most expensive gift in terms of human hours that we have to ever receive. Couple years later i spent a day at that prison. Start crowded room sitting in plastic chairs under the harsh glare of fluorescent lighting we talk. 4 hours. But we didn't just. Wheaton laugh. Oh how we. Is it true that long road back to the airport in los angeles. I was just. And how delighted i was with that thing. With very good reason to be bitter. Angry. Vince derisive. Amita instead attended with deep devotion. The deepening her muslim faith. While in prison. It is a fact that enabled her to see even in a setting of fairy start piercing. What in the world. Her perspective evidently caused her to faint. If i work for several weeks. I can get them ready. And ship it across the country. To my friend. Abundant. Here. Scarcity sales. I should get to enjoy it for myself. Abundance app. Aren't people wonderful. Scarcely ask can you believe those. Abundance wonders. Scarcity wonders. Why should i. Abundant faith how can i continue. Scarcity. I have nothing. Abundance. That's okay. Scarcity says here's what i don't like about what you've done. Abundances. How much can i offer. Scarcity says why are other people giving. Yeah. The quality of our lives depends head. I'm about to assume a world of scarcity. The world of employment. City council by doug lipman goes like this. Some followers of a certain rabbi came to him and sit baby with puzzle. It says that we must thank god. As much for the bad days as for the good. What would our gratitude mean if we gave it equally for the good and the bad. The rabbi said. Rabbi russia will have an answer. They undertake the journey. Arriving in annabelle baking clay for repetition. Atlasta change of the poorest. Street in the city. They are crowded between two houses they found a tiny shack that was skyping with age. When they enter they saw red position sitting at a table. Reading of volume by the light of the only women. Welcome strangers he said please pardon me for not getting up i've hurt my leg. Would you like food i have some bread and there's water. You know we've only come to ask you a question. Her grandma told us that you might help us understand. Why do ice ages tell us to thank god as much for bad days. That's what the good. Grandpa. I sent you to me. He shook his head in puzzlement. I've never had a bad day. God has given to me. Has been filled with mirror. Or as poet. Mary oliver pictures. Everyday everyday. I see or hear something. Fat more or less. With the light.

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2.9.20_precise_opening_everywhere.mp3

In the 1970s muhammad abbas the run of the well-known kurdish singer-songwriter. Appearing on a roku television. Indreni old pixelated youtube videos. A young heavily mustachioed abbas prom appears as a suave character. Crooning ernest poignant tunes accompanied by kurdish dancers. Aided by formal music training in baghdad he would create popular songs his lyrics often expressed a longing for peace in his beloved kurdistan. That troubled region still so often in our news. Mohammad abbas go-rounds popular songs he sings. Are rewarded. With narcisos. In this beautiful land that offer narcissist's. For the freedom. A curtis fan. Narcissist as you may know is the latin name for a group of flowering bulbs. Of which there are several species genius narcissus member of the amarillo dca family. Some of them have been cultivated 400 even thousands of years. Their native. To the mediterranean region. Appearing in many places. The most common are sisters for us is. The daffodil. That tender impatient harbinger of spring now making a tentative appearance in these variously chili. Clear snowy star mini sunny warm wet when the days. Mohammed abbas karim has long been exiled from his home in kirkuk. For his role as one of the kurdish freedom fighters. With longing he also thinks they say the death of deal has changed color her fragrance and feeling transformed that is why she is sad and dejected displaced and uprooted such as the following. Mike curtis staying. The daffodil this common flower sign and symbol of generations of kurdish dreams for liberation &. in a homeland of their own. And the earth. We have spread it out professors the colorado. I produced there in every kind of beautiful growth. I figured in hebrew scripture a claims in one translation i am like the narcissist fresh from the garden of eden. The rabbi jesus counseled his followers to consider the lilies of the field. We hear in the spiritual pointers and echo of the him we saying earlier earth was given as a garden cradle for humanity the garden we in town where all life flows fresh and free. In each of these each of us infect all of humanity is called to notice the things of beauty that naturally abound. In every location. Throughout the play. Contemporary west hirschfield notices. Jcpenney's regular poetic attention to beauty. Interpointe the one you heard a few moments ago narsissist elodie baghdad san francisco february 1991 hershfield notes beauty and botanical synchronicity. Even in the middle of the first gulf war. The narcissist is blooming at the same time in tel aviv in san francisco and in baghdad. Indian she writes the precise opening of the flowers with live after all in their only time. They open she writes because they. Because it was time. And they had no choice. Precise and infect holy. Peaceful. The flowers open. Since baghdad lies but two degrees latitude south of charlotte. And since mohammed abbas karim beloved kirkuk lies just fractions of a degree north of charlotte. Remind suppose that once again today. The narcissist. Like our own profusion of daffodils. Is in bloom. We could compose our own poetic observation. Call linda. Narcissistic. Baghdad. Chipper. Ramallah. Jerusalem. Charlotte. February. 2020. After all the narcisse's in each of these places places so fraught with enmity and hatred and violence is. Opening because it is time. Opening because it has no choice. Opening precise and in fact holy. Pizza. The tender shoots of broken ground. That is soaked in the blood of human casualties. There's sunny blossoms have opened it accurate air. Filled with smoke and ash and the sounds. Of animosity. It seemed right jane hirshfield it seemed they were oblivious but they were not. They included all the nameless explosions and the oil fires in every cell the small sounds shaken from those who were beaten. We're weak to do so we're waiting to create such a poem it should not. It could not overlook the fact. Petland r6s. In its native region. Continues to bloom. Unmute the sad spectacle of war. Wars in which we as a nation have played no small part. Hirschfeld writes his children were born in that time in that place and became what they would with no choice or. With only a little choice perhaps for the lucky. The braves. The foolish. Baby's first behind the barricades in palestine violence fear and corrupt upheaval in the israel in the impoverished instability of a rat in the long shadows cast by long-standing bipartisan solution in washington. Babies born in the month of hirshfield's coin february 1991 are now young adults. Having babies of their own. They have yet to know a single day. Her realty. Today's we consider these narcisos of the field and of the curbside. Today is we feast again on the welcomes profusion of the daffodils today as we called to mind these flowers near to us and very far away. We offer them our profoundest remorse. According to ancient sacred stories may have been given. But we humans have abused this gift. Wounding the mother. Gaia. We share with all others. We are not like the flowers. We are not peaceful in our open. We are makers. Of distinction. 40 m. We are the makers of objections. Again. We are the makers of war. As the stated intomy of us excusing or so we save the killing of them by us and us. 5 a.m.. Chilling from oval office ordered drone attacks in this administration just as in the previews. Killing from suicide bombing in the downing of passenger plane. Killing and sneak over the border attack and as an extensive response to the throwing of rocks. Killing in state-supported sanction. And in the bloated budget if i'm military industrial complex. Dear narcissist. Deer daffodils. Did you today we can chat. We do not open precisely and in fact holy peaceful as you have done for millennia. Did you tendershoot to open the very earth we share with you we can fix the ways we have done and do damage to this earth. Beautiful narcissist. Tender daffodils we are the ones who have broken the balance of creation. All living things suffer. For my savage. And for my dude. When will we ever learn. When. Will we ever learn. In this budding time in gray and brown transform before our very eyes in the vibrant green and soft yellow. Made a simple flowers serve as a reminder. Our friends and our enemies. All of us and all of them are being given the very same gif. May 1st is opening because it is time. May we see the blues. And maybe we imagined someone far far from here is seeing their own new black. Maybe notice the blooming and imagine someone with whom we are at odds is seeing the very same flowers and their hearts are leaping every bit as much as ours. Maybe pause and take him the uncommonly common commonly uncommon sight of the symphony explicit. And collectively bree the prayer of roberta bard the writer of our can see who poignantly plays bless the earth and all your children one creation. Holy mother life is showing bidar waist and warfare. Phyllis all with grace. Or flooring. Teacher. Picture of sweet friend picture. How to live in peace. Today. Let us consider the blooming daffodils throughout our region. For as the koran says. In them. May they serve to remind us. That other lands have sunlight too. And narcissist. Play the side of the sweet sunny balloons. Megabus. The remorse. Does self-reflection. The constriction. The celebration. It's your boy. Into an ever-deepening commit. Stream through the witness of our own lives. A song of peace. A h. A man. Babysitter.

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Martha-Kniseley-8.27.mp3

It's hard to believe. But i've been your help programming coordinator for almost four years now. And in that role i've learned a lot about myself as i have expanded my own comfort zone. The hardest but most valuable lessons. Has been learning that sometimes the things that we spend our whole life avoiding for resisting may be the very thing we need in our life. Bring up unitarian i was not comforted by stories children adults often here and their own churches. That one of our time to die we will be rewarded with heaven. We were taught you better get with the program now and make the best of it because it is how you live your life on this person's account. So calling my mother sudden death when i was sick. My father for siblings family and friends protect each other by not talking about her for death and dying. They are settled in early for me and stay with me long into a dolphin. At some point along the journey i learned that it affected everything i did in subtle but very real way. I didn't take a lot of rest. I needed to have some sense of control. There was a to-do list in my head rather than his being in the moment. Luckily s shifted for me if i began reading and learning what about what it meant to have a spiritual life. The fear dissipated as i discovered the value of deep listening and just being. I also knew that it is only real life experience that helps you realize the strength of your spiritual practice. My father gave me that opportunity by putting my expanded comfort zone to the test. After 95 years of independence he didn't want to go to assisted living after all he was still painting engaged his home life and what was going on in the world. But it became his only choice. When i first started visiting him there i was happy to have this time with him alone. During the five-hour drive there i would think about topics or memories he might be interested in hoping to that it would find an opportunity to tell me something he never had. Walmart. Diminished in this world through smaller i took in each visit as if it was the last. Not some dramatic way but with the knowledge that just being with him was enough. Sitting next to him and holding his hand while he slept. I received the call from the sister that he had been hospitalized with heart failure. Doctors gave him the usual 48-72 hours. I thought quickly. Spectrum tv guide. Thinking of trade-off bedside beauty animated. Apparently. And waited in the seemingly unconscious day until all five kids and their spouses could be there from austin providence north carolina. The challenge for midwest be present with my siblings and all are different emotions. My comfort zone expanded once more as we tested our communications. With the hostile with the hospital staff. Where were you asking the right questions about the morphine. It seemed to be up to the family. What about the dog my sister. And my dad's like you haven't visited him in a year when she coming out. I called sister. my tennessee williams play my dad had that sense of humor too and he would have gotten the big laugh in the old day. After saturday vigil minneapolis had to get home to work and family. Valentines. Until i read appointment definition of my minister. Remove online but your dad was a tough one. He's giving you every reason to never forget that about me. Thornton high. Now. Stretched out just as far as possible before touching down. Jada parker contacts to set stuff ideologue. You're giving him his wonderful last year and you're fostering ever do for fun. From now on. A shared experience it will be yours to call out sometimes get that. Thank you so much. Three of us were able to be with him when he took his last breath and by being there at the end i was able to see my dad's life and my last life has something cold. While this transition can be painful. Peaceful. Sad. Everly. It is also an honor to witness that's part of this life we have together. So much beer does renee continues with all of you. We don't have to do this alone. Orbea line on the car beers. Sometimes we need to step up and do what we have no documented. Halloweezy present for each other even when it's difficult. Winning texas out of her comfort zone.

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Camilla-Mazzotta-8.5.mp3

Hi i'm camila masada. I'd like to begin this final reflection by sharing with you my roundabout path to librarianship. My personal gateway to a better and happier and more useful life. I've been a public school librarian. In elementary school. For going at 18 years now. But it wasn't my first career. The first chunk of my working life as a computer programmer up north. After years of coding i recognized that i was absolutely unfilled and needed more for my job. Not only that but i jumped with the start every time the phone rang my knee-jerk response to being on call for middle-of-the-night program crashes for a far too many years. I use my family's ensuing move to charlotte as a reason to call it quits. Being a newbie here i gravitated to volunteering in the media center at my children's school. This transition was a natural one for me as the cozy old brownstone public library in my hometown was a hangout of choice when i was a kid. To this day i can smell its clothes are. Visualize the stacks of books illuminated by light filtering through the tall gothic windows and even picture miss hatch the gentle children's librarian back then. This sacred space brimming with wonderful books and offering outstanding activities continue to play a big role in the lives of my own children. With this pulls from my past. My media center volunteering in charlotte. Slowly morph into pursuing a degree in library science from uncg. I needed a new career path and this one fed my interest and my soul. What's the degree was under my belt i scored a job at sharon elementary. It's a position i still have and it's a stone's throw from our church. When i began when i began a librarian's teaching curriculum stressing such as genres of books. Author studies types of reference books poetry and on and on. All those were the things that connected with and so enjoyed sharing with kids. Technology was present then but not pervasive. Remember cassette players. Overhead projectors boomboxes and such. 1byone diesel technologies bit the dust and were replaced by the capabilities of a computer. As time passed and the technological transformation became unavoidable midway through my career i had to come to terms with these new changes. Indeed it had become the lion's share of a media specialist specialist newly rewritten curriculum. I wrestled with. Was a tool for this. Cut it keep up with the shifts. Did the job still feel like a good fit for me. When my best be good enough for my kids. My initial discomfort with the sea change as. Mostly relax now. There will always be more to know. So mining that useful and irrelevant from recent innovations and the good old days has become my saving grace. I can pretty much pain this courageous reimagining of my career. On a single defining experience. Several years ago our pta had purchased something called the smartboard. Is an interactive whiteboard that did everything except make your lunch. I sat in the media it said in the media center ready to be checked out by teachers but. Monday. Foreign understandable reason. It was frankly a royal pain to set up. Surprisingly. To me especially that smart board called out to me. And i responded. I trusted the trend that said this was a beneficial hunk of technology. Little by little the two of us came to terms. And i discovered its many benefits. Indeed it's now at the core of my teaching and i'd be lost without it. Chocolate up for technology. This is just a single example of how i came to terms with my profession's overhaul. It was either be open to something new or be outmoded. And importantly not only do i have to use technology but i need to grasp it well enough. In order to break it down and teach it to my students. Granted as lisa mentioned kids maybe digital-native but we librarians are needed now more than ever to teach kids how to use software and hardware well. How to evaluate the mountains of information and indeed fake news they are faced with. Ever-changing technologies are just tools to support kids with their information needs and their pleasure reading. And both of these things have always been at the core of what we do in libraries. In some. I'm glad to have duggan when i thought i'd be posting. And i can still call myself irrelevant librarian. Thank you.

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7.14.19_true_names.mp3

According to the brothers grimm. There was once a miller who was very poor. And one day in happened that this miller met the king. And not knowing quite what to say but wanting to feel important in the presence of his ruler the miller blurted out. I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold. That's so sad the king. Such a skill interest me greatly bring your daughter to the castle tomorrow and then we shall see what we shall see. Who knows what the conversation was like that night between the miller and his daughter but one way or another. Becky gave her a spinning wheel instead now you must set to work quickly. If i dawn tomorrow this straw has not been spun into gold. You will have to die the king left in a key turned in the walk. The miller's daughter was alone and terrified for she had not the least idea how to spin straw into gold. The hours passed and it grew darker and darker and at last she threw herself upon the straw weeping for her life. Suddenly the door spring open before her do it a small man with a beard wearing a cloak. The man asked the miller's daughter what will you give me if i spin this straw into gold for you. You shall have my necklace. The miller's daughter reply. Strange man you had appeared out of nowhere immediately began spinning by morning all the straw had become gold. Of course the king was impressed but not. Satisfied over the next few nights the king lock the miller's daughter in rooms with still larger piles of straw and left same cheerfully as possible if you value your life you will spend it all into gold by morning. The miller's daughter was quickly running out of things to offer the cloak bad man who spun the straw into gold. Finally one night when he asked what will you give me. She cried and dismay i have nothing more. Promise me your first child should you become queen. Samantha. Who knows if that will ever happen and so she agreed. Understandably the miller's daughter could not imagine that the same king who locked her in rooms of straw each night demanding unpaid hard labor would ever ask her to marry him but he did and she became queen and had a child. Sure enough the mysterious cloaked man came back demanding the child for his own. When the queen wept and begged amanda take all the wealth of the kingdom instead of her child. He refused. I'll give you three days it would then this time you discovered my name. You may keep the child. During the night the queen remember all the name she had ever known and sent a messenger into the countryside to discover more names still. Finally just before dawn on the third day one of the queen's messengers saw little house with a fire burning out front and it's strange man hopping and singing around the fire today i bake tomorrow i brew the nuts the queen's child i will claim. Lucky it is but no one knows that rumpelstiltskin is my name. How relieved and grateful between was to learn his name. When the cloaked man returned the queen shouted triumphantly rumpelstiltskin is your name. The devil told you that the man screamed and in his rage he stomps the ground so hard that it split into and swallowed him. Whole. Until the queen learned rumpelstiltskin's name. He had power over her. He controlled her destiny. Once she spoke his name aloud. She was suddenly no longer subject to his demands on her life. Why is it the act of learning the strange man's true name and speaking it aloud. That dissolves rumpelstiltskin's power. Why isn't the name the active naming him. That dissolves. Power. This situation is one that exists across a variety of folklore and the fairy tales. Learn the true name of the mysterious seeing you as a trapped you and their power or you will disappear. As if to say until you can call something what it is. You will be powerless. To confront it. Lisa feldman barrett is a professor of psychology who focuses on the study of emotion. Barrett and her colleagues have spent decades observing how people experience and react to their own feelings. Spirit is found that people who described feeling a vague sense of awfulness. 1060 star in the negative place. Unable to move toward more positive emotions and experiences. Those who cannot clearly articulate what they are feeling have trouble making decisions. If you'll lack of control over how they react. The big bad feeling leads to a sense. Helplessness. However and her colleagues found. The people who have learned to name the specific and particular feelings that brought on the general sense of awfulness. Ganger renewed sense of agency in their lives. When they identify fear or grief. As specific and particular emotion they could then decide how to respond to what they were feeling. The ones unidentified sense of awfulness no longer determine their reactions and decisions. As soon as they could name anger. Anger slowly lost his power over the way they lived. In august of 1897. W.e.b. du bois published an essay in the atlantic monthly. He began by saying between me and the other world there is ever an unasked. Question. Buy some true feelings of delicacy. By others through the difficulty of framing it. All nevertheless qiroat flutter around it. The approach me in a half hesitant sort of way. I need curiously or compassionately. And then instead of saying directly. How does it feel to be a problem. They say i know an excellent colored man in my town. In the essay the boys went on to describe the personal examples what it was like to live life as a black american. Dubois wrote. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a negro and an american without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows. Without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face. And then your boys gave a name. To this daily experience. A being made to feel like an unwelcome stranger in white america. He said it is just kill yourself station. This is double consciousness. This sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others of measuring one soul by the tape of a world that looks on interviews contempt. And pity. It is a peculiar sensation this is double consciousness. Of course without it being named black americans knew this experience of double consciousness in their phones. The most mundane of interactions with white people it just. Water. But you identify the experience so succinctly. To be able to name it. Now that there was a name for what white oppression created in black psyches it could be examined. Questioned and responded to in a different way. The boys named the daily experience suffered without acknowledgement or recourse by millions. And in so doing claimed the power to confront that suffering and challenge its source. So long as we cannot call something what it is it holds great power over us. Have you heard from rebecca solnit earlier calling things by their true names cut through the lies that excuse buffer muddled disguise avoid. Or encourage in action. Indifference. Obliviousness. Calling things by their true name is not all there is to changing the world. But it's a key. Science fiction author ursula k. le guin also takes up the thread of calling things by their true name. In her novel the wizard of earthsea. In the world was win creates in this book wizards come by there power in a fascinating way. These wizards must learn the true names of anything in existence they wish to manipulate change move transform or affecting anyway with their magic. They must learn the true name is not euphemisms or words whose origins are no longer known. Cornelius that have become inaccurate from overly casual use. These wizard have to learn the life force the essence the history of a thing in order to know it's true name. The main character of the novel a boy named jed. Shows promise of being particularly gifted in the ways of magic. At one point get it finds himself along with a handful of his peers studying on a remote island with the master namer. The master namer instructs the young wizards to learn endless list of names. The names of each individual tree leaf. Stone. Air current. As with wainwright. It was cold and half dark and always silent there except for the scratching of the masters 10. And the spying for half the students. Who must learn before midnight the name of every katie point bay sound inlet channel harbor reef and rock of the shores. These wizard can only work magic using what they understand. And no. The master nemer explains that this is the folly of wizards who try to cast a spell on the entire ocean. When they know so little of the depth and shallows faints and segments of shoreline that are part of what makes the ocean. The ocean. Last week i took a road trip with my family staying in airbnb's and hotels along the way. And as we left one room i ran back in to make sure everyone had collected their chargers toys under the bed all that kind of thing. And housekeeping was already beginning to clean the room. Two black women were picking up our towels from the floor. And wiping off the table where we shared a greasy takeout dinner the night before. When i saw these women i wanted us to meet simply as people and i said hello cheerfully and looked around for the things we might have ladders. But i could feel separateness. Between us. We use only the most polite language language use some high some how to hide. Or maybe protect ourselves from one another. I left the room wanting to be able to name this uneasiness between myself and these two working-class black women. And then i remembered one of the names for this unspoken separateness. White supremacy. Knowing they and i had been instructed in the supremacy of whiteness all our lives. But i have only recently learned to name it. Like the wizard of gad learned you cannot affect the entire ocean change the temperature of the water or its tides just by knowing its cumulative name. You must learn every inlet coast and shallow. To gain power over this big feeling of discomfort and separation when i find myself speaking to working-class people of color. Meaning. My hotel room. I have to spend a lifetime learning still more true names and how to speak them aloud. There will not be an end in my lifetime the cattle of cataloguing the contours and depth of white supremacy. The names the segregation. Redlining. Sundown town. Lynching separate. But equal. Mass incarceration. But the more i learned to name these truths allowed. The more ability i gained to change the world within and beyond me. For the good. As the master namer explains to get we can change only what we can name exactly. And hold me. The singing that have power arrest the things that control our actions and reactions go on imposing their will on our lives. Until we learn their true names and turn the tables. Until we can call something what it is we will be powerless to confront it. In the words of the poet gregory or. Let's remake the world with words. Not frivolously nor to hide from what we fear. Let's as wordsworth said remove the dust of custom so things shine again each object arrayed in the robe of its original light. And then we'll see the world as if for the first time. As once we gaze at the beloved. Who was gazing. At puss. Blessed be.

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2.14.16_sacrifice.mp3?_=3

Almost all of what i know about matt. Bean leach. I learned to genealogical research. I discovered that mack was born. December 11th 1902 in loganville georgia. The fifth child and second son of james william and sara carter leach. I found a copy of his wwii draft card. Showing him married to maddie mae leach. Residing in new orleans. And working as an assistant manager for goodyear services on canal street. I located a record of. Mac leeches death on february 19th. 1986 in folsom louisiana and his burial it is though our united methodist church cemetery in centerville georgia. Basic facts. I already knew that matt leach had a brother. Who was i learned 6 years younger. James. Clifford leach. Known as jc leach in business and other serious settings to everyone else his wife. All other family members his friends he was called. Chippy. That's the affectionate moniker. By which i knew him. Hippie. With my paternal grandfather. Impartial namesake. One in a long line of james leeches. Mack and tiffy grew up in rural georgia outside atlanta s2 of 7 kids. Their dad my great-grandfather. Was a farmer. Though never impoverished. They evidently didn't ever have. Too much extra. Mac went to college. But the 1940 census indicates his highest level of education with college. Second gear. That brings me to the one-story i know personally about mac. Bean leach. When my dad told me more than what. Evidently having dropped out of college in begun his working life max off with a huge advantage it was for those who had a college degree at a time when that was rare. So he determined that his kid brother. My paternal grandfather. Was going to get that opportunity. Matt. My dad has told me with affection. Mac make sure my grandfather would be able not just to go to college. But to complete his degree. He paid. Hippies. Fruition. Now hanging on the wall of our guest bedroom is a very large framed diploma from georgia tech. It announces in grandiose language that james clifford leach was conferred a bachelor of commercial science with all rights privileges and honors thereunto pertaining. It's dated. June 5th. 19. 33. In the year-and-a-half james clifford and and langley leachwood welcomed their first child. My dad. Hello dan able to invite mac late cheer today. And where i to ask him if supporting his little brother through college with a sacrifice. My guess is. He'd sidenote. I imagine he felt satisfaction knowing his contributions. Made the difference. I hope you got pleasure. Out of seeing my grandfather become a successful cpa with his own driving practice. What i know clearly is. I am a direct. Beneficiary. Of max. Generosity. An act that gave my grandfather. A hand up. And created a life for him. And two generations later. For me. That might not otherwise. Have been possible. Mike leach is not a hero. Based on this one story i would not suggest that he had extraordinary courage or exemplary ethics. Mac was simply a man who made. A certain sacrifice. And in the process. He made a real. Different. That's my idea of sacrifice. My idea of what admittedly can sound like a daunting even distasteful notion. Sacrifice. If you're in that word makes you grit your teeth a bit invokes images of misery or worse even bloodshed. You certainly are not alone. Liberating religion is far more inclined to want to speak of love and acceptance and affirmation and inclusion men about. Sakura. After all isn't sacrifice the stuff of primitive religion. Undertaking undertaken in the hopes of appeasing a powerful and potentially vengeful deity. Isn't sacrifice about co terrorism about autumn must should. Didn't sacrifice about giving up about losing. What is bearded play positively in this setting. About sacrifice. Because we can and because this week we absolutely should let's take a little side trip into the realm of sia. On thursday of this week most of you saw this. There was other. Exhilaration. M6 carefully coordinated press conferences held around the world scientist with the laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory or leiden. Announced that they're more than half. Since research. For gravitational waves. Has finally succeeded. Searching for the most minuscule of needles in the massive haystack of the heaven they detected waved from black holes colliding over a billion. Gears. That massive impact created a gravitational field so strong that just as einstein had predicted its waves distorted space-time. What are the lego team members at columbia university physicist pronounce. There are people. Who put their entire life in the desert. And if people who die before ever having a chance to see any. He continued. It's really a wonderful feeling that you have that we you invalidated the investment of the tremendous amount of work. Just it you found something. But you gave something to everybody. To the rest of the human race. You know what i told him. Brilliant people of science. So clear about their deep value. But as the physicist if they put their entire life. Into the site. They could have put the time and energy into other things. We could have real steel professional prestige on other pursuit. But they foreclosed on those other possibilities. Gave them up. In order to invest in this momentous. Exploration. And in that process. They gave something. To the human race. What's the common link between an unknown rural georgian paying his kid brother's tuition and brilliant scientist embarking on a decades-long search. Why call these acts. Sacrifices. Because in both cases a conscious choice was made. To relinquish one good. For what was perceived as. A higher good. That to my mind is what sacrifice actually mean. It means making a knowing choice to give something up not to the end of giving it up not because deprivation is somehow spiritually virtuous in another cell. But because giving it up allows it to be offered. Just something of more value. Does something with. Deeper meaning. But didn't makgame satisfaction from seeing tippee graduate. Surely he did. Obviously those scientists are flying high this week. Reveling in the utter delight of their unworldly discovery. And i'd contend. That's just how it is we sacrifice. You see. I don't believe in altruism. I don't imagine selflessness. To be a worthy goal. In fact i don't even think it's possible to be completely and purely selfless. Sacrifice is an investment in a greater payoff. Something knowingly offered in the hooksett by doing so at greater good will result. A good that is a good to the one sacrifice. Sacrifices of consciousness. But that doesn't mean it has to be named that way. By the one sacrifice. Just because matt didn't think what he was doing with the sacrifice. Does that mean his was not a sacrificial act. I don't think so. He was still in the depths of the great depression giving up his financial resources in the hopes that it would benefit his breath. That. What it means. Decipher. You must surely know that i am not suggesting that all uses of the notion of sacrifice or exemplary certainly it is entirely possible for that word to apply to act we would all agree. Heartland health. Even pathologic. That's. Possible. But i'm contending today that one of the weaknesses of progressive religion. Is its failure to take seriously. The potential value. Effective. So what made it mean to make a healthy engagement with sacrifice. It cannot be coaers. It cannot be something this someone demands of someone else. Sacrifice weather named as such or not must be voluntary.. Then. It has to impel trading a lesser value. For the greater good. I doubt many of us would say that choosing to watch one netflix series instead of another. Is a sacrifice. Opting for a medium roast cup of overpriced coffee. Over a dark roast. Doesn't quite clear in the bar. Awesome trading a lesser value for a greater good. Means the lesser thing is still. Valuable. Ask any charitable organization in town and they will tell you that they are bombarded by the worst kinds of past off. From those insensitively dump useless items. I'm helping agent please. As if that is somehow helpful. Giving up something you don't need. Or you don't care about anyway. Isn't really a sacrifice. And i want to underscore again. Accepting suffering. Enduring abuse. Verbal. Emotional. Physical abuse. Is. Not. And it's. Never. Except. No one has the right to ask for or demand the sacrifice of another. Wellbeing. This clearly fails the equation entail. In trading a lesser value. For the greater good. So in many ways. It comes down to this. What. Matters. What matters. 2. You. About what do you care so. Deeply. That you'd give up something. That matters to you. In order to help. Try to bring it about. Some people care so much about their health and well-being that they give up sleep and comfort and time and energy in order to attend to their health or they forgo the enticing junk food that is so readily available. Others of us matters. And. Mean to get back to exercising soon. While in the meantime. Having another snack. Some people say their families matter deeply. And they take care to be at. There. Best. For the wednesday love. Others say family matters. They give their time and their energy elsewhere leaving only the leftovers for those who are closest to them. Some process such brand values. Concern for the health of the planet. Concern for justice. Equity for racial harmony and a glimpse at their calendars and their contact and their checkbooks would bear out those claims. Others. Say those things matter. While imagining that some combination of hand-wringing and ranting is really all they need to offer. My friend and colleague scott alexander and words that appear on the cover of your order admits. It is not convenient to live by one. Most deeply-held principal. It's not convenient to live by ones most deeply-held principe. Not convenient. There are he says many costs. And sacrifice. That are required. It suggests a convenient. Comfortable spiritual community. Just. Might be. The contradiction. We cannot go deep. But taking it easy. We will not find meaning. My completely forgo insect. Remember please it's not about seeing if we can suck. It's not about giving up everything that matters. It's about a vision for ourselves. Personally. And collective. That inspires us to sacrifice our lesser value. For the greater good. That's not about relinquishment. That's about being fully. Ally.

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1.28.18_450th_Anniversary_of_the_Edict_of_Torda.mp3

Brent dial and trevor mcnaughton of the jamaican reggae group the melodians. Co-wrote the classic rastafarian and the rivers of babylon. In 1970. Tentative time rivers of babylon has been recorded by an astoundingly wide range of artists jimmy cliff. Sinead o'connor steve earle the neville brothers and as it turns out a lot of really. Bad youtube renditions. It even appears as number 10 42in are teal hymnal. Now almost 50 years old rivers of babylon is a remarkably recognizable song especially considering the source for its lyrics. Dial and mcnaughton turn to an ancient hebrew scripture song for their text. Altering certain words to make it explicitly. Rastafarian. How the song asks how can we sing king alphas song the biblical text says god's song in a strange. Land. Behind that pained poignant question when raised in the biblical account by refugees carried away to babylon. Is primitive theological thinking. Gods and goddesses for our primeval forebears were geographically defined. The rulers of nations. Determined their divinities. The jews themselves experience this when their kings david and solomon established israel's national religion by claiming occupied territory in jerusalem for the holy city. I'm building a temple there. It demonstrated the unmistakable melding of power. An inexpensive explicitly. Theocratic. Richie. And yet for all of that power these ancient suspected that outside of the national borders their local deities would be of little value. Their captors may call for a song. But how can we sing one of our god's songs. In estranged. Land. Our god is nowhere to be found here. There's no god to here. Our songs. Late medieval europe had not advanced much and it's the illogical thinking. They were directly in the lineage of the roman emperor constantine whose dramatic personal conversion to christianity determined in one mystical moment the religious faith for the entire empire. Christianity of a particular sort centered in rome was still dominant. And. Was still appropriated. In service. To the political order. All other religious variations were regarded not just this heretical but as threats. To the state. So for example when ferdinand and isabella is into the spanish throne immediately embark upon a vicious. Purge. Banishing muslims and jews from the land. It's also important to remember. That this same impulse. Motivates them to fund. Bmx like ably still celebrated colonizer christopher columbus. In claiming both land. And converts. By the force. But the sword. Even as the european continent is being fractured by the protestant reformation. Political and religious power remain. Linked. Royals and nobles determined for their subjects. The particular tradition that they would follow. Power steel coalesce. To maintain order. However for all of this force the worlds. And more particular for our purposes today are own religious history is marked also. By heretics. These were those whose faith filled devotion. Could be neither define. North constrained by the power of the state. What's what's heretic within our liberating religious movement was a hungarian preacher named francis david. 1060 century transylvania. He was born at a time when and into a place where the threat of losing their national religion and us of disunity was great. Born a catholic. He renounce catholicism and became a lutheran minister. He renounces lutheranism and became a calvinist. And at last even though calvinism. And converted to a new movement gaining traction in the eastern europe called. Unitarianism. Meanwhile the national animosity persisted. The religious scism. Groove. Knowing the deep are all the regions young king john sigismund. Called a special religious assembly all that diet stuff you heard earlier. In early 1568. In hopes of resolving the controversy. Are you at aryan forbear frances david will play a significant role. Influence largely by david preaching the king was inspired to issue the edict. But you heard red. Earlier. Well not especially remarkable to us. And it's time it was a truly. Radical. The king would not determine the religious course for his people. In fact they should be no coercion from anyone. No one shall be reviled. For their religion. With me is the possibility for religious pluralism is created order need not be maintained by some coercive notion of spiritual unity. Religion is disentangled from the political authority. Not. Please notice this. Religion is distinguished from the political authority not because politics is too important to be tainted by religion. With just the opposite. Religion matters too much to be dictated by force of any kind. Faith isn't about keeping the social order. Faith is about engaging with the deepest. Truth in life. Individuals. And as communities of like-minded people. There would be no national religion. Each tradition would make its own case and the people in each congregation would determine their own course. King sigismund for his part made his own choice. Convince by francis david he became the first. And the only unitarian king. In history. Unitarianism was declared a viable. Option. Not as deep as that the nation had to follow but is one acceptable path alongside. Brothers. Now we should not overplay this incident sigismund eat it a judicata between christian sects. It wasn't sanctioning exploration into the world's religions or expressing the full breadth of religious freedom but in religions long history it was a moment when religious freedom founded expression. Laying the foundation for more expensive freedom to come. Time when people were being killed. For not believing as the nation's ruler believe. Transylvania became a temporary place of tolerance. Accepting the possibility of a new order of things. In which all songs. Could be song in all places. Sadly. It would not last. King john sigismund would soon die at the age of 30. The controversy flared. Francis david would be arrested for heresy. And would die of martyrs death. In a dungeon cell. Nonetheless we joined today with unitarians around the world in celebrating the edict of torda on his 450th anniversary. We do so in times in which questions of how power will be used to keep order. And. Of what religious freedom really means. Are prevalent in our own nation. Today we reclaim our spiritual birthright. Recognizing religions rightful role in relationship to political power. Today mindful of our historic lineage. We recognize a new that religion matters. Too much to be painted. By politics. And the religious conscience. Is too important to be echoaires. B any form. Of tyler. Tempted the we have been at times to bolster our own case by appealing to powerful people to reclaim favored this tradition. We must recognize and knew that neither our history nor our current mission is enhance. By the approval of those in power. Kings. President. The rich. The famous. The noble. Who are the noteworthy. We must look with unrelenting suspicion. It all efforts to align political power. With religion. Recognizing that religion. Usually gets subverted. And manipulated. In such relationships. Those of you who know me well know how hard i am biting my tongue this morning. Religion usually gets subverted. And manipulated. When it aligns. With political. Just. Ask. Reverend. Graham. Let us sing a new our own. Song. In this increasingly. Strange. Land. Let us now sing a new of resistance. Of our refusal. To accept. The current. Order. Of things. Nrd police. In the necessity necessity. A transformation. May our song. May our song. Be. Forever. This song. Freedom. I tell the story about howard thurman's grandmother because. I just love how powerful of a theologian she is. Persil would not be satisfied by the false teachings that she heard. Though her body was in bondage she exercised a true spiritual freedom. That would become her legacy for her grandson. He would use that spiritual freedom. To build the first multi-racial church in america. He would use that spiritual freedom to carry gandhi's message of non-violence to the civil rights movement. Spiritual freedom. That's what i want to explore with you today. The reformation. Pioneered the principles of religious freedom. And that made way for a spiritual freedom. That's when ordinary people started to listen to the voice of the indwelling god. Rather than the voice of some church authority. Centuries later. Here we are. One of the many many branches off of that reformation tree. Now whether you received the gift of this free face from your parents or grandparents or like me you just happened to stumble upon her uu church while walking to work one day. You have inherited this bundle of. History and tradition and ideology. You. Are free. You are. Free from having to pass any sort of cradle test before you're allowed to be a member. You are free from a church hierarchy that would send you a minister that maybe you don't like. You are free from being compelled to give 10% of your income to this congregation. You can make meaning. Out of the world out there. And understand the inner workings and here in any way that is meaningful to you. This freedom. This freedom is our inheritance. It is a gift of immeasurable value. And so i want to ask you today. What. Shall we do with that gift. What could we do with this gift. So i could have just walked past that big white church in baltimore as i was walking. To work that day because frankly i had never heard the word unitarian before in my whole life and i didn't know what it was. And i would have kept walking except that there was this poster hanging on the church advertising a drag show that was coming to the the church fellowship. And i thought i got to see what's going on in there. So the following sunday i made my way. Through those big heavy wooden doors. I think i must have been 25 or 26 years old and i had not been to church in a very very long time. I had grown up. Beautiful korean presbyterian. As a child. But i no longer believe. What they wanted me to believe. End. I sort of made peace with the idea that maybe i'll never go to church again. That day. And that unitarian church. I sat in the. Back row. Next to the door. And i looked up. And above the altar there was this colorful array of. Religious symbols from around the world. There was a jewish star of david there was the muslim crescent. There was a hindu own a buddhist wheel. And i felt. Satisfied. I was finally free. I was finally free from having to speak words that didn't make any sense to me anymore. I was free to explore and believe the things that we're really meaningful to me and i was also free. Of descendants that i had of what a minister is supposed to look like. That morning as the reverend doctor janet neumann took her place at the pulpit. That image of the male-only preacher just fell away. Thankfully. I quickly joined that congregation and then signed up for three committees. I drank in all of this freedom and just. Cherish every minute of it. I became an avid seeker of kind of like. The honey bee going from flower to flower and i would go to. Pagan rituals and. Studied zen buddhism and studied celtic spirituality and then. Went off to sufi mysticism and then return to buddhism but this time shambhala buddhism. I was having a great time. And i would i would characterize that time in my life as the adolescents. Of my spiritual journey. I took all of the freedom offered by my newfound uu faith and i loved it i loved it deeply. It reminds me to kind of help my stepdaughter who went off to college this fall. All she wanted was to be free. That was her single focus just get me out of south carolina. And. And away from my parents. And while she is enjoying this freedom right now i know that at some point. She's going to have to think about what she might want to make of this freedom. So yes. It is possible to. Come here to church and be a part of this congregation maybe for years and years and years without letting it lay claim to your life. It is possible. To come here and enjoy the bounty of classes and workshops. Watch the film's read the books have endless discussions about them. Without. Having this face. Lake lane. To your life. But i tell you that there is a responsibility. And there is a. A. An obligation. Required by all kinds of freedom including spiritual freedom. We who are the beneficiaries of the space are called to be more than just. Consumers of this face. We are called to do more than just enjoy and celebrate because freedom is not an end in itself. And spiritual freedom. Especially is an obligation. And i say that spiritual freedom is an obligation to satisfy your soul. So let me stop here. And. Talk about that word soul. When i talk about so i mean. Deep cell. Right. Your truest truest self. It is the spark of the divine or the echo of god that dwells within. And the idea of satisfied soul a satisfied soul will you heard that in the eat it that jay read earlier. And it comes from the book of ecclesiastes where king solomon. Is described as a man of incredible wealth. And power. And yet his soul is not satisfied. The irish poet john o'donohue also talks about soul satisfaction when he says. If we become addicts to the external. The interior will haunt us. We will become hungry with a hunger no image no person no deed can still. In other words the soul will not be satisfied by anything in the material world. It may not even be satisfied by you coming to church. Or volunteering at the shelter. Because even. Some of the best social justice work can leave our souls hungry. If the reason we're doing it is to please the external. Rather than the internal. So let me ask you this. What. Is the deep longing in your soul. What do you really want. What do you really. Really want. Not in the way that amazon asks you what you want. Or tells you what you want. But that deep longing. The deep longing i believe that the. Deeper we reach for that question the more universal the answer. Perhaps. You're deep. Deep longing is for compassion to bind all of us together. Maybe your deep longing. Is to love one another. To be able to see the spark of the divine and other people. Is your deep longing to find beauty in every corner of the city. Does your soul want you to be able to. Speak the truth. Do you long for the restoration of waters and the earth and the air. What is your deep. Deep longing. As for me. My deep longing is the thing that moves me out into the world. My deep longing is what gives purpose. To my life. And meaning to my days. I know that i know myself well enough to know that if i just listened to the part of me that is anxious and scared of being rejected and hurt. If i only listen to the parts of me that prize security over courage. I don't think i could do ministry very well. The other day i was waiting. At the elevator. 2. To go to the hospital cafeteria it was my lunch break. And. I was off. During that. 30 minute time. And i didn't really have to talk to anybody. But there was a lady next standing next to me and my soul lead me. My soul pulled me. And i asked her. Do you have someone a loved one here at the hospital. Said yes. He just had surgery to remove cancer. I asked another question. And she. Talk. For longer than she probably had planned. And we stood there for quite a long time. It was a very simple encounter. But it was surprising. It was deep. And it was transforming for both of us. We hugged each other as we said goodbye. I finally went off to my lunch. And i felt. Free. That's what spiritual freedom feels like. Like i have satisfied the deepest longing of my soul. I am imperfect in my practice is spiritual freedom. Because practicing freedom satisfying the soul involves overcoming a lot of human hurdles. My soul longs for wonder and beauty in everything i see. And yet dizziness gets in the way. The headlong tumble into the next moments as the poet describe causes me to miss opportunities to really connect. People. The people right in front of me. Beer. Shame. Guilt. Grief all caused me to forget that i want to bring joy and love into every relationship that i have. But when i am awake enough. When i am awake enough. I can feel the ripeness of the moments. And my soul is. Truly satisfied. As francis david. Languished in that prison cell. His mind was on us. He was thinking about us. The ones who would inherit his spiritual legacy. He wanted us to be free from orthodoxy. So that we could find the permanent. And the universal truth. So that we could listen. To the longing of our souls. The echo of god. The urges us to greater love. Urges us. To create a more just society. And deeper connections with the spirit of life. May it be so.

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Thomas-Cole-8.5.mp3

In 2009. In response to. 29 years ago. 2009 in response to the fast-growing economic crisis. The library. Open a job help center. I was shifted from my usual role in the local history and genealogy room. To the new center. Where i form part of a crew of half a dozen employees specifically. Deployed to assist job seekers. I spent a year there. Adjusting my skills. To their knees. I saw people. Confronting barriers to employment like. Having a criminal record. We're lacking good literacy and math skills. Piece of things i could have anticipated. Different way when it was my job not just understand these thing these barriers. But the help the person in front of me overcomes them. My experience in the job house help center. Apple gave me a new perspective. A technological change. Almost all my public service. Involved. Looking over people's shoulders. As they walked the public computers sometimes i take over the mouse the keyboard. 444e needed it. I found that the internet. Warframe leveling the playing field. Reinforce the exclusion. Of those with the most disadvantages. Contrary to expectations. Prince on public computers. The browsers can't remember your password. But every employer requires you to set up an account and locks out if you guess wrong too many times. Multi-page applications. What time out. If we even took too long to answer the questions on one page. The applicant would then lose his or her work. Which was the cause of rage or tears more than once in my experience. And i've been there. Okay one-man when faced with the length and complexity of the application for a pet store chain exclaimed. I just want to wash dogs. All of us. All of us were unfamiliar with the skills for surfer online searching and filling out forms at one time. You just don't need last one time. We learn from experience. If we enjoyed regular access to a connected computer and familiarity with a keyboard. And if we shopped entertained ourselves or socialized online we came to understand the conventions in criminology webpages. Such experience however. Depends on income. Residential stability. An education. People who can't count on those preconditions. May find themselves forced to learn computer skills. In a hurry. Under stress and in public. I could not. Change. Well i'm just getting. I would already. For better for worse. The fundamental things about a society persist. Ever more powerful devices for communication computational become ubiquitous in recent years. Are using them. Has transformed our routines. It is easy to call this. A new era. And to indulge either in techno optimism. Oren techno doom saying. In either case the assumption is that the technology drives the rest of society. I'm here to say. Not let ourselves off the hook. We still have the responsibility. Opportunity. To shape society. Troy value. Better wait better faster ways of doing things doing what we've already done. Means that. We're still doing what we've already done. Whether that's to create. Opportunity or to increase inequality. Could not. Change the big picture. It's stacked the deck. Against these visitors the library. I could hardly assure them that filling out applications would lead to a job. Although we had some success stories. I could however. Give them a moment of human connection. I started copying the practice of one colleague who when asked to help with some computer problem would say. Let's figure this out. And walk with patron back to his or her seed. What's alongside the john staker. I would be pretty to details of their life story as they filled out a resume. I tried to listen and advise as respectfully as i could. I'm sometimes rewarded with a handshake or with a smile of recognition the next time we saw each other. I'd love to tell you that i of the library proved to be turning points in their lives but. I'll never know. These encounters. Did change me however. I can't blame the victim so easily now is before. Orwall off other people's suffering from my responsibility. Maybe that's all i can ask of myself as an individual. To show respect and remember the common humanity between myself and the person in need. Josh. Thaddeus. I won't change anything that way. No i won't. Not by myself at least. Part of realizing the limits of what one can do is individual. Is realizing that there's more much more. Then i can do. The we can do. Partnership with others. I'm glad i belong to a church. It is planning just such a course for itself. Aren't you. Okay. Think of your time snoop.

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7.29.18_And_who_is_my_neighbor.mp3

Demonstrating yet again our frequent proclivity to occupy a position. Well behind the cultural curve. Over the course of the past couple of months we as a family have for the first time what are ways through the entire series of. Harry potter movies. Yes well some of you have been engrossed in the latest episodes. Stranger things. Are american vandal or dear white people. We took a televised time machine visit. All the way back to. Can you believe it. 2000. 1. Cozying ourselves in our darkened it downstairs we began weeks ago now. With that young starred and bespectacled boy in harry potter and the sorcerer's stone. On random nights sometimes for the whole movie. Often only until one or more of us dozed off. We went on wild and imaginative adventures to hogwarts. In the chamber of secrets. The prisoner of azkaban. The goblet of fire. The order of the phoenix the half-blood prince and finally into the deathly hallows. Parts 1 & 2. I wouldn't want to make any wild. Shirley subjective pronouncements. But. I'm drinking. Jk rowling may be onto something. Different books are as good as these movies. I wouldn't be surprised to see one or two of them become bestsellers. You heard it here. Last. My friend pat snyder writes in one of her poems we tell stories. Bill from fragments of our lives map. The guide us to each other. What distinguishes humans. From all other sentient beings. Isn't it impart our capacity. To tell stories. How things have been. About things are. About things could be or should be. We naturally gravitate the stories. Biographical in fictional. Weather from storycorps. The moth radio hour. The latest chimamanda attitude novel. Alexander antics of the now in theaters movie sorry to bother you. There have been great societies. That did not use the wheel. Observes writer ursula le guin. But there had been no societies. That did not tell. Stories. It was the rabbinic way. Judaism's wisdom musings council and curiosity was often carried. And what the great martin buber called. Legendary. Reality. Not as fat bass. History. What is implicit lessons. Of the sort was in into the imaginative escapades. The perry. Hermione. And ron. Uber's delightful anthology. Tales of the hasidim. Story after story begins with it is told. Or they say. Followed by account seuss actual meaning is often free did. With ambiguity. It's the way of wisdom teachers. In many different spiritual traditions. Go to as pets snyder put it tell stories. Building from the fragments of our lives map to guide us to each other. Map. Often with considerable less clarity. Then the turn-by-turn gps versions danelle so neatly order are navigating. When and interrogating lawyer approaches jesus and ask a definitive lee religious question about eternal life. The rabbi first tries to dismiss him. Appointing him to the jewish law. But this doesn't satisfy.. Was calling. Aggravating attorney. At the risk perhaps of being. Redundant. Okay so the lord commands loving both god and neighbor he presses. And who is my. Neighbor. Rabbi jesus by the gospelaires way of it offers ops to offer not a definitive definition of neighbor. But rather. A storage. Any particular kind of story. Apparent. Now though many stories are in fact told in order. To order our lives. To explain to offer guidance to restate common truisms. Those most familiar with this younger appoint out that jesus parables were always. Always intended to append. Wendy's. Unsettle. To reorder. And this one perhaps the most familiar one of all. Is no exception. The good. Samaritan. It has found its way into artistic expressions common nomenclature contemporary idiom. Even those who only know the bible. It's that book often found in the drawers of hotel bedside tables. Know something. About the good samaritan. Right. And i know it. We know it. And what it means also. Right. Being kind. That offering concern. Crossing the street to avoid someone in obvious need is a really good. We might even say in the parlance of another contemporary movie a very neighborly thing to do. Right. So what's unsettling about that. Isn't there now a concerted chorus offering that very same counsel let's all. Felt actually it's more often you all. Should just be nice. Be kind be welcoming. And of course be civil. And that will surely make almost. Everything better. Hardly sounds. Subversive. The problem is. To draw that conclusion. Is the misread. This particular parent. No matter how often that same mistake has been made. It has a twist. Park cultural. Park religious. Quite subtle for those who don't understand the context. And then is my neighbor. This one turns on who jesus skewers would have known. Absolutely. We're not. Their neighbors. Dirty. Lazy. Irreverent. Samaritan. The samaritans were not just the other. Not just the people who happened to have a different opinion that kind of thing supposedly civil people could discuss. They were. They were inferior. They were less than they were subhuman. They were they were threats to. Infest. The clearly superior culture. Who is jesus was addressing. This little tale. Rabbis had a formula for such tales one that jesus. India's first priest. And then levites that is the temple officials perform poorly. They act in ways that are not admirable. So when in jesus story they passed by on the other side. None of his heroes. Is surprise. That's exactly the way these stories are supposed to go. However. And here's the big. Be. The formulaic story usually derided the priest and the levites but then along came a common everyday israelite. To save the day. One of. Jesus steelers. But good people. In just. The right kind of way of being good. The people who knew themselves to be spiritually superior to people who knew themselves to be morally superior. Jesus. Completely up in the formula. First caprice. Then the levi. But then along comes a. A what. A samaritan. Someone they knew to be inferior. And it is the samaritan who behaved so admirably that this particular story carved out a special place in the world anthology of wisdom tales. Only. What usually gets left out is the other surprise. The other upheaval. The other up ending of their assumption. Wait. Which is yours are left wondering what if we aren't the good people. What if we aren't the ones to save the day. What if we aren't those with inside. And compassion and commitment and creativity to make things all better for those who are in need. Then. Then who are we in this story. You see that's the real problem. They didn't want to think of themselves as robbers. They didn't want to be the priest or the levite. They sure as hell didn't want to be samaritans. So who does that leave. Oh no. What if we're the one beaten. Battered. And lying in the ditch. What if we're the ones not with the solution. Not with the insight. Not with the superior spiritual perspective. Not the one slightly more insightful than everyone else around. Not the ones with the long and impressive history and the long and impressive resumes of all of our acts of engagement. What if we are the ones in need. What is. This is harder by a lot. What if i'm the one in need. Not the one to take care of. Not the one that offered help to. Not the one to leave to speak to center myself to proffer the solution. What is. What if i'm the one in need of others. Some other. Even. Even something some merit. This simple common familiar story. Has a very enigmatic answer to what we thought was a relatively easy question and who then is my neighbor. What if my neighbor is the one that i dismissed. Because i assumed i was superior to them. The one. The one if need and help are going to be involved. The one i thought i'd be helping. With my neighbor is the one on whom i'm going to have to rely. If my neighbor is the one who is going to see through my facade of self-sufficiency and recognize that i am in need. I. And. Indeed. Hello search. Difficult words to say. And really mean. I need help. I'm beating. Bruise. I'm not the savior. Writing in to make everything better for. Them. I need help. As with all wisdom stories this one proper is no unique insight. It has its peers. Each also turning the world upside down. The mouse. Who saves the lion. Remember that. Androcles escaped slave. A lion. Who helps the elephant. Even. Even a certain red nose. Reindeer. Who saved the day for those who had derided and excluded him. The one pity. The one small and insignificant the outsider. Who becomes the exemplar. What is. What is sometimes open and willing means open to acknowledge in that we don't have the answers. And willing to accept. That we need others. To take the lead. What is sometimes the most courageous connection that we can make. Is the one that completely opinions. Or is it. Transforms. The world as we know it. What is. What if would you be my neighbor. Isn't about us being the stars of the show. Kindly inviting others to our place to our table. Gently offering all the ways that we are used to and comfortable with. That's hard. It's harder by far. Been imagining that if there is a tail like this. We're surely the already good samaritan. Llewellyn's nobly aspiring. To help those less fortunate. Who are indeed.

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2.3.19_Spring.mp3

In hans christian andersen's the snow queen. Trolls crafts a mirror that warps people's view of the world. One day the trolls take their mirror up into the sky. And it breaks. In the shards and pieces no larger than a grain of sand rain down. On the earth. Where they pierce human hearts. And turn them to ice. And distort one's vision of all that is beautiful and full of love. In the longer version of the story. We learned that kai and gerda usually spend their winters playing and drinking hot chocolate together. The heat copper coins on their grandmother stove and press them against the frosty window to create a perfect. Peephole. For looking out at the winter sky. But when kai's heart is pierced and vision blurred by the trolls mirror the wonder and joy, i felt sitting with gerda. Turns to disillusionment. Cynicism. The snow queen takes kiowa and for a large part of the story we think kai will be lost to winter forever. Cold and alone in his gloom. But the courage of a friend her compassion and empathy melt the ice around kai's heart. We can imagine what that might have felt like. It must have been similar to the way it feels to walk inside after a long time out in the cold. When your fingers feel frozen and stiff. And then tingle and ache as they meet the warmth inside and begin to thaw. Goethe help sky escape. Winter. That season when the most obvious and colorful signs of hope. Go underground. That time when our defenses are up against the cold and we withdraw to conserve what little energy we have. Goethe nearly loses chi to winter. A season that comes and goes in each of our lives no matter what the weather outside is doing. As the story goes the warmth of goethe's friendship melt skies heart. And in that tingling pain. that ensues. Hi cries. And cries. Kai's tears wash away the last grain of the trolls mirror. Kai recognizes beauty and kindness again. And the two friends walk hand-in-hand through the in-between of sorrow and joy. Perhaps thinking of the time lost that could have been spent playing together. Will simultaneously soaking in the relief that the darkest days are behind them. They step outside into the last days of winter. And see the little shoots of green peeking through the snow. The last days of winter which incidentally is where we find ourselves in the turning of the seasons. Poet marilyn nelson rights. Bring speaks to each of us in a language our bodies first and then our minds understand. That's softening of gustin to waft and breathe. Those layers of clothing shed. Squirrel races spiraling the tree trunks. She says one of the first things i noticed and remember with delight every spring. Is the nocturnal song of the peepers. I know they are tiny frogs but i've never seen one. Get the first few times i hear their song i smile i literally smile. The papers say that even though there's still a skim of ice floating on that part of the pond spring will. About this time nelson right so cold still remains. I start to see mob. In my headlights. The night vacant and silent for months is now more and more full of living things. She continues there are of course. Regional differences in both experience and metaphor. In some places spring happens as slowly as lake ice melts. In other places you go to bed one winter night and by dinner time the next day. It's summer. No i'm still dug in for a solitary winter she says. I can sense the approach. Of spring. The last few days i've heard birds calling from the thicket and thought oh spring is coming. And done a little internal. Dance. Don't you mean be familiar with the pagan observance of yuul in december. For the winter solstice says it's also known the longest night of the year. And you may be familiar with the spring equinox in march the first day of spring when day and night occupy an equal amount of time the day it known to pagans as austera. You may be less familiar with imbolc. Which occurs in early february between yule and ostara. Imbolc comes before cold has gone and before warmth has fully arrived. For us in the greater charlotte area this seems to mean we go from almost t-shirt weather to wearing a winter hat coat and gloves and back again. Observers of em both take the opportunity to clear themselves and their homes of winter. Burning any greenery left over from you'll clearing away cobwebs and dust that have collected in the season of rest. The season of preservation. And waiting. Observers of invoke offer prayers at the possibilities and hopes that have been dormant within them might soon find light. In a number of earth-based traditions in bulk marks the moment when the goddess is said to have just healed from the effort of laboring through the longest night of the year to give birth. To the sun. Imbolc is not. A celebration of certainty of having left the winter fully behind for a season of renewal and possibility. Instead early february marks a turning point. When the goddess has healed just enough. To find her footing. Testing if she can eat something more substantial than broth. Curious if she is up for a longer walk. Imbolc is a day part fragile and part. Strong. Imbolc makes no promises or guarantees that we are through forever with long night. But it is a softening of gus until we laughed and breathed it seeing moths in the headlights as marilyn nelson what's it. Early. February. This is like the moment after a hip or knee replacement. When you transfer your weight from the chair to your own feet for the first time and leaning on whatever support is nearby feel what it's like to stand now. This is the moment after a vicious encounter with depression. When you have felt overwhelmed lost depleted numb for so long. It's the moment you brush your teeth. And smooth your hair. Put on clothing and tie shoes and push your way outside the risk contact with people and things. Not yet certain that you're up to it. It's a tentative smile exchange after a fight. Imbolc is fragile and strong. In the early february of our lives and of our surroundings hope is not shiny or grande. It's the lenten rose blooming without apology against a backdrop of dead leaves. Late-winter hope is the kind that drops from mushroom gills. Sprouts in each occluded eye of the many i'd potato. And lives in each earthworm segment. Surviving cruelty as liesl mueller puts it the quiet argument that refutes. Not shiny or grand but precious all the same. This is the moment easily overlooked. When we have the fleeting realization that hope is not. Foolish. Not an empty wish. Not energy wasted. Do we sometimes go a very long way without tangible evidence. Do the most obvious and colorful signs lie dormant underground a long time. Hope is not. Foolish. Whatever is just beginning for you today whatever feels uncertain. Or tentative. Whatever feels both fragile and strong. May you pause long enough. To feel the signs of renewal within and around you and help prepare the way. For spring. Blessed be. Amin.

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4.28.19_truth_heals.mp3

Antonio morrison's novel beloved. One of the main characters is a woman named sethe. The book is set in the decade after the emancipation proclamation. And set the is always remembering slavery. And the things that were done. To her body. Set this back is nodded with the scars of past violence. She calls the mass of scars her cherry choke tree. Unable to see them properly but imagining how they converge and separate. Into the pattern of something living. Something ever-present twisting around her spine. Not long into reading we find that seth has passed terror and suffering is not even past. It's a physical presence in the home she shares with her daughter denver something like a ghost. Something angry scared and lonely that rearranges things in the night. Violence and needy. Intern. Denver is overwhelmed by the presence of her mother's past suffering. No one ever wants to come visit them. In their haunted house. In denver longs for the company of anyone who is not a ghost or her haunted mother. Denver knows somehow that their pain and isolation will continue until they can face this ghosts of past trauma. And put it to rest. Dr. bessel van der kolk spent his career studying how people are affected. By traumatic experience. In his book the body keeps the score vandercook described meeting tom. A man who had recently returned from fighting in the vietnam war. Tom did not. Contemplate. Things that happened. In the past sifting through memories at will. Instead without warning a flood of memory and feeling would overtake him. His rational mind would retreat leaving him a wash in fear. The past would invade the present. A memory of an experience in vietnam was not something tom could hold at arm's length in. Honduran process. Sounds and smells that reminded tom of combat would send his body into a fight or flight mode. He might scream and throw things across the room scaring his family. Or he would drink. Until his fences were dull and unable to provoke. Internal error. And the more, tried to avoid remembering his past the more his past invaded and eclipsed his present life. Vandercook observes tom and others suffering the aftershocks of trauma. And helps determine the symptoms and the treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Bender cop noticed that the more his payson patients try to avoid or bury their past. The more they were doomed to live and relive it endlessly. To live with their trauma. Vandercook suggested that patients find a way to repair the connection between the conscious mind. And their emotions. If they could not meld thought and feeling successfully. They would never be able to make meaning of their past experiences. Instead patients would be trapped in compulsion repeating the same harmful behavior again and again. The west indian poet edouard with phone asks. Would it be ridiculous. You consider our lives history as a steadily advancing neurosis. To see the slave trade as a traumatic shock. Our relocation in the new land as a repressive phase slavery as the. of latency when trauma lies unexamined. And waiting. Emancipation he says in 1848 as reactivation. Are everyday fantasies as symptoms of our horror of returning to those things. Of the past. The song speaks of colonialism. The act of white europeans taking political control of societies of people of color. Occupying their land with settlers. And exploiting the resources of the colonized to benefit the colonizers. The song describe colonialism as a traumatic event and wonders how this wound of history. Might heal. How does a society our society heal. From the forced relocation of american indians. Be intentional extermination of languages. Spiritual traditions. Cultures. People. How does a society our society heal from chattel slavery from the colonization of women's. Bodies. In his work with patients suffering from post-traumatic stress dr bessel van der kolk determined. But if patients could heal. The connection between their mind and their emotions. They would be able to reflect on and make meaning of their past experiences. Only then would they escape the repetitive hell of reliving their past over and over only then would they recover. Their agency. Bender cop determined that healing the connection between intellect and emotion required a seemingly. Paradoxical treatment. We would need to immerse themselves in memories of the very pain that had caused their trauma. Intentionally and regularly returning to their past until they could sit with the details of what happened. Without running. Away. Is vander cockroach in his early observations of this treatment method. I soon discovered how excruciating it can be to face reality. On the 100th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation. James baldwin wrote a letter to his beloved nephew. He wanted his namesake to think about what this anniversary meant as a black teenager living in the united states. In the 1960s. Even if as baldwin says the country was celebrating 100 years of freedom. 100 years too soon. In that letter baldwin says. White people are in effect. Still trapped in a history which they do not understand. And until they understand it. They cannot be released from it. They've had to believe for many years and for innumerable reasons that black people are inferior to white people. Baldwin continues. Many of them indeed know better. But as you will discover. People find it very difficult to act on what they know. To act is to be committed and to be committed is to be in danger baldwin says. In this case the danger in the minds of most white americans is the loss of their identity. There is no cure for trauma individual or collective. That is because what happened in the past cannot be undone what was lost will always be lost. But we can heal. From trauma. Has dr. vanderkolk discovered the treatment involves immersing ourselves in memories of the very pain that caused the trauma. Learning the stories in our shared history that we don't. No learning the stories we have not wanted to know in our collective past. Intentionally and regularly returning to study our shared history. Until we can sit with the details of reality of what really happened. Without running away. Truth is the starting point of that healing. As we heard from david white earlier every human being dwelled intimately close. To a door of revelation they are afraid to pass through. He says honesty is not a weapon to keep lost and heartbreak at bay. Honesty is the outer diagnostic of our ability to come to ground in reality. The hardest attainable ground of all the place where we actually. Dwell. That reality is the trauma of our collective history. The neurosis and patterns we share. And have never yet learned to escape. Sigmund freud wrote that the successful working through of trauma enables the victim eventually. To free themselves from the grip. Of mechanisms of repetition. It's by immersing ourselves in past pain that we work through trauma. Immersing ourselves in what is difficult to know. In our healing from trauma we reconnect our ability to think. With our ability to feel. When we cannot connect our thinking and are feeling we can make. Cannot make meaning of the past. And rediscover our agency. Our morale will our ability to act out of conscience rather than compulsion. To create. Together. A different. Future. Maybe cause it to be so. Amin.

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7.1.18_Open_and_Willing.mp3

Plant your axe. Plant your axe. My brother. My beloved five years younger brother mark was screaming at me. He was standing at the top of the steve. Ice covered craig as i was careening down sliding rapidly toward a precarious drop. It was august. 1999 and we were on the second day of our expedition of mount shasta. A 14000 179 foot volcanic mountain. In california's cascade range. Mark. A very knowledgeable experienced climber. Had suggested we undertake this adventure together. So we're driven for my 4 hours north. Of the san francisco bay area. And found ourselves a couple of days later at a trailhead. From which we were to climb over 7,000 ft. To the summit. The first day was an enjoyable challenge along steady beautiful climb up past the tree line and across snow street rocky outcroppings. To campsite where we rested. 8. And took in the moon's splendorous rides. Before retiring. Four short night's sleep. Just two weeks before i spent five long days in the fireside room of the star king school for the ministry in berkeley. I was on summers study leave from my position as the minister of a self-proclaimed liberal. Ecumenical. Baptist congregation. Where i had served for the past 8 years. We were in the middle of the challenging building project. And what would result in an aia award-winning facility the preparation funding and design of which had consumed me in recent years. I was depleted from the added demands of that massive project. And so as had been my habit for several years i'd gone to berkeley to participate in the summer session of the graduate theological union. I was particularly excited that summer. To be in a class on religious humanism with corydon iridium. Longtime minister of one of unitarian universalism. Flagship humanist congregations and leader in the ethical culture movement. I was hoping to recharge and renew in a place that has become familiar and cherished over many visits. But my fatigue that year had an even deeper source. A decade-and-a-half after my ordination a few miles from here at the myers park baptist church. I was struggling to sustain my spiritual sweating. In a religious tradition that felt increasingly. Problematic. I've been raised. Attending sunday morning. Sunday evening. Wednesday evening services in a stunning glass and wood octagonal chapel of a highly educated well-to-do baptist church. It was a wonderful place to grow up. A community that first inspired me to want to be a minister. After the ups and downs of a degree in philosophy in the series of seminary adventures i was well into my professional career with connections and investments and a growing reputation at one of the most progressive baptist congregations in the country. And yet despite all of that it no longer felt satisfying. Bedford to sustain myself in that role proves harder and harder. The steep climb into that pulpit felt more and more challenging every week. I was increasingly out-of-sync in the tradition in which i had cut my religious teeth. At 3 which i had evolved into the current standing i had as a minister of a congregation known in houston and beyond for punching well above its weight. Most famous opening lines of dante. Midway. Did the journey of our life. I found myself. In a forest art. I'm a straightforward pathway have been lost. Wish i felt when i walked into a religious humanism course. That monday morning. Rousing ourselves in the pre-dawn darkness. My brother mark and i done snow suits and helmets. Before carefully attaching spiky crampons to our boots. Handing me my ice axe mark offered a tutorial. Explaining carefully what to do in case of a fall and slide finding out how to plant the ass. The slow ones descent. Then we were off and the faint light. The snow-covered summit not yet visible. It would prove to be the most physically demanding undertaking i'd ever experienced. Far more challenging than the marathon not completed earlier that same year. We were soon headed up sheer frozen gulches. Slowly progressing step over sideways step are crampons tenuously gripping the ice. With each strike. We cast for breast in the thin air of that elevation. Pausing frequently to rest. Quiet the quivering of our overtaxed legs. Mark patiently accommodated my far less adept approach. Finding out footholds offering me a hand up when he could carrying our small pack with water and snacks. For both of us. After an intense. Challenging we can coordinate our essence religious humanism class. The outline of a path forward. Begin to emerge. Beckett's alien what i would need to do. I returned to houston. And began immediately talkin with bob shively and mark bella tini to unitarian universalist ministers i knew and loved. Just one year later. We had completed and dedicated our new building i had resigned my position left my job and my home for the past decade and much more momentous lee. Left the religious tradition that had been mine for my whole life. The dear friend alongside at joe the long long route from houston to berkeley. Where is entered star king in order to begin the long long process. But transferring my ordination to unitarian universalism. Re-entering seminarian a whole new tradition after 16 years as a minister was. Exhilarating. Oh how i relish that opportunity to be back in school again. Have long days of classes and long nights of reading and writing unbroken by any professional demands on my time. I welcome the chance to delve deeper in the topics of interest and to explore new areas of import to my new tradition. Captain years of leading in teaching a committed completely to the role of student. Letting others be the guide while i followed along. I wasn't in the spotlight. I didn't have to prove my competence. I could simply step back and enjoy the feeling of not being responsible to set the course and of not being the one from whom commitment. Was required. To be honest. It was awesome. More than a little. Annoying. After giving myself permission to take a break all together i started attending sunday services at one of the many unitarian universalist congregation in the bay area. But they weren't very satisfying. I was often irritated. That easier emotion masking my grief. It all i've given up. There i was with considerably more experience than most of the ministers i was listening to wondering is such a huge shift. Requiring me to start over might actually be a big mistake. Could i allow it to be okay to set my own expertise aside. And lean into the role of learner. Imagining that these future colleagues of mine just. Might know what they're doing. With the odd unfamiliarity of it all ever become comfortable. With this new tradition ever really offer me. A spiritual home. Despite slowing his pace on my behalf the gap none-the-less widen between march and me. Until i was looking up a considerable distance. It is confident movement high above me on the ice. Struggling to catch up at foolishly ignored his console. And in an effort to extend more quickly i turned face into that icy terrain attempting to ascend straight up. And just a few steps i lost my balance and i started sliding. Careening back down the narrow gulch toward a steep drop-off. Weather apps. Even in my terror i heard him screaming from up above plant your act. Oh. Right my antics. The one i was holding in my right hand. In the flash of that fearful fallout recalled his experience lesson angle it with both hands and thrust it into the ice to stop your fall. Heating such as i could his shouted reminder i finally came to rest splayed out on the rugged ice. I remained in that prone position my heart pounding in my throat. Been slowly realizing that all my limbs were still functioning. And after allowing myself the luxury of a brief respite. I cautiously crept back up into my climbing crouch. Mindful to ascend in the manner that mark had instructed. And set out to regain the distance i'd lost. Am i fall. I'm relieved. Please inspired heartened. Let's slowly. Overtime i found a home. A spiritual home. And unitarian universalism. Herein are odd mix of so many varying religious past none of which is valued or acclaimed over any other. I have a deep sustaining. Challenging. Connection. A connection to something. Life-giving. Again. I found a way to continue my ministry to continue trying to make a difference a whole new way of doing. What i love. I'm glad. Well. I'm glad. Now. That i had two others to show me. Dissuade. Aware of just how uncomfortable it felt for me at times i'm glad there were those willing to forge this path for me. Being a follower. A learner. A listener. Hasn't always been easy. But it is offered me discourse. Thornton. And challenging connections. Case you're wondering. We did make it. All the way to the bitterly cold. Stunning summit. Of mount shasta. The wind howling in our ears as we hugged. My brother. My guide. Anime. We pawn. We took in that amazing vista from that remarkable peak. And then. Aware of the long. Long path back down. Enjoyed one. Last look. Inside out. To my relief. My dear brother. Still in the league.

