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evil.mp3

The following is an archived sermon. From a couple of years ago. Priest at the williamsburg unitarian universalist in virginia. How can one believe in any kind of divine existence. In a world with so much suffering. So much injustice. So much pain. I have over the past five years shortly come to reflect on this from my own deep experience. Loss and pain. How does one. Sort out. How does one find whether they wish to call it god or the divine. Or all that is or the spark of meaning in the midst of the world. Children die in the elderly suffering people. Star. Kind of world. So i wrestle. For myself. In myself. With you on this cop. Surely there's some clear choices we can make about stand it. 1 understanding could be that in a fact. All creation is basically. Evil. Get there is a malicious streak. In human existence. This is part of the plan. There is part of the testing of us or something that whatever designed all of this put that streak in there. See how we deal with it. The garden of eden that snake didn't just suddenly appear if you're going along that story. Other cultures have similar stories that say. Right from the beginning of creation. There was a strain. Suffering. Badness. Evil. Running through things. So one side with the possibility that all of this happens because in fact it's designed that way. That it is the nature of the world. But of course there is the other alternative. Which is good. The other poor we have possibility that this world is. Basically good. And all we're doing sometimes as focusing on meyer elements but in fact. At the heart of it all. It is good. Others might be called if this is the sort of damnation end of the scale. This would be sort of the pollyanna end of the scale. Cuz i doubt there's anyone in this room who has managed to make it this far in life. For whom every moment. Has been good. But i also doubt that there's anybody in this room. Who's made it this far in life for whom all of life has been. Evil. Bad. And so we have that other possibility. And that is that life is. About some form of mix. A good and evil. Poles or mix. The ying yang in the middle. Or an absolute statement. But then if we are in the middle. We've got an additional problem if there is a mix of good and evil. How does that relate to the concept. A design with in all creation how does that relate to god. This is one of those tricky theological points that you know we debating theological school. If there is evil in the world and there's a god that created the world of the god then create the evil. And if so then the evil must be one of the attributes of the god. Who created it because otherwise where would it have come from. But that's the same creation which there was good and so therefore one of the attributes divine must be essential goodness. Does that mean that god is. Both. This is where people often divided on this issue. For some there being any evil in the world at all therefore eliminates the possibility of there being a god. Because to admit a god would be to admit that evil was part of that divine creative force. For others. They can picture a good god. But into the plan of the good god comes something else. I want to use a little assistance here this morning to explain what i'm thinking about. Is this the machine of the gods. Or the work of satan. I want. Responses to that. But i want to talk a little bit about this in terms of computers. And some experiences we've had with computers probably most of us. But i think illuminates the rest of life. How many even had that wonderful experience known as. Crashing. Yeah you know what it means when you are working away at something and all of a sudden. The machine do something. Evil. Eats everything you've written for the last 4 hours. And won't tell you where it's put it. It burns up things. Just won't. But the question then becomes. Is it the machine that's evil. Is the person who designed the machine the crashes. Is it the concept that's in the machine that crashes. Where is the source of the problem. Because we know that the computer can also work very very well. We also know that you take the same components out of this computer that may not be working. And put it into another machine over here and work perfectly fine. It may just be that that combination. It's sitting inside this box. Is the one that's got the problem. Oh yeah this is the one. And maybe the individual components. Are all okay. Do we blame. The person who thought of computers and say they must have been evil because the result of their creation is a machine that crashed on saturday night with my sermon on it. Do i blame the person who put together this unit. It made me suffer. Let's go down one more level. Program. Here's a sister. Brought to me all kinds of possibilities and potentialities. I often don't know where it came from. I don't know who created it. But i have them. And most of the time it works very very very well. And so i bless the name of the gods. I pray to gateway and dale. Hewlett-packard. Compulink in a few others in the local area. But then. I put this disc in. And all of a sudden. Work. And then it crashes. What's on this disc. It's just. A bunch. A little. 1 + 0. Little symbols. Is there anything inherently evil about 1. Is there anything absolutely bad about 0. But the way those ones and zeros. Put together on here. When introduced into this machine. Causes a problem. Dental programs that look innocent on the surface. And then they eat all your memory. The programs that look innocent on the surface but they can't exist alone and when they go in they keep the other programs from functioning. What is it what's on. Is it. The program. Isn't the programmer. Is it the machine is it the other programs in here isn't the concept of the computer. We can't pin it down any one element. Maybe we'd like to be able to sail with this fault or that fault. But even when i have troubles i believe in the power of what that can do i believe that when it's running well and doing well i want to have a good relationship with that computer. I know there programs that do well in it. But what doesn't do. Certain combinations. 101. 0 zeros and ones. Put together. Create problems. Take those same elements arranged them in a different way. And there isn't. So how does this relate to guerneville. Seems to me is i've lived out my life especially the past few years. The in this world we are given. Many many spiritual elements to work with. Each of us individually made up of those pieces. And it isn't that anyone of them. Is good or bad evil or good. But that combination that we call ourselves. The way those elements interconnect and relate the way that we are say a living program. May mean that we're the kind of person. Who can take those elements in the combination generates more energy. Then what is going into it and we are giffords. We are handsome life. We make it more meaningful more beautiful we reach out and love and care. But also there are those for whom that's the same combination of elements. When tried to be combined together crashes one of those programs that crashes. The same simple spiritual element. In other people can't be sustained together. And those kind of people demand energy. The man thinks muse out of you. Do things that are bad. Just to be able to keep themselves. Together. Stable unified. I think we all know some of those p. Goofy truck apart all the pieces that are being you wouldn't find any loan strange that that's what's wrong with them. But when the pieces fit and who they are. Then they become perpetrators of suffering. Evil. They become too dangerous. What does the existence of that combination in that person. Mean that the whole creation there for. Is without goodness. Without some kind of purpose and design. I think i would turn more to the thinking of someone like stephen hawking who says that we've got. Are you existing. And the smallest unit we exist in. It's not ourselves. And not even the sub parts of ourselves. The smallest unit we actually exist in is the total universe. And that within that hole. Is how we measure thing. Anything less than that. Is owning a piece of a puzzle. Who's totality we do not yet see. Only when we could see the whole would we see the whole. And so when we begin to identify pain and suffering. Starvation torture all the evils of the world we are seeing it as a piece. About totality we cannot see. And to deny the totality because of the peace. Leave those places i think we don't want to go. That's what the rabbi found to he uses his own jewish theistic language. But instead of saying there is no god or i'm just going to reject all that he got to a place where you could say. Yes sir pizzas in the world i don't like. They're pieces the world i don't want to embrace but that does not negate. The whole. It participates in it. But doesn't. And so for me the question of why is there evil in the world. Because combinations of elements of being and personality and spiritual realities come together sometimes and waze. The chest take. Use the energy materials of others. But for every occasion like that there's an occasion. When they come together to enhance. The benefit. To make whole. And how can i believe in something larger than this present place. How can i believe in something. A greater good then. Just a good and evil i see. It's because i believe. That what we see is only a piece. Of something larger. Because if this is all there is. Then the unit has shrunk in the universe. Down to only me. And if we can shrink from the universe to me. Then again keep shrinking down further and further. Until we reach. Absolute meaning. So for me the eye is upon the piece as i live it. The way that piece fits. An overall hole. Good god why is there evil. There is evil because. Some combinations of being alive. Just can't sustain themselves. Good god does that mean you don't exist. No it just means i'm only seeing. Part. The great puzzle of existence. That's at least how i deal with the issue of evil. I hope we'll have a chance to talk about it. You and me you and you all of us together because as the rabbi says. Every other question. Is just sort of intellectual. Diversion. How we deal with a life of both good and evil. Tells us how we deal with the larger picture of exist. Let us speak. One another.

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declare.mp3

On this sunday which falls closest to july 4th. Each year i like to turn back to that germinal document. Of the events that unfolded that being the declaration of independence. So often i hear it referred to. So often i hear it quoted from. But rarely do we hear it read now i'm going to read a slightly abridged version i'll tell you why. Because there's a long list in it of things that are wrong with their present relationship with britain. I'm going to leave out a few of those but i'm going to leave in a few particular cuz you might recognize the times don't always change. But this is what was written back then and subscribe to. My people representing us as they look to our future. When in the course of human events. It becomes necessary for one people. To dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another. And was tsum among the powers of the earth. The separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's god entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes. Which impel them to separate. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Set the secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends. It is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. And the institute new government. Having its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form. Answer them so scene most likely. Toastmaster safety and happiness. Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light or transient causes. And accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable. Tender right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses. And usurpations pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism it is there right. It is their duty. To throw off such government. And to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance. Of these colonies. And sausages now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former system of government. The history of the present king of great britain. Is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations. All having indirect object. The establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this. Let the facts be submitted. Candid world. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. Ps4 didn't the governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance. Unless suspended in their operation until his assent should be obtained. And when so suspended has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodations of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature. All right inestimable to them and formidable the tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual uncomfortable and dis distance from the pository of public record for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries. Driving us in many cases. Are the benefits of trial by jury. For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses. We therefore the representatives of the united states of america in general congress assembled appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions doing the name and by the authority of the good people these colonies solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are and a right ought to be free and independent states. That they are absolved from any allegiance to the british crown and that all political connection between them and the state of great britain is an aqua be totally design. And that is free and independent states they have full power to levy war conclude peace and. dalliances established commerce and the do all other acts and things which independence may have right do. And for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence. We mutually pledge to each other our lives. Our fortunes. And our sacred honor. The declaration. Independence. Unforced short readings. From for the luminaries of the unitarian and universalist history. John murray that pioneering spirit or brought universalism these shores road. Go out into the highways and byways give the people something of your nuvision. You may possess a small light but uncovering. Let it shine use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women. Give them not he'll butthole encourage. And hosea ballou took up the universalist cause in the 1820s said. If we agree in love. There is no disagreement that can do us any injury. But if we do not know other agreement can do us any good. Do you know where channing. The great unitarian luminary from the 1820s on road. In a spirit of the great end of religion is to awaken the soul. To excite and cherish spiritual life. Olympia brown the first woman ordained by denomination. Wrote this. Standby this face. Workforit and sacrifice for it there is nothing in all the world so important as to be loyal to this face which is placed before us to los dias of ideals. Do not demand immediate results. Joyce that we are worthy to be entrusted with this great message. If you're strong enough to work for a great principal. Without counting the cost. That's an amazing document that i read. A declaration of independence. The handiwork mainly of thomas jefferson. We hear is similar words echoed and other things he wrote in virginia religious freedom and toleration. The constitution of the commonwealth itself is it broke away. English roots. Amazing amazing document. I'm thinking about it as a document for all times. Well the same time it was a document for a very specific time. You know it contained really four elements. If you take it apart. At the end it says. Giving everything we've said. We're going to be separate. We're going to go our own path. We're going to be free and independent states. We're not going to be beholden to any traditions of the past which somehow impose themselves upon us in some kind of arbitrary or dogmatic fashion. Just before that. Is a second section. And that second section is the long long long enumeration of things are wrong right now. I only read you a few of them the list is extensive. All kinds of things that in the present situation are not as they ought to be. Minnesota the negative statements. This is where they say this is what we don't like. Before that. Is the section that is often most quoted from the document. That is the section of values. That is the section where it says we hold these truths. To be self-evident. Deception winch. In that document. Thin tire philosophy about what is true is laid out. It is the positive statement section. Action. Whether certain negative statements. Then we have this wonderful philosophical section about the positive value of what this is all about. And then versus element. Opening paragraph. Which rarely is talked about. Dissection you know when in the course of human events it becomes necessary doing this. And then we have this curious line. Which usually has dropped out of things. A decent respect. To the pinions of mankind. Requires that they should declare the causes which impel them. This is where this document i think becomes a document. For the ages. In the specific actions which set up a separate united states not in all the gripes about king george because we know that in all kinds of places people have grapes about kings and even about people call george. Because not even the section that has to do with those values which come out it was specific. Theological philosophical framework which we embrace which other coaches may not in which we also recognize ultimately in the course of time. Values which will probably be seen as subsets and even some larger values. Every statement of values always should be seen as a subset of something more inclusive. More philosophically hole. Simple statement. We are held in a certain way accountable. For saying what it is we are about. Toronto respect for humankind. It is our obligation. It is our duty. To say what it is that impels us. I'm in the course they go on and do that. I wonder how often. We take that part. Of the direct duration of independence the heart. I hear it's often grousing about things in the world. I hear us often philosophizing about things in the world these are the actions were going to take. How often do we really say. What's important to us. How often do we say what compels us. I want to go cash this since we're in a religious setting in religious terms. How often are we willing as individuals. Just say what it is we really feel and believe. But rather what it is that we had our heart of hearts. Really feel what impels us to live in in the ways that we do. We live in a society of the united states with growing up on a periods of religious intolerance and even organized and established churches. Often take an attitude what's a value what's of altamed value those religious things that we hold our things you don't talk about. What are the three things you don't talk about polite company. Politics religion and. Sex. Where's that money in the united states is one of those too. If you really envision. A society. Independence in there for interdependence if you really envision a society in which people can be themselves you do not keep silent about that. Now why. Why shouldn't we keep that wouldn't be nicer we might think some ideas of themselves and we wouldn't have to deal with any of that we never have to engage in a healthy discussion around the family table. Or non-healthy discussion with jeff. We never have to be confronted by people who felt differently didn't never know we never get into issues about what was being imposed by one religious belief or another. But in fact when we don't express with really impels us. We invite attorney. When we don't speak about what it is that we believe that our heart of hearts. Isola soul center of center when we stay silent. The great discussion about those things wax our voice. We are not there to speak it. And this invites those whom i wish to use their voice to use it and in our silence. They in our names say things that are not ours. Things are said in the general society and if we stay silent. There is no dialogue there is no discussion and this is what jefferson understood. Not to impose their beliefs on others but honor respect for yourself and your respect for others you must say what values you have. You must say what impels you otherwise you will be subservient to the values of others. And he also understood this wouldn't be easy. It wouldn't at times even be pleasant. To stay in the midst of opposing views here's what we think. But they went ahead and did it that's what we celebrate. On this weekend that a group of people knowing it would be hard knowing it'll be unpleasant ultimately it would be life-threatening still said those things. They did because they knew if they didn't say them they would be under the thumb of any ruler who which imposed herself or himself on them. They might not always get their way they might not always rule the day. But at least by being vocal about what matters by declaring what really mattered to them. They would know that they were not passively giving a sin. To their own subjugation. Politically socially or religious. Install call innocence. I called each of us whatever our religious persuasion. To be open. Clear. Honest. About what impels us what calls to us. The great genius of the america that is constructed through the declaration of independence is the genius that if all voices are openly heard if all ideas are opening express if all concepts of religion are openly welcome than some greater good will arrive then if we only have one voice. But we can only have more than one voice. If each of us. Raises up a voice. That's what those forbearers mark tradition was saying. Baloo marie channing brown all them saying. You don't have to say yours is the only religion and at least that people know what you got it may not be a big right but at least let it shine. Don't keep it to yourself excite people with what you've got. Alder this trust you've been given. And don't worry about whether you see the results tomorrow or the next day it may be for the long term. But it won't be for any term. If you remain silent. The values that we carry within us. The values about how we will live the values about how we honor others the values about how we will create community that stretches across boundaries. The values we have about how we honor the earth. If those really are values. They need to be spoken. Because. As it says. Decent respect. The opinions of mankind. Requires. Did we should declare. The causes. Which impalas. And so a weekend not only for a declaration about someone else's acts. Protocol. To declare. What is really a value. To you. Raise your voices. Speak the words enter the argument join the fray it will be fine. In fact. It is necessary.

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desires.mp3

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. So begins. Tale of two cities by dickens. One of those many many stories the dickens put out. About life. And a strange patterns. Pick up any one of those books. And ask about it. A pitbull tell you about key moments in it. Events that they say define the book. Then go back and read it again. Go back and read the story and see how much time was spent. On those big events. How much time is spent on the betrayal. How much time is spent perhaps on. Tips meeting with the. Convict. How much time is spent with. Oliver twist and fagin. How much time is spent by those certain moments as opposed to everything else. In the book. So much of those stories. Is made of. Of long passages of the passage of time. And yet we remember. We recall. Free record. Those pivotal events we think. But they wouldn't happen. With our all the rest. I see this when i do an exercise with people. Periodically within corrugations to do an exercise that begins. Personally. And then institutionally. Have a piece of paper and tell people. Put on a piece of paper. It's your life. Put on its significant markers that you would choose. About your life. And so they do. Sam mccarthy. Birth. Then they still on the parts. Others get more creative. Multiple wives get to this one. Question marks going out. Still other ones leave question marks at both ends and begin the fill-in but then you get those markers. Are the significant ones to that person. You're probably already thinking about what they would be for you. Some might write things such as. Moved to omaha when i was four. Elcor seeing that we have no idea what that means other than they moved omaha when they were for but for them that's a marker. Or maybe they noted instead. Had a crush. I'm so and so when i was 12. It wasn't reciprocate. Or maybe it says. Funk daughter college. Or maybe it says. Served in world war ii. Or maybe it's said retired early. Not of my. Decision. Maybe it said fell down the stairs. And so people put this pattern out there. Of all these markers of their lives years in which they take the flow of who they are and they mark out time. We also do it with institutions and we say to the institutional sense okay. What is been the truth about this congregation. What's the truth about this community. People put different markers out there about that time line about the institution about what it means. And then comes the fun of the exercise. To ask people to talk about the spaces. Between the markers. I see you mentioned this. And this. What happened in the eight years between. And usually there is silence. Some people even get belligerent at this point because you're pushing some edges those say. Well i don't remember i remember the important things important in there. What time i'll start saying yes but you mark this at the beginning. How did that influence your next few years. Oh well that's another matter. Or you mention this what led up to it. And after a bit of silence. Someone in the group will usually begin to speak and say we know it i think about it. And then we'll start pouring out. Those little tidbits. Of life. No that wasn't the year that was so significant i remembered forever. But that was a year that i yells i think about it. And all this happened. That was the year i really felt good. Or that was the year i didn't feel much. And slowly begin to realize that as much as we put out those big marker moments. On that line of our life. It's actually the totality of it all. That make up the line. And there's some years. Which weed because they are so good. Portal office. Or so full. Or so painfully empty. Damn.. But there's something going on. In between there. As well. And then we reach a day like today. And it's the first day of a new year it's a marker as it were we human beings like to have cycles marked by things we like to have some ways to know where the beginnings and endings are. We'd like to know where we stand. But we only can know where we stand if we're willing to own. What's back there. Not only the peaks in the valleys. But also the plateaus. And the even planes. And we can't really know where we're marking today unless we have some vision. Of all fan out there as well. And so we stand on this magical cusp. Is wonderful spot of marking. Will be if you choose to make it so. Here we are on the new year day. We have some work to do. No apps for you. This year just passed has been one of those that you know you will never forget. Something happened in this year of greatness or loss of pain or wonder. That will market for you forever. And so do that marking. Know that. It also for many of us also maybe one of those years that seems unremarkable. And yet things happened. We did things. Illnesses came and went. Books for read. Friends were mad. So many different little things that make the pattern. The weather big. Or little. We've all now lived another year. Ny hope is true of all of us is that we are looking ahead toward living another year. Now the question is is the potential there to make the year to come. One of those remarkable in there for marking years. Probably it is. Probably it is if we listen to that one dickens message. Are the magic fishbone. And that is. That we've got to do the best we can it whatever we're trying to get to. And we've got to try to do it in all the ways we can think of. And not pretend that what we want. 4 magically happen. What i hear so much from people off and on new year's day. Or often and planning workshop or places where people are standing on the precipice of something else. Is not that kind of thinking. I'm doing our best and doing always that we can. But rather a sort of magical thinking. They often think that. I just wish. Sucks would be true. One of the messages. We have in this tradition is. What is going to be true. Is going to come about. Because of our work. And our efforts. Our vision and our willingness to work toward that vision we don't sit waiting for some magical hand to come down and make it alright. Winsted wait for our hands the rise up to work and make it right. Sometimes. Do that. Sometimes there's something. In the past. The almost. Grabs that i would put it behind her back and keeps us from being able to put it out there and use it. Something. In the extraordinary years or even in the plainly ordinary years. That because it still holds us. Or because we still hold it. Keeps us. From becoming. The workers of our vision. Tony invitation. To you this morning. Put two-part little engaging process. It's an engagement that's only going to engage you. It's not going to be shared with others. This is really primal interior work. Take a slip of paper. Android on that slip. Something from this past year. That you would like to either have let go of you. Or more likely what you would like to let go of. So you're free. Do the work of the future. Something in you that you desire. Has she gone from your. From your psyche. From your being. From your images self and when you know what that is in your written it down. Come. But the flame consume it. Edger listening to the service you're invited to do the same thing. Write us a paper those things you want to let go of. When you're written them down. Figure out some way that's appropriate to your situation. Colette gozo's. It could be burning them. Shredding them. Tearing them up burying them. Whatever it is you wish to do to put them out of your life. Are we all ready for a collective sigh. For what you have written. And been released. And even that what you didn't right but from what you need release may it be so. Not magically. But because you give yourself permission to do so. Now having your hand freed. Now what. A year awaits you. A year before we mark this time again. And what is on your horizon. What is the vision that caught your eye in meditation. What is it that provokes your your spirit and heart to race ahead towards something. Other than what already is. An invitation on another slip of paper to put down what you hope will be true. Buy here from now. For you. Through your efforts. Or for the world. Through your efforts. Or for this community. Through your efforts. Ron white you to do this time is write that down. Put it in one of these samples. Put your name and address on it. Come june 30th. Will send you. What you say today. The give you a 6-month checkup. And how you're doing. With your. Vision. And your commitment. If you'd like to engage in the same exercise that we did in the service. You can put your thoughts about what you would like to have true by next year. I saw the paper. Put in an envelope. Put your address in the front of the envelope. Selah. I put that envelope inside another one. Send an alarm to me. That's reverend randy becker. Ue ccpf. 70 sycamore drive. Park forest illinois. 6-0 4-6 6-2 600. On june 30th will send it back to you as well. There are two tasks in any moment. To tasks beyond being present in that time. One task. Is the letting go. And the other task is the taking up. And so on this new year's day. We have acted out those two tasks. Which are yours. only on new years days but on every day on every moment. Every place that you are present. You have the wisdom to know in the courage to do the letting-go you need to do. In order to be fully who you are. And. The wisdom to. And the courage to. Takeoff. What you need to take up. If you truly believe. In the things you hold. In the heart. And mind and spirit of your being. May everyday. Be a real new year's day. As you're reminded of those two tasks. Letting go. And taking up.

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passover.mp3

Today's service included to readings with you here. And then so you understand the context of the sermon. Each of the people within the congregation was given a sealed writ as it were. Piece of paper with a cos not to open it until directed to do so in the service. You will hear them being directed to do so and then some of the responses to it. That writ contained instructions in the form of what looked like or purported to be. A legal judgment from the illinois supreme court. Did everyone who was in attendance this morning was given approximately. 13 hours. Will relocate vacate the premises on a series of conditions. Very akin to what would have been the conditions offered up to the. Israelites when they were told they needed to. So welcome sit back enjoy the sermon and the readings. As we celebrate not only the historical passover. They're also a vision to what it might mean. In terms of our larger value. Today we're thinking a little bit about pesach about the passover. And the central story to that were given is out of some books that are in the hebrew scripture. And usually these days when we received them and we hear them it's because someone is standing up in front of the big bible in there and telling their no.. Basically what we have is a story. I want to share with you the 12th chapter of exodus. Not as it is often printed but more likely as it was distributed. From person to person to person to person across the centuries so people remember. A long time ago. There were two people named moses and aaron. And one day. The voice of god came down to them and said. This is the start of your whole future. I want you to go to all the people of israel and say. The tenth day of this month. There's something you got to do. You got to get a good healthy lamb 14 every house. Make sure every house has one. 14th day of this month. The whole assembly of israel every one of you has to take that lamb. But you're not going to eat it just yet. You got to take the blood from that and you're going to paint. The one side and the other side and the top of your door. And then you're going to eat inside that house. I got to tell you. You're not going to eat it raw. You're not going to eat it mixed with things. You're not going to eat it boiled. You're going to eat it roasted. With fire. And you're going to eat it with some unleavened bread and some bitter herbs. In the morning this could be nothing left and if there is anything left. Get rid of all the traces. And i want you to eat this meal. In haste. I want you to be so ready the lord god said to moses and aaron. That you've got your shoes on your feet. You got your clothes about you you got your walking stick in your hand. And that you're ready. Or what's going to happen. Cuz i'm going to pass through all of egypt on that night. I'm going to kill all the firstborn. I don't just mean the firstborn of some i mean the firstborn of all and i don't just mean the firstborn of humans i mean the firstborn humans and animals. And i'm going to render judgment. And when i see the blood on the doorpost. That's going to be the signal in the side that i pass over that house. Why smite the rest of egypt. And then the boys went on to tell them something we need to remember because you see the story isn't ended yet. We are the voice said. We all need to remember this as memorial day and keep it for all the generations. You're going to keep it as a rule and all of your communities forever. 7 days you're going to eat unleavened bread. On the first day of 11 out of the household if you find a household it's got some kind of leavening in it. You know it's not one of us. And the first day you're going to get together with family in the seventh day you going to get together with family and no work shall be done on that day except the work you need to make the food to eat. And you shall observe this feast of the unleavened bread. Because it will be a reminder to you that i brought you out of the land of egypt. And you're going to want to remember this story. Forever. Story of exodus 12. From ocarina bowser. Pack nothing. Bring only your determination to serve and your willingness to be free. Don't wait for the bread to rise. Take nourishment for the journey but eat standing be ready to move at a moment's notice. Do not hesitate. To leave your old ways behind. Sear. Silence submission. Only surrender to the need of the time the love justice and walk humbly with your god. Pecan quickly. Before you begin to sink back into old slavery. The dark i will send fire to warm and encourage you i will be with you in the fire and i will be with you in the cloud. I will give you dreams in the desert. The guide you safely home to that place you have not yet seen. I'm sending you into the wilderness to make a new way. And to learn my ways more deeply. Some of you will be so changed by weathers and wanderings. The even your closest friends will have to learn your features. As though for the first time. Some of you will not change at all. Some will be abandoned by your dearest loves and misunderstood by those who have known you since birth and feel abandoned by you. Someone find new friendships in unlikely faces. An old friends as faithful and true as the pillar of god's flame. Sing songs they should go. That hold clothes together. You may at times grow confused and lose your way. Call chicho other. And keep telling the stories. Make maps as you go remembering the way back from before you were born. So you will be only the first of many waves of deliverance. Unleashed desert seas. Is the first of many beginnings. Your passcode tied. Remain true to this mystery. Pass on the whole story. Do not go back. I am with you now. And i am waiting. For you. I want to talk about that story that we've been considering. The one was hurt in a number of ways already. Florida do that so there's something in your order of service. Private driving a few people crazy. Well you're now instructed to open it i consider yourself served. Okay folks it's an order. Do an authorized that says that everyone in this room. By midnight tonight has to do what. Vacate the residence event in the place be gone. That's what it says you got until midnight. You can only take with you what you can carry. Can you leave stop back here in trust for some future time. Can you delete it over to someone and try to keep it. Can you put it in the bank. Gravity interested on your houses. Come midnight tonight. You're gone. How does it make you feel to read this. Angry frightened frightened angry. Again. Any other feelings. Very worried. So you're angry and you're frightened. You're worried. Airgas. You're horrified. Excited. Apprehensive. Sad. And then. It probably starts going on you that no matter what feelings you have you got something to do in the next 12 plus hours what is that. And in fact it's not like trips were relieved until 11:35 to start packing or whatever this one's serious. Sharon has to start making some choices. Choices about what you're going to take with you. What are you going to take with you. Kids. Carry his own water dish in his own food anything we tell them to do. What else are we going to take with us. Food. Close. Your favorite music. What else. Harmonica your favorite music. What else. Cooking utensils some money. Madison fire. Seeds. What meal bars low carb energy bars. No. Acceleration acceleration. Go on with spirit play out the story because this really is. The story of the exodus. They only have a bunch of people who basically got a notice like this it said you're going to be gone. That is what i hear the story normally. We heard of the story of freedom. This is the time of freedom i want to give you. Two alternative scenarios to think about. The usual one way here it is the passover is a time of freedom in which the israelites who have been enslaved or suddenly free they're free to leave egypt and go about their own way there's nothing to hold them back they are no longer enslaved they're no longer. And that's the one we inherit in general. Well story which relates to this. Maybe not with the same kind of paper. What was some kind of order how did the israelites leave. One day and say we're leaving. That would have been freedom. We're free to go so we're going nothing hold us here goodbye. They were only able to leave. By the leave of the pharaoh. You remember the story. All those plagues one after another after another after another i might there was always frogs for some reason i don't know but you know you have all those tonight. But eventually we get to this phone at 1. And destruction. Another pharaoh says. Tell him you can you go. You've got to go. And you're going to go on my conditions. You're going to go taking only what you can carry. You're going to go and leave everything else behind because it belongs to me. Original exodus. As much as portrayed as this deliverance. Is it like a sweater back to the pharaoh. He is the one that says they can go. And so they go. They go because they're still considered by all the people of egypt as property. As something that could be kept or let-go. Weird issue a concept we have freedom in one way in which they can just do anything you want. Is another concept that's a concept of liberty. Under the whole sprain we go out within the story that could relate to liberty. Liberty are those things. Which are granted by some other authority. Within which you can operate. Society and generate general offers liberties. They say these are the things you're allowed to do by our sanction. Civil liberties. Civil liberties are those things which are contained in parts of our constitution and embodied in the laws which we have when we are wrestling with civil liberties in the 60s. How did they come about. To be protected they came about to be protected by laws laws of the society to liberties are those things which are granted. By some authority to someone that they feel they have control over. Shana since we could say the pharaoh. Gave the people. The liberty to leave. Now that we know there's a story which is that they get off by the red sea and at this point the egyptian of sorry realize they made a big mistake and they resend the legislation in a sentence. And then go out there and the israelites are split among themselves some say g we could have stayed in town and lived to die out here in the desert you know what kind of thing is this where no free or here than we ever were. The same grumbling will be heard much much later when they're out in the desert wandering around for 40 years. Over and over again people within the group will say what kind of freedom is this we're not really free we're not at liberty to take off on our own or else we'll starve. Do some ways we have a story that runs down a line. In which keeps acknowledging. But even if these people thought they were free. They were not at liberty. They were still. Under the thumb of the pharaoh until they got the one side of. The red sea but they are under the thumb issue will or the deprivations of nature. The other things were calling the shots. And if you begin going down either those roots you realize you're going to have a problem with answering the question if you had to leave in a hurry what would you take with you because virtually nothing we've heard of it. Pretty nothing we've heard suggests anyting. It would do much good. Given what you have that you're carrying how much of what we thought we would take would serve us for 40 years. Wandering. In an unknown place. The energy bars would have lasted maybe a week. The cooking utensils might have survived. Harmonica good maintenance little spittle we might get a decade out. Cds lifespan we're not too sure back there. What is the real sayings. Thunder versus other track which i think is at the heart of the passover story as it's told across generations by lots of people. What's a different track because it's about all people not just about one people. To me it's the story about a third term not freedom. Not liberty. But rights. Rights are those things. Which are within you simply because you are. Rights are the things are endowed within your very living. Things that cannot be legislated. Your liberty might be able to be contain. What's your sense of the rights of yourself can never be contained in a written like this rights are those things that are. Central. Essential. The human condition. For example. No piece of paper. Whatever grandchildren or limits your ability. A dream. No written or piece of paper. Could ever possibly demand nor inhibit. You're right. To be visionary. No court judgment or pharaoh pronouncement. Couldn't keep you from seeing connections in the world. These are your rights. They're there because you're human and you're alive all those traits which make you you and make all of us us things that do not arise by legislation. But i just there by our being. Better think about what it is you will take on your journey. If you are focusing. On other things maybe you'll take the things we mentioned. But if you're focusing on this being a story about the recognition of the rights of people. Then you're going to take. Not things. Pet valu. You're going to the red sea not worrying if you brought enough pots or pans but rather you would have bought enough faith. You're going to approach the desert on the other side not worrying about whether you're brought enough batteries for the cd player. But whether you up water hoping optimism even in the uncertain times. When your reach out there in two generations upon generations in which you may never see the promised land yourself. You have to ask whether it's sergio at all to bring the old pictures and memories. Or whether you were better served by understanding that it's your right. Hello beyond the given. Could a possible. If you're truly had to leave in a hurry. What will serve you best. It's not the being searched your freedom. Nor even in search of liberty. Or rather to be in search of expression of your rights to be yourself because you know that no tyrant no prison no circumstances on earth. Could never inhibit. Those things. The things of value. The things of vision. And so i invite you. To reframe your thoughts one more time. You've been given the possibility of leaving today. And leaving behind things you no longer need. Dubin given the opportunity to begin a journey. We promised a beginning a beckoning android. Did you know we may not even see. You've been given an opportunity to leave today. The gold where your heart truly calls you. What will you take with you. What are the names you give. To the rights which define you. It's who you are. Know their names. Know their value to you. No their essence. In your unfolding and fulfilling. Because in fact. The truth is. We all are leaving today in a hurry. The future is coming. It won't be the sings we take with us. I'd rather the values of our rights. That would decide how we live. And the kind of world we will find. What will you take. As you make your exodus. From this moment.

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hospitality.mp3

Want to tell you two stories out of my own life. One to place many many years ago. I'd served my first congregation up in mequon wisconsin. And it left there to go off to. The church in providence rhode island. The first summer after that. We went back to see friends in wisconsin. And one of the people that we had known there was very outspoken about the fact. We should be staying with them. So we did. Which i was to go stay with them. Question was our intent to spend that time in milwaukee. Being able to see a number of different people in knowing. Do a number of things and factoring number the things we never gotten around to doing when we were there to get the go to do the cursed things. Well this wasn't the plan. The person who was hosting us. They had already prepared and had in the refrigerator in the freezer all the meals for the five days that we are going to be in town. We were never going to leave the house apparently. We did leave the house it was on the carefully prepared things that they wanted to do. It was like being on house arrest these are wonderful people will meaning. Became very evident within the first day and a half or so. That we were doing with their needs. Not their hospitality. That they had not dealt with some of those inner issues we talked about last week. They knew who they were and how they were functioning what they were in fact they were seen as a way to meet their needs. Rather than we as guests. They were. Pretty poor hosts. Even though they had prepared wonderful food and had all kinds of things planned out for us. Couple of months ago lisa and i went and stayed. The house of a friend. Someone in fact we'd met through internet connections. And it only recently gotten together in person and then we went to visit. And in this household there. Vegetarian. Have their own strict regimens and what they do. Before we got there we got a note saying. You know we only eat twigs and branches. But we're wondering would you like to have. Wewoka breakfast twigs and branches sounded good but. Get all that we ask what fish and eggs and some other things. La dutifully made and happily made a meal. Which part of it was pure vegan and the other part included some fish and some other stuff. Play that showed us the space we had in their house which was somewhat private. I meant said we'll be down the other end of the house but if you just want to hang out while yourselves that's fine. Places yours. And maybe if you'd want to spend some time together let us know we can plan something together. And instead of feeling like. We were on house arrest it felt like we were really welcomed into the house. Then we were not there to entertain them. We were not there to somehow fulfill them that if we hadn't shown up that day at all those two people would have been perfectly fine meeting their own needs from within. And having a wonderful life. Everything we were more the frosting on the cake rather than being the main course. Two contrasting visions. I'm being with p. New one wonders about how we can be. Hospitable. And it comes a conclusion we can never be hospitable especially in that second sense. If we're still trying to figure out who we are. And we're still dealing from deficit. If what we're feeling is the inherent loneliness of the human condition even when were mixed crowds. If we don't find that solid solitude core of our being says we're okay we can deal. Then we'll never be able to do an essential thing. And that is to create space. For the stranger. I have walked in the rooms in which there have been only two other people. There was no room for me. Never felt that. And other times i've walked in the rooms with spouses of people and knew there was a space for me. Remember especially in graduate school. Walking in once in awhile with a couple of following students you might relate to this ed. And your walk in there. And the air is so filled already. With the dogmatism of liberalism. That if you try to bring your own face beliefs to the room there's no room for it. But on the other hand i've walked in the general assembly. With thousands of people in the plenary sessions. And it's hearing the buzz of energy. And the focus on common values i felt unwelcome here there's a place for me. When we know who we are. And we're not approaching other people out of our own needs we're not there to sell them on our point of view we're not there to push ourselves so we get there after mation we're just there to be ourselves. Without pressing needs. Then we have this capacity. This ability to make room. For the stranger. And who is the stranger. It's everybody else. Even the people you live with are in a sense of stranger. The most classic but often. Ignored example of making space for the stranger. Parents. In children. A child arrives into a household. As a stranger. You know have two possibilities wanted which is the shape the child to be the way you want them to be. Or the other is to create the space. In which they can be who they are. And you will get to know them. And they will no longer be a stranger. As long as you imposed upon them your needs your wants your expectation your goals. They will always be. A stranger. Once you create space for them to be. They then can become. Someone who is familiar. The same the educational setting i imagine all of us who had some teachers. Who had so much to tell. That there was no room for your learning in their class. They just got up there and just spouted off over and over and over again and they never said phrases like so what do you think. Or what would you do instead they can quote this source in that source. And there is no room. No space. In their classroom. For the stranger being a physical stranger. Or the idea stranger. The show the next step no one says. Removing home hostility toward people to our hospitality is the say. Highfield hall. And therefore i don't have to grab all the space. I don't have to take all the air out of the room i don't have to dominate the conversation. I can make. A place. A space. An opportunity. For the stranger. There's a story he tells. About. Late 19th century. Zen master. Who is being visited by a professor from the united states. Who wants to come and learn about zen. Because one of the religious traditions he doesn't know anything about. So he arrives and they sit down in the master begin stupor t. Anaconda. Starts running over. And the master just keeps pouring. Just keep score. And then the master says. It's really like you. When you have a conference so full that nothing else will fit into it. It just froze over. But doesn't satisfy. Sometimes you have to have an empty cup. Receive what you need. I sent you were too full. To hear what i have to say. How many times have we done that to others. So controlled. Filled. Stuff. Bloated the situation. That there really was not room for them. So that's the first step beyond self. In hospitality. Is making space. The stranger. Then what are the forms of hospitality. If you make a space for the stranger. What form does that take. It takes the form. Avenue as a confident knowledge will you. In a free space with a vow. An other. In that same free space. Connecting. Crosslines of mutual understanding. And it's asking in the hosts role. What is it that i have. That i could give. Not what is it that i hope we get out of this exchange. Not what did i have that might impress this person what is it that might make this person really connect to me but rather. What do i have. Sucks that i were the stranger. It would be something i would wish to have. And then offering it up. Without condition. You know you're reading miss manners read dear abby. Ann landers ask amy all those one of the great question that always comes up is. 22 years ago. Uncle harry gave us a set of china. And now he's asking for it back. Across the answer always is. A gift which is given. Is a gift. It doesn't come with strings attached it doesn't come with condition it doesn't come with get back. A permission. Real hospitality always takes the form. Of offering up what you sense the other wants or needs. Not what you want or need. Without any conditions on that. Without any level of saying well if you don't do it my way i'm revoking the privilege. Or if you don't use it. I want it back. It's a radical being there. For another person. It's a radical openness of self. To that other person. Offering up. Without tipping control. A new one suggests that this only can happen. Only can happen. When we speak out of our hearts. Rather than out of our hands. Of course those have to be hearts that are part of a spirit that already knows itself that is russell true that issue of loneliness. That is gotten someone none of us where we're totally get you in someone beyond. Living within our needs. But that heart is the one that says. I don't care what the logic of the situation is. I'm not going to bring to the situation the fears and the doubts. I'm not going to bring to the situation all the world. And all this problems but rather in this moment. I am going to feel my way. Toward offering what i have. That i believe. Would be hospitable. To the author. A good host. Doesn't ask anything in return. A good host expects no outcome. A good host simply. Wishes to welcome. Create free space. Be there. For the stranger. Who comes along their way. No i talked about this in a unitarian. Universalist. Partly because it is a human issue. Human tissue how should we treat each other. And certainly in the world today in which a lot of political fodder is made out of. All kinds of fears and hostilities toward the stranger. It would seem a radical active religious faith. Cannot deal. For fear and doubt and suspicion. It's a whole world where real with this issue i'm not thinking that the other will take care of their need but rather i'll take care of my needs so i can be with the other genuinely. Think of all the world would change. But i think it also has particular reason to be brought up. Among unitarian universalist. Because i think we suffer. From the strange liberal religious disease. Of know-it-all ism. Even though we claim to have no dogma. It's a problem. We think we've seen a better way to see things. And our way says that. Everyone has equal access to. Truth and knowledge and all pads are good and good people are everywhere. Underneath there's that little nagging suspicion. But that may be true but we've got it a little better than ever. We can't understand why everyone can't see what we see. What's that growing edge. It's that radical hospitality edge. That i think we have work to do. I've been amazed at the times that i've seen speakers come in to unitarian universalist groups. Call the question.. You were think that it was an assault rifle convention or something. You know it's the nit-picking haciendo actual games it's all this instead of saying you're the stranger. Come share with you got. And when will be hospitable instead of. Come and be welcomed by cross-examination. Often we seem to deal with the strangers in our midst. Almost like we have them in trial. And we want to figure out how we can talk them into the position that we want. But i suspect we do this elsewhere in our lives to. And that's the other reason to bring it up. The two other people. In other situations. We may take the same pack. Sesamstraat pieces for this week just like last week i invited you. To attempt to find solitude. And see what that felt like. This week. Think about and try to experience the places where you make space for others. Will you make room for the stranger. Even though that person may be intimate to you. But the same hand there. A little bit stranger to you as well. How do you make space. For those who are not you. How do you make sure the room is not so full of you and your needs. But there's no room for them in it. Watch how you live within the week. Notice those patterns. The patterns you given the patterns other give. And get a sense of what it means to no longer be hostile to a world that cannot meet all of your demanding needs. And how you might move to a world in which your hospitable. Because you don't expect the world to meet your needs. You expect yourself to meet the world. Reaching out. Process of going from self. Two others. May this week be. Challenging. Insightful. Inhospitable.

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welcomemat.mp3

Why have a book i'm going to read you a story out of today and it's a big one we're not going to tell the whole story called the kannada are waiting for you by dorothy bryan. And in this. The main character. After a series of events wakes up. In a tent. And is there being taken care of from wounds. And we're not quite sure where they all came from at that point. And then this part of the story takes place. We walked in silence for a few steps. Then the woman that had started chanting. We walk slowly as if to let me test my leg and lean for support. But there was no problem. The path curved. It seemed to curve always to the left we were walking in a circle. Butter continuously narrowing circle. Along the password tents like the one i've been in and i could see our destination in the center of the narrowing circles mark bi-lo stone walls. It was a large pointed tent indian tent rise in the tent was uncovered. The great laws of the trees pointed upward and came together in the center. But there was little covering no matted roof. We came around one more turn in the low stone wall ended in a wide. Clear pool water with stones lining its edges. The old man and woman went to the edge the pool scooped up water in their hands and wash their hands and faces. Taking care of the spill the water over the plants around the pool. Not actually washing themselves in the pool. After washing they scooped a few drops of clear water in their hands and carry it forward. The rest of us did the same. Beyond the pool the path now let up to arise tour them used 10. As we climbed aboard i leaned more heavily on the boy in the woman. I stumbled over something and look down. It was a tree root. The woman next to me sprinkled her little handful of water. Over the exposed root. The others were doing the same sprinkling drops of water on the exposed roots of this great tree. I've never seen a tree like it. Is roots and spread out for yards beyond the path and its trunk still the path which was at least 8 ft wide. Its bark was nearly black and deeply rutted and naro. Starting from a height of about 5 ft branches twisted outward like a roof. And then curve upward. The leaves were broad and sick of dark bluish green with red veins running through them. We had a duck under. In around branches to get past the tree. Was quite dark there. Requirement carefully over the routes until we reach the other side. The entrance to the tent. I stopped short. And look down. The mound and what's the tented bendu it was hollowed out and steps were cut in the side like a broad shallow inverted cone going down into the earth. Down to a central place which glowed with a red flame. Seated on the steps along the sides of the cone where the entire population. And a sizable number of animals to. They were incomplete. Silence. Looking deep down into that fire recenter. Then as if it has signal they stood up. Lifted their heads. Engaged upward to where the tree trunks mad at the top of it men. As they stood this way several boys and girls turned and came toward us they lifted me under their shoulders and began walking down the steps. The old man and woman continued ahead of us. I started to abject. But in the complete silence. My voice sounded so strange. That it started even me before it died off. People stood at random on the steps there was no straight path way down the boys and girls carried me around in among the people going step-by-step all the people even the children kept their eyes upward fixed at the top of the 10. Again and again i follow their gaze and as we descended deeper into the cone. The mass of logs above seemed to pierce more deeply into the sky. 41. Ridiculous. Panic-stricken second. I believe that they were going to carry me down to the deepest core the cone. And throw me under the flames. This point one of the children cheated. Looking away from the 10 top. Sneak a quick look at me. And when he caught my eye. He grinned. Any stop me from making a fool of myself cuz i was just about to start screaming and thrashing. Fire in the center was set in a great pit earthen pots at around the edges the boys and the girls circle the flames only three times and set me down. The man in the woman began to chant again but this time the chant was taken up by the boys and the girls the nearest people joined in and then obvious behind them and beyond them. As they joined in their chant they lowered their gaze away from the tent top. And look down at me. I call it a chant. But wasn't really that. It was a wordless song beginning with a spread of a military from the old woman and woven round and round by the others harmonies thickening becoming highly complex and then suddenly opening out like the unraveling of knotted threads. The naughty move higher and higher the harmonies thickening until all of a sudden all the voices and landed on a single high note in unison that pierced like bright light. And then. Silence. The silence lasted for only a moment then someone giggled the boys and girls would carried me ran out of status again and the first row of people stepped right toward me. But then they went beyond me to the fire. They picked up some of the earthen pots and set it went up the steps. One of them came up to me. Pulled something out of the pot. And held it up to my mouth. I open my mouth. Any put it in. Pictures of like sweet potato. Everyone around me was laughing and smiling people carry pots and walked around putting bits of food in the mouths of others no one fed himself in the pots except for one or two small children. I noticed that when they fed themselves someone always rushed up to them smiling and fed them from another pot. Then someone will take the pot away from the tryout and feed him and others. Alaska trout caught on fast enough. Start feeding others. Your woman walked up to me and held out a morsels smiling to me i took it in my mouth and look straight into her blue eyes as i chewed and swallowed that i took the pot from her and never dropping my gaze from her eyes. I took a bit of food in my fingers and offered it to her. She smiled and open her mouth. I reach for more. Then she made a gesture to all the other people around they were looking at me expectantly as if they wanted me to feed them. When i walked around putting food in their mouth they laugh. And clap their hands and made general gestures of delight. I suppose that they considered a special honor to be fed by me. Until i noticed they made the same gestures whenever a small child stop feeding himself. And how about a morsel to others. There wasn't much food. And it took a long time to get everyone fed by this inefficient method. But everyone finally seem to get enough. The people empty the pot clean them out with leaves which were also eaten. And then put them in a row around the fire. The fire had died down to kohl's now. The place was warm. And comfortable. If you are a follower of the western christian calendar. You know what today is. It's palm sunday. And of course that means and traditional christian churches. The waving of the palms. And the recalling of this ancient story. Maybe we should remember. It's the story about how jesus having been outside of the mainstream. Extended. of thoughtfulness about his ministry. Decided that in order to celebrate the passover properly. He should be with friends in the city. In jerusalem. And so he decides to come back he's been starving in a self-imposed exile. And now he's going to enter back into the city make preparations for the passover and the rest of the story that will end soon. And there's much about that story we can analyze for the rest of the week but today. I'm a symbolic remembrance of his day of returning to the city we have this interesting story. It comes along with a number of his disciples to one of the gates of the city. You know it's not like it is today that if you decide you're going to go downtown to chicago. You just. Zipper the car and sit on the dan ryan for an hour before getting into the city. You had to go through a gate. A narrow entry. Got to enter the city that way. Outside the gates. Waiting to enter the city. Remember things happened. One of which was. The word spread jesus was coming. Some people inside the city. Began to plan a welcome for him. On the other side of that barrier. Jesus and his followers were working out issues of what they would want to have if they were going to truly. Welcome inn. The season of passover and the seder. Plans were being made. Plans about what would happen later in the week and even was going to happen that day. Instructions are given for what needs to happen if jesus is going to enter the city properly. At the same time people on the other side of saying here's what we need to do. Now on the outside the plan is that there needs to be something for jesus to ride on. And they'll go in and find this animal tied up in. Say well the master needs it and no one will jay. The other side those planning welcome are taking off their garments are pulling down palm fronds are getting ready to wave them in the air and line the streets. We garments so that the. They thought. The walking jesus would walk over the garments and not be sold by the dirt. They were somewhat surprising fact when he. Enter the city upon an animal but that meant they'd is spread out even more. And so we have this moment of welcome that happens. Welcomed according to the needs. Of the people on the outside. Welcome to cording to the customs. And the feelings. Of those on the inside. And it comes together in this joyous event. Because in fact the two could work together nothing that one needed. Was undone by what was given. And nothing that was given. Was objecting to buy those were arriving and so it was this glorious event it's remembered now 2000 years later. It was a welcoming moment. Usually that story is told because it is a prelude. It is a foreshadowing it is a a time of getting ready of preparation for what will occur in the rest of the week. It's a fun story that allows children to wander around with palms and all starts yelling the who's odds and who's anna's and her raise and all that sort of stuff. Chris has a meaning in a novice self. It's not simply a prelude. Or preparation. Something went on that morning. It speaks to the heart of what it means. To be people connected together. And not just people alone. The question of how do we. Lay out the welcome mat. To welcome people into our homes. Our lives. Our faiths. How do we truly welcome peep. I have to tell you i worked out most of the sermon. Well before the end of this week in this morning getting off than thinking through the last details i picked up. The chicago tribune. And there was an article. Made me wonder about all this once more. I don't, you saw the paper this morning. What is an article about the dutch. And adduction besotted of course that they are very open. And a very progressive society. And they don't want anything to happen to that. So what they're doing is running ads about what it means to be dutch. Add such as showing the beautiful dutch beaches. With the compass bathers. Showing the open society in amsterdam of the red light district. And the marijuana shops. And they're saying this is what it means to wants to be dakshin you're welcome than this country as long as you understand that's what it would mean to become a citizen. Get the sub contacts to this. At a time when increasing number of muslims. Are turning to various countries in europe. The ducks are saying yeah you're welcome will go out the welcome mat for you. As long as you're willing to be dutch in our terms. So we're going to show you the things will be most offensive to you. About our society with the hope that maybe you realized that we'd welcome you but not that. Much. Put me in mind of an event in my own life. It was the night before my first wedding. It goes back now 36 years. And my mother-in-law out in central iowa. Wanted to put out the welcome mat. For all those were coming for the wedding i mean she was going to do it right. So the china that we never saw when visiting came out of the pantry new issues the silverwood. I don't know where they hit it for fear of thieves it came out and got polished. Dishes it hasn't been made in years were prepared. It was going to be the greatest feast. Leaving farmers i'm surprised they didn't kill a fatted calf justin honor the occasion. And then there in the center of the table. I like knowing about this in advance and i had some work but there was the centerpiece of the meal. The great. Baked ham. Half of my groomsmen were jewish didn't seem to sink in. Are all and i've mentioned it. It's okay it'll be baked. I try to figure that one out for a long time. Everything. But had it. Half the equation. Had been achieved. The palms have been ripped off the trees that garments have been taken off and laid in the ground the welcome was prepared as the person welcoming would have wanted it. From the other side half the equation. Still awaited fulfillment. What about the needs of those arriving. What about the sensibilities. Those who are being welcomed. What about. The other. How often have we infect. Prepare to welcome. In our homes and our lives whatever. And we did it totally on doing unto others as we'd want them to do unto us. And not taking into account. But maybe we ought to be doing under them as they'd like to be done on to. That welcoming may not just be expressing totally who we are and all the great things we are and how great we are ensuring what we have. Maybe it's being sensitive. Being open. Being interested even. And who they are. I think the world today is calling out. For this larger vision of welcome. It's the kind of welcome in which we really want to know who the other is. Not so we can impress them with us. What's so that we can enter into a bit of. Who they are. So we're not just opening ourselves up so they can see us. We are opening ourselves up so we can see them. Some radical form. Of hospitality. It's an understanding that whenever someone is truly welcomed into our lives. Everyone will be changed by the encounter. Not just. The guest. It's a willingness. Be open to change. And maybe even a little conversion. As it were. I can remember some dinner parties. David condon. And was set in the very traditional northern european style where all the food was laid out and those were coming. Would baby at best bring a bottle of wine to be put away for another time. Or maybe some after-dinner mints for later. But in these occasions people from other cultural traditions arrive often bringing with them. Bowls of food. Now some of those occasions. I thought welcome was really there. Sometimes not. When it was not there the food that was brought that was not part of the plan to table. Ended up in the refrigerator never to see the light of night that day. And where welcome was truly present. A place at the table was opened. And the food was brought with plays and everyone ate of it. That it wasn't simply a one-way welcome. It was a conversation. Between people. And cultures. And faiths. And ideas and foods. You see that's what i think happened two thousand years ago that made that event memorable. Not what will happen later in the week in the story but because there was this coming together this intersection. Of this movement of this ministry with the openness and needs of the people in that magic moment the two of them just clicked. And it was a joyous moment. The people welcoming in someone who would change things forever and they didn't know how but they were welcoming the change. And the change arriving. Not sure about the welcome. Or what would happen afterwards but bringing the change anyway. So this week. Maybe this is an appropriate time. Just think about this theme. How do we lay out the welcome mat. How do we. Enter into an. Relationship with somebody else. How do we not simply be a host. But moreover become. Someone who shares. Alive. With another life. How will we. Lay out the welcome mat not only for others to enter our lives. Bus for austin. Better their lives. Where will we be able to place a side all of our prejudices. In order to see a wider view. Two other eyes. Challenge of a palm sunday or any sunday. How shall we see a wider world. A more inclusive world. How shall we. Not simply feed ourselves. Learn how to create a world. Which everyone. Feeds everyone. Hosanna.

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planet.mp3

Hi this is the reverend doctor randy becker minister to the unitarian universalist community church of chicago south suburbs. Beginning to my sermon the pulsing of the planet in just a few moments. Before then i invite you to a time of introspection quiet. In this part of the season which can be so so busy. I think it's important that we take a moment to stop. You think about what it means. The turning of the seasons. Remembrances of ancient holidays. Kindling of lights. And so in that spirit with some music by. Brian dunning and jeff johnson they're setting of the. Him in the bleak midwinter. I invite you to submit its of thoughtfulness not busyness. Season. And then my words. Lesson holidays to all of you. Years ago i worked at a summer job is he. Research assistant for eastman kodak. My job was at the kodak park plan of their main installation in rochester new york. I have to have your picture with me. My setting was. I was there for the summer. In rochester. Nhk i will go into the lab. And work 8 hours. 8 hours of work on photographic material. We tested various samples of proposed photographic material. So this man i spent 8 hours. In total darkness. But it wasn't simply total darkness. Because of the nature of the testing in needing of reliability. The conditions within the lab where camp compton. We were always within one degree of 68°. We were always within 5% of 50% humidity. So there we were in a sense in a beautiful. Perfect environment. There were no distractions of right noise. They were not brighten blaring lights. It was quite peaceful. Was quite calm. And it always felt just right. Never too hot never too cold. Never too humid never too dry. It was simply perfect. But it was all so strange. Because every day when we will get done with our work. Bootstrap out of arab. Into the outside offices. And then have an idea what the rest of the world was going through. Now it's true some days we stepped out of that almost idyllic situation discover outside it was very hot very humid. Thunderstorms coming down people scrambling for the buses to go home getting drenched along the way. Other times we'd step out. It would be one of those perfect summer days. Temperatures in the low eighties a gentle breeze no real humidity. The sky so blue you couldn't believe it. Back there in the perfection of the lab. Back there where everything was set. The way it was. We have no idea what was going on in the real world. 8 hours. And it was interesting that in those eight hours. Is perfect as the conditions were in a sense. What always wondered what it was like outside. What was like out in the realm. Who sings wortser. Out of the place where things change. I often wonder. About astronomers. How about the astronomers who sit out on some other planet. In some other galaxies. Andrew trainor. Sophisticated equipment. Upon this little galaxy. Play look down and maybe just maybe. They focus on that little third planet. Out from the sun. They look at it. And they said my goodness that poor planet. It wobbles. It spans. And it's tilted on its axis. People who live there and must have to be constantly dealing. With changes. That's our planet. A planet that wobbles. A planet that spins. A planet that tilts. A planet that. It is circuits around the sun. Almost pulses. It doesn't even have a perfectly circular orbit. It's elliptical. Arranges back-and-forth becoming closer and farther away from the sun. We on this very very imperfect planet. But maybe that's okay. Maybe that's okay that we live on a planet which it this time of year. In this season of time. Process off so we get very early evening. So there's much more darkness than there is light. So the temperatures plunge in the single digits come. Planet which offers up to us a season. Time of. Discouragement for some. Timer. Feeling alone. Cold. Cut off. I wonder who among us has not also felt that in our own lives. You know i bet every one of us can remember a time when we felt discouraged. We felt downhearted. When we were depressed. We all felt there was more time that was less than good. And less time that was good. But i also suspect that everyone of us here can remember a day. When cell like everything. Was just perfect. Everything was. Simply so good. And so our lives to. Tilt on their axis. Wobble and spin. Orbit about. And sometimes and silver seasons and in some of our weeks and some of our days. We face what is really good. And sometimes we face. What is less than good. We are creatures of this planet. Is pulsing planet. Which now move into that cycle of its year. Darkness and cold surround us. But that time in the lab long ago makes me wonder. What if. We could have things. The same. All the time. For example. Suppose we always had full moons. Suppose every time we looked up at that beautiful lunar satellite of ours it was full face tortoise. Getting off the most reflected light possible. Wouldn't that be wonderful we might think. But then. He would always rise at the same time. Then it would always come up and set in the same pattern. We would only see it. It's certain points in the daily calendar. We would never see its liver. In the midday. We would never watch it change its course. North sense its phases. That wonderful optimistic crescent. Would be something we would never see again. Those beautiful waxing and waning moons of the phases of the moon would be gone we wouldn't see. It's deep. Deep depressions and it's high high mountains outline and shadows. We wouldn't see its full circle. Reflected in earth claw. Giving a hint of its fullness. Do all those less than whole things would be gone. The meanings of. Hunter's moons and harvest moons would be gone with them. We could always have the full face toward us. But we would lose something. If we were to do so. The same with our lives. What if you could remember back in the most perfect day you could remember. Picture that. What is everyday. Where did be like that. First it might sound tempting. What is everyday. Read that perfect day. How would we know. They would all fade into a sameness. In which we might innocence feel good. We'd lose something along the way. We lose that wonderful feeling of discovery of our abilities to move beyond our limitations. We discovered some of that wonderful feeling i'm having been down of now being up again. Will it lose some of that sense of what it takes to move toward deeper and more for meaning. Everyday wear the perfect day. How would we ever change. How would we ever grow. Whitby stock. We'd be stuck. Just like. I'm always full moon. Just like. A perfect straight up planet. Just like a world without seasons. Just like. That perfect. Labret. And so i give thanks this morning. I give thanks for that wonderful tilted wobbly pulsing planet of ours. I don't always like what it brings. I'm not a great fan of the deepest of calls or the darkest of times. But i'll take that pulsing. I'll take that pulsing that gives me winter. So i might also have summer nights that linger forever. And soft breezes that caress. And changes of seasons. The growth in coming of trees. Plants upon the earth. Autumns and their brilliant colors and springs with our delicate pastels. I will take all of that. As the trade for what the pulsing planet. Gives to me. In winter. And i will remember what all the generations before me and done. Bring the times of the greatest darkness. The times of the greatest cold. In the times of the greatest discouragement. They're torishin tails. Tails of hope. Tales of rebirth. They have lip the candles. Dave told the stories. They have shared the vision. What can be seen even. In the worst of times. It's easy in the best of times to speaker the best. Speak of the good in the worst of times. There's the gift. Ivar pulsing. And so in these days i invite you to celebrate with me. In the ways that make sense to you. Bjb the candle of a solstice. Carol of a christmas. A menorah hanukkah. The values of kwanzaa. Start of a new year in whatever speaks to your heart and mind let it speak to you in our only in those days of celebration but remember that those days of celebration are simply reminders. Reminders for each of us. In our times of dark. And cold and aloneness and disconnection. We are pulsing throbbing spirits to. Tilden on our own access. Circling our own values. And if summers. Will come again. Back in that lab at kodak i always found it interesting. And we would talk while we worked. Never too loudly often soft voices in that darkness in that perfect setting. Voices. I never once heard anyone praise its perfection. And i so often heard. The dreams. The people held. For what they would do once they left their. So let this time also be a dreaming time. Time in which we recall once more. What it is. It's so central to us. No darkness. No cold. No sadness no depression no discouragement no bars no prisons of sore body can ever take away from. Just as nothing can take the seasons from our planet. Take that hope. From our hearts. Blessed be.

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LeoReflect2.mp3

I am under kershner. I'm a member of this congregation. Boise. By loving christian parents. Remember is a pentecostal fundamentals church. My parents attended church services treat times a week. Broadcast children the wall. I am my older brothers. On my part is mainly due to the church practice of azalea for speaking in tongues. The floor by the spirit possess member of the congregation. Was just too embarrassing for me to even to have to watch this strange behavior. Remember strong resolve to myself if i had kids when i threw up. I would never never forced us to go to church. Jennifer will. Twilight ended a family-only sunday service along my brothers and cousins. The service was right by my favorite uncle claude was a devoted student of the bible. 104 we can have two seats on his research papers. I could tell from his writings and drawings for the hidden key to religious understanding it was unlocked. The secret of eternal life. You know seek ye first the kingdom of heaven. Actually like puppets motivation seems we have also become part of me. Because that's what i've been doing ever since. In any case when i was 16 years old. Church near belmont and broadway streets in chicago. Respect my parents moving our family and great house on hermitage street also in chicago. From time to time i really didn't want to get too involved. Affected look back now memories i have of that sociation my life. Definition of put me up for my first airplane ride. And as i found out later when the boys in the church. Who played in high school band. Was bumped out of the first trombone player. But the girl quit looking for my wife. High school i just started to write in the charles dickens. Reading the paperwork papers nicholas nickleby. Some unknown reason. To me at the time i really appreciate it the spirit of these stories and then there was dickens crap classic story a christmas carol. Before you joined an english unitarian church. Meanwhile i felt lonely in chicago i can have to move away from my childhood friends. However one summer's evening after dark i had a spiritual experience. I was outside in the front of the house where i live. Impulse it down my foot high block of concrete that was rusting in the grass between sidewalk in the streets. I sat down with my legs crossed with my mind so i just look and listen that nature all around me. At the tree's leaves were rustling soft in the warm summer breeze. At the starry sky it was also dealing with like a like to the cities. Sounds of the city. And everything else so over me. Pictures of all in the presence of the engine. Infinite goodness and absolute beauty. I so lonely no more. Four years later when i was 20 years old. I started attending the evangelico united brethren church in logan square chicago. The minister of the church there had a graduate degree in psychology and i really like learning something new about human nature. Remote control. While doing adult sunday school. Someone will make it to spirit remark about catholics in the catholic religion. Remember thinking to myself. Little dino is coming. But a year later my best friend set up a blind date for me with a pretty smart voice girl. Who is mike dies. Play lanciano what we were meant for each other. Irish flags to myself and a new differences religion. Decisive factor in whether two people married or not so i can prove it. Subsequently 3 years later after she graduates from chicago musical college. I got married. Hd 94 year after birth of our first child pamela. I changed the library the book the quest for the historical jesus by albert schweitzer. Durian. I started attending the unitarian church chicago. Somerville park. A second final columns warren. We all move down for house in the southern suburbs university park. Both my wife and i joined the cu congregation. It turns me on made it halftime in chicago heights. Are many reasons why you were made at unitarian universalist. Remember this congregation for half my adult life. What amazed if i have found here in freeport over the years. In my search for the type of spiritual truths camping in emerson theros intellectual movement of transcendentalism. Which is part of my religion early american. Heritage. Police that evidence for such a spiritual truth might be found in into the physical world and the idea that each individual. Package package with strangers truth in a personal way. I am a happy hear you. Thank you.

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eveofwonder.mp3

Show me the other on christmas eve since we were children and joseph. On the day jesus is born. They're on the road. They're burning down with all the issues. We're having long philosophical discussions as they want. But something was going to happen in real life. Probably saturday river walking. Riding on a donkey. Taking their lives as wondering where they were from the tiredness of travel. Before the day he's so concentrate on. The most important characters of the story in a way we're probably just doing ordinary things. Eat it. Probably stopping somewhere to wash hands and face. Perhaps if it's been good shoes they probably stopped the blessed bread and light candles. They did the ordinary things of life. Before the day celebrated and someone for the world celebrated with us. The principles of the story. We're doing nothing. Special. Even though without them knowing it. They were sitting on the eve of wonder. 4 in about 24 hours thing but progressed to create a story that's been handed down for 2,000 years which weather is factual or not doesn't matter. Riveting story for to millennium. Something happened. After that ordinary day. It was so special. It wonderful the world people that things change. And all that coming out of the least likely areas we reading the same stories. Who were the respective from there. Story. Lisette is something to all of us. We're going to suddenly be in a manger having a baby that's going to have a major story written about them. Philly wireless pad we are somehow intimately. How do we know that we are not every single day. Sitting on the eve of the wonder. Our own store. Destiny. Because of a central figure of history to me, christ the messiah a savior and started figuring all that. Maybe our destiny is something else. Maybe our destiny is to be caring person in the neighborhood who made a difference in some people's lives.

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needthisplace.mp3

Beginning at about the time of the renaissance. Acclaim. Was mad. It grew slowly over time. Until especially in the 20th century. It was not just a claim. It was a full proposition with a public relations campaign behind it. And the claim. The proposition was this. With the arrival of modernity. With the rise of science and reason. Religion would automatically be put away. Be done away with. There would be no need for gatherings such as this this morning. Because science. Reason. Use of higher proof and higher faculty. Would make irrelevant. The concerns of religion. The religion that was said was based upon meeting the superstitions needs of individuals who are ignorant. Do the underlying truths of existence. And once those truths were revealed. Once those things were known. Once we have the full and bigger picture. Who would need all of that good stuff. Who would need this kind of place anyway. And so it was with the growth of scientific thought. Scientific humanism. Assertive secularism in general. There was always the prediction. It's sometime soon. Sometime very very soon. Churches. Mosques. Couples. Would cease to exist. They go out of business because people would no longer need places like that. Remember back in the late sixties time magazine for claims and it's cover god is dead. Articles that follow up after that speak about how not only is god dead but all god's houses are empty the churches are shutting down religion is going out of business because we have dealt with all those things. But i'm here this morning. I'm here not simply because this congregation is chosen to call me and support me i'd be here without that. I'd be on a sunday morning. In a religious community. Even if i were not on the speaker. You are here. You're here when you have. A wide range of other choices but you've chosen. To be here. It seems we have a need to be here. Even though we live in this braided modern age. How can that be. Well certain aspects of the modern age. Which proclaim themselves in one sense to be the solution that age or concerns. They themselves remind us of. Why we need to be here. See if you were late to the ones that. I sense within me. One of the products of. Modernity. Has been the growth of existential philosophy. The song that says basically. The best you can do is that you are and you may even question that. And you can only find out what you are and who you are by a series of negations of what is not true. Ultimately that all there is that you can know. Is your own one. Single cell. Read the plays of the existentialist. And try to keep a smile on your face at the same time. I don't think it can be done. For what they are pointing to is not the eternal reality. But an experience of so many people. Life with all of its modern conveniences. All of its present-day devices and helps. Is still essentially. And experience of isolation. And aloneness. Who among us in this room. It's not about that. But there was some time when we were feeling alone. Feeling disconnected. Feeling isolated. And we didn't want to feel that way. A loved one. Has died. A support network is at a distance. No one has asked about our life. We need a sense of caring. And none of it is there. One of the realities of the modern age with science and reason and logic cannot saw. Is this experience. Apollonius. But a community like this has an answer. It is not an answer that's provable but i didn't answer that can be experienced and it's the answer of community itself here for an hour. No matter what. I don't have to feel alone. Unless i choose to. Live live down in separation isolation suddenly come together in this time and space. Mconnect moore. And matter more and more. Turn the rest of time. Who needs this place anyway. Anyone who has ever felt. Alone. An isolated. But there are other things in our world that also might point us here. Right now i know. Day after day there is a group of people. Whoever decided that the best way for us to live. Is to live in fear. To bring out of the world not the best but the worst and remind us over and over again of this and that is in fact a rise of modernity as well. The political systems that we know now where unknowing in medieval times. In fact there was no need to inculcate fear. A sense of fear was everywhere among most of the people even. The titled people life was not easy. You didn't have to invent fears. When's the rise of political system. With the rise of the political movement connected to democracy. Which is a modern concept, the idea that you can get people to do your will. True fear. The use of fear by the political system. Leaves many of us day after day. Worried. Leaves us anxious. Leaves us feeling voiceless at the same time. We not only fear but we fear to speak of our fears. For fear of what they would do for our speaking of them. Patriot one. But that's what's going on in this world. And if you were like i am you know what i'm talkin about. Then there are too many days in the year. When you feel your mind being pushed toward fears that you can't even get a handle on. Coming not from below but from above. Who needs this place anyway. Anyone who has that sense of angst fear being driven by the political machine to come into a community. We're one of our commitments is that truth will be told. Realism we'll have a place here it's not about playing games. It's not about getting political advantage ultimately what counts here is is it true. Not willis cell or we'll get me real attitude. We all in this culture now maybe more than ever need places. Where the truth can be told courageously and openly. Without fear. Another. Products. Of modern father has also been the growth of intellectualism. Now we hear often praised this it's wonderful that we become such a thoughtful people. What are the side effects of that i find i experienced. Over and over again i first found it in college. And then in graduate school with a great quantity. And now i find it again and again and again within our liberal community that praises the intellectual. And that is. Easy transformation. From an 11 school analysis into cynicism. In which everything is taken. As a sign that things are not quite as they ought to be. And that were suspicious and cynical about the motives. People. I was reading a book this past week. And something started marvelous takes place in the book. And one of the protagonist says isn't it amazing in life that when we see or experience something marvellous. What should call us to marvel at it. First reaction of most modern people is to question it and doubt it. We've become. Cynical. We see something that is beyond proof and we immediately assumed that there's some kind of ruse going on there's some kind of subterfuge somebody's over to put something over on us. Cynicism. I don't like myself. When i'm being cynical. I may feel clever. My mayfield smart. But i never feel good. When cynicism. Is what's going on. Advance when i'm reminded of why i need this place too. Because this is a community. Which says when you see the marvelous marble at it. When you see the awesome. Beetle. Have some faith. For heaven's sake have some faith in life rather than living all the time by cynical reaction. The same maybe there is good intention others maybe there is something here to find wonder and marvel about. And not constantly keep it all at arm's length i need this place to remind me. They're embracing things rather than keeping them away. Is an act of faith. Modernity. It's also meant that i am never far from the rest of the world. When i was growing up. We had newspapers. Now we have instant internet bulletins. If somebody has. The experience of a natural disaster around the world i know of it even before it's over. If 34 people are massacred in some street in the middle east i know about it. I am bombarded day by day by day. With. True we have the wrong traditions out of buddhism that remind us about the inmate. Suffering in the world. But this is more than that. You'll probably have experienced it too it's like getting up each morning and saying. Is there anything good. That i'm going to hear. How do i raise my children. In a world that sounds so awful. How do i work with others knowing that there are people out there everyday starving killing each other dying. I need this place. To remind me. That no matter how much suffering there is in the world there is still hope. When my daughter died. It was this kind of community i unitarian universalist community. That reminded me that on the other side of anything. There can still be meaning. It reminded me that if i get trapped in the suffering i will have lost a great message of life itself. Because it was all about suffering. About endings about losses life itself would have ended long ago in the insanity of time. Here we are. Persisting. Continuing. Living through story after story each one of you i know has a story in which your life was torn apart at some level. Not sure here today. And you're making meaning out of life even though that was true then. You need this community to remind you. The beyond the suffering. There is hope. And then there's that great claim that. Huston smith reminds us of the carl sagan made the beginning of his. Television program about the cosmos. Over and over and over again in the modern world the message we keep getting. As the numbers of zeros on numbers go out further and further and further. Is there. Ultimately. In the traditional scientific model you are insignificant. In this world in which we are does one out of billions now. Among billions of stars and planets about infinite number of courses. We are constantly being reminded of how relatively insignificant we are another reason we need this place. To remind us that the most modern of sciences. Quantum physics. Would say. There is nothing. That is insignificant. We may not measure the forces but it forces added together forces of goodwill forces of caring forces of love. Multiplied together can make a difference even when on the surface. It all looks. Insignificant. I bet all of you have had an occasion in life when you have said. Well what does it matter what i do. I'm just one person. What difference would it make. And leaders of power try to remind us as well that and try to convince us that we don't matter. Display says no. We do matter. We make. A difference. If we choose to. Our lives are important. Are limes are potent our lines are significant even if the ripples that make the difference go out farther than we can see. All approach to life and love and care and respect will make a difference. Even as a modern world. Tries to make us think. We are insignificant. So in this world. We may experience isolation and aloneness. We may be beset by fears generated by powers beyond us we may turn to a cynical reaction to life. We may get overwhelmed at times by the suffering that we experience at times we might feel like we don't matter at all. Displace. And thousands like this place. And as communities in thousand communities like this community and people and hundreds of thousands of people like you. Turn that around. Who needs this place anyway. Who needs community who needs truth and realism who needs faith who needs who needs a sense of importance and significance. Expression of love. I suspect we all do. And that's something that the modern world now or any modern world in the future. Cannot give us. We find it. Here. So may we be community to each other. May we courageous we speak the truth to each other. May we be open about those moments of faith that carry us through. May we show that we have hope. No matter what. And may we live our lives. Showing that we think. What we do. Matters. Pleasant.

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faithisaverb.mp3

Once upon a time. In a city. In the north of india. There was a place where the buddha would teach. Many came to meditate and listen to his wise words. One young man came everyday. 4 years. To hear the buddha. One day the man approached the buddha with a question. Siri said for many years i've come here. I've seen many monks and nuns around you. Many others women and men come to hear your dharma talks. Some of them i can see. Have reached enlightenment. Otherwise i can see if change their lives. But others including me remain the same as we were. Why is this so. Why don't you use your power and compassion to liberate me and them. Buddha smile. And said. Young man where are you from. I'm from a city far away said. But you live here now the boo to ask. Yes the man answered. But i do travel to see my family in that city and friends often. So you know the past from this city. Peter hometown very well the buddha continued. Of course the man said. After a moment the buddha ask another question. Does that ever happen to you that people ask you about the best way to travel between the two cities. Oh yes was the quick reply. And i'm always glad to help. I told him to start walking east where to turn what landmarks to look for. Unless people to whom you give directions. Do they all follow your directions and arrive at your city. Well not all the man said. Some i'm sure do not go the whole way to my city. When they don't follow the instructions and i get lost. I said the buddha. In the same way that people keep coming to me knowing that here they can get directions from here to enlightenment. From someone who knows the path. They asked what is the path of liberation. I explain it simply and clearly. The song nod and say well i'm sure that's a good path. But it's too much trouble to wall i think i'll go my way instead. I do not carry anyone on my shoulders to the goal to enlightenment. No one can carry another to that goal. All i can do is to say with love and compassion. This is the path. And this is how i have walked it. If you also walk. You can reach that goal to. But each person has to walk herself or himself. Has to take every step on the path. For himself or herself. He was taking one step on the path. Is one step nearer the goal. She who is taking 100 steps. Is 100 steps near the goal. They are taking all the steps. Have reached enlightenment. You have to walk that path. Yourself. Story about the buddha. I'll tell you a little bit about. This morning's topic. I just said my good friend and colleague from down in the southeast twos. Original chicago native out of englewood. I found was going to be in town and was going to be able to preach for us but only the 11:00 service what i said karen. How about you give me the readings. And you set the topic. And we're both preach on it. But we won't consult with each other. Set 11 this morning i'm going to get the her hear her preach on the same topic. I was fine that enlightened i love going to church. Even better when i can be there and worship along and not have. Do i candy instead of do. So she chose the topic faith is a verb. Now if you are like i am. One of the first things you do when you get a topic these days is. Go into google. Play there's a verb type it in and see what pops up. Why discovered something. This topic is. A very controversial topic. And what's even more intriguing it's not controversial among theologians. It's not controversial among religious leaders. But it's a hotly-debated topic among semanticist. I mean these people writing each other's throats other whether or not one can legitimately say the phrase. Faith is a verb. Because apparently violates all kinds of rules of grammar. I thought to myself. Rules of grammar. Rules of ways of saying things. I thought i was something we used to do when i was in grade school. How many of you used to diagram sentences. That's funny games. I'm not sure i remember all this. It's an all your start out in ravenna was a lying there and then you go on and things would whatever yeah yeah. I want to try to do this morning is take. A sentence. It's a sentence. We might not normally choose to deal with here. Cuz for some people coming up with some religious baggage is one of those sentences that. Awakens a lot of stuff. It's also a sentence which in our western abrahamic tradition. Is innocence a cornerstone statement. So we take it not for the religious baggage it carries. But because something is going on in that sentence that is so important. Not maybe another. Supernatural sense. Put in a tribal linguistic sense that we need to remember it. And we remember it's not because we think it contains. Fact and truth. Because something's going on in that sentence. The people of remember for thousands of years. The opening sentence of the book of genesis. Which is. You know there's a quiz that you. In the beginning. And that is not as some have argued. A baseball phrase in the beginning. God. Created. Get away from there. The articles in it that created the heaven. And the earth. So we put created heaven. And. Thank you we should. Unpack that a little bit before we diagram. Because there's a lot of stuff already going on in that sentence. In the beginning. In the beginning of what. The native american the winnebagos were probably the most honest. Tribal group in historical. Memory. That again there scripture of the same passage by saying where the great father lay before he came here we don't know. Therefore they're saying our beginning starts at the point we begin to tell the story we don't know what went on before that. Sauna since we're taking a time. that. Is being defined and. In the beginning of our story. This being the hebrews story. Remembering the god at that point of the story is being created. Is the god of that tried it's the name that that tribe uses for that which transcends. And in time in the scripture beginning with a sentence. There's an argument being made that the name we use for those things we don't understand and we can't control will become the name that everyone will give to everything. It's sort of a big statement. And then the rest flows out. So let's try to do this we have a subject. Which is. God. That we put the whole thing down here in the beginning. Baklava. Rephrase it would go this way. In the beginning. Created. What kind of. Transitive because. Object. And then we have the object. Black do we have to. Earth. Waterfire. Nevin hand in there are we all have different models for this. Taking a look at this what is the most important word. In the sentence. If you were. Jewish. Christian. Muslim. What would be the most important word in that sentence. Got right. Which would mean. You could eliminate other parts of the sentences. And still have the power. What if we were to erase. Diverter. God heaven and earth. Will that make a lot of sense. You wouldn't have a sentence. It wouldn't have any. If you eliminate. Having a nurse you'll get a sentence in the beginning god created. So you have something going on with your not sure what. Eliminate god. And you got this something created. But the one that keeps it being a sentence you could you could play around with is really in here. First sentence. In the abrahamic tradition. Scripture. Centers with cell. Oliver. Even if the religions which follow after its centers itself on the subject. What kind of verb is it it's a verb that does something. It's an it is that transitive verb it gives you an object could go somewhere it isn't the object. But it begins to move you toward the object. Those word create is an interesting one. Cuz it's saying that something is going to be brought into being. Kree'arra. Come into being. Which in some ways is an ultimate act of faith. For example when any of us had children. When we created children. What an act of faith that was that we would be up to the task. That we would even have any guess at what was coming. That we would somehow assumed it would be beneficial to do this. If we don't have children. When we pour our life into something. Like an artist. Painting a canvas. A dancer. Creating the dance. The writer. Crafting the words. The croc. Creating the sautee in the sauce. Whenever any of us in any way. Do what that first sentence talks about. Quickest to create. We move into a realm which is very different than most of the other realms. Existence. Cut it around in which we don't know. As much as we think we know what we're creating we don't know. We are making supposition. About what will come. We are living in hope that's not that there's a specific outcome but the whole thing. On the other side whatever there is there can be meaning. We living in trust that whatever it is that we're putting together can sustain and have meaning. Removing in faith in that sense. Space that the creative ad. Would generate something which is whole. Which can i hold together. Which consists stain and be sustaining. And which in time will create its own for their creation. Lot of stuff going on in that sentence that it's not about god. It's about the whole notion that the earth. And the heavens. An existence and life. Slow out of an act of coming into being. Which is an ottoman at. Efface. Not knowing. But still doing. Never get there in your life. Where you do something. Not knowing. The outcome. But having a sense. That is the right path to follow. The right place to go. That's what faith. Becomes becomes that. Openness to moving head. Without certainty. Chord. The goal that one is seeking. It is taking the step on the path of the buddhist enlightenment. Even though you can't yet see the city. At the other end of the journey. Along the way. That whole idea what was going on in that sense of the power of the verb. That the essence of the whole thing were in is in a sense a verb. Another noun. Life. Is not. An object or subject but rather a verb. Be alive. Is the essence. Not to have a life. Religion. Is have this way of converting that sense. And so it begins with this dramatic sentence which has been transmitted anyway you want to get around it you still got the center this this this this this bird that is amazing and exciting and challenging and all this. And one of the first things that religion does what goes on in those same scriptures within a few chapters. Dominion. Control. Objectification. Even the creation becomes an object. And by the time we get to the second or third books within the abrahamic scriptures what do we have. We have more rules about how you will have that creation. And you have any sense of a creative act. And by the time we reach into the christian scriptures you no longer have an act of faith. What is an issue of having faith. Face. Becomes. Either a subject. Foreign object. Can move mountains. Or only those who have faith. But then something has been wrong. Something has been taken. And that is that essence. Of what the original religious vision awareness was about. Go to the core of whatever we're doing is we're going to be reverend. We're not going to have reverence we're going to be reverent. The core of knowledge was not that we're going to have knowledge but that we're going to seek ways of knowing. Everytime we turn something into either a subject. Or an object. Either it becomes to cause. Or the thing to hold. Which is essentially a verb of coming into being. We've discredited not only whatever that was. But also ourselves. 4 using that translation. Think about how the world becomes different. If you forget the grapes semantic arguments. You let them argue at the university of michigan about the context of the auxiliary verb is. Or whatever. And you ask yourself the question internally. Those things which i take without absolute evidence. Those things which i am willing to take on the basis of hope. Those things i'm willing to name. On the basis of my vision of possibility. What is it like. If i treat those things as if they were a verb. Instead of. A noun. What is instead of seeing them as things i seek. I see them as ways of speaking. What if instead of destination. I see them as pads. What if they become the informing. Motion of my life. Rather than my possessions. Or my goals. That's the essence of this phrase were talking about. Face. Is a verb. It is the act of moving. Walking. Caulking. Breathing. Living. All of that. As if the deaths of what we vision in value. Is seen in every action we take. And how would your life. They asked myself hollywood my life. Look different. If i truly live. Is it faith. Where the verb of my being. Not the object. Of my search.

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dreams.mp3

Nearly 2,000 years ago the great indian poet. And playwright kalidasa wrote these somewhat familiar words. Listen to the exultation of the dawn. Look to this day. For his life the very life of life. In its brief course lie all the verities and realities of your existence. The best of growth. The glory of action the splendor beauty for yesterday is but a dream. And tomorrow is only a vision. But today well live. Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness. And every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day. Such is the salutation. Of the dawn. Mms somewhat similar vein we come to the last paragraphs. Of henry david thoreau's essay of life on walden pond. Any ride. I learned this at least. By my experiment. If one advances confidently. In the direction of one's dreams. Endeavors to live the life which one has imagined one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. One will put some things behind will pass an invisible boundary new universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within oneself. Or the old laws will be expanded and interpreted once favored a more liberal sense. And one will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as we simplify our life the laws of the universe will appear less complex and solitude will not be solitude nor poverty poverty nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air. That is where they should be. Now put foundations under them. I do not say that john or jonathan will realize all this. But such is the character of the morrow which mere lapse of time can never make the dawn. The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The song is but a morning star. It's is safaya files reminds us. It matters what we believe. Then we need to remind ourselves of what it is we do believe. What are the classic aphorisms about liberals legend has always been that while traditional religions view humanity as basically sinful and depraved. And attempts to keep them from getting any worse. Liberalism views humanity is filled with potential for good. And attempts to help us all become even better. In place of a salvation. We offer transformation. The transformation of each and every person realizing her or his potential. That's why we're here. As a religious tradition. As a religious institution as a congregation and as individuals. Before and find that transformation. And we have a firm that such transformation. Is not. A destination. Rather a journey. That transformation calls us to attention and calls us to action as children. As youth. As young adults as middle-agers as retirees. It is a constant and never-ending call. Transformation is a process of always glimpsing the more we could be. And moving toward that glimpse. We come here. To this community. To this place and true this time in the name of that transformation. And if we go home today and have not been changed in some way. Can this hasn't really been a time of worship for us. We do not come here to be the same. We come here to discover a difference. That will make a difference in us. And forest. All religions. Offer transformation. How is our offer different. I think a simple test reveals the answer. What ceremonial act. We perform. That would cause this transformation to happen. Without any action on your part. Are you automatically transform because it shows flame is letting. Are you magically transform simply because you hold the hand. Of someone at the closing circle. Are you transformed simply by reciting the words of affirmation. For us there is no ceremonial act. Or activity. Which will guarantee transformation. It's not bestowed from beyond but rather is a gift that grows from within. Frost the transformation of religion. Will arise out of our own selves. In religion we often hear about the concept of grace. For the traditionalist grace is the gift. From the divine. Of some specific outcome. Wild for the liberal religionist. Grace is the gift of the universe. Possibility. Openness to opportunity. Open and welcoming ear looking looking and listening a new. When it appeared there were no options no choices. No opportunities. The infinite potential of all existence in truth into our lives and with the gracious gift of awareness. We start the process of transformation. Start time of worship begins the process. By reminding us once again. Of points of awareness. Which can be too easily forgotten in the busy common times of life. This morning. The first service. Karen garrison sharon why she's in this congregation. She spoke about the wonders and beauties of being here because it meant she could connect the people she wouldn't connect with. Anywhere else in her life. Sick by being here. She becomes aware of that larger world than she would see through our own eyes. This religious home. Is sustained in that spirit because we know that our weekly encounters with a larger vision through the eyes of others reopens. Our awareness. Here we come. To renew our dreams. Dreams. Which are the extensions of known reality broaden possibilities. Openness in our weariness. From vanowen and the given. Call mr. possible. Because we get reawakened. That's the rule this religious community to reawaken us to the possibilities through which we can be transformed. Here we are awakened to the world of larger possibility. And half the equation is then set. The potential for transformation. Becomes known. Becomes expressed become symbolized in our dreams. Dreams. Sock dreams. Dreams of a world made more just. More equitable. More peaceful. Dreams of a local community which is more welcoming and more inclusive dreams of our loved ones safe and encourage dreams of our own lies and hanston fulfilled beyond what we've already knowing think of them. Your dreams. What are they. In the quiet moments you admit to yourself. What are the dreams that stir your blood quicken your pulse and call to your deepest self. But then remember what mark twain said. Twenty years from now. You will be more disappointed by things that you didn't do. Then the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor catch the trade winds in your sails explorer dream discover. That's what mark twain said. If you believe that life is the process of transformation towards your dreams. And if you believe that you are the agent of that transformation. Doing what needs to be done to convert dreams into reality then you sense with william butler yeats men. When he said. In dreams begin responsibilities. Nothing else. Nobody else. Can fulfill the transformation. Promised by your dreams it's up to you. As frankie says in rocky horror picture show. Just dreaming. Don't just dream. In dreams begin responsibilities. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than the ones you did do. The transformation we glimpse in our dreams is meaningless. Unless we put our lives behind the process. As we commit ourselves our efforts our energies our time or resources to whatever it takes. We are not only our capacity to dream. But they're very dreams themselves. All this is theological and theoretical what is it mean in real life. It means each of us here. Committed to becoming the most fulfilled selves that we can look for opportunities and communities in which we are encouraged to dream. We engage in and support chances to dream. And then we asked. What can i do. To make that dream. Our reality. That's when those dreams become our responsibility. I dream of bandon. Is no better than a nightmare. So we can pick up those dreams we at our efforts and our resources for their achievement. You've already reminded yourselves about the dreams you hold this morning. You acknowledge that our horizon of possibility beckons to you. You admitted to yourself that you want to be chained be transformed in the direction of those dreams. Now the question is. What efforts in what resources are you willing to commit to those dreams what will you do. What. Will you. Do. By being here you've already said that you want to be open to a larger vision of life. By having dreams you already said that you see beyond the present. The something more fulfilled in fulfilling in the future. So the only choice is whether you will honor your dreams or not. By taking responsibility. For their challenge. Don't let me add an essential caveat. Of liberal religion. Idea that was put forth by unitarian minister theater parker. About 150 years ago. And it's that idea of the moral universe. What is required of us is not that we completely fulfilled all of our dreams. But that we tend toward. That we bend toward that we face toward toward the direction of our dreams the long arc of the moral universe may extend beyond our own times. We may never see. The promised land ourselves. But it will be our choice to bend toward the vision back toward the dream support would builds toward a desired future. And that will be our measure. Not fulfillment. What direction. You see the life is really a four-step challenge. As we've already said. We need at first to be aware open to the possibilities which exists in and beyond the familiar. As religious liberals we have already embraced that first step. As part of our essential religious path. The second step is when all that awareness. Blossoms florist in dreams in the fertile ground creative hope and faith in human potential such dreams flower with just a modicum of parent ending. We recalled some of those dreams here within ourselves today. The second step. Seems easier formation. Of the reality of the first step. Deal where. And dream. Third step becomes the harder challenge taking action in the present. Toward fulfillment of our dreams in the future. Our dreams only become our true dreams as we act upon them. But against mighty tides of inertia. Afeared. I doubt if outcomes and so much more many of us get stuck at this point. Animania baskets because we cannot perceive that any action on our part will achieve the dream. But that's not the third step. Achieving the dream goal is the fourth step. The third step is taking whatever action we can. Play the groundwork necessary to move toward our dreams. No one has ever said everything needs to be done in the day. Or even in one lifetime. The great trees that shade us. The fruit fruit trees would feed us the ideas would pave the way for our own dreams the social structures which support our freedom. All those and more arose from the actions of others long before our time and what we inherit now they didn't even see. Or no. We refresh ourselves continually at wells we did not dig. Somebody. Dog them. Whoever that was could have said oh i will never dig deep enough to get a good water in my time and have given up. What is stead. She chose to dig the distance she could dig into the earth. Others could dig even deeper until today we are refreshed. Where otherwise we might thirst. The third step of life does not require the water to spring forth from wells immediately north at the trees be mature shade north at the fruit be ripe or the laws all and enacted in venerated. It simply requires that we pick up the shovels. Share the visions and do weekend. In our time and place. That's the third step. Starting the process. Tending in the right direction. Bending toward our dreams. The 4th step. The step of fulfillment is one that will be somewhere in the future. Our faith tells us. The acts of goodwill in the present. Visionary acts in the present. Will help to create fulfillment sometime in the future. Nothing of value was ever lost in the universe. And all good things tend toward inclusion. An expression. So here we are. Waiting to see if we can master the third step. Because we will never get to that fourth step if we do not. So what will you do. I'm not asking what will you achieve. But simply. What will you do. You become aware. And so you dream. You have your dreams. Now what will you do. The whole creation. Awaits your living answer.