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9.17.17_Free_Your_Failures.mp3

Did you started on a friday night with five friends and winding overturns in mexico city. Well into the evening their conversation victor. We started talking about how tired they were. Sharing a personal account. According to the now widely recounted the story of the evening these five friends found their little exercise. Only this time they'd include more of their friends. Two weeks later a much larger group gather. And they listen to three people who shared their biggest failure. They found there was a religion. Animal fanfic. Nathan. They realize that they had had fun. An opportunity that would likely prove engaging beyond. And if that they lost the global movement. It is now call. I can't tell you what it is. It's not actually good. I just don't think i should. Set an alarm. Not from the office. So the global phenomenon started buying those friends in mexico goes by the acronym. If. You in. It stands for. Brother's keeper.. Is now a global phenomenon. And more than 250 cities 80 countries on every continent except antarctica. Every month something like kim. Attend an f up not. At least one they listen to three people. About there. It's a kind of insight and expertise. But to acknowledge their. Their mistakes times when things didn't go as. Movie 43 kinds of people. Those who have failed. Those who will. And. The liars. Your mother is. Free. Your family. If. The failure institute. It conducts research publishers study failure. And i downloadable. Epi. State of business failure report that explained in the business world. And it helpful data and truman so they're more informed decisions can be made by businesses. In academia. Imagine. A bunch of folks all over the place. Coming together. It's the very opposite of. Weird. Coronavirus symptoms. Offering the assurance that we're all doing the best we can it makes me feel variously. Citraland. Well imma go beyond. Everyone. Is doing the best i can. You see. The ball. I don't do things with it. There's a gap between my intentions. In my activity. Between. Anime. Hi. I. Don't answer. I don't like to admit when i say that. Oh. I think you misunderstood. Remember saying i would do that. What was i supposed to do. I can't be perfect. June 19th 61 president john kennedy met with soviet leader nikita khrushchev in vienna for a series of talks on foreign policy. It started. Cordially enough. Madison turner. Exasperation kennedy friendly app. Vittoria. Innocent. Anybody here know such a person. Anybody here ever. Anna. Has anyone here. Never been that person. The roles that religious in many different forms. Wisdom from the world's religions are liberating. If not unlike those. With various sorts of rituals and creative ways calling us with introspection spiritual tradition turn back in there.. There. A faithful jewish family members and friends assume engaged and kind of self-examination commended by the employer. The reflect on the year just ended. And on the way to pay. Do anaconda another for forgiveness. Do erykah badu. No internet. With a slave once again. Are faithful muslim family members and friends engaging prayer five times each day and then embark on a long ramadan fast. A roman immaculate family members and friends are invited to a formal confession didn't mission of the gap between the ideal that they processed and the reality of who they have been. Bi-weekly services in most protestant tradition. Include. A prayer. Religion is effort to manipulate with a regular pencil. We're having. Woody allen joke about such influential than the truth that the first base is peeling.. Is it going to be hot when they do get windy. Having discussions in three taco because. We're all doing the best we can. None of us ever. Denver. If you need to. In-n-out burger. What are we doing. The emphasis michael successes in the conversation with bill moyers offices. I'll never forget you said when i first and head to admit that i was wrong i was about. Some student called me on sunday. Find a way of fast-food indiferenta which you can do when you're a little professor. Will. Absolutely. Admitted i was wrong. In fact we continue zamora forget because it came up to me afterward and said that is the most significant thing i seen in my educational career. He had never heard. We're embarking on a challenging journey. Answering the call to examine long-held assumptions ways of a standing commitment to practice. It is already made many of us uncomfortable itslikelymakeup considerably. Along this way will come to see. Mistake. And. Well maybe. What is in this challenging where we would have followed the lead of other faith communities other people of compassion in goodwill. What if we were to embody in our own way a way of admitting more openly and failures in the steering working passionately the failure. Of course it's easier to engage in defensiveness and denial refusing to see much less acknowledge our complicit. Of course it's easier to get any interest. Call amy. Is the meanings of masculine. Insecure. We all are. We all fall short. We all. It's okay. Weather in windsor. We could start by offering. We could intercept with compassion. Some. Maybe that's what those mexican friends were going to. The weather. Wake up..

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1.27.19_Take_the_Dream.mp3

There's a story most often attributed to the cherokee people. It goes like this. One evening an old man told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said my son the battle is between two wolves inside of us all. It is a terrible fight between these two wolves. One is bad. He is anger. Envy. Sorrow regrets. Greed. Arrogance. Self-pity. Guilt resentment inferiority lies false pride. Superiority. An ego. He continued the other is good. He is joy. Peace. Love. Hope. Serenity humility kindness. Benevolence. Empathy. Generosity truce. Compassion. And faith. The same fight is going on inside you and inside every other person too. The grandson thought about it for a minute and then ask his grandfather. Which wolf will win. The old man simply replied. The one you feed. When i was a sophomore in high school my paternal grandpa made the rare trip from out west to come visit us. He was a man of few words but loving to his granddaughters all the same. All through my grandpa's visit i of course had school during the day and then swim practice in the evenings and it was difficult to get much time together. So grandpa decided to join me for lunch one day at school. And after lunch i walked my grandpa toward the front of the school to see him off. And as we walked we passed a classmate of mine named charles. Charles had acted in a lead role in the school play. And we had a class together. He was confident and funny and seemed to move easily from one social group to another. Charles and i had even hung out on occasion outside of class when our mutual friends happened to get together. Once we sat together at a friday night football game. And had a conversation about how neither of us ever actually understood what was ever going on during a football game which led to the exchanging of silly advice about how we could hide our ignorance of football in social situations. Like mumbling every so often up come on that's easily a first down or repeating phrases that we didn't understand with confidence i guess the wildcat formation. This became a running joke between us and whenever i passed charles in the hallway after that we'd exchange some kind of football-related banter. That day is i walked my grandpa out after lunch we passed charles. And as we did my grandpa said loudly. They're letting those boys in now. Charles is black. Charles looked up seemingly startled by the comment and we looked at each other for a moment and a charge kind of uncertain silence and then he walked away and so did we. I never sought charles out to talk about what my grandpa had said. And i don't recall a whole lot of interaction between us after that. The more i have considered the wolves inside myself. The more i realize what you may have already come to. The charles and i were not. Friends. Not in the way i wish now we had been. We enjoyed being acquainted we laughed together we shared experiences as classmates. But we didn't have conversations of consequence. We never knew each other well enough to fight. And forgive. Didn't share real doubts. Or confidence is. With one another. A recent post on our member facebook page led me to an article from the black feminist collective entitled five ways nice racism shows up in progressive communities. At one point in the article a woman of color talks about her experiences and mostly white educational institutions. Describing how isolated she felt. Saying. My issue was that the whites around me claimed to be conscious to be well educated on the black experience. Yet were hesitant about forging a genuine connections with their equally educated and dedicated black. Pierce. The inequity built into our society always threatens to poison our personal relationships with one another. And so often succeeds. So long as white culture names itself as universal culture. There will too often be something strained between white human beings and human beings a color. We will too often be lonely for the realness. And vulnerability of one another. Last night in this sanctuary there was an event called deeper than the skin led by greg greenway and his friend and musical colleague of 30 years reggie harris. Reggie shared pieces of his life story and how he has experienced what it is to be black in america. What stood out most to me is that greg and reggie not only invited a conversation about race in america. They invited the wolves inside themselves to be part of the conversation as well. Sharing moments of disappointment frustration guilt empathy. Generosity. Entrust. Headed past between them as they shared in the work of revealing the depths of their whiteness and the depth of their blackness to one another. Over decades. When i took from this is that greg and reggie risk being fully human with one another again and again. Not white and black characters who exchanged pleasantries without sharing anything of consequence. Not breaking faith with one another and walking away dropping the relationship when things get awkward or difficult. Or honest. Their conversation helped me see a new why there was a wheat in the pit of my stomach of visceral uneasiness when my loving grandpa without saying much. Neatly separated my classmate and i into categories of worth. His white granddaughter as inherently separate from those boys those black people. I understand a new the truth that i never wanted to face. That i broke faith. With charles. The banter and rapport the ease we found in each other's company in the awkward and shifting context of high school life. Whatever unspoken trust was there between us that we were navigating those halls together. I broke faze. With charles. We know that conversation between white people and people of color alone cannot dismantle a rigged justice system. Or an education system built on inequity. And this is part of the picture of race in america. White people breaking faith with people of color. Too many white people most accustomed to fragile inconsequential fleeting interactions with people of color. Unwilling to face or sit at length with the so often unspoken living history of violence. Terror. Fear. A living history that has always characterize the relationship between a dominant white culture and people of color. What i know is that the wolf named fear that lives in human beings is strong tenacious and slow to give up ground. And what i know is that in each of us there is another wolf of a different name strong and stubborn resilient and bold. The wolf named. Love. Poet alice walker right love if it is love never goes away. It is embedded in us like seams of gold in the earth. Waiting for light. Waiting to be struck. Author james baldwin rights of a miracle in his word a miracle of coherence and release. Is the miracle of love love strong enough to guide or drive one into the greatest state of spiritual maturity he says. Baldwin who wrote and spoke without hesitation or equivocation about the truth of race in america. About a dominant white culture that refuses to acknowledge the psychological and physical violence it inflicts on black people. Baldwin. Wrote this. As well. It is necessary while in darkness to know that in oneself waiting to be found there is light. What the light reveals is danger. And what it demands is faith. I hear in this that there is a light within us that is dangerous to the world as it is and things as they are. There is a light within us that is dangerous to a culture built on and maintained by injustice. This light demands faith. Face it through it all the seams of love that run within and between us are always there waiting to be struck. Baldwin says it is only if we cease to hold each other. Only when we break faith with one another that the sea engulfs us and the light goes out. If we keep faith. With one another if we are faithful to the dream of liberation. If we take the dream into the palms of our hands molded into the shape of our most private need sculpted into the image of our most public selves. Then we may find his maya angelou says the grace to look up and out. An into the eyes of other human beings to say with hope. Good morning. Good morning each new our holds new chances for new beginnings. Good morning. The horizon leans forward offering space to place new steps of change. Good morning.

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6.24.18_Celebrating_the_Trivial.mp3

April 7th. 1969. Is opening day for the atlanta braves. At the top of their lineup was leadoff hitter felipe and lou one of. Borriello brothers to start in the major leagues. Felix millan. El gatito batted second and played second base. Then came the hammer. The great henry hank aaron. Orlando chacha cepeda. Batted cleanup for the team been in their fourth season in georgia's capital city. Tito francona. Clint bowyer bob tillman and sonny jackson rounded out by everyday players. Bi-rite epap jarvis took the mound as the faulted opening-day starter. Their opponent was the san francisco giants the scorecard included legends willie mays bobby buns and willie mccovey with juan marichal he of the acrobatic wind up on the mound. The braves would play two runs in the bottom of the ninth the game-winner by pinch-hitter mike loan who's liner to center field chasetone sonny jackson and they beat the giants. 524. It was an auspicious beginning. Guided by manager lung harris. By the time october rolled around. The braves would wind up with a stellar 93 and 69 record. Did win their first-ever national league west crown by three games over those same giants. I turned nine. Halfway through that season. It might my transistor radio ear plug was filled with the sounds of braves broadcasters. Milo hamilton and ernie johnson. Senior. In the morning i'd retrieve the paper from our drive and scan the box scores. Pouring over baseballs elegantly charted statistics. In that year is so very long before every game was televised and when paper still printed. Scores. I'd learned at that tender age that baseball will absolutely break your heart. Over the course of just three short days october 4th. And 5th. + 6. In the first-ever division series playoff. The 69 miracle mets. Wood suites. The braves. After taking the first two in atlanta before more than 54,000 mets faithful at shea stadium that overcome a first-inning two-run blast by hank aaron and prevail in the series final game 724. So. To this day. Our unused. 1969 world series tickets. Remain on my baseball shelves at home. Poignant reminder that. Not all dreams come true and calling into question that cinematic clean. There's no crying. In baseball. To a nine-year-old kid whose dad had grown up walking to baseball games at the old times to lyon park in atlanta with his dad. The ups and downs of that season. We're up big deal. A very. Big deal. Well most of my memories of that summer have long faded. The names of that season's players. Remain familiar. I can still hear milo signature call holy toledo. And i can still smell the midst of roma's abuzz vast curving concourses. In the long-since demolished stadium. As many of you have heard not a few times before baseball was and is a big deal to me. End-of-summer freighted with such. Difficult personal emotions. Baseball. This year. Is especially satisfying. And sustaining. Particularly given the baby braised unexpected success. But i also now understand something clearly. Something. I didn't know that season. When i turn nine. Baseball is absolutely. Underlay. Trivia. Trivial of no ultimate consequence. Yes you heard it right. The admission from one of baseball's biggest fans. It doesn't really matter. And though it felt quite different to me then. In the actual context of things. It never really mattered. In 1969. Either. Consider that year. Tumultuous. Troubling. Terrifying year. Richard nixon was sworn in as president. The troubles flared in northern ireland. Yasser arafat was elected president of the palestine liberation organization. Soviet and chinese troops clashed. James earl ray plead guilty to assassinating martin luther king jr.. The us began a covert bombing of cambodia. Serious student unrest from harvard. The berkeley. Space war raged between the us and the ussr. The cuyahoga river. In cleveland. Caught fire. The stonewall riots in new york mark the start of the gay rights movement. The manson family murders took place in los angeles. Hurricane camille ravaged the gulf coast. It was severe violence in czechoslovakia. Kadafi rose to power in the bloodless coup in libya. Lieutenant william calley was charged in the my lai massacre. China carried out an underground nuclear blast. Native americans seized alcatraz island in begin a 19-month occupation. The military draft lottery was reinstituted. Black panther party members fred hampton and mark clark were assassinated by. Chicago police officers. Nigerian and by african troops clashed. The first string of the aids virus. Migrated to the us. Dear hate. All of that was in 1969. How is it possible that i was focused on and it just finished talking yet again. Obviously in a world like that or like this. Baseball. Is trivium. So given this. Tumultuous. Struggling. Terrifying year. Week. Why are we paying a moment's attention to baseball. Or anything else that's trivial. Why. Because we can. Because we need to. Because not everything in life matters. Or should matter. Because part of what distinguishes living from getting by part of what distinguishes living from simply surviving enduring. Is the trivium. M4u it may not be baseball at all and may god have mercy on your soul. Famous not what might it be. What plays a role in your life that is honestly of no real consequence. What distract you. What entertains you what amuses you weren't evokes happy memories for you. What do you do that you know really doesn't have any particularly deep meaning. Or any especially important significance. In the grand scheme of things. I was reminded how inherently puritanical we remain. In reading and researching for this particular service. There were those who joined in celebrating the trivial. However most found value in trivial pursuits because. Teaching makes us more productive. More efficient. More effective. Fishing time for little meeting with distractions can study show help us to focus more intensely. Learning mindless things like baseball statistics are crossword puzzle answers pop song lyrics. Ascend learning meaningful things. Consequential. So we can be excused for indulging. In the trivial because it helps equip us to deal with things that are none trivia. Really. What about. What about enjoying the trivial because. It's enjoyable. That be such a bad thing. Sometimes but rising us with so much that is so deeply serious. Sometimes calling on people of conscience to be courageous. Big knowledge our complicity in in justices and inequities to re-evaluate old ideals and profoundly problematic old ideal it. The pay attention to new and inconceivable oppressions even now is it still okay to indulge and triviality. Today offers a serious attempt. To provide a serious justification. Seriously accepting. Midnight everything. Is serious. I want to be sure when we start confusing the trivial for the more consequential. Whatever we forget that what really doesn't matter. Really doesn't matter. We are off track. When we give the trivial too much space in our lives when we allowed to claim too many of our resources. Too much of my time. We are off track. When we begin to believe that the outcome of games. Really matters. We are off track. But let's touch perspective not serve as an impediment. The second-guessing just missing or some puritanical denial. Instead let there be summer seasons in our engagements. Let there be warm in language seasons. For less serious person. Let me be year-round mini summer vacation. Weatherby x for the commonplace. Frivolous. The insignificant. That everyday. The peddling. The puny. The scanty the trifling and even. Even. The new guitar. Years ago i fell madly in love with an utterly compelling greek man. His name was alexis. Alexis. Zorba. My love is not anthony quinn mind you. I fell in love with nick has got some sockets from his amazing. In fact so deep was my love that i've never dared to see the movie. For fear it would ruin my imaginative affair. It was sparked in the first exchange in that cafe in perez. Replying to probing zorba response. Why. Why he explained with this thing can't a man do anything without a y. It was his passion that i found irresistible. Gerber. Was it man who would work fiendishly in that cretin mine. But he would also eat. Drink. Make love. Sing. Play the centauri. And of course. Damn. With that same pattern. Doing all those things without any why. Not because they were momentous lee important. But simply because they were woven so seamlessly into his life. Intuit living. Norbert didn't despain the trivial. Norbert didn't indulge. The trivial. Larva. Embraced. The truth. And imbued it with seductive. Vitality. So perhaps zorba can be the patron saint. Of the summer seasons of our lives. Times when we let up. Times when we indulge a full 9 innings of sheer enjoyment. Curious little article british marketing executive jim carroll wrote. Here's to the inconsequential. The incidental and frivolous. Here's to the modest. The momentary and fleeting. Tears. Here's the swimming. In the shallow end. Yes. Yes indeed. May it be sunny.

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12.8.19_true_dwelling.mp3?_=1

1 monday at few weeks ago. I was jolted awake by a 3:15 a.m. alarm. And was soon dancing to the airport for a very early flight. Long lines steak through the concourse. Groggy grumpy traveler's slowly shuffling toward that ritual shedding of shoes. Dignity awkward airport and dodge printed frantic proulx. Roll-aboard zento sprinting toward some far-distant skin. I was bound for san francisco in to a board meeting in berkeley routed because of some incomprehensible airline algorithm through. Detroit. Detroit. Over whose airport recircle repeatedly. When we finally touchdown. It was snowing. Deplaning with minutes to go before my next departure i rushed to the gate and straight on to another plane just in the nick of time. Or. So i thought we were in the queue. 40 icing. We waited for over an hour. Belton captives in a claustrophobic cabin. Watching through our little porthole as a record snowfall piled up around. Finally done with the icing that disembodied voice sounded with more news. Vi-spring took so long. That's a co-pilot was now over his legally allotted hours. We be returning to the gate to i am not making this up trying to find another pilot sleep-deprived frustrated i turned back screen for distraction and that's where i discovered a documentary series called. The kindness diaries. Former london stockbroker leon logothetis explained to the opening trailer last year i embarked on a journey from alaska to argentina relying solely on the kindness of strangers no money no food and no place to stay. The overall goal of the show with the demonstrate that up close there is enough good enough love and enough pure kindness to make the world go round. Not exactly how i was feeling in that mean a long wait watching logan convince strangers to take him in for the night to feed him and otherwise help him along on his journey catch me completely. No. Sorry to say. I have not returned to this pulpit today to attest to some profound conversion. Cynicism comment buy some netflix series. Turn blanche dubois. Relying on the kindness of strangers. Others choices. Topeka. Find. Magic to the swim kind has roots interesting like and nurses what is natural. -8. It seems to have some connection to the notion of kin. Kindred. The practice of relating to someone as if they were a member of one's. Native tribe. Writer and teacher tanush. Lamorris. In the point we heard a few moments ago. Recognizes. We have so little of each other now. So far from tribe and fire. No longer able to rely on the space shelter of some homogeneas tribe. If we're going to find oryx tim cummings. It will often have to be from and to strangers those who do not circle around our own little fires. Casitas journey may be an extreme example but don't all of us to some extent embark on our days hoping for even relying on the kindness of those we don't actually know. Meanwhile unlike unlike the neighbors who will share our building this very evening. Most of us may not depend on the kindness of strangers for shelter. But whether or not we experience others as kind does have a significant impact. On the quality of our days. I've been thinking about. Do my extended time away from you. Henderson actually seems to be a relatively modest virtue. More cereal aspiration the universal love. It's in the neighborhood but it's not at the exact same address as politeness. Let's vigorous and long-lasting than compassion. But more valuable than being merely. Nice. Just wondering is there anyone opposed. Bigtymer. Don't we all agree. Something that is almost never said in the unitarian universalist congregation. Lego virtues the value and the challenge of kindness is less in theory than it is in practice. Reflecting on kindness while watching the show from my airplane seat. When the guy in front of me reclining his seat back available space to something qualifying as torture under the geneva convention. Kindness than others. But we all of those people who we think of as especially kind. And you're being kind still seems to be a bit like trying to hit a baseball or a free throw. We're trying to get the perfect dismount landing. No one gets it right. Every single time. Simone biles has of kindness. Get ornery or tired or. Or just distracted. When we finally arrived at our gate in san francisco. 9 hours after boarding my perspective was no doubt shaped by my cpap viewing. But i noticed something. Despite our utter exhaustion. And are anxious to deplane. People were actually being kind. Osher the loudmouth a few rows behind me was still holding forth about the blankety-blank carolina. What the little john who was helping to retrieve a heavy bag. From the overhead bin for a beleaguered woman. And people signaling to sleep me to cross the narrow aisle to go in front of me. It. to express our special thing. And a woman was comforting an anxious traveler with assurance that she's still make it to her final destination. We were strangers from all manner of tribes holding i'm certain all sorts of competing ideological positions and for the most part.. You know what. That's who we are. I'm nosey unrelenting analysis insisting that we are more divided than ever. Define buybeat animosity incompatible i just mean-spirited vitriol unavoidable nastiness it every turn. But when you actually pay attention. What is so often. Rx. The ways we let those with fewer items go in front of us in the grocery. The ways we hold entry doors are elevator doors. The ways we allow waiting cars to cut in front of us in traffic. Faded from our face my family ventured out for a greenway walk late thanksgiving afternoon. It was a stroll through complete. Stranger smiling and happy thanksgiving. Republican street. Democratic strangers. Independence international strangers. That was not a surprise neuroscientist richard davidson. Davidson contends that we come into the world with an innate propensity for triangle. Imagine we're hardwired. Not to be alone with the rest of nature red of tooth and claw. What to be kind. Importantly argue the scientist do kindness like language may come naturally to us kindness like language needs communal cultivation. We come into the world with this innate propensity says davidson but for this propensity to be expressed it requires. Nurturing. Perhaps that's part of our purpose as a congregation. Along with the co along with the coffee counter light supremacy the challenged cultural economic and environmental injustice is to partner with co-conspirators in transforming our community maybe we also exist. To cultivate. The call for what is already in each other. The propensity. Every kind. Aspiring to greater kindness is a good example. Mike versus practices kindness requires. Intention. And attention. Each moment that might enable us to override lesser impulses like selfishness for fear or else i'm just oblivious. The read the new show lamorris aspiring to kindness might be a good example of a spiritual practice precisely.. Are the true dwelling of the whole. Kindness as is femoral bleeding temples. Holding and embodying the holy for justin. That's what jack kerouac wrote in a long-ago letter practice practice kindness all day to everyone and you will realize you're already in heaven now. Kindness is a spiritual practice invites us to reverse logo fetus challenge. Rather than attending to our reliance on the kindness of others. We could try going through our days imagining that all of those who we will encounter. Those we know well and love most deeply. And those we will meet simply as fellow student drivers shoppers travelers worshippers. Are all relying on us. Topeka. Another recent trip a long drive on a difficult day marked by loss and grief. I distracted myself by listening for hours to the proceedings of the house committee. Considering impeachment. I found the mean-spirited utterly predictable bias on both timers. That's an independent wheel to the left of the political status quo. Little identity with either side. Neither of which seemed interested in probing the concerns that played me most. I would love for example that you're just one of them ask not about the timing of millions of dollars of military age of your premiums but why we continue to serve as arms dealers today's world. All else aside it was a reminder. The kindness has gone missing from the political arena. Causing too many of us to mistake that dysfunction as the defining reality in our society. So. It was. Utterly. To retrieve the very next night. To the warm embrace of tom. In his role as mister rogers in a beautiful day in the neighborhood. It makes me. Want. Qatar. Anthony lane new yorker review especially his insightful observation in addition to being the composer and the puppeteer on his own show mister rogers was a presbyterian minister. Begins to resemble a secular ruben. As if we were in a vestry. Rather than in a television studio. The pauses he continues the pause has two or more liturgical been polite. Mister rogers can't see his commissioners. But he knows they're out there. And he went. Ford dealer. Response. It is we might say. A children's television show. Turned into. A true. I'm not naive. I am not naive. I don't imagine that kindness alone will convince russian. And ukrainian to be the sort of neighbors that mr. rogers. I don't think kindness alone will keep political leaders from trading on their influence for personal gain. I'm not suggesting that kindness alone will enable planes to land on time or president. Suddenlink to discover integrity. Today i'm simply proposing that we not accept the prevalent story. Different. Must mean. Divisive. I'm heckling a newest scientist playing that we're all predisposed to kindness. Inviting you to stop and noticed how remarkably kind we so often are. I'm considering that ira calling. May include cultivating a community of greater chinese. I'm pointing to a glass that is already more than halfway. Despite the ways i. Imbue. Sometimes resort tubing. Today. The final say is for the reverend. Fred rogers. When i was a boy and i would see scary things in the news my mother would say to me look. For the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. To this day rogers reflected especially in times of disaster i remember my mother's were. And i'm always confused. By realize. That there are still so many helpers. So many. Caring. People. Amber alert.

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1.6.19_how_to_let_go.mp3

When my child ethan. Was about 6 months old. It occurred to me for the first time. If he does not belong to me in the way i thought he would. I had thought i would know intuitively. But i would decide what soothes my child best and help him sleep. But ethan knew better than i. He hated being swaddled and he wanted to sleep with his arms free and often above his head. I had thought i would be able to choose what interested him. What made him laugh. But ethan ignored the fairly pricey sensory play mat i bought on etsy and fell in love with a spatula instead when i make funny faces he usually looks on blankly. But the other night when i was reading the cat in the hat out loud without much feeling or inflection by the way he randomly started swatting at my face and giggling. And then. Last month. He fell and cut his lip on a new tooth and i was startled by the sight of blood in his mouth. It hit me that i could provide ice for the swelling and hold him while he cried. But his body beyond my control. Would have to do. The healing. My child does not belong to me in the way i thought he would. If i understand correctly the course we are speeding along. He will only become more and more separate from me. More and more. His own. If i understand correctly. In the end ultimate goal is for ethan tonight. Need me. To decide to make of his life something different than i ever have dreamed up for him. To have experiences i never know about. The ultimate goal is that he will walk further and further away from what i can control further from my attempts to protect him as he makes his own way. And meanwhile one-day-at-a-time for always i have to keep trying to figure out how to let go while holding tight. Some days i do let go of my frantic desire to never leave this moment in ethan's life. I let go of the habitual effort of wishing time would slow down. On those days when i can let go. Those are the days i pulled him closest to me and find myself holding tight to a very present joy. Knowing in a fleeting way that when it comes to the transient things. If we hold too tight they only slip through our fingers faster. If we let go all the way. We'll never know that very present. Joy. The week. After my dad died. My mom sister and i. Found a loaf of bread that he had baked and put in the freezer. For later. We debated for a while what to do. On the one hand we didn't want to ever eat. That loaf of bread. We could picture where dad was standing in the kitchen when he measured and mixed the ingredients together. We had the recipe but this was the last loaf of bread in existence that dad had touched with his own hands. It would be the last time that he would feed us. On the other hand. The flavor of that loaf of bread. Would only fade the longer it's stayed in the freezer. Should we not enjoy it while we could. In the end we pulled that last precious loaf out of the freezer. And we let it sit for hours until it reached room temperature. And then we posted it and tried it with and without butter. Savoring the balance of barley cornmeal and oats that he'd perfected over trial and error. Grief to is a mixture of holding on and letting go. If i hold on too tightly to my dad's absence. As if his absence is all there is. And all i can feel is that he's gone. And then there's little room to see the ways that he still shapes my life. To feel the way he goes with me. I'd like to learn how to better hold onto what he left behind even as his physical presence slips further from my grass into the past. Some days i hold tightly to the bitterness of knowing i will never hold my dad's hand again. Some days i loosen my grip on his absence. And pull my warmest memories of him close. I'd like to learn how to move forward without leaving him behind. I'd like to learn as louise erdrich says. How does simultaneously cherish the closeness and intricacy of the bond. But at the same time letting out the raveling strain. There is a door we can move through between last year and this year. There are endings and beginnings in life. From one experience to another from one way station to the next we must each decide what we will take. With us. And what we will sit down and leave behind. What will make the journey sweeter. What regret or fear is so heavy that it takes all of our energy to carry. The new year can hold a sense of new beginnings. Clearing the cobwebs trading in are unhealthy habits for routines. That will energize in improve us. And of course we find again. That there is no tidy conclusion to the story of our 2018. No way to cleanly cut away all that left us feeling stuck. And frustrated. There's no leaving behind forever all the experiences that brought us to now. The relationships that give our lives definition do not always begin from scratch. But continue. And deepen. Familiar joy's mingle with new delights. And the hurt in our past is still tender regret is still sharp. We must. Keep learning how to let out the raveling string. The red yarn that ties our hearts one to another. Allowing enough room for our separate journeys to continue along their twists and turns. We must let out the raveling string while somehow pulling what and who we love clothes and holding tight with even more stubbornness and grits even more tenacity. It isn't every day that we pause. To take an accounting of what we wish to carry with us and what we wish. Colette. Go. What will you hold onto more tightly. This year. Who will you pull a little closer. What wait what burden will you try again. To release. What must you leave behind though it pains you. What will make your journey through this new year. More sweet. We're going to sit now longer than usual with silence. So we can hold these questions together. And prepare our hearts for the days ahead.

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5.20.18_born_of_the_same_atoms.mp3

There's a little winding texas hill country highway that makes its way north toward canyon lake. Out of the historic town of boone. Pronounce. Green in the lone star state. Two-lane blacktop cuts to craggy limestone hills. Beef in soil layer rugged with rocks. Boulders. Yucca. Various cacti. Juniper and especially after spring rains. Outcroppings of wildflowers. What occasional weekend getaways i'd accompany a man i love. West out of the frenetic urban sprawl of houston. Two spacious canyonside home just off that winding road. With a broad expanse of windows and a wide deck. Overlooking a deep ravine. After david started with a long run across the canyon lake dam and continued with tricks in and around various little hill country towns and their environs with return preparer and eats punctious plates of pasta. Then retreat to lowe's sloan. Canvas deck chairs. The w the surrounding hills shimmer. Golden hour just before dusk. Is the last of the light wing. The wide wide texas sky with darken. And removed entirely from all polluting light with lean back and gaze up silently into a celestial spectre. The light breeze. Stirring up out of the ravine. It's hush. Susurration a backdrop for other night noises. The pitch blackness obscuring all obstruction. Alongside someone so dear to me. I recall on more than one occasion a feeling of utter light-headed boundlessness. The two of us. The creatures stirring in the underbrush the scrubby plants and pungent prickly juniper. The rocks and hills. The breeze the best dome overhead pin hold by countless shimmering twinkling lights. It felt as if it was all as if we were all. One immense entwine. Animated. Whole. In a december 51927 letter to his friend sigmund freud. French writer and art historian romain rolland. Tried to put such an experience into words. He described it as a spontaneous religious feeling or more exactly religious. Sensation. It was roll-on said. Quite independent of all dogma of all cradle of every church organization of every holy book of all hope interpersonal survival. Unfiltered unadulterated by the sectarian concerns such as experiences offer he said the simple and direct fat. Of the sensation. Of the eternal. It was in this missive. Drum roll on. The freud. Metro lawn first coined a term freud would adopt and then adapt. Times of boundless this offer he wrote an oceanic. Feeling. Oceanic. And that's the way he we here will often sing the wide universe. Is the ocean i travel. 1. Bass. Unified expanse. Inspiring all. And wonder. Contemporary australian environmental philosopher glenn albrecht. Has coined another term for that same sensation. Combining the ruthie you meaning good. With one of the words for earth cara. Albrecht writes and speaks about you. Tiaria. Hinting at something not unlike your foria. Ut area refers to he says. A positive feeling of oneness. With the earth. And it's life forces. What i was feeling out on that texas hill country deck at night. What you might have felt listening to the oceans rushing and retreating roar. Are gazing out at an undulating range of blue ridge's receding into the distance. What's on my nails might sense. Identifying a particular bird by its call. Or simply breathing in the intoxicating the sweet scent of a milky white gardenias on a sultry southern summer evening. What all of these experiences face sensations can offer is. Dangmattsmith. A spontaneous religious sensation and oceanic feeling. Ut area. Our religious forbear ralph waldo emerson had another word for it. We see the world peace. By piece. Bi-rite. As the sun the moon the animal the tree. But the whole. Each of these are shining parts. Is the soul. We live in succession in divisions and parts and particles and it's emerson meanwhile within us. Is the soul of the whole. Soles. Person uses that word so he's not referring to some separate part of us. We're in reside some spiritual impulse. Given his agnosticism about the afterlife not thinking about some cereal eternal part of us a dream that comes true in an unseen paradisiacal round after we shuffle off this mortal coil. We don't have. A. So. Weather along with the rights every part and particle we are. So. We are everything is animated by soul. The wise silence the universal beauty the eternal one. Importantly. Actually it's bencheley. He writes that such experiences to. And immensity. Not possess. And. Nick cannot be possessed. Such a notion is at best an aberration and perhaps even an offense in our society as it is concurrently ordered. We can hardly even conceive of an overarching worldview that is more attentive to the hole than it is to the parts. The place is higher value on the collective. Been on the right of individuals. To do say believe by invest in what each wants. Not possessed. It cannot be possessed. Mount if you're trying to scrape together save a couple of billion dollars to buy yourself a sports team. You need to show something on the ledger sheet. Big can be possessed. How much do you. Have. What is your nip. Where. And for us mere funders of such fortunate one. This scale is quite different. One of the way of thinking. Remarkably similar. It's the conceit. Of individualism. Imagining oneself as separate able to act. To decide to a choir to possess. For one's self. The conceit born of a western european mindset suckled on capitalism glorious promises. Said unto many lone ranger stories. It reduces the majesty of boundless. We all inspiring sensation of the oceanic. The wonder of you tiara. The majesty of soul. Down. Mtume. 2 mi. To mine. My perspective. Valuables simply because i say so. My actions. About which you should not care. My privilege to acting independent. Isolation. And if there is such a thing a defining thing as me and mine then there's also the reality of us and them of hours. And beers. Our. City. Onto which we can impose our own oxymoronic definition of diversity. And where are they. Least not so many of them. Shouldn't be in leadership. Through which we can run a risky pipeline in which we can foreclose on renewable energy off whose shores we can engage in risky drilling also that our corporate friends. Will continue to monopolize profit. Darkness of hell that might impact. Or their habitat. Or their well-being. Country. We're in all the right people speak. English. And wear some of them. Would dare to come without papers proving them to be what we've suspected them to be. Animals. Our land. Given to us by our god in our holy book. In our borders. A consummate our snipers. Can shoot deer kids with impunity. In the name of making us. Cipher. And more secure. Such a view of things is challenged by those experiences those sensations those awarenesses of boundless. The oceana ut area. When we slow down. When we pause to notice. When we stepped away from the frenetic when we enter into the depths of life we're reminded of something far more momentous. And fart ruler than me in mind and us and ours. It is there that we are given the gift of experiencing again as wordsworth put in a sense sublime of something far more deeply interesting. Darrell barrett sr warns but it's when you don't care about the world that you begin owning. And destroying. When we lose sight lose focus lose perspective then we begin thinking and parts and in particles. In terms of what is mine. Clint smith admits his own need on those days when the world feels like it has poured all its despair unto me. He seeks out someplace. To watch the sunset. Someplace where he can dig his feet into the soil and listen to something as simple as the sound of leaves. Bear and such settings it comes back to him. A reminder that we are born of the same atoms as every plant and bird and mountain and ocean around us. Born of the same atoms. Is another way of saying that we share together in one. Know this part we know. At least at some level. We have known. And we have in varying ways and with varying degrees of regularity we actually attempted to. Prettiest. We've understood how attention to the natural world can bring us back to a healthier and more holistic perspective. One less interested in grasping and grabbing. And more gratefully aware of the grace that underlies it all. What are concern for environmental. Justice. Is challenging us to think in an even more boundless way. Do open nature has served as the escape for the privileged. Give directed their environmental concerns primarily to the preservation of wild places. The call with environmental justice is not. Is not to set that aside is nothing no longer appreciated care for those places of respite and restoration. The summons of environmental justice is to understand that all of us truly all of us. Are born of the same atom. We share in the same amount so we swim in the same oceanic experience. The only one there is. We are learning here. Slowly. To direct our concerns not just to the preservation of the pretty places on the planet. But also to those who suffer unduly the plight of our collective environmental abuse. Those who cannot see a starlit sky through the belching haze of industrial discharge. Those who do not hear the soothing sound of water but rather the rank rush up without rivers. Those who do not smell the sweet scent of blooms and blossoms but who endure the stench of nearby factory farms. Ucb2 are born of the same atoms. Is every plant in burden mountain an ocean around us they are us. And we are them. The same life. The same life that runs through your veins and through my veins night and dave runs through the world and. Tuesday. The message is still in the boundless. Still in the oceanic. Beauty area the size of the holes if we will listen. Ever more carefully. If we will look. Evermore attentively if we will open ourselves ever more expensive. We will come to understand ever more deeply. I roll in honoring it all. Bus. Pursettes x reminder. So we may see in parts. And in particles. The whole. Is in the cell. Mandisa. Made pizza.

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20190127-service.mp3?_=1

Why water when we light a flaming chalice every sunday. We should begin our service this morning asking that question and she told us the theme of the sabbatical time was water. But why why water. The answer lies somewhat paradoxically in a question. About a year ago i traveled with two of our board members down to indianapolis to go to the orientation session for those interested in applying for the lilly clergy renewal grant. And the question they asked us over and over during the orientation session that question they told us the grant application should answer is. What makes your heart sing. What a fabulous question. And i did not have an answer. So i decided to ask him folks for help which is always a good thing to do until the first person i want to talk to you with my lovely wife elizabeth. And i asked her what she thought made my heart sing based on her experience. And her response was. Don't need clearly. Just russia does make my heart sing. She also suggested that our kids make my heart sing which is also true my family does make my heart sing. And the lily folks told us at the orientation that we should bring with us whomever we need to make the sabbatical experience meaningful so check bring my family i had already been planning on doing that. But that didn't help me with the grant team. So i wouldn't talk to my friends and extended family and i talked with the sabbatical grant committee members here at church. And what kept. Forgive the pun floating to the surface. Was water. As i thought about it. I've had just so many wonderful experiences with water i love swimming whatever that is with that that's all there is in lakes and rivers and the ocean is so wonderful water is really just that was that was my answer to the question it wasn't what i thought it was going to be unsure what it was but it was water. And water as a team also match nicely with her life here at church we open every year with a water ceremony will be commingled water from our summer experiences and then save that water and boil it to make sure it's safe. And then use it in rituals like a child dedication. We've also given to water-related justice projects last year and then again just this month are dedicated offering went to water is basic. So water it was. Which led to this opening statement in a sabbatical grant application. In the summer of 2010 i was riding a ferry across a swath of the atlantic ocean when something entirely unexpected occurs. As i stood alone by the railing looking out over the water. Smelling the bride of the sea. Hearing the waves lap against the side of the boat. I felt a joyful connection growing within. Reaching out into the ocean in the world around me. All my fear anxiety and stress even conscious.. I was just. Standing. I was unaware that i had lost my sense of self for a time until someone walked behind me and brushed my shoulder. That momentary human contact resulted in my observing. Perceived as a from afar. That i had raised my arms and hands up into the universal position of receive. I remained in the moment. Hands raised. Connected with the love and goodness in myself. In everything. Until the ferry reached. Proximity to water i concluded has long been a source of spiritual connection and renewal. My experience of transcendent connection on the ferry. Was a gift and blessing. Which i am profoundly. We noted in the grant proposal that water has long been a valued in the world's religions for purifying for cleansing and anointing. Your baptism experiencing sacred rivers healing reigns and more. We lifted up that my experience on the ferry represented our hope for the grant if we were to receive it. That minister and congregation anointed with the healing powers of water could engage in practices that invited us back into our best selves and renew our sense of deep and meaningful connection. After all the hard work be done together as a church the past few years we also suggested that. Much as immersion in a hot spring gently renews and restores the body. Our collective spirit says church in ministry. I need a gentle renewal and restoration. Stop folks living on the west coast and in the southwest. Brother currently water shortages. They do not take water for granted. But here and other places in our country we weren't where we are blessed with an abundance of water. We do sometimes take it to her. I count myself among those who enjoy a nice long hot shower. I don't get to do it very often these days with three children under the age of five. But when i have time i do enjoy lingering in the shower. Just. Soaking up the hot water. When i went with our youth on our mission trip to tucson arizona last spring though we were greeted with a little bit different shower experience. There are signs in the bathroom notifying us of the water water shortage. And that the signs asked us to turn off the water while we were soaping. Only we were only supposed to have that water on 33 at the beginning to get wet and then at the end to rinse. And even then for the shortest amount of time possible. This is only a few days no hardship right but. Very different than what our experiences here. Which is too bad because i'm not alone in believing there is something incredibly restoring. Set relaxing in immersing in water. Swimming is restorative for many especially on a hot summer day. A hot bath is seen by many as a luxury time to just soak. Relax and de-stress. Hot tubs are luxury items in luxury experiences for a reason. Water cleanses our bodies and i can also help us cleanse ourselves. Even showers can cleanse just more than your physical body. As noted the world's religions have picked up on the healing properties of water indeed english poet philip larkin rights. If i were called in to construct a religion i should make use of water. Going to church would entail affording to dry different clothes. My liturgy would employ images of something that's serious about wrench and i should raise in the east the glass of water or any angled light. With congregate. I am with marking. If i were going to construct a religion from scratch water would be everywhere. I want maybe not everywhere but lots of play. Daughter is so incredibly powerful. No matter what extremes you apply to it it just the tax apply heat and evaporates or turns to steam by cold to turn to ice always remains and is able to return. Give it time and even stone is no obstacle. Has the sheridan verse 78 in the daodejing that was in sacred text. Nothing in the world was that soft and yielding as water. Get for dissolving the hard and inflexible nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard. But gentle overcomes the ridge. Everyone knows this is true but few can put it into practice. Therefore the master remains serene in the midst of sorrow. Evil cannot enter her heart. Because she has given up helping. She is people. Greatest. What is a fun paradox in there to play with. Water has both soft and power. Water created the grand canyon. And there's so much more water makes up over 80% of our bodies. We need it to survive. Water is literally what we grow up what we grow in in the womb as tiny humans. Water is where we live before we enter the outside world. There are whole ecosystems that exist in bodies of water that exist in lakes and oceans. There is a reason that many of the early peoples of the world and worshipped the elements. Are water wind & fire. Water is cleansing. Water is powerful. Water is life. Water is also perhaps someone ironically grounding. Again from the daodejing this time verse. The supreme good is like water. Which nourishes all things. Without trying to. It is content with the low places that people disdain. This is like the dow. Dwelling live close to the ground. In sinking keep the simple and conflict be fair and generous and governing don't try to control and work. Do what you enjoy. In family life. Be completely present. When you are content to simply be yourself and don't compare or compete. Everybody. It is this resting this is doing without doing this being yourself. That is my hope. For all of us. For this time of spider. Water pours down from the sky at flows and rivers at gently falls as snow. And yet it can also sit. And simply rest. We've sabbatical grant committee and i we also wrote this in the grant proposal. Just like the spring rains signal the return of light in the beginning of a new season. So to do we hope that a grounding and reconnecting with our best salad. Will help us congregation in ministry. Move forward together into a new vibrant season. Of our shared minutes. Aurora realize that most of you all aren't actually going to be taking time away over the next four months to stop working and stopped a lot of active parts of your life. The importance of this grounding work remains true. We all need time especially in our culture which teaches us that we need to be busy and doing and that life that we are we are having earned praise and accolades and like when we've accomplished something. Especially in this busy culture are. We all need time to slow down the stop pouring falling and flowing. Methodist settlement in md. That's fine. And reconnect. Ourselves. The best parts of our. Water can also offer different ways of seeing. Hazard image for today shows. Water can refract light and offer a different way to see the same things we've always seen. That flower which is blurred in the background can be seen in just the drop. As our church enters this sabbatical.. This is my hope for all of us. That we find the place to settle to ground to reconnect with ourselves. And then from that place of rest and renewal. See the world with maybe just a little bit of a different lan. Can opener sound. Canoe. The sabbatical. will offer me times to simply renew and restore as well as times. To look at new. Similarly you. Members of the congregation the congregation as a whole will engage in sabbatical activities that offer opportunities to. As well as to consider the new. May we. Separate and physical space during this time and get sharing a similar journey. Maybe find we need. So that we can come together again in june and move forward together. In a new vibrant season. Ivar shared minutes. Even as we move in this culture that values busyness and accomplished my. Maybe you over the next few months. Be reminded of the importance of stillness. Acetylene. Off rest. And mother may beat moments of swimming and waterskiing involved. The hope is to lean more towards that long warm luxurious bath. May you find the rest and renewal you need in your life. So that you make connect and reconnect with yourself. And all that is good in your life. And from that place to rest and renewal. May you and maybe you be open to the new possibility.

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20140517-oi07-presentation.mp3

Seth. In your statement on ministry you began by saying. Loving relationship is the bedrock for everything we do in ministry. We must begin by accepting and loving ourselves and then each other. And in the wider world. The members and friends of this church gathering each week in this beautiful setting in the woods. We come with a need to nurture ourselves and our families. And then we learn to nurture each other in this community. We bring our greatest joys in our deepest sorrows. With us and everything in between. We hope to find that spirit of life with roots that holds clothes and wings that set us free. We want to grow and become more whole. And we strive to keep our chalice flame burning brightly as we work to heal our world. These thoughts were with us as we designed and made this gift for you. Is about you and about us. We're excited to move forward in our journey as individuals and as a congregation with you as our minister. Thank you for allowing us the owner of or didn't you.

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2020-07-26.mp3?_=6

So. What comes next. Along with many other functions that plays in our lives. Religion helps us to answer the big questions of life's meaning and purpose. Death and how we relate to it. Ashley too. Death and the deaths of loved ones. Is certainly one of those big question. The old humankind's religions spiritualities and philosophical systems have address. As health science. And the. System that. Jeffrey lockwood. Reciting for himself in the reading. Is there a lot of those. The covid-19 pandemic that has ravaged the world with no clear end in sight. Has led many people. Nike specs on the bus. To revisit question of our own mortality and that of our loved ones. Even if we ourselves have escaped. Even if no one close to us has been stricken. Just the magnitude of the death toll around the world and. Here is emotionally shattering. Watching the curb rise higher and higher in our own country leases on the brink of despair. We are psychologists tell us experienced experiencing. . collective grieving. Along with fear anger and host of other emotions. I found one thing contemplate our own death and the abstract. Another. Totally different thing. I have to be face-to-face with it. Because because i served as a hospital chaplain. I've been present for many deaths over the years. I've lost a husband to cancer. And i'm at that age that relatives and friends die isn't. Necessarily a rare occurrence. It's. Vastly different i discovered one morning. Ron afternoon when i was lying on a gurney in the hospital emergency room with an allergic reaction. My heart and blood pressure doing odd things and during i was very much for sheena.. Sitting on my chest with just. Please leave. Very different situation. Not all religious considerations of death will speak to us. Cuz someday we was wondering how on earth human beings could even. Think that way. I believe we can learn from them. If not if not agree with them not that we embrace them not that we appropriate them certainly. But we can learn from all of them that's the spirit in which i offer this reflection. It's also true that. What we see depends on how we look. One way of interpreting religious and spiritual beliefs about death. And what comes after. Is to look at them as a chance to demonstrate that the significance of human life is such. That it simply does not. With the death of the physical body. In other words views about life after death. Arnesen's views about life before death and its meaning and purpose. So that's the that's the overview of where we're going. I'm calling these snapshots. Because no one sermon can even begin to cover the views of anyone tradition let alone several. Furthermore none of our traditions is monolithic. We use are especially aware of. What's that officially isn't necessarily what ordinary people believe or do. And. We'll touch on only a few. There's way more out there than we can do. Start with hinduism. In the western world. We usually imagine time moving in a more or less linear way from beginning to end from a start to a stop. Linearly. Even though we know that that line can be. Pretty white but nonetheless. A linear thing. Well. Not all the world experiences with that way. Or hindus as well as many others in the eastern world. Time moves in cycles. Cycles so vast that we can barely can see them. Within these cycles. Our own going on our own life is an ongoing cycle. Each of us is born and dies repeatedly. Many lifetimes. Until eventually we've gained all we can for earthly life. In some people's use paid our karmic debts. And are released. The hindu view that i understand best. Is that whatever point that happened. We merge. With the divine. Which would never really left anyhow. Some hindu certainly also. Believe in a more personal view which emphasizes communion with the divine. More than merging. Weather. Either case. Unlike some religions. Betsy. Human life is separated from the divine. Final release of moksha begins range reunions with the divinity. The divine what is. That we are and always have been. That resonates for me. It resonates with some interpretations where are you you faith as well. Remember back to when we have done our memorial candle. Service. Extinguish the taper candle that is lit at the beginning of our memorial candle ritual to recognize the death and his heard among us. Within lida votive candle. That reminds us of all that endures beyond death. Through the weather big. Allen community. From italy. That weather being holds us always. Birth. To death. And beyond. Is another way of understanding the sacred all that is always well hell.. It always will. Like hindus buddhist. Especially american and european ones. Call the wide variety of views about death. And some of them are quite different from those of their asian counterparts. Asian buddha some cells have a. Lot of varying ideas as well. That haven't been sent. Focus briefly on a reflection on death from vietnamese buddhist monk poet social activist tick not han. Who is well known and appreciated in the west and who has. Taught me i think a good deal. Is lyrical meditation as one that i personally find comforting. Need to reflect some of our uu beliefs. Because. When we look at the ocean. We see that each way. Has a beginning and an end. Wave can be compared to other words. And we can call it more less beautiful. Higher or lower. Longer-lasting or less long lasting. If we look more deeply. We see that a wave is made of water. While living the life of a wave. The wave also lives the life of water. It would be sad if the wave did not know that it is water. Because it would think. Someday i will have to die. This. of time as mike mylifespan when i arrive at the shore. I will return to non-being. This way these notions will cause the wayfair and anguish. Wave can be recognized by son. Beginning ending hi-lo. Beautiful not so beautiful. In the world of the way. The world of relative. The weight feels happy as she swells and she feels sad if she fall. She may think. I have higher i am low. And develop superiority or inferiority complex. What in the world water. There are no signs. And when the wave touches her true nature. Which is water. Oliver complexes will see. And she will transcend burr. We are the waves. We come from the vastness of the water. And we return to that same vastness which we never really left. Enlightenment says thick not hahn. Consists and deeply realizing this. Elsewhere he writes. Enlightenment. For a wave in the ocean. Is the moment the wave realizes. It is water. When we realize we are not separate but a part of the huge ocean of everything. We become enlightened. We realize this through practice and we remain awake. And where of it. For more practice. This thread of unity or merger of oneness with the vast web of being that is also the sacred. Characterizes many hindu and buddhist views all those i noted there are many others as well. Here one aspect of the significance of human life is that it is part of the divine life. 1. With everything that is. Situation is most often described differently in the monotheistic religion. Traditional jews do a spousal believe in an eternal afterlife although typically they refrain from describing it in any great detail. Although it's clearly related to life on this earth. There's not a direct link. Between how we live our lives and what comes next at least as i understand. It's not spelled out in detail except in the orthodox and hasidic traditions. For majority of jews this modern-day paraphrase of micah 6:8. Thumbs up nicely what god wants from people i'm reading from. Eugene peterson. The message paraphrase. Heart symbol. Do what is fair and just so your neighbor. Be compassionate and loyal in your love. Take yourself too seriously. Take god seriously. Rabbi coretan house on dl of a conservative jewish peninsula sinai congregation in california. Rabbi helfand focuses on the importance of ritual in the jewish understanding of death. And the role that ritual plays and helping survival survivors. Navigate morning. Again on this life. In jewish tradition. There's a strong belief in the idea that people have a soul. Coding robot health center. The song lives forever. And the body is on borrowed time. And we give it back to god. According to the text we give our bodies back to the earth and to god that's why we bury our dead. As for what happens to the soul there's a hope that there is something else. Something beyond. A lot of it has to do with memory. You live on. In the form of the memories. People. My survival. Moving away from from rabbi health and quote for a moment here there's a wonderful to her saying i don't know the source of that i like very much. No one is ever really dead. As long as there are people alive. Who can tell. Their stories. Back to the rabbi now. What a person dies. People tend to go into overdrive with regard to logistics calling people writing obituaries. What are the things we do after a person passes away is that we have people ripped clothing. It stems from the bible. People with brand their garments to symbolize someone being torn away from them. Sound occurring something route is often very emotionally-charged. And then there's this other symbol and i i had not heard this interpretation before. Even if you were to rip clothing and have it mended. Garment never goes back together. The way it once was. There's a scar. There's always that reminder. 7 days after a person dies is sugar that's the hebrew word for seven. You refrain from shaving and doing pleasurable things you sit low to the ground and people come and share stories and food with you. It's so positive for people to be taken care of. Creating a space for people to really feel what they feel. Then it's a shame the hebrew word for 30. The 30-day. Poor people are gradually easing up on the observances of shiva but still refraining pleasurable thing. All the rites and rituals and judaism i say the jewish traditions around morning and death are spot-on. In terms of mirroring what people are feeling. After loved one dies. I want to begin. Brief comment on christianity and islam. A crucial difference between hinduism and buddhism on the one hand and christianity and islam on the other. This is not absolute. And different people take it differently but in general. While the boundary between the sacred and the human and human being is to a greater or less permeable in hinduism and buddhism. It's a mushroom a lion. For those who locate the divine as do christians and. Muslims in the being of one personal god. The basic narrative goes like this. God creates human beings for relationship with god. People become separated with god separated from god. Because of stan and reunited with god to the mercy and grace of god. But the distinction remain. Acceptance of the mystical traditions christian mysticism sufism. In a swamp. It comes about as a result of some combination of god's gracious mercy and one having lived a good life. Life is such. Continues. For some. Believe in jesus saving work is paramount. Couple statements illustrate the very wide variation that we encounter among christians. I wasn't able to track down a source for this first one but it's a very explicit statement of. One perspective that remains alive and very functional for a lot of christians. I'm quoting the source whatever that source may be. As a christian you believe that jesus christ was nailed to a cross and paid for your sins. As a result your washing his sacrificial blood and made sure. So that your death you can stand before god and the judgment be declared to her. When jesus returns will rise with him and after the final battle with sin and satan. You will live forever in heaven with god. Death to a true christian. Is. A joyous reunions for what is released from the pan suffering of this life. And we'll go to meet family and friends in the next life to live in a new body that feels no pain. Or suffering. Just pure joy. And the that version of a reunions with family and friends i have seen. How much it can sustain somebody. Who is dying and their families. Different angle. I turned one of our own forebears hosea ballou the universalist christian who was originally a baptist. Who eventually became a leader of the unitarian universalist movement. Ballou was absolutely adamant little loving and gracious god would not condemn anyone. Eternal punishment in hell. More recent statement by the way of this. Perspective is gulley's book if grace be true. Goalie crouch's his discussion in fairbury traditional christian language but none the less makes the point that. If you take the nature of god seriously then. If grace be true. Salvation is universal. According to ballard to those salvation if true is true for all person. It was also quite explicit though about the pragmatic consequences of belief in an angry condemning god on the lives of those who held such beliefs i had not come across this. Reference. What time before. Coding ballou it is well-known and will be acknowledged by every candid person that the human heart is capable of becoming soft or hard. Condor unkind. Merciful run verse. By education and habit. On this principle we contend that the. Infernal torments which false religion has placed in the future world. And which minister say i was overflowing seal so constantly held up to people. Urge with all their learning and elephants. In the hearts of those who profess this religion that they have exercise. Spirit of enmity. Which but too well corresponds with their relentless cruelty of their doctor. The wrath which they have imagined to exist in our heavenly father. Having such an example constantly before their eyes. They have become so entranced formed into an image. That's whenever they have had the power they've actually executed a vengeance on men and women. Which events that the cruelty of their doctrine that overcome the native kindness and compassion. Of the human heart. That's from valerie's an examination of the doctrine future retribution. Definitely. Gives me pause waze to. Think about. Views. For muslims. The song brings in another piece of it. This comes from muslim student. Publication. Surely god is just. You will punish the tyrants his account. Because man has a very short life span in this world and because numerous individuals are affected by one's actions. Add punishments and rewards are not possible. In this life. Granbury emphatically states the day of judgement must come and that god will decide the fate of each soul. According to his or her record of deeds. So that. Necessary justice cannot be carried out. And just one lifetime. As in christianity. Muslim views of death. Begin with the premise that the eternal human soul is god-given. And that after physical death. There is a vengeful resurrection. And the day of judgement this comes from the islamic research foundation. Between death and that time for the person lived. For the simple dad the time before that final day is constricted uncomfortable difficult. For the pious and faithful deceased it is expensive. Comfortable and easy. Persons eternal fate either paradise or hell is determined at the final judgment when humanity will be sorted and god will determine their ultimate destiny. At that time those two good days are heavy on the scales will have a pleasant life. Set the one who's good deeds are light. Will have the bottomless pit. Or his home according to the quran. Afterdeath cording to the tradition to angels come question the deceased regarding her fate. Depending upon her responses shoe experience. Comfort or suffering in a measure correlating to her since then. Whether this time produce or expiate stands before the last days matter of debate. However there are strong tradition but even after death. Prayers on behalf of the dead may affect their circumstances. There are many statements from the prophet muhammad recommending prayers for the dead and the alleviation of their. Directions. It is not uncommon for muslims to pray on behalf of their deceased loved ones. The visit their graves and even to perform hajj for the benefit of another. These practices help establish and maintain connection. With the department. Ideally a muslim will die either uttering the shahada. Testimony of faith there is no god but god and muhammad is the prophet of god. Either during the shahada herself or hearing the shahada and loved ones gathered around her. I think it's a lovely tradition it is the shahada that welcomes muslim newborns into the world. Adidas the same shahara. Mark sir transition into the life beyond. Afterdeath the physical body is washed by a near relation wrapped in a shroud and quickly buried ideally directly into the ground and ideally the next day. If the deceased was able to fulfill the hajj pilgrimage than the clothes worn during sacred drink will be used as a burial shroud. A 40-day morning. is usually observed after which normal activities resume. In conclusion. Humankind's. Religious and spiritual tradition. How to. Observe them make me hang out of life. In light of the inevitability of death. They help. Those left behind the mourners. Navigate. That extremely difficult time. In that sense beliefs after death and the practices that surround death and dying are about life. The meaning of this life in this world and what it means for the survivors of a person who has died. Each one of us will come to our own understanding in our own way. Countless others. Have walked that path before us. And can help. Guide our way. For that. Least i am thankful.

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20150719-service.mp3

Once upon a time. Long long ago and. In a land. Far far away or perhaps as close as our own hearts. For travelers from different lands met up near a mountain. These travellers had been told that. If they climb the mountain. But fine. the top. Around the bottom of the mountain there are many paths to choose from. And the travelers had been told beforehand which of the past to take. They also been told that only that one pass. Would bring them to god. First traveller said. I'm trying to find god. I have been told that all of these pass. I've all of these past the right past to take is that one over there. It is the one true path to god. And i've been told that if i follow it. At the top of the mountain. I will find god. No god expects us all to follow that path. And when we do. We will be rewarded god is pleased. With those who choose to follow the path of righteousness that leads to eternal life with god. As travelers snorted that's interesting. I've been told that the right path to take is that steep one over there. And i know if i follow it i will find god. If i don't. Or if i don't stick to it. I won't find god. Pretty simple i mean it's hard to follow but. It's all laid out for us. Even more. God provides leaders to explain to us how to follow it. Where to go how to live what to do. Keep us from. Straying off the path. Third traveler said. It is strange. But we've all been told to follow different paths. Because i have been told that. Yet another path. Is the right way and if i follow it. I will find god and salvation and liberation. It's really quite clear what i've been told and it's a path that has been followed for ages by countless numbers of people. Sure it's strict but what could be more important than following that path correctly. Our leaders tell us to that. It's really important to protect ourselves. Against those who. Would lead us. Astray and lead us off the path. So. Really i'm. Not even certain i should be talking to you. I finally the fourth traveler said you know. They're always different paths up the mountain. And there are even more than the tree you've been talking about. And you're all saying the one you follow is right. You're all certain that when we get to the top of this mountain you'll find god or whatever. How do you know. And these leaders you mention. How do they know. I've heard some pretty strange things about some of them. And. What if there isn't. Any mountain. What if there isn't any mountaintop. What if it's all. Andalusian. Well traveler for surprised. To hear about the other paths because they were sure that the path. They had been told to follow was the only right one. So why would they even. The other path. They wondered how anyone could sink the way the others apparently thought. But even tried to convince the others to follow their chosen path. Saying such things as i'm sure my way is the right one. Remember change your mind come with me. Don't you think it would be best. If you came this way. You'll never find out if you don't come with me. But none would change. So putting each other goodbye they began their journeys to the top of the mountain. Force traveler was at least curious enough to begin to walk with them. Maybe he can to new maybe not. But he was curious enough to at least begin. As i started out each was singing a song of praise to god songs of aspiration and liberation and salvation. They can hear each other songs in the distance. And they thought to themselves. How very strange those other song sound. The swimmer traveling alone though and could not even here. The songs the others were singing. Sometimes following the path was easy. Sometimes it was so it was difficult but. They trudged on. The forest traveler stayed with am intrigued by what they had said and mildly curious. About what was at the top of that mountain anyhow. Finally. Each of the four travelers near the top. They began to hear the other travelers songs again. But now they said to themselves. I didn't realize before how beautiful these songs are. All four came to the top of the mountain within minutes of each other. They stopped. Eagerly looked around. First traveler called out so great mother. I have found you. The second called out all great father of have in heaven. I have found you. The third called-out oh great spirit in all things. I have found you. Fourth even gotten the spirit of the thing and called out. Oh great peaceful silence. I have found you. All of them. Or seeing and calling out to the same god. Or so they thought. Then they realized. They'd all been searching for the same thing. Though each had called it by a different name and eat you taken a different path. And at this they reached out for each other's hands. Form a circle right there on top of the mountain and began to sing again. And now. As each of them saying their songs. It seemed there was only one song. No matter where they started no matter the path they had come. They had arrived at the same place. So. On the one hand. One of our principals calls us. To a free and responsible search for truth. And meaning. But on the other hand our sources. Are many and varied. They include our own direct experience of transcending mystery and wonder. Wisdom. From the world's religions. Clearly teach different things. Jewish and christian teachings which are themselves. Difference. Humanist teachings. Again different and within humanism there are a lot of. Different things under that umbrella and they can vary greatly from each other. Spiritual teachings of the earth centered religions and those are again different. So what are we to make of this. If i have a real conundrum on our hands here. In the story with which we began. Each traveler was convinced of the rightness of their own path. The truth of the path they had been told follow. Steven kaplan describes this in his book different pass different summit. As the one path one summit. Approach. Only one true path. Leads to liberation and enlightenment. Salvation. And there's only one true liberation. One true version of the good the truth right. Yats with are for travelers when they all reached the top of that mountain they discovered they were all gathered at the same mountain top. They came to believe that there are indeed different paths. But the all these pants. However many there are. Lead the same summit. I'd like to introduce you to a fifth traveller. Someone not present at the initial gathering at the foot of the mountain. She too had picked the path. A path that seemed to her to be writin. True and good. I had followed it devotedly. And she too. Found what she saw it. But has she observed her fellow travelers and the destination they had all reached. She noted. Look. We're not really all of us. On the same summit. The different paths we have traveled have lettuce to whole mountain range. The different summits. And they truly are different they don't just seem different they truly are different. Five that we have met. Sturdy wayfarers. Goodnight not saying it's beginning. They all reached for each other's hands across mountains and valleys and. Drawing and song the song flowing and echoing and react going from one mountain peak to another and back again. Building true to a crescendo. It was not one song but a dancing harmony of sound and silence the like of which has never before been heard. It was a song that needed more than one mountain peak. To create it's amazing harmonies. Monster celebration had ended. Everyone stepped back a pace or two from their immediate experience and began to think. To do see ology if you will. And our four original adventurers realize that they were perplexed. As they went back to their day-to-day lives they trying to sort out their perplexity. Too much luck. Call the fifth traveler and suggested that they all meet up for coffee. The questions i wanted to ask the fifth traveller went something like this. How can this work. How can it be that my path is right for me and. Your path is right for you. When clearly they're different. It does seem that we have all found. Truth and meaning that is ultimate for our lives. Yep. How can there be one ultimate more than one ultimate truth. Isn't that just a logical mess. I mean there must be only one truth that can be ultimate. It would seem that none of them could be. If everything is young what they say everything is nothing is. Yeah it's nice version baby all kind of warm and fuzzy and feel good. But hey. I'm nowhere near ready to say. But what i found isn't ultimate it means too much to me and there's too much at stake here. Order coffee in the fist traveler. Heard them described their perplexity. I know she responded. Taking a deep breath. This might be a long discussion. The problem isn't. This is traveler went on the problem isn't that there are multiple options. And that all have the ring of truth for their followers. And the solution so-called. Is not that only one is right. Or that none of them is. Norris a solution that they're all really alike. There's a better way. The real problem comes. When only one way is believed to be right. And true. And liberating. You know her story just last week at my uu church about some animals who were. That's cool because some other animals thought they should be different than they were. Or support doc who some folks thought. Should learn to run. His feet got really sore. Plus you really never got very good at it. Then there was a rabbit. And she was in an even worse fixed because he seemed folks. she must learn to swim. Can you imagine all that wet for. She finally just gave up and curled up into a soggy smell a little wet ball. Office traveler continued. We also can't resolve a conundrum of different truths and competing truth claims by rolling them all into one. We need not and should not say that are different religious and spiritual paths are really the same. Beneath some relatively unimportant cultural differences. Those differences are important to those who live in. Sometimes die by them. They're woven into their lives and they're up there a significant part of the meaning that the trash holds for them. Genuine resolution comes about only. As each of us recognizes and all others the search for liberation salvation. By whatever name. We call it. And when we respect. The genuineness of each other's religious quest experiences. We can come to regard our own experience and the experiences of others as. Very genuine no better no worse than any others but clearly different. We have knowledge that each is indeed ultimate. For those who hold it. The key here is that we are describing witnessing to our own experience. Not stating objective fact. Just traveler paused again gathering her thoughts and. Warn the others okay i'm i'm going to get a little didactic here. But i've learned a lot from vietnamese buddhist monk named took not han who founded a group called the order of interbeing. Members of the order try to uphold 14 guidelines or mindfulness trainings. And the mindfulness trainings are kind of like the principles and that they are guidelines they aren't they're not commandments. The first two of them appear to apply directly to what we're talking about. Do not be idolatrous about. Or bound to any doctrine theory or ideologies even buddhist ones. British systems of thought as are others. Our guiding means. Absolute truths. The second one goes like this do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless. Absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn to practice non-attachment from views. In order to be open. Receive others you points. Truth is found in life. Not merely. In conceptual knowledge. This traveler pause. Looked around the group. Their discussion was far from over. But they had run out of time. They had other things. To attend to. In order that our search for truth and meaning remain truly free. In order to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person. In order to accept one another and encourage spiritual growth for everyone and to help realize the goal of true world community. We can afford to do no less. Sentra spec teach other search for meaning that for their search for meaning that is truthful. And truth that is meaningful. Even as we remain deeply. Committed. To our own. May we always find it. To be so among us.

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20161030-service.mp3

Miss ruth. Call. Stately. Flowing white hair. And she was always dressed impeccably. Or at least that's the way i remember. She was a retired first through second grade teacher in the small all 12 grades in one building school where i graduated high school. I'm not known her as a teacher. My brother and i had moved back to the small town where my mother grew up. After my parents split. And miss ruth had retired long before i be in school there has a. Socially awkward ninth-grader. With. Oramask sunglasses that most resemble the bottom of coke bottles. But miss ruth was to be unbeknownst to her or to me that time a strong influence on. What religion is and what religion means to me. Right up to the day. One of mistruths long-standing commitments was to the choir of the small presbyterian church in the town where i lived. The kids are home with and school like me children of the old farming families who most of whom had arrived there. Generation or sometimes to before. From england scotland and ireland. Attended that little church on the corner. And i did as well. It was what we did. Part of being there. I should note help sorry. It was miss ruth. Who invited me to join the choir. I should note that as a high school student my voice was quite a better shape that it is now so that wasn't.. Outlandish a prospect as it may seem before jim gets up and runs away and terror. I like to sing and i had developed a love for church music especially the old classical hymns presbyterians favored. Deal. I was thrilled. When i look back on it. It was a lot more there's about a lot more than the music and it was really more about other things and it was about the music. Miss ruth had invited me into community. Enter being a part of that church community and of the smaller more closely knit community. That was the choir. To what she was. So committed. That was to be the first. Of a number of things that would shape. How i experienced religion. Right up to this morning. Religion for me continues to be huge. About community. I've experienced that sense of community and every religious group i've ever been involved in. I was an undergraduate at ohio state university that would be the ohio state university. The church i community church i attend to there and especially the campus ecumenical student fellowship. Provided face-to-face contact. And they were a workable side. For a thoroughly lost. Freshman. There were 28 my graduating class in high school. I think the first year i was at ohio state there were forty-eight thousand of us. What you do with that. I was out early out early befuddled. From ohio state. Went to a small methodist seminary just north of columbus ohio. 150-200 students are so at that time it's much bigger now. But we knew every other student even those of us who like myself were computers. Basically new everybody. And we knew our professors as human beings not as the. Demigods that they had appeared at ohio state. From there it was off to graduate school at vanderbilt university and. Couple of a couple of you who have nashville-vanderbilt roots me. Know this church. Presbyterian congregation out on i think it was 21st trinity presbyterian church. It was a large congregation but nevertheless i soon found. My tribe. Among other parents of kids about my daughter's age and who shared my interest in hiking. Camping and potlucks. There was also quite a bit of overlap between the. Vanderbilt religion faculty and. Trinity people. I moved here and i didn't find the. Protestant liberalism that i expected among denominations that i've been associated with. In ohio and at vanderbilt. Based on what i knew from that. Time in history. And what i'd experienced so i was expecting a great deal of social and. Theological liberalism which. I didn't find but i did find this place. Thanks sir. In large measure to some of you will know this name david morris a retired so sociologist. From ball state whose office was up the hall from mine. Well. So i found this place. Later moved. 2. Brother far east of columbus ohio still at ball state. Helped to found the east central indiana mindfulness saga. After that folded i joined the ranks of the unchurched or as we call him and sociology. For many years. Many years. I found my way back here in 2001. When i return to monse. From randolph county. I have found and. I am deeply grateful. For the welcoming community. That i have found in each of these place. Community which for me is as essential as breathing. I have also. On further reflection been both. Inside. And outside. And all of them. Without exception. I've never found the perfect place. I might have been aware of that even as early as high school but i had not had the benefit of our coming-of-age program to get me thinking the illogically. I wasn't. That's really the point of this reflection on my personal journey among faith communities. Marriott. Have arrived here after similar journeys or journeys that were even more circuitous and winding. Perhaps we felt like. We had come home at last. That we had stumbled across that place. Where we truly belong. That we had found our utopia. Burstcoin by sir thomas more in the title of his 1516 book utopia. The word comes from a couple of greek words that taken together literally mean no place. You. In conventional usage so it's come to mean a society that is seen as being. Ideal or. Without fault. But note. This describes a non-existent. Play. Or society. Like maurice fictional island in the atlantic. Put simply. There is no utopia. No community will be 100% of what we want it to be. Even leaving aside the question of whether what we want it. Tubi. It's what we needed. Weenie challenge as well as support. If we are to grow in thrivent. Challenge can be. Disturbing. Some religious groups are held together by well-defined answers to life's big questions. Eternal salvation through jesus christ for traditional christians or the. Absolute uncompromising commitment to the oneness and. Singularity of god among jews and muslims for example. Others such as catholic and episcopalian christians. Sheree. Common way of. Worship. Still others as presbyterianism of my early years. Are defined by a specific form of church government. Government by presbyterians for elders. We're on the other hand tend to prefer questions. The solid answers. And seeking. Define. You'll find wylie variety a widely varied styles of worship. Encompassed with owner uu tradition. And although we do share a commitment to a form of church government that blends denominational cooperation. With. Congregational independence. I doubt most of us would. 10 to say that that defines us. So what does keep this wildly diverse and sometimes unruly group. Together. What resources do we have. For staying at the table. Staying present. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. And in the discussion. When we disagree as we inevitably will. For many of us. We have found here a sense of community. The common bond of commitment to principles. And ideals. We have found a community we want to be a part of. We have found support. In good times and in bad. We have found in a word with a long and honorable history in religious and spiritual life. Fellowship. And that's why it hurts. When diversity crosses the line into divisiveness. We can't just walk away nor do we want to. But sometimes. We also feel we can't stay. How can we leverage what we have. To allow us to remain in the conversation. When we disagree. How do we continue to affirm our faith in each other. And in the strength of the ties that join us. Each to each and each. To all. Came across so wonderful invented word recently it was used to describe a person but. Can also i think apply to communities. Blossom. Flawsome. A combination of flawed. An awesome. Which raises the question how do we affirm the awesome. In the face of the flawed. When we ask ourselves what drew us here. To this place. In the first place. My hunch is that for many of us it had to do with community and with the belief that this is a community that can accommodate a diversity of viewpoints. And negotiate differences. That it is a community. Where. Diversity of opinion of ideas of lifestyle. Hopes and dreams for our community itself. Is recognized. Not only accept. But celebrating. How can we make all that real. Here now. How do we remain committed to seeking truth and meaning in community. Even though in the end. We're all responsible. Barone answers. Staring at the table doesn't mean we will necessarily agree. We may disagree absolutely. And we may express our disagreement forcefully. Some of the time says in families we will agree. Other times. We will not see eye-to-eye at all just like the two brothers there story for all ages. Staying at the table. Does maine we affirm our commitment to this community. And it's holness. And it's brokenness. When we agree and when we do not. It calls on us to be willing to participate in the change process. And risk being changed by it because that's what full participation means. We ourselves. Maybe changed by the share dialog. Be good example of this a couple weekends from now at the congregational meeting. One among other things will be discussing the. Possibility of moving to two services. If we are to do this if we are to maintain. Trust and faith with the community. Even in questioning. Even when we're hurting. We need to be able to affirm deep in our bones. The truth of thomas merton's assertion that our true destiny is love. We do not find the meaning of life. Ourselves. We find it. With another. We confirm our third principle of acceptance of each other and spiritual growth. Even when the growing were doing at a particular time may make it seem as though we're awkward gangly teenagers or. Small puppies falling all over their own feet. We work on our rough edges. Together. All of this i think brings our october theme of humility full-circle. Because it relates for a directly to what reverend seth said and his first sermon. This month. Humility he pointed out means we go into any discussion. With the intention of being open. Attitude of a friendly curiosity. With the assumption that we can learn. From those with whom we disagree. We enter into discussion and even into conflict. With that same intention. Tremaine open. Tremaine teachable to remain willing to learn. Trellis. About what matters and why it does. To those with whom we disagree. Beyond this. Seems to me that humility means knowing and accepting it. Celebrating and embracing. The idea that mine is not the only point of view. And being willing not only to allow our tolerate other views practices and lifestyle. But to actively encourage. An enabler. The diversity among us. We can and must be disagreeable. Agreeable. Without being. Let's just try that sentence again. Access to try that sounds again. We can disagree without being disagreeable. In conclusion. We have a community here that is a live vibrant. Welcoming and capable of sustaining and supporting us. Along our lives journeys. Our community. Can and will continue to exist. In the presence of difference in disagreement. We can stay at the table. Can remain fully present and engaged. Even when we disagree. Even when we for your. Feel fearful and anxious. Because change seems to be swirling around us. Humility. Enables us to accept. To welcome and to celebrate. Our differences. It enables us as individuals and as a community to grow from our differences. And to maintain our diversity. Without it's becoming. Divisiveness. May we all. Be blessed. By the vibrancy. Of our beloved community.

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20180421-service-2.mp3

Before i start a livestream my also thanks and appreciation to the choir it was indeed beautiful. I also do you want to let you all know that when i ask caroline that question about aging i had like eight qualifiers before it so that i just make sure i wasn't implying anything. We open with a prayer for desert x by margaret kuip. The journeys of our lives are never fully charted. They're come sometimes they each of us. Deserts to cross. Barron's stretches where the green edge on the horizon maybe our destination. Warren awaysis on our way. Or a mirage that beckons. Emily vas los. When fear grips the heart or despair boughs the head. Maybe then that's heart and head lead us down to touch the ground beneath our feet. Hand-scooped some sand into our hands. And receive. But the sand would teach. It holds the warmth of the sun when the sun has left our sites. As it holds the cool of the night. When the stars have faded. And hidden among if grains are tiny seeds. At rest. And waiting. Norman. Get on the feet. Desert flowers they endure. Moistened by our tears and by the rain that comes to end even the longest route they send down roots. And maple. Oh may we believe in those seeds and the seeds within us. May we remember and our dry seasons. That we too. Are desert flowers. Those are wise words indeed from margaret kite. I make no promises about their wisdom but i'm going to offer a few of my own words in addition to her. What causes for. When dormancy arrives. What causes fourth when dormancy survives. What causes fourth from that place we inhabit. What reminds us who we are. What tells the seed. Now is the time that you must sprout. Sometimes the call is as clear as day. The sun shines to break the dark. Are the rainfalls imposing on the endless sun. The shell cracks open. Beating us no choice but to emerge. Other times it is clear as mud. Which is to say not at all. Not at all. We wonder. We do not know. Is now time to answer the call. Sometimes it's painful. One step forward two steps back. Sometimes it's like a maze. What if there is life. We see the fallowfield nothing growing no plants no leaves. Not there enough. Just renewing. Resting between props. We see the mountaintop. No ashes no hot magma no lava flowing out of sight so that heat maintain. Wow those who think they're safe. The volcano. Lyrics. What is there is life. Headband bow ties down it seems like hope there's not. Backbend arms crossed. The burning coal within remain style. Invisible to you to me. Warming. 70. What is there is ice. The desert sands no life could hold be synced keep burns the barefoot's touching. Empty lifeless nothing there. But wait. Desert seeds. Undefeated. There is a time for resting. Field needs rain and sun to thrive. There is a time for resting. Sometimes stillness. And kiest. The needs of our soul define. There is a time for resting. Raps in the desert is no time to grow. Dormant. Get on.. No one walks the bear we accept hibernation. It's true nature. Pretty foolish would that not for a dare to try to stay awake all winter long. If such a bear there were and that there could also talk we might say why why make yourself stay awake you are supposed to sleep. It's what you need. Does anyone say that to you. Have you ever received the invitation. Could surge your madame please stop you must indeed. Please don't tell her organization please don't volunteer. Please do less for us at work. Please do less not more. No one has yet said that to me as far as i recall. Except. It is sometimes exactly precisely. Rest sometimes a great release. Sometimes he worked too hard. Sometimes the challenges the outside needs too much far too much. Sometimes parts for rest we are like sun-baked soil. For water. And desperate need. Other times. Not our choice. We want more friends. They are not to be found. We would choose not to be single and yet there is no romantic partner. Perhaps you want to move to flow to be. And had an illness keeps us from being. Free. Sometimes it's pain and trauma that forms a wall. Self-worth and love still there. So much fear. We cannot trust. We cannot be. Connection still a possibility. Get walls renee. Love like desert seeds do doorman. Always. Undefeated. What lies dormant. Not always good. Like a volcano anger can be bad enough when it's recipient an adult who can make choices. When children bear the brunt. True. Misery. Resentment unforgiveness be hold on to it for years. A certain sound a certain smell. The pain and hurt right on the surface gorman. No more. The buddhists have a point. About the wedding go. It's not always the right time. In our culture busy busy busy. Doona. Gina jump now move now faster faster. But if not. It's not always the right. Illness. There is a need. Illness. There is a tie. Not all. Is 1/16. The trees outside. They have no choice. Ask them winter does not are you ready for me please. They do not get to say but i have one more branch to grow. They do not get to sake please just a few more leaves. They got a warning with a phone and then comes cold no choice at all. Parent of a naked-eye yet full of lights vibrant. Perhaps we humans might do better if subject we were in the same way to weather. We used to be you know it's true. Before gaston pipes and oil tanks before each night was lit. Electricity got like gas in lamps. Dark used to mean a time. Her back. We prep for winter then put down our head. A snowstorm meant that all work stopped. Now we plow. Alpha course we're barely not down to the seasons we were all this before technology. Now. Now it's always on. We could work through night till dawn. There is no nature that makes us stop. Who is going to invite you. Your text. Your kids. Your work. Do you see an invitation words or letter email ethan. Will someone else suggest you stop. Now please i report to the church's board of trustees. If you all submit tomorrow that you need time off from all your responsibilities. That would not be good for you for us for me. But this is a place where you can step back from time to time. We are a place where you can say i really need right now just to be. Right now. I just need. Debris. Breathing breathing. Would you right now breeze with me. In. And out. Sometimes in our life breathing is what we need. The time. The space. The rest. Untrained eye in action it may seem. But deep inside me know the truth. It's our desperate. Reason. Ravenna dreams deep inside they live different. Each of us. Often common themes. In the way. Getting anything. Things we choose things on chosen. Dreams remain. They catch the field. Play open. The horizon. Grieve in. Read in the hope. Hope remains despite attempts. Some think hope can be ended. Institutions like slavery. Will not be denied. Immigration brings difficulty. Hope cannot be deported. Racism scoffs at liberty. Realistic of the problems hope from maine. Breathin. Reason the love. Sometimes we lose our way. We lose the love of someone else. Love never goes away. We lose the love inside ourselves the sky seem awfully gray. Love never truly needs those sometimes. Forget. Community such as we. Can provide. Reminder. Each of us. Including you. And have it's worth. Indignity. The time be now the time be not. Only you shall know. Dormancy good can bring. Intentional or not. Oftentimes we fall into it. And that's quite okay. Encouragement you have for me to also at times choose this way. Like the butterfly inside cocoon. Time it takes. To ourselves. We must.

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20190922-service.mp3?_=2

We probably all know the doctor seuss character who ever said that they do not like green eggs and ham. Well. I'm not particularly fond of ham and thankfully i've never encountered green eggs. A person that refers to the egg not the shells. What i can't. Excuse me. What i can say with all confidence is i'm not fond of uncertainty. People are on a continuum. About how comfortable they are with uncertainty. And i'm on the. Uncomfortable end of that continuum for sure uncertainty around small things. Okay. But get me to far beyond things. Probably don't really matter anyway and. I'm uncomfortable. As i was keeping a close eye on the weather. During hurricane dorian. 1st of this month the phrase that was used repeatedly caught my attention. As the storm worked its way toward florida and. North. Stormtracker is repeatedly referred to the. Cone of uncertainty. Along with that. Their ongoing predictions about what would happen. As the storm progressed how where we go where it would make landfall would it. Stall out over the coast of florida like i had over the bahamas so on and so on. Expectations. If you will. It occurred to me that. The expectations we place on our lives on the events and the people in them are. One way of trying to manage the cone of uncertainty. That is our life. And make no mistake. Are limes are accountable uncertainties simply by their very nature. Now. This is not the timeworn we could walk out of here and get hit by a bus thing. That's not likely in muncie anyway there aren't enough buses. But remember. Unless at some point we become able to see into the future. Will always be uncertain. About some things. And will probably be more uncertain about things than what we think we're even. Uncertainties out there weather. We feel it or not. Life is change. And change brings with it uncertainty. It isn't too far-fetched it seems to me to say that. Uncertainty. Kind of another name for change. What's more in theory anyway. Wii u use embrace change. We encourage spiritual growth and exploration we say we prefer questions to answers. We seek to be open-minded. Progressive. Explorer. Think about it all things require. A willingness to deal with uncertainty. Not only deal with it but to embrace it. And there. Certainly. Is enough uncertainty to go around. Uncertainty about what will happen in the next several months and longer-term in our own beloved community is probably on a lot of our list. Marriage is a leap into uncertainty. Aging is a whole doggone curriculum and certainty. As his illness death. Well we're certain. That we will die. Got my favors. Traductor. We don't know when or how. State of the national economy isn't certain either norris outcome of the 2020 election. I'm sorry but i cannot promise you anything on that one. Uu minister and rider the rev victoria safford rights. This happens to us. All the time. We crave order and control and predictable patterns in life. When we can't find them because they mostly do not exist. We got two actress and we make them up. Imposing our will or our opinion or our expectations ourselves and others. All over the place. And when the universe rears up on its hind legs and says well. Actually know you're not the boss of the world miss not how it's going to go. We are miley disrupted. It happens all the time. Our bodies betray us or rather they betray our delusions of invincibility and eternal youth. The weather betrays us or rather betrays our ridiculous self-centeredness within the natural world. Hurricanes happen floods tornadoes. People betray us or rather they do what they must do. Lovers leaving loved ones die. G rupp ended expectations undone. Outcomes which we thought were guaranteed. Health wealth longevity life liberty and happiness. Turn out to be nowhere written in the contract signed by the fates. And sealed that are birth. As. Reverend stafford's piece i think makes pretty clear dealing with uncertainty is an unavoidable part. Applies. Because we can't see the future. We can't be certain. Exactly about what's going to happen. Day-to-day. Some people are okay with us some of us not so much. Obviously it's normal and even common for most people to be a bit uncomfortable with uncertainty and the the higher the stakes the greater the discomfort. Doesn't mean that were flawed or that we have somehow. Failed. At all. Think about it for a minute. Where would you put yourself. On that scale. Over here on the comfortable and over there on the uncomfortable in. It probably depends on. What day it is and what's the issue. Parr this is some of us tend to see uncertainty in terms of. I don't know. Account no. Everything's going to be okay. Others of us it's more like. I don't know. I can't no. I don't think it's going to be okay. Go back and forth. So what can we do. To respond to uncertainty that in ways that are healthy. Boys are helpful make for wholeness. From alma think about what kinds of things you do to. Try and give yourself more a feeling of control. In the face of uncertainty. Each of us probably has a wrong list. But i offer these two for your consideration. Don't become paralyzed or stuck. That's far too easy to do in the face of uncertainty. We become that cowl between two haystacks. Looking around. Can't move stuck in the middle. What we can do in the face of all that. Is 2. Do what we can do. Remember it doesn't have to be some big smo. Flashy thing. If you're just made with uncertainty about. How women's rights are being eroded. Support planned parenthood in contact legislators. If you worried if the earth will survive climate change. Figure out how you can refuse reuse and recycle. More effectively. Support climate-friendly local initiatives. You're facing uncertainty over a medical condition or procedure learn all you can. Knowledge is powerful. If it's the 2020 election that vexes you support your preferred candidate. If uncertainties about the beloved the future of our beloved congregation or keeping you awake at night. Participate in the process. There will be a number of events going on coming months. Listen. Participate. Speak up. Notice i put listen before speak out. Some of us use our emotions are our minds to create. Best-case scenarios. To explore how we would feel. This case. Pertussis case vs case. Sometimes we check in with our god how's it feel in our body. Those feelings can help guide our decisions. Our decisions must be our own. But there's nothing wrong at a lot right. About checking in with other people we trust. Whether or not they offer specific suggestions. They may bring up aspects of a particular situation that we hadn't thought of or questions that hadn't occurred to us to ask. Or they may just provide a listening ear as we talked our way to our own best solution. And as jerry suggested in his introduction. Reverend seth and i along with our pastor associates are always happy to provide that listening ear. For those for whom religious and spiritual values are important religion provides very significant means hoping. For many perhaps most followers of the traditional atheistic. Judaism christianity islam traditions. The beliefs of the loving and omnipotent god is in control is very very important even if we mere mortals can't figure out what on earth god's doing. Important on the lips. And there was a non-theistic alternative to this run something like the universe is such. Justin of itself. That everything works out according to the way it's supposed to. There's a built-in intelligence there that that functions over the long haul. Buddhist rituals such as prayer and religious services reading scripture meditating can provide some miliar anchors in the face of uncertainty. Whatever weird. Whatever we ourselves believe about such things. There's no denying the comfort they bring to those who practice them. One thing was probably key for a lot of us as it is for me. Is. However whatever particular situation we're facing works out. Our church family will be there. For us. Whether it's by bringing in food providing. Propeller practical assistance just simply providing spiritual support and companionship. If all else fails. Organizer drawer cabinet. The point is to. Control what we can. Or stop. Have a cup of tea. Let yourself feel deeply how. Really. Okay things are. Right in this moment. Uncertainty after all belongs to the future. We can know what's right here. Right now. These are all relatively healthy words i think. All responding to uncertainty there are unhealthy ones to trying to control what we cannot and should not try to control. Or escapism. But. We know those two. Sometimes things don't go exactly as planned if we allow some uncertainty into our lives. And this doesn't mean we failed. And uncertainty is there whether we allow it or not. It's simply. Yes. Most people who do well with uncertainty learn that. Give me five things happen they can cope with him. We discover that we have the inner resources and the outer support to survive and thrive. By becoming more uncomfortable with uncertainty we can get to let go of the problems associated with trying to control the uncontrollable which takes a heck of a lot of energy. And we get to realize that we can deal with things even when they don't go perfectly. We may not like it. It may and sometimes will be hard. But. We can do it. We may even find that things sometimes work out better. Then we would have dared to expect. Bruce kramer was a dean at saint thomas university in the twin cities. Diagnosis. Als or lou gehrig's disease up ended his life. He writes about the immediate the hours immediately following that diagnosis. On the day of my diagnosis we're in the car my wife and i with no pamphlet no roadmap not even a gps to guide us. I tried a project calm. Breathe deeply. I begin to perceive a presence overwhelming and. Towering over me surrounding me piercing me stifling me. Suddenly. A future falls open like some bizarre fantastic flower. Bloomington dropping its petals all around me faster than i can collect them. Even more than in the doctor's office we see clearly that there is no solution. There is no grand final ending no heroic rise or fall. Instead. We are required to make the best from the worst. Working it. Until it can no longer be worked. Accepting. With as much grace and dignity as possible. An ending. In the face of. Pure chaos raining down into the order that just yesterday was ours. In these few hours post-diagnosis. The life we thought was ours explodes. Yet the epiphany of realization remains. I know now i'm a spring to bear everything i have learned. Upon this crisis. Are we will be utterly destroyed. I know what i must do. But i do not know yet. How i will do it. Above all. I know i cannot fix this. That would only be childish. All i can hope for is to work it. And perhaps some way forward. Will emerge. So where does that leave us. Life is change. And change is another name for uncertainty. We live in a cone of uncertainty simply because we live. We can handle uncertainty in more than that become more comfortable with it. We can live with dignity and grace in the face of uncertainty. Discomfort with uncertainty is normal natural and. Doesn't mean we're not coping. Here's how we respond to it. So may we launch our kites. Right into the cone. Of uncertainty. We know we can. 1015 high now i can.

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20150322-servicepc-1.mp3

Face can mean many things. My challenge for us today is to expand our definition so that doesn't mean just one thing. Because for many of us become to equate the word faced with the idea of blind faith. Unexamined face. Or spoon-fed. Once shared with me when i was growing up in my conservative christian church lot of what they were teaching didn't make sense to me until i started asking questions. Sometimes they had good answers but for the really hard questions. The things that really didn't make sense. The response most of the time was simply well you've got to have faith. So i get it. Faith has been ingrained in some of us perhaps many of us. As something that is grounded and a lack of reason. Assurance allsburg astutely notes in her book about faith from a buddhist perspective. Many links face too narrow-minded to reef systems lack of intelligent examination or pain at having one's questions silence. Yes. And. Faith is blind acceptance is one definition of faith. It's not the only definition. We definitely defined face sometimes as a form of belief and there's also the relational aspect of faith when you use in the sense of trust. Isn't having space in or trusting someone or something. But before we get to these more personal usages of the word let's go big picture. Because we also use faith sometimes in a much broader sense talking about our faith tradition meaning unitarian universalism. Are we say that we belong to this face community. Meaning our church. Other times he might say that we are exploring our faith together. In this usage of the word were talking about space as a system of meaning-making and meaning finding. Face as a system of what we've come to understand to be true about the world. And here's the thing. Assurant delois parks argue so eloquently and her book big questions worthy dreams. We all have face. We all make meaning and signed meaning in our lives on this planet and one shape or another. Parks rights. We all search for a sense of connection pattern order and significance. In our ongoing interaction with all of life puzzle about the fitting. Truthful relationship among things. We searched for ways of understanding our experience. That makes sense of both the expected and the unexpected. In everyday life. So for some of us our faith may be based in god and spirituality. Others may focus on science and reason. And other still may utilize all of the above mixing god spirituality science and reason into our meaning-making and meeting finding process. But we all do it whether we are conscious and intentional about doing it or not. We all seek to understand and make sense of the events and patterns in our lives. We all have our own version of space. I like to think of it like this. We all have our roadmap and our heads. how we make decisions in our lives. We all the way that we process and understand the world and make decisions on a daily basis. Because what some decisions are big enough that we pause to think through them carefully. Anymore we just decide in the moment based on our map. Woody paralyzed in fact. If you didn't have this roadmap of how to navigate our lives. There be no way to quickly and easily make the hundreds of decisions we have to make every day if we didn't have some sort of general template the fallback. In fact be a waste of time right if we didn't have some sort of template. I mean i don't need to do a full ethical analysis every time i'm presented with the idea that gay lesbian bisexual transgender and queer people don't deserve equal rights. A lot of thinking and research obvious reason and religion to examine my own experiences and i've come to the conclusion that lgbtq people should be treated equally with everyone else. Now those directions on my personal roadmap a pretty clear-cut. But they aren't unexamined. I just don't need to re-examine them every time the issue comes up. When a statement is made disparaging lgbtq people our legislation is proposed my faith understanding my meaning-making on the issue my beliefs they're perfectly clear. I don't even need to check my roadmap i know what it says and i'll respond accordingly. These roadmaps we human beings all have though we come to them in different ways. Some people spend a lot of time carefully thinking through their maps examining many different ideas and religious perspectives and selecting routes that makes sense to them. Others were raised in or chose one specific religious tradition and rely primarily on the guideposts of that tradition as they make the decisions in their life. Others yet may just accept the general lessons about life we learned in our culture with capitalism and material materialism running their meaning-making show. And for all of us are family of origin the folks we grew up with. So you tend to have a pretty strong influence on our road maps. Wherever we are on the spectrum of intentionality versus accepting we've been taught. We all have a map. We all have a way that we may can find meaning in this world. And that matt. Is oxy. No note also that this map we have our face. It doesn't always match up exactly with the beliefs we claimed to speak to the world. Our faith the way we understand and make and find meaning in the world it's sometimes shows up more in our actions than it does in our words. Parks notes. Most of us recognize that we human beings may or may not act in a manner that corresponds with what we say our ethics are. But you and beings do act in ways that are congruent with what they ultimately trust as dependable and real. What makes sense at the end of the day but we think we can really count on. We human beings act in ways that are congruent with how we make meaning. No karen harrington takes us one step further and her book writing to wake the soul stating. In the original buddhist texts but av word for faith meant to place the heart upon. Pairing says subsequently. Consciously or unconsciously with each day's living we are choosing where to whom and to what we will offer our heart. In this way faith emerges from our daily choices. Weather quietly or boldly. Joyfully bounding. Mindfully march. Or gradually growing. So our face then is ever presence in our lives. In fact dictate how we go about living our lives and informs every decision we make influences every path we choose to go down. Are safe. It's our roadmap. What did your actions tell you about your faith roadmap. Take a moment now and think about how you live your life. Addicted sessions and the small ones. What is your faith based on. Materialism. Power. Justice. Peace. God. Reason. Love. All of these things and more can be part of her face. What does your faith roadmap. Look like. Now we all just took a snapshot right. Most likely the faith roadmap you thought of was based on a relatively recent time.. If you were to look over your entire life though. You probably see that the roadmap has changed over time. Which makes sense right regrowing evolved naturally as human beings. And really wouldn't life be boring if i road map never changed. If we always took the same road always thought the same thing i always did the same things in the same ways. Nothing would ever change. I know some of us aren't huge fans of change if nothing ever changed. Most of us wouldn't be happy. It's here at our church and our unitarian universalist faith tradition we are all about the continual examination of our faith road maps. Our fourth principle states that we are on a free and responsible search for teresa meaning. Part of being a search means that we explore new ideas and perspectives. Ideas and perspectives that inform and sometimes even challenged our existing face understand. Some folks are happy with a safety that an unchanging face roadmap provide. But most of us here we appreciate the opportunity to examine our roadmap on a regular basis. Sometimes our reflections lead us to affirm that our map is pretty great the way we've currently constructed it. And sometimes we decide we need to make an update. Sometimes those updates are small alterations. And sometimes their major course corrections. Our faith roadmaps that way we find a nick meaning in the world. They change and evolve over time. And it is our continued exploration exploration of our individual faith in the shared context of this church community. This is what makes us a religion. As opposed to merely a social club. Because there are some great social club doubt they're right in from endust nonprofits that work for social justice and create positive change in the world. Rotary club's i'll have service projects to which they're committed and a sierra club for example works hard on environmental issues. Social justice and share community are important parts of our face. And. We are a community of faith. We are safe tradition we are a religion because of our shared faith exploration. So hopefully at this point we've expanded our definition of faith a little bit. Face doesn't have to mean lack of intelligence examination. It doesn't have to be an unquestioning blind acceptance of religious doctrine. It doesn't have to mean stifled questions and shutdown answers. Our shared unitarian-universalist face exploration is one that values reason relies on science and leans heavily on logic and rationality. It also draws in our experiences it seeks wisdom and a variety of sacred texts. Define strengthen the sage words of prophetic men and women has transformed by the beauty and power of mother nature and darker. No face russ is not something stationary in static. It is not something accepted blindly or left on examined. Unitarian universalist faith is something we explore and live. With pasta. And our faith tradition does have some common threads. We are in fact i throw another metaphor into the mix a tapestry of faith. But we each have our own railroad maps as a church community as a face tradition we have common strands for common threads that weave through the faith prediction we build together. There any difference is woven into the fabric to of course. And those differences bring richness and depth to our faith exploration. But unitarian-universalism our faith tradition is not just one big unruly lump of threads clumped into a ball. Nowell our faith is moving together with an abundance of unique threads there are shapes and patterns woven into the tapestry of our faith. That are beautiful. These patterns have names. Hope. Love. Justice. Equality. Gross. Healing. Inclusivity. These are just some of the many common threads that weaves the tapestry of our shared. Another common thread of course is our questions. Krista tippett and her book speaking of faith uses that. Quote faith is as much about the questions as it is about the answers. That sounds like a perfect fit for us unitarian universalist we are indeed all about the questions. And of course part of questioning perhaps the very nature of questioning. Involves doubt and uncertainty. Have you saw on a reading this morning doubt is the attendant of truce. As robert weston suggested we must cherish our doubt for in fact notice also the touchstone of truth it isn't acid which eats away the false. Throughout our history back before the merger when we were unitarians and universalists questioning and doubt has been a central part of our faith tradition. The unitarians of course we're called that because they doubted the human formulation of the trinity. The father the son and the holy spirit. Questioning and doubt are a vitally important part of our safe tradition. Did you not diminish our face though. Brother they supported. They deepen it and they own it. A naked stronger. Returning to sharon to louis parks in her book big questions worthy dreams quote. A worthy face a worthy faith. Must bear the test of lived experience in the real world. Our discoveries and disappointments expectations and betrayals assumptions and surprises. It is in the ongoing dialogue between cellphone the world between community and lived reality that meeting. Ic. Takes form. So we need these questions. We need the dab. If we're going to have a meaningful faithless.. Questions and doubts. They can and do sometimes weeds to uncertainty. In uncertainty. Can be uncomfortable. Some might even go as far to say. Well if you are uncertain can you truly be practicing face. And the response of course as we saw without is yes absolutely. There is room for uncertainty and face and act it's necessary. Liberal theologian and unitarian universalist minister paul reiser in fact for the whole book about this. His book on liberal theology in the 21st century is titled faith without certainty. And it argues that uncertainty is actually one of the strongest points are liberal face. He says liberal religion calls us to strength without rigidity conviction without ideology openness without laziness. It asks us to pay attention. Don't know uncertainty can be about asking the hard and challenging questions. And they can be about being okay with sitting in a place of not knowing. Rainer maria rilke wrote. The patients were all that is unresolved in your heart and try and love the questions themselves. Live the questions now and perhaps you will then gradually without noticing it live along some distant today into the answer. We seek our truths and we seek greater truths and sometimes the truth in the moment is that we don't have the answers yet. And this speaks to the final important components of faith 40. It is on britton in the rilke quote. But there is a trust that realty is asking us to have. I trust that things will indeed turn it okay. Even though in the moments we might be uncertain. And that trust is the final component of face. Because whether i certainly trust that is based on experience and evidence trust that is based on the fact and reality. The prospect place often asks us to trust is trust with without certainty. To trust. Despite the uncertainty. Faith is believing what you cannot see or prove or touch bases walking face-first in full speed into the dark if we truly knew all the answers and advances to the meaning of life in the nature of god and the destiny of our souls our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity. It would just be a prudent insurance policy. Or so says elizabeth gilbert in her book eat pray love. She speaks to this final component of face. Delete. Into uncertainty. Beep often looks like hope and progress. As we saw in our story for all ages olympia brown had faith in herself despite so many people telling her she would never achieve her dream of ministry. You could argue and i many and sure many people did to her that her pursuit of the ministry was irrational or unreasonable or even illogical. She had face though she trusted that if she did her best that it would happen. And her faith in herself and in the world despite all evidence to the contrary was rewarded. Whether you have faith in god faith in humanity or facing yourself. There is an aspect of hope. Trusting despite the unknowing. There are folks in our community who do not identify a spiritual. But some of them still say they have faith in humanity. And that's not a blind safe. They don't have faith in every aspect of humanity for example i'm guessing they don't have faith in the tea party. But they do have an overall hopeful faith. Face that we as human beings will turn out alright. And that will make decisions that make the world's turn out. The way we hope for. There's a willingness there though delete into and live in the uncertainty. The trust sometimes despite evidence to the contrary. And this is the final component. Face. Our personal roadmap. Is an intrinsic an important part of our lives. Communal space exploration the tapestry of meaning-making and meaning finding that we leave together defines us as a religious tradition. It's facing ourselves facing something good and true and loving face despite the uncertainty and doubt is what is going to save our world. May your face be an ever-evolving one. May you find joy and meaning in this face community. May your face be tempered and strengthened with the fire of doubt and uncertainty. May your face. And our shared faith community. Be ever wonderful.

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20160925-service.mp3

Today is an unusual and important service. Since january i have served with reverend stats. As co-chair of the two services task force. Our fella members are ben ewing. Jerry mckean. Janay sander. And susan taylor. Ben is not with us this morning is he and denise are taking out raining in cincinnati this weekend. Owl our whole lives is a sex education program offered to our youth. The past 9 months. Has been quite a journey. Are learning and conversations have created a bond among us that i know will last after our work. Completed. Today we are sharing with you what we learned as we were transported beyond the specific question of establishing a second service. To a broader consideration of the history and future of this community. And it is not by accident that we are coming to you on this last sunday of a month. With change as its theme. For those of you who are visiting today we hope you can relate our conversation about change and growth in this congress congregation. To the roll and nature of change in all our lives. Upon reflection of the journey our task force has made this year we decided it might be helpful if we looked at our church history over the past few decades as a journey as well. It has come to be our view. Then in terms of our church development. We are. Metaphorically speaking stuck. Add a watering hole. It may be a watering hole that on first glance is comfortable for many of us. But there are others who are seeking what we offer. And who according to our mission and vision we are called to serve. From conversations with newcomers we have learned that it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to find a long-term home here. To find what church experts call a circle of personal connection. As we know from the principles of geography and history. Watering hole resources are limited and pressure inevitably builds. Our congregation maintains what it is now offering. At the cost of volunteer burnout. And we can't assure our presence into the mid 21st century. Unless we accept some risk. And embrace change. Are charged from the board was to explore this congregation going to two services. The task force was established after a season with a sanctuary fail to 80% capacity on numerous sundays. But we have learned so much since then. Perhaps most importantly that the situation is not all about numbers after all as we will explain throughout the service. And we also learned that we should have started this process when we were at 60% capacity because. 80% won't last long unless there is a plan in place and indeed that is what appears to have happened. We've identified four major points we want to leave with you today. And there won't be a quiz at the end we hope you will seriously ponder these ideas over the coming weeks and months. And stay engaged in the process. As we move through a challenging but potentially exhilarating and rewarding time. Denomination. Or purpose. Communities like ours move through an organizational framework. Related to their size. The slide on the screen. Outlines for standard levels of church size as we understood them in january. When we began our work. Family churches. Have every sunday attendance that's a essay including children. Up to 50. Like its name this church functions like a family with lay-led administration. Clergy have only worship. And pastoral rose. There can be a rapid turnover in clergy and times. When there may not be any professional clergy at all. Many family church has survived only through the persistence. Of their founders. Now when a essay moves from 50. Tu150 the congregation becomes a pastoral church with the clergy now at the center. Everybody knows everybody else this is the idealized picture. I'm at church community and it was this congregation in the 70s and 80s. Especially when drew kennedy was our pastor. The most significant feature. Of the pastoral church. Is that members have their spiritual needs met. To a personal relationship. With a seminary trained person. No until reread more deeply this summer. We accepted that the next step. What's the program church. 152 350a essay. In a program church the clergy is in charge of worship and the chief of staff. Much of the pastoral care is provided by trained laypeople and there are many cells of activity. It's no longer possible to know everyone in the community. Sound familiar. This is us right. Many of us learned in the 90s remember when we did decisions for growth. Those of you that we're here then. That we were becoming a program church but. We have not made the transition. In terms of numbers. We're stuck. Between 130 and 150 assa. And then came. The aha. There is a name for what we are. We are a hybrid. The so-called in between church. We're program charging. In terms of what we offer. And the way we operate but we can't make the leap. To the hundred fifty plus assa that's needed to support. Are rich array of programs. In a healthy way. This is a difficult place. There's high-stress for everyone including burnout for clergy and overcommitted volunteers we here. This isn't the church i joined. Which were some of it may have been that pastoral church where we did know nearly everyone and where the pastor attended every committee meeting and. One year even ran the bizarre. What author describes this.. Add 130 to 150 place as a nervous. Uneasy time. And unless we can move forward. From that metaphorical waterhole it will that continue to be difficult for newcomers to find a place here and conflict. Among those already here. Becomes inevitable. Where do i fit in. And we have been. At this developmental stage for a couple of decades. As we look at the data. Over the last 10 years. Rasar annual attendance. Has repeatedly pushed forward toward 150. And then falling back. Over. Andover. Again. The task force recommends that we have to learn. Why this happens. And ask ourselves. What barriers even. Even if they're passive and unintentional. Are at work here. Every sunday. When i enter the sanctuary i other assignment silent thank you to the brave resourceful nineteenth-century foremothers and forefathers some of whose pictures are on that back wall. Indian samuel bud. Thomas and sara kirby adam wolfe and others. Who not only believed that it was their responsibility to spread the good news of universalism. But fought with every bit. Of their treasure and their time and their talent. To save this congregation when it. What's a struggling family church. Of the approximately 100 universalist church is formed in indiana in the 19th century. We are the largest. Of the three that survive. The others declined. And disappeared. Because of the stubbornness and dedication of our van founders this community is here for us today and the task force maintains that now. Now it is our time. To step forward we need to work on why we are stuck. And how we get unstuck. So that we live into our vision of what we offer the greater muncie community and the world beyond. Part of that work. Will be taking a long hard look. At our response to change. In the words of alice man. One of the consultants whose writings has informed us over the past months. She says failing to work. Beyond our present size essentially posts. A no vacancy sign. On the church door. Engine a sander and i'm on the task force my family and i have been coming to this community about a year-and-a-half. So. Been a great journey so far. I'm a psychologist. And i'm in the business of change. The 15 or so years i've been doing this. I have never heard someone ask. How to keep everything exactly the same. If anyone does ask. I'll say. Keep doing what you're doing. And nothing will change probably. But is that even possible. If it is possible. Would that make your life meaningful. And your relationships fulfilling. Is feeling comfortable the same as feeling fully connected and alive. Change is not easy. Whether it's by choice or not. Change makes most of us uncomfortable. Even when we welcome it. The idea of offering a second service has generated a lot of concern. And i see that as a very natural response to change. At the same time. Change happens. In our individual lives and also in a church community. But systems do not like change. They want homeostasis. There's a strong pressure to keep it the same. And not. Rock the boat. Ironically. Closed systems that fail to change and adapt. Are not sustainable. Change is what makes us grow and keeps us healthy. Whether we like it or not. I personally like change more than the average person. But it's still scary to me if it's a big change or uncertain outcome. About five years ago my life was falling apart at home and at work. It was horribly stressful. I'm still getting over it. There were good things in my life keeping me afloat. But also a lot of pressure to keep going the way it was. Even though parts of it we're really awful. I wanted things to be different. But i felt powerless to change anything and i did not want to risk losing the good things i did have at the time. At some point i realized how important it was for my own sake. And for my family's well-being. That we really shake up that unchanging situation we were in. My radical solution was to ask my family to move a thousand miles away. And make a huge change. This move allowed our family to make some intentional choices that have been very positive for all of us. We wouldn't take it back now. At the time we knew no one in this state. Honestly the road was hard and we experienced loss. We had to let go of what we had. And things that we were familiar with. In order to make room for what we were seeking. We had to make room for what we needed. Looking back now it's very obvious how hard we were working to keep things the same. And how it was simply prolonging a stressful situation. Who did not see it at the time. We didn't know in advance if it would turn out the way we hoped. We could not understand how we had grown until we live into our new situation for a while. Many transformative changes are like that. There's no map. Just a journey. What does experience showed mean it's how fear of change can hold us back. Even someone like me who likes change. Avoiding change avoids risk. And also prevents opportunities for healthy growth. Sometimes we must trade something we have. For something we need. And we can't know how the story ends while we're still in the middle of it. It might not be the change itself that makes us uncomfortable. We must tolerate uncertainty. While change is happening. That was the hardest part for me. In many ways our journey with exploring to services has changed us on this committee. The questions we started with are not the questions we're asking now. Because our perspective has changed. We've learned over the past few months that consideration of two services involves much more than 80% attendance capacity. Size transmission. Is the change were facing. It just happens to be connected to the option of two services. Another thing we've learned is that if the church ends up making a choice for a second service. We're choosing to risk what is. To make room. For what can become. If we as a church decline a second service. We're also declining the opportunity for new spiritual and community growth. Either way. The church would change as part of the process. Whether we see evidence evidence of it in one year or ten years from now. Unfortunately. We can't make change less scary. We don't have a crystal ball or any guarantees that one service or two. Would be positive. However. The members of this task force have changed. By learning about attendance. Size transitions. And the considerations for adding two services. In that process we have come to understand some of the historical size issues this church has faced. And how that relates to change. We've clarified in our hearts important. Just stick to the uucm mission and vision. Encourage lifelong growth. This vision statement means we must fully consider changes intended for the health of the church its members guess and the broader community. Especially. If it facilitates healthy growth. Which only happens through change. If only we did have janae's crystal ball right. Or to stretch the journey metaphor. If only we could have the magical gps unit that could not only recommend the route we should take toward church growth. But what also warned us about problems ahead on our route. And suggest alternative roads. We don't have that magical gps unit. But we do have a travel guide book. We have our church's mission. Envision. Our church's mission and its vision which we worked diligently on riding not that long ago. Is meant to remind us about the kind of journey we believe we should be on as a church. So it can help us to set those preferences in our magical gps unit. The preferences that well don't say avoid interstates but rather. Welcome newcomers. There are many ways. In which we say that we want to be a church that is open to newcomers. Right there in our mission is the word inclusivity. Practicing inclusivity. If we've been thinking of only encouraging the spiritual growth of the present members and no one else i don't think we would have chosen the word inclusivity. We even used the actual word growth. The fourth point under our vision says we seek. Relationships that foster growth in our church. I imagine we meant gross in the spiritual sense as well as the numerical sense. But we've said we seek to grow. Then our church vision states that we welcome all people. I'm quite sure that we didn't mean you're welcome to come in and look around but then you need to go. No. We meant you are welcome here. Join us help us to make the world a better place. Help us to help you on your spiritual journey. And we also meant all are welcome here not certain people who fits some certain description. With our mission and vision we describe a church with its arms wide open. Accepting and welcoming of all. And our mission and vision aren't the only sources we should look to. Our church bylaws mentioned growth as well. Section 3 right at the beginning states we seek to spread the values of our heritage. I'm certain that means we should spread those values outside of the present folks who attend service. The conclusion of section 3 of the bylaws makes this completely clear that we shouldn't be just talking to each other about the wonders of unitarian universalism. We should be reaching out. Drawing others in to join us. We are called. To extend our own church. So taking a page from that travel book it seems clear to me that in order to live up to our mission our vision and our bylaws. We need to acknowledge that working to grow our church is the next stage in our journey. We need to move on. From this watering hole. But why now. Well if he has said. We have a history of being stuck in this hybrid place. We're we're not able to increase our sunday attendance numbers. To stay above 150 every sunday to climb up over 200 where we could be in the clear. Enjoy the perks associated with being a program church. The literature and research related to church sizes says the attendance numbers we've been sitting at are indicative of a church. That needs to grow to function well. To prevent burnout of staff and volunteers. To offer rewarding opportunities for members new and seasoned. I would have to say that. Now that we're aware of this research and now that we're sharing this with you. Where's a church need to have a sense of urgency. About the need for change in our church. About the need to wriggle out of this stuck place. Plus our church documents state that encouraging growth bringing a newcomers is what we should be about. Knowing what we know now. We are only hurting our church community. By not taking step soon. For growing our numbers. Considering for example. The real benefits that could come from offering to services. Yes as janelle janae said change is scary. Stepping away from the comfortable into the unknown is frightening. Even if we done all the research we can about this journey. There's still the possibility that we'll get lost. That we all need to stop and change a tire. Or we may have to turn around and retrace our steps here and there. But here's the thing. We'd be doing this together. We wouldn't be alone. By now you probably have figured out that. We know that with change. There is risk. But all of us have gone boldly where we haven't done before. Hoping for the best. Entering the worst. You may have gone to college in a strange town. Married. Sometimes on brief acquaintance. Had children. Abandoned one career for another. Retired. And in a few cases repeated the whole processed. In my case i got to start my life over. At age 40. The new spouse. Newtown. And a new job. It was risky. At the risk of not changing what's the high today. In the shell of my old self. Risking nothing. Meganium. Let me hasten to say that i have been blessed. Beyond my wildest dreams. Love is risky business to. On lionel wind said it best and i quote. Every time we make the decision to love someone. We open ourselves to great suffering. Because those we most love cause us not only cratejoy. But also great pain. But yeah. Love is stronger than fear. Life stronger than death. Hope stronger than despair. We have to trust. At the risk. Of loving. Is always worth taking. We love this church. And because we do. We take the risks of love. Just as we nurture the growth of our children. Not knowing what their future may bring but blessing them with the best we can offer. We also nurture our church. Churches at least churches that are changing as the needs of the community change. Go to processes of growth. Similar to those we have experienced in our own lives. With the attendant joys. And promise. We can promise that change will involve a lot of work. Some money. And the risk of loss as well as gain. That is true of most things worth doing. And that is true of intentional change. We know that building maintenance. Like we know that like building maintenance the fur to congregational change leads to higher cost. Greater effort and more chances of success. What will the future bring. We can offer few details because. But details are not up to us. They're up to you. You will decide if we will add a service. And if we do. You won't make it what it is just as you've made this service what it is. You will decide whether to create new opportunities for spiritual growth. Restarting and joining new small groups. You will decide whether to join together to live justice in ways both old and new. Perhaps the most exciting change we can embrace. Is reaching out to the unchurched in our community who need us. Under any assumptions about what percentage of the population would prosper in a uu church. There must be thousands of potential members in our area. Megan wanting or membership coordinator. Tells me that we have four or five visitors every week. Of those that's a shame to our secrets. That is more than 100 people coming to the door every year. Searching for a place to belong. Practicing inclusivity begins. By making welcome those who seek has. And helping them to join our community. We can expand our hospitality and service. And in other ways. Becoming a program church memes embodying our mission. And our vision. If i have to sum it up. I would say. That's a result of intentional change should be to make us. More genuinely and passionately us. Grown up so much in numbers. But in love kindness fellowship humility joy and generosity. To honor and conserve. The sweet spirit in love. It brought us here. And extend our spirit and love to our visitors. Our new members. And our community. We can only be certain that our church will change. In five or ten years we will be different. We can allow the change to occur haphazardly. And unpredictable. Or we can plan for it. And welcoming when it comes. We can live our mission and vision. Or we can treat them as platitudes. The choice is ours. The sharing today from the task force is grounded in their work of considering two services. And by extension the circumstances that church itself is in. Specifically stuck in a hybrid space between sizes. As we look to make this decision. The question you're wrestling with a church community though. Is one we must also constantly wrestle within our lives. The world is constantly changing around us. The question is as jerry put it. How are we going to choose to respond. Janae challenged us. To choose to risk what is for the purpose of making room for what can but. And i think this is the challenge facing all of us on a regular basis. No good thing lasts forever. Aztec companies are finding out to their immense just met. Technology is changing so rapidly that you can't ride one brilliant idea or one fabulous product for 30 or 40 years anymore. Tech companies have found this out the hard way that they have to continuously be on the lookout for the next great idea for the next disruptive shift in the marketplace that changes however. Greats. Anyone remember myspace. I know a few of you out there i get emails from you're still using america online. And yahoo even did yahoo use what used to be a premier tech company is now being sold. Hearts. As some tech companies have found out the hard way. Sometimes we have to look to the future. And choose to risk what is. For the purpose of making room for what we can but. As i become much more familiar recent was recently with the addition of two children to my life in the past 2 years. Kids resist natural shifts from one developmental stage to the next. We seen it with both of our kids they're clearly ready to move fully into the next stage whether it's walking sleeping through the night or taking milk from a bottle. They have all the tools. And it's safer to remain in the stage where they are. Uncomfortable. We do this as adults too. We stay in jobs or relationships are homes that we clearly outgrown. Only because we're afraid of what might come next. Because their safety. Insecurities and. And change even when we're fairly sure what is next is likely be better. Involves uncertainty. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it is important to stand pat. The challenge in front of us right now is a church and in our lives there lee frequent. It's. Choose to risk what is. For the purpose of making room for what can. I look forward to us living into our answers.

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20180325-service-2.mp3

Love the roman goddess diana. Part of my fascination with her is the fact that she is associated with the moon with forest with animals. And these are all things i've loved my whole life and they continue to serve as spiritual inspirations for me. Partylite fascination is heard ocean. Like the one behind me and the one in front of me where she appears. Graceful and powerful often accompanied by animals as in this image sheer with a stag statue is my own i brought from home it looks a lot bigger at home. It's not so tall among these ceilings but nonetheless between me and it is filled my prius. I also have a few oil paintings in probably about 30 some prints and lithographs but i thought my car was already full enough. Another part of my fascination with diana is also inexplicable sometimes we like to things we do because we do it's it's emotional it's intuitive. So there's a paradox here. I can partly rationally explain why i love diana on one hand. Yet on the other part of my love is based solely on emotional and instinctual attraction. Something i can't adequately explain to others. This is not a contradiction for me. A contradiction is something that is difficult or even impossible to rectify. A paradox however. A pair of something that at first glance might seem a contradiction but upon further investigation or explanation. May indeed prove to be well-founded or compatible or true. Now if i limited myself to thinking in a binary. That something can be explained rationally. Or i can be explained emotionally that would produce a contradiction. However when i allow myself to step into paradox and allow these two things to come together in the middle. They not only become reconcilable. But they open up a new place for me to stand spiritually. Bracey i consider myself. A religious humanist. How many of the people who identify with either the word religion or humanism. They more than likely do not identify with the other words sing it as a contradiction. That's the symbol that was up there part of this one was a venn diagram. Once we had two white circles and where they overlap and intersected it was red. Now if you are religious and living one white circle or you're a humanist and you live in the other white circle. Prior for those theological positions the other maiden indeed be a contradiction. A humanist. Might say i reject supernatural explanations therefore i do not practice a religion. Individuals who embrace the religion is a while i do embrace supernatural explanations and that's why i'm religious and not a humanist like those would be exclusionary and contradictory. So i'm calling myself religious humanist. Am i am i trying to live out of contradiction putting together two ideas that don't make sense and don't belong together. No for me religious humanism is not a competition it's a paradox. I do not love diana is a literal and real goddess of supernatural powers who's who's out there somewhere. I don't have any issue with someone who does. But to me that does not make rational sense. That's my human aside. I favor rational natural and scientific explanations of reality. But the same time i love diana as an archetype. A symbolic representative of nature. Of the moon a forest of animals. These are all things that i adore and they helped him for my green and vegan ethics. An author with a pen name natural pantheist wrote in the book godless paganism. The pagan gods do not need to be literal supernatural beings living out there in the universe somewhere. For them to be inspirational and meaningful to those of us who honor the earth. And i agree with natural pantheist. That feels right to me too. I cannot offer a particularly convincing explanation to others or why this is so. And that's the religious side of me. So religious humanism is about bringing. An emotional and spiritual element to our experience of the universe. But without embracing supernatural explanations. Each of those things is enhanced by the other. So for me. Spirituality in humidity do not negate. Or oppose one another. They complement one another. When i allow myself to step into the paradox between them. Non-theist pagan author stossel morgan appel also in the book godless paganism and i brought my copy with me if you're curious later she wrote in the book that there are many ways to define that which is sacred or greater than yourself. So if we only define non theism as the opposite of belief in god. That merely uses the antithesis of theism to create a contradictory binary. Cystoscopy organelle. Because monopoly is and will be much better understood. As a paradoxical continuum. Containing many possibilities. Not an either-or binary. I'm so far are going back to our bend diagram where the two white circles overlap. In that red circle there are many possibilities many spiritual possibilities to standing. The idea that religion is a binary. That either you have it in your over here with the fears or you do not have it in your over here with the ac is this is cultural inheritance from the evangelical nature of christianity. When christianity either you're in our circle while you're out of our circle right there's truth and wear it and their spouse missed everything else. But this is sumption sets up a false binary between season and atheism. Natural and scientific understanding of the universe are not necessarily incompatible with religious or spiritual ones. Or at least they are not for those of us who identify as religious humanists. Religious naturalist non-theist pagans and there are a host of other potential synonyms of the complexity of where you can stand in that paradoxical middle. That are even many terms to go along with it. Not everyone who embraces humanism or religion is going to agree with me or with natural pantheist or with star simone appel that's okay. None of us are attempting to evangelize all theus and non-theist to step into the paradoxical middle. What we are doing and what religious human us are attempting to do for others. Is to highlight that by embracing paradox it presents us with a meaningful spiritual place to stand one that didn't exist before. If we only look at the binary. There's no room for us. We would not enjoy that same sense of spirituality and wonder and awe. Without standing in the paradox. What what what about other situations are there other times when embracing a paradox. Might be helpful. But what about right and wrong. First nations author and poet louise erdrich wrote. Right and wrong wear shades of meaning. Not sides of a coin. About a year ago a friend and i were having a phone conversation. She was struggling with the loss of her mother but more than that at the same time she lost her mother she became estranged from her son. What had happened is that at the time of her mother's passing she had distributed jewelry. Your mother's jewelry to some of the people that were there. Singer's mother do that her son exploded and accused her being cold and having no respect. Being materialistic doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Now maybe her son didn't respond in the best way and handle it the best way but i imagine many of us are probably at least partly sympathetic to how i was feeling. Maybe someones deathbed is not the best time to be getting their property away. However. My friend had been at her mother's side the longest it was in a different place emotionally than everyone else in the room. For her the worst of her grief and letting go and come before her mother's passing. Passing on the jury had been something her mother had requested. So from my friends point of view she thought well. Passing under during now when people are grieving could be comforting michael have something. Materialistic that they can hold in their hands from their grandmother or their hand she's not well this could be a source of comfort. So far heard felt like the right time right place. And if we were in her place and that was where we were. I imagine many of us might see ourselves doing the same thing. So both of them felt that their point of view. Was the right point of view but not only that. Obviously so right. Everyone would agree with me my my perception of the situation is the right perception. And in that. Understandably emotionally-charged. Situation. Someone's death their argument about the situation and gotten ugly. And they stop talking. So the opportunity to explain. How they perceive the situation and then allow the other person to respond oh i could understand why you. Conversation about cure my intentions here was how it impacted me in a back-and-forth. Instead of just love led to a split. My phone called my friend was several weeks after this at all transpired. And after she explained the whole story to me is i just did to you i responded by saying. No i totally understood. Why she did as she did and i was actually understood why she was hurt by that and by her son's response. And she as you could imagine was very glad that i stood with her and support her and said she was right. I then continued saying i totally understood why her son might find it peculiar or even offensive be handing out his grandmother's jewelry out of that pit. And she was less. Real that i then said he was riding stood with him. But. It seems to me that both of their interpretations of the situation were right. From where each of them were at that time. There didn't seem to be a single right and a single wrong in this situation in it in a clear binary. And given when this had happened. Behind the circumstances in which that incident happened right it was helpful for them to have a neutral third-party help them unlock. The impasse that they had. We can understand how two people. In a in a tragic and in an emotionally heavy situation like someone's death. Could have gotten locked into a binary right i'm right there totally wrong and the other person was singing reverse. In-n-out contradictory matter. But it took stepping into the paradox of the situation where rightness and wrongness became much more complex a both and situation. And not a binary that was composed simply of an ore. Like there's a right or a wrong. And when. My phone was able to do that and step into the paradox and make right and wrong more complex and complicated. That's okay she was able to appreciate the intent and the impact of as she had done as well as. When situations involve people and values we care a great deal about. It's so easy to slip into. Thinking in a binary. My son case of right and wrong we all want to be right don't we. Oftentimes so very easy to convince ourselves yes we're 1% right. They're one hundred percent wrong. Are there times where it. Lays out that cleaning sure what's wrong or that simple. Mclean. But. Life is also very complex and paradoxical. And there are times where there are only rights or only wrongs or. Potential combinations in between. In the meditation. I provide a quote from a theologian paul tillich. Life remains ambiguous. As long as there is life indeed. To exist to be human. Means that we live in ambiguity and paradox. Now if. Something like right and wrong can exist in a paradoxical relationship. But what about some other aspects of our lives. Are there other things that might be better understood. As a paradox and not as a binary. What about. Success and failure. How many times do we try to do something and the very first time it's perfect we meet with success. Not very often right. So. Pathways to success are often combined with failure like the two of them exist in a paradoxical relationship. What about. Having dreams. And the responsibilities that those dreams can have. Let's say. You're pursuing a dream career like being a minister last night. And it takes a lot of work and dedication and time. And you finally get there and then guess what it's a whole lot of work and it's hard and it brings a lot of responsibility. There's lots of aspects of adulthood. That are like that right. And they bring pleasure but also responsibility at the same time. How about blessings and challenges. So i did a certain practice about a week ago and. The folks who were there we did some brainstorming about going to water some other everyday examples of a paradox. And one. That occurred was there was blessings and challenges. I asked robin set. Hey is it a blessing to have three children under the age of four. And he said yes it sure is. I said is it a challenge to have three children under the age of four. It said yes it is. Those two things can exist at 1 in the same time as well. Now what are. Everyday paradoxes maybe are going to change based on who we are. What kind of life we have with our idiosyncrasies are excetera. But the fact that we live in a paradox. If we all put our minds to it there are many ways that we live in paradoxes. And an ambiguity on a regular basis. Toy company owner and speaker on creativity rodger von x said this quote. Take advantage of the ambiguity in the world. Look at something and think what else it might be. So when we take a binary. And it said step into the middle into the paradox of it we create something new for ourselves. A new range of possibilities out of the old binary. That left us with just. Two options. There are times in our lives we're embracing paradox might be the most meaningful place to stand in a situation. And i wish for all of us is that we we might fine or not fine. Those paradoxes in our lives. That grant us new blessings. And new meanings. So be it. And so maybe.

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20160501-service.mp3

There is a certain joy in creating together. Certainly there's a joy on creating on your own mother at the painting knitting web design or any other creative endeavor. And there is a particular joy to be found in creating something beautiful. Together. There is a dance and interplay and exchange of ideas and meaning and emotion. Whether it's cooking a meal together or singing in the choir. Collaborating on creativity. Means listening and paying attention to what others are doing. So that you can contribute. In harmony to the greater whole. Educational downside of reading together is that sometimes we can worry too much about how good we are. I sometimes worry that others will judge us perhaps on our skill or are supposed are supposed lack thereof. The thing is that fear of judgment from the outside is usually far greater than the actual amount of judging happening. Even worse than all of that. Is the fear of judge is the even worse than the fear of judgment from the outside. Is when we judge ourselves. I remember talking to my uncle on the phone one time when i was 14 or 15. I've been learning to play the flute for about six or seven years at that point and become reasonably good at it. A certain point in the conversation my uncle asked. How were you able to stick it out. I've been trying to learn to play the guitar he said and i've been taking lessons for about a month. But i just keep getting discouraged i sound. Terrible. Didn't have to think long and hard about my response. Uncle jake it's taken me years to get this go to playing the flute you're not going to get there in a month. You're going to have to practice for a long time before you get really good at it. And i kind of wanted to add onto the end of that well duh. Fortunately even as a fourteen-year-old i had enough sense to leave that part out. But the dog in my head came from the fact that it never once occurred to me that i was sticking it out. As a kid i didn't have the stuff that's in my uncle ad. I was just having fun learning and playing. Henry miller wrote. Everyday we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we got a heartache when we reviewed those lines written by the hand of a master. And recognize them as our own. At the tender shoots which we stifle because we lacked the face. I believe in our own powers our own criterion of truth. We are all kings all poets all musicians would have only to open up. Discover what is already there. We are all kings and queens. All poets are musicians. If only to open up. Discover what is already there. Those are words to live by. As we have received the shared feed tivity of musician so far this morning. As we share in creating music by singing hymns together. As we are blessed with a musical offerings yet to come. Maybe be inspired to find that place of judgement free creativity within ourselves. Whether it's individual collaborative or both. There is joy and goodness to be found in the simple act. You are king you are queen you are a poet or a musician you're a painter you're a knitter you're a sculptor. You are a maker of all things new. You. A creative. May you open up to discover. What is already there.

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20180429-service-1.mp3

God window to god. Divine source. Mother. Love symbol. Source of mysticism. Mystery. Truth enigma muse beauty. Law. Science. Universe. Infinity. As we discovered during our meditation these are the ways in which some of our you you and you you and sisters. Have described their relationship with nature. The relationship to nature rangers from the theist to the mystical to the poetic. To the scientific. For each of them nature is a higher power in some manner. Even amid their theological diversity. What is nature for you. A big blue marble of astronomical wonder. A source of divinity. Immoral and social justice passion. A goddess. Creative and spiritual inspiration. Or even a means of thinking about our seventh principle and the interdependent web of life. Could be that your spiritual relationship to nature is something you're still figuring out. Nature may not be a big part of your spiritual life at the moment. But whether or not i've named her relationship with nature or it's something that still. Emerging. Nature is something that can have a place across the theological spectrum. New congregation sometimes struggle with their theological diversity. And rather than zeroing in on those places where we don't agree and the nastiest non-theist divide certainly comes first to mine for me. Rather than seeing it on that perhaps we would be better off celebrating those things that we share in common. And nature is a. Theological spiritual artistic. Scientific environmental point of connection for us. A place where the fiesta nana non-theist. The mystics in the poets. The humanist an ecologist can all agree that. There is something. Worth adoring about nature. That there is something special in our relationship with nature. That nature is worth honoring. It's worth respecting. It's worth saving. So wherever you may be theologically and whatever your relationship with nature maybe. Nature can potentially be a place where we can come together. And agree that nature is. Something special. Even as we each do so in. Our own way. My my wisely and i began referring to nature as our higher power summer years ago is we both came to identify ourselves as religious humanists and non-theist pagans. We go out of our way to be green as much as we can we. Have attended written and hosted many pagan rituals across the seasonal calendar. We rent a condo across from hayes arboretum in richmond even of the rents a little bit higher than elsewhere in richmond so that we can have a view of a forest right out our front window. Also means we have no excuse to get some exercise and walk regularly in nature cuz it's right out our front door. Some of those walks and nature of a tick really magical. Have one that came to mind as i was writing the sermon was. As we were we were at. Walking on the top of the ravine and we were coming around a bend. And as we did so there's a lot of ground cover as we did so we surprised a buck who is on the trail munching on some of the ground cover. I was probably you know no further from him then than i am to you. Now i didn't really enjoy startling him but i did enjoy getting to be that close to a book is it. Bolted away. So that's one particular instance that comes to mind but. Every time we go it's magical to us. I'm being under the canopy. The trees listening to birds insect in the wind often times it was a sunny day it looks. Something like that right with rays of light coming through in it and almost magical way. So calling nature higher power is something we've grown comfortable with and it accurately describes the the mystery of the the reverence that we feel. For nature and her creatures even though we don't. You so in a supernatural way. Has the term higher powers been popularized by alcoholics anonymous and other 12-step programs. So you may associate. The term higher power with god. And that's because most people entrusted programs just like most people our country our question right so for most people higher power means god but. 4 people in 12-step programs and elsewhere higher power need not mean that. So there are plenty of people in 12-step programs and elsewhere that think of higher powers love or service or. Music. Science nature of the universe humanity. Higher power to mean anything that gives you a sense of wonder a sense of all. Sense of purpose of something greater than yourself. That's so my choice of the term higher power was purposeful. Because it accurately describe my personal relationship with nature. But more than that. I chose it because it's a concept that can hold multiple theological viewpoint sad wants. So whatever your relationship to nature maybe i think it can fit within. Idea of a higher power. One of our unitarian ancestors who expressed a love for nature the higher power was writer poet and philosopher. Ralph. Waldo emerson. Heated sofa mysterious perspective for him religion could be found at the intersection of three things of nature. Of our spirits and of words. So for emerson our spirits all come from a common he called it in oversoul. Actually saw that as the spirit of the universe the spirit of nature. And you wrote quote. Man is conscious of the universal soul within or behind his individual life. Where in. As in a firmament. The natures of justice true love. Freedom arise & shine. It's universal soul he calls recent. It is not mine or line or his but we are it's. We are at the property and men. And the blue sky and which the private earth is buried. The sky with its eternal calm. Full of everlasting orbs is the type of reason. That which intellectually considered we call reason. Considered in relationship to nature recall spirit. Spirit is the creator. Spirit hath life itself. And kroger. That's what i'm saying is it's our spirits use their own reason their spiritual reason and engage nature. Symbols intuitively come to us and we then. Passwords to the symbols. Which is where language comes from. So as we research and we strive to gain knowledge of nature that's religion that spirituality. And that knowledge then puts us in touch emerson says with the ideal with a capital i. The spirit of nature with the divine. And ultimately it puts us in touch with ourselves with others as well because we all come from that common oversoul. Sociological emerson was certainly a serious but we could also call him a pantheist. Because happiest makes no distinction between nature and the divine they're one in the same. The pantheist theism is all and all is theism. God is not an answer perfect being out there somewhere trying to send it but. In the universe. Emerson was a nature adora nastiest crime scene 2. Two things as i can't record. Loving nature was to love divine. I love the divine was to love nature. The author are reading all the leopold. Was not unitarian universalist or you you but he is. Ecological ancestor of all. He was a professor at the university of wisconsin and the first half of the 20th century is best known for his book. Sand called sand county almanac published 1949. And the reading that bill but earlier came from that book. Leopold writings had a huge impact on how our culture views land. And wilderness and wildlife. You called for a redesign of our relationship to nature and land. He stated that extending ethics to our relationships with nature was an evolutionary possibility and an echo logical necessity. It's turning point came when he was working for the forest service. Happily shooting wolves and mountain lions as he was told to do because they were pests. That destroyed the economic resources we cared about livestock and deer. But on one particular day and bill share dissing the reading one particular day. After you shot a wolf. He looked in her eyes and saw what he described as a green fire dying. And he had any tiffany about nature and how humans. Had made many many mistaken understandings of nature. And of animals and our relationship with them. Instead of dominating nature and ridding it of those things that seemed less. Useful from a human-centered point of view. Leopold asserted that all elements of an ecosystem are necessary. And they're valuable and they're all interdependent. So all species predator or prey. Plant insect mammal weather useful to humans are not. Spell contribute to a healthy ecosystem. Azar video story for today demonstrated quite well. So that the well-being of a species dependent on the health of a whole ecosystem just as a whole ecosystem depend on the hell. David species. Leopold was influenced by emerson and others and seeing nature as alive and worthy of respect. On its own terms. Reticulated a spiritual relationship in nature that borrowed emerson emerson symphysis on intuition. He wrote. Possibly and are into two perceptions which may be truer than our science and less impeded by words in our philosophies. We realize the indivisibility of the earth. Soil mountains. Rivers forest. Climate plants and animals. And respected correctly not only as a useful servant. But as a living being. Vastly less arrived at ourselves and agree with fastly greater than ourselves. In time and space. But being that was old when the morning stars sang together. From the last of us has been gathered on his father's. Stupid young. The opold invited us to. Think like a mountain. To think beyond our short-term human-centered economic self-interest. And instead think about the long-term. Psychological interest of our planet. And the life that shares the planet with us. Now what he said was not some spiritual mumbo-jumbo from a a tree hugger as a masara environmentalists are often derogatorily called. What he spoke was both a spiritual and scientific truth. That scientific truth was demonstrated for us in. Arcadia florist today the wolves. At the time leopold was alive the terms religious humanists or religious naturalist we're not in currency. But based on what he wrote and what his family said about him. That would be an accurate way to describe his theology. Premium nature was a source of. All in wonder and beauty. I saw it as a as a colossal life-form greater than. Any other. But his. Adoration and admiration of nature did not move toward supernatural explanations and theism or panties mm. He remained a non-theist. Even as he loved nature and spiritual and ecologically terms. So emerson. On the one hand a poet and a pantheist. And leopold on the other an ecologist a religious humanist. Both viewed nature as a higher power. But in the wrong way. Reverence for the earth. Environmental passion and concern for the interdependent web of life. Of which we are part. Is ford vs. It is for nazis and it's for everyone in between. May we all think like a mountain for nature's sake. So as we return to our lives this week i encourage us all to consider. Are spiritual and echo logical relationships with nature. How might we think like a mountain. For the deep and broad sweeping view of ecology and nature. How can we treat nature as a higher power. Regardless of our own physiology. How might we change how we live. To reduce. Article article footprints. How can we impact those cultural narratives at sealand and animals as mere resources. What can we do to honor nature and this belated birthday. Like the wolves in yellowstone we each effect. How the river flows. And nature.