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BUUF-sermon-20080720.mp3

This book by margery williams i think alexa cord. With many of us i read it first as an adult and i couldn't help but think where's this book been on my life. If you haven't either read the book or or have read it need a refresher. I have a copy. And lori deines has three copies glad to share with you. Although the book was probably tech targeted for a young audience. The story of the rabbit is one that all of us can relate to as we undertake our own journey toward authenticity. When deborah smith. Call call me and asked if i wanted to do a summer service. I said yes. And then. Told her that i had three topics in mind. One was you you clapping lessons. And another was paintings and pennies. The third topic which was ultimately the one i chose was the velveteen minister. There was a bit of silence and then deborah said these aren't exactly her words but they're closed. That wouldn't be a sermon to disparage anybody what it. I can understand the question. And i couldn't can laugh about it. Because the because disparagement. Would be the very opposite of what i would want. I've been at you you with varying degrees of involvement for over 30 years. At one time i seriously considered. Being a uu minister. And talk to the reverend alan deal. About that possibility. He was encouraging but he also pointed out that the work i did with the poor. Was a type of ministry. I never pursued that particular dream. Although i have pieced together. A sort of ministry. That although it doesn't come close to being an official uu minister suits me well. I hadn't particularly thought of it that way until the friend of mine. Pointed it out when i was in oregon last year to perform a wedding. As an aside when i first attended booth i expected the worst. And hope for the best remember i've been a year you for over 30 years. And the best with what i got. I have tremendous admiration and respect for elizabeth and this congregation. After one particularly moving service one sunday i told elizabeth. I used to want to be a uu minister. But i've decided it's just easier to watch you do it. Though i didn't go to starr king i have continued my spiritual quest. Early in the 80s allendale. Read a book study group on ascent of the mountain. Flight of the dove. For me that some what describes my journey. Some things i've had to work for. And some enlightenment came with little or no work. I attended classes at first uu in portland i raise a daughter. This can be seen as a trip in itself. And so. As you with those of you with children could agree. I can continue on my job with adult and family services. I work with people in both urban and rural areas. People of different colors people with different lifestyles. Religion. And of course people of different economic status. After i retired from the state of oregon i went through a series of emotionally. Draining sorkin's circumstances and after deciding that the universe was really trying to tell me something. I enrolled. High school in oakland that was just a bleached and run by matthew fox. I was living in roseburg and went down to oakland about 28 different weekends before i receive my master's degree. Travel there was even the either the green tortoise which is an alternative bus car train or plane. The green tortoise was an experience in itself. And i treasure the experiences i had on it. The master's program was never intended to be job training though there was an emphasis on designing your own life and vocation and this is what i got when i graduate. Every every graduating class had their own stole. Ministries. Formal and informal have continue to fascinate me. We live in nampa. And we have many visits from jehovah's witnesses and. Lds missionaries. A lot of people just like having religious visitors come to the door but i rather liked it. I usually invite them in. And offer them water or whatever. And i tell them straight away that i'm a unitarian universalist. They usually know i'd say that. Always say. They don't know what it is. So i got them over to the poster of the 7 principles. We have prominently hung in our living room. I really enjoy the lds missionaries who are always well-mannered and polite young man. And they really are there very sweet i have to say. I figure that if i had a son. Or daughter who is who-knows-where. That i would hope that someone would be kind to them. If at some future time. One of them decides to question his faith. Maybe he'll remember our principles. And if he doesn't. Well what's the harm. The i've noticed lately when the missionaries are in our neighborhood they no longer stop at our house. Charles says this is a coincidental i really don't believe that i think they have our number that's what i think. One of the jehovah's witnesses who comes by as a woman who is just a few years younger than i am. And eventually we had to. Agree to disagree. And she truly is less than impressed by our principles. If i could get pretty heated that's when we decided to agree to disagree. In a way i really have to admire. She is very bright. As a successful business. And is convinced that armageddon is near. She believes it is her responsibility to save as many people as possible as possible. This is her ministry. Almost everyday. She is out knocking on doors. And talking to people. Hopefully for her people that she's had more success success with and she did with me. If she only has an hour or two to spend. That's what she spends. I would never quit question her dedication. I contemplated what it'd be like to go to door telling people about unitarian universalism. And i've not quite been able to wrap my mind around it. I mentioned that to her. And she said but sharon. I need a lot of really nice people like you. I may not agree with her but i do respect her. You may not know it but not only do the witnesses not pledge allegiance to the flag. They don't pledge money to their congregations. And as a person who is worked on pledge campaign. I find this totally mind-boggling. All of their operating expenses come from donations. People who have never said. Foot. Inside a kingdom hall donate thousand. Dollars. The witnesses are errors too many states of non-members. They do not go into debt to buy them eating places. Aldara. Kingdom halls is what they're called. Are uniform with no windows. Their national headquarters. By thousands of yards say of the same floor covering. And the congregations are able to obtain it at cost. The same goes for all the building materials paint and etcetera. I'm not suggesting this is what we got to do. It's just a. An idea that it's worth looking at. Before we reject anyting. I want to turn to another ministry for a second. Joel osteen izako minister with his wife at their huge church in houston texas. Their facility used to be a sports arena. But it's now we're 40,000 people attend every sunday. I actually think it's 45,000. When they take their collection. But i've seen this son like youtube or whatever on tv. Baypath actual buckets. So they are getting buckets of money. Now you may have seen the old televangelist who would encourage people to send their last hundred dollars to them. Well first of all joel osteen. Does it make. Mention of any money. When he's doing. Television type event. He does ask attendees but he just doesn't do it. Well he's on television so it's not the same as the old at televangelist. What strikes me about osteen. Is that he seems absolutely sincere. And he wants you to know. Thank god. Loves you. The mormons. The jehovah's witnesses and joel osteen have different ministries from each other. And definitely from us as you use. I'm not advocating. For anyone other than you use. I too am advocating for here not the other guys. But believe other groups may wait have a way of doing things that could possibly benefit us. It doesn't look doesn't harvest just look. What we might not consider is that we have different ministries right here in our congregation. I think rick ross. And bessie nobody as two people approaching you use sainthood. I know there are others. Who helping the community and i leave them out. Just because i don't know about them or the inadequacies of my own memory. Which is. Pretty mannequin sometimes. I think of the work jay and carol wexelberg have done including chalice circles sunday services committee elaborate and goodness knows what else. I think if kathy carmen. Macaron race and their work with re. I think of ari. Andrew tate and the re committee. I think it passed in prison. Congregational care team members. Two of my own personal nominees for saying hyundai mary osterman and charlotte tompkins. I think of bob huntley. And all this efforts for the future of our fellowship. In our own journeys. Twerking real. I see many similarities to the velveteen rabbit. We come into the world all dressed up in our birthday suits. People in oliver's and admire our newness. We have our sorrows in our scrapes. Sometimes we are naturally shy. After all. The other toys have been around a lot longer than we have. Sometimes others are more modern and up-to-date. And some have ears. We are scared. And get tossed aside. Then sometimes serendipitous happens. And we are spared from being burned as was to be the fate of the rabbit. And sometimes. We have a transformation such as the velveteen rabbit did and become real. And we have our ministries. Now sometimes i feel bad cuz i don't do more than i do. You know sometimes great minds think alike. Morning. The contemplation we did was also one i had included in. This talk. So it's so good we're going to do it twice. And it's number 457. I'm going to read a line. And then i would like for you to repeat it after me. Everybody. I am only one. But still i am one. I cannot do everything. But still i can do something. And because i cannot do everything. I will not refuse to do the something that i can do.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20090614.mp3

Good morning. In the beginning. This group gathered as the boise valley unitarian fellowship. A unitarian churches collapse. During the depression. The fellowship movement had a unitarian population from which to gather members. Our first meetings were held. And bill hoppers basement. National associations joined american unitarian association. And the universalist church of america. We claimed the name of boise unitarian universalist fellowship. Various influences have brought us here. Each individual has a personal journey. John harms my father. Universalism in america by ernest cassara. Expressed where he was in his journey most accurately and far more fully than his words could at the time. What is universalism. Reverend michael mcgee said universalism derives its name from the early theological doctrine which asserts that ultimately god will save all people. Universalist have always reasoned that if god is all-powerful good. Then here she cannot possibly damn. Anyone. For eternity. You may not realize that the concept of hell is relatively new. The early greeks and hebrews believe that after death. The soul entered into a shadowy existence. Call hades for the greeks. Or she'll for the hebrews. This afterlife with a dreamlike existence with no punishment for sins. Cassara quotes reverend brainerd f gibbons from gibbons address to disney universal assemblies in 1949. Well fully aware of its christian heritage. Many equally sincere universalist maintained an inherent spirit of inquiry. That is carried universalism beyond christianity. A new type of universalism is proclaimed. Which shifts the emphasis on universal from salvation to religion. I described universalism as boundless insco. Infinite. As the universe. Is this universal isms answer. A religion exclusively christian or any other name brand. Photosynthesis. Of all religious knowledge which passes a test. Human intelligence a truly universal religion. Every universalist realizes. Universalism has changed considerably since the days of its new england for bears. And many christian dogma. Have gradually supplanted. Even the sketchiest summary reveals the vast differences between then and now. Divine revelation has been replaced by human investigation. Ignorance by knowledge. Superstition by reason. The clothes mine by the open. Stagnation by progress. And celeste. Buy carbon sam's. Hence universalist today consider all religions. Including christianity. Expressions of human spiritual aspirations not god founded institutions. Survival. A marvelous work of human. Not the miraculous handiwork of god. Jesus. A spiritual leader. Not a divine savior. Humanity's fate in human hands. Superhuman clutches. The projection of known facts into the unknown not blind cradle acceptance. And the supernatural. Merely the natural beyond humankind's president understanding not a violation of nature's laws. Indeed universalism has disavowed many essential christian doctrine. What remains that is uniquely christian. God is not a christian invention nor monopoly. And universalist find god more fully and truly revealed in the universe and humanity. Sin in the bible. Brotherhood is more reliably demonstrated by biology than the bible. Anna's, just everal world religions. The supreme value universalism places upon every human personality here and hereafter. Is actually more than christian. At as part of philosophical speculation entirely divorced from christianity. Universalism does not insist that we must swallow some christian capsule of cradle beliefs. That is a supreme value to be saved. Faith in jesus a spiritual leader implies denial of him as god and hence of christianity. The very name christian. Is derived from the title of christ given jesus. And accordingly. To christianity. However much universalist may revere jesus as man and strive to follow in his footsteps. Make universalist. Christian. Universalist are nominal christians. And that's solely by virtue of their own definition a definition not acceptable to the great body of christianity. For a longtime universalist have been reaching beyond the narrow bounds of christianity. To pluck the grapes of knowledge from the vine. Growing in the boundless vineyards of truth. Press from them contained in the old christian bottles. Only historical and emotional ties to christianity have prevented universalist generally from realizing sooner. The dynamic effects of the truth deliberately sought in and in which they now those i'll face. Only fear a bigoted opinion will prevent an enlightened the universalism from declaring to the world what fidelity to truth has made it. A unifying universal. Religion. From a 2000 sermon from your michael mcgee. Universalism was brought to america by the independent thinking you missed it. George to benefield. Steubenville was a huguenot extraction but he was raised in england. He became a preacher of universalism in france during the reign of louis the 15th. And was arrested and sentenced to death. 4 is heresy. Because of his noble parentage. America. 4. Health reasons. Daddy is he wanted to avoid the guillotine. Georgia beneville settled in philadelphia where he was successful at spreading the universalists message. He became a neighbor and friend of benjamin franklin. And later served as a physician in the revolutionary war. A universalist church did not exist however until the arrival of john murray. It was over 200 years ago when john murray began his universalist preaching in america. With the one and only miracle story in our unitarian universalist tradition. Here's how it goes. Thomas potter. Not related to harry potter. Was a wealthy farmer who lived on the new jersey coast in the mid-1700s. Potter had concluded that god was a god. A great love. Potter was horrified that the calvin is notion that god would save only a few men and women. Potter was convinced that a good god would never do such a thing. The god would send him a preacher who would preach about a loving god. For universalist preacher to turn up. For the next 10 years thomas potter's neighbors called as a meetinghouse. Potters polly. Then in september of 1770 by ship grounded on a sandbar off of jersey shore out of place called. Good luck. Happened to be onboard that ship. Murray had been a methodist lay preacher and england food been labeled a heretic. Because of his belief in universal salvation. His wife and children had died and his businesses failed because causing him to be sent to debtors prison. When is brother-in-law rescued marie from prison he's set out for the new world to start a new life. When the ship struck the sandbar the captain sent john murray to shore for provisions. After trudging through the wetlands. Marie happened upon who else. Thomas potter. Overjoyed that god had finally sent him his universalist preacher. Potter big john married to preach in his church. But murray. Not being a believer in miracles decline. Find me marie decided that if the wind did not change. Keeping the ship from saving. He would preaching the church that's coming sunday. Potterhead faith the wind would not change and spread the word throughout the area that a universalist preacher would be in the pulpit that coming sunday. Serena. The wind did not change and thomas potter preached the sermon that knocked their socks off. Or so it is said. The congregation ask john murray to stay and become their preacher but he declined. It said marie settled in gloucester massachusetts and preached throughout new england new england. Marie was often persecuted with welling rotten eggs. And even rocks. When he preached. Once when addressing a group in boston a stone sales there. And almost hit him in the head. Murray. Skip the stone and wave it in front of the art audience. This argument. He said if. Convincing. 1779 murray and a small group of enthusiastic universalist founded the first church of gloucester. Leadership marie that helped bring about one of the most historic decisions of the supreme court. The congregational church and their area. Some members of murray's church refuse to pay the tax. Claiming that the bill of rights. Protected them from involuntary religious. Taxation. The court agreed. Ruling every individual could support the church of their choice. And so the universal acceptor establish the principle. A separation of church and state. John murray ministered in gloucester for 20 years. Had to move to boston to server universalist church there. When he died and 18:15 universalism had grown into an organized and vital religious force. In america. John murray was a great organizer of the universalist movement. But hosea ballou. Preacher. Hosea was born in new hampshire. His father was a baptist minister. Jose was ordained in 1794 and was a spiritual leader of the universalist throughout the early 19th century. Jose abreu also had a sense of humor. What's someone from the audience questioned the doctrine of universal salvation. What would you do with a man who died freaking in finding prime. This questioner asked. Baloo calmly replied. I think it would be a good plan to bury him. Universalist were quite different from the unitarians of their days. Whereas unitarians were typically the harvard intellectuals and the boston social elite. Do universalist for mostly euro people who would come out of the baptist and methodist traditions. Biblically oriented. Using the bible to prove that god never intended eternal damnation. Universalism. Unitarianism. Universalism with a spiritual movement that reached the common people. Universalist preacher would come to town here she would preach to whoever showed up. And if there was a church would be founded on the spot. By 1840 just 70 years after john murray landed on america. There was 800,000 universalist. That's about four times the number of unitarian universalist in north america right now. The universalist church had actually become a mass movement. What appealed so many was it this was a church that move people through love. Rather than fear. Universalist worship church for services were often as emotional and spiritual as the evangelical churches. Only without the hellfire and brimstone that was used to manipulate people by scaring them into conversion. Universalist have made quite an impact on american culture. Dr. benjamin rush was a medical reformer and signer of the declaration of independence. Universalist. Mary livermore a reformer. Lecturer. An advocate of the women's rights was a universalist. Al's was clara barton. Founder of the american red cross. Olympia brown. One of the. Rooms of art. Church is named after. Was the first woman to be ordained for the universalist ministry in 1863. Universalist were involved. Prison reform women's suffrage. And many other reform movements. Even abraham lincoln. Can be called something over universalist. Though he was not a churchgoer. He revealed his universalist leanings during his campaign for congress. In 1846. Church service conducted by peter cartwright. Evangelical preacher. Cartwright called up all who wish to go to heaven. But lincoln. Go to hell. Lincoln. Lincoln got up slowly and said. Going to congress unfortunately. Universalism did not continue to grow as some had expected and others had feared. By 1961 when unitarian and universalist merged. To create the unitarian universalist association. Do universalist that dwindled from a mass movement of 800,000 strong in 1840. To only 50,000 members. What happened. How has such a popular turk diminish so greatly. It just over a century. The major reason for the decline of the universalist church ironically was a growth in the universalist theology. The universalist had become so successful that they almost put themselves out of business. When they began their movement in the late 1700s. There were virtually no other preachers who preach the doctrine of universal salvation. Thanks largely to the influence. The belief in universal salvation is visible today. Do not official. In most of the mainstream churches. Now it's not a heresy and many churches to preach universalism. The reasons for the decline of universalism. So they were not dogmatic. Their churches did not prize individual freedom of expression. The free flow of ideas was restricted to the way that slow their spiritual evolution. And universalist did not require the rigorous educational standards. For their ministers that the unitarians required. The preachers were filled with the spirit. Intellectual discipline necessary for dependable scholarship. Universalism as a church had become almost extinct. Merger. So you still can find many universalist churches across our land today. But the concept of the universal salvation is not of concern to most unitarian universalist. Today. The meaning of universalism has been transformed to give us a new inspiration for our age. Clarence skinner. A well-known universalist. Davis this modern-day message of universalism. Humanity must enlarge the borders of consciousness. To include the entire. Human race. High civilization is not the prerogative. Anyone raised. The hope for peace on earth. Depends upon our outgrowing of smaller attachments. Our religion must take the form of a larger loyalty. The religion of greatness gives us the intellectual courage to face reality. Whatever it may be. There is no middle way. It is greatness. Universalism. Or perish. No do we have anything tangible. From the universalist. Will the symbol of unity unitarianism is a flaming chalice. What is the symbol for the universe universalism. The most appropriate symbol for universalism i believe. Is a circle. The circle represents an openness of the spirit including the embracing of all peoples. The circle with an off-center crosses you see in your order a service is one of the historical symbols of universalism. The position of the cross represents the importance of christianity. Tell the world that universalism is open to all religious traditions and truth. The same way the unitarian universalist symbol is two circles. To honor our universal has roots. With an off-center chalice. We're open to all religious traditions with aunt ruth. Contemporary universalism is a belief in the wholeness of the universe. Is the belief that all humanity. Human beings. And every living being is connected is no sacred and indivisible unity. It is the belief. Set our salvation as a people and a planet. Can come about only through love put into action. Is the belief in a free and responsible search for truth. And meaning. One universalist has said that universalism is the biggest word in any language. Is the biggest word. The biggest concept. And probably. Almost hopeful vision. For the future. Thank you.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20090621.mp3

I found that reading through the. Wonder of forwarded email. So grace is out there. Just have to look for it. Have you ever sat down and. Really thought about. I mean really contemplated the meaning of your mortality on this earth. And the seemingly limitless possibilities with. What comes next. Whether there is a heaven with a bearded god presiding over angels playing harps on puffy clouds. For justin black existential eternity of nothingness. Or something in between. Well. I have pondered these very things routinely throughout my life. And of course by routinely i mean. Hardly at all if ever the probably not ever. Hey this is some heavy stuff. It's not like i'm afraid to face my own mortality or anyting. Far from it it's just that. Important matters in desperate need of my attention always seem to pop up. They're just a dishes to wash. Towels to fold in color color coordinate. And a little fish sammy won't exactly feed himself you know. I also have to keep up with my dental visits in my taxes. Do you see i'm a very busy man doing very busy things very busily. He might be. Thinking about your own. Busyness right now as we speak. So. Hear stuff. The busy one. About a year-and-a-half ago i finally ran out of. Busyness. When it came to facing these dramatically weighty topics that i'm not in the least bit afraid of. And i place the blame entirely upon my son michael. It's his fault. And all i can say about the matter is that once again my beautiful little boy has forced me to join the ranks of the grown-ups. More than that though. She has introduced me to a way of living and loving that i never would have achieved on my own. Through series of persistent questions that only a preschooler could think up. Little michael let me down a path which ultimately introduced me to god. The spirit of life. Are the great whatever. Confection tail actually. Since it's father's day i thought i might. Sure with you. So you ready. Here goes. It was christmastime at the word household. And i was deeply entrenched in my usual busyness. Michael received a brand new hockey nets you see and i figured it was my fatherly duty to don my idaho steelheads jersey. Grab a stick and fire that little puck all around the house. Father studios never done you know. Anyway. We just returned from grandma's house stuffed with turkey and pie. When a twin my wife april called out in despair. I immediately halted by celebratory celebratory scoring dance. And rushed to her side. I found her kneeling over our. Beloved cats mars. He was curled up silently in a ball. I knew right away that something was severely wrong. For s'mores was extremely sick. We took her to the veterinarian right away and the news was devastating. Our little kitty was dying from complete kidney failure. We made the tough decision to end her pain immediately rather than let her suffer. I will never forget striking her head for the last time. Looking into her eyes are filled with such pain. It was hard to say goodbye. And i miss her everyday. It wasn't long however. Before a stark realization hit me. Crap. S'mores is dead and we're going to have to tell michael. A whole plethora of thoughts. 40 through my brain. Even know what death is. Am i going to have to explain it. Can i. He's going to ask tons of questions and expect me to be a real dad and have answers. Where did i put that instruction manual. Unfortunately april was just as nervous. We are both distinguished graduates of the i really don't know what i'm doing so i kind of wing it as i go school of parenting. Perhaps you've heard of it. Will trying desperately to calm our nerves in a. Parental. Please kids can smell fear a mile away you know april neistat michael down for the talk. Michael. Can you come here for a minute. I've got something i need to talk to you about. I began. Wishing with all my heart that the next sentence out of my mouth could be. I have discovered an endless supply of candy canes in the cupboard candy canes for everyone. But cast it wasn't meant to be. Michael. You know how s'mores was really sick and had to go to the doctor. Well she died honey she's not coming home i finished. What is dyed she responded with innocent eyes. Crap put followed with an awkward conversation where april and i tried to explain things to a toddler. That we really didn't understand ourselves. The usual runaround about god and heaven and souls and whatever else we could recall. I don't know about michael but i sure let that conversation thoroughly confused. It was only a day or two. Before the little guy began connecting the dots and firing off the very questions i had spent my entire life avoiding. Are you going to die daddy. Are you going to heaven daddy. What is god like daddy. He just ripped them off like. While i ducked for cover attempting to find my happy place. Play try my best to answer knowing full well that i did not have the slightest clue what i truly believed about any of it. That was a rather revealing experience for my soul. Stage 2 of michael's revelations occurred less than a week later. Michael continue to piece the puzzle together and it wasn't long before he began quaking and sat with sadness and fear. I don't want you to die daddy. I don't want you to die mommy. Queen wants you to go to heaven. Perhaps that is became so intense that april unleashed the fallback of all winging it parents when it comes to cheering up the little one. Michael's she said if you say the word heaven one more time i'm going to tickle you. I thought that was pure genius. Speech of michaels questions about heaven were immediately met with a full-on pickle fest. But unfortunately this genius pant plan backfired when we discovered that michael actually likes to be tickled. Michael began shrewdly working the word heaven into every facet of his vocabulary. If you said hi michael he would respond with. High heaven. Followed by uncontrollable giggling. Are you hungry would be answered with. Answered with yes i'm hungry. In heaven more giggling. That was a good job elicited heaven was a good job. It really became a master of his craft. I couldn't help but marvel at his skill. The greatest example of michael's verbal cunning occurred during a saturday shopping excursion at target. I made the mistake of saying something like. Man that got a whole lot of shirts here. Call michael seize that opportunity and belted out they've got a whole lot of heaven. In front of about 30 fellow shoppers. Mortified i did what any ringing at parent would do in a similar situation. I completely ignored him i acted like i had no idea who this crazy kid was that i was wheeling around in my shopping cart. Will michael misunderstood my brilliant tactical maneuver and thought that i had gone temporarily deaf. Can help his poor daddy hear him better michael began to yell at the top of his lungs. We got a whole lot of heaven daddy hey daddy they got a whole lot of heaven. Every shopper at target that afternoon left the store feeling sorry for that poor little boy. With an obvious religious nutcase for a father. Well. All that talk about heaven. Must have had an effect on me. I began developing an active curiosity about heaven and god. And thanks to michael and his tickle fest i no longer cringed when i heard these words spoken aloud. Actually laugh a little to myself whenever i. Hear them spoken to tell you the truth. Heaven and god. Roll off my tongue now is naturally as words like football and pizza. For the first time in my life. I actually wanted to study these subjects. Discover for myself what all the fuss is about. And that's i answered an intense period of study and realization. I raided the religious section of barnes & noble pouring through works by c.s. lewis. Deepak chopra tick not han rick warren and numerous others. And like a good unitarian-universalist i extended my readings to everything from buddhism to christianity. To religious science. The paganism. I was introduced to countless schools of thought. Some like. I like to call militant christianity. Left me scared and saddened. But i'm surprised. And i was overjoyed that how the vast majority of these great religious thinkers. We're all basically touting the same message. Mainly that god. Spirit of life or whatever you want to call him. Is operating through love. And compassion. Has the bible so eloquently states god is love. Now i fully understand there are plenty of religious texts of vehement lee disagree with this interpretation. But i was amazed at the similar messages that leaders like mother theresa and ernest holmes spent their entire lives preaching. Mainly that the road to god or enter lights or enlightenment. Is paved with universal law. Love for yourself. Love for your fellow man. Love for all that is. It sounds quite a bit like our unitarian universalist principles of respecting the inherent worth and dignity of every person. And respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are apart. This is a message i can truly embrace. It speaks to me in a powerful way that my for non-religious self never quite experience. The photos of you uncomfortable with the term god. I say just substitute the word love. To me they're one in the same. How to give you more of an idea of where i'm coming from on this. I'd like to drop hun and unexpected yet powerful source of inspiration i discovered a few years ago. Those who know me well aware that i'm a huge movie buff. But people may not be aware however that i harbor an innocent crash on actress drew barrymore. So naturally i found myself watching the movie riding in cars with boys shortly after it hit the theaters. Now there's a scene in this movie that is always stuck with me. In this movie. Barrymore's character who's a young single mother is questioning her winning its parenting skills. And her love for her son. And responds actress brittany murphy. Who plays barrymore's best friend in the movie. Unleashes what i feel is a monologue for the ages. I think sometimes we love people so much. That we have to be numb to it for character begins. Because if we actually felt how much we really love them. It would kill us. I've always marveled at the power. And the truth behind that statement. I feel indulge me for a moment. I would like to demonstrate just how true i feel that statement really is. I'd like to ask you all to. Close our eyes for a moment. And for one brief minute. Drop all the barriers we've built around our hearts. Let the walls drift away like melting snow. For parents in the congregation. I ask that you really let yourself feel how much you love your children. Pronoun parents perhaps think. Of your spouse. Are your sibling or your own parents. Perhaps a beloved pet. For lifelong friend. Picture their smile. Cheerleader laugh. Feel how good it is when they give you a. Big old hug. Whatever you love so much in this world that it kills you. Let yourself truly embrace that love. Wrap yourself in its warm. When you're ready. Go ahead and open your eyes. That. In my humble opinion. It's just a brief glimpse into the holy. Spirit of life. The great. Whatever. Pretty intense right. And i've just finished reading a series of fantasy novels by author christopher paolini. You may have heard of his fabulous inheritance cycle with books like eragon and eldest. Put in these novels magicians are top to place protective barriers around people's hearts and minds. I would argue we don't need magicians to do that. We do that to ourselves all the time don't we. What if we didn't. What if we dropped the barriers. And took that pure love we have just experienced out into the world with us everyday. What if we truly brought forth the light of god. I believe love in its purest form is the single most powerful force in the universe. From its vast wealth for compassion. Which leads to unity. Which usher's for the world where are unitarian universalist principles. And values are celebrated and champion. This is a world i want for my son. And for all people. This is a definition of god. The brings me peace. And lifts me for my highest self. So there you have it. A harrowing tale. Discovery. Fueled by the unorthodox wisdom of a brown-eyed angel named michael. You know i still don't sit and ponder the subject of death ferry. But i have discovered a quote from uu minister dr forest church. That sums up my beliefs quite nicely. He states. Death is the ultimate mystery. But there is a way to counter the sphere. We can live in such a way that our lives will prove to be worth dying for. I say amen to that. Many men to the great reverent. And i no longer cringe when i hear the word guy. How can i. I see a higher power at work every time i look into michael's eyes. Every time he wraps his arms around me and says the words every father simply can't get enough of. I love you daddy. If that's not a whole lot of heaven. Then i don't know what is. So please join me in seeking out and embracing the grace and wisdom of our little ones. They're truly a different the holy wouldn't you agree. As we close this morning i'd like to offer a father's day blessing for big kids and little kids alike. I believe it was bob dylan or sink bob who wrote. May god bless and keep you always. May your wishes all come true. May you always do for others. And let others do for you. May you build a ladder to the stars. And climb on every run. And may you stay. Forever young. Amman. Shalom. Alarm. Recipe.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20090823.mp3

It's easy to make friends in boise idaho. All you need. Are two simple words. These are magical words. Guaranteed to bring smiles. And sometimes even spontaneous applause. Trust me it's uncanny and it's foolproof. All you have to do. It's combine the words fiesta. And insert these words into any sentence. Any sense. The reaction you receive is guaranteed to be positive. If not definite. Try sometime and see what i mean. The next time your conversation lags just a bit. Throwing the phrase. And you'll instantly become the life of the party in boise. Observe the shrewd tactic and action. So then i said. No ed. X is not √ 3.5. The square root of. Call nevermind. Instantly arrest with cheers like. But for those not versed in the ways of football geekdom. Was referring to the 2006 fiesta bowl when the broncos upset the heavily-favored in mighty oklahoma sooners oklahoma sooners on new year's day. And what some experts refer to as the greatest football game. Again. For those who don't live and breathe the pigskin. Poor poor souls that you are just know that this was really. This improbable victory took our little community by storm. The entire city was awash in blue and orange people cheered in the streets strangers hug like old chums and impersonating the behind-the-back hand off during the statue of liberty play became the standard form of greeting in boise. My little team that could even caught fire around the nation. Boise state won an sb. Which is similar to an oscar award for sports teams. The first time i spoke with noted author robert fulghum during his visit to our fellowship. If you're going to ask me if i've seen the fiesta bowl the answer is definitely yes. I even saw a renowned musician michael-w-smith in person. Hand off during a concert at taco bell arena last year. He said it was the most exciting football game he's ever seen. Early bronco faithful in the audience that night. It was the game that changed everything in boise idaho. And i was there so yes my father and i were at the university of phoenix stadium in glendale arizona. I've got the pictures the ticket stub. And yes the years lost come my life to prove it. An experienced touching upon the holy if you ask me. Providing memories that will never fade. When i think about that fateful night under the arizona stars. I really don't reflect on the game itself. Yes it was unbelievably exciting to watch my. My childhood. Upset mighty oklahoma in a nationally televised bowl game. Happy. never thought possible during my childhood days when it was just the second-tier team playing in the big sky conference on a field. Amal i will certainly cherish that game forever. The majority of my fiesta bowl memories sent around the wonderful experiences that i had with my father. When i think about the fiesta bowl. I don't think about the actual gain that much. My mind instantly takes me back to a rousing pep rally my dad and i attempted attended in tempe on new year's eve. We arrived early and stood in the front row. Probably wearing our finest blue and orange and cheering loudly into the television cameras. We followed the pep rally by strolling around mill avenue. Yelling alongside the seemingly thousands of bronco faithful invading arizona that night. A truly magical way to ring in the new year he asked me. Gameday featured a great conversation that we had at starbucks. Fallback wyatt. Really nervous driving stadium. There we stumbled upon a huge outdoor party filled with blue and orange crazies on one side. And red and white sooner backers on the other. Bands were playing cheerleaders were performing and fans were throwing down hot dogs and beer with custo. And topping it all off for the gorgeous blue sky overhead and an absolutely. Dansik high-definition television broadcasting to the masses. I tell you heaven on earth for a couple of college football fans in the mountains of idaho. This is the scene my mind broadcast over and over when i think about the fiesta bowl. My dad and i spending the surreal afternoon chatting. Watching football. And just spending quality time together and one of the settings you could ever dream up. A wonderful afternoon and evening with serves as a reminder of what this life is truly about. You see. It's memories like this one that's stick with us throughout our lives. Genuine connections with the people we love the most. And it's most of our culture focuses on money goals gadgets the latest greatest thing. I find the true happiness only comes through loving human connections. Windshield reed. I was reminded of this fact a couple months ago while reading a wonderfully inspiring book by christian pastor rick warren entitled the purpose driven life. I was breezing through the book. Nodding in agreement at some points to skiing and disagreement at others. Like i read aloud my post. Chapter entitled what matters most. And from the very first line this chapter spoke to me. It's yank me out of my passive. Wrapped its arms around me and breathes inspiration right into my very soul. You know our minister elizabeth green likes to refer to this phenomenon as in moments. And i definitely shouted a few aha's while reading this chapter. I'ma say you should always share your great discovery so if you don't mind i'd like to share a few highlights from this phenomenal chapter this morning. I feel like gives great insight about focusing on what is truly important in our lives. Namely the love and relationships that we share. With each other. Warren begins with one simple line. In my humble opinion. Thumbs up everything. He says life is all about. Lop. 5 words. The clearly state all of my hopes and dreams. For what life could. And perhaps should be. If you would only open our hearts. He follows with the declaration that loving especially loving unselfishly is no easy task. Ain't that the truth. How many times have we thought about visiting somebody having lunch with somebody or simply dropping a note in the mail and then. We didn't. Because something more important came up. I know i've got my hand raised right now. Foreign states that learning to love unselfishly runs counter to our self-centered nature. And quote. That is why we're giving a lifetime to learn it. So there's hopes for blow hope for blokes like me yet. Warren argues the best use of life is love. He states that quote. Love is not a good part of your life. It's the most important part. We must all work at making time for what is really important in our lives. Making time for our children. Our parents our loved ones and our friends. Two states are too often we overload our schedule with busywork and our relationships suffer accordingly. He says quote. Busyness is a great enemy of relationships. We become preoccupied with making a living. Doing our work. Paying bills accomplishing goals as if those tasks are the point of life. They are not. The point of life is learning to love. And people. Life minus love equals 0. And quote. Let me repeat that. Life minus love. Equals. 0. Now i realize this chapter doesn't contain any real news flashes. But it never hurts to reflect on these universal truths from time to time. To realize that our priorities can become skewed once in awhile. And we should work hard to prevent this. Mother teresa expressed this sentiment beautifully when she said quote. It's not what you do. But how much love you put into it. That matters. How you treat other people not your welfare your accomplishments is the most enduring impact. So you can leave on earth. Don't have to met. I genuinely struggle with this. As a stay-at-home dad i am fully aware that i am blessed to share each day with my son michael. To watch him grow up. Openlearn. And provide him with enough love and support to bring out a shining light. I also realize that i'm lucky. Most fathers don't get this opportunity. I realized. I do it's just that our culture places such as status that i often find myself playing the insecurity game. Think for a moment about the first thing people usually ask you at parties. It's usually something along the lines of. So. What do you do. Which is code for what job do you have. What is your social status and how much money do you make. That's what it sounds like to someone like me who struggles to not view himself as a 31-year old unemployed dude who plays video games. I said that out loud. Our culture programs us to place our priorities and ventures that cannot possibly make us truly happy. True happiness comes from love. And true love cannot be found without human relationships. No my wife april really loves her career as an audiologist. But she doesn't exactly the practice of audiology. But she does love the relationship she enjoys with co-workers and patients. Has warren stated in our contemplation and bill beautifully read this morning. I have been at the bedside a minute people in their final moments when they stand on the edge of eternity. And i have never heard anyone say. Find me my diplomas. Show me my awards in my metals in that gold watch i was given. When life on earth is ending people don't surround themselves with objects. What we want around us as people. People we love and have relationships with. And quote. Statement helps a snap out of his insecurities and realize the absolute blessing. How's his wife. I think back on the numerous lunch dates that michael and i have had with my parents to my grandparents. The baseball games that michael and i have shared at the park. The wrong sip rafiki the indoor playground. Adventurous. Countless other priceless moments we've shared together during the last four years. Experiences i never would have had while working and becoming a success. Memories that i will clutch close to my heart. Until my dying day. Warren says the best way to know a person's priorities is to examine how they use their time. You only have a set amount of time in this life. Am i you can always make more money. You can't make more time. She says quote. When you give someone your time. You are giving them a portion of your life that you'll never get back. Your time is your life. That's why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time. And quote. Well now would be a good time to interject a little story here. I clearly remember reading that last statement while sitting at the kitchen table and thinking this is genius we must give our time it's so important. This is genius. Am i brilliant mental declarations were rudely interrupted when i noticed a small hand tapping me on the shoulder. At first i took no notice of this intrusion and continued with my aha moment but that tapping groove more persistent. And pretty soon i couldn't ignore it what is it. I asked without hiding minoans. I want to play some hockey. A little voice answered. Well about this time i noticed that michael was standing right next to me wearing his baggy red wings jersey and holding his purple junior hockey stick. It is anybody's guess how long that little white i text her have been standing right next to his daddy desperately trying to get his attention. Oops. Warren states the relationships take time and effort and the best way to spell love is time. That's time4 certain stay-at-home dads who knew need a little reminder about this for now and. From time to time. Warren wraps up his chapter but the simple statement that the best time to love is now. Love matters more than anything else in this life. It needs to take top priority. Warren says you have no guarantees of tomorrow if you want to express love you had better do it now. Tell everyone can attest to the blinding speed of life right. I know myself little michael just celebrated its 5th birthday. And i have absolutely no idea how that is even possible. I remember taking him home from the hospital. Desperately trying to figure out. Where that parenting manual was hidden. I was just a couple months ago wasn't it. Members first steps his first words. First time programming is on homepage. He always starting kindergarten this fall. And i know the college is just a blink away. Waiting for the right time to express your love. It's futile. Please don't wait. But the people you know people you care about know that you love them. If they're here with you this morning. Why don't you go ahead and just turned it in right now and say. I love you. And if they're not here this morning please. Give them a call. Send them an email. Remember that love is what matters most. Love takes top priority. For the final paragraph of my chapter. Sums everything up with three simple sentences. The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love. Is now. I do think this is pure genius when i think back on my life seems i remember most all involved sharing time with my loved ones. Sharing laughs. Charioteer. Just sharing. This is what life is all about. And i'm so glad i stumbled upon this chapter when i did. Because i really needed it. He might recall the. He might recall that last year at this time. I stood on this very podium and announced that i was going to be applying to seminary to pursue a career and unitarian universalist ministry. I spent the following year serving on numerous committees. Leading a pledge drive and taking in all the wisdom that my loving minister could provide. I even been chewed off and preach sermons to fellowships in pocatello in twin falls. Isn't exciting and it by opening experience. Desires and ignited my. Passion for speaking. Writing. And working with others. If the more i considered an exciting and successful career as a union minister. A few annoying little facts kept surfacing in my mind. Going to seminary would require uprooting my family and moving away from my hometown and all of my relatives. This would force my wife april to quit a job that she loves. Any job that's located just five minutes from our house. We would also have to pull michael out of his wonderful special needs program at his school. A program that took us a year to get him qualified for and is absolutely improved his life academically socially. And in many other ways. We would be taking michael away from his grandparents great-grandparents. Beloved aunt melissa. And his entire support network at an extremely crucial age. Zero the more i thought about it the more i realize the decision to pursue seminary at this time in my life. Would be selfish at best. And once i read warren's wonderful chapter on what matters most. I knew what i had to do. I decided then and there that i cannot apply to seminary at the expense of my family. I just couldn't do it. It was the toughest decision that i've ever made. And frankly i'm still dealing with the emotional fallout. But i know it's the right decision. Life is all about love. I love my family. I love tuesday night dinners with my in-laws. Hello friday lunches with my grandparents. Hello sonny bbqs with my parents. I love playing indoor hockey with my son. I love watching dreadfully awful television dramas with my wife. We both love those. I love cheering my beloved broncos afternoon with my father. Ilovemylife. And i give thanks to god. For my blessings. Speaking of football. I'll try me up. I'm happy to announce that my dad and i will be attending every boise state home football game. I can't wait to create some new memories. In the same stadium that we've been going to together since i was a little boy. There should be plenty of hot dogs cheering. And if we're lucky we might even get to see another. Before.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20081005.mp3

Today kristen cheney and i. Are going to tell you to stories about how church communities kind of fact wise. Hers is a personal story from the life of her family. And it has a direct bearing. On the newly hatched congregational care team project. And it also reveals. Why the service is entitled as it is. And how creamed corn has taken up our imagination. But you have to wait for kristen for that part. The one i'm going to tell. Is one of those ethics with tragic overtones. For human salvation literally comes from a community. Not necessarily salvation in the fundamentalist christian sense although that is not irrelevant to the story. But the kind of redemption that comes from a commitment to service and daily devotion to others. Churches are of course not the only communities that can be about the savings of physical emotional and spiritual lines. Nor. Need the stories be as dramatic as the ones were telling today. But we tell these true tales. To show in high relief. What community can be for people. We tell them in the house. All of us will rededicate ourselves to the service of others in our community. In the hope we will understand that we too may ask. As part of the free exchange of affection. Goodwill and respect. I will also tell them in the hopes that we will resolve to stay spiritually grounded. In order to do the austin hard work. I'm living with each other. We are you will be glad to hear not where are you today. Excessive excitation. About all the patience and humility and courage that it takes ashley stay in relationship. Don't come. Instead we are focusing on the miracles that can be wrought through community. We hope you keep in mind as we relate to stories. That the doors. Of the saving d. Dwelf in communities just like ours. And had exactly the same human challenges. That we have. The hero of my story is a friend i will call barbara and she is a unitarian universalist. When she was 2 years old she and her six siblings and parents 90 in tall. Lived in three rooms. Uni ramshackle hotel. A fire burned the place down. Her family escaped. But with nothing. To their need. Where do you take a family. 7 kids and no money. She was too young when it happened having a direct memory but she knows that the salvation army stepped in and help them survive. At the very least. Food and clothing were brought. For the large panelist family. By the time barbara. Was four or five there were two more children and the parents had divorced. The children were with mother mother never worked. So the poverty was abject. Well beyond what most of its although not all. Can imagine. It makes things much worse about that time mother's demons drove her to begin promising the children that she would kill herself. She waved kitchen knives around freely and she left. A hangman's noose. Hanging in the garage for the children to come home to every day. Our little friend. Was barely school-age. With six siblings older than she was and to. This was a home that was not a home. Obviously there was no opportunity for the guns and challenge that all children need. The basic care and nurture that every child has a right to was non-existent. Replaced by fear and danger. What can your friend of hers recommended did she go to the salvation army. They're the pastor's wife suggested that the family begin attending army worship service they did. And they began attending regularly. Barbara discovery. A blessed. Refuge and place of hope. Fortunately. But this early age. The salvation army provided care for her. A place to be instead of home. She learned to play the horn. Learn the solace the spiritual balance and strength that making music. There were peers. There were adults who care for had standards. Who listened and advised. She says that every pastor she ever knew cared deeply for her. Challenger. And guider. As she approached adolescent. Escape alternatives of drugs and alcohol and casual sleeping around. She needed to escape the nightmare of her family. And there was nothing there. The guy hurt or healthy alternate but there was a salvation army. Instead of heading out. Into the dangerous world of artificial oblivion and sleeping pleasure. She became an even more committed park. Of a world that offered affection. Stability. Purpose. Meaning. And opportunities for service. Now i need to insert a. Note of caution here. 2000 vue who may be thinking and maybe there's not a one in the room which would be good. But maybe someone is thinking yes but a conservative christian theology the threat of hell makes it easier for them to gather people and make them dependent. What i'm asking you is let's not go there okay. Will unitarian universalist are a little inclined to judge people and groups. Especially sofia logically conservative. From a position of superiority. Until we have a system. They can save a terrified endangered little girl and carry her well into adulthood feeling like a useful member of society we should probably refrain from that kind of judge. Back to our story. Barbara became an adult. Served as an officer in the salvation army. Filled with gratitude. For the safe haven. They had guided her away from the pav's that kill the soul. And sometimes the body. She had learned deeply. That a community activist that we serve. Just as we are sir. In her thirties. Terrible crisis in here the theology of her saving church does become relevant. She had to face the truth. That she was a lesbian. As she might. And this was a fact that the army could not accept. And she could no longer serve as she had she wasn't fat. We hate the sin but we love the sinner. Was not only not comforting. It was ultimately unacceptable. One cannot live forever in a system that sees your basic fundamental self. The salvation army's lost is unitarian universalism. For our movement gained a fossil grateful person. Oriented towards service. Barbara fields deep sadness that the home which saved her could not sustain her through life. But she harbors no judgement. Or reason. If she tells the story and she's not exactly a boastful center of attention kind of person. She will still. All these years later. Weep with gratitude. At the blessing of grace. That allowed her to grow in a community of love. And challenge. And compassion. Answer. Without us. Her soul would be mangled at the very least. And she could easily be. She received much. Even unto her lung. From her church. The salvation army. She gave much. For many years of her life. Words cannot speak the miracle. Spiritual relationship. A caring community. That. Mundane. Everyday. Awesome annoying and sometimes infuriating thing. There were always trying to create. Can indeed. Spring about miracles in our lives. You just heard one person story the finding refuge. To the kindness of others. Wouldn't it be nice. If we here. 4/2 is organized in that arena as the salvation army. I'd like to share another story with you. A story that i hope. Will help explain why i am a member. Of the congregational care team. Why i'm very excited to see the beginning of the pay it forward fund. Story starts before i was born. You see. My biological father. Left my mother. What's for children. Under the age of 6. 6 months pregnant with me. And $0.32 to her name. Can you imagine yourself. All alone in a small town in twin falls. Pregnant. No job. Before mouths to feed. It must have been enormously trying time appearing in my mother's life. Of which she rarely talked. I do not know. I dunno. But she had to resort to begging on the street for food for her kids. I was born in twin falls but mom eventually moved her family. Two small one-bedroom run-down house in boise's north end. The five of us kids. Slept in one bed like a pile of puppies. Call my mom slept in the front room on the couch. I cannot begin to understand the stress she had in her life at this time. And while she eventually found a job as a secretary. She must have brought home barely enough. Keep her family fed. There was more than one visit. From the state social workers. And long discussions. About whether it would be better to send us children. To the foster care. Or perhaps. The local christian children's home. In town. I think you understand what that would have meant the five of us. We are definitely have growing up separately. It would have been the end of our family. Somehow during this time. There was always help. That came our way that are allowed our family. Stay together for a little while longer. At times this help came. From the neighbors. Sometimes it was the local church. And sometimes it was others in the community. We have a family story that we share about one of these times. When hope came to us unexpectedly. My oldest sister was in third grade at washington elementary school. It was nearing thanksgiving. And her class. Decided to have a food drive. And put together a thanksgiving box. Bernini family. She came home and asked our mom. If she can have something to contribute. The only thing our family had that we could share. One can. Of creamed. Corn. That's right. Creamed corn. The only reason my mom decided to donate that cream corn was that none of us could stand it. We would never eat it no matter how hungry we got. So the next day my sister took that to school. To be able to do her share and to be able to give. It was a few days later when we heard a knock on the door. Mom open the door. But the only thing there. Was a box filled. With everything we needed for wonderful thanksgiving dinner. Including. One can of creamed corn. Yep our very own can of creamed corn and come home. We had our first thanksgiving dinner and several years. year. Which did not include creamed corn. Long after that my mother met a wonderful man and remarried. Why we were never rich. We never wanted for food again. I can tell you. That still to this day. None of us will eat creamed corn. An app that can was in our family for a very long time. When we were growing up. My mom use this story to teach us many things. Batata's perseverance. It taught us to stick together. It taught us the importance of community. It taught us. The importance of giving what we could. When we could. And it taught us the importance of giving back. That can of creamed corn. Is one of the reasons i belong to the congregational care team. And why. I strongly believe. And given what i can. To the cct pay it forward fun. We may have to start small but let it be known. That as of today we are drawing a line in the sand. And as much as possible we will take care of our own. By the way. My mother went on. To get a master's degree in special education. Giving generously of her time to teach many mentally and emotionally disabled children. To read and do math. She passed away earlier this year. And i just want to say. Thanks mom for all your lessons. Discounts for you.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20090830.mp3

Standing. On the side of. Love. Unitarian universalist association general assembly june 2009. Standing on the side of love. Would you use from across the land. Together we sang and laughed and cried. Holding hands we took a stand. We took a stand on immigration with love and compassion for those lost souls. For those who are different. And those in trouble. Healing the world is our main goal. Standing on the side of love for the earth. Booth was honored for our passion. With green sanctuary certification. Brian and wanda. In fashion. Chalice circles. With justin osterman. Facilitators need to be trained. Should circles and after 2 years. Spiritual friendships we have gained. With our hearts in a holy place. What are hearts in a holy place. Words of wisdom touched us deeply. Leaving is calm. And full of grace. Beautiful people doing democracy. Making our voices of reasoning heard. We choose causes that we can't win. We debate. And persuade with well-chosen words. David corton. Melissa harris lacewell. Don't think for one last time. Mary harrington quotes mary oliver. With word sublime. Standing on the side of love for all. We chose peter morales. Toledo smell. We worship we shared we open our hearts. With spirit and grace we were endowed. Fun bob wallace. Imagine afford a menu of meetings workshops mini-course universities. And a tradeshow exhibition hole containing. Material. Imagine great choices of food to keep us going during all of this. The business of the unitarian universalist association is conducted by delegates. Designated by congregations. To vote on everything from rules of procedure to spiritual and social stands of the association. Those meetings are plenary sessions. Thousand people depending on the size of the. Voting delegates. Hilton stadium-sized convention holes when one walks in the front stage from the back. The moderator and the other figures on the stage. Are barely visible from the backseat killer sound system. As one walks forward one is engulf by the energy of those thousands of unitarian-universalist talkin another for colleges orchids and comparing. Until march 1st. I never knew there were so many unitarian universalists on the planet earth. I certainly was unprepared for the feelings that accompanied seeing hearing and feeling. He's impatient at the debates the wordsmithing resolutions the long line behind the microphone. Signifying nothing at least not very little of lasting effect. But two things have improved for me. First i now know that we you use and i kind of should have figured this out by going to one of our congregational annual meeting. Are like a big normal dysfunctional family everything. We disagree about most of it. We have to. We want our personal feelings to be reflected in the decisions of the whole. Maybe this is just lately we have a superbly skilled moderator jenny quarters he was sitting. Standing on the side of love up there extreme one of the montages. With a velvet glove and iron hand. Guides the comments of everybody at one of those 2,000 delegates. She guards them all at all their comments into a respected respectful spirited debate. Nearly always ending on time. My probably won't. And reflecting a decision often unexpected but exquisitely democratic. Jenny personifies the best of g a plenary session. If you were lucky enough to meet her when she was here i think it was last november. She and elizabeth are buddies on the national board you'll know why planter recessions. Why my view flannery sessions have morphed. From impatience to all and love. First the good news. After three years of work by our green sanctuary committee and many people in this fellowship. Our church has received official. Green sanctuary accreditation. From the unitarian universalist association. You took park. And many projects large and small. And for that. You deserve pat yourselves on the back. If i go ahead and take a moment now. I had the privilege of general assembly. Receive the certificate. 24-hour churches. Over 100 more uu congregations are currently working on certification. The general assembly committee which stages these national events every year. Has made an effort for the last 5 years. Trugreen the general assembly. To decreased use of paper and other consumables. Increase recycling. And more emphasis on energy efficiency. That's the good news. On the other hand. The meeting of the uu ministry for earth. Which packed the room at the portland general assembly years ago. Hallelujah. Possibly because. They used to be the. Organization in charge of the green sanctuary program. Which is not been taken over by uua headquarters in boston. In any case. With such. Scat interest. The ministry for earth will have little ability to carry out any further environmental programs. The green sanctuary program at cell. Was confined to one small table and another organizations booth in the exhibit hall. For a few scrapbooks prepared by green sanctuary churches went largely unnoticed. Perhaps more disappointing with the platforms of the people running for uui president. Neither mentioned the seventh principle or anything else to do with environmental concerns. So i went to both candidates to ask about this. First supporters from her church in dallas. Even knew what a green sanctuary was. At peter morales booth. I talked to her allison self. His church in golden colorado is a green sanctuary. Thanks largely. To the many high-tech greenies who live in golden. I asked him if his campaign issues. He begged off by saying that the general assembly was put together. By committee. Is not working. Are old and be done with them. But i had really wanted. What's some signs that either of the candidates might provide leadership and environmental concerns. Unfortunately. Social justice self improvement standing on the side of love. All those things dr2 most. What mean nothing if we're fighting words for oil fresh water and food. Or if we're just trying to survive in the face of the changes we brought in the natural order. Are green sanctuary certificate is not an end in itself. But rather a sign that we take the challenge seriously. As individual. As a church. Denomination. Has the larger community of the treasure valley as a nation. We have to commit to making major changes in the way we do things. Right now. Orvis green sanctuary certificate. All the recycling we do here. The new bicycle racks that are outside the building. All the priuses in the parking lot. Would be nothing more. Then the rearrangement of deck chairs on the titanic. I'm louise jacobson the chair of the welcoming congregation committee. And. I would like to just say that. Environmental issues is one of the three. Areas that the social justice council has chosen. Focus on in the coming years but. That said. I went to ga. To find out what all the hullabaloo was about. And. Primarily to attend. Justice track of the uu university. Which is a 9-hour workshop that was entitled. That focused on how to become prophetic congregations. A prophetic church was defined as one that makes history. Rather than being pushed around by it. One that has the ability. To see how and where it can make a difference in the wider community. What era is it can join forces with to make that difference. And it has the courage. And perseverance. To make that change happen. The keynote speaker dr. paul reiser. Who is the director of the center for the study of religious freedom at virginia wesleyan college. Spoke about the importance of clearly understanding the theological principles that ground us. For you used that is our 7 principles. Which we covenant to affirm. One speaker suggested. That perhaps we would be wise to stop telling people. Stars is a church where it doesn't matter what you believe. When we do that. We may do others and ourselves a disservice. We have no creed. But we do have our guiding principles. We might do better to be clear about who we are. What we stand for. Enter give people a clear description. Another thing that is vital for us to understand doctor razor said. Is our covenant with one and. The covenant we share is a congregation he said. Is an important means of defining our group identity. A meaning for covenant. Requires content. The key questions are. What does membership in the congregation mean or another words require. And. What can the members expect. From the congregation or the church. For you use a commitment to social justice. Which includes the environment. Is generally accepted as part of that covenant. While not every member may be able to do social justice work it's generally accepted that every member will at least support. And celebrate the congregations social justice accomplishments. Naturally i came home from ga thinking about how our social justice council can best mobilize the energy. Friends to create visionary change right here in the treasure valley. Even more i came home thinking about the questions related to our covenant at the congregation. Membership means here at booth. And what members can expect from the fellowship. It is my opinion. And i know there are others here who feel as i do. That we have not embraced and adequate definition of the meaning or requirements of membership. During my time at ga. And since my return. I have realized that i cannot answer the question of what members can expect from the church. Other side of talked to about this since my return also say they have no complete answer about what they can expect from the fellowship. I believe that dr. razor is correct. But answering these questions is the key. The understanding our group identity. To fulfill our potential. We must create. And embrace. Visionary answers to these questions. Good morning. I'm jerry morris day office manager here at boise uu fellowship. First i would like to thank you for the opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the association of unitarian universalist administrators and a new experience for me. It's such a treat to spend time with people who hold similar positions in other uu congregation. Men and women who have experienced some of the unique situations that come up in the uu church office. Administrators in idaho or where. My first night in salt lake my roomie and me and i decided to turn in early for the next day. So we turned out the lights. Went to bed and lay in bed and swap stories and giggles like a pair of adolescence until the wee hours of the morning. So much for starting the day rested. The theme for this year's uua uua meeting. Was the difficult we do today. The impossible may take a little longer. I think i benefited the most from being able to talk with people. Survive the transition from a pastoral church to a program shirt. Entered offer practical suggestion. For accomplishing the work more efficiently during that transition. The meeting included a workshop on conflict resolution. The first week i was back at booth i was able to put my newfound knowledge to work to keep myself from becoming embroiled in someone else's problem. I recognize triangulation when i saw it. I was able to attend a ga workshop van best office practices which included staffing models for churches of different sizes. And explanations of the different government structures. One thing i learned here is that we are adequate is that we are understaffed for growth we are barely adequately staffed for maintenance. We don't have the money to hire more staff. One solution is to recruit more volunteers. Be thinking about what you could do to volunteer of roof. I plan to attend the fallen to community volunteer roundup on october 4th. I was amazed and energized during the opening ceremonies of general assembly. You can feel the love in the warrants in the room is people saying and celebrated together. People of all ages ethnic background sexual orientation celebrating as one. It was a beautiful experience to be there standing on the side of love. Good morning i'm a slow bomb your director of religious education. Or exploration or both. In the very quiet words of our prelude. Imagine a roomful of several hundred people a really big room. We've been learning together about multi-generational services and how to create beloved community by embracing diversity. Can being intentional about inclusion of all ages and elks no matter what the miraculous differences or commonalities. We all come back from break. Buzzing with energy and we are asked to be seated. In specific zones of the room. The zones are for our generation. G.i. generation silent generation. Baby boomers gen-x and the millennials otherwise known as ken y. My birth year is listed as the last year in generation x. Which i don't agree with. I've always thought of myself as the tail end of the baby boom. Presents. So i must be younger than my age right. Exercise is for each group to dance to the music of their generation. Okay. Music has been an integral part of my ga experience. So far. From singing during worship with thousands of fellow you use. Two singing with small groups of religious educators. Letting the music wash over me and feeling deeply. Music is huge for me. The music and the dancing for all the generations inspires me. Inspires that feeling of connection. When the baby boomer music starts to play. With all my heart. This congregation gave me a precious gift and a blessing this summer by sending me to argue ua's general assembly in salt lake city. I am so very grateful for my ever widening and deepening sense. A face and connection. I went as the new director of religious exploration and found connections professional denominational and congregational. Built on common purpose love and respect. These connections sustained me and fill me up with energy and hope for our future together. When the music plays here in my beloved community. I will dance with you will you dance with me. I'm in this with green. And i serve this congregation as your minister. What does it mean to be a unitarian universalist. We are reminded of the richness of this religious tradition in which we live. Any smoke. The ever-widening sense of faith. And connection. What does it mean. It means a living heart and a joyous spirits as we settle into a hall filled with thousands of fellow you use or even dozen. Singing and debating honoring and hope. Hearts in a holy place. In worship and in business. Reminding us of our beloved friends. It means saying goodbye to an association president who was african-american saying hello to. And if we would have been saying hello to a woman. It means having a lesbian moderator out and proud. It means acting prophetically marching with hundreds of other standing on the side of love and justice. It also means seeing the possibilities of systemic social justice work. Growing the tree. Of social change for the environment for the glbt community. Community for the poor for the hungry for the children. And rising in indignation hat what is not being done. It means games. To exhort your very own congregation. To do the right thing. To examine covenant to get off our butts. Being a unitarian universalist means knowing there is practical help. In the deeply spiritual work. Running our church. Educating our dear children into reverend human beings. Running an efficient. Creating meaning. In our church work. Lives. It means embracing a great floral tea. Of difference. And holding love. In our hearts. At general assembly we heard the fabulous band of two women emma's revolution who sang swimming to the other side which it just so happens our very own church band being human saying right here. In may. We are living these we are swimming in this.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20100620.mp3

Since before recorded history. Groups of people large and small have gathered in special places. How does fishes times of the year. Sometimes. With great reverence. Sometimes we with less reverence and more exuberant. In some places. And sometimes. The occasion were noted on a more intimate scale. But always we watched. And waited. Hoping for something spectacular. Inspiring. Or quietly illuminating. Pizza places of power have always pointed out the connection between ourselves and the landscape around us. Of which we are apart. Am i talk today i'd like to discuss a few of these places some ancient. Some contemporary. Sun linked to specific astronomical events to a larger time. Call strongly rooted in place. All powerful grounding the pilgrim in the present moment. To begin to understand how people in the stone age. Begin to understand our world i find it helpful to an article by neil degrasse tyson a prominent science writer astrophysicists and director of the american museum of natural history hayden planetarium. R2 various blends of high-technology have driven cosmic discovery. But suppose you have no technology is all you have in your backyard laboratory. What can you learn. 20. With patience and careful measurement you and your stick can glean an outrageous amount of information about our place in the cosmos. It doesn't matter what the stick is made of and it doesn't matter what color it is. Just have to be straight. A straight stick firmly into the ground where you have a clear view of the horizon. And since you're going low-tech you might as well use a rock for a hammer. Make sure the stick is it isn't floppy. I make sure that it stands up straight. You caveman laboratory is now ready. With a stick and profound patience. You can find the cardinal points on the company compass and the four days of the year that mark the change in seasons. With some other equipment a little more sophisticated and a stick and accurate timepiece you can begin to measure the amount of time between. Which averaged over the course of the year is exactly 24 hours. Go figure you can also deduce that the earth rotates around the sun not in a circle. Position of the sticks. Each day at local noon you come up with a shape called an analemma a figure 8 which opens up whole new arenas of questions about the solar system and about mathematics. With two sticks had two observers far enough away from each other on the same longitudinal line of our planets you can calculate the earth's circumference. The quote again. From europe and asia to africa and latin america. A survey of ancient cultures. Embodied other deeply cultural meanings. Much has been written about the significance. Stonehenge. Historian by the astronomical knowledge. What can be discovered with a stick in the ground. Text tyson speaking not myself. But you do have to admit that. The stick looks pretty lonely. For example. At chaco canyon national monument in new mexico a top-four height of youth. Are the sun daggers. Almost vertically against the cliff face. Sandstone slabs. A. Tween the slab illuminate for about 25 minutes near the summer solstice solstice. In this niche is best a spiral petroglyph that is bisected by the sun dagger at summer solstice. At the winter solstice. It's estimated that this formation was. Used between 800 and 1200. And it's not known whether the. Place there. Or whether they split into the play and slid into place and the rock split apart and the light was discovered in the petroglyph added later song. Mysterious mysteries. This spiral motif connection to time time illuminated in time repeated time has been important for centuries and continues to be important to artists of our on time. From new mexico we moved north to utah. Using the image of the same type of spiral used on for how to dude robert smithson smithson's monument. Is located on the north shore of the great salt lake. Did you think this was a petroglyph again. The artist created a coil. But doesn't look right in this picture by the lake for three decades soon after its completion finally for. Originally the black basalt. Why was black against ready water it it's now largely white. Against. Due to salt and credit straight. Assault and crustacean and lower water levels in water is red because of an algae. Or bacteria in the water. This piece has been altered by time and the elements making time and the elements part of what the work addresses. Next we cross the atlantic and go to another site where the spiral was used you can see the spiral sign this huge. Stone in front of me to ireland. About 250 ft in diameter 40 ft high. 97 stones with megalithic yard and solar maltese. During the winter solstice sunrise the passage and chamber of newgrange. Are illuminated by a shaft of sunlight that shines through the roof box over the entrance. There. It illuminates the entrance and the entire chamber inside for about 17 minutes at dawn from the 19th to the 23rd of december. Illuminated tunnels have a different sort we come back to the southwestern united states. Utah again. We're nancy holt install installed sun tunnels in 1976. 9 ft in diameter in the middle of nowhere. Positioned. Set the sun at dawn and sunset. At sunset at the summer and winter solstices. The sun rises and sets in alignment with the tubes fit perfectly frame the sun. At other times. Forum images of the constellations draco perseus columba and capricorn on their inter-services. As an aside many of the artists that created emerge from the minimalists. Everything referred to the scale of the human body and certainly true for the sun tunnels as it is for these untitled works in cast concrete by the artist donald judd. Each of these pieces has the same dimension. A 2.5 by 2.5 x5m. Which works out to about 7 by 7 by 14 ft i'm guessing. Marfa texas and others artworks on the grounds in old hangers and informer barracks. I went to this just about two summers ago was in marfa texas which is a really an amazing place and. You're not allowed to say you're not supposed to. But if you step into these. And spread your arms just like the vitruvian man just like the image of the man standing in the sun tunnels. First today. Dimensions of a person even if it doesn't directly refer to. Human bean. Send the city of martha's hall really qualifies there's another art pilgrimage sign. Now we go further south. This is one of that visit the hangar actually the tunnel just purchased and inside he's installed. A couple hundred. Milled aluminum boxes that all have different configurations they all have the same dimensions. But you're much smaller than the concrete pieces outside but they all have the same scale. And they're fascinating. Navigate to the temple of kukulcan in chichen itza mexico. Coconis another name for the mayan feathered serpent god. Quetzalcoatl. Kukulcan pyramid is notable for the fact that if the spring and fall equinoxes. What's on projects and undulating pattern of light on the northern stairway for a few hours in the late afternoon a pattern caused by the angle of the sun and the edge construction. Light link up with a massive stone carvings of snake heads at the base of the stairs suggesting a massive serpent sneaking down the structure. The returned. Of the feathered serpent. Sliding down. The cliff. Now we go back. Up north to chaco canyon again where the same play of carefully observe light and structure built to suit. Illuminate several niches on the wallet accerico nada over the course of an hour on the summer solstice. Teva. And the sun in the sky. Or up in the sky. That window that is closest to there and then this larger niche just bellowing. Also in casa rinconada there are many alignments of windows are natural features with the celestial movements of the sun moon or stars or with the carson's cardinal directions. Rinconada has become a place where people come to see an alignment. In our culture we haven't been taught to relate to the natural rhythm of what the sun and the earth are doing throughout the year. Here's a place where you can come and see that not a representation of a solstice but the actual solstice. Wonderful experience. Now the artist michael heiser makes birthworks the architectures scale history and meaning of chaco canyon. Two-piece double negative. Consists of two trenches. Cut into the eastern edge of the mormon mesa northwest of overton nevada in 69 and 70. The trenches line up across a large gap. Formed by the natural shape of the mesa edge see if we got another slide you can see it a bit in this one. So this guy right here is standing in one trench. And across this valley. You can just see the bottom of. The other trench across the way it's called double negative because the trenches in negative space in itself. And has the stomach dropping sensation of. Suddenly disappearing into a valley as you want through it. And there is the beginning of one end of the trench. The princess line up across a large gap formed by the natural shape of the mesa edge there you can see the darkshade back here is one side of the trench and this is the. I decided to leave it on the southside here looking north and the canyon opens up. To thea. The trenches together measure 1500 ft long 50 ft deep and 30 ft wide. 240000 tons of rock most mostly rhyolite and sandstone was displaced in the construction of these trenches. Finally i'd like to talk about an artist who's had a project. Going since the 1970s. Here we are we're back in. Jaco. Chaco canyon again. Now this artist has about 1972 the scope of the project. It's located in the desert near flagstaff arizona. It's called. The rodan crater project by james turrell. The goal of the rodan creative project is this to sculpt the creator. This is a volcanic crater. He flew his airplane around the southwest for about 7 years he's a pilot also james turrell and he was looking for a spot that would work to suit the ideas he had. To create this space. Is a uniformly parabolic section from the bottom of the crater. The crater itself is in fact flat ground. And the sky itself is vaulted. Kitten self is referred to this effect as celestial vaulting. Affected the temple. Got to the slopes of the crater the brain will assume this. However to take up the slack the brain will need to compensate for some of this. information that is taking in that is taken in by the eyes that the walls are in fax curved. Therefore the guy to appear to be solid and curve in the form of a dome or sphere. Would only be visible within a certain area of the crater itself. Shape here is a structure he's built and it's actually there's an entrance here and it ramps down and goes down into the crater in a circle. And. Call at the top of the center structure. Is an oculus that lets light into a chamber below. Ps4 white. The ramp like shapes at the sides of the centerpiece. Or actually you can lie down on him there at the end of them you can rest here. So you look up at the sky from this spot. You and the ground seems flat in the sky. Huge vaulted ceiling. I was playing with optical illusions hear some of the traditional type. As himself i'm interested in seeing ourselves scene. We are 12 hours at the bottom of the ocean of air we create the color and shape of the sky. It does not exist outside of herself. Here's a cross-section of terrell's model of the piece that is the oculus that's at the top. Center of the crater this is an entrance. And it goes down to little chair for observing celestial. Events that take place in the sky and he's got a bunch of celestial events that you can view from inside the sexy thereabouts seven rooms where you can view different things. I'm not sure which one this is but they are. Things such as. Viewing the north star. From a point that stationary which we always do but it usually seems as though the earth that sky is moving above us from inside rodan crater. It's almost as though. Watching the other stalls slowly revolve around. Polaris. That you're slowly starting to tip it's kind of a vertiginous experience. So that's one optical illusion another one is that. This may be the observation for the moon which he get to that event. Another cross section. The model and this son. Your way over here. Is part of the ramp that comes down from the crater above it down into the structure below so he's not just working with the surface of the crater that. Concave spirit the top of it he's dealing with space underneath a pretty dramatically also. He's also created several sky spaces in the crater. Windows is situated in such a way as to make the sky more palpable sometimes. So this next set of images how about go through fairly quickly here. This is one of the entrances to one of the rooms from outside you start out. And it looks like you're walking down this keyhole shaped tunnel. To around window. This is a very out-of-focus slide until. It's not you in case you're thinking it's you. As you continue down the tunnel for the window. Uic the sky you see the window. And you slowly slowly noticed that the window is not a resourceful it's an ellipse. And as you get closer to right underneath that you see more and more of the ellipse in the next 3 slides. I will also still the effect. Abuses sky-light type windows that he's talking about. At the light outside changes the light inside stays the same so you have this tension going on between the changing light outside and the stationary light inside. He's created several of these sky spaces in the crater windows suit okay. It makes you think that these windows are walls are actually solid objects until this color of the sky changes due to shifting clouds or setting sun. And by doing this trail ground us in the present moment and reconnects us into the world we inhabit. Besides these lightspace is the rodan crater project contains a proportional number of spaces devoted observation of astronomical phenomena. The total of 14 spaces contained in the most recent plan which i'm not sure what you're the most recent plan. But i'm reading about is from. 7 of them are assigned to fixing the solstices. The experience of earth's rotation the experience of time the guided perception of orbits and other astronomical constellations. The sun and the moon space. A space with a round cross-section underground ramps. Beach access tunnel functions as a camera obscura projected images. Every 18 and a half years when the moon reaches its southernmost declination its image including the vast craters will be visible inside the room projected onto entrance is. At those times surface of the texture of the sun. Will be which is riddled with black dots will be just as clearly visible as ongoing protuberance is. The contours of both images the moon and the sun stay sharp for about 2 minutes only. And the remaining time of the year the sun and moon space will be awash with an even unfocused light. Space will be lying with black and white stone in the floor covered with black sand in order to make the projected images of the planet. Planets. Glow. So if you can't tell i'm kind of excited about. Tyrell finishing this thing he keeps putting off the finish day. Define lee. I'd like to finish by quoting from the poet david white again. We shape our self to fit this world. And by the world i shaved again the visible and the invisible working together in common cause to produce the miraculous. I'm thinking of the way that intangible are passing speed round shaped wing easily hold our weight. So may we in this life trust to those elements we have yet to see or imagine. Thank you.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20080831.mp3

Good morning. Every time i. Volunteer to lead a service i always make all my friends get up here and. Do this with me then. I have very talented friend so. Thank you all. Here's a true story that i'm sure you will enjoy. Several months ago i found myself sitting across the dinner table. From mr. robert fulghum. I was breaking bread with arguably the most famous unitarian universalist minister. In the world a man who just happens to have authored seven best-selling books and according to his website make sure i get this right. Has more than 16 million copies of his books in print published in 27 languages and 103 countries. Hi my dad that he's also a snappy dresser. Now is a stay-at-home dad who can't strips to the doctor's office in the grocery store is social outings this is quite the event for yours truly. It was even more exciting for another. More personal reason. Bc. I was secretly harboring a desire to pursue ministry myself. That's right boys and girls we have breaking news this morning dave wants to be a minister when he grows up where is my four-year-old son michael would say. Minister. So there i was eating dinner with the esteemed robert fulghum sitting across from mister kindergarten himself trying to act like i have dinner with world-renowned authors all the time. And i desperately trying not to spill barbecue sauce all over myself. Another conversation wafted between novels and camping and religious theology. We are you use after all. So there's a point in the conversation when the chatting hit upon the topic of ministry. And what happened next. May have changed my life. Forever. Are you hooked yet. My darling and beautiful wife april. Who cannot keep a secret if the entire human race depended upon it turn to the esteemed reverend full jimin exclaimed. My husband dave wants to be a minister to you can imagine my reaction right andre bocelli and exclaiming my husband. Thanks honey. Now i say thanks in jess but really i do mean it. I need to wrap my arms around my wonderful wife and say thank you. A thousand times with all the sincerity that i can muster. Her act of bravery no matter how embarrassing at the time. Brought forth a change in my life that may never have happened otherwise. From that moment forward i found the confidence to pursue my dream of ministry out in the open in front of friends and family. My secret ambition began taking shape and growing wings. For this. I am forever grateful. Those among us teaming with confidence. Vice president dale winky. You may be asking yourself. But this is so important you dave why don't you just tell mr. fulton yourself. Well that is a brilliant question requiring a very complex answer. Basically. Chicken. I was scared of cats. And i spent the majority of my life battling a very powerful negative voice in my head. Avoids putting me down whenever possible and making me believe that i am not capable. I believe you all have a version of this negative voice and some of us are better at silencing at than others. My own version of this negative voice is quite a character. I've christened him mr ebenezer - punks. She's a british butler you're seeing very strict. I like the picture in with the tuxedo and one of those eyeglass thingies. Tell mister negative pants actually has quite a flair for the dramatic. Spending all of his novel, it's with the phrase what what. A typical comment from old negative pants go something like this. I douched a deborah that is a perfectly dreadful idea what what. Pain is mine made mister negative pants has good intentions. His mission is to protect me from embarrassment and shield me from wants and desires he deems beyond my abilities. He sees himself as a grand protector. The guardian against pain and disappointment. Problem is the by shielding me from potential pain and disappointment. He's also. Stealing the nectar from life. We all love a thrill every now and then. And some thrills are just as unpleasant. As they are pleasant. I believe that rhyme ocean no matter how blissfully breathtaking. A painfully heartbreaking. Ranks among life's greatest gifts. To feel something is to be alive. It's a truly feel alive. Is to live. Taking a safe and painless approach to life robs us of experiences and emotions that may lead us to our best selves. Now i never fully realize this until i began attending services here at the boise unitarian universalist fellowship. Hygro basically without religion. I had no real notion of a higher power and certainly no understanding of the transforming power within a loving and accepting community. I spent my formative years and gulfton are american society focused on individualism negativity and fear. Have to say mister negative pants really thrive in this environment. Make sure you dress in the latest fashion or the children will laugh at you. Don't say anything bloody stupid you want to fishing right. Did a boy do you honestly think these upstanding boys and girls do you knew where the other presents. Don't be silly. I'm sorry sometimes you right things and you're pretty clever. I never took an account that i really have a bad british accent. Now these pearls of wisdom. Arrived like clockwork from old negative pants while i was growing up. My formative years were dominated by fear. Fear of looking stupid. Fear of saying something stupid. Pierce showing just who i really was. My only relief surface and theater class where i felt free to cut loose and have some fun. You know i was only acting you see. My early adulthood featured more of the same. I developed tremendous shyness and crafted a wall between myself and others. Everything changed all with my introduction to the unitarian universalist faith. I began attending services on sunday mornings and it wasn't long before i realized the immense gifted life truly is. It's hard to deny the fact that there's a special reverence with every breath that we take. It's simply beautiful. Watching people stand on this very podium each week and sharing their immense talents without a hint of fear or shame has liberated my thinking and allowed me to tear down that wall brick by brick. I discovered as the old saying goes that life is too short for compromising. Life is too short for playing it safe and blindly following old- pants. I believe our job is to take full advantage of this wonderful gift of life. Seek happiness in every possible avenue no matter how scary the journey. If you fail to do this samsung fear of failure then we don't pay proper respect to the unnamable forces that put us on this grandeur. Under beautiful blue skies and here. With this loving and caring community. So how about you. To fight with your own version of mister negative pants. Is there something you've always wanted to do. It never quite some of the confidence to pursue. No it definitely doesn't have to be as dramatic as a one-way ticket to sam and hurry. Not everyone is quite as crazy as i have. They could be a trip you've always wanted to take a hobby you've always wanted to try. Maybe you've always wanted to take a cruise to alaska. Or sing in a choir. Or learn to. Riverdance the possibilities are endless. The point is if you struggle to reach out of your comfort zone and pursue your true passion. Now is the time to do it. Tell that needs a voice in your head to pipe down and listen to you for a change. Take charge of your life once and for all. Book that cruise. that old guitar. Write that novel. Become. Lord of the dance. Has mickey silicone eloquently phrased in the classic movie rocky 2. What are we waiting for. Tickets. Well now i've got you all revved up. Please allow me the opportunity to throw in a disclaimer. There is definitely a right way and a wrong way to pursue your dreams. The wrong way involves little or no actual self-analysis. It also goes without saying that hurting others at the expense of pursuing your own happiness is a very very bad idea. You know your family might miss you if y'all haul off to hawaii chasing your long lost dream of becoming a surfing champion. Before you make any rash decisions i implore you to reach deep within your soul and carefully analyze all of the factors involved. Is this something that really bring you happiness. Are you dedicated the following through. Do you have the bus the blessing of your loved ones and everyone that this decision would affect the most. And finally. Does this decision. Feel-rite. Take as much time as you need to carefully ponder all of these questions. If the answer is no to any of them. Please don't do it. Mister negative pants maybe a practical chicken pants. But he's not stupid. Play negative voice in your head does come from the must protect you at all cost portion of your brain and there were times when we really should gasp. Listen. That was a stay-at-home dad i'm constantly bombarded with the same question. Sadaiv. Who you think you'll be doing when you go back to work. Well until recently rather than telling the truth which was. I came up with really clever replies like. You know i think i'm going to try professional hockey. I just need to learn to ice skate first. Obviously some dreams don't make practical sense. However if you have truly looked within yourself. Analyze all the various factors and discussed it thoroughly with your loved ones but i don't see any reason to wait for your dreams to come to you. It's time to seize them out right. But i do believe the hardest step in this entire process is that initial jump into the pool of uncertainty. Taking your innermost desires and making them public. Without any clue how people will react. Will they laugh. Will they stand up and cheer. At this point it's anybody's guess what the reaction will be. Some of us need our better halves to give us a little push. And some just need support. Someone to look them in the eye and say i believe. And you. Go for what it's worth you should know that i do believe in you. I may not know you. And i may not have any idea what your secret ambition is. But it doesn't matter. If you truly look within yourself. Analyze all the factors talked everyone in your family. And it merged with the confidence to go forward. And that's good enough for me. I believe in you. .. And if you'll just return the favor. And believe in me. But i think we got something special. How to take your initial plunge and put the decision out there for all to see the next greatest challenge emerges. Dealing with negative feedback. This is where mr. negative pants really shines. Anytime you leave your comfort zone you can expect at least a few reactions that shall we say stray from the positive. The keezer's to listen closely. Acknowledging any potential troost. Without letting the negativity fester. This might be a good time to revisit my faithful dinner with reverend fulghum. As you can imagine the moment april out of the words i was too scared to say myself. Mister negative pants unleashed a tantrum for the ages. Give me the began gymnix jumping up and down on my sloping shoulders yelling bloody pad. The compiling matters was a less than enthusiastic reaction from the esteemed reverend. In a perfect dream world supposed would have jumped up out of his chair thrown up his arms and exclaims hess i see it you are so charming and handsome and brilliant. You are exactly what we've been looking for let's just didn't happen that way. Worlds of the actual response with more like. What would you want to go and do a thing like that for well i had certain what i hope with my most sincere. Minister voice. I'd love a chance to spread a positive message. And to help people in any way that i can. Well if you want to help people he said. Angle be a fireman. I must stress the reverend fulton was suffering from an extremely painful case of shingles at the time and relying upon a steady diet of codeine just to function. And i am convinced that his reaction was really more a product of pain and exhaustion than any real slight towards me it was late at night and he had a very long day. And we all know how wonderful he was when he visited our fellowship. Put it in case. My secret ministry ambition is revealed to robert fulghum and i am a mediately told to go be a fireman. But i survived it. And i promise you the first time you get laughed at wearing your lord of the dance leotard do you will survive as well. We humans are nothing if not resilient. Several my very close friends were also present at that dinner and their reaction was extremely enthusiastic. These were the reactions i paid close attention to. By gaining the support of people who truly know and care about me. My confidence flourished. And also around the same time. I was reading a wonderful inspirational book him into being by my friend kelly. Written by shel richardson entitled the unmistakable touch of grace. Richardson writes about paying very close attention to your life and watching for signs of grace that often come your way. Basically keeping your eyes and ears open for opportunities. Silencing old- pants when he tries to discourage you. I'm pursuing them. One particularly moving chapter as the reader to write down a motivational phrase richardson is pandan a journal or a notebook. That was game for anything at that time so i slowly rolled out the face phrase. I am open to receiving the gift of grace. I asked to be shown exactly what i need to do to achieve this goal. Or something better. I also added a second phrase. Surrender and be patient. Brace is on the way. So i stopped this piece of paper on my wallet. And it still resides there today. I have to pull it out and read it during occasions when i need a confidence booster. Just a little guidance. Whatever works right. Cars with the support of my friends along with this motivational can do in my wallet. I set out on a journey to find the gift of grace. I'm happy to report i found grace waiting for me at every turn. I sprung the surprise i want to be a human astor speech on my family. And they responded with more love and support than i ever thought possible. I courted several members of this very congregation we're laying my crazy ambition and they were equally encouraging. Finally. I took a deep breath and i waltzed into our minister elizabeth green's office couple of weeks ago. For what ended up being one of the most honest and productive conversations i have ever had. Our loving minister was very supportive. And as offer guidance as i embark on this strange new path. She did mention however that i needed to work on my. Confidence. I have to admit after i stop crying i thought maybe she had a point. But it does appear old- pants and i have some unfinished business after all. Today. I stand before this fellowship asking each of you to join me in this remarkably liberating action. A silencing mister negative pants. And chasing your dreams. Whatever they may be. Personally i can attest that these last few months have been a scary. Suspenseful. Thrilling. And rewarding as anything i have ever experienced. I feel liberated. I feel vindicated. Most of all i feel utterly. And truly alive. Now it's your turn.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20080803.mp3

Good morning. Editorial matters of business before we get started. The actual title of the service this morning. Should have an end. Rather than on for. Science facts. + 6. Morning before coming to service. Leap through the statesman rather quickly and checked out my horoscope this morning. And it said that. It's the right time to deliver the communication. You need to make. One of the interesting elements. That is come out of. Several years of battlestar galactica. Is the fact that. The gods. Rc nesmith. And yet. As the story goes on. There seems to be. A hand. In the mix. Now we're 11 episodes out from the end. So we really don't know what the hand is or. Who the gods are or who the single god is. But i read that horoscope. A former history professor at boise state once informed my class. When discussing the construct of a paper. If you have to start off with a definition. You either do not know. Or do you not have anything to say. All the same i feel compelled i feel compelled to layout. Some definition before i begin this morning. When floating the ideas about the sermon to one of my colleagues at work. He expressed an opinion. That most people really do not understand what science is. After looking up the definition. I found. I really did not know as much as i thought i did. Science is defined by merriam-webster. Goes. State of knowing. Knowledge is distinguished from ignorance. Or misunderstanding. In a general google search. The one definition that caught my eye. Was more in line with how i thought i would define. What science was. Systematically acquired knowledge that is verifiable. Now the other part science fiction. Also according to merriam-webster. Dealing with the impact of actual or imagined science on society. Or individuals. Having a scientific factor as an essential. Orienting components. Carol wetzelberger of our congregation low gave me a more compelling and far shorter definition. Literature of the possible. So with that said i think we can boil it down to. What is. And what could be. I was born february 24th 1966. Now. I really don't know what generation i am x y or z. It really doesn't matter. I consider myself. A child of apollo. When i was born the krewe of gemini 8 neil armstrong and david scott. We're training for a launch to occur on march 16th. Do us was racing forward to meet president kennedy's promise to land. Man on the moon by the end of the decade. Armstrong would fulfill that dream in 1969 with apollo 11. Scott would walk on the moon with apollo. 15. And returned earth with what became known. Espa genesis rock. Kennedy had been assassinated about 2 years earlier. And his promise was made a year before that. We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy. But because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills. Because that challenge is one we are willing to accept. One we are unwilling to postpone. And one which we intend to win. And the others too. Those lines are well-known. To the many that follow. Space exploration. Anna been well-known. To myself. For about as long as i can remember. However to my surprise when i looked the speed shop. That is just the segments. Have a speech that runs almost 17 minutes. Tammy. Space space flight nasa. The massive rockets rising towards the heavens on a column of fire. The grainy black-and-white images. A man walking across the moon. Tammy. That was science. At its finest. It still is. Now. I did not speak until i was slightly past 4 years of age. The doctors told my parents that my brain was. Running too fast for my mouth to manage with age i guess it's gone the opposite direction. So wow while others my age were. We're speaking all i could manage was gibberish. Some might say that is still the case my mother likes to say that once i did start talking. I haven't shut up since. For the record though i believe i do not speak in like for you. Well i did not speak. I did read. Or at least i looked at the pictures. Bringing home stacks of books from the library with common. And growing up in what was relatively a rule area afforded lots of quality reading time. At some point though. Reading really did happen in the family world book encyclopedias. A2z became my best rims. There was also plenty of room to play. My parents property of 20 acres my grandparents property of 20 acres. And my godparents property of 20 acres 60 acres of boat storage buildings. Woods orchards farm fields pastures. Yes. Plenty of room to play. And to a mansion. I would spend summer afternoons with my godmother's fruit stand. Planning with her. How we would grow peaches on the moon. This past june. My parents were out for my daughter emily's. High school graduation. They brought a trunk full of blast of my stuff. From home. In the mix was a box of photos. For those of you who remember the kodak. 110 cameras little flat ones. Put the cassette of film. And the way they would process the photos with the white frame around them and they put the date stamp on. Yes. July of 73. I was seven. Our first trip to florida. That i think i remember. My first trip to the cape. Cape kennedy. I think i can still feel the heat of the sun. Through the window of the tour bus. My nose pressed up against as i stared up and fascination and wonder at the saturn rocket. On the pad for one of the skylab missions. The tour guide from what i remember told us of problems they were having with the mission and was skylab. I spent the rest of the trip. And then sometime at home with pencils paper and markers creating a solution. Parnassos problems. My parents i found the area code 305 for kennedy and directory assistance 305 555-1212. And i got me a phone number. After several i hope amused people later i ended up with the lieutenant colonel. I mailed off my ideas and several weeks later. About the same time the phone bill arrived i received a thank you colonel. Which remains in a frame on the wall at my parents home. That's a seven-year-old letter made explaining the phone calls a little easier. In the second grade i was asked by a classmate. Why i knew so much. I'm a martian this was years before the book. Men are from mars women from venus. I wish i knew why i responded that way but i do not. That remark in the reaction from the other kids cause more pain and grief. I really care to remember. Children can indeed be incredibly cruel. And that comment was like throwing myself blooded. In the shark-infested waters. Astronauts were our new heroes. What was wrong with being from another planet. To feed my hunger for spaceflight and adventure. We had wuab channel 43 out of cleveland. Your standard run-of-the-mill not network uhf station back-in-the-day of antennas and rabbit ears. During the weeks of summer lost in space ran everyday at 4. On weekends super-host would show a double feature from 1 to 4. Sometimes horror sometimes, they sometimes syfy. Then at 4. Imovie followed followed by the original star trek at 6. For a few years space 1999 wrapped up a busy day of tv viewing at 7. As far as space oriented science-fiction goes. Star trek has permeated so deeply into our culture. People who have never seen the show. Know things about the show. Created by gene roddenberry in the mid-1960s. It provided a glimpse of an almost utopian area of our galaxy with spacefaring earthlings leading the way. As a child. I really wanted. The world. Set star trek represented to be real. I wanted to join starfleet i wanted to go out and explore strange new worlds. I wanted to live in a world where it was okay to be smart and more people respected one another for their abilities. Roddenberry by the way. What do you you. And it shows. Now take note. I'm not standing here before you in a costume. Just my normal clothes. I've also never been to a sci-fi convention convention not to say that i would not love to go. But i just haven't. As an adult. I still love syfy. What is high of gotten older my tastes have matured. I still have an affinity for star trek. But it no longer has a blank check in regards to my loyalty or love. I will also admit. But there is not much to like in the area of sci-fi. But garbage. Pervades much of entertainment today. With 500 channels. There is just too much airtime to fill and not enough quality to go around. Which makes the existence and execution of the re-imagined battlestar galactica. Baltimore mason. Now for those of you not in the know there are two battle stars. There is the 1978 version. And then there is the re-imagined version that is now wrapping up its fourth and final season in january. As a kid the 1978 version was fantastic. Just for fun. I rented the movie but started out the show not too long ago from netflix. And i will be honest with you. Some cherished memories are best kept that way are completely different. Despite having the same general story. The re-imagined show. Won the peabody award its first season back in 2005. And the citation on the peabody award reb. Battlestar galactica not just another apocalyptic vision of the future. But an intense dramatic poses provocative questions regarding religion. Politics sex. And what it truly means to be human. The sak is set in motion when cylon robots. Revolt revolt against their creators. With a devastating series of nuclear attacks. What's left of the human race. Fewer than 50,000 refugees. Roam the universe and fleet led by the spacecraft. The battlestar galactica. They must reimaginehr society even as they searched for a new home. This dramatic premise coupled with the threat from the new form of humanoid cylons. Afford such diverse narrative. Philosophical possibilities. All i can tell you is as wonderful and glorious is that citation is. Get massively understate. How wonderful. The show is. Now to give you some background within the myth host of the show. All human life. Originated from a homeworld called cobalt. Where the humans lived in harmony with the gods. Squirrel. Yes. Are humans in the storyline are polytheistic. Then one of the gods decides he's better than the other god. And conflict in shoes. And the humans are driven off. In the space. Twelve tribes eventually settled the 12 colonies. 12 separate planets spread out in a few star systems. And then the 13th tribe. Cubs off. On their own. And settle. A dark age and space travel for a while and then caprica. The planets are named. After the 12 signs of the zodiac. Eventually re-establishes community with the others. Except earth. And they reform into a federation the twelve colonies of kobol. Been fifty or so years prior to the start of the miniseries. The robots the cylons. Are created to do the dirty work. For the humans. But isn't as in all good syfy. They become self aware. They decide they do not wish to be the slaves. And they were bell. A ten-year war comes to a draw. And the cylons head off into space. To places unknown. No one sees them. For 40 years. And then the story begins. When we the audience. Finally meet the cylons for the first time. Besides their mechanical counterparts. The cylons also now come in human form. And they are going to therrien. No not you you unitarian. But they profess a belief. In a single god. This is not your father's battlestar galactica. So within those polytheistic or monotheistic. Dynamic is weave the fabric of myth and prophecy. Scrolls of pythia. The oracle of apollo. Which begins with the words. Life here began out there. The scrolls tell of the exodus of man and the cycle of time. All of this has happened before. And all of it will happen again. One of the main human characters. Husbands head. The harbinger. Of the apocalypse. As in all good sci-fi communities. This phrase has been parsed beyond belief. Now. The literal translation from greek. Apocalypse. Is to lift the veil. Such a revelation. It is only in judeo-christians. Judeo christian framework. Does the end-of-the-world get factored in. However and talking with elton hall. He enlightened me with the perspective. That one a new truth. Becomes revealed. The world is the person. To whom the revelation is occurring. Their world does indeed end. Either in subtle. Or profound changes. All these thoughts are whirling around in my head. Preparing to do the sermon. And one of many ideas formed. We are the church of questions. We seek to lift the veil. And fine new truce. Enlightenment. Call it what you will. So. Are we is you use. Harbingers of the apocalypse. And what if we are. Most people buying large seat for stability in the bedrock of truth. Is it possible to have both. I think of the moments in my life that really mattered. Events in the second grade. Leaving the family business. Returning the school. And on a personal level. Each indeed were apocalyptic. In some way. Paraphrase thomas jefferson. Perhaps an apocalypse. Every now and then. Maybe a good thing. Now during the contemplation. Or before it bob huntley red come on commander adama speech from the start of the miniseries prior to the attack. At the end of the miniseries where is a funeral for those who have been lost. During the battle to save humanity. The population of the colonies. Which has been estimated to be between 12 and. N20 billion people amongst the fans talking about now these worlds and and so forth. You start out with 12. 220 billion people in the end up with 50,000 left. So this is utter. Devastation. Adama speaks to his crew. And the other survivors in the bath snus of the hangar deck. Flag draped bodies. Laid out before. Are they the lucky ones. That's what you're thinking. Isn't it. We're a long way from home. We've jumped way beyond the redline into uncharted space. Limited supplies limited fuel. No allies. And now no hole. Maybe it would have been better. For us to add i'd quickly back on the colonies with our families instead of dying out here slowly. In the emptiness of darkspace. Where shall we go. What shall we do. Life here began out there. Those are the first words of the sacred scrolls and they were told to us by the lords of kobol. Many countless centuries ago. And they made it perfectly clear. That we are not alone in the universe. Olosha. There's a 13th colony of humankind is there not. Yes. Kohl's keller a thirteenth tribe left cobalt in the early days. They traveled far and made their home planet called earth. Which circles edition. An unknown star. It's not unknown. I know where it is. The most guarded secret we have. The location was only known by the senior commanders of the fleet. And we dared not share it with the public. Not while there was a cylon threat upon us. For now we have a refuge to go to. A refuge the cylons know nothing about. It won't be an easy journey. It'll be long. And it'll be arduous. But i promise you one thing on the memories of those lying here before you. We shall find it. And earth. She'll become our new home. So say we all. Now after that. Privately. And now president of the colonies laurel laura roslin. True circumstances of the destruction of the colonies. Went from being 42nd and line as the education secretary. 2 president. Is sitting with. Commander adama. Knowing that the now-dead president adar. Did not know earth's location. Or even believed it existed. And she asks adama. Why he told the crew ally. Adam admitted that it was not enough for his crew to live. But gave the notion. Hubbard. Add something to live for. Science facts. We need not go searching for earth. Yep the universe. Awaits us. We do need something. To look for. And as for your next apocalypse. Take it for what it's worth. As for science fiction. Be open. Possibilities. So say we all.

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BUUF-sermon-20101017.mp3

Even conservative columnist george will recently expressed his surprise at absolutely zero pro sustainability legislation has been passed since barack obama was sworn in as president of the united states. The recent copenhagen climate change conference is widely accepted as being a failure. It seems reasonably clear that sustainability will not catch on soon enough. In a big enough way worldwide to make submit to make any significant difference in avoiding various unpleasant outcomes. It seems most of the sustainability movement is concerned about climate change which is certainly something to be concerned about. But it now appears that there are two other issues whose impact may soon become larger. Then the early impacts of climate change which are already apparent. These issues are resource depletion especially peak oil. And the ongoing international financial situation which seems to take two steps backward for every tentative step forward. I recently found a paper by a peak oil expert named gail to verburg i don't know how to pronounce the last name. Any way she can explain the situation far better than i ever could i got her permission to quote and reprint for work in its entirety so forgive me for reading this text out loud this morning but i simply can't imagine a better way to explain or near-term predicament. I will now quote from galesburg paper which has the rather lengthy name of. Systemic risk arising from a financial system that requires growth in a world with limited oil supply. So here we go. It seems to me that if we are in fact reaching limits with respect to oil supply this should be of considerable concern. We have a financial system that demands economic growth for reasons that will be discussed later in this paper. At the same time as we approach limits with respect to oil production the ability of the world's economy to grow becomes constrained. Because in order for economic growth to occur we will need to do more and more with less and less oil. The conflict of these two forces i need for economic growth in a world that can no longer provide growing oil supply. Says the financial system up for a systemic risk of collapse. Furthermore there is significant evidence that the financial problems of 2008 work early signs of this systemic risk affecting the financial system. If oil supply should actually begin to decline in the future we can expect financial problems such as those in 2008 to return and to worsen. This next section she titled oil connection to the economy. Oil is used for a huge number of purposes transportation fuel heating fuel. Fuel for extracting minerals of all types. Lubricants and raw material for asphalt for road paving. Plastics synthetic claw. Medicine. Fertilizer. Pesticides and herbicides to name a few things. Interject a little cold here there was once an executive one of the big loyal companies. Who said this off the record so we didn't want the name attached to it but he said. Using the miracle of hydrocarbon crude oil. For transportation fuel is like you burning a picasso painting for heat. Does hydrocarbons are amazing chemicals in effect a burning up all of them to drive or living rooms from point a to point b. It is this is just seems ridiculous even to him who's working in a big oil company get back to gayle's paper. A declining oil supply or even a level supply then should be a serious concern given that the world's population continues to increase and more of more of the worlds lower classes begin to come. It economically and begin to use more oil and sign in india. In recent years there have been many attempts to try and find substitutes for oil but was very limited success. Ethanol from corn has probably been the biggest success but in 2009 it's used in the united states amounted to only 660000 barrels per day. Compared to total consumption of oil products of 18.8 million barrels a day. Another words ethanol was 3.5% of the total. Raising this percentage is proving difficult for several reasons manufacturers warranties only permit the use of 10% ethanol in gasoline. And ethanol tends to be more expensive than gasoline without subsidies. And there are relatively few stations offering e85 gasoline. I just want to interject that with rising food prices i don't know how much more farmland we can afford to convert to ethanol production. Back to get wallpaper. Other so-called replacement for oil are only very partial replacements and are still very far away from being full scale solutions. Biofuel from ellijay is being investigated but is still very expensive and not yet scalable. Electric cars are being developed. But they still are many years from being ready to replace our huge fleet of automobiles based on the internal combustion engine. It should be noted that the problem with oil supply is really an economic one. There is a huge amount of oil theoretically available. And in the oil shale in united states west and perhaps even in the middle east. But in order for this oil to be available now huge investments would need to have been met starting at least 10 years ago. Also in order to justify this investment the cost of the finished oil products would need to be very high. High relative to the energy required to extract oil and high relative to people salaries. At some point limits are reached in the amount that people can afford to pay for oil and we may already be approaching those limits. Many observers would like us to believe that limits and oil and other resources are still a long way off but this is not really true. World crude oil production has already stopped rising oil production has been essentially flat from 2005 to 2010. As we had back in 2008. Meaning that more and more cars and trucks must compete for the same fuel supply. Higher oil prices can lead to recession in debt default. Play loyal prices don't give ordinary citizens more salary to spend so they have to cut back on something else one possibility is a cutback in discretionary spending. Which will tend to lead to recession. If the cutback is in buying new homes the price of new homes can be expected to drop. James hamilton wrote a paper called causes and consequences of the oil shock of 2007 08. Showings at the run-up in oil prices in the years prior to 2008 was sufficient to cause a major recession that we have recently experienced. If oil prices rise they may also cause death to false. This occurs because people salaries don't rise correspondingly so they need to cut back somewhere. And some will default on death's business. They also be more at risk of default if their cash flow is declining. Lower values of homes may also play a role in the increasing defaults. Well one cannot prove that the aforementioned problems are the only causes of the financial crisis of 2008. There was certainly a strong similarity between the expected problems problems that we have recently seen. It should be noted to that is seeming oversupply of oil should not be surprising right now there is an oversupply of oil stocks are are very high at this point in time. Has higher prices give rise to reception this causes a cut back into man. Reduction in credit availability also tends to reduce demand so the oil available may be more expensive than what individuals and businesses can afford. If the oil available were cheaper the oversupply would disappear for example we've gotten used to $3 gallon gasoline if one factor the $2 a gal that we have prior to the big price went up in 2007 and truly over supplies would not last long it's just that supply oil at the level we have now it needs to cost $3 a gallon. Let's get back to the economic systems need for growth. Our current economic system includes a huge amount of debt. Money is loaned into existence by the way when i first learned that i still can't get over that. That is used to finance many business expansion. Governments rely heavily on death. The us economy has been growing for many years with only brief interruption so nearly all of our experience with borrowing money and paying it back with interest has been during periods of economic growth. Borrowing from the future is relatively easy when the economy is growing because when the time comes to pay back the debt the debtors economic condition is likely to be as good as it was in the loan was taken out and maybe even better. So default are relatively uncommon. And the growth in the economy between the time the loan was taken out and the time it is repaid provide some contribution towards the interest payments. What what if we start and coloring a very different kind of world one with a decline in energy supplies. If oil resources constrained economic growth at the falls can be expected to rise. And the whole def system underlying our financial system is it risk. Insurance companies are very much at risk to because many of their assets are bonds. In the past these bonds would have been repaid with interest. What in the world with little economic growth and perhaps economic decline. The risk of default becomes much greater. Even if we should discover a way around our problems say some new technology which permits. We're better substitute for oil financial institutions including insurance companies are still likely to encounter. Substantial systemic risks related to debt defaults in the next few years. So that's the end of galesburg paper. Next i would like to call from chris martenson who used to be a highly paid vice-president working for a fortune 300 company was a pfizer pharmaceuticals. But he quit that job and now spends all of his time warning to whoever will listen that we should prepare for the upcoming 20 years to be completely unlike the past 20 years. It would appear that other corporate insiders are also worried and here's a rather interesting to test statistic by found. For the week of october 4th 2010 the insider selling to buying racial was 2341. Chair soul for each stair chair purchase. So insiders are in that week of october 4th million dollars worth of stock in return bought a measly $170,000. This comes on the heels of the september 27th week. Where it had onions equally insanely bearish ratio of 1411 dollars of shares sold every $1 purchase. Which by the way to go back a week before that the ratio was 252 one if you go back the week before that the insider ratio was a salad sell-off f650 21. So in plain terms corporate insiders the folks who know their business and its prospects better than anyone are dumping their shares as fast as as legally possible. But no i digress from what chris martenson says let's get back to it. Chris says and i quote. Informed opinion that there is no fix to our current predicament. There are only outcomes to be managed. I want to say that again because that sentence is the main point that i'm trying to convey in this morning's message let me read that again. It is the chris martenson says that it is my informed opinion that there is no fix to our current predicament. There are only outcomes. To be mad. In other words taking political action to try and sustain our current way of life is likely a waste of time because business is usual simply cannot be sustained for much longer and we need to prepare both mentally and physically for a very different future. How long do we have. Wello quote from a certain member of the united states congress who shall remain nameless since our private conversation was off the record. He said. Any konami collapse could happen tomorrow. Orca happened 10 years from now. But what's certain is that it is inevitable. Given the course that we are on right now. But again i digress from chris martenson a message so let me continue a quote from him. Unless some brand new energy sources discovered preferably about 15 years ago and prosecutor with all due haste. The necessary liquid fuels will not be there to power enough new economic development to cover all the past debts and unfunded promises. Well this does not necessarily mean the end of the world. For many it will certainly mean the end of the world as they know it. No this is not some future prediction. It is already reality for many people. Let's look at the record number of uninsured americans. Look at the number of pensioners relying on busted pension funds that have almost no chance of being able to pay out in their obligations. Look up the number one employed over 50 years old who fear never working again. Look at the record number of people hit with foreclosures and repossessions. The number of people on food stamps is now at an all-time high of 40.8 million people. I'm just beneath these headlines are stories of hardship and difficulty writ large. Of course. Even these dismal and predominately united states statistics pale when compared to the pain being experienced in greece. Ireland. Iceland spain and portugal and soon enough the united kingdom france japan and the united states. As i mentioned previously this is chris martenson speaking developing your personal resilience putting on your oxygen mask first is your number one priority. This puts you in a stronger position to assist others if or when the time comes. But the transitions that are coming will be physically and emotionally challenging for many and this is where community comes in. Yes we can individually prepare our root cellars and our portfolios and we should. But the most important work is going to rest with our abilities to help and rely on others. For some the pieces are already fully in place with intact communities and deep relationships but for others and i would dare say for most others almost everything needs to be created from scratch. And i want to interject this is where i think that the boise unitarian universalist fellowship needs to step in and really play an active role is to be there for people who need to be part of a community even though they have nothing in spite of all of our economic. Difficulties. The last thing that we want to see suffer the boise unitarian universalist fellowship it needs to be here and it needs to be strong because it is going to be very much needed i'm convinced some point in time within the next 10 years. So back to chris's message. For the people impacted by the events in the headlines above the need for emotional support can easily outweigh the need for physical items. Thinking of your resilience strategy in terms of we instead of eyes not only necessary but actually quite desirable. There are many reasons to enhance the quality and quantity of your relationships and network. Emotional support. Learning new things things by yourself. Like you're part of a larger groups can buy involved. These are all good reasons but perhaps the most important reason is the feeling of being part of a movement. History has proven again and again that real systemic change rarely happens from the top down through presidents prime ministers congress hasn't parliament's. But from the outside in. You will need community more than ever so it's time to get started. What's the end of chris martin since message. How disruptive future is not a certainty. Who's at the sudden predicting. Making predictions is hard especially about the future. What are the odds of all of this coming to pass. Nations is someone who wrote an interesting article. Bayhaven says that given the constraints of natural resources are currently unprecedented levels of debt on a global scale in the absence of ideas for the next brand leap forward for mankind it seems plausible that we might have to bid adieu to economic growth. And not just for a year to look for a long time. Some models suggest the chances were steady economic growth after 2010 or below 10 to 20%. Even if you disagree with such laws and put the probability for more growth to say 80%. Irresponsible to not at least consider the other 20% probability. Not buying insurance for risk that might hit you with some pretty negative consequences strikes me as not the best strategy. Consider that we buy house insurance and there's only a 1.522% chance we'll have a significant claim over a 10-year.. Webuycars will have a significant claim or a 10-year.. That's the end of the message renee higgins. So i'll actually. Say a few things myself here for a change it appears that there's not an insignificant chance. Let me say that again it appears there's not an insignificant chance that there will be economic disruptions over the next 10 years so hard we buy insurance for unfortunately it's not as easy as writing a check. It takes not only money but time to build new skills and a new mindset. This is very difficult to do an isolation i know because i've been trying for the last several months. We need each other to accomplish this. So what should we be doing. First of all we need to gather to offer each other support as we deal emotionally with these new realities. There are various stages of grief that we have to go through as we adjust ourselves to the possibility of future upheaval. Secondly we need to make sure. That if there are disruptions with our highly complex just-in-time supply chains. We will still have access to water food health and first aid heat power and communications. So let me conclude now with the spiritually uplifting part of this message. There is a rice farmer in japan who pays particularly close attention to these issues and i i really like to read with this rice farmer in japan has to say. He says. Preparing should be rewarding and fun. By rewarding i don't just mean that you'll survive. But that the very activity will make your life richer it's the process not just the goal brainstorming gardening learning a skill admiring the fruits of your labor and making other preparations with your other community members should be something you look forward to not dread. Sure there's going to be a lot of hard work but you should feel as though you've reached the summit of today's climb and be charged with exhilaration. Life is to be enjoyed if there is no enjoyment then we're nothing more than robots and of quote. There is currently an adult religious education class led by myself and webb vanwinkle exploring these issues in depth. Session three of five will be this monday night in the junior high room at 7 p.m.. It is not too late to join us. It'll be fairly easy to catch up by watching the video material that we've covered so far. You can't make the adult re class please let me know if you have an interest in buying some insurance by joining a group of us to brainstorm what we can do. To mitigate the risks of the storms to come.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20091018.mp3

Music is a natural human activity by eve goldberg. Once upon a time in every society in which you can trace cultural history music that was part of the life of a community. Pretty much everyone and there were special songs and dances for life events like birth. Reaching adulthood. Celebrating the harvest the turn of the seasons marriage and death. Music and dance were an important part of the fabric of life. Because they brought people together passed on information helped create a feeling of cohesion and social unity and so on. Sociologists and anthropologists who have studied these things have noted that one of the things that marked this kind of activity in a community is the lack of separation between the singer dancer and an audience. In other words there was no audience. It was a participatory activity that everyone did. The idea of whether you were good or bad. And it didn't even make sense. There's some parts of the world where this is still true. Today we in north america live in a very different society music is generally not something that is woven into the fabric of most people's lives anymore. It's something that we purchased listen to w. But it's not something that everyone is expected to participate in on a regular basis. There was a clear separation between performer and audience. And we grow up with the idea that if we are brilliant singers or dancers or players or. Then we should keep our mouths shut. And many of us 2. We get the message that singing is a talent some people have it and some don't and if you don't have it you're out of luck. I think this is a tragedy. It means many people are alienated from their own musicality and creativity they never get the chance to try out their voice or have the transcendent experience of being part of a large group making music together. There are fewer and fewer opportunities for people to participate meaningfully in music and other creative pursuits without being judged in some way. In that context is critical that we create places and spaces where people can make music together without the expectation of perfection. Places where people can sing or play purely for the joy of it. Adulation. Places where it doesn't matter what your skill level is even if the singer needs some work on their musical skills their contribution to the spirit of the event will be recognized. Unappreciated. This might be a song circle a jam session and open stage or some other kind of friendly musical exchange. We need these kinds of spaces because we need to bring back music-making as a natural human activity. Music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams wandering bailon see breakers and sitting by desolate streams. Yeah we are the movers and shakers of the world forever it seems. Hi music ringing singing. We cry to the corners from the dazzling unknown shore. And your summers. And renew our world as of your. You shall teach us your songs new numbers and seamless that we dreamt not before. These were taken from o'shaughnessy is minstrels owed tell us that is it is in our dreams. That we create our world this morning i would like to share a bit of my world. With a nine-month stay at the university of san francisco medical center. I was born with my esophagus connect into my trachea in other words anything i ate would go into my lungs. I was not expected to live but after several surgeries and what my doctor isn't a miracle i was sent home. My ability to sing. For as long as i can remember i have felt compelled to make music i never considered myself to be particularly talented musically driven would be more accurate. As a five-year-old i would stand on the fireplace with a long green tinkertoy in hand. My mother began teaching me how to play the piano though our lessons usually ended in tears when your apple of her eye it's just an emotionally wrenching to have your mother tell you that you are playing the wrong note. My elementary school years were spent in the san jose california area in fourth grade my best friend was the score for teacher. Instruments. So i began the violin. And later added the cello the double bass and then the elbow. Because we were released from a regular class. See i have this figured out by the 6th grade i was participating in so many ensembles that i rarely spent time in my regular school classroom. Teacher conference it was determined that i had to drop the cello the basin the elbow but i did continue with the violin at school and with the piano at home. The summer between my sixth and seventh grade years my family moves to idaho. Serendipitous chain of events i became acquainted with a lady and she just happened to be a concert pianist and a teacher. She introduced me to bok clemente and bartok. Through her i learned not just had a play the right note at the right time. But how to play expressively. Discovered a special secret and making music became more exciting than ever. Same time in the meridian idaho school district there was no string orchestra program so i had nowhere to play the violin aside from playing alone in my own room and i was much too social for that. My thought process went something like this. They can't get me out of music that easily. I'll just take choir. Despite my previous musical training i soon discovered that i couldn't carry a tune the girl next to me inquire woodpoint. A little higher or lower to help me find the right note. Overtime and with lots of work i learn to match pitch and sing in tune. Mostly i had a wonderful and inspiring choir teacher the same as mr higginson and he changed my life. Mr higginson inspired me to be the best musician and human i was capable of being there was just. When it came to choir i was hooked. Junior high and high school i have wonderful musical experiences i continue taking piano lessons and began teaching piano at 14. School in church ensembles my senior year to music conservatory after graduation i also. Those two concepts weren't necessarily mutually exclusive but i had been raised in the lds or the mormons face. That is a woman getting married and raising a family. I wanted to do the right thing. University institution for higher learning in the fall of 1984. Just for me. Not realizing i've been a big fish in a small pond at meridian high school. Despite my previous choir experience i've never taken voice lessons encouraging she said she she told me i would never be able to. I was crushed. I continue taking general courses but i drifted. Around this time i met a guy. We were complete. Unsuitable for each other 18. Hormonal and lacking wisdom i married him within five months of our first date. Young and hopeful i dutifully followed him to reser force base in lubbock texas. I then stayed home to be a full-time wife and mother and volunteered. As an organist at children's music leader and choir director for the various lps congregations i attended this gave me a lot of musical experience but i still had much to learn. With a 1991 reduction in forces we came to be airforce refugees living in. Melinda younger daughter was born during this tumultuous marital issues that have been shoved down for many years eventually rose to the surface. In 1999 my marriage came to an end. I knew i had to find a way to support myself and my daughters. And i did not want to drag myself everyday to a meaningless job. I wanted to do something that i would be excited about. Every morning when i woke up. After all the church choirs i had directed at my own school choir experience. I was afraid i would be why you did not have the right stuff. I entered the music program my voice teacher at bsu dr. christopher rains also heard that funny something in my voice. Upon examination the doctor said something along these lines the good news is you don't have no switches scar tissue on your vocal folds the bad news is that one of your vocal folds is paralyzed because of this your. And this damage probably occurred during the many surgeries on your trachea when you were an infant. And his doctrines like to say well you'll just sing with wenzel cord tied behind your back. And when this news reached boise state. There was talk that i would have to leave the program or switch to piano and dr mains knowing how determined i was felt that my voice and shown improvement in the short time you've worked with me and it only stood to reason that i would continue to improve so i was allowed to stay on. After three years of intense i was able to complete the requirement for graduation. Wella full-time music student i continue to care for my two daughters teach piano lessons and try to bring a year-long highly contested divorce to a peaceful conclusion. The religion of my youth was no longer functioning for me in a positive way. With the lgs emphasis on eternal families as a divorced single mother. In my growing search for truth about mormonism and christianity. I began to read and i read and i read. I learn science information that made it impossible for me to continue in good faith as a member of the lds church. I was also having soul expanding experiences through music. I felt the holy spirit. As i listen to gorecki third symphony randall thompson's. Ye shall have a song with the psu meistersingers. My sense of god and the universe were expanding leaving me lds church is not something one does lightly it was a painful and slow wrenching process one that broke my parents. And place the chasm between me and my daughters. I divide i have still not entirely figured out how to bridge. During my college voice lessons which awesome double this therapy sessions. It sounds like you might fit in with the unitarians. Consciously file.to information away. Despite all obstacles i graduated with a bachelor of music and education degree in may of 2002 and began my public teaching career in the nampa school district. During that time i missed belonging to a religious community one summer morning in 2004 i open the yellow pages looking for a church that would be flexible enough to respect my religious past. And embrace my speaking. I snuck in late and onto the back row. Here at the boise unitarian universalist fellowship. After singing the final him the woman seated next to me leaned over and without any preliminaries said. How come you're not in the choir. That woman was jeanette ross now very dear friends. I explained that i was a first-timer and i told her that actually that was what i did for a living. She informed me that a search committee was underway looking for choir director for this fellowship i went through. Tears after i began conducting the choir hear the choir director position at borah high school one of the top coral program. This new job opportunity came within a few days of being accepted into the master's program at cal state la. Also in choral conducting so when blessings rain they pour. David scott. Knowing him is expose me the whole new world of music that i might not know otherwise david loves to burn mix cds for me so he can as he would say inflict his musical taste on me. I promised that if he would burn cds for me. I would burn toast for him and burning in burning ridge about. What's happening in my life all of it good but way too much. My cup was so full it ran us over i needed to stop the flood. So i resigned my position at bora and requested a three-quarter elementary orchestra position to complement this reduction in public school teaching my role here expanded to include all music coordination and things to susan john and bob. Music maker. And i am a dreamer of dreams. Now enough about me what about you. Did you know that you yes you you are a walking breathing living musical instrument you are equipped and hardwired you have a body that comes stomp and snapping clap. Generating the simple rhythms of a nursery rhyme like pat-a-cake pat-a-cake baker's man. Let me try that again to delicate pieces of muscle tissue that can be altered in length intention to produce a variety of pitched sounds when speeches sustained it becomes song. Hello and because you are not made of wood you are a human wind you are a singer. You really are. Most people who think they can't sing or think they don't sing well think that because someone wants told them something like. You couldn't carry a tune if you are given a bucket. Or would you just quit that caterwauling. Really though you all have the wrong musical mystery. Or maybe a lot. I couldn't carry a tune until i was in my mid-teens. One can learn bottom-line every single one of you are a miraculous traveling musical instrument you're just walking and talking around. La-di-da. A voiceprint like your fingerprint. No one else can sound like you. Isn't that wonderful. Think of ray charles. Guitar. Beauty is in the ear of the listener and there's your voice beautiful in a way that. Now for something even more incredible. Imagine me telling you that i'm going to create a special sound system. Here's how it'll work. I'll take a few little teeny tiny bones that are in the air and the movement in this tube. Ever created. Would you believe me. Well that's what your ears do everyday. Ever wonder about the old question if someone cuts down a tree in a forest and no one is there to hear it. Does it make a sound. The answer to that is no the falling tree will create a vibration sound is only created in the mind. It really is all in your head. As if your ears. Can adi 8. What's a shin you may ask. Okay i want each of you to think of a favorite song. But it's jingle around in your head. Just as you can picture in your mind's eye the way you're living room at home looks visualization you can hear music in your mind's here that's audiation. It's your sound to recreate what you hear in your head. Connecting your vibrational environment to your ear to your mind and back to your body that makes you a marvelous musical instrument. Not only that but you respond to music. Physically intellectually emotionally and spiritually. Have you ever watched the baby in the stroller listening to a pop tune that baby will just pop up and down with some music. Or swaying to swan lake. Music. Probably more so if you had to sit through several semesters of music theory but you do. As you stand in an elevator you may think. This music is so. You make sure a new band instinct. Original. This music sounds like a combination of country. And the rap. Music makes you feel. Imagine watching jaws without the. Where's the power and the glory. Music is integral to memory the song remembers when we all have those specific. Beyond the stars where you are one with sound. That is all there is. And is more than enough. Music has the potential to connect us with divine mystery with something we can't really explain. But that is wonderful. Music maker. You are a dreamer of dreams. Now what about all of us collectively. Human artifacts dating back to antiquity include flutes made of bone and drums made of skin stretched over logs anthropologists and ethnomusicologist have discovered new culture or group of people that do not sing that do not play some sort of instrument. Musical genres. The specific cultural events such as funerals weddings different holidays etc. Whenever humans get together there is music. So to investigate music. To ask what music is and why we make it. Is to ask what it is to be human. As humans we have used music as a tool to come together in solidarity and strength. It resonates with our bodies our minds and our spirits causing a medium. Napoleon said. Give me control over he who shapes the music of a nation. And i care not who makes the laws. Music for dehumanizing propaganda and social conditioning think of the freedom songs of south africa which helped to end apartheid. Are songs from the peace rallies of the vietnam era. Music is a powerful communal force. Generations ago before the advent of television. Amateur coming from the word amateur which means lover so musical amateur would simply be a lover of music. Interesting industrialized areas there is no such differentiation there was once an american. I don't dance. Meaning he sells he lacked the expertise for a public display of his singing and dancing abilities. The villagers looked at him with confusion. What are you talkin about the insistence. You can talk you have legs singing and dancing to them with an expression of community. It was about the spirit the effort the participation not the know-how. We are human community should it be any different for us. Distinction between professional and amateur musicians especially. And boy do we consume according to a noted music neurologist and researcher. American spend more money on music on sex-related industries prescription drugs. And the thought of money. Now i don't mean to devalue recorded music i love listening to favorite cds. Something vital about our humanity is lost. What does this mean for us as a religious community. Music fuels action behind our face. When we come to sunday services and experience music as a community we might feel a sense of joyful purpose of sacred stillness and sometimes we completely lose ourselves in the sound. He's powerful emotions propel the work within our faith community of social action within the larger world. Opportunities for you to become more involved in the music of this place this sacred village. And religious tribe. Opportunities for you to make music as part of your spiritual practice of special concern to us as a community. Is our choir. With the number of people we have attending services each week we really should have a choir of about 30 to 40 people about twice the size you normally see but before i go too far. I want to thank regularly. And. To those who participate when they are able. Real joy of choral music. Is found being choir. Not just listening to it. My musical choices are limited to come regularly if we had a choir of 30 to 40. The music we could make. We could raise the roof. You'll find a music survey in your order of service today. Please before you leave take a few minutes to fill it out. And there is a basket over there with a sign. And there i think. Moved. And greater music. Within this community. This is not a place for segregating amateur and professional musicians this is a place. For human beings makers of music hall. True there are certain instances when it's helpful to have someone who's trained on the piano to help play the hymns but there is so much more to music than that. When it's time to sing well. We can talk. Then let us sing. Do we feel an urge to move. We are not fence post. Let us dance. You can feel it all over. Let music wash over dissolves and bind us. Music makers. And we are dreamers of dreams.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20091213.mp3

Winter stars. I went out at night alone the young blood flowing beyond the sea seem to have drenched my spirits wings. I bore my sorrow heavily. But when i lifted up my head from shadow shaking on the snow. I saw orion in the east. Burn steadily as long ago. From windows in my father's house dreaming my dreams on winter's night. I want a ryan as a girl above another cities lives. Years ago. Dreams go. And use goes to. The world's heartbreaks beneath its wars. All things are changed save in the east. Did faithful beauty of the stars. The feast of lights hanukkah. Kindle the taper. Like the steadfast star. Ablaze on evenings forehead. Or the earth. Haddad each night of worcester. Telephone for and eight.. Clash israel the symbols. Brass trumpet. And the harsh tongue. Chance sounds of victory heartache fire maccabee and spirits. Newborn. This poem is. Part of the world. Which is miracles that always mark heroes birth. In this night. By dorothy zillow. In this night. The stars left their habitual places and kindled wildfire tidings the spreads. Foxes left their warm burroughs liberation. This is the end revolution. Roses.. And began to bloom in the snow. For so the children come. And so they have been coming. Always. In the same way they come. Born of the seed of man and woman. No angels harold their beginnings. No prophets predict their future courses. No wise men see a star to show where to find the babe that will save humankind. Yet each night a child is born is a holy night. Fathers and mothers sitting beside children's cribs field laurie. In the site of a new life. Beginning. They asked. Where and how will this new life and. Or will it ever end. Each knife. A child is born. Is a holy night. A time for singing. The time for wondering. A time for worship. Sure on this shining night by james agee. Sure on this shining night. A star made shadows round. Kindness must watch for me this side the ground. The late year lies down the north. All is healed. All is help. High summer holds the earth. Hearts all whole. On this shining night. I weep for wonder. Laundry far alone of shadows. Anna stars. Kohl's. Crystal knife. We stand beneath the stars unfeeling. Our spirits. Wings. So much. We are weary. It seems that youngblood his always always being still beyond the sea. The newborns are we eating and loves to dwell with her. The shard so far above us. The pain. And pay the rest. And tragedy. Of the human world. We shiver with our aloneness in a coal and incomprehensible. Adidas brass springs icy air into our bodies and we are.. Prison. Too cold. Pain. And regrets. Our battered parts. Pray. 4 piece. Something stirs. Without denying the office. Distasteful. Beauty. Are we called lying on our backs on warm summer nights. In the rural california of my childhood. Staggering stars overhead the milky way twice river above no human illumination anywhere. Dim the lights. Of our cosmic. Home. Withdrawal constellations. Real and imagined. To see if the. Could find in the sky. The constellation being poked into her tummy. We hardly ever figured it out. And in the winter on christmas eve we always sing. And we always look for. The star of bethlehem. Weather clouds were covering our view or not. Had we on those nights. Stop with the lonely. Sojourner. In our little story in the beginning. We would have put an arm around his shoulder. And invited him in for the coco that special tree. We always look forward to before christmas eve. A finding the lost. Of healing the broke. Obscuring the music. Moving to a mystery. Does not. With us. Feeling ourselves a cherished part of this amazing universe. Open the stopwatch. Famous shepherds. How are clogged ears. Focused inward. Start to hear new slogans like. Peace on earth. Goodwill to all. 4. Arrive. 4life. Love interest. And let's our souls grow into joyful awareness of light. Love. And bring that attitude. For a world. That is still. Coors light. Every. Year. And gratitude for the stories that warmer. Asian courageous spirit spreading hate folds slender above the earth. Newborn. Sure. Shining knife. Tydus. Watches. In the midst of brokenness. Appealing. And our hearts. Our home. So sometimes wandering far alone. May we always. For wonder. The wonder of light. And each other. Which is always. Play we go forth. Knowing that we sometimes wander alone. The things are always at least somewhat broken. And maybe know also that we are not alone. That we are held. In the greatest lovzar is. Each other. Shining knife. And in these shining day.