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20190804-service.mp3?_=5

This poem entitled lead. Here is a story to break your heart. Are you willing. This winter the loons came to our harbor and died one by one of nothing we could see. A friend told me of one on the shore that lifted its head and opened the elegant beak. And cried out and the long sweet savoring. Of its life which if you have heard it. You know it's a secret. And for which if you have not heard it you had better hurry to where they still seeing. And believe me tell no one. Just where that is. The next morning this slough inspect golden iridescent and with a plan to fly home to some hidden lake. Was dad on the shore. I tell you this to break your heart by which i mean only. But it break open and never closed again. To the rest. Of the world. Perhaps like me when hearing this poem you can think of the times of great beauty and your life. Things you've seen that are almost like miracles. And the times that the beauty has broken open your heart. I make it never closed again to the rest of the world. The world all around us and it's natural splendor and glory that you can witness. Around this building. And you're on my. And in this world this world offers us moments of beauty and love and justice if only we but make ourselves. Vulnerable and willing to share in those moments of ray. I have post-it notes in my office and my home even at times on my computer. And they're just little things to remind me to do the things that i most commonly forget like drink more water. The latest one that i've added just says eyes open mcneil. Izo. Like the story for all ages that we shared earlier we can fall and often look down work to make sure that doesn't happen again. But with eyes open we can share and those moments of grace and that's what we do when we come to this place. To create a religious community together. Bound not just buy familial bonds not just buy one. Theology or creative that pulls us together. Actively choosing to be with one another. In times of joys and sorrows as we like candles with one another. To share big moments of finding. Truth and our lives in unraveling stories of. Creating new relationships and taking them further. When we come together as a religious community we pull ourselves out of our homes are little localized universes. And wake up and somewhere. I love one of our gathering comes wake now my senses. Because i often feel as though the only way to get through life especially in this time and age is just to look down and keep going almost as though i'm sleeping. And yet being together with other people with whom i shared values and hope little different experiences. Enables me to wake up. To find. A new sense of perspective. To see injustice and places that felt like normal life or privileged life. For me. And to work together for something bigger. Then only i confession. This my friends is ministry. Ministry in its broad sense not just professional ministry that i might bring our others but ministry and being open and companioning the world through its hard moments. As well as its joyous mom. That's a ministry that is. Each of our. The priesthood and prophethood of all believers means that we share in this together and that we take risks with one another. To listen to our own stories and share them. To be willing to listen to the stories of others and hold space for it even an imperfection. Ministry this thing we do on sunday mornings as well as sunday evening since route the week and small groups. Social justice meetings and actions throughout the community. When it's coffee between parents were struggling. We're friends we're dealing with an illness. It's about meeting one another with a listening ear. So that we may hear the more sacred truth within our story. Pickleback the howard thurman. Give me the listening ear let me hear. Not. Just my own wants and desires. What might your not shrink from the word that corrects or admonishes or holds up before me the image that causes me to pause and reconsider. The one i have the hardest with if you're wondering. But image that makes me pause and think is this real. Is this who i want to be and who i plan to be and how can i change that. And the meditation that howard thurman rides. He talks about ways that we can seek stimulation out of old rocks and established habits. So that we look beyond our own personal interest and needs. Thurman encapsulate one of the keys to a life fully lived. That is beholding a life which seems natural and ordinary. Mundane. And finding the holy with them. Anything in this world we can find something sacred and holy. The mission of our liberal religious tradition expressed uniquely here in muncie as well as in bloomington and cities throughout the country and world. In homes that are disconnected from congregation. Our faith calling is to examine life as it is. Recognizing what it could be what it ought to be if the world were just. Being present to life as it is and working to find the holy in there. And working for justice. Towards our goals and dreams of the world being made fair and all her people want. Therein lies some of the truth that i find from the reading karen so graciously offered from the rev susan frederick gray. This is no time. For casual fan. Bedfellow abundantly true when i've been working on the sermon for a little while now. That felt true this morning as i turned on actually didn't have to turn it on and went down to breakfast with my little ones and the hotel and the news was already on public news of yet another mass shooting. Not in el paso yesterday but once since then and dayton. This is no time. For a casual fan. Climate change affecting our world in greater and greater ways violence and homes and streets and cities and schools poverty and lack of access to housing. Sewer and water. The gravity of the problems we face pull as down-to-earth so frequently that we find ourselves avoiding the sacred holy mountain that we could and just looking around. Arguing over where something special is located. Unable. To look at. That gravity of the problems we face. The pressure exist on us all the same you've been sometimes when it feels like there's so much happening that we become numb. Wake now my senses indeed. With justice that guide our vision of ministry clear. Wait our senses to the world around us. The reverend sean neil barron offers this integrated this to pause for the shooting. And dayton. El paso when i'm gilroy. Sean writes there are not enough candles in the world. If we were to light one for each death for each man gunned down each trans person attacked. Every woman left battered every child caught in the crossfire. For every family starve by sanctions and every militant massacred. If each time this happened we gathered all together massing converging on town square on common green and internet chat room. With only by the faint dancing light of a candle. Together lamenting. Together rejoicing in the life that still lives there would not be enough candle. At first there would be ron's to the stores to buy them a new practice taken up with vigor shelves left baron. Determined remembrance for each departed. At first. After a while though. It would just be another item to buy on the grocery list. Every night gathering together to read yet another set of names. Each night would bleed into the next even still there are not enough. Handles. Part of me he writes wishes we would engage in this lamat. Part of me wishes those who sell the guns and make the guns and passed the policies and deploy the troops and other racist harmful words with all be there. But slowly the names with smooth away the rationalizations the false projections twisted logic and false hopes the idealistic dreams that all dwell within the violin. I know. There are not enough candles. In the world. This is indeed a time. No time for casual faith. We come into this place made sacred by our very being by the souls and stories that we shoulder and share along the way. We come here. And in so doing save one another's lives. Arcana worship came from vanessa southern she had a lecture when she created into an article in the uu world magazine sent out by the unitarian universalist association. She starts by recounting these words from another minister kay northcutt. K had a difficult time getting to a seminar she was sick it took a team of doctors to get her there. It was a powerful moment for vanessa and others. This is what k said to 400 uu ministers. You are lifesaver. You are mosaic makers called to put together broken bit. I bet. Creating patterns of beauty and meaning out of pain and loss. Vanessa southern takes those words further. Lifesafer. Mosaic. And a smaller seminar gathered leader the speaker kay northcutt said did you hear me did you hear me say that you. Are the hope. The world. It was this she had come so far to say. That she had made so much personal sacrifice. To say. Day after shootings el paso and dayton. You cannot tell me that this world doesn't need the hope that we bear. And bring together in this community. Perhaps you've come to this place and have had your life saved in the process taking broken bits of your life and putting them back together through small group ministry. Pastoral care by lay people in professional. Buy kids and youth connecting. We need hope in this world whether it's from our own personal lives as we struggle with illness. Addiction to substances addictions to the things that harm us. As we struggle with job loss. Or what our role is in the world. We need hope as we celebrate our successes and come together. We need help in this larger world if we are to face those challenges i mentioned and more the social justice work to what you all are committed around our climate. Safety for folks. We're gay lesbian bisexual and or trans. We are to truly named the black lives matter in this world we need ho. Southern gives us that hope but also calls us. She writes it is time to declare a moratorium on mere caretaking of our communities. It's time to ask each congregation to find. And serve its greatness. Or shot it. Find and find and find again you're great. Explore what high demand life looks like among us because in my experience this is vanessa writing this is what people come to us looking for. And their moments of pain and struggle they come looking. For high-demand. Religious community. What is our greatness she asked what is our greatness in this day and in this age where is the place where we set about knitting the world back. Into a unified whole. Loving the world and it's hurt places where do we focus our efforts at resurrection. Cns by saying we need nothing less than to reclaim that spirit. Beer sonorous. Unleashed by people who know that life is either at daring adventure or nothing. Who build congregations with no bleacher seats. And no time for spectators. People who will face the roiling seas and real or imagined dragons to carry themselves and their congregation to a land of milk and honey. Where there is no room. Small tree. Whatever the dreams you bring into this place your own about this religious community about muncie. The county the state the world around us whatever they are we recognize that they are big dreams. They take courage to name. And pursue. Often find myself called to the work of brene brown many of you are familiar with her with workaround daring greatly. Recently she released a netflix special the call to courage and courage is one of those things i find myself struggling with on a daily basis it's a post-it note. And so i appreciate that you told the story of she and her partner swimming i think in a lake or maybe across the river and they were really struggling to connect to felt like her partner was not paying her any attention whatsoever. I finally she stopped and she said look the story i'm telling myself. About what happening is that you don't find me attractive. But you're not connecting with me. And it turned out that night her partner had this dream this terrible nightmare. Of something taking down their kids into the water and him not being able to save the kids or himself or her until he was focused. Like the people at our story for all ages he was looking down. Unable to see the beauty that was around and make human connection looking down for a reason. Wanting to keep himself in his loved ones safe. That moment of risk the brene brown talk and saying look. I don't know what's going on for you but here's the story i'm telling myself. Has been life-saving. For me. Since i've heard. The pause for a moment and check into say is this your reality cuz this is what i'm thinking. This is what i think is going on. My hope is that. We just get a cherry universalists know that our lives are more manageable when we connect with others are paying is easier to bear when carried across the backs of others the tears may not be lessened but they're held and cared for when we can cry on the shoulders of friends and colleagues. Toys are magnified when their witness and celebrated by those who loved us and our smiles are exponentially brighter. And our laughs are exponentially louder when we combine them together. Alone. We can do a lot. But together so much more unimaginable. Something greater than the sum of its paw. The bonds we need to make it through life or not just limited to family. We get to grow and choose our our family our chosen family our friends teams communities to which we relate and commit. That's a religious community are bonds extend not just one another in these walls. Are bonds extend to the past. Into the future. How we are as a religious community how we create and sustain this community. It's not just about us do howwefeel matter. We are the heirs of a heritage of liberal religious community. Just as we are also the generation that will gracefully pass along this fade. To those who will come after. We are links in a chain connecting past to present. To the perspective. This is indeed no time. For casual fan. The reverend susan frederick ray said it best. Is going to turn universalist we are first and foremost religious communities that practice law. As our foundation. We are living in times of heartbreak violence in pain and in this time we need communities the remind us. Of our humanity. Not our perfections. Now what we wish the world was like. Our. Humanity. We all have a role to play she rides and making a stronger commitment to build something new in our communities. To make a stronger commitment to nurture healthy radically inclusive communities. And the powerful practice of this faith that helps us build a courageous and fierce and body.. The song filter problems i list. The things the challenge up in our hearts and in the world around us. We need a courageous. And fierce embodied. With that sense of hope and courage of risk-taking and resilience. I invite you all to join me. And singing together are closing hymn. Number 1008. When our heart is in a holy place.

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20160911-service-mp3.mp3

Today. September 11th 2016. Marks the 15th anniversary of the attacks that brought down the twin towers in new york. And destroy the section of the pentagon. Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks including close to 500 rescuer. Life in new york and the rest of our country. Was turned upside down.. Let's take a moment of silence now to remember and honor all those who lost their life. Without minimizing in anyway of the horrors and loss of life of that day. We're quitting very different magnitudes of the events. The anniversary of 911 calls me and this month when our theme is change. To reflect on how we handle the deep and intense impact. Stepson insignificant change has on our lives. A parent dies and there's a hole in the world. That can never be. Speer laid off or fired at work and our life of financial stability and relative comfort is upended. With no guarantees of a normalcy will return. Are significant other announces out-of-the-blue that our relationship or marriage is ended and that they are moving. Or we arrive home at the end of the day to find that our home or apartment has been broken into. And many of our prized possessions are. Escort ackers maybe a sexual assault. And we struggle with trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. When am i you you call exam minister had her house get struck by lightning a couple of weeks ago and it burned to the ground. To think we no one was hurt. And of course folks in louisiana right now we're still struggling with the aftermath of immense flooding. But many of them losing their homes and most if not all of their possessions. Even lower level events can cause it to feel like our safe of safety is up ended. A car accident maybe you've only minor injuries. But not the feeling that your life's passed in front of your eyes for maintenance. Are your boss explodes and yells at you and work in front of the entire office for being 5 minutes late. Or your child falls off a playground hits their head and gets a concussion. Too often more often than we'd like external events things beyond our control change our lives. Change our country's change our community. And make some difference. Wilmington field. But the loss is tangible things or relationships are people gone that have been there just before. For the more intangible loss of our sense of safety and control. The world is changed. Sometimes the impact such as in the case of 911 is immense and long-lasting. And sometimes the impact itself as more impermanent. And shorts. But the sense of discomfort. Anxiety. Anger or any other number of emotions that we might feel. Those are very real. Imagine if another story for all ages this morning there had been no kind desert to convince the screen to choose to evaporate into the wind. Imagine how the stream might have felt. The story of the stream flowing down the mountain right overcoming obstacles along the way but getting stuck at the desert. And the kindly and wise desert to just a stream. But the wind. Imagine now in the sudden change version of the story the one that more offense real life perhaps more of a real-life perhaps there is no kindly desert the stream flows down the mountain reaches the desert. And then the winter right up out of thin air without even asking. I think i'd be pretty freaked out if the windows lifted me up out of nowhere and started carrying me across a desert. In his book transitions making sense of life's changes author william bridges argues that the most important factor in our ability to deal with difficult external changes that are permanent. And nature is how we process them internally. Schedule device three stages of processing that we all must go through. When there's an external change from which there is no going back. First we have to accept and let go of what is ended. Let me go through middle neutral modeling time uncertainty. And then we embrace newbie. Job. They're usually not going back to that you have to let it end. And then find a new beginning. Expanding this concept to include events and experiences that are less permanent but still impact our sense of safety and security results in a slightly modified three stages. When faced with external events that changes in our lives and impact our sense of safety and security. We must first fuel our way through our feelings so we can accept what happened. Then moves to the middle ground of uncertainty in healing. And then finally we begin again. Sometimes beginning again means a new fresh start and a different circumstance. Sometimes beginning again means beginning again in love. But the same people. In the same place. With compassion and empathy for each other and they gathered camille. Resilience. That is what that tree the 911 survivor tree the last living thing rescued from the ruins of the world trade center complex. Resilience is what that tree shows us. Resilience the ability to recover from or just easily to misfortune or chain. Change as merriam-webster's dictionary definition tells us. Resilience the ability to weather the storm and bounce back strong. Perhaps not coincidentally one of the images offered up in the daodejing that was in the secret text is that of the tree weathering the storm. Resilience. And the importance of flexibility are one of the central philosophical tenets of taoism. And in this example two different trees are observed. One that has grown stiff and hard and rigid with a visible appearance of strength. All the other remain soft and supple and somewhat flexible. And perhaps less imposing. When the storm comes though when the wind is blowing with all its might as strong as the rigid tree might have appeared the wind ultimately snaps it into. As strong as the wind might try but the flexible tree though it cannot break it. Wind blow so hard that ends the tree all the way over so the top touches the ground. But this apple tree. Does not pray. Eventually the storm fades away in the tree remains minus some of its leaves of course but the core of it intact. Ready to straighten up again and embrace the return. Episode. Resilient. A mother daodejing shows the rigid tree is breaking the amazing power of nature shows us that even in that case even when it might appear that the tree is dead that nature entry's offer us other ways to be rich. 911 tree had its branches broken or shattered destroyed by an incredible outside force. And it found its own way to gross and rissa. To me this doesn't diminish the dallas metaphor rather enhancers and defensive. Resiliency is vital to life and it can take many forms. the out f**** ability and outlasting the storm or new growth in the face of destruction. Press human beings resilience is similar in theory perhaps but perhaps a little bit different in practice don't think anybody's going to be growing any new singers are thumbs. Smj ryan notes in her book how to survive change that you didn't ask for. Resilience experts and researchers have learned that human resilience quote comes from a commitment to finding meaning in what's happening to you about leaf in your capacity to create a positive outcome. The willingness to grow. And the choice to laugh and be great. 12 cincinnati only path resilience as a potentially powerful one. And our church and unitarian universalism seems perfectly aligned to help us create that sense of resiliency and. Having a commitment to find meaning and what's happening to you. Meaning making is one of the primary tasks of our congregation reflecting the part of our mission statement the cause us to explore our face. We come from many things community and learning healing and of course. Meaning make. Can reflect upon the changes that are forced upon us in our lives. Often and dialogue within the mother support of other members of the community. We can come to make a meeting. Deeper challenge. Living justice another part of our mission certainly implies a sense of hope for a positive outcome. We don't have glasses that are too far rose-colored. We tend to try and see that there are problems in the world. And we do the work to help make a. In terms of willingness to learn and grow we've got two principles for that. The third principal cause us to encourage spiritual growth in our congregations in the 4th of course calls us to a free and responsible search. The last item on ryan's list is a good reminder for us as we continue on our ethical and spiritual journeys. Gratitude and laughter are indeed choices we need to make to improve our lives and improve the war. The rain also offers one more component of resiliency that is important to remember. When faced with a need to change or having changes forced upon us resilient folks are able to adapt without losing their center. And that was an again offers us inside as we ponder this number form of reflections on water. Water in addition to being flexible and adaptable. Never loses its initial form and structure. Now external forces often create change in the life of water right. Whether it's cold forcing water to freeze or heat causing water to evaporate or gravity causing waterfall or soil causing water to disperse water retains its form its basic inherent identity. No matter the changes to its former. Because i sweetheart steam and call it rain we see it disappear into the ground. And yet given the right conditions the ice will melt the steam will condense puddles and streams grow and aqua fires formed. Water remains water at its core. No matter the external factors no matter how extreme. So it wasn't our story for all ages this morning with the stream being carried by the wind and deposited on a new mountain. The form again. So what is for water ever so. And so it is for us but change for the change forced upon us is permanent or temporary. With permanent change we must find ways to bring our true selves our true beliefs values and ways of being. Into our new situations. With temporary change we often must remind ourselves of the same. In the face of this difficulty how do i remain true to myself and when i believe is good and right in this world. Permanent or temporary change calls us to adapt and respond while keeping our essence the most important parts of us intact. And engaged. And things happen. Really really terrible things happen that should never happen. And day-to-day bad things that are still uncomfortable difficult anon good also happened to. And we are forced to change either permanently or temporarily. And we are always forced to respond. How we do so matters. Matters a great deal to us and how we experience our lives as well as to the world. If we can respond with love and care and empathy for ourselves and for others we can begin to heal the wounds that they are small or giant gaping holes in one of our most prominent cities. If we can respond with love care and empathy. Bikini can begin to heal the wounds in our spirits and our souls and our national understanding. Dear anxiety. Hurt anger. These are all natural reactions. They're not to be repressed or avoid it. We have to feel them and then move past them if we are to make the world the way we want it and eat it too. We have to feel them. And responding with love and respond with love and care even when we're still hurting. If you're going to create the kind of change we want to see. Instead of a kind of change that is imposed. The 9/11 survivor tree wasn't just transported somewhere else to heal and then stay there forever. After the tree was given a chance to heal itself and grow strong again on its own. It was transported back to its original home. And we planted at the nine the site of the 911 memorial. And here it is. Has thrived and blossomed. It's not always the case that we can like the tree return to the site of our change imposed upon us and bring about healing and blossom like a. If a resilient if we make meaning if we're hopeful we learn and grow if we are laughing our grateful if we stay true to the core of ourselves. Sometimes we can bring him. Ourselves and others. Sometimes the new beginning must be in a different place and we share our blossoms in a different. Other times we can return we can bring healing we can make the world a little bit more hole in the place where it all started. Either way. Life love the world and unitarian-universalism all call us to resiliency love and compassion. In the face of the many sudden impacts big and small. Our lives.

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20131208-servicepc.mp3

Each night a child is born. Margaret gooding wrote. Sunbrite starshine somewhere in the heavens. I'm a child is born. She knows what uncommon life may yet again unfold. Get it. Sarah moore campbell roach. Give us the spirit of the child who is not afraid to mean. Who is notch. Afraid to love. Are unitarian and universalist profits had much wisdom to share with us today about the devious children. And all that they bring. Are you taking a walk outdoors recently with a child. They are full of delight taking things in for the first time. Wondering at life. Excited at the possibilities. Alon full of chestnut becomes a playground full of hidden mysteries. Instead of just another 25 steps again. Day. Before we somehow teach them otherwise before they are overwhelmed with homework and grades and sports and extracurriculars. Our children are full of wonder. Pcu the world with a fresh eye. And they delight. And what they see. Ralph waldo emerson wrote we have a great deal more kindness than it's ever spoken. Read the language of those wandering ivy. Children know how to read. The language of wondering i-beam. Elizabeth shaughnessy banks when describing the creation of a spider's web. And the near-misses of the best flight in the prowling cat. Calling attention to what is. In the moment. A child's eye. Isn't that sees wonder. A child died. Is also. A dreamer. Ralph angel burton wrote we have religion when our hearts are capable of leaping up at beauty. What are nerves are adjectives i some dream in the. Children's heart leap up at beauty. And they dream dreams untempered by perceived limits of reality. And a child's eyes he's more than just wonder child dies he's more than just dreams. A child i also sees truth. And is unafraid to name it. Sometimes those named truths are uncomfortable social miscues. Your hair looks terrible like that grandma. Other times they speak truth to power and ways that adults learn to avoid or just not think of. That homeless person that an adult might just walk past on a busy day. Child tugs on the arm. Asking. What happens at night. To that homeless man when it gets cold. Where does he go. How does he stay warm. James luther adams wrote i call that church free which is open to insight and conscience from every source. It bursts through rigid tradition giving rise to new and living language. Canoe and broader fellowship. The eye of a child is open to inside and conscience. From every source. And children are often the ones who helped us burst through and out of. The rigid patterns in our lives. Children are not perfect of course children misbehave they make mistakes. They learn and grow just as every human being does throughout our lifetime. They also have a special way of seeing. They capture the wandering i-beams. They see the goodness in people. It's either joieinlife. They are not afraid to love. They see truth in the world and are unafraid to name it. And they grow up. And change the world around us. We talked of course about the birth of children in the holiday season because our unitarian and universalist forebears were christian. Christians who celebrated the birth of jesus. Mor holiday celebrations like our fella typhi ology. Have evolved so that we make meaning differently in the present. Certain truths remain. The human being named jesus inspired a religion called christianity. Because in some ways. He never. Lost the eyes. He never stopped loving everyone he never stopped seeing the good in every person. You never stopped questioning the injustice that you saw in the world and naming them publicly over and over again. He never. Stop dreaming the dream. Off of world. Filled. Peace. May we this holiday season. Remember to see with the eyes of a child. Those eyes they come back sometimes wasn't bitten visiting some of us more frequently than others. But our culture far too often teaches us to be cynical. To be busy to compete with one another to gloss over the uncomfortable and seemingly unfixable. Alive sometimes make us tired overwhelmed and exhausted. And it can be easier to plop down on the couch in front of the tv. At the end of a long day. Instead of going out. And playing. In the snow. As we live through this and into this holiday season. Maybe remember to bring. The eyes. For they see wonder and beauty and truth. And they delight in it. And enjoy it. Stacy hunger and poverty and despair. They are unafraid to name what they see and dream of a better world. They see the goodness another human beings even and especially those who are hurting. And they are unafraid to love. May you see wonder beauty and truth. And the light. May you see hunger poverty and despair. And be unafraid to dream of a better world. May you see the goodness and other human beings. And be unafraid. To love. May you see the eyes.

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20150628-servicepc.mp3

I have been singing amazing grace. Every week. For three years. My husband alec and i live at the lucy stone cooperative is seth mentioned. An intentional living community in boston grounded in our unitarian universalist values and committed to spiritual practice sustainability and social change. On sunday evenings we hold a weekly potluck. Followed by an hour of singing. Sunday singing we call it. So after dinner the dishes are cleared away and then housemates and gaastra gather at the dining room table. We like handles maybe brew a pot of tea. And then we take turns calling out songs that we want to sing. Songs from our unitarian universalist hymnals and other song books. Sacred chants. Broadway show tunes sea shanties a whole range. So each week is a little difference. But we always ends the same way. We sang amazing grace. Who's singing this now from miliar song week after week it has itself become an experience. Of grace. Inexperience of profound connection. Each week is a little bit different so each week this connection is a little bit different. Different people gather around this table each bringing their own unique story. Each lending their voice to the harmonies of amazing grace. Any tweak i am a little bit different. Singing. Singing opens my heart. To allow me to feel the depth of joy. The depths of. Sorrow a fear of hope. Whatever it is that i bring and we bring to the table that week. Singing. Singing amazing grace it fills me with this sense of belonging. It lets me know that i am home. I am home in this house that i share with 12 other people. And i am home in my unitarian-universalist face tradition. That has both called me to ministry in our congregations and has also given rise to this remarkable living community. Singing reminds me that i am at home in this world. This world where transformation is possible. So grace. Grace is one of those complex words coming out of our jewish and christian traditions. That's often wrapped up in those other complex words. Sin. Salvation. The religious liberals self included. We don't always know how to wrap our minds around this idea of grace. But on sunday night. I surrender to the music. So that's familiar tune and i wrap my voice and my heart around this idea of grace. I let those harmonies and that poetry of amazing grace. Envelop me in the sense of belonging and connection that i don't always understand. Now the song amazing grace it itself is surrounded by an amazing story. Its author john newton was an eighteenth-century british slave trader. And the story goes that john newton was the captain of a slave ship. And he was on his way from africa to the americas. And there there was a storm at sea. And he cried out to god for mercy in the midst of the storm and as the storm abated he experienced a conversion. Conversion that inspired him to turn that boat around give up the slave trade become a minister and devote his life to the anti-slavery movement. So this story. It has been present with me as i sing amazing grace. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now i'm found was blind but now i see. Winter is the poetic expression of that transformative journey from slave trader to abolitionist. These are incredibly powerful words. Their words of freedom and of liberation they are were our words that affirm our universalist worldview. That a great spirit of love reaches out to all people and that all people that people are capable of enormous change. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound. So when i do the work to wrap not only my voice but also my mind around that concept of grace. I turn to the writings of paul tillich. I like is a liberal christian theologian from the 20th century and he has described sin a separation. And grace. As reunions. He writes. In grace. Something is overcome. Gray's occurs in spite of something. Grace occurs in spite of separation and estrangement grace is the reunions of life with life. The reconciliation of the self with itself. Grace is the acceptance of that witches were ejected grace transforms fate into a meaningful destiny it changes guilt. Into confidence and courage. There is something triumphant till it says. In the word grace. In spite of the abounding of sin grace abounds much more. So what could better show the triumph of grace. Then the story of that slave trader turned abolitionist. Transforming his guilt. Into courage. I've known the story of john newton and his conversion as long as i've known the tune to amazing grace. But preparing for this sermon and telling the story i did something quite dangerous that i nonetheless recommend to you i did research. And do you know what i discovered when i engaged in this dangerous acts of research. I discovered that the story of john newton's epiphany at sea and his instantaneous transformation from slave trader to abolitionist. This story is apocryphal. The truth is more complicated. I discovered that yes john newton was a slave trader and yes he did have a conversion moment in the midst of a storm at sea. And after that conversion he did become an evangelical christian. He did began attending church nearly every day and he did give up. Swearing. But he did not give up the slave trade. At least not at first. Instead of immediately becoming an abolitionist became the captain. Of a slave ship. A captain who had long conversations about theology and religion would be christian captains of other slave ships. In about eight years after his stormy epiphany newton did give up his position as the captain of a slave ship so he continued to have money in the slave trade. And then another 9 years past. And newton did become a clergyman. And anglican church. He proved to be an inspiring evangelical preacher and a prolific writer of hymns. And after eight years of being a minister newton authored so is now famous words. To amazing grace. But he was still not part of the anti. Slavery movement. It is in 1788-l. moment that newton publicly speaks out against slavery. He publishes a pamphlet in which he writes. It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me that i once was an active instrument in a business at which my heart. Now shutters. His heart opens. His heart. Shutters. His heart is transformed. Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace. My fears relieved. No i was at first dismayed to discover that the story i knew about john newton an amazing grace was not how the spiritual journey actually unfolded. I heard heard the story from my father. And my mother. I'd heard it from arlo guthrie and pete seeger. So how could this story that they told to me how could it not be true. I was disappointed and disillusioned. But i was already captivated by both the story and this idea of amazing grace. So i was left to wrestle with the truth. With my knowledge that it took john newton a full 40 years. To experience the transformation that i had been told happens in a single night. So this version of newton story it's not nearly as dramatic. As the apocryphal tales. But the truth. It's more real. More like our stories. We may not have experienced a transformation as extreme as the shift from slave trader to abolitionist. But we have all experienced a change in heart. And how many of us. How many of us completely transform our lives in a single night. Or even a single year or even a single decade. Our hearts often change much more slowly. Friday's ruling from the supreme court in favor of marriage equality illustrates that hearts. Change. Maybe not overnight but they cannot change. If we think back to 48 years before now in the mid-1970s. The gay and lesbian liberation movements for just gaining momentum. Advocacy groups were forming non-discrimination legislation was just beginning to be written in a few cities and counties. People were beginning to have the courage to come out to their family and friends. Transforming their worldviews. 40 years ago hearts and also laws were beginning to be transformed. But the victory that this congregation celebrated in your fellowship hall on friday. That was barely more than a hope. Moments. Moments of amazing grace of revelation and inside and profound connection they do happen. And they can be beacons on our journey of transformation but are spiritual journeys are long and that transformation is. Hard. So we need support. Support to act on the lessons that grace has taught our hearts. Progressive theologians rebecca parker and rita nakashima brock. They are two contemporary singers who write about those words grace. Salvation. They write. What we need now. Is a religious perspective that does not locate salvation in a future point a transcendent realm or a zone after death. Paradise is not withheld. Close. Or removed from us. Realizing this requires that we let go of the notion that paradise is life without struggle. Life free from wrestling with legacies of injustice. We are in a world where struggles continued. They write. However it is also true that we already live on holy ground. The spirit it rises in the wind the rivers of paradise they circle the earth and the fountains of wisdom spring up from the earth on which we tread. Paradise is already present. We have neither to retrieve it nor constructed we have to perceive it. And bring our lives and cultures in a cord with it. They continued we must learn to perceive paradise. And relate to it with ethical. Grace. Ethical grace is full-bodied in the present. Attuned. What is beautiful and unresponsive. The legacies of injustice. Concurrence of harm. Four ethical grace to flourish however we require. Strong communities. Rituals. To train the perception and beauty. Hold us and give us joy. John newton may have first experience the grace that converted him to a deeper engagement with christianity. In the midst of that single storm at sea. But it took him decades. To develop the ethical grace. To speak out against slavery. Decades. In which he participated in religious community. Formed relationships. With the leaders of the anti-slavery movement in britain. So community. Relationships. Helped him transform his fate into a meaningful destiny. Community helped him transform his guilt. And his shame. Into the courage to join the anti-slavery movement. Moments of amazing grace moments of profound connection. They may strike us when we least expect them but to live lives of ethical grace. We need one another. We need the strength. A community. Singing amazing grace at the lucy stone co-op on sunday nights. That has become one of those rituals that trains my perception. It opens my heart to face the pain the fear that i carry with me. It opens my heart to face those legacies of injustice and those currents of harm. And it opens my heart to experience the beauty of music. Experience the care and love of my unitarian universalist community. Before we begin to sing amazing grace. We hold a prayer.. For housemates and gas can share allowed the names of the people and communities. That we would like to hold in our hearts while we sing. The last sunday. We shared allowed the names of the nine victims who died in the shooting at mother emanuel african methodist episcopal church. And we also read aloud as many names. Some of the many names. Of people of color who have been killed at the hands of law enforcement over the last few years. We read aloud their names. 1 name each. Going around the table. Some of us speaking through tears. We held a moment of silence and then we listed our voices in song. Through many dangers. Toils and snares. I have. Already,. We sang together. Knowing that we need one another. We need one another when our hearts have been broken open by the cruelty of injustice. We need one another when our hearts are being healed and transformed by love. We sang together so that an ethical grace. Could lead us home. Friends on the journey. Grace. Surrounds us. May we have the courage to open our hearts to experience grace. To experience love and connection in spite of all the fear that threatens to divide us. May we know that we belong to this beautiful and challenging world where transformation is always possible. That we know that great universalist truth. That we are all worthy of love. That we are all able to love. That love guides us. And in our world. So that we might live. With compassion. And peace. Amen. And blessed be.

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20160821-service.mp3

I wonder what that moment is like. You've trained for years maybe almost your whole life that you can remember in some cases. You've won so far place the well enough in every previous race or match or event to be included in the final. The finals in your sport of choice of a 2016. And it's over the results are in. All the struggles and hardships has reached its point of culmination. The race the match the event. It's over. It's just ended. You're done. Anxiety is gone the stress has no pittaway. In the cheers the cheers are just beginning to aurora. Celebrations for the first second and third the medal winners. Bronze and silver of course but most importantly the achievement that has been your goal. The cheers erupts. And they are not for you. I mean they are for you because there are certainly some folks they are cheering all of the competitors who value the effort of all involved. The loudest cheers are usually for the winners. The naturalists. And in this moment just after the race has finished you did not finish first second or third. Nor did you finish fourth fifth. Or even 6. You finished seventh. 7. In that moment. What is the feeling. What thoughts are running through your head. It was you what thoughts do you think might be running through your head. What feelings do you think you might be having. I'm guessing that even the moment. Turn the moment even have to ask me it ranked seventh among the competitors prior to the race even if expectations were low. That there has to be some feelings of sadness or frustration. We're disappointed. Impossible summer just happy to be there. But i imagine that most folks don't get to the finals of an olympic event at such a high level of competition without having some pride and hopes and goals. But i'm most curious about today though. Is what those athletes the ones who don't finish near the top. Even the ones who finished fourth or fifth. I wonder what they do with the disappointment. The sadness. And the frustration. Cuz even finishing seventh at the finals of an olympic event. It means that you're the seventh best in the whole world. At what you're doing. At 7 past interstate not 7 fest in your country seventh-best in the whole world. That's something to be proud of. Some of you may remember american speed skater apolo ohno 18 medals over to winter olympics. He said once. I have given my all and i'm still do not win. I haven't lost. Otherwise might remember winning or losing. I remember the journey. I wonder how many olympic competitors are able to live into that noble ideal. I also wonder how this applies to our own more mundane lives. And i realize that when i've been gone for six weeks some of you may have started secretly training to be an olympic athlete and so if i'm excluding you i'm sorry or if there are any visitors here who are olympic athletes i'd my apologies. But i do think apolo ohno has some pretty good advice for us even in our more mundane lives. Have given my all and still do not win i haven't lost. Remember the journey. I'm reminded of a story i shared with you all before time and my uncle called me up when i was 15. I was young but already an accomplished food player and he asked. One of my musical advice right he asked how do you stick with it. I've been trying to learn to play the guitar for the past month and i'm terrible at it. Sound awful i just don't want to keep going. Myon the filtered fifteen-year-old response was. Well i'm call jake i've been practicing every day since third grade. And i would imagine that a month into that back in third grade i probably sounded pretty terrible to. Might have a little bit more time to go. So there's the obvious point right about how it takes time to learn to skillfully play an instrument to do something hard. But i think there's also a slightly maybe less obvious one about where my uncle jake was focused. My 15-year old south said it's just going to take time. My thirty-year-old my 38-year old self which is right now. Might say well it's probably going to take some more time. Also why is sounding good so important to you. Is there a way maybe when you're practicing that you could just have fun playing the guitar even if you don't sound great. His focus on end results you over the process seems fairly clear in retrospect. Sounding good with what he valued. What are country in values in teaches us the value right or culture in our country. Instead of enjoying the process along the way. Not focusing on the journey over the results is actually the basis for some new parenting advice that is making the rounds which elizabeth and i have been doing our best to follow with our kids. The general point is that it's more helpful for our kids growth and development to praise them for the hard work they put into doing or cheating something and it needs to praise them for the accomplished. This goes against summer natural instincts our culture teaches us our company until we learn here that we want to say the first time they stab a chunk of a potato with a fork. You want to see ye could use your fork. That's my instincts anyway i don't know about yours. What's more helpful for them though is for us to say wow you work so hard at that. You weren't able to use a fork the first time you tried and it took a lot of practice which it did. And you got there. You kept that it you didn't let it bother you when you kept failing and you finally figured it out. The reason this is important is that we consistently focus our praise on accomplishments instead of the process of the journey. It actually reads our children to take fewer and fewer risks as they get older. Cuz they know they get rewarded for for doing well and not for family. Now. It's relatively easy for me to practice this intention in value with our kids. I'm a slip-up sometimes because the natural tendencies of raised in this culture to praise the accomplishments. But i catch myself and i make sure that the praise the hard work that. Each of them puts into their learning process. I get to apply this value system to my own adult life though. Which is what makes me wonder about the fourth fifth sixth seventh and eighth place finishers at the olympics. That moment where they coming to fifth or they come in 7th. Do any of them feel proud and happy. Are any of them able to. I worked incredibly hard to get to this point and i'm sith dustin the whole world. Pretty damn good. I try to picture myself in that spot. And i can't imagine being able to beat that grounded in the moment. Maybe with some time but you know i'm not even sure even then. Because i don't think appreciating the journey is something i do particularly well in my own life at all. I have to admit on those sundays where i felt like maybe the sermon wasn't my best. I have never walked out of here and said to myself. You know seth that's okay you worked really hard on that sermon you gave it all and that's what matters. I would really like to report you all that i'm not spiritually grounded. But the reality is that when i feel like i've missed the mark i keep myself i wonder about what i could have done better i ask elizabeth if she has suggestions for what i could have done to improve. And i strive for winning of a kind. For doing better. I have not yet once even slots to do for myself. But i regularly trying to do for our children. Now this is not to say of course that the outcome is unimportant right of course i really want i want a really good sermons on sunday mornings and i strive for that. It's pretty clear that my personal values have been replaced. The goodness almost entirely on the outcome. And not on the process. Which brings us to a reading from this morning and the deeper question that underlies all of this. Not reading about collecting conquerors for horse chestnuts is there properly named elizabeth tarbox shared with us her childhood memories of the immense value upon a box of horse chestnut. She shared with us how holding a horse chestnut she found on the street reminded her of the high value she places on things from the earth. Funny she says the things we value. A new coat. Or new car a job that pays better a best friend or a good night. And that is the deeper question. What do you hold near and dear to your heart. What do you truly value in your life. We focused a lot on process versus outcomes today and asking what is a deepest value. Nothing important question. Taking the aston so many contacts. What do our lives show us need iu. Perhaps in spite of what we may really hold to be true. We spend far too much time and work at the cost of spending time with our family even if we hold family time to be of a higher value. Maybe we fill our downtime with television in our phones and technology. Even though we named quality time we people tweet. Quality time with people we care about as a higher value. I'm never guilty. Most of you know mirai my two-year-old daughter who asked yesterday morning while you're at the farmers market. If we could go down to the river and look freaky's. We happen to have a little bit of time to kill and so i said yes. And was reminded as we walked along the path. The river flowing gently by. But the children relatively quiet looking out for the geese that weren't there. I remembered even though i knew this already. I remembered that quiet moments and nature fill my spirit. But they nourish my soul. And then a minute or two later i limited. But i we rarely intentionally make or create time and space for the. Far too often i rely on infrequent circumstance to find these treasured moments. Instead of intentionally creating them at more often and my life. Buddhism has something to offer to the conversation as we wrestle with a question of how to choose and live what is of true and deep value to us. Attachment to other priorities and values. Buddhism of course suggest that our attachment to so many different things is the root cause of much human suffering. Buddhist has regularly meditate on and try to practice in their lives the art. Of letting go. This includes letting go of physical objects and items for sure. Also letting go of our attachment to outcomes. Outcomes such as. Buddhist monks were to become an olympic athlete. And that moment after the races done and have placed seventh perhaps they might truly be able to not be attached to the outcome. Be happy in the moment with having done the best i could. We're not all buddhist monks though. At least i'm not. And thankfully we don't need to be. Sometimes it's just about making the right choice in the moment. On tuesday last week new zealand distance runner nikki hamblin and us runner at augustine out or four laps from the end of the 5,000-meter race in rio when they collided. You may have heard the story. Hamblen stumbled and fell first which brought down d'agostino within right behind. Gambling curled up in a ball on the track. Agostino pop right up and pulled hamlin up with her telling her get up we have to finish. A few strides later though d'agostino started limping having injured herself in the fall and she sell it to all fours on the track in. Champlin stopped running. She turned around and went and helped that casino up. And helps her finish. These two women. Would never met before the race. They crossed the finish line. They reached that moment we talked about earlier. He did it. Gambling in an interview afterwards. When i look back on rio 2016 i'm not going to remember where i sennish.. Not going to remember my time. But i'll always. Remember. Sometimes i guess you have to remember. Trying to be a good human being. It's more important. Friends as we go about our days as we go about our lives. May we seek to live into our values. The example of kindness of letting go of attachments demonstrated by both those olympic runners. Nikki hamblin and abbey d'agostino reach that moment. The culmination point of months and years of hard work and training the moment when the race ended. They did so together. They did not win the race. Did not win the race. Maybe on our journeys in a similar fashion. Maybe let go of the attachments that get in our way. Maybe make space for and prioritize that which is truly of value. May we win.

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20161113-service.mp3

Frenchie margaret for that beautiful singing. As you may have guessed that song was written the day after the election. The results of tuesday's election brought up a lot of feelings for many of us. You saw my facebook post wednesday morning you know it scared the bejesus out of me. We held a listening circle here on wednesday evening that 30 or 35 folks showed up to. We shared our fears our anxieties are sadness. As well as our courage. And resolved. It's still hard to accept that at least in this presidential election. Anger and fear. One out. Overjoy love. For those of you who are still struggling with a range of emotions and i count myself among those. I'll take the time to be there and to feel those feeling. And. We need to move forward. Because even with a different result in the election. Today's sermon was never going to be about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Yes the election results on tuesday were much worse than many of us had hoped for. Which is already made our country a less safe place to be even before the inauguration on january 20th. And i hate to think about what these next four years are going to bring. But those results only make today's message all the more important. They don't change it. Because the major problem we're facing is not which political party won then lost the election on tuesday. And it's not even really which presidential candidate won and which presidential candidate lost. Changing a couple hundred thousand votes in the right states might have yielded a different victor. But it wouldn't really tell all that much of a different story. About the problems we face. And our country. Half the country voting for a candidate with openly sexist re-stick a xenophobic and more. Chose me have major problems either way. Those votes were cast the way they were cast in so now we have no choice but to pay attention to the problem. Instead of maybe being able to continue to ignore it. The different candidate had won the presidency. So the first major problem we have is the sexism racism xenophobia and more that has been brought to light in america. Already just for the results of the election it is clear that people are feeling empowered to act and racist sexist and otherwise horrible ways that they didn't before this past tuesday. If you pay attention to the news. You can't help but hear about the stories. Like the teacher in tampa florida telling a couple of black students in the hallway at school to go back to africa. Or the person in line at the grocery checkout in tulsa feeling like it's okay to tell the turn to the hispanic person in line behind them and say quote you know why they're crying don't you it's because all these roaches that have come over are getting ready to kick to get kick back across the wall. You can't help but hear about the summit of the mountain state park and a liberal pocket of massachusetts that was literally spray-painted over with graffiti. Graffiti that use the n-word with anti-semitic had swastikas. And of course also said trump. 26. Mountain is mount tom located 10 minutes from the house i grew up in. This behavior occurring in city schools grocery stores and state parks across america and places both conservative and liberal. It's scary. It's horrifying. And it's absolutely unacceptable. Second problem we have. Is that is easy as it would be to lump everyone who voted for trump together and label them all as racist sexist and more. The truth. If that's some of them are not. Some of them had other real pressing issues in their lives that they hoped rumple address. It's over willing to overlook all of the terrible things about trump. Try and bring about change. Hard for some of us in our liberal bubbles to fathom. But it's true. Riyaz patel is a gay muslim pakistani-american immigrants. Also happens to be a journalist. Patel was concerned about the liberal echo chamber he felt like he was living in and so he traveled to rural alaska and visited there for the weekend just before the election. To connect with the people who are different from him. And here's what he learned. Sheridan he put in a story he posted the day after the election. I went to breakfast the landing on tongass avenue and discussed the stakes of the election with third-generation fisherman. And learned that their whole life's work was at stake based on potential clinton fishing regulations. I talked to someone fervently about the cancer that is radical islam with nicole and ran the black bear in and discussed how we all feel unsafe these days. And i chatted with paula the thirty-year-old bar manager explained up almost all of alaska is owned by the federal government so each vote in this community is really about their ability to support their families. He continues. Over the course of two days. I met lovely people. Somebody agreed with and some i didn't. Some of them had met a muslim before and some others hadn't. But all ask me questions about my background and i asked about theirs. No question was offensive because the intention was non-judgmental. On my flight back i realized that for many of us supporting hillary this election was about incredibly important social issues. It was a moral election for us. The most of the people i met on my trip. Was about survival. Literally. Continues again so when i read facebook and twitter post this morning vilifying 50% of the country for being dumb or racist. I remember nicole jim and paula. And i know that's not true. But how would i know that if i didn't meet them and talk to them with an open. So this is our second major problem in addition to the hatred ignorance racism sexism and more about to light this election cycle. There are people for whom the problems and their lines are significant significant enough. That they were going to vote for trump. At the supposed agent of change despite. Is shark on. And so we must have two responses. The first response of course is to say to the acts of racism sexism homophobia and more the first response is to say. No. No we will not tolerate that kind of behavior here. No we will not stand by while people we love and care about are made to feel scared because of who they are. No we will not allow you or anyone else to terrorize people in our country because of the color of their skin because of who they loved because of their ethnicity because of their gender identity because of their immigration status. No. Absolutely not if not okay we will not stand idly by while this happens. People resist we will persist we will make sure that hope and justice and love carry the day today tomorrow and everyday. And then. We need to follow through on those words. Because the tricky part is. We liberal folk and i am assuming that most of us present here today fall into that category. We liberals are too often complacent and come sit. To our inaction. It's easy especially for those of us who live with privilege other what's the privilege of being whites the privilege of identifying as male the privilege of being or appearing straight or many others. We have the privilege many of us have not having to deal with racism sexism and homophobia on a daily basis in our lives. I hold myself fully and unaccountable. In my own inaction. There is an amazing group has been meeting here in muncie called race which stands for reconciliation achieves and community engagement. They started meeting almost 2 years ago now after the incident in ferguson. To try to address race relations in our city and country through respectful dialogue. I went to the first three or four of those monthly meetings. And life got busy and i missed one another and another. I am sad and unhappy to report. It's been well over a year since i've been to a race meeting. I haven't dropped the ball entirely i did serve as a writer for the facing racism project that race sponsored and i have been involved with projects created by our only anti-racism task force here at the church. Year-and-a-half. It's not okay for me. That's my privilege right there. People of color live with racism everyday of their lives. I don't. I can be busy for a year-and-a-half and not be able to make it. Clarice smith. I'm not proud of this and yet it's true. We all of those who would call ourselves allies of varying stripes and colors. We need to make sure we follow through on our words. And take action to heal the injustice. You proclaim our wrong. Italian to our team for the month is that saying no in the face of harmful behavior is actually an act of emotional intelligence. Bacolod to setting healthy boundaries. Let me seem like a relatively clear-cut thing. Setting healthy boundaries is anything but. Yes it's easy to be horrified at the graffiti and it's easy to maybe even go and participate in the cleanup crew to get rid of the spray paint on a summit on mountain. But the trickier cases are the ones like the incident in the grocery checkout in tulsa. Will we be able to step up in the moment and confront racism when it's happening. And we'd be able to do it especially in situations that could potentially involve some risk of harm to ourselves. For speaking up. When we be willing to put ourselves in the verbal or physical line of fire. Even in our own life and communities boundary setting can be hard. All sorts of things and get in the way not the least of which is our feelings. Telling someone who is saying mean things saying something in the moment. Can be awfully difficult and scary. Especially when you're the one under fire. Take some motional skill emotional intelligence to be able to establish and hold firm. The healthy boundaries for ourselves. The midwest politeness that i've experienced here which is lovely and wonderful and so so many ways. It also doesn't help though with this. And this is true of our communities as well. Whether it's not wanting to offend or conscious or subconscious desire to avoid conflict. Or lack of self-worth that leads a steep down to feel like we deserve the negativity being sent out even if our heads no better. Whatever it is that gets in the way whatever the context is. The ability to set healthy boundaries as a key component of emotional intelligence. When did i fear you're going to be called upon to use more and more regularly over the next four years. No. That is not. Say no and setting healthy boundaries about what is acceptable or not and settings both big and small. That may actually be the easier of the two things we must do to address our. If it's both of our problems the sexism racism homophobia and more that has come to light. And our liberal echo chamber that leads us to lump all trump supporters together and label them as bigots. Coquille. They both require that we learn a different way of engaging with the world. Not only do we need to do a good job of saying no. We also need to do a good job of saying yes. Yes yes to learning more about the people. The human beings. Who voted for trump. The people i use patella visited in alaska. The people. The trump supporters oh my good friend from montana and recently shared would give you the shirts off their backs there's some of the kindest. Nicest people i know she said. We need to say yes not only to getting to know people who are different from us we need to say yes to engaging an open-minded conversations with people who share radically different viewpoints about sexism racism and homophobia. We need to say yes to committing to a radically different kind of engagement. When where we genuinely listen and try to understand where these folks are coming from. Because what we're doing right now. Polarization we're living in. It isn't worth. If you just batten down the hatches and work even harder to get democrats to turn onto vote in the next election without changing the underlying pattern in issues. We may win the election. But we will lose the war. If we've learned nothing out nothing else from the results of five days ago. The status quo is not going to cut it anymore. Writer charles eisenstein suggests that the question we need to ask is. What is it like. Ibu. It continues it is time now to bring this question in the empathy it arouses into our political discourse as a new animating force. If you are appalled at the election outcome and feel the call at 8. Perhaps try asking yourself. What is it like to be a trump supporter. Basket not with a patronizing condescension. But for real. Looking underneath the caricature of the misogynist and bigoted to find the real person. He continues even if the person you face is a misogynist or bigoted ask. Is this who they are really. Ask what consequence of circumstances social economic and biographical i have brought them there. You may still not know how to engage them but at least you will not be on the warpath automatically. Behaviorally sierra. And we fear what we do not know. So let's stop making our opponents invisible. Behind a caricature. Upheaval. What a perfect way to put it. But stop making our opponents invisible behind a caricature of evil. And let's take it a step further. We need to stop thinking of people as opponents and step out of the us forces them mentality. If we continue to demonize those who think differently than we do. No matter how vehement lee we might disagree with them. We continue to demonize those who voted differently than us. We will fail. For two reasons. First practical. Each other we can't hear each other. We can't listen we can't dialogue and ultimately we can't and don't change minds. Demonize each other we increase the polarization in our communities and our country. And then s the theological. Have you seen this morning. We are all in this together. We are all part of the interdependent web of existence. We must find a way to come together to heal our country in which so many of us and a variety of circumstances and forever iety of reasons. Are hurting. And afraid. Demonizing each other keeps us from coming together. And we need to come. What does this mean in reality. It means instead of turning away or running away or hiding ourselves away. We need to engage. We need to move beyond the echo chamber chamber of our facebook feed where we maybe unfriended most or all of the people who disagree with. We need to expand beyond our social circles of wonderful people who agree almost entirely with our worldview. We need to say yes to the hard and challenging work of engaging with those who are different. Engaging specifically. And a gentle loving caring manner. Even when the words and sometimes even the actions coming towards us. I'm not experienced as gentle loving or care. He believes that each person has inherent worth and dignity. The challenge is to treat. Each person. And every moment. With the dignity they deserve. Says eisenstein. Can we. Can we create an eye of compassion inside the political vortex of hate. It's time to stop feeding hate. Next time you post online check your words to see if they smuggle in some form of hate. Dehumanization snark belittling derision some invitation to us versus them. This is not mean he continues this is not mean to his raw from political conversation but to rewrite its vocabulary. It is to speak hard fruits with love. Just to offer acute medical analysis that doesn't carry the implicit message of. Aren't those people who are. We must learn to speak hard truths with love. We must learn to engage with those who are different but those whom we disagree. With mouse. It's important to note that often when we say those who are different from us mimi but with a different skin color a different cultural heritage. It remains important to engage with those folks that this engagement. It's with the white majority who are different from us. 2 voted trump into office. Also. It's okay not to be perfect in this work. It's going to be a learning process for almost all of us. When we fall short. When we do less than living in to the idea of relating with love. Stop. You take a deep breath. And we begin again in love. If that's who and what the situation calls us to be. Love warriors. Fierce strong protective. Powerful. Grounded. Loving. Chantal. Compassionate. Love warrior. And so my love were your friends before we wrap up. I want to offer us to ways to engage today. First. Consider wearing a safety pin. There was a movement that started in britain after the brexit vote to wear safety pins to let immigrants and other minorities know that those wearing them are a safe place a safe person to talk to and ally end of upsetting or dangerous situation arises. We have safety pins for you in two different sizes if you're interested in the bowles right up here. But here's the thing. Take a safety pin please. The only wear it. If you are already or going to be committed to action beyond wearing the pain. Don't wear a tan as a gesture of solidarity and then stops there. That's no longer enough. And frankly it was never enough. But it's even more not enough now. Don't be a lot of wishes. Putting on a pan and hoping that other people will do the work to make our country and our communities a better place. The events of this week in the past several months don't call us to be loved wishers. They call us to be wild warriors. What you're going to wear a safety pin in solidarity with all those who are fearful in our country right now. Commit to doing it as a loved one. And take action. S. You may have noticed on our way in that are you on your way in that are used decorated are sidewalks this morning with messages of love hope and support. They did so as part of a nationwide unitarian-universalist effort called neighborhood love notes. I did was started by my friend and colleague ralph and ashley her man who felt compelled the day after the election to do something besides just sitting their feelings hurt. So she found some sidewalk chalk went outside and wrote messages of love and support for those she felt needed. Let you decide to take it a step further and put out a call for all of us to do so. So when you can come up after the service if you'd like and take a package of chalk. The right there. Should have enough for everybody. If you don't let me know we'll get you more. And then find a place in your neighborhood or a neighborhood somewhere in muncie you think might need the support and share your message of love and care with sidewalk chalk. And then take a picture or two and share it with the world using a hashtag hashtag neighborhood love notes. And you you. And then also email your pictures to me so we can post all or uucm pictures together. And then don't stop. Find something else to do. Find a way to not only make your voice heard but to make the voices of others hurt. Find a way to engage with those who are different and find a way to engage find a way to engage in a way. That is if. Is rev dr martin luther king jr reminded us in a readings. The only way forward is to respond to hate and ignorance. And so friends as we go back out to our days and our weeks. I just remember. Remember to say no cuz there are going to be so many situations. The call asked to say no that is not okay. And let us also remember. To say yes to say yes. Responding with love in all situations. It's easy to respond with loved and safe situations it's hard to respond and loves and hard situations. That's what we have to do. If we're going to make a difference. Colette's blove warriors. What's yom kippur.

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20170910-service-1.mp3

Thai kitchen. The basil bunny bruschetta pizza at three wise men. The fried pickles at twin archer. And until they broke my heart truly and did away with them the top shows at scotty's. Totchos for the uninitiated are tater tots with all the usual nacho texans on top. Amazing. These are the dishes that i always get at some of my favorite restaurants. And why wouldn't i they are a dance party for my taste buds. They're the good stuff. There is an opportunity cost though if we fall into a pattern of always getting the same things. We miss out on other options that are possibly just as good or and this is hard to believe in the case of the tacos but true maybe even better. Elizabeth and i realized it was summer that we had done this with our choice of going out for breakfast restaurants. Our favorite place had been recommended to us first we first got here and so that's where we always went. Directions lot of places to get breakfast here in muncie. And we hadn't been to any of them. So this summer slowly over the course of weeks we did a tour. And as it turns out our favorite restaurant still is in our top two. But we also found a second favorite. Betrayed about but 44 years had never gone to. We also course had some mediocre breakfasts along the way. But i'm glad we tried. Because those mediocre breakfast are also the reason we avoid trying something new. If we know we like this dish for that kind of movie or that kind of food. We can be easy to stick with what we know we like. Especially if trying something new means potentially getting something that were less than excited about. For me at the coach myself. Because i hate sitting there in a restaurant eating something new that i tried and i'm not particularly enjoying and knowing just ordered my old standby i'd be enjoying this meal right now. The thing is though of course that you have to risk and go through the experience of having those mediocre meals and dishes. If you're going to be able to find the new favorites. If we only ever stuck with our breakfast favorite we never have found the second one. No risk. No reply. So whether it's food or a new activity. Or new relationship friendship romantic or otherwise. Taking the risk. Knowing you might not enjoy some of the new things you try. It's a form of making space. You may love bike riding to death but if all you ever do is ride your bike you might never find out that you love bowling 2. And granted you may discover along the way that curling and kayaking or simply not for you. You can can you imagine a life or you never discovered the fine art of bowling. Hard to even conceive. Trying something new is no guarantee that you'll like it. But even if you don't try you haven't even made the space. For the possibility of finding out. That making ships in the bottle is simply the best thing. Ever. Sesostris siege with elsie. We can't be afraid of trying something new. You made feel very secure in the pain that you are in but if you never venture out of it you'll never know that there is such a thing as an ocean. Holding onto something that is good for you now may be the very reason why you don't have. In our increasingly ever busy lives this is particularly true. Sure an empty field there's room for lots of new things to grow. But most of our lives are not like empty shells. They're far more like a small car pack of a family of five vacation items for a one-week trip. Packed to the gills with bags and toys and gear and probably with bicycle strap on the back on a canoe strapped on top. If we don't make time if we don't create space for something new to come in. It won't. Because too often we're already. Overflow. No in many cases there's the option of expanding. Upgrade that four-door sedan to a minivan and your family five is going to have a lot more space. Or as i have become aware if everything you need doesn't fit in your purse there's always the option to buy a bigger one. There's not always the option to operate though. There's no way to increase the amount of time in a given day. And as much as my kids try i've come to realize that really and truly there's only so much space on my lap. Other upgrades like a new car on addition on a house can be costly sometimes prohibitively so. So far more limited to what we currently have. What does it mean to actually make space in our lives. In terms of physical stuff. That usually means getting rid of something. In terms of time could mean saying no we're simply not doing things. Sometimes making space means letting go of something that has been important to us. Accepting that it won't quite the either way we've been used to. Unitarian universalist and actually embraces this kind of thinking. Because one of the hardest things to do is to make a new space. For ideas and beliefs. We have a tendency to get very attached to what we believe to be true. Even in the face of powerful evidence to the contrary. You become so attached in fact that we fall subject to what's called selection bias. Producer actually shown that often we literally ignore the information that comes in contradicting we believe to be true. And only actually here and taken the information that confirms what we already know. Our faith tradition. Causes to always be on a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. And that call a call we created for ourselves. It exists because there is danger in holding on to our current set of truth. Too tightly. Union minister rev leslie takahashi rights. They teach us to read in black and white. Truth is this the rest is false. You are whole or broken. Who you love is acceptable or not. Play stealth truce and minnie hughes. We are taught to think in either or. To believe the teachings of jesus. Orbital. To believe in human potential. Or a power beyond a single wheel. I am broken oar. I am powerful. Life embraces multiple truth speaks of both. And of a. We are taught to see in absolutes good vs evil male versus female old versus young gay vs. straight. Let us see the fraction. She concludes the spectrum the margins. Let us open our hearts to the complexity of our worlds. Let us make our lives sanctuaries to nurture our many identity. The day is coming when all will know that the rainbow world is morguard gorgeous. Santa monica. The river of identities can ebenflow over the static stubborn rocks and of course. But the margin. Hold. Accor tenant of unitarian universalism is that we were always on the lookout for new truth and meaning. Jennifer going to honor the full and deepest intent of that free and responsible search. We have to be willing. To make space. For the new. Is be noted in a reflection we're not called to find r-truth once set in stone and be done at age 13 or h33 or even at age 83. We are called be continuing to explore our face our spirituality rsx2 our allow ourselves to be seeking that new truth. It's a live-in to that truth. When we find it. There are new truths and then there are new ways that those truths such as feeling welcomed in like you belong in love. Are lived into reality. Show me share with you one way a unitarian universalist truth has been lived in to be. Some schools have put into place something called a buddy bench on their playground. Which basically is a bench right a buddy bench for kids who don't have anyone to play with can sit and wait for someone else to go tonight anyone to play with. To come by. It's a small simple thing. These buddy benches. But i can only imagine how nice it might be to have a place to go where you might find a welcome. Especially when you're feeling alone in the moment. In this case the school itself is making space for something new. It's an easy win. So i asked this morning that we consider two ways of making space for the blessings that can come from newness and. The first is here in our congregation. I hope. I hope as we begin this experiment with two services that we can allow for the magic of the newness of those we hope are going to come through our doors. We have begun this experiment. So we can create more space for others. Others who might not yet have found our church. The challenge though will be do more than just physically create the space for them to be here by our expansion. The challenge will be if we can mentally and emotionally create space for them. becoming a little bit more. They're coming a little bit smaller ourselves. Buy perhaps letting go a little bit and creating space for what new joy and insights that they might bring. Not becoming too small not self-sacrifice. It's simply just pulling back a little bit. And then looking towards what we can do to make our version of the buddy bench. 7 seconds. I hope we can make space for the blessings. The come with newness and change. In our own life. Where am i to make space in your life. Maybe it's time set aside quality time to be spent with a child's or quality time when connecting more deeply with a spouse or partner. Maybe it's setting aside fear to finally try something that you've always wanted. Maybe it's stopping numbing your feelings which so many of us do and so many ways by being too busy or overeating or spending too much time in our phone or drinking too much. And instead making space and time to be presents we're feeling. There's so many things that could be new the could be bringing magic into our lives. What magic. It's out there waiting for you. We go about our days as we go about our weeks. Maybe try. Make space for the new. There's so much joy there so much goodness. And it can be scary can be hard. It can be easy and comfortable to do what we know. But really. This is such a place of. Potential. Such a place for such a place for. I hope we can make space. Saturday magic here. And magic.

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20171112-service-11.mp3

I don't usually offer a content warnings for my sermons but i'll be offering one for this. I'm about to say and share maybe triggering for some there's some graphic sexual content and language. After today's service you feel you need to see pastoral counseling and feel safer talking to a female minister reverend julia and reverend elizabeth are both survivors and both would be happy to have confidential conversation. I did try and f*** her. She was married. I moved on her like a b****. But i couldn't get there. She was married then all the sudden i see her she's now got the big phony tits and everything she's totally changed her look. Yeah that's her. I better use some tic tacs just in case i start kissing her you know i'm automatically attracted to beautiful i just start kissing them. It's like a magnet just kiss i don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it you can do anything. Grab them by the p****. You can do. Honestly. I never in a million years thought i'd be using direct quotes from the president of the united states. As my example of rape culture. But if you hadn't figured it out already every word i just said came out of our presidents mouse on a video that was captured of him and billy bush which most of us have probably seen a video widely available and known throughout our country. And we still elected this man president. The united states of america. Do any doubt that rape culture exists in our country his election after the comments were made public. Should have clarified. They may be wondering about my use of some of the words did i chose to quote being spoken aloud from our pulpit in our church. Perhaps the words made you feel uncomfortable or maybe even discuss. I chose them for exactly that reason. We should be uncomfortable. We should feel disgusting. Those words are not an anomaly. This is very very real. Pornography recurrence this talk how men talk far far too often. This is rape culture. Did the words being said in church make you feel a little uncomfortable. Women walk around our country feeling uncomfortable all the time. Because we not only allowed rape culture like this conversation to exist we then elect people who actively participate to office. Including the office. The president. Unless we think that the presidential election was just an anomaly some strange one-off thing that wouldn't happen again take a look at the race that's happening right now for the open senate seat in the state of alabama. The republican candidate roy moore dated teenage girls when he was in his 30s including a fourteen-year-old at the time the corpsman who alleges now that more initiated sexual encounters with her. Amore admits that he might have dated teenagers but he denies the allegations from corpsman. The allegations are serious enough that other republican senators are withdrawing their endorsements and the republican national committee has ceased fundraising with him. And yet the state republican party and alabama has not backed down. You're not asking from the election they are pushing ahead. And if that wasn't enough people are going so far as to abused the bible and try and justify moore's actions with a fourteen-year-old by saying that mary was a teenager and joseph was an older man and they were together in the bible. This is rape. Culture. Just in case we're not clear yet what rape culture means. Let's take a look at this picture to help clarify. Tolerance of behaviors at the bottom of the triangle supports or excuses those higher up. Boys-will-be-boys it says at the bottom it's just a locker-room banter rape jokes. We let it all slide because it's quote-unquote. Harmless. Except that it's not. Human beings with integrity human beings who value the inherent worth and dignity of other human beings don't talk about them like that. Bonding over objectifying women over talking about them and dehumanizing and degrading ways. That is bonding that is corrupt and rancid. Friendships based on the degradation of other people. I hardly call that. Friendship. When such behavior is normalized. It enables it okay that gives permission for even further dehumanizing and degrading behavior. Catcalling flashing unsolicited. We keep moving on up. When that behavior seen as okay as acceptable as even cruel in some circles. We just keep on giving permission for worst and worse things to happen. How are there so many specific issues listen to this picture so many hugely problematic behaviors that we let slide or worst celebrates. You'll have time to talk about all of them this morning but we're going to talk about a few. Victim-blaming is one of the worst. Halfway up the pyramid. Did you see the way she was dressed she was asking for it. How ridiculous and insane is that bad a thing to say. Make that clear all you have to do is apply it to a different situation. Did you see that rich guy how that rich guy was dressed with his fancy wristwatch and expensive briefcase he was just asking to get robbed. We don't say that do we. Because it's insane we don't blame the victims when they're men or well-off or even when women are nearly nearly physically assaulted. But rape or sexual assaults somehow it's okay to blame the victim. No not okay. Not okay ever again. Women shouldn't have to dress differently or learn self-defense are practicing saying no to avoid sexual assault and rape. Men should stop. Doing it. There is no defense there is no explanation there is nothing that ever makes it okay. Men in the occasional woman we all are responsible for our actions. And it's never okay to sexually assault another human being. Each of us to stop ourselves from doing that. .. And when someone does rape or sexually assault a woman and we need to hold that person accountable for their actions. Call. Stop. You're something else we need to get clear about. Consent. We talked about a little bit in the story for all ages. Consent means that you have the other person's permission to continue for the sexual act. It seems like they should be pretty straightforward right no means. No. For real if someone is unconscious or otherwise incapacitated they can't consent. To see how ludicrous and ridiculous some of the arguments that i made that i'm the odd that are made about this are. Do the same thing applying different about same logic to a different situation. Like this video about drinking tea. If you're still struggling with consent just imagine instead of initiating sex. You're making them a cup of tea. You say hey would you like a cup of tea. Mega ohmigod i would love a cup of tea thank you. Then you know they want a cup of tea. If you say it would you like a cup of tea. I'm not really sure. Then you can make him a cup of tea or not but be aware they might not drink it. And if they don't drink it. Don't make them drink it. Just because you made it doesn't mean you are entitled to watch them drink it. And if they say no thank you. Then don't make them say. Metal. Just don't make them say. Don't make them drink tea don't get annoyed at them for not wanting tea. They just don't want t okay. They might say yes please that's kind of you. And then when they to your rhymes they actually don't want the tea at all. Sure that's kind of annoying as you gone all the effort of making the tea. But they remain under no obligation to drink the tea. They did one thing now they don't. Some people change their mind at the time that it takes to boil the kettle brew the tea and add the milk. And it's okay for people to change their mind. And you are still not entitled to watch them drink it. And if they're unconscious don't make them tea unconscious people don't want tea and they can't answer the question do you want tea. Because they're unconscious. Okay maybe they were conscious when you asked them if they wanted to. They said yes but in the time it took you to boil the kettle brew the tea and add the milk there now unconscious. You should just put the tea down. Make sure the unconscious person is safe. And this is the important part again. Don't make them drink the tea. They said yes then sure but. Unconscious people don't want tea. If someone said yesterday started drinking it and then passed out before they finished it. Don't keep on pouring it down their throat. Take the t away make sure they're safe because unconscious people don't want tea. Trust me on this. If someone said yes to tea around your house last saturday. That doesn't mean they want you to make them tea all the time. They don't want you to come around to their place unexpectedly and make them tea and force them to drink it going but you wanted t last week. Or to wake up to find you pouring tea down their throat going but you wanted t last night. If you can understand how completely ludicrous it is to force people to have tea when they don't want to. And you're able to understand what people don't want tea. Then how hard is it to understand it when it comes to sex. Whether it's t or sex. Consent is everything. And on that note. I'm going to go make myself a cup of tea. I'll add one thing the video leaves out. If a person is conscious but too drunk to hold the teacup. It shouldn't make the person drink tea. So here's the thing about consent and rape culture. We start sending and teaching our kids the wrong message about consent and their own control over their body. Beginning at a very early age. Sometimes even as early as two in. Now of course kids that little aren't always going to be able to have choices about having so their body especially when they're that small they are going to need to be cleaned if they're dirty for health reasons. Right when it's cold outside to stay warm and sometimes they're going to be hate to have to be kept from doing things with their bodies that might cause themselves or others. Farm. But there are situations where we could teach her kid. Did they get to choose what happens to their body. And we don't. A common one is tickling. When your kids are nieces are grandkids say stop. Do you always listen to them immediately and stop right then. I know sometimes we tell ourselves i actually do want me to keep going. But here's the thing. If they do want you to keep going and you stop when i say stop. Ask you to do more. And. You have helped him learn a really important lesson aunt arlene. Early on. If you actually stopped. And what they learn that stop me stop. And no. The same thing goes with giving family. Hugs and kisses goodbye. Reason giving us as parents hugs and kisses goodnight. Sometimes kids don't want to give grandma a hug and a kiss goodbye. And too often we force them to do that. Even against their will. If we make them do that against their will without consent. We're teaching them something. About how to respect. Or not respect. Their bodies and other. Now you might think perhaps that i'm stretching this consent thing a little far with the little kids. But i assure you i am not. Every time we do something that reinforces for people in our culture that it's okay to violate other people's bodies and other people's boundaries. Especially that's okay to violate their boundaries around their bodies. We contribute. To rape. If we don't have conversations with our boys about consent as they're growing up and they allow them to learn what is right and wrong from the rape culture around them. We're contributing to rape culture. Because standing by and allowing sexual assault and rape to happen is all too real a thing. Not stepping in to stop sexual assault and rape from happening when your a bystander. That's rape culture 2. Another toxic masculinity a term used to define the idea what it means to be a man in our culture a toxic version of maleness that supports and promotes. Rape culture. Sounds like this. Men don't have feelings men's worth should come from their sexual prowess and number of conquest. Men shouldn't cry men should treat women as objects and joke about it with each other. You think the still isn't happening. Irish shirt an example of her own life this morning of a female friend walking by a group of guys one guy pointed out her and asked another witch. That friends is toxic masculinity. Bonding over objectifying dehumanizing degrading and demeaning another human being. Those were teenagers doing that the other teenagers. This has got. Stop. Have you been paying attention to news or social media at all. You know why were addressing this topic.. Harvey weinstein. Louis c.k. kevin spacey. These are just a small handful in among the most famous of the men who have used the power of their position to sexually assault and harass women and men. Quit recently been called into account. Their actions in our new public awareness of them highlights and other destructive aspect of rape culture. The abuse of power mostly by men in power that allows them to harass assault and raped. Until the past few weeks do that most often without fear of. Huge step forward that all these allegations about these men are coming forward now that they're being taken seriously and that there have been severe consequences for those who have done wrong. We need to keep this new pattern of accountability in place and moving forward. Because none of these allegations are new to the people who knew those offenders. People in their industries new. And kept quiet. And these aren't new patterns of abuse for men in power. Bill cosby anyone. Abuse of power is a significant factor in the perpetuation and continuation. Of rape culture. And please. Let's not pretend that within the walls of unitarian-universalism that we are somehow immune from this problem. Because we're not. I have heard from female colleagues women ministers firsthand but even within the ranks of ministers. They have had experiences of harassment and sexual assault from other ministers. If our ministers are having these experiences of our ministers are among those harassing and assaulting and it's happening in our churches. This is a problem that all of us need to work hard to put a stop to. It's also not get hung up on the fact that i've been talking primarily about men harassing and assaulting women. Yes women are sometimes the assault there's two and yes sometimes men get assaulted. And it's wrong and bad in horrific and every single case. Primarily though this is an issue about men harming women. And changing rape culture helps make this better for everyone. Harassment sexual assault and rape are generated out of a rape culture or objectifying and dehumanizing other human beings gives ourselves and others the permission to do harm. Changing that culture helps reduce the likelihood of harassment and assault. Forever. Because really. Rape culture is the human dehumanizing for everyone involved. Even including the perpetrator. Don't get me wrong it is far far far worse for women and for the smaller number of men number of men who are on the receiving end of all this behavior. And depression research shows that systems of oppression are bad for everyone involved. Including the oppressors. Boys and men who are taught to treat women as objects boys and men were taught to dehumanize women. Need to come dehumanize themselves. Boys and men who are taught that real friendship lies and demeaning other people. Their sense of self their friendships and even some of their lives are based on moral corruption. The bottom line is that rape culture is awful. And it's time for a. Every one of us needs to do our part. But men men in particular we need to do our part. It is a moral failure on our part if we let sexual harassment sexual assault and rape remain as women's issues. Sexual harassment sexual assault and rape are men's issues. Because we are the primary perpetrators and we have got to do something. What can we do. Lots of things educate ourselves and our children. Speak up. Speak up anytime you hear or see sexism harassment and rape culture going on. Speak up when you see it on tv when you're watching it with your children talk with him about it. Cwc rape culture happening at work speak up when you see it happening at church. Speak up when you see rape culture happening in the world. Also. Take responsibility if any when you screw up. Own it apologize for it and do your best to make amends. Listening within is another important thing we can do and believe. The stories you hear. One of the worst parts of rape culture that even had had time to address is that when the survivors do come forward there has typically been few to no consequences for the perpetrators. And severe consequences. For those who have been harmed and risk. Telling their. Finally let's work let's work to create real justice. Our mission statement calls us in the church to live justice. You got a lot of living to do in this area. And men. We in particular we need to do all of these things. And we need to stop being the perpetrators. We need to wake up to the harm we are causing we need to wake up to the culture of toxic masculinity and which removed we need to wake up to rape culture. And we need to put an end. Women. However you've been impacted by rape culture. You did not and do not deserve to be treated that way. However many times. I'm sorry. I believe you. You're not. Friends. It's time we commit to ending. Rape. Because the women aren't winning out there somewhere. These are women we know in our lives our daughters our mothers are sisters our wives are friends in our family every woman we know. If you think this isn't happen to someone you know and care about. You just haven't been trusted. Without stories. We heard this morning from two members of our congregation about their story. Every woman you know. Is intact. Pirate cove. It's time we put an end to this horrifying aspect. The country. There's a long road ahead this may be the work of multiple lifetimes. But it's work we have to try an undertow. And there's hope write this later chapter with this latest chapter with hashtag me too and the public accountability of men with a large degree of fame money and power. These are inspiring for step. Let's keep walking this walk. And doing the work that needs to be done. So that we can end. Rape. Culture. The time to start is now. The people that start with.

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20180916-service.mp3

We hear the whispers of the ancestors how their stories touch our lives and call us into becoming. So wrote lynn gardner and are reading this morning. Atlanta bat now. The verdant green of leaves on trees as we listen to the soft rustle of the wind flowing through. The rough touch of the bark on skin. Call sus. Into becoming. Quiet. Stillness. Sounds foreign body flickering through awareness. Inner peace. The gentle act of meditation. Call zaza. Into becoming. Forward. onward facing dogs stretching muscles opening hearts. Breathing in and out. Matching movements to brass. Yoga caused us into becoming. Is that true cannot be right. What does that really mean. Do i truly value this. Who am i. Who do i wants to be. Question. Call. Becoming. Eyes letting from word to word or phrase to freeze ideas shared seeds planted in our minds. Inspiration blooms hope transmitted without a word spoken aloud. Reading causes. Into the coming. I'm so unsure. Am i wrong. I think i made a mistake. I definitely made a mistake. Oh my god how could i have done that. And actually server turned out okay. Doubt. Call zack. What cause you into becoming. We talked last week in the service about how we all view the world differently even given the exact same circumstances. Depending upon our personality types. Personality types are not right or wrong. You just are. Some of us are more introverted some of us are more extroverted. There are areas of our lives though where there is room for change and growth. Her question this morning is. What in your life helps you move forward. What calls you and your growing beyond where you are now into a better version of yourself. And to be clear i'm not saying that our current selves or any less. We are beautiful and wonderful just the way we are mistakes flaws and all. And we can all grow and learn. And so what is it in our lives that helps us do that. What causes. Into becoming. As we heard in our reading this morning there are many cultures in the world that honor and look to their ancestors for guidance. This way of thinking can be unfamiliar to those of us raised in western more linear ways of thinking. Why look backward when we're trying to go for work. But there is a course much wisdom in looking back and not just because those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. Our unitarian forebears were always asking questions always evolving never accepting the status quo just because that's the way it was. As much as we say we embrace that message i can become easy to become attached to the way things are and our lives right now and resist the continuing evolution that life calls us. And then our universalist forbearers they told us that. loves everyone god is love everyone is love. How we live into that message of loving everyone especially in these hard times of strife in our country and such a challenge worth. Revisiting. Looking to our ancestors certainly can be one way to pay attention. What is calling us. Into becoming. We hear the whispers of the ancestors. How their stories touch our lives and call us into becoming rolling gardner. But calls you into becoming. Thomas merton wrote that there is in all things a hidden wholeness. Quaker cielo jean parker palmer likes that so much he wrote a whole book with that title a hidden wholeness. And part of his response turn part of his response to merton he writes. In the human worlds where we are less self-revealing than jack pines. Mertens words can at times like wishful thinking. Afraid that our inner light will be extinguished. What are inner darkness exposed. We hide our true identities from each other. And in the process we become separated from our own souls. We end up living divided lives so far removed from the truth that we hold within that we cannot know the integrity that comes from being who we are. He later sums up this perspective by saying that we are awesome quote commuting daily between the public world of role. And the hidden world of soul. Do you ever feel you're living a divided life. Are there x places experiences or practices that help bridge the gap towards greater integration. What calls you. Becoming. A few weeks ago in a sermon title boss that cb explored if you were here the metaphor of the compass looking at what true north is in means. When you are lost and even when your found. What is the true north that sets the direction of your life. We looked at different guiding stars and different faith traditions for that was god in the abrahamic traditions or nirvana and buddhism more moksha. In hinduism. And we explored what truenorth might look like for us as unitarian universalist. We also talked briefly about the needle in the compass. What points you what guy do to that true north. And that's our question for today. Trunorth whatever that is for you has its own pole at sets its own direction. And us being a single human beings that we are and that's often not enough. The new york distance and belief in god alone is not always enough to help christians move in the right direction. The life and teachings of jesus help remind them what to do to move. Where they want to go. Achieving nirvana is the goal but buddhist have the noble eightfold path to help them move forward on the path to enlightenment. And meditation to use as practice. Islam offers the five pillars. Most notably for our product talk our conversation today salah. High times daily prayer. Typically most of these traditions offer both a set of beliefs or principles as well as some sort of religious or spiritual practice. To help us. As we inevitably stumble on our continue journey in the direction of true north. It is in fact one of the functions of most world religions to offer to their followers that needle on the compass. It's one of the challenges for us and unitarian universalism. Cuz i think we're missing a good chunk of our needle. But we have a shared framework of relational beliefs. We believe you should really to ourselves and one another with love care kindness compassion justice and equity. Besides attending sunday services do we typically don't ask a lot of ourselves collectively anyway. In terms of practices. And so in some ways many of us if we haven't challenged ourselves we might be missing close to half. Of the needle. Salah 5 times daily prayer in islam is no joke. Is observe that's one intense spiritual practice to help guide you in the right path to true north. So when i say going to sunday services for us when i consider that as generously maybe a quarter of the needle. I'm also thinking in terms of comparison to judaism. Shabbat in judaism begins at sundown on friday and goes to sundown on saturday. The levels of observance very of course. And the demands of modern life continue to intrude but it's quite clear that there is an expectation that the sabbath day a full day. It's a true rest no work. And it goes on for the whole 24 hours. Can you imagine how your life might be different if starting on monday morning all the way through until sunday morning not only did you do no professional work but you also abstain from all chores and work around the house. And focused instead simply an x with time with friends and family. And i'm time for spiritual and personal reflection. Taking time to just the. Sabaton sabbath when fully observed are pretty serious spiritual practices. Unitarian universalist minister reverend scott alexander writes in his book everyday spiritual practice. Many people in our culture seem caught in a rut meandering through their days doing only what comes easily. Simply reacting to unpredictable twists and turns. Ceiling to structure their lives in any meaningful maturing ways. Too often we lack that serious spiritual practice and unitarian universalism that offers us challenge and pushes us to gross. It makes sense given how we define ourselves theologically. It's pretty hard to say we offer freedom of beliefs but we ask that you do this really specific spiritual practice all the time. The problem is though that too often we ask people to choose their beliefs but we ask we fail to ask them to choose a religious. Too often we fail to ask ourselves as unitarian universalist. What is my significance unitarian universalist. Religious practice. What caused you. Into becoming. It's an integral part of the human experience that we fall short of our ideals hopes and dreams that we set for ourselves. Impertinent aiko part of the human experience that we fall short sometimes. Let me try to live how they want to be in the world. Sometimes that falling short as a single mistake that when we realize it is relatively easy to correct. Other times though that falling short becomes a pattern of actions and behaviors that lead us to the world and ways contrary to that which we profess. Religious practices are just one of the tools that our fates were dishes provide us to help remind ourselves of the path we have chosen. Help remind us of the past we continue to choose. It's not easy to stop everything you're doing five times a day for prayer. Especially if you don't live in a muslim country where everyone else is doing it. Sniper the point. Praying salah is an opportunity. 5 times a day. Stop the ordinary flow of things. And remind yourself of what is truly important. How much were life looking for. If 5 times a day. You stopped to think about what your truth truenorth was and what it was calling you to do. Practicing store-bought once a week for a full day. Is becoming an especially difficult practice for those who try to do it especially in modern america. And yet that whole day what would it look like to take. A whole daddy just. Ourselves. Finding time to meditate for western buddhist in the busyness of everyday life. It's difficult to be intentional. Any of you know i've recently taken up yoga as a spiritual practice and my commitment has been to go 3 times a week. That's been hard to stick to. It's been venting them both on my works and personal schedule. The words again of reverend scott alexander. People often associate the word practice with joyless discipline and unrewarding labor. Like countless hours spent at a piano or computer computer keyboard struggling to master the skill. I am struck though by how consistently people who engage in spiritual practice describe the liberating soul satisfying pleasure their spiritual disciplines bring to their lives. I think some of us may be fine practicing the piano so fulfilling but i'm not going to argue too much. The question again. What calls you. Into becoming. Past your window was serving as our interim minister he asked me during one of our supervision session supervision sessions define. In our conversation help me arrive at a conclusion that had never reached before. There's a difference between what i have termed intentional spiritual practices and inherent spiritual. Because with intention you can make almost anything into a spiritual practice. Walks in nature quality time with loved ones. Even brushing your teeth. Just bring attention and awareness to the moment. And you can bring some spirituality to almost anything. Inherent spiritual practices on the other hand can bring us toward something new even without the intention. I personally love being in nature and sometimes a walk outdoors will help me if i'm feeling down. But austin it does not. Where is practices such as yoga and meditation on the other hand if we engage with them they have a tendency to help us whether we're feeling good about it in the moment or not whether we want to be there or not but there were setting an intention. Or not. So it lifts up this inherent nature of some spiritual practices because of the calling the pulling forward that they offer. There are mornings when i go to my yoga class and i am not feeling presents i'm tired and exhausted the kids were up half the night. And i am not feeling. Spiritual. Almost inevitably though. Doing that yoga practice helps draw me more into my body and more into the present moment. The practice itself. Practice itself. Up stromme back into being and becoming. My best self. What caused you. Into becoming. When you are falling short of your own ideals what is it in your life that helps bring you back to who you want to be. When you are feeling stressed far too busy and chaotic. What is it that helps you find a place of groundedness. And inner peace. When you're feeling overwhelmed and lost what helps you know. And find yourself and find a new path for work. When you are stuck in a rut of sameness and need a new direction to move in in some area of your life what do you do that helps you find a new direction. There are endless potential answers of course in the back book i've quoted a couple of times now everyday spiritual practices by reverend scott alexander there are short essays on 39 different kind of spiritual practice. Including meditation martial arts recycling vegetarianism quilting gardening cooking and many more. It's not just the old standards that are available to us as unitarian universalists do the old standards are old standards for good reason. Whatever it is. It's important thing for us to think about. What calls you. It's becoming.

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20160320-service.mp3

He said i love you. She said she was sorry. I tried to leave before. And he still found me. He said i'll take the children if you leave. Where would i go how would i pay for anyting. He makes all the money. She said i'll kill you if you leave. You didn't mean to hurt me he just gets so upset sometimes. I love him. How can i beat him. He promised to never do it again. Everybody says it's my fault that he beats me that i'd if i didn't provoke him there wouldn't be a problem. It's the alcohol not him. He never hurt you when he's sober. Just when he's drunk. These are some some of the reasons people give. When staying with their abusive partners. You may have noticed that more of a gender pronouns that i use for male. Men do tend to be abused the abusers more than women. But domestic violence impacts and effects. Everyone. Men and women. Straight and gay. White and black. Old. And young. 1 and 7 men in our country will experience violence from an intimate partner and their lifetime. On average 45%. Almost half of the people who identify as lgbt cue experience domestic violence and their life. Black women experience domestic violence at rates 35% higher than my. This is an issue that affects every. And it disproportionately impacts women. The us department of justice estimates that more than 90% of all domestic violence victims are female and that most of users are male. The ratio for women. One-in-three. One and three women in our country will experience domestic violence in their lifetime. The number is staggering to me every time i urine. One in three women. That's one-third of all in our country. How many women are here in the sanctuary this morning maybe 60 or 75. That means there are 20 to 25 women in this room right now who have already or will experience at some point. Domestic violence. And their lives. All this violence. Directed at people we know love and care about. Are reading this morning. Hard as it may have been to here. It's very very real. Happens every day in our country. And thousands of homes violence is committed against someone in their own home by someone they love. What's happening right now. Every nine seconds in the united states a woman is assaulted or beaten. So that's right now. And one. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 789 again right now. That's another beating. Three women die every day in our country killed by a current or former partner. 411 hours into this day. So it's likely one of them has already died today. Is this real enough. To real navy. What are the major problems with domestic violence one of the many reasons that remain so frequent in our country and in our communities. Is that we don't talk about it. You pretend like it doesn't happen as if it's not there. Our picture for this week service as of a lovely looking what some might consider the opposite of a broken home. We considered going with something showing a house that was actually falling apart. But instead we went with a perfectly normally looking home to make a point. Sometimes homes and relationships that look lovely from the outside have brokenness within. Sometimes relationships that scene healthy and leveling from all public appearances. Sometimes that goodness masks a relationship and the home. Broken with domestic violence. Sickeningly. Some people use religion to justify domestic violence. The bible says a woman should respect and obey her husband. Or this is just a test of your face. Or you're being punished for your sins be a better person in this.. Just saying those sentences makes me feel gross. You will never ever ever. Hear that. In this church. Ours is not a face tradition that condones or accepts violence by one person against another person in any way shape or form. There is never a justification for harming another human being whether a stranger on the street. Or your husband or wife. Unitarian universalism stands on the side of love. Not violence. .. And a store. Saddling the physical violence parable is that is it's not the end of the story for those experiencing domestic violence. There's almost always emotional abuse of course. And then there's the impact. The physical abuse. In a typical year women in our country lose 8 million paid days of work. Because they can't because i can't go to work for fear of the physical abuse will become blatantly obvious. And i didn't miss say that that's 8 million days not make million hours 8 million full days of work. Each year. Is the equivalent over 32,000 full-time job. The story is all too common and it often goes something like this. My boyfriend beats me. He slept a little things little things i've done wrong. Course sometimes he's normal. Sometimes he lashes out and i never know when it's going to be. I feel like i lived my entire life. On eggshells. Because sometimes when he snaps it's just yelling. Sometimes it's at the slapper to in the face. Sometimes it's more. He feels terrible afterwards he apologizes he thinks forgiveness. And yet the pattern never changes. I tried to leave. And yet there is an invisible club that he holds over my head. You see. I'm living illegally in this country. And i cannot go back home. There is nothing for me there. When i threatened to leave. He threatens to call the ins. I'm trapped. Now only a small percentage of women experiencing domestic violence are trapped because of their immigration status. Play huge percentage most if not all feel trapped because of something their abuser is holding over their head. The most common threats of course our physical violence and death. What's rolla financial support a close second. The physical threats are very real. Abusers walk and stalk those who leave them trying to force them to come back. Often resorting to physical violence. Financial threats are real as well. An abuser will often have the higher paying or only paying job in the house and controls the flow of money leaving the abused feelings i have no way to support themselves even if they want to leave. And there are so many other threats as well. Taking or harming the children is another common one. It's hard for me to fathom. It's true. And speaking of the kids. I even really need to say it. We can all imagine the profound impact on the children. Children witnessing violence between their parents with a supposed to be the safest space of all. They're home. Children learning that violence is an acceptable way to solve problems. Children running that violence is an acceptable way to treat women. Children being beaten and abused themselves when the abuser turns his attention away from his partner. Picture is ugly. Very very ugly. And far too often the reality is hidden. Far too often. We. We allow the reality to be hidden. Because here's the catch. Sometimes we don't want to see it. Sometimes for example we don't want to see the domestic violence that is currently occurring within our own church community. The natural response in a church environment hearing all this is. Oh that's terrible i can't believe it's happening all those people out there. But surely surely it can't be happening here in our church our unitarian universalist church or we honor the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Baby out in the rest of the world may be in a church where they use their religion to justify domestic violence but certainly not in my future. Certainly not here. You might be thinking that consciously or unconsciously. If so as much as it pains me to say this. You would be wrong. One and three women means one and three women. 17 men means one in seven men 45% of the lgbtq community means 45%. And our church. But it's well over 200 numbers there is without a doubt not just one family that is currently living with a hard realities of domestic violence. But more than one. So i want you to know because if you were here this morning or currently in and living with an abusive relationship. I want you to know that you are not alone. That you are not trapped that you are not stuck. That you do not deserve this. Please know that if you were stuck in an abusive relationship. We as a church community we will not touch you. We are here to love and support you. If and when you are ready to seek help. Please know that we are here with open arms waiting to catch you. Whether it's a trusted friend sitting next to you in the sunday mornings. Armenia reverend truly are one of the castro associates. This community is always available to you. We are here and we will help. I also have a message for any abusers that may be sitting here this morning. Stop. Stop right now here today please. Stop and get help. Do something anything to work on healing the place of your own brokenness the pain the shirt the hurt the shame that is causing you to inflict violence on those that you love. I know that there's a good chance that you yourself or abused as a child or witnessed abuse in your home. I believe that your deepest tourist self watches you inflicting violence and shrinks and cringes and thinks this isn't okay. I understand that you are broken. That you were living out your own paying by inflicting it on another. Please please get help. If you need help getting help. Reverend julie or i can help connect you with resources. Acquiesce. We need to break the cycle of violence in our country and our families in our lives. We need to break the cycle of brokenness. Does domestic violence is brokenness. The violence itself is brokenness the aggressors and abusers they are acting up their own brokenness the victors and survived the victims and survivors of domestic violence they live with brokenness. Say we all of us. We need healing. Let me be clear. The burden is on the abuser to stop the abuse no ifs ands or buts about it. It should never happen.. And i also want to lift up for a moment the brokenness that most victims of domestic violence struggle with internally. Not just the brokenness inflicted upon them by the abuse. And also a brokenness within them that tells them that they deserve it. This is a no way shape or form of blaming the victim statement but the simple naming of the truce. That women and men alike usually only tolerate abuse and there is some part of them that thinks that they deserve it. I say this. As someone who was in an unusually emotionally abusive relationship for several years. At the time i didn't even realize that some of the things my partner was saying to me were effusive. My spiritual director would be shocked and appalled that some of the things my partner said to me. And it took me a long time to understand why. Cuz even though i intellectually knew better even though if you would ask me i would told you of course i didn't deserve abused. Back then there was a significant part of me that believed i was worthless and did deserve it. And so i took everything that was hurled at me and rationalized it. He thought it was norm. There is nothing normal reasonable rational or defensible about domestic violence. The brokenness. Broken is caused by the violence itself. The underlying brokenness in the person committing acts of violence in the visible and underlying brokenness in the person that stays. All calls out urgently. Perfume. We need to help women and men leave situations where they are being abused and find a way to a safe and healthy life. We need to help men and women who abused others heal their own pain and brokenness that they can stop hurting themselves and others. Do we need to heal the broken culture and our country that far too often tacitly or overtly permits and allows domestic violence to continue. He may be wondering what can i do. You're aware of someone who is suffering from domestic violence or suffering with domestic violence let them know you are available to help. If you haven't already. Let them know that you will not judge them for having stayed that you were there for them no matter what that you will help them in any way you can. If you can hear or see actual violence happening not someone you know but someone lets near lives nearby you perhaps intervene if you still feel safe. Sometimes just the fact that someone else is aware as enough. Prefer an abuser to pull back. At the very least the very least if you think someone is actively being physically abused in the moment call the police please. Call the police. And if you don't have any sort of direct connection or you're not aware that you can have any sort of direct connection. Please let's work to change our culture. Let's work to change the culture of silence the culture of it's none of my business. Let's work to change our culture where jokes that begin with what do you call a woman with two black eyes. Are not socially appropriate or accepted in any situation. And of course if you're feeling move to action there are volunteer opportunities as well. A better way the primary shelter here in muncie for people looking to escape from situations of domestic violence volunteer there or get money. I volunteered to work at one of the many hotlines that exist for folks. Or come this afternoon at two 1:45 we gather. The exhibit one and three to now know why it's called that. At the boston museum of art. The options are endless. And i understand that none of this is easy. I understand that it's scary. When i lived in philadelphia. Seven or eight years ago. I woke up in the middle of the night one night. Hear this voice screaming help me help me. He's trying to kill me. No these thoughts it sounded like. Furniture was being thrown around. Heavy furniture. But when that screaming kept going i was figuring out that it was probably a body hitting the wall. Was really scary. I called the police and came. And they separated the two gentlemen it was two men. That really it took me four days. So i know. And that's not even first-hand right that's just me being a witness. I can't even imagine experiencing it. I know this is scary and hard. That's because it's scary and hard and real. We need to act. Because the bottom line is that domestic violence is not just a women's issue it's a men's issue 2. If an issue. These are sons are brothers our husbands or boyfriends and fathers. These are our mothers are sisters our daughters are girlfriends and our wives. A failure to act such failure to help a failure to try and change our culture and make a difference. At is complicity. That is participating in encouraging a broken system a broken system that needs to change. Maybe i'll take steps to heal the brokenness that is domestic violence. May you help heal this broken this. Ann arbor.

www_uuchurchmuncie_org

20190915-service.mp3

One of the responsibilities of religion. Is to give us hope and help us overcome challenges in our lives. Or knows that it says enough difficult things in our lives to manage right if there's not a personal challenge going on in your life right now there's certainly plenty of challenges going on in our city and our state in the country in the world. And if you're not sure what i'm talking about just turned on the news you'll see. No. Religious traditions typically offer hope and help during those difficult times in fairly similar waves there's variations for sure but some of the consistent ones we see our first the care and support of the church for the synagogue the mosque the temple how the community comes together to offer each other love. And sustenance. Another common one is another come resources a sacred text or scripture that offers stories of hope or restoration. Another common one is some form of comfort found in the presence of the love of god the goddess or some other form of the. Others others for sure. But there's one more common one that i want to list up this morning off 4th way that many religious traditions embrace which is our own human agency and free will our ingenuity our strength and our human will to persevere. And what other religious traditions certainly embraced this approach and unitarian universalism. In addition to the care and support the congregations offer each other on the whole we tend to lean most heavily on this last one. Which makes sense as it flows naturally from our humanist roots. And so we will explore this more deeply today beginning with a question. What's keeping you. From doing the impossible. And our first answer is going to begin with a story titled los ninos estaban solos by jorge bucay. In this story. There is two young children that a baby. And a 6-year olds and this is such a little time ago where are there wasn't cellphones right so there was just there's a landline in the house. And this is actually a spanish story so you can imagine like a little mix spanish vila-wright. And i'm we're still at the receipt to that home was heated by fire fireplace. And so did the parents left these two kids with a sitter one afternoon. And this sitters boyfriend called her up on the phone and said hey i've got my parents car for the day do you want to go for a quick ride. And i should have said you know i really shouldn't but you know what. I just put them down for their nap. And they always sleep the great sleepers they always sleep for at least 45 minutes. We could probably go out just for a quick. And so the sitter was very clever right after she hung up with her boyfriend she picked up the phone and left it off the hook cuz if you still have it land on you know if you do that a certain point if someone tries to call you get a busy signal right if the mom tried to call and check. She can say she was on the phone. And then she was like okay i'm clearly going to need to lock the doors to the house but i think i'm going to also lock the the door to their bedroom. Because if they were to wake up for some strange reason i wouldn't want them to come downstairs and they're getting the stuff in the kitchen or touch the fire i got just not that's that you can't have that happen so i'm going to lock the door to their. And so she did. She locked the door to the room. And then she went downstairs and she locked the door of the house and she went on the ride. Her boyfriend. Now of course as we would say in our house our house is very bad twice. Might we hope we certainly hope that none of her babysitter ever ever ever do anything like. What happened. Young folks sometimes make bad choices even even use. As they are at figuring out their path. But unfortunately what happened was somehow probably from the fire but we don't know but somehow. House did catch on fire. And downstairs was starting to burn the smoke was coming up the stairs and the six-year-old was woken up by the coughing of his baby brother. And he you know woke up went right the door was locked so they calling out for the sitter and yelling and yelling and shakur she didn't, she wasn't there. And so. He decided he was going to just have to see this point to the window now his parents had installed some latticework to try and make the house look nice on the outside and he couldn't get the window up. So there's this double berry right there's a window couldn't get the window up. And that there was a lot of so he's like okay fortunately there was a phone in the room except that it was off the hook downstairs and so even though he knew his mother's number he couldn't call her. But he found a coat rack that had a carving of a bear head on the top. And he decided that he was going to find a way out until he took this coat rack and he rammed it up against the window broke the glass broke the frame. Broke through the latticework. And got in and got a way out to outside the room. And he took his backpack and empty the school's book at my school books out of it. And put his baby brother on the backpack. Put the backpack on. Climbed out the window. Reached out to a tree branch climb down the branch of the tree and found his way outside. Saving both of their lives. And so the firemen and firefighters eventually got their right and they are put the fire out. And then they were a bunch of them were standing around talking. They were just amazed at how how did this young kid do this i mean it's a bit there is a window and the latticework like. My cat so amazing it like how did he manage to accomplish this. And the fire chief who is there who is a little bit older and wiser said. Because no one told him that he couldn't. Now the story for our story for this for all ages this morning at a similar theme right. That often we are told things are impossible when were little or small or younger. And we can't do them. And that often becomes the reality. And the problem is. Is that we don't just believe these stories when were kids some of the stories of things were told that we can't possibly do. They stick with us and they stay with us even as we grow up and become adults. What's keeping you. From doing the impossible. George bernard shaw and a very gendered quote reflective of the times when he said it. Set the following. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. How often are we taught to follow rules in our culture it starts young doesn't it. I know school is supposed to be about learning and it is what it is also about learning how to follow the rules. And that seats even into our educational materials i remember so clearly the coloring exercise that i had to do in second grade right. It wasn't about being created it was about following the rules color this section red color that section blue color this section yellow. So the problem that i had. Was that one of the sections that wanted me to color yellow with the sun. And i have been i don't know about that i think we just got in the encyclopedia britannica at home i don't know but i've been doing some research with different things with my parents and i had we talked about the sun and how it wasn't actually yellow that in reality it was more yellow oranges right and so good little scientific person that i was i colored it the appropriate colors even though it said it was supposed to color yellow eyes i know i know it's yellow and orange so i colored it yellow and. And so wouldn't you know when i got my sheet back there was a red mark next to the sun. I got docked two points cuz i didn't follow the directions and color it just yellow. You know what does that teaches i mean yes like clearly it's an exercise in learning how to follow the rules but. I think far too often are learning seats in. When it just becomes that we follow the rules maybe more often than we should especially when some of the rules that we've internalized aren't true or real or good or ethical at all. No of course we do need to follow some of the rules i'm not advocating that we go out there and blow through red lights or you know any things like that like there would be chaos if we didn't have some rules rules exist for a reason and they're good i'm not saying all rules are bad. The creativity so often is not about following the. I mean oftentimes there is there structures in different art forms of course. But at the end of the day of creating new things in the world we have to behave willing and able to step outside of what is. So i ask again. What's keeping you. I'm doing the impossible. What have you been told is not possible. Maybe as a child maybe by your parents or by other adults. But also by our culture. What is our culture called is not possible for you to do. Maybe if you're a white straight cisgender male the answer is not a w. But if you are not white if you are gay or if you are transgendered if you are female or any another number of marginalized identities. There's probably been something some messages you've received about things that you cannot do. Whatever those messages are that you have received whether they are based on an inherent identity. Or whether it's about something else we too often internalized those messages and let the messages dictate our reality. Instead of us creating our own reality. What's keeping you. From doing the impossible. Here's a story i've told from the puppet here a few times before but it's a good one it's about mohini the tiger. And what happened to mohini is that she was at a zoo i think it was a zoo in washington. And she lived in a 10 x 20 ft. And this clearly was not ideal for her write the zookeeper said this is not going to work she's a tiger she needs a much bigger space and so the zoo they in the zoo said about the process of raising the funds to build mohini a wonderful natural hat. So they did the fundraising and then they did the construction and write all this takes time and i think in fact it took a probably almost two years. For them to get this all set up in the place and they were so excited they raise the money they built this beautiful habitat for her. And they set her free. And the first thing she did was to go over to a corner. And start pacing around in a 10 x 20 ft. That she wore bear. Because that was what you understood. Maybe the limits in the confines of her. Now. More often than we would like some. We are like mohini the tiger. And it's the worst thing is that we often aren't even up where that right i'm sure that if mohini had been cognizant of tigers have this level of functioning but we assume that if she did if she knew that there was all the stuff out there. That she could explore this beautiful habitats that had been built for. But instead if she walked that. And too often we walk our own wrecked. It might not be a physical space it might be a task that we really want to do or something a new experience really want to try any number of possible. But the hard thing is we usually aren't aware right we don't know that we're walking that rectangle. Until someone hopefully points it out to us. What we expect of ourselves what we expect that we can or can't do. Often becomes our reality. And it's a real problem when those expectations we have are false. A friend of mine named tom. Was always taught me share the story with me told me it was okay to share he was always taught growing up that he was impatient that was the story that had and that was at that was in his family right now i'm sure he did some impatient things and he's a kid kids are often impatient but for whatever reason and his family that was the one of the narratives that's.. That he was impatient. And he heard that all the way growing up pop through his he has young adulthood and so that's just who we always thought he was he just thought he was impatient and that was it. Children. And he discovered the hold that he didn't want to be impatient with them that he didn't like. Wow he talked to them when he was healing inpatient. And he found his patience it took some time and a little bit of work but he figured out that low and behold he indeed could be patient. He broke outside-of-the-box but others had creative. He broke outside-of-the-box of his own expectations. What's keeping you. I'm doing the impossible. And when the big picture right there so many problems in the world i canna seem like it's so hard to how do we how do we work on racism in our country how do we work on poverty they all these problems seem so big so overwhelming sometimes. When i think of these i try and remind myself and i'm struggling of a story i heard at the world parliament of religions in australia. About 20 years ago. I forget his name because it wasn't an english name it was complicated but he was from indonesia this man. And he share the story of his nonprofit. And the nonprofit he started. Was working to help poor people find a way to increase their there met their means right so they can have not be so food insecure a little bit more money to cover the basics of what they needed in my. And she came to us he was invited. Because in indonesia island of thousands and thousands of islands they had this nonprofit had over 2,000 locations they were one of the biggest nonprofits in indonesia. But what he shared with us and the others of us in the audience that day was that they started with 10k. And they didn't start with a vision of covering all these islands in indonesia didn't start with a vision. Front of having 1000-2000 location. They started with the vision of helping the people in their village. And that's what they did. And then they were successful there and they had enough resources that they were able to start another location in the village over. And it grew from there. And it didn't grow all at once they didn't scale up from 2 to 1,000 in the span of a couple of months who's the span of over twenty years they built this. And they went from making a difference in one place and making a difference in 10 places to making a difference and 1,000 different locations across their country. One of the fallacies that we fall into when we think we've got an impossible overwhelming task in front of us is thinking that we have to come up with a solution all at once. It's easy in those instances to become overwhelmed then immobilized. Starting where you are and your local community is a great and manageable place. So what course we shouldn't be afraid to dream big and have hayek spaced high expectations we also shouldn't be afraid to start small and realistic. What's keeping you. From doing the impossible. And developing a commercially viable light bulb thomas edison went through over 10,000 prototypes before getting it right that's a lot of prototypes. If he had worked at the pace of one just one new prototype per day it would have taken him more than 27 years to get to the one that we. Here's a quote for medicine. I have not failed 10000 times i have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those ten thousand ways will not work. When i have eliminated the ways that will not work i will find the way that way. Expecting perfection expecting the first or the second or maybe even the 100th try to work can totally get in the way. If we're trying to do something that feels impossible. Not being afraid of failure even expecting to fail and is so important being willing to learn from those failure. What's keeping you. From doing the impossible. Are there seemingly insurmountable obstacles in your way. Well here's something that might give you a little bit inspiration if there are winston churchill failed the 6th grade. Michael jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Helen keller was given up on as unteachable. The manager of the grand old opry fired elvis after 14. Luther vandross lost at talent show. And einstein was 4 before he talked 7 before he could read and he once failed a year's worth of mass. So some perseverance is. Writing for going to overcome what seems impossible. Not letting others expectations in our experiences are our own previous expectations or experiences getting away. Come keep us moving for. What's keeping you from doing the impossible. The stories we tell ourselves are powerful they have a powerful impact on what we do in the world. And their expectations too. Weather taught to us by others or whether we've other expectations we created for ourselves. They can box us in. A rectangle is known as the case may be. What impossible dream do you have. Doesn't have to be huge it can be small i can be just for you. But whatever it is whatever it feels like something you cannot achieve. What is that in your life. And what first step could you take to move towards making it a reality. What invisible barriers do you need to move past. When have you been told you can't do but maybe maybe you actually can. What's that local aid organization on one island and indonesia that you could reasonably start with. Right now. Another great nelson mandela said. It always seems impossible until it's done. We love stories of people overcoming the odds because it inspires us. It gives us hope. We're not all going to be nelson mandela or not going to all achieve what he achieved and tell that. We also need not be mohini the tiger either. Last week i asked to reflect on what we expect of ourselves and others in a positive way what good expectations do we have. This week it's the opposite. What negative expectations you have of yourself and your life. We're certainly not pretending this conversation that everything is just about your approach to life and then if you change your story or change your expectations that you can fix anything. That's of course not true. But confirmation bias is a real thing. Confirmation bias if you're unfamiliar as are scientifically proven tendency to interpret information in a way that affirms our own prior beliefs or hypothesis when we believe something strongly we have a tendency to ignore experiences information or even data that that is contradictory to what we believe. And only taken the things that make sense in a line with where we are at. And so if you expect that things are going to go wrong or that life is going to be harder that you're always going to be impatient or any other number of things. There's a pretty decent chance that that's how you're going to experience life. If you expected something is impossible. It will remain so. Contact nelson mandela. It always seems impossible. Until it's done. You are impossible dream may not be as big as mandela's and that's okay. Maybe you are impossibilities trying to pay off a mountain of student debt or overcoming a seemingly intractable difficult relationship with a family member. Or maybe it's finding a way to be happy with your body. Whatever it is the point today is the question whatever feels impossible right now. Something sure maybe illness significant illness for example some things truly are insurmountable. But too often. We let our expectation that is something is impossible become the reality. Women truly it is not. Sometimes the barriers are only as strong as those that can find mohini that. And so friends as we go about our days as we go about our lives. Maybe find hope and strength. Not only in this gathered unitarian universalist community. But maybe find also find that hope and strength within ourselves. May you find hope and strength both from our gather community. As well as from within. Yourself.

www_uuchurchmuncie_org

20160117-service.mp3

Freedom freedom thank god almighty i am free at last. Now on this martin luther king jr. weekend you might think i'm referencing him or maybe even quoting one of his amazing speeches. In fact though i'm quoting an 18 year old young woman named justine who had just come of age and a small village many many years ago. Alice of forward-thinking village despite this being many many years ago and so justine was not preparing herself to get married she was not going to be dependent on a man her parents had given her her own plot of land to farm. They work with her to build a farmhouse to live in and they given her the tools she needed. Justine loved her parents and got along well with them and yet despite this and despite their generosity and set her up with a farm of her own she was also still a teenager. One with a strong independent streak. And so she couldn't wait to get out on her own. Slushy at the freedom to do whatever she wanted without having to follow the rules set by her parents. And so that was the scene on her 18th birthday after she had did her parents for awhile and it arrived by herself in her own little farmhouse on her own piece of land. She stepped inside looked around and said. Freedom freedom thank god almighty i am free at last. Now. A neutral observer might consider this a bit. Traumatic. Because justin's parents were good folk who generally treated her fair and well and who raised her with good values. But there she was nonetheless. Looking around her small farmhouse. She saw the stock pantry. And the thought occurred. Now that i'm free of my parents rules that means i can eat whatever i want. No more soup for lunch and no more potatoes and lima beans for dinner. So justine took her sack of potatoes down to the village market and she traded it for 10 tasty pies. She got four pumpkin pies. Three apple pies and three strawberry rhubarb. Aldi's pie should last me for days she thought. And so they did. Her lunch she had pumpkin pie that day for dinner apple and the next morning strawberry rhubarb. With a full stomach happy as a clam she decided she should plan her first day on her own. Well she thought. Mother and father always made me work the fields all day. And it is harvest time in the green be planted in the spring is ripe for picking. That was no fun i don't have to do what they say anymore i don't feel like working in the fields today. The harvest can wait. It'll still be there tomorrow. So she decided instead to take a nap in the morning. After having more pie for lunch she took a stroll to the village in the afternoon. And on her walk she came across this brutal b. Hanging out her wash. Now miss brill b2b fair was a little bit on the cantankerous side of things. And for all these years justine it's just always smiled at her and been polite no matter what miss grobe said. Because that was what her parents had taught her to do. To be polite. It occurred to her now though. I'm free. I don't have to live with my mother and father i don't have to be polite. I can finally tell him his brutal d what i really think. This is great i can finally be honest and speak my mind. I'm free to be me. Until she stopped and said. This is brutal be hey there. I just wanted to let you know what a pain in the neck i think you are. You always make mean faces at me and you never had anything nice to say. And relieved of that burden feeling free in her heart beating behind an open mouth and staring this is grillby. Justine gailey continued on her wall. This went on for about 2 weeks pie in the morning pie for lunch pie for dinner. Just ask justine of course at the trade in her sack of lima beans after the first week from or pie. It turned out that i'm none of the days during those first two weeks on her own to justine actually feel like working in the fields. Control course she didn't. She kept taking naps and going on walks and talking to other villagers. And of course in those conversation she spoke her mind and told people what she really thought. Now perhaps unsurprisingly to some of you with seasoned veterans of life out here. Justine was not feeling so good after these two weeks. She put on some weight. She felt a little lethargic or stomach hurt most of the time. And she was sick and tired of eating pie. The pie was all she had left in the pantry having trade away her potatoes in miami beach. She looked out the window and saw that the grain her grain was rotting in the fields. Not having been harvested when it should have been. And she couldn't go tell her parents about our problems cuz that would be admitting defeat. And so she went into the village to complain about the pie in the rotting grain to seek some advice and help from others. But no one wanted to talk to her. Because none of them apparently appreciated honesty authenticity and personal feelings of truth that justine had shared with them the past two weeks. And so our story actually ends right here. Because the ending isn't that important. I mean we sure hope that poor justine figures things out and start eating more healthy and starts tending to our fields and learns to hold back on sharing her version of the unvarnished truth all the time with all the people. And maybe she does. Canadians a long painful but ultimately successful growth and learning process. But it doesn't matter to us this morning because the most important point has already been made. Just because we have the freedom to do something. Doesn't mean that we should just go ahead and do it. Just because we have the freedom to eat whatever we want doesn't mean that we don't need to eat healthy food. Just because the other frame to take naps and going on walks all day doesn't mean we should and just because we have the freedom to tell people exactly what we think. Doesn't mean it's always the most helpful thing. Now i'm guessing that at some point during the store you probably figured out the moral. And perhaps at a later point you might have thought to yourself. Okay i get it cute story but nobody with any brains actually going around eating pie all day for every meal. We all get that we can't just skip work without consequences and even people some of the people have the most challenges with social skills don't usually go around telling everybody exactly what they think of them. See i get the point but this doesn't really relate to real life. Nobody actually does stuff like this in a real world. And certainly not us adults. Except that we do. We actually do. Do exactly. Like justine in the story. In real life. For example. Our environment. Human beings have always had the freedom to do what we want the environment. We've acted. Especially in more recent history. Can pretty much the same way justine acted when she got freedom from her pear. He pretty much been doing whatever we want doing whatever we want to the environment. Regardless of the consequences regardless of the incredibly negative impact. We've been having on the world. Whether its global warming warming destruction of natural habitats the largely unregulated unregulated use in disposal of synthetic chemicals. Or any other number of important and serious environmental issues. We've been operating as a species. Like justine. As if we had complete unbridled freedom to do whatever we wanted. Regardless of the cubs. I'm even taking it a step further. We have science that shows us the damage were doing. Another fear or denial from catering special interests. We frag are feet and done little on the whole to respond to the environmental crisis. W. Created. Some of us are doing our part of course. We here in our church did some of our part by installing solar panels on our roof this past fall. And some of us here and some and many others on the other places in the country and organizations. Are working to do to make things better. And the recent paris of course of course a step in the right direction. But really as a whole as the human race. We've been pretty much just acting like just being. Abusing the freedom we have. Buying into the gloria smith of the absolute unbridled freedom. Without much regard for the mpac. Rx. We do it with the environment. We do it in our communities and we do it. With each other. This was illustrated for me when i was 15 and a conversation i had with my dad. But doing it with each other part. He came home from a meeting at church one day and said to me. You know i'd really like to meet this fine young man i keep hearing about from other people. I see you're all these all this praise and all these glowing comments about this kid named seth. I just don't know who they're talking about. He was referencing of course the fact that i was being a fairly typical teenager at home then the outside world i didn't exhibit the same kinds of difficult behavior. I'm sure that is a teenager the contrast between my outside behavior and inside behavior may have been pretty sharp. It's not just a teenager. Many of us still live in these contrasts it at today. We know that we need to behave in a certain way in public or at work or at church. And we do that. Do we feel like we should have a certain freedom to be our more authentic selves with our families. Which oftentimes means letting out a little bit more of our inner justine. Too often and being a more of ourselves with those closest to us. We are in fact less nice less kind. Unless caring then perhaps even our own values call us. There's a saying in many of the 12-step programs that you shouldn't compare your insides with other people outside. Or in other words you shouldn't compare the struggles you know you're having on the inside with a calm face that most of us project to the outside world. Thinking of a con you see in most other people most of the time is an accurate reflection of what they're experiencing on the inside. Just because someone is wonderful when you see them out in public. Doesn't mean they live that way all the time in their life. Take me for exam. Most of the time here at church. You see me reacting to most things disagreements what have you in a calm and reasonable way most of the time. I'm not perfect but i think i'm pretty good. And hopefully most of you experience me as a reasonable thoughtful person. If you had a webcam monitoring our house though. Which would be creepy by the way but if you had a webcam. And you watched it it's possible possible that you might think me slightly less reasonable than the impression you gave me here at church. At least that's what my wife elizabeth. And there's some truth to what she says. Despite my best intentions otherwise despite my values about relating to everyone with love care and compassion at all times. I have a harder time doing that at home sometimes. And i'm not alone in this. There are many reasons for this different way many of us interact at home of course and at least part of it is this idea that with the people closest to us. We shouldn't do have the freedom to be our most. True and authentic selves. Even if that sometimes means our words are at and actions. Our little uglier than we'd like them to be. It's almost not even a conscious choice right i mean i would personally would never consciously choose oh this person i love who i committed to marry who i vowed to treat with utmost love. I'm going to be less reasonable and compassionate with her than the people i see it went public. But i know that i do actually make that choice sometimes. Maybe more often than i would like to admit to myself. In the course of my daily family life. I'm not saying i'm a terrible husband or like go around being a jerk to elizabeth all the time right. Most of the time i think i'm a pretty good husband. But you compared my behavior and response is at home and at church. You would see differences here and there. I think i probably get impatient and frustrated more easily at home. And i'm probably a little less delicate and diplomatic and sharing my impatience and frustration compared to here at church. So of course. How we treat each other matters especially those closest to us. So i continue to work hard to minimize and hopefully someday eliminate those behaviors. The difference isn't that. But they are a symptom of the freedom many of us feel to just be ourselves around those we love. As nelson mandela shared with us in our meeting this morning with freedom comes responsibility. It's what pulse upon each and every one of us to use our freedom response. And that starts at home. With friends with family. With the responsibility we have to find ways to still be authentic selves to she'll still share our in our most feelings. Bashar frustrations impatience anxieties. Our anger and despair. And where is that are safe. Appropriate. Enchanted. Our friends and family. Many if not most of them are going to stick with us no matter what. And so it is on us not to abuse that gift of love. Not assumed to us not to. Cannot assume it means. Yep unbridled freedom to act. And say. It also means here at church where we offer so much freedom in terms of our beliefs. We need to be responsible and sharing the sharing of our own people. And to honor the beliefs of others that are different from our own. Even if we disagree. Even if we don't understand. Even if we don't think those other beliefs are even rationale or reasoning. Adobe clear. That's not honoring someone who thinks it's okay to hurt other. How we treat one another is not an area where we offer freedom of belief. We have very specific beliefs about how to treat one and. With love inclusivity justice and equality. But in the area where we do offer freedom of police. Realm of the big picture things that we can't prove one way or the other. To use our freedom responsibly. We need to honor the differences that exist. W can continue to enjoy our freedom together. That's a faith. And means out in the world that we need to be careful. Not to make unbridled use of our freedom. That includes the environment of course and many other areas including racism. On this martin luther king jr. weekend. We would be remiss to not at least touch on the ongoing anti-racism work that is needed in our country. For while rev dr king and so many others in the civil rights movement. Helped us take great strides forward. There is still much work to be done. And i know that has a white person. I have some unbridled freedom that i need to pay attention. For example when my son co becomes a teenager 10 or 11 years from now. I'm aware that i have the freedom. Not have to have a conversation with him. About how to respond if he stopped by the police. And specifically i mean i have the freedom to not have to worry about having the kind of conversations most black parents feel they must have with their sons. To help them avoid getting arrested and were shocked. Part of how elizabeth and i plan on taking responsibility for our freedom in privileged. Is by actively having a developmentally appropriate conversations with our white children. About the privilege they have. The freedom they enjoy. Just by being white. And that is our responsibility as well. The mostly whites congregation. As we honor doctor rev dr martin luther king tomorrow. As we celebrate celebrate black history month in february. And as we do anti-racism work all year. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves about our freedom. The freedoms we often aren't even aware. As a quick aside one very concrete way to do this if you're interested it's a sign up for the anti-racism workshop that our congregation is co-sponsoring in february which will be held down at all souls in indianapolis on friday evening the 19th and all day saturday the. Coming back as our picture today reminds us. We are a nation that is founded on the principles of freedom and liberty. Paraphrasing that wise sage uncle ben. Who tells peter parker aka spider-man. That with great power comes great responsibility. So too does with great freedom. Come great responsibility. As a species as a nation. As a church community as individuals. We have a tremendous amount of freedom. And so we just also have a tremendous amount of responsibility to ourselves and to each other. To use that freedom wisely. Justly. And compassionate. With that freedom comes the need to monitor ourselves. To make sure we aren't falling into justine's trap of unbridled freedom. Given our freedom we must take responsibility for ourselves our communities our country. And our world. As we go about our days. I think about our lives. As we go about our business of exploring our faith. Practicing inclusivity and living justice together. Maybe avoid justine's pitfalls of unbridled freedom and instead use our freedom. Wisely. Maybe use our freedom in such a way that we make sure to care for our world in the environment. Maybe use our freedom in such a way that we actively fight racism sexism classism and the many other impressions that exist. Maybe use our freedom in such a way that we are mindful to treat everyone. Including and especially those whom we care for most. With love and respect. Maybe use our freedom. As you go about your days. As you go about your life. May you use your freedom wisely. May you. The response.

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20200202-service.mp3?_=2

I am plagued by an unrelenting vision for possibility. As i look around me i cannot help but see what is possible. What could be. I have found the straight to truly explode during my time here in muncie. Because this city is full of possibility. This is been more clearly apparent to me and each empty storefronts that crops up. Especially downtown where i try to spend as much time as i can. When i look at them. I cannot help but to see what could be there. To dream of the shops restaurants and gathering places that i wish would exist. In those places. The see what is possible and you're into open such places myself even though this is not at all my calling if only to see the possibility realized. I have daydreamed. Several whole business plans. For the beautiful locations that were once occupied by muddy grill and refresh for example. Whether or not these places would thrive is beside the points to me. The point is that i can't stop dreaming. And i cannot seem to turn it off no matter how hard i try. It's clearly mostly about seeing what goodness could be. What beauty and connection could emerge. If given the right circumstances. I see all empty store fronts this way. And empty lots. And i also see people this way whether empty or not. I look desperately. For all of the potential. But exists in people. Even when folks disappoint me frustrate me show me again and again that they are human and flawed. Ifocus. To a fault. On what they could be. On the redemption and the growth that is possible in them. Now this is been a huge gift. And a huge liability for me. It is truly helps me to love people through their mistakes. And it's helped it's kept me from being able to set boundaries with folks. Willing to do the work of. Leaning into their own goodness for too long. It's kept me. Believing in people until they were able to make monumental shifts in their lives towards healing. And it's kept me believing in people until they had torn away parts of my self-esteem. It's taking a long time to learn to tell the difference. It's taking a long time and many many lessons. But i've learned and i'm still learning. But most importantly for today. Is the way. Of looking at the world and humanity this i of possibility. That is in me is a huge part of what resonates with unitarian universalism for me. We have long proclaimed the goodness of humanity. That people are more good than depraved. This is a central notion of our theology. In fact this notion is what led our spiritual ancestors to break out of the calvinism of their time to create something else. Something that their neighbors would call unitarian as an insult. And that we would reclaim as our own. Calvinism proclaimed that humans were in total depravity. Corrupted by original sin while unitarians radically claimed that humanity was more capable of good than that. One of the most difficult parts of our face is wrapping our heads around the ways in which people choose to do. Terrible things. When we believe that everyone is inherently worthy and capable of great good. This is the central issue of our face and that we grapple with again and again. How do we continue to see the goodness in humanity when the world is wracked with greed and fear. War and violence and suffering. How do we continue to live into this truth. For ourselves. How do we make more and more choices from our own goodness. The word integrity. Derives from the word integer. Meaning whole complete or intact. Which itself derives from the proto-indo-european word tag. Meaning touch or handle. Wholeness been in the sense of integer means untouchable. So integrity can be seen as to act. And speak from the place within yourself. That cannot be touched. To act or speak from the place within yourself that cannot be touched. To be acting from a place of your own authenticity and not meeting others expectations not trying to be perfect not trying to conform or fit in or follow any rules in fact. But to be acting from the place of your own divinity. That place where you are led by something so much larger than yourself. That place that points you towards wholeness. Towards growth. Towards connection with all that is. We are all full of something untouchable. Unknowable. Indescribable. And we are all full of pain and broken bits of dashed dreams and bruised egos and all of the masks and armor that make us feel numb rather than safe. And which parts are which. Contemporary author greg lavoie rights. Attempts to divide ourselves. Into divine and not divine breaks us apart. Better for our overall composure to focus on whether our particular call has integrity or not. Whether it makes us feel more or less authentic. More or less connected to ourselves and others. More or less right not morally. But intuitively. Better to ask whether a call will give us the feeling of aliveness. No she uses call language given the context of this piece. But it can just as easily apply to any choice we make. B big or little in our lives. Life is full of these kinds of choices. Moments that are opportunities for us to be brave. To stand fully in our own core. And to make the harder but more life-giving choices. Opportunities when we could act from our fear or our sorrow or our wounded ness. Or we could try to draw on our integrity and acts from the place within us that is the spark. Of the holy. That place within us that is the most. Sacred. When we are in touch with our inner selves the voice that comes from our own intuition and we are able to call on our own courage. Those life-giving choices seem like the only way forward. But when we are lost. When we feel disconnected from ourselves. From our communities. From the holy. Our fear can keep us trapped in old patterns. Unhealthy relationships. Cycles of self-sabotage and self-doubt and those create courageous choices. Can feel impossible. It's much easier to talk about finding and calling upon our inner courage and our integrity to guide us through our lives and transform ourselves and those around us and the world. It's much much easier to talk about it. Meant to actually do it. And this is because life has made us this way. Life has cut us and broken us and pushed us around. Life has shown us time and time again that we have reason to be afraid. We have been shown over and over again throughout our lives that it is risky and painful. To live into our integrity. Contemporary spiritual writer anne lamott. Describes this process in her book. Hallelujah anyway rediscovering mercy. She writes. Wilco wrote i wants to unfold. I don't want to stay folded anywhere because where i am full. there i am a lie. We got folded by trying as hard as we could to make everyone happy. To please everyone and to fill every moment with productivity. Are grown-ups said this would bring approval. And approval would bring satisfaction and they would like us more. But we also learns to sabotage ourselves. So that they wouldn't feel a clips. Hyatt cheesman made the family look good but it also seems to be another nail. In dad's coffin. We agreed to get folded at school and in jobs. To get ahead shine the family star fill our swiss cheese holes. We got folded and fooled into airless states of accomplishments. Estrangement from ourselves. Squandering our very short lives. Then we sold it ourselves. So we wouldn't annoy or embarrass our kids. Self-importance fueled by performance anxiety people-pleasing sloss and bad self esteem wrapped us into small chris. Squares. Like professionally launder shirts. I was there this week. I liked it briefly. Because folded feels like home. Small. Familiar. Hugged. I like smells of soap and steam and starch. Then it becomes oppressive and disorienting. Even a lot of caffeine and cheering new curtains don't help. You see we got creased in those places such a long time ago. But it seems hopeless to begin the great unfolding now. Our integrity got broken. I'm not sure we got strong at the broken places. Although people love to say that this happen. And the epic conclusion of the star wars trilogy the original one the return of the jedi. We see darth vader grapple with his own unfolding. Those of us who watch the prequel trilogy would learn some of what fold him up in the first place. But without that knowledge. All we have to unpack. On that first viewing of. Return of the jedi. Is. Someone we have only known. As inherently evil. Clearly physically broken under his fancy suit. Desperately trying to draw his estranged son into his world. Into the dark side of the force. With all the power and destruction that comes along with it. And then when faced with the choice of having to see his child died. He betrays this long allegiance. He has had to the dark side. After years decades even of loyalty to one master to his darkness. He saves. The sun that he has never really known. And the part that i love about this brief moment at the climax of this film is where he struggles. Mightily with this decision. Even with his mask on you can see the torment in his whole body. But he cannot let his son die. No matter the cost. And he saves him and loses his life in the process. His integrity wins out in that moment against all odds and against all his conditioning and all of the reasons we might argue that he was a lost cause too folded or broken too evil for rehabilitation or redemption. In her book kitchen table wisdom doctor and author rachel naomi remen explains this process. This way. She writes. Integrity rarely means that we need to add something to ourselves. It's more an undoing than a doing. A freeing ourselves from beliefs. We have we have about who we are and ways we've been persuaded to fix ourselves. To know who we genuinely are. Even after many years of seeing thinking and living one way. We are able to reach past all that. The claymore integrity and live and away we may never have expected to live. Being with people at such times is like watching them pack their pockets. Trying to remember where they put their soul. Often in reclaiming the freedom to be who we are. We remember some basic human quality. An unsuspected capacity for love or compassion or some other part of our common birthright. As human beings. What we find is almost always a surprise. But it is also familiar. Like something we have put in the back of our drawer long ago. Once we see it. We know it as our own. In the words of 13th century mystic meister eckhart there is a place in the soul that neither time nor space. Nor no created thing can touch. To live with integrity truly means to act from that place. To connect to that place. To live to live with integrity means to connect. To the parts of yourself. That we could never name. The parts of yourself that some might call god. The parts of yourself that are connected to all beings. And that are the connection you have with all beings. Because that part of you is that which binds the whole universe together. It's the interdependent web of which we are all a part. It's your own wholeness that cannot be broken no matter what happens to you that shatters your fragile heart. So when we do the work of integrity we are deepening our connection to all that is sacred and to all life all at the same time. Can you imagine more holy work than that. More life-affirming work. More liberatore work. Not just for us but for all of the siblings of creation. In the disney film moana. A young woman the daughter of the chief of her polynesian isle island tribe. Sets out to return the heart that has been stolen from tafiti. The earth goddess. After a harrowing journey. She finds herself moments away from where 250 should be. From where her heart. Should be returned. But between her and that place is. A demon of earth and fire called to car. Tikal fights with moana's friends the demigod maui until moana. Figure something pretty profound out. And she holds up the heart. It's a car. And walks fearlessly toward the demon. Unprotected. And she begins to sing. I have crossed the horizon to find you. I know your name. They have stolen the heart from inside you. This does not define you. This is not who you are. You know who you are. And if she thinks she moves closer and closer to this demon spewing fire and the demon settles and quiets and comes right up close to her. Sumi are face-to-face and moana is able to place the heart right where it belongs. And 50 t becomes herself again. Without her heart she had succumbs to the parts of herself that were folded broken in so much pain and lashing out that lashing out seems like the only options queuing her fire out into the world. She lost who she was. Until she was reminded. Until moana soccer. But she was not defined by what happens to her. Until moana told her who she was. That she is. A being who gives life and nourishment who helps growth around her who loves deeply. We are all able to be that being. And in this time when it can seem like there is so much in our way. When it can seem impossible to overcome all of the greed and corruption and violence and fear that surrounds us. We have to be that being. When the ways in which our democracy has been broken since the beginning. Are becoming more and more clear to all of us. We have to be that being. When our planet is dying and burning and screaming at us.. We have to be that being. Not that all of it is on our shoulders. But we have to do what we can do. We need to call on those best parts of ourselves as often as we can so that we can make more life-giving choices for ourselves. And for every soul around us that deserves to be free. That deserves to know love. That deserves to feel truly seen. We need to create a world where we don't fold each other and ourselves. Quite so much. Where we allow the divinity within ourselves to shine. To guide our choices. To be the light of the world. Or we can dance. And sing and take each step. In the light of our own goodness. And the goodness of our beloved. Here on earth. May it be so.

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20170702-service.mp3

I can hardly believe that this is the six-time at this pulpit of this reputable church. You invited me back. It makes me wonder when was the last time we had a congregational mental health checks around here. After all the very definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Let me up a size at the outset that my remarks today are intended to calm your fevered state. Which seems alarmingly similar to the current unhinged condition of our body politic. Physicians diagnosed aziz by way of comparing a patient's symptoms to precedence they recommend treatment options according to what has worked in the past for alleviating symptoms. And wherever possible healing the underlying causes. My homily seeks to apply this process to understand what ails our society today. Which polls show is more polarized than anytime since the tumultuous 1960s. My prescription and prognosis is offered with the acknowledgement. But i'm not that kind of a doctor so you'll need to go elsewhere for your painkillers. Bill frederick ask me after church for months ago if i would put together a guess sermon this coming summer and populism. At that time the president was only six weeks into his sperm and pundits were using. The term populism to explain how mr. trump banished confound their prognostications the conventional wisdom and scads of posters to secure his party's nomination and win the presidency. Will confirm my own sense that many people were left scratching their heads about what exactly populism was or is. And what role at ma'am. Played in that transformational election. So what is populism. As historian i'm inclined to seek definitional clarity. Next i searched for the things origins. I try to determine how it is changed or stayed the same from its point of emergence to the present. And explain why. Finally i look for the things significance in its own time and ascertain whether it has any lasting influence. So2 the definition. The latest edition of the oxford english dictionary succinctly defines populism his quote support for the concerns of ordinary people. The concise oxford dictionary of politics ads that populism connotes quote support for the preferences of ordinary people. And that the meaning has always been somewhat derogatory. It continues. Insofar as a specific set of populist beliefs can be identified. They involve defense of the supposed traditions of the little man against change as seen as imposed by powerful outsiders. Dutch political scientist cast. Has observed that populism is inherent to representative democracy. After all do populists not juxtaposed the pure people against the corrupt elite. Defined in this way we could find elements of populism in the american revolution and its aftermath especially in shay's rebellion the anti-federalists opponents to ratifying the constitution and the whiskey rebellion. Please forgive me while i nerdout a history professor style here but you asked what is populism so now i address what was populist. In the mid-nineteenth century. The nativist american party better remembered as the know-nothings. Made populist appeals that were vehement lee anti-immigrant and anti-catholic. As more than a million refugees from the irish potato famine reach our shores. But the term populist itself was first used. My discontented farmers in the american midwest and south. In the 17 18 70s and 80s who were badly hurt by the panic of 1873. Our first great depression. The chroma lithograph that you saw projected at the start of today's sermon and what's the cover of the e-blast from a few days ago titled gift for the grangers. Was published in that year 1873 to celebrate an idealized image of the yeoman farmer so extolled by jefferson. Who's place then in society was rapidly being eclipsed by what i called the three shuns of the gilded age. Industrialization. Urbanization. And immigration. The grange was one of several grassroots or associations of farmers. The gravitated toward populism during the gilded age roughly the decades may be the only following the civil war. After two decades of economic dislocation by the early 1890s these mostly rural folk together with the support of other producing classes such a certain trade unions. Formed the people's party otherwise known as the populist party. In the 1892 election you just heard the. Preamble to their platform they filled it a national presidential candidate james b weaver in a third-party effort. Received over a million popular votes and 22 electoral votes. While neglecting several members to congress including four senators on the state and local level they captured three governorships and put hundreds of minor officials and legislators in office. A mere four years later. Their movement was absorbed into the democratic party. And presidential candidate william jennings bryan the leading order of his day champions the populist cause. Only to go down in a landslide defeat to republican william mckinley. The populist party saw some of their reform agenda adopted into law during the early decades of the twentieth century under the stewardship of the progressive movement and the new deal. While they watch the fight for the free coinage of silver the nationalization of the railroads and the end of protective tariffs. They did succeed in reforms involving the direct election of us senators. A prior to that that was something that was voted on by the senate themselves. And the adoption of a graduated income tax and workman's compensation laws. And also the right to organize unions and to bargain collectively. More recently. Populism as it is. Populism has manifested itself across the political spectrum. British political theorist margaret canavan has discerned two major types of populism. Agrarian and political. With seven subcategories between them a few including commodity farmer movements that push radical economic agenda such as the populist party. Participatory democracy advocates who seek reforms through political initiative and referendum especially seen during the progressive era the first two decades of the 20th century. The populism of politicians who make non-ideological appeals to the people for the purposes of building a unified coalition and a reactionary populism epitomized by the rise of european fascism in the 1930s. And the race-baiting of demagogic southern democrats during the civil rights. Last year's presidential campaign the left's populist bernie sanders. Shared certain positions with the populist of the right donald trump when it came to criticizing the nafta and trans-pacific partnership free-trade agreements. Both focused on the debilitating effects that globalization has had on wage-earners. And position themselves as outsiders with respect to the washington stablish moment. So that gives them their bonafide he's as populist in the historical frame. But there's a comparison ends. Senator sanders a democratic socialist. Play pursue policies that would redistribute wealth from the economically to the middle and working classes. Although his campaign promises worse parson details. Mr trump's policy goals as president. Are unabashedly aligned with a continuing transfer of wealth upward. At the expense of the social safety net. That the republican party has been engineering with some great success since the reagan administration. The latest versions of the house and senate republicans healthcare plans to replace obama's affordable care act would fund large tax cuts. For the highest income earners by cutting medicaid subsidies for the indigent. Using cannabis classification scheme president trump's popular ism seems to be of the rhetorical kind. His base of support took a leaf from ronald reagan's playbook. I'm making appeals to disaffiliated democrats. And winning enough of them over in critical swing states to claim a convincing electoral college victory despite losing in the popular vote. The question remains whether his most vehement supporters those who have not historically voted for republicans. Will turn out for his party's candidates in the midterm elections next year if they find the president trump's ostensible populism. Fails to bring them the greater share prosperity. That he promised in 2016. So now you know how popular some has been defined a little bit about what it look like at its inception. And a snapshot of where things stand with populism today. So to my recommended a treatment. This is where you might need some painkillers. Unitarian universalism regards itself as a liberal religion. By which it means a spiritual community that fosters critical thinking free of dogma or fundamentalist doctrine. We are a fellowship of truth seekers. Who subscribe to a series of principles. It must be perpetually engaged through thought speech. And importantly action both as individuals and as a bound congregation. There is nothing in our beliefs that commits us also to a liberal political. And we would do well to remember that you use are not a religious wing of progressive politics. Just as populism can be of the right left or center so too can the range of our members views lie across the political spectrum. It's for this reason that my prescription for a populism as it could be is rooted in what we already espouse. Are seven principles. Informed by the judeo-christian tradition from which the unitarian and universalist denominations emerged. And transformed by free-thinking humanist. These tenets of our beloved community could help us avoid. Those aspects of populism. That have proven historically problematic. Well embracing those that lead in the direction of greater inclusiveness. And empowerment for all americans. The most relevant of these it seems to me our. We believe in the inherent worth. And dignity of every person. We believe in justice. Equity. And compassion in human relations. We believe in a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We believe in the right of conscience. And the use of the democratic process within our congregations. And in society at large. We believe in the goal of world community with peace. Liberty. And justice for all. And we respect the interdependent web of all existence of which we are apart. With these principles to guide us a new populism that rejects hatred. Races. Sexist. Paranoia. Homophobia. Nativist. An equal sign. What's your braces effective education for all. Which provides affordable health care. Access to new regime food. Decent housing. Public safety. Which respects all lives. This recharge populism. Must first. Be imagined. In order for it to become attainable. People without vision. Parishes. My dissertation advisor michael cameron a winner of the pulitzer prize in history. Made his students sensible of the paradox at the heart of american civilization. That we are a conservative people in many respects. What we conserve is fundamentally radical. Our founding documents after all commit us to forge a more perfect union by ensuring that life liberty and the pursuit of happiness do not happiness itself. Are guaranteed to all citizens. Equality and justice under the law. Are recognized there in is our inherent. Inalienable rights. Consider. No nation in world history. Have launched. It's enterprise on such utopian premises. These remain the basis for universal human rights aspired to by other countries that were formed largely out of ethnic or tribal affiliation instead of like our own. Buy dedication to a proposition. Despite our many laudable achievements. We americans perpetually fall short. A fulfilling these lofty commitments. Is part of our national dilemma. That we are charged with realizing these ideals. But we must accept that more perfect is as close as we can ever hope to get. Perhaps our greatest political poet of populism abraham lincoln said it best. What he exhorted us to rededicate ourselves. To that proposition. The government. Of the people. By the people. For the people. Shall not perish from the earth. Americans. Are rebellious. Patriotic tradition. After all. A revolution. Was. A rising up against the lawful authority of a chillin time great britain was then the most democratic nation ever known on earth but it wasn't democratic enough for us. It is now time for us. Our generation. Rise up. On behalf of the common good. The commonwealth. And by so doing. Preserve lincoln stream. That our nation represents. The last. Best hope of earth.