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BUUF-sermon-20090517.mp3

Sometimes about. How often i say. Well if you're know this isn't exactly a normal regular service like i said month. This is. The third sunday in may when we have our annual meeting and the minister. Speaks about. State. You. More about us than ordinarily would. If i spoke the term beloved community to you. Would it ring any bells. We are on the national unitarian universalist association or a board use that term this last year informing our large value statement. We found that people who hurt it. Kennedy either simply puzzled by it or kind of annoyed that we were using such overblown language. Two-story fleet important. It can be presently important it can be an aspiration bringing the hope of reconciliation and separation. Beloved. Community. What the phrase to sink in for a moon. Martin luther king junior has spoken most often and compellingly about it. In the early 20th century in the fellowship of reconciliation. Over and over king spoke. Of non-violence a difficult. And generous way of being. That operates from an earthly of god selfless love for creation. Conflict in life. Can you believe the conflict could be resolved peacefully and adversaries could be reconciled through a mutual determined commitment to nonviolence. We're talking about spiritual emotional and mental non-violence as well. No conflict he believed need erupt in violence at all conflicts in the beloved community should end with reconciliation of adversaries cooperating together in a spirit of friendship and goodwill. Hi. Idealistic incredibly spiritual goals. Think about a time. When you have felt oppressed. Sean. Disrespected. Endangered or attacked. Within an organization you believe in or in the larger world maybe your family. Did the idea of loving your neighbor which is the foundation of a locked community even enter your mind. At least for a good while. Certainly not mine. And it doesn't have to be a matter of huge importance or high feelings either i like the cartoon. In the most recent new york. Sitting in an office and wednesday to the other. Sometimes i think the collaborative process would work better without you. Can i bring a couple of reasons to see our fellowship and reflect on how that would look. For a church of individuals seeking nurture and inspiration. A church that aspires to make the outside world. The second reason what's going on. This is a complex year. And it's hard to make tidy statement about. The vast majority of you have not been involved in. You may be thinking about the incredible music we've enjoyed this year especially our new house band being human. Spirited energy. Other worship services at we conceal as we speak. You may be thinking of the open arms welcome the we are finally offering newcomers or the warm comradeship of my 20th anniversary party and the stewardship.. Are renewed social justice activities of all kinds you might be thinking about are all inspiring using children and all the people that work with them. Speaking about the congregational it forward program and in-house food pantry that helps take care of her own. I hope. A lot of you. Are puzzled by my talking about conflict. And our thinking cap away. Of all those very real and foundational parts. Of this religion. At the same time. Take my word for it. There has been a lot of times. And let the people know about like a discussion about the proposed. Some of it has been. The majority of it has been quite private involving only a couple or a few people feelings running very high. And speaking is pretty much the only person who's been closed all of it i feel a lot of hyper emotionality going on. I also need to know that. I myself. Especially since some of the feelings have been directed against. But even if they had. I feel community stresses and fractures very vividly. I've been here for 21 years. I'm grateful so grateful for this opportunity. When i can step back and i can look at the whole picture which is actually fine. What else is new. But it is just. Let me tell you what i think is going on. We are community in the middle of major change much of an organizational and change simply brings bread. People respond unpredictable and sometimes and out-of-character ways to stress. We have an amazing back of leaders this year. The board. Committee chair the members task force leaders and participants. They have worked like troop. On projects large and small. I'm just going to list a few. There was an urgent. Astonishingly successful stewardship drive in the fall to make up an impossible. Humanely and efficiently than any in recent memory. Sticker shock from our well-advised purchase of additional acreage joining our 4 + original we have a larger mortgage. The presence of are you a consultant laurie wheeler urging us to more and more businesslike practices. Admission process asking for participation. Hiring of a new director of religious education which is was a complex process especially with me gone so i can have last year. We hire excellent. And we had to say no. Unprecedented bylaws revision process. The creation of a much-needed reorganization of how we do our work and when it's implemented it'll allow for much better understanding and collaboration. Way clear understanding. I can tell by just looking your eyes are starting to glades my flight. These are great. These are projects that are bringing and will bring it to much better place if we get the organizational stuff in a better place. I'm here to tell you the minister's life is going to be. At the same time. It's not the most exciting stuff emerging in some hearts and minds. Below the surface or on occasionally. Questions bubble up. Things like. Are we all about money will they ever stop at. Where do my spiritual needs come in with all this reorganization and push for change. Happy here the way it is. Will i be. Yeah bro. Will i be left behind as all of these enthusiastic. I'm tired of business why i. Where's the spirituality. Where's the leadership. In relationship. When people. Are feeling such questions they get. They can react harshly when they might just over if they were feeling comfortable. Some of our visionary spectacularly are feeling overworked and underappreciated so they are also on the sensitive side. They are perfectly capable of responding if they were feeling more stable. Tell him about the uproars and the emotional he said. Constellate irrationality. We are in right now. Dynamic. Reaching out. Fun. Welcoming. Intergenerational creative hardworking friendly a congregation bursting with great energy. And. Overworked. Confused upset. Belligerent. Feeling really hurt and unwilling to conceive. What then. Are we to do. What time is any community in such a situation to do. Well the first in the simplest thing is to take a deep breath. Where we are. We don't have to be. We certainly don't have to make global statements about failure. And we can change it if we want. Simple but not easy things. Is to remember that every person here. Long timer. Newcomer whoever. It's the same. We want to create. Maintain and lou. In a beloved community. We want to be in a place. Where the vision of the fellowship of reconciliation is practiced. Or the words of its vision statement. Differences are respected. Conflicts are addressed non-violently. Oppressive structures are dismantled. And people live in harmony with the earth. Nurture. Spiritual traditions that nurture compassion. Solidarity. And reconciliation. It takes. Everyone. And or behavior. Let's look at how we fit into the whole picture. If we are happy campers. Can we look around for somebody having a hard time and helping out on the back. If we are defending or a. Can we find the hurt behind the anger and face it humbly. Without defense or wish to attack. Can we all reach into our souls. Whether they're feeling joyous. Or better. And contact our spiritual selves. Take a deep breath. Feeling your heart. The love you have a deep love you have for someone or something. Let that love be felt in your gut. Let it be felt in your head. Breathe deeply. Let it be felt in such a way. That the idea of your love community. Is more than. And idealistic. Feel better. Different. Can we take a shower steve. Living. Community. Now. And into the future. What if we decide. Here in our church. To act according to the vision and the values of sesame street. Beloved community. They have a lot of fun and everybody's always learning. How you use that. Even more importantly people and monsters on sesame street behave out of love regardless of what is happening. There is an incredibly stupid. Aspiring magician who does tricks which are just dumb like. Magically appear. And please don't listen. Honestly. Indigent. Rosita succumbs to the temptation to try out. Operates as a solution is being worked out and rosita is also not spared her lesson. Elmo becomes almost to sperry because he thinks that gianna won't love him anymore and she has had her baby. Courage to speak to her even though he's really really mad at the baby. It includes. Like the monsters and the people on sesame street. We in this church. Or any other gathering of human beings are also palpable. There is reconciliation and redemption on sesame street worked out everyday in day-to-day life on certain street. What we have to do. Whatever the balance between stability or rocking us at a given time. We can do our level best. You act. From love. Whether we're delighted. Or discussed at a given time. We can look at our own hearts. And choose the directions. They have the best chance of creating more love. However happy or disgruntled we are at a given time. We can make the hard step. I'm looking at the big picture. Judging and acting. From a large view of this community. T.s. eliot speaks of humans as. Only undefeated. Because we have kept on trying. What deal of community looks like in practice. May we be park.

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BUUF-sermon-20080504.mp3

Good morning. Two things real quick first of all. I'm not ready by dan. Panda i'm really sorry about that we are very. Looking. Really looking forward to having him here and hopefully we'll have them in the near future. The second thing is the sermon i'm about to read is. Very wonderful so. Obviously i didn't write it. So we need to give credit to victoria weinstein. It's entitled they need to give. They need to give. By victoria weinstein. How is it with your soul. How is it with your church. How is it with your churches soul. Did you ever run into a local unitarian-universalist at the store at the beach or at a museum somewhere. Despot that stylus necklace or you recognize them from a conference or a local worship service and you get that sense of delight we all get when recognizing someone from our tribe. And you chat. How's everything. How are you doing. You going to general assembly. Did you hear about the thing they're having down at the thing. And are you marching. We're signing our church banner. And so on. Now if you're involved unitarian universalist and most of you are you didn't stumble in here by accident. You get emails like this. We're hosting an event and we like your support. And it's going to be here and at this time and we hope you'll come and bring lots of people and lots of money with you because it's really a good toss. Or from the district office. There's going to be a training to learn how to be friendly to people on sunday mornings please send a team of four at least four people from your sunday morning friendliness committee. Hope to see you there. And you dutifully sign up and you go. And you have done good work. But how often doing any of these interactions do any of us really turn to each other and say. How is it with your soul. How is it with your faith. Even toiling in the vineyards of your congregation for so many years now. Is your heart growing. And just your spirit expanding because of it. No workshops. No training no marching. Just spending a moment and spiritual connection with each other holding the other to the light of hope and strength. Connecting with the ancestors spirits. Getting back in touch with the social purpose of our religious life. Trusting. But whatever the theology of the person you are talking to. You are together and the unitarian universalist and ever. How we are here this morning to reflect on the stewardship of the 21st century church. It's a very sexy topic nowadays. And not just for you use. 21st century church. What will it look like. What do we need to do to be the hot stuff in the 21st century. Irish ranking. Are we growing. What new programs are you offering. How many people you got in the pews on sunday mornings and what percentage of your congregation would that be. Do we need new office software. How about a screen projector hands onto. Should we knock out all those and comfortable chairs and put in lazy boy recliners with wheels. Maybe. Or maybe we can consider the possibility that what most needs an upgrade in our congregations is our inside. So battered by the horrors of the 20th century and the mounting evidence that are super optimistic. View of humanity could stand some revision. We might consider that what babies are serious engagement today is not so much our technology but our theology. Now that we've realized that religious conflict and theological wranglers are hallmarks of this new century. And we like to have something thoughtful informed and you wants to contribute to the conversation. Maybe we considered we could consider that no matter what great innovations we may think up. The church still stands and always will stand for the eternal and the essential things which do not change all that much century to century. How to endure tragedy. How to be a force for the good. How to prepare for the inevitability of death. How to say truth. How to serve on a committee with relief irritating people. As we entered the 21st century church. It's all too easy to become unwittingly complicit with one of the greatest dehumanizing this the drives our culture today. That mess is the we are above all consumers and that as consumers we are best served when we are barrage by a dizzying variety of products and that our purpose in life is to choose from among those products based on purely individualistic eagle bass preferences. And that we should consume or use or join these products only to the extent that they please us and me our own personal needs. When we buy into this mythology pun intended. And it happens without are realizing it. We begin to regard everything around us as a product to consume. Everything becomes a shopping experience. We become consumers not only material goods but also relationships education travel experiences. Healthcare choices. And of course. Religious communities. The church of the 21st century must stand against this cultural sickness with all its might. Especially those churches that are located in the heart of middle-class suburban america. To whom this mythology has been most relentlessly promoted. With the most spiritually toxic and morally paralyzing results. So what do 21st century church speakers need. Let's begin with. They need not be treated as consumers of a product and audiology or social club but welcomed is human beings. Who has their own unique stories and their own destinies. They need to be invited to join forces with the health and community of people who are happily absorbed in the work of mutual ministry and who are devoutly committed to daily incarnating divine love in the world. Everywhere in the world. And who can abide in a mature and forbearing manner with real difference. Today's speakers to our congregations need to give. I need not be examined at the door to assure appropriate theological or political conformity. Or treated with smuggler insist that they are smart and sophisticated enough to be one of us. Nor should they be pandered to if they come damaged by the narcissism and entitlement instilled in them by this culture. If they come because they heard the unitarian universalism is a hospital for the religiously wounded. We should not expect to find in 10 years hence directing traffic from the stretchers in the parish hall still ranting about the abuse as they suffered from religious traditions long since abandoned. We should provide them opportunities to learn. To understand. To reconcile. Difficult to develop a life-giving personal theology for themselves and finally. To heal. We should not be afraid to tell them that this area of spiritual growth and reconciliation is not only encouraged. But that the church joyfully anticipates such healing for them. Stewardship of the 21st century is not about providing services and a superior product to consumers. It is about fostering worshipful hearts. And reverend souls. To love what the church represents so much that they begin to live their lives in accordance with its ideals. In this vision of stewardship. Churches are not afraid to have expectations of their members. Among them. But they will practice love and hospitality is their chief spiritual disciplines. But they will minister to and let themselves be ministered unto. That they will help when asked. But they will pledge generously to the church and that they will fulfill those pledges. But they will pray for think good thoughts about those who ask for their prayers. They will make themselves students of the religious and theological heritage of unitarianism and universalism. But they will make a choice on sunday mornings. Even if they can't carry a tune in a bucket. But they will consider no question too stupid to ask and learning how to participate in the democratic process. Or in leadership. But they will consider no congregational meeting to minor to attend. And then they will abide with all their hearts all their minds all their soul and all their strength by the covenant of the church. Unitarian universalism of the late twentieth century was largely defined by negations and a sense of terminal and isolating uniqueness. The goal now. His two walk together into a twenty-first-century unitarian-universalism that is defined by affirmations. Buy sense of fellowship with all people who seek meaning through religious community. And by a sense of high expectations. And limitless possibilities. I'm in. And almond.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20080914.mp3

Perhaps most of you know. And i am a recovering alcoholic. I stopped drinking in the summer of 1982. And thanks be to god have not had a drink. Making the transition. Chronic drunk person to. Habitually sober one. Was a watershed in my life. One of the biggest changes i have ever undergone. Is a turning. To something new. A death. Is ironically a constant in human life. Transition. Is the process of truly getting from one place. Tuva different one. The transformation if you will. And it always accompanies change. William bridges is a highly respected change guru for decades. It isn't the changes that do you win it's a transition. Transitions involve grease. Even if the old way needed to be gone. It involves a significant time of not. Knowing. If we try to avoid usually painful sting of not knowing. We increase our chances of doing harm. To ourselves and to others. Change and transition. The possibility of transformation happened individual. Staffing two-family. They happened to schools and businesses and they happen. Teachers. I remember as an aside. One of our new junior high kids when he was little. When home saying that is so dumb singing don't be afraid of something don't be afraid of a few old quarters anyway but we actually are afraid of. Let me reflect for a minute. On the transitions my transition into sobriety and some of the things that i learn. About long-term king. During my first two or three years of sobriety i found myself. Experiencing identity can. Embossed absurdity. I was incredibly glad to be sober. How could i possibly feel regret losing such a painful and destructive behavior. Nevermind. That alcohol abuse had been a friend for years. Albeit. My arm is millard grief. Made me unaccountably sad part of the time even depressed. I discovered in myself and increased tendency to get crabby with others. Blame them for whatever i was just satisfied about. I was making goal-oriented major changes at that time like getting ready to go to seminary. So i convinced myself that i was in no way confused about who i what. Bridges causes. The neutral zone. The often unacknowledged stage that comes after the death represented by the actual twins. Religious traditions refer to the dark night of the soul. Woodsfield to me. A much more. Acura. Description. The cast of the so-called neutral zones often feels just like that. Use the time when nothing is clear. We have to live with the fact that nothing is clear. Ancient cultures bridges points out. They knew that ritual. Emptiness. And the acceptance of not knowing. Are vital parts. A change in the life of an individual or a group. Are we modern westerners are more likely to create project. Charge through them making as little as possible of the fact that we are in a confusing and dark place. It is very difficult. To simply accept. That we do not know. Who we are becoming. To accept the transformation comes at the price of. Surrender. I did a pretty poor job. I'm living in the neutral zone after i began my life of sobriety almost always choosing the familiarity of external activity. I ran around really bad. In the vain hope. Figuratively outrun my discomfort. I impose my will. On my high school students and anyone else who would sit still for. Following familiar patterns in my life and these are patterns that are risen up. Over and over. I mean by no means to imply that i have work. I paid lots of attention. To the controlling urges of my eagle. And i paid lil. To that still small voice of the unconscious. That sneaky critter. Which manifests itself in all kinds of non-rational way. The 11th. Have the 12 steps of alcoholics anonymous was important to me. Thought through prayer and meditation. To increase my constant contact with god as i understood god. Only for knowledge of god's will for us. And the power to carry that. Now had i interpreted it. Thule humble unknowing dark night of the soul lens. It could have helped me alot. At the time though i pretty much interpreted it to me. Get done in touch with god so i can always so then i could go out and do a whole bunch of stuff. Was not an auspicious attitude for transition. One of the few things i did that like my beauty girl. Integrating itself with the conscious part of the new me. With my dream group. One of the three of us. Praise be to her holy name which was beth israel in seattle. One of us was much more familiar and comfortable with silence. With ritual. With unexplained emotion. Acting out dreams. With deep spirit. She did not assure me. Of my old wicked ways. But she introduced me to my first intentional step. Into the dark. Blazing. Cheesing world. Avianca. Myseminary yours would be a topic for another sermon but let me just say this. In that atmosphere of spiritual exploration. The repressed chaos of transition caught up with me. Ultimately controlling and running and fighting did not work. For a lot of those three years. I experienced a darkness that sent me into therapy. I suffered unspeakable anxiety that activity did not cure. My marriage dissolved. Forced to live in the dark knight on its own terms. I did become transformed into a truly sober person. And i begin the transition. To becoming a menace. Let's look at another kind of transmission which is one that many of you may have undergone. Figuring out. Who you are religiously. After you have put aside. The religion of your path. I know we have some lights on you use here and people who are weird with no. Religion at all. But there are many of us who put aside a religion. I have a friend who was brought up as a mormon. And he still holds more memories of that face. But as she grew into adolescence and went to college uniden to entertain. She questioned the theology. As an emerging. He wasn't comfortable with the priesthood being reserved for males. Trollface genuinely honors. The keeping of a home and a rear-end children to be happy and honorable person. Church services. Which had brought her such joy and comfort to her life. Begin to feel confining. She developed a burgeoning interest in many religions many different spirituality. The actual change. Break. With her old tradition turning her back. Was deeply. Heroin. And her soul was wrong. And then he had a horrible work of transit. Work for which he was apparently constitutionally pretty well suited. She was in a dark night of the soul and she knew it. She was busy with her life. And she definitely does have that tendency to overdo z herself to do the suffering. But you didn't use it as a total excuse to get away from her paint i think she just couldn't. She still have the habit of prayer from her old face. And it did not deserve her. You had absolutely no idea who she was religiously or spiritually speaking. She took her tortured soul to trusted teachers. And advisors. Who had the good sense to do a lot of listening. One day one of them. You really ought to try the unitarian universalist church. Like what you saw but she wasn't comfortable with everything. Still not denying the gradually lessening pain of leaving a beloved home behind. Finding more and more joy. In bogota. To be a new home. Books. What does good old uu bibliotherapy. Deeply involved in local and national activities. In many ways she honored the awful discomfort of the allegedly neutral zone. Finding the transformation. Add a car. An innocent i'm. But it does come. Before we depart each other today on institutional change. Like. Change in our church. Larry has spoken to us briefly about what he sees as fundamental changes that we need to make. If we are to become. Completely what we want to be which is to say. A welcoming religious. That you're two souls and helps heal the world. Hannah lose sight of that. We have to get out of the weirdness that were in about finance or we'd rather discuss our sex life than the money that might be needed to support the truth. We have to develop systems and body in the truth that money is a green and silver form of energy. Spiritual energy that and we need only gift. What we can and will. There's a lot of talk about money right now just as it would be in your family if you were in a budget price. But you need not feel. We have to get better at letting new people know we're glad they're here and helping them become part of the place. I asked you do you ever on any sunday. Yes you are an established part of the church. Greet someone you don't know. Acura service. Before you say hello to friends or collectiveness. We need to know who we are. See the compelling vision that takes us where we want to be. We need to envision what we are in his place house from this magic property. We can shine our deacon and transform ourselves and the rest of the world. And we'd better get. Cranky. If we're going to do it on my watch was i really want us to do. I am not likely to serve as your minister too much longer than 5 years. My recent sabbatical has given me great energy. Spiritual strength. Anna paradoxical humility. Open to learning how i can best minister here. In these last half-dozen or fewer youth. Lame duck. Is not a phrase in my vocabulary. We are talking. About transitions. Tapped by the biggest change the church will have seen in about 25 years. We need to pay attention to our souls as we go through it. Look at what happened to me. When i try to make a major transition by scampering around on the surface of my project-oriented life. Circumstances conspire to break me down. Until i had. To the quantum range of the unconscious. The painful voice of transformation naming his own shirt. Look at the suffering my friend had to endure for several years. Tearing her hair and ringing her home. And she prayed and shared and despaired and yes. Moving and faith toward transformation. Look at any transition. In our own lives. Change. Divorce. Marriage. Children. Theological or philosophical break from our past. Moving losing loved ones new health illness. We can all think of men. At some point. In one or some of them did we fight or deny the pain. Did we someplace. Turn home ourselves of others because of our inability or unwillingness. To dwell with the process for as long as it took. Other times we have the generosity in the strength and the courage to let go. We are a mess. Turn to silence and ritual and patience patience and trusted teachers. At those time. Eagle helplessness. Paradoxically made it possible. To do the work we need to do together. One of the byproducts of. If we acknowledge it and face it and let me know we can do our work. The transitions best if we remember it's going to be uncomfortable in unpredictable ways. And acknowledge that fact early and often. I have taken a look at some church. Change books and there is always a bibliography at the end of my sermon. Any rabbit doctrinaire. Probably will help us in some of our planet. But it will help us much in the spiritual part of our transformation. Perhaps we can revisit aa 11th step and find health and inspiration. As opposed to how i did it 25 years ago. Thought to prayer and meditation. To increase our conscious contact with god as we understood god. Praying only for knowledge of god's will for us and the power to carry that out. So we can practice. Humble prayer or meditation whichever works for us regularly. Whatever our theological or philosophical outlook we can set aside and listen for leadings of our soul and spirit. Hard as it is. We can text the word power very lightly. Understanding that means strength and courage we game. My working in deluxe community with open hearts. We will need the courage to face our dark nights of the soul for what they are and go where they take us. We will be able to work together with cheer and goodwill because we simply accept. Transition. Takes its own sweet time. We will want to remind ourselves a lot. That we might not always be our best self. Then we can forgive ourselves. And others. And begin again in love. Over. Andover. Andover. We will need all the. We can muster. May is easter.

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BUUF-sermon-20091011.mp3

Coming out in middle school by ben's wapdam is a lewis an excerpt from the new york times magazine. Austin didn't know what to wear to his first gay dance last spring at the open arms youth project in tulsa oklahoma. It was bad enough that the gangly thirteen-year-old had to go without his boyfriend. A fourteen-year-old star athlete at another middle school. But there are also laundry issues. I don't have any clean clothes he complained. When i met him an hour later he had weather just wardrobe prices but was still a nervous wreck. I'm kind of scared you confess. Who am i going to talk to. I wish my boyfriend could come. But his boyfriend couldn't find anyone to give him a ride. Nor austin explained. Could his boyfriend asked his father 41. His dad would give him up for adoption if he knew he was gay. I'm serious. He has a strict to scariest dad ever. She has to date girls and act all tough so that people won't suspect. Austin doesn't have to play the pretend game as he calls it anymore. Edison middle school he has come out to his close friends who have been supportive. A few of his female friends responded that they were bisexual. He hadn't planned on coming out to his mom yet but she found out a week before the dance. I told my cousin my cousin phone is the other girl. She told her mother her mother told my mom and then my mom told me. The only person who really has a problem with it is my sister who keeps saying. Justifaiz. It's just a phase. I definitely lost some friends you said but no one really made fun of me or called me names probably because i was one of the most popular kids when i came out. I don't think i would have come out if i wasn't popular when i first realized i was gay. I just assumed i would hide it and be miserable for the rest of my life. But then i said wait i don't want to hide this and be miserable for my whole life. I asked him how old he was when he made that decision. 11b said. So many of us have known. People like austin in our readings. Who took their courage into their hands and came out. Who made the decision to move from hiding and be miserable to stepping out into society as their full selves. Who chose to let the world know their sexual orientation or choosing to live in a world with more danger in it. Then straight people. Kendall. Sometimes the danger is. Just. Losing some friends boston seems to accept as a matter of course. Sometimes the danger is. Just. Losing your family. Being disowned. And sometimes a dangerous just being fired from the job that you need in order to live. Sometimes the danger is just. You will have to listen. Too cruel and stupid jokes about who you are when in the company of people who assume that everyone in their hearing is straight. And sometimes the danger is. That you will be hurt. Or kill. I recall was talking to my old cousin tom 40-some years ago. He was in the navy. Matter-of-factly about what happened when a man at gym for sexual favors. Princeton in the face and knocked him down. And we all thought that that was just that was just part of how the world was. That was decades ago sure. Sexual sexual minorities is hardly unknown in the world today. Most recent diversity newspaper edited by a member of our congregation has a letter about jamaica. Which appears to be a hotbed of accepted violence against gays. Paper sets. Is 1997 a national has recorded murders. 35 gay men on the island. 32 incidents of violence directed have been recorded in the last 18 months. In many cases. The murders were followed by crowd celebration. Around mutilated by. Could be happening. In the 20th and the 21st centuries. Makes us heart clinic. But homophobia shows up in sadler ways to. When we entered the welcoming congregation program 10 years ago. A few of our members and friends were concerned. Afraid we would be seen as too radical. Or become. I gave church for men in public. Fortunately. We have all learned much and we are practicing in this area our commitment to human rights. We in the boise unitarian universalist fellowship. Are proud to be a safe home. Transgender and queer identified. We affirm the words and every single person and we support sexual minorities coming out of the closet. Equal participation in society. An interesting. Before the 1950s. The term coming out. Meant emerging into full potential. Not society-at-large. And after the 1960s and particularly the stonewall riots in new york in 69. The movement for full rights for lgbtq and coming out. Declaring oneself. An unashamed sexual minorities deserving no less and no more. The majority received. Today is coming out today. For the lgbtq community. At the same time i would like to explore some other coming out. Stafford by people in other minority groups like games in the color of their skin or the degree of their ability for their foreign language. Coming out as a sexual minority can be an incredibly difficult human project. And still can. Emerging. As a church community. We in the mainstream to ourselves to our higher powers and to each other. To encourage all people to declare themselves in there.. We owe it to our co-op hours in each other's most slow. To judge. An emergency it's very difficult for people is it change religious. Especially if we're moving out of us thinks about growing-up years into another one. One of our chalice circles is supporting a woman leaving the religion of her entire large family. She is suffering abuse. Shining. And well-meaning endeavors to persuade her that it is. Just a phase. She knows where her heart is leading her. She may have to leave. She very much. Needs loving support. We can handle this kind of coming out pretty well. How well do we handle the emergence of what made the move toward more. Conservative. I will make a bet. And some of the practices and beliefs of their original religious traditions conservative religions. Traditions to which some you use feel themselves superior. I'll tell you for a fact. Many of these people would rather admit to you unusual sexual practices than the fact that they pray. If we are to be a true religious liberal religious community we simply must accept all caster the holy. Those routes. Responsibility. Not to be projected upon our fellow travelers who allow the good from their past to read them forward. Into love. True religious and philosophical tolerance of our congregation. She's a leading light in the human is true. That meets once a month in this building that group has most atheist. Per capita than any other group. She encourages conversation about terminology. Jeanette is also a leading light in church women united. A group that describes itself as website. Christian fellowship prayer in the world. Jeanette's view. Is large embrace the good in a very broad range. A religion and philosophy and she never rolls her eyes. Or husky. Add another person. I wish we all acted like. There are other areas of twilight. If i talk about the next week. Reflect on your own private show. And see if you have it. Perhaps the most serious area of accepting others coming out in addition to the approach of mental health. Lots and lots and lots of people everywhere are on medicaid. For one psychological condition or another. Some aren't on medication. In any case mental health issues. So they labor in the closet under the same that are lgbtq. Main street. Hiding. Deeply important parts of themselves. Sometimes they act differently from other people. And sometimes are labeled weird. For sure. Or whispered about. When the labelers and the shutters and the whispers could be opening their heart. His or her own soul strength. I asked you if you have a clogged. Because sharing your minority self makes you feel bowling. There are several alcoholics anonymous members in our congregation. For some people. Who we are. Remembering the shame and the pain. Ivar acted alcoholism. Feels too dangerous for them to share. We have members and friends hiding the learn shame of childhood sexual abuse. People struggling with infidelity. And other intimate relationship. I'm personally. Have stayed at least partly in the closet. About what we in my family. Find leak all my activities. You use have a historical value over the spiritual and emotional. And i have is very very active. Spiritual and emotional life. I record discuss and analyze my dreams. I received acupuncture and energy work. I can write active imagination journals worn-out with soul. In my normal walking around regular waking life i am quite capable. I'm intense psychic imaginings like waking dreams. From which i derive inspiration and comfort. And when you're talking with me. I sometimes. Completely. Buy a psychic fire. That upholds me. And calls me. I feel that trickle of discomfort. Having many snares and supposed jokes. In this area. I tumble into wanting to talk to justify myself. Desperately. Just letting you know who i am. It's partly because i'm more comfortable and. Also what are you going to do. More importantly. We. Jason has actually gotten a lot better. Add accepting the minority steps. We seldom sneer. We tend to move toward the weird person some of it anyway rather than rush into the other room to god. We respect people with the strength and the courage to practice 12-step program. Lots of us are genuinely okay. And we hardly even notice. When we acting this accepting way we are usually unconscious causes of majoritarianism. We take the courageous steps to a genuinely embracing the different minority even if. Especially if we recognize prejudice within ourselves. Respond that little closet with in our own hearts and soul. The park will be dangerous to be our true selves. And we can reach out to others. Because we know. Coming out as risky. But it does make love. More. And once we've done that were in a position to really go in the world. The folks who face daily inconvenience disrespect. Now that we're taking our hearts into feeling responsible for those who are on the receiving end of injustice. You don't have to worry much about prejudice against yourself. Your brother or sister suffering mental health problems may face that prejudice and you can help. You can examine yourself. And then move to befriend. The bipolar or schizophrenic person who makes. You can support the national alliance for the mentally ill. You can speak out about the importance of honoring all humans including those who struggle. And you can be part of a religious community. Find my lg. Just because. So i can support this churches welcoming congregation. I can come i can join. And i can speak out. Clearly and confidently and passionately. Declaring okay. The normal life. Most of us have them. In which we keep our skeletons. Things that we find hard to share. Understanding. We can embrace our fellow human beings. And most of us have chosen closets. Closets of diamonds and passivity. We would rather stay in those instead only. In support of systemic justice for minorities. With whom we need to be in solidarity. Let's. Open those doors. Let's look around. At our neighbors here. In this place. Where our souls may be nurtured. And then let us speak up. Loudly.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20100530.mp3

Good morning. You may be wondering if there's any connection between the talking heads and an ancient chinese story. And i hope there is. This is the time of year when we remember those people who have shaped our world. And shaped our lives. We remember the events the triumphs and failures that have shaped our world. This story of events and people. Is how we write the history of our lives. And discern the meaning of our lives. But i find myself uncertain. Of how to edit my history. And how do understand my histories meaning. My mother's father moved to idaho to work on the union pacific railroad. The family lived in king hill idaho. Small town at the top of a very long uphill section of railroad track. My mom went to king hill high school. My father's family came to idaho is part of the mormon expansion of the 19th century. Harold reid and marge blue and married. And spent the war years in stibnite idaho. It was a mining town near yellow pine. During wwii stibnite was a much-needed source of tungsten. For the military effort. My father was a heavy equipment mechanic. He kept the mining equipment running. He was an outdoorsman a hunter. I have old photos of successful hunts. Mountain lion deer and bear. Mom's parents moved to boise still with the railroad after the war. My parents spend some time in washington i was born in yakima. And we moved to boise. My father got a job working at the big lumber mill out at barber. Outdoor the shakespeare festival is now. On october 23rd 1951 he was driving to work. And was involved in an accident with a logging truck. I was 13 months old. I have no memories of my father. My mom had to figure out how to be a single parent and head of household. We lived with my aunt and uncle for a while. I remember that. And then we moved into my grandparents and that became our families home. I think it was the very first summer in that house when i met pat. A boy my age. He lived in a house a block down the street on the other side of the canal. He would become my best friend all the way through grade school junior high and high school. His mom was a single mom also. I don't know how or why they chose that house. Maybe it was just available or. Maybe his mom like the color of the kitchen paint. Or maybe that's where they lived before his father wasn't there anymore i don't know. I was a good student i was smart and i learned to read early. With my september birth date i was usually the youngest kid in my class. And because of that. One of the smallest boys. I was not athletically gifted. That was. He could play any sport and play it well. I loved science and snakes. In the fifth grade boiseschools started a gifted and talented program. I was one of two students in my school selected for possible inclusion. My mom did not sign me up for the program because she didn't want to separate me from my friends. Can i play games swam in the ride and vodka. We survived grade school. One summer maybe 8th grade. We built a small boat from plans and popular mechanics. I found a small outboard motor somewhere and we put the boat into the canal and went upstream all the way to the starting point at barber diversion dam. We flipped the boat coming back downstream under a bridge with almost no overhead clearance. And drifted all the way back home. Once again we survived. The summer after 9th grade was driver's education it was a good summer. My mom didn't drive. So we we bought my grandparents old ford and i became the family driver. That summer pat and i went to a birthday party. For alan a friend of ours. There were girls at the party. One of them ginger like me. She was about to start at boise high. I was starting at bora. But i had a car. High school was okay. Having a girlfriend at another school saved me from a lot of social drama which was good because i was still a science geek. And i still hung out. That's next door neighbor was a mechanic and a car nut who raced cars at meridian speedway. His garage was a real guy place to hang out. He had a new corvette. Anna chevelle 396 that was quite modified. One summer day he let pat borrow the chevelle. We went cruising around boise to 16 year old boys and 425 horsepower. Once again we survived. I had to british cars a 1963 land rover and a 1960 triumph tr3. The land rover was big and tall the tr3 was so low that you could reach out over the low-cut doors and almost touch the ground. One night i was driving to ginger's house in the north end. At an unmarked intersection i was on the right and a large oldsmobile came through the intersection of smashed into me. In the tr3. The tr3 was a wreck but i was okay. I had purchased and installed seat belts. Immature 03. They weren't standard in any car in 1960. I survived high school. No one got pregnant i graduated. And sometime that summer was the last time i saw or heard from pat. I enrolled at boise state college and ended up in the theater department. Why did a science geek end up in the theater department. Ginger. I'm sure i'm still the only boise state theater major whoever took a year of physics as my science elective. I was out of high school so i could let my hair grow shoulder-length. And my mustache is now 42 years old. In 1971 ginger and i broke girls until the start of another school year. No one got pregnant. Not september there was a cute freshman girl in the theater department. Her name was gwen. She had graduated a year early from high school. She was smart and cute. And 17 years old. We dated until she graduated. We got married and moved to san francisco. She started graduate school first then i started we both got jobs. We graduated she got pregnant we had a daughter we bought a house. And then we move back to boise. Gwen had grown up in the boise uu fellowship. We had been married by jim tompkins. When we return to boise we started attending boof. She got a job we bought a house i got a job. A few years later booth members vernon and mary jones. Removing into assisted living. And they donated their car to the fellowship. I bought the car from both and drove it to and from work. One morning. The pickup truck. Ran through a stop sign came into the intersection just ahead of me. We had a collision. This is a good place to stop. So what is the purpose of this little life history what is the meaning of these events. I find myself thinking of the story of the chinese man whose horse ran away. Have these events been blessings or disasters. When i had that collision in vernon and mary's little car. The front of my car hit. The driver's door of the pickup truck and my car was gently deflected to the side. The pickup truck lifted up into the air and went half a block before it stopped. But there were no injuries. If i had been. Two-tenths of a second earlier into the intersection. That would have been 8.8 feet further. The kinetic energy of the pickup truck would have transferred into that small car. At the least i would have been tossed down hard. Into the passenger seat. It probably wouldn't have killed me. But it might have caused permanent injuries. Had i been two-tenths of a second slower. The pickup truck with a slash through the intersection just inches ahead of me no contact no accident. Nothing. Two-tenths of a second. How many things in my life could have been different. You thought i was making a joke when i said no one got pregnant. But some of you thought it was a joke. On so many occasions my life could have been radically changed. I would not be watching our daughter down the aisle at her wedding next week without gwen. Without ginger i would not have met quinn. Without island i would not have met ginger. Without pad i would not have met alan. If my mom and i had not moved into my grandparents house i would not. And we wouldn't not have moved into my grandparents house if my father had not died. And there it is the troubling realization. I would not be here today if there had not. Been a terrible accident on october 23rd 1951. I might be somewhere else. But i wouldn't have this life. And even if by some alternative circumstances i still ended up in boise. And still found my way here. I wouldn't be me. Not this me. I find myself thinking of the story of the chinese man whose horse ran away. Have these events been blessings or disasters. If my father's death was not a disaster than what is. And if it was a disaster than what of this. Life that it has brought into being. Do i regret this life because it is not what it should have been. Or do i celebrate this life for what it is. How do i put a label on this life. Is it even possible. And this is just the local perspective what about the big picture what about the universe god and creation. I'll skip the first 13 billion years. You know that story suddenly there was light and then space and time. We'll just go a little way back into the earth's history. Many scientists believe the giant asteroid struck the earth 65 million years ago. Creating a massive dust cloud that blocked the sun chilled the earth. Cause the extinction of 70% of the species on the planet. And ended the age of dinosaurs. Was this a disaster. Not for the furry little mammals who survived and inherited and earth. Free of dinosaurs. 64 million years later. Creation shaped those furry little mammals. Into hominid primates. If you had asked me two years ago or even two months ago. What is my ancestry. I would have probably told you that my people come from tanzania. Isn't that in africa. Oh yes. My ancestors came from the olduvai gorge about 200,000 years ago. It's kind of a smartass answer but it's anthropologically correct. But just this month. Due to ongoing research on the human genome. I've had to reconsider my ancestry. For those of us of european ancestry. The story may now be something like this. My ancestors migrated up from africa into the middle east about 65,000 years ago and they. Well. The polite word would be commingled. With the local neanderthals. Between 1 and 4% of european human dna. Is now believed to be a neanderthal origin. So why would be mixed race. And what about my blue eyes. Again genetic research tells us that until 10,000 years ago. No human had blue eyes. One baby was born probably in eastern europe. With a genetic mutation that gave rise to all the people in europe with blue eyes. This mutation may also be linked to light skin color. So that would make me a. Mutant eastern european of mixed race. This should give the aryan nation something to think about master race or mutant biracial bulgarians does it matter. This is what we do isn't it. We try to understand the meaning of things. Kurt vonnegut jr created a character of prophet named buckhannon. Who offers us these words of wisdom. Tiger got to hunt man got to sit and wonder why why why. Tiger got to sleep bird got to land. Man got to tell himself he understand. We are the only animal. What can i ask. What are we what does life. Mean. And it's not just. That we can ask it's that we must ask. We just can't live in the present moment like the other animals. We have to make a conscious effort to do that learn to meditate practice mindfulness. Dogs do this without any effort. We can't. We get so tangled up in me is this a blessing will that be a disaster. We fight wars over meaning. If humans make meaning. What about god. Did god think. That that asteroid collision was a disaster. What about automobile collisions. Does the spirit in which we live and breathe and have our being. Pass judgment when someone gets pregnant. I think not. I believe the creation seas. Neither disaster nor blessing. Only opportunity. To our discomfort. Chaos and conflict are the wings that left creation creation sore. Creation rejoices. With every birth and every death. With every sunrise. And every sunset. And with every season. Zen master kookai tells us. A hand moves and the fires whirling takes different shapes. All things change when we do. The first word. Blossomed into all others. Each of them is true. He tells us every movement of our hand and the universe changes. Every event leads into others and they are all. True. Each of them is true. Blessings can become disasters. Which can then. Transform into blessings. The changes neverending. And the mystery is forever unrevealing. So what shall i do. Today i will try to put aside. The endless search for meaning. Today i will try to embrace what is true. I will ask for this gift. In the simple words of barbara kingsolver. Let me be a good animal today.

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BUUF-sermon-20080413.mp3

This is really about. A conversation. It's about being able to speak to one another. In a genuine. Conversation. And how have you ever noticed that. Sometimes in the conversation. What i tried to say inside of me and what i'm trying to get across. Do what's inside of you. Have trouble getting through all of the stuff. So much so that it's happened to me. That i start singing my song. And it's not in the right. He. And people. Get up and walk out. That's never happened to you. I'm sure. We've always. Known that. Any things that i have to say is worth everything. So you just need to listen really hard. And pay attention. You know what it falls apart sometimes. And there's all kinds of reasons why falls apart. You know each of us has our own song inside of us. You may not even know how that song goes but there's a song inside of you and inside of me and when we get together whether we get together one on one. And try to have a conversation or whether we get together in community in the community of faith right here. What we really want to do. Even if we don't realize it is to sing that song. Just somehow weather lets that melody which is who i am as a real authentic. Human being. Not a human being who seems like something. But an authentic human being. What i really want. And what i think the community of faith offers is a place. Where we can sing our song. We can't let that melody come out of us. So the only question is. How do you get it from here. To bear. Cuz you know there is a gulf in between us. There is a space in between us how is it that what is inside of me. Will somehow crossover that go. Crossover that chasm. Any answer what is inside of you. So we're talking about a couple things here. As we talk of a conversation. What they were talking about is lovers. Cuz it's something. That happens in my theory. In that space of being together. There is a. Between. There is a between. If that space which is between. Me. And you. It's a space that we recognize exist. In. All true religion happens in that between i think. My friend theory. It happens between you and me. He doesn't happen in me. Or in you it doesn't happen in the trees or the stars or the ocean with which we commune with. It happens between you and me and between me and the earth and between me and the stars and even between me and god it's that between this. And i think that when it comes to religion i'm not worth 2 cents without you. Without. Someone else to connect to. Other person authentic person some other song which is residing deep inside of you. I can't do that by myself i can't have true religion by myself religion religion is in the meeting it's hits when we come together. This happened even out of the desert playing. When the jews were carrying or the hebrews were carrying around the ark of the covenant may build a temple. And it was the meeting of yahweh. And the people. That made. The covenant real. Among those people. And it's still true today. What i am all that i am my history my essence my face. Meet you and all that you are your history your essence in your face. And we come together. And. Magic hat. Imagine magic happen if there's there's almost on a rhotic energy in fact i call i called this the energy of eros the god eros. Which flows between us when true conversation take place there's something magical there's something eat energizing there's something that makes me want to blossom into joy i think true joy happens when the meeting take place. And when the conversation is going. Install the crown that we stand on in this conversation is holy ground we should take off our shoes as moses did standing before the. The burning bush. Take the ground is holy what is happening here the communion between. Individuals with individuals with god being the divine spirit which makes it all happen it's in the meeting it's a holy place. The in the old temples they would take off their shoes and they would dress in different outfits. Because where they were was holy ground. The location of. The magic. When the conversation take place. Where two or three are gathered. Jesus ad. I will be in the midst of than the spirit of the divine will be in the midst. Of them. Among. Them. And i think the spirit out the divine. It's in that space between us. When i was a professional musician. Traveling around the world with all kinds of bands and playing a lot of different kind of music and meeting all kinds of people and in your the situation when you're a singer or performer. There's a go. Between. The singer and the healer. There's a go. Adult between fsnn as a singer. My job was something like bringing out of me bring you the song out of me and throwing it across the land into the next person to enter that person to go inside and touch that person's heart. And i found out in my musical experience. That sometimes the words had nothing to do with it and it finally dawned on me one day when people were not hearing what the word for but there was something happening. That is the experience of the conversation. You can't even describe that in so many ways but it's the experience of communion. The people who believe in the communion right in the liturgical churches christian churches. Cannot really explain what's going on there. They can theorize about it making talk about it but there's something that transcends the words it goes beyond the words and even perhaps beyond the intellect. The make the act of communion a. And experience. And i believe it's a conversation. Between. Humanity and the divine. The kingdom. Is within and among you. We have heard. It's not hearing me. If not there in you. It is among us. And it is within us. With the world. John coltrane. The great jazz musician. One day was asked. If they if he is if he could show them. On the manuscript of the music that he was playing. If he could show them where the soul was. On the page. Where is the soul is it written down in those little black notes is it written down in a 380 338. Is it there because there's a rest there. Where is it written that the soul of music. Devon the page. And he said it's not there. It's not written down there. Cut the salt in music doesn't come from the notes. He doesn't come from the staff. He doesn't come from all those markings you see all over everything. It doesn't come from the notes it comes from the spaces between the notes. The spaces. Between the notes that's where the soul is. That's where the divine is. And that's where god is in our conversations that we have. It happens between us. It happens. The divinity comes. And it's a mystery that happens through faith. We have come to this place. Where are we. Allowed. For the space. So that there can be a communion to take place. And it's. Because we trust in that. We believe in that we have faith in that. We live faithfully believing that the conversation can take place. Even though our society and sometimes our upbringing has taught us again and again and again over the years how to build up ways to make that not happen. To make that conversation not happen. I can look at my own life and realize that i have erected barriers to that flow. That energy flow that happens. That magic erotic flow that happens in the conversation i have actually filled up things to keep that from happening. And the only way it continues to happen is when i decide to let down my guard and to open up those barriers somehow or other. But there's a problem with that somebody in the first service brought it up that's the problem. Because when you let down. That seeming mask. Who is that the real you. And when you remove that barrier remove that mask remove that seeming part of the way you are interacting with people. There you are. In the spotlight the real you. Completely unclothed from the artificiality. That we always put around us to keep us protected. And that's the hard part and there's another whole beautiful sermon which i think is chapter 3 in my book. Damn right it just about that thing about barriers. And how barriers fall down. And how we build them up. And how we fortify them. And how we don't fortify them. The kingdom is between and among us. Kahlil gibran and this is the reading that we skipped so i'm. Going to put it in it right here. Wrote a book called the profit the profit and went to the village. Questions about the different parts of their lives and they said speak to us about talking. Speak to us about talking. And the prophet said. There are those who talk. And without knowledge or forethought. Reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand. And there are those who have the truth within them but they tell it not in words. In the bosom. Of such as these. The spirit dwell in rhythmic asylum. And when you meet your friend. On the roadside. Score in the marketplace. Let the spirit in you move your lips and direct your tongue. Let the voice within your voice. The voice. Within your voice. Speak to the ear of your friend's ear. The ear of your friend's ear. For your friend so we'll keep the truth of if of your heart. Even as the taste of the wine is remembered. When. The color is forgot. And the vessel is no more. May the words that we say to each other be directed. By our innermost being. As i mentioned earlier i was a. Singer for many years. And sometimes i would think about all of this and get discouraged and say what's the use. There's nothing really important going on. And sometimes i still think of that as a preacher. It's hard to continue sometimes. Do i need some kind of inspiration in this comes from. Kahlil gibran also and he said the secrets. In. Singing. Isn't it great that they wrote a whole book called the secret did you see that book. But the secret don't we all want to know the secret the secret in singing. Is found between the vibrations in the singer's voice. And the frob in the hearers hearts. May our conversations. Well in that place. Between the vibrations of our innermost struggling voice. To be heard. And to hear. And the beating. Of our loved ones. Heart. Amen.

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BUUF-sermon-20101003.mp3

The title is actually a brief history of the future of school. Which is the more abstract than schools the particular. Thank goodness providence provided teacher in the widow douglas to counter the slave-owning stingy narrow-minded hypocritical. And skinny. Miss watson. In contrast to hers the widow's notion of providence is enough to make this boy's mouth water even though the logic of helping others and putting them before his own self-interest escapes him at the time. In this novel which frequently shows up on the banned books list. Journeys down the mississippi and learns to value the whitters widows counterintuitive golden rule lessons. Maturing compassion for the escaped slave jim. And through his disgusting. A human greed and self-serving behavior he witnesses. He has seen so much craving selfishness dressed up as civilized society. That by the time the novel ends he resolves. I reckon i got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest because aunt sally she's going to adopt me and civilize me and i can't stand it. I've been there before. I am amazed at how much our society today imitates hawks. As in mark twain's time a. he'd of the gilded age. Craven self-interest is once again a trumpeted virtue. Despite the excesses of the stock market that's so recently derail the world economy and has engendered such fear and insecurity that people around the world. Are scapegoating sectors of society with impunity. And yet. We do not propose to use government to impose limits on the market. Government which traditionally put checks on markets. Is currently viewed with greater suspicion than corporations. Whose primary reason for existence is to make profits. For its owners. True efficiencies. Now i know that what with mutual funds and all we are all now owners. Wall street and main street are inextricably linked. And those about those of us who shop on main street. Or its successor walmart. Are confident that the benefits have accrued to all of us owners in equal shares. You and bank of america's ken lewis alike. Right. Efficiencies of scale and increasing productivity rates are great for marcos. But are these things good. I mean in that old-fashioned aristotelian classic philosophy biblical questioning way of being good. I'm reminded of the current discussion about factory farms. They are responsible for grade efficiencies and economies of scale. They see people more cheaply than ever before. But are they. Is this model in its current form sustainable. And just. Does it balance the needs of the environment the benefits of efficiency and the health of the nation to achieve the best. Outcome. How has this happened this acquiescence to the primacy of the markets to determine what is good. Well. How populous i'm has allied itself with its traditional enemy the unfettered market is a triumph of libertarian mythology and worthy of another sermons. Explored in great detail in the books i've included in my bibliography. Not even the father of capitalism adam smith himself. Could have predicted the enshrining of greed to the extent that we now have come to accept as unchallenged dogma. He states his opinions on greed in his other less well-read less often read treatise the theory of moral sentiments. And hence it is. That to feel much for others and little for ourselves. To restrain our selfish and to indulge our benevolent affections constitutes the perfection of human nature and can alone produce among mankind. That harmony of sentiments and passions in which consist their whole grace. Impropriety. The father of capitalism. And the widow's message from the gospel. Agree here. Contrary. To what seems obvious greed needs to be checked by virtue lestat rupture that harmony in which consist are grace. And constitutes the perfection of human nature. Where is not in the government should that mitigating virtue reside. His answer. Jefferson lancer. Adams answer. In the people. And for that. We need education. Perhaps we no longer have faith in this image of god. The good. Of the free-market without apology. And. The consolidation of wealth that naturally follows has followed indisputably. Over these last two or three decades. And the coarsening of popular culture that has resulted. There are those who would remind us that there might be a higher authority than the market's invisible hand. That wisdom from millions of consumers voting their choice at the ticket booths and the checkout counter. Might be a higher authority to determine what is good. And true. And beautiful. Yes there are those who would question the markets wisdom when it privileges britney spears over say bernard shaw. However. These goals in killjoys are labeled as elitists. And schnapps. Who harbored despicable contempt for the tastes and instincts of the common man. In his book one market under god social critic thomas frank explains the evolution of this strange bedfellows relationship between corporations and working stiffs. Business leaders quote. Found powerful new weapons with which to win their grand argument with those who sought to regulate or control any aspect of private enterprise. Since markets express the will of the people virtually any criticism of business could be described as an act of despicable contempt for the common man. Now. In this. Rabid populism and anti-intellectualism typified by sarah palin. The very purpose and future of school. Is being discussed. The media and politicians both left and right vilify teachers and their unions. And reformers are placing their face in that most magical of magic bullets. The profit motive. This. Even though there is no evidence that teachers respond to these incentives. North at incentives improve school. The current controversy over the movie waiting for superman and oprah's endorsement of it. Attest to the emotion this solution engenders among teachers. I will tell you there is no financial incentive that competes with the pure desire to avoid the consequences of boring to death. 30 teenagers during a 90-minute class. Moreover this so-called pay-for-performance solution is only one part. Of a larger movement. But attempts to introduce market solutions and models. Into the endeavor. We call school. Now i have worked for private industry i know how powerful is the profit motive to engender efficiency and innovation. But i am not so sure that what we want out of school is efficiency. If we are merely training booker t's workers i'm pretty sure we can and have. Developed an efficient and cost-effective pedagogy to achieve this. But is this. The vision of school we aspire to. Is this the purpose of school. Certainly one of the founders of the common school what we have come to recognize as public education. Horace mann. Had a different idea of what school was meant to achieve. Here's what he had to say. It is impossible for the selfish man to have the same ideas of god. As the benevolent man. As impossible for the grown up man of educational culture. To return to the crude and unworthy conceptions which he had of god. When he was a child. If men are necessarily if men necessarily build up their ideas are conceptions of god and his attributes from their own previous ideas. Then. Every step in education. The inculcation of every new idea. The acquisition of every scientific principle the development and training of each intellectual and moral faculty. Furnishes precious materials out of which. A more adequate. And glorious idea of god. Can be formed. As out of richer paints and pure marble the artist can make a better picture or statues so out of grander and nobler thoughts. And out of diviner affections. Weekend forms tub liner. Weimar. And more god-like conceptions. About our father in heaven. Horace mann president of antioch college ohio from 1852 until his death. This quote is from his second of twelve sermons delivered to that body and concerning the purpose of education succinctly stated. The purpose of education is to create. A better god. To worship. Wow. Is that what i do. I thought for just a second before i affirm this mission yes. I'm trying to offer a sublime er. And more god-like conception of what we are to worship. I ask myself. Does pretty heady stuff. After all. What makes me think i know what constitutes as sublime urgod. And what right do i have to impose that on my students many of whom come from families who may worship a different conception of god one that they would not even refer to as a conception. At all. Would it surprise you to learn that this sublime of god already exist in the literature we study. In the impulse. To examine the prejudices. And human predicaments we explore in the cannons stories. In the buy assis we explode in literature. Frozen section and in all other media. In exposing the opaque and unexamined fears that motivate us and are the stuff of our popular myths. And religious impulses. In the great books. It's social conservatives trumpet. Would it surprise you to learn that this sublime of god exist in the common core standards for english language arts and social studies. Recently adopted by 27 states. And endorsed by a dozen more. Idaho has given preliminary approval to the concept. Taken as a whole that god that exists in the traditional liberal arts courses study compels us to yearn for something more sublime than mere physical existence. This yearning to define a sublime and transcendence existence beyond this mundane and temporal one. Exist in our literary and philosophical history and comprises a core impulse common to all the worlds. Great religions. The standard stipulate that we quote analyze 17th 18th and 19th century documents of historical and literary significance to examine their themes. And purposes. There is a sublime and complex notion of god in an honest. Fulfillment of that standard. The standards for social studies require that students. You'll love this mister huntley. Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminole us tech. Including the application of constitutional principles. The use of legal reasoning and the premises purposes and arguments in works of public advocacy. They're good stuff i don't know how we got him through. Translation study our great thinkers in order to discern their assumptions biases and prejudices as they go about trying to solve social problems. Problems of wealth and poverty of power and sustainable equity. Of access to the benefits of modern society and of a cure for its abuses. Surely students will have the opportunity to encounter opportunity to encounter nobler thoughts and diviner affections than they might. Without this taxpayer-supported. And common education. The god that emerges from a diligent pursuit of inquire requires us to examine our assumptions about the world and causes us to worship humility all the world's great religions speak with one voice to affirm the importance of this quality. Taken as a whole all the stories that make up the literature the world warned us against confusing justice with rancor and revenge. Taken as a whole and taken seriously the traditional humanities education nurtures and open mind and dissuade us from prejudgment. Is this not endorsed by all the gods of all the religions. It assesses claims of veracity and insist on integrity it promotes the beauty of the golden rule as being the best measure of any truth. Any claim. It promotes dignity for all through the blessings of free will and autonomous human agency it sustains individual freedom by a knowledge in the complexity of our interdependence e. Well this is a god i can worship. One who encourages transcendence rather than the mundane. Justice rather than rancor. Humility rather than arrogance. Integrity rather than cowardice. And balance between individual liberty and responsibility. This is a grander nobler god. Then the god of the logic of supply and demand efficiency and self-interest. Now horse man faced some resistance from parents who didn't want to give up their children's moral education to teachers and bureaucrats. No wonder. The literature and ideas in our curriculum are powerful. And subversive. They demand teachers who are equal to the task. Understand and can critique this literature and these ideas. The curriculum demands teachers who have an understanding up their own prejudices and biases and who can suspend those biases and at the same time challenge students to understand ideas and mindsets that may contradict ideas and mindsets cherished. In their own families. This is no small order. And it won't be solved by a profit incentive. Who is that the same were required of our elected officials. But man was motivated to create a country that provided a common learning experience so as to equalize the conditions of men. To that end of equalization antioch college was one of the first to offer the same curriculum to women and men. And admitted people of color well ahead of its rivals. Founded by a religious group at none the less stressed a non-sectarian curriculum opposition man a unitarian advocated for all common schools. Which also riled some who wanted to draw upon an overtly christian. Course of study. But how far. Have we fallen from his ideals. Became apparent to me again just recently. It was in an article in the statesman business section and reprinted from a bloomberg businessweek periodical so i should not have been surprised if the finding. The value of a college education no longer provides a worthwhile return on investment. The article acknowledging passing that there are other aspects of a college education that may be deemed valuable those. Intangibles accounting speak of like. The great books the critical reasoning skills the experience itself. But these were overshadowed by three pages of data proving that college education bottom line just doesn't pencil out. Now i do not mean to invent diminish the very real concern about the debt load being carried by college students and their parents in this sense of sensible cost-benefit analysis is prudent. But surely this discussion should be expanded on a national level to concern itself with the downward pressure on wages and salaries being experienced in all levels of jobs requiring degrees. And the discussion should certainly consider the rising cost of college do in no small part to reduce state and federal funding. And pressures caused by rising healthcare costs borne by our colleges. And by what i like to call the taxation levy by bankers on borrowers who must pay for banks profits on their college loans. Thank god this is been reversed in legislation that will take effect in 2014. Legislation that john boehner criticized his job killing because it eliminated the bank middlemen and their profits. When banks benefit if any fish in sea is tolerated. The very fact that we are discussing a college education at all in terms of its benefits being merely financial and merely is accruing to the individual shows just how far we've come as a nation from the traditional concept of the value of an education. This focus solely on the individual and on the remunerative nature of education negates a long-standing assumption about the purpose of taxpayer-supported education. The purpose of public support of education is to yield a benefit to the commonwealth. And not so much to produce a populist capable of generating a robust standard of living. But rather to produce a populist capable of generating a robust citizenry so that this experiment in democracy might endure. Markets claim to love democracy. If they do they should recognize their own self-interest lay and ensuring its enduring health. But in this day we have completed democracy and free-market capitalism as though participating as consumers in the marketplace is equivalent to exercising our rights as citizens. We have seen from horace mann to twain to w.e.b. du bois that how we understand the ultimate purpose of education drives what education will look like. Just as the poem pointed out how booker t washington and w.e.b. du bois had very different notions of the purpose of education these two dichotomies still exist. Lately however there is a populist anti-elitist assault on the very entity that would ensure the teaching of the values enshrined in the great books. And those critical reasoning skills so easily dismissed as irrelevant. There's a dangerous anti-intellectualism that rebus any attempts to criticize the market for catering to our baser instincts. If the majority values that which is base craven or selfish does that make these things good. If we are going to preserve the power of the majority to determine what is good and i agree with a justice of that proposition. Then the quality of the god we worship matters. The school play a role in this. Since the time of horace mann for almost 200 years it has. School has served to inform us of the better angels of our nature. Defining the good what horace mann calls good. It's too important to leave to church alone. I want to close with a story. Last spring. 2 days before the last day of instruction about two weeks before graduation for these students who might have talked for two years. Almost lost my job. In a fit of exasperation i said something i shouldn't have to a group of 303 unruly boys. One boy apologized after class. Funboy threatened to have my job. Call his parents and 20 minutes later i was suspended. The principal had little choice. His parents. Are our customers. And it wasn't the first time i have been in the principal's office that year. You see. Comfort the afflicted. Listening to stories of broken hearts. Parents who force their kids out of the house. Dads were drunk. Again. Mother's boyfriends they can't stand. I also afflict the comfortable. I challenge their thinking. Take friday for example. We were discussing the scarlet letter by hawthorne brother-in-law to horace mann by the way. And we were at a part where hester prynne. Tries to convince her lover the reverend dimmesdale. That he is paid enough for their sin and it is time to begin living again. She has come to terms with her sin and during her long exile from society she has come to believe that the whole christian cosmology of original sin through he's transgression. Is a conspiracy. Yes. Hawthorne was a radical feminist. Now i cannot do justice to this revered text from the halo canon. If i gloss over this. I am sure i challenge no small number of students on that day. I would like to be a fly on the wall during dinner. If that even happens anymore. I don't know any bad teachers. I do know teachers who are confused about the goals and purposes of school. I do know teachers who have not adjusted well to this new paradigm of school as a commercial enterprise with products. And customers and satisfaction surveys and performance-based assessment measures. Measured by multiple choice test. What can you do. At the common core standards study how they would god what gets taught. And then advocate for them. Parents of school-age children. Instead of a gift at christmas. Give your teacher a supportive letter to the editor. Instead of focusing on candy sales and gift wrap fundraisers. Parent advisory group to discuss the standards and how to assist your school in implementing them. Parents of grown children. Stay involved. If you're retired attend legislative education committee meetings. Get informed. Challenge people who vilify teachers and their union. We are the only entities who act who are actively resisting the creeping commercialization of school. Finally a group of concerned churches in the valley are beginning to speak up. On october 26th i have been asked to represent boof at a symposium on the future direction of public schools. Is my honor to do so. What will you do. The uua. Who's anniversary we celebrate today has not sponsored a significant education initiative in this country for over 30 years. It is as if we have surrendered to a false god. Oh and hester prynne. What she said to her lover to persuade him to give up his self-flagellation. It is not god. But these iron men of new england that have denied the best in you. He had been worshipping the wrong god.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20100103.mp3

You think i'm back at something. Religion is human. The questions. Or so serious. Mired. Can become pretty. Highlights in our laughter. Did you hear me. Between the worn-out $1 bill. Removing along the federal reserve. Reminiscing. Restaurant in new york performances on broadway. Where'd you go. What's a shirt. Church people can be very generous. Do you like to dance. Are really hot day. Snack. A group of women from town. Washington. It's my face they'd recognize. Mightily in seriously. Religious realized. Maybe only. Parrot. What a relief. He was very impressed. Prayers. What makes. In and of itself. Jacob. The dolly llama breaks into hearty laugh. Almost every time he. Lisa couple reasons why laugh. Cocalico road. Important function of religion. Is one of the things that a spiritual practice. Humor can help reminders. That's the most important our concerns are intact pretty small part of the cosmos. Bring us together in peace and goodwill. And the route. Means to bind us. Together. Mini. Are suffering a terrible loss. Are at least. About something for enough. Take away our world. Smiles or grooms or basalt. Comfort. Age-old function of religion. God is best known. In the face. Voices. Intouch. It is religious to be together. With open hearts. This morning. Politics. Like. It sure would be nice. Washington. I created another. From government. High level. In the background. Brink of chaos. And there are other suggestions. My mother was an axe murderer. My mother. Instead of. I started out as a bartender in a strip club. I have. And instead. I received my education. I can't resist least one of those jokes that make. In the lobby. The manager comes out. I can't stand. In an open fire. Okay. Categories. Studied insult. Humor that is cruel. Malicious. Vici. Incredibly clever that we can only laugh. If you were my husband. And he replied apparently. I would. A member of parliament. Disraeli says. How many chilly are pretty bad. There's nothing wrong with you. Music statistics. He has van gogh's ear for music. When someone says. Moving away from. Universal. Attitude. Affirming mini podcast. Because we actually have a church. We simply do not have anything really to do. I tell you. Disagree with. The post. Gorgeous mansionz. Looking at the. And actually that's not. A unitarian. A unitarian minister is given this magnificent mansion. Polk city pub. Alarm for kids. A lot of what they have to say. Innocently. Great religious. Sometimes. And sometimes it does make us laugh out loud. I think about you sometimes. Couch. And allison says with love. I read the bible. What does begat mean. We are human beings. We try. 7 * 16. We aim for the greatest of nobility and we often find ourselves anything but noble. We are frequently. So very proud of our little cells. And we try to see what it means. Andweknow.

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BUUF-sermon-20100418.mp3

Spring has also unlocked the pollen if i have trouble this morning please excuse me. I just love it when i'm concentrating on the topic and get a gift. From the blue. I got such a gift this week as we docents at the boise art museum we're studying a new exhibit circles. Traduction to this exhibit. The circle for haps the purest and most profound symbol and existence. Has been recorded history. Communicate. And as founded ancient site and all rock carvings around the world. Symbols. The circle was used by early cultures to denote the sun and moon. Seasonal changes. A circle having represents concepts related to infinity. Eternity. And cycles of life. To avoid confusion. I find i must start i hope not in the spicious late with a disclaimer. The medicine wheel model there's no relationships. Alberta and saskatchewan. Were constructed years ago by yuto aztecas speaking people on their way south. And west. Indeed some anthropologists. The so-called calendar stone of the aztecs. Mirror image. How's the wyoming. Today is based on the number four. The indians who migrated to the plains from the lake superior area. Years ago. To thrive is acro sue arapahoe and cheyenne tribe. The crow indians. And just as bad medicine. Who in the area in the early 80s. Now for the plains indians. Early 1800s. The wheel was unknown to the plains indians. It seems combine the crows medicine morning. Problems occur. Outsiders describe or interpret another culture. How old is the idea of a circle of power in the back. Of my mind. Is a tangible object. Arranged in a particular manner. Its meaning is real. It's real meaning excuse me and greater significance is symbolic. Room. In the stained-glass represents specific. Religion. It represents the earth. And the universe. All things living and in earth are reflected. A way of life and the way to become a whole person. It is almost last symbolism that we will concentrate today. Judeo christian traditions a person does good. Prescribed. The system is also. What is a child without a system that guides personal development and interpersonal relationships that is not. Giraffe. Can it be done. Can you envision such a system. With these questions in mind we will focus on the medicine wheels used as a teaching tool. The first one. Idea. Other medicine wheel. Deals with perception. For example. Envision difference is but more importantly. Because of past experiences which include teachings. Others might say it very to make such a mess. Perception is generally not. An objective. Experience. Now try this. This cross might bring up slots beaster. Abba religion you left behind. I'm a soldier cemetery. Are saying the rosary. And i am definitely not going to get into the not one but two realignment of the acoustic panels at the front of this room. Reactions not only two objects but also two situations are influenced by past experiences. Imagine yourself. And your reactions. Yourself at night. On the hillside. In heavy traffic such as the loop around chicago. Art museum. At the side of a traffic accident. Cabela's dead animals. Understood if you think of it as a mirror. In which all is reflected. With layer upon layer of perceptions in the individual needs first to identify his or her basic ways. Are ways of perceiving. Before you get home to understand the perceptions of others. A person's quest to discover how she perceives and can be used to chart a path. Increased perception. I'm sure you have noticed the four direction. Based on the mystical and ceremonial number for the points. Here represents. 4 views. The four compass points and the four great powers of the circle. Rooster the four points. The four great powers of the medicine wheel. An animal. And after butte. Far quality. I'm going to review the four direction. But you do not need to take note of the sack of medicine wheel images. Tribes are teachers use the same colors are animals to fix each year of stones used. Remember the wheel is a symbol and absolute and so it can and compass some variation. Is associated with the north the place of snow in the northern hemisphere. The east has the gold of the rising sun. Is designated by green. And the west by 6lack. East the place of illumination possibility. 414a group for society. Just the idea of seeing possibility was my brickwall but i became associated. Years of marriage. What's this about. In every day how i handle little matters it came up. I was choosing a possibility. And gradually expanded that ability but for a year. Big yellow smear in the east hung on my cubicle walls. Good for something. And innocence. Which imply. Believing in other people. The dark of the west is the place for introspection. Are almost place but protected. Shadowed play supplier. Sound credit union doesn't it. There was also an animal associated with each direction. The eagle in the east. The mouse in the south. The bear in the west. Each of us enters the medicine wheel at one of these places of power. This entry place is considered an important birthright. The quote from hemet nails storm. This starting place gives us a first way of perceiving things. Which will then be easiest and most natural. Throughout our lives. Put use your natural. 4 easiest way. What is your gist. What is the gist of your first reaction to a new situation. Maybe it's easier and sisters. Your children or grandchildren. Have you ever heard anyone say. He's just naturally nurturing have a small child child cares for his stuffed animals or as pets. She always wants to know. Why can't i. Directions will remain a partial person. The person who enters at the north will quest for knowledge. And information. Plus experience. Wisdom. Person. A person without feeling. The person who lives only in the east. Will see possibilities was a clear. Farsighted vision of the eagle. But he will never be close to same. This person will feel separated and high. Above her part from life. Buy anything. Will repeat the same song over and over again. But will remain under side. I will not take action. The person who. A friend of himself or herself. The south is a place of touching and should be sought out by those rooted in the north or east so that they will not remain unsealing are aloof. Many people have two or three of these gifts but they are still not ho. Bear person from the east. Woodsy introspectively but would lack the gifts of touching and wisdom. An evil person from the south. North. Are the introspective towers of the west. A person might buy some of the west. But still. Drug rehab program. Or respond. After getting permission to read. And we discussed the four powers when i ask where he is. He jumped instead to the quadrant. I wish i met you said this outpouring and do not. Pout the wheels as a super solution to anything. We were not allowed to contact the clients outside the center. But i've often wondered what path searching hawk. Has learned our entering our first place on the wheel we must attempt to grow by seeking understanding or widening our perception at each of the four ways. We must move around to become complete being. A balance and decision. In siri. The ultimate goal of moving on is this. When a person seeks and comes to understand the four ways. He will understand the different powers are medicines of humankind. And never feel surprised or threatened. Reactions are decisions of those around him. I am not there yet. But i have made progress. May you do even better.

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BUUF-sermon-20090118.mp3

Good morning. Couldn't help but noticing this morning. I knew that too. Our celebrant wanda had always embraced the world but i noticed this morning the world has embraced her. Greenland eight times. Some of us here today or old enough. To remember the intensity of the mid-century civil-rights crusades. And now we rejoice in a new phase in our nation. We remember martin luther king jr and the horrific events in various cities in the south and not just in the south. Events made immediate and painful by the advent of television coverage. Something just entering its adolescence and long before instant news. We remember the assassinations of martin luther king. John kennedy and brother robert kennedy. All into short a space of time. On november 22nd 1963. I was having coffee and wwii concert quonset hut. It served as a student center then if the university of california. News that president kennedy had been shot came over the radio. And two friends and i simply did not believe it. I remember clearly the sickening our we spent hoping that the shots were not fatal. And learning that indeed they were. And we cried. Kathy and i were in minnesota. Where i had my first full-time teaching position when we saw on television the report of martin reports of martin luther king's assassination. On april 4th 1968. We'd hardly caught our breath when robert kennedy bobby. Whom we had just seen in fargo campaigning for president. Was assassinated on june 6th. 1968. And we cry. Despite the extravaganza of the free-love 60s. This was a deeply depressing time. No wonder that the overworked line from charles dickens tale of two cities became our motto. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Sometimes it seems as if anything bright and beautiful anything raising aspirations and strengthening hope. Was certain to be destroyed. And indeed the 70s destroyed a lot. Bringing to the forefront the shame of vietnam. And shame to the white house. The darkness can enhance the light within it. The progress made in social justice though far from fulfillment. And still far from fulfillment. Shone brightly in these times. It was as if a great realization spread across the nation. That much has changed and was changing. Whether we approved or not. United states of today is very different from that of the 1960s. Just as the united states of the sixties were from that is a 30s. And from that of the 1860s. And from that for the 1790s. The wines in our sunday morning opening song don't be afraid of some change. Is relevant everywhere. We should sing it loudly. All the time. Can't we have another saying. The more things change the more they remain the same. After gwen i should have said that in french. And so here in front of the pulpit we have this beautiful sculpture of sisyphus. Moving a stone up a hill. Created by the renowned sculptor frank hayden. And thanks to dan peterson for long enough to us. The classic mess is at sisyphus is condemned in the afterlife to roll a marble block up the hill. Until he reaches the top. Then magically. The block rolls down again. And he must recover it and start the process a new. Classical authors dispute the reasons for this punishment. But agree that it is because of his faults. Including according to some avariciousness. And vengeance. Kathy's mother who'd been very active in social justice issues in the 1940s. Once remarked in the 1970s shortly before she died. We fought these fights back then and we have to fight them again today. Hi-c sisyphus reminding us that until social justice is achieved in this country and in the world. We pushed the stone of justice up the hill. Everytime it rolls back down it stops a little higher on the hill. And our task is to labor for that day when it sticks at the top. Some may say that such a noble goal is never achieved. No matter is sisyphus new. It's the movement toward the goal that counts. And that is our task. Ever moving the stone up. And up. It is a silent call. To take up the stone again and again. Until to use a christian phrase. The kingdom of god is luminous. On earth. We are generally familiar with martin luther king's campaign for racial justice that grew beyond race to include all those who are marginalized excluded and discriminated against. I want to dwell on only one aspect of his work because it relates directly to us here and now. Martin luther king fearlessly spoke truth to power. Including the power of those of us. Who were not subject to racial discrimination. And who often unaware. Participated in that discrimination. But he also advocated and practice the powerful method of raising awareness and changing thoughts. Actions and lives. The method of non-violence. Well it is easy to dismiss non-violence is ineffective we might look across the world and see just how many violent revolutions have improve social justice. Made people's lives better. Handmade l more competent. Intelligent. Compassionate and fair-minded. The record is not impressive. King's nonviolent sometimes cause violent reactions. But those very reactions condemn some old ways to eventual oblivion. Put simply his nonviolent crusades brought to consciousness dark corners of thought and action. They could not stand the light. And like the vampires of legend crumbled to dust. But as we know more light is needed. Martin luther king was a committed christian and never wavered from that commitment. And yet he learned much about both truth and non-violence from mohandas karamchand gandhi. Often called mahatma gandhi great-souled gandhi. A committed hindu who never wavered from that commitment. How could this be. The answer is as simple as it is profound. Truth however understood. Demands recognition of our unitarian universalist first principle. The inherent worth. And dignity of every person. And non-violence requires recognition of our seventh principle. Respect for the interdependent web. Of all existence. Of which we are apart. If we reflect on these two principles we can see that the other five are derived from them. Including our second principle. Justice. Equity and compassion in human relations. This principle is the call to action. Did he merges from the other two. Martin luther king to learn from mahatma gandhi because both could transcend their individual religious commitment without compromising them. Both recognize deep spiritual truths in the other. Both put their spiritual awareness into action. Gandhi free a nation but even more to free untouchable and lowercase from the stigma of their stations. And king two free erase indeed all excluded from their exclusion. Their religions cultures histories and the details of their actions were utterly different. Yet they both embodied our second principle to the fullest. And neither worried about where the other was going to be going after death. And both were assassinated. Affected underlines the great force for good. Both embodied. Now a new phase in the changing life of our nation. And the world seems to have gone. Quite frankly when barack obama announced his candidacy for president i was convinced of his effort was noble and slated for failure. I was proud that we reached the point in our social and political history that such an announcement could be made. But i thought that i would not live to see the day when an african-american could be president. Of course in the name of racial fairness. We should remember obama is after all half white. So white folk can say he's one of us 2. Then the campaigning went on. And on. And on. Still i was unconvinced. When he became the democratic. Party choice for president i was absolutely amazed. And then. And then the election. I think i held my breath. Until i turned blue. An appropriate color in this case and he won. Things have changed whether we approve or not. This is been a shattering change and much will never be the same again. But we remember that old adage. The more things change. Like kindling bursting into flame when ignited expectations burst out from the election. Solving our environmental problem. Renewing our commitments to social justice reforming education. Restarting the economy. Resolving the problem of iraq. And afghanistan and pakistan israeli-palestinian problems. Reforming intelligence agencies renewing our relationship out the world and and and. And of course it would be best to follow this work on polished in his first 100 days. Which actually seems to started a few weeks ago. Reminder to charles dickens again this time to the title of his book great expectations. We know that the greater the expectations of anyone or anything the greater the disappointments that will follow. Yet we don't want to be cynical and only wine the more things change. What are we to do. The teachings of both gandhi and king. Sometimes subdued and eclipse by their social preaching. Are the change without. Goes hand-in-hand. With change within. The world cannot be a better place. Without better people in it. And people become better by changing within as well as without. Creating justice means practicing justice. Which requires becoming more just. Well we articulate our expectations of obama. And what just might be a new era for america. We attempt to restrain those expectations so that they are not used to sleep overburdening. Don't be afraid of some change we sing. And we should not fear change in our nation. At the same time i discovered in one of those serendipitous moments. When the soul holds up a mirror to itself. Just for a brief moment. Did ian richard is many expectations as anyone. I expected a great deal of change in the nation. But i had not asked the fundamental question. What changes do i need to make within myself. To help usher in this new era. To make sure it is indeed new. Interchange 2 is part of the great change we have begun to experience. There is in her work to be done. Looking for what needs repair. Restoration. Renewal. We need programs of inner infrastructure improvement and restoration as much as outer ones. For example i was surprised. No more than surprised i was a little horrified. When obama chose the reverend rick warren a committed christian with rather traditional views to give the inaugural invocation. But why. Was i surprised. Because he seemed to mean it when he said he would reach across old barriers and boundaries. And attempt to represent all americans. Did i think he was being merely rhetorical when he said these things. Perhaps he was sincere. Well it is difficult to find a quotation from rev war and that is not sophia's with his form of christianity. The same is true of martin luther king. And mahatma gandhi's words are suffused with his form of hinduism. Rick warren said. Quote. Around the world are plenty of people in leadership who abused their power. Many refused to use their power for the good of their people. Instead they choose to use it for themselves. This is created chaos in the world. Leaders must have moral basis. They must have wisdom. Proverb says. Without wise leadership a nation fails. Proverbs also says sound leadership has a moral foundation. And zakaria says. People wander around like lost sheep they are in trouble because they have no leader. Well there seems truth in that. The rev joseph lowery a gigantic civil rights leader. Is also a christian. But he has argued for the inclusion of all people in our religious communities regardless of their race gender orientation. When in the presence of our current president. If the funeral was coretta scott king. He spoke truth to power in uttering these now-famous words. We know that there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But coretta new and we know that there are weapons of mistress misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty of bound. For war billions more but no more for the poor. Here's a bold move to ask a man who can do this to provide the benediction at the inaugural. May you continue to speak truth to power. Even to the new president. Even to us. Both warren in lowry sentiments apply within as well with his without. Have i showed up my inner foundations through reflection independent conviction. And commitment. If i instead chosen inner weapons of misdirection. Self-justification avoidable ignorance. Insensitivity born of distraction. What renewal do i need. To take my place in a changing world that promises to be a better one. These are questions that we cannot credibly posed to one another. But they are questions that we can and should ask ourselves. Just as we should not strain credulity without expectations of a new president. We need not overburden ourselves with interview premonitions. Both we and the president gets the chance to make a new start. Looking less to the past and more to the future. At this remarkable point in our collective history. We should celebrate our nation. And as walt whitman advised. Celebrate ourselves. Doing so honors the spirit of martin luther king jr.. And all those who are his spiritual kinsfolk. And it honors the moment we will experience next tuesday. Don't be afraid of some change. Could be the motto of our nation at this point in its history. And it is a refrain for our congregation. May it also be a song in our hearts. As we join in our common belief. Good individually and together. We can make the world a better place. So may it be.

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BUUF-sermon-20080629.mp3

Good morning. Thursday morning i was sitting at my office desk and. As a matter of business i tend to keep my email. Open all the time. Apopka. An email from from carol wetzelberger. Her service coordinator in. Co-chair on the sunday services committee and she's like. Bestie might not be able to do the service sunday. Do you think you can. Help out. I said sure. She goes well we'll let you know saturday morning so saturday morning rolls around about 10:30 i pop open my email at home. No problem covered you're off the hook. This morning the alarm goes off at 6:30. And my normal sunday routine is i get up and i'll watch meet the press or sunday morning on cbs and just. He's in the morning and then pedal down here and attend service. And i figured well. Just in case my wife decides to come with me would she doesn't. I'll get my shower out of the way for so. 6:30 alarm goes off 7:30 i finally crawl out of bed to get into the shower shower. Go out. There was some leftover chinese which always makes fun for breakfast. And i'm sitting in the chair and we typically turn the phone down lay low and i hear this ring ring ring. Picking up carol. We need you this morning. But i think the lesson in that is. That we always need to be prepared for the unexpected cuz i already told myself if i do nothing to prepare they'll need me. And if i prepare. It'll all be for naught. So it's not so much. What we do when we're in the clutch. But it's what we do. Through the normal course of our day. Where were task. To come to that. So. In that spirit i hope. In the spirit of bessie cuz she's obviously. A. Hey rock of this community amongst many others i hope this. This morning i'll do her a good honor. Let's tell the story how the other way i got to this point. I love wasting my time in front of the television set. But i try to waste my time. With quality product. And one of the places i find quality product is on c-span. And during the summer months if any of you have bothered to waste your time. C-span runs commencement speeches from various. Institutions of higher learning from the. Service academies to the most obscure little colleges were. Someone has managed to get someone of some notoriety to speak. And a couple years ago. I know one of the more enjoyable ones raisa gorbachev and. And barbara bush gave the commencement speech at wellesley college and it was just. Absolutely fascinating. And then. Back in 2005 times. Tom hanks daughter lucy hanks elizabeth hanks graduated from vassar. And given the. Easy connection tom came and gave. The commencement speech at vassar. And. Tom speech was called the 4% solution the power of 4. And i heard it and was absolutely blown away by it. I know from doing a little research on time. He had grown up roman catholic much like myself and when he married his second wife rita. He converted to eastern eastern eastern orthodox faith. When they got married. However. Again his philosophical view of the world has not been tainted by religion one might say. And. Last year when elizabeth was going on sabbatical and i took on. The pass without telling too many people that i was going to try to get speakers in. Tom was one of the people that i approached. Become speaker at hoof. How we have to settle for for mr. fulton. But it would have been a thrill to get time. Here to speak as well. And so. This morning. Despite not time being here in person. A mansion that he is. Not long ago i was reading about the problem of gridlock on the freeways of southern california. The traffic jams which crippled the city. Stranding millions and laying waste to time. Energy and the environment. Gridlock is a serious and impenetrable impenetrable a problem. As we face today. A dilemma without cure. Without solution. Like everything else in the world. It seems there's no way to deal with it. Some smart. Folks however concocted a computer simulation. A gridlock to determine. How many cars should be taken off the road. To turn a completely jammed and still highway. Into a free-flowing one. How many cars must be removed. From that commute until a 20-mile drive. Takes 25 minutes. Instead of 2 hours. The results. For startling. For cars need to be removed. From that virtually stuck highway. To free up that simulated commute. For cars. 4 cars out of each hundred. 4 cars per hundred cars. 4 autos. Out of. Every hundred autos. 40 cars. Permits towson. 400. Out of 10,000. 4 cars out of 100. Are not that many. Two cars. Out of every 50. 1 driver. Out of 25 drivers. Now if the simulation is correct. It is perhaps the most dramatic definition. In earthly science. And human nature. On how a simple choice. Will make a jaw-dropping difference. To our world. Call it. The power of 4. 1 commuter in your neighborhood. Could put the rush. Back in the rush hour. So if merely for people out of 100. Can make gridlock. Go away by choosing not to use their car. A mansion. A mansion just for a moment. Just for a moment. The other changes that can be wrought. I trust four of us. Review. Out of 100. Take 100 musicians. We may even have that many here at booth. Betake 100 musicians. In a depressed city. In northern england. Say choose john paul. George and ringo. And you have. Hey jude. Take 100 computer geeks. In redmond washington. Send 96 of them home. And not to telecommute. Send them home. Can you call the remainder microsoft. Take the power of 4. And appliance. To any. And every area. Hope your concern. And what solutions. What differences. What changes. What impact. Do you see. Can you imagine. Politics. 4 v 1 from 100. Into another hundred. Is the difference between gaining control. And losing clout. Culture. 2 ticket-buyers out of 50. Can make a small. Todd film profitable. Economics. By boycotting a product. One consumer out of 25 can move that product. From the back or to the back of the shelf. And eventually off of it altogether. 4 out of 100. Is a minuscule. Number. And yet can be the greatest lover of the tipping point. The power of 4. Is the difference between. Helplessness. And help. Help. Help. A four-letter word like some others. With many meanings. People today. I think can claim with perhaps more credibility. Then at any other time in our history. The during the last seven years. The world's gone a bit crazy. In the fall of 2001. Our planet earth. And the united states of america. We're different sorts of places. Intone. Intolerance. In peace. And in war. And ideas. Lni deals. Then. They are on the summer day. In 2008. These past years have been extraordinary. In the express rate of change well beyond the usual standards. Of culture. Well beyond. The personal watermarks. We. And you. Have stamps. As individuals. We now live. In a brand new world. With new visions. And versions. A political appeal. Global pandemics. World war. And religious polarization. The likes of which have rarely been visited. On our planet. All at once. Thank god for that. None of us were untouched by the events of september 2001. Non unaffected by the area logical movements of local and geopolitics sense. All of us. All of you. Have been staring at your individual fates. And our collective futures. Right in the eye. What do i do now. What do we do now. We have asked this question many times. Many times. In our lives outside of boof. And our lives. Inside of booth. You might have to. At the word. He'll do that. As a unitarian. Or you you if you believe it or not. Or some other four letter word. Or phrase. What the hell do i do now. In which case today. Might not be all that different. From any other day. Sermons. And those. How about you make them. Are often expected to offer advice. Is low you need any. As though anything said today could aid you. In making sense of our one damn thing after another world. Things are too confused. Too loud. And too dangerous to make advice. An option. You need to hear something more relevant on this day. You need to hear the most important message. Thus far in the third millennium. You need to hear a maxim so simple. And so clear. And so evocative. That no one could misconstrue its meaning. Or miss its way the issue. So here it goes. It's not a statement. Not an order. It is a request. Not a bit of advice but polly. It is in fact a single four letter word. A verb and a noun which takes into account. The reality of us here at poof. Of us here in our greater world. It is a message. Once made familiar. By the beatles. Those northern english lads. Who embodied. The power of 4. Help. Help. Help. We need your help. We need everyone's help. You must help. Please help. Please provide help. Please be willing to help. Help and you will make a huge impact in the life. Up the street the town the country. Our planet. And yes. Our fellowship. If only one. Out of four of each hundred of you. Choose to help on any given day. In any given cause. Incredible things will happen. In the world in which you. In which we. Living. Help publicly. Help privately. Helping your actions by recycling and conserving and protecting. But help also. In your attitude. Help make sense where sense has gone missing. I'm sure you can find a place where that'll fit in. Help bring reason and respect to discourse and debate. Help science to solve and faith to soothe. Help law bring justice until justice. Is commonplace. Help and you will abolish. Apathy. The boy is so quickly filled. By ignorance. Enable. Now life outside of booth. Is just like life in it. One naughty thing after another. Some of them. Are difficult. But all are interspersed with enough beauty and goodness to keep you going. That's your job. That's our job. To keep going. Your duty is to help without ceasing. The art you create can glorify it the science you pursue. Can prove its value the law you practice can pass on its benefits the faith you and brace. Will help make earthly manifestations. Of your god. Whatever that is. Here at booth. Whatever your path. Whatever your passion. You have already experienced the exhausting reality that there is always something going on. And there was always. Something to do. And most assuredly. You have sensed how effective and empowering. It can be when more. Then for. Out of 100. Make the same choice to help. I know for myself. I've made personal resolution. Never to assume. The other person. Can be one of the four. I've made it myself i know i can't do everything. But we need to resolve. Did at least on something we. Ourselves is an individual. Are going to be. One of the four. You will always. Be able. To help. So do it. Makepeace where it is precious. Help plant trees. Help embrace diversity. And celebrate. Differences. Help stop the gridlock. In other words. Help solve every problem we face. Every single one of them. With the power of 4. Out of 100. Help. And we will save the world. If we don't help. If you don't help. It won't get done. May it be so.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20100425.mp3

Unitarian universalist association general assembly or the. Two of our church members ryan and why. According to the union. We can create a world with all people. Make reverence. Gratitude and chair for the living room. To our lives. Becoming a green sanctuary was not a simple process. And my guess is involved. Or so fearful. Who shepherded this process through the 3 years. Started. Commitment. Do the earth. Sustainability. Impossible problem. Read of our species. Human face. Make a difference. We will end up with no humanly habitable. Connection with all life on earth. Of being. Home. Much needed. Puny. Tend to believe. Everyone. Is. Flooring store. And they have occasionally enjoyed the lighter side of all this like. It's your mother calling don't keep her on hold. What's the difference between the fossil fuel industry and an unstoppable eating bacteria. Very real truth. Twofold. Shamanic purposes. Perhaps more than we ordinarily. We can help work ford sst world. I want the green statuary folks. People. Who have. An impossible issue. All. In our lives. And who have without minimizing anything. I want to listen. How they have sex with one hand. Acceptance of what is. Of limitations. And in the other hand. They have held. Face. And aspiration. Holding these two opposites. You stole work. I bet you don't know. Create an action plan. Create a minimum of twelve project. In four areas. Sirius worship. Action plan. Glad. To habitat. For humanity's first greenfield. Expert speakers from elsewhere. Find ways to introduce environmental awareness. And they appreciated the constant recycling and stewart warren v. Americans in general. And you use in particular. Candy pretty resistant. 2 chainz. Cleaning fluids. And someone we replace them. Was observed looking about furtively. Green sanctuary folks looked around at the larger world. And even some environmentalist. Manduka. It's all over it's too late. Giving up in despair. The reminder. With all the idea that we all have major responsibilities. Irresponsible. Green sanctuary in our church and all the expenses. Let us think of other ways in which. Humans suffer. Deal with it. In my life. Lost one. The specter of a terrible pool. Disability. Economic hardship decision. Depression sucks. Relationship break. Carl jung red book was just published. It was secret. Emotional. Even as he went forth and changed. Of modern psychology. Not everyone in this room. And i revel in it. If you are any place to enjoy. All have suffered some or all of these afflictions and are fairly likely to experience. These are impossible problems. Easy solution. Just like the earth. We usually live through them. We are sometimes transformed as a result of them. Anthony. Your self. In the impossible situation. Heartbroken. Pasting.. Attributing it to someone else's phone. Brain candy skull comforter. We. Simply have to hold acceptance of what is. The other hand. We home safe. Hold aspiration. Moving where. Except. As most of us 2. When were faced with tragedy for terminal. Frieza. Constructively. The greenies. You and i. In our pain. Might. Although not exactly. Familiar team. A spiritual practice. Praying. Dancing. Breathing. Miss me. Most important piece. I'm learning to live. With the unbearable. Nor did they give us a quick fix. Our center. Toradol reconciliation. Freezing. Ceiling light. No belief system necessary. Leaving out. It's personal. Spiritual practice. Hazard touchstone. We also find help. Other people. Stores. I've known. Support. Professional counselors are sometimes a big help. Sometimes. Refine small practical steps in our lives. These are troubled hearts. Start to solve a problem. Circling back around earth. Whom we don't want to keep on hold. Mission temperature. Consolation. Tower grove times a week. Our grounds that special place. Actor roots. Completely interdependence. Against. My. Welcome tree. I took off my glasses. Close my eyes. Hearing the red-winged blackbirds. A million little bird squealing all over the place. Realized. And then i can feel my heartbeat in my. Against the tree. It felt like it was. Into the tree. For a second i thought maybe. So i just. Cyprian die. We're having our little moment. Better able. Introspective. Pain. Reminding me that i can stand it. And the interdependence. Brings solace. Just as we expected. What is. One of our green sanctuary folks road. Could be more important for us. Then anything else. I honored and for all. I hope we take from them. Creating all kinds of sex words in all kinds of places. I hope we eat more recycle even more. I hope lyrics. Inspiration for the rest of our life. With both reality. Of the earth destruction problem. To our very real trouble. And fine. Cautious. We hold in one hand. Acceptance of what is. And in the other. We're home safe. Aspiration. Dispute. Our life and our children. In the grace of the world. Andy free.

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BUUF-sermon-20090927.mp3

Good morning. When i first started working as the director of religious exploration i was asked to write a brief statement for our booth works publication. It was to be included on a single page with numerous pictures taken at a multi-generational gathering the month before. Person stewarding a publication asked me to be brief because the ideal would be to have the pictures speak for themselves. I have struggled for many months to keep my monthly newsletter articles. Thinking that this was my first real challenge of my new ministry i set to work. I looked at the pictures of all the beautiful faces of the children and youth. And many volunteers being in community together. I thought about why i felt called to this ministry. And those and these words came to me. Boise unitarian universalist fellowship religious exploration program is a magical place. Where you can find your inner whimsy wonder and awe. We're children are wise and adults can play. Our congregation is a part of something miraculous within the greater unitarian-universalist community are treasure valley community and within each of us. As i continued on this new journey of mine i invite all of you to come along for the ride and to help me make the boise unitarian universalist fellowship religious exploration program as shining star in our community and our hearts. In our call to worship this morning kenneth patent rights. Let us worship with the opening of all the windows of our being. With the full out stretching of our spirits. About a year ago my husband paul and i were driving to church. We live in a pretty steep street and we were just starting down the hill. In front of us was a young man in his teens riding his bicycle down now. As we approached him i noticed that he wasn't wearing a helmet. And he wasn't holding onto the handlebars. My mom's being kicked in and i started to comment on how unsafe and irresponsible. He was being. I stopped before the words came out of my mouth because there was something more. When i let go of all the judgmental voices in my head and let myself be with this young man. My heart opened up. What i saw. Was joy exhilaration and grace. No hands racing down the hill when did his face perfect balance speed freedom to be in the moment and of the moment. To enjoy. As we passed him and pulled in front we opened our windows. Whatever i'm say out reveling in the cool air and the shared spirit of adventure. Stretching of spirit is what are children's religious exploration program is all about. It's about the children and youth exploring with guides and advisers from our loving and living community. It's about those guys and advisers out stretching themselves. It's the guides and advisers letting go and being with our young people. Our children and youth our gift. They come here with open minds loving hearts and helping hands. To quote our children's chalice lighting words. When they're in their classrooms whether it's in our wondrous wings or outside on our incredible grounds. They think discover explore and enjoy. The big questions that we ask in this wrong. Are also asked in our classroom. The searching for answers looks a bit different and involves more movement and play. But the asking and the exploring for those answers goes on all the same. These children have a lot going on inside and out. We don't assume that our children enter this faith home with fewer of the world's sorrows and troubles than we do. But it's not always the case that they do. A few weeks ago one of our summer guys was substituting in the class. She was pushing through the beginning of the lesson because she was trying to get to the fun activities. And to get the children settled in and involved. This particular lesson had a time for joint sharing of joys and sorrows. So while the guide was concentrating on learning everyone's name. Each child started to share. There were some grave sorrow shared and it brought her up short. Each child is a part of many communities. Divorce. Disease accidents and deaths. Are all a part of their lives. Children notice when things happened to family and friends. And in their school and our faith community and it affects them. Going on in their lives that it was time to be with them in this moment and. What was to come and really paid attention to what was happening now. She came out of that classroom with a deeper sense of community and faith. Then when she went in. Our children may hold their joys and sorrows differently. And they may not have had years for their reactions and feelings have grown and developed. Archildrens joys and sorrows and questions are real and out in front. When we create a safe and caring environment. For them to be brought out and spoken and acknowledged. I was considering whether to apply for this position of director of religious exploration i did a lot of soul-searching. I had been considering following elizabeth's footsteps and becoming a minister. The logistics of seminary were overwhelming and not a good fit for my family at that time. Search my heart for what was important to me and what called to me. When i looked at all the things that i wanted to accomplish and be a part of. I realized that being a religious educator and explorer was everything i was looking for in a job. And the way i wanted to live my life on a daily basis. My most reliable indicator for the right path. Is goosebumps. I get them when i've hit on something deep and elemental to my being. They came when i thought about working children and youth on their exploratory journey through life and its wonders. Helping young people transition from life at home to life on their own finding their way in the world. Working in a place and with people who recognized the importance of taking care of resources. Working for an organization that honors diversity works for justice and strives to operate in a respectful and caring way in the community. And as an added bonus i thought it would be nice to work near the greenbelt in setting where i could connect with trees and water. I was thinking about our beloved community. All along without even knowing it. The good work of this ministry. Ford is indeed a ministry. Feels like my calling and my password. For my own space development and evolution. As the guide and enthusiastic participant of our children's religious exploration program only minister to our children and their immediate families. But also to the congregation as a whole. As you are all involved as witnesses and participants in the children's spiritual growth and your own. My dream is for the religious exploration program to live out our congregations vision and mission truly inclusive and respecting diversity. Lifting hearts and minds and honoring the interconnected web of life. And fostering a caring community of religious exploration by creating opportunities to explore and worship together. With nerd while nurturing growth and transformation. We guide our children to learn about justice and to practice it in their lives. I strive to operate this program in a soul affirming and transformative manor. On any sunday there are over 20 adult volunteers working playing and exploring in our classrooms. These volunteers range in age from 18 to 70 and beyond. Grandfather's sisters and grandmothers. Members of living community whose own children have long since moved away from home. Children and have adopted all of ours. As an important part of their extended family. We have a mom whose oldest son has recently gone off to college. Who volunteers in the same classroom on the last sunday. Her own children to stay at home on a sunday morning. And she gives them.. Space. She comes and connects with the children in this class. Everytime i pop my head into check. She's got a huge smile on her face and she's loving every minute. Another volunteer sandy cruise. Accompanied our junior high youth on their inward journey through our coming-of-age program. During last year as a mentor. Some of that same group of youths on our pilgrimage to boston as a chaperone. She has no children in the program. I've even heard her say that she enjoys the quiet contemplation of the 9 service. She was asking questions questions of them truly listening to the answers and being right there with them together in the moment. As they discovered things about our faith tradition and themselves. She had a blast and the youth loved her. This year she's on a team of guys exploring the concepts of home and community with a group of preschoolers in one of our classrooms. There are countless stories and connections and transformations experienced by people in this congregation who never thought of themselves. Until they took that leap of faith and connected with a child in our religious exploration program. They've been classroom volunteers. Helpers at an re event like the idealist. Had held a child in the nursery. Mentor to coming-of-age uther chaperone. There are all kinds of opportunities to stretch out and spread your spiritual wings. Are you tired. Is your spiritual compass a bit out of whack. Come. Get your batteries charged and renew your sense of spiritual direction. Share your gifts of time and connection in a classroom of our younger spiritual guides. These children don't have our years and layers of experience and faget. When they asked questions. They have a clear field of vision to explore through. We can just let go and listen and be with them and watch where they take us. We can just be and enjoy. There is a tremendous opportunity for advisers and other volunteers to experience. Yes. I call our children spiritual guides. They can take us to places with fresh eyes inside ourselves. We haven't seen. Experience the world with different interpretations and perspectives. Classic tales and well-worn stories become new again when a young person who has just heard them shares them with you for their first time. It is my dream that guides advisors and classroom volunteers will come to discover. But the most powerful and profound personal personal faith development. Work they have ever done is in the good work they take on with our children and youth. Young guys as much or more than they need us. Are adult religious education program deserves great amounts of respect. An admiration for providing amazing opportunities for growth. Acknowledging and recognizing that. Depart at whatever level as deep as you care to go in our children's religious exploration program and being with the children and youth. Could be the best adult religious education experience you've ever had. Enclosing. Kenneth l patent rights. Life comes with singing and laughter with tears and confiding. With a rising wave too great to be held in mind and body and heart. To those who have fallen in love with life. Let us worship and let us learn to love.

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BUUF-sermon-20091115.mp3

1988. A late june morning in palm springs california. My hotel room phone rang. I held my breath as i picked up the receiver. Sure enough. It was terrorists. Calling for the boise unitarian universalist fellowship ministry search committee. She said. Boise for a week next month. Flushed out that sentence meant. We. The search committee have chosen you. As the candidate for our pulpit. We are inviting you to spend a week candidate. Send a week. Mutual discernment at the end of which the congregation if they agree with us. I was overcome with joy. For i wanted very badly. Deserve this congregation has its minister and had been feeling a strange call in this direction for months. I've never been. Also i knew that 95% or more of the minister's chosen by. And i was. On july 22nd 1988 by a vote of something like 97%. I headed back to california to tie up quickly. My seminary. On august 28th. Accompanied by my dear sister jimmy. I drove into the treasure valley. And overcast that year. With smoke from forest fires. I went to work almost immediately. About two days after my arrival. Church patriarch john harms told me that rosalie shirelles was in intensive care at saint alphonsus hospital. And that was my first hospital visit. I had officially begun. The change. Was made. Signed sealed and delivered. And this church had a new minister. Everyone to take a deep breath and relax right. Well as many of you know. It was not so simple. There were so many things i didn't know about serving a congregation. Seminary. To be like. And i stumble many times i learned a phrase that. Lowe's. The vast majority of people. They were grieving their former minister. For giving me my trespasses. And getting used to a totally new style of ministry. A few people hated my style my theology my whatever. So i had no idea where to go. We had fun. With things like are spring shakespeare class. I was also incredibly lonely the first year. Sometimes almost in tears on sunday afternoon. Getting to be good friends with. There was a deeply unfortunate rift between me and the director of religious education. The change happened. One day in august 1988. The transition took us about 4 years. William bridges is a well-known author on change. If the trends. He writes and speaks at 1. To transition. Do the complex emotional processes that matter how wonderful that she is. He says. Psychological transition. Depends on pad. Before the change. How many things. We have to let go. When we are building through a transition into a genuinely new place. Think about one of the changes in your life or large. Changing schools. Getting a new job. Losing a loved one bringing a dog or a cat or a horse into your life. Getting or losing a driver's license. Creating a relationship. Take a moment. To pinpoint the change. Like that day i arrived. Reflect on the process. Place. Were you were comfortable in your new skin. The altered skin resulting from the change. Maybe you consciously worked on facing the losses and the newness of transition or maybe. How long did it take. What ended. What did you have to take into yourself. To make yours. This congregation will in the not-too-distant future undergo a major change. I plan to retire. From the unitarian universalist ministry. In june. 2013. 1/2 more years. And then. I will not be your minced. New ministers will arrive. New ministry. Will arrive. The change has not happened. My vision is a sort of. Free transition transition. A time in which we all joyfully enter into the chaos and creativity. This congregation as an institution. You. And i. Very real. Relationship. There are families i have served by marrying. Welcoming children into the world and varying members. The parents of. Our adolescence. Or married by me. When my sister died. You all held me in my sorrow for a long time. Until i came back from that awful grief. In 1998 we left behind created. Your minister got married in 1991. 30 + year veterans of this church of worked hard with relatively new folks. Shaping embracing worship. Welcoming newcomers joyfully calling us to justice. People have been simply to each other. And reconciliation has sometimes. We have loved each other. With an intensity. That has rocked. We have laughed and danced and seized and held each other. Lovers. Gay and straight and join. Refuge and seekers have arrived. Wide-eyed amazement. Personal. And institutional despair. Has overcome individuals and the church at different times. And we have found ways. Together. To bring faith and love. Back into our hearts. I have sought ever. And always. And oh so imperfectly. Honors sentence i learned a song for my seminary days. The highest form of grapes. Is the wisdom and the generosity to multiply the effectiveness of others. Because of this intense authentic long-standing relationship. And honoring all of you newcomer so maybe choosing to step into the stream bringing your fully human cells into it also because of this. I want to honor our life creatively and intentionally. I want to leave now even better. That it is genuinely welcoming and there are doors are embraced. It is financially viable. Able to do wonderful project because we have gone to the considerable sacrifice. Paying off the mortgages that have resulted from visionary. Above all. Spiritually vital. With members and friends who are called reverence relationship and social action. Nurture soul. And help heal the world. I want the boise unitarian universalist fellowship to shine with the light of an unnameable god. Wonderful ministers will be. Clamoring to be called to this. Fabulous church. Here's the catch. We can overcome it's going to be alright. I want people don't think it can be done. This moving. Intentionally over several years toward attending change. Some of my colleagues are aghast. The conventional wisdom of allowing no more than a few months. For goodbye and transition created. One of my friends said they'll treat you like a lame duck. I never said. You telling your retiring and then first thing you know there's that mean you're not invited. I have a couple of responses to the lame-duck cancer. When is the next of what our friend uu minister margaret types that to me. She said the concern about lame duck treatment. Is based on relationships were. You folks have more authentic relationships. I have tons of vigor energy and vision and i can't imagine anyone elaine ducking me for at least a couple of years of pain. Pushing hard for spiritual integrity. I justice orientation and more commitment. During the last year-and-a-half. It will probably be helped. Stroller. I don't think i'm going to care. I don't know if it's. We will have a transition team. Working as creatively as possible to deal with the issues. Some of us will detach. Or at least you like your tattoo. Will develop major dependencies or at least field and scared. Realized. And a large will walk together through our grief in her house. Holding up the shining vision of this church. Which is far. More important. Minister. No matter how long they stay. If it turns out that my colleagues and other learning experts are right. If this path. Fatally compromises our ministry together. 2013. I don't think that's going to have to happen though. I think it's going to be alright. I believe we have the wisdom to live together and honestly in these years of our relationship. We have the vision to keep creating. Holding before us the flame of humanities. Finest. We have the generosity and the courage. Each other authentically. In greece. And hope. And face. We don't really know. But we do know. We can live together well. If we are rigorously honest with ourselves and each other. We know that if everyone of us. Atheist and god. We will be guided. In the path of compassion. Genuine righteousness. And reconciliation. We know we can build a shining place of hope. If we rise above our pet yourself. We know we can honor this long ministry together if we pay. Absol. Rino. If we love each other. In all the ways. That's turn. Taskmaster. Requires of us. Let us go forth into this new territory. Guided by good sense. Laughter. Loving intention. And the wonder. Of our bonds. And our time together.

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BUUF-sermon-20090125.mp3

On wednesday april 8th. 2008. I kiss my husband bob and climbed on the greyhound bus bound for spokane. Vaya several places including cottonwood idaho. 4 spade gertrude's monastery. A woman's benedictine community where i would be spending the next thirty with a couple of days.. This time was right in the middle. You might say the heart of. My six-month sabbatical. A profound. away from ministry. Which was made possible by the generosity of this fabulous which during my absence promptly. The bus pulled out and i settle in. To receiving the road to my retreat. Much as i do what i'm going away for a week in the summer. But with so much more anticipation both excited. And nervous. Something in me knows. That committing to this kind of time. Will not just be a laid-back break of relaxing and renewing. But will involve intimacy with my spiritual and emotional self. Including shadow. That mysterious part of us. Pushed down in early days of our lives. That's hard containing fears. And woes unbearable to childhood and also containing creativity freedom and luminosity they got stuffed with the rest of it. Through the canyon on the way to mccall. Savoring the raging river of the snowbank. More raging river past mccall in new meadows. River joins the main salmon river. Along its mandarin corset. Whitebird grade. Looking down at the impossible turns of the old highway. Just a little farther. Burst into skype. Of the beautiful palouse. Luminous steals rolling into roundhill then craggy mountains. Are huge and abundant valley. Home to the place i love so much. Past greenfield. Did a cottonwood turn off. Up to the kwik-e-mart which is cottonwood bus station. I jump out. Grab my bag. So happy to see sister lillian. The nun in charge of retreats waiting for me in the communities old toyota. Rewind our way the 3tp smiles up from cottonwood to the monastery. Coming home. There it is. Sitting in the middle. Of the large steep hill. Huge trees on the front lawn. The field of stretching to the pine trees of the forest. The main building. Built in the 1920s made of massive. Matt. Chunks. A blue gravestone called blue porphyry. Above the monastery. There's the brick add on to that building housing the refectory. Which is really just talk for dining room. And the infirmary about that. And there's spirit house. The multimillion-dollar environmentally green. Lovely building the sisters caused to have built just a few years ago they have raised millions and they have a mortgage. To offer benedictine spirituality. To all as a way of creating peace in the world. Lillian takes me down to my room on the ground floor. It's light and airy with a floor-to-ceiling window looking out over the palouse. We decide on with her a couple of times a week. And i begin the process of living deeply. With myself and god. 4 a month. The process of moving slower. Of defending my awareness. The process. Of shadow. Aunt white. Starling. Awakening. Mysterious. Filled with a sense of the whole. After a lonely weekend in spokane with bob and the details of why we did that are irrelevant to this story. I really started the descent on the monday after my arrival. For the next 12 days with guidance from lillian and a teacher that i stayed in touch with my phone. I did my best to live in spirit. At first i was sometimes called to go to the common computer and check email. But fortunately that voice through facetime. I dreamed vividly. And i wrote my dreams down as i do at home. First thing upon arising i drew or painted. With those little planning or thinking as possible light images dark 101's whatever arose from my heart and my dick. I meditated and praised often with much intensity with 100 and flight. Every morning. I drew and painted a lot dream images landscape buildings abstractions. I walked up the hill everyday in the snow of the time sometimes with imaginary companions for my dreams. I always went at least as far as a cemetery. With its tiny chapel dominated by two large compassionate angels. Kneeling in prayer. On either side of the 14th station of the cross where jesus is body is being laid to rest. During the day especially after lunch i often went to the small comfortable chapel in the spirit center and lay on the couch. And i occasionally rest of my eyes. I usually attended morning and evening prayer services and nbc's the sisters and guest 212. Sit across from each other. In the dark wood choirs of the magnificent. Welcoming holy sanctuary which is unpretentious lee called the chapel. We speak. And we chant psalms. Antiphonal e-plus the lord's prayer. And the magnificat my soul doth magnify the lord. I had. Nothing else to do. So i did my best to follow the unfamiliar path of doing or not doing whatever a rose in my heart at the time. I was uplifted in my soul. And disturbed in my soul. I was uplifted in disturb off and at the same time and i tried to just live in the paradise. My shadow was stirring. At this point i interrupted myself for a couple of days. Our high school seniors bridging sunday was coming up. I dearly love those kids. And i couldn't. Bear the thought. I've totally missing. This passage in their lives in this community. So i took the bus home on friday. Surprise the kids at their saturday rehearsal i heard their presentations i had lunch with them. I spent a quiet and lovely sunday with bob and then i took the bus back to saint gertrude's on monday. The next 11 days were remarkable. There were all the usual practices. Awesome done in. Agitation or depression mixed with staggering depth of gratitude. There was insomnia. Compulsive eating and anxiety. I spoke to almost no one but lillian. The heart of that descent into shadow time. Was a dream. That woke me by about 4:31 morning. 3. Broke into my monastery room in the dream. And beat me up. Unmercifully. For something i had failed to do. I awoke in terror and pain. And i moved to the rocking chair in front of the window wrapped in a straw. Staring into the darkness i felt the slightest. Almost unseeable betaflight begin to tiptoe across the sky. After a half-hour or so. The silhouette. Of a very large owl. Cat. From the silhouette of the pine tree. Smooth gracefully. And landed on the roof silhouette. Acrostic. I whipped with renton. About a half-hour later. As the light was continuing to creep into the world of day. Free. Dear. Sauntered up to my window. Munch grass. Look up. And so they saw me. We're looking into my eyes and my darkroom. And then bound it away. Over the fence. I thought awhile longer and went back to bed thinking all would be well. I have another terrible. And i woke in extreme agitation. That day i called my teacher. I thought out lillian. I took a long bath. I walked. I prayed my socks off i breathe. I got through the day. Now comes the hard part of the sermon. As a preacher. I want to tell you. The exact significance for me. I want to make a tidy. But i can't. Almost a year after my time at the monastery with much work but relationship much prayer much love and much he'll i am still living. With the mystery of horror striking violence and soul healing beauty. Mary and holy parts of my shadow and i still. I know that my shadow experiences and st. gertrude's made possible deep. Deep experience later in sabbatical. Notably in our partner village and especially notably. At holy sites in england and wales. I know more about myself now but nothing that i can really go public with. Like the poet rilke. I love the knights and have faith in them. I also know they can be heroin. And i know that i have to continue doing. My shadow work. If i don't. If i refuse to descend into the difficult repressed parts of my psyche i will continue to project my. And a blame the rest of you for my feelings. If you do not do yours. U2. For what is going on. Inside of you. Yes communities and countries. Refuse to find and learn to. Their default do their shadow work. They will become self right. They will persecute. Others read those upon whom we protect our shadow. And perhaps they might even find wars to start. The fact of the matter is that there's a lot of work to be done and a lot of it is not happy. But there is hope. We can find. In ancient and modern stories tale. No we must descend and experience whatever's there the thugs and the owl. If we are to re-emerge warhol. We can observe persephone's abduction. The underworld. Emerged. Into a new world that holds opposite. We can reflect on the hero's journey. Going deep into the cave to slay the dragon of denial and ego emerging empowered to bring redemption to the world. Remember the empire strikes back. Yoda sims luke skywalker into a cade telling him he will not need his lightsaber. And here's a dream in the cave where he fights and kills his mortal enemy darth vader. Is darth vader's fun. Fall to the ground. His mask. And his face. Is skywalker. He has battled his shadow. His fears his ego. The job is only half done though since you took the light sword with it. He has to learn to face himself without it if he is to have the deep strength. To heal the universe. Ultimately does in return of the jedi. My heart is rent by the story of proud. Queen inanna and ancient sumerian. I identified. With her arrogance. Her journey. Propane. And the blessings of grace she receives through faith. N24 sisters. Underworld realm her suffering sister for whom she has had no kitty. Her impressive trappings of office crown. Aremu. At each of seven gates. Until she is stripped naked. Her suffering sister ultimately has her kill in the rotting corpse. Is hung up. Is only state. By unpretentious friends. Who have promised these. They show compassion they come down there. In the form of little little creatures flying creatures. And they show compassion for the sister suffering. Until they can persuade her to release inanna. Having suffered herself facing her bride and her arrogance. Foreshadow. You know what i can return to the upper kingdom as a whole human person. A ruler. With soul wisdom. As we develop. Our spiritual practices. Irregular. Spiritual front. We can let these tales. Sinking into our spirit. We can breed poets like real kahoot trust the night. As holding god. With all its phases. In our commitment to shanna we can read books. attarian. Salvation. At least one of which called romancing the shadow offers many deep and doable path. The copies of this sermon machine is not working this morning so there will not be copies as usual. However there's a very large bibliography at the end of this week. If you would like to receive a copy of the sermon my email simply sign up on the paper that nancy has provided. It will see that you get it because you might be interested in the book. So we can't do that. And we can take to heart the words of rumi. 13th century poet of light and dark and laughter and depth and boundless wisdom and here's what really has to say to her. This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. Ijoy. Depression. Amina some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome. And entertain them. All. Even if they're a crowd of sorrows violently sweep your house empty of its furniture still. Creepy honorably. He may be clearing you out. For some new delight. The darkness. Game. Emmaus. Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes. Because each has been sent. That's a guy. From beyond.

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BUUF-sermon-20080727.mp3

Move into the inner there's watch a thief. So you can see the screen better. Robo bashan. Video. Arizona. Small storage and imran. Lemonade. Scorpion. A modern building electricity. Beautiful scenery. Secret garden. River runners from around the world. Hamilton. A little bit. Gigantic. There's no doubt in my mind. Everyone's different. And most of these trips were just a few days in length. Equipment. If you have an oversized. Walmart. Or you did something even. Here's your weather river now and. Arizona. Miles in grand canyon. Experience. My girlfriend. Northern arizona. Urban industrialized world. Hard to do. Road. The world. A martyr to his madness. Indoor philosophy. The world is older and bigger than we are. I was overworked tired and frustrated. Because of work i was getting up things i like to do. Salvation. Instafollowers river. I was worried about. Or the other. Difficult for her. 11. Almost immediately. The grotto's waterfalls. You can. Physically. In the atom is. It's something you always have to keep in mind. Without. What happened. Releases you i think. We said there weren't no home like a raft after all. Consolation. We watched. Traverse the sky. Meteors. I marvel at the history on the supposed to in the grand canyon. Movements of water. Pokeology. Are in water. Allowance of time. Nowhere is this more apparent. A mile above. Hornbill fly up in the canyon walls. Tipton to the rock. Water. Aurora water. Video. 200. River. Happy birthday. For a few more days to the end of the canyon. Taking out. Schedule. On the road. Or more. Reservation. Earlier. Discrimination. We still present. No hurry.

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BUUF-sermon-20081012.mp3

In the past. 2 + years. Cuz i've been keeping track. I have had about 55 dreams about children. Thematically speaking the dreams are quite the next day. Sometimes the kids are joyful and funny. Sometimes they are destructive throwing rocks or waving guns. In many of these night visions. Children are in some kind of terrible danger. And in a few they save me or someone else from dangerous situations. Some dream children need help and guidance. And some. Offer themselves. Clearly. All these dreams are about what's going on in my unconscious and i will leave you to speculate as you will. But they also illuminate larger truth. About the children inside all of us and about the real world children who surround us. Known and unknown. Inner child. Is a phrase i bring out only reluctantly. Sin city has almost become a cliche. Porcello sentimental ization of the wonderfulness of all parts of all children. Take a note of best however it is not a bad concept. It is good for us to know. It's somewhere inside of us. Perhaps lasting in early childhood or even toddlerhood. There is a blessed little person. Who is joyful. Why. Unafraid of expressing itself. Happy to learn discipline and limits without having it spirit broken. This little kid. Is like the mentally disabled little girl in a hurricane dream of mine. Who saved me. By finding a depression in the ground by a tree and laying down protectively on top of me. At the same time we also carry within ourselves those wounded little ones souls muddied and pierced. By neglect. Rage. Abuse. By well-meaning but harmful. Child-rearing practices. We know them. They moved in us. Like the out-of-control unitarian universalist kids in an airport dream i had these children will run out onto busy runway. If a loving adult doesn't stop.. They are the large class a six-year-old in my school dream who will do nothing but run around the room screaming. My dream children. Power enter children and the flesh-and-blood children we see all around us simply embody the human condition. As we know it. We have the capacity. For blessing. For radiance. Joy. Fulfilling. Work that makes a difference leadership. And a connection with the hulk. We also have. The capacity for cursing. For hurting others. For withdrawing. For blaming. For lying and manipulating. For terrible harm. Our task as religious human beings is to journey ever tour. Reconciling the light in the shadow so that we may be whole persons living in fullness responsible for ourselves capable of loving others. Capable. Of contributing to the wholeness of children. Who are dependent on us. And whose soul. Candy so easily bruised. We live in one of the two countries in the world that has not ratified the 1990 united nations convention of the rights of the child the other country is somalia. Lotus today. Resolve to depart from the strange reluctance of our government to affirm with the rest of the world. The children require and deserve. Food. Shelter. And basic care as well as and in the words of the convention. An atmosphere of happiness. Love. And understanding. From the health of the undamaged child within us let us resolve to work for children's basic rights. Let us resolve to treat all young people in our lives with affection. Respect. Clear expectations and our full presents. In all ways that are true to our unique lives. We are required. To bless the children. In our words and in our deeds. Choir said to us. Bless the beasts and the children give them shelter from a storm. Keep them safe. Keep them warm. Light their way when the darkness surrounds them. Give them love. Let it shine. Around. Maybe so.

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BUUF-sermon-20090208.mp3

If you look at a star outline. A part of normal topics life. You can wonder if there was a certain air of righteousness. Even arrogance about him. A character defect that we can easily find in our self. Bored. In czechoslovakia in 1870. A catholic. During four more religious freedom he became a baptist and was called up on heresy charges by the catholic church. Started a church to baptist church which prosper. In trouble with his baptist superiors and colleagues who started another church the same thing happen. American 1890. Six children later. Thirty-one-year-old wife died in june. And he remarried on september 9th. Brand new religion in his country as he investigated. Baptist convention and was received in a lukewarm manner. Dissension grew within his congregation. I tell doctor topics life thus far. Stark and abrupt. Unjust. Make him sound like a troublemaker. A man whose arrogance leads into critique wherever he is because his views are better than other people. I did so. Because i wanted to hear the concerns that i felt. When i first became acquainted with that first half-century or so of his life like this. It will be some adventurous speaking of starting a unitarian church in frost. It will be some adventure and some fight and i like fighting. You may not think so because i do not look like the giant goliath in his coat of mail. My traffic was. Just about the height i am right now in my heel he was about five 4 or so. But believe me when it comes to it i hope to give a good account in god's name. I wanted to share my fear that he might be like another forefather of hours michael servetus who was burned at stake for his beliefs he was truly a martyr but partly because of his arrogant approach. To the people with whom he disagreed. I know. That unitarian arrogance. In myself. And i know it. In many of you. I'm not going to make. I know that our deepest weakness. Is probably thinking we are better. Then other people. Unitarian universalist board fairly recently created a mission statement that suggested we meet the world in humility look using that word humility. We received. I wanted to tell the whole truth about doctor topic even if it wasn't entirely. Fortunately. I need. At least about dr tempe shopping. I don't know about us. So what we can take from the life of this man is inspiration. To be reverent. Loving. Fearless. Generous. Connected with. And how are you. Lotus flush out and finish the story of his wife. His journey. Ruka solecism. Into and through the baptist faith and into the unitarian faith. We're all results of questioning agonizing. Many of us in this room. Have had to leave a face behind. Involved. You're not really a baptist. A truth that traffic if knowledge soon after. For various reasons though he did not actually leave the baptist until ten years later until about 1919 entering the unitarian ministry in 1921. When he did. It was truly. Wholeheartedly until death. He and his beloved third wife maya started the unitarian church in prague which became very large. I'm his second wife that died of a brain hemorrhage. The church went through some hard times as emerging congregations other congregations often do. An offer deflected ministry of the liberal religious fellowship that was its name. So many. It was there. The choppa created the flower community. Flower to worship. Which person takes one away that someone has brought. We do that and chill. And he said this is the purpose of it was. To confess. That we accept each other as brothers and sisters without regard to class. Race or other distinction. Acknowledging everybody as our friend who is a human and who wants to be good. The church and its brave minister. For a beacon of freedom and hope as the nazis occupied czechoslovakia. Which of course being a beacon of hope brought him to the attention of the authorities. The not not just simply could not allow his preaching of freedom and dignity. And he was imprisoned. The final 14 weeks of his life when he was 70 years old. Were spent in the dachau. Concentration camp. Where he composed hymns. And brought hope and comfort. To the hearts of the other prisoners. His heart and thoughts and hopes. Always with others. With his vision. Overworld are free. Selfless. Loving people. He wrote to his beloved maya in the early days of his time of deck out. Take good care of the religious. Assisting in the emphasis on positive attitude toward life. Visibility is missing in many people who do not understand religion as something more than tired. Phrases. On october 12th. 1942 he wrote to her. I can bear the remaining four or five dollars. And i will not be downcast. I will not be downcast. Rather give myself over. To thoughts of you who are most dear to me. Good. Future solo deserve. Fruition the best possible life. Women i would have been so happy to have lived with. In the fullness of a tried-and-tested love for others. A few hours later he and other older and more frail prisoners were picked up by weed. Rapport. Texoma. From the life of norbert chiapas beyond our admiration. For his devotion to the principles of the freezer. He was a loving me. Finding room in his heart. For all of his nine. 9 children among the many others that he loved he says this about his children. All my children how much do i owe you. Enough. Set my every word. My every smile. My every song. We too can remember. That love is the base. Of all that is good.. He was a deeply religious man. I'm afraid to use the word god that sometimes controversial nickname for. That which is higher and greater than all science and art. Call me with the infinite soul of our soul and life of our lives. As the sunflower responds to the sun. So the human soul. Responsibility to sign in 10 whatever it is. The causes our souls to respond. I take two primary inspirations from topics life and faith. I am upheld in my conviction. That reverence. Love. And humble faith are the foundation of a good life. And i am uphill in my passionate devotion to the proposition. The god without humanity is hollow and empty shell. In his final letter. The month just before he died. He spoke of a tried-and-tested love for others. And for god. For him. The two weirdest city. How good it will be. If that is true for us. Skip our spiritual convictions and practices. Always lita. Bored more love for each other more love expressed as a passion for justice. I love his preaching on the nature of our faith he says. What kind of religion is this unitarianism. It is humanity. Divinity. It is humanism and theism. Combine. It is not the kind of humanism without god and without a soul but the humanism of those great men who from time-to-time called our nation to a new life. Can the only hell about the religion that was not human enough. That remained under the level of humanity or remain so to say. And could not answer the needs of people. And i love his vision of the purpose. Of religion. He says it must be. First of all for the heart. Should bring a cure. For a sick heart. Give joy. To a sad heart. Bigger to a fetal heart and courage. Norbit. Sent the first two-thirds of his life searching. Always serving the higher good as he understood. But searching for a face. That would allow loving community. And disciplined freedom. For each of us. He found that face. Embodied in our unitarian religion. Embodies love of god and of humans. That encourages selfless devotion. He found his soul. In the unitarian faith. Which fuel his generous heart. With love. Encourage. Even. Unto. The last. And dark. Please join me and our readers in a responsive reading of doctor traffic towards sherman. Can you order service right now. In the name of providence. Which implants in the seed. The future of the flower. And then our hearts belonging. For people to live. In harmony. The name of the highest. In whom we move and who makes the mother and father the brother sister lover and alone but they are. In the name of the stages and great religious leaders who sacrificed lives to hasten the coming of the age of mutual respect. You are resolution. Real brothers and sisters. In this holy resolve strengthen knowing that we are gods family. The one spirit the spirit of love unites. And in denver. For a more perfect and more joyful life. May it be so.

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BUUF-sermon-20080810.mp3

Good morning everybody. Good to be back with you a little bit about the villain was just referring to. Last time i was here a couple years ago i talked about what happened to the religious left over the last 40 years in terms of their cultural and political clout in america. Today i'd like us to. Switch our focus and look a little bit at what's happening on the religious right some fascinating shift. Are happening there. The news this summer and i think they're going to have an impact in this current election cycle. Where the story is that really stunned me this summer. Appeared in the idaho statesman in june. And talk about southern baptist. Southern baptists are rapidly losing members. And have been for three years now since 2005. Turn down to 20 or low in numbers and their president says that their denomination does not take swift action. Bill drop by half by 2030. Now this is fascinating for a couple of reasons. Southern baptists are very powerful very conservative group. I think of them as the flagship of the religious right. Back in 1950 the southern baptist became the largest protestant denomination in the country. And they remain so today. The 1980s. Southern baptist experience. A fundamentalist takeover conservative group but the fundamentalist in the group. Took over the reins of leadership from the more moderate conservative. And the fundamentalist southern baptist. Density domination in a restricted doctrinal position they said there was one right way to interpret scripture and then scripture was inerrant. They also removed. All the women that they hadn't clergy rolls. From those roles and ban them from that. Anime connected their aspirations very tightly to the republican party. In 2000 they moved even further in the fundamentalist doctrinal position. These kinds of pissed longtime southern baptist bill moyers and jimmy carter left those denominations. But more often than not. The southern baptists benefited numerically from the shift to the right. Growing like crazy. And religion scholars. Actually tied this hardline. Conservative shift to their growth. The thinking was among religion scholars was hades mainline liberal protestant denominations have been declining because they're getting more relativistic more wishy-washy more secular in their doctrine people don't know what they stand for. Where's the religious right when they set these firm strict hardline. Create a very clear identity and people will run to them. Nail for whatever reason. Something changing. Which of the southern baptist. Blow me sharply declining in numbers but many southern baptist churches. Are changing your name. They're taking the baptist name off of their signage off of their come out of their congregation. Because the word baptist now apparently is starting to mean rigidity conservatism and republicanism and many baptists are running away from those connotations. What are the clearest examples for me is the pastor rick warren. He's a pastor of a very famous well-known church of about 22,000 members cup of saddleback church in california. He wrote a best-selling book called the purpose driven life maybe city of heard about that. And he is one of those baptist southern baptist it took the name baptist off of the church name. He's also been very carefully distancing himself from the republican party in fact. Call quite a scandal in his congregation in 2006 we brought barack obama senator barack obama congregation to collaborate with him on an aids ministry. This is before barack obama declared for the presidency. And i have an informant that interview for my my research and he knows rick warren real well. And he told me privately an interview he said you don't ask rick warren after barack obama appeared in the church and it cost a little hoopla. I asked him. Get the sky runs for president would you consider. Voting for him. And rick warren told mine former privately said in a heartbeat. Things are shifting. In the southern baptists are kind of a bellwether for the religious right and for their health. I wonder. Beginning to see. A shift maybe the beginning of the end of the religious rights era of dominance. In american history and political life. Historical eras come in all shapes and sizes we historians love to talk in eras. And a common historical era lasts about 40 years with also was a number of great biblical significance. My specialty is really just left that's why do my focus religious left heyday in. Political life lasts about 40 years ago chart their rides their ascendancy. Scopes trial 1925 to about the late sixties when they kind of went into a tailspin with. Broader american liberalism. Now. Mini stories today when they look at the religious right they can to chart their wives the beginning of the rising above 1979. make sense that's when jerry falwell created the moral majority and collected this group of conservative religious folks together put them into the service the republican party to elect ronald reagan right 1980. 29 years ago. I actually go back to 1968. To track the beginning of the rise of the religious right in politics which was ironically 40 years ago. See that's when nixon began to use the religious right consciously for political ends. Get an old friend billy graham. Sit with him and his family presidential box at events and ensure that the media would catch it because he knew billy graham would be useful to have image-wise. In the election. He also began strategically moving the evangelical community for the purpose of bringing disaffected white southern democrats into the republican party. In the in the south headlong voted democrat but they were upset with the democrats because they have supported civil rights legislation and so in the late sixties many of them were looking for a new political home. And nixon came a-courtin. So along with supporting states rights nixon knew that to win the buckle on the bible belt electoral e. Tulsa court evangelical sensibilities. Some of you might remember nixon began. Sponsoring these private politicide sunday morning worship services at the white house when he became president. Invitations to bee stings were jealously saw and nixon use them to demarc friend from foe. But given that the mainline protestant leadership had largely distanced itself from nixon's vietnam war policies nixon needed to draw a new religious alex around him to give his administration the are a religious blessing. All politicians may god cover don't they or their policies. Conservative evangelical leaders like billy graham comply. Billy graham gave the first of the white house. Worship services. The process of creating a new conservative religious establishment that traded spiritual blessings with a political one buoying the prestige of both. Nobody way billy graham in his later years. Has retreated from these kinds of political partisan. Pronouncement. And connections actually says that he regretted overdoing the. In his younger years. Anyway. Nixon men had one of his chiesa guy named charles colson. Court and dazzle evangelical leaders at white house events. People getting who might fortify nixon support in the white south and coulson said and i quote. I found them the evangelicals to be about the most pliable of any of the special interest groups that we worked within club. For 40 years so to get called in the white house and be wooed and courted was just so exciting to them. Ironically long after doing prison time for watergate. Charles colson has tried to warn his conservative christian fellow. Against the coming to these white house siren-song saying that and i quote colton here. What are the reasons that i've written books and giving speeches warning christian leaders not to be seduced by the wild and attractive. The practice of the power in the white house. Add to keep our distance and i never mix the gospel with politics is it nice or how well i exploited religious leaders when i was in that job. But that's what politicians do in quote. Phil coulson who is an evangelical himself is being very honest here about what he sees as a mistake made by the religious right. One that he helped seed. And that was their seeking to advance their goals on public issues by wetting themselves to one particular political party. I tried to get inside it become its base. An account on that party for making the desired changes in the world. Course they just mention this was. Unrequited relationship the gop was also willing to religious right for their political ends and manipulating it. No i will tell you. But the religious left when it will do the most cultural political clap. Need several serious mistakes that did contribute to their tailspin in the late sixties. Partisanship was not one of them. Not back then. My doctoral research was on the response of the mainline protestant churches to the vietnam war and i was quite amazed to find among them among their leadership. Both democrats and republicans. And they made their moral arguments around issues and then took those issues to both political parties. They went to both the democratic and republican national conventions in 1968 into their platform. Begin put all their eggs in one partisan basket not in the polarizing 1960s. On vietnam they went after both lyndon johnson and richard nixon with equal to an acid affect the head of an apple kelso churches which is a pretty liberal organization that had it back then was a republican who had served in eisenhower's white house with nixon back in the fifties these guys were they know each other. And yet he's going after nixon on the war. The religious lap have some serious flaws that contributed to their fall from influence. I think they said a very good. Nonpartisan issue base example for how to speak truth to power. The lesson that the religious right i think is wrestling with now. It's a lesson that the religious left would be wise to remember as they begin to reassert themselves in the public square. But let's talk a little bit more about what distinguishes the religious right from the religious left in terms of beliefs. This'll give us a little bit more of a window into the world use motives and politics and help us understand continue to probe what might be shifting. On the right. The religious right and left were created in their modern forms background the turn of the twentieth century when religious groups split over how to respond all these new ways of knowing things or being developed in the physical biological and social sciences. Cities new non-religious ways of knowing. Be accommodated resisted when their discoveries appear to challenge biblical accounts. Will those who said accommodate. Generally. And those who said resist. Generally. Became those that we call the religious right. The resisters said that accommodating would reduce the authority of scripture. And if something comes from the mouth of god it must be true in every respect and be able to be literally red. God be right then science when it disagrees with scripture must be wrong. Embrace the literal reading of the bible in part because it felt democratic anyone could do it. You didn't need a fancy education which the liberals appear to need because they kept putting scripture back in its historical and cultural context and that take some education some reading and some background. A literal reading of the bible was also big in america because of empower the individual. You could do it for yourself it seemed non classes non elitist and certainly easier than what the liberals were doing. However. In the panic against the liberals and the interpretations that they were spinning. The religious right decided to boil down their face beliefs into these rock-hard fundamentals. Believe in one was going to call and sell the christian. This actually added an undemocratic element to the next interpretation out of the hands of the individual and put it under the authority of some denominational leaders. It's actually took something away from that very protestant principle the priesthood of all believers were people can interpret the bible for themselves about this would call that soul freedom it took away the soul freedom. And now fighting a biblical passage or doctrine became the end of the discussion. At the beginning of a dialogue or debate. Southern baptist convention went in that direction in the 1980s and again in 2001 a to benefit them for a long time this position appears to be losing traction today. It brings you to the second big news story of the summer. According to a recently released poll by the pew center of american religion and this was their big finding out of the pole they did this summer. 68% of americans say there is more than one way to interpret the teachings of their faith. And 70%. Believe that multiple religions can lead a person to salvation this includes. 57% of evangelicals. To agree. It's upset the southern baptist. The vice president rodger oldham bristled at the implication of rising tolerance in the data he said quote if my tolerance be more willing to engage or embrace a multitude of ways to salvation that's no longer you believe he said. Apparently about 57% of evangelicals beg to differ. People also discovered. 80% of americans say that they believe in absolute standards of right and wrong. Only the third said they turned primarily. Religious teachings to set those standards. But this also seems to indicate that more americans are accepting an integrating into their moral frameworks. These other ways of knowing that the fundamentalist long-ago rejected. Elsa finds the religious right well they're often described also as being more otherworldly. Turn the religious laugh. For example when the religious left thinks about. Salvation or saving people they often focus on things in this world like saving people from injustice. And poverty. Religious right tennessee salvation more than otherworldly thing. It's about having a a right believe that results in eternal life. Evangelizing or saving souls for heaven is to them the number one job of being a christian and to them it's the kindest and best thing that they can do for another person. Otherworldly focus is also supported by their belief in premillennialism. That big word is basically refers to a kind of interpretation of the end times. Drive from prophecies in the bible. And prima leon basically means that they believe that jesus will come back before. He predicted thousand years of peace premillennialism jesus comes back before. And they say that you will know the jesus's return is imminent when you start to see wars and natural disasters increasing. Supposed to be a. called the tribulation. Wandering spirit of tribulation there's going to be they say a rapture of the true believers so the true believers will be taken up into heaven and they will miss. All the chaos and, that is to come. An antichrist then supposed to rise up and try to unite the nations of the world into a one world government. There will then be a new conversion. Of people to christianity jose oh my gosh right. 144,000 you supposed to be part of this group and they will then start a war with the antichrist and that is going to be world war 3 farm again. In the midst of this armageddon jesus isn't supposed to come back smite the antichrist. And usher the values of peace which will come culminate in a judgement. Now. Hit you believe in this scenario. Things are going to get worse and worse until armageddon comes with the converse will be taken up before the shooting starts. Is there much incentive. Here to try to end things like poverty or address climate change. No not really. Not really. Tell me then jellicles appear to be becoming more worldly in the spiritual interests. For example. They're moving their laser beam focus. Away from formerly hot-button personal morality issues like homosexuality. Considering instead upon large systemic problems like poverty and the environment topics typically would have been the purview of the religious left. These. Evangelicals are calling themselves by a new name they're calling themselves red letter christians. Because they're focusing on what jesus specifically talked about. In the new testament. Like poverty was reese's over and over again. But not addressing the things that jesus never meant. Like homosexuality they called themselves red letter christians because it's a lot of the evangelical bibles have the words of jesus in red. Debbie's red-letter pipes people like rick warren are also the ones that appear to be putting some distance between himself and the republican party they're becoming less and less comfortable with that relationship. They also appear to be rejecting the neoconservative approach to foreign policy in the middle east that many premillennialist. Heart of gods and thyme plant. Shifting away from some personal morality issues on these systemic. Long-time issues. And kind of getting away from some of their in time fatalism. This is quite. Quite dramatic. According to the pew poll there's also a generational. Split brewing. What 43% of weekly churchgoers consider themselves republican compared to 30% of everyone else. Whose number is weaker among younger church-goers. Younger folks are gone more toward the poverty and environmental issues. The less concerned with homosexuality they're still very concerned about abortion but they ceded the social justice issue rather than a personal morality issue and they are open to voting for people like hillary clinton and barack obama. Play lil story about a really good friend that teaches political science at an evangelical christian college outside of philadelphia. And shows polls her american politics classes on how they're going to vote in elections come up and then 2002-2004 her students overwhelmingly and enthusiastically supported george bush. Upwards of 85 to 90% of her class. Tabor george bush. Chicago american politics class this last spring. Golden during the primary season and about half of her students. So they were going to vote for either hillary or barack obama for space-based reasons. That's interesting one of her young students the young woman said that her father threatened to disown her if she voted for a democrat. Anyone kid. So there's a little something happening generationally as well. Something is happening is that evangelicals in general some of them. Some of them. Appear to be focusing left on politics. in their churches. And more on spiritual nurture and being a neighbor to those in need because they've gotten disillusioned with what politics. Can get them. Bottom line all these developments are greatly concerning the southern baptists leadership as well as other religious right stalwarts like. James dobson. So let's go back to my original question. Are we seeing the beginning of the end of the religious rights era of dominance in american political life. Or maybe the beginning of the end of a particular style of religious brightness. In politics are they changing their shape and therefore. I don't know your weed story is we're good at interpreting the past we getting comfortable predicting the future. But we can see some interesting thing path leading capping in their nascent stages. The republican brand of the southern baptist brand are both struggling. For whatever reason. We can also see some evangelical some. Separating from their partisan ties of the past. And they seem some of them to be moving away from personal morality issues like homosexuality. Systemic. Long-term issues like poverty aids environment darfur getting people clean water. Aldi sinking spring to interest. Certain folks amongst evangelical right. The weather in new political areas in the making will depend of course the multiphase communities do the next. Couple years. What i can guarantee you is that we were looking for storian we watching developments with bated breath.

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BUUF-sermon-20080928.mp3

What does it mean. We all have an idea of course. Lawyer. With all your heart. Tagamet. Samaritans and jews. Fundamentalist. In the loop. Could continue to get care. We can infer. My neighbor. Wild side. L. Sara haines. Homeless person on the street. Great. Is it just a matter. More commonly. Universal. We believe. We prefer to avoid conversation. One and only. Etiology. Environmental projects. Years ago. Occurred. I am not. Absolute. I think i'm afraid of. For people like us. Neighborliness. Glassdoor. People who. Relationship. Assumptions. We perhaps. All the time. If we can remember. If we can walk in. Kind of. Left-leaning alone. Have you ever been a very high or very low. Because you didn't. Have you ever seen a person. Early 1980s. Isaiah. People of color. Conscious and unconscious prejudice. Part of all creation. Call. We can remember. Religious organization. Isolate. The person who said yes of course. The difference. A family. Normal.

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BUUF-sermon-20090419.mp3

Buckminster fuller coined the phrase spaceship earth. Describe the oneness of our planet. As well as a common destiny. Reverend michael mcgee said fuller wanted that image of an earth. With no national boundaries no enemies and allies no victors and vanquished. To sink into our consciousness. But the earth is not a spaceship. It's a living breathing being. The poetic biologist lewis thomas describes the view of the earth from the moon. Viewed from the distance of the moon. The astonishing thing about the earth catching his breath. Is that its allies. The photographs show the dry pounded surface of the moon in the foreground. Dead as an old bone. Aloft. Floating free. Beneath the boys flaming membrane of a bright blue sky. Is the rising. The only exuberant thing. In this part of the cosmos. If you could look long enough. You would see the swirling of the great drifts of the white clouds. Covering and uncovering. The house getting masses of land. If you had been looking for a very long geologic time. You could have seen the continents themselves in motion. Drifting apart on the crustal plates. Held afloat by the fire beneath. It has a self. It has organized self-contained look of a live creature. Full of information. Marvelously skilled in handling the sun. Now whether you see the earth from far out in space. On the magnificence of a forest. Or a tree. Or one leaf. You can see. Obvious. Skip this planet live. Once we begin to see the earth as a living breathing being. And every entity is part of this being. Bennett changes the way we think. And feel. And relate. We begin to realize the planet is not only alive. But it is infused with spirit. Have you ever thought about it. But if we lived on the moon. Our imagination and intelligence. Would be as void as a moon's atmosphere and landscape. Because we are creations of gaia. A planet. Diverse. Colorful and saturated with mary its sights and sounds. We have a consciousness that is rich with creativity. And fertile with vision and inside. We need a communion with our world. As much as we need food. Humanity itself. Is a theoretical concept. Not a reality. How did child often the stimulation of the earth. And that child's intelligence. Emotional stability. And creativity will diminish. And eventually. Vanish. Leaving the child. Only a shell. I'll be human being. We exist only in relationship with the earth and the sky. The trees and the insects. With gaia. We need a beautiful world have a full consciousness and to be healed and whole. If our environment collapses. So do we. Environment is collapsing. Sadly our past government was doing little. To help preserve our. Resources in future. In fact in the first 100 days of the bush environment. It is virtually declared war. On our planet's environment. To celebrate earth day the house of representatives in 2005. Approved a new energy bill. Set included drilling for oil in the arctic national wildlife refuge. Or what is called by some. The american serengeti. Our government hasn't always been so lackadaisical. We celebrate earth day. In the united states earth day is celebrated by most people. On april 22nd. But there was another celebration that predates that one by approximately a month. And is celebrated internationally. The first earth day celebration took place on march 22nd 21st. 1970. On the vernal equinox about year. It was the brainchild of john mcconnell. A newspaper publisher and influential community activists. Who proposed the idea of a global holiday called earth day out of unesco conference on the environment in 1969. Mcconnell suggested an annual observance to remind the people of earth of their shared responsibility as environmental stewards. He chose the vernal equinox always march 20th or 21st. He said this is nature's david light and darkness. Day and night. Are of equal length worldwide. Mcconnell believes that earth day should be a time of equilibrium. When people could put aside their differences. And recognize our common need to preserve earth's resources. On february 26th 1971. Un secretary-general youth fan. Signed a proclamation saying that. United nations would celebrate earth days annually on the vernal equinox. Thereby officially establishing the march date. As international earth day. It is earth day statement on march 21st 71. Ufan said. May there only be peaceful and cheerful birthdays to come. For our beautiful spaceship earth. As it continues to spin and circle in frigid space. With this warm and fragile cargo of animal life. The united united nations continues to celebrate earth day each year. By ringing the peaceful at un headquarters in new york city. At the precise moment at the vernal equinox. This year in 2009. The peace bell was rung by pete seeger. In america the environmental movement most degrees started in 1962. With the publication of rachel carson's book. Silent spring. Carson's examination of pesticides. Particularly ddt. Had far-reaching implications for all technologies. In november of 1962 former senator gaylord nelson took up the cause. He persuaded president john kennedy to go on a five-day 11 state national tour. To give visibility to the environmental conservation cause. Kennedy beginners tour in september 1963. For many reasons that or did not succeed in putting the. Issue onto the political agenda. However it was the germ of the idea. The gay ultimately flowered into a national earth day. It was held on april 22nd 1970. The environmental teach-in hailed as a nationwide day of environmental education and activism. The event was wildly successful. Sparking earth day celebrations at thousands of colleges. University. Schools and communities across the nation. Following the earth day celebration inspired by nelson with demonstrated. Bread grassroots support. For the environment legislation. Congress passed many important environmental laws. Including. The clean air act. The clean water act. Safe drinking water act. As well as many laws to protect wilderness areas. The environmental protection agency was created within three years. After earth day 1970. Birthday raises awareness of environmental issues. And promotes environmental action. Reverend frank hall says. Earth day is also about the human environment. The inner life that directs us. It's about becoming more conscious of the way we live. And conscious living in the heart of what religious or spiritual life. Since that first earth day celebration. There's been a weaving of our increased concern about the damage we've been doing to the earth. And one religious life. Most of the religions across the wide spectrum are uniting on this point. What we think about the earth. And the way we behave toward the earth. Is at the heart of religion. Birthday is not intended to make us feel guilty. It's not about shaming. It's about raising awareness about the effect. Our lifestyle has on our planet. Our home. Increased awareness sometimes results in feeling uncomfortable. It's gets our attention. We know we're all a part of the problem. But hope is the raising our awareness. Can help us to think about how to become part of the solution. To participate. In the greening of the planet. Rivard whole says it just as the rivers and oceans can become polluted. So can our minds become polluted. Concerns about global warming have been getting couple it aside with red state-blue state opinions about what's causing climatic changes. And who's responsible for the problem. And who should be responsible for the making the necessary changes to prevent global tragedy. During the bush administration we became acutely aware of those earlier important environmental acts and laws. And if they were being tinkered with that have holes in them. Now we the people. Need not only knowledge. But wisdom. And we need to know the difference. The reverend dr. william shultz past executive director of amnesty international usa. And former president. I've unitarian universalist association. Explains our commitment in these words. Hundreds of years ago saint lawrence ave. Whom should i adore. The creator. Or the creation. Most western religions of answer back. Adore the creator. I'd have supplied images of. Zeus. Jehovah. Christ. To be a door. Our answer is far different. Adore the creation surely. For whatever there is a the creator will be made manifest in her handiwork. God said mies van der rohe. Dwells in the details. The divine for us. Whatever is sfb. Is not confined to the transcendent realm. Its ramparts guarded by the scholarly elite. On the contrary. The holy is made manifest to everyone of us. Not just those who can recite the catechism. In that transactions of the everyday. And this in turn is why we. Love the earth. Honor the human body. And bless the stars. Religion is not just a matter of things unseen. For us the holy is our hidden. But shows its face in the blush. Of the world's exuberance. Our faith is one of action. We are at its best when we stand together. As this fellowship is done since i was a child. We're stood against war. Shut up for many human rights. And for some. Stood against the death penalty. Unitarianism means unity. And that's what unitarian-universalism stands for. Unity is the message of our principals. Michael mcgee points out. It has been said that only the first and last of our 7 principles. Are actually principles. Others are ways in which would bring about those two essential values. To go to the heart of our faith. How appropriate. Set the first principle. The covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. No matter the race religion nation or sexual orientation we are all one. Deals with our relationship with ourselves and each other. I'm the seventh principle. Recovering it to a firma promote respect for the interdependent web of all of this.. Deals with our relationship with the earth. This is the access our lives revolve around. Humanity. And nature. To be close to nature is not easy for anyone who lives in this culture. Our society is built huge barriers. Between ourselves and the earth. Barriers. To protect us from its dangers. That has also cut us off from the staining spirit up is bountiful planet. We can see our alienation in more personal ways to. Take for instance. These supposedly actual comments left on forest service. Registration sheets and comment cards. Too many bugs and spiders and spiderwebs. Please play the wilderness to rid the area of these past. Please avoid trails building trails a go uphill. The coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake. Please eradicate the area of these pests. Mcdonald's would be nice at the trailhead. Too many rocks in the mountains. Have we forgotten the nature comes as is. What about our stewards. The national park service. The forest service. And the bureau of land management. Which during the bush administration received a black eye. They are to preserve and protect. We are merely visitors when they go camping and hiking on the land. And especially. Walmart in the wilderness. Which is to be kept as pristine as humanly possible. Take only pictures. Leave only footprints. If you pack it in. U-pack it out. Including feces. When we head to the outdoors. We leave behind many the commodities. Easy. Although rei has come up with many numerous can't live without products. The make life. Camping a whole different experience now than it was 15 or more years ago. Hiking or going for a walk. Getting out of the woods or desert or fields. Make an experience. To experience. Can we find a balance. One of global living. And as making peace with the environment. The following is from a small book by ursula goodenough. The sacred depths of nature. I walk to the missouri woods and the organisms are everywhere. Seen and unseen. Flying about or pushing through the soil are rummaging under leaves adapting and reproducing. I opened my senses to them and we connect. I no longer need to answer bravura fires them to value them because they are beautiful or amusing or important for my survival. I see them as they are. I understand how they work. I think about their genes switching on and off their cells dividing and differentiating and pace with my own. Apologist with my own. I taken the sycamore by the river. As i think about it story. The ancient algae and mosses and ferns that came before. The tiny progenitor the gave rise to it. And to me. I try to guess why it looks the way it does. Why the leaves are so serrated. I'm the bark so white. And imagine all sorts of answers. A manner of selection and unattended consequences. Set of yielded this tree to existence. And him. To my experience. We work at try to balance saving the environment. With just trying to make it through our daily responsibilities. Despair and apathy are common attitude. Those who grew up at a time when activism saab results. Can't understand why it's so much harder now. There's a story about an old cherokee. Who won event oldest grandson about a battle. The goes on inside people. He said my son the battle is between two wolves inside us all. The one wolf is evil. It is anger. Envy. Sorrow. Regret. Greed. Arrogance. Superiority. Self-pity. Guilt. Resentment. Inferiority. Lies. False pride. And ego. Do you have the wolf is good. It is joy. Peace. Love. Hope. Serenity. Humility. Kindness. Benevolence. Empathy. Generosity. Truth. Compassion. And faith. The grandson thought about it for a few minutes. And then ask. Which wolf wins. Bill cherokee simply replied. The one that you feed. Do unitarians have been making connections with other people. With ourselves. Without religion. And with the earth. We have worked at becoming and being good stewards. Back in 1989 unitarian universalist voted at our general assembly of resolution titled. Protecting our biosphere. That was followed by several others. Safer sources of energy in 92. Population and development in 96. Earth air water and fire in 97. In 2001 we voted responsible consumption is our moral imperative. And in 2006 we address. The threat of global warming. A suggestive question for covenant group to discuss. And for everyone else to contemplate as well is. In what ways do you waive the interdependent web of lies. How do you feel connected to the earth and nurture that bond. Just me and with this simple story about an old man. Who was so wise he could answer questions. Almost impossible for people to answer. So two young people decided to go to him one day. They said to one another. Forget your trick the old man today. We're going to catch a bird. I'm ready to take it to the old man. I'm going to say to him. This that we hold in our hands a day. Is it alive. Or is it dad. And if he says dad. Open our hands and let the bird fly free. But if you says alive. Denver going to crush it. So the two young people went to the old man. And they said. This. That we hold in our hands a day. Is it alive. Or is it dead. The old man looked at the young people. I need smile. It's in your hands. The future of the earth. Aloft. Floating free. 50 fillmore east. Membranes. As a bright blue sky. The only exuberant thing. If this part of the cosmos. And of our children. The future is now in our hands. Maybe we can handle it with exceedingly. Loving care. May it be so.

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BUUF-sermon-20090222.mp3

Good morning. You know sometimes when you go from point a to point b you got to go through c&d to get there so. When i originally. Was asked to do the service. Now they want you to put a news blurb in the bulletin or in the newsletter. And i wrote. Journeys begin with certain expectations. Overtime finding ourselves various crossroads along the way. Wondering if we will make it. Desiring to lay down our burdens early. Upon arrival. Hopes and dreams are found. Faulty. To the revealed reality. Of the destination. What does it mean. And from where do we move. Onto. Is tomorrow truly another day. And if it is. Is it really worth it. Yes the joy and positive message of battlestar galactica. Well it was a little too wordy to put in the newsletter. But i figured it's a good point to start off with this morning. Now typically my morning start with getting the idaho statesman i pop open the life section and. Check out the comic some. And inevitably take a look at my horoscope to see maybe if it has a hint as to how the day is going to go. And today's red. You could get ahead of yourself. In the wanting department. Think about what you already have. I am not a priest. I've never been. A particularly. Good man. I am in fact. A profoundly. Selfish man. But that doesn't matter you see. Something in the universe. Loves me. Something in the universe loves the entity. That is me. Choose to call this something. God. A singular spark. The twelves. In the soul. Every. Living bean. If you look inside yourself. You will find that spark to. You will. But you will have to look deep. Love. Your faults. Embrace them. If god and braces them how can they be faults. Love yourself. You have to love yourself. If we don't love ourselves. How can we love others. And when we know. What we are. Then we can find the truth out. About others. Seek. What they are. The truth about them. And you will know what the truth is. The truth about them. About you. About me. Do you. The truth is. We are all. Perfect. Just as we are. God only loves that which is perfect. And he loves you. He loves you because you are perfect. You are perfect. Just the way you are. Interesting. Yes. Now. No. What you are doing darling is boring me. With your superstitious drivel. Your metaphysical nonsense. Which. To be fair to you. Actually appeals to have educated dillard's. That make up most of human society. But which i hasten to add no rational. Intelligent. Free thinking human being. Truly believes. Which leads me to the inescapable conclusion. That's cylons. In the final. The cylons are in the final analysis. Little more than posters with great looking legs. Now. Those two dialogues. Come from the same person. The 2nd. Came first. The first came second. Now. Gaius baltar is an interesting character. Takewell. I don't know. Bill gates. And. Bon jovi. Meld them together. You get the picture. I can tell by the reactions. Super brain nobel prize winner. Who's a babe magnet. Well that babe magnet. Help the cylons destroy the 12 colonies of kobol. At the beginning of the series he is a self professing a theist. Mocking both the polytheistic faith of the humans. And the monotheistic faith. Of the cylons. However. Over the course of the series. Events have convinced him. To some degree. And with baltar you'd never really know where he stands. No matter how contrary to his scientific beliefs. There might actually be. One true god. And gaius is not alone though. The faith. And the beliefs of many. Of the characters within the series. If not all of them. Are challenged on their journey. Sometime in the not-too-distant past. While watching another television program and yes i do watch something other than battlestar galactica. My wife commented. Or asked. Power why certain character. Managed to do what they had just done. Being the occasional smartass that i am. I responded because the writers wanted it that way. Now that's said. I do believe though. The one the writing is good. And the writers understand and respect the nature and integrity of the characters for whom they are writing to. That this is indeed an oversimplification. Reality. Even when it's striction alized. Is beyond our control. And it simply goes the way that it goes. Like life. Ultimate. Reality. Journeys and transformations her metaphorical to life. Because life is metaphorical and return. Each sunday we gather here and religious community. Our spiritual home. While home has a connotation of. Up somewhere. Bean salad. We indeed are literally. The church of the journey. The church of the transition. Each sunday. We welcome. New and old. Young. Handled. There are many paths to the holy. Whatever path you are on or choosing we welcome you. From before we are us. The sperm headed one way the egg headed the other. Once joined eventually delivered into the world. We are in motion. And it seems on a constant journey until the last breath. Leaves are lips. I forget where i heard this analogy but it's like we're some particle traveling. Through the spectrum of energy. And for a brief. Moment of our lives. Here we are. Visible. Comporium. Now the first journey. I have any direct notion of. What's today's for. My father had left me in the family station wagon. Parked at the top of a small hill. To the garage at our home. Now to be quite honest with you i do not remember this purse a first-hand. But i've been told about it many times. And many times. And many times over the years. Well some way. Somehow. I managed to put the car in reverse and yes it was still running. The car traveled then down the hill. Heading to head to rose bushes. But the journey didn't have there. At least. It ended for the car at 10 then for me. Faster than a speeding bullet. I crossed our front yard. Over after that. To my grandparents home. My grandma and grandpa she's. We're often my refuge. Where i could most certainly find safe haven. More often than not. However as we grow into adulthood. Certainty and expectations. Drift away. Where do we. Where do you. Find your safe haven now. In my last sermon we left the battlestar galactica and the ragtag fleet of what remained of humanity. Just starting their journey. To find a new home. I'll land of milk. And honey. Cold earth. Infor remarkable seasons of storytelling that journey is coming to a close. Very soon. Four episodes remain. Now in the words of ron moore. The shows. Revitalizing creator. Story has a beginning. A middle. And an end. And the end is indeed near. Mantras. Within the show. And. And the opening music. The words which i think her in latin. Are all of this has happened before. And all of it will happen again. Now this is the really hard part. Because i really do love the story. And out of the respect of the efforts of those that have made it. What can i really tell you. And not spoil it. You really need to watch it. And experience it for yourself. Trust me you will not be disappointed. So with that in mind. I've chosen to ruin the most. Obviously. Up story points. Define dearth. Now. I do this also because hamming senath. A number of times. Knowing the outcome doesn't diminish. The effect. Of what happens. Upon confirming. Third position in orbit of earth. Admiral adama. Makes an announcement to the fleet. Croup galactica. People of the fleet. This is admiral adama. 3 years ago i promised to lead you to a new home. We've endured a difficult journey. We've all lost. We've all suffered. And the truth is questioned. Weather this day. Would ever come. But today our journey is at an end. We have arrived. At earth. And upon setting the mic down celebrations. Breakout all over the fleet. Now the special effects. Are wonderfully executed. The majestic. But battle-worn. Battlestar galactica in the fleet. In orbit drifting over the earth. Gliding along. And suddenly smaller ships. Are seen descending towards the surface. Tenure with the ships. Flying in concert with them through the clouds. Dropping racing to the surface. Like children. Running for home. And then we transition. To another shop. It's admiral adamas hand. Grasping into the soil. And then the audio background you can hear the clicking in the clacken. And it's the camera. Peers out the clicking in the clackens coming from. A geiger counter. And then the shop continues to widen. Admiral adama. President roslin. And others. Looking out. Over a desolate. Nuclear wasteland. The dream of earth. Up their new home. Is no more. The shop pam's across roslyn is she. Alone. Speaks the word questioningly. Earth. Only to be answered. By the hollow echoes of the wind. And the crashing waves. On a not-too-distant shore. In the following episode. She reflects. On the situation. Perfect. We prayed and one nuke civilization for another. By the end of the episode. Adama announces to the fleet. The earth. Is no longer a viable option. But if it's the last thing he does. If it's. The last thing he does he will find them a new home. Now we is the view or no. At that point there's only nine episodes left. With that said. Lots and lots of additional sermon material left to cover. Now. I don't think it's too much of a stretch. To say. But we've all had moments in our lives like this. Where expectations. Especially after much effort. Of trial and tribulation. Journey. We're blown away. Out for myself a little more than 7 years ago. While standing at home in my shower one morning trying to figure out. Where my life had gone so terribly wrong. I made the decision. To return to school. College or university to get a degree. To take. And a have. More control over my life. I write my own destiny. Walnut faced with nuclear destruction. A very large part of my world ended. To where i had only my family and a few prized possessions. Well this past december i graduated. And i graduated into a seemingly nuked economic disaster. What to do. What to do. Well. I am by no means. Alone in this. Now looking back to the start. Up story of battlestar galactica. The very first spoken words. In the series. Or buy a cylon 62 a colonial officer. Are you alive. Now we had the word spoken. For the contemplation. From natalie about the significance. Of each moment. And our own. Reverend forest church. Has spoken and written many times. About living a life worth dying for. Are you living your life. Worth dying for. Are we. Not necessarily question you need to answer right now. But it's something to give pause to something to give. Serious thought is is there real meaning. To what we're living our lives for. Now i'd like to close. With the words of the great musician. Bob dylan. There must be some way out of here. Set the joker to the thief. There's too much confusion. I can't get no relief. Businessman they drink my wine and plowman meijer. None of them along the line. Know what any of its worth. But no reason to get excited. Kindly spoke. There are many here among us. Who feel that life. Is butter joke. But you. And i. Well. We've been through that. And this is not our fate. So let us not talk falsely now. The hour. It's getting late. Well my friends. The last breath. Has yet to pass my lips. Admittedly. I'm down. I really am. But. I can't help myself. But to think that tomorrow will be a better day. And i for one. Big surprise. Will not go quietly into that good night. Now i don't know about the raging part i'm not a big rager. But certainly not quietly. If i. If we. Try to make it so. I live. We live. And while we live. Lettuce set course. For that next point. Of the journey. Together. Or apart. Whatever path. You are choosing. So say we all.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20091122.mp3

From time to time. We speak metaphorically of standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. We. Technology that we drink from wells we did not.. Sometimes we invoke the poignant reminder. Shade of trees we did not plant. Planted by people. Who knew that they would never feel they're cooling shades hours. I'm pretty sure. Unpause. Inappropriately amaze gratitude. For those folks. This community. I have served as minister and a half. I could swear. Can i have all the sweat and tears of earliest faribault truly honored the many wonderful stories i have heard. After spending a week or so with documents about our early days. Listening to their words. I want us to appreciate the miracle. Of all those who. That we might be here and i want us to realize that we are working. For all generations. Recall. Those words. Mitchell. Come to this land in 1907 must not fail. Graces. She said of him. He finally lost ground and had to give up. John mitchell. To create an embracing liberal religious group here. And he left. Empty hearted. He even oversaw. The purchase of a building. In our reading. We hear the words of anita truman. Whose husband harold served here for one year after reverend mitchell. The poor man apparently succumbed to the lure of the idea of polygamous marriage. Or so says. His wife biography. And he should come to a more basic with the predictable consequences. Is a congregation. Kill the congregation. The circumstances were such that nothing much did happen until 1948. The building had to go. In the rigors of the depression. No leadership emerged since 1948. Cancel hopper reports that in that year franklin rickover. A unitarian field man. This is part of the movie. Came to town. And advertised in the statesman. That there would be a meeting for all interested unitarians. Ethel says a goodly group. Attended. We here. In this room. Are direct descendants. Of that. Goodly group. This lovely ground are in direct line. From church home from the ymca. Our foremothers and forefathers faced very same problems we faced the problems all religious institutions face. The grove to change. And to pass on our dearest. Values. We exist together. To do what we cannot do. As individuals. To create loving. Justice making community. And our struggles. Are neither new. You're unique. There were. For those folks back then. From home to work. If you're someone who house with sunday service or with children's religious education. Cleaning and locking everything up. Every week everything. Coming early enough to get everything out and set it up. Mrs. hopper speak movingly of how it was. 1/2 will never be told as to how. Of the 21. Specific individuals at mrs. harper listing. Only elaine durbin. One other person is still alive but she no longer attends. Hansel says riding in the mid-1960s. To have a building about. She lived to see. The purchase of the pierce park lane building in 1971. And was. Wenis. Coming up with 20-something thousand dollars. In 1971. Head building a former presbyterian church. It was a huge step. It was probably bigger. Then our very big decisions to buy this property in 1995 into an acre in 2008 because that was making a fundamental shift in. Baby keem. They talked about their. Oedipus complex. They moved a large away. As wanderers on the fringe of a conservative area. They committed. Perhaps not entirely consciously. Living as an established. Welcoming newcomers and encouraging growth. They stepped into a world. Take them away. From that small. Family feeling. A group of autonomous individuals who all knew each other. Where. Would we. Without that momentous decision of our form. 38 years ago. Really. Decision. Minister. My husband was here by that time. And he talks about how very difficult. To make that decision. I've also spent time in conversation with me. And they all agree. Objection raised was what it would cost. An order of magnitude difference in your budget. Well that was the most common. There were more important. Underlying factors. Here was a really. Babe. They had done it all free. Of our own. With a minister. Each and all persons. Had to give up a precious little. Their autonomy. Had to actually had over some authority. Professional. And remember we are some of the folks who support my least favorite question. Imagine how you would feel. If the unitarian universalist association suddenly said that we all had to live under the authority of someone. My sense some people at least. The change. Do professional ministry. The other two areas. When something's really don't change. There are so many touching writings about how important. To its members. Inference. Here's an example for melissa called. Which is apparently written for the. Then. Everyone had always known that sooner or later one of them would die but until the mid-1960s. When tragedy struck and i believe they're talking about a terrible accident that killed a teenager. An appearance in. Severely injured. Another teenager. When tragedy struck. Unashamed tears. Reviews shared grief. Love was born from death. The numbers began to feel support and affection from their extended family. Many. Many of us. What those 45 year ago went through. And like them we have known the joy of. We have seen children born and grow up. Connor lyons who was born the week i was called. We have participated with one early writer called the children. Early cooking show john and vy harms now both deceased. In 1982 visiting sites in europe associated with unitarian martyrs. And now we here have actively engage with our transylvania. Thanks primarily to harm daughter. The dynamics have experienced. Relationship. Fellowship. Much as our current leadership is expressing gratitude. For the great people and the activities we have here in this place. This time. They also experience. I look at jim tompkins september 16th. 1973 sermon. Remember. They bought the first building in 1971 and so we're bound to be suffering some of the chaos. He had suggested at the may 1973 annual meeting that the 73-74 program coping with consulate. Tells me. In the beginning of the sermon he knows that it's really expensive. An event spends the rest of the sermon. He talks about people who have left. Inability to make their own lives meaningful through our program and how those people should be unconditionally invited back. He speaks. How he and his father. Parted ways diametrically. In terms of theology. Which meant. Huge amounts to both of them. But that they always do all their years respect each other's. I hope you. And i. And we. Can strive to live. Because of love. Must manifest itself in the fellowship. If you if we are to achieving our own meds.. The kind of familial relationship. Might be realized in the world at large. How many quarts. I am i and you are you. And we are both each other. It's pretty clear. A turbulent time. In the congregation. We have known such times as recently as last year. May we learn. From jim's leadership. Finally let me say something about the tricky subject. And how i see its development in what i read from our history. Is a 1980. You know that old negative. Define. But there was more going on. In which mary schwartzman posed the question. What is spirituality. Dismissive way it's sometimes ask. But in a way that opened the door for. An alien who was pretty much one of those freethinker agnostics yourself. It was a question asked by a trusted. Who can you trust if you can't trust mary schwartzman. And it was asked in such a way that it began to seem possible. Even you use. I sense that there is much that is greater than we are. The same document describing the freethinkers also says. By the beginning of the last decade. By the beginning of the last decade. The fellowship. In my 22 years we have certainly opened ourselves to honoring the mine. And the heart. And so. And the spirit. There's so much. And even the relatively sparse records in our excellent history keepers. I suggest spending some time in the library with their folders with your on my desk at the. There is no way in the world. We could be who we are now. 5 minutes. Second without the perseverance sacrifice and love of all. And i would like to know more. Can we see. Like all those for mothers and fathers. Working for our children. And their children. And their children. And other people's children. Creating a haven. And a beacon. Centuries. Lake in her life. In my 86 years with unitarianism. It has never let me down. The death of loved ones great tragedy sickness. And comfort in my understanding of. Through the unitarian faith. And the fellowship. With whom i could share my thoughts and. I would have felt. If i had been. Am i thinking. Never sell yourself short. Never lose faith in yourself. In each other.

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BUUF-sermon-20090111.mp3

Where do we come from. What are we. Where are we going. Fundamental questions posed by humans as park. A being human. Consciously or unconsciously. We wonder greatly about the what. Pool supply issues at the core of b. When we reflect intentionally. We can live out of the vision provided by our answers even though our answers are often provisional and subject to change. Deep vision. Offers us a better chance of living with integrity of living holy. And in the hole. I'm at least mildly embarrassed to admit that i was surprised when i first became acquainted with the song that is our hymn of the month. Pogo games. It said at the bottom of the page. Our hymn title. Is the title of one of that famous skaters most. Famous paintings. A reproduction of which. You can see in your order of service and i invite you to look at. There are lots of people in it. All ages. Some men some women. Some who could be any gender. There is an intimate couple standing shadowed lovers or bonded friends. There are lots of animals. There is a luminous statue looking serenely polynesian in a buddhist sort of way. There is mysterious flora blue. A very blue sky. A mountain. A lot of people on internet sites comment on this picture. And while some are evocative i feel is appropriate to arch most will tell you exactly what the picture. Some state that it must be considered from right to left. Others. Left right and they will tell you why. Onesite assures me that the apple picking young person that one in the middle. And the apple eating childhood to his radar love. Represent the adam and eve story another commentator tells me unequivocally eve is the old woman on the far left. Well the commentary goes. Commenting is very. Human. Even if it can be exasperating to the reader or the listener. The deep questions bedevil us. And we feel better when we have explained every something. It is actually even necessary for us to make some sort of articulation of our understanding if we are to live by them. Nonetheless i like the songs treatment to. Life is a riddle and a mystery. One of our five-year-old michael ward. Apparently spent much of last sunday afternoon bopping around the house and. Especially aided by a cat's little tune he can live in the questions. Later. You will need his own explanations later he will need reflection with people he trusts. They helping formulated a. But for now. He can just buy for around the house singing the song. We create. And hold visions. That embrace our wisdom. Hope. And reads. To do that. We need openness. A sense of innocence and also humor. And unwillingness to lasso and hog-tie. The mystery. Whether we're primarily living in the mystery or primarily trying to wrap words around it and i feel like my life is always just that both of those things all the time. I'm always rapping words around. Anyway whichever or both. There are different ways to approach this meaning vision identity issue and our readings today. Embody a couple of them. The 121st psalm. Is lyrical and facebook. It reaches to us from thousands of years ago. When the jewish worldview simply did not encompass doubt. That there was a guy. A god with whom human had a relationship. Not that that was suppressed. In that world you. It just wouldn't have occurred to anybody to be an atheist. Exo sonic poetry from the hebrew scriptures can say with confidence that god created all that he protec. Albertson can wrestle a bit with god but nobody doubt you. Where do we come from. According to the song. From god. What are we. We are chosen beings in covenant with god and the meaning of our life derives from how well we remain in obedient relationship. Where are we going. Where god commands. Now. And forever. There is a vision of proof. God is there. God will tim. Do the going out and the coming in of us all. The old hebrew poetry still speaks too many of us. When i spend time at st. gertrude's monastery in cottonwood idaho. Our morning and evening services are basically antiphonal reading and chanting the song. The sisters finished. All 150 of them in about a month and then they start. Lennu. Can imagine how many times after 50 years. Shadow songs. Our worldview is not the same. Not even for the forward-looking and devout nuns at st. gertrude's. The human spirit and body became more and more admired in the renaissance eclipsing god just a little. The enlightenment emphasis on human reason a lifting up of questioning which really started eclipse in god. Science began finding out all kinds of things that introduced a world you separated subject and object. Darwin and freud and marx. World wars the annihilation of 9 million jews and the specter of nuclear holocaust made it impossible for either the spiritually or religiously practicing people. To have the kind of faith. Shared unquestioningly by everybody. It's a different time. So in philip appelmans flippant. Dharma karma. We see one kind of modern and postmodern response to all of it. Obviously the poet is poking fun at contemporary etiquette he makes one of those cynical kind of you you but yumorist generalizing comments at the end when he asks his strange pantheon to teach beavers. When is being satirical to be sure. Bissette tire reviews truth and there's a lot of truth in his book. Where do we come from. Oh i don't know. Maybe the gym. Or walmart. Are the self-help section of barnes & noble. What are we. Probably arrogant either self-righteous about our own belief systems or so shallow we can pray to. The nursery rhymes putting in pie as well as two ancient hindu concepts. Where are we going. Wherever makes us happy. The underlying vision is pretty much of a world without any kind of generous moral values. A world where good people are nice religious people have no vision. Feeling ourselves entitled to whatever we want. Okay. Leaving from millennia ago lyrical expressions of faith. To the 1997 satire omitting christianity entirely isn't exactly a fair practice. Although it's kind of fun. At the same time it does illustrate the answering life's persistent questions. Is probably harder at this time in history. Has been at other times unsupported as we are. Buy a shared. Universal faith. Or buy a foundational mythic system and story. But we're still. Human being. And we still have to keep giving it a try even if we have to take a little bit looser approach allowing for all the possible answers that we know that there could be. If we. Each ask google questions. In humble search for the best life for ourselves and others. What do we come up with. Even provisional. Holden always to the pool and the mystery. When i look at where i come from. I don't care much about the fee logical part of it. I do care to reflect on my family my race my upbringing my religion my learner's dumpsters bigender my way to relating my class my calling and all the rest of it if i keep looking at those places where i came from with courage and humility maybe i can see ways of taking the good and leaving the other behind. As a postmodern versus i don't know no. Ultimately where i come from. But i can do the hard work of learning from what i do know. About. What. Am i. I'm a flawed. On a planet with several billion other flawed human being. Capable of generosity reverence kindness and capable of meanness self-centeredness judgmentalism and self-pity. I am a soul. An ultimate. Mystery. Knowing that i and we can never understand god. I nevertheless practice regularly. Disciplines that mick. Bring me nearer. I pray. Meditate. Participate in ritual. I am mindful of beauty and ugly. I honor art of all time. I love as much as i can. I create. I work for justice i think and analyze. I dwell in the ambiguity of human life. In reverence. And as much humility as i can muster. How about. Where am i going. I don't know. With an open heart for places where god's hard work internal and external is done i hope how about you. My vision is that humility and justice and love are possible. Given. Faith and hope and love and courage my vision is at fallible humans. In collaboration with each other. Can and will. Nurture soul and help heal the world. We in our church community as you know from the creative puppet show. Are going to have a chance in a couple of weeks to join each other and pondering questions about who we are as a congregation. The board and many others have plans with our consultant a vision vision weekend workshop on saturday january 24th. Division mission flyer speaks of reflecting the wisdom of our community. The more of us who are there. The more wisdom. We'll be flying around. It talks about hopes and dreams and action. At least half. The members and friends of this fellowship come together to speak. And listen about such thing. What we can do and be and it will be easy to sign up after the service this morning. Guess i'm going to ask everybody who might help do that to stand up right now. Just head for those whatever thank you. I know i really do know so many of us have gone through processes where the words just somehow don't capture. The essence of our wisdom in our dreams in our house if they can't capture the essence of our souls and our hearts and willingness to make justice. But we can't take heart and be a good cheer for we have a terrific example to ponder. The nuns at st. gertrude's. In preparation for celebrating their centennial year. This year 2009. Went through a vision vision process much like we are going to do. I believe they took more time than we will have but they didn't as they do everything. With open minds and hearts. Listening well to each other and to the prophets of god. Practicing silence and speech both. Filled with a willingness to hear. What really. Was rising up to be born. No reason we can't do our own version of that process. Their vision statement is to me simply. A masterpiece. It's so. Reflect these remarkable women. I have had the great good fortune to be acquainted with. For twenty years or so. Here's what their vision statement says. Prayer. Awakens. Justice impels. Compassion. Act. By kingdom come. How much is said. 9 words. Their life is grounded in prayer. Their home be as individuals and as a religious house is filled with the imperative to bring justice to all who suffer and to the earth. Compassion that generosity of spirit arising from spiritual practice and community requires them to act. And in the words of the lord's prayer repeated community 3 times a day. Vella. That the realm of the holy. Be made manifest. A mission statement often follows from the vision we will do that. And their scheduling breaks they say. Eager. Eager to welcome god's transforming power in ourselves and their world. We seek god together through monastic profession. I'm responding healing hospitality. Grateful simplicity. And creative peacemaking. And finally left. I love. I hope that every one of you here today comes to a vision workshop on the 24th. We might not end up. Quite an elephant. Poetic and concise. Hazard benedictine vantoee mike. But whatever our product. We will have the unutterable plus. A conversation with each other. On matters of meeting and where. I hope everyone of us here today. Understands how central. Our individual vision is to our human. To our relationship with fellow travelers and with mystery. A vital to our children. Our dearest hope. That we have visions guiding them. Your generosity. Confidence. Respect. Responsibility for others and love. Where do we come from. What are we. Where are we.

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BUUF-sermon-20080817.mp3

Good morning. John denver sang if i had a tail that i could tell you i tell a tale to make you smile. I have a tale to tell you a tale about sunshine. And i hope it makes you smile. My tale about sunshine starts with a long cold dark night. No it wasn't storming. It seemed especially long because it was so cold and so dark. And it seemed to last forever. He was a few years ago i lived in a semi-rural area. I love the night there because i'm liking the city where i live now it was dark enough to see gillian's of stars and even the milky way. I love taking forays outside into my yard and look up at the night sky. I do that several times a night. Then i would come back inside to my home where it was warm and blazing with light. Night person. I get my family off to bed and then the night was mine. It's when i did all my housework when i get the laundry laundry around the dishwasher. That's when i would watch television news and documentaries. That's what i did all my reading and studying and writing that i left to do. But this particular night was a night. Without light. No light to read by. No tv to inform me and keep me company. No washing machine or dishwasher. No refrigerator or stove or microwave so no hot food for my lunch at midnight. No hot water so no comforting hot shower. It was a night of powerlessness more ways than one. You see we've been having a hard time making ends meet. And the electric and had come up short so it had been cut off. My family cuddled up in their warm beds as soon as it was dark. Much earlier than they normally would turn in. So there i was. Wide awake in the dark. The long night ahead of me. I lit a candle and sat at my desk. Reading and writing by candlelight. I watched the battery operated clock and like the old adage of the watch pot boiling slowly so the clock seemed ticked and talked a very slowly taking its sweet time tomorrow coffee hours. The night seemed to go on forever. It seemed like the longest night of my life. Finally. Finally i began to notice a subtle change out the window. Was it less black outside. Could i actually begin to see the outlines of shapes in the darkness. Was it truly less dark. I began to feel a twinge of excitement. Yes the blackness was slowly giving way to greatness. I went outside into the grave twilight between the dark and the dawn. I found myself looking eastward. Eagerly watching. As the sky slowly lightened and brightened. Revealing the world to me that the darkness head up scared. Then. Are. On the eastern horizon a sliver of brilliance appeared. I watched and growing anticipation. As an excitement. As a molten golden glow rose. Casting a radiance of glorious pink gold color across the landscape. I can feel my eyes widen to take you in that incredible transforming beauty. Can i felt the first rays of warmth on my face and shoulders. A feeling of gratefulness enjoy swept over me. Light. And more. At that moment it seemed like a miracle to me. I was so glad and so happy and so grateful. I experienced what our ancient ancestors must have felt. A deep sense of gratitude. A reference joy. And appreciative off. I have never understood the prevalence of sun worship in ancient cultures. Now suddenly i understood. Not having the benefit of electricity they it had long cold dark nights every night. And each nieudany day must have felt like a numerical. A joy renewed. I felt a kinship with them. The connection with those human forebears. David danced and sang and chat chant in their gratitude and joy. One of the most famous of their chance was the great him to the often the sun. Written by the pharaoh akhenaten. I can now feel his words to be meaningful. Part of which go like this. Blended you rise in heaven's light land. Olivia naughton creator of life. When you have donned in eastern lightland you fill every land with your beauty. Your beauty is great radiant high over every land. You're raised embrace the lands. Earth brightens when you dawn in light land. When you shine as option of daytime. As you dispel the dark as you cast your raise. The lands are in festivity. Awake they stand on their feet you have roused them. Auction of daytime great and glory all distant lands you make them live. You're raised nurse all fields. When you shine they live. They grow for you. You shining in your form of living option. Risen. Radiant distance. All eyes are on your beauty until you set. Solar deities were worshipped both ismail such as often amon-re arrive in egypt. We're sol invictus in rome. And his female such as japan's solar mother i'm off to rasu or the germanic so we'll osuna or saul. They were fire and light festivals from the heat hindu diwali to the european beltane and hebrew hanukkah. After dark. The burning light a fire with the only source of light. And warm. There were fire altars and sacred places from the zoroastrian fire altar and the roman vestal fire. To our own unitarian universalist flaming chalice. Light illuminates. Makes things clearer. We talked about the light of reason. We talked about having a bright outlook. Or a sunny disposition. Our lives depend on this sun. The light of the sun literally gives life. It makes plants grow. And in return plants create the very air we breathe. Our own earth. And the planets were born of our son our own private star. And our son star was born of that original burst of light from the big bang. We ourselves. Are made up of those same particles. Each of us is a particle. Of that original divine light. We are made of the stuff of stars. Just think of the wonder of it all sitting here today we each. Are the latest in a long series of re incarnations reforming of those original primordial elements. So is our son and our whole solar system the family of sorts. Born of the same elements. Differentiated in the interconnectedness of life. My experience that morning. Let me to ponder all these things. So what does it mean for us today. Are we so removed from our ancestors that we cannot have that same feeling of holy joy and appreciation for the rising sun. Sure we know it will rise each twenty-four hours or rather our earth will turn to meet it. But because we understand how a rainbow works does not mean we can't get excited when we see one. I suppose what i'm trying to say is for us to notice. To take those moments. To admire the sparkly stars. To look at the pattern of light and shadow on the hills from the clouds and the sun above. And to appreciate the incredible beauty. And gift of life of our own daystar. 2b war we're aware of our own interconnectedness. Not just with nature. But with all those humans who have lived and died on our planet and he's very breath we breathe. That morning was an aha moment for me. It was one of those significant and meaningful holy moments. It's been on my mind ever since. I knew that i had to tell this tale one day my tail about sunshine. And i hope it's made you smile.

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BUUF-sermon-20140525.mp3

We begin. With a few more quotations. From our founding fathers. Question with boldness even the existence of god. Because. If there is one he must more approved the honoring of reason. Of blindfolded fear. Thomas jefferson. I think the system of morals and his religion as jesus left them to us. The best world ever saw or is likely to see. But i apprehended has received various corrupting changes and i have some doubts as to his divinity. Though it is a question i do not dogmate eyes upon. Benjamin franklin. Among people. Those which are caused by differences of sentiments in religion. Appear to be the most inveterate. And distressing. And. Most to be deprecated. George washington. And our final words from benjamin franklin. Imitate jesus. And socrates. I wish to begin simply by thanking all of you who are here this morning. It's a 3-day weekend it's a beautiful three day weekend and yet here you are. I agree you know the minister loves that can be intrepid attenders of church most of all. There are those who like to claim that ours is a christian nation. Founded by christians with specifically christian values. And that we should once again become the christian nation our founders fully intended us to be. This is a serious misreading of history. On many levels. I suspect that most of our founders would have called themselves christian. But they would claim more primary allegiance to reason and freedom. They were as much children of the enlightenment. As they were followers of jesus and they were decidedly non creedle and non-dogmatic. They were in a word. Unitarian. Indeed some of them wherever violently unitarian small you. Unitarian variety. Our founders were also decidedly in favor of the separation of church and state. They were however not anti-religion at all. Indeed they thought religion was a great social good. A kind of civilize our of human society calling us to our higher and better ourselves. Their intent was not to do away with the church or religion. Neither if they wanted to found a nation and culture where reason and free inquiry. Held more sway than miracle and mystery. They knew the effect it could have on religion but they certainly didn't see it as the end of religion by any means. They advocated a separation of church and state not so much. To protect the state from religion. We seem to look at it that way often now rather to protect religion from the state. Stay well they knew all too well the dangers of wedding wedding. And saw clearly how i state-sponsored. Or worse a state-mandated religion hampered freedom of expression and thought for all. And they saw how easily religion could be co-opted. Corrupted and misused by those in power. It was as true then as it is today. As it ever has been. This does not make our founders christian in the modern conservatives then. Present-day conservative christians might shatter if they knew what most of our founders believed. And how profoundly they were influenced. Buy unitarian thought. The founders believed in a kind of civic religion that encourage good citizenship. Civic religion was very much like the unitarianism that was just beginning to stir at the time of the founding of this new nation. Jimmy carter the former moderator of the unitarian universalist association has said. I want folks in our congregations to know. If there is a candidate for the great american face. It is us. Take a look at who signed the declaration of independence and you see our names there. Three of the first six american presidents were unitarian. And i'm pretty proud of the country that we helped build. Our founders word children of the enlightenment you brought reasoning minds to their religious lives. Jefferson rewrote the new testament to make it more true to what he believed jesus said and meant. He pretty much cut and paste it. And he pretty much took out the mirror. Hero. I believe that he who observes those moral princess presets within with all religions concur. Jefferson never declare to denominational identity and when we claimed him as a unitarian it's a little. I'm a little bit of a stretch. Even for all of that he did attend joseph priestley's unitarian church in philadelphia along with many signers of the declaration in it of independence and framers of the constitution like john adams and benjamin franklin. Adams. Perhaps the most explicitly unitarian among our founders. Was very clear that christianity was not the only valid expression of religious truth. He wrote of a future when quote. Translations into english and french spanish german and italian of sacred books of the persians the chinese the hindus etc etc etc. Would be available to all. So then he went on our grandchildren. And great-grandchildren make a note. At holdfast. All that is good. The treaty with tripoli which is essentially a document agreeing that neither nation would pirate each other ships on the open sea. Carries with it of course many ironies for us today. It is said that adams upon reading the treaty signed it proudly and proclaimed it to the nation. George washington with more of a man of action than thought. Not as much a philosopher as the other founders. Jessie was also not an ideologue when it came to religion. In speeches washington rarely used the word god. Instead using more than 50 different phrases like giver of life and. Superintending providence. All were christian exclusive this way. They did not believe that any single religion held all the truth and they were well aware how easily claims of ultimate truth could lead to the very tyranny they had rebelled against. And jefferson really did say there is not a young man now living in the united states you will not die on the unitarian. By almost any measure. He turned out to be wrong. And yet i wonder. A unitarian asos. A free inquiry and free religious expression did find its way into the founding documents of this nation find its way into the minds and hearts of many many americans. Who do not call themselves unitarian. Did you know that both martin luther king jr and barack obama. Had significant ties to unitarian universalism. Coretta scott king has said she attended unitarian churches before she met martin. I just gather they came to our churches when king was studying in boston. It was a great deal about our liberal faith. Especially the freedom of inquiry that appealed to king. So much so that he considered joining us. He knew that he could only leave his. Liberation movement the movement to which he was profoundly called. You can only lead it from within the black church. Unitarian universalism would not work for him. Either culturally or ultimately theologically. With growing up with his grandmother in hawaii. He attended sunday school at the first unitarian church of honolulu. Is indeed his grandmother's funeral. A back with help at that church. That our faith was unable to keep such people in our ranks. They wonder why we didn't speak powerful enough to them why our message is not somehow profound enough to continue to inspire them. And these are significant questions. Get it seems to me that we are still the religion of the american ethos in many ways and i am glad that we are apart of what inspired king both hanging obama it's only a part i'm glad of it. When i hear obama speak with the voice of tolerance reason and compassion with a fire for justice i am proud knowing that our faith tradition has. Charles darwin is another who attended a unitarian sunday school in his youth. And i don't claim that it was this new material ethos ethos that created then open tolerant and reason either darwin orin obama. Yet i am confident that it help. And i'm proud of the continuing influence we have in the culture. An influence that arises because of our deep american roots. So i do wish it were more consciously recognize and that we had a higher higher profile in the public square today. It is still true that our core beliefs lie at the center of this grand american experiment. And it is from this place that i can find my own national pride and patriotism arising. I love so much about america. And so much about being an american. Memorial day has become one of those holidays that is often accompanied by grand expressions of american pride and patriotism. Yet i come to memorial day. With mixed emotion. This really is a day. Not so much for pride. But when we are to reverently honor. And tenderly mourn. I was swept falling. Given their lives in defense of this country. I grow weary however. Appearing that they died to keep us free. I'm not sure what that means. We have been through too many meaningless wars. I do believe our national ideals are worth living. Are worthy of living fighting and. Even. Dying for. Yet i come to doubt. That the women and men of our armed forces have died in the cause of freedom. Sometimes in history such sacrifice is much clearer but in the wars since vietnam and especially the words in the gulf and afghanistan. Moral clarity is decidedly lacking. It seems that our soldiers have died to defend our access to oil. That is in his way dying to defend. Our way of life. Just not the part of our way of life. And i think it's worth. Let me be very clear here i end 10 no dishonor to our soldiers in questioning why they are fighting. In questioning what they are fighting and dying for. I intended only further honor by such questions. For i think we dishonor them when we don't ask. For too many of us. It's too easy to forget. That we are still. Country at war. Too little is asked. And it is far too easy to let the burdens and sacrifice of the wars be carried by a very few. Should i say that i am grateful or proud. Of the soldiers who gave their lives. Not quite right either. Perhaps it's more accurate to say. That i am humble. By their sacrifice. Memorial day does not make me feel especially patriotic. It makes me sad. I am saddened by war and its cost. I feel the great loss of so many lives. I grieve for them and their family. And part of. What is so. Challenging. About standing in these truths. Is that we do. Have great ideals and values. But are worth sacrificing for. When i say that i do not mean to sound like an american exceptionalism who sings ours is the greatest nation on earth. Yeah i do believe that when we live by the ideals upon which we are finally found it. We are a great nation. And i believe we can be a great nation and not need to be the greatest somehow. Domain we honor those who have fallen. In military service. By living into the ideals of this nation more fully. May we focus less on our freedoms. And more on our responsibility. More on what. Being an american act of all of us. That our young men and women have died far too often. 4. 4 less than lofty ideals. Does not mean that our ideals. Our last worthy. It means that as americans we can never rest on our laurels. We must constantly be on guard against against the trap. Of exceptionalism. By which way too often justify all manner of needs which fall very short of our ideals. That is why it's always good to sing the hymn this is my song on such occasions even as we hear our star-spangled banner let us be reminded of the ideals and beauty of other nations. I am proud to live in a nation founded. And ideals of freedom and reason. I am proud. To be a unitarian universalist knowing the role that our liberal religious heritage has played in the birthing and the living of those ideals. Very proud. And yet. On memorial day. May we focus less on our pride. Then what we can do to honor the live. Of those who have sacrificed. In our name. On this memorial. May we. Become. Better. America. And blessed be.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20081228.mp3

Good morning. Today i will talk about spirituality. Out beyond the confines of irrational. About the skeptic that exists in each of us. And then there's a child. Learning to understand at all. A child. Can be filled with the sense of wonder. Or skeptic. Or mystic. Or spiritualist. Realize we may be anyone or all. Rev mcgee says. Those new to our church. Usually are surprised that those who are skeptics or do not. Believe in the existence of god. Are embraces fellow spiritual sojourners. But our conviction is. The personal religion is defined by deeds not creed's. What we do in the world more than what we believe. And how we reach out with compassion. To those who suffer. But we also recognize that it does matter what you believe. In the words of sofia lion father. The great unitarian-universalist religious educator for whom our preschool room is named. Some beliefs are like walls gardens. Encourage exclusiveness. And the feeling of being especially privileged. Other beliefs are expensive. A sympathies. In our fellowship. We encourage expensive belize. We have no dogma or creed that requires a set of beliefs. Shut off behind walls. Instead we urge each person to build a belief system upon the foundation of their own personal experiences reason. And wisdom of their ages. An individual spiritual path. Is 1 to be explored. Frank hall says that spirituality is a poetic term. It's not about being irrational or anti-intellectual. But it's about freeing myself from being tied down to the purely rational. Intellectual. It's a delicate balance. Skepticism is a tyrant. Add mousse from healthy doubt. The full-blown cynicism. Dismissing the. Possibility of human dignity. Assuming that everyone is motivated by selfishness. As a master spirituality is a tyrant. Oppressing us with the idea that all our thoughts. Should be elevated. Live fully in the hearing now. Every moment. We cherish our ability to question. To doubt. We embrace the use of reason. Even in our religious understandings. We need to hold on to a healthy skepticism. Aware that it can go too far. That is the beauty of a child. Ask the questions to quench the thirst. For the time being. They make up their minds. Form ideas. And the reasonings take shape. We will explore the spiritual. The skeptic. And the child. It exists in each of us. Manifesting in one form of particular moment in one time in our lives. Robert frost has a little poem that invite us to go from the usual normal day-to-day things on our schedule. To take a kind of sabbath break. Is pumice called the pasture. I'm going out to clean the pasture spring. I'll only stop to rake the leaves away. I'm wait to watch the water clear. I'll shan't be gone long. You come too. I'm going out to fetch the little calf that's standing by its mother. It's so young. It offers when she licks it with her tongue. I shan't be gone long. You come too. Reverend hale says we invite children to listen to stories by saying. Once upon a time. It's not really an invitation to look into the past. But to get out of this time. This here and now time. Not to be time-bound. It's an invitation to go into the realm. Of imagination. You come too. The pasture spring represents a source of spiritual nourishment. That we all need. Sometimes it gets clogged up with leaves. Believe symbolize all the things that get in the way of that inner peace or inspiration we need. The worries. Disappointments. Fears and anxieties. Call gap the spring. I need to be cleaned away. We could begin our sunday morning meditation with an invitation thing. I invite you to join me in the spirit of meditation. Prayer. And reflection. Step gives you a choice. Some juice call it meditation. Others are comfortable calling it prayer. And somewhat use neither meditation or prayer. But we all are in reflection. Quiet thinking. The celebrant could say. I won't be gone long. You come too. Rivet hole says a skeptic in us. At the skeptics among us. Had to put all the eggs in one basket. We're a gathering a skeptic. A skeptic is one who doubts. What who observes. We all have some healthy skepticism. But of course it can go too far and turn to cynicism. Rumi wrote. The great religions are the ships. The lifeboats. Every sane person i know as jump. Overboard. Perhaps the religions can be compared to a fairy. The takes you across the stream. And once you are on the other side you leave the boat. It has served its purpose. But the journey continues. I'm the journey. Is simply life. Sometimes we get inspiration and insight into the holy to children. A child. If left. Untouched. Look supply. With a sin. Of wonder. According to sofia lion falls. Children should be allowed to develop their own idea of god. She suggested delaying children's exposure to the bible. Until they were ready for history generally. But she even suggested the children not be introduced to other people's idea of god. Until they have an opportunity to begin to develop their own. And children do have their own ideas. In a time when many children thought that god looks like john harms. Bisturi. Bisturi from carol baxter has some interest. I will never forget erin and emily talkin about god when they were three and four. Aaron asked emily how big she thought god was. Emily quickly replied. He has to be very small. Because no one has ever seen him. A child bible studies can have interesting consequences as in the story of a little girl who is talking to her teacher about whales. The little girl said that jonah was swallowed by a whale. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal. It's throat. Was very small. The little girl said jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated. The teacher reiterated. Set the whale could not swallow a human it was physically impossible. The little girl said when i get to heaven i will ask jonah. The teacher said. What if jonah went to hell. The little girl reply. Then you ask him then there's a story of the kindergarten teacher. Observing your classroom of children while they were drawing. She would have kaisley walk around see how the children were doing as they were drawing. Ask a girl who is working diligently she asked what the drawing was. Evil girl replied. I'm drawing god. The teacher pause and said. But no one knows what god looks like. Without missing a beat or looking up from her drawing the little girl said they will in a minute. Can you see yourself in these examples. Have you been the skeptic. The spiritualist or the child. Or are they the spiritual path of a child that needs to be nurtured. And given room to grow with acceptance. Maybe you started out in life as i did in and in another church as a child. For myself what was the presbyterian church in wendell idaho. There i was taught that there was a god. But there was a heaven and a hell. My teacher taught me that god was male. And look like an old man with white hair and a beard. John harmon. He lives in heaven with all the other people from the bible. I pictured it quite literally. The desert world. The buildings. The golden gates in the clouds. Even the palm trees. And then something happened to my vision of heaven. The space program. February 20th. 1962. I was five. A man was sent it to the heavens. John glenn in friendship 7. He circled the earth. 3 *. And not once did he mention sing the desert world of heaven. Nor god. Not one palm tree. I made up my mind then and there that my teacher had it wrong. I chose to for my own ideas. Axiology if you will. What's a god. And i wasn't sold there was. That's it wasn't in any one place and was possibly in everything as the american indians believed. I believed in mother nature. Imax laser the what i had formed in my mind as sacred to me. Had been in the teachings of emerson. God enters by a private door into every individual. Is emerson a unitarian and transcendentalist put it. Reverend frank hall said. I would save the spiritual aspect of life. Cubs to every individual by a private door. But it is possible to bring that aspect of life into a shared space. This space. Where are individuality is respected. Walk the same time with knowledge i need for community. Community with a shared purpose. A religious purpose if you will. We don't need aesthetic reeds. We don't need dogma. We don't need to take a religious test to see if we pass. We need to set of principles. We need to sense of humility. We need a sense of appreciation. We need to believe in our capacity to nurture rd. Spiritual life. The most important aspect of transcendentalism the most important word to describe its frank says is the word intuition. Intuition is a way of knowing or understanding that is outside the bounds. At the usual way of thinking. It's a sensing or feeling of connectedness to that which is beyond our capacity to define or even to understand. But something each of us experiences in those brief moments of all. What are stopped marvel at the sunset. Or babies features. Or the red yellow and bright orange leaves. Or when we feel in touch with a loved one was no longer alive. But failed as a very real presence inside. It doesn't need to be at anthropomorphic god like the one nicolangelo painted on the sistine chapel amazing and wonderful as that art is. The god of the transcendentalist is not a physical person are being separate from creation. But infused in the entire creation. It's a life energy within each of us. And part of every living thing. It's as much verb. As noun. Rev mcgee says. Some people think that an atheist contemplating theology. Is like a nudist. Browsing through the spiegel catalog. Actually. Theology is for everyone. Even atheist. It isn't simply about whether god exists or not. Or how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. God talks about how each of us lives are life. And experiences the sacred. One person may experience a world is being overseen by supreme and absolutely. Another person may experience love. Of a feminine deity. Another mayfield a fiery presence of a savior. And then there are those who simply see life. In snowflakes. Roses. And setting some. Get the point. Theology is for everyone. We are all philo gems. When we contemplate the nature of the universe. And the meaning of life. For some of you the concept of god. Has been stretched so far. But like a rubber band it is finally snapped. And set you free of divinity. Your. For others. You are trying to leave the small god who catalyzes and terrifies. And reinvent a new understanding of the sacred. I find the skeptic in me. Agreeing with rev mcgee who said in some ways. I believe god. Is the biggest scam ever perpetrated on humanity. In a recent interview with neal donald walsch by belief. net. Neil states that humanity is going to create a new god for itself in the next 25 to 30 years. Will result in the emergence of a new spirituality of a planet. A new spirituality will in turn results in at last. A movement toward that time of peace and harmony for all humankind. He says the missing message in the world religions. Is it we are all one. That. What unitarianism means. Unity. And that's what your terian universalism stands for. Mcgee points out that unity is a message of our principals. Our first principle. A firm's a promotes the inherent worth and dignity of every person. No matter the race religion nation or sexual orientation. We are all one. The second principle protects at worth and dignity. By affirming and promoting justice. Equity at compassion in human relations. Address third principle. The acceptance of one another. And encouragement of spiritual growth in our congregation makes it clear. Steptoe are religious journeys maybe different in many ways. We are all on the same path to oneness. And unity. Maggie likes the new yorker cartoons that these found the shows a man saying to the minister as cena's wife we're leaving church. Good sermon reverend. But all that god stuff. Pretty far-fetched. God certainly is farfetch for those who spiritual journey excludes god. I got a certain amount of requirement for the spiritual journey. But for those of us who are seeking a new divinity that is keep two things in mind. First of all. It's much easier to embrace our oneness. When we are aware that any real spiritual journey begins and the desert places of our being. It's hard to cast stones at those who are different than us. If we could see the tears in their eyes. Darkest time of year is a desert place. Has been lit up with gotti lights and kitchen appliances. And game machines. But if we could find a way to the glitter into the darkness. We'll find a passage in ramo sustaining spirituality. Whether we believe in god. Or not. And secondly. Our spiritual journey grows out of our ability to see the holy not as a thing or person. But as a window. To which weekdays in order to envision the great mystery. That encompasses all gods. And all people. And all life. Perhaps. God is. A path we are advised to take. In order to delve down into the deeper dimension. Of our being. Spirituality is not about belief. It's all about god. It's not about theology or an afterlife. It's not otherworldly. Do ideas about god. Believe. An afterlife. Might help stimulate or support this thing we called spirituality. The kind of spirituality i mean is experienced by the skeptic did gnostic. The atheist. As well as the believer. Many of our children have grown into a fine young people. The young people 7th grade through 9th grade. Comprise a coming-of-age class. The deal with the big questions. Why am i here. What is my purpose. Does god exist. What happens when we die. How can reflecting on our own eventual death. Inform the way we live today. What is the key to happiness. How has our religious and cultural heritage influence our values. And how can we live our values. Our young people have their own answers to the big questions. Those answers are drawn from the living of a life. A childhood. Coming to a close. This has been built on their experiences. Spirituality. With skepticism. As joni mitchell sang. And i feel to be a cog and something turning. Well maybe it's the time of year. Or maybe it's the tide of man. I don't know who i am. But you know life is for learning. We are stardust. We are golden. And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden. Our faith is founded in experience. Our childlike thirst for answers. The spiritualist reaches and seeks outside our sales for the unanswerable questions. And a skeptic that we use to balance our knowledge. We must use all free to have any understanding of the spiritual throughout our lives. May this be a place. Where we are encouraged and challenged. Fire religious community. To grow our spirituality. Out of the desert places of our lives.