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20190623-service.mp3?_=2

If you read my june unigram calm you have at least some hint of. Where i'm going with a sermon. Of course you already. Why do several things and by the way this is identifying your order of service is a homily i think it. Probably grew into a sermon. You've been warned. First. There are rumors and misconceptions. Hovering around like flies at picnic. And i want to say as simply as possible but it seems to me. We know for certain right now there's probably more but. I also want to reflect on some general principles that. Conserve as well in the coming. 14 months and beyond. I want to do that by calling us back to our roots. And finally because i've been asked a few times i want to explain my role as i see it. So what are we know for sure. This is not inside or information. I'm drawing on the board of trustees announcement and reverence s response to that announcement in the specially blast. That one out. As i said i'm sure there's more of this what we. What we know for sure but this is this is bare-bones. If you've not read those. Documents carefully. I'd recommend doing so. Or reading them again. And read them with an open mind and heart. Trusting that. All parties meant what they said. The board has accepted reverend seth's recognition as of august 1st 2020. That's a given. Reverend seth has resigned our board has accepted his resignation. You'll be entering the us regular search process. And this will mean by the way that reverend elizabeth will also leave. The board and rev seth agree as the board put it the time has come for us to part ways. And quote. Is robert seth send his response my ministry is no longer a good fit for the congregation as a whole. I want all of you to have a minister. That you feel comfortable with and it is clear that for too many. I can no longer fulfill that role. And quote and i will editorialize a bit here and say that in no congregation. Is any minister. Going to. Please everybody. That's not going to happen. But. There's a kind of a. Critical mass. So everything involved. 2. Forever seth to resign will allow both of both he and reverend elizabeth to seek new fulfilling ministries elsewhere. And will allow us as a congregation to. Move forward to heal to decide who we want to be. As we choose how we will journey forward. Reverend seth role in the coming 14 months will change but not altogether. Because he'll still continue to conduct sunday worship to provide pastoral care to administer the rest of the staff. He will attend board of trustees and committee on ministries meetings and oversee the worship associates and pascal associates. What will be different is that he will not be making significant changes. 2. The life of the church. So what next. We've begun to acknowledge that the tensions exist. Between members and friends with congregation who hold diverse views. Between the congregation and the board. Between the board and reverend seth between reverend seth and some people in the congregation and between some people in the congregation and the ua. And those tensions are nowhere near result. We need to keep in mind they never will be. Completely. We're a diverse people with strong opinions and we cherish our diversity. There are say we cherish our opinions. Board of trustees has stated that one of the goals moving forward is that we quote work to heal the rift that has developed within our church. And rebuild the strong community that we all love. We can work to hear each other. And to build bridges. And quote. In order to facilitate this. We have work to do to become both willing and able. To embrace our diversity and to live in harmony. With each other. That is a challenging task. One that i am sure we can do. Because that's who we are. We don't have to agree and we will not. But we must commit to being civil. Even when we disagree. But. We must be more than just civil. Because that's who we are. And that's why i remind all of us are foundational principles. Even as we differ and challenge each other and yes argue and sometimes. End up hurting each other. Inadvertently. We must hold on wavering lee. No exceptions. No exclusions. No yes but. The congregation the board rev seth his supporters his detractors. The rest of the staff. We almost over the hard work. Of calling each other out when we fail on this but but do that in the spirit of. Building up. Rather than tearing down. Most of us i'm sure have a good idea of what's in our principles and some of us probably know them by heart i am not one of the people who knows them by heart. Sometimes however. Securing something that is very very familiar to us. Phrased differently. Makes it come alive in a new way. Unfortunately we have several ways of articulating our principles. Here's where our tapestry of faith children's programmes state the first five principles which are the ones that are the most relevant. To my point. I always liked these simply because of their their simplicity. We believe that each and every person. Is important. We believe that all people. Should be treated fairly and kindly. We believe that we should accept one another. And keep on learning together. We believe that each person must be free to search for what is true and right in life. Do we lose all persons should have a vote. About the things that concern them. These principles that seems to me or were they guides. As we find our way through the terrain that will be difficult. Complex. And challenging. So within all of this. How do i say my role. First of all i have to say i don't know with complete certainty because part of that is going to be determined by what the board. Wants of me. And while he is here how reverend seth thinks i can best help the congregation and. The process. So now there are some unknowns here for me. I do know that i won't be a candidate for any whatever kind of error rum. Contract position. We end up with. During the transition time. I have neither the church administration skills nor perhaps even more important the physical mental and emotional energy for that trust me i do not. That job i will leave to somebody else. Asianet anyway. Basically i will keep on doing what i've been doing. All along as a former colleague of mine said once keep on keepin on. I will provide pastoral care within the congregation and in the wider community as requested. Preach when called upon to do so. And help guide our pastoral associates team. I will meet regularly with the rest of the staff has i have been doing for. More specifically maybe. I will do what i can. To help us. Find ways to take care of ourselves and to care for each other. In time this time of uncertainty change and perhaps turbulence. I will try to be a steady. Calm. Presents. I will try to be that presence i was on a. On a flight. Quite recently where i was sitting. Or i could see one of the flight attendants got into often on turbulence and. I discovered that i was watching. The. Flight attendant. And judging her reactions cuz i figured if she was okay the rest of us were okay. And the situation planes a couple of times i like to be seated where i can where i can see that person. Even if they're strapped in. They're not. Hyperventilating then it's okay. I will listen to all sides. Without taking sides and without judging. Listen while we process the feelings. And conflicts it will inevitably arise. Help us to have those difficult conversations. We need to have. And that matter. So how we come to this point. In our congregational life well it's been a long and complex road. Different people have different versions of exactly. How we got here. The past forward. Guaranteed to be equal a long and complex. And we won't always agree. On the best way to proceed. But we will move forward. And confident about the future. Because that's who we are. As the other elements of our service this morning's jested. We will ask what's possible. As well as what's wrong. We will be brave enough. To start. Those conversations. That matter. We will be intrigued rather than put off. By our differences. Because that's who we are. We will listen. We will stay together in community. And embrace our shared humanity. We will trust in a future yet unknown. Because that's who we are. We will not be driven off by discord. We will not detect we will not jump ship. We will be able to see the birthmark face. And all its blemishes and birthmarks. As a living. Breathing growing. Essential part of who we are. Because. That's who we are. They were holding the forefront of our minds hearts. That we all want the same thing. We want to be the best church we can be. So that we can continue to be an outspoken. And coherent voice. For progressive inclusive religion. In our city. And in the region. That's what we've been doing since 1869. I believe that we want to be a church that is a force for positive progressive social action. And i firmly believe that we want to become a community in which all persons. Feel welcome. Valued. And safe. A community of acceptance and compassion. We will differ. On exactly what this looks like. And how to go about it. But i truly believe that we are unified in our commitment. To these goals. Because that's who we are.

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20161204-service.mp3

Soothing music. A quiet space. Time in nature. Silence. Hiking meditation. The half-hour in the morning before anyone else in the house wakes up. Fishing. Enjoying a cup of tea or coffee with a friend. Sound of the ocean. Of waves lapping on the shore. Gardening. 10 whole minutes without your two toddlers. All of these activities that people are activities are people experiencing some way shape or form as peaceful. They generally involve some sense of quiet or relaxation or slowing down and being freed up from outside demands. It was peaceful for each of us may vary but we can all probably imagine what a peaceful moment or a peaceful afternoon might look for us. There's also the peacefulness that is a lack of war. It's kind of piece can easily be taken for granted by many of us in the united states. Especially those of us who are not veterans are actually part of the military military or family members of those folks. Because while the us has consistently the engaged and more of some sort for a very long time. With the exception of pearl harbor and maybe 911 there has not been an attack or ongoing fight on us soil. On the mainland. Since the end of our civil war in 1865. So if you're not or have not been formally part of the military it's been 150 years for the most part. Since you experienced. Directly that is. There have been many wars the united states has participated of course and during that time. Many wars involving men and now women from our country experience in combat and witnessing horror and death. You're on our home turf do on our soil without exception of pearl harbor you've only known peace. A piece with crime a piece with domestic and other forms of violence. Peace with many of our young people going off to fight wars and other lands. But peace. An absence of war on our soil for sure. It takes only one reading of a first-hand account of the terrors and awfulness of living in a war zone. To know that this piece is not something you should take. These definitions of peace though they are definitions in the negatives. Describe the absence of something. Absence of war the absence of noise or busyness a lack of demand upon our time and absence of violence. Describe a piece that is. Peaceful. And for those of us that live with a high degree of privilege as many if not most of us in the congregation do. If you can become easy to be satisfied with and take for granted. The piece that exists in our lives. If we allow ourselves to live within this definition of peace however this absence of violence negativity and busyness. If we allow peace to be passive. We are missing out on a hugely important aspect of what it means to experience peace. Peace peace is not just some passive thing to be accepted invaluable valued when it arrives. Peace can and must be created in the world. We saw this in our story for all ages this morning. In the peace book by todd parr peace was not all about having a quiet picnic in the park was about having a little bit of snow come down. But. Peace peace was making new friends. Peacekeeping the water blue for all fish. Peace is helping your neighbor. Pieces giving shoes to someone who needs them. Pieces planting a tree. Peace is everyone having a home. Indeed buddhist monk and teacher technology on cautions us. Peace is not simply the absence of violence. It is the cultivation of understanding insight and compassion. Combined with action. That will spend more time in my sermon on the 18th of this month in two weeks talking about cultivating understanding insight and compassion within ourselves. Today though the second but focuses on the second part. The combined with action. Peace is not simply the absence of violence. This the cultivation of a loving heart. Combined with action. Use the really interesting thing about creating peace. It's not always a peaceful experience for us. I don't get me wrong i'm in no way shape or form advocating the use of violence to achieve peaceful ends. Rather i'm suggesting that the active reading of peace will often involve some uncomfortable. Infrequently less than peaceful experiences along the way. What are story for all ages left out proprietary. Is that many of what it calls for four in terms of peace. Can meet the challenging feelings and experiences. Keeping the water blue for all fish. It's actually a lifetime commitment to environmental justice and care. One that demands much of us all. Or another one piece is helping your neighbor. Your neighbor is part of a minority group is being discriminated against. Creating peace might mean putting yourself in harm's way. If everyone is our neighbor it might mean that some folks have had to do recently. Putting yourself between someone who is being harassed on the subway for being muslim or gay or female. Putting yourself between them and the person harassing them. That's not a peaceful experience. It is an act of peace. Stickman hornet loud enough the need for action is made doubly clear by the great rev dr martin luther king jr who wrote in stride toward freedom. True peace is not merely the absence of tension. It is the presents. Justice. This is in fact my peace isn't something that just happens. Timer called to actively create peace. The absence of four of the absence of overt physical violence occurring on a regular basis. Can lead to a false sense. What's really going on. Especially for those of us who live with a significant amount of privilege is false pieces too often an illusion. That masks the violence of oppression and injustice. Chuukese meaningful peace. Something that magically happens. But something we count ourselves lucky to magically stumble into 15 unscheduled minutes of quiet. Chuukese is something you must act to create. I'm sure story from now from receipt brown and unitarian universalist young adults that further illustrates this point. He shared. I started attending anti-racism anti-oppression workshops when i was 14 years old. That's what i meant ministries you said they were involved in social justice. I've heard the term social justice before but i didn't really know what it meant. Then i went to sierra leone in africa which is where my mom is from. Freetown sierra leone was eerily like a surf city. You are people who had money in the only people without money and the only way people without money could get money. What's that work for the people who had it. Ascertain. Or something else. I visited at christmas and i open my eyes to how socializing corporate eyes christmas is in the united states. Don't get me wrong i love christmas but at the time cirone lyon was the poorest nation in the world. I have seen poverty before. But i have never seen poverty like that. There's no sanitation the electricity went in and out and they were literally kids starving in the streets. Christmas and that setting was completely. I had these feelings and knowing that i wanted to do something but what could i do. I was only fifteen at the time. I could have given away all of my money to the people in the streets but then they would have been more people asking for more money the next day. I believe that the world was really great. I was seeing that the world wasn't the same for everybody. Like it should be. Which got me thinking. Then one day at a house down the road from where my aunt lives. I saw that a little boy was really cut up and hurt after falling out of a tree. It was probably 3 years old and i asked his older brother who was around 18 to take him to the hospital. It turned out that the family didn't have the money for hospice. Well i saw the little boy a few times over the next couple of days and he wasn't looking good at all. And then i walked past their house. And i saw this little boy lying in a pool of his own vomit. Butterflies all around him. And he was green. He had gangrene. And it just hit me. This is how little kids die. This is what a high child mortality rate looks. This is something that actually happens in the world. And i went straight to my aunts when you have the money and ask her to help the family by giving the money for the house. She did. And 3 days later this little boy was running around like nothing had ever happened. And that's how i started to figure out. What social justice means. And then it begins with me. With all of us. Danny pease and about feeling good all the time. It's about making tough. Tough. Tough decision. I look at the seven principles as a litmus test. They don't tell you what to do no higher power figures it out for you. You can't take the easy way out. You've got to figure it out. For yourself. Receipt browns challenge is one we must pick up today. Peace and about feeling good all the time. Making tough decisions. You've got to figure it out for yourself. Has robert fulghum said. Peace is not something you wish for. It's something you make something you do something you are and something you give. And so i asked. What kind of peace are you going to make. What kind of geese are you going to do. What kind of peace are you going to be. What kind of peace are you going to give away. There are all kinds of ways to make peace. We tend to think of piece of something out in the world but a change in our own behavior. Can bring greater peace to our lives. And by extension the world. Whether it's getting angry and losing your temper or maybe teasing that's supposed to be in fun but often ends up not feeling that way. Maybe road rage expressed towards other drivers. Few of us are perfect. Few of us are serene and peaceful. At all times. Or maybe that's a product really what you really want to work on. Maybe you start something like the facing project. A nonprofit that many of us are familiar with sounded locally by j.r. jameson and kelsey timmerman. Which works to connect people through stories to strengthen communities. They work locally in projects such as facing autism facing poverty and facing racism the name just a few. And their model has been so successful that they've been asked to work on projects across the country. But it started with two people. Jr and kelsey. Committed to making a difference. Or maybe you just start doing something in the project grows and grows. Magary mathai left her native land kenya to get a degree here in the united states. And upon returning home post completion of that degree sound for home wildly deforest it by walking. She began by planting nine trees in her backyard. And then little later started planting trees locally beginning a process that would actually spread across the entire continent of africa. The name trees for peace. And eventually earning wangari a nobel on nobel peace prize herself. The first african woman to receive. The thing is whatever you do doesn't have to start large to someday become march. Magary mathai didn't set out to win a nobel peace prize. She sent out the plant trees in our local community. And to make a difference there. Jr and kelsey have already made a difference to the facing project. And who knows maybe 20 years from now the facing project will be nationally recognized and celebrated. The point is to do something now. Our mission statement calls us to be living justice. What kind of keeps are you going to live in your own. As is true of many liberal folk we unitarian-universalist are awfully good at saying all the right things making all the right proclamation. And then too often not always but too often. Falling short of actually taking action. Istick not han reminds us. Words and thoughts concerning compassion action that are not put into practice. Are like beautiful flowers that are colorful that have no fragrance. Let us not be beautiful colorful flowers that have no free. Let's take a moment now to think about what each and every one of us can do to sow a seed of peace in the world. Something that you need to go out and change and transform the whole world tomorrow though if someone wants to sign up for that that's great all the more power to you. I am asking. That we commit the one thing that we can do. Today right now or the next. 2 weeks in months. Dassault a seed of peace in the world. Help make the world a better place. Because to pretend like we can't make a difference is to give up a power we have. To create change in the world. We are of course already more than flowers with no sense here in our church we do good deeds and good works in the world. But especially given the ignorance and prejudice that has been given permission to grow and flourish with the results of the election. Especially given the ignorance and presidents. Prejudice which is almost certainly going to be confirmed in the cabinet position. Some of the highest seats of power in our country. Now more than ever. We need to do things to create peace. And not a peaceful piece on a piece where we sacrifice what is right for the sake of getting along. We need to create and live into being adjust piece. One that is not the absence of tension but the presence of justice. Nice receipt brown named it begins with us. Right here. Right now. And i reading this morning from his book forgetting trucchi's tick not han told us that peace require strength and practice particularly in times of great difficulty. Practicing peace especially in times of war requires courage. We're in one of those times right now. It will soon be upon us. Even more so. These times calling us more now than ever to practice peace to live peace and posao seeds of peace. Now this of course is not to be done with a violent physical or verbal. Practicing peace living peace sowing seeds of peace are acts done out of love and compassion. Which doesn't mean that will feel peaceful the entire time. Doesn't mean all of our experiences will be peace. Some of them may be anything but. Are practicing peace must come from louisville. For as reverend doctor king reminds us. Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear. Only love can do that. What aston friends as we go about our days in my let us practice lived and sow the seeds of peace. Peaceful pieces of course a good thing to embrace we all need it. Peace is the absence of war is also a worthy goal to pursue. And you must also embrace the peace that is not peaceful. The many deeds small and large that are active not passive. The mini deep summer which will not feel peaceful to us as we try to change our behaviors are as we stand on the side of love in the face of ignorance and prejudice. Maybe intentionally practice lives and sow seeds of peace in our lives. May you practice. Lynch. And so seats.

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20170402-service-Lisas-refections.mp3

Identity. An evolving story that blends then and now. Here and there. I and we. What. And how. My my identity certainly comes from hardwiring. As a lover of details. An old soul and a language junkie. It comes from relationships with people in my life who have shaped my values. I was helen martin person until 2014. I am the daughter of a child of war. I'm the daughter of a girl who could wheel wheelbarrow eat an apple and carry a kitten all at the same time. I am the granddaughter of a brave immigrants. I am the granddaughter of a man who taught me how to read the stock page of the newspaper at age 7. And let me up until age 10 walk barefoot across his back. Pause for a moment on his balls prickly head. And then take a flying leap landing like a bird on the other side of the living room floor. And the list goes on. It comes from what i do. I encourage and help students acquire spanish. I practice yoga. I happily shovel snow. I buy call you around. I work way too much. I designed my vacations to hike alone and countries where i don't speak the language. I traveled lightly and dirt cheaply. And no matter where i go even in muncie i'm almost never without rain gear duct tape water and snacks. And it reflects places where i put down roots. I was raised with a roarin waters of niagara falls. A native american reservation within a stone's throw. In college i went to northern spain. And was found and left a part of myself there beckoning me back constantly. Just as eastern europe does like a call from deep in my bones. And most recently muncie. Which has been a slow-growing seed. But now feels more like home than i ever imagined it would when i landed here. 14 years. Identity. An evolving story. That blends then. And now. Here and there. I and we. This is a church where every person is welcome. Please take a moment. Now in the mail. In the spirit of loving community to greet those around you.

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20131020-servicepc.mp3

Before i start i'll tell you that then. Wrote this for. Evolution sunday i don't know if you do that here but the february 12th. Every year. Sonic closest to that. Is darwin's birthday. So. I always do an evolution sunday sermon. Otherwise think but. Hope it works for you today. I begin today with a story from the book of jeremiah. Out of the tanakh. That is the hebrew scriptures. In the waning days of the kingdom of judah. Surrounded by enemies and tending to attack. Corrupted from within by a lack of will a lack of clarity. And a lack of identity. The prophet jeremiah address the people of israel time and again. Calling them back to who they were. Who they were meant to be. On one occasion he said. Then i went down to the potter's house. And found him working at the wheel. And if the vessel was making he was making was spoiled as happens to clay in the potter's hands. He would make it into another vessel. Such as the song the potter saw fit to make. Then the word of the holy one came to me. Oh house of israel can i not deal with you like this potter. Says the holy one. Just like clay in the hands of the potter. So are you in my hand. Oh house of israel. Conservative jewish commentaries. Interpret this passage to mean. People are completely inert and absolutely in god's control. But god molds us according to god's absolute will. And we are simply the passive recipients of gods might. Omniscience. Total knowledge. And force. I heard a similar theological viewpoint of alcoholics in an alcoholics anonymous meeting the other day. Where one person said. I am my own biggest problem. Everytime i take control of something in my life. I just heard someone. From now on i plan to let go. And let god. The speaker's experience had taught her that left to her own devices she will just muck things up. Should come to believe that god has a plan for her and if she could just keep her flawed self. Out of god's way. Things would turn out better. Not to me. That her view is too fatalistic. Leaving at the half of the serenity prayer that says grant me the courage to change the things i can. Similarly i think interpreting the prophet jeremiah in a way which leaves no room for human agency. Is going too far. Both modern humanistic judaism and unitarian universalism. See people in a little better light than that. We don't believe people are just clay without anything to contribute to our own shaping. We believe people have much to contribute. That we can be wise and creative. And that we must act responsibly in our own interests. And together for the good of us all. A naturalistic view of the origin of humanity. Is that we evolve. Along with all the other plants and animals. The story of our creation from the big bang 14 billion years ago. 142 billion years. All there was was light. Through the formation of the stars and planets. And finally the coming together of chemicals and energy for the beginning of life on earth. Is truly an incredible and marvelous tale. Not just the plants and animals but the entire universe. Has evolved according to profound to a profound symmetry between chaos. And complexity. Which is somehow present inside each and everyone of us. Ourmine. Our bodies. Our emotions. And our way of being in the world are the universe itself. Organized into consciousness. We are the universe universe organizing itself. Andy ruffing into consciousness. The evolution story is seen by many as the scientific. Account of creation. When it was first popularized just less than 150 years ago now. It threatened to undermine the belief in god. Who according to the hebrew scriptures created the world. The battle between evolution and the bible science and religion has raged ever since. Now it's true many see no need for intervention intervention by an intelligent intelligent designer in evolution. Given the evidence that things seemed to have a bald according to logical principles. Quite well on their own thank you. But evolution doesn't have to exclude god. Some say the process of evolution itself. As god. There's a whole school of theology where god is in the process of life. Not necessarily intervening in the sense of changing the rules of the game is played. But simply recognizing the wonderful on sparring creation process itself. As divine. We have all been fascinated fascinated. Are the complexity and beauty of the products of creation all around us. Whether we conceive of the process of evolution is god or not. Picture if you will. A mother bear in the dead of winter. Asleep in her lair. Inside the warmth of her body. Picture little bear twins waiting to be born. Brian swam and thomas berry remind us in the universe story. Then inside the bear mother's womb. Those cubs have paws that are already. That are ready for swimming salmon. Those paws have been shaped. Sculpted and caressed by millions of years of development. So that when that tub is born. He already has the feel of salmon at the end of his paws. Evolution has fashioned us across hundreds of millions of years. So that by the time we reach this world. The moment we come into this world. We already emerged social. Curious. Connected. And delighted by joy. We carry in our very bodies the cosmic and evolution evolutionary history. Before those bear cubs have ever been in the world. They have everything they need for the journey. So to each of us has inherited a fantastic array. A faculties and abilities. And for these. I remain ever grateful to the process of evolution. That planted me here. It is gratifying. To appreciate human beings. As a pinnacle of evolutionary development. We evolve to have such a magnificent set of capabilities. And on top of that each of us brings them together in unique ways. We create new things that have never. Been seen. And the world before. Just witness all the apps for iphone. Are smartphones. There's no telling which one of the six and a half billion people alive on earth. Will be the one to discover the cure for aids. Or whichever us will write the next great symphony. Certainly the possibility of individual human achievement is one of the most admired products of evolution. However. Evolution is not really concerned with individuals. But only with the resilience of entire species. And evolutions arrow the direction of evolution and the future of humanity. Author john stuart tells us that although. Competition may at times help an individual organism to survive. The root mechanism for evolutionary advancement. In a larger sense always has been and still is. Cooperation. By the way this is not the daily. The daily show jon stewart. Who evidently has a low opinion of the evolutionary progress of at least some humans. So why cooperate. Because natural selection is a is a primary driver of evolution. And those who cooperate or they be molecules cells. Organisms or societies. Well outlast those who do not. Social anthropologist conclude that homo sapiens survived. Well leander throws did not because we were able to live in larger groups. There is also evidence. That are big brains grew specifically to facilitate the relational and social skills. Needed to work in partnership with people not in our immediate family or clan. I'll give you one example of how this works. Living together in family groups we can see one little sister faves the cat. Or daddy takes out the garbage. We cooperate understanding that each member does her or his part. Contributing to the whole. And that makes life easier on each of us. And extended family aren't even larger group of maybe up to 100 people. Every member can instantly recognize everyone else. And have at least some idea of. How each one fits in. But when groups get larger than that such as this church. We can't personally witness the contributions of each and every member. And if the group gets too large. We won't even recognize recognize all the others. In order from larger groups of people to trust each other enough to cooperate. There must be a management system. A political system if you will. The key is organizing so that individuals pursuing their own self-interest. Also pursue the interests of the group. And making them realize that by serving the group they are serving themselves. One of the first parts of the system must be. What i'll call for the lack of a better. Perm. A hard to fake. Symbol of belonging a hard to fake symbol of belonging. If i don't know you. And i didn't see you doing specifically to help me out. How can i trust you. If my job is guarding the entrance. Should i let you in. If you wear the same arm patch or can give the secret password. I'll presume you are like me. And i'll lower my defenses. An example for you use might be wearing a flaming chalice. We're telling the story of the flaming chalice. That's what we see symbols and whatever form. In widespread use. Throughout. A group of people. We know they are a political community. I can tell this is a huge church by the number of priuses in the parking lot. Stuart believes there is a directions to evolution. And it is toward ever more complex and cooperative systems. He says. Evolution on earth to date has organized molecular processes into small-scale prokaryote cells. Small cells into larger scale cells. Cells into multicellular organisms. An organism's into societies. It is about to produce a unified cooperative organization of living processes. On the scale of the planets. Managed by humans. No i know this is quite a leap of faith and evolution. And you'll have to read his book to learn more about his basis for optimism about humanity's future. But i hardly agree we need to be heading in that direction. It makes sense to me that since people have the capacity to create. And manage complex political system. And the future of the world depends upon our doing that well enough. To prevent an enormous number of calamities from bringing a premature end to it all. That we should take up the responsibility for making life on earth. More healthy and civilized for those who will come after us. It's this simple. Humanity's evolutionary purpose is to help us all live together in harmony. Evolutions arrow is pointing toward greater community. The recent evidence in congress notwithstanding. So where are we going. How will it all end. The end of time is one of the great theological questions. Any theories about it or called eschatology. Will we go out with a whimper or with a bang in an apocalypse. It's a big important question. And so far how or when our world will end remains unclear. People have always wondered about it and have been uncomfortable living with uncertainty about humanity's ultimate destiny. We really want to know what's going to happen to us in the end. That's why there are so many fortune tellers. Soothsayers. Economist. But nobody really knows the answer. And predicting humanity's future can't even be called a science yet. It's a mystery. People have long turned to religion. For help was thinking about the end of human time. Or simply the end of their own lives. When people bring questions about what the end will be like. The pastor's or chaplains. We want to give them answers that will calm their fears. To help them live with less anxiety. And sadness. It is so tempting to say we know. That everything will turn out alright. Or that everything that happens is okay. Because the world turns in accordance with a plan. It's already been worked out by some divine. Intelligent planner. However. I don't have access to a divine plan. And i don't believe the world's future has been predetermined. So i just can't predict the future. Here we stand facing an uncertain. Future of global climate change. Economic hardship. The prospect of being perpetually at war. And not enough resources or willpower. To end the suffering of the world's poor. And those hit by earthquakes and hurricanes. If liberal religion can't tell us that everything will turn out alright. What does it offer up. To help go on go into frightening. An uncertain future. How can the ambiguous theology of unitarian universalism. Compete. But the assurances of salvation. From the ravages of this earth and a heavenly afterlife. Promise by other religions. How do we deal with mystery about our future. We can't offer certainty about the future. We can only assist each other as we walk into it. When we lose some someone or something important to us. When our spirits feel broken. When we need to rebuild ourselves in ourselves a sense of wholeness. We need other people to remind us. That they are here with us. And that we can go forward together. We don't build a life as lonely individual. But in but in kinship with other loving people. What we offer. Is not a promise for our own individual salvation. But belief in the possibility of a wholesome future for our children and their children if we work together to create it. Our salvation lies not in the creator's hands. But in using our human capacity. The hope for a better future. To choose healthier alternatives. The bill better mousetraps. To live together in greater harmony. And to create beauty. In our world. That's how we deal with uncertainty. We maintain hope as we work together to bind up the broken. The bend the arc for justice. And to build a land where peace rolls down like an ever-flowing stream. When we do these things our lives mean something. We create meaning by how we live our lives. And how we live our lives as what we leave our children. The evolution. Of the human community is up to us. And working together. We are capable of making a glorious. Delightful. Future.

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20190929-service.mp3?_=1

There were two soldiers one named al and one named joe both of them had been gravely injured in the line of duty. Suffering from paralysis. Very similar injuries. I had very different experiences though with the remainders of their lives. On the one hand. He was resentful of what it happened to him he was angry he was sad that he thought it was unfair. And she shared those feelings with all those around him on a regular basis. He was cranky with the nurses. And you know. We can't really blame into a certain degree right it's a hard hand to be dealt with. The other hand there's joe. No joe saw his situation the same as i'll go but you didn't know each other. But joe decided that he was going to make the best of it that yes it was really unfortunate that his physical mobility was extremely curtailed. But that he was going to make the best out of life and he was going to enjoy the heck out of the time that he had for me. And so the nurses that came in he always greeted with a smile he helped even tried to be humorous and made people laugh this friends of this family. And the remainder of his days he lived out quite. So. It matters the intentions in the choices we bring tools. Right. What's really interesting this morning for me and for us. Was howard jojo got to that place. Now. I'm sure there's a probably a good deal of choice right and how he in the choices that he made in terms of intending to be. A lot of that was already there so much of how we operate in challenging circumstances. Is it's not something we think about our choose it's part of who we are. And so. My one of my questions this morning our first question is where does that approach forward as our approach to life come from. Where do i. Patience. Where is odeya rush. One of those places of course is our family of origin and so i'm going to share briefly about my family origin specifically about my mom. Now my mother is wonderful and so many ways and a fly human being and others just like all the rest of us. But one of the really brilliant things that i am so grateful to help learn from her. Is inclusive atm kindness and it's a value that i try to live into but there's two specific examples that always come to mind when i think of. One of them then when i was both of them when i was kids. one of them was when it was a day there was raining out coming down pretty hard. And electricity had taken out one of the streetlights and we drove by a cop standing there in a full rain gear cuz it's pouring down directing traffic. And we were headed home and we turned around and i said turning around she's like because officers in the rain and i said. Okay well what it what are we going to do about that and she's like we're going to go get him a cup of coffee. And so we went and wrote back and i don't know why i remember we went to burger king and we got him a burger king cup of coffee and creamer and all that stuff in there and we pulled into the middle of the intersection. We pulled into the middle of the intersection and you know i'm not actually sure this is helpful for the cop that he handed a bag with coffee and it was trying to direct traffic. But it was so emblematic of my mom's kindness and thoughtfulness that she saw this cop in the middle of the pouring rain and turn around to go get him. So that's something that i barely have carried with me and that wasn't the only time she did things like that. But it's a kindness that has become ingrained in me. I don't always live intuitive course it's always an ongoing challenge but i try. But the other one example of that i realized elsewhere actually was one time where i was visiting a friend's family around the holidays and they hadn't met me before i was odd circumstances. Until i showed up at their one of their their pre-holiday gathering and they all had presents for each other. And i sat there and i know i was fine i wasn't expecting a lot i didn't think but then i was noticing why isn't there a present for me. And it wasn't a selfish self-centered kind of thing i was really struggling with it and it wasn't until later when i was reflecting about it that i realized that in a situation like that my mother would always make sure that. The present for a guy. And it's a lovely value and practice and i'm sure there's maybe somebody who would do that maybe there's not that's totally fine it's not a value thing but it's just a practice that i didn't even realize that i had come to x. I am so i missed it in that moment since i was able to reflect about wyatt. So a lot of our expectations about how life will be come from our family of or. Whether it's your mother or your father or your mother's or your father's or your uncle's or your onto your grandparents. There's so many apparent there's so many things in our families that shape. And it's not just about kindness either. What we expect out of romantic relationships is often based on what we have seen model for us. And what we see in our culture for that matter as her growing up. If you pay attention to the popular culture you might often see this idea for example that our partner is supposed to be our best friend and life forever and always and they fulfill your every needs and everyday is happier and it's always joyous and you see their facebook feeds or their instagram. And it's. I haven't yet to meet a couple who that's true for honey maybe you all exist out there and if so please come teach me. Marriages relationships romantic relationships in our relationships are work if there are meaningful and deep and internet. They take hard work and there's ups and downs and there's bumps and bruises along the way. But again if we were expectations srs unify your parents i mean you know there's if there's stuff that you shouldn't let me see your kids fight and that's true but also you want them to know that they're sometimes our argument and that it's okay to come back together and it reconcile and say we're sorry. They need to know we need to know that our expectations can be realistic. That romantic relationships. Or hurt sometimes intake work. But those expectations. And there's other things such as class right class makes a difference in your experience. Some folks in our congregation many folks in muncie experience food insecurity on a regular basis. Your expectations about life. Are different. If you grew up have not having food insecurity not knowing that you're always going to be able to eat. And if you grew up having food on your table every time you were. Our expectations come from so many place. To my first or my second question. Second question is. What different kinds of expectations about life. We're given to you by your family of origin and your xperia. As you think about that one move from the personal to the religious. What religion has to say about expectations. So we'll start with buddhism. And what. Different religious traditions such as buddhism asks us to expect differently about the world. Another story from my time and seminary at andover newton theological. So it just so happens that i was visiting a friend of mine and the dormitory that i was living in and i was just efficient he's one rooms that had everything in them and she had this amazing. I wouldn't island but just fit perfectly in the kitchen space and all the rooms were identical. And it was like it was a perfect use of space i was like oh man that is so cool. And i happen to know that she was going to be graduating in about a month something like that until i said hey you know are you taking this with you when you graduate cuz it might not be perfect somewhere else and if you're not i will buy it off you. And she said cool that's great so i look right and i went upstairs back to my sweet 9 months from now i'm going to be sitting pretty. And then later that day she came up and knock on my door. She said. I'm going to i want to give you the islands do you want to come get it. And i said. Sure but why why why are you giving it to me and she said well i've really been working i'm i didn't really pack trying to practice buddhism very strongly as part of my spiritual practice. And i've been practicing i'm letting go of my attachments and i think i might be too attached to this. And so i want you to take it. And i said are you sure. She said yep she was totally serious. And so i look okay. The next couple years down the road when i left. But what a different approach to life and expectation to life to approach life from a place of letting go of a cat. Wef foundational part of your approach. Experience center. Haitian. Of how life was. So which brings me to ask what does that mean for us and unitarian. Wow does unitarian-universalism shape your expectations. I'll say for me that one of the key expectations that i sometimes. Kill push about has her first principal. The inheritance worth honoring the inherent worth and dignity of every person. And that comes up right when we see people doing harmful things are being violent. And a common when i get when i guessed replaces wilshire the first principle but what about hitler. And my answer to that is yes even hitler. And and your answer may be different but personally for me it comes back to quote from. Quaker theologen parker palmer where he said violence is what happens when we don't know what else to do with rc. Until that's my understanding is that when i see other people doing harm in the world whether it's physical violence or emotional violence or what have you. I understand that they are don't know what to do with their own pain and suffering are pushing it out. Underworld. Put that underneath that paint. Is a human being. So it does have inherent worth. And yes even hitler i can imagine how much pain and suffering he must have squeezed into his body to do what he did. But yes even if. So that's one of the ways in which i am challenged by our face rash. And of course our religious tradition also calls us as unitarian universalist to bring social justice into the world. Could you do the work that needs to be done. And in that work. It's really helpful to be aware of our own expectations and. So, question for you. Do you expect to have clean drinkable safe water when you open your taps. I sure do i think many of us do. If you lived in flint michigan for about 45 years and even some of the residents are still concerned today that was not an expectation that they were able to. They have lied and other sting. Or even just the fact of water itself. Here in in muncie in indiana i'm not aware that we have any challenges with water but if you go to the west of the southwest like we did on our mission trip. Cold springs to go to arizona. They are supposed to turn off the water in the shower while we soaked. Because they have a water short. So we have expectations about water that we often don't. Continuing with the theme of safety. On a general basis do you expect. To be safe and your life. As you go about your. Probably many if not most of us in this room do. But that expectation is often a function of race and class. Oaks of laura different classes especially with those folks plus income people of color. Oven do not have. Until a related question is do you expect to be able to trust. Please. If something is going wrong if a crime is being committed. Do you expect that you can call 911 and have. Your concerns addressed appropriately an adjustment. Most white people do. But too often people of color on our country especially african-americans do not. And justifiably so based on painful lived. The majority of people in this room right now or wipes. I imagine that most of you have heard about this difference in experience between racial groups before. Have you felt it though. About what it means to expect unfair treatment from the police. If not maybe this video. Did sean. Do child. Dear child. The reason we have to have this talk is because you are a black child in america. Need you to know that. And there's so many things going on in the world. Are going to break you down it's going to hurt but no hard it is for you. To see yourself in the place of. Tamir rice. So i need you to always be prepared always be on your guard and it takes away from you being a little did i know. But i'm trying to protect you right now. If you are approached by police. Stay calm. Don't fight back don't give any rebuttals you have to understand if you want to stay alive. You have to do what they say because it could be the difference between me seeing you again. Nothing. Ledisi sometimes it may not even work i'm just going to be able to work at all. Sorry. I know it's tough and i know it sounds really scary but it's not your fault. We live in a society that is geared that we do not succeed it is put together it is constructed in such a way that we failed. You have to be greater than all of that always stand with your head up and your shoulders back. And be proud and you are a warrior always know that you are intelligent beautiful bright and you have a future that you have inherent words in this society and above all else. Cuz i don't know what's going to happen. Today tomorrow whatever. Just don't change. Don't change it. Who you are. I love you with all that i am i will teach you how to walk in this life you don't have anything to be afraid of. We'll get through this. And don't you ever ever ever blame yourself. For what others do. I love you. I believe in you. And i believe that others just like you who hold onto their light. Together you all will change the world. If you have had to have this conversation with a child of yours. I am sorry. It's an awful thing to have. Nephew not had to have this conversation with your children. What does it mean to you. To live in a country. Where that conversation is a very real thing. That has to happen. Apps to move on but. Other things to say. It's not just about race. Women in our country expect to be paid less than men for doing the same work. They you don't like that expectation we're working against it but it's there and it's for you. Women in our country expect to be sexually harassed. And of course of their lives. Just by being part. Ivar commute. What are your ex. Patience. Continuing the keep moving do you expect that the environment and the planet will continue to be okay despite global warming. Do you expect that we'll figure it out in time to make a difference even as we continue to drag our feet on making urgent needed changes. You may have heard of greta sundberg she's been on the news a lot recently i use activist from sweden. If you haven't heard her words of dire warning you are about to. In this video she is speaking to leaders of the united nation. This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. You won't come to us young people. For hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words and yet i'm going to knock you out. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money. How dare you. For more than 30 years the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away. And come here saying that you are doing enough. When the politics as solutions needed a steel nowhere in sight. You said you hear us and that you understand the urgency. No matter how sad and angry i am. I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation. I'm still kept on failing to act. Then you would be evil and that i refuse to believe. The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees and the risk of setting of irreversible chain reactions beyond human control. 50% may be acceptable to you. Those numbers. Do not include tipping points most feedback loops additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution all the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your co2 out of the air with technologies the belly exist. 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us we have to live with the consequences. How dare you pretend that this can be sold with just business as usual and some technical solutions. Which days emissions levels. Batman beanie co2 budgets will be entirely gone within less than eight and a half years. They will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today. Because these numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is. You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us i say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming whether you like it or not. Thank you. What are your expectations about climate change and about the political will and what we're politicians are doing right now. Do you think it's enough. We have these expectations in liberal circles that things will continue to get better. We buy into some of the american miss of onward and upward everything is getting better. And sometimes it's not. Wages are not getting better the environment is not getting better. You use like to quote theodore parker one of our own saying the arc of the universe is long and it bends towards justice. Rarely if ever do i hear a scored another one of our. Bright-field origins jane luther adams when he says. Certainly if there is progress it is no simple configuration of upward trends. At times it looks more like a thing of shreds and patches. The general tendency of liberalism has been to neglect. Tragic fact. We have a lot of challenges still in her country race of course with the new jim crow and mass incarceration the environment hashtag me too and a president who degrades women on video is elected anyway there is many. Where we are not going forward right now. We are not on an upright. What are our expectations. And the big picture. Wake me up pictures as a picture of dna up there. Because it is representative of life. And the big picture. All life as we know it is organized by some form of dna i'm pretty sure my science is correct if it's not forgive me. But you get the point. Life is organized by dna dna shapes who we are and shapes of animals are at shapes who we become. So to do our expectations. Shape who we are. Shape who we become. Shape the world we individually and collectively create. Until i asked us this morning. How do we say yes. Elias. How do we say yes. How do we say yes to making changes to our own expectations so that they'd better lineup for the values we've chosen. How do we say yes to embracing a religious spiritual and ethical perspective that challenges us to look into our best. Self. How do we say yes to our unitarian universalist faith tradition that calls us to address injustice isn't world and our country and our communities. In our lives. How do we say yes to the people of flint michigan who expect their government to deliver them safe water to drink. How do we say yes to all the african-american parents who say i shouldn't have to have the talk with mike. How do we say yes to the people of color in our country who say don't i deserve to feel safe in my daily life. Are we say yes to go to sundberg. And perhaps most importantly how do we say yes you are right and we will do something to greta's challenge. But the words are not. Because that's the most important question this more. How do we say yes to greta yes to african american parents yes to unitarian universalism call for us to make a better world yes to our own expectations of a better world that aren't yet nets. How do we say yes and make those yes as meaningful and matter by following through on our words with actions and. The hard question. I'm not claiming to be anywhere near perfect myself. And so many areas i feel and know i should do more. In particular with greta and the environments. I agree with her a hundred percent since i've done some things. We've done something to your with solar panels on the roof. But nowhere near enough given what's coming down the pike. I'm sure the same is true for you that you've done some things we've done some things. We do things here like helping feed the hungry in the solar panels. But the question remains. How do we continue to follow through and ways that matter. And here's the thing. I think it's an ongoing question. The question that we ask ourselves once this morning or next week. Let me figure out the answer and we address it once and great we got that one. How do we say yes is a question that we need to keep coming back to over and over. As the answers continue to evolve as new challenges arise. We need to keep asking ourselves the question. How do we commit. Action. The nixon meaningful. Each one of our answers is going to be different depending upon the resources we have available in our in our lives depending upon which challenger trying to address. Answers will probably also be different at different times in our lives. But it's so important that we keep asking the. How would we say yes. Will we commit to action. The back-up res. How will you say yes. How will you.

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20160918.mp3

And more evolved error we've reached in 1922 that saint john's universalist church should stand opposed to the ku klux klan. You can just say this in public he said it to the newspaper the nerve of that man. He doesn't see how important the clan is to muncie into so many members of our church. The burning cross represents jesus is the light of the world pierside by fire the beacon of truth. The white-robed represents the purity of protestantism and the masked remind us that we're not just individuals but they were all one and equal in the eyes of god. The clam stand for so many important things and it is basically running the city right now. He certainly doesn't have the right to make his like his views represents our church to the entire city. Bob and sue tried to tell him jean and richard try to tell him i tried to tell him he just doesn't hear us. I've been a member of this congregation for 45 years now. He should respect my opinion and insight. At this rate if he keeps this up we're going to have to think about asking him to leave. He keeps quoting scripture about us when anyone with a modicum of biblical understanding knows that the bible shows colored people to be inferior. Modern scientific theory back this up. Just don't understand what his problem is. Doesn't get it. I love this church i've been here 22 years and i really appreciate how willing and able we are to adapt to change and there's been a lot recently. First the merger with the unitarians in 1961. It was a few things happened differently the name change for example. I oppose that. Plenty of other universalist church has kept their names and many of the unitarian churches did to. But no we have to go and change your name to the unitarian universalist church of muncie. I'm a lifelong universalist. Stripping out in the universalist church and even though i'm a fan of the merger i don't get why we had to take second billing. We could just as easily have been the universalist unitarian association. And since we're not i think we should have stayed st.john's universalist church. Already some folks have started referring to us as the unitarians. I got universalist never existed. Temperature totally needed to happen there's a decent chance one or both of our denominations would soon have been in serious trouble if we hadn't and it made sense in a lot of levels. I sure wish we hadn't changed the name of our church. The other cool thing that's happening is that we're planning a move to a new upgrade in church building. The pokemon property maintenance committee advised us a couple years ago that were unfortunately deferred maintenance for so long that are building has gotten down. Suffer some lengthy research and investigation and much dialogue and discussion we've come to the conclusion that we need to move. Well that's unfortunate and i will miss this beautiful building dearly. I'm also excited about the opportunities it presents.. About the decision is not unanimous for sure and there's certainly been some tension in disagreement. And there is some stuff that's hard even for me a strong supporter to stomach. For example it's become clear to make this work that we're going to need to sell all our beautiful stained-glass windows to help finance the new building. Which none of us are excited about. Another final decisions have been made yet there's a proposal gaining steam where the new building wouldn't have us people or look like a traditional search up. And that just doesn't seem right. So i can't say i'm a hundred percent behind this or that there aren't things i'm going to happy about. But i'm also very clear and we are very clear that the way forward is in a new building. A building with no maintenance issues. A building with modern amenities a building that will better serve our needs as we move into the future. Ultimately even though i haven't agreed with all the parts on how the decision of how to move forward. I am proud of us of a faith tradition and i'm proud of us as a church. Have you found the courage conviction and wherewithal. Successfully navigate these difficult. Oh my dear church in the woods we have made a mistake. We've come a long way done so much. In 15 or 20 years or more since we've moved into this beautiful new building. Made a mistake. And to make it worse we just made this mistake and despite our best efforts. We were unable to avoid making it again. It's becoming clearer as more and more information rolls out that we call the second minister on a row who suffers from severe and poorly managed mental illness. The earlier one accused board members and leaders of like of undermining his ministry. You can just for doing things like having a committee meeting without informing him. That one has dysfunction didn't show up too much on sunday mornings and so much of the membership was shocked when the leadership of the church easton out. Those of us went to work closely with him the problems were very real. Until we try to be doubly careful about this next one. And yet the same kind of problems are clearly emerging. So frustrating. Unaware that many people can manage and live very successfully with mental illness. Our past ministers are not in that category. And it's had a real negative impact on the church. The minister is supposed to be a leader and here we've been having to take care and managed two of them in a row. How is the church supposed to take steps forward when the person is supposed to be leading the charge is instead pushing us back. I sympathize with these two minutes human being struggling with significant illness. Their personal struggles have blood into their work and had profound impact implications for our congregation. Looks like we're going to need yet another change in ministers. I sure hope our next minister can help us move forward. And not back. Art is awesome i don't know if a lot of the adults get it but life out of side of church can be tough. At school it seems like everything is a joke. And sometimes those jokes are taken too far. Sometimes there just me. And sometimes their outright homophobic or sexist or racist. But even when the jokes are not mean or bigoted their constant. Roasted you just feel that all the time at school. It's hard to be me most of the time let alone be real or vulnerable with anybody. And church our church the unitarian universalist church of muncie that's just like the total opposite. I feel safe here. Like i can be myself. And i can connect to others. Only have youth group. And say what's on my mind and all my heart. Without having to worry that i'll be charged. You have no idea. I can be having the worst week absolutely horrible. After i go to church and have youth group. I usually walk out of here feeling teaspoon. And it's not just that i get to share my problems. Hearing other people's problems helps give me perspective. Also it's more than just being vulnerable. I just went through her coming-of-age program last year but here was the first time was offered at least like 10 years what's up with that. And it was totally great. Most of my friends at school and even those of other churches i don't get that kind of opportunity to explore what they believe. Like we did. Coming-of-age both helped me discover my faith and help me put it into words. It also made it really clear that we're all on our own journeys and have different truths and that we not only need to respect those different trees. Could we actually do that. To be honest. There are only two places in my life right now that really matter. Hear our church. In the shower. Because those are the only two places that i can cry. You may think i'm kidding but i'm not. Ice bucket supercharged in our culture for being sensitive. I can be myself here. I belong. I don't think it's going too far to say that in some ways. This place has saved. These are stories. Horror stories. Of the experiences of different people in our congregation over the span of time. Our church did indeed fourth reverend harry adams hersey to resign in 1923 over the public stands he took. Most notably the one against the ku klux klan. The 1960s were also a time of upheaval for the unitarians in the universalists and for our church. Neither merging nor moving or courses of action that were taken lightly or easily. And our congregation has indeed struggled with calling to ministers who suffered from severe mental illness. Struggles that led to mistrust with a ministers in general and our parent organization. The unitarian universalist association. Church leaders in both cases have had to leave painful change processes. That led to paint that lab resulted in the ministers week. And then the voice of a youth. Are used today. Which will a composite the things they shared when i met with them last week. Could be a reflection of the experiences of many of. And. Their experience of our church today is so different than it would have been 100 years ago. Unsurprisingly they were shocked and dismayed when i mentioned reverend hursey's forced resignation because he opposed the kkk. That voice that we heard in our first story. That's not the church they know and love and it's not the church we knowingly. Our church has changed. It can be easy sometimes to think that the way things are is the way they've always been. But it simply isn't it. The world that we all usually notice at some point. Even if we aren't huge fans of a fact then life would like to pretend often that it isn't true. The world is constantly changing. And more often than not. It's not that we need to look 100 years back to find significant difference but even just 10 or 20. Our church like a trish christian tradition we come out of. Has constantly needed to change in a box. Sometimes those changes are reactions that are needed to survive has the case with the dismissal of the struggling mentally ill ministers. Other times the changes are changes that showed vibrant leadership towards the future such as the church eventually following rev hursey's lead and publicly opposing racism. And sometimes as with the 1961 merger in the move to this new building the changes are both. Change needed to survive and change. And. There is more change needed. Sadly i certainly hope that our youth experience of connection and belonging ring true for many of. most of us here this morning. I'm also aware that some of us especially some of our newer members. That some of us yet to have define that deeper sense of connection and belonging. Despite feeling initially welcome. Not all of us for sure. But i know that some of us. Please know that we're working on trying to create more opportunities for adults connection and belonging. Because the vision the youth offered to me last week division of their lived experience here. Is the vision that should lead us into the future. The move into the future we need to be open to change. Even if we're not big fans of it. Even though we feel like we might lose out. Most of us have the tendency at least sometimes i think of you like the main character in our story for all ages this morning green eggs and ham. I do not like them in a box i do not like a little fox i do not like them in a house i do not like them with a mouse i do not like them here or there i do not like them anywhere i do not like green eggs and ham i do not like them sam-i-am. You do not like them so you say try them try them and you may try them and you may i say. Say i like green eggs and ham. Now. This is not to say that every changes good or that every time we try something like green eggs and ham or going to magically discover weekly. Some changes some things we try. As we've learned all too well with those two ministers who struggled with mental illness. Sometimes we're better off the way we're going back. Sometimes. Sometimes we need to take the risk. Selena. Try new things. And this isn't just a message about our church. This is a message for each and everyone of us in our lives. Anime excluding myself in that of course. As much as there's part of me that enjoys changing you things i'm also a big fan of ritual and tradition. My parents used to joke. You better be careful at cefcu by pagal bagels after church one sunday and all of a sudden it's a tradition. For the record i don't know when it started but for as long as i can remember we did by bagels after church just about every sunday. Especially once i was old enough to walk down to the bagel shop from church all by myself. I dutifully made sure it happened. Every. Sunday. Changes. Often feel like the end of things either the end or loss of a cherished ritual the ender loss of some important part of ourselves or our identities. For the end or loss of an important community or institution. Ending slow are also beginnings. My sunday post church bagel tradition did indeed come to an end when i left to go to college. But i was too busy with all the new things going on to notice. Those new beginnings though are often not so painless. The transitions the unitarians in the universalists faced with their merger were both endings and beginnings. There was a loss felt strongly by many at the time a loss and ending of what unitarianism was. Of what universalism handin. Those two denominations are no more and our country. The way they were. We have though what they began. And we continue today. Universalism. As is often the case with beginnings and endings those unitarian universalist had to take the bold step forward despite the uncertainty of not knowing exactly where they were going. They had hopes and dreams of course. But no way to know exactly how things would end up. Are personal changes and transitions are often similar that's vanessa rush southern noted in our meeting this morning. Ar endings and beginnings she advises us if we can pay attention to them if we can be open and present to them. And feel the feelings and thoughts and have our thoughts experienced the uncertainty that all that this entails. We can make it through. We can make it through to the future. As buddhist nun came a children writes. Human beings are neither fully caught nor fully free. That are in the process of awakening. I find it helpful to think of myself in this way i'm in the process of becoming in the process of evolving. I neither doomed from a completely free she says but i'm creating my future with every word every action everything. That future. The future we create with every word and every action and every thought. It burns bright for each of us here. Chosen to be on a path. Are we search for truth and meaning. We have chosen to be on a path in our lives and in our shared religious community or we search for truth and meaning as we seek peace and justice. We have faith in ourselves that even when the days are dark. We can make it through to the other side. Where did time now of high change in our country in the world. Technology is so rapidly evolving that it's pushed us forward into what organizational consultant peter vale caused a permanent whitewater of ongoing uncertainty and turbulence. Our future though. The future of our lives in the future of our church. It burns bright. We have a vibrant congregation of children youth and adults. We have a congregation full of good beautiful talented people. Care deeply for one another. We have a face tradition that calls us to be ever learning an ever-growing on our free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We have a mission to cause us to be constantly exploring our face. Practicing inclusivity. And bring justice. Kelsey berg universalist minister set of clarence russell skinner another universalist minister and the man for whom the publishing and print scanner house book end. Seberg said. But clarence russell skinner did for his time and challenges us to do for our time is to continually reshape the churches that we inherit. Whether as ministers or is late people. So that they can face up to the new challenges and opportunities of the days that lie ahead. You must continue the kind of work he continues that skinner made central to his life's ministry always thing a new kind of church always reaching out for a vision of the church that lies just beyond our grasp. But with hard-headed work dedicated work. Can be conjured into being. What he says goes equally for our lives to. We could just as easily say we must continue the work of always building and growing our lives always reaching out for a vision of who we can be that lies just beyond our grasp. But that was hard dedicated work. Can be conjured into being. Friends we do not always know what the future holds our where our paths may lead. We as a church community though have shown we are resilient. You have shown we can overcome difficult obstacles we have shown we can overcome ignorance and prejudice. We have shown that we have what it takes to adapt. The changing world. But we demonstrate on our communal life together we also bring to our individual lives. When we struggle ourselves we know that we are here to pick each other. We are not perfect. But we work hard to be the kind of people we want to be. He work hard to continually create and recreate the community we want. Wherever our lines leave us. However our church community of olives. We have what it takes to conjure our hopes and dreams our beliefs and values. In the being. Our future.

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20170820-service-1.mp3

What's this bright light stuff it hurts my eyes. What are my lungs doing. Breathing. And who are all these other people i'm not so sure about this whole being born thing. Black inside my mom. It was dark and safe. And i could always hear the comforting rhythm of her heartbeat. This outside world does not feel so welcoming. In the next few days they don't get any better. My umbilical cord got cut can you believe that. So now i have to do this thing called nursing and i mean it's nice and all. It's just so much easier. And the burps those are the worst. I hate having air trapped in my tummy it's so uncomfortable. Also i'm sure people make loud noises. And sometimes even wet diapers are being really uncomfortable against my skin. And a little humans i'm a duchy calling brother and sister. They keep saying i love you i love you i love you. But they poking they proud and they hug too hard. And sometimes they switch me with their bodies. Things were really much better inside the womb. Really. Life is not welcoming. And well over the next couple of years i did find her to be some perks about life in the outside world. Soft blankies rights in the car toys. And peekaboo genius it's the best thing ever. Things are kept on staying hard. I've been talking to my friends. Well some of us have great families who would do a good job taking care of us. Other ones have. Families were each other and it's our kids. The time. That's not the worst though. That makes me really sad as the family were friends to parents are distant and cold. She feels lonely. As the years go by i could shell all sorts of other unwelcoming things. Even those of us with healthy family relationships don't always manage to avoid say bullies at school for example. And that's not even including those of us born black or brown or female or lesbian gay bisexual transgender or queer. Those attributes often make life decidedly unpleasant compared with those born white. Male straighten cisgender. And that also doesn't include things like getting sick and family members getting serious illnesses and people dying. Car accidents or natural disasters or domestic violence or war. Or any number of other terrible things that regularly happen in our world. I'm telling you from the start through all the way through. Life is not. Welcoming. Slept for the past week. I would imagine that at least a few of us might find ourselves agreeing or empathizing a little bit with our little friend. Or maybe meaning in that direction. So much of what's happened. Has been sad and disheartening. The violence in destin charlottesville. On our president's failure to reject hatred and white supremacy. Enemy attacks in barcelona. I followed. And of course the contacts for the past few days is the past few months in the past year which saw the pulse nightclub attack in the immigration ban among so many other things. There's plenty of material at hand. To help make of the argument. That life. It's not. Welcoming. And yet. Here in this place in our unitarian universalist home. We believe something different. We believe that oh contraire. Life is indeed welcoming. Well our view that life is welcoming manifest itself in different ways and are very theology today. This position has its roots in those are unitarian and our universalist heritage. The universalists of course believe that god loves everyone. And that god is love. As a banner that used to hang on the wall behind me red. That seems pretty natural stuff from there that if god loves everyone and god was in some shape or form the creator of life. The lights on the whole must be good. And then it's just one example for my unitarian heritage but it's be reminded of the words of unitarian minister theodore parker. He wrote. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. Dark as a long one my eye reaches. little ways. I cannot talk too late the curb and complete the figure by the experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. And from what i see i am sure it bends toward justice. So i'll rev dr martin luther king others have paraphrase this more concisely into a phrase many of us are familiar with. The broader picture the specific statement about justice points to. Is that not only does the moraca the universe bend towards justice. But that wife and general bends toward the good. And lisa story that she shared with us this morning about the stranger she was asking for directions and then a village in poland who offered her food even before looking up to see who she was. That is human goodness making itself known in the world. And maybe a small example. But that goodness knows no bounds. And i stopped by no power. Even more. The christmas truce of 1914 during world war 1 as a shining example of this. A christmas in 1914 during world war ii french british and german soldiers along the western front. Stop fighting. They even exchange gifts and some places played soccer together and others. And observed a temporary truce around the holiday. The happened happened. Spontaneously. Only just that one year. Does it cuz of course the next year the generals for me. But the goodwill happened. And it happens in so many places all the time. Everywhere. Yes there's a lot of nastiness and negativity in the world. Even much evil. There is also so so so much goodness. Is human goodness. Is the basis of the humanists beliefs that underpins so much of current unitarian universal. Theology. And of course we also welcome serious than our faith tradition and for those of us who believe in some form of divine our universalist heritage reminds us that there is always the goodness of god love available to us to. But of course what unitarian universalist believe about god varies quite widely as well but also not coming up point of agreement was what was displayed on the wall for so long god is love. Process theology suggests that while god is not all-powerful it does offer us a drawing of pulling towards that which is good. For me personally i believe there's an energy in living things perhaps all things and i called energy love with a capital l. So even though bad things happen. With loves everywhere like and then only believe that life on the whole is welcoming. Here's the thing though. This outlook isn't just about our experience of human kindness or belief in a greater goodness. Gregg easterbrook writes in his book the progress paradox how life gets better while people feel worse. That both in america and in the larger world. The things have actually gotten better over the past 50 years. For example comparing now to 50 years ago there is less crime in our country our air is cleaner as hazard water. And a higher standard of living across the board across class lines have brought more wealth. To a country to everyone. Even as an equality of course persists. In the broader world. Starwest armed conflicts happening in the world than any other point in recorded human history. Our perceptions typically don't match this improving reality though. There many reasons for this but a couple of prominent ones. First as the world has become more and more interconnected information comes to us more quickly about the terrible things happening everywhere. I remember as a kid falling asleep listening to red sox games on the radio. And then anxiously waiting for the local newspaper to arrive the next afternoon so that i could find out who won. Because there was no internet back then for me to hop on the computer and check. Let alone pulling mini computer that doubles as a phone for my nightstand so that i could find out before i even got out of bed. And why didn't read the rest of the paper be on the sports page back then if i had. I would have gotten a few national and world headlines but mostly local news. Technology has brought us a bretz and debts of information and awareness that is created some wonderful interconnection. It's also come with a price. Because there's also the fact that we as consumers of news tend to prefer the negative traumatic stories. Even if many of us often say otherwise. Our clicks in our actual choices and viewing and reading follow the maximum that it's hard to look away from a car wreck. And so news offerings focus on negativity because negativity draws eyeballs viewers and readers. So you combine this greater connectivity and access to information for more places all over the world. With our appetite for the negative news stories that news organizations then focus on to get our attention. And you get more and more information about the bad things happening everywhere. Way more than we used. No wonder our sense that things are more and more wrong with the world. Is increasing. In addition to the reality that things are getting indeed getting better though. It's also important to believe. In the goodness of life. That life is indeed welcoming. Because our attitude and our beliefs. Place a significant role and making that reality true. Assured astoria while back about to veterans the spinal cord injuries that kept them wheelchair-bound and living in a facility for the remainder of their lives. Their mobility and physical functioning were very similar. But their approach to their life circumstances and situation was not. Joe on the one hand thought his condition was terrible that wife a delta mariah hand and he was cranky and unhappy about everything. Which of course made all the people who work with him and served him. Cranky and sound happy to. Sam though on the other hand sam approached each day as if it were a gift. And the nursing staff and other caretakers found him a joy to be around. The choices joe and sam made it had approached their disabilities. Created by kind of experience they and those around them had up their lights. Circumstance. We have choices we make about how to approach our life circumstances. And the choices we make. Matter. It's a man that lisa had met on the road and poland had chosen a different attitude toward life. He perhaps might have been annoyed by the interruption from this foreigner who didn't speak his language. Or maybe just had a new neutral or even cold ignoring response. Instead he and lisa share the moments. Inexperience of shared humanity. In his generosity of spirit made an impact on lisa's life. It made it better. It was a gift he gave to her. I guess that she is now shared with us. His response was not a calculated one it was automatic. Tv shut his hand offering our gift before he'd even seen who she was. His approach to life was one of generosity and goodness. Or that judge from our story from all ages this morning. He followed the letter of the law and find the grandmother who stole bread to feed her starving children. And then he transformed the situation by paying her find himself and finding every person present $0.50 for living in a city where a grandmother had to steal loaf of bread to feed her starving children. Sending her home with money in her pocket. Of course simply choosing an attitude of joy in abundance isn't going to magically make everything better. I won't magically with anyone out of poverty or heal the functioning of legs last in battle or bring back a dearly missed loved one. Or make the pain and hurt your reality of white supremacy racism sexism homophobia and more. Go away. A candle make a difference in our experience of our own lives and in the lives of those we touch. Adjudge transformed that woman situation the soldiers in world war 1 christmas miracle happen. Despite the horrors around them. So well there is certainly much to lament in our worlds. Funny things that should not be. It does matter how we choose to approach life. Life is welcoming itself. And. We make life welcoming i how we approach it. We make life welcoming by the actions we choose to take. Approaching life with an open heart and an open mind doesn't make that pain of charlottesville in barcelona go away. But it gives us hope. An offer within most of us are familiar with the following words. I can feel the suffering of millions and yet. I look up into the heavens i think that it will call all come right. But this cruelty to will end and that peace and tranquility will return again. In the meantime i must uphold my ideals. My ideals i must uphold my ideals for perhaps the time will come. When i shall be able. To carry them out. Those are the words of anne frank. Retiring has become famous worldwide for its description of living in hiding from the hiding from the nazis. During world war ii. And frank had hope for the world. Cannot we find it too. The great poet emily dickinson roads. Hope. Is the thing with feathers. That perches in the soul and sing the tune without the words. And never stops at all. And sweetest in the gale is heard. And sore must be the storm. They could have bashed a little bird that kept so many more. I've heard it in the chillest land and on the strangest sea. Yes never in extremity. It asked. Akram. Of me. Vine hope with action. And we can tilt the balance of the world. End-of-life. Away from the bad. And toward the good. The thing is though. It won't happen without you. Without me without each and everyone of us. If we decide that life is no good there is no hand in poland offering lisa candy. There's no judge sending a grandmother home with money to feed her children there's no christmas truce of 1914. And tens of thousands of people don't show up this weekend in boston to counter-protest white. We have to choose our attitude and expectations toward the world. And we have to choose to act. There is hope in this world. And it begins right here. With each and every one. Abbas. We make it. Be created. It begins here. Life is welcoming. If we welcome life. Mandisa.

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20191201-servicw.mp3

Our culture american culture western culture has a predisposition towards knowing. We like knowledge we like science. We on the whole embrace reason. That's good i don't think i'm i'm a fan i'm all about this. Who doesn't like knowing what the weather is going to be in advance. No one likes getting caught out in the rain without an umbrella. And driving is certainly much less stressful these days with gps and our phones always knowing where we are never having to wonder if you missed that soft left-turn 2/10 of a mile past the brick church on the right. Even knowing where someone is if we're supposed to have coffee and you get a flat tire i don't have to sit there for half an hour or 45 minutes wondering where you are you called or texted me within minutes letting you know we're going to have to be. And certainly having greater knowledge and understanding of health and medicine has allowed those of us with the privilege of access to modern medicine to live significantly longer. So there's many more examples of course but i think we can all agree that there are many many ways in which knowing and knowledge is a very good thing. Which brings us to our question for this morning is knowing better. And so clearly at this point we're not saying it knowing as bad but the question is a way of lifting up. That's sometimes our culture places too much of an emphasis on knowing. Because sometimes knowing isn't better. Now there are some cases where which is better knowing vs. not knowing is a matter of perspective. For example when it comes to surprise parties there are some folks i know who hate surprises and don't want a surprise party to save their lives. Where other folks if they found out about the surprise will be disappointed because they would have enjoyed. And there are other cases where knowing versus not knowing is perhaps in neutral. If you read my newsletter article this month. You read the story about a scientist animistic taking a walk and they came and took a rest on their walk under a tree and they both sound on appreciation for the tree from their own perspective. The scientist from the amazing it's a battery and how carbon dioxide is a waste product that is what we are carbon dioxide is our waste products that then they breathe out their waste product oxygen right and we take it and all that good stuff. But there are times where knowing it takes away from the expiry. There are definitely times when not knowing is better. Which feels a little funny to me to even say out loud because our culture so much prefers and values knowledge. Magic tricks are great example. For many there is a simple pleasure and delight to be found in witnessing a well-done magic act. Seeing the impossible happen right before your eyes. Even though as grown-ups we know it's not real. Personally i enjoy a good magic trick even though i know in my head that the sword isn't actually going through the person's body and the coins are not actually. The problem is that every so often i see it's rick and i can't help myself but try to google it and find out how it's done. There's one freaking a magic show i watched on tv one time a mind-reading trick where the answer was written on a folded piece of paper and was folded into a whole bunch of times and it was the answer is inside the magician shoe. This is really cool and i'm alright the guy was on stage the whole time there was clearly no way he'd written it down. and put in his shoe while we were watching. And there's a woman at the end. And i look it up. Everything the magician did was just for show the trick behind the trick was that both felt well before the show he had to actually cut off the bottom front part of the shoe the soul and put magnets on both the shoe and the soul that he cut off so that you could step on the cutoff peace man the magnitude click together on y la he had a whole shoe. So the whole trick he was walking around with the bottom part of a shoe missing. And then the answer was revealed an off-screen assistant know the answer down on a piece of paper folded up put it down on a piece of shoe and then wield it onto the stage on this little display table that seemed totally innocuous. So all the magician had to do was step on that piece of shoe quick the magnets went and there he had the answer magically in. Moose was pretty clever i have to admit. But it also was a little deflating. Watch him on this youtube video tell me about it tell us about it. It turned out that knowing gave me less joy than the wow factor of not understand. And it's not just a magic. Experts in the field can often feel this way. Theater major sometimes have a hard time enjoying shows because they're more aware of everything going on behind them scenes. Also true for ministers attending a worship service that they're not reading it can be harder for us to enjoy the service that someone else. This meeting because we're so aware of all the dynamics and different things going on. It's even true sometimes for musicians. When we were brainstorming ideas for this month's team as a staff our recently departed choir director marcel shared listening to music. Given how much he know. Knowing is not always.. And specifically related to this month scheme of off knowing is not always better because when you know too much it can take away some of the wonder and fun and joy. Whether it's a magic trick a theater performance a sunday service. Horror music. Sometimes it is truly better just to experience. And before we present. Now to be clearer there can certainly also be off found in knowing and a knowledge. Some examples. all of the scientists beholding a tree and how it works in nature that i shared earlier maybe you find all that comes from knowing that earth is in the goldilocks zone or in other words in the exhibit 6b exact right distance from the sun just right so that the earth can be sustained.. Play life can be sustained on her plan. Maybe you find all the in the knowing in the knowledge that we and other life on this planet are rose from stardust. Stardust that somehow organizing evolved over time. Until that one but was one stardust can now taste and feel and smell and think and be selfish. One more scientific. It can be might be awe-inspiring for someone to know that perhaps up to 80% of the universe. Is made up of dark matter. Which for all are incredible advances in technology and science in the past few centuries. We can't see or measure. That's a lot of stuff in the universe that we don't know anything. So our question this morning is knowing better. My suggestion is not that knowing that one of the other is better but that we might do well to value the not knowing a little bit more. If we hold too fast to all that we know or that is known we can fail to leave room for the magic. Of the unknown and our life. And yes sometimes the unknown brings unpleasant results. And sometimes it brings moments of magic. It can be hard. To choose that unknown exactly because of precisely because of the negativity at sometimes bring. It can sometimes maybe feel like it's not worth the risk. The good example this might be what someone that i experienced my own life of either choosing a new restaurant instead of going to one that you know that you like or maybe picking an entree you've never tried before instead of one that you know that you love. The risk of not liking a restaurant or the entree often leave this to the safe choice of sticking with what we know we like. And we don't often do this choice as including the risk of missing out on something even better. Our explorations can in fact if we're not careful reinforce that it's better to stick with what we know. I often push myself to try new entrees or new favorite restaurant. And it's really easy when i don't like what i tried to say to myself you should have just stuck with what you knew was good. You wasted your minnelli wasted your money tonight. Don't do that again. And then when i hear that voice inside me i have to say to myself consciously remind myself. Yes i may not be enjoying this particular meal but i'm going to choose to keep trying new things. Because the next time i try something i might discover my favorite food. No with a restaurant or an entree playing it safe may have a minimal impact on our lives right. But what about the bigger picture. What happens if our fear of having things not work. Too often trumps the possibility of finding something great. And me maybe miss out on jobs or friendships or relationships or experiences. That might otherwise bring us tremendous joy and have. I have my own example of this for my life with yoga. As many of you know i sound yoga about just about over a year ago maybe a year-and-a-half. And this was after years and years of my wife yoga practitioner and inviting me. I think you really like it i think you're like i was like maybe maybe not. And then i went and i turned out that i love it and i go three times a week and as part of my sabbatical i do the yoga teacher training to deepen my yoga practice. Man i wish i had listened to her a long time. We have a fearsome times of the unknown. Or even just an aversion. And part of that i think is because we human beings like to have a sense of control in our lives especially since so much is not actually in arkansas. We like vanilla. We like the familiar. The comforter. Comfortable there's a comfort right in our knowing. The counterpoint all resides and something a friend of mine used to say. Always leave room for magic. If we are too comfortable if we always stick to what we know if we fill up every moment of our lives with the known. There often isn't room for magic. The unknown doesn't promise us magic in every moment. But it does offer us the promise. Potential. Sometimes in wonderful and. This is true of more than just our practical experiences in life. Religious traditions have had strands and branches that have valued and explore the unknown for centuries. Mysticism is a great example of evaluating of transformative experiences outside the realm of the rational in there. I'm with my son may consider recent. Mysticism is spreads across many different really. There's also often a philosophical devils there's also a philosophical designation about catcalled cataphatic vs apathetic. Kataphatic means that you are naming everything that is versus apathetic is looking at things with the things that we cannot name. Christianity for example kataphatic way of describing god would be saying god is love. Where are which is something that our universe was forebears in this church believe. Where is an apathetic perspective might say we can't win a god to just that human concert of love. There's much more than that. You have to look at the bigger pic. You see this in many different places it shows up in taoism for example. The first line of the daodejing is the doll that is the dow is not the dow. Right basically saying pointing to that same truth. There's about two different understandings of it but if you're trying to limit if you're trying to box it and name it and say that this is what it is you are a by default not naming it not understanding that correctly because i can't. Or there's the word lou from japanese which is used in zen buddhism. Which is. Going against the binary of the yes and i know something that's something that's different and unknown. Robert pirsig talked about this idea of moving his book zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. She wrote. Moo means. Noticing. Like quality at points outside the process of dualistic discrimination. You simply says no class not 190 not yes not no. It states that the context of the question is such that a yes or no answer is in error and should not be given. Ask the question. He continues move becomes appropriate when the context of the question becomes too small for the truce of the answer. When the zen monk was asked whether a dog had buddha nature he said. Moo. Meaning of she answered either way he was answering in korea. The buddha nature cannot be capped. Yes or no. Which relates back of course the cataphatic an appetite. Avocado. Being not naming that den. Honoring that witches. Ulta beauty. Also in religious traditions. Of a variety of kinds there is the experience of the idea of the journey into wiltern. So the jewish people for example journeyed in the wilderness for many years not by their choice. Jesus also chose to sojourn 40 years in the desert. The sacred journeys that get lifted up. Our journeys into unknowing. Into the unknown into the possibility of all sorts of different kinds of. And their journeys of secrets. Unfortunately for us we don't have to journey into the desert for forty years or wander in the unknown like the jewish vote the jewish people did. Sometime. Life just presents us with moments of wonder. Like we heard anti-reflection for my worship associate iris this morning. What you shared about singing a note of unison and choir at school. And the overtone producing that came out pretty soon this wonderful moment. Other times. We're not in so lucky to have the moment presented to us. Other times we might have to choose 26 tick with something uncomfortable in. 3/10 years ago i was at unitarian universalist young adult retreat. And that i had an opportunity to participate in a workshop based on the work of meisner expert in the field of. And. They asked us to do this really the person in the world i passed through this really interesting exercise we repeated back the phrase that was said to us an observation. We started out with something really simple like you're wearing hat. The mend the person has to say back you're wearing a hat and you just bounce the phrase back in. Then we moved onto your wearing a hat i'm wearing a hat you're wearing a hat i'm wearing a. Fairly fairly straightforward. But it ended up moving into some deeper things as part of this exercise. And so i ended up in front of a group of about 30 people with a person i didn't know it all doing this extra. And she observed to me. You're shuffling your feet. And i had to say back i'm shuffling my feet. Did that a couple times and she said you're not making eye contact and i said. I'm not making eye contact. You're not making eye contact i'm not making eye contact. At which point the instructor interrupted us and she said. It named what's really going on what is he doing. I'm so we started again and she said. You're not present in this moment. And i looked up at her and not her eyes and said i'm not price. Your skin. And then she said that you are smiling. I'm smiling. And we went back and forth for the disturbing other about known minute but we had this was asleep. Like i'm in this 2-minute exchanging that's how i became friends with this person like i had known her for years. And we continue talking after that we can exchange phone numbers and me and we bicker for free. It was really awesome. Now i had to choose to stick with this it was really unusual at first right that experience been have until days free of the workshop every doing all this unusual stock and i could have chosen to do something else. But i chose to do that. I chose to stick with that and i was rewarded with this really cool experience. Now i would have maybe lost when do the end of the world if i had done it and if they if it hadn't turned out that way maybe i lost a few hours of my. But sometimes the risks are a little bit more pronounced from losing hours of your time. That's just the two examples. Sometimes we might be risking leaving a well-paying job for a new vocation. With much less financial certain. Taking over. The unknown. What's heartbreak a very real pause. Even our story for all ages this morning where people would buy a cup of coffee and pay for 14 the wall which was then someone could come in and you get a cup of coffee from the wall without having to. Even that. Came with some risk for the owner of the shoprite. If because of enough of those enough folks showed up. Maybe some homeless folks for example knowing otherwise he's free cups of coffee that could drive away business you could say oh i don't want to go to that place for those people are there are no hopefully that wouldn't be the case but we know there are realities. So there was a risk. And having that system. That that person took on. They didn't know how it was. But they did it anyway. Unitarian universalism our faith formation is somewhat unique and western religious traditions. And that we lean very strongly and heavily maybe even primarily into the apathetic into the unknown. Our fourth principal our free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Clearly implies that we do not know all there is to know. And that we should be continuing that search throughout our life. We are called to journey into the wilderness. Maybe not all the time and every moments. But we know that that frontier is out there and we are encouraged by unitarian-universalism to regularly examine at frontier to regularly pay attention to that edge that liminal space. Even though we may not be constantly journeying. I fear though that in our free and responsible search. That we fall into the trap that are chalice lighting this morning from jennifer grey lips. Those words again. Universal mystery guide us away from the desire to shine light in all the corn. He just to embrace the night 4 without the darkness. We never see the sun. I fear sometimes that on our search for truth and meaning we are too much on the side of knowledge. I'm a side of trying to shine the light of truth into all the corner. Light snowing does indeed so often illuminate. And if that is the only tool that we use. That you can obscure truths and realities. Too much lights too much knowing and we missed the darkness. The mystery. It's a wonder. That illuminates. Who closed today with the words of chet remo professor of physics and astronomy and former science writer for the boston globe. He wrote. Every accumulation of knowledge is full of rabbit hole. Enter a rabbit hole quantum physics a and that hole has its own rabbit holes leading to get other exotic terrain. One doesn't have to be a lord k or an einstein to find a place to enter. I'll be for grass will provide ingress to infinity. The ancients believed that the stars were pin holes in the dome of the sky through which shown the light of an outer more wonderful world. And it is true every star is a rabbit. Into another world. In the course of a lifetime of starry night. I could not explore them all. He continued. I lie on my back in the light of ten thousand stars enters my eye. 10000 subtle but distinct wavelets of energy enter my eyes at slightly different angles from out of the depths. Space. And by some miracle my eyes and brain sorts it all out putting each star and its proper place recognized the familiar pattern of constellations. And open my soul to a universe. Whose length and breadth exceeded my wildest. Starlight falls upon me like a gentle rain. It blows across me like a serious man. I am soaked. Unshaken. He concludes. I have a friend who speaks of knowledge as an island in a sea of mystery. Let this pain be the ground of my face. All that we know now and forever all scientific knowledge that we have of this world or ever will have. It's as an island in the sea. And still the mystery. Friends. If the mystery indeed surrounds us. And that certainly seems possible even likely as 80% of what exists in the universe is dark matter and dark energy that we can't see. If all our knowledge is indeed an island in a sea of mystery. I hope that we can follow the true intention of her fourth principle and if call to us. The beyond a free and responsible search. For truth. I hope that instead of feeling fear we can embrace the mystery. And the unknown. For if we can practice that embracing our lives practically emotionally and spiritually. Knowing full well that the unknown contains things both good and bad things we dislike and things we enjoy. If knowing all of that we can practice embracing the unknown in our lives. We will not only expand the boundaries of our experience. We will also regularly encounter joy. The promise i'll. And the potential for magic. That is indeed.

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20160103-service.mp3

We have all heard the dire predictions about global warming. And now actual climate catastrophes provide mounting evidence. The changing climate threatens all of us. Reactions are all over the map. Fear has environmentalist up in arms while uncertainty about the science. Makes others resist change. I can't resolve this logical disconnect. The global warming moves relentlessly on. And pays no heed to the defenders of oil gas and coal exploitation. In recent years we have seen the the glaciers melting. And sea levels rising. Which contributed to the flooding during superstorm sandy. Just as the mining and burning of coal changed people's lives in muhlenberg county a half-century ago. Today burning coal and oil is causing upheaval to people's lives all over the world. In india once fertile farmland is turning to desert. Because the himalayan snowpack no longer sends enough water. Thousands of indian farmers. Was no way to provide food for their families. Spirits crushed. Have committed suicide. The fact that global warming could destroy our way of life. Scares the hell out of me. Which is quite a feat for a universalist. I really think we should take action. My spirit says do. But we seem to be stuck. Locked into a consumer's paradigm. And continuing the spew out more carbon pollution. Knowing that poor people will suffer even more because of our actions puts me to shame. For a long time we have been warned by people i trust. And i am angry because we have done so little about it. I so yearn for someone to come up with a simple remedy for global warming. But the problem won't be cured easily or quickly because it involves climate science. Partisan politics. Global economics. World poverty religious teachings. Lifestyle choices and more. It is a devilishly wicked extremely complex problem. But continues to defy solution. It threatens a change every part of our lives. And it's over and that overwhelms me. Global warming present us with an overarching spiritual dilemma. How will we survive. While the world as we know it changes so dramatically. Of course as a minister i believe spiritual sustenance. Is the first thing we need to address. In 1976. I went to work for the tennessee valley authority. Or tv. As an engineer at paradise fossil plant. The one john prine song about. I was proud of tva. As were most people in the region because it had lifted people from the poverty of the great depression. Tv amen cheap power. New industry. Rural electrification. And fertilizer for modern for farming. People's standard of living has improved tremendously. To my engineering mind it was it made sense that the plant was built in the middle of the western kentucky coal field. The destruction of the town of paradise. Was a necessary evil i thought. I interpreted primes lament as a fitting epitaph. But i couldn't get too worked up about it. Toyin engineer. Progress trumped nostalgia. The tv a story is just one chapter of the story of. Industrialization. And content and capitalism which continues. Play out over and over again around the world. And now we have entered into a fantastic new era. And which silicon valley constantly out does itself. With amazing new apps and gadgets to make our lives more comfortable. Fun. And virtual. Free-market fundamentalist claim technological innovation driven by american-style consumerism. Is the only way to solve the problems of the world. But. The last few centuries while standards of living have risen. Unpaid costs of doing business have been accruing. The manufacturer of almost everything we eat. Drive live in or play with. Has been powered by fossil fuels. And has release carbon dioxide. So much so that the earth's atmosphere is warming and will inevitably do so for many decades to come. Tva which powers the tennessee valley region. Is also its biggest polluter. The paradise plant alone. Burns 1,000 tons of coal in an hour. And puts 15 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. Today large numbers of people around the world are saying rising standards of living. Which is a good thing. But the problem is providing for them demands more and more energy. Because countries which industrialized earlier have already sent so much carbon into the atmosphere. Currently developing countries are being told they can't burn coal to provide the energy they need. The current plans for globalization. Just aren't. Sustainable. We can't tell the developing world to leave people in poverty. Nor can we justify continuing. Our high-carbon usage. To make things worse it doesn't seem to matter to halliburton in friends. How distressed we are about global warming. They just continue to drill baby drill. Carbon extraction companies are tearing up the land and poisoning people's water. Faster than ever before. They are doing it and ever more risky and dangerous ways and places. Fracking in pennsylvania. Tarzan strip mining in alberta. Oil fields in kenya. Coal plants in india. They are creating sacrifice zones. Where the land and its people are forsaken. And i write it all down as the progress. Amman. John prine song about the loss of a beloved way of life when coal mining. Destroyed the paradise. But soon because we must stop burning coal. Miners power plant workers. And others in cold states. Like kentucky and indiana. Will lose their jobs. And way of life. Helping those who will be hurt by economic upheaval is no small issue for us. There are so many environmental atrocities and problems at this crucial time for human survival. That we can't make sense. I've are conflicting feelings about them. Fear that what we love about our country will be taken from us. Is underneath a lot of climate change denial. And her must read book. This changes everything. Naomi klein says. The real reason we are failing to rise to the climate moment. Is because the actions required directly challenge are raining economic. Economic paradigm. What does deregulated capitalism. Combined with public austerity. The stories on which western cultures are founded. That we stand apart from nature and can outsmart its limits. And activities that form our identities. And define our communities. Shopping. Living virtually. Shopping some more. And short. We have not responded to this challenge because we are locked in. Politically. Physically and culturally. How are we going to come to grips. With all of this. We need help coping with confusion over global warming's confounding complexity. Fear of its predicted consequences. And feeling shame and guilt that we are causing it. So the first thing we need to find is strengths for our spirits to be able to carry us through the difficulties ahead. Just like we need to use renewable energy. We need renewable sources of strength for our spirits. We are going through major changes in our weather. Freakish weather from the north pole to south america was a washington post headline last week. The dramatics door storms. The dramatic storms are ending a year of record-setting weather lovely. Fourth of july measured as the hottest month ever. And 2015 set to be the warmest year. We are already experiencing unusually large storms and human casualties. And we have all heard the scientist dire warnings of coming cataclysm. The recent string of weather disasters as a harbinger of changes that will come to our way of life. We will lose some things we love. Spiritually speaking. We are pre grieving are inevitable losses. John prine's lament for his old home tells the importance. Of naming and singing about our losses. We will all experience. The feelings of grief. Disbelief sadness. Anger and so on. Show each other understanding and compassion as we all try to come to grips. With the effects of climate change. Even those who are living in denial. In his encyclical. Pope francis says the expected toll on human society is staggering. Global climate change is reducing access to drinking water. Limiting access to food. And negatively impacting human health. Particularly in africa. Asia and latin america. Although global climate change affects all human populations across the globe. It hits those living in poverty the hardest. Because they depend. On the surrounding physical environment. Supply their needs. And have limited ability to cope with climate variability and extremes. He points us to another thing we can do to renew our spirits. We can work with the poor. Connecting with the people most affected by global warming is not only the moral thing to do. It keeps us focused on human experience of our evolving world. And it's strengthens feelings of friendship. Mutual support. And community. In parts of the globe local and native people are living in the fight against rampaging carbon extraction. They are stopping coal shipping from in the pacific northwest. Coal plants in india. Battling tar sands companies in alberta. And preventing fracking in new york. It is ironic that that we are looking to some of the poorest. The most systematically disenfranchised people on the planet. For rescuing. The climate. Partnering with them. Not as saviors or as an act of charity. But as equal. We can learn what is really important about the land. And how to live sustainably on it. And people who live close to the land. Know how vital it is to maintain a spiritual connection with the earth. From celtic pagan and native american traditions i have learned to pay attention as my spirit moves with a cycle of the seasons. And i feel more grounded inside. And more in tune with the world. As climate changes this will be ever more important. You know we were supposed to have learned these lessons lessons a couple of millennia ago. From the ancient near eastern flood stories. Like noah's ark. In which their god told the people how to survive. And how to create a better way of life after the flood waters receded. Those apocalyptic stories predicted for those who didn't change their way. But they didn't say the world was going to end. What stories of apocalypse were really saying is. You need to rethink your self-destructive way. And find a way to live more sustainably. They actually offered hope for a better future. We need to reframe our own story to give us hope we can deal with wubble warming. Maybe the paris climate agreement is the beginning of such a roadmap. It gives me hope that we can change not only how we create electricity. But it also calls for major changes in how we provide for the needs of the poor. And how we care for the well-being of all people. Agreements good intentions still need to be flushed out. Hamilton and it will take an extraordinary effort by the by many leaders. To implement its ideals. I am proud that our president is outspoken on climate change. However as we are all too painfully aware. U.s. congress is still fiddling while rome burned. But we shouldn't wait for all the deniers to become believers. Because that may not happen anytime soon. Naomi klein says. The shift will require. Rethinking the very nature of humanity's power. Our right to extract ever more without. Facing consequences. Our capacity to bend complex natural systems to our will. This is a shift that challenges not only capitalism. But also the building blocks of materialism that preceded modern capitalism. She goes on to say. I am convinced that climate change represents a historic opportunity. As part of the project of getting our emissions down. We have the chance to advance policies that dramatically improve lives close the gap between rich and poor. Create huge numbers of good jobs. And reinvigorate democracy from the ground up. Which would get at the root. Of the crisis. And we leave us with both a more habitable climate than the one we are headed for. And a farm or just economy. Then the one we have right now. There is hope. If we band together. Native paper. Native peoples. Followers of pope francis. Environmentalist. And anyone else who is ready. To work that to end the era of burning carbon. We know what to do. And we can start right now. An easy first step. Is the turn down the thermostat. The more energy you can serve at your home. The more you are really contributing to this cause. Take the challenge to keep reducing your home energy bills. This church has a strong environmental record. And your recent installation of solar panel is a is a bold step. You now have bragging rights. And are an example for others. And i know this will energize this congregation to save even more energy. But don't stop there. Join with other progressive. The advocate for policies. That will help us mitigate the effects of global warming. And build a sustainable relationship with the earth. Together we can recreate our political. And economic landscape. So then may we rewrite our social narrative. The cultural stories that tell us how to live. To make them about how we learn to use resources sustainably. To provide for the good of all people. And to stop global warming. Then we can add a chapter about how we rejoiced at our ability to save the world as we know it. Then our spirits will be renewed. As we journey together towards a more wholesome future for our children. And grandchild. Somebody this be. And now if you will.

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20150531-servicepc.mp3

There are a lot of mysteries in life. Who killed jfk is a mystery to this day. The reason for nature of the statues built on easter island will probably never be known. We'll probably never know if there's a loch ness monster. Despite many quote-unquote scientific attempts to resolve the question one way or another. And i'm not sure they ever cleared up who framed rodger rabbit. The kind of mystery we're going to address today though it's not the unsolved crime type of mystery snores at the hoaxes people have created nor the ancient archaeological puzzles. Know the kind of mystery we'll talk about today is the kind of experience that is hard to believe. The kind of thing that is hard to understand. Even when you do understand it. Let me explain that with an example. We could take a look at the rocks in these pictures. They're balanced on top of each other. Pretty impressive i think. I don't know about you but i found these pictures kind of hard to believe at first. I assume the first time i saw a picture like this that i had been photoshopped. Where the stones have been glued together somehow. Or something. Some form of trickery. It turns out though that this is the real deal. A man named michael brad has in fact created an art form he calls gravity glue. Gaston downs and kisses are held together simply by the force of gravity. Let's see if we can actually watch a video of him doing this. Gravity glue. So how does this work. As he describes on his website. Balance requires a minimum of three contact point. Luckily every rock is covered in a variety of tiny to large indentations that can act as a natural tripod. For the rock to stand upright. By paying close attention to the vibrations of the rock's you start to feel even the smallest clicks as the notches of the rock. I'm moving on one another. Now i don't know about you but even after watching the videos the stone balancing still impresses me. I still find it hard to believe even after seeing him do it. Not intellectually and theoretically understand how he does it. But it still seems so unlikely visually that i both understand. And don't count. The pictures you post on his website they still draw me in there still fun to look at because they seem so impossible. And yet they're real and true. A miracle is something not explainable by natural or scientific laws. Something we would consider impossible. I'm apparently gravity friction and tripods provide realistic explanations from michael grab stone balancing. I still experience it with awe and wonder. I still think of it as him doing the impossible. Understanding and yet not understanding. Let me share another example. Tetsujin doco with a japanese zen master who lives back in the 1600s. We decided to publish in japanese the buddhist sutras. Their sacred texts which at the time were only available in chinese. So back in the 1600s is pretty groundbreaking. The books were to be printed with wood blocks in an addition of 7000 copies. A tremendous undertake. Pets again began by traveling collecting donations for this purpose. Sympathizers will give him a hundred pieces of gold. But most of the time he only received small coin. He think he's shown with equal gratitude and after 10 years he had enough money to begin its. It happened though at the time that the fuji river overflowed. And shannon fallout. Pentagon took the funds yet collected for the books and spent them to save others from starvation. And then he began again his work of collecting money. Several years afterward and emma debit and epidemic spread over the country. Pets again again. Gave away all the money he had collect. Thruster time he started his work. And after 20 years. His wish was fulfilled. The printing blocks which produce the first edition of sutras can be seen today and the obaku monastery in kyoto. And the japanese tell their children. A tattoo gun made three sets of these sacred. And that the first two invisible sets. Surpass. Clearly pets again with a giving person. Man who cared more deeply about caring for others in need of an about accomplishing his own goals. No matter how noble they were. He spent 10 years collecting the money. And then gave it all away. Mystery collecting again and then gave it all away again. Took him 20 years. To accomplish his task. I don't know about you but i have a hard time understanding on a gut level. That level of generosity and giving. I mean i get it intellectually right he was compassionate and generous and selfless. And i'd like to think that if i spent 10 years working on the project that was nearest and dearest to my heart that's some major crisis then came up but i'd give it all away to those in need. But really if i'm honest with myself. I don't think that i would. Maybe i'm selling myself short maybe i'd come through in the moments when faced with the reality of others pain suffering and. Cover my current perspective. I'm pretty sure if i work 10 years towards this goal. But i give help where i could maybe get part of it. But i go ahead and spend the money on my pro. So i understand. And i don't understand. It's a bit of a mystery. Who has that level of kindness and compassion that they give away what is needed for the project of their life. Twice. Personally i would consider this a kind of minor miracle. Not that it's beyond the realm of scientific explanation of course. But just that one human being would make that kind of sacrifice. Perhaps this is more about me than does about pets again. But i imagine that i'm not alone. Supposed to be stories lift up though. Michael crabs stone bouncing and tetsujin dokos getting. Is the importance of staying true to yourself. Despite what might seem like insurmountable odds. We're incredibly difficult. Grab stone down impossible at first glance. When you read his blog about the hours upon hours he spends getting focused becoming present letting go and entering what he considers an intense meditative state. So that he can get into a space where you can balance stones. And you things many of us would consider impossible. It makes a little bit more sense. In his own words. Some balances can apply significant pressure on the rational mind and paste. One of the greatest challenges is to overcome any doubts that may arise. The unique effect that my creations have on myself and others. Often inspires a sense. Magic and peace. Which makes it all worth it. Grabs found something that works for him. Unusual as it was. You stuck with it. Despite the constant. And then pet segundo co. You couldn't have known at the time that you would be able to collect all that money a second time or a third time to print his beloved sutras. And yet he gave it all away. And he spent the time another 10 years on top of the original tend to gain it all back and complete his. He knew deep inside himself that he was called to give. The help the people around him in need. And. He also knew he was called to finish finish his project. In french the buddhist sutras. In japanese. The story doesn't say whether he was conflicted about the giving or not. Maybe he was. Maybe wasn't we don't know. But ultimately he gave away all that he'd gathered twice. Twice putting the needs of others. Out of his own where the. So perhaps we're getting to the root of some of these mysteries of understanding yet not understand. Our story for all ages this morning at nadine shared. It's another case of someone becoming true to themselves. And that truce having a transformative effect. The tiger is trap she thinks by a cage. But in reality by the lies of the man who captured. There is no walk in the cage she's kept prisoner only by her own.. When the lion comes by and help her see the truth about herself. A truce that was right there for the taking. The truth. But she needed to just be. The truth. A deeper and better understanding of herself. It's what sets the tiger. A co-worker of mine from long ago and i live 10 working telecommunications outside of philadelphia he told me one time. I always used to think i was impatient. But it turns out that that isn't true. I'm not quite sure when or why it started to my childhood but i remember being told over and over that i was impatient and had no self-control. I was told this so often that i believed it to be true. And so for a long time it was true in my life. I was constantly in thai. But then i realized at some point that was simply because i believed it to be true. And i actually do have the ability to be patient. I had to work really hard as an adult to put it into practice. But i do have it. I do know how to be patient. My coworker. Like the tiger. Had to learn the untruths that were taught to him where exactly that. Untrue. There are many things we are taught in our society about ourselves. And not all of them are good or true. Up until very recently in our country gay people were taught that their feelings of attraction to people of the same sex. We're bad and wrong. They were made to feel indy dad and wrong just for who they were. For so many owning the truth and goodness of who they were and are wasn't is a tremendously painful. And you're also incredibly powerful. Killing exit. The lies don't have to be so blatant though. Women young girls in our culture our pot with some very subtle and some very over cues that their bodies must be a certain way for them to be pure. Men and young boys in our culture are taught that they shouldn't cry that they should repress their feelings and be tough. People of color on our country are still to this day stereotyped and discriminated against. That made me feel less than. Just for who they are. Claiming our truths about ourselves knowing who we are and what we want. Remembering that we have inherent worth and dignity that we are worthy of love. There's incredible strength. Power and transformation. Available in this state. Marianne williamson wrote in her 1992 book a return to love. In a quote that's often incorrectly attributed to nelson mandela. She wrote. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We asked ourselves. Who am i to be brilliant gorgeous talented fabulous. Actually. Who are you not to. You are a child of god. You're playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of god that is within us. It's not just in some of us. It's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear. Our presence automatically liberates. Whether we are theists or not. The power intrusive those words. Is not. To be denied. We are all born with inherent worth indignity. Who are we to not be our own true selves. Who are we to prevent our light. From shining in this world. Hasidic judaism has a great story about rabbi is this. Who shared this bit of wisdom when asked what he feared most about dying. He said. I am most afraid of what they will ask me when i get to heaven. And then he stopped. Of course one of his students asked. What will they ask you. And he responded. They will not ask me zeus you why were you not more like moses. They will ask me. Juicy. Why were you not more like. Are calling in this life. It's not to be more like jesus but we certainly had many wise teachings. It's not to become more like the buddha buddha buddha certainly had much wisdom we can learn from. And it's not the become more like moses. We are here on this planet earth to be ourselves. To figure out who we are and to step boldly in the direction our true self calls us. I wrote in my most recent newsletter article. Have an experience i had in college. Boyfriend challenge to my to the norms of sidewalk usage. Hunter college. Oh you're one of those he said all of a sudden. One of those what i asked thinking that i had just been walking along pretty normally talking. You're a sidewalk follower. He said with disdain. Why not take the most direct route across the grassy ass cuz he cut directly across said grass to my parked car. Why not take the fastest route. Why do remember stubbornly sticking to my pave pass despite the suggested shortcut. I don't recall what i said to him and respond. But the true answer to his question. Was that i was sticking to the sidewalk cuz that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to walk on the sidewalk. Where in your life. Are you doing what you're supposed to do. Instead of taking a different path. Are there places where you've been taught ideas and beliefs about yourself. That might perhaps be untrue. Are there projects are choices your soul yearns to make. But that you hold yourself back from. Are you afraid sometimes. As marianne williamson suggest. Are you afraid to let your light shine. Derek sivers shared in a blog post about a college campus. Designed by a slightly eccentric architect that had all the buildings in place but no paved walkways. Only expenses of green grass in between the builder. The idea was to let people walk where they would and we're natural pathways in the grass. Decadent be paved over after a year or two of yous. Instead of opposing artificial pathways on people that might not be the best or most. And so i ask again. If there were no paved walkways in front of you. Where might you go. What might you do if there was an open field of grass in front of you in your life. And you simply went. Where your heart. Direct. Finding the courage to follow your own heart. Nicole where that maybe two. Can lead to profound xperia. Michael grab has created an art form that seems miraculous. Even when you understand some of what and how he does. Toots again doco printed his 7000 sutras. 20 years later. After he did help people in his country navigate to significant natural disaster. Following your heart may not lead to something as dramatic as grab or doko. But i might just lead you to some profound changes in your own life. Which is maybe not mysterious as it first seemed to. Difficult. Challenging requiring of courage. But maybe not so mysterious. After all. Friends. As you go about your days as you go about your weeks as you go about your life. Can you explore the mysteries of your heart. You explore the mysteries of your soul and you explore the mysteries of your being. And that you find those true places within you. May you find your calling. And that you not be afraid to let your light shine. You have inherited worth and dignity. You are a child of god. You are worthy of your heart's desires. You are loved. Now. And.

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20161023.mp3

A man received a promotion to the position of vice president of a company he worked for. The promotion went to his head and for weeks on end he bragged to anyone and everyone that he was now the vp. His bragging came to an abrupt halt though and his wife so embarrassed by his behavior said. Listen bob it's not that big a deal. These days everyone's a vice president. Why they even have a vice president of peas down at the local market. Did bob call the local supermarket to find out if this was even true. Can i speak to the vice-president of teas please. Yeah. To which the reply came. Please you said right. You looking for the vp of fresher the vp of frozen. Now that's cute right. Illustrates it also illustrates what we typically consider the basic point about humility from a religious perspective. It's important to be humble it's important not to be too proud it's important not to have too big of an ego. Jesus says at the end of the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector in luke 18:14. All. Humboldt but all who humble themselves. Will be exalted. In judaism in the hebrew scriptures saul israel's first king was commanded and do not deuteronomy 17:20 that he must not exalt himself above other members of the community. Religious humility 101. Don't get too big for your britches. Nobody likes that. And most you right or philosophize about humility. Identify that it's something that is hard to gain on purpose. A jewish hasidic tale tells of a man who came to this attic with a complaint. Exotic as a spiritual leader of a hasidic community. All my life this man said i have tried to follow the advice of the rabbis. That one who runs away from saying we'll find that fame pursues. And yet will i constantly i'm running away from same thing never seems to pursue me. Exotic replied. The trouble is that while you do run away from sane. You're always looking over your shoulder to see if a man is chasing you. Indeed striving for humility can all too easily become a form of pride itself. So i don't think there's a lot of genuine argument we had about humility as a virtue. People generally agree that a lack of humility too much pride too much ego is not a good thing. The trickier part is living into the value. Living a humble life is hard enough to do that we offer a great praise to those who exemplify humility the most. Mother teresa for example of a shining beacon of humility personified. And the new pope pope francis. Has also been lauded for his humility. For the shedding of the trappings of luxury that many previous popes embraced. Said he may attempt as best you can to truly lead the humble life. He believes his faith call center. There's a common misconception about humility though. Which is not to be to be humble means to be small. For humble and humiliation both come from the same latin roots. Humilis meaning low and hummus meaning. The humiliate someone of course is to make them feel small and shame. Mecu in phrases like getting superb some humble pie. Too often in history of the world religions the call for humility has been misunderstood or misapplied as a call to smallness a call to servitude a call to ultimately live in a place of shame and fear. What naomi replansky rights of the centaur poem titled. Housing shortage. I try to live small she said. I tried to live small. I took an aerobed. I held my elbows to my sides. I tried to step carefully. Interesting softly. Interbreed shallowly. In my portion of air. And to disturb. I don't think this living small at the kind of humility that jesus or moses or the buddha intended. And yet it is a place that many of us live out of. Whether we consider it a form of humility or not. Small is a place that many of us live out of. Whether we are intentional or conscious. No i don't know if this passage in this sense of smallness resonates for you or not. I imagine to some of us here today it does. But four others there may not be an immediate connection. If you're in that group. Maybe hearing a story will help. The story on the shares my story. So can easily be thousands upon thousands of other people stories as well each with their own variation and variety. But my story is best. Growing up i was always very smart but for the longest time. I'm surprisingly i got teased and bullied a fair amount. And i learned that in many ways. I was safest. When i was small. You don't get noticed usually don't get picked. Now my grades are usually between me and my teacher so i didn't need to be small there. But i learned to be small in other ways especially in social situations. One example in 7th grade i had this awesome pair of nike sneakers that have these really cool neon green and orange is exact on them they're the best thing ever. And then one day some kid decided to start picking on me about them. Not sure other kids picked it up. And it wasn't more than a day or two of this harassment. Before i insisted to my daddy take me to buy a new pair of skis. And i changed my shoes and the teasing stop. This happened on more than one occasion over my childhood. Actually makes me a little sad looking back. If you look at my mom's photo albums of my childhood. You see a kid like funky clothing. There was a wild jungle print shorts i had in one picture and. Funky blue green tie dye in another. But i learned to hide that part of me overtime. Dressing clothes that would bring the least amount of teasing and rejection. And i struggled to overcome that smallness in my wardrobe today. You won't find much of anything in my closet that crazy or funky these days pretty much solid colors and stripes through and through. Despite me knowing better on my head. Despite my awareness of this pattern of my life. What time comes time to buy clothes. I just can't do it. My clothing i stay safe. It feels like the only choice available. No. Maybe a relatively small thing. But this kind of thing happens to so many of us in so many different ways. For too many of us either in many areas of our lives. Or in some areas of our life for preps and just one or two. We live small. And living small doesn't do any of us any good. Least of all ourselves. That rest of me on your plants keys poem reads like this. I tried to live small. I took an aerobed i hope my elbows to my sides. I tried to step carefully and distinct softly. Interbreed xiaoli shallowly. And my portion of air. And to disturb no one. Get see how i spread out and i cannot help it. I take to myself more and more. And i take nothing that i do not need. But my needs grow like weeds. All over and innovating. I clutter this place with all the apparatus of living. You stumble over it daily. And then my lungs take their fill. And then you gasp for air. Excuse me for living but since i am living. Given inches i take yards. Taking yards rema miles and our landscape unbounded and invest in a band. U2. Dreaming the same. We have a mean within us. All of us. Do not be too small. The have the time and space. Care and support and love. The pr false house. Not too big. But overly big. But not too small either. Just. Righttime. And right size this is the definition of humility which i want to lift up for us today. A definition that i'm guessing jesus and moses in the buddha woodall imprint. Healthy community as a virtue means to be right size. Not too big. Not too small. But just right. Healthy right size to military means standing up so that your wants and needs are just as important as anyone elses. Healthy right size humility means standing up and claiming the power we all have. To make a difference in this world. Healthy right size to nobody. Not being afraid to let our lights shine. Housing community as a virtue that deserves thought intention. And it deserves starting attention as well. Then unitarian universalist. Because too often we unitarian-universalist can live at both ends of the spectrum. Too often we become fundamentalists in our own right and think we you use have all the answers that anyone who thinks different from us as wrong and irrational and maybe even stoop. When we say things like what were the rational ones. Because every other religious person in the world is irrational. That's the implication of statements like that. A fundamentalist unitarian universalist. The things that unitarian-universalism has the only reasonable answer who thinks that their unitarian-universalism is the only true and right pass. Fundamentalist you you is just as dangerous as a fundamentalist from any other religious. And then of course too often will unitarian universalist also live at the other end of the spectrum. He lives too small. We have a message that is desperately needed in these times. These times when a sexist racist xenophobic sexual assaulting temper tantrum throwing candidate can win a major party nomination and gets 40% of the vote no matter what he says or does. Our message of embracing love and inclusivity of equality and justice for all. This message is desperately needed. In these times. And yet. We hold back. Cuz our current national association president peter morales. Fear holds us back. We are afraid of failure afraid of looking silly. We are afraid know that is too mild we are paranoid he says about losing our individual independence. At some deep level you're also afraid of succeeding. We are afraid of the responsibility that comes with owning our power. No this is not the kind of thing that anyone likes to admit to themselves. Either as an individual or as an organization. My initial response to statements like this on the gut-level is always to defend us. I know that's not true we unitarian-universalist were better than that. But then i let the word sink in. When i think about how well our national membership numbers of health study the population of the united states is growing and so we're shrinking as a face tradition in terms of our percentage of the population. And i think about how we have this powerful message. And the time that needs it. The theme song perfectly attuned to what the country is calling out for right now. And yet we're shrinking. I think of these things and despite my fears protective desire to show that peter no that's not us. I worry. I fear that he is right. I even perhaps no. And some part of myself. But doesn't want to admit it. He has opposed. What is true of us and unitarian-universalism that we sometimes land in the unhealthy place of being on opposite ends of the humility spectrum. You're too much pride or not enough. It's also true of us in our lives. If we are to live into a value and belief of the importance of humility. If you're able to practice a healthy humility. We need to try and seat the middle ground. We need to aspire. The living right side. And there's one more thing we need to get clear about. Being right size doesn't mean being modest. Restrained or average. Coffee humility doesn't mean we just shoot for mediocrity. Healthy humility means we need to let our light shine. Healthy humility means striving to be the kind of person araya mountain dreamer called us to be in our reading this morning. Murray 84 in dare to dream of meeting our heart's longing. We can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy phyllis the tips of our fingers and toes. Without cautioning to be careful to be realistic. To remember the limitations of being human. Where we stand in the center of the fire. And do not. Shrink. Too often fear shame or anxiety gets in the way of our living. Author marianne williamson has a response a rebuttal even to this year. Our deepest fear she writes our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is not our darkness that most frightens us. We asked ourselves. Will i to be brilliant gorgeous talented fabulous. Actually. Who are you not. You are a child of god. You're playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that you. Other people won't feel insecure around. We are all meant to shine as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of god that is within us. It's not just in some of us. It's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. She concludes as we are liberated from our own fear. Our presence automatically liberates. Now the god language of course isn't going to work for all of us. But the message is powerful and clear. We ask ourselves who am i to be brilliant. Gorgeous talented fabulous. And the response. Actually who are you not. You're playing small does not serve the world we are all meant to shine. There's even a little bit of unitarian universalist theology. It's not just in some of us it's in everyone. As in our first principle. Everyone has an errand worth. Indignity. Letting your light shine is not getting a big ego. It is about letting yourself richer. attention. A. which by definition. Is acting in living from a place that is grounded and down-to-earth. Let's also be clear letting your light shine is not about flipping light switch magically eliminating all your fear shaming anxiety in a single go and transforming yourself in an inch. Not setting an intention choosing an attitude. And putting in the hard work overtime. Collect your brightest self shine. Ark ask can be complicated. And it also can be easy. As it is suggested to us by gene austin and her poem within the light. Headlights taillights going coming. It does not matter inside. Truck written across the window. Lock the door and break the key. But the interior deepen and broaden until it exceeds. This little room. You will go out when you are ready. When the tiny inner self no longer fit. Awareness. Implicit not the goal. Pure consciousness a word to the stranger. Become. That is all. Come. Till our inner rooms. Overflow out into the world. Take yards dream miles. Let your light shine. Has our picture this morning shows our lights do not stand alone. They are all interconnect. If each one of us was to set aside our fears and anxieties and step into our fullest selves. If each one of us work a truly let our light shine. Can you imagine what life would be like. If you were to set aside our fears and anxieties and step into our. so does a congregation. Can you imagine what our church. Like to come. If he were all the set aside our fears and anxieties and step into our fullest television nation. Can you imagine our country. Might be transformed. Living with a healthy right size to nobody. Letting our light shine. Does not mean being too big does not mean having ego does not mean operating from a place of fear shame anxiety or insecure. It does mean finding the true. Good. Wholeness within ourselves and giving ourselves permission to let that goodness bloom and flower out into the world. Friends. Maybe bring a healthy right-sided to nobody to our lives. To our church into the world. Maybe dare to dream of meeting our heart's longing. Maybe be the kind of people who stand in the center of the fire and do not. Shrink.. Maybe fill the inner rooms of our souls and overflow out into the world. May you. Bring a healthy right side she nobody into your life. May your life. Shein.

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20160911-service-mp3-1.mp3

Today. September 11th 2016. Marks the 15th anniversary of the attacks that brought down the twin towers in new york. And destroy the section of the pentagon. Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks including close to 500 rescuer. Life in new york and the rest of our country. Was turned upside down.. Let's take a moment of silence now to remember and honor all those who lost their life. Without minimizing in anyway of the horrors and loss of life of that day. We're quitting very different magnitudes of the events. The anniversary of 911 calls me and this month when our theme is change. To reflect on how we handle the deep and intense impact. Stepson insignificant change has on our lives. A parent dies and there's a hole in the world. That can never be. Speer laid off or fired at work and our life of financial stability and relative comfort is upended. With no guarantees of a normalcy will return. Are significant other announces out-of-the-blue that our relationship or marriage is ended and that they are moving. Or we arrive home at the end of the day to find that our home or apartment has been broken into. And many of our prized possessions are. Escort ackers maybe a sexual assault. And we struggle with trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. When am i you you call exam minister had her house get struck by lightning a couple of weeks ago and it burned to the ground. To think we no one was hurt. And of course folks in louisiana right now we're still struggling with the aftermath of immense flooding. But many of them losing their homes and most if not all of their possessions. Even lower level events can cause it to feel like our safe of safety is up ended. A car accident maybe you've only minor injuries. But not the feeling that your life's passed in front of your eyes for maintenance. Are your boss explodes and yells at you and work in front of the entire office for being 5 minutes late. Or your child falls off a playground hits their head and gets a concussion. Too often more often than we'd like external events things beyond our control change our lives. Change our country's change our community. And make some difference. Wilmington field. But the loss is tangible things or relationships are people gone that have been there just before. For the more intangible loss of our sense of safety and control. The world is changed. Sometimes the impact such as in the case of 911 is immense and long-lasting. And sometimes the impact itself as more impermanent. And shorts. But the sense of discomfort. Anxiety. Anger or any other number of emotions that we might feel. Those are very real. Imagine if another story for all ages this morning there had been no kind desert to convince the screen to choose to evaporate into the wind. Imagine how the stream might have felt. The story of the stream flowing down the mountain right overcoming obstacles along the way but getting stuck at the desert. And the kindly and wise desert to just a stream. But the wind. Imagine now in the sudden change version of the story the one that more offense real life perhaps more of a real-life perhaps there is no kindly desert the stream flows down the mountain reaches the desert. And then the winter right up out of thin air without even asking. I think i'd be pretty freaked out if the windows lifted me up out of nowhere and started carrying me across a desert. In his book transitions making sense of life's changes author william bridges argues that the most important factor in our ability to deal with difficult external changes that are permanent. And nature is how we process them internally. Schedule device three stages of processing that we all must go through. When there's an external change from which there is no going back. First we have to accept and let go of what is ended. Let me go through middle neutral modeling time uncertainty. And then we embrace newbie. Job. They're usually not going back to that you have to let it end. And then find a new beginning. Expanding this concept to include events and experiences that are less permanent but still impact our sense of safety and security results in a slightly modified three stages. When faced with external events that changes in our lives and impact our sense of safety and security. We must first fuel our way through our feelings so we can accept what happened. Then moves to the middle ground of uncertainty in healing. And then finally we begin again. Sometimes beginning again means a new fresh start and a different circumstance. Sometimes beginning again means beginning again in love. But the same people. In the same place. With compassion and empathy for each other and they gathered camille. Resilience. That is what that tree the 911 survivor tree the last living thing rescued from the ruins of the world trade center complex. Resilience is what that tree shows us. Resilience the ability to recover from or just easily to misfortune or chain. Change as merriam-webster's dictionary definition tells us. Resilience the ability to weather the storm and bounce back strong. Perhaps not coincidentally one of the images offered up in the daodejing that was in the secret text is that of the tree weathering the storm. Resilience. And the importance of flexibility are one of the central philosophical tenets of taoism. And in this example two different trees are observed. One that has grown stiff and hard and rigid with a visible appearance of strength. All the other remain soft and supple and somewhat flexible. And perhaps less imposing. When the storm comes though when the wind is blowing with all its might as strong as the rigid tree might have appeared the wind ultimately snaps it into. As strong as the wind might try but the flexible tree though it cannot break it. Wind blow so hard that ends the tree all the way over so the top touches the ground. But this apple tree. Does not pray. Eventually the storm fades away in the tree remains minus some of its leaves of course but the core of it intact. Ready to straighten up again and embrace the return. Episode. Resilient. A mother daodejing shows the rigid tree is breaking the amazing power of nature shows us that even in that case even when it might appear that the tree is dead that nature entry's offer us other ways to be rich. 911 tree had its branches broken or shattered destroyed by an incredible outside force. And it found its own way to gross and rissa. To me this doesn't diminish the dallas metaphor rather enhancers and defensive. Resiliency is vital to life and it can take many forms. the out f**** ability and outlasting the storm or new growth in the face of destruction. Press human beings resilience is similar in theory perhaps but perhaps a little bit different in practice don't think anybody's going to be growing any new singers are thumbs. Smj ryan notes in her book how to survive change that you didn't ask for. Resilience experts and researchers have learned that human resilience quote comes from a commitment to finding meaning in what's happening to you about leaf in your capacity to create a positive outcome. The willingness to grow. And the choice to laugh and be great. 12 cincinnati only path resilience as a potentially powerful one. And our church and unitarian universalism seems perfectly aligned to help us create that sense of resiliency and. Having a commitment to find meaning and what's happening to you. Meaning making is one of the primary tasks of our congregation reflecting the part of our mission statement the cause us to explore our face. We come from many things community and learning healing and of course. Meaning make. Can reflect upon the changes that are forced upon us in our lives. Often and dialogue within the mother support of other members of the community. We can come to make a meeting. Deeper challenge. Living justice another part of our mission certainly implies a sense of hope for a positive outcome. We don't have glasses that are too far rose-colored. We tend to try and see that there are problems in the world. And we do the work to help make a. In terms of willingness to learn and grow we've got two principles for that. The third principal cause us to encourage spiritual growth in our congregations in the 4th of course calls us to a free and responsible search. The last item on ryan's list is a good reminder for us as we continue on our ethical and spiritual journeys. Gratitude and laughter are indeed choices we need to make to improve our lives and improve the war. The rain also offers one more component of resiliency that is important to remember. When faced with a need to change or having changes forced upon us resilient folks are able to adapt without losing their center. And that was an again offers us inside as we ponder this number form of reflections on water. Water in addition to being flexible and adaptable. Never loses its initial form and structure. Now external forces often create change in the life of water right. Whether it's cold forcing water to freeze or heat causing water to evaporate or gravity causing waterfall or soil causing water to disperse water retains its form its basic inherent identity. No matter the changes to its former. Because i sweetheart steam and call it rain we see it disappear into the ground. And yet given the right conditions the ice will melt the steam will condense puddles and streams grow and aqua fires formed. Water remains water at its core. No matter the external factors no matter how extreme. So it wasn't our story for all ages this morning with the stream being carried by the wind and deposited on a new mountain. The form again. So what is for water ever so. And so it is for us but change for the change forced upon us is permanent or temporary. With permanent change we must find ways to bring our true selves our true beliefs values and ways of being. Into our new situations. With temporary change we often must remind ourselves of the same. In the face of this difficulty how do i remain true to myself and when i believe is good and right in this world. Permanent or temporary change calls us to adapt and respond while keeping our essence the most important parts of us intact. And engaged. And things happen. Really really terrible things happen that should never happen. And day-to-day bad things that are still uncomfortable difficult anon good also happened to. And we are forced to change either permanently or temporarily. And we are always forced to respond. How we do so matters. Matters a great deal to us and how we experience our lives as well as to the world. If we can respond with love and care and empathy for ourselves and for others we can begin to heal the wounds that they are small or giant gaping holes in one of our most prominent cities. If we can respond with love care and empathy. Bikini can begin to heal the wounds in our spirits and our souls and our national understanding. Dear anxiety. Hurt anger. These are all natural reactions. They're not to be repressed or avoid it. We have to feel them and then move past them if we are to make the world the way we want it and eat it too. We have to feel them. And responding with love and respond with love and care even when we're still hurting. If you're going to create the kind of change we want to see. Instead of a kind of change that is imposed. The 9/11 survivor tree wasn't just transported somewhere else to heal and then stay there forever. After the tree was given a chance to heal itself and grow strong again on its own. It was transported back to its original home. And we planted at the nine the site of the 911 memorial. And here it is. Has thrived and blossomed. It's not always the case that we can like the tree return to the site of our change imposed upon us and bring about healing and blossom like a. If a resilient if we make meaning if we're hopeful we learn and grow if we are laughing our grateful if we stay true to the core of ourselves. Sometimes we can bring him. Ourselves and others. Sometimes the new beginning must be in a different place and we share our blossoms in a different. Other times we can return we can bring healing we can make the world a little bit more hole in the place where it all started. Either way. Life love the world and unitarian-universalism all call us to resiliency love and compassion. In the face of the many sudden impacts big and small. Our lives.

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20200209-service.mp3

Good morning and i'll step fritz and i have been lucky enough to grow up here in the uu. Church but as a young adult drifted away busy schedule didn't. Find it. Important to make time to come. And then i became a mom and when my son was born i wanted to. Find a place that would be able to help him grow and mature. And i was grateful to have a uucm. Here to help him. Be a part of his village and. Caring community. That i knew would. Support him when he found his own truth. When i'm asked about the our church i am. Always excited to talk about how we are. A place that welcomes everybody. That. Anybody. Is can come in and feel welcome here. I also am very proud of the fact that we are various social minded. A social justice minded. So many community. People in this community are always volunteering their times their resources. And. Are well-informed about anything that's going on in our community and not afraid to. Speak about it any kind of injustice. Is that are out there. Here locally. In the united states and sometimes worldwide. I love the fact that we're environmentally conscious. Does solar panels on the on the roof are amazing. And i'm just proud to be able to give my time and my resources to this wonderful community. And i hope that you guys. Well i can consider. Pledging. And maybe even up in your pledge of little bit. To help make sure that. We can. Continue all of these. Things that are so important to all of us. And aren't these missions. And we can continue to to fosters. I'm a positive. Environment dinner. Tree people with kindness. I'm just taking it off. Job in bend. I just keep on dancing. Lol. Thank you iris sofia. I'm john taylor. Hi i'm susan. When when katie frederick ask. I would. Give our reflection my first thought was. If i were a vampire nobody would ask me for a reflection. My second thought was. Not that kind of reflection. I've been a member of this church since 1998. Not long after susan brought me here. When we first started dating. And i had been a methodist and then i tried some various church. Along the way. But i walked away from christianity. Senior high school. You know there's something about. To believe in some. Not in the absence of evidence. But in the present. Evidence. To the contrary. So i guess i. Probably not go. Aspire to that republic. I i just couldn't hold those two ideas. At the same time. And i chose to believe what my. Census. Rather than. And i haven't. Match. As an atheist. Proud. Atheist i consider myself. You can't be an atheist. But i believe. Physical. Nicole reality. Is all there is. And that there is. No intervention. Paradise. After we die. This is it. At the same time. I believe. That i believe that we evolved. We require. And quite literally. It's a part of our basic. So this community. Does a good job of red. Starting theron. 11. Who we are not. This is. Is newton. And i was in. And decided to come back with susan. Here we are. This community has supported us as individuals. Family. Feel connected. So many of you. And they're trying to swim. I get so busy. Feels like it would. Take a sunday off. Usually on those days. We feel very glad that we came. And those are the days. So yes i was the one that discovered this one. And lord john here. As we got to know each other we were getting to know. That we fell in love and got married here is due in no small part. Open-minded. When we had children our feelings for the church. Came even strong. Intrigued as we were at the thought of raising. And this religion that invites you to learn. And decide on your. So different from my car. We joint committees. Eventually settling into our preferred means of donating our time. Having found the areas we felt we. Contribute the most. Well also receiving the. Forging stronger. The strong connections are kids riley and sophia. Have made with other youth to their boston-bound tips. Coming-of-age program. And the owl session. We're so very. And thereby support. We knew we were lucky. To have found this. We knew we weren't raising these children. But i feel our kids are well-rounded kind individuals who know how to relate. Appreciate a wide diversity of. Other people. And who know they are loved and cared for by the. Community. Well john and i just. We're so very grateful. The support we've received. I'm glad to be a part of. Good morning. My spouse marquis and i moved muncie in the summer of 1996 for me to start teaching at ball state university. In the spring of 97. On palm sunday to be exact. We decided to go and check out the unitarian universalist church and then i'll actually point out that i was the one who initiated it and said that we should do this. And we are still here almost 23 years later. This church has been a very important place for us and maybe particularly for me someone who had been unchurched her whole life. Here we have found friends with whom we've grown very close. We have found a church community wider than our circle of close friends that we've learned from. And gotten help from when we have needed it. And this church has also helped us to find our place within the wider muncie and delaware county community. So why am i the formerly unchurched. Standing up here in the pulpit delivering what some witty person has dubbed. The sermon on the amount. I'm not sure. The stewardship committee asked me and i said yes. Let that be a lesson for all of us when the stewardship committee asks us we should say yes. So the topic of my family is generosity and community. I want to talk about how generosity is a requirement. For building communities of all sizes. I suppose that generosity could exist. Without community one could be an isolated hermit living apart from others and still make generous financial donation to causes. But i would argue that we can't have community without generosity. Generosity is what builds and expands community. Let's start with the definition of generosity. According to the university of notre dame's science of generosity project. Generosity is quote. The virtue of giving good things to others. Freely and abundantly. Those things can be money. Possessions. Time. Pension. Aid. Encouragement. Emotional availability. And more. Here are some of the ways that mark and i have benefited from generosity in our communities. First our friends are wonderful people who support us emotionally and help us with projects. How many times has lisa kursat come over to help me split wood. Including it to this very afternoon anybody can join us if you'd like. Along the same lines how many times has amy shaw brandon mundel lisa cox billy laverghetta. And various others come over to help me brew beer. Stir the brew pot and bottle the product. How could i not reciprocate by sharing my homebrew with friends. Often in my living room in front of a warm wood stove. And occasionally at church fundraisers. S. Back in 2009. Marquis fractured several vertebrae in her neck in a hiking accident. And for several weeks was walking with a walker and unable to eat anything other than semi liquid or soft foods. I was worried about leaving her alone while i was at work. So many individuals recruited by the caring committee of this church helped us out. That spring. Coming in to stay with marquis while i was gone. It is not an exaggeration to say that we could not have gotten through. That time without the generosity of our church community. Answered once much of what makes muncie a livable community comes from donations of time and money from its residents including many in this room. From the cardinal greenway to the white river cleanups. From the muncie civic theater to musical programs of all kinds. Much of the quality of life here grows out of people's generosity. Marge piercy in her poem the low road. Right. It starts when you care to act. It starts when you say we. And know who you mean. And each day. You mean one more. For our generosity to be transformative. We all need to say we. And each day that we. Needs to mean one more. And one more the next day. Most people are hesitant to be very generous to them the others. However you define the people who aren't us. But if we can quote. Give good things to others. Two others. Freely and abundantly. We can transform them the other. Into we. One of us. That is one way that we build. And. Expand community. It is also true that being in community strengthens generosity. Data from studies show that people who are more socially connected are more generous. A white paper on generosity written at the university of california at berkeley summarizes existing research. People are more generous when they feel more connected to others. For example one study found that when people were primed with words that evoked relatedness. For example. Community. Together. Relationship. They later showed a greater interest in volunteering. And donated significantly more to charity than did participants were primed with neutral words. And the paper continues quote. Social networks and community integration appear to be especially important for encouraging volunteering. Social connectedness as measured by the number of different professional and social group meetings that a person attended. Significantly predicted the number of hours that person spent volunteering. As well as the consistency of their volunteering. And charitable donations. In their book the paradox of generosity. Sociologist christian smith and hillary davidson demonstrate that generosity in the long run. Creates gain rather than loss for the generous. They write. By spending ourselves for other's well-being we enhance our own standing. In letting go of some of what we own. We better secure our own lives. By giving ourselves away. We ourselves move toward florajen flourishing. And that is the paradox of generosity. They find nine different ways that generosity enhances well-being. 1. Generosity fosters and reinforces positive emotions and reduces negative emotions in givers. 2. Generosity triggers chemical systems in the brain and body that increase pleasure reduce stress and suppress pain. Generosity increases personal agency and self-efficacy. For generosity creates positive meaningful social roles in personal self-identities for generous giver stool to live out. 5. Generosity tends to reduce maladaptive self-absorption. 6 practicing generosity requires and reinforces the perception of living in a world of abundance and blessing. 7. Generosity increases the number and density of social network relational ties. 8. Generosity promote increased learning about the world. And 9 generosity increases givers physical activity. In an online essay titled generosity laura hazlett rights along the same lines. Quote. One of the most beautiful things about true generosity is that it comes from the heart. More than what you give. It is about being giving. Approaching the world and your relationships with a feeling of abundance and a readiness to give what you can to make others lives. Even just a little better. Rather than passively giving up something for someone else generosity is really about deciding to let go. It is freeing. And empowering to give without feeling attached to an outcome. Or a need to be appreciated for it. Even better the more you give love and generosity. The more you inspire love and generosity in others. Here lies the true strength and generosity. Not only can it make us happier and healthier as individuals. But it can be a powerful tool for positive change in our relationships community and society. So. Given all these benefits of generosity why wouldn't we all be generous to our church. Think of all the benefits to yourself. Think about triggering those chemicals that increase pleasure reduce stress and suppress pain. More to the point of the ways that a successful stewardship campaign will strengthen and empower this church community. Our communities plural both large and small. We will be supporting the children's and youth religious education programs. That teach our children uu principles for how to be in the world. We will be supporting. The our whole lives sexuality education program and heaven knows we need that now. We will be supporting the youth group and providing fellowship and a community for our teams. We need to put money away for repairs to this building. So that it can continue not only to be our sanctuary on sunday mornings but also to provide space during the week. For the tuesday night. Bodylife potluck dinner. The choir rehearsals. Classes movie screenings. Presentations like last week's talk on puerto rico. And many other gatherings both of unitarian universalist and of others from the community. The congregation will be able to give a cost-of-living salary increase to the staff which is fair and the right thing to do. The congregation could once again become a fair share congregation that gives money to the unitarian universalist association to support other uu communities across the country. And finally we need to maintain and build this church as a visible and active part of this region in indiana which needs a liberal religious presents. We need to continue as one of the congregations that are taking actions to address climate change. Holding forums going solar. Setting an example. Muncie and the surrounding area need congregation. That welcome support and celebrate. Gay and transgender people. Congregations that stand in solidarity with immigrants and with our muslim and jewish neighbors. And of course the uu church is not the only congregation that does so. When mark and i moved to muncie 23 years ago. We didn't know that we needed the unitarian universalist church of muncie. But we really did. And i am so glad that this church was here for us and is here for us. I am committed to making sure that it's still here for all those other. People who come looking for friends looking for community and looking for a group of people who want to work to make muncie a better place. It's easy. Snow above. It isn't. Nothing to kill no religion. I want. A brotherhood. I hope so.

www_uuchurchmuncie_org

20160904-service-1.mp3

And good morning again that's a pleasure to be with you. Floppy. Budget with you this sunday. And on this labor day weekend i have a message for you about consumption. More specifically i would like for us all to consider the impact. Cultural narratives about consumption. Capitalism and society. Might have on us individually and collectively. How to my message. Why we shouldn't keep up with the joneses. And i hope it stimulates some thought and self-reflection for all of us about. Impact our economic lives have. The idiom keeping up with the joneses comes from a british comic strip. That ran 1913 to 1939. The phrase is since entered. Many parts of the language of many parts of the english-speaking world. As a means of referring to the process by which one compares yourself and your family to that of your neighbors. Concerned that they may outdo you economically. And today i would like to suggest that you. Me. All of us. There's more than one good reason to do that. Please allow me to review those reasons with you today. One reason we should not care about what the joneses are up to. Is that it is healthy for us to do so. And will in all likelihood. Make us happier. Is healthier to us psychologically. Spiritually. Emotionally. Socially. Domestically. Ecologically and i'm sure i could go on. When we compare ourselves to others based on material well. Several life detracting things happen. And they detract from our overall happiness. So the first life to track anything that happens when we compare. Is that we mistake outward signs of material success. As indications of happiness and well-being. However as global polls demonstrate year-after-year from credible places like forbes in gallup. There's not always a correlation between wealth and happiness. If we placed thule side-by-side. Wealthiest nations on earth. The happiest nations on earth. I don't consult coincide very often. Admittedly there's problems with. Global indicators and poles of the sword. But i think they do indicate on a grand level what many of us can observe at the micro-level around us. Material wealth. Personal health and well-being. Are not an automatic pairing. Human beings reckon our happiness. In more ways than just material. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not attempting to say that material wealth does not matter. Of course economics matter. Of course it matters whether we have enough to survive or not. But economics is not the only thing that matters. Community matters. Family matters. Our emotional psychological and spiritual well-being matters. Quality time with those we love. Matters. Economics might intersect with those things. Or make some of them easier. Acquiring more stuff. It's not a substitute for any of them. The second life detracting thing that happens when we compare ourselves to others. Is that generates a gulf of unhappiness between. Where that person is that were comparing two or at least where they appear to be. And where we are. Or at least where we imagine we. Want to be. This fattest dissatisfaction can be the only result. When you compare yourself to another who has more of something. That you think you need to have more of. But that something is difficult to come by. Now if you have more pebbles than me. I can probably rectify that pretty easily right we can all get more pebbles. Some things in life. Like well. Arnot. Obviously that's not easy to come by. Sure some people have great wealth. Boner lap. But there's nothing normative about that kind of an experience. This wealth is not easy to come by. Comparing myself to those who are wealthier than i am. It's not likely to take me to a happy place. Such comparisons will interfere with my ability to appreciate what i do have. It'll always make my economic glass seem half empty. Or at least never full enough. So some people. Have bigger houses in the restaurant. So what. How many rooms are how much square footage can you use at one time anyway. Do you have a place to live. That alone as we just learned. An offering that alone is something to already be grateful for. So if my needs for shelter are being met. The more square footage make me happier. Better. Somehow a superior human being. What do i gain from a bigger house aside from a perception of increased economic status by others. And what is that worth really. A large house may look lovely and grand on the outside. And one might fantasize about having one like it. But the facade of a house tells us nothing of the people within it. There may be deep suffering in that house. Abuse. Depression. Diction. Alienation. Job dissatisfaction marital strife. The outward facade of a nicely dressed. Bejeweled and seemingly economically successful individual. Tells us nothing of their inner self. Perhaps they are deeply suffering. A living with one or another kind of internal poverty. Wealth on the outside. Does not provide well. Or hell. On the inside. But let's imagine for a moment we've got ourselves an individual a couple of family. And they do manage to keep up with the joneses and. Upgrade their lifestyle. I get a bigger house. I get a more expensive car or more cars. Another toys expensive toys like jet skis snowmobiles. More clothes. Get the idea. But now my larger house has a larger mortgage. More cars are more expensive cars bring bigger car payment. Fire insurance more gas. Tsunami. Or if i'm in a couple or family us. How to stay in our jobs. To get the pay raise. Even if our happiness in those jobs. Has changed over time. My lifestyle doesn't allow me to downgrade my paycheck any longer. Perhaps i have to work overtime. Or another job. Or miss family events. Maybe later in life i'll feel as though i missed my child grow up. Maybe i have to go into credit card debt. To maintain that seeming facade. As we economically overreach. One could easily in that kind of scenario reach a point of stagnation. Where are you feel trap breakdown by your lifestyle and your stuff. You can end up feeling handcuffed. To the stop to the upkeep of the stuff the debt that accompanies the stuff. And the maintenance of that overall facade of prosperity for the outside world. One might very well end up looking. Successful on the outside. What have i gained on the inside. This would be particularly true if i never stop keeping up with the joneses but simply change which jones is i compare myself to. Perhaps i started my adulthood with a lower class or lower middle-class reference point. Then once i got there i moved to a middle-class joneses. Once i got there and upper-middle-class jones's or upper class to get the idea. So what was once an adequate. 1000 square foot home i started with a my young adulthood. Later needs to become a 2000. 93000. And i'd spend my whole life dreaming about that 4500 square foot home. And i never get there by spend my whole life striving for it feeling unhappy. And down on myself because i never got there. Other people have. Look at that jones's so why didn't i. Before you know it you're caught in a loop of conspicuous consumption and overconsumption. Cuz you're constantly trying to keep up. And you never get there. There will always be more jones's. And more wealth to be had. What if instead. I've stopped the entire cycle by being happy with what i have. And where i am. Could have saved myself a lifetime of thanks. Clergy and psychologists have remarked that this constant wishing to have as much as others. Has brought about a collective exhaustion among americans. Tiring and frustrating to constantly strive for something. You feel you never achieve. Imagine many of you may already be thinking. Keeping up with the joneses directly stems from the myth of the american dream. American dream suggests that freedom and hard work. Provide the opportunity for prosperity success and upward mobility for anyone. But this cultural narrative. As cherished as it is for many americans. Is indeed a fallacy. As we well know there are structural limitations that provide uneven access. Education jobs. Social economic opportunities and mobility. While legally. Everyone who is a native-born citizen permanent resident and over the age of 35 can become president. We all know naught anyone can or will become president. Only wealthy. Critically connected christian straight. Mail. So that may soon change. Until recently white. Individuals actually became the president. Just like. Longing to be like the joneses the myth of the american dream. Set setup for unhappiness. By generating unrealistic expectations. That do not align with our current reality. Or our society structural problems. Regarding class. And race. And gender. Sure. We can all point to exceptional stories of upward mobility. Success. But such stories are beyond the norm they're not. Now again please don't get me wrong i'm not suggesting we should not dream. Or strive or work hard. We should we must. Imagine a different future for ourselves and our society. We should challenge structures and the cultural narratives that undergird then. Change does happen. And sometimes dreams just do come true. But there are also times to self-examine ourselves and consider what role we play. Within cultural narratives instructors. When we constantly upgrade our expectations. For more things bigger things. More opulent things. We are contributing to the narrative of capitalism and its reliance on over-consumption. We receive constant messages about how our teeth aren't wide enough. Our mattress isn't comfortable enough. A car not luxurious enough. Are meals not convenient enough. Are personality not sociable enough and on and on. And. God bless america there's a product for every one of our shortcomings. So we buy more only to realize that our upgraded life. Requires more products and things to become. Better. And all the while. There remains a gap. Between what were able to achieve. And what we. Believe we ought. You have achieved instead. Those outer accomplishments then. Come at a cost to our inner health. Additionally. Let us not forget that those outer things. Come out of social spiritual and ecological cost as well. Anymore things requires more resources. More energy to produce and transport them. We gain more things we dispose of the old. Often perfectly good things. Because they're now beneath our lifestyle. Bigger cars and homes. Are more resources to make. And more energy to maintain. And when we take more. Someone. Somewhere else. Just may suffer the cost of our choices as we've left less behind. For others. Carbon emissions from. Fossil fuels. To greater energy demands. Or from gas-guzzling vehicles. Impacts everyone. The selfish usage of energy. Water resources. Lee's last for the rest of the world. And produces more pollution. This sent striving to improve our outward economic appearance. It's not just about her in her house. The choices we make ripple outward and have real. Ecological impacts on the earth. And the lives of others around the world. Honoring our place in the interconnected web of life. Living simply. So others may simply live. Are both real things. And not just slogans. They are within our power to choose. Or not. Through the lifestyle choices we make. So rather than directing an envious gaze at those of greater economic means. For keeping up with. The joneses. Perhaps we should remind ourselves to direct our energies to combating structures. And empowering those of lesser means. Define a place to simply have adequate means. Using our spare wealth to help change systems. Bring about socioeconomic. Equality. Will. I can almost guarantee. A greater dividends of many kinds. And the sword. Overconsumption. I encourage you to keep these thoughts in mind the next time. You find yourself marveling at the glamorous lifestyle of a celebrity. And being the home of the tycoon up the road. We're craving the product use on an ad that will surely improve your life. You may not simply be the little economic price that you pay. When you keep up with the joneses. The hidden psychological. Emotional. Ecological. And human cost. Mccary a far heavier price tag in the long run. It may be greater than you. Your fellow human beings. Or the earth. Anaphora.