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BUUF-sermon-20100725.mp3

Thank you carrie for that marvelous music we certainly appreciate your musicianship. And thank you deal for coming all the way from the east coast just a reminder that. Deal is a. Starship the galactica and admiral adama in his speeches and deal usually ends with. So say we all. I have to tell you that i'm under extreme pressure up here today because of the actual the worship committee yet. I submitted this topic to him. And they immediately sent back to me the one-pager we have on how to. Standing this pulpit. Panda. Your present this is a house of worship not applicable rally. It says. Hey i'm just says that your presentation must be spiritual and uplifting. And i don't think i can do that. Then she said what we'd like to see you so go ahead and try committee who are taking grading my paper i want you to understand one thing. When i am contentious. When i am growling. And when i am dismissive. And when i'm sarcastic. That's my way to being spiritual i guess i'm home. Here we are. The term oligarchy and greek roots signify. The rule of the few. Or the conflict between the few. And the many. It also signifies in the ancient greek the conflict between the wealthy. And the working classes. In contrast a verb. Democracy supposedly denotes. Or the rule of the people. Olbia the representative democracy. With meaningful and effective and control. Show define. I posit that this generation of americans. Is permitting our country. To undergo a dangerous slide. Democracy. Hindu oligarchy. My purpose today is to illustrate that fact. Most of us are familiar. With the experiment. And i didn't pick out the children's story. With the experiment that when a frog is suddenly dropped into hot water usually jumps right out of the pot. However when it's placed in cold water and the pot is slow dewormed. It becomes lethargic. And mira remain immobile until it's well-cooked. We american people. Are slowly being cooked. Due to our lack of effective participation. And those institutions. Which determine our health. Our well-being. And our funding of social justice. Prison tours. Subscribe to the belief. That liberal religion. And social justice. The social justice we hold dear. When nurtured in the crucible of democracy. We boofer's excel in discussion focus group. Debate. Community outreach within our limited means. But how do we measure up in addressing the tyranny of the oligarchs. Who deprived are social institutions of the funding institution. And legal structure. To provide social justice. To the mini. The famous bank robber was once asked. Why do you rob banks. And he called he said because that's where the money is. Now let's talk about where the big and meaningful money. And power lies in america today. Alan greenspan in testimony before the senate. An infectious greed seems to grit much of our business community. Is not that we humans have become the past. It is that the avenues to express creed. Hey bro i'm so enormously. 7news. Where the development initially by several financial houses in wall street. Of exotic. Instruments known collectively collectively. Later after deregulation in the clinton and bush. Major banks were. Allowed to join and that lottery. Those instruments included credit-default swaps. Obligations. And various arbitrage instruments. 13 institutions control the derivative market. Enormous wealth for their managers and traders. Without producing goods or hardly anything of value. For the american economy. Especially egregious. Were the synthetic. And alderson city. Instruments that i've taken note of. Take note of this and more than 25,000 bank charters. Today we have about 8,000. Now after failures. Executed cubillas money and low interest rates out of the window of the federal reserve. We now have six oligarchs remaining. That is 6 megathin anshel bank combination institutions. Control or. Very astonishing. Equal to 60% of this country's gross domestic product. They are the bank of america. Jpmorgan. Did you morgan chase that is. Citigroup wells fargo goldman sachs. And morgan stanley. In 1987 this five top officers of the now-defunct bears. We're collectively pocketing 20.3 million dollars per year. The year before the collapse of bear stearns. The two top owners were paid 15.3 million dollars each. Trader allen weeds of credit suisse first boston. Was making 9 million dollars a year in 1992 on derivative sales. In the first half of this year 2010. 43% of its revenues. To pay salaries benefits. And bonuses. She group awarded trader andrew hull. A 100 million dollar payout bonus at the height of this crisis in 2008. We reading the news just this last week. The 17 financial companies made questionable payouts to employees. Totaling 1.58 billion dollars. Immediately after accepting. Billions of dollars of taxpayers money. How do you say again at that time. Repeat that 1.58 billion. The fact of accumulation of wealth. Balloon does not make these financial institutions. Employ their wealth. To destroy democracy enormous influence. And directly through their unsafe statesmanlike moral fiber. Exert. Undue influence upon yeti. Philosophy of the united states supreme court. The gap between rich and poor in this country is ever-widening. With resulting decrease in social justice. And the standard of living. For the middle and lower classes of our society. Influenced recent. Which worked its way through congress and went to the president's desk i only bleed i believe only last week. It became a much water down band-aid which will not prevent the ola guards. From again wrecking our economy in a few years. Despite the establishment of an oversight committee. Provision which required the banks to spin-off their trading and derivatives. Where they are now making profits of 23 billion dollars per year. Of the approximate 2000 lobbyists working on financial reform this. Last month let that build. More than 1,400. Headband congressional staffers. And 73 had been members of congress. Six hundred million dollars were spent loving that one bill since january of 2000. Two significant factors are numbers. 3.5 billion dollars were spent on lobbying in general in this last year. There is a group of 60 house democrats who called themselves the quote. And they build themselves as being quote. Business-friendly. Received campaign contributions ranging from $405,000. Down 213000. In this last cycle. I want minions not one of those. What does all this have to do with unitarianism and social justice. Many of us gathered here this morning maybe perceive that the. Tea party movement is wrongheaded and miss focus. The tea party full can figured out that something is not doing well in this country. Figured out where the money is. They've figured out where the action is. And they are holding rallies. They are protesting in the streets. They are engaged in the public media exposure. They are getting involved. They were having an influence upon our legislators thinking. Can we use the self-described educated well-meaning liberals. Not getting more involved than we are now are. I'm going to ask each of you to raise your hands the three questions. And don't let me embarrass you cuz i'm going to flunk them these questions and you won't see my hand. Raise your hand. If you have 10 to attend or democrat or libertarian. County central committee meetings. In the last 5 years. Well is i didn't want you to show up you ruined it. Look around you one hand with us. Okay the second question. Raise your hand if you have attended a state or national political party convention in the last 5 years. Well there's still a lot of sinners out here. This one. Every legislative candidate for office in idaho from either party acacian. Please raise your hand if you have ever looked one candidate in the eye and said his candidate. You say your for money for education. What you my taxes are you wanting to raise. For which of our find programs for people are you going to cut. How many viewers best in that question right straight in the eye. Well doctor richard slaughter has and two more people. Jeanette she will she's a troublemaker anyhow. Well. I don't put us down many of us are doing very good work. But are we effectively engaging ourselves in the great. Economic issues of the day or even the environmental. Additional issues of day attire level. Or do we simply shuffle the chairs on the deck of the titanic. Unless you're undertaking. Let me shift to an example on the idaho scene which should foster concern. There's a wealthy and influential owner of a major company in idaho falls. And he has a control.. 1 district judge. And our current. Attorney general. Then he's done that by setting up sham website. Organizations that have no members. In not reporting his involvement. And his exercise of well has a chilling effect. Judge or office holder in idaho. Where is. Alright i'll try. American democracy is in great peril. When both wealth and political influence. Are concentrated in the hands of a few greedy people. Those people have no concern for the common welfare. Closing let me remind ourselves of four of our seven unitarian universalist principles. When is. The inherent worth and dignity of every person. Another is. Justice equality and compassion. In human relations. Hear the middle part of this one. The right of conscience. And the use of the democratic process within our congregations and our society at large. And the fourth the gold of world community. With peace. Liberty and justice for all. And then look at the world outside these walls. Look away from this sacred space. And the secret time. Are we living our faith in action. Taking ruu principles too hard and making a real meaningful difference where it really counts. That is. The world outside these walls. What do we plan to do to restore democracy. And government oven by the people. In order to reach a more just world. An america where cries for social justice. Are translated into effective. Citizen action. Namaste. Shalom salon. Maybe.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20081102.mp3

When the spanish arrived in mexico in the 1500 they encountered a two-month. Harvest festival. That also included. Celebrating the dead. They condense it down. To a two-day holiday. That already had been celebrated in europe. All saints day and all souls day. The intent i believe was to replace the indigenous celebration. With the catholic holy days. What happened and what typically happens is it the old and new nail together. Such as christmas and saturnalia. Day of the dead for children is it is on all saints day november 1st. And for adults all souls day november 2nd. In brief day of the dead is when the spirits come back to visit. If the living act as facilitators. This quote comes from mexican x.com. The aztec mayan and other indigenous traditions. Have enriched. The mexicans attitude about death. From these ancestors have come the knowledge. Soles. Continue to exist after death. Reston. Resting placidly at macron the land of the dead. Not for judgment or resurrection. But for the day. Each year. When they could return home. To visit their loved ones. Daily life. In pre-columbian mexico was so uncertain.. And difficult. That death was expected at every turn. Death in fact was revered. Believed to be the ultimate experience of life. My phone reward. Even. Welcome. As a better option. When people were struggling for survival. The mexican still views death. A transition of life. A normal stage in the circle of life on earth. A natural progression. Not an ending. La vida cotidiana in mexico play colombian oh. Returning cigarette official. Can i wear thinks it's but i've been quite credible mental. Pedro severo almonte. Taqueria carolina experiences. Farrakhan pensacola review. Pasta jim veneto. They come over here. El mexicano taqueria contempla la muerte. Pomona transition de la vida normal. Buddha progression natural. No, monica. I think it's important to remember that celebrations do not always happen exactly the same way. Either there or here. Some celebrations of. Very somber. Summer very festive. And some combine the two. All irreverent and respectful. An internet article says for those accustomed. Hush voices. Warmer clothing. Asylum priest. And an absence of children is fitting for the graveside. This festival flies in the face of propriety. What we here might have a hard time wrapping around our minds around is that dancing skeleton loud music. Bright flowers etc are still reverent. Lariato. Octavio paz depot. El mexicano kenosha b&l amarte. Pastor chistes show video. Look at it. Grandma cornell. Cuz one of those whom he got this so amor.. Nobel laureate. Octavio process. The mexican is familiar with death. Jokes about it. Caresses it sleeps with it. It is one of his toys. And his steadfast. Love. Not all people in celebrate. Dia de los muertos. Charles mexican city family was third-generation mexicans. From spain in germany. And did not celebrate the festival even though they did consider themselves mexican. The family gravesite was across the city and not easy to get to. Also my guess is that the closer you are just very quickly and genetically to indigenous culture. The more likely you are to celebrate day of the dead. Justice the native mexican and european european culture came together. The american version of halloween is working its way into mexico. Attempts are made to stop this but it still happen. Stores have decorations. Halloween decorations candy etcetera. It's easy to see how the two events. Might mix. But as we experience cross-cultural dance. We sometimes don't get it right. Hit me colonia la ciudad de mexico. Avesis korean coronavirus parody. Shih tzu chihuahua. Sophina sobota. Depressive indiana's viernes or salvador illinois traditional halloween halloween. Okay halloween celebrated well-trained to another opportunity. They musta colonia zero the author's partners llc. Middle school courses economicos. Amaya mexico city neighborhood. Children would sometimes think that halloween. What's a weekend celebration. I would show up on friday night or saturday night. Podimas halloween which means give me halloween. I would tell them this is martha thomas. Halloween is on the 31st of october. Now these would-be not neighborhood kids but. Kids from less affluent part of town. The car will be seeing another piece in spanish it's titled esto les digo. It comes from the new testament the text is were two or three are gathered in my name there will i be also and hopefully with our. A unitary or star universal aside we can maybe expand that to mean for us where we are gathered. In our hearts there will our loved ones who've passed on be with us also. Attempts to. Acknowledge death aren't totally ignored. In this country. After all we celebrate memorial day. And because the celts celebrated samhain. We now have. Halloween. Today we have our main altar. Which is. Very. Meaningfully enhanced by many of you. We also have some. Individual ofrenda. Some of you has made there's some down there. On the altar. What we're going to do today is prepared. Right there an individual alter. And this case were my mother. Now before we get to the alternate i want to just stay. The altar and the celebrations and stuff are part of it. People also go to graveyards you know. Escort to spirits into the house. So you don't clean up the the the graveyards which is done also i believe in italy. So. So before we get that just wanted to write i really didn't include much about that because we don't have a graveyard. So. Now you know how you you bring your christmas decorations down. And you tell the kids i'll put that there that will that's what we're going to do today. Mary and megan are going to help me. And as we go along i'll talk about the individual components. Which are typical in an individual author. At which are either. Presents for represented here. This ofrenda will be for my mother lucille mary ross barlow. So that you didn't begin to get a sense of her. No that she was very small. It only 5 ft tall she weighed 78 78 lb. When she graduated from high school. The day before she gave birth to me. Weight olive 96 lb. She was a friend of mine described her a tough little canary. Hey janna, let's give you more time.. Their friend is covered with a. White sheet or tablecloth. I should have three levels. But for safety and expediency. This is going to be one. I am usually there are. How do you say papel. Ricardo. Hanging up above the altar and we didn't really have a place to do that so megan and mary would you get those and string them up so people can see it. And when you're done you can just pull them out cuz there's not any place to put those safe. Now this one doesn't have black but if you have left. It would be for the. Prehistoric religions in the land of the dead. Purple from the catholic. Calendar to signify pain. Suffering grief. Morning. Is for celebration. White is for purity and hope. Yellow yellow and orange for the marigolds. Busan the light. Red representing christians the blood of jesus. And for the indigenous. The love. Lifeblood. Human animals. Pulling up now. Okay we're going to put on for candles. To represent. The four directions. It's the taper siskel on. The ones that fit into the four spaces renton. Amber going to put in on. Three smaller candles one for my mother. One for my grandmother. An extra one so nobody will. Be left out. A representation of the three skeletons. Representing the holy trinity. That's a little different version of the holy trinity but. Next comes a picture of her as a young woman mary it's right over here. Put it up. When i was a little girl i thought she was the prettiest mommy. The whole world. Recently when i was looking at some pictures of her. In her thirties. I realize that she was actually quite the babe. Then there is a photo taken of her it's the middle one not too long before she died. Am i g still a pretty mommy. Now i've also excluded included a picture of her mother. My grandmother lizzy myrtle cook ross. Who died at. At 38 when my mother was only six years old. She died as a result of childbirth. A few days after delivering her eight child. The children's father. Lizzy's husband harry. Wasn't able to cope with raising children. And most of the kids were dispersed the various foster homes. The infant was adopted by another family. The last thing my mother. My grandmother said to my mother was no this was a day before she died. You know childbirth and she's in the buying process. And she said to my mother. Go away. I don't have time for you. So i'm putting lizzie's picture there. So that at least in my mind. They will have some time together. My mother and her mother actually my grandmother was born in madison county you may have heard of that. I were both on iowa so i'm adding one of my favorite. Thanks which is corn. To put it up there. Okay i can't see you. So she loved dishes she loved. China. So. We're going to a delicate cup and saucer. For her favorite drink with whipped coffee. Whenever mother would go to a family dinner. She was bringing a ham. Weather. It was appropriate or not. That's what she did she should come in today. Minecraft. And so today i brought a little boat ham for her friend and i brought him for the potluck. And here's our watch. What you use when she worked as a nurse's aide to put me through college. Now. A traditional dia de los muertos altar would include. Incense in bulk. Forum and it would need to be put. On top of some burning charcoal. I don't think that would go over here. So when i didn't want to risk a fire so i bought it and stick form so just put one up there. Coppell is from the nahuatl word for kapali which is a resin. But. Green resin is used to withdraw the spirits near. Also to purify the area. Another word from the tree is used for i don't know if you ever seen those little oaxacan. Figurines are carved out of wood in the very colorfully. Change it. No. One thing is pretty. Even pretty basic turn alter would be some bread which is right over there under her. Banda machos. Or you can just take it out of the bed. Mary just take it out of the road cuz it blows so big. The season. The food and bar.. Purification. And water. The french the thirst and purification. Now also on the altar right under you not this time of year yeah this is a mexican i couldn't get marigolds. So we don't have miracle so we i did the next best thing. And so we brought yellow and orange flowers. And flowers amerigo's if you know are really smelly. The spirits can follow the smell to them alter. And. Awesome flowers represent the brevity of life. Also underneath. There is a basin i don't think you're going to really pretend basin. If you just told me that megan. With a washcloth and a. Bar soap. And the pink washcloths. But because i don't have anything in my house. A my mother loved. Macy have rose-colored. Carpet and pink all over her house. So. Is there anything i haven't talked about yet. What does sugar skull. Thank you. That would be on a typical panda. Put that up there. People ask if these are to eat and no they're not. I wouldn't think so some of them are very old i can hear. And they're very very very. Heart. A funny story about that i went to our local. Mexican grocery. The nampa. And i. And i asked you have any sugar skulls right. Lady look, she patient uses i forgot to order them. So. Anyways or anything else i don't want to forget. Yeah i also have a picture of my. Grandmothers. Gravesite in iowa. And i also brought pepper not to go with the salt. Because my mother put pepper on almost everything. I grew up with kamala with pepperoni. One more thing. Yes thank you we are going to pass around the incense. Now i was going to like against answer then. Carol reminded me that some people are sensitive and you know that kind of thing and. So i didn't do it. Bright white light limited home. The smell. And you know who sensitive. But it isn't it's a different kind of smell. So just. Just go around and you know there's there should be about. 19186 muirfield if you pass us on the rosen. If you don't. Victor london to san antonio texas d.c.. And let's not relation. Play hindi wedding dress marcus. Sacramento. Is russell v2 deck on the couch tuner. Condo rentals corazones yarrow latin for cicero's. Squadron restaurant mirada de peso. Cuando el espacio cocoa pebbles. Pokopoko paradisus on tivo. Muerte. Benny cuando el cuerpo es para la tierra. Progressive la tierra madre. Fuera de la vista. Doctor said i'm wealthy. La muerte match definitiva. Is cuando ya no queda nada vevo. Para recordar lowe's. Victor londa. From san antonio texas. In our tradition. People die 3ds. The first step. Is when our body ceases to function. When are no longer beat on their own accord. When i gaze has no longer has steps or wait. When is space we occupy slowly loses its meaning. The second death. Is when the body is lowered into the ground. Return to mother earth out of sight. The third death. The most definitive death. Is when there was no one left. To remember us. There's a native american saying that goes something like this. The facts may not be entirely right but this is a true story. Interpreting another culture. Always leaves room for a lot of era. I did notice however will i was thinking about when am i going to put it on the altar where am i going to put it you know what a my mom like all that sir stuff my mother really did come alive for me. You know all those memory. All those memories came flooding over me. So in one respect. She did return to the living. And so although. Halloween megan encroach. Dia de los muertos. Is still. Very much. Alive. Gracias carlos.

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BUUF-sermon-20090201.mp3

Do you have. Behaviors and thoughts. Patterns of behavior and ways of thought. Becky. Cropping up in your life. Even though you don't want them. Rhetorical question. The movie groundhog day. Deals with this most human. Persistent. The main character is still connors a weatherman and a real jerk and i mean a real jerk. Is life centered 100% around himself. In his arrogance he seems to pride himself on super unkind mean remarks to other people. The landlady at his bed and breakfast remarks i think i'm down for coffee. We're supposed to have a blizzard. He told himself up to his full height and gives her about one minute of totally technical weatherman jargon and then smears. Did you want to talk about the weather or were you just in jersey and idle chitchat. For the fourth year in a row. He is assigned to go to punxsutawney pennsylvania to cover groundhog day. Reporting whether the groundhog. Punxsutawney phil sees his shadow or not. For phil connors this is not exactly a prime assignment and he doesn't with the worst grace possum. Who is new to the station. Love is the way everyone is having so much fun and she thinks that punxsutawney phil is pretty cute. Hands of baga newsroom. And this is where his ordeal starts. At 6 a.m. v. Next morning. His block radio alarm starts sonny & cher's i got you babe. The theme song. For the morning program. But the disc jockey pattern. Is exactly the same. As yesterday. The cars outside or exactly the same exactly the same the day. Is the same. It is february. He hits him on the third night that he can do anything he wants and he heads into a life of illegal. Finance and unhealthy behavior. He learned information from women when dave and seduces them with it the next. They don't know. It is february 2nd. He tries to do that with rita. But she's intuitive. And day after day after day and with her slapping his face. About here he is beginning to be pretty miserable. So he killed himself. Every way imaginable. Including driving a truck off a cliff with punxsutawney phil in it. Hearing the same radio program. One day he explains it all to rita and she believes him. They spend a nice normal day together. That evening as they lie together in friendly intimacy he says in genuine sadness. The worst part is that you won't remember to remember tomorrow. She drifts off to sleep. He covers her up and he says to her. In a quiet epiphany. What i want to say is. That you are the kindest. Sweetest. Prettiest person i've ever met. I've never met anyone who's kinder to people than you. I don't deserve anyone like you but if i could i swear. I'd love you. For the rest of my life. Then of course. Radio program start. And rita. At this point he has seen clearly. A lot of really bad things about himself. He has seen them many. Many times. He has been drawing into paying attention. Paying attention to the kindness around him. And he has allowed himself to feel loved. He has also faced. That he can never have love. And he decides that it is better to spend eternity being kind. Then hurting others. At a party one night rita. Buys him at a bachelor auction for $339.88. They have fun together. And they spend the night just talking. He said. No matter what happens tomorrow. Or for the rest of my life. I'm happy now. Because i love you. And they drift off to sleep. In each other's arms. 6 a.m.. I've got you babe. And then. Different words from the disc jockey. And then read is still beside him he jumps out the window the old familiar and phil is redeemed. Groundhog day is an amusing and good modern movie. It also embodies a concept common. Do all kinds of religions. There's the hindu and buddhist concept of karma. In which every single act we do. Has consequences for our next lifetime. We are doomed to repeat our mistakes. Until we somehow. Realize them. And take steps. Wiccan. And other pagan traditions teach that we have profound responsibility for our actions. I've heard it said. That whatever we put forth. Will come back to us 350 which is sort of like karma in space. The hebrew scriptures say he who is often reproved. Will suddenly be broken beyond healing. And saint paul in the christian scriptures admonishes the people of galatia in these familiar words. Do not be deceived god is not mocked. For whatever a man says that also shall he reap. Marie-louise von franz is a union writer. A close student and colleague of carl jung. She speaks of the pure unspoiled soul practices. Other naskapi indians of the labrador peninsula in eastern canada. Has she wrote in the mid-sixties. And terrible things have. Surprise. He lived in isolated family group so they had no tribal rituals and customs to share to shape their spiritual growth. Until they view the soul. As an inner companion called my friend. 4. Mr. pale meaning. Great man. Paid close attention to their dreams. An attention that brought them into closer connection with the great one. Von franz childress. The major obligation of an individual naskapi is to follow the instructions given by his dream and then to give permanent form to their contents in art. Lies and dishonesty drive the great man away from once in a realm. Whereas generosity. And love of one's nature and animals. Attract him. And give him life. It still had followed the old naskapi ways he would not have had to go through so much to recognize that generosity and love are indy. And of themselves. More rewarding. Pennlive. And toussaint. Most of us here today. Do not have very many rituals and customs we participated. To enlarge our souls and make us better people. None of us. Is likely to have our character defects starkly lived out as a same-day repeats itself over and over and over in our lives. Still need somehow. To move toward live. Of more generosity. And love. And we don't have to shrug and walk away from the work because we have repeated patterns for so long. It is true. Are still lodged so deep in our unconscious. That we need to seek therapeutic help which is an honorable and constructive path. To dealing with our shadows. And once again i recommend the book romancing the shadow. But it's not all buried deep in our site. We can choose to be kind even if. Particularly feel like it. Both monty python and kurt vonnegut. Major 20th century prophets. Admonish us too because they are. We can choose. To assume the best of others intentions. And how often do i see us doing otherwise. How about assuming that a cranky store clerk. Is having a bad day. So speaking kindly to him. Instead of puffy indignant. We can choose not to speak gossip. We can choose to walk up to a stranger in church and make her welcome rather than taking the easy path. I'm heading for our friend. We can also choose to follow a spiritual path a discipline. May gradually open our hearts. In fact if we do not follow some kind of regular practice. We are highly. Unlike. To make the progress that for fill made during his purgatory of repeating days. If you're okay with christian centered. Words and deeds christian oriented words and deeds in the best in you might want to try centering prayer. I know personally. At least five people. Whose lives have been changed for the better by doing this fracas. And i have. A lot of websites listed at the end of the sermon which is in the northwest. No maybe you're allergic. Two practices and words from the traditions most of us have emerged. Maybe you're a frolicking pagan. Who would call yourself religious if you were being tortured to death. Maybe you're a happy atheist. Jubilantly waiting around books by richard dawkins and christopher hitchens and sam harris. Maybe you're an old line human is to just wishes that some people. Could cut back on loaded words and guitar. Maybe you feel like rolling your eyes when the words spiritual isn't. It doesn't. Map. We say that again. It doesn't. Matter. Don't call it the spiritual practice. Don't even think of it as part of a traditional religion if you don't want to just do it. A kind of local sangha. Bethany website. Buddhist are not theistic but they are reverent. They practiced ritual and they understand the fundamental importance. Disciplined observant. Find a training for art of living which is a breathing meditation system talk by sri sri ravi shankar and it has with other practices changed my life. Person. It requires no belief. Memorize poetry. You could spend the rest of your life with mary oliver alone. And speak it from your heart as you sit still. In openness. Walk mindfully in the churches grove or any sacred space of nature. Breathing regularly. Feeling the blessing of air and fire and water and earth and spirit. Find a group of like hearted people. And create your own ritual. To guide you toward the generosity compassion and love that is evident. Of the holy acting in our lives. Finally in addition to the practices that we can find for ourselves. Our greatest. Loveliest hope. Comes from other people. Reflect on the trusted people you love. As for hummus. The people who love you. In the same way. Think of how it would be. Oh so carefully at one of them. When they didn't know you were looking. Like phil when rita was sleeping. And see the good. That is within them without. Discounting the other stuff. See how we can be. United. In our love for each other. And our love for the. We can choose to start each day as the dalai lama suggests in the reading that carry did. Developing ourselves. Is that practice. Expanding our hearts. For the benefit of all beings. There's practice. There's relationship. And determining to have kind thoughts. Not to think badly of others. There's our chance. Define blessedness. With our fellow creatures. Shall we walk together. Toward being that are people. Shall we determine quietly. To journey together in hopes of better honoring the great one within. Shall we take the lesson of groundhog day to heart. And move toward putting away are menaces. Towards the generosity for which we all long. Let's.

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BUUF-sermon-20090104.mp3

It's a funny thing about supposedly simple topics. Like begin. For reflection on the first sunday of a new year. Seems like a pretty uncomplicated. I googled beginnings. Poetry. And i found this by susie palmer who was yours is on her website that is rated g by the author. She says. New beginnings may not seem truly like a plan weight and grand because soon heart sing living truer than you hope you can. Try to forget. So when it's time to draw the blinds wake up to a new day hold your arms around yourself give thanks to higher forces guiding our way. Connor has some good advice for it. Don't be afraid to weigh. Wake up do what's around you give thanks to god. The more i started thinking. About the most important and healthy beginnings i have experienced and observed. The more complicated the subject started steaming. The reading service coordinator. Seems to say. That beginnings are pretty complex and not recognizable as. Kitchen. Reminds us that times of growth are beset with difficulties. T.s. eliot says that to make an end is to make a beginning in the beginning the end is where we start from and elliot gives us those haunting frustrating lines about ending up where we started and knowing the place for the first time. Mary oliver. As always tells us to wake up. She tells us to know what he emerges from the night. Very first atom. She tells us that morning. Her image. Over and over for all beginning. Is a primeval. To be savored. And elliot seems to agree with her when he says quick. Now. Here. Now. Always. And then he jars us with the next lines which say. A condition of complete simplicity. Costing. Not less than everything. So it would seem if mark's and my favorite writers have any inside. The beginnings are fraught with pain. And confusion. And loveliness and ending and relearning and duty and sacrifice and blessing and the imperative. Dependent. What do you think. As i continue meditating on what this constant. Process of beginning meme. Has me by reflecting on some beginning. On your own. Starting school. Starting a new relationship. Beginning something new by the ending of an old relationship. Job change. Adele. Or other terrible loss. A big religious change. Marriage children getting a stepparent being a stepparent. Or facing something about yourself. That required you to search your soul. And begin again. For me there have been two most important things to remember in all of my starting and my hoped for starting. It's not simple. Or even always definable until afterwards. This beginning process. + 2. I can have faith in the front. If i am present. If i am able to if necessary. And most of all. If i. Pay attention. That most fundamental spiritual practice. Of mine. I think of a beginning in my life that happened on. April 6th. 19. 91 some of you were there. And i got married. What are the reasons that this event comes to my mind i was glancing through my copy of eching or book. I found something i had asked on january 11th 1989. I got married in april of 91. At that time i had lived here for 5 months. Bob and i had become good friends and we were moving toward dating. I asked ichi the january of 89. What lies in bob's and mylifenow true jew. The hexagram. Number for or youthful folly. And number 56 or traveling. The message was. You could do something foolish without due consideration if you're not careful i'll do you do an inside. And things are very much in flux so you shouldn't make any long-term commitment at this time but there is a possibility of new things if you stay true to your integrity. Well that didn't exactly tell me what to do. But it helped me reflect on the seriousness of entering a relationship. It helped me remember. The hanging in. When things are not black and white can lead to positive outcomes. Bob and i did make the decision later that's free. And to pay attention to where the relationship. And all of you out there. Every one of who. Of any age any ilk. Has spent time over an important decision. Will not be surprised. To know that bob and i had our ups and our downs. We suffered pain. When we found out things about each other or ourselves even worse that we're not easy. We had both been married before. So we experienced nervousness and yes. Fear. At the idea of giving it another try that old hope over experience in denver. Our love grew. And it gave us courage. We had tons of fun with each other still do. Which is one of the blessings propelling us toward our big beginning. We both had to give up the committee of one independence of single what. Which is not an insignificant ending. I can't speak for bob. But my spiritual practices meditation prayer for guidance gratitude. Help me practice mindfulness and discernment. And finally that fabulous beginning 17 and a half years ago has gone off. Amore beginnings. Some endings. Many changes. Lots of love and commitment still abounding. Beginning. Well worth celebrating in ritual and in party. They go on to other beginnings. And endings. In times of confusion. And beginning. And. Have your beginning. Did anything like that. On this first sunday of 2009 i don't want to end our friends of exhortation about confusion. Mindfulness and possible pain in the ambiguity of it all. It's all true. And we can gain comfort from sharing those experiences with each other. Beginning some shelves are pretty terrific. And we can find them over and over in ways large and small. Enjoy and thanksgiving we can celebrate them for what they are. This country. Has a whole raft of problems to solve. So we can rejoice. On january 20th. India agra inauguration of a new president. A man whose acceptance speech acknowledged. Belong. Road. That is complicated and hard to begin and keep going. He also said. I have never been more hopeful than i am that we will get there. I promise you we. Will get there. We don't have to be president to find create and enjoy beginning. In the few that has begun so recently we can simply become better people than we are now. With awareness and love and a little help from our friends we hit all. For instance. Do any of you share with me. A judgmental streak. Setting up from time to time. I was driving to church today and i realized. I could begin. Driving legally. I got two speeding tickets in the last two months and i think it's for me. What if you have a hot temper. Maybe you can begin a regular practice of breathing. Maybe i have trouble getting up the courage to speak your mind. How about finding the bravery in your heart. To pursue that respect. You get the picture. Above all we can practice everyday. The kind of amazed attention. Mary oliver. Cause us to. Every time we really noticed a person. A bird. A little arrangement of color line patterns of motion every time we really noticed. We are making a beginning. That helps us save our very souls. I am mostly. Hardly at all. Like mary oliver. Once in awhile. Once in awhile i get it. Three mornings a week i go out to our church has grown before office hours start and sometimes. Just sometime i know what she means when she writes. And under the trees. Beyond x brittle drift. I stood like adam in his lonely garden on that first. Morning. Jake and out of sleep rubbing his eyes listening. Parting the leave like. Incredible. Let us resolve to be awake. We may begin on you. Whenever possible. Knowing that true beginning can be weird and confusing and may require more of us than we thought we could do let us nonetheless resolve to do it with matter-of-fact. Let us resolve to seize the moments of beginning and rejoice. That we. And life. Are made new. Andover.

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BUUF-sermon-2009051011.mp3

Coming of age. What is it all about. Many-faced traditions offer ceremony and celebration. T'mark young people as they take a move from their childhood into adulthood. And more importantly a more active role in our community. Judaism offers young people of bats or a bar mitzvah. And many christian churches offer confirmation. We unitarians have the coming-of-age program. In which we invite junior high youth typically 13 to 15 years old a chance to learn more about unitarian universalist core values. While i was sleep is a meeting other faith traditions practice. This is done alongside adult mentors who come from our congregation and are matched with the youth. Together they attend eight months of classes. Get to know each other and perform a community service project of their own choosing. We gather here today. To hear eats youth. Face statement. Of what they believe is important. To them. Right now. Now elizabeth and i guided this class in the exploration of many. Light-hearted topics. Such as what is the nature of good and evil. Life. Deaf and what. If anything comes after. And jesus. Who do you say i am. Now with such weighty topics you might think that our discussions. With a class composed of almost 30 people. Might be. Horribly difficult. But we found it everyone had something to say or to write. The collage depicting images of death and dying from our print media was a wonderful exploration of a most difficult topic. I think that was the class. That we had to cut off the discussion at 9 at night. To get everyone out the door on time. It was really amazing. Jesus graffiti over here. Was a truyou exercise lane bear. All the competing views and opinions about jesus the man. And jesus the spiritual leader. Finally i think hosting our coming-of-age youth today. Offers all of his hope. Not only for our long-term future. But hope right here. Right now. Living breathing playing among us. Many of the youth will continue to attend booth. A few more years before going off to school or to work. I want to encourage all of you to listen carefully to them today. Get to know them. Include them in your planning and your activities that go on here all the time. There is strong presence among us and they have a lot to teach us. So. It's my pleasure to turn over the rest of the program. To the coming-of-age youth. I do want to ask that normally we try not to applaud during our worship service. But these kids really deserve it. So if you get that urge just hold it until they fall completed. Their presentations. Thank you. I am carol severe it was my pleasure to be a mentor for lily buchler. Lily the daughter of walter buchler and daddy douglas is an amazing young woman she's. She's an eighth grader north junior high she excels in math and science she was recently qualified to play in the state lacrosse championship or the state lacrosse team. Time shelter plays the cello. She has a commitment to the environment as do i until first project we did some volunteer work at the wildlife spring fling at the foothills learning center. Probably the most memorable portion of that was with facilitating an activity where people match the rubber scat with the picture of the animal so. My family and i haven't coming to booth on and off for quite a while. Gradually become more and more connected with it. Before i started coming-of-age i didn't really think much about what i believed in. I'm still unsure of the more religious aspects of believing like god and afterlife. But i think the understanding your own values and sticking to them is the way to then ponder those harder ideas. When i think of boo. One of the first things that pops into my head is how is it all be open-minded. Before i came to boof i didn't really think about about it that much even though it was a value i believed in. Now i realize how much booth practice is at this is pretty much the first and third of the uu principles the first one says. Inherent worth and dignity of every person and a third one says acceptance of one another and encouragement of spiritual growth. Growth in our congregations. My friends or anyone asks about my beliefs they are so do you believe in god. I say my church is as a whole is open-minded and they really don't care if you believe in god or not. They always say that's awesome. I really like not having to believe in a set course of ideas and that's why i think this program is a really good idea. But i don't understand what stricter religions is it'll tell you what to believe but some of them also say you should find your way to god. Or find out what god means to you. My friend was participating and a similar program at a different church. It was pretty much the same as ours. They did a service project they had adventures they met and had discussion. But the purpose of the program really wasn't to try to figure out what they believed in and that program they should have told you it was right and then let you very little. I'm really glad i go to a church where they don't tell you what to believe. I also think taking care of the environment is also very important. Oh i see you principal sums it up pretty nicely. It says the respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are apart. Most people don't realize and what our ancestors haven't realized that it really is interdependence. We heard everything even other people and ourselves in the long run by and by hurting the environment right now. There isn't a need to do it and it's not that hard to prevent. Destroying this planet is definitely something we'll regret well actually our descendants will regret it for us if we continue down the route we are now taking. Right now i don't think i believe in something really specific when i think of god. I like to think of god as something more general sort of like an idea. Not really as one being to me it's sort of like the idea of right and wrong. Forgot really isn't very important in my life right now. The meaning of god for someone is something that i don't think i'm a determined at age 14 after a few months of classes i'm slowly forming an idea in my head i thought about a lot of things i hadn't bothered thinking about through this coming-of-age class. This is everett smithy obviously needed more mentors than the. I've known ever it's been seen since vegas before he was born is the. The daughter of. Start that again. He's the son of two of my oldest friends in idaho to indiana and rachel smith. And. I have as i say i've known him since he was young and handsome talia my daughter's also 13 they've grown up together. Also say that. For the last few years you know it's as ever it's been very busy doing all kinds of other things and it's that age i don't really. And it's been just such a treat over the last eight months to get that opportunity to do so. He's really become a. I mean i think he's always been kind of an old soul and he's been a thoughtful he's a thoughtful guy with also the social learning that understated humor of his dad although he doesn't have quite the you know quite the capacity yet. Is it. Processes that i've got to work with my nephew anthony who's going to take over on this introduction here quick. That's also been a treat because then we've taken all these subjects and discussions you know going forward and had them had them ourselves and then come back and had more of them with everett so. Alright. Well i guess i guess the first thing i just wanted to talk about was the. Service project that we did. Everett is involved with lot of sports and he's super buff denali things but. We made time to go down to the boise bicycle project which is a not-for-profit program that works to get bicycles out to the community coz. They're good resource for everybody to have access to. Everett was interested in that program pretty much from the initial mention of it end. And that was part of the drive to get me involved. As it's as one of his mentors. So we went down and we did that in. And i think that that sort of just let on to the fact that even though i ever it's involved in a lotta. Really school and things average. Thanks for being a thirteen-year-old that he's also thinking outside the box and. Interested in expanding beyond that. So i think with that in mind it was really nice to be able to watch him culminate some of these ideas and put them into words as he'll mention going from a big noodle amassing his head into something to present to everybody else. And then the other thing besides getting to work with both of these guys together was that it was a good reminder for what it was like to be 13 and kind of review from a slightly different perspective. So. I think we all taught each other a lot and everett's going to tell you about what he learned. Alright. Instead of growing up with a specific set of guidelines as to what i should believe like many other people do in other religions or circumstances. I had much more freedom. The result is that i get to believe what i truly want but instead of being neatly written it's contained in a huge mess in my head. Although what i've been able to take from that huge mess. Is that i don't believe in any one religion at all. Even though they all contain some great principles and have led many people through well live lives. I also don't have a clue what will happen to me when i die. So all i can believe in is leaving more good than bad behind in this world. But what is good and what is bad. How do i find the line that separates the two is it what's some hire more powerful being tells me no. Is it what some book written long ago says. Is it a way of life was that rules that has been prescribed to me before i was even born no. Good as having perseverance especially in the toughest of times. Being truthful to those that matter to me and the ones that don't. You should spend time with your family and give two relationships that you received from. If someone else has little or none then you should share some of yours whatever it may be. Don't you out shallow insults for acts of violence because well it may have taken a second to happen it can last forever. Leave your life to the fullest but not by bringing harm to others. That is good and so are many other things that will come with experience and time. But for now i will try my best to bring good into the world because for all i know. Before we fizzle out. And all we get to decide is how bright are moment will be. I've had the pleasure during this project of working with elliott sherman she's the daughter of kathy and rodger sherman and her family is very present today as you've all seen a true kindness to others and that was. And as you will hear momentarily she is very very wise beyond her years. What do i believe. This is a question that has been spinning through my head all year. Although i haven't totally figured it out. I dunno the main principles of what i believe. First of all what you believe is learn from experience. I know for a fact that i will have plenty of experience as my life. And those will help me have a better understanding of what i believe and those will help me feel complete. Although some people believe in a god or goddess i believe that everyone has a little bit of god in them. Meaning of us have goodness and y'all ever individual talents i mean come on no one is perfect. To put my faith in action i try not to engage in gossip. Be the peacemaker and help other people in bad situations. Although i can't help the whole world i can try to try to make my school life or family life a little bit better. At my age. I don't have a full understanding of what i believe or if my vehicle change. But i do have values that will keep my overall concept straight. What do usual honesty respect perseverance in assassin. Army church has taught me to have an open mind no matter what race disability or sexual orientation you have. I will know when i feel complete. Or know what i believe when the time comes. Who knows when that day will come. Oroville come gradually but for now i'm just a normal thirteen-year-old doing normal doing things in normal thirteen-year-old. And thank you very much my family charice and my mentor. My man tarantula. Good morning my name is joe wexler burger and it's my pleasure dinner to patrick pinkerton who is the son of barbara and pat pinkerton. This is my second tour of duty as a coming-of-age mentor and so i can definitely say that this group of young people is within my top to a favorites. Project patrick and i did a couple of things we shoveled snow out here for the christmas eve service. And then we both volunteer down at the ark. Which is really a lot of fun and in the time i got to know patrick and he's just a really. Energetic young man and and it's wonderful. I've had interaction with both of his older brothers and so when i was told that patrick was going to be my protege i was really excited and i have to tell you he does not disappoint. Thank you jeff. Thank you joe. Send my front a. Alright. My name is patrick pinkerton i've been at booth for as long as i can remember. And we started coming regularly when my oldest brother abbott. And was in about 30 fourth-grade my older brother david was in kindergarten and i was still in diapers. I believe that religion is a way for people to explain the unexplainable. Believing in god and going to heaven when you die is a way to raise hope for people all across the world. For me i believe that living life to the fullest is the only way to go. I believe that thinking too much about religion is something that doesn't need to be done. Some people say that i'm an atheist. But i'm not an atheist is someone who doesn't believe that there is a god i'm just someone who doesn't like to think about it. I believe that what is really important is life is what you have right in front of you. You have a good family or supportive friends. So why can't you just live your life and cherish everything that you have. Do you want to think about all those big questions will great. But i believe they're even more important things to worry about in life. For me it could be a huge test on friday. Or it could be something much more important than that. But don't waste your time on earth worrying about what will happen outside of it just live your life and roll with the punches. Hi my name is april ward and i had the great pleasure of working with sarah shaft. And her parents are over here howard and rhonda. And i just have to say that sarah is such an amazing person and her parents are an inspiration to me also the young mother because. Her life experiences exceed my own so i don't know who is the mentor in our relationship. Starting at a very young age sarah had the opportunity to travel around the world working with organizations like habitat for humanity. She's an avid tennis player she goes to florida for a camp every year and it's the camp where most of the pro tennis players also played when they were sarah's age. And so against just such a wonderful person she's also had the opportunity to work through her school with refugees in the past which is what we chose our service project. Because her school kind of gave her. And some interest in working towards that so again i had had more experience in that arena than i had and betsy dunklin was very gracious and helping us to organize that and to meet. A family from another country and we're trying to help them so it's been crazy and without further to pierce their. Harmony sex off and i'm 13 years old. The unitarian universalist church since i was born in twin falls idaho. Throughout my years in the uu church i've been taught and learned many concepts and different about different beliefs and religions. Throughout my credo i will be recognizing what my beliefs are and how they will change as they grow through the youth fellowship and how you you have shaped who i am today. Do you church has always encouraged me to pick my own path in life. And find what i believe in. We've talked about god and number of times there's some higher power button on this is jesus. Disconnected more the spirit and there's something out there but i don't exactly know. Or understand what. There are many different views on your afterlife or what happens to you when you die. Some people believe in heaven and hell. And others don't. I believe they could be somewhere you go when our time comes but not heaven with the golden gates and not down in hell with the devil. I think it's possible we could be brought a made into something else when we die. I don't really know but i have my thoughts. The unitarian church is a very open-minded and accepting fellowship. For me this has made me more aware of other cultures and religions. It is definitely played a role in shaping who i am as. No more sad and open-minded person. Ever since i was born in attending the fellowship able to make my own decisions. My mom grove catholic and my dad grove jewish. I've always known a little bit about each i'd like to carry on some of the jewish traditions i do now and some of the catholic i do two later in my life. But still attending you fellowship. When i was 4 i took my first habitat for humanity's trip with my family we took a trip to guatemala for two weeks and help build houses for two or three families. Ever since then i returned to guatemala once and then las vegas to bolivia. Those service-learning projects have shaped who i am and my beliefs. Intercostals coming-of-age we just service learning project without mentos. My nevada products about refugees and their experiences a member of the us offered to help me. I had the chance to meet a family of front of fall. They're learning how to clean houses and part of my service learning i thought that if there's anyone who would like to help this family and have your house cleaned as a practice house please talk to betsy i know they would really appreciate it. I understand that as i got older my beliefs and thoughts will strengthen and change. But at the moment where i am now is what i see myself to extend through later in life. A special thanks to my brother brad for coming i really my. Hi i'm george reno and this is michael duke. Mymanatee and. I remember when you were born and. Parents steve and diane are very good friends of mine. And. So i've known michael. Just. Not. In this particular youth group setting i've also spent time with michael in the past. And. Michael is always impressed me. In the sense of he's a reflective person. And. He doesn't respond. Immediately. He takes time to think about something these circumspect in his words and. I've learned that if michael does say something. It has weight. I would say you could take the bank but. He thinks about what he says santa and i i really admire that so. For our service project we had a great day we. Took a drift boat and we. Floated about 6 miles for the snake river and played garbage man picking up all the. Deer cams and. Trash along the riverbank and when we got down to the end of the six miles i turned michael and said now michael we only got the one bank there's 26 miles on the other side now that's not true. I'm done here and turn it over to michael. So before i read my credo i must warn you that it is brutally honest. Tammy. Faith is what you believe. You can have faith in your favorite sports team to win. Or a face in that your mom is packed anything but a ham sandwich for lunch. The type of faith i'm here to talk today 2 to 2 today to talk to you about is much bigger and grander than that. Religion started out humble with an honest following. But now i see it as propaganda. Put people out there going on missions trying to convert others to their religion it defeats the purpose of faith. What you believe. Your face should be personal because it is what you believe in. I'm not the kind of person to stand up in front of a church crowd and state my faith i will tell you that. But i believe that faith is something that you have to acquire. My faith has not been found yet. It is waiting for me to realize it and embrace it. But right now it is out there in the outer reaches of my brain waiting for me to discover it. Or maybe the way my life is now as my face. Hey my face is absolutely nothing. I've been approved for a few years as a small child. But i barely remember anything from those years i then went to a methodist church without which i must say i did not enjoy until 2 years ago. But booth is a part of me. It is where i was dedicated at the age of 4 months and where i come on moe sunday's weather whether i like it or not. This is the kind of church to find faith in. But i haven't found something that seems to me quite yet. So i hereby declare that i michael do believe in absolutely nothing. If you are missing something then why look for it. My life is fine just the way it is without beliefs. That doesn't mean that my mind isn't open. I'm just not really searching for my face right now as you can see. I think that i've taken the unitarian experience for granted. We are always learning about different religions. As to where we would not if we were members of another church i've always seen booth as something that take my time on sunday when i could be doing homework or hang out with friends. As i've use those excuses many times. But i think they just recently i realized the opportunities that i've been missing. And i admit that as i'm writing this 30 minutes before it is supposed to be due. I'm realizing then instead of shying away from what booth teaches me i can learn and grow from it. I'm in no rush whatsoever to find faith. And maybe i'm even procrastinating when i should be searching my inner soul. It might be out there you might not but i sure don't have it yet. And i might keep whining when i should be getting ready for church but that doesn't mean that i'm not still searching for my face. I'm marcia lyons and i had the privilege of working with riley jack during the coming-of-age program this year. What i would say about riley how i wanted to say i didn't say this rallies actually going twice. So. Kudos rally for that i did not mention last time so i get to redo it that she is the daughter sandy jack who has been enough a big part of our fellowship for many years now and riley. You know i was thinking of how would i describe riley and riley is different riley is a person when i first met her. I thought there's something different she special what is it and i realized. After a little while but i'd say about her is that she doesn't have a mean bone in her body. She is one of those people who is truly kind truly courteous and truly thoughtful of others. She's also very smart and. Is important for you to know about riley before she shares her thoughts that she's an athlete and her sport is soccer and she's very passionate about it. Means a lot to her. And so i think many of us who are passionate about something we get a lot of meeting out of that. And so she has i think extracted some really special meaning from her experience and soccer which is what she's going to share with you today she's an eighth grade she goes to school in eagle. And without further comment i'll turn it over to riley. We were given this assignment accredo. What's important to us what we value. Emoji think about life. No i'm a soccer player. And to help me sort out these huge questions. I started a player on with a soccer ball. As i was juggling. I realized. Life is like a game of soccer. You always have to give your best. The same applies for life. You have to be able to rely on others in life. You can't do everything alone. Winning isn't nearly as important as how much heart you put into the game. Life isn't about. Isn't always about how well you do but how hard you try. We all have individual talents but they'd only as good as his word the team. Or the community. In soccer. You have to know when to keep the ball. And when deposit. In life. You got to know when to help. And went to get help. You have a chance to shoot. Don't wait. You might regret it. As in life. What do you have a chance to do something great. Pikachu dance. You might not have the opportunity again. Juggling required balance. Beckham soccer life requires balance. There's no shame in taking breaks they don't make you strong. Sometimes you just have to relax. Practicing hard. Will help you in the game. Working hard in life will help you with your goals. The game is never the same. You have to be flexible with the outcome. Life is never. Macy's unpredictable. You have to be flexible with the way things turn out. Soccer isn't always fair or rational. In life. Things are always going to go your way. It's something you have to live with. The rest don't always know what they're doing. You might not agree with authority but you still have to live by their rules. Celebrate the victories and learn from the losses. When something good happens celebrate. When something bad happens there's no steak. And move on. Soccer is all about winning as a team. We can all do more together. Soccer has taught me a lot of great life lessons. And that's what i'm sharing with you today. In life we all have managers and leaders. One of my mentors and the inspiration for the speech. Is my coach marco. Thank you marco. Let me tell you how the rest of the service is going to go i'm going to. Invite the youth offenders this moment cuz i really do have to apply them. This is my most wonderful part of my job is that i get to do this and after that. We will have the offering and humbly playing for us and and then we'll. Move. Immediately to the extinguishing of the chalice what many of us are sorry not to be able to sing or less. Him but they're just we do have to. Relieve the sunday school teachers so i'd like to invite at first that use who have spoken. This. Service please come up. Stand around me please. Those of you who were in the second service did what was the year of just. You can.

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BUUF-sermon-20080420.mp3

Are you under connected. That's a rhetorical question so you don't have to answer right now. Besides i'm going to give you the answer shortly anyway. Call southwest alaska village for two years. We frequently had. Heavy storm brewing off the bering sea. Can use by a satellite from anchorage. Cuz i watch the weather report not after 9. I gradually realized that the. Climbing the walls so to speak. We're the same thing as the storms swept through the area. They were the same days that i was most things like. Same days as many of the other teachers felt the same way. Satellite photo of three. I cringed. Is there something that makes our brains and bodies. Several people have scoffed at the idea. After all. We are free-thinking individuals able to control our own emotions and behavior. It's something we can do. No that would make us god. In fact. We are the results of millions or billions of years of evolutionary development. We are life's way of dealing with everything that nature has thrown at it. Large and small. Since life first appeared in earth's organic soup long ago. The trouble is. Where is hard to view the big picture. Easy to overestimate our own important. And truth. We're all interconnected with the many parts of this guy of mother home of ours. In more ways than we can ever imagine. Mornings here in idaho. When so many of us are out on the roadway slipping and sliding into each other and into the bar. Cursing the weather in ark. Pretending we have ultimate control. Over our environment and our fight. We might realize that we are perhaps our own misperceptions. Of our place in the order of things. The victims of our own cultural height. One day all the teachers from our village were supposed to fly to anchorage on the price weekly 737. State teachers conference. We all troubled by small plane from our village to the larger village for the jet landed. 18 miles away. There was a strong. So the jet was. We still reside in the small waiting room along with several members of the national guard. Who were on their way to anchorage for training. On the floor. The contrast in whiting. Dwight school teachers moved around a lot. Talk nervously to each other. Looked at the clock on the wall. Occasionally got up and went to the counter to see if there was any new information regarding the jet. Of course there wasn't. It was such a small place. Play we would hear any news of the same time the airline employee.. Do you fix on the other hand. That's directly on the floor legs out in front of them arms crossed. Other. Otherwise. There was a sense that the situation would resolve itself in time. It was useless worrying about her spending energy on it. This was somewhat ingrained in their society through. Thousands of years of living in the environment. Occasionally we white teachers became frustrated with the fatalistic attitude. But i'm sure they were just as often frustrated by our beliefs. Had more true individual freedom. And talked about it with the people i've ever known. And the summer vacations from boise to texas and back. Many stops along the way. We visited an airforce couple with known when we lived in germany. But not lived in san antonio. For he was assigned to one of the local basis. Four-bedroom house in one of the newer san antonio suburb. Which seemed almost like the museum. Having the selections sorosky crystal. Figurines and many other things that she had accumulated in europe. You have so many things that the value or artistry. How many one piece. Was overwhelmed by the clutter of all of them together. She was already suggesting to her husband. i needed a bigger house that has all of her stuff. Her grown daughter who'd already moved out on their own. She now works as a cocktail waitress and had little contact with her parents. We visited another family near san antonio. Another couple waiting on in germany. She worked as a teacher for a nearby school district. And he was a civilian employee at randolph air force base. Youtube. And this one was a big sprawling single-story house. Hollywood attractive land. It needed to central air conditioning units during the summer heat. The couple had one son who still lives at home. I remarked how huge the house was for the three of them. I never thought of it as being all that big. It was. West texas city of lubbock. To confirm land they owned outside the east texas town of palestine. Mother and two brothers that already back there for large cities. My uncle had three children. Today 13 years. They spend a lot of time in each other's homes. Whenever help is needed. We visited several people that summer could either abandon the big city or wish they could. My mother could always. Fort worth where she'd grown up and i lived as an adult. Was the center of the civilized universe. Even she made a remark to us about how big and crowded and become. And how nice it would be to live someplace smaller simpler and quieter. We stopped at two other places that made us wonder all the more what it was we were seeing. What we're experiencing during this unplanned odyssey. When was chaco canyon. Northwestern you mexico. Choco is a hot driver and play switch. Some hundreds of years ago. Was the center of an amazing. The valley is littered with. Well-worn roadways extending the outlying villages. In every direction. Hundreds of miles of roads and all. Chaco culture. We're well developed highly coordinated and perhaps supported many thousands of people at their height. Stone towers for line-of-sight communication along the road. Compact with all the others of the chaco culture instantly. But it all started to go away 900 years ago. In any place with favorable living conditions. And plentiful resources. People move in from outside. From the country or from west favorable areas. The growing culture, job market and security of such a place. Make it even more desirable. Family the more people jump. We're living in such a place today if you haven't noticed. Push prices often become victims of their own success out of the chaco canyon. The population that might have outgrown the carrying capacity of the area. Couple with climate change where we heard that before. As well as over farming for water usage and deforestation is not misterios 150 miles away. All of the pueblos in the canyon were eventually abandoned. People scattered other locations most likely to the pueblos along river valleys which remain active communities today. We watched. This film. An archaeologist. Said that the charcoal people might well have seen what was coming. They might realize have realized what was happening to their culture. But they might not have been able to do anything about it. They might not have been willing to do anything about it. Canyon de chelly arizona. Black choco many ruins of the so-called anasazi people. Who said he building culture flourished then disappeared. Chaco. But there was an interesting sidebar for this visit. Canyon de chelly how to replica navajo hogan set up near the visitor center. A national park ranger. Was giving the talk. Navajo life in the hogan. She had grown up in a place like that. Trials of family life in that one-room house. I asked her how many people had lived in the hogan for she grew up. She had to think about it. Thunderhead. Then she said 12. We had just visited families of two or three. Cells and their stuff. And houses with many rooms each room the size of that one hogan. We're also visited my aunt and uncle and their families living in separate houses were so closely connected. We wondered what had happened. How did we come to live in a society where. His rider geneen roth put it we substituted food for love. For we substituted and frantic busy work for meaningful interaction. How does the volunteer tour guide at the world center for birds of prey for several years. Many times people would ask me something like. Are the birds happy here. When they'd rather be out flying free. What do i feel like all shut up in this tiny space all day. I would give them some broadband through such as they never complain. Or. But i really wanted to say but never did was. Well you take features. Thirty bob. in wild living with the elements finding their own food are they wanted when they wanted. Fighting for territory harmony with nature. Lock them up in a sterile environment. So there's some other threats that didn't exist out in the wild. They might have medical care. Of the perkins on head of. Veterinarian. On-premises. They only have to give up that ability to fly free. How does it feel. It wasn't just birds that we were talking about. We are all interconnected with the earth and all that. Whether we know it or not. Sometimes make a reminder to send a very harsh way is hurricane katrina didn't 2005. Sometimes it reminds us and we realize we're coming down with a cold. The invasion of our body by a virus. Something so small it cannot be seen with the regular microscope. Something so. Whether it is a living organism or not. We're all connected with each other whether we know it or not. We're more like wolves than grizzly bear. We are social animals. We survived for group interaction. In america we treasure our freedom. Yep these are relative quality. Free from what. Independence of what. Other people would rather not have interfering in our lives. We are in search of. Tom dula does hermit store semi hermit. Run gold dredges during the summer laid waste to streambed. Pandora. Depleting the wilderness. In order to make this money decorating trap. Here's my tester for the early crate. At least. Free of the need for other people. Have a good pilot drop you off by the start of summer. With nothing. Smogon no matches. If he returns and finds you there still alive. A free human being. Oh you're free. Interconnectedness is not always time. Cancer is interconnectedness. Interconnecting with nature. As the timothy treadwell. By a bear. Gaia hypothesis. As with most popular ideas. Conservative columnist cal thomas. Protocol. Because the natural. Short letter to the statements website published same. Thomas. No the idea is interconnected. The earth takes care of you you take care of the earth. Your mother doesn't work here clean up after yourself. Studies by university psychology department. What we really want is connections to other people. I used to watch oprah winfrey in the afternoon. No sometimes. Oprah doesn't realize the. Rather obvious contradictions if she puts up 1-0 to another. A trolls picture to manhood problems. She had yourself up. Right there. Of course. Our own ralph waldo emerson said. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. He didn't say. Whether there was a consistency. But i guess we can forget that bit of inconsistency on here part on his part. Expert. Is it out there or is it in here. There's no difference between out there and in here. And perhaps that's why there's so many tough questions we can't answer. There is no answer to the question. Are the answers on the ultimate reality are one in the same regardless of how far apart. From where we are looking at them now. Everything we can detect with our pots after all. Are made of the startup from the big bang. So where does that leave us. Well-connected. It might be up to. We can sit back and let them run their course and see what happens. We can go blindly alarm ignore the obvious. Philosophical. Today. Because our ancestors long ago in africa. Refuse to let themselves. Use their outsides brains to figure out how to survive against all the odds. We do not have to assume that all our efforts. Are merely like rearranging deck chairs on the titanic. We can live with the earth. We can enjoy its pleasures. With each other but we have to understand the difference between harmful and helpful interconnection. One mistake made by 290 is trying to find ways we can continue. My other means for gasoline. We look for that magic pill that will let us metaphorically or literally. Eat all we want from earth bounty without gaining any weight. And it's just not there and i can guarantee you that. Somehow we have to give up the notion that a 4,000 square-foot house full of useless nick-nacks and see humans as a desirable. We have to move away from the machismo that has swept the country resulting in pickup trucks and suvs that are monstrous correct for his of themselves. As well as some of the other type of artificial masculinity. By the way. Look within the last 12 hours danica patrick won the indycar race in japan becoming the first woman ever to win an indycar race. Check the news tonight it'll be on there. We have to print out the important from the flash. I would guess the texas. For the park rangers family had in there again. Is ultimately infinitely more important than what i had in there big empty houses outside san antonio. Masonic retirement. But not where she has food shelter recreation and people who care for her. And members of her family who drop infrequently. Interconnectedness can often be a big pain and i can take a lot of work. Brothers with the earth. Or with all the outcasts and misfits and promotions you have to deal with. But there must be something good about it. I mean. Take a look around this room. I know that you. Are perfectly pleasant well-adjusted person yourself. But to be here this morning with all the rest of us. Instead of sleeping or playing golf or frolicking with bears in the wilderness. Well there must be something important about connections. Ultimately we just have to keep telling each other and the words of red green. I'm pulling for you remember we're all in this together.

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BUUF-sermon-20091224.mp3

Turmeric. A teenager. Hail. And the bible. She was greatly troubled. And considered in her mind. News. Angels words. Will reign over the house of jacob forever. Marriott. Angel tells her that. The holy spirit. Coming out. And flexible. And consultation with an older woman. Cx. And wonderful call. Responding in the beautiful. My soul magnifies the lord. Rejoices in god. Her husband. And the results. Joseph prince. For he is also. Inflexible. It's not an easy road. Plans for the government. Joseph. Frederick mary. They are other folks and find no room in any hotel. The baby is born. Is this this for not trying to point your husband. Now have extreme. Wonder house. Garrison keillor wonders. About the. The thing that i like best about this story. Is it matter of fact. Completely ordinary. With wonders. Mary and joseph are for. Shining star. And hope was burst. Mike young women. Just as they're all human life. If we keep.. Players. We can truly appreciate. The christmas story. Christianity has a fairly mixed. Its highest value. Compassion just. Those are big. In an always struggling world. Hierarchy. Here's where mary. Comfort. Throughout all of the christian era. She is a woman. God on earth. She is at least as ordinary as you and i are. Would be amazing lot. And rear. She wasn't. Person of power. She was a pleasant girl. Who live close to the earth. She was living. Close coronavirus. What. Like most. Mary worship. Mary worship can look. Is returned to the story. Stealing our heart the wharf and the comforter. The host and joy intense. In the original christmas story. We can return. To marry the girls. Holy. Ordinary little mother. Dealing with tidings of great joy. Denise tower loans. We can remember. Who's smiles. We can rise above our sophistication. And sweet smelling hay. Miracle. We can reflect on mary's. Can feel the womanliness of god. It's so many of us have been. We can think about the ordinariness. Precious child. And be reminded. I'm off. When we find ourselves in times of trouble. We can mother mary come to us. We can know that our laws. Is to be long. Human and holy. Amber atkins.

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BUUF-sermon-20091220.mp3

Every morning in 2000. A couple of years after my younger sister kate had died. Reluctant and swing my feet over onto the floor. My husband bob. When just getting out of bed doesn't seem like an impossible task. 1998 oxygen one of the darkest periods of my life. The two of us had many of the answers. In a profound way. She was born about the time i learned that i was pretty much responsible for the safety of everyone in the universe. Grandiose but perceived as real truth. She was fragile in her childhood. She helps me with my two babies when i was a single teenage mother. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in august 1997. Circle of darkness in my years is by no means unique. Dark times come in so many many forms. Relationships go to hell in a handbasket. Children ring our hearts with their troubles and their choices. Finances scaris. Groups of people or institutions weed dependency. And we are left aghast. Injury and age surprises. We speak to the homeless mother who says. I haven't given up yet. And pierced with grief. Human inventions. What a young person we know is killed or maimed addiction. Examine our life and we wonder what it has meant what it can mean mental illness. What is air. To so many times. Brokenness. What is our first. Inclination. When faced with a darkness. Darkness of our life. I'll tell you some of my favorites. Denial. And i still. Getting busy. It's a good one for me. Hanging out there is also excellent. Eating and staying too long in bed are amongst my hive. Choices. Occasionally i will overspend on things not needed. And there is always be my self. Conducting my relationship. Turning my energy or unconsciously distractify. If you recognize. You join me and millions of others especially americans perhaps. Pizza darkness. Lost and confusion. You join me and millions of others in choosing the least spiritual path. Possible. Darkness is a subject. Of spiritual teachers. Over and over. Never tell us. To do stuff. They never tell us. Or shop. For lash out. In fact. Just. And pay attention. The hard part. In the years of most intensely. I was depressed. Escape. I said to my soul. Be still. And let the darkness. The darkness. God. Embracing our dark is no easy task. If you'd like to read a book. With an overarching spiritual vision that includes. On the north wall in the north festival. The first is the goodness of creation over against original centers. The second is the via negativa. Declaring without reservation. Unless. To descend into. Darkness. And nothing. The third and fourth parts are about creativity. Neither of which. Without understanding both original blessings. And the depth. Via negativa. Maybe the hardest. For many of us. I invite you. In the safety of this worship service. To sink into quiet reflection. About embracing the dark. I do not invite you to go any place that feels unsafe. Inappropriate. Or too hard for this place. Or time. For now. Let us together just allow ourselves to be aware. And that it is okay to settle into it at the edges. If we feel inclined. And april. The book of jobe in the hebrew scriptures is one of western literature's most telling of human pain. The poor man. Away days of grief. At nighttime sickness never sleep. It has thrown me in the mud where i am no better than dust and ashes. No answer i stand before you but you take notice. The song. Including all the brings us to darkness. In psalm 6 the psalmist says i am worn out with groening. Every night i drenched my pillow and soak my bed with tears. My eye is wasted with grief. I have grown old. With enemies. Around me. Lest we spend our entire worship service in the circles of human and divine. Let's listen to some other teachers relationship. Adrienne rich write the poem. Marie hilley. The physicists and chemists who discovered radium and who died of. Side effects of radioactivity. She died a famous. Denying her wounds. Denying her wounds came. From the same source. Azhar power. We can know the dark. Into a new image. Griffin. If we allow what she is in the dark. What we are. This coming clear. And poet rainer maria rilke evokes the potential joy and depth of anyone i know. You. Darkness that i come from i love you more in the world. For the fire makes a circle. A circle of life for everyone. But the darkness. Shapes. Energy is moving near me. I have faith. In night. We may have faith in our. And others. Nice. A sunday morning exhorting us fall to darkness runs a distinct risk. Making us worse than we stayed home and read the sunday comics. Remind. Humanities dark miserably uncomfortable. But today service is called. Circles of darkness and light. The most important part. Real return. And we will be. Transform. If we are spending our energy resolutely trying to stay in the light. Pushing away. Genuine joy and light are hard-pressed to return. I've always been grateful. I will be so glad. Just getting out of bed doesn't seem like an impossible task. It was unconscious. But i said. Not if. Important parts. A being with our darkness. Spiritual practice. For my prayer and meditation. But the foundation. Alcoholism. Spiritual miracles occur without my participation. Anyone. Anytime. At the same time. I strongly recommend a spiritual. At all times of our lives. As it brings us. The springs the circles of light and darkness. Into perspective. People who love me. A lot of the time. Can always. As we be still and wait. There is. More important. How about love and light and darkness. I'll be your harvester of light and send it out tonight so we can start again. This is my winter storm is coming. My love. Beacon in the night. Will be your life to carry you to me. In addition. Two-face. And spiritual practice. As attitude. In the midst of life. In fact. Dwells always with us. Just as dark.. Different ways during the year. Who say amazing things and keep on growing. There are friends. Claire ourselves genuine. There's music. There are foxes and raccoons. Warm hearth and kitchen smells inviting us home. The little things of life. Cure. Our dark times. But they left us. Even as we are down. Transformation. Transformed. As the word imply. Like immediate resurrection from the dead or something. Will. Deeper. After about another whole year of living in greece. Began to return. Gradually the confusion and disorientation. And i know a lot more about darkness. Which hopefully. Has enlarged my soul. And made me a bit more compassionate. Are you sad. Be sad. Even as you know you will not always be so. Are you mourning. Mourn. And spend time on your knees. Giving over to whatever it is it cause you to reference. Are you broken. Or confused. Be broken. Be confused and let us. Love you. United. Accosted by darkness. Be still and wait. For the darkness shall be the darkness of god. Are you living today in the light. Rejoice. Rejoice. Is turning circle. On her path around the sun. And no one. Can hold back. The dawn. Met-ed. Bestow.

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BUUF-sermon-20090215.mp3

Good morning. Him's. Do the service carry dust. I went well. That's such a perfect perfect him for the 4 this morning it is the words are just so beautiful. I'd like to thank all of you for having john and become your congregation this weekend it's been a real treat for us. Getting to know. Fellow spirits here out in all the way on the other side of the country. Has been just wonderful and i have to tell you that when we first told our friends in provincetown going for valentine's day. And then i asked as we got to to know more about. Such a nice discovery for us and you have do you have a wonderful thing here and it's. It's just wonderful to be part of it. We're both really thrilled. I was born and raised. In a normal middle-class southern baptist family in tennessee. Now to be normal in memphis my hometown. Mint. Going to church sunday morning sunday night. And of course wednesday night prayer meeting. Earliest memories. Our sunday school on sunday mornings. Sunday worship services. We're at least one easter. I remember the rest of the congregation was singing up from the grave he arose. And i was belting out here comes peter cottontail. Of course that was about 4 when that happened so i don't really remember it so well myself but my mother has reminded me of it constantly over the years. Have i started elementary school. Then grew into adolescence. The children's and the youth groups at the church where my social sphere. Close relationships. With the most well-liked boys in my royal ambassadors class that met on wednesday nights. Now for those of you that are not familiar with a southern baptist religion. Royal ambassadors at least at that time was kind of the southern baptist equivalent of boy scouts. And that we had also the girls auxiliary that was like the girl scouts and. We had. Our own is equivalent of everything in life pretty much through a baptist lens. While i attained a degree of popularity because of my amazing sense of humor i told great jokes and i could make almost anyone laugh. There was no denying that i just wasn't quite like. The other boys my age. That were friends of mine. This became more and more apparent when my friends excitedly signed up for little league baseball. And. I absolutely had no interest in it whatsoever my dad tried and tried to encourage me to play baseball that i just flatly refused. I want no part of it. At that tender age i began to learn what it meant to be different. And to not fit in. I spoke and acted differently. Then the other boys my age. And it was obvious they didn't really understand. I've never forgotten. The sting of my older sister's words. Who i believe was about fifteen or sixteen at the time. During a family conversation one evening. She tearfully complained to my parents. Is that none of the boys she was interested in dating. Whatever come over to our house to see her. Because i was there. I was a sissy. Not like the other boys. And none of her friends could stand to be around me she said. Looking back at it i think what hurt the most. At that time was from my recollection neither of my parents had anything to say in my defense. And so. It began. With no one to encourage me to feel good. About me. I grew to hate who i was inside. To believe that the part of me that was different from others with evil. I long to be just like everybody else. I mean it was obvious if i was ever going to make any friends at all and survive even the 8th grade let alone beyond that. I have to be better at fitting in. At that young age. Everyone wants to be just like their peers that's what it's all about. Is being part of a group. So what did i do. I became very self-conscious about my every mannerism. And speech pattern. And i tried to make a new james. I desperately wanted to change my own nature. I did find solace in the church youth group were pretty nerdy themselves. But not quite on a par with me as far as i was concerned. Is sharing my religious experience with other kids my age did give us a common bond we wouldn't have had otherwise and i took. Unfortunately those are god that we were being taught about and worshipping. Was a god that was full of love for us. Only as long as we measured up to the standards of our church leaders held for us. I was never told that god loved me. Just as the person i was. Please don't misunderstand me i'm not criticizing any religious denomination this morning but what i'm sharing is simply my own experience. As i grew into a teenager. And of course with expected today because that was what teenagers did. I had several unenthusiastic attempts at relationships with girls. Most of these ended in the same way as the girl would become increasingly frustrated when i reminded her over and over that jesus wouldn't want us to go too far. That i would develop crushes on. Being in total denial about my sexuality i wasn't sure why it felt so good to be around certain the boys my age. But i convinced myself that had something to do with being brothers in christ. After high school i chose the southern baptist college that i went to in large part because my best friend who i was totally infatuated with was going there. Going away to college was a good step for me though. It actually afforded me an opportunity to explore how i really felt about life. And it was there that i first began to question the beliefs that i have been raised with. Thank god. For raising hormones. The kickin around you know teenage years in a little after. And i couldn't stand it any longer i burst out of the closet. And began the wonderful amazing journey of discovering who james really is. After coming out i moved from the south. To new york. Has my quest continued. While now will probably gay man i still wasn't ready to trust and follow the light that was inside me. In fact. I didn't have any sort of spiritual practice for the 13 years that i spent in new york. The painful tender wounds. From my past. Took a long time to heal. Then when i was ready. I guess i felt the call to provincetown. Not long after moving there. I was drawn to the union meeting house. Where my spirit began to get nourishment again. Only this time i learned to look within myself. Define god. It hasn't been easy though. All that religious dogma that had intra indoctrinated my brain from childhood. Played a big part in shaping my mind and my being. I was taught while growing up about the hell that awaited me if i didn't obey the rules. And the wrath of god that i would have to deal with if i didn't totaline. Is still here somewhere inside. Thankfully i learned how to deal with it. Has its power over me has grown finger over time. And therapy has helped an awful lot to. But it will be one of those voices that i will have to choose not to listen to for the rest of my life. How much things have been different. If i hadn't felt the need to deny my own uniqueness and imitate the other normal kids around me as i grew up. If i hadn't been taught that god hated the way i was inside. That being gay was an abomination. What if instead i have been told that the person i was awkward effeminate ways and all was okay. More than okay but everything about me. Was a wondrous unique. Creation and meant to be celebrated. What is my individuality and creativity as a child. Have been celebrated and encouraged. Instead of stifled. One of my favorite movies is billy elliot. It's a story of an eleven-year-old boy from a working-class. Family in england. Who just isn't quite like the other kid i don't know why it resonated with me so much but for some reason being held at billy's family's home. His family is new to the neighborhood. Been trying desperately to fit in and to impress their new neighbors. While billy's parents are entertaining downstairs mixing cocktails and serving hors d'oeuvres to their new neighbors co-workers and boss. We see billy busy upstairs in his parents bedroom. Putting on his mother's jewelry. Are bright red lipstick. Been clumsily stepping into her high heels. Once you've gotten the whole outfit just right and he's happy with it he opens a bedroom door and begins his triumphant descent. You can't imagine the rest. As the film continues billy the son of a coal miner is on his way to boxing lessons. Imagine whose idea that was the winning stumbles upon a ballet class. He secretly joined the class knowing that his blue-collar family will never understand. Under the guidance of his teacher. His raw talent really takes flight. But when his father discovers his son at bishops his son's ambition billy must fight to hold onto those dreams. For me the beauty of this film is this one young boy is able to reach beyond his place in the world and follow his heart true desire. And it being true to who he really is. He becomes a wonderful success. And even his parents support his choices in the end. Of course billy elliot is a hollywood story and not real life. Put on my path i've learned that if we really look within ourselves. And find the beauty that is there. Nurture those qualities that we find. And follow that truth. We will become the unique spiritual holy creatures that we were meant to be. It's all there inside of us already. God is not only all around us. God is in us. God is us. I'll never know how my life would have been different. Had the real me been nurtured and encouraged to grow from the start. But i can certainly see the fruits of having been in tune with the live inside. These last few years. I rediscovered my voice. I met the love of my life in provincetown at the uu church. And together we've been given the gift of performing together. Sharing a message that the world so desperately needs to hear. I couldn't ask for more. What is it that keeps all of us from enjoying the freedom of being our best selves. For me. It was the shame and narrow-mindedness of my family my friends and my world at that time. For some it's the need to be a success at our job. The need for acceptance by friends. For others it's a partner's affection that we were afraid of losing that keeps us from listening to our inner voice. And being what it asks us to be. But whatever the obvious reason we have for choosing to try to fit in our selves. I believe the root cause is always the same. Fear. For me fear of the vengeful fire-and-brimstone hurling god. Was drilled into my psyche from childhood. Underlying my fear of being different than my peers was the fear that god would banish me to hell if i listen to my inner voice. And allowed myself to be who i was. For you it might be fear of losing your friends. For your comfortable life. Billy elliot's father in my parents to. Fear their sons unusual habits. Just because i didn't understand them. It is human nature to be afraid of what we can't explain or understand. And if fear is left unchecked. We grow to hate what we fear. But we can move beyond being ruled by our fear. If we acknowledge the holiness that is within everyone of us. Even those of us who don't especially like. Or we can't understand. Just like the beauty we see in nature all around us. And leaves rocks in the sea. Each one of us. Is a unique magnificent being. We each have our own special place in creation that is ours alone. And no one else can be us. Trust. What is inside. I'd like to close. With words by an eighteenth-century hasidic master rabbi. Zusha. He was on his deathbed with his disciples gathered about him. He said when i get to the world to come. They will not ask me. Why were you not moses. Rather they will ask me. Why were you not zusha.

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BUUF-sermon-20100117.mp3

We are here today to celebrate. Who is own words with maladjusted. Define maladjusted. Maladjusted. To be maladjusted. But it's. Extremism. What's an extremist. Martin luther king jr.. A distinguished negro. A freshman at the age of 15. I made a first. Violent resistance. The teachings of hurricane road. Never before. Whether expressed in the sit-in at lunch counters. A freedom ride into mississippi. A peaceful protest in albany georgia. A bus boycott in montgomery alabama. These are out gross that evil must be resisted. Can patiently adjust. To anja. Is the source of pride for us unitarian universalist. Martin luther king. Afraid to take personal risk for his stand. This weekend when we set aside time to celebrate king's legacy. We might also reflect on our own. The example set by. Giroux and what it means to us today. Are we living true to our conscience. To take a stand against injustice. Are wrong. Personal gain. For the sake. Principal. Seminary. In pennsylvania. Was class valedictorian. During this time. Smoking. Reinhold niebuhr. Liberal theologians. Intellectual development. Mahatma gandhi. Coretta scott. 1954 dexter avenue baptist church. A city. This was not the case. I'm organizing proceeded parks decision to stay put in her seat when the bus driver told her to move to the back of the bus. Rosa parks yourself was an activist and organizer and secretary for the end. She was not just. Would have it. She was part of a movement. She was already. She was ready. King and his family home as first one. For a couple of white passenger. I jumped in my car and for almost an hour. 60%. During these days of boycott. Personal abuse leader. And spokesman. This was kings triumph. The do-over. They started a movement national recognition. Echoes with ringing in the ears of people of every nation a movement that would astound the oppressor and bring new hope to the oppressed. Protest. 382 day boycott. And the us supreme court declared such. Segregation. Unconstitutional. Martin luther king's book stride toward freedom. Montgomery bus boycott. The action was pending king road. I was forced for the first time to think seriously on the nature of the boycott. Is a boycott. Problem. Would a moral means justify moral ends. The bus company. With evil. I remember towel as a college student. I became convinced that what we were preparing to do in montgomery was related to express. We were simply saying to the white community. Something began to say to me. Except. Is really cooperating with it. And true to god. Alternative. Action. From this moment on i can see. A massive operation. I rarely use the word boycott. Martin luther king. Everybody passionately seeks to adjusted. I confess that i never intended. Arianism. The price of work and food and two insanities of militarism and the self-defeating effects of physical violence. The doctor teen went on to say. Maladjusted. We must make a choice. Will we continue to march to the drumbeat of conformity and respectability. March. Risking criticism and abuse. Soul saving music of eternity. If you come out now let me say to you that i never did. And i never did intend to adjust myself to religious bigotry i never did intend. That will take you. I never did trust myself to the madness of militarism. Effects of physical violence. Goodwill. Because it may well be that the salvation of our world. Lies in the hands of the maladjusted. Dr. king continues. Asthma. Extreme. Nation. Generation and cry out. Pray for them to despitefully use you. I believe. Freedom and justice. Questions. Unitarian universalist. Would not dr. king encouraged us to get maladjusted about. Anti-racism that continues to divide our nation. And destroy the moral fabric of the nation. Economic system that allows a few to gain inordinate wells at the expense of a growing number of the impoverished. Guaranteed. Housing. Education and healthcare. A democratic process that still robs black people of their boats. Is widely recognized as being. It certainly was. Uu minister rosemary bramec math-related interview she had this coretta scott king in which she said. I went to unitarian churches for years. Unitarian churches in boston. River mcnatt goes on to write. What surprises me most. Was what she said next. Paraphrasing. The gist of it was this. Unitarian. Color in our religious community. Call ask why.. The answers are complex. Liberalism. Could justify man's defensive ways of thinking. Purifying power of faith. From distortions and rationalization. Martin luther king however did not entirely sever his ties with unitarianism. Address the general assembly. In hollywood florida. Most. Based on hope and hate. The difference in the revolution that is taking place in our country is that it has maintained. And at the same time. It has. Oppressors in an affection cent. Creative redemptive. Goodwill for all. I'm overflowing love and return. I believe it is possible and in our best moments in this struggle. We have tried. To adhere to it. We have been able to stand up in the face of our most violence. Substance. In good conscience obey your unjust laws because such non-cooperation with evil. Is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Threaten our children. Assure. We will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And one day we will do your heart. Will be a double victory. This is our message violet. The only way to ultimately change humane society. Is to keep love at the center of our lives. He wasn't talking about romantic love. He was talking about understanding creative. To use his word. Unitarian universalist. Deserving of our respect and understanding. I have a dream. Millions on 6th. March to washington in 1963. With his face. Carnation into a beautiful. Symphony of brotherhood. With this face. Four freedoms. One day. Is that the talk about and deal with it is diminished our spirituality. This was at the heart of martin luther king jr.. Concerned about the social. Is the spiritual religion only waiting for the day. In the letter from birmingham city jail. Gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Jesus. And martin luther king and abraham lincoln and thomas jefferson. So the question. Is not whether we will be extremists. But what kind of extremists will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or will will we be extremists for love. Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice. For the cause. Popjustice. Important question. If the church's moral leadership. Strength comes from facebook. As king would say. It is meant to make the world a better place. Actions. We need to talk about arkansas. Threats to those who are. The outcasts. And the powerless. What is. We need each other to health challenger attitudes and actions. Add to support us in this difficult struggle. We need to talk about ideas and dreams. Inspiration. Justice and hope. He taught us how.

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BUUF-sermon-20080713.mp3

Thank you all my friends new and old. For coming. The other day was at the buffet line and i came back. And my son robert. Many of you know. We're good and bad. Pronounced mom. You are god. My first thought of course was finally he realized just how easy he convinced me to bring him out to dinner. Then i thought. Wow you must really love those hard boiled eggs i found in just put on his plate cuz. But as i was thinking how to respond to this statement. My little seven-year-old philosopher went on. If god is a part of us. Then you must be god. I must be god. We continued our theological discussion for several more minutes. And then we went back to the usual playing with food and talking about bodily functions and you know the normal seven-year-old stuff. But i was left with a poignant reminder. That there were two tenants in my life that i'd stayed with me through my protestant childhood. Twenty-some years ago. That is. That. God created humanity. In his own image. If you will in her own image. I look around this room. And i see the variety. And the differences. And yet in each one of us. There is an internet. But humanness. That is god. The second one of course was the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. There's value in that too. Here was my son. The joy and the pain of my life. Reminding me that inside of me. Inside of everyone of us. Is something sacred. Something godly. Over the course of the following days i found myself often reminiscing. Of the time when i came back here. When i truly arrived. A newly single mother. With a tempestuous little he devil. Who wouldn't sit still in the opening service norwood stay in in the nursery or in re. Without my constant attention. Okay so that part hasn't changed too much. But part of me knew that there was something good in there. And part of me knew. That finding it might resemble the same from the exorcist. And it was always a debate whether or not it was my head spinning or his. I took you you parenting. And introduce myself to the concept of the spirited child. And i recognized his spirit. And i recognize the spirit. All the blond hair. Blue eyes. Little girl. Who became as mother. Counseling. I learned about. Parenting with love and logic. And i even learned how to deal with difficult people. They're out there. All with the single hope that i would be able to connect with this wild child that i have been blessed with. All of these things brought me closer in the journey. But nothing. Connected me so deeply. With him. And eventually with other people. As when i came back to those two basic tenets. Honoring the part in each of us. And everyone of us has that. Indefinable spirit. That metaphysical ausmus. That makes this mass of cells. Into a human being. It is the unit you principal. To affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity in every person that i clung to. So quickly when i came here. I needed to see god and humanity. And i needed to treat her with the same respect and dignity that i wanted. My journey started with relearning to honor and love myself that blond-haired little girl. Once blog. As i learned. To honor the spirit of my son i also learned about my own. Which what caused me to be nervous and insecure like standing up and talking to a bunch of friends. What were the boundaries that i would let no one cross. Even if he did cry and pitch a fit. I had to learn to love myself as i was. The body. The mind and the spirit of sarah. As she stands in front of you today. As she learns and grows tomorrow. As robert would say. The human and goddess blended together. Now. Along the way i learned a little trick. To help remind me of that basic tenant to love the little girl inside of me. I found it particularly helpful in handling a meltdown either by an adult or child. I'm going to explain it first i'm going to demonstrate it and then i'd like you to try it. First you start by placing your right hand. That would be this one. About an inch or two. Below the shoulder. Take a left hand. Same thing. I want you to squeeze gently and take a deep breath and think about one thing you like about yourself. I love seeing the smiles and everyone space. Those of you who haven't had tried it yet. On airplanes we are reminded to put on our own oxygen mask first before helping others. Once we acknowledge that the spirit within us. Can reach out to others with that we can do the same and reaching out to others with that same love and acceptance. The anatomy of peace calls at keeping a heart at peace. Within are within our heart at peace we are able to see others as people instead of objects. And we are more opening. We are more open to honoring the spirit that is within them. A meeting without power max dupree reminds us that we want to make our relationships the quality of our relationships consistent with what we believe about persons. For me. It's just another way to say the golden rule. Get over the years my son has taught me that it is an enough to treat him how i want to be treated. I also need to treat him. Like he wants to be treated. The seven-year-old philosophers version. Mom if you're hungry in this situation don't assume that i want a tuna sandwich. It's true. First he may not be hungry. And second. He may not like tuna. So i'm going to ask. Are you hungry. I would be. Would you prefer tuna egg salad or peanut butter jelly sandwich. Max to precautions. It's okay to put your arm around the shoulder of a person. Only. If you're not going to take something away. Cabot roberts note sweet people are important to us. And we should develop the habit of feeling that they are important to us. I've learned to remember that my three my son thrives around being about. My turn to start all over again i've learned to remember that my son thrives on being around people. I don't. I prefer to tend to focus on the task at hand. So. What's a few extra minutes to let him play with his friends. If it lets us get to the grocery store all right. And not have a meltdown. The best day ever. Was the day that i traded one fun thing together. 41 task completed. We played monopoly after i mowed the lawn. We played in the playground after we walk the dogs. It was a glorious day. And we loved each other more. Both of us ended with our loving cups full. I'm content. That we had done all that we could do. Over the course of these short eight years. I've learned how to respect the spirit of my son. And others. In such a way that it continues to honor. The spirit of my own nature. I'm still learning. It's a journey that we're enjoying together. And i'm sharing it with all of you. Thank you.

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BUUF-sermon-20080706.mp3

Good morning everyone. We were. Texas a couple of minutes to prepare you for the. Oh i'm sorry you want to take just a few minutes to produce you to a project that. Is linked to what program is this morning. My partner and i patricia he. How have been involved in a very interesting. A project as a way of trying to strengthen the bridge between the past and the. Present and the future. I love this religious community. We're in the process of documentary. And featuring the. Oral histories of. Members of this congregation who were here from the beginning. And had have made the transition to this. New location. Their goal is to try to trace the roots. And the development of this religious community. Ana patricia is the interviewer. I just take the pictures so i'm going to have her talk a little bit about some of the interviews that we've done and then i'll. Do not profess that. So far we've done 11 interviews and we have more to do. But what i want to say about them really is from a personal standpoint more than from what we're doing as a project. I'm new to this company and i've been very slow in deciding to get really involved i've come i've stayed home in bed i've come and. I am kind of a quiet liberal and it just always annoyed me that the you use were so righteous about their liberalism. But i have to tell you that in doing these interviews and talking to the people who are. The history of this congregation on whose shoulders we are all standing at this moment it's inspired me and has been a very rich personal experience. In getting to know a little bit about some very remarkable people. Very deep thoughtful authentic. Human beings who see purpose and inspire purpose. And so the project. That i did as a favor to sherry because she's been my friend for 40 years is actually turned out to be a really personal. And. Enriching. Project for me and i look forward to all of you getting to share the outcomes of what we've been doing. We have a title for this production. Not being an academic always have to have a colon and let you know so. Car title at present is honoring our beginning. Stories of leadership in ministry at booth. We're hoping to have a kind of a gala premiere opening. Viewing of this production sometime this fall. I don't know if it is how many view been involved in trying to edit footage footage but we figured we have 11 interviews that's about 11 hours so far. Got to be reduced down to one hour that lie at the most. And so. You know what cats can't have. The full story of everyone but we're hoping to weave together the ended the individual stories and make it into an interesting. Program for you all to learn from what we're hoping is that this could maybe be used in a variety of ways you could we could do. Uses for the adult and youth education. Projects and programs. We're looking for it as a way that maybe could be used with newcomers. I know some of us have not had any experience with the pierce park. Experience in seoul. We felt like this might be a good way to try to bridge. And strengthen. Our community here by having. Some history. In a unique kind of form provided for people who come. For those of you who are here and don't have that. Other experience either so. That's what our goals are is to try to. Prepare something that will. Bring all of us together and so that we would be one right thank you. Baton cheryl came to our home. Bat made a horrible mistake. She asked me to tell the story of how judy and i met. I got married. And sometime after that she had the changed. The film. We had run out so i'm anxious to see. The cutting. Well i'm tempted to say that. Topic of legacy. The love and friendship that you'll see on this. Podium. Here's a good example of that. That's why i brought in the circle of friends. This is our chalice that home. But i digress. Boise unitarian universalist fellowship is not. Hey. Not-for-profit. Organization design for some sort of humanitarian. Project. Although. Humanitarianism is certainly an aspect of our culture. Denver certainly not a for-profit. Organization design for monetary gain. I'm not dissing either of those sorts of organizations actually i contribute to. Fu nan. Not-for-profit groups. As matter of fact i contributed to a for-profit organization as well. Which by the way has plummeted from $24 a share to $4.50 a share so much for that contribution. There definitely is a place for making contributions with hopes of doing some sort of good. And then there is the boise unitarian universalist fellowship. I've heard the word contribute. During our money-raising efforts i've heard the word give. The word support. Even the word donate. During our money-raising efforts. However i don't think those words are appropriate. From my standpoint. Do judy and i contribute or give or support or donate to our home. It's a silly question. And even thought of that until i. Wanted to bring it up here. We don't need to be cause. We just are home. We didn't contribute or support or give to the mortgage company. We don't contribute or give or donate. To the utility companies. Reason to the daily newspaper. What is if we do then. We. Invest. We invested in our home because our home is the center of our. Family. Including. Our eight children. What better investment could we have. For ourselves and. Our family. So what i submit to you now is that the boise unitarian universalist fellowship. Is my. Our. Spiritual home. That is our legacy. Here. It's our spiritual home. And the investment that judy and i have made. Hisense 1971. And judy. Shortly after that. Has returned. Many fold. And strangely the investment has grown exponentially. So that many of you are here as a result. Can you believe that nancy harms and gwen read. Where youngsters back then. And look. What has happened with them and what they have brought. The spot worship. You who are hearing now. Are living proof. Have the great return we have experience for our investments. One of the biggest investments i made and the result of it is that judy and i met. In this fellowship. We had a wonderful. Wedding. Alan schwartzman. Did the honors. We met down in a. Findlay municipal park. And the fellowship came. And formed a circle. Of our friends. And that his continued. I will continue to invest. In the boise unitarian universalist fellowship. Hi time. Money. Flavor. Music. And as much involvement ism. Hedy year old character has to offer. Small as it is. This. Is our spiritual home. It's the legacy. How's the boise unitarian universalist fellowship. For judy and me. Judy is not here. As you noticed. She left last tuesday morning to get home to flagstaff to be with our daughter jenny who is very very pregnant with twins. And there was some question as to her health at that time a week ago. Sleep apnea and the possible heart condition was developing. And so judy went down posthaste. All of those difficulties except the pregnancy. Has been resolved i'm happy to report. She does still have the sleep apnea but they have provided her with one of those gadgets that allows her to sleep at night. So that she gets the rest she needs and her body is. Taking care of everything pretty much all by itself. So we'll keep you posted on that what duty wanted to talk about. Was the dia. Do work friendships comes to mind but it's it's much more than that. She tells the stories at. Before she ever met me. She on her former husband came to the fellowship one time. Well. They did meet me. I was the host that day and i remembered. Ushering them. To a place in the back that's where they wanted. And that was the last i saw of them i didn't know who they were or didn't know their names or anything like that. And it was perhaps. The year-and-a-half maybe two years later. When she showed up. It was in a play. I was playing. Oh what was that character's name. Picnic. And pickwick was being sued. 4. Promising that he would marry. The woman that work for him. And helen schwartzman was the judge who says that he would have sent me to jail. Because all these women came and gave testimony against me. Including one person that i've never seen she. Caught up in the back of the. The grouping. Came up should never been to practice. And she didn't have any line she came up and panther mind what the narrator. Red. About the what a horrible scoundrel i was. And it was just one of those thoughts who is that woman. Remember. Then about two weeks later the fellowship had a christmas party is between christmas and new year's and i have my drum set there and we had a little. Jazz group. And. Jody was there and we met. And i told her i'm glad you're here i've wanted to meet you and so we spent the evening me playing drums and then going to talk him playing drums going talkin turned out. Those of you who wonder about an almighty something-or-other that i had to take the midnight train that night down to denver. For various reasons. And the ride that i had expected to take me to the train. Couldn't be there. Until i asked judy could you possibly take me to the midnight train. Osher. So she did. And whoever whatever it was. Made the train 2 hours late. Which gave us an opportunity to get off by ourselves for just an hour or so and then get acquainted. And we were sitting in at the quinns if any of you know that place and all of a sudden i realized we were. Turn facing each other. Holding hands. Talking. And then. She put me on the train. 7 months later. Happened pretty fast. Judy wanted to point out that. Before she knew me. She had two children. Going to school. And. Her daughter jenny came home one time and said mom there's a woman there who dresses like you do and those long dresses and wears boots. And so judy wanted the school sure enough there was mary schwartzman. And mary was helping with the kindergarten teacher and judy helped kindergarten teacher who happened to be a unitarian by the way through this. This deceased now. And that's how they got acquainted with their token. And this is just continued and continued and continued and this is what judy wanted to say to you that the investments that. She made with mary and with. Everybody else at the fellowship at that time. That in order for these things to continue you just keep coming and coming and coming and you don't stop you. You hooray with the high times and you cry with a low times that you just keep coming and coming. And that will be your legacy. Thank you coston. I'm not going to take up a lot of time because we're sharing the minutes this morning. But i just like to stay pocatello fellowship with where we discovered unitarianism. Alan and i were considering getting married and he was jewish and i with christian and. We were looking for something that we could do together where we didn't have to change we could be ourselves. And we went to the pocatello fellowship and discovered unitarianism. And have been here ever since 41 years. The other thing i just have to tell you is. How rich the people. In character the people were who started this fellowship. They were a radical bunch. They were really octopus a lots of times reactionaries. They had had to get so angry. At their old religion in order to leave it. That there was a lot of. That anger. In in the fellowship. And they were somewhat bigoted liberals at the time and gradually. Through maturity and finding a group where you're accepted. And finding that support so that you can go out and do your causes. That anger diminishes. And you can save the things from your past that were meaningful. And try new things. That. That are meaningful to you also. So i just have to tell you i think. As we grew. There was a time where the. We had to decide are we willing to grow. Or are we wanting to stay close and intimate. And that was a big major part. Those that decided we had to get a bigger place so we could grow. And we lost a members. Over that there were those who. Wanted that close intimacy and they started a group called the church of the larger fellowship. And they continue to meet. So that they can have that small. Group discussion and. Be be together. But i noticed when they die. They come back to us. And they have their memorial services here. And they feel part they still feel connected. And the other thing i have to say is you can feel so good about this place that you've made for people to come. I was so proud. On friday there was a young couple who wanted to be married here. They were buddhists and they've been practicing buddhist in a tiny little community. In idaho and they're ready to be married and they're looking for a place. That would be. Caring about their tradition. So they came and looked at our building. And it was like they said this is home. We can take that banner down we can put up a tapestry a buddhist tapestry and this is our home. And i was just so proud to be able to tell them we have two groups to buddha's groups meeting. We have some special relationship with the buddhist community here and. It just meant so much for them. So i just wanted to pass that on to you because of the work this group is done we have a place. That people can come to. A wise man once told me there are three things in life which are real. God. The folly of mankind. And laughter. I have no control over the first two. So i'll lead you in number three. There's 1967 mary and i've just been married. May from a jewish background mary from a nice american baptist. Farm bureau christian community. We are in boise. Searching for a spiritual home and what mary failed to tell you was that our first visit. Was at the cathedral of the rockies. Or she slept me. To try and locate a church. And the first thing they did to this nice jewish boy who comes through the doors. Put a nametag on with a big cross. And i leaned over to mary and i said my god my grandfather is turning over in his grave mary what have you done to make. Get me some garlic hot. And to end that they're very flamboyant minister named herbie richardson. Ends with a gigantic organ prelude and a light shining from above. As if he is being beatified by the pope himself. I said mary. Get me out of here. And our second stop we landed at the little boise unitarian fellowship which is what where the old ywca is now the ymca. On 8th street. And i walk in. And. The opening music is from beethoven's 9th symphony. The corral moving i said mary i'm home. And it's been our spiritual home ever since. There is no other place. I would rather be. Now let me get to the actual topic which is what we were supposed to talk on the shoulders of others. There is a little song that we sing during our seder service it's a number song on demonic device. Who knows one i know one one is our god and heaven on earth. Number two are for the tables of the commandments i moses bringing down the ten commandments but number 3. As for the number of the patriarchs and number four. Is the number of the matriarchs. And we have three patriarchs here and four. Matriarchs in our unitarian group patriarch number one jim tompkins. Charlotte's husband. Jim married us. Paradis. Sermonized for us with his searing. Intellectual. And humorous wit and just strong strong. Philosophy. He was our de facto minister he was and they are spiritual voice. He was followed by. Patriarch number to jimmy hopper son of athol. Jimmy was the poetic side of this group the musical side. Offering us his. Very cherished lovable spirit a great humanitarian the sweetest man i ever knew. Co jest embodied. For mary and i are a spirit of love and understanding. And then our latest patriarch recently deceased john harms our father christmas. John who's just was here. In terms of devotion and service and longevity. Just symbolized so many of us. This idea of a continuation. And a connection. With the group from the past. Into the future. Are matriarchs ethel hopper. How we still have our pansy ceremony in honor of her our poetess. And a great spiritual force. Who was one of our founding members and who. Just again embodied. A connection. That we'd want to keep coming back and. Have some relationship with her. And then by arms. John's wife. Poster of her devotion and service and spirit and longevity again help to symbolize the very spirit of the group that we have here now. And then what i'd call r2 latter-day matriarchs. They're still alive. They're here today. Charlotte. Charlie tompkins dwayne durbin. Who through their service and devotion to this group and body and spirit and carry it on from the past. And into the future. Then i'm sorry about this mary but we have our matriarchs and training session i am the keeper of the flame and there was no appeal from my court mary. In the words of shakespeare summer born great some achieve greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them. Mary you have no choice but you are matriarch in training all you have to do is live a little longer and stay with his group and you are in and the words of the borg. Resistance is futile. And one other possible latter-day saints. I say this with great reluctance but bob huntley is here. I do want to honor anybody has to herculean tasks. To achieve before i will place him in the category of patriarch number one bob. You have to win your school funding suit. A number to you have to take the proceeds of that suit and build us a sanctuary. Then you will achieve the rank of patriarchy. But only that bob is like our moses leading us through the desert. Enclosing and this is going to be a little bit of a long closing coming inside while i am i love this group. And i love it because i have an intuitive primal hope that liberal econometrica religion and its principles. Must be the wave of the future. That while i haven't unabiding faith and believe in god. It is not the god who makes human intervention possible. The god of most organized religions home you can pray to and it will be answered specifically by him i cannot believe. And that type of god who would also permit the holocaust. And italy unmitigated slaughter that we see going on in africa. And a god who makes one spot visit to this earth 2,000 years ago gives us his only begotten son. To save humanity that is not the type of god i can believe in. And that is why i am so very comfortable. With this group and believe in its principles. And i'm closing in and recognition of the fact that yes this is the fourth of july. But we have a declaration of independence. And our constitution of this country i'm going to redo our declaration of independence which is right on the back of your program. It doesn't it hasn't been foisted on us. By the national group in boston. We hammer this out ourselves. In conference. In the early 90s. We made it ourselves and it is our guiding principle. It's not often ignored or overlooked. But it is here and it what keeps me coming back because i can. Agree with everything on unassailable truth. Not based on anthropomorphic superstition or supernatural self-delusion. Or the idea if you say it long enough and kill enough people over it. And have enough people killed because of it. That it has to be true. This is what i believe in and this is what keeps me coming back. We the members of the boise unitarian universalist fellowship covenant. Cuz one another was a religious community to promote an affirm. Each person's lifelong pursuit of spiritual intellectual and aesthetic fulfillment. Attentive extended family which nurtures the individual yet encourages. Responsible diversity. The sharing of our common unitarian universalist values and diverse religious heritage. With our children. In an atmosphere embracing the vision and wonder of their spiritual journeys. Stewardship and respect for the interconnectedness of all life and our responsibility to act on our beliefs. Therefore in accordance with our covenant we declare our mission to be. To celebrate the rituals and passages in our lives. To make unitarian-universalism. Universalism a vital presence. In our community. To provide an open forum for the exploration of the ideas. To promote justice and compassion and human relations. To promote the peaceful resolution of conflict. In our individual. Communal lives. And to promote efforts to bring human existence into greater harmony. With our environment. Who can disagree with that. Enter this i pledge. My life my finances. My resources and however the declaration of independence depends.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20100207.mp3

Presenting switch reading i guess. Which i found on the worship web. Website. Extremely in my life and i'm sure and many others as we. Enter another entity. Facebook. Concept of. Technology. Blake. Panda. I'm going to read the sermon but i've also got a few thoughts of my own that i'd like to interject some confusion. Visual cues that i could give you all. So i will. Remove my pretend glasses. Because i've always wanted to do that. This is called the dow of the ipod. Cheyenne wells bakker. And she begins. Free society. Electric litter intellectual spiritual and inevitable destruction. American living in the twenty-first century. You likely have fretted over this topic. Or some variation on it. It might even have done more than just frat. Read stories online. Email podcast text message twittered cellphone. Driving somewhere that you found with the help of mapquest. Our a. Electronic playing simultaneously. Talk to you in person. Now mass email you slightly off-color jokes. And god knows what sorts of cancer in your brain cells. This isn't at the top of the last of any sensibly paranoid 21st century american. They're far too many other horrific dangers the beckon to us daily. From human warfare. To the poisonings of our planets. Life giving gifts. Collective thinking skills. But it's there. These toys can't possibly be good for us. Reducing it to snap. Replacing it with a popcorn of tv commercials. Who sucking us into the capitalist peoples of american access. And then coronavirus in our basements. It occurred to me she writes. Jogging along the wildflowers fern bed of what once supported. She writes i grew up in an academic 1970s household. And remember parties at with people stood around in martinez. Popular refrain of those days was. Is life. Is art. Television furniture. I just remember my father she right if you press him on it. But who in general has little tolerance for anything even pretension. Someone. Smile sweetly and reply. I'll watch any old thing. He said this usually shut them up so he could go back to watching. Now it's time for genocide. Gadgets. Technology. Chill once i was finished ranting i probably go back to watching the arizona diamondbacks play baseball. Updating my facebook status with witty one-liners. At least i can admit it. Back to the surface. Seawright's. I like listening to my ipod when i jog. I said it on shuffle and it takes me places that i didn't expect to go. Sometimes places in particular particularly want to go. So i'm assuming those songs onto a machine. I swear sometimes that ipod has it smoother. Out of a selection of more than 1,000. Portable device of peculiar. Trapping something from paul mccartney's wings. I'm enclosing the person singing about ago. Why did it skip the group itself. Hasn't changed. The music never would have expected the distance to work. And then suddenly i'm back in my own front steps pressure and endorphin needs for the day finished. While jogging. Topics that never would have occurred to me to think about. She writes i remember younger days when i ran along the mississippi. I noticed leaves the king into the. I contemplated words i had memorized from wisdom traditions. And even now when i recall them at the guided me back home. I treasure those memories. The distance i love red and green. Company and solitude. Classical and bluegrass. I'm glad for the unpredictable inside. My ipod. But certainly there are lessons to be taken from the past about the gadgets. The new york times article charles morris road. The 1870s are possibly the fastest sustained growth in american history. With the rapid spread of the railroads in the telegraph. Cursor to the walmart era. The productivity shock was comparable to that from the internet in our own day. A technology reporter for a medical website noted an array of health hazards littering the short distance between electronic toys. Working at night in front of your internal clock. Other potential hazards are repetitive stress injuries obesity. But most of the technology inventions. Don't live in isolation. Article quote. Although new technology. But between. Individual freedom and social virtue of he says. Technologies technologies. Next door neighbors. Workers displaced by machines. Travel especially working mothers too busy to spend time with their children. We can trust these pathetic figures with images of a happier path. When people still had time to read the meaning of life. Visit with the neighbors. When exactly she continues. Where are those days. Before the industrial revolution the average person was short-lived. Women's lives were consumed with domestic chores and continual pregnancies. Even after the industrial revolution people still didn't have much time to sit around discussing the classics are communing with nature. In the middle of the nineteenth century the typical man in britain worked more than 60 hours a week with no annual vacation 50. Contrary to popular stereotypes. The work week has been shortening. And parents are spending as much time with their children. Tell these children are less likely to live at two parents which may be partly a consequence of technology that is made divorced single parenthood less of an economic burden. Men and women today often control support themselves. Relying on machines to make clothes. Clean house and do most food preparation. But new technology is hardly the only cause of the traditional families decline. And in any case. It's hard to get too nostalgic for the days when women had no choice but to stay in the kitchen. Aside. Me talking. You know thanks to the wonders of technology. Ignoramuses like myself and watch shows like mad men on netflix. Age of 40 who disputes that the days of the 1950s and 60s. Should watch this amazing show. Let's just say the circumstances have improved drastically for women in the workplace 50 years. Okay. Give the sermon. She writes. Technology's potential domestic aid significant. In his book city of hope president barack obama. Do statuses as president exist electronic devices of dispensary. Describe the tour he took of the google offices. She says quote. A three-dimensional image. Do i sound like. Each color is a different language. You can see traffic patterns of the entire internet system. The image was memorizing. Mesmerizing. Mechanical evolutionary process. Nationality race religion. So that the physicist in cambridge and tokyo the student in a remote village. Constant conversation. I'm in space giving way to the world spawn entirely out of line. Obama's account is a striking illustration. I think of the hopeful possibilities of a world sewn together and communication and industry. Example of the positive potential of modern electronic gadgets. But he continues. I noticed the broad swaths of darkness. As the globe spin on its axis. Most of africa. Chunks of south asia. Even some portions of the united states. For the thick cords of life is salt into a few discrete strand. And chrome. Technological devices my offer all people. Devices can show us. When you think about it. New contraptions. Or at least our fears of their dubious evils began plaguing us a long time ago. Supposed to. Since today. Radio that's for all the tests. Ushered in the modern era propaganda as a political tool. And today are major players in museums and the creation of fine art. Gadgets. Who's that centers around the idea of the computer. Cuz he doesn't have a ten-year-old in the house. Take off my glasses. That would be a five-year-old named michael. Back. To the sermon in my life. She writes then i'm guessing i'm not alone here. My parents discovered and embraced before i did. Ct scanners for assistance machines. Baby monitors. Needles that inject our antics. Pros of us circling ever closer to that generally shared. I offer a purely pragmatic reason to try to embrace the kids. And they are going anywhere soon. Understand. She writes i was in a newsletter. The newsletter class recently. They could shave and adolescent boy chained to his computer monitor. Human contact. Ashley schuman chat groups. For friends who. Still talk about devices or their favorite websites. They talked about life. They talk about love. Saturday's plans. The stuff of eternity. And i never would have messed if they hadn't shared some abbreviated facebook. What gadgets like ipods have to offer us. Feels like so much else in the world we inhabit an entirely subjective matter. Put on who we are. Weather jogging running a family experiencing the companionship and. We're seeking your own spiritual path through life. The gadgets we create along the way or neither evil destroyers nor enlighten saviers. In the final analysis. What matters isn't the tools you use but how you as a person choose to embrace ignore interpret. For flourish using them. Now i have. One final aside here. This is me talking. It really made me sit down and analyze this. The times in my life when i've experienced what you might call. The hornet. Yeah music for me as a big one. Another times when you put the. The cd in the player tunein bipod. Close your eyes and the notes. It just really seems to tap into something that might be. Considered. Divine. Movies with another one for me. I've watched countless themes. Made me laugh babies cry baby in my heart. I think we can all relate whether it's gone with the wind. Wizard of oz author.. Touch of soul. Conversations i've had with loved ones. How we connected to each other via. Electric waves that i'll never understand. And to take that even further until my friend nicole sylvester who most of us know here at the fellowship. Her husband scott has been in iraq this last year. Conversate. On the internet. I'm in waterworld how amazing is that. The list goes on. I've come to realize that despite my. And rejections of technology and gadgets. The most of my most intimate. Cooley experiences haven't involved. Gadgets. Technology. What's my five-year-old son michael. Empty freight. This world of technology. In fact the first wow gift that he ever received. What's a brand new ipod. You notice his very own. Gateways to the wonders of music. Cartoons movies. Race car video games. Disney which is a laptop for the little guys. And watching the smile on his face and a joy-filled using these devices. Israeli. Made me think about some of my prejudices made me change my tune. I've come to realize the truth behind wells fargo's message this morning. Gadgets. So don't be scared. Don't be shy. Go ahead and join me. Embrace this brave new world. If you're like me you'll discover wonders that make you laugh. Make you cry. Put you up. Perhaps even leads you to eclipse the holy now and again. That's pretty good right. Iphone thickness. Chinese poisonous to put that on his facebook page.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20100627.mp3

Before i addressed the topic at hand there's another philosophical question. That is. How many you use does it take to change a lightbulb. We believe that incandescent fluorescent or energy-saving are equally valid. And if injured journey you have felt the need to change your light bulb. We are holding a light bulb service wednesday night at what you are welcome to recite a poem or reading about luminescence. Now to the task at hand. Alcohol has been present in civilization since 10,000. Green fell in water and was permitted by east. Problem drinking has been a consistent issue. Since the dawn of recorded history. It has no no social boundaries. And many of the greats in history have been identified as problem drinkers. Alexander the great was said to have his decisions while drunk. Winston churchill reportedly drank from wake up until going to sleep. Ulysses s grant our 18th president drank excessively throughout his life. Russian leaders. Joseph stalin and boris yeltsin were included in the list of leaders who drank. Heavily throughout their lives. Notably in our recent past such people as stephen king the author who got sober in the 80s. Mickey mantle two later in life admitted having a severe drinking problem. And playing many of his status. Greatest games drunk. And senator joe mccarthy. That might explain why he was such a vile man. One of my heroes is betty ford who inspired thousands of people including me to come to grips with their own alcoholism. The famous betty ford center built in her honor. Has helped people from all walks return to a useful life. Another who gave me hope. And i might have been the only one in the world that dip was billy carter. Brother of president carter who was given considerable press about it. But also was given considerable press when he went to the betty ford center and became sober. There is no record of an organized effort at recovery until 1840. When the washingtonian movement was founded by 6 hard drinkers. Meeting at chase's tavern in baltimore maryland. The idea was that relying on each other sharing their alcoholic experiences. And relying upon divine health. They could keep sober. Total abstinence was their goal. Temperance movement focused on the perils of alcohol in society. The washingtonians focused on the individual alcoholic. The movement flourished and in a few short years had members numbering in the tens of thousands. However. Also in the space of a few short years. This society all but disappeared because from their primary purpose. Navigate to the sequence of events that led to the founding of alcoholics anonymous. Around 1920 amanda dr frank buckman found at the oxford group. A christian movement focused on what he believed to be the first century christianity. He recruited the reverend doctor sam shoemaker who became the rector of calvary church in new york. The virtual american headquarters for the oxford group during the thirties. The group focused on the up an h. The elite and wealthy of society. Their primary purpose was not focused on recovery from problem drinking but their precepts had some success. And helping members to start. Well they were followers worldwide are focuses on the new york and akron groups. In 19 32 and 33 a man from vermont. The first of the vermont connection. Name rowland hazard. Had become a hopeless alcoholic and that's out dr. carl jung for help. After spending some time with doctor young he came back to the states has drinking problem licked. Only to find himself drunk again. Returning to europe doctor young informed roland that he could help him no further and that possibly a spiritual experience could be as hell. Roland went to new york. Found the oxford group and became sober by following their direction. He and two other oxford group members went to vermont. Paid a visit to a man named debbie thatcher. Also a hopeless drunk. And abby got sober in 1934 at sam shoemakers mission in new york. Debian turn called on his boyhood friend from vermont. Bill wilson who would become the co-founder of alcoholics anonymous. The precepts the oxford group used. We admitted we were like. We got honest with ourselves. We talked it over with another person. We made amends to those we had harmed. We tried to carry this message message to others. With no thought of reward. And we pray to whatever god we thought there was. For a religious group. That was quite a statement. These became the basis of the famous 12 steps. Asbell wilson would write them in 1938. William griffith wilson. Bill wilson. Then affectionately known as bill w. That age 40 a chief sobriety on december 11th 1934. And maintained it until his death death. 36 years later. Bill went on to achieve success and celebrity by the accomplishments and growth of a under his leadership. Much has been written about this visionary charismatic. Including numerous articles. Biography. And the famous movie my name is bill w. Starring james wood as bill. His legacy today is n / 117,000 groups worldwide. Of alcoholics helping other alcoholics. Achieve and maintain sobriety. Bill had an unsettled and troubling childhood in vermont. He attended the university. And was inducted into the vermont guard. In 1917 he was commissioned an artillery officer. And while training he had his first drink at age 22. She married louis burnham in 1918 and the best of times. And the horrible. Horrible. Horrible worst of times. At the end of world war 1 he returned in new york. Attended law school but failed to pick up his diploma. Because he was too drunk. He achieves success on wall street. However his constant drinking may doing business impossible. And his credibility and reputation was ruined. The crash of 1929 left bill. And louis destitute. And he was unable to hold a job for 5 years. Living on lewis meager salary and health from her family. In 1933 there was committed to towns hospital in new york. Under the care of doctor william silkworth. Perhaps perhaps the first time in history. Dr shilpa. Has a physical compulsion. Coupled with a metal obsession. And that it was a medical condition rather than a moral failing. Knowing that still didn't keep bill sober and he was back in town. Two more times. Being told that he would either die or be locked up permanently. After the visit by everything after. And exposure to the spirituality of the oxford group. During the forestay at towns bill had a dramatic. Conversion experience and never drank again. Wilson joined the oxford group and tried to help other alcoholics. Succeeded in keeping himself sober. And that is a key to the recovery in. The fellowship of alcoholics anonymous. The oxford group in akron was comprised of many an industry including the firestone's. Henrietta seiberling of the goodyear tire family. As well as the reverend. Dr. walter tunks. The group spiritual leader. And noted akron. Surgeon dr. robert holbrook smith. And it's a. Ironic to me the doctor bob also hailed from vermont. So the vermont connection is in my jeans. And his wife and a friend of mrs. seiberling. And henrietta has been working through the group to get dr. smith sober. But to no avail. Try as he may he could not stay away from a drink. And he was in jeopardy of losing his medical practice. As the local hospitals were fed up with his drunken behavior. In may of 1935 bill wilson was in akron. Trying to put together a business deal. The mayflower hotel to the bar. But instead consulted the church reader board in the lobby to see if. One by one he called the list of churches to see if they knew of a drunk that he could come talk to and finally reached reverend tone. Who most certainly did know just the man. Tunks call henrietta seiberling to call doctor bob and a meeting was set up the next night may 12th 1935. At the seiberling house. That was probably the first recorded instance where one alcoholic. Consciously and deliberately. Turn to another alcoholic. Not to drink with. But to stay sober with. The key to the outcome of that meeting was that. This is what i did. Not. This is what you should do. After a brief spree by dr.bob while on a medical convention. 1935 and that was the birth of alcoholics anonymous. That fateful meeting on may 12th changed history. Call it divine guidance. Synchronicity. Coincidence or whatever. But there seems to me a guiding force involved. Bill and bob set out to find a drunk to work within carry their message. And found their man in the hospital where dr. bob practice. They told their stories. An outline what they did to recover and the third member of aa began sobriety. That same process remains key2recovery today. The fellowship began to grow slowly and painfully with the result that have been changed for the better. There is not time here to crack the almost miraculous. But painful evolution of this fellowship. In 1938 bill wilson wrote the text. Alcoholics anonymous. With input from sam shoemaker in the first 100 in recovery. The big book. As it is enduring lee called was published in 1939 to grow. Today as a celebration of what has manifested. As the result of that historical meeting. There are approximately 2100000 members. 117000 group. In 150 countries worldwide on every continent. There have been over 30 million big books printed in english. As well as translated and published in some 58 languages. In the united states you can find a meeting and almost every nook and cranny across this land. In the treasure valley there are over four hundred meetings each week. Isn't that amazing. The ripple effect has been mind-boggling. Sam smith and louis wilson started al-anon family groups for family and friends of alcoholics. Using the same 12-step program. In 1952. Aaa granted permission to what became narcotics anonymous to use the big book and the 12 steps in their recovery program. Now. There are 40 / 40 groups that follow suit including overeaters. Cocaine smokers sexaholics gamblers emotions. And perhaps my favorite. Flutters. Additionally. I don't know where it came up with additional there are 200. Identify addiction programs. That are loosely patterned after the 12 steps. Who knows how many millions have been positively impacted by those programs. So what is a. Alcoholics anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience strength and hope with each other. That they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for a membership. We are self-supporting through our own contributions. Aa is not allied with any sect. Denomination. Politics. Organization or institution. Neither endorses or opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober. And help other alcoholics achieve sobriety. Like you you it is a bottom-up organization. Our leaders are but trusted servants they do not govern. Perhaps. At least in my mind the cheetah's successor this fellowship. Is it singleness of purpose. Carrying the message to the alcoholic that still suffers. So does aaa and other recovery programs work for everyone. Absolutely not. Addictions are insidious and very difficult to overcome. The big book says. You've decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any lengths to get it. When you're ready to take certain steps. Not everyone is willing. But the big book also says. That rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. It is estimated that 10% of the us population. For approximately 30 million. Ar. Alcoholics per problem drinkers. That's frightening. As you can see just a small percentage of that number. At 8:40 my father went to aaa. Was not willing to follow the path and exercised his right to continue to drink. Seven years later he died on a barstool on main street in boise idaho. A lonely destitute completely broken man. It is sad that this disease. Having been greatly affected by being raised in an alcoholic home it was sheer insanity. That i got drunk for the first time at age 14. While drinking with friends and municipal park. In boise during the 50s. You could buy. Beer in convenience stores at age 15 and drinking the taverns at age 16. Not legally of course. But it was a different time and a different place. I qualified to be an aa at 8:17 and didn't make it till 8:40. Following the lead of betty ford i entered it 28-day treatment program. Structured around the 12 steps. Chose to embrace the aa recovery program. And haven't found it necessary to take a drink. Since august 14th of 1979. I have a son who was a daily drug user. In his late teens and early 20s who is now 25 years clean and sober. I have a son who died at age 34 4 years sober in alcoholics anonymous. So the unwanted legacy continued in our family. Am i grateful. To this program for giving me and my family life that is half. That would be a gross understatement. Bill reed in his insightful and wonderful presentation a few weeks ago ass. For the events presented here today a disaster. For a blessing. Cobell settlement that my life. Or that of my family. Could not be as it is today. Without the meeting of bill wilson and dr. bob smith. On may 12th. 1935. And to me that's an overwhelming flushing.