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20160110-service.mp3

We've read and heard. Concert about meditation and recent years. Quite a bit of it comes from the realm of psychology and. Counseling. Coaching and well it should because you know those. The benefits are very very real and. Very tangible. But at its heart. Meditation has a deeper dimension. Because we can come into contact. Without. Which we experience the sacred or holy. This is dimension. That gives rise to the hindu phrase pharmacy. Which usually is translated. That thou art. What does maintenance hindu context and in general what. People who think along these lines have. Deduced from that is that ourself. Ar. Innermost nature with butts. Deepest in here. And its original state. Is wholly or partially identifiable. Our identical even. With the ultimate reality that's the ground of our being. The ground origin of. All. Phenomena. The innermost essence. Of all beings. That exist. Absolutely everything. That's revolutionary statement was revolutionary statement and its time. It has echoed through the centuries in different forms. It's also a statement that when i came across it and i was a grad student the time i think. The first time i came across it. That was absolutely revelatory. For me personally. Because having grown up with a. Believe in my own unworthiness really having been drilled into me. Top pharmacy. Camus extraordinaire only good news. Somehow. Know-how. But somehow i knew from the get-go. That it's true. This profoundly true for me. As well. Do i always remember this techno. Do i know it. Yes. In meditation. We can come to know. That. Dimension. Ourselves we can touch that part of us that place in us. Where the whole ear of the sacred. Resides. And we can come to perceive that same essence more clearly in the entire web of being. We come to know this. Not as a matter of doctrine or teaching but as a matter of our lived experience. Buddhist monk on brahm is the average and spiritual director of the but as society of western australia. It's also a wonderful storyteller. His account of a man with a newspaper. Highlights motifs that are central to my understanding meditation and to my appreciation of its potential. While still a student he writes. I would spend most of my summer vacations walking and camping in the highlands of scotland. I delighted in the solitude and beauty and peace of the scottish mountains. One memorable afternoon i was ambling along the ocean on a narrow road which roundwound. Along the headlands and inlets of the far north. The warm bright sun was like a spotlight for the extraordinary beauty around me. The moreland was an endless sweep of velvety grass in the fresh green of springtime. The cliffs have been sculpted light cathedral soaring high above the swirling sea. The ocean. Was the blue of lady evening as if scattered with fairy lights sparkling and twinkling in the sun rays. A small green and brown rack island seem to surface on the waves as far as the hayes line of the horizon. Even the gulls and terns were gliding and wheeling in euphoria and i was certain. It was nature showing its finest. One of the most scenic parts of the world. On a day. Afsana glory. Move it like this morning only different. Are skipping along in spite of my heavy backpack. I was joyous without a care high on the inspiration of nature. Henry i saw small car parked by the roadside next to the cliff. Immediately i imagine that it's driver had also been overcome by the beauty of the day here and stop to drink and it's ambrosia. I was close enough for the car to see through its back window. I was disappointed. And just made. Single occupant of that vehicle. A middle-aged man. Was reading a newspaper. The newspaper was so big block the whole view of the world around him. Instead of seeing ocean and cliff and island and grassland. All he could see. Was warren politics and scandals and sport. The newspapers wyd. Get very soon. Only a few millimeters on the other side of that. Black drury newsprint. Play the pure rainbow-colored elation of nature. I thought to take out a pair of scissors for my packing. Call small hole in his newspaper so he can see what was on the other side of the article on the economy he was reading. But. He was big hairy scotsman. And i was a scrawny underfed graduate student. I left him. Read about the world. Well i danced. On intuit. If we cannot be fully present. Tyrone experience. We're very likely not to catch the flickers of mystery that flipped like fireflies or like sun on the ocean. Round the edges of our ordinary everyday experience. We miss. The miracle. That is the everyday. Rom doesn't use the word miracle. The his engaging description of his experience of the natural world echoes. That sensibility. That's important for us as you use. Because remember that the very first source from which we draw is the direct experience. All transcending mystery and wonder. It's affirmed in all cultures. Probably most of us aren't too much interested in the idea of a god who. Contravenes natural law to produce miracles. But that doesn't mean. So we live a life devoid of miracle. Were invited. You're very direct immediate lived experience. That mystery and wonder that people for eons have associated. With miracle. It says what's a year. We're surrounded immersed. In the sacred or the holy. Were usually unaware of the air that surrounds us. But we can become aware. Of a fleeting fragrance a fresher breeze. Beshear. Amazement of drawing breath. When we pause. And pay attention. We pause. Pay attention. Meditation is training in doing. Just that. Imposing and paying attention. Informal meditation and as we extend. That practice in the moments of informal meditation. We practice. We become open. We learn to see we learned pause we learn to stop. We need stillness. We need presents we need awareness and focus. 2. Apprehend what's going on. In our experience. An important aspect of this is closing the newspaper if you will. Living our experience directly without putting thoughts judgments. Regrets about the past worrying about the future. Without putting all those things in between. Awesome experience. Simply being with. Whatever our experience is in the present moment. We don't identify with it. We don't try to hang on to it if we're enjoying it or we don't try to push it away for not enjoying it. We don't compare it. With similar experiences. We simply. Ar. We are as an experiencing human being. By living in this way. We open to the ways in which the sacred manifests itself. Precisely through ordinary reality. Precisely as ordinary reality. Because they're one in the same. All aspects of life. Canby vehicles. For the apprehension of the whole way. If we're better wear. Can we recognize the sacred. In washing up the dishes. Are grooming a dog. Many people touch the sacred while. Digging in the richloam of their garden planting seeds will become flowers or. Wonderful veggies. But how about when that same dirt gets tracking on the carpet. Perhaps we experienced the holy in the birth of a child. Can we recognize it. Equally. At the bedside of a dying friend. Lived in this way. Everything without exception. Becomes a potential experience. Sacred. Traditionally religious people say that god speaks through every realm of our lives. True devotion yes. Worship obviously. But also through work play. Through sexuality which incidentally is our theme for next month. The delight of a child. The busyness of middle-aged and the gathering mystery beijing. In birth and death and life. In between. It's all available to us. Being more fully present for other people. And caring for the web of existence itself. Follows naturally. Promise enhanced awareness and appreciation of the whole way. With an everything. Our principals call us to respect the dignity and worth of every single person. And work for justice and compassion in human relations. And a big part of that being fully present for our lives is being fully present for the other people. In our lives. We've had some experience with meditation and its way of leading us into. Greater presence and focused awareness. We can become more aware of the ways in which the holy manifests and calls for social justice. Human compassion. This means being more and more fully aware. Of our neighbor. Of the inherent value. Of every person. As her children story suggested it calls on us to. See our neighbors need and to respond. Appropriately which means in the first place seeing that need accurately for what it is. Then responding with wisdom and compassion. We must be able to listen. To really listen. This means listening without judging. It means listening without. Thinking about what i reply will be. Or about how we might fix the person speaking to us. It means attending to what is sad and also to the unspoken cries at the heart. We become more able to hear the holy. In other people's words. And i sometimes have said traditionally. People become for us the christ the buddha or krishna. As well. As being there fully human. Selves. Another of our principals calls honest respect the interdependent web of all existence. Which were apart. And to take care of our planet. Bruce russell jane sermon last sunday was a very powerful statement of what's happening to our earth to our home. Because we haven't been taking care of it. A significant part of taking care. I'll being careful in our relationship with the world around us. It's being aware. Before we can. Take. Care. We have to be aware. No problem here because there are some very powerful forces at work it seems to me in our culture that undermine. This kind of presents and awareness. And i don't think there's too much that supports it. Big. It's not valued as highly as doing. We're busy. And we're busier. And often it seems we think of our worth is measured by how busy we are. How much doing we can pack into each day. We also have an ever-increasing a real tech gadgets to distract us. I've been reading news reports this past week coming out of the consumer electronics show in las vegas it's held every year. And. Oh my goodness i mean from. Virtual reality. Headsets that apparently plug us into a a hole. Different world that looks for all the world like it really is real. Thinking about that makes me a little seasick. 2. Little robot creatures that. Do. Various things. Incredible things coming out of that show. Butter. Their distraction. In order to be present. Be aware to be open. We have to first. Slow down. Pause. Stop. We must allow silence. Into our lives. First first thing i recall reading and it was a long time ago. About meditation was a line and article by jon kabat-zinn who at the time was the founder of the mindfulness-based. Stress reduction program at massachusetts general hospital. I think the sentence went like this. Meditation is an island of being. In the midst. Embassy of doing. Meditation is an island of being. Amidst. Sea of doing. That has stayed with me as my basic working description of meditation as a process. And it's part of what draws me back. Again. And yet again. The practice. Elsewhere jon kabat-zinn right. The habit of ignoring our present moments. In favor of others yet to come. Leads directly to a pervasive lack of awareness of the web of life. In which we are embedded. This includes a lack of awareness and understanding of our own mind. And how it influences our perception and actions. It severely limits our perspective on what it means to be a person and how we're connected. To each other. And to the world around us. To allow ourselves to be truly intouch. What's where we already are no matter where that is. We've got to pause in our experience long enough to let the present moment. Thank you. Long enough to actually feel. The present moment. To see it. And its fullness. Hold it. An awareness. And thereby come to know. Understand better. Whatever extent we can do this. We can appreciate. The deep. Mystery. Open alive. And we take a knowledge. Dang bottle i connected. To all that exists. Meditation allows us to practice being fully present in this way. Without judging without identifying without grasping or. Rejecting. As we come to live our experience more deeply. We begin to perceive the holy in our experience of the everyday. And this changes. Our experience of other persons. End of the earth. That we all share.

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20171203-service_9am.mp3

Fire and ice by robert frost. Some say the world will end in fire some say in ice from what i've tasted of desire i hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice i think i know enough of hate to say that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice. All you who sleep tonight by vikram seth. All you who sleep tonight far from the ones you love no hand to left or right and emptiness above. Know that you aren't alone in the world share the whole world shares your tears some for two nights or one. And some for all their years. Global warming. By jane hurst you. When his ship first came to australia. Cockroach the natives continued fishing without looking up. Unable it seems to fear what was too large. Comprehend. Hopelessness. There is so much pain inside me the shame fear the worthlessness it's crushing. Burning cold. Isolating lonely consuming. Oh why oh why is there no way out will this never end. Whole world. Shares. Hopelessness. Our government is run by money paid for by the well-off and we just two days ago made the wealthy even more wealthy. People in our country people in our state people in our city are going hungry and we just gave a tax cut to the richest of the rich and of course to the corporations. Economic inequality is rising growing getting worse and it's going to keep getting worse people are hungry. And we're cutting taxes for businesses in the wealthy. People are hungry. The whole world shares. Hopelessness. We have created global warming all reasonable science and braces this and yet we are led by climate change deniers. Poor world shares your tears. United states has the highest rate of incarceration in the world then we print everything cursory people of color be created the new jim crow be continued white supremacy. The whole world shares. We have prisons run by private corporations making money off of incentivizing incarcerating people we punished for profit. The whole world shares. We have repeated mass shootings hundreds of people killed and yet we can't even pass one reasonable gun-control law it's more important that our gun ownership be unrestricted and unregulated and then we protect the lives of our citizens. The whole world. Shares your tears. Hopelessness. It's somehow okay now for perspective senators to sexually assault children or four representatives facilitates for sex and we care so much only about the are in the d next to the names on the ballot that were somehow willing to let sexual assault in this sexual misconduct slide. We elected a president with a d next to his name who abused his power and had an affair with an intern and we were somehow okay with us at the time it was between him and his wife. Even worse we knew ahead of time that a presidential candidate like the grabs woman's genitals to just kiss them without asking we had video with him bragging about sexual assault and we elected him anyway over a woman was one of the most qualified presidential candidates in the history of the united states. Rape culture continues to thrive and somehow remain acceptable somehow be a second priority behind politics. Whole world shares. Good bones by maggie smith. Life insurance do i keep this for my children. Life is short and i've shortened mine and 1,000 delicious ill-advised ways. 1000 delicious whittwood buys ways i'll keep from my children. The world is at least 50% terrible and that's a conservative estimate that i keep this from my children. Preppy bird there was a stone thrown at a bird for every love child that child broken bag sunken awake life is short and the world is at least half terrible. And for every kind stranger there is one who would break you do i keep this for my children. I'm trying to sell them the world. Any decent realtor walking you through a real s*** hole trips on about good bones. This place could be beautiful right. You could make this place. Beautiful. Kindness by naomi shihab nye. Before you know what kindness really is. You must lose things. Kill the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand which counted and carefully saved all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. Are you ride and ride sinking the bus will never stop the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever. Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness. You must travel where the indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road. You must see how this could be you. Have you teach you with someone who journey through the night with plans in the simple breath that kept him alive. Before you know kindness is the deepest thing inside. You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. You must wake up. With sorrow. The thing is by ellen bass. The thing is i love life to love it even when you have no stomach for it and everything you've held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands your throat filled with the silt of it. When grief sits with you with tropical heat thickening the air heavy as water more fit for gills and lungs. When grief weights you down like your own flashed only more of it and obesity of greece. You think how can a body withstand this. Can you hold life like a face between your palms a plain face no charming smile no violet eyes and you say yes. I will take you. I will love you. Again. Possibility. If you were to compare a piece of concrete with a single seed from a plant asked which was tougher which was stronger which was more likely to prevail the concrete wins hands down. And yet a single see you can and indeed will force its way up in through life will not be denied. You hold life like a face between your palms and you say yes i will love you. Possibility. Children have to be taught to hate our little ones are precious bright lights they do not come into this world bleeding hate in their hearts it is us the grown-ups our culture we teach hate. You can choose to teach the little ones to be different. We can choose to break the cycle. If we're brave enough. If we have the courage. If we can admit that we've done wrong. You hold life like a face between your palms. And you say yes. I will love you. Again. Possibility. It can seem sometimes like our wounds may never heal the loss of a dearly beloved is too much to bear we've been hurt too badly by another before others that we ourselves. Illness has robbed us of critical capacities to function. Addiction dominates our lives. Healing can happen though. We find or offer grace forgiveness and love to ourselves. We find our offer grace forgiveness and love. To each other. You hold life like a face between your palms and you say yes i will love you. Hope is the thing with feathers by emily dickinson. Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all. And sweetest in the gale is heard and sore must be the storm that abashed the little bird that kept so many warm. I've heard it in the chillest land and on the strangest sea get to never in extremity and asked a crumb. Of me. Where the mind is without fear by rabindranath tagore. Where the mind is without fear and the head is how time where knowledge is free where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls where words come out from the depth of truce where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection where the clearstream of reason has not lost its way into the drury dresser sand of dead habit where the mind is led forward by the into ever-widening thought and action. Into that heaven of freedom my father my mother. Let my country. Awake. For the new year 1980 19 denise levertov. I have a small grain of hope. One small crystal that cleans your colors out of transparency. I need more. I break off a fragment to send to you. Please take this grain of a grain of hope so that mine won't shrink. Please share your fragment so that yours will grow. Only so by division will hope increase like a clump of irises which will cease to flower unless you distribute the clustered roots unlikely source clumsy in earth's covered. Hope. Hope is the kind word to a stranger. Hope is the hot meal brought to the homeless person staying warm and a dark corner on a windy night. Hope is in the forgiveness offered to a mother buy her daughter a brother to his sister from one friend to another. Hope is one day or four months or 20 years of sobriety. Please take the screen of a grain of hope so that mine won't shrink please share your facts. So that yours. Hope. Hope is a place where people care for each other bring food to those who needed visit those who are sick. Hope is a place for reason and faith are celebrated side-by-side or diverse theologies are not only welcome but celebrated. Hope is a place where a person takes initiative in a community comes together to support a group for lesbian gay bisexual transgender and queer youth used to need a place that tells them every day that they are perfect and wonderful and loved just the way they are just for who they are no matter how they gender identify no matter who they love. Hope is a place for risk of change and risk of loss to try where we do that to try and make sure there is room for all who wish to grace there. Please take the screen of a grain of hope so that mine won't shrink. Please share your fracking. So that yours. Hope. Hope means remembering that in this community you are never alone. Hope means that the arc of the universe bends toward justice. At you that we never get up. Hope means that each and every person has worth and dignity even those who have committed the most evil of atrocity. Hope means that we hold people accountable for their actions. And we never give up on their basic humanity. Hope means that you remind yourself that you are worthy of love even and especially in those moments where you don't believe it to be true. Please take the screen of hope grain of a grain of hope so that mine won't shrink please share your fur. So that yours will grow. Hope. Does pablo pablo neruda. You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming. You can cut all the flowers. But you cannot keep spring. Hope. Please take the screen of a grain of hope. So that mine won't shrink. Please share your fragment. So that all will.

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20191208-service.mp3

Nicole. The grown-up in this picture. The child you may know less well especially if you missed his child dedication since he's in the nursery most sunday morning. Xander. Here you see him at his big brothers nature preschool end-of-year party. My older two children were enrolled in the same program so i was able to witness this event with my own eyes. It had rained the day before. And there was a lot of mud. I'm talking about a lot. Of mud. And xander was about 1. Have you ever met a one-year-old. They do what they want. And sandra wanted to play in the mud. And really play in the mud. He sat down right in the middle of a puddle and he went to town. It was glorious to watch. And then he was covered in it. Dripping with my dad not just his face as you can see here but his whole body he's sat down as i said in the middle of the mud so his bum was dripping wet with mud. And before long. As one-year-olds are want to do. He wanted to be held by his mama. He totaled over and put his arms up like they do. And she didn't hesitate to pick him right up. As any good mom who understands the wonder and beauty of a messy kid. Wood. Now many of the parents at this event are like nicole and myself and happily allow our children to be children. But not all of them some of them didn't quite understand why someone would allow themselves to be covered in mud in order to provide the love being requested. Sweet little child. But those are the moments. Where we show who we truly are as parents and as people. The moments when we see the beauty and the child's mud-covered little self. When we allow ourselves to enjoy the mud along with them. Tell of the child. In their muddiness. Not just. Fight at. And shouldn't we love all people this way. Shouldn't we love one another because of all the ways we are messy and imperfect and broken and struggling. I'll tell you that the people i love most. Are the ones who are the most real with who they truly are. With the ways in which they are in the midst of a rumble with their shadow sides and the ways in which they sometimes end up. Pins down face down in the dirt unsure how they'll ever get back up. It's the people who are honest about their humanity who i'm interested in spending most of my time with. I don't really have time for the folks who pretend that they have it all together. That doesn't interest me much. I don't really have interest in being fake. Or pretending or posturing. And i am so uninterested in the shiny wrapping we tend to put around ourselves especially. In this month. To hide who we truly are. Because the most inspiring thing in the world to my mind is the resilience of the human spirit. The thing that keeps me getting up each day is the opportunity to journey with the beautiful souls in my life as we wrestle with the biggest of feelings. As we've honorably open up and risk heartbreak once more. As we courageously risked the seats. Again. As we do. The next right thing. Especially when it is so hard. That is where i have the most poignant wonder. And all. It seems easy to find wonder when it's quiet. When the sun is setting over a picturesque landscape. And no-one is wailing in the distance. But it's a lot harder to find the magic of the world in the midst of chaos and noise and the sorrow that surrounds us. Right. Swat hurt us. And also a million times more satisfying to find it in the midst of all of that. I experienced a lot of magic moments with my children and this week i felt this baby kick for the first time in that was shore magical. But i have to notice i have to notice it i have to take the time to really admire it to revel in it. This child and all of the other children for it to actually be the amazing moment that it can be. If i'm too busy or too stressed or too overwhelmed or to anything it's real easy to miss those magic moments right. Maybe i feel it but i don't really feel it i don't really feel the wave of joy and gratitude and wonder that i can accompany it if i allow it to. And there's something even more astounding. Then the words and feelings themselves. When i'm able to hear and truly experience the reverence. Of each time elias says. Umami. You can't do without that it's pretty awesome i love you mommy. It's even more powerful and got wrenching know when i'm able to truly let that wash over me in the midst of the other two. Screaming at each other. Cuz that happens a lot. My house is awesome. Really really loud. Sometimes it's humans. And dogs making a lot of noise all at once. And finding the most profound and meaningful moments of love in the midst of that. Is far more satisfying than finding it in the quiet. Maybe i just really like a challenge which is true. And it's not. Devoid of any beauty when it happens in the quiet. But there's something so unbelievable. And breathtaking. About finding those moments and truly feeling them in the midst of all the noise. Or when i feel deeply sad. Or when i cannot stop thinking about the 20-page to-do list. Or the giant pile of laundry and or dishes were the ways in which the world. Is on fire all around us. And it's not just about finding the wonder despite the mess. And the chaos of life. And our broken hearts. I'm also asking us to see. When we can find the beauty and the amazement. In the mess. When we can see zander's mud covered face. And not enjoy it because he is cute. Which he is. But enjoy it because. His being. His whole self. Unmasked unadulterated by all of the messages he will receive in his life to be a certain way to not be too much. To fit the mold that society deems appropriate or suffer the consequences. All of those are gone in the mess of that moment. When i can see the extreme loud nature of my own home. As the gift of so many blessings. Given to us whether we thought we wanted all of them or not. And the most incredible humans we could ever have imagined creating and getting to call family. It's okay that sometimes the noise feels overwhelming. And. The noise is the most precious gift i've ever received in my entire life. All at the same time. I'm often not a huge fan of christmas music. I mean my feelings for it waxes and wanes and there have been times it's brought me great joy and usually. I like it at church which is interesting. But until i began living with my spouse i never listen to it in my own home i had a hard and fast rule about that. It felt like the whole world around me. Sometimes only after thanksgiving sometimes not exactly. Was assaulting me with christmas music. So why would i choose to continue this in my own tranquil space. I felt like my home was my my one escape. From the expectation that i be happy. That i beat siri. Whether i was feeling it or not. Now after we began adding children some of this shifted cuz i really like. I'm liking christmas music. But i find myself. Not feeling it as easily this year as i have in years past. Or at least feeling differently about it. This year i'm carrying extra grief with me into this season. As happens to all of us. From time to time. This year my heart is heavier than i would like from all sorts of things. Lots of really good reasons to feel sad. And yet. What i'm finding. Is that just what makes the fleeting and perhaps. That is just what makes the fleeting and perhaps more elusive moments. When i get swept away in the joy of the season. Or in the splendor of the twinkling lights. Or the warm. Of someone's generosity. All the more incredible and heart-opening. And still. Of course i have to work hard to remind myself. Cuz every message around me tells me otherwise. But it's okay not to feel cheery all the time right now. I'm allowed to feel sad when i feel sad. I'll say it again. But for you. Because you are allowed to feel sad. Whenever you feel sad. Or confused or angry or lost or afraid. And we are allowed. To be scared out of our minds at the state of the world. We are allowed to be terrified and overwhelmed about climate change. We're allowed to feel powerless in the face of ice detentions continuing to separate families and kill. We're allowed to feel defeated by the hatred. And the greed. And the big bigotry that pervade our society. Unitarian universalist minister erica hewitt talks about how she manages her range of big feelings at this time of year. In a reflection she wrote in 2016. Call called when mary meets mess. She writes. Four christmases ago a painful breakup sent me spinning into a long pango with depression. Two christmases ago i came down with the stomach flu. Last year as. Tears streamed down my face. Friends cut off my long hair in preparation for my first round of chemotherapy. And this year like many i'm grieving an election that i believe has already damaged the hearts and bodies of our country's most fragile people. I haven't soured on the holidays however and i will not give on chris give up on christmas. For two reasons. First. Long before my heart was broken and i lost my hair. I learned to shape the holidays. To fit into whatever shape hole. Is in my heart. At times this has required ingenuity and vigilance. The holidays laden as they are with traditions and sacred cows. Can pull us into program drops rather than genuine wonder. To ask what to do i truly need. And how can i claim my longing for joy. Can happen only when we allow ourselves to practice vulnerability. And take mindful pauses. The other reason i won't give up on christmas is it. Central message. The holy will never give up on us. Her people. In fact from hanukkah to solstice that's the message of most winter holy days. The holy. Call it god call it the force. Call it loves impulse. Will never give up on us. Even when we feel like curling up. In a dark room. And revoking our membership in the human family. If i believe that you're loved. Will never let us go. I imagine saying to the great all that is. The least i can do is be your spy on the ground. I'll keep watch for love. For compassion. For magic. For all. And i'll report back regularly. Just to feel close to. Everyone of you she concludes. And she concludes by calling you sugar plum. So very erica. Has a story about the holiday blues. Crisis. Loneliness. Wanting to give up. Telling our stories helps restore our wholeness. Tell yours. While you're at it for my plan for the coming weeks. So that on the other side of this winter you can look back and say. Here's how i made it gentler on myself. And here's why i remembered that love will show itself. Again and again. Whatever you feel today. Tomorrow. Where the rest of this month. You are loved. You are whole. You are worthy. Your feelings are valid and those moments of absolute joy of being held in the embrace of love that will never let you go. Of hearing that you are loved so clearly that all of the noise and the mass and the flames fall away. So that you can truly feel the power of love and wonder and awe. So fully that it wraps you up. And lift you off your feet. Let the sweetness wash over you and carry you through. Until the next wondrous messi moments. Pick someone up. When they are so covered in mud. If they'll get you really dirty too. Listen closely to the little voices reminding you that you are worthy. Amidst all of the screaming. Welcome and steal all of the pain and sorrow and grief that rises up in the midst of this season. As much as you welcome everything else. As part of the wonder that is waiting for the messy loud birth of a child. Who will so loved the world. But he was deemed too dangerous to live. Beef bully presents to all that is real for you right now. So that you can help create the world. But that child fought for. The world where everyone has where they need where what they need where everyone knows their worth. Where all life is celebrated as sacred. Where no one is cast out for being broken. Or messi or just plain human. Share the ways in which you are struggling or messi or human right now. No matter what messages you are getting to pretend to be perfectly cheerful. Because being perfectly yourself. Is much more valuable. Be the light. In this dark world. And the dark in the midst of the excessive twinkly lights. Bu just as you are. You're beautiful glorious messi. Messed up. But not a mess. Maybe so.

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20131006-service-1.mp3

There is no such thing as god. Or at least that's what you would have heard me say at age 10 if you'd asked me what i believe. Because my dad was and still is a very strong atheist. And i had adopted his reasoning and viewpoints. The time i was fourteen or fifteen though i shifted a little bit and identified as an agnostic. Doesn't seem likely that god exists you might have heard me say. But when i look at sunsets or a breathtaking view of the mountains. It's hard to believe that there isn't something. I just don't know. It wasn't until college that the beginnings of my theism. Came to creep in with my study of taoism. Do i certainly would have called its season at the time. I started exploring the idea of the dow which in my interpretation was an energy that was in all living things. And perhaps in all things. And it wasn't until my mid-20s that i started to call that energy love. With a capital l. And i started identifying this idea of love energy. That's what i understood to be the divine. But even then. I use that freezing. The divine. Because i couldn't bring myself to use the word. God. God talk too much like the personified human like god of the christian and jewish scriptures to me. That wasn't my understanding of god at all. And so i stuck was talking about my understanding of the divine. Taken me quite a while to get comfortable the word god. And that's what i'm hoping we can begin to talk about this morning. Getting comfortable with the word. God. Another turns out getting comfortable has a lot to do with definitions. When i first mentioned to some of you that god was going to be our theme for this month's i heard several times. Oh you mean the big g vs little g thing. God with a capital g versus god with a lowercase. Not too many folks god with a capital g means some sort of supernatural deity. Where's god with a little g might mean just a concept or idea of the unknowable or unnamable. Called mystery with a capital m buy some. Or spirit of life. By others. The problem in the big g vs little g conversation is highlighted by a joke i've heard told often and gatherings of ministers. I goes like this. If someone walks up to you and says. I don't believe in god. You should respond to them by saying. Tell me more about this god you don't believe in i probably don't believe in him either. Which is not to say at all that atheists are just confused. Far from it. The point. It's atheist agnostic or atheist. Many of us have very specific ideas and images associated with the word god. Whether we're using big g or little t. And so are definitions really matter. Rogers kriner writes in his book the god gap. The following. God is what i call an octopus word. It's many definitions reach-in many directions like the waving arms of an octopus. When people argue whether there is a god they may be holding different arms without realizing it. Talking past each other. We need to pay close attention to which idea of god were discussing. I would say that god is indeed an octopus word. In fact it might be more of a centipede or a millipede word. A little crawly bug with 100 or 1,000 legs but each of us holding onto a different one. What the word god means to each of us. Is highly individual. For some of us. The image of an old white man with a beard sitting on a throne in the sky might come to mind. For others the angry punitive god of the old testament b be first and foremost. For christians. Trinity has a belief most of them hold. Gotten three parts father son and the holy spirit. Others may have less concrete pictures in their heads. Got a spirit. God is an energy that connects all things. Maybe god is something that set the universe in motion and then stepped back to watch. And some of us may believe what is written on that banner over there on the wall that god is love. Over the course of history the definition of meaning of god has been an even broader than all that. The ancient greeks and romans were polytheistic believing in many gods. Suggesting back then that there was only one god and would have been a heresy let alone suggesting that there weren't any. In hinduism still today has many forms of god. Many different kinds of deities. The definitions are endless and they shift constantly overtime even though it might not feel like it to us in the moment. And as we heard in the karen armstrong reading earlier you shifting definitions of god apostle cost-shifting definitions of atheism. When they proclaimed that there was only one god that the human construction of the doctrine of the trinity was just that a human construction. Our unitarian forebears were accused of being atheists. And they were actually proclaiming i believe in god. They were just supposed to the idea of the trinity. Regardless of where you fall though on that ethias and agnosticism theism spectrum or. Wax and y-axis because i go all over the. We all have different definitions and understandings of god. Mother at the definition of the god we don't believe in. The god we're not sure about or the god we do believe in. Our individual pictures are quite a. And whether you don't believe are on sure believe. You're usually pretty set in the pictures. But you've painted. Let me paint. Often to the point. Of idolatry. Now one of the ten commandments in the bible states in part. You shall not make for yourself a carved image. Or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above. Or that is in the earth beneath. Where that is in the water under the earth. In other words. Thou shalt not create a static stuck concrete idea of god in your head that never changes. And applying his commandments were earlier analogy of the octopus and a centipede. We might translate it as thou shalt not limit thyself to an idea of god as a one-legged pirate. Is a 100 legs on a centipede and 1,000 on a millipede and they all represent different ideas about god. Limiting ourselves to the one leg on a peg leg pirate. Leaves are understanding carved into stone. An apps. Limiting. There's an old buddhist story about a wise teacher and his students. The teacher in the students for sitting inside. Trying to explain to his students about the moon. Now these are not the most quick-witted students until they were in the classroom for quite a long time. Until it became night time. The teacher finally decided that instead of just using words and the chalkboard. I think they had those back then. That a real-life visual aid might be helpful. And gathered everyone up and took them outside so he could just. Show them the moon. Gathered everyone around him lifted up his hand and pointed saying look see there's the moon. Describe to me what you see. And as students responded. Well it's long and pointy. It's kind of like a cylinder. Kind of pan though it's hard to see in the dark. It looks like it has a fingernail on it. No no look at the moon pointing up in the sky. We are teacher we are it's moving now quite quickly up and down back and forth we're paying very close attention. Have you saw during a story for all ages this morning. The students were stuck looking at the teachers finger. Instead of looking at where he was pointing. And this is far too often but we do with the word god. Far too often we get stuck looking at the singer. We get stuck looking at the word or idea. Without considering what it's pointing to. Though considering in fact that the word is just a pointer. And not the thing it's. Reverend alexi crane rights. I am an atheist. I do not believe in god. Never did. But there's more. I also love god. I'm an atheist who loves god. The word god serves as a symbol. A focus for the thoughts feelings and intuition. That go into intimate inward relation. With the whole of reality. Both known and unknown. Seen and unseen. Why is it and unitarian universalism. The god is sometimes a dirty word. And i told folks that god is going to be our seeing this month. In addition to the little g big d thing. I was also told by a couple of people that i was making a bold and risky choice. Several people raise their eyebrows. And maybe they were right. Perhaps aware we are the church that is a risky choice. And it would certainly be a risky choice and many unitarian universalist churches in congregation. But why is this. If one of our principles is that we are on a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Shouldn't we at a bare minimum be talking about and exploring the idea of god as part of the journey. Regardless of whether we end up deciding we believe in god or not. Is there not room at the very least for reverend cranes definition of the word god with goddess symbol. Are we maybe more like the buddhist teacher students. I need like to admit. Stuck looking at the finger. Instead of looking to where the finger is pointing. This is a struggle we have in unitarian universalism. I'm so startled that others have taste as well. The founders of aa alcoholics anonymous in fact wrestled with something quite similar. They had found the religious experience quite central to their ability to come to terms with and manage diction. And yet they also wanted to make the aa program accessible to those who didn't believe in god. Who are who weren't comfortable with explicit religious language. They ended up adopting the language of. Higher power. However you choose to define. Perhaps there's something for us as unitarian universalist. To learn from alcoholics anonymous. Perhaps it would be helpful for us. As we explore our own religious and spiritual beliefs. As we engage in conversation with people who believe things similar to us as well as those who don't. But every time someone uses the word god. God. However i choose.. Perhaps we can be like the children in the stories from the all-ages today the children were arguing about the name of god but stopped once they realize that god had many names. Not the only thing that mattered was which one works best for them. And perhaps like a children we can stop arguing about the definition. And find other things to talk about. An explorer. Such as. What is it exactly the word god points to. What is the nature of reality. And how do we each individually understand it. What do you believe about that which is beyond our understanding. What do you believe about the nature of reality and all that exists. What do you believe about god. However i choose to define it. Karen armstrong. Author of a history of god. Only heard from earlier. Also wrote. Despite its otherworldliness religion is highly pragmatic. It is far more important for a particular idea of god to work. Then fort to be logically and scientifically sound. As soon as it ceases to be effective it will be changed. Sometimes for something radically. Miss did not disturb most smartest monotheists before our own day because they were quite clear that their ideas about god or not sacrosanct. But could only be provisional. They were entirely man-made they could be nothing else. And quite separate from the indescribable reality. With a capital r. They symbolized. Some developed quite a day she has ways of emphasizing this essential distinction. One medieval mystic went so far as to say that this alternate reality. Mistakenly called god was not even mentioned in the bible. Armstrong is talking again about the finger point. Because it doesn't matter whether their finger is old and gnarled. Young and life. Weather attached to a caucasian hand or an african-american hand. Or whether it's attached to a gang hand or straight. Doesn't matter what it looks like or who it belongs to. What matters is that we have a pointer that works. That gets us going in the right direction. That helps us have the conversation. We need. I hope that as we move forward and i feed theological exploration explorations as a church community. Debbie can talk about god. However i choose to define it. Without giving anyone an allergic spiritual reaction. In its broadest sense the word god points to that which is greater than ourselves. The crater in the sense of better than. The greater innocence of larger than. Some of us that might just be the gather community here at church. Another minimum that's why we come right. Be connected to something larger than ourselves. Otherwise we wouldn't come to church at all. Brothers of us at something greater might be called the spirit of life. Or the interconnected web of all existence of which were apart. And for some of us that something greater maybe the divine and energy that connects all things. Or above the capitol owl. Whatever that something greater is. The word god. That points to the nature of reality. And this is the conversation we need to be having. If we are to call ourselves a religious people. We need to be having a conversation. About. So. Last month when i seen was hospitality. I preached a sermon called the breaking bread. Or i challenged us as a church community to break bread with one another. I challenged us to make time to connect with people. I suggested that we create opportunities to go deeper when we've made the time. And i encouraged us to take risks with our vulnerability. When we get some. My challenge for us this month. It's the break bread with god. We in this church journey together. On a free and responsible search. For truth and meaning. As we move forward. Had to go about our business of loving caring for and supporting one another. As you go about our business of raising our children and community. As you go about our business of helping to heal the world with our community service and social justice work. As we go about our business. Trying to make meaning of the world we live in. May god. Parts. The conversation. May god keep art. Of your. Conversate.

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20141109-servicepc.mp3

I enjoy taking long romantic walks on the beach. You've ever been on an online dating website you inevitably come across that line more than once. People share all sorts of things about themselves on their profiles. I taking long romantic walks on the beach seems to be the ultimate line of mass appeal. Especially for heterosexual guys trying to get women. It says hey i can be sensitive to. I'm all avoided putting that statement on my own profile back when i was hanging out in the online dating pool because it was overused in cliche 10 years ago. Actually do happen to enjoy taking long walks on the beach. Especially when we're talking about ocean beach. There's something incredibly powerful about the ocean. Its vastness its enormity its relentless movement. The waves coming in and out. Happened gently on the shore. Staring out over the horizon with only water visible as far as the eye can. I've been to the great lakes are in the midwest and well they certainly have their own beauty and vastness. There still remain something special for me about. The open sea. Going up on the east coast the trip to the ocean was a summertime rite of passage. We go to the local swimming holes of course we go to the pond in the lake. But without fail at some point both the car up to pack our picnic lunch of sandwiches and chips pink lemonade in a thermos. We got beach chairs and towels put on sunsuit slather on the sunscreen and head. Couple of hours away so the drive was less than fun for me as a kid but once we got there. Game on. Retire out of the car and rush headlong to establish our blanket in our territory. I like we went to closer to comb had sand of course. So it wasn't that we never got to play in the sand. The ocean and the beach at the ocean was a. The salt in the water of course made floating easier. And their waves and seaweed and shells and all sorts of things that didn't exist in our placid little pond and. Going to the beach. Opened up a whole new world. And that whole new world that was so exciting to me as a child. Only hinted at the tremendous. Death. Of the ocean. There's a whole ecosystem invisible to the naked eye that lives in the ocean and we only see bits and pieces on the shore. The well-worn pieces of beach glass. The driftwood the shadow of the seaweed in the crab. As any good marine biologist could tell you though the ocean depth 13 with plankton and coral and shellfish and swimming fish and whales and sharks and octopus. And all sorts of life. There isn't that the whole industry that revolves around helping us humans see more about what's going on under the surface. Called scuba diving. An activity that some of us pay handsomely to do while on our beach vacation. I've never had the privilege of scuba diving myself but we've all seen pictures right. Some of the scenes are just. Breathtaking. Here's one example. The colors are little washed out unfortunately but hopefully get the. Depending on your location you see vibrant reds brilliant oranges dazzling yellows and purples and so much more. Is he straight fish friendly fish googly eyed fish. And all kinds of crazy sea life. You see the richness and fullness of life. Represented in 1000 cc's. Human beings have been so fascinated by those deaths that maybe on through all the trouble inventing these things you call submarines. The military application for submarines was part of the driving reason for their invention of course. But there's also been dnh human atrocity to expand our knowledge and understanding. Building submarines has allowed us to explore the depths. Building community. It's like building submarines. If we're going to build true community we need to explore the depths. As was mentioned in a sermon last spring and scott peck. Has written a terrific book called the different drum. In which he outlines four stages of community crow. And that first step of community growth is called pseudo community. Which is essentially when we stay on the surface. He defines it thusly. And pseudo community a group attempts to purchase true community. Shipley by pretense. It's not an evil conscience pretence of deliberate black lies. Rather it's an unconscious gentle process whereby people who want to be loving attempt to do so by telling little white lies. I was holding some of the truth about themselves in their feelings. But it's still a pretense. It isn't inviting but illegitimate shortcut. To nowhere. That pic also goes on to say. Essential dynamic of pseudo community is conflict avoidance. Pseudo community is conflict avoidance. True community is conflict resolved. Nice people are so accustomed to being well-mannered that they are able to deploy their good manners without even thinking about what they are doing. And see the community at this as if every individual member is operating to the according to the same book of etiquette. The rules of this book are don't do or say anything that might offend someone else. Someone else does or says something that offends the noise or irritates you act as if nothing has happened. And pretend you are not bothered in the least. And if some form of disagreement should show signs of appearing change the subject as quickly and as smoothly as. It is easy to see how these rules make for a smoothly functioning group. But they also crush individuality intimacy and honest. And the longer it lasts. The dollar if. Now this analysis is spot-on. And i want you to hold on to it because we're going to talk about it more in a minutes. What are some really important stuff that's got pack is missing by limiting pseudo avoidance. Pseudo community. Avoidance. Because living in pseudo community. Is like living on the surface of an ocean. It can appear beautiful and wonderful and amazing. And it isn't some levels beautiful wonderful animes. It's not a false deity there's beauty in the day-to-day conversations that we have. But if we only ever stay there on the surface of the ocean on the surface of true community. We miss out on the teeming lights and depth of connection. That is available to us below the surf. We miss out on the full vibrancy of life. If we only are primarily connect with the people at coffee hour and committee meetings or in any other number of important and yet still only surface connections. We miss the depth. Sweetness the depths of the other person's life experience. We missed the depths of their struggles. We missed the depths of their joy the depth. Stop their humanity. The build true community. Need to need to be able to do conflict in a healthy way. And. Like a submarine. We need to be able to dive. We need to be able to risk going like the title of jules verne's seminole sci-fi book. We need to be able to risk owing 20000 leagues under the sea. Because pack is right. We do have mask some composure beware. Nest behind which many of us are hiding. But it's not just all about avoiding conflict. Also about avoiding getting hurt. Going deep with someone else sharing from our debt. It's often our risk. When you share deeply of ourselves we risk judgement from others we risk disinterest we risk indifference. We risk being vulnerable. In this sharing deeply is about more than sharing the day today. It's about more than sharing about the weather or your kids activities or latest home improvement project. Those things are indeed important part of our lives and sometimes they do and indeed hold the depth of meaning. Traffic in there safe. That leave us residing. And those masks of compose. Sharing deplaning finding opportunities to share facts and information that lie beneath the mask. Sometimes those zebra sharing our joy. Sometimes they're sorry. Whatever their nature. Spare parts of us that we hold closer to ourselves. W wouldn't just share with a stranger on the street. Actually sharing the data. The information about what's going on in our lives beneath the surface. This is what helps us build these deeper connection. That's what ultimately helps us build. True community. The deep sharing though it's about more than sharing information. That's about sharing emotions. Stop sharing of ourselves. There was a period of nightlife in my early young adulthood or i would go around bragging that i with an open book. I tell people. I'm happy to talk about any part of my life with just about anybody no matter how difficult or painful certain parts are. And it was true i couldn't did have those conversations with almost complete strangers. But i could do that only because i was literally sharing the words only. I would really relate the facts dispassionately almost as if i were writing a clinical medical report out loud. I was holding back the emotions themselves. I wasn't going to that place deep within myself. I wasn't sharing of. For example after a traumatic breakup with a girlfriend. I could say to almost anyone. Can't believe she broke up with me. I was. Just i'm sorry that wasn't actually a molten salt emotion. That happens. I would say dispassionately i can't believe she broke up with me and just left it breaks my heart. So just like that you know offhand. Cuz i wasn't actually going into those places deep within myself. I was sharing facts i was even trying facts about feelings. Instead of the actual feelings themselves. I was sharing data. Instead of death. Unfortunately for me my sharing facts and not feelings data instead of debt. Surprise surprise did not lead to the deeper and more meaningful connection. For which i was home. One of the challenges of creating the deeper connections of true community. And make those connections to build that community we have to risk being vulnerable with each other. I'm not saying dive in and share your innermost secrets of your heart with someone here before you know you can trust them. One way to build trust though is by risking sharing something one level deeper than our masks of composure and seeing how that goes. It goes well in a connection is made trust builds. And then it might be okay to risk sharing a little bit. You know if chris would you go deep here at church. You do it at bodyweight dinners on tuesday evenings we do it at dinner discussion groups. You might even do it while working together and setting up the church for the bazaar. And we certainly do do it in some of our one-on-one. From what i've heard and experienced so far though. We don't do it often enough. We've had four total sessions of the two are five total sections of the two adults are religious education programs i'm offering after church on 1st and 2nd sundays. And i've heard comments each time afterwards along the lines of. Wow this is great you don't usually get to have these kinds of conversation. I learned so much about other people that i never knew. More adult programming is one way we can build our submarines that will meet us deeper. The connection in true community. Intentionally taking the risk of going deeper with each other is another. Treating other times in spaces such as connection groups might be a third. And there's many more ways we just have. This is important for us as a church community. This building of deep connections in true community. And some torton for us and our lives. Surveys taken 30 years ago show that the average american back then had two to three people with whom they felt they could share and he saying. The same surveys when repeated today. The average number. Was 0. And these includes the surveys into their fair share of people in long-term committed relationships including people who are married. The average american today single in a relationship or married reports having not one person on average with whom they feel like they could share. Studio community in our country of rugged individuals is not just a church prop. It's an all of us. Community. True community true community here at our church and true community in our lives. It's a way to help us be connected. Racine and known for who we are. To create this kind of community though we have to actually share deeper pieces of ourselves. And we have to risk being vulnerable while we do so. And we do also at spac road about. Have to be willing to have. In fact it should be clear by now a community without conflict is probably an unhealthy community. That is living on the surface avoiding conflict and preventing d perkins. Sometimes going deeper mean sharing differences sometimes going deeper. Having disagree. The important thing is to remember during those disagreements. To remember at all times during conflict that we care for one another. And that we try and treat each other with love and respect. Even as we're disagreeing. Amscot pack rights. Just because it is a safe place does not mean community as a place with outcome. It is however a place where conflict can be resolved without physical or emotional bloodshed and with wisdom as well as grace. A community is a group. They can fight. Gracefully. Especially as unitarian universalist to embrace and celebrates diversity difference and democracy we can't do that without inviting an ethical disagreement and the occasional cons. If we can do the conflict we need to do together. If you're going to be a real community. We have to do it with grace and wisdom and love in our hearts. And if we do that we can then create those deeper connection. The bring meaning and hope to our lives. Because really. You might argue that with so many atheist in the congregation for like that village from the story. There isn't going to be a god for some of us walking down saying that has red and blue folks. We're going to have to figure that out. My hope for all of us as we go about creating community in our lives as we go about our business of treating deep and meaningful church community. I hope we can go deep. As far as 20 leagues under the sea. We'll never forgetting. To appreciate the beauty of the ocean surface. Maybe also plumb the depths with one another. So that we can make those connections. Should we can see and be seen. Lubbock can fully explore the beautiful depth of meaning and diversity of life. That lives in all of us. Deep down under. Maybe seeing each other the vibrant reds brilliant oranges a dazzling yellows right blues and deep purple. Maybe seeing each other the striped fish the friendly fish. And the googly eyes. Maybe see you the richness and fullness of life. Represented in a thousand species. And then our own my. Maybe find the depth. Maybe fight gracefully when conflict arises. And they rebuild. True community and our lives. May you find. And build. True community. And your life.

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20190331.mp3?_=2

Bi-weekly and has a friend i'm going to call rigby. Rigby likes to talk like like a lot. And one of wrigley's favorite things to talk about. Is all of the plans she has for her she's going to improve her life. Her marriage and her intimate life how she's going to make more money by changing jobs or creating a side business. How she's going to kirby compulsive shopping and hoarding which. Makes her financial in marriage both what was all the worse. How she's going to improve her family relations. How's it going to eat better and lose weight. I bleed to get the idea. So every time you see rigby she runs down the whole list of all of her goals and then all the steps and scheme she's going to use to achieve them. In the 10 years leanne and i have known one another rigby has indeed made some changes. And they were big changes that that. She quit her job and became self-employed as a travel agent. You're a real growth field in the internet age. And she bought a truck a huge one that clearly sucks up a lot of gas it was not cheap. And beyond those two very large and visible changes little else has changed. She still ruins her finances with compulsive shopping. That forces her husband to work overtime which certainly does not contribute to her marital bliss. Her marriage is still less than happy for both of them. She still takes too many vacations do now she calls them research for her job. She still eats lots of fast-food you get the idea. Now while i must confess that for me rigby's constant chattering is something i find pretty tiring. I do at the same time have empathy for her. She has good reasons to have some psychological struggles in her adulthood. And it is difficult to see someone unhappy with their life. And yet seem paralyzed to redirect it. To keep circling back again to the same place to the same issues. From the outside looking in his making a number of poor decisions and trying to achieve her goals. And this is a journey i would like for us all to take today. What are some of the pitfalls with achieving our life goals. What are the things that we can do to make life goals big goals. Be more successful. Now when i refer to life goals i'm not solely referring to the kinds of dreams and goals that 20-somethings have when they're looking out at the totality of their lifespan. Life goals may indeed have chronological depth. But not necessarily no matter our age or generation or gender or class or livelihood and so forth. Regardless of all those things each of us have goals and dreams throughout all phases of our lives. Now to be sure the nature of the goals change dramatically at different stages of life. Today i'm not so much interested in what are the content of our life goals. What i want us to all consider together is what are some of the strategies we can employ to help achieve our life goals. So far purposes life goals can be those things we want to achieve or experience. They can be ways in which we wish to change ourselves and grow our happiness. And or they might be the kind of impact and legacy we want to have on humanity and the earth. So another way of putting this would be that life goals are those things that make life satisfying and fulfilling. Succubus meaning. I give us purpose. That helped us wrestle with big questions. That teachers. What it means to be human. Are the things that matter the most and help to define us. So some of you may be thinking oh you mean like a bucket list well. Yes and no. I do mean significant things of that kind. But i don't mean it in the chronological sense as the kind of things we are only thinking when we gain of sense of mortality. Life goals are the sort of goals we all aim for regardless of our stage of. Mortality. Has karen highlight quite well may off and change them. But nonetheless. We have goals. Partisans immortality as well. Now. Why is that why are we always inclined to great goals. Well. One is that growth is part of being human. With few exceptions most of us are interested in being a better version of ourselves tomorrow. Then we are today. The second reason is that the universe is not static. Each of us are constantly responding to an adapting to changing circumstances around us. We can't create a version of ourself at age 20. And then. Put it in stone and travel through the rest of life exactly the same for the rest of our days. As we in all the things around us change. We create new dreams and new goals to adapt to those unfolding reality. Each life goal we set for ourselves begins a new journey for a cell. And each of those journeys has a lifespan of its own. Rigby unfortunately had goals with the lifespan of a mayfly. Now what can we do to make sure our goals have a proper lifespan and survive until they reach better fruition. Well i'm so glad your ass because i got some tips for you all. All right here's one. Act. Act immediately. I find a quote that i like that. Comes from a media consultant named sergej trevino. He wrote this. Thinking big is great. An essential for making any progress in life. It's a thought is not followed by immediate action. It becomes first a wish. And then after sometime another source of frustration in your life. Another i could. And i just got out of there. I didn't. I could. I should. I'm just going to go with the pokemon. Rigby is constantly scheming if you were meeting her for the first time you might be really impressed by the volume of things that she's thinking about. And how many idea she has about what she can do about each one of them. She'll give you lots and lots of words but after the 2nd or the 5th or the 20th time you come to appreciate that she's just in a cycle. Coming back to the same things time after time. Because she's not acting on her goals. They're just wishes without action. Applying more more words to any of them is like getting your car out of the mud by continuing to apply the accelerator. Okay this will be the time. It's all right if you're stuck than yours. More more accelerators not making it any better more and more words on a goal. Still a wish. Until you have some action to back up those words it remains a wish. The loan action. Of creating a scheme or goal doesn't move us ahead. So we do need to act. Omni. immediately. And action requires more than having an idea so when we're ready to act. It's important that we act. In a way. That we could have first step that is sensible and achievable. I tell you story about a friend of mine i have growing up. Obadiah. So one time. I went over the house he shared with his parents and older brother. So it would have been sometime in my college years. 19th amend. And he had a bunch of magazine pictures on his wall. And they weren't there the last time i've been her large speedboat. Expensive sports car big house and i don't remember what all them were but they were all material things. Ice ice. Obadiah those weren't there the last time what why'd you put all those things on the wall. He said why i went to a seminar from a guy who got rich quick and the seminars about how you could get rich quick. And this is how you do it. So you visualize how you're going to spend your millions. And then you put images of the things you're going to spend your millions on and then see everyday you see it and now you're constantly reminded of your goals. So someday that'll come true. Now i can appreciate the power of positive thinking and visualization they can work. What the hell are the steps there. That there wasn't anything to act on this get-rich-quick guy was selling a dream that. If i can do it you can do it. About what what i fought. And i'm not always good about keeping things inside my head this time i did. What i thought to myself but did not say as well obadiah. Maybe withdrawing from school twice. And not keeping any jobs longer than a year or two might be having a bigger impact on your economic future than whether or not you've got the right pictures. Take down your wall. But i kept that on the inside. No on the other hand. For your first step you don't want to take a giant risk like quitting your job. To become self-employed in the rapidly disappearing field of travel agency. It's probably not the best first step it's going to rock it you to your goal either. I'm so when we act and react immediately the first step should be something sensible and achievable you don't have to be such a softball that it takes you 5 seconds. And used to be a little bit more than that but it doesn't write shouldn't be so complex. That it almost reached here goal. But just something sensible and achievable. Sonia said goal. We determined we need to act. I'm sorry i don't repeat myself here. This is what happens when you extend. Deuce think there's never any asleep sometimes. Okay so when we set a first step that such evil and sensible. It makes setting out new steps. Easier. There's a reason why pilgrimage routes have stations. If i'm a pilgrim and i'm just standing here in the shrine is 300 miles away that's pretty daunting right. I might say but today i only have to walk. These three miles cuz there's a station there and there's no station after that right. Broken down into very easily digestible and achievable steps. Education works that same way. I'm glad that. I had lots of math before i was asked to do calculus. Can't just do calculus 1 day. So i suspect many of us had experienced breaking down big goals into smaller ones smaller steps along the way. Breaking things down into steps is someone intuitive. So if i'm stating the obvious forgive me. So if it is. Someone obviously someone intruded then why aren't we better at reaching our goals. We know we should break it down into steps that sounds pretty sensible and she will for steps. Queso. How do we go wrong. Where many of us make a mistake i believe that and moving towards our goals. We often time crate steps that aren't authentic ones for us. I wouldn't normally expect that i might be quoting an nfl coach and a sermon but here we go from fame coach tom landry. Quotes. Setting a goal is not the main thing. Is deciding how you will go about achieving it. And staying with that plan. Let me give you a personal example. If i wanted to set the goal i'm going to get more exercise. Going to the gym and buying a membership would be. It totally inauthentic and ultimately bad step for me. Machines at the gym make me feel like i'm a little hamster on a wheel i'm bored in like 5 seconds. And i'll have such a miserable time that to talk myself into going back a second time will take so much i probably won't even go back a second. If i do that'll be even worse and i'll never get their third time you get the idea. So as a first stepping stone that's not particularly achievable for me. It's not authentic i know myself better than you think i'm going to go to the gym and get on a machine. So if i did something like that so do more exercise okay step 1 go buy a gym membership i'm just craving a story in my head well this time it's going to be different or it's my new year's resolution. So this time i'm going to do it because it's new year's. It's it's not likely if i'm being honest with myself i'm not going to do it. M48 for crying out loud if i was good at that i would already be doing it right. So all i'm doing is making myself feel good that i took a step. But in reality what i've done is embed self-sabotage and failure to my goal from the get-go. I made a phonies first ever. So where am i going to end up well so i'm going to be at the gym. Are we certain right back to that same goal another day in the future. If i actually want to meet my goal. And i simply take a phony first step. I'd be better served making a calendar of walking in nature with myself for finding a walking buddy. Drawing a tennis league any of the kinds of physical activity. That i actually enjoy. That would be an authentic and genuine first step. So use my central take away for the day. We all need to be mindful. Of the markers and steps we create. In our journeys toward our goals. The steps we take. The things that give us a sense of accomplishment. The things that fuel is toward the next step or the next goal. They need to come from within. They need to be authentic they need to be genuine to ourselves we can't adopt someone else's goals. That part may be a bit obvious. But we also have to be mindful of the degree to which were being impacted by our culture. Or by capitalism. Capitalism is. The goal of capitalism is to convince us that were inferior certain ways so we'll go buy the product make ourselves better right. If you like capitalism constantly convince you that your inferior your teeth aren't wide enough. You're not sending off your clothes are new enough for whatever the case might be. We take those messages in. Now there's nothing wrong clearly and borrowing wisdom and tips. From others on our path. If they've done comprable things. In fact sometimes it be truly helpful or or vital part of the process. What is not wise is to compare ourselves to others. Portuguese our sense of progress based on others. We're all working with different personal resources. Someone's probably going to always do something faster or better than weed. Will on at single. That's not a reflection about us it's not reflecting about them. We're not them. We're doing this thing as we're able to do the thing. And they're doing a thing as they're able to do the thing. Of course those pads are different. We're different. Just because someone else battled depression or addiction a particular way. Or repair their relationship or achieved a new career. Doesn't mean that any of those steps. Will help us and traveling. Along their journey and meeting the same kind of goal. Two goals and i have the same destination. But the journey takes to get there. Needs to be unique. Additionally. Be flexible be adaptable. There's always always a path to get to where we want to go. The best pass build themselves as we proceed. Have you ever met someone. Even young people in their teens or 20s who have their whole life planned out. I'm going to go to this college and then i'm going to get this job. And then i'm going to marry at this age and i'm going to. You can't do that right. There's way too many variables in life to plan out one's life as though you're going to meet things at some particular place and time. When i. Lived in georgia i would meet at quite a lot of young women who. Work almost convinced they were old hags because here i am age 22 when i'm not married yet. Because there's that big cultural narrative in the south right here that you marry young. So they all had that goal of i'm gonna marry by age accident now that i haven't met that goal. Oh man what's wrong with me nothing wrong with you. Something's wrong with your goal that's what something is a matter with. So rigid plans are going to lead to frustration they're going to lead to disappointment with ourselves. Because we're not always going to be able to meet those goals cuz we can't control all of those variables. Those kinds of goals do not come to be not because of what we did or did not do along the way. They generally failed to reach reality because we built too much rigidity into the goal. And we weren't able to adapt. And bend as like brought what it did. Two weeks ago i delivered a sermon about how we could better live in the present. And today we're considering how we might bring our best selves into our futures. Not some of the wisdom we considered two weeks ago. About living in the moment. Lives in a bit of tension with what we're talking about today in terms of. Thinking and big time frames in the future i would say think of both of those sermons. As an and not as an or. So sometimes we need to think is this a small time frame appropriate a big. Time frame somewhere between or both or alternating. Is about applying the right sort of timeframe. When it seems to be the best one to use. And only we know. When that will be. Before i step away. On the podium. I'd like to update you all on my own uu ministry journey. Seems appropriate to the topic today and also my sabbatical ministries half over today. I'm 2 months in 24 months. So. Many of you may know if you don't i'll explain that. This paul. I met the ua so in most nominations the process is that the the people who have seen you do ministry and experienced her ministry other ones who decide whether or not you. Walk through the gate and move on and get a job. Anyway we don't do it that way we have sort of a boston brahmin and harvard. System. Where it's not the people who actually know you and experience your ministry to side but rather a roomful of strangers at the ua who decide. So i met them and i neither past nor fail i got a middle score. Which probably has more to do with the fact that you three years of preparation coming down to 1 hour. Interview among strangers. It leads to anxiety guess what. So admittedly i didn't do as well as i could have. That's a that's a sore spot for me i find it. Frustrating that an hour. Interview with strangers. Has more weight than 160-page portfolio i traded about all the things i know and did. For lifetime essentially but especially the last three or four years. So that left me in a place where i wanted to irreconcilable things. One i still want to be a union minister and two i want to tell the uua to stick it. You really can't have both those things at the same time. And when i applied for this sabbatical ministry in december i was still in that spot i hadn't really the needle had removed and those four months or so. So. This job was a great thanks i thought all this will be like a lightning rod of clarity for me. Cuz i'll know right is this my calling in life or not. So too must have gone by and the needle is still hasn't moved in the sense that this job is tommy yes i still love you. And yes i think this would be a delightful career. But am i willing to do it at any and all costs. No. I've got a quote for you from author james clear. Goal setting is not only about choosing the rewards you want to enjoy. But also the cost you are willing to pay. Am i willing to pursue ministry at any and all costs. I've known people and in fact you know 12 who have been in that process for five six seven eight years. You just keep holding your hand in the fire until a roomful of strangers says. Okay you can all pull it out. I just finished 28th grade and i'm 48 i don't know i have. Five six seven eight more years to hold my hand in the fire now. What will that mean. For me professionally highlighter living i don't know. There is a little bit of overlap between. Wine wuu minister and tell the ua to stick it which is that congregations can hire an ordained as they please. So i just need to find. Find a congregation that is going to be a renegade with me. And we'll see how that works out now that does bring me some sadness. To be sure. But it also gives me a little bit of sense of freedom as well. And that i'm not chained to the what the ua was. Asking me to do. Which. The worst part was to be chaplain in a hospital or a year. And when you're on on stairs. You know it. You're going to get asked to do this day in and day out and not and right that's that's the price it's too high for me. I'm sorry right if you want to talk more about that i'm happy to do that. Let's. Closest outfitter last name 1028.

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20141214-servicepc.mp3

Emptiness. Empty gas tank empty handed empty-headed empty inside empty words empty cartons of milk. Empty church empty gestures. Empty calories empty bank accounts and empty place in our life from having lost a loved one empty promises running on empty empty face empty heart and very importantly empty stomach. These are just some of the many ways in which we use the word empty to convey something negative. And it makes sense on a certain level rights. Because the very meaning of the word is defining the absence of something. Empty means containing nothing. And so in our culture we generally tend to associate emptiness with negativity. When something is empty that should be full like the gas tank in our car or gallon jug of milk. There's a problem to be fixed right. Or if there's an empty spot in her life from having lost a loved one that's a really sad and unfortunate thing. Emptiness as an experience is often equated with loneliness. And there's no denying in that in many if not most of these scenarios. Emptiness is indeed a bad thing. There's no denying that our experience of emptiness sometimes is painful hard and challenging. But what if so what if there were times. Where emptiness was actually. Positive. Ralph allendale's translation of verse 11 of the daodejing reads as follows. We joined 30 spokes to the hub of a wheel. Yet it's the center hole. That drives the chariot. We shape clay to bertha vessel. Get it's the hollow within that makes it useful. Wichita doors and windows to construct a room. It's the inner space that makes it livable. Dust do we. Create what is. To use. What is not. This remains one of my favorite verses in the daodejing. Because it challenges need to think of emptiness. The absence of something. As a positive. Even as something that's useful. Without the empty spaces for us to live inside our homes. They wouldn't do us very much good. Without the empty space inside the jug. Wouldn't hold water very well. Emptiness can be in austin is. Useful. The usefulness of emptiness extends beyond empty physical space. Then we'll come back to that idea too. Just about everyone is familiar with winnie the pooh right. Winnie-the-pooh. The honey bear who's companion to christopher robin we're on the same page. At the end of one winnie-the-pooh story we learn that christopher robin is soon going to be going away to school. And here's what happened starting with some information from the neri. There comes a time in everyone's life when toys and games are replaced by pencils and books. You see christopher robin was going away to school. Nobody in the forest knew exactly why or where he was going. Was that it had something to do with twice x and abc's and where a place called brazil. Does christopher robin talking to poo. What do you like doing best in the world. But i like best of me going to visit you and saying how about a smackerel of honey. I like doing that too but what i like doing best is nothing. How do you do nothing. Well it's when grown-ups ask what are you going to do. And you say nothing. And you go and do it. I like that let's do that all the time. You know something cool i'm not going to do just nothing anymore. You mean never again. Well not so much. What a wonderful concept. When grown-ups ask what are you going to do and you say. And then you go do it. What does doing nothing look like. What does it look like for you and your life right now. Do you ever intentionally just. Do nothing. I have to say i would not be a very good christopher robin. Because i have a hard time doing nothing. And are goal-oriented productivity oriented culture i have a hard time slowing down and us. To just hang out. For long time if i spent half an hour reading the newspaper online or if i sat on the couch and played with our dogs for 20 minutes. Or if i god forbid went upstairs and took a 30 minute power nap. At the end of that time. I belittle myself and think internally okay that was nice but it wasn't very productive. I got to get something done now. It took me far too long to realize that. Relaxing and doing something fun or renewing is good and. Being productive. Just in a different way. I still have to coach myself and remind myself of that sometimes though. And i catch myself in that playing in the dogs wasn't productive mindset. And i literally stop and say to myself. Sometimes out loud. Relaxation and enjoyment is productive. It's just a different kind of productive. I still have a lot to learn from christopher robin and pooh. Doing nothing having empty time and spaces in our lives we're not busy being productive. We're not busy busy. Just. Being. This is important. In fact this highlights what i believed to be christopher robin. I don't think that he meant when he said to grown-up that he was doing nothing that he went and sat somewhere quietly unmoving. Not saying anything or talking to anyone. No i think christopher robin meant he was off somewhere playing. Doing something fun. Being creative. Doing nothing having empty time and spaces. For christopher robinson he had an opportunity. The play and how. Fun. Doing nothing emptiness was an opportunity to be treasured. A moment to besieged. For christopher robin emptiness and nothingness we're not negatives. They were treasures. They were open spaces. Viciousness. Have you filled with fun and joy and playing. Some of us are good at slowing down and recognizing the value of these moments of emptiness in our lives. The times of non busyness those wonderful open spaces. Some of us especially if we have recently lost a loved one missing like we have too many empty moments though and too many empty minutes. And some of us like we need the reminder like me that hey not only is it okay sometimes to do nothing. Sometimes it's important to slow down and have fun. Whether it's too much emptiness or not enough. I challenged us all to remember that emptiness can be an opportunity. As winnie the pooh in christopher robin remind us. Open spaces are an opportunity to play and be creative. And an opportunity for so much more. As we heard in this morning's reading mary oliver values tremendously though empty wide-open spaces of nature. There is power for her and for many of us. In the solitude. And open spaces to be found outdoor. And as i share to my unigram column this week beyond the joy and blessings of the open spaces of nature. They're also lessons for us in the supposed emptiness of the winter season. Some might argue that these woods are barren and empty of life. They are empty of leaves. But they're not empty of life. The trees are in fact very much alive. The winter season for them is a time for resting. And preparing. Getting ready to burst forth with leaves and a vibrant life again in the spring. What would it look like. In our lives. If we took a whole season. A whole three or four months.. Just to relax. Rest. Prepare to do fun for me to fix. To be still. What new wonders enjoys might be brought into the world if we all had the time and freedom. To indulge in such. Spaciousness. It is because of all these things that i hope we can take a different approach to emptiness in our lives. I hope. We can embrace empty. Brother i certainly positive and penises. The time for silent meditation and reflection in our service. Is an emptiness of sound in motion. A time very meaningful for some. Just to be together. And for those of you who use that empty space to make your grocery list in your head. Or the double check your mental to-do list. I challenge you next week to see if you can use that emptiness that spaciousness that opportunity. For something different. To just be. To embrace empathy means to embrace the creative opportunity present when time and space are provided to us. Sometimes that means sitting and doing nothing. And sometimes has christopher robin noted doing nothing means doing all sorts of fun and creative. Sometimes our empty spaces are chosen. When we intentionally make the choice to slow down and relax. And sometimes our empty spaces are forced upon us by outside circle. However they arrive. We do have a choice about how to respond. To them. And what we do with them. There are indeed emptiness has that need to be corrected. You won't get far driving a car with an empty tank of gas. You probably should eat something when you have an empty stomach being careful of course not to indulge in empty calories. And if you're feeling empty inside you should seek help connection and spiritual healing. But there is also good empty. Empty spaces that offer us opportunities to relax and to reflect. The play and to have fun. When to renew. The crow and to learn and to take the next step forward. A friend of mine used to tell me every so often. Always remember to leave room for magic in your life. With no empty spaces. There is no room for magic. May you always remember to leave room for magic in your life. May you. Embrace.