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BUUF-sermon-20100307.mp3

Whoever. And whatever i am. Spiritual traditions. Council me. To be fair to others. Those traditions also counseled me work. And i have run across them a time or two in my life. In condescending attitude. Stupid jokes. Disrespectful treatment. Nobody in this room i'm sure. Appreciate it. Women and men who have taken on the issue which i could not only contribute to. Appreciating that fairness in my life has been. Feminists from many eras and all genders. I have a spiritual responsibility. And to work for fairness. For others who can't do it. That's the foundation of social justice. Are you tearing universalist principles also keep us pointed in the golden rule direction. The worst person. We delete it for ourselves. And for others. We safeguard. By treating others as worthy. Addressing systems. Human worth. We believe with black elk. We are one. And if that is so. Is done to us. We also talked about compassion acceptance freedom. Our underlying principles. To golden rule behavior. Justice and love. In addition. Had inside of us. To the rest of the world. I was talking to a woman last week or facilitated community service projects. Students usually resist. Community project for a class. But they are by the end of the semester. They will continue their work. Are devoted students of all ages. Rule. Behavior. Starting where they are. Using aloe external motivation. And hoping. I'm working for community. Will be fan. My part. In the sermon this morning is mostly to remind us that seeing religion. Must involve our hearts. Reaching out in some way. And if you listen to. Our church member louise. Who has taken the brave step. Speaking of her own personal life this morning as you listen to louise. Reflective. You hear her. Personal tank. Human responsibility toward others. Without judgement. How you. Practice the golden rule. Inways small. Enlarge. Committee. We work to make foofen inclusive and welcoming place for lesbian gay bisexual and transgender people and their families. We also work with the lgbtq community in the pursuit. This morning i'm going to share a little about. How i developed a personal theology that has social justice at its center. I was born on october 13th. Symbol for libra in scales. Nice picture these scales i often see an image of justice. For eyes blindfolded holding her scales. Because for as long as i can remember. One important aspect of. Balance. For me has been fairness. Another word for justice. And libra is all about balance. I'm fascinated by astrology. But because i have found it accurately reflects my life. Perhaps it is a manifestation of the oneness of the universe. My birth chart has four planets in libra. Including penis. Which tells us we're both our hearts. And our values lie. And neptune the planet responsible for spirituality. A search for the ideal. Is it i am hardwired for justice. However while astrology indicates. Natural inclination fly how it unfolds. Is yet to be determined. Although i am agnostic. In a press to classify myself would label myself a humanist. The story of the good samaritan has a special place in my heart. Physically courageous is a term i would never use to describe myself. Just ask my husband how timid i am about crossing a stream while when we're hiking. While preparing these remarks. I remembered an incident from grade school that i had not thought about for decades. I grew up in a rural setting and walk the proverbial mile to school. One day when i was in 3rd or 4th grade i was walking home with two friends. The song older boy mercilessly bullying a much younger kid. I was stricken by. There was no one else around and he was completely helpless. My friends wanted to just keep going but i could not bear it. Complete consternation i cross the road. Walked up to the bully. And said something like. Why don't you pick on someone your own size. Peapod. Looking startled. Told me to mind my own business and took off. I stood there for a few seconds shaking. Ask little boy if he was okay and couldn't make make it home alright. Then rejoin my friends and continued walk home. I was terribly relieved that i have not become his next victim. And i never told anyone about it. It just seemed like my only option at the moment. Although i was baptized in the congregational church. I was reared from the age of four. Mormon converse. Beef and what is commonly referred to as the mission field. The mormon. Of the wild frontier. In fact i was the only mormon in my high school graduating class. My father was not only an austere terrian letter of the law kind of parents. He was also my bishop. Head of the local mormon church most of the time i was growing up. Assistance with funeral. It wouldn't have been an issue since i sincerely wanted to be good. If measuring up to all the expectations hadn't seemed so daunting. And my parents. Can consistently communicated to me laughing. Although the church's teachings were complex and comprehensive. They were devoid of anything about outreach or social justice. Amaya pretty was extremely sheltered and my parents are eliminated as many worldly influences as possible. I remained an active practicing mormon until my late twenties when. By deep unhappiness a process of self-examination. Using the principles of cognitive therapy. Because mormonism is so all-encompassing. This process focus largely on my relationship with the church and my belief system. The best description i can offer is that it was like. Pruning a pear. Large tree. With a pair of scissors. One twig. Branch at a time. 3 years into this process i left the church for the feeling of liberation and no animosity. Shortly after my exodus from the church my marriage ended and with it more than. It was time to enter the workforce. Over the next decade or so i developed a career in corporate communication and broaden my worldview. I develop my personal theology at the time. In a nutshell these are the conclusions i reached. I don't believe it's possible to really understand the nature of god. If there is one. Or whether there is life after death. Or what form it may take. If dying is like drifting into a dreamless sleep and never waking up. That strikes me as more natural than siri. In any case it is what it is and i will find out when the time comes. Meanwhile assuming there is no life after this one. What i do here becomes more important. Not less. Because it means that the only thing that will survive me is my effect on other people. My personal contribution to the evolution of the human race. In 1995 i was director of the communication department at the natural gas utility in salt lake city. A job i adored with a wonderful staff. What a project came along that really set me on fire. But i didn't know was that my next confrontation with the bully was imminent. Utilities president had survived a heart attack and was inspired to make the company of premier workplace by empowering employees to take an active role in making the company the very best it could be. I was very involved in the development and communications improvement program. The problem was that steve the vice president in charge of operations and the majority of the employees. Was not on board. The president swore he would not let anything. Even steve stand in the way of realizing the skull. Our consultant we were working with told me that if nick back down. We would not just go back to where we were when we started we would be worse off. Which was exactly what i feared. In the end steve prevailed and the program turned into a sham. Exercise. It means with busy work. I was left with a terrible dilemma. I have been the author of everything promoting this program. Articles in the employee publications mix speeches. And very visible in the entire process. And i was expected to go on promoting it being the president's spokesperson. When i go to program was now a fraud. A hollow shell of the evolutionary opportunity that had been promised to her employees. I wouldn't do it. After 13 years with the company i gave up my beloved job to keep my integrity intact. And many of the employees knew why i left. They also knew what had become of the promises. Murrell went through the floor and for many and never recovered. Unfortunately i was more than disillusioned i was heartbroken and emotionally physically and mentally burned out. But i did not know and would not find out for 7 years. Was that i was also struggling with undiagnosed bipolar disorder. But have been exacerbated by the stress of my job. My life sucked into a long dark night of the soul. Even after my diagnosis it took several years to get on an effective medication. And learn the lifestyle necessities but keep me consistently stable. I also had to learn to understand my brain and trust my mind again. 2 years ago this month and i started coming to boo. And i knew i was home. It was the first time since leaving the mormon church. But i found a spiritual community that really fit. Within weeks of walking through the door rodger sherman mentioned to me that booth needed a chair. For the welcoming committee. It is a good fit for me to lgbt-rights cause that i feel strongly about. And after years of worrying about who i can safely tell about my bipolar disorder my recent decision to come out of the closet. Has been liberating. And a process that helps me relate to lesbian gay bisexual and transgender people who deal with similar issues. I also have found that since i have been actively engaged in the social justice work. Which of the necessary expression of my poor self. But some of the old lessons from my childhood religious upbringing. Like the story of the good samaritan. Have been slipping back into my mind like old friends who have found their way home. Well i remain an agnostic humanist. I can hear those teachings of jesus like the golden rule. And his encouragement to care for those who are disadvantaged or persecuted. Without feeling threatened. These teachings also appear in our unitarian universalist principles. Bear universal. Fair important. They make us human.

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BUUF-sermon-20100905.mp3

If i said the word christian. That would come to mine. Possible combination you grew up in or perhaps even practice today. Maybe it was a lutheran. Fourth presbyterian. 50 fattest. Craven lauderdale saints. I myself. Grew up roman catholic. While some say that there were catholics. The fact is that the catholic church. Is the largest christian denomination. Christian is an umbrella term. The covers are number of denominations. Is another umbrella term for a nation's referred to as traditions. Wicca is the largest of these traditions. It is by far not the only. Tradition. Actually a better term would be neo-pagan. Just the traditions today are resurrections of pre-christian religions. Domination. Definitions of this word. Before the 5th century. Some believe the word was used by christians. To describe. Unlike their city cousins were slower to adopt the new religion of christianity. Many continue to follow the older religions of rome egypt. Greece. Honduras religions as well as mystery schools. The rustic. Or country bumpkin. Much as we. Use the term redneck. Hillbilly. I better not. Others believe that the word meant civilian as opposed to military. Christians at the time referred to themselves as millie's christi. Meeting soldiers of christ. Soldiers or civilians. Bill put down was intended nor implied. Suggest that several term. That the general term was an outsider. A neutral term. And the readings were merely specialized uses of the term. Today there are. Major definitions of the word. Pagan. Tools which are any religion which has not descended from abraham. And secondly an evil charm which implied satan worship. The latter definition is still. You're much use today due to hollywood and other medias. Some christian denominations home for pagans can be illustrated by the following example. On october 28th according to the us newswire. The national parking console and operation save our nation. Scheduled a jericho march. Of over 100 religious intercessors around capitol hill and the white house. President of the council. The concept behind the walls of the washington. Recycler rhythm. Postmodern immoralism. Apetamin used in the clinton-gore administration. In the morally weak leadership in the congress. In the liberal members of the supreme court. Another is a common writing in the boston globe. The opposition then and now rest on the recognition. Of the pagan origin of the christmas tree. Kimberley strassel noted. The wall street journal. That's pagan the practice of cutting down trees bringing them inside and decorating. The christmas tree along with holly. Mistletoe the yule log. Symbols. Are pagan in origin. It was common practice for the christian church. To build their places of worship over the sight of pagan temples. And incorporates symbols as a means to aid the transition of pagan convert. Into their new religion of christianity. In fact in one case a catholic saint who was ritually taking goddess. Bridget. Was change to saint bridget. In 1962 pope john the twenty-third change the calendar of the saints and dropped bridget's feast dates from the calendar. The pagans re-adopted her. And still celebrate february 2nd as her feast day. Today there is no generally accepted definition of the word pagan. The word is among terms that newsgroups call skunk words. The field of religion are filled with such words. They cause misunderstanding forever. Unfortunately most people don't know this naturally assumed that the meaning they have been taught. It's universally accepted. Person must look at the context in which the word is used in order to guess. But the intent of the writer or speaker. Woody wickens neo-pagans and others regularly used the term taken are paganism. To describe them cell. Everyone should be free. To continue to use whatever definition they wish. However the possibility. Particularly if one is talking to a general audience. It's important. But the term be carefully defined in advance. And it's meeting be clearly understandable from the context in which it is used. Otherwise the speaker or writer. Runs the risk of discussing one group of people. Shuffle listeners and readers will assume the other groups are being referred to. It is recommended. This should be the primary definition. Afterward pagan. For the simple reason that many weapons and other neopagans embrace the term for themselves. Paganism refers to a range of spiritual path. Based on deities. Symbols. Practices. Seasonal days of celebration. But other surviving components of ancient religion. Which have been long suppressed. Some neil pagans. Andrew azzam. Heart centered. Emphasize living. In harmony with the earth and observing its cycle. Believing that the earth is a living entity along with all things on it. We likewise believe that everything is connected. Added action in one area that sucks all areas. The essence of the creator spirit. Is more or less in everything. This makes everything sacred. Today among the traditions which call themselves pagan. Are wiccan. Druidism. Futon. True prefer to be referred to as heathen. Meeting are through other rather than pagans. Is interesting if not all pagans are polytheistic. They have a pantheon of gods and goddesses such as. Hermes the greek god of healing. Aphrodite the goddess of love. Mars the roman goddess. War. Well in catholicism a christian religions. Have patron saints. St-luc. Is the patron saint of healing. Saint valentine's it's for love. Saint michael is the patron of soldiers. Pagans anuragada. And while catholics may. Say they revere her. There are some who plays mary the mother of jesus. Interposition very close to worship here. During the crusades. Catholics. Referred to muslims as pagans. At the time. Catholics referred to process as pagans. Protestants referred to other protestants. Who did not believe just as they did. As pagan. Awaken. 4s starhawk former instructor of starkey unitarian universalist cemetery. And her reclaiming purdue tradition prefers to be called. A witch. Wicca is a religion. It is recognized as such. In the armed forces chaplains manual. In august 2006 after a long battle with the veterans administration. The pinnacle. A five pointed star surrounded by a circle. Was allowed to be placed on the grave marker of a soldier had been killed in action and was very dependable adda. There is much debate over the origin of wicca. Generally speaking wicked is the modern. Version of witchcraft. Is attributed to gerald gardner gardner was a british civil servants serving in the far east. English witchcraft in 1951. Gardner wrote a book published. The 1954. Titled witchcraft today. This began 3 birth of the modern wake up. Or as we who are wiccans like this. Wicca came out of the broom closet. Other traditions. Raymond buckland. The seahawks record tradition another englishman alex saunders founded. There are many other traditions include. Can families for generations. This is no one is the parade at terry. Tradition. There are many forms of witchcraft driving today which have as much to do with your old gardener. Has tibetan buddhism has to do with. A few things that are misunderstood about wicca and witchcraft. Witches do not worship the devil. Compact witches believe neither can the devil. A mail which is not. Warlock. This is an insult to male witches. People who infiltrated coven's in the days of persecution in england in order to learn the names. I'm coming members and so. They could report them to the authorities. Perkins like many pagans have no hierarchy do they have any credor book of rules. The only guidelines is known as the read. Enclosing it states harm none. Do as you will. Is preceded with us saying that we're of whatever you send out. Will recurrence-free phone. For this reason it is easy to see why witches do not sacrifice animals. Certainly not people. Unitarian universalist believe in the dignity of every person justice equality compassion human relations. Acceptance of one another and encouragement and spiritual growth. A free unreasonable search for truth and meaning. The goal of the world community with peace. Liberty and unity for all. Respect for the independent web of all existence of which we are apart. These police are much the same as those i hold as a pagan and wiccan. I find no conflict in being both. My religion is unitarian universalism. My spiritual path is witchcraft or wake up.

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BUUF-sermon-20100829.mp3

Good morning. Chalice circles. Are small groups that meet once or twice a month. Sometimes more. The focus of the group canby general. Specific. Or based on an affinity. Chalice circles provide a social. And support network. Community. And friendship. Acceptance. An affirmation. In a nurturing environment. Facilitating spiritual growth. Carol wexel burger and i had often talked about our desire for a deeper connection to spirituality. And how rituals for us. Provide a focus to facilitate that. Together we decided to start a chalice circle. Based on our desire. To explore. Everyday spirituality and meaningful rituals. Our first meetings. Confirm that we were on the right track. Because after every meeting everybody would exclaimed. It was said so often. We came to nickname the everyday spirituality and meaningful ritual chalice purple. The cool girl. Which is a lot easier to say. Because of the cool experiences. That we had not because we're cool. So i think we're kind of cool bunch of friends. Do i did find a sudanese prayer. With the line i've got it on here. May the hearts of the people. Be peaceful. May they be cool. I was happy to find that. George fox a quaker. Be still. I'm cool. Ensign mind and spirit. Rufus right in there with spirituality. In every chalice circle. Meetings are open with the lighting of a chalice. Check-in where everybody catches up with one another. Also lights personal candles during this check-in time. Creating a kind of stonehenge of light which will show you. This morning we will light our group chalice circle. As well as our individual. Personal candle so we will forgo the. Check in. I'm telling you everything we've been doing the past week or so. Instead we'll just say our names into the presence. Of the moment. Blessed is the flame symbol of our quest for spirit. And meaning. We gather in reverence in the wonder of this moment. In the wonder of being together. Miss craig. Valerie. Carol. My name is tammy. Leslie. Limeade. Debbie. And i also like one for all of you the congregation. One of the rituals which we are working on one of our goals. Is to develop a uu liturgy. A personalized responsive reading principles. Shed and affirmed to one another. That's something we're still working. We also explore. Other cultures religions. Three sisters mythology. Practices. And rituals. We have visited and we intend to visit other religious groups and sacred places. We experiment with and create our own meaningful rituals. A ritual which we have developed. Is for each of us to bring personally. Meaningful objects or items to place on the altar each time. The kind of show and tell. And i mean to us. It tends to lead us into. Insights and discovery discussions today. But we will do the show until party. This is a pipe lot of americans use it was. The story goes was given to. Where's the sioux have white buffalo calf woman. And it's interesting that that original pipe. Expanding rock reservation there's a lock on the door under horrible looking glass. And i use this in in ceremony and you may have noticed i did six directions and that's true that they often had a menos like crank the pipe. For directions to spawn wagon. About today at 2 she says other guardian figures. They're from okinawa. Originate from china. Anda. Basilar. Lion dogs. And i never used to guard the villages shrines and holmes from. Evil and disaster. I brought a book on faces. Around the world. Adidas national geographic. Anyway it reflects it's a reflection of different faces and views of humanity. Bodhisattva of compassion. She who hears the cries of the world. She's in her royal he's posed in in this. Statuette. And compassion is something we need to nurture in ourselves and others. It's very actually sits on my kitchen window sill. I guess i could say i commune with her she's a reminder that the creator made. Hummingbirds dragonflies. Butterflies are butterflies. There's something came across invented. Recently. And deb. Is it current. Did mathematics. I could describe it but it would be. Greek people. I brought a. Little figurine of saint francis de assisi. Because i consider my spirituality very nature-based and he was a patron saint of animals. This is fred. Fred catches more fish than i do but i love to go fishing and i left. When i'm sitting there. Watching the birds in the air and. The ospreys coming down and getting more fish than me and. But i like nature and and i feel very it makes me feel connected to. Linda. I brought. A pebble. Ichiban. Is a pebble. So when you toss that pebble. Into a pond. And it affects. It goes travels the distance. But the ripples. Affects its environment. Each of us is that fell. We also overtime have been creating a collage. Images and meaning for us. Each time we. Bring an item weighs explain it then. We have a couple of people today who will. Put some on our new collage that we just recently developed. Every morning i read my horoscope. I pay absolutely no intent attention to it because most of the time it means nothing but occasionally it does a couple of years ago. It said. You are building the legend of your life. Take your time. Tend to the rituals that are important to you and give them your all. I like that. You probably won't be able to see this but this is a picture of the eagle nebula. More than six thousand light-years from earth the eagle nebula is a vast region of space. Who's dance pillars of dust and hydrogen gas. Served as the breeding ground for stars. As tammy blues it onto her new collage for working on her. Other altar items that we shared in the past that we also set up onto the side if you have any questions of course you can ask us about anything then you wonder why is that up there. The next experience comes right out of. These are words and phrases taken directly from our grade. And. They are intended to. Evoke a cow. Haha. Responsiveness there kept secretly rolled up in hour. Wow words box. And leslie will demonstrate what we do with them. The one that i pulled out. Spirit growing in all. Which is kind of what i experienced when i come to booth. That's what i get out. Erick rowan off. Do we have a couple volunteers out of the audience who would like to forward and. I don't volunteer i'll pick you. Anyone. Dean and all. Dean and all. Did everyone. Being in me. Anyone else. Peace profound. I would say. Aspca's profound. I think as is usually the case. We all have similar responses. And they seem to tie together. And encourage sense of community in a group. Is a broad topic. Spiritual life is spiritual. Not everything but. Most of what i do. The essence of my spirituality. And everything i encounter. On a daily basis that's what a group means to me. Time set aside for reflection prayer meditation ceremony integration into my daily life is stuff. Is the case. I need it in my hip pocket so i can use it all the time. Change. Underpinning including more love more acceptance less judging. It's difficult for me to do and sometimes. What i get out of cool group is that. I can. I can bring up any topic. We can discuss it. Without. Any type of. Beer or. Basically basically. I'm the best when you get you get a sense of everybody. Join in and disgusted. Share their opinions and it's a really great way of. I'm learning more. Then what you may have thought you known to begin with it's just. Camisas great. Cool group. Kind of solidifies help solidify. And enhance what i get out of the service and. So it's it makes it even more exciting because. Feels like i'm doing more which you know i like to. I want to i need to actually more the things that i feel and. We talked about everything is just crazy sometimes but it's definitely cool. So. First of all thanks to debbie for taking this concept and running with it. And the cool group as everyone said just before as i say in particular it's the people. The group we really get along really well. We exchanged ideas we talk. We share as you seen these things here. And. We listen and we learn and you know what we have fun to it's great. Is a community of fellow seekers i can share my thoughts feelings beliefs without fear of ridicule or judgement. And a great bunch of people. I think anybody that was. Dogmatic. Astroneer reminded or anything like that i don't think they'd be sitting around here. And that's it it kind of personifies it all in this. These people i will work. What cool group means me as though i've always considered myself a spiritual person. I think i really needed. Environment where i could focus in on my own spirituality and find. Rituals to kind of. Integrated into my daily life. And i just love sharing. One-on-one with a group. We don't always get a chance to do that with everyone on the congregation. But we do. Guru's means to me. Is being with some really fantastic people. And sharing all the ideas and. All their thoughts. It just gives me a. When i leave there. I always feel. Empowered in. Just really wonderful it just gives me a feeling of peace and and. Makes me a better person. Thank heaven that carol was also interested in pursuing this and that the two of us started there and remember there are plenty of chalice circles you can get involved in or you can create. For yourselves and they do enhance. After you leave the service and then you go to your your chalice circle group and you can explore deeper. It's kind of hard to do you know in the big congregation but when you take advantage of the small group ministries that are available. It really helps. This particular group. The courseware into the ritual. And for us. That helps it helps us to focus and that's what i. Besides these wonderful people. We have are stonehenge of candles. Each one representing each of us. And they burn throughout the time that we meet together and then we blow it out when we leave if it's. Symbol of each of us as a group as a circle and there's so much that i get out of. Being a part of this that. I just. Hope that each of you if your for not in a chalice circle yet. Find one or start one because. It'll make a difference in your lives. The chance to see our lives and our journeys more clearly. As we learn about other cultures. Police system. And spirituality. We're able to look at our own in a different light. We are grateful to be part of a fellowship. Where everyone speaks for him or herself. We each tell our own story. And experiences. And we learned and the unique perspective and wisdom each person offers. We discussed different. But there is no authority telling us what our experience has been. Or should be. We can share feelings. Experience. Or perspective without fear of ridicule. We learn ways in which others have dealt with spiritual challenges. And enhance their spiritual lives. As we do so we gain strength and hope to continue our journey. Always. We are free to apply these concepts and practices. Or just leave it if it's not for us. We invite all speakers and the spiritually curious. To start a cool group 2.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20090315.mp3

My heart. Hurts a little bit this morning. And it's partly because i still am getting over two million so that part's one but that's not the only thing. My heart just grows when i look at it see all of you and i've missed so for. And i'm not. Entirely myself. But. I'm so glad to be here today and see you all and thank you all for the care and the cards. And. Keeping things going and so i've even gone. You can't thank you so. I will be going to a meeting at 12:30. The high school seniors to get ready for their bridging event so. I'll be here for a little while after the service and then disappear to go eat with her high school. I have often spoken. Apari scholfield. A unitarian universalist minister who died in 2003 at the age of 89. Harry was the minister of the san francisco unitarian church during turbulence. Times and. I'm told that he actually performed a gay union in 1956. I don't know if that's true for sure but i know it's very much in the spirit. Perris work. He was known for his stance in the community and he was known for his loving astral presents. For all. Harry took time every morning to sit quietly. To read. And memorize poetry which spoke to him and inspired him. He memorably advised. You should always take. A half hour. For your demotion devotional practice unless you're really busy. And then. You should take an hour. He was serious. He was a man very involved in the demands of parish ministry which are gray. And of the larger community community. But he balance is doing with. Sitting around time. Facebook. In his day. And in his week. This morning we are about a week away from the spring equinox one of two times a year. When the day and the night are of equal duration. There is on that day the same amount of like. Heather is dark. There is balance. Figuratively one of modern life's most difficult issues is keeping our light and our dark in some semblance of balance. We know how to do like. Busy. Productive activities. Going to work. Taking the kids places. Going to need it running errands doing domestic short volunteering in the community attending events. But dark is necessary in the world. In the world's natural rhythm dark takes up the same amount of time over a year as like this. Nothing would grow. Without the dark. I just got a little plant. Flowers will not. Unless there are at least six weeks of at least 14 hours of darkness. I don't even know if we had that but it did let me know that darkness is necessary. For most of us. The dark is associated more with being. And we don't know very well. How to honor dark. The quiet reflective ways of being. They'll bring us sustenance from our deep sources. Slowing down. Paying attention to the here. And now. Without goals. Doing nothing. Quiet time. Not an immediate or findable one anyway and it doesn't comfort us. That we are productive creatures and therefore valuable. Quiet. Non-directed time. Apprehend the intersection of time with the timeless to use the words that mark just read to us. Or at least we can move closer to that in a nonlinear non-productive. This is a problem for unitarian universalist institutionally and personally. There is a parody of gilbert and sullivan. And actually someone in our church wrote one and i couldn't find it yesterday. Define eating again. Is a lot to do. There's a lot to know. And we're going to do it and we're going to know it by going. Okay let's listen to author. Lamont. She says most of the people i know who have what i want. Which is to say. Purpose. Heart. Balance. Gratitude and joy. Are people with a deep sense of spirituality. They are people in community who pray or practice their faith. They are buddhist jews christians. People banding together. To work on themselves. And work for human rights. The people llama is talking about live their spiritual disciplines. They go to church. Or temple. Or sangha. Every. Week. What would our lives be like you. What. Every single week and some people in this room this is true. It is not for me. What would they be like if once every single week. We heard someone say. Let us leave. What came before outside. And be here. Now. If we even had two minutes away week. Of the silence provided by sharing of joys and sorrows. If every week. We heard a few other speak publicly. Of their burdens and there we do it. And lamont people don't just come to church or temple or something or mosque every week either they pray or reflect. Regularly and often in their daily living. The prayer and observance part of their lives again. The balancing dark part the slowing down is so regular. As to be almost second. Such individual disadvantages. Carrying universal. Since our worship services honor the mystery. They do not provide each of us. With. They do not provide each of us with the practice that is our own way to the holy or to the great whatever. How would it be for us if and this is just a for example. If every night before sleep. No matter how tired. No matter how scattered. No matter how fast we moving. We said a quiet prayer to herself. Or read a poem. Or lay quietly paying attention to our breath. Or repeated eastern or some other religious chant for a couple of minutes how would it be if every single morning before we get up. We said a quiet prayer torself. Or read a poem. Orale. Quietly paying attention to our breath. Or repeated for a couple of minutes. What if we set aside certain parts of our week. For our own quiet reflection or pursuit. Regardless of how many things are how many people are out there clamoring for us to be doing. Can we find balance. In our whole lives. This is serious business. But all human endeavor that can lead to humor. One day some while ago i was waiting for lunch companions and i decided that i would try practicing what i preach. I'm excited to do a mindfulness meditation on shari's restaurant. I would be aware of my breath. Only noticing. Not making judgments or comment forest. 5 seconds go by. I didn't know anybody anymore so i kept on like that for two or three minutes. Images of looking in the listening and then nine charging in the breathing have finally i gave up when i caught myself chortling or gleefully this will be a great anecdote for a sermon sometime. But it doesn't matter fact. Imperfect. Mindful meditation i have focused myself a little better. And i was better able to focus on the world working hand. When my lunch companions did arrive. Recently i have had an even more important set of insight. As most of you know i have been very sick with pneumonia for more than 4 weeks. I have had a lot of time to reflect on what might be going on in my soul. That has allowed. To immobilize me for so. I don't have hard-and-fast answers yet i'm. Still trying to get on my feet. Figure it all out. But suspicions arise. Last august. And i returned from my beautiful six-month sabbatical. I was well established in a daily routine of morning prayer and meditation. From 20 to 45 or more minutes a day. I continue that and this practice is a blessing in my life. I hope. I really don't know for sure but i really hope. Live with a little more compassion. Maybe a little more generosity. Hopefully maybe the ability to understand people a little better. As like myself. At the same time. I have thrown myself with little restraint into old habits. Doing anything that has arisen to do winding myself up into a more or less continuous state of readiness. Rapping. The familiar cloak. Impregnable. Around me. I'm here. I honestly think that i have let myself get even worse over functioning of totally regular spiritual practice after all time. Such an attitude leads me to the old ways to be. Deeply assuming. And not mystery. I'm in charge of anything and everything. The past 4 weeks not to mention. Difficulty. Have begun to teach me. Impregnable. I'm not indispensable. And mine world. Will have more softness. And more integrity. When i know that. My soul and body have conspired to let me know that such arrogance. Will no longer be tolerated. Not a minister dependent church. I'm not the boss. We have had a great relationship. For twenty years. And the congregation has done all kinds of stuff without hardly even talking to me. During these last four or five years. Of our blessed time together. I don't know how at the moment. To predict how things will look or be. As i humbly. Slowly. Emerge from this illness perhaps. Finally willing to give up impregnability. Perhaps become more open to meeting. A spirit. At the monday. I'll rearrange office h a b 0 1 or 2 or week. Is just email and phone catching up with the door. I plan to treat wednesday afternoon and half of friday. His sacred sermon and study time. As sacred as a scheduled meeting. As sacred as an appointment already made. I'm going to reflect. On what kind of peaceful. Atmosphere. Allows me to gently say no a lot more than i'm used to. And allows me to relate more softly. More from my soul and my heart. I don't have figured out. Assuming that i can figure everything out if part of the attitude that's got to be where i am today. My spiritual practice may help me. Now that i have noticed it's not a tool to improve my productivity. Experience of exploring inner quiet in the midst of our noise will help if i can learn to do it. A whole lot of folks in this church. People that i love dearly and i invite board you into this practice are already giving me gentle advice and sometimes not even. Helping me notice and reflect. It's a question of balance. I thought that i was. It turns out that balance. Means your whole life. Day inn. And daya. Turns out the balance. Means your whole life. Inside. And al.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20090308.mp3

Pueblo audience participation. That's a. The nine service i got to look cited. And i started talking really fast. So if that happens again just go like this. Alright. I have just one question for you this morning. Can you. Keep a secret. Cuz i got something i'm here need to get off my chest. I simply can't live a lie anymore. I'm standing up here. Continue to be a sophisticated guy. When the truth is, this is hard for me to admit. I am absolutely addicted to extremely lame horror movies. Earnest. I'm talking extremely awful flicks here. True gyms like. Poltergeist. Run to the last caravan run to the night at ghostbusters who you going to call. And don't forget. Army of darkness. Anyone out there seeing this one guy. This has to be one of the most lame. Movies. Ever created. Affleck so spectacularly cheesy you just can't help but repeat lines like. Hail to the king baby. Good. Bad. I'm the one with the gun and then you have classics like dracula. Frankenstein the wolfman the list goes on. Each october i trade monsterfest on the american movie classics channel like my own personal holiday. This is embarrassing by the way i never quite realized the magnitude. Of my lame horror obsession until i found myself staring at a movie one night featuring a giant white poodle. Wreaking havoc on an unsuspecting town i believe this movie cost about $5 and a ham sandwich to produce. Poor dog keep walking off in the wrong direction. Actors worth. Obviously taking time off from their day job to create the cinematic excellence. I went you know it. I was transfixed. I loved every second of it appears my lame horror obsession knows absolutely no limits. But since i'm up here confessing. I might as well take this opportunity to admit my other secret. This one goes along nicely with my horror flick fixation. By the way this is just us talking about this will you. Well here goes. I. David ward. Believe in ghosts. True. I believe in ghosts. Just not the kind that float around and flat neon green slime against the walls like a scene ghostbusters. No the ghost i believe in are much more personal. Easily recognizable and three times as terrifying as anything shown on the movie screen. Still reside in ancient castles were cemeteries. You can't capture them with proton packs or holding traps. The horrifying reality is these ghosts reside in our hearts. Carmine's. In our souls. I called them. The ghosts of our past dumb dumb dumb. These shadowy figures contest with memories we would just as soon forget. Wonderful recollections of people we've shined or embarrassing mistakes we've made. Basically relish reliving anything to bring horror to your heart and a cry of. Can't believe i did that to your mouth. You'll be snug in your bed smiling and content from a blissfully positive day. When suddenly a goes to fly out of the closet. Bend down to your ear and softly whisper. Remember that time you treated your college roommate so badly. Now that painting that you cost. What you really screwed that up. I'm sure he's still recovering from. He's hunting sleeves you shivering between the sheets and longing from one of those silly hollywood ghost the simply rearranges furniture prize eggs on the counter. Personally i battled a number of these ghosts from my past and i'm guessing that you have to. Through the years i've learned to deal with these hunting's although it has not been easy. I found the secret lies in humility. Confession. And a whole army of loving support. That's where you fine folks come in. You beautiful unitarian universalists you the type of loving support needed to silence these pesky ghosts is located inside these very walls. And lovingly wrapped within the fairy hearts and souls that make up our beloved uu family. Each day i grow more grateful to for this community of spiritual seekers dedicated to nurturing souls and helping to heal the world. Tirelessly striving not only to help people discover their true spiritual path. But also to find their best selves. Achieve a happiness they may not have even thought possible. I benefited tremendously from this face. Judging by the smiling faces in this room. I'm guessing a number of you have benefited as well. Okay. Enough kumbaya for now. In the spirit of the hour. I got a spooky ghost story for you. Seattle just watch lane ghost movies. I lived in baby but i like to think it's my calling her something to protest. Anyways you're ready. I recently embarked on a terrifying ghost busting mission of my own. I returned to pocatello idaho. The side of my alma mater. And in my eyes one of the most haunted places on earth. You see there's a ghost floating through the gate city. Extremely scary supernatural entity that is. Actually quite handsome if you ask me. Looks just like me. Only quite a bit younger and with a lot less gray in his hair. How about friend of mine likes to say the gray hair is a sign of wisdom so i like to think a lot less wisdom in my hair. I lived in pocatello several years ago. While attending idaho state university. I continue to reside there while my wife april who sang this morning. Turned her master's degree. I spent six memorable years in pocatello. And like most people's college years. This time of my life can best be described as a little good. A lot of bad. Pinch of ugly ugly part that breathes life into my ghost. Set them free to roam among the streets and spend ample time hunting various alcohol establishments. Let's just say i spent a lot of time honoring merle haggard classic line i think i'll just sit here and drink while i. Well i live there. I was in my early twenties. Bulletproof and i knew everything. All you had to do is ask me. Young thug is probably the most accurate description of me in those days. I honestly thought the world revolved around my brand new leather jacket. People were just dying to hear me a spouse my wisdom on everything from. The evil of organized religion. Keep in mind i didn't know what are you you want back then. 42 the reason the water never actually starts boiling while you're staring directly at it. House drinking a lot back then remember. I was a piece of work. Notorious for saying hey i'll call you soon and we'll do something. I never actually picking up the phone. I made an art form out of saying awful things behind people's backs. And i wasn't above cracking rather hurtful. Jokes in front of my own spot unsuspecting victims. I thought i was being hilarious. Looking back now i realize i was just being a. Pain in the you-know-what. Gives me the heebie-jeebies thinking about it. My greatest regrets. Dancing at my ghost most relishes reliving. Involve my former boss at the idaho state journal newspaper. I decided that i do not care for him one bit. Mainly because he had the audacity to believe that i in fact did not know everything. Consider the question my brilliance and reprimanded me for my cocky behavior. Well one night i happened to see him standing in line at the movie theater. That was several yards away. For reasons that i to this day will never. Ever understand. I decided to yell. You are such a. And then i use the word that rhymes with. The grass mole. Can i said this loud enough so that my boss was sure to hear me. Not surprisingly my dear old boss whipped around had steam coming out of his ears. He started shuffling right toward me. I simply strolled out of the theater. Which one i think back now was sickening swagger. Please know that this incident. Haunts me every single day. It devastates me everytime i think about it. I would give anything to go back. And change this little bit of my history. Take away those angry words before they ever had a chance to leave my mouth. Blasted. It just doesn't work that way. Returning to the scene of the crime. Was an extremely difficult and emotional experience for me. There i stood face-to-face with my ghost after several years. Forced to confront my fears once and for all. Breakthrough the mistakes of the past and begin the slow crawl toward understanding. And forgiveness. We all enjoyed hauntings from our past. Somewhere not nearly as a thing as the ones i'm sharing with you this morning. But some might be much more painful and life-altering. It is important to remember however that these hauntings are only reflections of the past. Yes they are terrifying. But they have absolutely no bearing on the present or the future. The best thing you can do. Is acknowledge the pain. Admit the guilt. Can use these hauntings as learning tools for the future. You might say to yourself. Choose how i acted in that situation. Here's the incredibly. Result that came out because of it. Perhaps i would be wise not to make that decision again. Sounds logical right. Always remember that life is one long and glorious journey. I'm sure you'll agree that the right is anything but smooth. Their ups. Third downs. And there are enough twists and turns to keep that excitement following. We all need to cherish this wonderful gift the unnamable powers-that-be have bestowed upon us. The good. The bad. And yes even the ugly. It's all connected. And i daresay. It's all beautiful. I'm sure you remember you you a moderator genie quarters rousing sermon on our fellowship a few months ago. Cheap pointed out how much do you use cannot agree on whether there is life after death. But all of us can agree that there is definitely. Death after life. A slogan for you use with states. We are all going to die. Have you left yet. Part of this living includes making mistakes. Some mistakes are dreadfully embarrassing and worthy of hunting status. Yeah we all need to search our hearts and seek forgiveness. In a perfect world we would find each person we have offended and beg for mercy. A real life often doesn't allow this. The real key is forgiving yourself. And the reason is simple. If you can't forgive yourself. Nobody else will. Joshua lost leaving rights. We achieve inner health only through forgiveness. The forgiveness not only of others but also of ourselves. And a wonderful poem by sri chinmoy adds to this thing. Forgive. You will have happiness. Forget. You will have satisfaction. Forgive and forget. You will have everlasting peace within. And without. The time has come to seize the pain. Cast it out of your heart forever. Make fruit for healing. Make room for love. Him. A lot has transpired since my dreadful night at that movie theater. I've accumulated a significant amount of. Wisdom in my hair i've matured over the years. The powers-that-be somehow saw fit to place me in charge of a child. Thankfully i haven't let them down yet. And most importantly. For the first time in my life i've discovered the truly saving grace within a loving trusting and genuinely caring community. I realize now that last journey is not a solo ride. It's meant to be shared with others. Around four years ago i discovered this uufa. I have no concept of religious community and my burns were locked deep inside my soul. It wasn't long though before i realize it. I was unleashing those burdens. Informing gracefully with in the loving arms of my spiritual family. Caribou. We are so fortunate to have a community where all our troubles are shared. Our hearts are open. And our lives are accepted. You and your ghosts. Are accepted. .. The real beauty emerging from my ghostbusting adventure in the gate city. Who's meeting all of the wonderful souls at the pocatello unitarian universalist fellowship. Basking in the warmth the truly kindred spirits. Feeling their love and their support. That was truly a gift from the holy that i will treasure forever. Do you want to know something. When i finally confronted my ghost. Really saw him for the first time. I thought through that arrogance in that swagger. I look directly in the eyes. And you know what i saw. Fear. I saw a young man thrust into adulthood and scared to death. The young man harboring tremendous loneliness and a feeling that he just doesn't. Fit in among his peers. Colossal in search of a home. Play i could have used you guys back then. But after recognizing my goes for what he truly is. Scared soul consistently making bad choices. I no longer felt fear. I actually felt a little empathy. Not for the horrible choices that i was making at that time. Before the confused young man that i was. I am now able to understand. And forgive. All thanks to you. I hope you will join me in vanquishing the ghosts of the past. It's tearing your sights on a friday future ahead. Choosing your right to be new. Again. Liberating. I'd like to close this morning with a beautiful poem composed by a rather. Underrated writer. I found it. Author unknown has produced some terrific work over the years and this poem is no exception. It is entitled forgiveness. And it speaks to the very heart of our uu principle of acceptance of one another and encouragement to the spiritual growth in our congregations. To forgive. It's not to forget. To forgive. Is really to remember that nobody is perfect. But each of us stumbles when we want so much to stay upright. But each of us says things we wish we had never said. Then we can forget we can all forget that love. Is more important. Them being right. To forgive is really to remember that we are so much more than our mistakes. They were often more kind and caring. Accepting another's flaws can help us except our own. To forgive is to remember that the odds are pretty good that we might soon need to be forgiving ourselves. Life sometimes gives us more. Then we can handle gracefully. To forgive is to remember that we have room in our hearts. To begin again. And again. And again. So the next time your goes comes floating out of the closet in the dead of night. Don't cower under the sheets set up straight. Wrap your arms around its ghostly body. Intelligent hobbit. Fixari floss and all. Now if you'll excuse me. Thursday friday the 13th marathon on today then i simply must tend to it. Somebody's got to warn those kids to stay out of the cellar.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20130929.mp3

As a good. Future. Unitarian universalist. I woke up one sunday morning when i was 13 and told my father. That i absolutely refuse to go to church that day. The battle that ensued. And has assumed near-miss proportions and family lore. The final and keefak in this tale my father never forgot. Is that one. My father was a man of. Strongwell. But he was also a man of deep. Integrity unfairness. And although he never expected his daughter to develop quite such an independent spirit. She could not deny that i had right and reason on my side. My older brothers had his school 4 years. I knew i was old enough to make such decisions for myself. And sunday school at the church we sporadically attended was meaningless to me. Dad cannot deny the righteousness of my car. I stayed home that sunday. And the rest that follow. For nearly 25 years. Now i am not. Advocating here. And he should not have to go to sunday school. Not at all. Advocating is that that sunday school have meaning and purpose for kids and ashley. Cuz part of the problem was that my father would wake up on sunday morning and decide he wanted to go to church and it was fairly random. But it's not that my family was ever really terribly religious. My mother's atheism was always the strongest family. And it turns out that my dad only went to the presbyterian church of my childhood because the reverend. Remember i thought grandfatherly walter cronkite sort of a man. Used to work the civil rights movement into just about every sermon he preached. Dad enjoyed the twitching and barry white. Suburb of detroit. It is one of the most remarkable pieces in my spiritual journey. That my parents and i found unitarian-universalism. Almost. Simultaneously. And independently of each other. We don't remember talking about it until we had all been to a service. Three very different people. I'm very different paths. All unitarian universalist. And proud of it. My mother. First a lapsed catholic and it lasts an ardent atheist. My father. And open-minded if sometimes grumpy agnostic. And me. The journalist. Turn to teacher and finally and surprisingly to all of us. Minister. I learned intellectual independence and integrity from both parents. And yet i always yearned for something more. Something deeper and wider. That would hold off. In this religious movement. Wide enough to embrace us in our differences. We all found home. And at least for my mother and me finding this home was transforming. I have found. That i. Don't have to be good. Do not have to walk on my knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. I don't even need to repent. In order to find salvation. And my mother. My mother has at last found her place. In the family of things. And the congregations we found were about as different as they could be. My parents belonged to a small humanist fellowship north carolina which met for a lecture every other sunday. It was called. I kid you not it is called. The thermal belt unitarian universalist fellowship and i attended services at the first unitarian church of oakland. Where services included. Sermons meditation prayer ritual music. And many many ways the name holy. And yet something about this face tradition to all of us deeply. Even after my youthful rebellion i felt myself drawn to churches. Grand cathedral small chapels off-the-beaten-path. I can always go by and check if the door was open. Unlocked is it was i slip inside and. Fila sense of quiet peace. I would enter quietly. Knowing i didn't really belong. And i sit silently in a few and afraid that someone might think i was actually praying. I didn't belong. And i knew it. Adjust for moment i could share in something peaceful. And mysterious. I felt like such an outsider. And yet i had such a profound longing to belong. I remember once going to a small church in medieval france. I remember looking up and seeing the deep blues and reds. It was a blazing bright hot july afternoon and the church was cool and dark. And peaceful. As i sat there. Someone began to play the organ. Music filled the sanctuary. For just a moment i had a vision of what it must have been like. Baby alive centuries earlier. How it must have felt to come and sit and rest from the heat of the harvest in this cool dark place. And listen to such music. That alone would have been a direct enough experience of god to keep someone going the other six days of the week. And. I could see how it might work for those other people long ago or even today but but but not for me. I was far too secular. And besides i was too repelled by the narrow self-righteous and too often even hateful christian fundamentalism that is so loud and our culture. If that was religion i wanted none of it. Through those years i i battled an existential.. Existential despair. And depression with therapy. I found some truth inhaling there are certainly enough to be functional in the world and find some happiness. Yet true peace seemed beyond my reach. I admired even envied people of great faith. But i knew that i was uniquely disqualified. Even when i visited churches. Perhaps especially when i visited churches i always felt my nose prostitute the glass. With no way in. I couldn't name it then. I kind of salvation. A liberation from my despair. Liberation that went deeper than psychology or personal growth book. Salvation that spoke to my soul in a language that i could hear. And it still sounds try to me. But when i first walked into the church in oakland. I knew almost instantaneously. That i had come home. Home to what. I wasn't entirely sure but i knew i had found a vessel which would hold and honor my search. Aspect a place vicious enough to heal inspire and yes save. Even me. The literal meaning of the hebrew word for salvation in the old testament is. To bring into a spacious environment. It's not lovely it's so unladen with all that other baggage that we add on the gets added on to salvation. To bring into a spacious environment. There are so many agents of salvation in the world. Poetry for instance it was about the same time that i first heard mary oliver's poem wild geese. I was told. You do not have to be good. And suddenly. My world was more spacious. I don't have to be good i only have to bring my authentic self to the world. I only have to share my story and listen to yours. And now i found myself in a church that welcomes. That's my story. Gave me room to explore the spiritual. A place that indeed saved me. And that's what it did for my mother as well. She founded her fellowship. The first true home sheets. Never. And yet her experience has been profound. Her journey. What's so different from mine. Betty ford an wrote the feminine mystique about my mother. She never experienced the kind of domestic bliss promised to housewives in the 50s and 60s. She never could find happiness in white jeans for a tidy home and she been born 10-15 years later. Honestly should have been a forensic anthropologist she's fascinated by dead bodies. But in her time she suffered from depression. A chronic and enervating depression if he has battled longer than i have known her. Fart so much of her life mom has felt out of place and homeless. Realized she was an atheist when she was 8 years old. And immediately knew that. 8 year old. But yet not quite precocious enough to realize that if there is no god there probably is no he'll either. Just felt guilty. Alien in her family and in the world. So when she first went to the fellowship in north carolina she had her defenses he was loaded for bear. She stuck her hand out to the first person who greeted her and said. To which the woman grief. That was the moment. My mom. Found her place in the family of things. The simple fact of finding an accepting community. Everything for her. This faith tradition called her imagination and her spirit at a retreat several years ago now she found herself up until 2 in the morning trying to find. Fashion a definition of spirituality. She could live with. Who became president. And even tried to introduce more spiritual element into their services and singing hymns. Apparently it was a bit of a tough nut to crack. And ask for the grumpy agnostic. My dad remained an open heart hearted increasing with open-minded increasingly open-hearted questioner. A northern retiree in the south he relished at last having an answer to the perennial question. So what church do you go to. That's some of his friends called it. The better than nothing church was my dad i had always thought of myself as so different from my parents politically spiritually. They were children of the depression and and i'm a boomer. My father loves. Ronald reagan. And i supported the revolution in nicaragua. My mother believes completely in the paradigm of scientific inquiry as a path to truth. I. Once paid actual money to a woman who channeled my questions to an astral being. Android answers. And here we all landed accord. In the same. Tradition. What i have come to understand is that each of us to this tradition we share. The values my parents caught me without my realizing it. Independence of thought. An openness of mind and spirit a willingness to learn and grow. A commitment to justice. Equity and compassion. And paradoxically. The fake that welcomes my mother as an atheist. Gave me back god. Finally i find a place where my side questions about what is holy and sacred didn't seem so off-the-wall. I could never understand the patriarchal judgmental and punishing god. Find a sense of holiness enriched my life. Questions without feeling foolish. No i do not believe in a god that intervenes in human history or a god that even answers prayers. And yet this was a place where i could wear what i mean as god could be so much bigger than that. And i could enter it. And. Live in it and threw it and with it in a way. That changed my life. Clearly. Here i am today. There are so many paths. Just foundation. This grand diversity we embrace. Creates an ongoing tension among us. It is a wide and brace. That stretches at all. Yet it holds so many of us together. Atheist steve's christian food is pagans jews. Too many varieties of agnostics to count. Even the atheists diagnostic and the minister in my own family. And all of you here today. We have gathered in a spirit of loving acceptance of ourselves each other. And of our differences. Is this. Community. We're not so diverse it is unlikely she would be able to call it. Best vis wine and brace makes for a creative in creative tension. And that's all. Get it also very easily descends into a kind of defensiveness and contraction. I cannot tell you. How much is statins made. When i hear someone say their perspective. Their experience. Their belief system. Doesn't feel fully welcome in our congregation. Atheist. Hotel me there non-belief. Scorned. Unitarian universalists christians who filled with the message of jesus is match with unfriendly silent. For the person who embraces science and rationality and experience of unity and oneness. That they can only describe as mystical. A speaking of it experience is dismissed. Magical thinking. We would do well to remember the words that gwendolyn brooks. Our earth is round. And among other things that means that you and i can hold completely different points of view. Both. Bi-rite. I have heard those who call themselves atheists. Which is the very way i described god. So much of this is about our experience. And how we named our experience. What. If we took not a defensive stance. But one of curiosity. What do you mean when you say you believe in god we might ask. Tell me what it means to you. For my favorite. What does a rational mystic look like. The difference of our positions will show stars in your window. I cannot even imagine. We all corner the universe each in our own way. And all of our corners maybe that's as part of the problem. That we have in our wide and bryce's that we're just a bunch of different corners. Time to come together. Now i have said. And i mean this firmly that i never want to serve at church where my mother. Would not feel welcome. To me cuz her homecoming was so profound. Where my mother would not feel welcome my mother the atheist and yes. My mother is a republican. Although that is a sermon for another day. And yet mom is not such an ardent atheist that she never wants to hear the word god she just doesn't want it if cosigner. She has an open stance and even some tree ocity about her. So my dad was for mortuary. We need to be able to respect and be curious about each other's corner of the sky. And the open to learning. Not to denigrate others or feel somehow threatened that they believe differently. Wherever we come from. We need to remember that we can hold completely different points of view and both be right. Remember.. Or believe alike. Helluva like. And remember that we come together not because we share beliefs. But because we share value. Valuing reason intolerance. Valuing human dignity. Valuing questioning questioning. And an open spirit. Valuing justice and equity. Valuing compassion and kindness. Valley way. From however we corner. The sky. We come together to create a beloved community. And that means our embrace has to be wide enough to encompass the many corners of this guy. And if we are doing our work well. If we are living. By these values. If you were atheist or buddhist or christian or jewish or simply to confuse to carry a label. It will not matter. If you are. Gay straight democrat-republican black white hispanic native-born or immigrant. It will not matter. Our embrace is wide. So why distresses us almost constantly. Because of that whip. Because of the width of that embraced we can offer a spiritual home. To those who might otherwise find none. Because of this we also have the strength. And power. To embrace. To heal. And yes to save. Together. Together the pain of our aloneness is blackened. And we may find home. We may fine. Our plant in the family estates. And black.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20100711.mp3

I've had a continuing dialogue on social change. Since he arrived in boise two years ago. We've also had many discussions about the fellowship. And being unitarian. This morning we hope to bring those conversations together. And of course we hope that what we have to say will have some meaning in your own faith journey. For those of you don't know anthony is my nephew my sister's son. We grew up in the same house in pennsylvania i did live there since seventh grade and he grew up there is whole life so. We were both raised with a strong dose of unitarianism. Which has been influential in our lives. And our life directions. I want to say before i started any presentation like this one that's focusing on our second principle. Maybe you're a little into the political. So we'll ask forgiveness at the beginning. We have tried to ground it heavily and uu principles which we believe compel us to take action. To make those prince.of.bel principles manifest in the world. We taking a lot from this nifty little book. Call dar seven principles and story in verse by a union minister named ken collier. I'm so i want to acknowledge that upfront. We are all in this together. I think that pretty much wraps up our second principle. It is the radical notion that the words value and dignity of each person. Is as important as sacred as one's own. As principal cause us to act for justice equity and compassion in human relations. Reverend collier says that our second principal really comes down to love. How can we compassion how can we be compassionate except in love. How can we uphold the inherent worth and dignity of all our first principle. And failed to support justice equity and compassion. The source of justice as inner peace of equity as existential commitment. And of compassion is the ability to suffer with another is simply love. This love is nothing but understanding understanding the inherent worth and dignity of all people. The second uu principles wedding expression the first. Justice equity and compassion are different names for the same thing. And that thing. Is love. He begins with plato's ideas about justice includes the justice is not primarily a matter of the political state. Instead he said yes is matter of the heart. Only adjust people can create and maintain adjust state. Better understanding bring us brings us to the concept of equity. Equity. Is the understanding that no one deserves privilege. And that the worst value and dignity of each person is as important in a sacred as one's own. Justice and equity or twins. Justice beanie internal state and equity. Being the manifestation of internal commitment. There is no justice without equity. And there is no equity. Without compassion. Reverend collier place has the second principle in the context of continuing struggles for justice in the united states. As he says. The struggle is not over. As soon as slavery was abolished in this most overt form it was reinstituted in more subtle forms. The deeper issues were racism in class hatred. And the unequal distribution of wealth opportunity empower. Which we still struggle with. And this list is not complete. To it we have to add sexism. Heterosexism and homophobia. Ageism ableism in a whole host of behaviors and attitudes for which there is no name. But which prevent people from understanding that all are equal in worth dignity. And inherent moral and spiritual value. Justice a lot and it worked for equity. It is mayuyu calling. I feel driven by my belief in the inherent worth and dignity of all people. Which i think is the same as being our brother's keeper. Or being created in the image of god. Parenthetically. God to me is a way of expressing what is best in each of us. How could we devalue our brother or sister or someone else. Like me. Or like you. Who was created in the image of god. When we get that. It becomes clear that we are actually call in this together. I suppose i fundamentally believe that our system has broken broken as it seems sometimes. Can be used for the betterment of all of us. That is to achieve justice equity and compassion are human relations. I've seen it. I've seen substantial change in the world and this country since i was a kid. Anarchy cats won't fit. Morning. Exposures in turkish culture community groups and projects in denver as well. Open my mind and life philosophy. This is very different from the indoctrinated thinking and teachings of our culture at large. Emma goldman a prominent woman anarchist organizer in the us during the early 1900's to find anarchism sh. The philosophy of a new social order based on liberty unrestricted. The theory that all forms of government rest on violence and are therefore wrong and harmful as well as unnecessary. Call my reference and analyze other grapevine emerson. All government innocence is tyranny of majority rule in every instance. On the contrary and organizing is rooted in the recognition of each person within the community as unique individual. Does my personal driver change focus on empowering the individual and encouraging connections to inspire a supportive community. Regarding justice colliers primarily how one lives. It will not be a just stay in the matter how it treats its criminals or distributes at 12. Creating grassroots projects without the approval of the state. The liberation movement is building communities and encouraging individuals. Education collier points out is a matter of creating human beings people whose death. Indignity are respected. Supported and developed as well as as fully as possible. The most empowering notion ever related to me is the idea that you don't need to have the solutions in order to discuss the problems at hand. This is the basis from which i question the status quo. Well i can't say exactly what anarchy looks like i know that today is collective actions towards building. So how do we build a land. That creates peace and justice and equity. How do we create a beloved community. Where justice flows down like waters. And peace like an ever-flowing stream. As our final him will say. I used to think it was through the law. Is there at high school and college i assumed that would be the role i would play in the world. I watched a lot of those lawyer shows in the 60s and 70s. When lawyers were fighting for the good in that supreme court settled most settled major cases for civil rights and human dignity. At least that's what i thought. Over 30 years ago i came i came to idaho for a year between college and law school and got waylaid. I came here as a community organizer paid by vista volunteers in service to america. In burley idaho. We're rabble-rousing was not necessarily in style. But but the need was great in that work i spend a lot of time with legal aid attorneys. Provided relief. Sometimes it did. Lots of times to lock couldn't help. Attorney now a judge. Reminded me of what should have been obvious. He suggested that i should look for justice in the law. Just think about who makes laws he said. And at the time looking at some of the local politicians we were dealing with and having had a little taste of the idaho legislature i had to agree. So after all i did not become a lawyer. Instead i worked as an organizer in burley for the first eight years i was in idaho and then for most of the next 20 i've. Work for organizations committed to social change in idaho working as an organizer and lobbyist. Way before any of that though my first political activity. Was delivering eugene mccarthy flyers and i'm in in in our neighborhood for my mom in 1968. My dad on the other hand was a firm supporter of hubert humphrey that year. In 1968 there was a big political spectrum did 1968 mccarthy came to houston where we live. A big crowd gathered to see him and i remember spending most of the time trying to get closer. So i could see him. I'm being about 11 years old i think i was more into the glitz and glamour than what he had to say. Despite all of that. As you know richard nixon was elected anyway. I really can't say too 1970s when change just seem to be in the air. Rallies and marches for ps4 quality we're part of the ether. Do you fellowship we attended in houston. Full of wwii vets. Struggled over vietnam. My dad worked for one of the warrant already startups and so i say fortunately. I was exposed to the grave injustice has of segregation and ongoing racism once legal apartheid was outlawed. I pretty much believe that rally's march is boycott. Could bring about any chance we could imagine. Have to say i basically forgot what a great look like for a while. If you remember that. We've been boycotted school lunches when i was in the seventh grade. Until we got chocolate milk. And some improvement in the quality food. I'm pretty sure that a little to do with justice. It started my thinking on the importance of people organizing for power. Organizing to make a difference in college st lawrence university in upstate new york as most fervent about the. About the environment and energy policy. We were actively anti-nuclear. Uniting with local dairy farmers to oppose the building of large towers in high-voltage transmission lines intended to carry power from nuclear plants built along the st. lawrence river. We theorize about decentralised energy and economies independent of large corporator country or governmental control. I figured we had killed nuclear power after three mile island guess i was a little naive. I was exposed to classical play tackle theory from play tony chi marks and later at abby after i got out of college i became a student of gandhi and paulo freire. Where i feel like i mostly remain today. I was born and raised in northeast pennsylvania. Dallas was a very comfortable relatively privileged area lacking cultural and ethnic diversity. Oriented arrangement of neighborhood spreading out around a small town center. In this generally conservative normal american town natality. My mother rodger sister instilled in me many of the principles and values that she carried from her family. As i would learn years later. My father represented some sort of libertarian thinking wrapped in small-town america basically food taxes and government control. My early education took place in a montessori environment which is perfect for me reading writing and arithmetic were regarded and taught is to. I was encouraged to pursue my passions and to explore learning. In the small-school i was giving personal attention and regarded as a human being by my teachers. This style of education along with the support of a loving home license very young age. For middle school i transferred to the dallas public education system where i would stay until graduation in 2001. Through these years i remained myself self-identifying as a skateboarder as early as 7th grade. So we're 1996 skateboarding was quite different than it is today. Here's a subculture of kids who didn't otherwise fit together. As we grew together we also grew into our unique selves. The links formed within the north-east gate crew has family roots. Connections we shared experiences of harassment. Together we endured countless speeches from cops about private property detailing fictitious legal risk for property owners a personal system. Upon graduating high school i left a small wyoming valley for the closest big city philadelphia. In philly i attended drexel university. With 10,000 student population and no real campus to speak of. However the biggest shock for me by black people. Is my first exposure to any ethnic or racial diversity. Let alone drexels location being in west philadelphia area. My understanding of this was strictly surface-level disregarding social differences. After two years attending drexel. And pursuing a degree in digital media. Being quite overwhelmed by the big city. I chose graphic design because i had started to see how prevalent it was in our culture and visual communication is. I also decided that for the colorado from home. When i arrived at the rocky mountain college of art and design creative thinkers. Assistance organization for functions. Through copwatch i began working with a more diverse community. In northeast pennsylvania the focus was more about you and everyone else to the same which really doesn't make sense. This is my early introduction to the concepts of solidarity and autonomy and contrast. Gandhi called his life story experiments in truth. Reflecting his humble for you that he could seek truth. But only glimpse glimpse it through various practices. That approximated how he saw it. My own experiences far-less impacting the gandhi's. Feel to like experiments. Let's say injustice equity compassion love. Working with anthony on this piece i was reminded about how history is written. Even when it's wrong. Haven't had more years to succeed and fail i wrote my part focused on success and skimmed over the failures and struggle coming all this work. I got to compress you know when i think about being anthony's age working in burley. Spending lots of my time knocking doors talking to people making slow progress on neighborhood and disability rights issues i remember that their work is not always glorious. I learned a lot about what i didn't know about myself. The community's culture my own prejudices about poverty. Working for changes a slow slog. Filled with disappointments. But i always but i've always been rich by working alongside people whose lives are changed even by taking the first steps to speak out whether or not we changed the law or policy. Changing oil our government practice may have lasting effect. But the real change happens as people become empowered and work together. I felt people organized around a wide variety of issues in idaho large and small. Healthcare and utility practices rights and access for people with disabilities. Minimum wage and improved practices for farmworkers fair taxation and corporate tax breaks. We're coming up on the 20th anniversary of the americans with disabilities act that created greater civil rights for people with disabilities. In pre 88 days of the 1980s i work with people with disabilities to gain access to public places. Starting in burley. And we had to go curb cut by curb cut building by building. Early early one morning in the summer of 1989. We blockaded the city hall in burley that had two flights of steps and no elevator. After a protracted fight involving both more political action. And legal wranglings the city building disabilities. We got a new city hall. But when i think about it i think about john martindale. Leaving his wheelchair at the bottom of those old steps on the sidewalk. I'm crawling up those steps. Toupees utility bill. That building man equity. In early 90s we're pushing for big changes in healthcare and there's a lot of excitement around the issue both in idaho in nationally. We've been put forward a single-payer bill called idaho. It actually made it to the floor of the idaho senate in 1992. Check it out. By 1993 and winning votes in 1993 and for the momentum for comprehensive reform had stalled in our organizing focused on medicaid expansion and changes in. Yeah changes in the county medical assistance programs but not enough progress. The present effort at comprehensive reform takes a major step. Inequity of our healthcare system. But there will be more to do. In the mid-to-late eighties we started the group called the boise coalition for central america that focused on us intervention in el salvador nicaragua. Being a long way from dc we decided to create a sister-city relationship with one of the small repopulated communities. That were being created in el salvador is that country was beginning to come out of the worst phases of their long and brutal war. Similarly to how members of booth who are over there now or visiting sq we raise money for the projects. Same similar tips on what to that members of the coalition went down tell salvador. Just named after one of the jesuit priests who was murdered by the salvadoran military. As i say i thought of myself as a gandhian in the way i've approached social change. When i went to el salvador 1991. That belief was tested. Is i saw the side of where by dre lea cody and five other priests were killed. Walked into the church where archbishop romero was gunned down heard the stories of repression. And years of life in refugee camps. Korea two children had been killed by helicopter gunship shortly before i was there. In our continuing dialogue. Especially over the last couple of years anthony i've talked a lot about the use of violence in to achieve just dance. About the use of violence to achieve justin's. I always argue to means-ends distinction. Be the change you want to see in the world. He argues that while it's not a first-choice there may be times when it's necessary to use violence to and repression. In el salvador was hard for me not to feel like that sometimes. For the government. That killed its own people. Even though speaking peaceful rest resolution. When i think of that original meaning of compassion. The willingness to suffer with another. I also felt some of the rage. Did the salvadorans felt toward their oppressors. I come back to my belief and non-violence. But with a deeper understanding of the forces that could lead us there. Give me the store more violent solutions stare in a quest for justice. Beginning late 1990s we build a campaign to get farm workers including the minimum wage. That campaign was amazing for all the creativity. That was used in base building that was done. 33 years we used. About every tactic we could think of march's rally's fast lobby days. An overnight at the capital on a cold february night. A bird-dogging operation we called direct action kempthorn a group of students even sat in on the senate floor and several were arrested. Comedian lots of other folks kept telling us that week would never win. But we did. Now we are one of just a handful of states and include farmworkers in their minimum wage law. Many many boofer's were involved in that effort in the fellowship was the starting point for one day of the march from canyon county to the capitol. Over the next few months we helped develop a more representative legislative district plan and passed legislation improve farm labor practices. We felt like we're on the cusp of making real progress on latino an immigrant issues in idaho when the attacks of 9/11 occurred and set the efforts back substantially. There was a living breathing community of resistance in denver. The derailleur bicycle collective a project intended to give everyone free access to bicycles in the knowledge to maintain them with a warehouse. Unlike the boise bicycle project derailleur didn't require a working trade or monetary contribution. Denver branch of food not bombs is another example of an organized group of individuals. Food not bombs provides food. For free. To everyone. The food is procured either through dumpster diving. Is unprepared in the collective homes kitchen and distribution. Beanies working models and drawing influence from malcolm x. And i were inspired community project in 2007. And so was born the short-lived flash-in-the-pan infoshop unity. I won't go into detail but after about 6. At the end of the project. The interactions are beside the point. After unity close its doors i personally felt hurt and rejected by denver's anika's community. At first i wrote it off as a series of events. Not knowing what to do and not wanting to move back to pennsylvania i relocated to boise idaho. I spent more than a year living with them primarily focused on reflection and re-evaluation of the events that transpired in denver. In the class i saw my inspired privilege college-educated. I saw the rejection of me turn into frustration that i took out that i took out of my friends who are like me. I judge myself. Parsley. And i jet and therefore i was serious judgy pants towards my friends. I was consumed by anger and frustration i didn't understand what was wrong but i knew i wasn't happy and as a result i was mad. Series of events that happened in colorado. Dissected re-evaluated thought and process the failures in fallout 3. I embrace the feelings of embarrassment confusion hurt sadness. Over the last two years of living in boise i've been exposed in the northwest. Experiences with these individuals houses. Real world examples to draw from that exemplify my personal morals and concepts regarding community. Currently i'm putting my principles into action in my living situation. We share our resources. Food supplies knowledge skills. In this pool resources we are training ourselves to think collectively as a whole. In this way we embody our politics house. When it comes to making decisions. Acknowledge the majority rule democratic representation empowered mass disinherit. Our house allows me to live by principles and ideals i ever have. Our food is mostly salvage the longest or purchase by taking advantage of the current food system. Current systems food stamp program. Our supplies of furniture and household boise. You need to my boise observations primarily because of the lack of radicals. The individuals who live in a federal house. The barrel house. Are all very different from each other. It is a constant exercise and balancing personal expression and respect for others environment as varied as ours. This diverse mental arena challenges everyone to fully understand and explain their position. The next step for me and boise is the direct energy and efforts of the feral house outward. In january of this year we open the boise free store. It's much like a thrift store but without money. Sorry state that no money. The project is housed in a lease i'd shed space donated by the neighbors its contents are available any time during daylight hours. Intention of the space is to promote non-capitalist while providing an alternative to the landfill. In the coming months i hope. I hope to see other forms of boise such as a local branch. Uu minister in idaho in forest church. Talked about the declaration of independence as the american creed. United expresses the idea. That all people are created equal. And endowed by the creator with certain inalienable rights. I think is another expression of our first principal in a lot of ways. It is towards this end that we strive. As as reverend church points out while the declaration says it's about all man it meant only white men. After the civil war it said it meant blackman to. It really wasn't until. You could still 1964 that there was really any meaning to that at all. In the 1920s white women. We're allowed to vote but women had to take to the streets again in the 1960s and 70s to get any real measure of equality. People with disabilities were pushed aside. And discounted regardless their talents and abilities until the passage of the ada in 1990. As forest reminds us we are working towards a more perfect union. We have not arrived. Tomato arrival will just mean another stage from which will take another step forward. It is the struggle for justice equity and compassion that matters the struggle. There's a south african song in the teal him know that i said i like align it expresses well my faith in the potential of people. Create change and the recognition that despite our careful strategy. Things will happen beyond our understanding. And so. We are going. Heaven knows where we are going and we'll get there. Heaven knows how we will get there. But we know we will. Okay so i'll just say that. I just brought all the books that i referenced with me so if anybody's interested we can talk about that. Opposition. My compassion to use its original meaning in my ability to suffer with another. It incites questions regarding equity and justice as well. Where's the justice in enjoying my conference at the expense of others. Miners toyland for the metals in our computers. Regarding compassion prominent russian writer an anarchist. This is the thinking that keeps me constantly aware that our society. Collier states need is real and shared but difference is an allusion. Stratification and patriarchy are just a few ways we created an inferior relations. These culturally health dynamics justify inequality. It is based on my analysis of the priorities of our culture. Equity and justice. Regarding the ongoing discussion between rodger and myself i often bring up the inherent violence in our daily actions. It is from this position that i view radical attempts of changes ballad. I'll be clear that violence is not a political leg to stand on. However holding peaceful discourse in the foreground with an adversary that is. Compassion helps me to step outside my privileged position and understand the european descent. The all-encompassing seventh principle. Am i understanding that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere and equal society. Long-term ongoing dialogue between rodger and me. Over the last two years we've spent a lot of time discussing. The conversation is always changing as a focus position shift and grow. We wanted to share this with the congregation not to profess our opinions as right but more to encourage you to reflect regarding your own principles and how you put them into action. Is not necessarily to come to a unit. It is not necessary to come to a unified view of utopia. In fact it might be better to embrace our differences and incorporate them in a whole spectrum of ideas. Ours is a religious movement in which we treasure and cultivate these differences is less important to us that we reach agreement with each other.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20080608.mp3

Good morning. Highest veladoras. Consider the hummingbird for a long moment. A hummingbird's heart. Beats. 10 times a second. A hummingbird's heart. Is a size of a pencil point. A hummingbird's heart. Is most of the hummingbird. Highest veladoras. Flying jewels. The first white explorer to the americas called them. And the white man has never seen such creatures. For hummingbirds came into the world only in the americas. Only here. Nowhere else in the universe more than 300 species of them worrying and zooming and nick touring and hummer time zones nine times removed from mars. Their hearts hammering faster than we could clearly hear war elephantine ears pressed to the infinitesimal chest. What an active and dynamic church this is. You can come here almost anytime of the day or evening at 5 to school with people and committees. Taskforces classes book discussions covenant groups worship and meditation. You can hear serious conversations laughter. At times weeping. Singing in music. And children playing. You may have noticed that almost everyone who comes through our doors leaves with either a smile on their face. Or look of contentment or enlightenment. For excitement. And this is a place people want to come back to. And they do. Did you see the results of a pew study i believe in february that showed three to five percent of the american population claimed be unitarian universalist. That comes to around 1 million people. The strange thing is we only have 200,000 people on a rolls. This shows there are many more people who feel that our face speaks to them and for them then come through our doors. They are the ones we need to welcome and make room for in our congregations. Are many reasons people are attracted to our liberal religion religious movement but one of the most important. Is we're always making room. For those who are marginalized in our society. Those who were rejected by other religions. Because of their. Resistant to irrelevant tradition. Oppressive hierarchy and irrational face. Those who insist the truth cannot be not monopolize by any religion and those were kicked out of sunday school classes are ostracized by friends or family because they dared. To doubt. To ask questions. Instead of simply accepting others answers. We are always making room. And this is why many of us are going to terry and universalist. We are always making room. A possibilities. For what can happen. If we allow it to. For hope in a brighter future. Michael mcgee read the essay read a written by brian doyle called voice veladoras. As you heard in our reading that's a scientific name for hummingbirds. Or flying jewels. Now that sounds more like poetry than science. But it couldn't be a more apt name. The rev mcgee and his wife have a friend he'll garden but attract hummingbirds in the summer. And whenever one of them spots one they yell to the other hummer on the butterfly bush or hammer on the liberties. And whatever they doing they stopped and the gays out of the closest window to spot the flasher beauty flitting from flower to flower. Or i see hummingbird. We are momentarily lifted up out of a daily routine. Place of hope. If the earth could make such flying jewels. Then all can't be so bad. Doyle tells us. The hummingbirds visit. 1000 flowers a day. Second dive at 60 miles an hour. They can fly backwards. They can fly more than 500 miles without pausing to rest. Hummingbirds also have incredible enormous immense ferocious metabolisms. Royal k but they pay the price for that's fast-paced lifestyles. It's expensive to fly. Your burnout. Your fries machine. You melt the engine. Every creature on earth has approximately. 2 billion heart beats in a lifetime. You can spend them slowly like a tortoise. I live to be 200 years old. Or you can sit in them fast like a hummingbird. I live to be two years old. 2 billion heartbeats. 2. Billion. Heartbeat. The question for you this morning. Is how do you wish to use your two billion heartbeat. Hummingbirds use their tar pits to do what comes naturally to them. Their dna programs to shoot across the skies and disip nectar from every flower they come across. Their beauty is a living their true nature. I'm so is ours. Many people believe that human nature is to be selfish and egocentric. It's every man for himself. The fittest survive while the week. Wither away. But the evidence points to the opposite conclusion. Set our natural inclination is to be generous. And altruistic. Did you know that charitable giving in the us. Is about 300 billion dollars a year. And you can double that figure if you have the value of volunteer time given to nonprofit organizations. That makes altruistic action one of the biggest contributors to the us gross national product. Respond that these figures are not the result of true altruism. Opening up the heart. But are instead manifestations of self-interest. A sign of guilt and displaced neuroses. Or perhaps just irrationality. But there is evidence that. No. That more and more people respond to the pain and promise of the world out of a sense of what's called. Creative altruism. Creative altruism has been defined as the innate capacity for unselfish service to others motivated by love. It's creative altruism the moves away from her clothes darts that always asks. What's in it for me. Afterwards an open-hearted us the put the center of our lives the values of community. Compassion. I'm commitment. Would these values unfold from the center of our being. They penetrated the every part of our lives. Our creativity. Our sense of morality and justice. And the way you relate to those around us. The moment we go beyond looking after number one. We begin to become transformed. Becoming more aware of the larger purpose of our lives on the floor meaning of existence. The irony is that something you strive for. As something. You grow into. Ram dass. And paul gorman point out of their book. How can i help. But the suffering of others spontaneously releases our desire to help out. What they tell us is it the natural human response in the face of pain is to care. And to heal. To respond in any other way is as unnatural as a hummingbird walking instead of flying. The reason we don't always respond to the world's pain with the caring and compassion is we are two off of blinded by our fears expectations. And personal needs. When we can free ourselves from those traps of the ego. What we could quiet the mind and open the heart. The natural tendency is to commit ourselves to service. And generosity. Stand on top of all that. Altruism is sexy. In a recent washington post and titles article entitled if it's feels good to be good it might only be natural. The author writes that recent research shows that. When volunteers place the interests of others before their own. The generosity activated a primitive part of the brain that usually lights up and responds to food or sex. Altruism the experiment suggested was not a superior moral faculty that's a present. Basic selfish urges. But rather was basic to the brain. Hardwired. And pleasurable. It does feel good to be generous. Doesn't it. Think back to the times in your life. When you've been especially. Generous. And altruistic. I would guess you wouldn't want to take back any of those experiences would you. So not only is altruism delicious and sexy. But it's also deeply religious. Giving support to the admonitions of spiritual leaders such as st. francis of assisi. Who said. Ford isn't giving. That we receive. Isn't it amazing that just as hummingbirds hardwired to dive at 60 miles an hour and a fly backwards. We are hard-wired for empathy and altruism. Our brain has a built-in compass. But as a result of evolutionary processes constantly point is to what is right and good. Compassionate. And healing. This awakening to our true nature of altruism the spirit beyond the words of albert schweitzer when he breault. I don't know what your destiny will be. But one thing i know. The only ones among you who will be truly happy. Are those who will have sought out and found how to serve. After writing about the heart of hummingbirds. Brian doyle describes the biggest hearts on our planet. Those of the blue whale. With hearts as big as rooms. He goes on to write. So much held in a heart in a life. So much held in a heart. In a day. In an hour. In a moment. You can break up your heart. Iced out. And tight. And hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can. And down it comes in an instant. Fail by a woman. Second glance. Or a child. Apple breath. Or the shattered glass on the road. Or the side of a cat. With a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to die. For the price of your mother's paperie ancient hand in the thicket of your hair. For the memory of your father's voice in the kitchen echoing as is making breakfast for you. To me this is what it means to be a unitarian universalist and the member of this church. To constantly be breaking down the walls that close off our hearts so that we may make room for the spirit of life. Of love. And compassion. We make room in many different ways. But they all have to do with service and generosity. The way that reverend mcgee and i have chosen to make room and to make a difference. Is dedicate our lives with his liberal religious movement because we believe. From the bottom of our hearts. The unitarian-universalism can be. And is. A significant force in transforming our lives and our world. I've experienced that. Breville iggy has seen the transformation and witnessed it in his church the unitarian universalist church of arlington virginia. I'm certain many of you have seen it in our own church. It makes one feel with hope when time after time to witness the difference we make and the lives of those who enter our doors and our lives. Those who are touched by so many rich and powerful ways by this congregation. As well as those who are touched bernard community. In our nation. And in places like. New orleans. Romania. And the multitude of other places and ways. We will never even know. There's an old celtic saying that. We all drink from wells we did not dig. We warm ourselves it fires we did not build. We are here in this church. Because of the many who gone before us. Their love of this church. Unitarian universalism. And of the values we promote. And we're here. To dig wells. The bill fires for those yet to come. To give them a place where they can transform their own lives and our world long after we are gone. Found lamott tells a story of a child about 7. Could wander too far from her home and had become law. She ran up and down the streets of the big town where she lived. But she couldn't find a single landmark. She was very frightened. Finally a policeman stopped to help her. He put her in the passenger seat of the car. And drove around until she finally saw her church. And then she told him firmly. You can let me out until. This is my church. And i could always find my way home from here. Yes. This is the place. And these are the people who helped us find our way home. Who helped us live by our truest nature. Add to help us open our hearts and compassion and commitment. To those who need our love and generosity. Welcome home friends. Welcome home.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20080921.mp3

Quiet. Respect. Plane. Respect. Show me something. Community lane. Referring to his wife. Listening. Usted. Call auntie anne.. Is the skin of the mysterious. Social apps. How many human. In the world. Naked. I have given up. Pride. We are here. Alone.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20090503.mp3

There's a bridge between the childhood. Between childhood and young adulthood. Here at the boise unitarian universalist fellowship we celebrate the journey over that bridge as a welcoming rite of passage. Today five of our young people are crossing that bridge and journeying toward exciting adventures. We are on the other side waiting with open hearts ready to mentor and learn from them because we all stand together on our values of love and compassion. Reminding one another that we will be there for each other even on the wildest ride. I've known people for many years. And they are truly exceptional. We're all in for a treat. I need to let you guys know that in your order of service. Young people are listed in alphabetical order they will be presenting in a different order than that and they will be telling you who they are in case you don't know. Good morning. My name is cousin rosie and let me begin by telling you a story i remember for my first day of school ending. Okay here comes a thought. I can feel the pressure building like that but popcaan ready to blow. Electron but only those nearest to me seem to notice. Yep they're all staring. Give me as i quickly. Open up quite phrase would rid me of their attention. How are the sediments into going to even walk fascination and me. It's part of me the girl next to me explain. Are british accent pronouncing syllable. But that doesn't matter you're from america she proclaimed the excitement of all the steering students around us. That was visiting my first day of stone with woodford church of england primary school. I was going in first grade there because my father and be given a job. Across the pond in bristol. Evergreen called the proper term for excuse me on that first day in a royal uniform. I became a fun for information. Observing those around me. Intrude. I wasn't much of a source of information to them as they were to me. A matter of a week or two i spoke with a british accent. Incorrect use words such as tea. Leo and willie's. Over the course of my family's two-year say i'm a lasting friendship. Travel europe. A ton of the unitarian church in bristol. And the church of england with my school. I'm going to head start in my education. Unitarian universalism has brought me up through my childhood with g values and ideals i still try to connect with in my daily life. Within the children's affirmation at states. With an open mind and open heart. Such as a mind that i try to keep throughout each day. Looking upon new ideas and opportunities with what is hopefully an unbiased side. Eva 7uu principals. The one that has influenced me the most is a lot. Respect for the interdependent web. About the sense of which we are parked. This principle applies not only to human relations. But also to our relationship with the earth. My overseas cultural exposure. Along with the best experiences and religious education. Has helped me become more observant and open-minded. I try again and again. Tell myself another shoes. And to look at the world through their eyes. That first day of school experience ultimately compelled me to ask questions about people and societies. Throughout the world and it sparked my interest in psychology and sociology. I hope to build on his unique experiences in college. Add resume my goal. Understanding the actions of diverse individuals and societies around the globe. As i've grown older and i've had the opportunity to travel to multiple countries. I realize just how important it is to maintain that first-day-of-school curiosity and awareness of the world around us. Okay hello i'm avalon owens. And i've been competitive speech for 3 years. So i'm going to do one of my speeches for you today it is an oratorical analysis which means. That i take a famous speech. And i guess parts of that speech and then i also analyze what makes it powerful and important. I took the really cool speech and i really like it because it reflects. My values and the values of his congregation. I think you'll enjoy it. Many years ago. A young jewish boy from a small town in the carpathian mountains. Woke up in a place of eternal infamy. Call buchenwald. He was finally free. But there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again. Liberated a day earlier by american soldiers. He remembers their rage at what they saw. And even if he lives to be a very old man. You will always be grateful to them. For that rage. Though we could not understand their language. Their eyes told him what he needed to know. That they too. Would remember. Elliott vista was only sixteen years old when he was taken from his home and put into a nazi concentration camp. Half a century later. After a lifetime defined by both terrible tragedies and great reversals of fortune reflection the successful author. He was invited to speak at the white house. It was 1999 and his mission was to celebrate the new millennium. But more importantly look back at everything the last century taught us. His final speech titled the perils of indifference. Was so powerful. That no one who heard it has ever forgotten. We are on the threshold of a new century the new millennium. What will the legacy of this vanishing century v. Two world wars countless civil wars a senseless chain of assassinations gandhi the kennedy's martin luther king. Bloodbaths in cambodia and nigeria india and pakistan ireland and rwanda sarajevo and kosovo ouch wits and treblinka. Hiroshima. And nagasaki. So much. Violence. So much. Indifference. One of the greatest speaking techniques b-cell uses is specificity. It's a lot harder to care about the powers of evil when they are something abstract. Some sort of ominous nebulous darkness hovering ominously in the background. Lisa love experience evil firsthand and he knows that many of us have to even if our scars aren't as visible for a steve. By naming specific incidences that many in his audience have lived through. Resale is able to bring up an everyone's mind images of concrete evil. And in doing so capture our sympathies and attention. For what he says next. What is indifference. Etymologically the word means no difference. Strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness crime and punishment. Cruelty and compassion. Good and evil. What are its courses and consequences. Is it a philosophy. Can there be a philosophy of indifference is it necessary at times simply to keep one's sanity. Live normally. Enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine as the world around us experience is heroin a people's. In this section of his feet diesel in five of his six sentences with question marks. And he continues to ask things throughout the speech proving his mastery of the rhetorical question. Most questions and answers so even if no one down below is expected to actually jump up and say something by asking questions of his audience what is indifference. Vsauce asking for involvement in our parks. He wants us to try and find answers. He wants us to think. Not just sit there and here. Basalt continuous. Of course indifference can be tempting. More than that seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such a rude interruptions to our work our dreams our hopes. It is after all awkward troublesome. To be involved in another person's pain and despair. Behind the black gates of auschwitz. The most tragic of all prisoners were called the moose online. Wrapped in their torn blankets they would sit or lie on the ground staring vacantly into space. Unaware of who or where they were strangers to their surroundings. They no longer felt pain hunger thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it. In the section of his speech the cell completely destroys the argument that indifference can be comforting. By submitting his own personal experience as evidence. Basically by telling personal stories he's able to reach out to the members of his audience and appeal to us on a person-to-person level. He's able to warn us that indifference is the lowest state of the human being. Even equal to death and it's worth making impression because he knows. He's been there. Basilico's on tuesday. In a way. To be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference after all. Is more dangerous than anger or hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem symphony one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that when witnesses. But indifference. Is never creative. Even hatred x male listener response. You fight it you denounce it you disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. So far. Resell australian packages audience by interacting with us through specific imagery rhetorical questions and personal stories. We can all agree that indifference is terrible. The only thing that's missing is some idea of how widespread this problem is. Lisa answers this question near the end of his speech and his answer becomes a powerful warning. Are only miserable consolation. Was it we believe that outfits and treblinka. We're closely guarded secrets. But the leaders of the free world did not know what was going on behind those black gates and barbed wire. If they knew we thought. Surely they would have moved heaven and earth to intervene they would have spoken out with outrage and conviction. Leading to birkenau just the railways. Just once. And now we knew. Welearn. We discovered. That the pentagon new. The state department new. The president. New. Basalt residences speech. I'm high notes. And yet my friends good things have also happen in this traumatic century. The defeat of nazism. The collapse of communism. The demise of apartheid. Does it mean that we learn from the past. Does it mean that society has changed. Has the human being. Really become less indifferent. And we're human. Once again. Resell using specificity question stories and personality to interact with his audience and move our hearts. Proving that the greatest speeches don't happen by talking to people. The talking with them. The way he wrote his message and the way he delivered it we're both so smart. But it was impossible for the speech not to go down in history. And yet. Perhaps most powerful aspect of it was the message itself. Results warning was still relevant in 1999 because indifference still plagues everyone of us. Even the best of us. War poverty disease and genocide affect millions around the globe today. And until all of us can look past your own lies long enough to do something about them. Jesus warning will still be needed. Gives his speech by ty everything back to the beginning. I'm leaving future for us to decide. And so. Once again i think of that young jewish boy from the carpathian mountains. He has accompanied the old man i have become throughout these years of quest and struggles. And together we walked towards the new millennium. Carried by profound fear. And extraordinary hope. Good morning. I'm shauna geddings. When i first stepped into this church at years ago i was confused how this could even be considered a church. Unlike the catholic church's or attempted before i didn't hear any organ playing. I didn't see anyone kneeling to pray before mass there's no fuse. I didn't see any stained glass windows. Symbolizing stations of the cross. And i noticed that the minister of the strange place with a woman i read the children's bible cover to cover at least twice. And i had my first communion when i was eight. It took awhile to get used to the differences that encountered here. But in time i agree more comfortable. When i was in 5th grade. At the re class we voted on what we wanted to learn about. And i thought that was really strange. I was surprised. Kids are offering different suggestions. Crutches. Judaism buddhism christianity. And is my trying to suggest something. And i just suggested. Unitarianism i didn't really get it like okay so we did i still was kind of confused at the end. The main point i got though was that unitarians are very open-minded. And i was good enough. As i got older it was time for my youth group to get more involved. In the church. I participated in fundraisers. For the trip to boston in 2004. I took owl with must've same boston bounders. I was in coming of age. Deliberative faith statement. And i also got involved with the senior hygiene group. Because i was involved in these. Activities i met and got to know quite a few adults. Especially. Judy frederick's. Judge judy project reese davis and miriam widow. Judy frederick's and cherise davis with advisers for dream group. Binging group you have to have a lot of trust. Venus group and chip to share your dreams with them. Both these women offered that trust me. I started looking forward to every other wednesday. Not just because charice never failed to bring guido's pizza and cookies but. Because that room turned into a place where i became extremely comfortable opening up to a group of people. And talking about possible meanings of my dreams. Miriam widow is my coming-of-age mentor. And even those five years ago she still continues to check in with me. Every sunday and she still sends me birthday cards so i think it's really sweet. A lot of respect for these women because in order to get involved with any of these activities you have to be. You have to really care. To be extremely compassionate. After attending this church for eight years i've come to understand what makes a church of church. Whether the building has great stained glass windows. Or an organ playing. It's about knowing no matter whom you are you'll be loved and welcomed. I've never felt anything less here. And i'm proud i can say that about the boise unitarian universalist fellowship. Next year i plan to attend central oregon community college in bend oregon. I'm not sure what i want to study but not too worried about that right now. I just see next year as an adventure. Away from home. Which makes me nervous but i'm excited. As i make my way into the future i hope to bring the qualities i've learned from his church with me. I know know how to have trust in relationships. Respect for others opinions and most importantly and open and patient mind. I'm so grateful for booth for teaching me so many important lessons. Good morning. My name is william smith. And. I would like to take this opportunity first to apologize for the out-of-tune note and that last piece left and i'm sure all the musicians the audience were cringing as was i. The time. Hopefully you're not sick of my playing cuz i'ma play another piece in a moment. That i wrote especially for today. And what i did i took. Songs that i grew up with so many of the adults the audience grew up with. From the generation before mine. And i took lines out of those songs that were important to me and kind of messed them all together. And hopefully. You will recognize them and maybe know the origins. Play little game name that tune. It's just a sample of the music that is inspired me throughout my short life. In the span of time for middle school to high school. Along with many of my peers. I relied on expression. Particularly through music. To help with the. Chit chit chit chit change. House facing. Bowie humor. Freaky. Across the threshold into posting hood and pre adulthood. I'm beginning to look at weis pression and the arts. Are effective at controlling our human emotions. I look towards my university years with excitement and a passion for my subjects. Music and psychology. The mysteries behind how the brain functions. Particularly while interacting with music fascinates me. How was it that a single note. Can cause seizures or rapture. What is the relationship between music and mental illness. What secrets of the mind and its melodies will we unlock next. Well we all shine on like the moon. He said everyone attack and it turned into a ballroom blitz ballroom blitz ballroom blitz. Cocaine. Under pressure. Hello i'm heather. Smith i'm kind of sick so please bear with my voice i know it's not. The most pleasant thing to listen to right now but i will try to speak up. I truly believe that it takes a village to raise a child. And this congregation has a bit has been a big part of my village. Everyone of you. Even those of you who are meeting me for the first time today. Have contributed to who i am now. By just being part of this accepting community. This place will always be a place of comfort in my heart. Because it was here that doors were opened new ideas exposed and the foundation of my own beliefs began. When i first came to boo. It wasn't at all what i expected. I thought it was curious that people didn't dress up. And that bibles weren't decorating every chair. This is what i had established church meant for my peers. And it was odd to me that this congregation lacks that all that all seem to be required in religion. I wondered why we celebrated different holidays learn about sexual education at church. And discussed opinions and thoughts rather than god. I soon realized. But all the differences of this place. For what made it special. And what previously felt wrong to me now felt right. Here i know that i'm surrounded by hundreds of different beliefs and opinions. But instead of memorizing them. I'm encouraged to meld them together and create my own ideas and beliefs. I've learned that it is okay to have differing views. For they are what make our world interesting and alive. I've learned that acceptance is a powerful gift. And it must be given every day. I've developed strong morals but i keep my mind open to new ideas. Because i know that learning is the only way to grow and understand. The following poems are reflection of my beliefs on religion and faith. Illustrate how my path of confusion. Has turned into a trail of belief. That grows wider with every new experience. Religion. Going forward. What does it mean to me. A house in which i feel everyone is on the same page. An understanding that is okay to believe what you choose. At my age i can choose. What do i choose. I choose to believe that people are good. With good intentions. I choose to believe that spirits of people i care for watch over me. There to guide my actions and my thoughts by examples that except for me. Belief. Am i. What do i believe. Not a man in the sky. God does not run my life with strings. I will not blame him for death. He did not take what i loved away from me. Nor does he create life. My belief is that miracles big and small. Are created through love hope and faith. Bugs by caring about those around you and protecting what you hold dear. Faith in the living forces around you. In the good in all people. In truth and rights. Open tomorrow and what tomorrow may bring. My belief is that you lead your life and i will lead mine. I put my faith in the people surrounding me. That they will guide me through life. Not by strength but by love. I was going to do this in a minute but it's but we can do it now we know we don't just. Have applause in the service as a regular matter of course but when it's really really really special. We do so let's have a very big will bring the kids up in a minute for you to ask questions but let's have a round of applause from. I just want to say that. I am so impressed. With all of you. It just. Warming to feel that we have this kind of. A group of people. There are going to be growing up. Bandai credit. The young people of america. 4. Join the maturity to elect the president that we have elected. It was it was the young people that did it and i'm just i never saw i thought i'd see that maturity in this country thank you so much. Just wanted to dress this to heather 42 karen. And i'm just to tell you that. I've known you since before you were born and. I feel privileged to have known you for so long and too. Wish you all the luck in the world and as always if you need anything give me a call. I would like to respond with something all of us in this room knows. And please join me.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20100808.mp3

David. This is what happens when your wife is on the sunday service. Ever since i can remember from exploring a new place. Some call it wanderlust others say it's the travel bug whatever you call it i have it and i've been bitten lucky for me so is david we don't claim to be well-traveled in fact many of you have been far more places than we have but here we are. It is our shared home in the universe before we go much further let me say that david and i are far from loaded. We say that we research to find lodging that is both interesting and inexpensive we take audit flight connections to get the cheapest airfare we carry protein bars meals. Before we traveled a bit on our own david's first big solo experience abroad to egypt. 7 years ago i managed to. Going to egypt it always been a childhood dream of mine. The pyramids of giza. Loomed large on the iconography of my mind. Structures that shouldn't exist. And what's more perhaps because of this fact. They continue to flaunt. Their impossibility clear into the 21st century. They were certainly times where i found all of. Existence to be entirely unlikely. Therefore it seemed incredibly necessary that these two improbable entities should converge. My life. Panda pyramids. I needed to bear witness. Anywhere i'm happy to report as ridiculously implausible as 1.04. An appropriately enough guarded by the egyptian military which consisted of 17 year olds in crisp white uniforms brandishing machine gun. I think they were all there to make sure i didn't climb them. But this antidote isn't about that it's about a cairo man that i met named mustafa. Me meeting mustafa is another one of those seemingly unlikely events which is delightful to me on many levels. Now it's introverted. As i am. Every now and then i get a wild idea to do something incredibly inconsistent with my personality this is one of the real rewards of travel you can redefine yourself. Are you the type of person who wanders away from the tour route when just starts walking down a crowded street in cairo. I was to put one of my favorite writers allenmore going to jump off a cliff. And trust that i could need a helicopter before i hit the ground. I decided i needed to put some distance between me and the hotel i left the now-familiar ali where my hotel was and i found and found the nearest aerocare. I took a right and kept on walking several blocks no maps for me i'd navigate using landmarks. This walk had a green payphone. Remember that. There's some sort of toy shop. There's another green peso. There's a laundromat. There's a green. Payphone. Then i start to realize they were green tea phones everywhere. Not a useful landmark to get your bearings. I stopped and turned around people everywhere spilling out of the sidewalks. Walking into traffic hornsby theme scooters buzzing it may new york traffic look genteel. I scan for my original alleyway only to realize that in a few minutes time. By the immensity of cairo. Irregular buildings crowds of people bustling. I figured i couldn't be too far and i figured the further i pressed on the more fun i would have in finding a way back. That's how my mind works i'm afraid. I decided i would look for a falafel stand. Even i could find a falafel standing. Several blocks blocks of going with the crowd i then decided to follow a feral looking dirty white kitten down an alleyway. Wherever we go. I tried to take pictures of feral cats not sure why. I passed what looks like an egyptian version of walgreens if there was a sidewalk it was misplaced. Across the dirt pathway i spotted a hole-in-the-wall cafe with a couple of plastic tables and chairs. The smell of earth. Like the potatoes under the sink back home combined with a smells of. Frying oil and tobacco. Mustache man in apron. Dotted with stained satin one of the chairs and wash me approach. An old woman behind the counter looked at me intensely. Behind the man was a reader board that had lines of arabic script on it. Could it be a menu. There was a line.. White space than a couple of symbols to question to put in the right off by themselves if i item price. The man got up crushing a cigarette out on a small metal lid inquisitive eyes met mine. Something told me that wrist usually didn't find their way down there. He said something to me in arabic the tone of his last were descended slightly higher than the other words. Adrian stupidly sorry i don't speak arabic. I said finally if i realize that a tremendous visual aid to help me there was a poster on the wall of the various food items i appointed the one and ask falafel. My voice and face became a parody of inquisitiveness. I smiled and raised my eyebrows as if i was doing charades. Hit your back smiling. He said something to the old woman and she reached into a gray ceramic bowl and begin to need the falafel paste. Sickweather two fingers shaped the fava beans into circles. She sung to herself and drop them in the frying pan the oil popping and snapping like firecrackers. Wallpaper cooking we had a few conversations mostly consisting of one word questions with thumbs-up and thumbs-down answers. It was the best conversation i had in egypt. Finally after my fried street was ready we shook hands again i gave the arabic word for thanks to prom 2 prong i said taking the bag of falafel. I had nothing smaller. As i handed it to him his hands went up. And he shook his head smiling. He said no no and it reminded me of music. I blinked about a dozen times. Sun all i could say. Unfortunately i do not share david's experience and phrases like. Are we there yet. My sister can attest to this on our way to see relatives. Along the way we stopped at mesa verde national park near the four corners area. Is one of the united states best preserved archaeological sites. Containing hundreds of cliff dwellings that were ancestral pueblo people from about 700 to 1300c. I was intrigued by the cave like homes. I imagined myself as a pueblo girl with brown skin and black braids. As i've used these ancient dwellings in quiet stillness roseinside me i wouldn't have known what to call what i do know is that i was in the presence of mystery and the holy. About four years ago in order to get myself to los angeles for grad school i took my first solo road trip. First of all you are free of restless children tormenting each other in the backseat and you can stop. Although i prefer having a travel buddy it was an adventure to set out all by myself on my way to southern utah to las vegas. Gradually becoming the palm tran pacific coast. I will always be grateful for that time on the road by myself. If you're going to go to mexico and especially if you're going to get lost you probably want a travel partner. Speaking of which before david and i got married we took a honeymoon to puerto vallarta mexico. Even under the best of circumstances travel can be stressful confronting language barriers navigating foreign-trained seeing one too many sites in a day which potentially makes one hot tired and cranky. To experience more of mexican culture and we took the bus to get around 4 to vallarta. The buses were vintage bouncing along the driver covered in a variety of pictures of saints. Honor first return return trip from old puerto vallarta transfer. This led to a most interesting unplanned two-hour bus ride. When salvatoris rock the bus will all of them except for us that he was racing in the indy 500 dirt roads the other passengers looking at us with expressions of titty. We got to travel the back roads that lead to the dusty neighborhoods and cinder block homes of our newfound friends. We flew past road signs displaying icons for what could be nothing other than. Alligator crossing. Recognizing the absurdity of the situation we began laughing hysterically the other passengers only stared at as more now with expressions of. These gringos. We eventually disembark in lucidious a small fishing village several myers miles north of our hotel we were there we might as well enjoy the beach in the market and eventually gave up on finding the right buswell. It's okay to get lost. It's true that much of puerto vallarta is a proverbial tourist trap such as. We just happen to be in puerto vallarta over easter sunday weekend and dave and i thought it would be interesting to attend mass there on route we encountered mexican families on their way to church little girls and bright ruffle dresses grandfather's and bolo ties and button-down shirts and the smell of easter guy at the store cookies. Although i couldn't exactly understand what was being said i felt the spirit of worship of families and communities. We did some really fun things that are chipped puerto vallarta and some of them were very touristy. Road mules do the sierra madre we strolled along the malecon and laid on the beach but that easter morning at our lady of guadalupe is where i felt. The spirit of the people of mexico the very most. Honeymoon with a road trip down the california coast to deliver me to my final thank heavens summer of grad school we took our time and the road less traveled this lettuce to spectacular views of mount shasta sonoma county vineyards and the big surf coastlines if time allows. Last summer david and i celebrated our first wedding anniversary with a trip to italy. And david will tell you more. I'd like to tell you about how beautiful italy is and how i felt. When i first when i first saw the rolling curve of marble that bernini sculpted into the four rivers fountain. But travel isn't just made up of spiritual. I'm getting lost and feeling grimy. And yes i'm feeling a little bit scared. It's all wrapped in there and it would be an injustice to not acknowledge and yes honor that vital and uncomfortable messiness that is inevitable. We were headed into the unsettling cavernous den known as the train station in naples. With relatively comfortable seats on the rattling train from sorrento to naples and they were just a few people in our car. At the next stop however about 20 kids screaming and shouting. As soon as he moved on to the next car they all sing in unison. Blue bayou. At one point the soccer ball zoomed around the room from kid to kid. I turned somewhat dazed and while i don't think it was on purpose there certainly were no looks of chagrin from the use. We were at at chagrin fries. At this point i think i whispered to carry that we were venturing into lord of the flies territory. As we got closer to naples and garibaldi station a couple the kids climbed up onto the safety rails and hung from them as if they were on a playground. All we can do is just look at each other thinking i wonder how this will turn out. Well it turned out fine even if we. On the plus side no one was killed. Strangely enough looking back it's one of my favorite. Italy memories it's weird and impossible for experience. And not manufactured in any way. I was an unwilling participant in a train car soccer game with a bunch of scruffy-looking. I now have a story to tell. After the ongoing riots that is naples. We travel by bus on narrow roads cut into spectacular rocky cliffs. The road to amalfi. Talk about white knuckles and if you want to see a picture that road or pictures of places were talking about there's this display over there you can check out after the service if you like. St james. Even considering my mormon christian past i couldn't figure out why an old painting was making me cry. What i was feeling was the reason i had wanted to come to italy in the first place the serene beauty of the cloisters. Grace. And redemption. Christmas to me. Naples amalfi. It was exhausting to tell you all the wonderful things we experience in each of these locations there simply isn't time and a travelogue really isn't our purpose as you can do to make your travels more meaningful consumerism makes it easy to be a tourist and being a tourist has its place and can be a lot of fun. Meaningful travel on the other hand is a bit more complex experiences that we crave. First of all and probably noticed this theme. Get lost you might not want to do this in east l.a. although i did once on accident and of course he'd stay out of unsafe areas especially after dark explorer. It's more likely that locals will be curious about your presents and i'll talk to you this happened first in naples we were walking down the stockton opoly the ancient road that divides naples and half and a man came up to us and said. Uniform here right i don't know what gave us away. Maybe it was my head buried in a map. Antonio telling us things the fresh tomatoes for once. Supposedly milan looking for santa maria delle grazie. Find true north and navigate. I gave up. Entirely in dennis i think venice is urban planning was done by a colony of ants. True for the terminal e lost. There's signs on the side of buildings to offer some help. A location with an arrow for example a sign would read pad some marco or to st. mark's with an arrow pointing to the right. I was a bit confused though when a sign label 23 also showed two arrows. Apparently all roads venice's major shopping area. Sometimes it's comfortable to go with prepackaged tours franchise restaurants. No tables available i am waiting.. Accepting my rather bedraggled appearance from walking around florence all day in the heat the answer was decided no or the neighborhood on the other side of the arno river something we probably wouldn't have done had we stayed at the holiday inn. And third point is fine beauty sure there are exciting excursions and bustling shopping district but they're also places of great natural beauties awesome those places are a little harder to get to my take a long train ride a hike up a mountain that's deep walk down to the beach so when you get there. If you. Only days before we had marveled at the grandeur of st peter's and rom but once we stepped out the balcony of our room in lake como i looked at the alps surrounding this late countryparadise and explain to david this is god's cathedral later that same evening the sun burst into spectacular shooting raise behind the man in the mountain as asset. The mountain directly opposite our hotel room looks like a giant scratching man. I'll always remember that place that moment and the odd and wonder i cells in the presence of such beauty. And lastly number for. Try to connect to culture and history in the area you're in museums interpretive center festivals and cultural events are great way to connect to another culture. Sometimes the rest of the world is closer than you think. This last june we spend some time in seattle. Which ended up being more of a cultural hub than i had imagined. I'd only been to this port city once before and i was eager to experience experience with my lovely partner in crime. We walked up and down the town and saw many of the main touristy things the space needle. Pike place market. The rain. I took pictures but the rain is much better in person. It just so happened that our trip occurred over june 21st the summer solstice we'd heard a great deal about the summer solstice parade in fremont which is kind of like hyde park. Haight-ashbury and woodstock all rolled up in one big. Blunt. Object. Lunch. We thought it would be fun to experience a local events that had cultural significance for their community after all nothing says community like a parade and in seattle. I don't think they start every parade in seattle this way. There was something oddly wholesome about it as you'd witness every sort of body type whizzing by on two wheels will perhaps whizzing isn't the right verb. My second thought was those bikes he's got to hurt. There are many creative and diverse floats we saw a paper mache flying spaghetti monster. People dressed up as trees hugging people. Tree-huggers husband the anti-fascist marching band. Clearly this wasn't eagle fun days. After the festivities we caught the bus back to our hotel block which was in the same neighborhood as the seattle center. The day before we had seen signs advertising the seattle iranian festival. That sounded impossible so i knew we should check it out. There were various activities to attend the mainstage. I wasn't familiar with the insurance. Tere siva know where they were. I didn't understand the words but the emotion. Emotions need to know translation. It was hard not to feel transported. Carrie and i would look at each other aware of the moment. In an audience of iranian-americans who were there to celebrate their culture. As the family started an old folk tune the grandmother's started clapping and singing along. I had i had the thought that these women weren't much different from the baptist ladies that i remembered from my childhood church. I felt honored to be in their presence and get to share that moment. There were other activities persian dance rumi reading but it's that moment that i remember the most and here i was in seattle. From new bikers and a publicly sponsored parade joyfully ringing in the summer solstice with laughter and creative expression two centuries-old persian culture blooming and coming to life. Next door to a building shaped like a jimi hendrix guitar. Connected not only to other people but to that unnamable source. Of all that is. You know in today's economy you can be hard to justify travel. Many people equate travel with luxury. This isn't entirely untrue. But in my mind it's not fully accurate either. Sure travel can be your welcome indulgence supply and margaritas. Buffet bars the size of a parking lot. Hey i begrudge no one especially myself. Open bar. Indeed it is one of the great pleasures of life when someone asks you if you want more shrimp the answer invariably is yes. It's not why i travel. Traveling is a physical energetic realignment of my perspective it doesn't journey from point a to point b. Whether we are home or traveling it is far too easy to maintain. The familiar of the day today. I traveled to break out of that cocoon. To throw myself into new cultures to challenge my sense of landscape architecture and aesthetics. And that familiarity that well comforting can also be a means of living an insular life. Travel that has the unique potential to be expanding experience that has more to do with the openness of the traveler and less about comfort inn amenities. So what you do if you want to travel that you don't have the time or means there are. Stunning beauty in idaho and boise redfish lake and stanley the stone falls at full flow in the spring. Views from the trails in the boise foothills are just a few of my favorites if you're looking for an ethnic experience you could try madhuban for indian food or trying my for thai cuisine or attend one of boise's ethnic festival there's helsey the best festival that just took place last week and the greeks. Take a trip to the library and check out a travel guide or rick steves video.

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BUUF-sermon-20090816.mp3

Over 40 years ago. When i was 18 years old. I gave my newborn son up for adoption. 10 years ago when it came to meet me for the first time since his birth. He brought an armload of books about how to witness to others. About his christian beliefs. Because i would like to make my son happy and proud of me. I have it x fervently wish that i could be converted to be a christian. That has not happened. But i have been reading a number of christian books that i would not otherwise have red. And while reading i've wondered. Why secular humanism. Is so demonized and some evangelical christian writings. After mulling that over for a long time. I have come to some conclusions. To begin with. Secular humanist. Are atheistic. By definition humanism is being a good person. Without a supernatural religion to tell you how to be. I think the other reason could be called seniority or elapsed time. I was fascinated to discover that they secular humanist ideas. Date back to the reformation the renaissance enlightenment.. After the middle ages. And i'm not. Strong on dates. So when barbara toothman in the bible in the sword. There wasn't really a consensus on one date when the middle dark ages ended. But historians generally agree on several events that spread over 50 years. In 1454 the printing press was invented. In 1492 columbus drive. Syphilis and massive numbers murders of indians to the new world. Flu editorial comment. In 1494 machiavelli with his main idea that for any worthwhile and it is permissible to use any means. That virus has been around ever since. In 1517 luther nailed his writings up on the church's doors. And what i noticed in the enlightenment time. was that the issue of the individual versus power elites. Which is kind of my idea of what. Secular humanism is about. Begin with church reformers we're just going to make the church a little better. As far as i could figure out the reformation was the combination of. Luther getting really angry about the church selling pieces of paper that canceled sins. And that ended with lutheran hundreds of other priests and nuns leaving the catholic church. And starting. The sweats that have been splitting. Ever since. Dendrites are routes maybe. King henry was the 8th was breaking with the pope and starting his own english church. And john kendall's idea that the bible not the pope should be the final authority for christians. So following after the reformation. Which gave each individual christian the opportunity to have their own printed copy of the bible to interpret for them self. People in the renaissance enlightenment time fell in love with the resurfacing manuscript. Of the ancient greek philosophers. Primarily plato socrates. Idea to question everything. The lightman tomatoes were there to know. Vapor riyadi. Live and let live. And reason is sufficient for happiness. Ever since the enlightenment colleges and universities have been basing their curricula on the ancient greek ideal academic subjects. So using this as a basis evangelicos claim. That secular humanism is the religion of the united states. And in total control of all levels american schooling. And when we sit in human this meeting vic sotto. Live and let live for the wonderful idea. The last thing that struck me was that fundraising might work better when there is the scare of claiming a massive conspiracy that is already taken over. So soldiers for christ. Take up the banner. You know and save us. I don't have any final answers for anyone even myself. But it was fascinating to learn for some of the roots of our ideas come from. Paul kurtz founder of the council for secular humanism. Write 6 in secular humanism rejects supernatural. Accounts of reality. It seeks to optimize the fullness of human life in a naturalistic universe. Secular humanism or modernism. Fines meaning in this life here now and expresses confidence in the power of human being. To solve their problems and conquer uncharted frontiers. Secular humanism traces its heritage to confucian china to the carvaka materialist movement in ancient india. Damn to the writers artists and poets of ancient greece and rome. Its origins can be going in early greek philosophy especially in its efforts to develop a philosophical outlook on nature. Phoenix emphasis on rationality and its conviction. But the good life can be achieved through the exercise of human powers and the fulfillment of human nature. Protagonist stands out. Does a humanist in view of his statement that man is the measure of all things. However humanistic strains can be seen another greek philosophers the sophists. To attack them conventional morality and sought new ethical standards. That's what was socrates and plato who rejected the homeric myths. Samsat to base ethics on rational inquiry. Aristotle nicomachean ethics has been taken as a model of humanistic ethics as it champions the life of practical wisdom. Do fulfillment of virtue and excellence and the achievement of well-being. Roman philosophy also expressed humanistic values this was especially true as epicureanism. Stoicism and skepticism. Humanism was eclipsed during the dark ages. During which phase dominated western culture in humans look vainly outside of themselves. To adiyody first salvation. Humanism began to reappear with the rediscovery and translation by the islamic philosopher of heroic. Of the works of aristotle in the 12th century and their transmission to europe. During the middle ages. During the renaissance there was a turning away from the bible virtues and an effort to secularize morality. And humanism as a literary and philosophical movement. Writers emphasized that the good life and happiness were possible. Earthly pleasures wwii be cultivated not condemn. Philosophical humanists highlighted the dignity of human beings their capacity for freedom. And the need for tolerance. Erasmus of holland was especially noted. Has a human is because of his defensive religious tolerance. The emergence of modern science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Enabled secular humanism to assume a more recognizable form. Many thinkers helped to bring this out look into being. For example montaigne xpressbill skeptical on humanistic values. Rejected biblical revelation as a source of ethics. Pave the way for a new scion. Science of nature and attempted to naturalize religion by identifying god with nature. The first major protest by what we may recognize as modern secular humanism was a defensive freedom of inquiry. Against ecclesiastical and political censorship. Secular humanism in freethought are closely identified and. Modern world. The fates of bruno burned at the stake and sentenced to house arrest. For challenging traditional views of the cosmos. Are central to the humanists call for freedom. It was a development of the scientific method and its application to nature that brought a decisive intellectual influence to bear on humanist thought. Humanists wish to use reason i was with descartes or experience. House with francis bacon john locke and david hume. To account for natural processes. And discover causal laws. This meant that appeals to the authority of religious revelation and tradition were held illegitimate as a source of knowledge. The scientific revolution began with the impressive development of physics astronomy and natural philosophy. The enlightenment or age of reason is testimony. Humanist efforts to extend the methods of reason and science to the study of society and the human being. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was widespread confidence that with the spread of reason science and education. Human beings could be liberated from superstition and build a better world. Good morning. About how are we raise our kids to be ethical. I grew up in a fundamentalist church and by the time i graduated from college at 23. I had quit attending church. Because i couldn't believe in the religion they were talking about becky was raised as a catholic. But that didn't stick either therefore religion rarely entered our minds. Those first five years we were married. Then we adopted matt and nearly two years later dan was born. I don't know if it was just me or both of us. Thought we needed to start taking our boys to church. So they would grow up to be ethical although i had left my beliefs about god behind. My religious instruction was still a part of me. Part of that indoctrination was the children needed to attend church. If they were to be ethical adults. Therefore becky and i search for a church to raise our kids in. First we tried the united church of christ and then we tried boof. For different reasons we didn't find permanent homes in either place. Becky suggested that our boys could get their ethical grounding by participating in boy scouts. And we became actively involved in scouting. With both boys eventually earning their eagle badge. Becky has quite a bit later and i joined the humanists group after it formed approximately 5 years ago. I have been very interested in in the human of take on ethics. Because i still believe that ethical training had to come from. Some authority source especially a religious perspective. I continue to be very interested in the origin of ethics and how children learn to be ethical. Here's my current beliefs based on the ideas that i have gleaned. Has participated in the humanist group. What we consider to be ethical behavior is in our genetic makeup to some extent. Has our forebears brains evolved with more and more capacity over millions of years. The need for more extended care for offspring increase. Our ancestors adapted by providing that care. And this appears to be the basis for altruism. Living in small tribal groups require cooperation. Dealing with other members equitably. Some measure of honesty and putting the welfare of the group first. Sit there are variations in small tribal group behavior this behavior must be both learned as well as genetic. I recently with becky watch the movie about idiom on so i. Certainly understand that we have a considerable capacity for evil also. Human intelligence will continue to be applied to our ideas. Ethical behavior. It's all we have to work with. And this will continue to change our ideas about ethical behavior. Recently i listen to a cd of a concert. Dean martin presented at the sands hotel in 1964. I was appalled by his mean-spirited humor at the expense of gays. Was it what was acceptable in 1964 with caused quite an uproar. In 2009 if he told the same jokes. Our collective conscience continues to change and grow. Dynamite. My final point here how do children learn their ethics. I have come to believe that children learn their ethics from the role models in their lives. Most importantly their parents. When i responded to the children. To the misbehavior of our children angrily and harshly. I was teaching them that it was okay to deal with the powerless with disrespect. When we have family meetings and distribute the chores as equitably as possible. We were teaching our children are respectful use of power. When we pay the adult prices to get our children into movies because the theater dean damn to be adults at their current ages. Even though we could have split them in at the children's prices we were teaching them are values regarding honesty. Listen to what becky i said. But i believe they paid a whole lot more attention to how to what we did. Make me a pic of choice between two options may require more effort. And is more likely to exposing individual to hostility and ridicule from others. Ethical decision-making sometimes requires a measure of self-discipline. And we need to use our parenting skills to encourage the growth of the growth of self-discipline our children if they already become ethical adults. How does booth get in teaching our children to be ethical. This is an important place outside the home where our children can see ethical behavior model by words and deeds of other role models. In re our children participating in an ethical society and learn about ethical behavior. What our children see and learn church. For real will reinforce what they learn from us and home in regards to ethical behavior. About ethics sir we have quite a few handouts at a table in the back and some of them to deal with behavior. My topics which is not listed on your. Order service. Is. Humanism in middle health and mental health treatment. And it picks up rot if we're you know rick left off humanism it appeared in mental health is a break. From the bullies in supernatural interventions. In the late 1800s. And it focused on internal forces which produced behaviors rather than external. Humanistic psychology developed by abraham maslow began to use more scientific approach. Through maslow study of the characteristics of successful people. Knew that all the focus up to that point had been on very ill people specifically neurotic. And he says well. How do people do good and it is so study successful people and found their characteristics. He listed a he listed a hierarchy of human needs. Beginning with survival and ending with self-fulfillment this list of needs is pertinent now. In mental health. As it was when it was first described. And i don't mean when it was first developed because these needs are something that appeared. Olive trees. Humanism has a here-and-now focus. And we'll keep abreast of discoveries and solutions as they're being reported. Everyday there's something new. Humanistic therapists or whatever. Teachers. Look at these things and stay them. Humanism in bryce's the physiological and genetic basis along with learned and belief based causes for behaviors. And the clusters of behaviors known as personalities. Listen versus will be placed on motivation. Which cannot be known by clinician and is usually only poorly understood by the client. And more in finesse the emphasis is being placed on decision-making investigation of consequences communication. I'm practicing the more socially acceptable or more rewarding behaviors. New and very. Hopeful to me are medications and assessments of brain function. Which are providing a fast. Enlarge improvement in behavior and changes and what in the past has been called attitude. And personality. Medication now brings those who suffer schizophrenia. Back to normal thought processes within months i have seen this happen before my eyes. And it was just like a miracle. Humanism will advocate for continued and controversial research. To further lessen the tragedy of mental illness and to advocate treatment reimbursement. On a par with other major and chronic illnesses thereby reducing the stigma of mental illness as bad character. Humanism provides a framework of acceptance communication and openness. These. Comprised the environment which mental health develops in a child. And in which mental health can be regained. I am a humanist who believes there is no god that controls my life. What do i do when life turns upside down. Where do i find the strength to get through life's rough spots. When it comes to facing a crisis my religious friends. Find comfort believing that god is in control. And doing what's best for all. Questioned. God makes the ultimate decision for their faith. Baby seats god for strength they pray for guidance. But it's up to god what happens to them. My christian family. Of an afterlife. Death is not the end of their existence they believe they will spirit reunited with our loved ones. Again. This bring some solace in the face of grief of losing someone very dear. As a humanist. I believe that my life is controlled by physical laws of nature and my actions and the actions of others around me. I may not understand these forces. Or why they are what they are. But i know we are all subject to them. When my life is over. There is no more. So i had better make the most of what i have. But knowing this isn't enough for me to find my way out of my grief. My loneliness. My helplessness. When it comes to having a crisis in my life. I need people. We all need family and friends to share our joys and sorrows. We all find strength and comfort when we have someone to listen to us. To stand by us. To be there for us. My religious friends have built-in community. That is there for them in good times and bad. This is probably the main reasons they don't leave this community when they questioned their faith. Everyone needs to find a community like this fellowship. I hope when i. I know when i first left my family's religion i felt shut out. My hope is that our humanist community can be our substitute for a religious community. When is which we feel safe. And confined strength. Even when life deals that's a blow. What does it mean to be strong. And as a humanist where do i find strength in a crisis. I've learned that being strong doesn't mean we don't cry. Or see a therapist or take medication if we need it. It means looking at a situation that comes into our lives realistically. And making decisions that will benefit. Without a lot of emotion guiding our decisions being overly emotional can sometimes stand in the way of good decisions. When i was young i look to god for strength and solutions. At some point in my life that wasn't working and i decided i couldn't do that anymore. I tried to be strong when bad things happened by keeping them hidden from most others family friends and neighbors. It seemed to sign of weakness. To ask for help and show emotion in times of trouble. When i finally learned to open up to friends. Family. I discovered that rather than being a sign of weakness it was a sign of strength to allow others in at the worst time. They come through. I am stronger because they are there even if. So they're just in spirit. Reflecting on the past gives me strength. Oldest sister began a search for information about our ancestors. Our family was fascinated by what she learned. That led me to begin reflecting on the challenges our grandparents and great-grandparents and others faced as they came to this country. And then i think of the people coming here today. My goodness when i think of the strength needed to overcome the obstacles presented to them. Am i so different that i could not do what many of them has done. My children give me strength. And in a way they push me to be strong. I'm still their parents until the day i die. And they want me to be what they want to be when they are 70 years old or older. I look at the crisis we are facing today this week. The next couple of months. My husband and i have a running debate about which of us is a realist and which of us is an idealist. It often seems to depend on the situation. But we agree about the current tossed abilities are family faces and what we can do to help. And although i'm not a religious person i remember that oldest sister during a crisis in her life quoting from the bible. And this too shall pass. And that is true of course. And when the crisis has passed. We are never the same. My brother gave me a gift when he introduced me to humanism thirty-odd years ago. I agreed with the philosophy and read some information about it at the time and over the years. I didn't pay a lot of attention to joining anything or promoting it. It was my brother's thing and it was a good thing. I didn't think i didn't realize how much i had absorbed and what a gift it was. Until i look at how i've changed. And how i've dealt with what we call a crisis. Humanism is part of me. And it gives me strength. Well it's important to be anchored in reality to be strong in a crisis. We must have dreams. Dreams for the future inspire strength. Some of my dreams and strength consolation and escape. Confirm music. I need beautiful music such as that i often hear in this room. I need good book. And i need dreams. I want to. Piano more so i can play in a country garden. I want to read more the classics someday i want a horse again like i had as a teenager on the farm in wisconsin. I wish i had felt the freedom and had the permission to investigate. Earlier in my life.

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BUUF-sermon-20100919.mp3

When you are asked at a deck the halls. Just. What prayer. For the year's end and a beginning. What do you write. What do you vote for most of all. You might have noticed into three categories. Robin who is speaker number one spoke of more or less spiritual matters that were primarily internal or. Close to the. Prank. Successful achievement. Uu community. Forgiveness. The phrases. Was mostly concerned with matters of social justice of making the world a better place. Tea-smoked only come with dust. Save the world don't forget the animals. Preservation. Safety to those serving our country. Only have food all have shelter out of the cold. May boost always be a beacon for social justice in boise idaho. The phrases have. Outward. Orientation. Concerned about changing what needs to be changed. What are miscellaneous category. These phrases to express live spontaneity. The unexpected. What. Grandma carol. Major creative spirit of tom trusky continue to move through this community. Lego. Cookies. And the only one dimension. God bless you. Leaving three for later. B2. Represent a time-honored dichotomy. In the unitarian universalist faith and i also suspect amongst others. Invited to physicians. Winchester. The most important way of living is to be a spiritual person. Practicing patience and mindfulness and forgiveness. Our own soul centered. Speaking person. Distribution says that the spirituality will take care of itself. We are our responsibilities toward others. Towards bringing more justice. Is well-represented of our face. 19th century philosopher and. Ralph waldo emerson. Is often quoted to this day by folks who espouse a spiritual approach to the world. Many of you may have read the book or watch the video the secret. Which promises. Well. Love and anything else your little heart desires if you positively. Is in my opinion a tad shallow and materialistic. Consciously. To our forefathers. He said. Bill's therefore your own world. He also said what lies behind us and what lies before us. Compared to what lies this year. And in his job. In the soul then let redemption. Emerson was park. Highly mystikal. Intellectually grounded profoundly spiritual. Group of nineteenth-century fingers menu. My personal opinion that i know not all you care. Is that the secret doesn't quite do justice. Of emerson stock. There are good things. The point is. He represents well that inner looking mystery oriented path that's in our religious and his thinking is recalled by modern folk. The social action school of thought. Is also well represented in our face. Perhaps you have read or heard about. President obama oval office run. Which has around the rim. Abraham lincoln. 1 quotation attributed to. Says. The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice. What a great thought. The problem is embarrassment of president obama. Was not dr. king. Was 19th century unitarian minister and passionate radical abolitionist. What's been a fair amount of time in my life corrected that particular. It does seem clear. The doctor king was not practicing plagiarism. Parker is one of our historical activist. He kept a gun in his study. He was one of the secret six. Support of john brown's raid on harpers ferry. Yes religious life was packed. In the public. Us park. A spiritually focused person. Or are you a person. When you are asked to write your prayer flag this december. Will you write a hope for love in the heart. Or equity in the world. Which camp. Do you belong. Okay. Many of you have figured out by now. Dichotomy. Many religions have fallen into either or thinking. What's a few years ago. A leader of a local spiritually oriented. And rabbi dan fink and a couple of other boys. Speak on the importance of social action. We did. And we got a lot of. Push back. Affect. If i take care of my school. And i pray for all others. Harmony in the world. Spiritual. On the other hand. In my 40-plus years in the unitarian universalist faith. I have run across individuals and congregation. They have no time for the frippery of wu ism. A better remix. Spirituality and they always say it was. They feel that spirituality. Welch. Either for physicians. This one is a lose-lose. I actually do. That many of us in this room. Occupy either of the extreme and i just. We however might be. We must work. For justice and equity. And we must do it. Mission of spiritual practice of discipline and strength. Fortunately. Of this foundational. Fundamental apps. Theodore parker. Fire-breathing social justice fighter. He was deeply influenced by the transcendental club. A liberal ministers and new england intellectual. The question of mists. And parker said this group. I was much attracted to this class of man who developed the element of piety. Regardless of the theological ritualism of the church. Example of a both and approach towards spirit and justice is felix. Early 20th century. He was a jewish intellectual who founded society for ethical culture. Humanism. He is one of the 20th century's grande of humanism. And humanism. Is one of the strongest broadest thread in the tapestry. Of our religion. Is that a social justice only. Almost anti-religious. Not so. He insisted to his colleagues in the free religious association of homework. Social reform. How do you have its roots quote. Deep.. In the religious life. It had to be undertaken in a spirit of. In 1905 he published a book called the essentials of spirituality. A devotional book. That made plain his conviction that work for social justice reached. Quote highmark. Only. Ascertain. Serene fervor. Which we met almost call synchronous. Earnest. It's probably not going to be our. At the same time we can move ourselves. Toward the integration that is so necessary. 4 hour. As most of you know. Retiring. In june. 2013. After 25 years. Because of that. I have so many many and feeling. Before i retire. Two of the ones. Or about precisely this balance. Absol. In this fellowship and in the world. We are here. To nurture soles. And to help heal the world. If you are not spending time in a regular spiritual practice. If you are not doing your part for justice can you begin doing so. If you are doing neither. Can you make a step toward one or both. If we are to be. A vital. Spiritual and moral force as a congregation and we have to. Religious life poses for us. No need for giant unfulfillable. And a little motion. My yoga teacher says. One fine day. When we can't do a surgeon pose. But she mean. Now we need to keep on crack. Join our social action faults and contribute. Help us become the spiritual justice making force. To be reckoned with. And feed your soul the same time. Victorious. Our very souls depends on our commitment. And we are also. Ourselves too seriously. Is 2. Overly earnest. Category 3. Surprises makes me smile or laugh. If it's the grandma carol. How about washing away the dust from our soul. Take a deep breath. Find a beloved person stinct or something beautiful. Exhale. Browns. Here's one in the third category. How to be on. I'm missing something here. And maybe somebody can help me out. Trusky. Was a fine teacher of poet. A lovely man. Very many people. I hope wherever his spirit is wondering. Cares enough. Prayer flags. There is one in this third category that i hope everyone takes with. Magisterial. Cookies. What. And friends and legos and toys and fun. Enough to cheer the gloomiest day. I hope we go forth this beginning of another program year. In the solemn and joyful resolved. Spiritual practice. Look around for where you can make a difference in the world. Join your fellow you use. In these stole enriching activities. I hope to that we can go forth. Able to walk our justice pads or. How do our spiritual canoes. With detachment. And like hearts. For ourselves. For each other. And for the world. May we feel love. And the sound of laughing. Maybe save the world.

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BUUF-sermon-20080525.mp3

Adult religious education classes have a habit of taking on lives of their own. And this was certainly true of the american mysticism class. You may remember in february denver smith and i. Did a presentation. Call drew told me clothes swing set me free you'll hear that again later and next week as well. About 15 people participated in 4 weeks of discussion. We knew what we were planning to do. We discuss the rise of a distinctive american mysticism. Embodied in titans like emerson thoreau and whitman. We looked at william james who's famous varieties of religious experience written in the very early 1900s is still in print today. In fact i saw yesterday in the new york review of books rutledge is publishing a classic edition this month. We talked about the influence of asian religions on the american religious experience. Especially as they emerged on the american stage. If the world's parliament of religions. In chicago in 1893. Right after the world's fair. In fact most of the forms of asian. Religions that you know the various forms of buddhism. Including zen. Haha. Vedanta. That form of hinduism so what really got kick-started at that time there. Over 100 years ago. And we talked about contemporary american poets who reflect american mysticism. We all know mary oliver but. There were poems of people i'd never heard of that were quite stunning. In fact we heard one this morning. That's what we plan to do. And we did it. But the 15 people who joined the class. Brought their own lives to the venture. They freely discuss their own religious experiences. Brock poems and readings that were especially meaningful to them. And shared their spiritual insights with all of us. What could have been a class of history and ideas. Became a class of religious exploration. Looking at our past. Our present. Ourselves. Two of those class members have agreed to share something of their own reflections this morning. Kim philly and john colvin. And kim will talk to us first. Thank you also. Is it was a really rollicking class so hopefully they'll offer it again. For this past march i had the pleasure of taking out an endeavors class with my father. And i'm too safe paperwork we share the same syllabus we positive readings back and forth during the week. Wikipedia entries everything was just this crosshatch of highlighter by the time we came into class tuesday night and. Crosses for 7 p.m. sharp tuesday knighted and i recall in march that i would rendezvous at about 10 till the hour at my parents house. And we can get away with doing that cuz they live a few blocks from here. And what occurred without fail at 5 to the hour was with panic over who had the papers who had the reading to have the hot pink highlighter and we finally get out the door but by the third class my father decided to just head off confusion at the pass and start collecting everything in a manila folder for the next week and i can still recall that last week of class and stepanek and rushing out the door. Sarah. That's cool background on the class deborah and elton cannot few leagues more intelligent background on transcendentalism and unitarian universalism and how they overlap but i thought i could tell you what what caring is transcendental file means to me. Did you say i'll take you back a little farther to the first day of our american mysticism class. We were all reading whitman out loud to one another. And this was perhaps one of the things i loved most about the class was the dozen-or-so opportunities afforded us every hour to just indulging in reading and responding to poetry. One of us students who just finished reading from leaves of grass. And i remember out insane by way by way of an aside whitman doesn't discriminate he doesn't discern. A few minutes later i jotted down something deborah said. I've been born again as many of you have been. If we look we can make the common transcendence. Whitman doesn't discriminate he doesn't design. If we look we can make the common transcendence. These were for me and tyson fragments humble clues. I also think it's necessary to distinguish between the words transcendental. And transcendence. Knowledge that is transcendental is far from transcendence or beyond human experience altogether. Something transcendental is instead something through which experience is rooted. Transcendentalist believed that reality could be approached from many angles empirically through the study of processes of thought. Through an intuitive or spiritual approach. But i think that what they upheld the most was direct experience of the world. And it was transcendentalist of the 19th century so many of them unitarians or disaffected unitarians. To compelled us through the clarity and innovation of their arguments. Ford lightning with a newfound confidence with the time and appreciating the powers of our own minds. Our personal and collective agency. And toward many of the modern non-doctrinal spiritualities we're open to today i think alton mentions that there was an in real and flexiv eastern traditions and and eastern religion at the time. In introducing his essay nature. Emerson our pre-eminent transcendentalists road. Our age is retrospective. It builds on the sepulcher of the fathers. It writes biographies histories and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld god and nature face-to-face. We. Through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe. Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition. And a religion by relevant revelation to us and not the history of theirs. Emerson goes on to say. The sun shines today also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands newman new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship. Does any of this ring a bell. What would our own works and laws and worship look like. For starters i think like out inside of whitman that they wouldn't discriminate. And to revisit deborah when i think of what it means to really make the comment transcendence. Or transcendental. I think about mysticism. An enchantment and engagement with our shared universe built around inclusion. Any of you who possessed a well-worn copy of leaves of cross. Know how huge whitman's voices that all-encompassing nature. That that includes so much and i think what was really radical about whitman and his time was not just those. Coilover lions of this newfangled thing that you know they were calling free verse. But what he included on or what he allowed for in terms of the subject matter if his poems. In whitman's world a factory lathe as is as worthy of poetic attention as a classical are. And a face scarred by smallpox or disfigured by war can be as beautiful as a maiden's. Whitman offered us a lateral poetics in which old hierarchies popples. One could distinguish between things without discriminating between them. And even cartesian chasms might be bridged. To write as whitman dead and is is john so beautifully rad. That the body is not more than the soul was not in the 19th century erotica observation. To write however that the soul is not more than the body. Was and remains antagonistic even our invisible nations border. It is whitman's hugeness is inclusive and essentially experiential nature that is involved in subsequent generations of american poets to risk their own transgressions. I think it's impossible not to hear whitman and allen ginsberg howl and there's first few lines i saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness starving hysterical naked. Dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking. For an angry fix. You hear that tortured resilience to and him. Through the lens of this class on merrick and mysticism i also couldn't help but revisit the opening person of my favorite poem. George offensive being numerous which often read at the height of the vietnam war. And hearing it a clearly transcendental statement for our times. With that. opening purse it is. There are things we live alone. And to see them is to know ourselves. It is this faith in one's faculties in nature and direct experience as well as the wisdom of multitudinous traditions that we live among. That is for me essential to the nature of transcendentalism and unitarian universalism. I was born into this religion so in one sense i've known no other way. But i feel that i've seen enough of the world to appreciate our uniqueness as a lateral religion especially when contrasted with top down. Hierarchies are clues systems of orthodoxy. More and more i've grown to appreciate our inclusiveness. Our ability to define ourselves by what we affirm as opposed to what we disavow. Our nature is a welcoming congregation. And our unselfconscious borrowing from the pantries of so many other traditions. This is what allison and deborah's class has led me to affirm. And i would like to end my sharing with another passage from gregor has concerning the book that is the body of the beloved this is the shorter passes. This verse begins where the verse is i recited for the reading left off. Well after the mighty god osiris has been dismembered by his jealous brother. Scattered by passion is aura. His parts strewn all over egypt. And after his wife isis has wandered far and wide gathering of cyrus's scattered limbs. Any egyptian legend isis can only bring her husband back to life. By gathering the fragments of his body and singing a song to restore him to holness. I believe is unitarian universalist we all have a good deal of isis and us. The will and the temperament to look past the fragmented body of our beloved. And your instincts arts. And action. Resume the hard and never-ending work. Of rendering. which we love whole again. Not for that lost love poem. Isis meals on the bank of the nile. She is assembling the limbs of osiris. Her live limbs moving above his dad. Moving as if in a dance. Her torso swang. Her long arms reaching out in a quiet constant motion. And the river below her making its own motions. Eddie's and swirls. A burbling sounds the current makes. As if a throat was being cleared. As if the world. Was about to speak. Thank you. American mysticism group met four times early this spring. But i'd say the four meetings was only enough to get our feet wet and a great ocean of material that comprises american mysticism. It certainly was not enough time for us to train ourselves to enter into that oceanic feeling which the american mystics. Mystics in general describe. It takes time to experience the timeless. Or it can take no time at all. One thing that mystical literature and talk about sin is a sense of paradox. We can see this. By the mystical experience centering on an inner experience wholeness ultimate reality. The nature of nature unity with all. Or union with krishna god all out or whatever name one might use. But all of these things go beyond human language and so it's quite tricky as one might imagine. To communicate this with others. In spite of this or because of this. There's an abundance of mystical poetry. For many years i've loved a great number of the mystical poets from all lands. Our group discussed for luminaries from the 19th century. William james emerson thoreau and whitman. I'd say that i'd love all the authors. Of those four but i feel special affinity for walt whitman. Kids that special dynamism a lively all-embracing passionate style which endeared him to me. He inspires me with his style. Get hold of those too big for description or definition experiences of my own. And craft them into language. So what's a more drawn to his style. Perhaps when i'm older i might even have a bushy white beard and hair is he does but. Perhaps.. If we look at the passage read by whitman earlier will find all sorts of inside central to american missile system consider. I hear and behold god in every object. Get understand god not in the least. Nor do i understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. That what was neither an orthodox nor 9 orthodox christian and his talk of god doesn't bind him to any particular sect. Yes would be all the same to him whether one saw krishna or allah. Or the buddha nature or even the force and all things for that matter it comes to the same essential type of experience. And this is an experience we have to have for ourselves not something that somebody else has for us. I also like the way he says he doesn't understand god in the least. Too often we hear people speak of god as if god were a big person model a human ruler. Hover whitman in this line confesses that the divine or whatever we might call that is simply too much for the mind wrapping through a narrow and neat box. And this connects to the next line which on the surface sound so egotistical as he talks about more wonderful than myself. Really isn't one we look at it closer because our own experiences what is closest to us. And experience of wonder depends on the our perception with which we see things. And our connection to the divine or whatever there is linksys to the universe and humbles are limited powers that that thing lies within us. Consider lines from the beginning of whitman song of myself. Every atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you. And this and that line we see that we're all interconnected. And so i celebrate myself you celebrate yourself. And we celebrate the whole universe. Moving beyond the world of whitman in the 19th century our group discussed numerous sources invoices american misses them for the 20th century. One notable part of that is the presence of actual zen masters llamas yogi sufis another teachers of the past hundred years. Who come to the u.s.. And a pot and made their presence known here. Speaking for myself i was first exposed to meditation by korean taekwondo teacher. Who was more about spiritual discipline than about competitive sport. That was when i was maybe twelve or thirteen years old. But i can say that if i lived in. If i look in one more time there would have been many of such teachers like that could never expected just casually come across the lawn mowers and master. Years after my first experience with meditation i became involved with various forms of buddhist meditation and yoga. Although many such groups are rarely mentioned mystical experience mostly because stress relief. Might have brought her feel and talking about. Monastic vows or cosmic visions with things like that. And yet i've always had a hankering for such experiences myself. And i think this goes back to my experiences with. Music of high church say the lutheran catholic church in winters a child. Innocent. Just completed absorption and joy within that music. Or my absorption feeling of joy within any type of religious are for that matter. Banana case. Meditation is a widely used tool detain mystical states by many different teachers and schools. And certainly one that i've enjoyed using and. Used regular. I'm just as the transcendentalist extol the spirit of nature and ennobling poetry such as. Emerson and throw will talk about homer in the bhagavad gita. Two also can meditation involve poetry and an openness to the wonder of nature. And so i'll end my presentation with. Example of two types of. Different meditations one is focus insight meditation and mindfulness meditation. And of course you're free to participate in these. Or not if you'd like and of course i only have a minute or soda. Practice each one so if you want to explore these and more death recommend you spend more than just a mere minute practicing them. The first meditation is when we focus our attention. In this one. You can take some lines you can even takes lines from like whitman wouldn't whitman's poetry or you can take what's called a mantra or you can use an affirmation saying like i am. I am successful i am happy or whatever something like that. Or you can use just a couple simple lines. And with these lines you just you can. He was maybe one line or two lines. And so you might think. Right now i'm a couple he might like to use or one line you might like to use. And you just breathe in. And say one line and breathe out and see the other line or see them one line you have second time. And so with that we're just going to focus our attention on breathing in and out and focusing our attention on this. Particular chosen word words have you selected. So i'll sound the bell and when i sound the bell again will just shift into the second type of meditation. And now the next type of meditation i'll give you a brief sample of. This next type of meditation is. Certifit the opposite end where the first one focuses your attention very closely this one broadens your awareness to olive experience. So what this you simply let the world enter into the sounds the sights the feelings of warmth of feeling of the bodies around you. And as much as possible. You know if you haven't practiced meditation much it can be difficult. Try to let go of the train of thought within your head the judgments to come up with in your head and just try to imagine. As if everything going on around us is sort of like a river and you're just part of that river. And. As you do meditation breathing in and breathing out you just should have surrendered years since experience. And let. Let yourself flow with that. And just be aware of everything that comes up everything. If you notice a sound just be aware of that and let it go if you're aware of it being too warm in the room just to be aware of that and let it go. And so with this unlike the first one you have a very broad and all expensive focus by the same time you're not focusing on your own little issues inside. So when i sound the bell breathe in and out. Predator. Expand your awareness. So clearly that was a very brief exposure to those different types of meditation. And. Both those been very dear man practice both of us with most os x. And that's very much part of the spirit of american mysticism in the 20th century in particular and where there's been a lot more of. Applied disciplines such as. How much more wide use of yoga and meditation tai chi. And things like that. Just a conclude. I'd like to say that it's experiences like these. Coming for meditation from yoga or from reading the writings of the different american mystic authors or other mystic authors. Did all of these things. Really deep in inner richmond on life. And so i'm just really grateful that i've been was able to be part of this discussion group at the yu-gi-oh. And that we were able to. Explore enjoy some of the. More beautiful flowers in the boundless springfield's mythical literature.

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BUUF-sermon-20081109.mp3

It was 1995. The first time i visited our centuries-old. Partner church in mezcal in transylvania which is northwest corner of romania. Only six years had elapsed since the fall of the 45 year-long communist regime a black time for the whole country. Particularly terrible. For unitarians who are a religious and ethnic minority in this romanian orthodox country. Trust when i was there that time was a scarce commodity. And nervousness still a way of life. Under glenreed persistent and stalwart leadership. Our congregation had been in this partnership since 1993 for 2 years. Striving to know how to establish trust. To honor our religious brothers and sisters in a faraway land. Fellow travelers who had suffered so much. For so many years for this ancient faith. Though our commitment was deep. Neither we nor they have much idea. How we could build bridges. How we could meet on common ground how to break free of our own ways and honor together. This religious tradition. That is so dear. To all of us. When i was there that first time no one in the village spoke english accept the minister's son and we didn't have a translator. I was excited to know how the money had been spent i could find someone to tell me it turns out that he had inside the door. I spent my entire two days in the parsonage or in sunday service never meeting villagers. Oh my second trip in 2002 the second minister. In our partnership. Was on maternity leave from what she did not return to ministry. Came back for my visit. That visit was way less restricted than my first one. Thanks to her healing ministry. But still i had minimal contact with the people in the pews. Ministry. In 2002 was influx. And there was uneven. Let us hear. How things were. In the summer of 2008. Good morning i'm miriam why do. 6 years ago i boarded a plane looking forward to returning to europe and a new destination. Little dude i know that i would really be returning. Again and again to the small village of may skew. In may i return to the village for my third time. Each time i arrive i'm created by smiling faces. The kiss on each cheek by any villager who can get to me and overcoming feeling of warm. The fields were all growing abundantly and desperately in need. Attention but the entire village took the time to celebrate with us. We not only celebrated being together but also the partnership our congregations share. Partnership is assigned defined as the relationship between organizations that are involved in the same activity and share common interest. Our partnership with miscue truly is a partnership. What we give to my skewers so appreciated. And matched in every way. They use the money we give them to buy materials. That they can use to renovate and create. Every villager is involved in all these projects working side-by-side. What a gift to us is a sense of the power of tenacity. Passion. Community faith and survival. Our small village has the strength and courage to reach out to the world. To embrace us. And to spread the ministry of front. Friends for life. Press flash as many of you know was a great unitarian philosopher teacher and minister in the early 1900s. He traveled the world and spoke both english and hungarian and probably some other languages i don't know about. He had a vision for the people transylvania that can transfer could transform their lives. Because of his passion he was assigned to the village of may skew in an effort to keep him quiet. But his message has survived and is still revered throughout transylvania and beyond. I'm at with robert blunt. Minister. Terios ed. Hospice of miscue. Either unitarian church has talked to him about the future visions and gold of msq congregation. He told me of the great achievements that they had made. A delegation had visited a folk school in hungary. That have been modeled after the dreams of friends plush. Our village was honored for their working and doing. And in spreading his teachings. Robert continues to translate the books and papers of flash into english and the congregation hosts one of five national youth camps for transylvanian unitarians. Which brings the words and ideas of philosophy to a new generation. Robert told me of how they applied for and received a grant from the romanian government. Tours to buy roof tiles and to renovate the historic buildings. He was so proud of how the congregation came together to renovate the parsonage and how they continue to work together to preserve the site upon which principle lodge. Taught and preached. They are the keepers of france palazzo's legacy. In the future robert hopes to to organize conferences and create. Dramas about friends ballage for the two unitarian high schools in transylvania. He wants to record the music and poems written by the lashes well. Robert in the congregation how to continue the youth camps and create a bellagio exhibit in the church. He hopes to continue to ads the library that he has. With books written by baloche and books that inspired flash. Within the next five years they hope to renovate the church and preserve the painted ceilings. He also hopes to create a more professional website and have more information about mesa que in english. During the church service at the treasurer's you left. Accepted and thank all of us for the $1,600 check that we brought to them. Money that would be well spent. Boise unitarian universalist fellowship. And the unit area cintas egg mexico. Our partners. We are partners. We sure, and hopes for the future of the world we learn from one another and grow together making our worldview larger. In our separation smaller. Good morning everyone. My comments this morning come from one of the two met school newbies. As you heard from miriam and will hear from elizabeth now they've been there many times and they can talk about the change that's occurred over the years. For me but you'll get his first impressions. And the themes that hit me archange. And the interconnectedness of their community. First let me focus on change. Here you have the evolving theme my perception of may school and how the change happens and affects everyone. I started this trip is a fairly reluctant participant. In fact alan schwartzman and i had made a pact after hearing many stories from miriam and mary's previous trips that we were not going to go to met school until there was a marriott there. Needless to say there still is not very out there. Been came hpz text that i used 33 weeks of vacation over the next three years and miriam said look buster you've run out of excuses you're going with me. Change with every evident everywhere. The hungarian romanian border with amazing on the one side and hungry. You had a large mechanized rural wheat farming community that would have been at home up on the north idaho palouse. On the other side you had. Tons of small little haystacks with from. People with wooden pitchfork putting them up on sticks and packing them down on the top to make thatched roofs. How about. 15 ft off the ground usually these were women. Please haystacks reminded me of characters from dr. seuss whoville all scattered all through the fields. The road change from a big wide highway that was about 60 to 70 miles an hour to a to a small little road heavily under construction where we could average about 20 to 30 miles an hour for the next over the over 8 days. And i get car sick. Even in the village change was evident. I remember the picture of miriam calf deep in mud two years ago and as i marveled at the deep pile of gravel that made up the main road and may school. I asked the villagers about it and they said all the elections or sunday the present council showed up with their election flyers and a dump truck of gravel just like they did four years ago before the election. I guess some things never change. I talked with her hosts about the invasion of the colorado colorado potato bug thank goodness it wasn't the idaho potato bug. They weren't happy about it. And about how the eu has mandated that all sold milk must be milked by a milking machine and thus our villagers have had to sell many of their cows off. Since the milk they can milk is only can be used for their local village consumption because they don't have a milking machine. Everywhere in romania there was evidence that the road that the eu was coming from road construction to farming requirements to having to build. fooling around your house to do any construction. Two road construction. There's tremendous fear and some hope in the village about the effect that the eu's going to have on their way of life. Set sound familiar. I don't think we should be afraid of the amount of change were experiencing here in boise and in boo. When you compare it to our friends and may school. Let me focus s on community. This is what really won me over to our small village on the hillside. We talked about the interconnected web of life here in boise or here in the us. And often have to close our eyes to imagine it. We'll go to my school. It is there in every aspect of life. From the parsonage yard with his cut grass in the morning that magically transforms into one of these fluval haystacks in the afternoon. Two corn cobs in roby's exciting central heating. To the church integrated are built into the build on the hillside. To the gardens and animals in field surrounding the village. Everywhere we went everything and everybody was interconnected. On sunday after the service the entire village climb the hill to the small field overlooking the valley. And there we celebrated international children's day. This was the village in the community at its best. Everyone hauling what they had up the hill. From homemade palinka and wine to food to equipment to themselves. All up on the small soccer field on the hill. Well the women got to work on serious cooking and i didn't notice the entire time i was there only the women did the cooking. And they protected it. Pretty seriously. Why the women got to some serious cooking the older children had a contest with. 10 different activities they set up for the younger children. They took notes. An information and labored studiously on their clipboards before they announce the winner. Food was served with everyone sprawled across the area. As the designated drinker for our party. Someone has to take the top cast. It fell to me on behalf of each and everyone of you. Two sample everyone's plank and wine and i'm sure i sampled enough for each and everyone of you. Here again you could taste the community and the interconnectedness as you could tell that their homerooms have been done in large community batches. They were remarkably consistent and very good. As we discovered in tran in in traveling with another group coming back from their village. Our blanket a blanket was award-winning. I've had some very bad point otherwise. How's the festivities came to a head there was a very competitive football game or soccer game. On the field among all the adults. At one point george head of the lake congregation slid out of control out of the field and wiped out the small boy. The image of george with this small boy in his outstretched hand tenderly holding and consoling him was burned eternally in my memory. It struck me just how much community existed in this small village and how interconnected everyone really is. As i came back from a school. I tried to keep that image of the interconnected web. I may have caught my school at the height of the tourist season with us there. But i will always take with me the memories and learning to my school. I'd like the first just think everybody that helped me get to miscue and. Budapest. I'm very grateful to you. And i did not travel with the rest of the group but i went by myself. Cuz. They went during school. Traveling for the most part does not necessarily imply going on vacation. A vacation often entails golden beaches rest leisure and drinks served in coconuts. My idea of traveling however is finding yourself in uncomfortable confusing or embarrassing situations. These feelings reveal intimate and universal emotions. And after you've collected yourself. The barriers constructed by a different language or unfamiliar customs begin to melt away. One such experience provided me with a considerable amount of embarrassment. On a sunday morning and rescue. I was seated in a tiny few in a small church half the size of this room. Though i cannot understand reverend balance serving sermon. I took an interest in the language and the emotions he use to elucidate his message. At one point he motioned toward me and said something humorous as the congregation began to laugh. Needless to say i was bit confused. I looked around at the people sitting by me and if those across the aisle in the fuse opposite. And determined after much consideration of the matter. But their church is segregated by gender. And i was on the side opposite mine. After 30 additional minutes of discomfort and the occasional glance. The service was over and i shoveled out of the church along with the dozen little old ladies. Talking with robert on the way back to the parsonage he made me feel a little more at ease. Apparently i'm the first person to try to break the barrier of gender in the church. From that point on my relationship with the people and village group. And i introduce myself in a way that hopefully they will not soon forget. Grateful beyond words. This year's pilgrimage with the white rose. Do cr2 some extent the experience that will have. At a different time. This year on my trip i too found community. I found hope. And faith. And a lot of love. The picnic on the hillside. With palinka which david didn't tell you is he. Really potent distilled spirit. Palinka flowing oil. The barbecue. The older children sharing game after activity after game with the younger children. Conversations with my host family i was lucky to have the translator saying the same home i was. Laughing. And learning. Enthusiastic meals at the renovated parsonage for which. To which we contributed lots of money so that could happen. Meals were created in the functional that now functional kitchen by village women. And the food in the conversation was greatly enjoyed by all of us with the minister and his wife little kids always underfoot. Planning a service with young reverend robert. Finding hymns with the same tune. That both of our congregation sing so we could sing to each other and worship. And toys do they sing slowly. I forget the word spanish. Very very stinky. Very different feel to it. Planning flower communion which was a brand-new ritual to them and they loved it. And preaching. Preaching in that venerable pulpit. Always a truly humbling experience. Made richer this time. Why a colleague committed to his vocation. Committed to trying new ways. And made richer by a congregation with familiar faces looking lovingly at me. Did transylvania the roots of our tradition run deep and law. As is true here at home and community. We are made richer. Commitment. We are made richer by our determination to stay in relationship. With brothers and sisters to whom we are united. Buy this face of ours. We are made richer not because we help those less fortunate. But because we opened our hearts to learning. Because we maintain the generosity and the courage to stay with each other through ease and difficulty. To stay with each other. Do the changes.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20100502.mp3

First time i remember laying eyes on anthony trakas was. In the old building of course he was 2 years old. It was a christmas eve service and he was sitting with his little feet sticking out. And he. Entire. Hour-long christmas eve service. Just a zone. He cared. I kept looking down there's a there's a two-year-old down there. You just have to where you was. Our community for. A long time he was in our sunday school. He was in coming-of-age program he went to boston with boston boundaries of pilgrimage and he was in the owl our whole lives. Sexuality curriculum that are. Early youth. Jake. Anthony. Has gone to capital high school. He's very big in track and robotics you'll hear a little bit about that in his in his talk. One day. He had to choose or one time he had to choose between going to. A very special track event. In pasco washington. And a very special robotics event in atlanta georgia handed up in pasco. Which i fix us something about his commitment to track. Will. He going to idaho state university in pocatello next. Anthony. Some of my earliest memories are of time spent in church. I can still remember when we met across the street from pierce park elementary school. Elizabeth's unfortunate experience with candles and highly flammable scarves. And how could i forget the time i lost one of my shoes while i was climbing around of the piles of dirt just outside. Community. Unfortunately my ever-increasing schedule has. Time now feel somewhat detached from it. I guess this is just another effect of my transition from adolescence into adulthood. Unfortunate hopefully the future in the future i will be. Return to the fellowship fellowship where i feel at home. My senior year of high school has been busier than i ever imagined. Extracurricular activities. Such as robotics cross-country for track. For my hours of homework. Then i had to somehow fit in. College research in applications at higher education in the future. When i was applying to colleges. I had to undertake undertake the difficult task of describing myself. I'm going to the details of what contributed in making me who i am today. I chose running and this is the paper that i created to describe how experience has changed my life forever. I thought i understood what it meant to be dedicated. I thought i understood what could be achieved through hard work. Did i truly understand what these words mean. I may not have the history most writers have. Only starting to run when i was in 9th grade. But i did not let this stop me. Put my mom sign me up. For cross-country at softball registration. I envisioned the boring support that would waste my time. Never have i been more wrong. My entire sophomore year i ran on junior varsity and slowly. Seeing others. Was discouraging at times. But this was overshadowed by competitive drive to beat them in the future. I knew that i would have to dedicate much more time. Towards practice if i wanted to reach my full potential. By constant drive to be better compelled me to run almost 600 miles. In the following cross country season. That only was i running faster than ever. But i was able to secure a varsity spot championship. Over the winner iran in excess of 350 mi leading up to a very successful track season. During my senior year. I have witnessed what the combination of all my hard work has led up to. Not only am i running at an intensity i never imagined possible. Running has become my passion and is taught me a great deal. When it running a race. I must constantly fight the mental or he's just slow down and continue to push forward. Breaking this mental barrier has led to many astounding races. Live. And. Limitless possibilities. Once i realized that my potential is not limited to only what i think i can achieve. I began bringing dismantle perseverance into other aspects of my life such as school work. If i could run for hours without stopping. Test hours of homework each side. Do not seem as bad anymore. I've learned that i must be persistent and work hard all the time in order to be successful. Putting so much time and effort into cross-country as refined my view of commitment hard work and sacrifice. Has running helps me understand the meaning of these words. Show me what i can achieve through them. It has taught me never to quit no matter how difficult situations may be. What you always strive to do better. Capital cross-country and help me become a better athlete in a more responsible student. I've learned that with the proper dedication and hard work. Aspects of my life become much more manageable and enjoyable. My first real memory of morgantini. Was when she was about 11. And she was lighting the chalice it may have been her first time. What's a first-time with fraser. And she had just. 1a state championship in gymnastics the day before she let the chalice at our church. She was a gymnastics star for 10 years or so. Of her life and was a state champion. So many times she's actually kind of casual about this point. Morgan. Tootsie our whole lives sexuality curriculum and she was in coming-of-age. She and miriam were two of our congregation miriam is an artist. Creative mosaics. I believe they created mirrors and they also created i believe lazy susans and trays which they sold to raise money for the make-a-wish foundation. In-n-out. Coming-of-age program. All of our youth and their mentors. Have a project in that was a particularly memorable one because the mosaics were so. Beautiful. You won't be surprised when you hear. Morgan speak. To know that her commitment has led her to be a vegan. For the last six years of her life. I don't think it's the easiest thing in the world to be a vegan in this world. And morgan's school next year is evergreen state university in washington state. And again if you know anything about evergreen which is this. You will be surprised that morgan will be attending there. The hills are so full of shape and character. The earthy hughes and zack textures feed my inspiration. No matter the climate there always a limited in my eyes and the rolling waves of during the stage create my safe haven. Is indies calling at wild hills that i can pause and ponder the big everlasting questions. And a smaller transit matters. It is easy to breathe in these foothills and thoughts drown me freely. And storm wind blows through my hair. Cell phone sorry i'm at desert paradise. Where the plants and animals thrive in the quiet nose and still. A sense of peace and grounding. India's muted copper grifols the thirsty soil society and troubles of rings are sequestered. And i can't really connect to the arid landscape. When i am here money does not exist. And echoes of the city are halted. Their sole adversity wonder and an undying spirit. However the foothills along with all the other village wildernesses are losing their lawn fight against their will to control. There's no coexistence. We fight to take away from the earth to restrain his power and they fight the earth because we can. The consequences are evident in the now-banned forest. And two rivers and melting ice. There's a balance in the natural world and the only way to restore it is to join at balancing act. The magic my desert and fuses meet in fuses in me inspires me to learn how to cooperate with it. My bond was a hills fuels my passion for the protection and preservation of all wilderness has. I want to embark on a journey. Where i can discover how to live as a friend two years and become more integrated. A more integrated part of nature's balance. I want to foster an understanding of the earth to discover the means of bringing back the singing birds jumping fish in towson cats. And to revive all that is green and living. Not to just subsist but to be alive. This is my cause that transcends any other i'm going with the love for the birds bees and trees. My first memory of aram you actually goes back about. 4 years. Aram is. An exchange student she is from korea. And she has lived. As a family member with the cheney family. For the last. 4 years. She attended riverstone school and bishop kelly high school where she's graduating this year. And i'm i said. To where i was talking to each student about. What do you want me to say and what sort of introduction then so did you do anyting. During high school. Well hello hello from outside in. She actually participated in the academic decathlon which is my goodness. Quite quite something to participate in. And she won a state gold medal in mathematics. So it was hardly an. Ain't nothing kind of career. Autumn is going to go. Pretty far away for her college years she's going to state university of new york. In stony brook new york. No i can't i don't i hate those are words of art while i mostly sad. I always complain about my life my situation and who i was. Last year i almost gave up on myself. However depict range in my life came to me in the summer of 2009. On july 10th 2009 ios on the airplane to go to. For a missionary trip in my church. My parents forced me to go otherwise i wouldn't go. Indoor philippines we had to walk on moderate about more than 2 hours. To go to the onion church. I started to complain again about why i had to come here. The people in the church answered my questions. What they saw and heard chuck meat. There are lots of children and elders. And they were all smiling or must all the time. Their living conditions were horrible such as the gap between the wars. Water came to the azrael as. That's that there are no bathrooms. However they took it totally different than tired. They thank us for everything while you did for them. An example of their different attitude was where we encountered a boy. They had a fever. We gave me one key land. He fell asleep without any pain. When you want kill a whatsapp like everything for them. His parents were like incredible incredibly grateful and thank us and pulaski. They were not rich but their mind was richer than mine. They're like teachers to me. They made me feel shame. I left my old self behind and came home on your person. What i want to do is help people with all my heart. Melanie helping brother still giving them hope for the future. Another experience. Affected me similarity was. Last year when i have to build a house for african refugees. My host family and i volunteered for habitat for humanity. To help electrician family who had escaped.. Conflict and. Genocide in darfur. We are told to there. Many long years of struggle in africa and how they eventually came to leave in boise. I will never forget there's three of stairs. Travels in africa and south how did our health. Their dreams came true. After i went to philippines and a helping life is your family i had to dream and. Thoughts of helping these people who are suffering which motivate my actions and. Drive me to work hard because i want you make. My dreams come true in 10 years. I want to view a voice for people who are in danger for android. I feel that starting. Medicine boa to make a difference in their lives. Fun to take care of and give good. Treatment to people who don't have access to good healthcare. If i ever used use bp. Before people whom i have to have the opportunity to give helping hands to others. Helping others knowing that they can help yet others we can all leave together in a great word. I came to the united states for years ago in 2000. 6. I also need 15 years old and that was my first longstreet away from my parents. At the time everything was new and stranded to me. I was afraid to talk and meet people because i didn't know how to speak and everyone i still was totally different than in korea. I was getting better and better because i had good friends and new family. At first i had to really hard time to getting used to be this area people and kircher. Besides really do most one part of me so. I was really happy to come here this church every sunday. I also had to think a lot of them my future. You made me very nervous and made me a negative person. With all that i have experience. I got rid of negativity finally i am here today. I want to say thank you. My first memory of. Running around like a crazy man. And speaking full sentences with vocabulary that rivaled mine. I might have known we had a head. Richard factory jets. What if. Our favorite adventures together with the time i lit my was wearing a stole a scarf for a stroll. And i lit it on fire accidentally. And andrew was having his first standing over here. He did not do it. But it was. And eventually we'll probably. Never forget in her whole life. Andrew also went to our sunday school program. He was in the coming-of-age program on my husband bob was his mentor i can remember them walking their dogs. Together. He also went to the our whole lives. Sexuality curriculum. And. Went to boston as a pilgrim and then last year. He was sort of like a. A junior counselor he went again with his mother and father and brother and i and others. On the trip. Andrew is going to be going to western washington university. I almost. Forgot where he was going to school. Throughout my life this fellowship has always been a place a dividend edges. I remember how this property felt after removed from pierce park. The broker not been properly explored and i being an adventure seven-year-old felt i was the right one for the job. I remember building bridges and playing games in the tiger pit. I remember making plans to go the grand treehouse in the mother tree before she had to be cut down. I didn't talk to my dad for a whole day the day they did it. Which is a big deal for me. I remember the first day i left the chalice hoping that i hadn't been me. Elizabeth on fire. Most. Most of all of the things. Sorry most of all i remember the feeling. It was a feeling of warmth and comfort that is vital to the development of every human being. It was a feeling of family. Besides my parents and my brother all of my family live far away. My parents purpose in finding a church community had been to help bring that sense of larger community to the four of us. But it was more than just that to me. When i struggle in school. And with my relationships there it was a thought of the grove and the potluck center relationships here except me socially grounded. I feel love here and i always have. That love has been one of the most important foundations of my development. It opened me up to learning in a way that no one outside my family had ever done. And help me to form other vital beliefs and values. Here i was shown by example both in religious exploration or already. And the social gatherings. The importance of compassion honor and respect. I was taught that ideas are the most important resources on the planet and that everyone and their unique perspective has great value. I learned that situations must be judged by looking at every possible angle and then understanding the position of the opposition is exceedingly important. In the coming-of-age program i explored my beliefs and took great steps for determining where i felt i fit into the world. In school i went to see his holiness the dalai lama speak in sun valley idaho. That year was very important to me i learned a lot about myself and i truly felt i was able to internalize the lessons of equality in perspective in a purposeful way. These events helped me to see what i wanted in my life and my education to be a more. These events helped me to see but i wanted my life and my education to move in a more profound direction. Just like the row i wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. Since then i've challenged myself academically with a difficult or schedule in high school. I challenge myself physically and strategically on the lacrosse field earning a spot on the varsity team midway through my sophomore year. And a starting position this year before my injury. I challenged my strength and endurance on my rock climbing team. I challenged myself mentally by joining a robotics team that won regional competition sacramento and competed nationally. And i challenged myself everyday to be a leader and a positive influence in the community and social networks in which i participated. The challenge that has influenced me the greatest however has been teaching re at church since leaving the youth program. As a freshman i talked with my parents and now i'm teaching again in the fourth through sixth grades. These kids are wonderful. Their playful precocious kind and a lot of fun to interact with. As a teacher i aspire to pass down. The same principles that had such an intense impact on me as a participant in re. This is not as easy as i thought it would be. And i find that i have a hard time in finding the true meanings of the lessons that i am teaching. My timing already has been important because it helped me to realize in more detail the medium in which i would like to use to change the world. I've considered education to be the answer to the country's political turmoil ever since i started caring about politics. Teaching here has led me to the conclusion that i need to find a different method in order to make the kind of difference i want to be apart of. I want to be the one to create the curriculum rather than to teach it. In the same way i want to create a campaign to make lacrosse this ancient sport and idaho. I want to start an organization that will help expand local interest in rock climbing. Most of all i want to work in the political arena and help to create a better tomorrow by promoting bipartisanship educational advancements campaign reform and tolerance for diversity. This community has bestowed upon me and the lessons that it taught me. Are the basis for my spiritual and political ideals. Without those foundations and the nurturing attention of this community i would never found. The path that i walk today. The next step in my journey is higher education at western washington university which i found to be the perfect place for me to acquire the knowledge i need to fulfill my ambition. Next year i'm heading off to a new adventure in bellingham to study political science. I will always look back on this church and the people in it with the fondest of memories i look forward to returning. With. New experience and new ideas to one day give back to the community in a more profound way.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20090301.mp3

There is a candle in your heart. Ready to be kindled. There is a void in your soul ready to be filled. You feel it don't you. You feel the separation from the beloved. Invite. The beloved to fill you up and brace the fire. Remind those who tell you otherwise but love. Comes to you of its own accord. And the yearning for it. Cannot be learned in any school. Morning. I hate leaving but i like traveling i like getting somewhere not particularly like to visit with them. Different new york congregations. As a puppeteer i'm i'm an aficionado of the. Of the puppet. And this just has to take the cake. I've been i've been looking at it and looking at it and i see so many things i see phones and i see. Plows and. Nicey. Prairies and it's just wonderful. So pam and i are delighted to be here today. That's so hoes when i wrote it when i wrote this at 4 in the morning when i got a call saying that my flight has been cancelled and. Does we have snow back where we are. But we really delighted to be here and we were delighted. To be your facilitators for your social justice empowerment workshop. Very thankful for the warm reception that we received we've been in communication with rick ross now for weeks months years i don't know seems like i always have known you forever. And i hope that you feel proud of the work that you've done you and your associates. All the planning and arranging and fretting. That it seems to take to run a successful workshop or social justice program. And i want to say thanks to what nancy rice who i don't think is here today. But she was a great logistician. Chief shoferit us around your lovely town. And. Yesterday when i don't know where gwen is. Your sister sister. Took us on a tour of the lovely grounds and it was really. Wonderful. Not only be connected to hear but to transylvania. And this sanctuary. Fellowship hall as welcoming as its people. Thanks to all of you who cooked and served we want to thank the youth in particular and wish you well on your trip to boston and remember lawrence where i live is just 30 minutes north. And has a rich history. And we would welcome you at the newly forming community church of emigrant city. Which is dedicated to the practice of social justice as a spiritual discipline. And. I wonder if all of you who participated would just stand for for a brief moment. They're a lot more of you but the rest i guess you're sleeping it off and just want to say you're really really worked hard. And i'm going to say thank you. You sitting down time to waste thing i wanted to ask you please. Would you please leave and start. And start working on all the things that you said you'd do that was a long list. Okay just kidding. Do you know what i'm kidding. Please be seated stacy didn't miss joy each other's company for a bit longer before pam and i have to fly away. And we really really sorry that your minister elizabeth is is not here. But elton read the wonderful. Missive. From her that. Rainforest / hope in you. And her trust that you would do good things. I want to say thank you to a cheryl dowling. As well for your wonderful photos and rodger rodger here. Summarizing a scores of a visions and your excellent reporting back and want to thank all the newcomers who jumped in. And thanks for all the old comers. For practicing. Being new. Again. And again. That's costing reminded us. So obviously 70 people can't speak for a community of 400 or so but they can. Passionately represent the heart of a social justice vision for all. From a welter of options. Comes to youth reactionaries. That can bring your congregation together. In unifying effective action to accomplish your overall mission and vision. The next steps are crucial. And exacting. As the seedlings are transplanted. Into the. Fecund soil. You have plowed and. Fertilize the ground of your community well. Now to gently and solidly nurture the growth. An individual joins of fellowship for church such as yours not because they are deficient in anyway. But because they want to be part of something grander than their individual self and likewise i believe a church is a complete. Unit unto itself but it hasn't fulfilled its purpose is destiny its climax growth. Until it realizes that it's thoroughly embedded. In the life and cares of the world. So what is it to be spiritual that's in the title. Like love and family and all enterprises of grandeur there ultimately no words. But i try to describe it i say it begins when we realize that the sum of our actions and interactions are greater than the sum of their parts. We speak of a team like my beloved celtics. Having a great spirit. Ubuntu. Don't know who you're rooting for in this idaho doesn't have a team but. They're going to win again. United in a great resolve mysterious. Capable of great and surprisingly great things. Also a clue comes from the. Then master yes to tony roshi who said that the greatest illusion that human beings share. Is thinking that. I am here. And you are there. As if there's someone out there to be saved by us. Social justice is spiritual to me when i can no longer figure out. Who's being helped the more. The person i think i'm helping or me who thinks he's helping someone. But it is imperative that has herbie hancock says. We must save ourselves. So that we can save ourselves. Jump in the water's fine. Boof. Did i pronounce that correctly has been doing that since you began as a gleam in the eye and the late forties as i understand it and you've been doing it right up until the present moment. Do you have questions and i shared unease. And the more that's being increasingly asked of you. Without getting overwhelmed and all bollixed up. How can we make our involvement with the. Welcoming congregation in the whittier school and interfaith sanctuary more vital how can we keep from being burned out. How can we become re-enchanting. Probably asleep we cannot keep from singing. Well that's enough for the nfc's. The intuitive feelers. Get that myers-briggs. Not for the estes. And we're all everything but we have our preferences. What did we do together while we began by affirming that whatever could happen from the workshop. You've already done incredible incredibly wonderful things. Each starfish beached and panting for breath that is returned to the sea makes a difference and the great web of all being. You created a timeline. Of your congregation going back to the 60s that is stick. With accomplishments. When i said that word stick i remembered the great late bill coffin who went to our church arlington street church in boston. In the heyday of the vietnam. Or to support the young men who are defying the draft. But so crowded was the sanctuary that had to go around to the back door where he was greeted by the minister of arlington street church the wonderful jack mendelson. And coffin said ou unitarians. Synonym theology. Pick on essex. And so you are. Don't stick take it there this is a congregation that could never sit idly by when there were. And justices occurring nearby. You talked about how it felt to be involved personally and social justice. One person put it beautifully for me. It feels good. To step out and do something brave. And it also feels slightly terrifying. That's when you know you're walking that narrow ridge between obedience to the call of one's conscience and disobedience to the ill framed mandates of society. Good and slightly terrifying and you vision. thank you again rodger for encapsulating scores of statements of what you would look like in the year 2050. So over the next 41 years. You came yesterday projected that you'll have a larger church or you'll spoil newer churches you'll run a homeless shelter a foodbank a childcare center you'll have a uu retirement center. Uu missionaries. Who knock on your door for no apparent reason you'll be engaged and all the vital issues of the day. Immigrants rights lbgtq rights ending poverty and hunger. Thanks also rodger for pointing out that there have been tremendous changes since the historic here counting backwards 41 years 1968. We must be prepared to ride the world wind of change. What else did we learn we learn from richard gilberti the author of the prophetic imperative. The congregations you can be conceived of as a wheel. Diagram does a circle. Surrounded by a bigger circle with three sections in the center is worship the celebration of life. And there's a lifespan religious education program of the mention of social action and moral discourse and a caring community. If we cannot take care of ourselves. What right do we have to care for others and in that sense. Justice begins at home and also there's no way that justice. Justice is the way. But each section of that wheel is a place where social justice can take place. We saw that social justice as many faces as well as places we do social justice by providing advocacy and service. By witnessing and educating and by community organizing. It was pointed out that service is how we truly engage with those. We'd like to help that is also the way we profoundly indirectly understand what people's issues are. Before we do service if all we do is. Feed the poor house the homeless empower the imprisoned. Wonderful things without dealing with the structures of evil. That maintain these inequities. It's almost as if we're embedded abetting the criminal actions of neglect and oppression that create those dangerous in the first place. We familiarize ourselves with the social justice cycle and in particular the teachings of liberation theology which urges to act. And that reflect and study further in order to accept bentley with more power. Then we let you loose. And in that corner of the room. Oh no you brainstorm that your tables. Is amazing how well you follow instructions is just we never know what to expect you know we always start that was probably be a rebellion here and nobody will follow their plan they'll be fine too but. A possibilities we said the largest universal possibilities you can think of so that no sometime from now you don't say. Oh i forgot i really wanted to. You know. Save baby seals that's that's my burning issue. They're all out their scores of them and then they would dutifully inscribed on balloons. I was hoping to do some here and then we clumped you all together. And we said each of these balloons is you know how you would call it juggling the bulky to the balls in the air will. One minute we just just we set for one minute keep these balloons in the air. Could you do it online. Now you couldn't and you couldn't touch it then you couldn't you couldn't hold him if they dropped. They dropped. And then at the end we touch them after 60 seconds and we we read what was on there and saw the things that were on the ground and it was. It was sad. It was sad even even frightening this to see what can be what can be lost. End. This will be perfect. But this is generally have social justice works in a small pastoral size congregation. What you last we're by the way maybe 3 or 5 years ago because we never akhtar size. But we respond to what comes up. When we're acting anna as a pastor of congregation we did the best we can according to chance and our passions with a program size congregation pushing out from 400 members and contributing friends it's just time to become more deliberate about what you do now. Or else you'll continue to be challenged in his ways that you asked for relief. Continue to be challenged how we going to share the load and then the people working how we're going to have adequate focus. How we going to not get overwhelmed and burnout. On top of everything else. There's already the challenge of living in a world that faces unprecedented enormous social and economic deficits. So how can you capitalize on your efforts empower yourselves. You returned to. To the groups. And you chose each group three issues. Do unite the congregation in action. Grounding fitting opportunity where your guides. Do you have resources here already to begin to deal with it is your congregation simpatico with that issue is this the time. And then we combine all the choices and we had a list but from a plethora of choices we just had a bunch. About a dozen. Remember that portable housing homelessness refugees addressing poverty hunger community hunger. Human glbtq rights adversity outreach. Native americans economic environmental issues. Interphase. Issues issues with the undocumented in each person then came up and voted with three dots. Long to hold you came up with ford issues. With them this is amazing how these things to happen they don't. You know the course of true love never ran smoothly and. Then we came up with. Three areas that really spoke to us economic justice environmental justice human rights and you. And you heard the results of that. Nothing they change. You can erase this weekend from your from your memory. Keep it as a time when people who cared about each other and knew how to play nicely with each other. Engaged in some animated thinking and and discussion. And we didn't really come to change anything we didn't just come certainly the reject anyting. But you can take that thought and feeling experiment. Cuz if you were here and share it with with others. And you could slightly change your structure you can create a coordinating council and each a action group can reflect and study and create a consolidated approach to responding to your various mandates. You can keep your dreams alive. You can flush out the promises that you individually made to change your justice footprints. Rite aid. B-ball. Be daring. Fear not. You'll get nothing perfect. It's one of my bosses said. We must be getting a lot done but you're making a lot of mistakes today i hope you make a lot of mistakes and renew yourselves andre enchant yourselves again and again. I'm here to put a little ps on reverend galen's summary of our workshop yesterday. Here you are in boise. You're in one of the most critical places in the country. In idaho in the state capitol. In a position to be on the cutting edge of social justice in this state. The largest unitarian universalist. Congregation in the state. But being on the cutting edge of social justice work is inherently challenging. And so my thoughts for you. Ar. Two with one small story. On the power. Of building active listening. Into your congregational life. It's the practice. Social justice as a spiritual practice. And so what is a spiritual practice. Practice repeated over and over again that we can return to regularly. We use spiritual practice to deepen. The meaning that we make out of our lives and to build integrity. Into both our lives in our communities. The choices that we make. That are coming that are bringing in to line our practice and our values. So i have one little story to tell you. As a young woman i worked in one of the lowest income counties. In the country in the cold. Coal country mountains of eastern kentucky. It was the era of the vietnamese war. And in kentucky many young men joined the army. The public sentiment was very pro-war. The quakers. Traditional. Sent material aid to all sides in the vietnam war. One project they sponsored was the ship the phoenix which delivered medical aid to both north and south vietnam. That was extremely unpopular in the mountains of eastern kentucky. And the quaker center speaker. Horace champney. To travel around the country and i was a young woman and i went to hear what he had to say. He was a very elderly gentleman. From ohio. He look just the almost on the brink of senility. When i attended the meeting where he came he and roomful of teeth. Fiercely angry. And he began to speak and he was shouted down. I've never been in a room where people shouted down the speaker and. Express sub anger that. You could feel as if the man was going to be run out of town on the rail. So i was waiting for him to say something that was absolutely brilliant that would knock their socks off and he didn't. He just he he's loosened. And then he said well now let's see if i can understand you. And he pratt. The art of active listening. By repeating what he had heard. From the people in the room. And the people in the crowd yelled not how it is at all and they. They. Gave him more and more. Angry feedback. And hers can't be tried again. He tried again and again to state what he'd heard them say and after two or three times going back and forth he said well. I think i understand that but i see it slightly differently. And he went on to describe why he had gone to north vietnam with material age and what he had experienced in north vietnam and this time. The temperature in the room had dropped. And he was able to get a very respectful hearing. The impact on me as a young woman watching this exchange with electric. Because for me it's started what has really been. A lifelong meditation on the power. Listening. And i became a quaker. And much letter later a quaker unitarian universalist. So here you are in boise idaho in one of the most critical places. Possibly playing that cutting-edge role. Being on the. The fine line. Between. People with various opinions strongly felt. Can you bring the practice of active listening into your congregation in a way that you get an opportunity to practice. One of the congregations. That i've visited has instituted a month-long listening circle. Those who attend sit in silence listening carefully to anyone who feels moved to speak. And people come into the circle bringing their concerns their disagreements. And it's a place that provides a space for cultivating the spiritual practice. Of active listening. And i encourage you. Look for those opportunities to bring active listening reflection. Into your. Congregational life. With testimonials and your sunday service. And ways of building. The practice. Not only active listening but reflection. Into your life because. In that moment in time you actually grow your own spiritual growth. If it's actually an opportunity for spiritual growth for each of us. Those are the moments when we live we live and grow. Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to work with you. And your congregation on building. Your social justice. Program in the congregation it's been a great delight. We think that you are an exceptional church. We're glad to have been able to be with you. There is a candle in your heart ready to be kindled. There is a boy in your soul ready to be filled you feel it don't you. You feel the separation for the beloved. Invite the beloved to fill you up embrace the fire. Remember those who tell you otherwise that love. Comes to you of its own accord. And the yearning for it. Cannot be learned in any school.

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BUUF-sermon-20081116.mp3

At the westside. Monthly ministry light should i invite you to come to the eastside this friday. Uub surf washington group morrison conosci place over there. During that lunch i heard what may be the best unitarian-universalist avent i've ever come across. We were discussing theology. At least one of us was quite vociferous about evidence for the existence of some kind of god. Another one. Amana. Quite a few years was that plenty of time to reflect said. I'm an atheist. But i think i'm probably wrong tornado. Where you use can in spite of our openness to many views and up with dogmatic hearts and minds. This man show did not do that. The blessing to me. Is his good-natured openness and schumer by shining example of unitarian universalism. You might say. Today we are celebrating our fellowship. We're celebrating the conclusion or almost conclusion of a community building. Budget reducing talking about money out loud kind of campaign. We're celebrating the blush. Unitarian universalism is in the world. A religion that nurtures our souls. And helps heal the world. This is a place. Worth supporting. Brock self. For families. And the for the larger community. A joke sometimes help us the truth about ourselves. Turns out there was a unitarian universalist who was worried until he can buy confided to a friend i got somebody i want to bring to church but. I'm not sure if he's going to be comfortable our minister uses the j word so often. The other person said. The j word i haven't heard. One area that this church has stood up for justice in a public way. Isn't supportive are gay lesbian bisexual and transgender sisters and brothers. We turn out. At the first gay pride parade. In 1989 or 90. Now the parade itself. Was something of a miracle in those more closet today. We were a brave little band of a half a dozen or so people some of us with our children. Waving posters. The posters were 8 in heaven 8 half by 11. Identified us. Printed on my matrix printer. We turn out for that in much larger numbers today. In 1993. We took a public official congregational stand against proposition 1 which was an anti-gay edition. We wrap a red ribbon around our property we were on other property at that time and declared it a hate free zone. Prop 1 i'm glad to say was defeated. A couple of years ago at least 40 of us for his congregation worked against the definition of marriage one man one woman. Constitutional amendment that did pass. We haven't organized as often or as strongly as an institution as we would sometimes like in many areas but our passion for healing the world is growing. We work toward becoming a green sanctuary. We joined others in building habitat for humanity. We gather warm clothes for whittier school children. We will have a special social justice weekend people from the unitarian universalist association or coming out. It will happen in february. For all of us. Boosie the pain and suffering. In our world. Who's stevie iniquity. To be part of change. Just as healing the world takes many forms so does nurturing soul. There was the first quarter of 2001. When we lost. A big piece. Our living heritage. Between january 27th. And april 12th of that year. 7. Of our oldest members and friends. The collective burden of grief. Was staggeringly even if we had known these foremothers and forefathers very well. And we turn for comfort. And hope. And the plastic. On each other's presence. My beloved younger sister died on may 8th 1998. 3 weeks. After we had dedicated. The first phase of this building. On this beautiful property. For at least two years probably more. I dwelt in a paradox. Unbelieving joy. That we had achieved our dream i had been here 10 years by that time. And terrible. Uncomprehending brokenness. Kate and i. Would never again sing our songs together on this earth. The congregation supported me during those years when i simply was not capable. A full harden. Many congregations would not have had. Spiritual strength. For such care. And there would have been a crisis of terrible proportions. That patient. Loving. Holding of me. Was one of the healing miracles of my life. This is a place for souls are lifted by beauty. Buy art. We love music. And we continue to enjoy more music more variety of skilled and enthusiastic musicians. We have all kinds of visual artists are including the ones who boldly picked out the colors for all of our room if you haven't looked at the sunday school rooms in the library and stuff you definitely should. Our gardens in our grow. Are tended by armies. Of you you elves but none of us ever. Planning and planting and weeding and mowing and tending give us the spiritual surroundings that we so need. If we are to be centered and strong and open in the world. We cherish our children. The hope of our future. The story is told of the uu sunday school kid who was drawing a picture and her side his school teachers a call. I'm drawing a picture of god. And sunday school teacher go everywhere we must be open to all kinds of things. Nobody really knows what god looks like in the lord rolak them. We are deeply committed to helping children become confident. Competent. Respectful adults. People capable. Of loving others. And working. For justice. One of the greatest blessings in my life. Is seeing so many tiny ones. Grow into big kids. And then youth. And then. Is it possible. Into adult. Last year when i was at the monastery for 30 days. Cottonwood idaho by my sabbatical. The bridging weekend came up. The high school kids. Speaker park and go forth into the world. And i sneaked back down by bus. Spencer saturday rehearsal. Not to see those kids on their special weekend. I don't some of them. Mary japan. It's a great joy and a miracle in my life. This is a church of great spirit. And it is a church of entirely. Hanging into comfort one another to work for justice. To raise needed money to keep the place going and attends to the unglamorous matter of organizational structure. We are fallible because we are human. Every single one of us who has been committed to this fellowship for more than a few months has experience disappointment. Annoyance. Even dissolution. In addition to the joy and the miracle and a blessing. Youtube. Those of us who have stayed. Affirming the importance of community even through difficulty. We need an honesty with each other. Working through hard things even when we want to just get the heck out. We believe in forgiving ourselves. And each other. If i had a quarter. For every time i have messed up. In the last 20 years. We wouldn't have to be having this fall stewardship drive. The forgiveness of others is a miracle and a blessing. Indeed. I have a friend who says ministry is always having to say you're sorry and i believe that to be true. This is a place where human beings can either. Because we need each other. And we cannot do it all alone. This is a place where all are welcome. In the words of president-elect barack obama. Young and old. Rich and poor democrat and republican. Black and white hispanic asian native american american gay and straight disabled and not. This is a place where something sometimes nickname is present. Present in mystery. And present. In each others face. Each other's lovely. Suffering. Confused. Joyous. This is a place for fallible people join with other fallible people because we know we can build something greater than we are within our walls and outside of them. This is a place of joy. Of hard work. A terrible suffering. Of luminous moments. Of holy. Ludacris ludacris and luminous. Of laughter and tears. This is a house of the holy and the house of the mundane. This is a house. Where we are humbly aware that we can make the choice. The miraculous choice. To bless each other. And the world. May it be so.

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BUUF-sermon-20100124.mp3

When i was invited to give a presentation today i was asked to give her presentation on michael dell's book thank god for evolution. And when i accepted the invitation i had every intention of doing so but as i began preparing their remarks for today. I felt compelled to summarize the concept. The book is called the death of the mythic god. The rise of evolutionary spirituality by jim marion. So with my apologies. Perhaps i can get back to michael dell's some other day. Turn the order of service to the center part. There is a chart in here called the stages of spiritual growth. Have a hard time falling along the streets in patient without referring to that spreadsheet. 9 stages listed there. 100 stages from one point to the other the fahrenheit scale creates 212 people from different ages of broken down into different numbers. There seems to be some sort of movement towards breaking it down into the nine stages of ken wilber has defined in his writings 30cm the archaic through the non-dual. Other writers have broken some of ken wilber stages down into smaller stages there's a book called spiritual dynamics written by beck and colon. Levels 1 through 5 or broken down into stages that are each given a color. Fowler wrote the rational stage down into a couple of different stages synthetic conventional individual reflective jim marion talks about some of the later stages dark night of the senses and dark night of the soul actually those were first described by a monk who lived in spain. The coldest three stages of is a bit of a misnomer. From early stages of spirituality the later stages of spirituality it really helps to have some sort of math. And i'm going to be talking about today is what you see on this spreadsheet the nine stages. Each of these stages is. The definition of it is that hold on is a part that is also a hole. Some examples from nature would be that electrons protons and neutrons. An atom is the part that makes up a whole molecule. Molecules are parts that with other things make up a wholesale. A body or person is a part that makes up a whole family which is a part that makes up a whole community which is a part that makes up a whole human culture and so forth and so forth so as you can see these hold on. If i was a better graphical artist i would have actually showed them a concentric circles to indicate that you can't. Really have one of the later stages without the foundation that's blow it so the archaic should kind of be at the smallest. Evolutionary spirituality is that our awareness sometimes called our consciousness evolve. Videos with spiritual evolution. I'm going to actually read a little bit from jim mary's book describes. This process of spiritual growth. Jim says as our awareness becomes less egocentric and more and more universally compassionate and aware. An infant boy called primary narcissism. It's not that the infant is selfish in the moral sense it's just that the infant can recognize only himself at first not even distinguishing himself from his mother. The infant's first spiritual task is to realise that much as he may wish to be the center of the universe so the world will automatic. Infant is indeed distinct from other beings and objects. Jim marion says it's probably 20 or 30 lines of development at all. Quite likely that each of us is a multiple stages of development. Ken wilber the philosopher has said that one can be at level 4 in moral development and level 2. Bring up is that as well as individual. Human culture currently. Let's talk little bit about stage 2 the magical stage children are currently at the stage in the current culture. The trial often cannot distinguish between / inner symbolic world in the world of external reality. The child in her world is a polytheistic disneyland full of angels animals. That's the cultural level magic tribal cultures cultures are based upon physical or non-related tribes are usually seen as enemies so i will call first ten to be polytheistic. Next day children's day in western culture. Which by the way is why so many religious group call h7 the age of reason or the age of accountability at which time you had better get yourself saved you might end up eternal hellfire and damnation. Often times the group that mommy and daddy belong to are the only true or false. No doesn't do much good the priests tolerance and diversity to someone at this stage of a person usually has no way of understanding what we're talkin about. Not the person has a different opinion than we do is that the person actually perceive as reality differently than we do if we had a similar perception of reality we would probably have. For the mythic person his his prayers petition the great god in the sky. Who is their projection of the perfect parent so they petition is great god in the sky to work miracles in his behalf to relieve him of anything. Narcissistic. Note that the person does not have to be told that he belonged to the one true religion. The person simply does not seem to be able to think otherwise at this stage of spiritual development. And by the 1400 that completely dominated western culture. But it has slowly been replaced with higher levels of spiritual awareness since then. However very large portions of humanity are still at the mythic level of spiritual awareness. Cultural awareness. Belong to the tribe or to belong to the group anyone. Could be converted. Of course this was far below the level of spiritual growth of jesus and his disciples preached. The most christians even in the early church. We're incapable of understanding jesus. They thought mystically and they saw the world musically. Christianity despite which was soon reduce the level of consciousness. What's move on the level for the rational. Rational consciousness is now. Rational level of soul familiar. Jim marion spends a lot of time differentiating between the mythic in the rational it's important to do so because people because so many. One foot in the mythic and one foot in the rational. President george w bush. What he calls the war on terrorism a contest of good versus evil he's thinking. Where the world is divided into the good guys and the bad guys. But when he says that we are in a struggle to preserve civilization. Civilization is a rational concept that goes beyond. They have definite opinions about a host of matters in the end their identities are wrapped up in these beliefs and opinions. Reading a saw an individual terms as in personal achievement versus going along with the crowd. In economics can be manipulated. The world is a pool of resources to be exploited or other people with a large corporation have a human resources department. The planet is now suffering from the excesses of other rational level. We already. we're species are going extinct an unprecedented rate. The development of a separate individual iveco ego and thinking for oneself the ghost that goes along with it. But that ego has now become the principal obstacle to further human progress. We come to believe the self. Is the individual mind. The individual mind has taken us over. What's move on to level 5 the vision logic stage. 16 stage rational ego is still supreme the person still identifies his or herself with the mind it's up here. But the mind now has a wider worldview. Forsaking ideologies and other isms the person canelo understand things from a different perspective. The same as queen of all the sciences it is not just enough to be an expert in one narrow field organism. Wife needs to be seen and appreciated in all is pluralism in diversity. All persons cultures and religions need to be treated with respect. This sounds a lot like the current state of unitarian-universalism if you ask me. Spiritual awareness american university in the last 20 years because the vision logic level is now the dominant level of spiritual awareness in these institutions. Census level constitutes the leading edge of spiritual awareness into in culture it's important to understand and detail. There are a couple of people colon and back who are the authors of a book called spiritual dynamics they have actually divided this level into three sublevels green yellow and turquoise and a handle. Actually quote from jim marion. She's quoting from calling him back in his book so this is who's who wrote this following paragraph. Green is the sensitive self communitarian human bonding ecological sensitivity networking the human spirit must be free from greed and dogma. Feelings and caring supersede cole rationality. Emphasis on dialogue in relationships. The green greens are strongly galuteria anti hierarchy pluralistic values social construction of reality diversity multiculturalism. Greenstraw greater degree of effective warm sensitivity and caring for earth and all its inhabitants. Again. Cultural shift from the green vision logic in human culture. This ship is still gaining momentum as evidenced by the political effect of climate change. However the greens do have some weak points and since i think the greens are kind of. I think it's worth paying attention. I want sure some of them with you. Even though greens emphasized sensitivity to others it would be a mistake to think that all those with green consciousness have love and compassion for all. With them or for those. They often despise rednecks. Christian evangelical nascar races hunting. Professional wrestling. And rap music. They are often please. Greens tend to move in groups and thinking about and have lifestyles like their fellow green. Their value the typified by supporting ben & jerry's ice cream. Voting democratic. Park participating in an aids walk or stillwater cultural and spiritual. They still seek to impose their values upon others through the political process their values are more expensive. They see themselves in a constant battle with the worldviews of orange and blue that is rational. Finally green consciousness like all those which have receded it is convinced it's world is real the world is the only legitimate and trueview in the world. Green members of the democratic party therefore can be every bit as rabbit in the mythic. As the blue comerica park for the last 10 years. Celebrities in celebrity incivility and gridlock in congress are the direct products of this war. Blue and green core membership. Cuz the corporations are solidly in the rational level of consciousness. After all the campaign money for both parties comes primarily from corporations and large financial institutions. Corporations and their lobbyists also originated many if not most of government policies. The political center is the competitive patriarchal. Empire environmental commercial with rational level even the rise of green so far has not been able to displace rational consciousness is the most powerful consciousness operating in the political arena. Part of the reason is green zone limitations. What's new on explore that possibility. Which is the second part of the vision logic level see the whole of spiritual growth and can and can appreciate contributions made at each level. Operator. Also begin to appreciate all the nuances of life and the contributions of all people even those with whom one disagrees. Expectations of a certain way. Become more comfortable with uncertainty. They begin to trust in life itself as opposed to the mythic sky god which was. They trust in life as opposed to personal achievements or rank in society or even the purity of their own good intentions. Briefly read some more about yellow from jim marion. Has their own egos have shrunk. They can't not to get into partisan bickering of any kind. They like integrated and open systems they love to solve complex problems and care very little about whether they get the credit or not it is solving the problems that energizes them. Yellow people learn from anybody at any level they understand that all people have gifts and talents. They do not like to waste time over consumed or decree clutter and baggage. Working for the good of future humanity. For me i believe 2009 was the year i transition from being mostly green. I'm mostly yellow. For me michael dobbs book thank god for evolution was a biggest part of that transition from green to yellow and i really do want to talk about that book i will get back to it sometime. I also believe a thank god for evolution has tremendous potential for helping those developed people who are stuck at the mythic level and don't know what to do. I'm out 50 years old looking back i can see that i transition through the stages of spiritual growth on the schedule to jim marion says it most people at your to these days. Magical level entered to interfere entered into at age 2 i don't remember that but since i don't have any symptoms of someone who got stuck at the archaic level assume i made the transition okay. At the mythic level i made the trans at age 7 and made the transition to the mythic level which tends to last until adolescent. When i was 12 years old i had a very intense mystical religious experience. Override the teenage years i did become a daughter and i enter the rational level during adolescence. And early adulthood probably sometime in my twenties i entered into the green level. And there i think i pretty much stayed stuck. Until i finally i stayed stuck there for like 25 years until finally last year i thought i feel like i got moved onto the yellow levels been a very exciting and fulfilling time for me. I don't have time to go into into any of these later levels in detail nor do i have the ability since i'm not there yet i can't really talk about turquoise and i certainly can't i can talk a little bit about psychic. Sorry can't help him. I have the ability to intellectually comprehend some of these main points in turquoise and cycle which means i might be ready to move on if i truly work at it. 789. However i can't dismiss the fact that these higher levels might exist completely out of hand because jim marion describes so accurately. I would think it would be very odd him if his description of a higher levels turns out to be nothing but sheer delusions. I hope these levels aren't shared illusion because moving on it really is what i want to do i really need to continue the process of spiritual growth i started as an infant that is. Lessening my own self-centeredness. Into the west self-centered way of looking at things. Actually i'm quite currently disappointed that my transition from green to yellow hasn't yet had more of a positive impact on my family. On my workplace on this fellowship. And on the world in general. I want to make more of a positive impact by reaching higher levels of human potential. As jesus said by their fruits you will recognize them recognized who have wondered. I recently come to the conclusion that jesus probably was talking about recognizing people at level 8 or 9. That's very discouraging to me because of the rate i've been growing spiritually for the last 25 years i will not get there in this lifetime. Sixers sometimes collectively called the mystic levels of spiritual awareness. What's the my amazement mystics of all religions. Christian jewish muslim. I'm amazing because the contrast when i was 20 years old. And went and visited with about a dozen different mythic level clergy people. Their extreme and irreconcilable differences quickly pushed me into the orange rational level with no going back. I think i have a grasp on what is the good news of all true religion. With a genuine conversion experience. And one that is a stain on a daily basis. The rate of spiritual growth can be accelerated. One of the best ways to accelerate growth is to join a religious group that knows something about it. Nope fellowships mission statement which is on the back of your order of service it says that we nurture personal and spiritual growth. Indeed we do. I'm not so sure that that's really going to be good enough for the future for us to build the kind of future that we want. A religious community to distinguish itself it needs to be able to demonstrate that it can accelerate spiritual growth. Could our fellowship or maybe a subgroup within our fellowship do that. Only if we understand the process of spiritual growth in the first place and only if we engage daily the engine for spiritual growth. Spiritual practices. And this engine is critically important your ass a vision logic stage because. It doesn't really take any extraordinary effort if you're interfering gauged in mostly a visual vision logic environment. Fortunately. I am quite excited. It seems like a huge step in the right direction to me. Far as i can tell elizabeth that work is summarizing the wisdom of various mystical traditions and what she's learned in her spiritual practices class. Currently there is room for seven more to sign up 13 to signed up so far the limit of 20. I really hope we can have a full class if we overflow hopefully we can convince elizabeth to offer more classes later. Marion's book. Sowell. Aura where do we go as a church from here and where do we go with individuals. As far as going where do we go as a church. Security issue millions of churchgoers will be demanding that the church offer them something real. Spiritual healing. Churches that respond will survive. The church is institutions of servant of the servants of god a service organization. Norton organization supply service in this case spiritual and mystical expertise. Alan watts who was a great 1960s. That you made happen and in today's accelerating global change it could happen faster than people think. Challenge of the church so where do we go as individuals if we want to move along passes a logic stage. Well first of all. In the spiritual path we cannot. Jump steps. That is just so important in each of these steps build upon one another. So we shouldn't expect someone at the mythic level just suddenly join and be a green level you you because they have to skip the rationalists not going to happen. We must start exactly where we are now. Where we are now it's. It is perfect for the lessons the holy spirit wants us to learn to marion is very much a christian by the way that's why i use it a lot of christians language. The airport on xbox better. Jim marion says that many people have asked him to recommend recommend various meditation techniques are the spiritual practices. There are hundreds of spiritual practices at jim marion says he could recommend. He could tell us about his own favorite ones. But he does not know what would be best for us remember one of the things we are doing at the higher levels of becoming an individual. Especially at the higher levels of consciousness. However i would definitely recommend meditation. For as ken wilber knows meditation is the only technique. Spiritual traditions eastern meditation. So i would say meditation is an absolute higher consciousness. More important than anything in spiritual growth is is is not necessarily. One of them mary's favorite stories is about the spiritual master who waited with his disciple into a lake. Omastar then had his disciple take a deep breath and put his head underwater. Send a master held at the water. The master still held his head under the water. Finally the disciple began thrashing about wildly and broke free grasping gasping for air. The master said. When you want god as much as you just wanted are. Then you will have a chance. Add biscuits back to what i said earlier that going past the visual logic. Post malone anymore. The four point is that we must be patience the spiritual path takes years. Kevin cannot be stormed overnight nor can we completely change ourselves overnight. When i read michael dell's thank god for evolution went to the yellow state from transformer. This hasn't happened sorry. Going to push himself to hurry to force and many of us are perpetual state of war. We should find the next point 5th points we should find a community of people who think as we do who are serious about the spiritual path as we are and you can pray with us and support us as jesus said two or three gather in his name or four more effective than going alone. So the spiritual path not let me skip to this point. Track limited close i'm going running long. I pray that we all become perfect vehicles for expressing god's love so that threw us the kingdom of heaven is. Already in heaven.

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BUUF-sermon-20100328.mp3

It is a spring evening. The first or second night of pesach for passover. Jews and the occasional non-jewish spouse. Dressed up for a festival meal. Washington. Parsley is dipped in saltwater. The youngest child present ask the four questions. Why do we only matter on this night. Why do we eat only bitter herbs on this time. Why do we dip the herbs in saltwater and also in the sweet haroset. Why do we recline at the table instead of sitting. The answers open the way for the retelling of the exodus story. This is in response to the commandant. And you shall tell your son on that day. It is because of what the lord did for me when i came out of egypt. The motto. We eat bitter herbs because ancestors were slaves in egypt and their lives were made bitter. We dip the herbs in the salt water of life. We're applying because in the olden days only free people were allowed to eat reclining. And i have to make a personal note here. I have never attended a seder where we actually reclined although i am most taken by the idea and i would love to do it. During the egyptian captivity god sent 10 horrible plagues upon egypt. To persuade farrell to soften his heart and let the people go. Rod's christmas feast. Slaying of all first-born children. The jews being forewarned. It's only the clothes on their backs and a little flower the hebrew children. Fled egypt. They reach the series with pharaoh's chariots had on their tail apparently all was lost. How many. How terribly impressive special effects. As gods. Then come over the poor hapless egyptian charioteers. The hebrews then wandered for forty years in the wilderness were given gifts by god and delivered into the promised land. And parenthetically in the seder we are. Told not to rejoice. At the death of the egyptians. That we never rejoice at anyone's death. My favorite part of the seder meal comes when we sing the song.. Dying. Or it would have sufficed. This song expresses the profound gratitude. That infuses all of passover celebration. Had he brought us out of egypt did not split the sea for us. Dayenu. How do you spell. Have you fed us with nana and not giving us the sabbath. Dayenu. Had he brought us to the to mount sinai. Dayenu. Hattie given us the torah and not brought us into the land of israel dayenu. How much more than. Are we to be grateful to god for the wonderful. For he did. The passover celebration is in essence a festival of thanksgiving. The tribe of israel. Hitler's genocide. Anti-semitism is still very real as it has always been. And yet every year to celebrate their gratitude for being brought forth from slavery. And delivered by god. One passover commentator says. In every generation we must guard ourselves. As if we claim for ourselves out of egypt. Therefore we are. To praise. Glorify to honor to exalt. And to bless him who wonders for our fathers and mothers and for us. I find this. Explicit never renewed practice of gratitude admirable and inspiring. At the same time it may not resonate particularly with at least some unitarian universalist for a couple of reasons. One reason is not comfortable with the notion of a delivering god. The other is that an attitude of gratitude has been spoken enough that some folks may find sprite. I can see at least mental eye-rolling going on in some quarters. However religiously. We cannot escape humility in the face of all we must be grateful for. Just because our lot is not the same as someone tell someone else's. Passport whiteness. We can remember the things become seemingly trite. Because they speak so eloquently. I am a recovering alcoholic. I hear lots and lots. And w. About gratitude in alcoholics anonymous meetings. And then i remember. How can i not be grateful especially for the gift of sobriety. With that that i would not even be alive today nevermind conscious and awake and rejoicing in the world. A world for which i am deeply. Grateful. A shining example of a profound attitude of gratitude is reverend forest church. Long time. Who died at 61 last year. Have yourself a deal cancer. In the letter he wrote to his congregation when he first received the diagnosis. He says. More important than cold medical facts. I am in good spirits. And more grateful than ever for the gift. Applied. And love. Gratitude. In the face of death. Forest preach the threefold mantra. Want what you have. Do what you can be who you are. After his diagnosis during one of his remissions he mused on what what you have. Is inside tell posse how the jews continue to give thanks. Help us see how some people are simply. Even when light survive tragedy torment for trouble. Use it for a second. Did i want cancer. Of course not. But to obsess on the bad things that befall us squeezed appreciation for the good. The time we waste. To savor and embrace. Want what you have. By the same token when i was sick. I remember to want nothing more than the caring affection of those who love me. Wanting what i had. My prayers were answered. Gratitude is a religious attitude. A religious practice. You know a reading with her voodoo stick not hans lyric of thanks. Christian brother david steindl-rast says. Moments of deep gratefulness are in fact. Moments of truth reference. Moments in which our heart is wide awake. An interesting lee enough the current senior minister of all souls new york. Forest associate minister and now his successor. Asserts most positively. Around a discipline of gratitude. First reverend galen gingrich. Speaks more generally a religion and our faith. He says. That's like asking a person where they live in the person replying i can live wherever i want. He goes on in this somewhat controversial vein. Our usual way of describing ourselves. In my view religion is constituted by. A sense of innocence of obligation. The feeling of awe emerges from our experience. This feeling becomes religious when a sense of obligation lays claim to us. And we feel a duty to the larger life that we share. Moving to gratitude he says. Two dimensions of gratitude make it fitting. Is our defining religious practice. One has to do with a discipline of gratitude and the other has to do with an ethic of gratitude. The discipline of gratitude. On the people and the world around us for everything that matters. The epic of gratitude demands that we nurture the world. That nurtures us in return. I recommend gain riches article highly. For the rest of us this morning i'll let us you and i. Reflect upon all that we are dependent on. That leads us to gratitude. Realizing dependents and gratitude. We become humble. A spiritual stands that goes far for nurturing souls and helping heal the world. We are so used to thinking of ourselves as self-sufficient people. Autonomous individuals. It is so very easy for us to forget how much is beyond our control. How much we have to be grateful for. The daily discipline of gratitude continuously returns us to this realization. I hardly know where to start. I have very little in my stomach. I actually have no idea of just how many people and forces operate to get there. And even if i were a sustainable organic farm. Rain and sunshine. On the people who make the tools are used on the animals and provide fertilizer etc. What a good discipline to be thankful for it all. How about the people we love and respect. We can act in ways that make it more likely they will love and respect us back. But we depend on them. And we do not control the gift of their esteem and affection. Our lives spiritual and secular would be terribly impoverished without the love of others. Close to the top of my gratitude list. Is the people who love me. Who returned my respect and love even though we are also. Little things can pop up and surprises unexpected. How grateful we can be for such gifts. Tuesday not long ago. I saw a young man with an adolescent looking brindle puppy on a leash. Just decided to do something. In his childish lack of coordination every single. And for a minute. I laughed out loud. All my problems. But i was so grateful to him for the gift. To conclude let us see if we can create our personal diana news. There could be so many for me but one might go like this. Had only the burden of alcoholism been lifted for me and i had not been called to ministry. Dayenu. I only been called to ministry in boise and not learn through community much about lasting love and forgiveness and generosity. Dayenu. How much more than. Shall i be grateful. For all these things. Have happened.

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BUUF-sermon-20100822.mp3

Whether dr. cutler would come forward. Doctor doctor martin cutler goes by mike. And he teaches in the counseling department at boise state university. He got his phd in vermillion south dakota on two occasions. Town in minnesota mankato to her and we did not know and then that was heather privilege if. Pennington all him and jess and the boys and it is. Parents somehow here in boise. She's there. Advisor to the student standing students in boise state university. Ink.inc inter-tribal native council. So we've done some work with mike there and he's going to talk today about the sweat lodge in after that boy we're having offering he's going to play his hand roman sing a song for us but. Dinner traditional show of respect i have a gift of tobacco i'm going to get my cuz he comes forward to speak to us. Comstock reify. People. Where i grew up that's that's what you say. When. The greek people. And you're going to talk and what that means is that. My relatives is good to see you. Thomas beautiful day and i offer my heart. And welcome and an honor and endless respect. And i hope that. I'll be forgiven it for. Saying something out of line or that. These words will be heard in a good way. I'll be offered deadly. Good to come talk to people it's always an honor to get asked to do this i don't know to expert on anything. Keeping keeping myself wedding and playing with these boys that's about it. Other than that going to having a phd. To me usually means like you're a post hole digger in order. It's just piled higher and deeper into those kinds of things. The group in the episcopal church. What are little tiny little baby you my mother took me to a man down at win-river named jesse day who was our. One of our spiritual leaders in a what's a. Not only was a. A traditionalist is also a. A roadman. Native american. So i got started that way with this whole religious or spiritual stuff. And then later on we left for fort washakie wind river and ended up. Going to the episcopal church. Easy. Go to the piscopo church and also a lot of my relatives were catholic. I was wondering how come. Don's only one day is that. It's the ritual. He's walking to the setting and you have like you kind of know what's going to happen. And not only do you know what's going to happen you're going to be part of that you're going to participate in it you're going to walk through this with everyone then. And and and. Because i wasn't raised ramon people started. Going back to traditional he's like a lot of us do. I really made sense real. Comforting. It's always thinks my. Piscopo alien background. Giving me a foundation to work from 4 anyway. Thumb. Neil bruce and cheryl asked me to do this in and we were told back home that's when our elders asked you to help them. It's hard. Not okay to say no. You do your best to help them out in the. And so i told him well. I could talk about what cheryl originally asked me to talk about but they don't have two hours. And but i'll try to convince this down in a few minutes and. The first my wife and i have a lot of rituals tooth. As we're coming in here we went through one of our rituals and ever she watches me speak or walking across the. Parking lot c stopped and looked at me and says okay you're flies not open. Cuz he's been times when it has been she's been sitting in the back of the resemblance. I'm like. Anyway. I'm enrolled at fort hall over here and that's just cuz my dad was from there like i've lived their whole six months out of my life and that was in 2000. I was born at fort washakie wyoming and wind river reservation. Live there too we were five and we move to browning montana lived on the blackfeet. The reservation up there. 1968 north dakota. Until 2006. That's where we were i was saying. Papa lokuta people. Out there on standing rock papa mean. Is your dad was really good looking at the end of the horn. The camp at the end of the horn back in the old days they sever the summer gathering stalls at all what they called it with cheti shockling the seven bands of the lakotas when they would meet. They would people with camp on the end. I would be opening on the eastern side of that circle. And that's where david kent. You still see families back on their last name is end of corn. Looks like the horns on a buffalo you call it that that was their name. Papa people are standing rock reservation and. And later on spent a lot of time with people from the. Cc tawana. Walk. Bathroom these words correctly. 1 people in in south dakota another option reservation. And the people at cheyenne river. Crow creek lower brule pine ridge rosebud. I came to know this way again i'm not an expert on i'm not a fluent speaker language. A lot of the words i know come from participating in these ceremonies in them so i'm going to do my best just tell you about that. First of all first anything else. Indian people we have a reputation for being late. And my auntie used to always tell me you know what indian time is until what's that says that you're there when i tell you to be she would. But then i talked to other people and they say you know. Things start when they're supposed to. They get done when they're done. And whoever shows up. who is supposed to be there. That that's indian time. And i was sitting in the back of the room back there and here is one of my brother's watching his doctor mike valles. And then for a while there i was thinking what i'm going to say to these people i say. In front of you you have 1/4. American indian faculty population from federally recognized tribes at boise state. American indian. Mike is one of my role models.. He does this a lot better than i do get up and talk. And talk. And talk. And it's all powerful stuff until good stuff is very socially active. As my wife can tell you i'm kind of slow. Please to do with camps and then. One day one of the other people said you know when you retire work we're not going to give you a what. We're going to give you a calendar. There's a place when i came to boise 2006 i got a hardware boise state one of the things that first things i noticed was. That i didn't feel like there was a place i could go pray. And. We were living in apartment building. I used to go out in the garage. Cuz i didn't want you know there's always bringing stuff into bringing stuff all the time. Houses or nothing but now we bring different plants and talking about. Brittany seasoning and sweet grass and cedar in the comeback win all these different things that we use. Bruce gave me a real powerful gift today this is a real bag of food during. My grandpa. Could write a horse. Instead of horse was one hand and roll a cigarette with other. One hand. I can't i can't do that i try. Aruba. We got here and start looking around for something to do and i was talking to some students at the university. Program activities in. It was a man. Who was the. Father of one of our members. He looked at me and said. You want to go sweat. I looked at in the. What's your phone number. Gave you my phone number. But two months later i kind of forgot about it next thing my phone ring. Mike. And it talks. Hey what's up. I'm going to sweat to me. Alright. Give me directions and the minimum there and and then both going back to that place ever since then and i'm. Was really a blessing. Because there was people there who were. Lakota people. There are people who are native people are people there who. Did it did those things in a way that i grew up doing it. And it was fun to be around people who. Who would look at you and say. And i would know what they're talking about. Are we sitting tell jokes and then the nobody else you guys most of you probably can get and we'd laugh and we tell stories about things and then share that culture and then the knowledge that's a real. Valleys but the sweat-lodge is becoming a real pain indian. Ceremonial activity. Different people do it different. I grew up out in lakota country was dances with wolves indians you know. For better or worse you know the dances with wolves. Denim. The best way to learn how to do that one of those things that was really important to us was you have to think about it in the right way and you have to be ready to do it and if you're not familiar with what a sweat lodge is. I'm going to give you. I please have half my timer to i'm going to give you a real nuts and bolts. Account of how that works. When were preparing for another ceremony. Or when we're getting ready to do something that's important we would. Try to purify herself. Inner spirit reminder body no heart. One of the ways that that was done was by going into that ceremony and so they would. Tikka. Willows. Dave and i are just out cutting wheel as yesterday morning. We put up a sweat lodge in and what they do is they make a frame. With these willows a stickum. Two on each side on the cardinal direction. And then maybe one. Honeyside on the corners or two or different ways. Bendon. So what you end up with is this. Kind of a dome-shaped things that you try to make it. About. Maybe 6 to 10 inches higher than a person's head suit when they're sitting down. Try to make it about that i try to make it flat on the side so you can lean back the afternoon and as flat as you can on the top. Navigate new willows or keep them wet so they've been. Any time together some people strip the willows nude. That's another thing we always use our hands when we talk. We get that frame setup and then. You're in the middle of inside of their next depending on how bigger. Was big is it. The stage of here. Cross that's a big one that's a big long. Maybebop. Take that suction off he's got that big. Circle. And in the middle there's a whole let's taken out of there. Can i use that dirt from that hole and then we can alter right outside the door the door anymore not is almost always faces west. I'm going to test my kanai's indianness. Sitting back seat thing for directions to. Don't know what directions are. So anyway the door almost always faces weston and registry. Lakota name for for a sweat lodges. Significado de inika guffey. Which means going to do this we live. Has lot of different translation. Rebuild that frame. Would cover it used to be cover the tides nowadays it cover it with whatever we can cover it with usually canvas. Tarps. Blankets. If you don't have those resources somebody's old carpets that is getting all kinds of. Almost never ever use plastic or anything like that. Cuz you don't want to make it airtight but you do want to make it a light type. We do things in the dark. One of the things i thought about before i came down here was. Was going to do this i wish you could. Carollo's windows and turn off the light. I can just talk to you in the dark. Like we do her inside that logic close that door in the dark. Pitch black. But after a couple minutes you start to see all kinds of things. And endivia you know we can see in the dark there's a light in the darkness. So all of us can see all the time. Close your eyes you can see it. Home tonight start. Turn off the lights. See that sanders things in the darkness all around us all the time. Cancel. You have that we go in there and we have the altar there than on the other side alter there's a there's a fire. The name for that fire is up i thought we hung cash me that means that this fire never goes out. It's always burning in here. We use the. Football size in rocks. And nicole is iyanla countries are these are sacred. And yummy stones are some people going to cost love endings our grandfathers. These are elders. And we put these stones usually in the numbers of 7. Seven stones will start with. Now we fall seven more than 87 more. 21/28 rocks generally sometimes more sometimes less depending what we're doing. And put them in a fire. In a fire pit. That's your grandmother that's the earth. Just saw this one that nurtures us sustains us is mother's grandmother to call us.. What she must have talked about is this is your grandma. Enough market. You know my kentucky that you know is your mother. Refer to that that we in. So use that wood inside that fire with just like her hair. And i would is used to instruct. Keystone's this grandfather. This the way i learned it. We don't have a. Torah or a corona needless things we just have a way of being that's been handed down orally. And through watching. Our elders and our relatives are teachers do it. That's how we learn it. Like a lot of future so have all kinds of different ideas about how you would do this but. He put those stones in there and they get really hot in there orange. They're so hot they're glowing orange and then when we're ready. One of the people is going to serve as the. He's going to take care of the roxbury. Is going to be the doormat. He or she. Because sometimes women and men don't sweat together. A lot of times their separate. The men's or women's. But other times nowadays more and more their koi. They're proposing together now. There's a lot of. Rules about how that works and if we have time we can talk about those but. So they bring the stones inside this lodge in this is being closed at dark. You have a pitchfork. And i'll take those stones may bring them in and they said him in the middle in that hole in the middle that was taken up. I have a deer antler and they'll move that stone around to where it's supposed to be. Until there's seven of them in there and there's a song we sing while that's going on. The song for the stones. When they're all in we start praying. Like that's the opening round is 4 rounds. What that means is that this target open at door four times the last time they open it cuz when we leave. When you go out. And they can last for a while. And depending on who's running the ceremony why were there all is all kinds of reasons all kinds of things that can affect that but them. Search for purification you know the structure and gwen are you pray you have the prayer round in the second-round shoes with fur around third-round is. Sometimes if you have a computer with charger or a witch or what kind of medicine man or a holy man in there. Or holy woman for that matter. they'll interpret that for you lot of us called those people. Yes, that means that dictate the spirits talk through them. And they'll tell you what the spirits have to say to you based on your prayers and your needs. And i'm. And then the last round is a would give thanks. And then it's done and we're leaving and everybody in the shakes hands you have a wolfie law to have a meal afterwards. Can you share food and water and take care of each other that way. And i'm. Why do we do that for all kinds of reasons sometimes it's for ourselves sometimes usually is for someone else to suffer for a relative's. Only have these words we use we talked about that. Medaka is my relatives. Call yassin means. I have any desire to be with you. I really need to be in harmony with the circle. So it's all about relationships. And connections with other people. All about looking at your your spouse. Looking at the people you love your kids. And that's where my heart my head feels right away is easter. First thing you walk in there it's your family. Who's the most important people in your life. Everyday pray about them. For them asking for all kinds of things. That's hard. And then comes you know. Taco bell. All my brothers and sisters and all their families and talk about. All the people i know it work. Call my students. but all the people that. Have helped us and all the places we've lived the type of all the people in the only think about all these people and pray for all these people. And if there's a specific need you know usually you don't pray for yourself until the last. Then you take care of yours only. Whatever they are. And all the time you're doing that is, like group therapy counselor. That's another real easy transition because the people to go around the circle and always go this way to come in the door. And they go to the left. When i go around that we that's where the first starting to go around. And the person sitting. First opposing first and sitting next to the door and said that person is pouring the water those rocks are so hot and then they take a bucket of water and they pour water on her. When the door is closed mess with it makes the steam. Some people think you know i don't know if i could pray under those conditions. And i'm thinking well 200° is a wonderful inducement to pray. But that's not why we do it we don't go in there to lose weight. To pray and it's hard it's suck fresno's a kid. People used to say it's hard to be engine. And i thought because of all the issues that government history and trauma. Alcoholism in a drugs and health issues and all these kinds of things. And then i start getting involved in the traditional ceremonies. And then it's i really realized what that mean it's hard to be in it. Every time. I would leave the ceremony that i've been going to here in boise. Or whatever time we be in there somebody at some point would say. I wish there was somewhere else we could go. I'm not going to tell you where this place is but. It's a. Israel restrictions on it because it's a it's involved with us with it with the federal government. Which is kind of ironic in itself but but. So the people who run it had to. Agree with the people at this facility. That they had to be given agency to use it in the way that they needed to. Without a lot of the restrictions that. Could be placed on an otherwise until. One of the things that they're allowed to do is bring in guest speakers. So i'm going to guest speaker every month for the last. And so. But they're always say we should have somewhere else. Poor people nudies ways movie songs. People thought about these things. I knew what these stones were all about losing with this. The sweetgrass was for i knew the history of that knew what this procedure was for. Sweetgrass to color watch hunger. The stages of. Cuz you. Equity call charlie. Sweetgrass to collect watch hunger. I saw the different kinds of herbs and things they use in there and all the song. The song for everything. Know someone who knows the songs the right songs and we are supposed to be using for therefore and how to interpret them and how to sing them. In a way that's going to work. Increase the proper respect and knows that you don't walk between the door of the lodge in the fire. And can honor that and understands that knows how to take care of that lot. Anna. One day. Flicka. Tuesday morning i was driving jesse to work. Spring. I don't do anything without asking. My wife. I learned that long time ago. Do you want balance and harmony. You talk to her first. And it's all based on just the ceremony cuz. You think about it. The grandmother that fire pit her hair is heating the stone. And stones represent your grandpa. Grandfather. We've been here for a million million years they're going to be here long time after world.. Thinking about that one time i was looking at that and i thought she that's grandpa. A grandma telling grandpa what to say. When it comes in to help you. Okay i can do that cuz it's cuz i grew up in a. Around a lot of strong women. Most of my mail. Elderson role models for alcoholics. They're all military veteran. But a lot of them are alcoholic. Really we're having a hard time in her life. But there are a lot of women. Thor. Holding it together. If you look at the social. History of our people you'll see that mean a lot of the things that. Were targeted towards us by. The larger culture the oppression i was different things that happen in the simulation policies. Had the greatest effect on our men. Cuz they were targeted towards taking phyllis threat zoe. Women weren't seen as a. The rest by. The men. We're in charge of thought they're in charge of the larger culture. So our women were able to hold onto a lot of thing. I was raised by women. Dislodge. The grandmother. Cg grandfather's in that fire. Alter in between there. They say that that that's your children because that's where you put that chinook like ugly stick or pipe with gray with that name. Set it on there sometimes there's a buffalo skull on there and a buffalo. Wheeler to call buffalo's at those are real synonymous with with female energy. Three-generation with seasons with green things that with keeping the people alive. Cancel that alter in the middle. The buffalo skull reset those pipes down. That's all about. The children. Because when you pray with that fight. When you walk by that altar. Just thinking i got it i can only tell the truth. And if i'm angry or mad at someone or something's happened to me i need to forgive that person. So you have honesty and forgiveness. And children are amazing with that. Kids raising kids is what is most humbling thing you'll ever do in your life. Cuz i always tell you the truth. It's good to see you uncle mike. You're getting fat. Hyundai sending my fibro looked at me and said hey dad nana you were there. I said. Do you think you just get. Not good at things anymore. Turn on that we pregnant. They'll forgive you. Having worked as a counselor with a lot of kids who were abused abused and then sometimes horribly. They'll defend their parents and their perpetrator. To the end. That's still my mom that's still my day. The forgiven. And so we look at children. We look for the elders and bills that's where the wisdom is. And then our women you go inside that lodge when you're in there. Patty. Evans back in south dakota one of her when she went over grandma's is talking to us one time. She said you know long time ago. The women didn't. Do the ceremony. I didn't have. Just a minute easter money because you didn't have to. To where the women are naturally. Every month. On a full moon that women the women that go through. A ceremony. That the creator gave them. And because. They know and we know that they can't come around anything that we're doing. Because they have too much power. Kind of pipe doesn't work. If that woman is on her moon. So i don't play with it around. She doesn't touch those feathers does eagle feather she doesn't touch that pipe doesn't go around university. We keep those things outside the house. And i didn't have to tell jesse have to educator. Then i realized she was sending studies major she'd been studying me for years. And so now you know. I'll get up in the morning and getting ready for my day and. Set timer the months of the year. Okay thank you. That's all. And everything is conducted. In accordance with that. We always paid attention to those things in it. The patty was talking to us about that she said women go through the ceremony every month she said. During that time she said. Funeral. I'm old now but i remember. Uncomfortable. My sweat lot i get cramps. When she looked around you guys when you go in that sweat lodge. What do you experience in it. I'm sitting here thinking to myself. Hot. I sweat like a cramps. Cuz that's a womb. That is symbolic it's analogous to the womb. You go back inside your mother. And she's going to purify you she's going to clean you. And you offer prayer if you do that respectfully sincerely honestly he don't just go for fun. Equinor for the reason. Somebody can help you the people that help you that ceremony can help evil spirits that come in here can help you. And then you come out. Coin a phrase you're born again. That's that's that's kind of. You come out it's like you can start over now. You can go back to set some things down in there. And you can go forth and do something. And soul. That's how we think about it and we think about. These people who do this for us that's a sacrifice that person for that water. And runs at ceremony. Never praised for themself. They're just there for us. That person is usually it's a sundancer someone who's participating in the sundance. Which is another. Female base ceremony. You let your hair down as a man. You wear a shawl aluminum shawl around your waist. And you go in there and if you're from one of the tribes that that's a. That's a piercing tribe. Pierce. You draw blood from yourself eat the skin of your chest your arms your back. Because. We don't have a way to do that naturally. Like the women. Got to make that sacrifice a different. Play let your hair down you wear a shawl or a skirt. Do what the women. For the people. But now we've been come into he know what those people who run those ceremonies so that's hard you know cuz those people. They have to have been through some people say they need to do some dance for time. For years i had to go make that vow in conifer that tree then. Other people say you use go up on the hill you go up in a vision quest with the column blood shakopee. Which in lakota language means i'm going to go someplace by myself in the dark. And cry for help doesn't mean vision quest that's a whole different thing for something else happen. You have to do these things before the people will see you as being qualified to run those sermon. But the bottom line is that the people have to see you as someone who can do that. And they usually will know that because they've seen you do it already. Or they've seen you conduct your life in a week. That is been very very humble. And useful and helpful. Full of compassion and sacrifice and love. Humility and respect and generosity you're one of those people in the community everybody can depend on. Can you start with that hope. Of course that vision. Help this is people find this community. You talk until the kindle books. I don't know i'm going to sing you a song i guess. Bruce asked me to sing you a song. The songs are really sacred there. Sitting there looking at. Directions. Modern sky. Bear with me. I hope it doesn't fall down. Think about it. Descendants songs.

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BUUF-sermon-20100404.mp3

Just as surely. Spring comes every year. A light. I have. I almost killed it. Was also. Remind. Grace. I did not invent. And my despair will not kill it. My life. Money. Enjoy. There are other stories. When is it begins is born. In the sweetest day of a humble barn. On a winter night. 30 years after that. He is only three years. Brings hope. Bristol ri. Jesus teachings. Bending toward love and justice. Collectors. Undesirable. And those who mourn. Seekers after righteousness and the merciful. Another time is crystal clear. The great commandment. Brockport from judaism. With. And to love one's neighbor. Unless. Even unto the person we despise. Jesus freak. Pictures that we all have a responsibility. Even unto the. He speaks with authority. His followers rejoice. In the morning. And then the authorities. Greece. Jojo. If there are no. Naruto memes. The counterpoint. To despair. Of the terrible night. Jesus. Mary magdalene. Popularly known as. The woman. The one from whom he cast. Demons. 8:02.. Realize. But the morning of hope is still with them and they rejoice. Biblical literalist. Make their own brand of hay. With this story. But it's literal truth or lack thereof.. Mystic truth. Truth. Two hearts and our souls. Came to earth. In the forum. Walk the earth. Preaching. Hope. And then. Into this hopeless dark night of the soul. Morning reappears. First. Redeemed. From the bondage. Human life is just hard. A lot. We always always losing paradoxes. Loneliness and love. Resentment and indifference and tash. Blythe dark and light and healing. Time. Leonard cohen. Hallelujah. He's telling us it doesn't matter. If you are hearing the sorrow or the joy. Easter. Reminder. Easter. In our life. Like. Coming out of a coma. Dawn comes. In lots of intensity. Maybe a relationship. Begin origin. I'm thinking of my deceased sister. 1/2 years younger. Nineteen85. For the first time since we've been. Just great. Our childhood roles. We could hardly have a conversation without. So we went to secret service. Polite conversation. Wizard. You relate. Wizard. We blink. Teachable. Written on both of our face. Extremely early egg unconsciously. Not so very nurturing to very small. Well that kind of responsibility. Earlier. We had known each other for many years. Outgrown. Risen up. There was no element. My wife. We could both relax. Morning. Return. I had some room to move. And for the next couple of years. We send. I'm living close to each other. Particularly my powers were not magical enough. To keep her from dying. Over 10 years. Light. Darkness. Large. Ultimate. Morning. Resurrection. To your heart. Is born anew. Christian easter story presents night morning. And those of us who have. Recovered. Very much info tatian marks. From the death of a loved one. Come closer to that story. For we are all. The divine mysteries of birth. And jeff rebirth are no strangers. Too blessed blessed gift of grace. We move. Good morning. This morning. It was dark when i say. All the directions in the elements. Praying for all. Breathe my way and peace. Illuminate. I heard the first robin. The other songs. Morning. The read is over and.

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BUUF-sermon-2009051009.mp3

Good morning. This coming-of-age. What is it. Are many many different faith traditions offer a ceremony and a celebration to mark the passage young people make. As they moved from childhood into young adulthood. And more importantly a more active role in our community. Judaism offers young people a box or a bar mitzvah. Many christian churches offer confirmation. We unitarian-universalist have our coming-of-age program. In which we invite junior high youth. Typically 13 to 15 year olds. A chance to learn more about unitarian universalist core values while also examining other faith traditions practice. This is done alongside adult adult mentors who come from our congregation. And are matched with the youth. Together they attend class get to know each other and perform a community service project. Of their choosing. We are gathered here today to hear each use say statement of what they believe is important to them now. Elizabeth and i guided this class in the exploration of many light-hearted topics. What is the nature of good and evil. Life and death then what. If anything comes after. And jesus what do you who do you say that i am. Now with such weighty topics. You might think that that discussions with a class composed of almost 30 people. Might be horribly difficult. But we found that everyone had something to say or write. The collage depicting images of death and dying. From the print media. Was a wonderful exploration of a really difficult topic. The class that we had to cut off the discussion at 9. Just to make sure everybody got home on time. It was amazing. And the jesus graffiti. Was a truyou exercise laying there to us all all the competing views and opinions about jesus the man. And jesus the spiritual leader. And finally i think hosting our coming-of-age youth today offers all of us hope. Not only for our future together. But hope right here. Right now. Living playing among us. Many of these youth will continue to attend booth. For few more years before going off to school or work. I want to encourage all of you today to listen carefully. Get to know them. Include them in your planning and your activities as week. Citgo on here. These youth are a strong presence and have much to teach each of us. So now. It is my pleasure. The handover this portion of the service to our coming-of-age youth. And i have one or two notes miss riley jack. She's going to present last at the 9 service. So that her. Coach kim glisson. And we typically do not applied during a service. But these kids deserve it. So i'd like you all to hold your applause until the very end. Thank you. Participants of the boise unitarian universalist fellowship. This with great pleasure. That i introduced to dyson bridges. During the last eight months. Dyson i have enjoyed the the coming-of-age curriculum with the excellent. Leadership of kathy and elizabeth. We had some great theology discussions. 10. Excellent classes. Clarified our thoughts on face. We've also had some great dinners beforehand it mongolian grill. Tyson's in 8th grade and is a state-to-state chess champion. I've enjoyed ice and sense of humor and especially his joyful spirit. He. Tells me that the moves to make and chest so i can win dyson. Good morning. I am basing bridges. I am the older brother and a family of four and i like to ride my bike playing water. I mean 8th grade scholastic state champion of chess. I attend the 11 at booth. Every sunday when i can make it. I'm working on raising money to go to pilgrimage to boston. And everyday life i have a few principles are trying to follow. They are don't hurt animals take care of the earth and helping others with basic needs. My principal is not pretty animals is easy-to-follow just don't go around harassing. Chasing her sitting up a wake of the local animals. But the squirrels in the birds. Taking care of the earth seems to be hard for other people. So i try to help people with littering cuz once when i was walking downtown i looked in a flower pot. Hoping to see some grab some grass or some flower. But instead there's a cigarettes and beer cans pretty sad. What is a huge problem i never let her and always look for a trash can. Always. Mohammed gandhi once said hi and makes the whole world blind. Mini you might be familiar with this quote. Ivan ethic of non-violence junior high the hard 2 to 3 years. The school working friends i have little time to think of witches factors that i believe in such as. Heaven and hell. I have chosen. No beliefs yet. I try to keep my mind open to new ideas. For my community service project which was the project that we had to do i helped out at the food bank which ties him i believe in helping others. Do the fun experience and i hope to do it again someday. My mind is still forming and i. I keep my mind open to new ideas. Hi i'm cindy i am proud to present meredith bus. She's seventh-grade daughter of amy and mike but they've been coming to the fellowship about eight or nine years. And we've had the privilege of knowing their family previous to this they live within five houses of us. So over the years we've had. Picnics and celebrations together this coming-of-age program. Though has allowed me to get to know meredith one-on-one as opposed to in the family group. Weave. They said discussions and and whatnot and our community project. Meredith decided knowing that i like to make jewelry that she and i get together and made jewelry which was a real real experience when you have two introverts sitting together making jewelry to the american cancer society. I would like to introduce meredith who is. A young and evolving. Lovely lady. Good morning. Hi meredith butt. I was born in texas and i moved with my family to boise in 2000. Right now religion is at the bottom of my list of things to ponder. The only thoughts i've had about believes. How different mine are from all of my friends. I think what elizabeth said during one of our coming-of-age sessions. Is something i found to be true within myself. Unitarians often defined themselves by what they're not. I do that quite often. It's easy chicken cast maya. Agnostic beliefs to my friends monotheistic super dogmatic belief system. I think or at least i hope. That everyone values human equality. Because i think that it is an important moral to live by. As far as the afterlife goes i have no clue. I wish i could know and be a hundred percent sure but i can't. No one can. Living life to the fullest is important in any scenario. Because there might not be a hereafter. So we have to make every second count now. I don't believe in god referring to the old man who lives in the sky and smite people who piss him off. For that matter i can't say. That i believe in any such thing. I can't pretend that someone else has a plan for me and that every step i take. Is going to take two lead me down the same path and that everything will all work out in the end. I think people have to look out for themselves and others because the unknown is not to be depended upon. Despite the fact that i highly doubt there is a god. Still not able to bring myself to the. Complete conclusion that there isn't. Being right off of the unitarian universalist. Has really opened my eyes to other beliefs and it has helped me become an open-minded human being. Being somewhat unsure of what is out there. And always ready to accept others opinions is a great value i take away from this church and that i will value for the rest of my life. Good morning. I'm jim lyons. And. Pure to introduce alex woody's. Alex came on our families radar. I going back about 10 years. Natalie our daughter. Graduate of the first coming-of-age program here booth by the way. I was volunteering in re during her senior year in high school. And. A confident articulate and yes very cute first grader. Got her attention became one of her favorites. And the rest of family became aware of alex also. Renew is my mom pam. From attending. And we kept track of alex a little bit. So when the opportunity came to be alex's mentor this year i was thrilled and honored. Turns out alex and i share a lot. Interest in sports politics. Mass. Current events. Are sports interest led to our community service project. Refereeing in. Scorekeeping for the cities wheelchair basketball tournament in may. Frederic march madness. His interest in sports we shared on the court to but. I'm going to have dyson teach him something about letting the mentor win. He's promised to rematch though which was going to be getting at. Soon. Anyway it's been a great pleasure and i introduced. Alex witt. Hello. Imallexx. I've been coming to booth for about 11 years. My mom and i started coming shortly after my grandfather died. Although he was raised jewish he spent most of his adult life a very firm atheist. However in his later years he attended the unitarian church in lexington kentucky. Where he was a member there for about 20 years. That's how my mom first heard of unitarianism. In fact my mom chose the unitarian icon for the spot where my grandfather's commands are interred in the idaho state veterans home. I have an interest in many religions but i do not have a particular one because none of them made complete sense to me. Although unitarians call themselves are within sometimes the fact is we do not have a specific religion. But we believe in the seven principles. Two of those principles that make most sense to me. Are the inherited worth and dignity of every person. And justice. Just justice equity and compassion in human relations. These are good mottos to live by although i still do not necessarily see how they form of religion. When we studied world religion buddhism was a most interesting to me. But i really think a person's religion is not that important. What is important is what the person has been themselves. Things like how they treat other people and the environment are far more important than whether they call themselves a christian or a buddhist or even if they believe in religion at all. I do not believe in a specific god but i do believe in reincarnation i think there is some sort of higher power but i'm not sure if i believe in the traditional concept of an individual being who is. .. I've also heard about the christian concept of the holy trinity. And that is really not ever made sense to me either. As i said i believe there's a higher power but i guess that's one of the answers to questions that everyone is searching for and that is what being unitarian means to me. Having a community of people to search together for answers to those big questions and being tolerant of all different viewpoints in that process. Thank you. Good morning. It is my privilege to introduce megan voice to you. 7th grader this year. I've known megan since she was. Born. She is the daughter of kathy carmen and. Linden boise. There you are. Now just gave me what was i going to say. Megan has told me that i do embarrass her once in awhile so we should have a great time on our trip to boston. Megan and i both share a love of animals before so for her service project we volunteered at simplycats spending time in every room grooming the cats clipping their toenails and then washing out and sterilizing carrier cages and it was a great afternoon. I give you megan voice. Hi i'm megan voice i think coming here my whole life and i'm here almost every sunday because my mom was dairy. For director of religious education. Sometimes when i'm talking about what i believe it may seem like i'm two different people or in two different worlds let me explain. I believe in the scientific method in the scientific method you have to test a theory to see if it works. Preferred something guesswork it doesn't mean it's absolutely right. But it's a place to start.. If you don't prove some things to it doesn't mean it's absolutely wrong. But there's an in-between. I also believe in books music and poetry. They always give away to other realms. In these worlds i can be that try everything person because i'm not that adventurous in the real world. The song behind of sums up but i believe. Once upon a time she said by jane yolen. Once upon a time she said in the world vienna knew of the abuse we buy homes roasting in their breath. Avakin i'd princess sat upon a helical class. A hot soldier is englewood the nails on its chicken feet black antennas hard to school. A horse's head proclaimed advice and post on an arch. Fun dating spoken toads another unfurls and a third and a nightingale's voice. She asked me i'd have to say. All the world's magic comes directly from the mouth. Scientist keep talking about possible parallel universes would be really cool because it's kind of a combination of the two things i believe in. But the scientific part of me doesn't see a way to prove it. Yet. Good morning. My name is michael mu and i my protege. Nick onion son of ra and connie onion. Our service. Project was little bit unconventional cuz i think. Both of us are a little unconventional. And i hope it will be of some benefit. To the fellowship. He expressed an interest in. Percussion instrument that i play the zendrum. And so we've been spending our time. I've been spending my time entering him on that instrument so. Perhaps at some time in the future. Be able to sub for me in the van.. I am proud to introduce nick onion. It seems that some people have a knack nowadays writing papers. Brothers do that's donna brink on it takes a lot longer than it should. I guess it can be blamed for procrastination. But i refuse to believe that something so useful could be so bad. I think that some people should use it more often. Through stubbornness. Or semi perfectionism. I have gone through drafts and found that none of them are really what i believe. But are just wet once set the time. One thing that stuck out at me each one of those jackson dies. I believe every person is wanting to be loved. And the willingness that piece of mamas. Some know how to show them. Without the seismic of trying. Summit baptist on and off. But some. Somebody just don't know how to express it so that the true message gets through. I was born in this most my life and want to crap your parks in california. Well it was when i was that flip their if it isn't now. You may know the place called milpitas. I went to church somewhere like this except it was focused more on buddhism and was best place i can go to get some peace and quiet. Is either go to church and get in touch with nature or stay home alone and watch the walls. I chose church being outweighed my other choice by double. I was little back then and didn't know the what the effect of church had on me. All i knew was that was great place to be. After i was misplaced in idaho. Astarte's. To miss that serenity the church possessed in the car i'm loving embrace it out on me. I want that feeling again and not just emptiness that follows me. My family and i start to go to booth and it was nice. I still didn't feel welcome. We got you busy i'm quite frankly lazy. Do come to church. Another word back from that i've got a little more expensive my belt. I'm feeling more at home. I'm doing the laid-back feeling mistress gives off. I think i can go to slow this time. I'm not saying that this church is lazy oh no i'm just saying. It gives off the box don't come up to me and start giving me lectures or anyting. It's not just the way back soon though it's the love that celebrate and honored in this church. It's this love has more strength than. Any church baseball ever have. Acceptance and forgiveness is wonderful and i think the world needs to see more of it. And not just the other face that been misinterpreted throughout the years. Buffets open my eyes more and help me with better. Reminds me of a quote by elbert hubbard. The best way to prepare for life is the weather. So i think you offer but you've done. Thank you. Hello i'm kristen ferguson and i have had the pleasure of. Working with. Kerry hope during the coming of age. And i didn't know carrie. Very well if it all before we got matched up so it's been a wonderful experience to get to know her. And her family better for our service project we. Baked cookies. For all of the re classes. When sunday and. She is some awesome cookie baker let me tell you she's in the 8th grade she's the daughter of norma and barry hope. And someday she would like to be a dentist. I've been going sorry i've been going to booth for my whole life my dad has been going for 30 years and my mom for 20 years my family is very connected to this church. I don't think anybody can know for sure what is out there i think everybody has different ideas of what exists. Considering the seven principles and the overall attitude of unitarian universalist. It seems like a religion that fits me very well. I think unitarian-universalism is a lot more open than other religions. I think it a lot of people would have a different religion if they weren't raised directly following a certain one. I think people should be allowed to have their own beliefs and opinions instead of automatically being told what is right by someone else. I think every person is equal no matter what religion they are. Everybody has his or her own picture of god and heaven and hell there are too many disagreements among people about what to believe and what is real because no one has proof of anything making the truth clear. We can all have different opinions and still get live together and get along no one is wrong about what they should believe different people have different religions if it's invest it is hard for me to say exactly what i believe when nothing specific has guided me in certain direction. Like this. Principal i think we should all live together in peace and other community. I also agree with the second principle in saying that there should be justice equity and compassion in human relations. Overall considering my personal values and beliefs. Unitarian universalism seems like a good religion for me. Morning from renee hat monterey. And it's my privilege to introduce tressa with 1s. Build and she is the daughter of the gentleman taking our picture right now ralph's failed and renee also. So i was told i was given 2 minutes or less to do this so i thought it was three big words that really embodies this young lady and the first one is active with capital letters. So i think it was thanksgiving break when the family was nordic skiing and yellowstone and spring break. For the aryan hermain. Land of china. And tressa was very fortunate to visit her orphanage and to meet significant caretaker for her first life. And i can't begin to tell you how important that is. For young person. For me their sense of self and and i'm just kind of breathing in that cultural influence and will be experiencing hopefully that in a couple years as well. In a second word would be she's very much a jock. In the best sense of the word. I think it was just last week that she competed in the city. Track meet in the medley. Relay. And then yesterday she and her mom ran. The race for the cure for breast cancer and. Tressa came in and impressive. 2-second shave off as next time and her mother renee build didn't 2510. And i think it's really important to recognize his mother's day. The influence of her her parents and ralph isn't too shabby either playing. Tennis on the tennis courts with his wife yesterday. So i'm thinking if i just keep hanging out with his family and standing next to her and maybe this energy will come to me and being fit with osmosis. And the third what is i think tressa really. Demonstrated throughout this process a real unique way of looking at things and as you'll see here in a couple. Minutes very very hummus. Humorous. Creative way of looking at things. My name is jezebel. My family and i have been coming the booth now on and off for 4 years. I'm in the 7th grade and at riverglen at riverglen junior high. I am. I was currently on the track team and loved every minute of it. There's a little bit about me now place to start to tell you more about me is how i felt about coming of age. To be honest with you i really didn't like the idea. When my mom first told me that i was signed up. Her coming-of-age. And she told me most of the details you know what my reaction was. Are you kidding me do i have to. And she said right back. Course you have to. It will be fun educational and maybe even life-changing. And you know what she was right. I always hate it when she's right but now that i look back at every meeting i do realize that yeah it was really fun. And it was educational i learned a lot about myself. And people and other people and religions across the world. The overall i would say that it was like changing. During our classes we have explored many many different subjects to talk about. And some fun and really entertaining to talk about. For example one of the more funny talk. Text we talked about. Was jesus. Makeup posters of what we knew about jesus. And some of the things people could come up with were pretty funny. Then harder to talk. Antarctica big to talk about at least for me was life-and-death. I don't know why it was so hard maybe it's because i just lost. Something that was really important to me a couple weeks before. But it was definitely a good subject to talk about and it was my favorite. Another subject we talked about that troubles me sometimes is god. What or who is god. Is his name capitalized or not. See above us in the skies are all in our heads. It's a man a child a boy. Or even a woman. Right now i'm reading a book called the shack which i would recommend. In it. percents herself as a black woman. Really none of these questions can be answered. But we all have our opinions right. Well here's mine. Actually i really don't have a pinion other than i'm not so sure about this guy. I'm not to the answering the questions part of my life. I'm still in thought process. Especially when it comes down to this subject. I kind of have a thought of my beliefs but it's not really set in stone yet. Aside from my religious beliefs i also have my values that are very important to me. I tried to go unfollow them day in and day out. The number one value mine by far that i think everyone should go by is. Have fun. Live life to its fullest. Try and let the past be the past. And move on. I know it can be hard sometimes but you can at least try right. Now the rest of them are not in order i just think you should go buy them no matter who you are or what your purpose in life is. Of course the golden rule. That is to treat others how you would like to be treated everyone knows or should know that one. And that you should always try and go beyond your goals now i'm an athlete so that's a big part of my life trying to go beyond my goals. But it doesn't have to be in sports it could be for a new job or. Family or even with friends. Speaking of friendship i know in middle school it can be really hard to maintain a good friendship. Father drama and the backstabbing. But i think. To maintain a good friendship in my opinion. Just takes four words. Honesty respect. Loyalty. And of course love. My last topic is this place booth and why it is so important to me. A little matter for i came up with in one of our classes. Is that some people's lives and the religions attach them like a gps system global positioning system. Their program pin that gps system. So say they choose a path all the way through until about 20 miles to the end. Or maybe 50 years or 20 years. They decide they want to take a left turn or right turn. But the little annoying voice. Says sorry wrong way. Please turn around and get on the right path. And as where. Unitarians and some other religions. For like a roadmap it's all laid out in front of us. And all we have to do is pick up. Pass and start our journey. And the good part about it is say we don't like that path we started on. And so 20 miles in. 10 years in. Or even fifty or sixty years in. We want to take a left or right we could go up we could go down we can even exit any direction we desire. And as an added bonus we don't have a little annoying voice thing that we can or can't do that. I've been here at booth i have made amazing friends and you know who you are. And have met extraordinary people. I love it here because everyone here has their own purpose in life and they come here. To try and find it. Or at least get closer to it. Just like me. Everyone here is so sweet kind and open-hearted and i'm not even kidding it's amazing. But the main reason that this building and everyone in it. Is so important is because it. They you help me find that path i'm trying to get on. Now the last thing i would like to say is thank you to kathy and elizabeth who i'll make the made this fun and possible. Entering a hatton has been my mentor and a great one at that. Thank you. But i'm marcia lyons and i've had the privilege of being the mentor to riley jack. During the coming-of-age program this year. Is a very special person as i was getting to know what is it what is it. And it didn't take me long to realize she is one of those people that doesn't have a mean bone in her body. She is just a purely kind and a very thoughtful. Very insightful person and just the way she interfaces with people is just so impressive she's got a real gift. Couple of other things i want to mention. riley she's an eighth grade. And she's gone to school in eagle her entire idaho school career anyway she. As being a very dedicated athlete. And her sport is soccer and i think i would say that riley is passionate about soccer. And i think most of us would agree that when we're passionate about something we find some real meaning in it. And so riley is she thought about her passion for soccer found some strong meeting there. And that is what she decided to send her her face statement around i think you'll be impressed with all of her ideas so without saying anymore i'll introduce riley jack. You were given this assignment to write our life's credo. What was important to us. What we value and what we think about life. Now i'm a soccer player. And to help me sort out these huge questions i started to play around with a soccer ball. As i was juggling i realized. Life is like a game of soccer. You always have to give your best. The same applies for life. You have to be able to rely on others in life you can't do everything alone. Winning isn't nearly as important. As to how much heart you put into the game. In life. You asked. Life isn't always about how well you do but how hard you try. We all have individual talents but they are only as good as they serve the team. Or the community. In soccer you have to know when to keep the ball and when to pass it. In life. You have to know when to help. And went to get help. When you have a chance to shoot. Don't wait. You might regret it. As in life. When you have a chance to do something great. Picture apps. You might not get have that opportunity again. Juggling. Requires balance. Like in soccer. Life requires balance. There's no shame in taking breaks. They're what make you strong. Sometimes you just have to relax. Practicing hard. Will help you win the game. Working hard in life. Will help you reach your goals. The game is never the same. You have to be flexible with the outcome. Life is unpredictable. You have to be flexible with the way things turn out. Soccer isn't always fair or rational. In life. Things aren't always going to go your way. It's something you have to live with. The rest don't always know what they're doing. You might not agree with authority but you still have to live by their rules. Celebrate the victories and learn from the losses. When something good happens celebrate. What something bad happens learn from the steak and move on. Soccer is all about winning as a team. We can all do more together. Shorts has taught me a lot of great life lessons and that is what i'm sharing with you today. In life. We all inventors and leaders. What is my ventures in the inspiration for the speech. Is my coach marco. Thank you micah. As you may or may not have noticed perhaps not with all these wonderful wonderful wonderful stickers. Quite light and mer director religious education is going to talk to the teachers. While hans is getting ready to do the opportunity i'd like to invite all of the youth who have spoken so far this morning to come up here and we'll give him a really really rousing hand they will have the offering and i will. Extinguish the chalice and we will go forth from there but aren't these folks really something and then 11.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20090322.mp3

We are in tough times. International war and strife about environmental issues about also. Closer to home we see more and more of our friends and acquaintances getting laid off or cut back. We lose our own job. For supper i cut in revenue. We often feel anxious and fearful. Most of us suffer on some level. From fear of loss. Loss of our ability to support ourselves and our loved ones. Loss of self-esteem. As we need help from others. Most of the peace of mind. That keeps us from journey into the world in confidence humility. And compassion for our fellow beings. Things are hard right now. Especially financially. We don't need any outside help. To feel anxious and fearful of loss. Are we get it anyway. Most of us have had the experience like. Return on the tv news or radio talk show or open or newspaper and what do we see. Doomsday predictions and more bad news. On tv. The lead story solemnly and earnestly. Tv reporters approach to tragedies. And you know but that is coming. They earnestly deliver terrible news about people's why. Stories of awful infant injury. Murderous barroom brawl a rough-and-tumble road rage incident. Conservative talk radio seems consciously to strive to speak at worst haefeli at best merely negatively. You suppose. The rush limbaugh really wants our new president to fail leaving our country in worse shape than the last field presidency. Skinning a week's worth of headlines in the idaho statesman dives us into strife and depression. It is skilled. At encouraging the financial fears from which we nelsa. Sunday march 15th book. We're just like the great depression. Monday march 16th look. Our youth are financially illiterate totally unable to cope with our very finances let alone this kind of stress. Every single day last week. Our precious money which we seem to have less and less of is being used to be a lot of privilege doling out million dollar bonus. I must save it a bright spot in the news there is that one of our esteem. Idaho congressman who may remain nameless. The venerable new york times published an editorial yesterday. 2 months to the day since obama's inauguration. Headline has chemo obama lost the communications magic that propels it into the white house. Too much. And one of the songs that our band is going to sing this morning starts out. I woke up this morning and none of the news was good. The death machines were rolling across the ground that jesus stood. The men are my tv told me it's always been that way. There is nothing anyone could do or say. We know that man. And his brothers and sisters. Marshall mcluhan. Who's starting in the 1960s. Do the influence of media said. All media. Workouts over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal political. Economic and psychological moral ethical and social consequences. The medium is the massage. And he said in another place yes the media. What are we to do. Face with genuinely serious international. National. Local and personal stresses. Bombarded by media apparently hell-bent on being sure that we are as anxious as scared as we can be. What are we to do. One part of what we can do is relatively simple. How much of what kind of media we ingest. A member of our church julie. Onslow. Give me some grady julius the communications director. For the idaho state democratic party. So she is always. Radio tv newspapers magazines pamphlets website facebook my face twitter and undoubtedly many media that i haven't even heard of yet. Julie reminds us of marshall mcluhan distinction. There is hot. Media. Which bombard us with information and emotion that we receive more or less pat sibley and which often sisters us up cable news many local news shows. Incendiary talk radio. Julie refers to cable news even though it doesn't have that attack attitude. As sole deadening. It just have too much time to fill. Violence and negativity get attention. Just ignore the woman behind. Over and against the hot media there is cool media. Which allows for more deliberation and responding in. A reason to or at least fairly calm fashion. Newspapers magazines quiet websites without lot of flashing ads. We need to turn toward the cooler media. And perhaps even. Cut down on our news intake.. Julie makes this noteworthy statement i was really surprised. He said if i didn't work in politics. I try to limit my news intake to minimal levels. And she sent me a page from flying pie. The indy pizza place has been around for 20 years that still remains indie and they're very proud of their popular their positive culture. Which they are. Ar. Defending by. Taking away the cable news channels in the fair. A lot of unitarian universalist find themselves becoming newzjunky. Especially if they are retired. Or in another situation where they have quite a bit of discretionary time. Our music director kerry bastian. Teachers in 3 elementary school so is in her car a lot. She had found herself in that situation hanging on npr's every word. Hitting all the tv news never missing a word of the paper really getting caught up in it. Well she has sworn off. And her life which is pretty hectic for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with news has a little more center. We will all do well. Emulate. For swearing most of the hot media and limiting all maybe we'll give us a little breathing space. It will not entirely solve our problems though. We are still likely to have anxiety and stress. Fear of loss about things in general. Not to mention tragedy. Pain. An actual loss. Those companies. A human exhibit. Shifting to a place of detachment is not easy. Shifting to an understanding of how our souls can dwell. In places of gratitude and peace regardless of circumstance. Is not easy. It involves concept like community love. Deep caring delight sadness joy wisdom. Enlivening attitudes and actions that let us rise from media induced stress or. What are the communities. That bring you hope. And joy. That will be there for you. In times of trial. District community holds a physician for something. Last time we were celebrating 20 years of partnership of ministry between me and the church. We asked people what blessings they found are in one person found here and one person said. Unitarian universalism in. Bless me with a community of people who try to be generous spirited with relation to other people all spiritual and philosophy philosophical beliefs. And also take action. I am blessed to be with individuals who helped me grow. The person who wrote that experienced tragedy or lost stress or anxiety they may have already. The church cannot actually fix. What it can do. Is let her know that people care. What it can do. Is give him a safe place. To learn. And grow and find wisdom beyond material circumstances. The church can offer love and accept. Others have other communities. Extended families cello circle dream groups playgroup service clubs. A needle of community is made up of human beings who care for each other who share delight and sadness and ordinary. Human beings. Those tourist indications. I've god working here. Do you remember to stay connected. When you are having a hard time. Do you reach out. Whichever side of the anxiety and lost mountain you are on. Do you contribute work for the communities causes and groups in which youvimi. Does your commitment and the benefit you receive lead you into action. If you were a person. For instance. Who founded this congregational community bring some portobello's to your life brings caring or joy or relief from loneliness could you. For instance. Volunteer to be a visiting stewart. If you. Our energy at least i got a good laugh from the people who were in charge of the annual if you are. Volunteer project. The reason i ask. Is it one's own troubles. Tend to fade from center stage. When we are working. To better lives or conditions outside our immediate circle. You won't be watching fox or any other news if you're out helping other people. Rising above one-stroke struggles can also involve seemingly accidental connections and it can involve strangebedfellas. Last week i had occasion to be with a family suffering from one of life's terrible tragedy. The loss of a child. Many of you know or know of dennis mansfield. Socially and physiologically very conservative. A man who has made several unsuccessful attempts to be a conservative political force in our state. And now you're everything i knew about him all the things that made me hate him i learned from the media. A few years ago i wrote a statesman column about addiction saying at some point as i commonly do. That i am a recovering alcoholic. Dennis wrote me a touching. Personal. Handwritten letter. In this tearing. Forthcoming letter. He told me a little about his family's struggle with addiction and i'm not telling his secrets. Affect me for speaking up. And spoke his gratitude and glad that the two of us. Disagree on just about every social issue on the books. Could share the bond. Exist human stool. How amazing. That just uu minister. Left-leaning. Pro-choice. Theologically ambiguous supporter of gay lesbian bisexual and transgender rights. Could bring a little life. Into dentist mansfield flight. Halloween crafts. That this far right. Fundamentalist christian biblical literalist. Could break my heart. Which is simplehuman affirmation. His 31-year old son who had struggled and struggled with drug addiction died very recently. I went to bowman funeral home for the viewing last thursday. He's a pretty big guy. And we must have wept on each others shoulders for a minute or so. I'm eddie's wife and i told her who i was and why she got over the surprise she said to me very emotional. Once again that human connection. Lightened. The hearts of the grieving parents who had solo. Putting my stresses and anxiety in a different light. As i left i picked up the little pamphlet the funeral home provides and i read the quotation. As expected there was christian scripture although it was very brief and not proselytizing. And there was also a quotation by fred rogers. From his book called the world according to mr. rogers. Here's what he said. Often when you think you're at the end of something. You're at the beginning of something else. I felt that many times. My hope for all of us is that the miles we go before we sleep will be filled with all the feelings that come. Caring. Light. Sadness. Joy. Wisdom. And that in all the endings of our life. We will be able to see. The new beginnings. Deep caring. Delight. Sadness joy wisdom. We had community. Selflessness. Gratitude. Openness. And love. We have to turn off the tvs first. Turn away from those stories that only raise our blood pressure. And about which we can do absolutely nothing. And then. Return.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20080615.mp3

He was a couple of years ago. He's turning joice of sorrows i took the microphone. It was a beautiful day. It was a good day. But my spiritual journey was taking a detour. On the one hand. I was telling people i was hurting. On the other hand i was saying goodbye for awhile. Today i'm back. And today i can tell you my story. Your behavior is scaring the children my wife said to me when i was as i was reading the morning paper. You need to speak to them. I had an accident about three and a half years ago. Intense getting out of the hospital my recovery was more or less routine. The broken bones that heal to the point that i put away mike and i even stopped limping. As the days and weeks went by i was looking forward to my life returning to normal. Then something happened. It was nothing terribly noticeable the one day. I was talking and words slip. How did my son's huser for disappeared. I told myself it's no big deal. It was only one word. Probably happens to everybody. But it bother me. When it happened. I want to happen again i stopped myself. I felt i needed to backtrack. Then i started my sentence over restaining the word. I had to do this i need to be precise. The next few weeks. More more words seem to disappear. This meant that i was i had to repeat my sentences more more often. The situation became frustrating and distracting. It was hard for me to stay on track and to make my point during conversation. I reminded myself that most of my days were good and i could speak clearly and i sounded normal. Another day's it was a little harder. I felt self-conscious i struggled. I would each word to make my sentences. To make a sentence make sense. I never knew when a word would slip away. That days were days when i could hardly talk at all. So i remain silent whenever possible. I found it i found it odd that i couldn't even talk to myself without stuttering and dropping my words. Well. Talking to myself on my bad days. I would. I was sad and i was depressed sometimes even angry. I would listen to myself. Even common word started to. Start stop making sense and they sounded more like just meaningless sounds. I wanted to join my friends for coffee but just hitting the coffee shop stammering over. Words and making out sound while i complain that i was having trouble talking well no thank you. I could feel my world getting. Dramatically smaller. I was feeling box jen. On bad days i stayed home. So my surgery will not be on public display. Dwayne i'm talking is scaring the children. I think to myself. I took the news very seriously. How's the weather on my bad days i would. Become so self-absorbed about my troubles that. I was not aware of how my children were reacting to me. I appreciate it my wife's input. She was a marker for me. He was like a red flag showing. Showing how consumed i was becoming over my issue. And my wife and always been there for me. She understood how much i struggled with this problem. She doesn't say anymore she doesn't have to i can see in her eyes. My nearly constant stuttering was was scaring her to. Of course i don't want to scare the children. I guess i had assumed that. That my children who had me as the earliest memory wood. Would always accept me as i was with all my imperfections. Perhaps i'm asking too much of my kids. After all. I knew them. They knew me before this all began. The new me as their dad. The dad who speak at church on sunday. The new muse the man who could talk to anyone about anything. But it was these three children of mine. Who had to sit in hospital waiting room when i had my accident. That's when the doctors predicted that i would not live through the night. I can't imagine the suffering that they had to endure. I never wanted to. Wanted to play such a heavy burden on their shoulders. I came back to reality for a moment it occurred to me my wife. Made a statement about me scaring the children and a reply was in order. Kki said. I should have quickly and i went back to reading my paper not that i was really reading anyting. Hey is my usual reply. It's indication that i hurt my wife and statement. And it also meant that i would take steps to correct the situation. I'm well aware that the proper. The proper reply would be okay but the. But the seemingly simple round sound of oh and okay was far beyond my control of the language. So i hope the caywood. What's on the message. In a way that i still had some control. To complicate matters even more cages sounds. Too short to irritating. More like a hiccup an abort abort right. The two words together. Kk. Kk sound. Still gives me some small illusion that i'm still speaking in complete sentences. Nothing more. Either of us but the silence made it clear that i will get no more enjoyment for my newspaper that morning. So i pulled it up and i set it aside. I went off to the hardware store cuz i could pick up some odds and ends that i needed. Without having to talk to anyone. Even if the clerk came to help me. I can still blurred out at no no. If he has to help. People at the hardware store don't know me. I've come to feel more more it is. From people that i don't know. If i stutter in front of strangers i don't feel overly self-conscious. The people at the bank now they know me. Hot living on me before i started stuttering. Should i put up my banking until i have a good day. And since since i would have to stutter when i order coffee i have to go somewhere else somewhere where no one knows me. I heard of a place across town. The other side of town so i go there. At the coffee shop is nice and very inviting. And young girl at the counter asked if she can help me. What is today coffee. I asked. The coffee today is guatemalan. Tayk. Okay so that's one cup of guatemalan. How the clerk said. Ignoring. My trouble with my talking. What size. Big big. He wasn't going to help for me to repeat it so i just stayed silent. Okay i'll have it right up for you the clerk said if she stepped away and grab your coffee cup. Kki replied. The clerk was young she's probably the same age as my daughter lizzie. I would like to tell the clerk that she's pretty like lizzy. But today is a bad day so i stand in silence. Is it clerk drive to coffee i have an idea. I could practice. The sentence silently to myself while i wait. Maybe by practicing. I could at least get the clerk of compliment. Open my mouth and move my lips. I'm out two words but. That's what i want to say. But instead of the compliment that i was thinking of. To my surprise. Is pretty lady comes out of my mouth. Desert thunder zone power and not silently but it's in my normal speaking tone and then followed immediately by me saying damn. I look up and i see the clerk walking back at man and she said excuse me did you say something. No no i said shaking my head. The retreat to the back of the. Tobacco shops. I was going to stutter for the rest of my life i was hoping that would be ahead but quaint. I was hoping that it would sound like an exotic accent or something. But the blurred out is pretty lady just. Just make me feel creepy. So i sit in the back of the. Coffee shop open at the clerk. Hadn't heard me really interesting over my failed attempt to give her a compliment. I sit for a moment and it helps with the clerk turns her attention. To new customer just came in. I said for a moment trying to regain my thoughts. I took a deep breath. Take a deep breath. Him. Return to my dilemma. My question is. How do i reassure the the children everything will be okay if i can't piece together the words. Potassium daunting. No protesting good. Nothing's impractical even sensible. How can i talk about not being able to talk. I realize i've been sitting there long time. My coffee at turn cold. I left the shop and spent the rest they do they doing anything to keep myself busy. Play that afternoon i came home. In the living room sitting on the couch. Looking at a magazine. This was my time to act. I sat down next to her. She looked up for a second and returns were magazine. I took a deep breath to call myself but it wasn't working. I said quietly. I tried to look comfortable but the silence was awkward. Lizzy. I said. A casual reply. To you something. Sure. what's up. Kick it. Sometimes. I don't don't don't don't talk so good. You know. Inside. Is is me. So that was it i thought it said what i came to say but suddenly it became concerned. Maybe my. Maybe more. I didn't know what to say next i just sat in silence. Lizzie turn the page on the magazine. Looked over she rolled her eyes and said. G dad i know that. Then she gave me a hug and returned to the magazine. Miss winchester she gave me the feeling that. Everything would be okay. And also. She gave me the feeling that. She didn't notice that my heart was breaking. I tapped her twice on the new before i got up. Then i walked away and i patted my heart three times petpetpet. Is is me. Okay. Yes. Is me. Good morning. I'd like to say happy father's day. Cuz i'm really glad my dad's here. The doctors told us nothing we go back to the way it was before. That normal would become a different a different routine. I resisted this fact until dad came home. It was then i found it needed more help more attention and more love than he had required before. My mom my sisters and i did everything we could to make the transition from old normal to new normal as natural as possible for dad. We never talked about the night of january 7th 2005. It was as if we had silently agreed. That it did never happened to ease the pain and fear that haunts our home. But not talking about it sometimes made it hard. We had to cry alone. As time passed i felt like it shouldn't be a big deal. The people who once reminded us to keep our faith alive fully went back to their own lives. The accident happened one year ago 2 years ago 3 years ago. And with this distance i tempted to forget. But that's during development made this difficult. I tried. I still tried to forget. By pretending not to notice. His sentence fragments and shorten phrases. I filled in his words for him and brushed away mistakes. In my mind i was doing data favor. I was continuing the healing process by accepting him the way he was. But as a stuttering became worse i found myself in square one. I was losing my dad. Not physically as he positioned himself nightly on his favorite chair. But that's all he was becoming. A fixture in the room. This wasn't the new normal the doctors had told us about. They had mentioned that there would be some complications. But then never said anything about our family dividing under unspoken words. Or my dad becoming so nervous with his words. That he would slowly stop talking. I remember sitting on the couch with my dad approached me about a stutter. I could sense of embarrassment and telling me is. Is me. In. Inside. I told him. See dad i know that. Because it was the truth. And it was so much easier. Been telling them how scared i was. Not of him. But i'm losing him.

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BUUF-sermon-20100718.mp3

Is my pleasure to introduce our speaker today guy perkins. Guy is a former assembly of god minister where he was a senior pastor for 9 years. And he told me that. He has since been delivered. From. Self-loathing and guilt. His passion is helping people find their way on their journey. We're happy to have him share his journey with us this morning. Thank you for trisha and welcome. I'm glad to be here i hope you are as well. Who am i. What am i. Why am i here. And what is my purpose it seems to be that's the central theme that our children learn here and we all are here. To find out. If these are not questions that have been beat out of us by life and you're still seeking is. The same. And we're here today for the same reason. Some believe there are no answers to these questions on the other hand believe i know myself better. The better i know you. Who am i. I'm just like you. I am. Experiences. I was in the military for 10 years. Was witness during the gulf war to hundreds of deaths and thankfully the birth of three. String for 9 years i watch new life begin. And some young and old lives. Come to a close. As a son i held the hand of my father peacefully passed from this experience. As a husband i held my partner gently as clouds of despair turn their world. Onnit. I prefer to recall the simple moments that reach. Beyond the apparent golfs in life in focus on the bridges. Opposed. And light. Daughter sarah. Looking in the mirror. Knotted her hair. Not at her face not it. Is in her physicality. But it's a big smile on her face. I spied my daughter bethany playing in her room with stuffed animals in action. Has she played out a story she had already begun to create. With laughter and joy each one. Some disagreed among her little. Community. They all were friends and hugged and loved each other greatly. My son after visiting his girlfriend in another state. I learn something of great value. I like me. Each one of us for whatever reason got up. Enter present to share this moment. Right now together. That means that for each of us this moment. Exactly what we wanted and needed in our life. In this moment. Today. Each of us finds ourselves today in some ways similar experience with completely unique perspectives. With which we interact with our world. Yet without one thing. Maybe lost. Without one thing. Call maybe lost. If i have all the world has to offer without this one thing. I'm nothing. If i have. The most altruistic intentions. In all of humanity and i do not have this one thing. All the altruism in the world means nothing. This one thing will injure long. This. One thing is patient and kind. It sets aside envy jealousy and self-seeking. It pays no attention to wrongs that have been suffered it rejoices when. And right prevail. It rejoices. And bears. Endure whatever comes and believes every person. It never fails fades becomes obsolete even comes to an end. You can't buy it. You can't work for it. What is this wonderful product. How do i get it. Where do i find it. This product is so powerful that. Even if you don't know it's already yours and waits for you to discover it. On your journey. One song says the tender reed. Some say love it's a razor that leaves your soul to bleed. Some say love and endless aching need. I say. It's a flower. It's only seed. It's the hard afraid of breaking that never learns to dance it's the dream afraid of waking that never takes. The chance it's the one who won't be taken. Who cannot seem to get. And the soul afraid of dying. That never learns to live. When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long. And you think that love is only for the lucky. And the straw. Just remember in the winter. Far beneath. Bitter snow. Lies the seed. That with the sun's love in the spring. Becomes the rose. Thank you for bette midler. Can you relate to the waters of life tossing us about with cuts and wounds inflicted. Some healing while others. Begin bleeding. Looking for that someone or something to fill the void unquenched. Letting fear go strong grow strong stopping us from loving living growing caring. And even sharing. I nearly allowed. The most bitterwood winter of my life. To destroy it in me. And i'm sure that. Some of us here have. Add moments as well. 6 years ago my son gabriel was diagnosed with osteosarcoma cancer. That changes soft tissue into bone if you don't know what that is. 5 years ago you spoke these words. When your mind has been lost. Your body refuses to continue. And your reality is something you fight to grasp. You learn something that will confuse you. Confound you to no end. You learn that life itself is mocking you. However the fight to maintain yourself. The fight to continue and survive. Will renew you. And give new meaning. To existence itself. The fact of the matter is that there's always something or someone to live for. Once you find that thing or person. Hold on to it. Then. With all your might and never let go. I found. What i must live for. I-5. And continue to help those. I love. And care for. Please know that i love you with every. Single every single one of you even though i have met you or not. No matter for the. of time. You hold a place in my heart. I will forever watch over you. My wings spread and protect you from all harm. I live forever in the air you breathe. And within your hearts. Written december 19th 2004. Before he fulfilled his words. Compassion and love are luxurious as the source. Both of inner and external peace their fundamental. To the continued survival of our species. That was written by the 14th dalai lama. The possibility is in your reach. If you're short. On theology. Warface. Or a practice. Start here. Wincent amor. Conquerors. All. Buddha said to his son. Practice loving-kindness to overcome anger loving-kindness has the capacity. To bring happiness to others without demanding anything in return. Practice compassion. To overcome cruelty. Compassion has the capacity to remove the suffering. Expecting anything in return. Practice sympathetic boy. Sympathetic joy arises when one rejoices over the happiness is. Happiness of others and wishes others. Wellbeing and success. Practice non-attachment to overcome prejudice. Nonattachment is the way of looking at things openly and april 8th. This is because. That is myself and others are not separate. Do not reject one thing to chase after another. I call these the four immeasurable. Practice them and you'll become. A refreshing sorcerer vitality. And happiness for others. For each of us. The keys to unlocking appreciation followed closely. Are different. What do we know of love. In our society. We're a society of. When we're done with our children. For parents and cannot tolerate them to care for them. We're a society where we make plastic that will never decompose and become something else. Unlike the people who throw away. When you're only considering your wants and your desires. Who gets tossed. Someone once said saying i love you is saying. I need you. To need me. Wow. What is that. Is something that we said to ourselves. For a moment i just want you to be silent until yourself close your eyes. And say your name. To yourself. Now in your mind stayed a little louder and a little more impassioned. That may not be difficult. What about your neighbor. The person next to you. The person in front of you. The neighbor that. Let's their tree grow over into your fence and refuses to cut it because it's. Causing your grass to turn brown. Words attributed to jesus say. Love the lord your god with all your heart all your soul and all your mind. And your neighbor as yourself. And the prophets. On these two commandments. All the religious people. Fail to see that. If you just love. Everything. That you you. Everything. I'm sorry i'm not speaking into the mic. Thank you for reminding me over there. We. Forget that. Find not showing compassion by not showing appreciation. For one another. For everything that is around us. We're not hurting anyone around us but ourselves. We're robbing ourselves of joy. And love. I believe that everything that is his divinity expressed in a uniquely. Express attributes. Are you ready to begin the process of appreciation. Transforming depreciation into. That in turn will pollinate our world. As it happens. Today. You're going to change our world. Today. You. And me. Are going to change our world. Are we going to do that. How is that possible. It starts. With loving you. Recently i saw a thirteen-year-old girl who is 6ft. Shelby might my son before he passed away was. 6 ft. 7. This thirteen-year-old girl is 6 ft 10 in. About there when she's done growing. And her attitude was. I am who i am and who i am. If i were. 3 ft tall and 3 ft wide i would still. Love me. Because i'm. Me. And i'm to be loved and how can i love anybody else if i can. 13 year old girl. Already knows the key. No one else can make me feel the colors that you bring. Stay with me while we grow old. And will live each day in springtime. Cuz loving you has made. And everyday of my life is. With loving you. Loving you. I see your soul. Come shining through. Minnie riperton. The next time you hear a love song i want you to try something. Instead of thinking of. That lover of yours or. The hopeful lover. Instead of thinking of the lover. I'm i'm there having assemblies of god. Anyway. Not used to standing behind the podium used to walking up and down the aisles. Next time you hear a love song. Try and singing. The words to yourself. Listen to the words. Let them bless you. Let them encourage you. Let them build. And then. Become exponential as it. Pollinates the world around you. Like a beautiful flower. Like the rose. There's a. A song by a group called band-aid at the first excuse me first aid kit i don't know. Well it's a really cute two girls singing a duet together. One of their songs says. If you ask my opinion. What is there to say to be honest and just foolish. Make you want to stay. You've got to go on and get moving i can't do that for you. Got so many plans and so much you want to do. Love is tough. Time. It's rough. It's tough. Time. It's rough. Well i see you got your. And some delusion imagery. Well i don't need your eternity or your meaning. To feel free. Because i love to. And that's enough you see. So don't come preach about morality that's just. Human sense to me. And it's this life. And it's beautiful. Love is tough. Time is rough. It's one life. And it's this life. And it's beautiful. If we love ourselves enough to limit our actions for the good of humanity. It's possible to find a life. Your life my life. The life of those. Who aren't among us today. Life. Enjoy. May all that is. Bless you on your journey.

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BUUF-sermon-20100704.mp3

Wasn't expecting to get all like teary-eyed. Thank you for the introduction mom. Has my mom mentioned i am attending the university of massachusetts and then other for a few years and out-of-state tuition was already a very expensive thing to deal with but every year that i've been there it got increasingly more expensive fees and tuition continue to go up. And with the declining economy i suddenly found myself in position where i either needed to find a way to pay for school entirely. Or i need to transfer to a school closer to home. Now i don't have anything against idaho or the west coast as i do love it out here but i love my experience at umass so far and my time back east and i wanted to do anything i could to continue my education there. I came home to idaho spring break of 2009 and ended up having a long discussion with my dad and stepmom about school and financial issues. My dad presented me with the option of joining the massachusetts air national guard. As a mom kind of mentioned my dad is a member of the guard here in idaho now so i've grown up with a little bit of military background. When he first was on this idea my initial thought was you've got to be kidding me. If you would have asked me two years ago if i could ever see myself in a branch of the military i would have said no way that is not for me. But as i started to look into the options i had and researched the benefits of joining the national guard i became more open to the idea. In massachusetts the guard pays for 100% of state tuition fees so by joining my financial worries with trying to finish my degree would be eliminated. I took the asvab last summer which is the armed services vocational aptitude battery test that all military members are required to take prior to enlisting. And it's word pretty high and was able to find a job as a public affairs journalists at a guard base about 30 minutes away from campus. I decided this would be a fun career field for me to join and i enlisted june 30th of 2009. As a member of the guard i work one weekend a month with a few additional weeks of training per year. Bethel asked me to serve part-time during the school year while i finish my degree. As a mention i went to basic military training at lackland air force base in san antonio texas in january. Is 8 1/2 week course covers the fundamentals of military and combatant contact. My graduating class over 800 trainees all of them were grouped into smaller squadrons and flights. I was in a flight of about 45 girls and we all shared a giant single room with rows of bunk beds. Now i never liked having a roommate in college back there having over 40 roommates i really didn't have it so bad after all. One of the first things we learn how to do without a march. Not as excited about this at first because in my head i thought hey i've been marching band 4 years this will be a piece of cake. On my 4th day of training my instructor was marching our flight back from an appointment then we march as a flight we marching for elements. Collins. And as we're going he interrupted his cadence of hut 234 and caught us to mark time. Well the marching mad world and we mark time we mark time by simply listing our heels off the ground by keeping the beat. Well i arrived to basic training a day later than most of the other girls in my fight so apparently i missed the memo then the air force marking time and place me and lifting your feet 6 to 8 inches off the ground. Unfortunately just happened to walk past me and i was at the end of the first element. He saw me marking time incorrectly and yelled in my face pick up your blankety-blank ft female. What's the number one to pay attention and learn what you're supposed to. What's the number to marching band style is not the same as air force style marching. Unless number 3 don't end up on one of the outside elements when you're marching in the flight. A basic lights out was it 9 p.m. or 21:00 i got used to military time very quickly. And then we were awakened by reveley at 0445. And had about five minutes to be ready in our physical training or pt geared to head downstairs for a workout. I may sound crazy but i actually got used to the schedule and began to enjoy it. Is little hectic and stressful first but the rest of the mornings also help me learn how to move a lot quicker in general. Their times now that i'm home where would you like to take my time getting ready of course it helped at basic training where we couldn't wear makeup and i didn't know what i'd be wearing everyday. But i'm sure now that my mom can hopefully attest the fact that i am capable of getting ready lot quicker. During the first couple weeks of training. Also notice how easy it was for me to get caught up in the negative attitudes and complaining that many of the girls in my flight possess. I found myself a little discouraged and it first i just couldn't wait to get out. Since i felt a bit down i chose to rekindle my daily scripture study habits. I think it was the beginning of high school when i chose to start making a habit of saying my prayers and reading my scriptures every night before bed which has been my form of what my mom says you use refer to as a spiritual practice. I accepted the tablet throughout the years but there are times where i have lost focus and slack.. This past fall semester 2019 i had a crazy schedule and allow myself to relax on my spiritual practice. I got busy as i was preparing to go to basic and stop reading my scriptures at night all together for awhile. So now basic finding myself discourage i decided to read a chapter every night before i went to bed and hopes that an increase in spirituality would improve my mood. Once i decided this i was diligent in reading and praying every night before bed even if that meant grabbing my operational flashlight that was issued to us in reading next to her bed. Now these flashlights have a yellow cone that attaches to the end of them so we called them are lackland lasers. I would sit on the ground next to my bed and i would read and since i started doing this i noticed a huge change for me being active in this type of spiritual practice help my attitude perception and motivational change for the better. One of the most challenging and rewarding weeks during basic training is six-week which is known as the beast week. Now like almost everything the military peace is also an acronym. It stands for basic expeditionary airman skills training. During this week we go to a campground off base and sleep in green temporary tents on cots and sleeping bags. And learn and practice the fundamentals of being in a deployed environment kind of imagine a campground like you'd see in mash. And during the week we were required to keep up with her we were required to keep with us are m16 trainer weapon and are chemical warfare gear that was issued to a specifically for beast week. The chemical gear includes a full suit to wear over our regular camo uniforms rubber boots also go over combat boots. Gloves and a gas mask. In addition to the chemical gear that we kept in duffel bags on our backs at all times we were bulletproof vest and a helmet as well. We spend the first day setting up camp and reviewing some of the wartime concepts. Sextuple days were spent doing simulated attacks some attacks what we would practice included attacks on the campsite and three points or we had yelled halt who goes there and instructors pretending to invade our campsite. We also practice chemical attacks which involves putting on oliver chemical gear in a short amount of time. They're different stages and codes for the amount of chemicals are you have to wear at a given threat level we would have to go from louisville to which is just our suits in a rubber boots to level zero which was our normal uniform backup so before which was everything of the chemical gear including our gas masks expected to do this in about 2 minutes and it was very difficult needless to say was also great workout. We did these activities for a few days in the texas he and slept in the tent when it was under 30° at night with no heater in our tents. We also ate mres are meals-ready-to-eat for two meals each day. It was definitely a challenging experience karen close to an extra 40 pounds of gear everywhere that we went. And learning how to maintain a base in a combat like environment. Again there was a fair amount of complaining but the experience was a true eye-opener for me. It taught me that first of all life can always be worse than it is. They're men and women overseas for doing things similar yet far worse than this everyday for months and months at a time. Naruto cards were much more year than we were and they are actually in a dangerous combat zone. It made me truly appreciate the sacrifice that they are making and regardless of. Anyone's personal opinions regarding. As being overseas it just made me really appreciate the fact that there are people out there who are sacrificing their lives everyday and truly putting himself in danger. I also learned. Medicine chelation that complaining will not make things better it just makes it harder. It's much better to just deal with the situation and learn to work with your peers to make it as best as possible. After completing basic training i went to fort meade and baltimore maryland for technical training for my specific job as a journalist. By turning on fort meade was held at the defense information school which is the center for excellence center of excellence for visual information and public affairs for all branches of the military. Bring my three months here i learned about news and feature story writing the responsibilities of being a public affairs representative and dealing with the media and community as well as a few weeks the photojournalism we had the opportunity to do a field training exercise which was kind of similar to be sweet but for journalism so we had a temporary camp for a couple of days where we would write articles as if we were in a combat zone and having to report things as they happened. I really enjoyed my time at tech school and i'm very excited to start my job this summer and to help tell the stories of other service members. That one of the concepts that was emphasized during air force basic training and tech school is the air force core values. The core values are integrity first service before self and excellence in all we do. Trout my almost 6 months of training my fellow airmen and i were often asked what the values mean to us. My experiences have taught me that everything i've learned and accomplished can be related to at least one of these values. I've also learned to appreciate the importance of these values in the air force as well as in my personal life. Integrity i've always i was preparing integrity defined as doing what's right even when no one else is looking. I've seen it to be true in many ways during my training there were so many times when i see other people trying to get away with doing things that they weren't supposed to do simple things like staying up after lights-out to write letters talking while marching or standing at attention. But i was kind of guilty that too sometimes because i cannot be social butterfly. When i noticed that the basic training. My initial thought is why would you or i be doing anything wrong when we know we're not supposed to when an instructor could pop up at any moment and get us into trouble. Yes my initial reaction was based on fear of getting yelled at because i continue my training and even more so when i got to tech school i realized this value isn't just about doing what's right when no one is looking it's about doing what's right because it's the right thing to do and we should always want to do what's right. A great example of integrity to me during training with my military training instructor or mti's is there called. Being an mti's a voluntary for your assignment they have to be approved for it's a tough job to get because you have to have an excellent performance report as well as the character motivation and determination to be an instructor. Mymti sergeant white wanted this job because he saw things in his time and in the operational air force that he did not agree with he saw people becoming lazy and not living up to the core values. He wanted to have an impact on the new members of the air force and to help them establish a firm belief in the core values. Sergeant white always led by example and taught us the importance of each of the values. Herlihy taught demonstrated a lot of integrity because he was constantly doing what was right. Despite the fact that he was the same instructor who yelled at me the first week for my incorrect marching i gained a lot of respect for him and felt that my fight was really lucky to have an instructor that truly value the concept of integrity. Another lesson related to integrity i learned is admitting when you do something wrong. I was one of the head soon leaders during tech school and part of my and as part of my responsibilities i had to take roll and accountability multiple times per day. We also had documents we kept with us that were called 341 and they were. Excellence or discrepancy reports and as a student leader i could take those from someone when they did something wrong and i would turn into the instructor to report if they were late for formation or if they were talking while they were marching things like that. Monday after school my instructor was talking to me when we got back to the dorm and he continued talk to me about stuff that was going on the rest of the day and because we ended up talking so long i hardly had any time to go upstairs and change for pt. I hurried as fast as i could and made it downstairs right at the exact time i was supposed to start taking roll when i'm usually down there a lot earlier. As i was walking down the stairs to all the other airmen one of the airmen said to me way to be late airman harper. I knew they were kidding but i also knew that meeting on time which is considered late in the air force was not acceptable. So i decided to turn into three for you once the instructor saying that i was late for formation because i wanted to show integrity. My starter knew that i had been talking. With the other instructor and that i was late but she just looked at it when i turned into her very confused and said don't let it happen again is very surprised if i turned it in. I learn integrity versus i only have in the character to do what's right but they had the character to admit when you do something wrong. The second core value of service before self was often express to us. Is the wingman concept at basic training we would always team up with the person that would be in the bed next to us or we share bonds with. And we learned that service before self means putting aside personal agendas and looking at the bigger picture and being willing to serve others first. One thing that we had to work on a lot of basic training was our memory work which was a list of our chain of command and also the rank structure and we had to have this memorized because our instructors would test us at random. We would try to work together i'm learning these things. And it helped a lot when we would have someone with us the greatest example that taught us to work together on memorizing i remember where it was. When we were in the towel as sitting with the other girls in my fight and a boy in a fight who is a couple weeks behind us. stopped by a couple instructors and they were asking him questions at random and he was possibly giving the wrong answer and they were continuing to get in his face into yell at him. And italian answer what's wrong with you and he kept saying the wrong thing and was stumbling over his words and when instructors finally gets his face and says. Rules in a pineapple under the under the sea do you know that and she goes spongebob squarepants. And everyone started laughing at him that taught us right there that we needed to work together to learn our memory work so we weren't embarrassed like that in the future. So at times we would be working in our personal areas to. Get all of our clothes and things ready for inspection and there were times were other wingmen of mine would come up and asked me to help him study and i learned that it was important not only to them but to me as well to take the time to help him study even if it meant putting my other things besides first. Along with. Like i said we had to have our closing inspection all times are closing doors had to have our shirts for all the specific way and then our towels folded and socks were rolled and everything had to be perfect. And we learned that basic training that some of us were better at certain things than others i got really good at rolling shirts but i was really bad at folding pt shorts for some reason. And so we learn to work together and so if that meant i would fold everyone roll everyone shirts for them before getting to my socks or anything else is okay because i knew someone would be doing the same thing for me by helping me out with my things. Along with service i learned that it's important to serve others but it's also important to accept service from others. Now i'm extremely i'm extremely independent person i usually like to do things on my own and i want to do it right the first time. I used to believe this was the most efficient way for me to get things done the basic basic training taught me that this isn't always the case. Spring how to make beds of basic was actually humbling experience for me. Now the bed so we had to be perfect we had. Red cross blankets like wool blankets that we would have an everything had to be really tight on our bed we had to have perfect 45 degree angle hospital corners and everything was pulled me in type. And we would test the tightness of our beds by flipping a coin on the benefit bounce. you knew it was good and if not then he needed to start over. We had no fitted sheet so we had to. Do hospital corners on eastway river sheets and then finally add the blanket on top. It is quite a long process. Now the beginning i decided to try for the few days by myself but then i realized it was much quicker to get help for my wingman. A simple as that is a taught me not to be afraid to ask for help and how important is to serve each other and work together as a team. The third corps value of excellence in all we do is probably my favorite value because i feel that it is all-encompassing. If we're trying to be excellent everything then we will naturally have a desire to be honest and to serve others. Do this value i've also learned determination and motivation. After adjusting the basic training as i mentioned earlier i was able to develop a positive attitude and decided. The i can either make the best of everything and try my hardest to succeed or i can complain. Having this mindset maybe work even harder to be excellent all that i could. Attention to detail is one way that excellence in all we do is try to basic training. The best example of this is the things we required to do for inspections. As i mentioned before i better be perfect which were inspected and we had a roller photo clothes a certain way. Nothing caught my attention detail more than folding towels and clipping strings. Now we're issued for small brown towels they were about twice the size of a small hand towel or similar to the small ones that you get in some hotels. We had to fold these into a rectangle that it was about 12 by 6 in. We laid the towels flat-out on our bed and make these precise fold that was given to us an instruction manual. Alice would make each fold we would i would use a ruler to smooth out the edges and to make sure that everything was folded nice and neat. After we made every phone in the correct manner. I would put it into a binder and then would sit on it for a good hour or so as we folded other clothes. And after sitting on it made it nice and flat but then we would take the tweezers on the edges to pull up all the edges of the towel to make it perfectly even. Now this is very meticulous another thing we had to do is clip the strings on all of our uniforms. And we were first issued our camo uniforms. They have strings all over the place and those are considered unauthorised items and we can get in trouble for that to make sure that we got everything and then we take a lint roller on top of it to make sure that we hadn't cut a string that was still laying on the jacket cuz even if it was still there and not attached to can still get us in trouble. Noun. Find attention-to-detail also taught me patience. Even though some of these shots were very silly the concepts that are extremely important to be excellent at something takes a lot of work and perseverance. Now that my original motives for joining the airforce were somewhat selfish it first i've gained a greater appreciation for all the uniforms men and women do in service of our country. This is not what i ever intended to do with my life but i'm truly grateful for the opportunity i now have to serve my country through telling the stories of other great military members. I feel very blessed to be a member of the air national guard and i'm grateful for the training that i went through which has helped me become a stronger more confident and more appreciative individual. I've always enjoyed the 4th of july as a day to celebrate our country's freedom with family and friends through picnics and fireworks. Is your celebrating this holiday means more to me as i am more aware of the sacrifices that have been made so that we can all enjoy the blessings of freedom. I'm truly grateful for the freedom of religion in the freedom of speech that we all have. I'm glad i had to talk to him to share some experiences with all of you and i hope that you all have a happy 4th of july.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20090802.mp3

Good morning. It sucks. Become kind of a tradition. When i've done my sermons i typically start with the leadoff. Of my horoscope. Today. And today it reads. If freedom is not having a care in the world. Then you are happy to be anchored. Your responsibility concerns. And desires make your life. Profoundly meaningful. Walnut per se related to my sernam. I do find that. That horoscope somewhat very relative to my life given the fact that. As you can see i am not here today. And so. At least for awhile i have weighed anchor. And looked poised if you were not here a few weeks ago i announced. Drafter. Several months starting august of last year. August 1st so over. A year in a day. I started searching for a job and finally. Engine 1 lb me. And so has your hearing me right now. I'm in atlanta. Training with csx transportation a railway company. In the east and. Hopefully being successful at it so. The melody of life. Amity of you you. This morning is a little different. Trueway bordering on the surreal. From my perspective i stand before an empty room while i deliver the sermon. Recorded so that it can be played back while i am absent from the fellowship. Wc i'm assuming someone will be here i hope. On the morning of august 2nd. Were you seeing empty lectern. Yet it is my hope. Satisfied are disconnecting my. Great space time continuum. We will indeed make a connection. This is my third and final sermon. Which stems for my interest in and love of. The re-imagined show. Battlestar galactica. The show rafters passmark shannon epic fashion. That suited sucks her show. For battlestar. Despite the snickers the 10 do ensue when the name is mentioned. What's a story of pan mythical proportions and themes. All the world is a stage. And the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances. And one man in his time plays many parts. Now according to wikipedia that is perhaps one of the most quoted lines of the great bard. William shakespeare. From his play as you like it. The 1979 sci-fi thriller. Aliens. Use the tagline. In space. No one can hear you scream. And yes. We all know in the vacuum of space. There is no sound. But there is music. The gold record on the side of the voyager spacecraft. The sounds of the aurora borealis. The northern lights. And of course. In the movies. The work of john williams in star wars and et. Perhaps the most iconic. The music of stanley kubrick's 2001 a space odyssey. Phosphate. Sarah brewster. At the dawn of man. And i believe also at the end of the movie. And on the beautiful beautiful blue danube. Space plane. Approaches the rotating space station. Electrical wall. Along with many other. Musical masterpieces. While the story of battlestar galactica plays out. In a grand homeric were shakespearean fashion. Music plays an essential role. Emma storytelling. So great in fact that the show has been described as well. As operatic. Burbach nerium. But then again. Are not all our lives a lot like that. All joking aside though. When it came time to do the sermon. Pull up theme from the air. Music. Melody. And uuism. Made sense. At the end of season 1. Our characters have rediscovered. The ancient world of kobol. Where the gods. The 12 lords of kobol lived amongst humans. Two of our main characters doctor gaius baltar a human. M6a cylon. Wander through the ruins of. The opera house. True form of hallucination the ruins are replaced. Buy a pristine building. Starts with baltar. And 6 in response. I know this place. Of course you do go inside. I don't understand. Life has a melody gaius. A rhythm of notes that becomes your existence. Once played and harmony with god's plan. It is time to do your part and realize your destiny. The melody of life in the key of you you. What does that mean exactly. Or even. In exactly. We are a musically rich and talented congregation. However for everyone's benefit. A melody is defined as. A tune a succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence. Distinctive life. An individual may be. And the key. What key is. Any of 24 major or minor. Diatonic scale that provides a total framework. Free piece of music. Typically. I would start to glaze over. A diatonic. Ricart auto mall. Away. Framework. For a piece of music. Pro-life. And an early age i took piano lessons. Like my older brother and sister before me. And my younger sister after me. Then at 8:10 or 11 seventh grade wherever that falls. I took up the french horn. And played in both junior high orchestra. And marching bands. When i went off to military school in new jersey the following year i was assigned to band company. In eighth-grade i also took up the glockenspiel. My next year i change schools once again but this time. I left the music behind. Or at least the plane. I love music. So i do not think i could ever leave it. But i do have a confession. In all those years of playing music. I never learned how. Creed music. I was musically illiterate. Quite honestly i still win. I knew enough. To wear if the notes planner. Or down. I needed to follow along but beyond that i had no idea. What i was doing. I find often times but that is indeed. A great metaphor. At least for my life. For now. Some might say that defines how jazz works. But. I will not go there. Intruso in life. There may be a plan a score. But how much do we makeup. As we go along. Often times in our desire to explain or explore uuism. We move right to the seven principles and blow right past the first two things that explains most if not all. And are the foundation upon which the seven principles rest. You. And you. Unitarian universalism. Now in battlestar galactica. Unitarianism is no stranger. While our human characters come from a culture of polytheism. Thirsty lion pose believe in one true god. As unitarians are definition or explanation of our own beliefs. In one. Heavy bald and continues to do so. In the end. We largely an essentially acknowledged that the concept. That we call god. It's ultimately. Unknowable. Given we are finite. Intellect. Attempting to understand. The incident. Universalism is also a concept. That is not a stranger in the battlestar universe. As universal as we believe that there is salvation for all. And this to like her unitarian concepts. Has been evolving. Overtime. Salvation absolution forgiveness. Is granted by that same unknowable. Define. Fire unitarianism. In the battlestar universe. It filters down into a more personal nature. Parents forgive children. Children forgive parents. Friends. And strangers humans cylons. And eventually perhaps. Most importantly. Forgiving ourselves. One might say. It is the practice. Of ultimate. Universalism. Well we. You and i. And the rest of you use believe the quote-unquote same thing. Another thing we believe in is that we are all free. To believe what we want to believe. Respecting though. The police. About others. That's said to get things done. We do eventually have to all. Play together. In the last season. We once again find doctor gaius baltar in conversation with one of the final. 5 cylons. Starting once again with baltar. It seems to me that god has chosen me to. Sing his song. Music did you say music. Tell. Yeah you know it's funny. It's a lot like the distant l7 orchestra. Tuning up. And then somebody waves a magic wand. And all those notes. slide into place. A grotesque. Breaching cacophony. Becomes. Single. Melody. So what is. Key. Of you you. The framework by which we lead our lives. I would answer. But that is where the seven principles come in. Edited for simplicity. The key of inherent worth. Objectivity of justice. Equality. Of compassion. Acceptance. Up spiritual growth. The search for truth. And the right of conscience. Apiece and of liberty. And the key of respect for the interdependent web. Of all of them. All of existence. Of which we are apart. However. I would like to add one more. I think it's there. I believe it's there. I would almost be inclined to say i know it is there. But it has not named specifically within the seven principles of uuism. And that. Just love. So what's the beginning of battlestar when six. Mention god to baltar. She states. God is love. Now several weeks ago. As i sat out there in the seats. Captain frederick stood up here. Presenting a sermon titled. What is this thing called love. And if i believe he described himself as a fine english teacher. He diagram the sentence. God is love. And then love is god. Any stated quite clearly some people have trouble with that. And he himself. Was not necessarily thrilled with the konstrukt. Obstreperous. But let's go with it for a moment. God is love. Love. Just god. Well let me take it. Final step. Life. In the key of you you. Life. In the key of love. Wife. In the key. Of god. That's great. Unknowable. Conductor. Of the universe. So say we all.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20080622.mp3

If everybody knows the old story about the. Jewish kid who brings a non-jewish friend to the synagogue with them. And these explaining. Things is the service goes along a one-point the rabbi and it turns around and. Faces. The arc on the wall in the non-jewish francis what you doing. The meaning of hat. The jewish kids is always turning you know jews we pray. Facing east towards jerusalem in the kids is how good. And next thing you know the other rabbi. Vows. Nigel's get says. What does that mean. The jewish kid says wow it's a way of acknowledging. The sovereignty of the creator our smallness in the vast scheme of the universe end. The non-jewish kids is okay. In a little bit later they take out the torah scroll in the rabbi walks around the congregation with it. And the non-jewish gets his what does that mean. And that a jewish kid says well it's a way of saying the torah belongs to everybody. And the non-jewish gets his grade in the. Come sermon time and you know the rabbi takes off his watch and sets it in front of them on the female on the podium in the 90s kid says what does that mean in the jewish kid says nothing. Do i have to say. Really grateful to be here and it has kind of taken the longer shorter road because i was supposed to be here a couple of months ago and had a little bit of a family emergency come up and had to. Very quickly impromptu go out of town so i'm very glad to have taken the longer road. And to be back here. So with that said it's it's kind of jewish tradition. Upon turning 13 a jewish boy. Girl has a bat mitzvah 13 a boy as a bond becomes bar mitzvah at age 13. And the classic. Approach to this you know jewish tradition says it a 13 a boy. Is now considered an adult member of the jewish community. That's not to say that we really think they're entirely growing up at 13 years old the way they work and two thousand years ago in this tradition.. None the less you know the jewish. Tradition. Is that the boy gets up at 13 years old and he and all the in his bar mitzvah speech he says and is sino still cracking voice today. My today i am a man. Experience. Wasn't really at my bar mitzvah was probably oh i don't know about. 13 years 14 years later. When. After. How long year it rabbinical school. Went with my fiance at the time. And decided to take a road trip we drove. Out of cincinnati headed north didn't know where we are going just decided to go as far north as we could get till the roads ran out got up to her. Lake up in canada. Camp there. And then on our way home. I decided that we were. Going to make our way. And. I said well. Let's take the shortcut. Through chicago. So she says you know really would be much faster if we just went around chicago. And i said no no really i know there's a shortcut. Through chicago and to make it even more complicated. At that point we had about. $0.63. And so i was determined that we were not going to pay any toll we didn't have any toll money so we couldn't get on a toll road so to take us on the shortcut. Through the city of chicago on no toll money. I i pulled out my map which was not a map of the city of chicago or. Even the midwest was a map of the entire united states. Which was about a mm wide on this map of the united states and i said you know we're going to take this is the shortcut chicago. So we began driving and i know this is my i am an experienced because after about you know two hours of trying to take the shortcut through chicago and not even getting past. The outer suburbs of chicago cuz we kept hitting these toll roads and i'd say no and my fiance said you know. Why don't we ask directions to my response was no. Well the end result of the story is that about. 8 hours later. We got on the road that went around chicago that we could have. Gotten on you know early that morning and been home by that point. And my shortcut which was. Design with all the best of intentions and the least of knowledge turned out to be not such a short way at all. I thought about this story this experience i had. A few months later when i got back to rabbinical school. What is one of the iconic tales of the talmud the great collection of. Jewish. Stories law and legend. The story is one in which a rabbi rob shimon. Encounters a child as he's. On his way into. One of the great cities not hard at one of the great babylonian cities the chicago of his age. Any ask the child. And a fork in the road. How do i get to the city. And the child somewhat quizzically responds to rabbi shimon well there are two ways to go to the city and eat rabbi shimon is it hurries is. And the child says well. There's a long way that short. And there's a short way that's lawn. Rabbi shimon thinks himself longway that short while that's. The short way. Forgetting about the short way that's long. So he gets on the road. At the 4k takes the short way. And indeed it's a quieter. Quick jaunt to just outside the city. And you can see the city. But. The road. Comes to. An end. And there are. Huge. Walls of deep fryers. Very stickley. Bushes and roczen. A big river that runs there in the you-know-what he can't get through the briars and you can't get across the river any he claws and climbs and climbs and claws. And at the end he he ends up. Turning around the sides it's just really virtually impossible. The make that last. Half a mile. Into the city to the gates. So he goes back to the road and turns around and walks back to the fork in the road and he sees the child. Still standing there at the fork of the road and he says. He told me that was a short way. The child says no i told you that's. The short way that's long. What's the other way again this is the other ways the long way that short. So the rabbi gets on the road the other road the long way that shortens he walks and it's a kind of a winding road in the take some uphill and downhill and certainly he knows the crow flies. But much longer route but it takes him right up to the gates to the city. And then he walks. And he says this is one of. The times when the child knew more than i. I should have taken the long road the church. Rather than the short road. It's long. The story is of course about much more. Then geography. But rather about the kind of journeys that we all make over the course of our lives. Our spiritual journeys as it were. Often. We look for shortcuts. Especially we americans. We are so busy. We are always looking for ways to save time. We want. New technology. Time-saving devices. Which of course only. Create more tasks rather than more time. We want fast food. We go for quick therapy. Speed dating. Instant. Enlightenment. I can't tell you the number of times that. People in my community and from outside my community. Come and tell me. I want to learn all about karbala the red about madonna and all the hollywood people who are. Who are doing it's in the top glass center in los angeles and they say i want to learn about 20 minutes. I tell him you don't go buy a red thread tied around your wrist send a check to your favorite charity and call it a day. We're looking for shortcuts. We're looking for. Fast ways to enlightenment. But as the story in the talmud teaches us. Those shortways. Arlong. Because in the end they are. Always. Dead ends. Espinoza the. Jewish by birth at least. Philosopher once wrote at the end of his track potus. All things excellent. Are as difficult as they are real. If they are real. And if they are excellent. Then surely they are difficult to attain. There is no quick. Or easy way. The shortcuts which are so alluring are also always illusory. Over this past. Shabbat. Just yesterday. In my congregation cycle of reading we're each day. Pivotal moment. In the torah. We have long since gotten out of egypt. Cross through the red sea. Gotten to mount sinai where we have received the torah and after about. A year-and-a-half after about 18 months of wandering. We are ready. To get to the promised land now i know you're thinking it took 40 years to get to the promised land put it didn't. It took a year-and-a-half. To get to the promised land. And even that was traveling pretty slowly but when you're traveling with. 100 men with 1.25 million jews. It's not a quick journey but even with 1.25 million jews walking through the desert. A year-and-a-half. Pops. To make this journey. And at the end of a year-and-a-half we're ready to go into the land. And moses sends out. Scouts. He chooses 12:1 from each of the tribes. And says go. Check out the land. Tell us what it's like if it's good if it's a. Place where we should settle. And he sends out. Be scouts and they go out and they check out the land and i'm one thing they all agree. They come back and they all say. The land is good. Everybody agrees it's a lovely place. But ten of the twelve. Continue their report by saying. The people there. Are warlike. And they are giants. And we must look like grasshoppers to them. The names of those 10. Are jewish trivia questions. They're all listed in the portion but i don't think a single member of my community can name. One of those tribal chieftains. Who went out and said. We're puny we can't go. There were two others. Joshua and caleb. Who said. Let us go. And it will be well. But. In jewish tradition. The majority always wins. 10 beach 2. And so the people listen to the 10 they say no no we're afraid we don't want to go. And as a result. Moses and god say. Fine. You don't want to go. They begin to have a second thoughts. Oh maybe we should go. God says no you said you don't want to go you took about. The argued about it very loudly. This entire generation anybody who was an adult upon leaving egypt. We'll die out in the wilderness. And so. It doesn't take a year-and-a-half. Although that's all the time you need. They have to wander for another 38. Years. Before. They get. Tabitha land. It's not because moses doesn't ask directions. He sort of knows the way. But he too was among the generation. Who are adults upon leaving so he too. Doesn't get to enter the land. Which is all a long way of saying. That the journey is less about the destination. Then the travel itself. We don't wander forty years in the wilderness because it takes 40 years. To get from point a to point b. Underground. We wander forty years in the wilderness because it takes that long to get from point a to point b in the hearts of the people. Because there is no shortcut. To freedom. Because this generation who are raised and servitude. Have a long journey to make. In passing on the experience the memory of servitude to their children. But it has to be that next generation born. Free women and men. Who will get the go into the land. Each of us has our own path to take. And sometimes when we worry too much about getting to the end of the path. We lose the whole point of the journey. It's not the destination. It's what we encounter along the way. Which is why the long way is frequently. Better than the short. In one of the. Most well-known passages. In the entirety of the hebrew bible. There is an interesting statement that is. Almost always miss translated from the hebrew. The passage is the 23rd psalm. The lord is my shepherd. And then the list of things that the samus says. The god does. It says. You lead me on straight paths. For your name's sake. The hebrew is mckayla ugly. Which is interesting because my eye glade cetak. Does not really mean straight pads. Think about it i mean anyone who's. Lived. Is no longer a toddler and maybe even a toddler nose. The god doesn't lead us on straight pads. Our lives are if anything labyrinthian. We end up in all kinds of places where we would never have expected to be. We almost never take the road from point a to point b i think of it more as like you know anybody who's ever gone. Backpacking. With a dog. You know you if you prefer every mile that you walk the dog walks for. You know up and back and there is to the right and to the left. I think at the end of the day if i'm tired bite my dog must be completely exhausted and even the path that i'm not taking isn't so straight but the dogs path that the dogs path is really roundabout. But that's how god. Leads us we're like gods dogs we we take that. That roundabout. Path through life up and back to the right to the left. I had behind. Experiencing along the way. What my glade cetak the pads the god leads us on in the 23rd some really means is round. The word for circle. Anesthetic is right as in righteous. Somali blade sedex. Really means. Roundabout ways that lead in the right direction. So says harold kushner and his little book on the 23rd psalm the lord is my shepherd. Lead. In the right direction. And thank goodness for it. Each of us is on a journey. We begin. The day we are born. Remove. Until the day we die and perhaps beyond. We don't know the destination. But we revel in the journey. And those roundabout paths that lead us. To the right places. Through pain. Through sorrow. True beauty. Enjoy. To always the unexpected. And sometimes even through chicago. May we each. Find within our hearts and our souls and our spirits. The ability. And the gift. The revel in the journey itself. To take. The way which is. Longer. But also sure. Can you here at sun may this be the will. Of the eternal one.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20090628.mp3

You look at that river flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling with the wind. Your the birds you had the tree frogs. In the distance you hear a cow. You feel the grass. The mud gives a little bit on the riverbank. It's quiet. It's peaceful. It all of sudden is the gear shift inside of you. Like taking a deep breath and going. Oh yeah. I forgot about this. Sounds like it could be from siddhartha by hermann hesse and by hermann hesse but. It's opening scene of an inconvenient truth without gore. And i think outdoor captures perfectly the sensation that deep breathing can create. I've been able to stop and reconnect with something we'd forgotten believe that al gore would need the time to stop and let himself slow down and stop thinking about his own personal problems and those of the world. Later in the movie igor tell the story about looking at environmental records with his mentor rodger fl. Are they both know that carbon dioxide levels levels. Have been rising in earth's atmosphere that for the past several decades who's around 70 early 85 believe. Bakura also noticed that within each yearly cycle carbon dioxide levels would rise and fall again and rise and fall again. Despite the consistent upward trend well reveal that the earth itself. Was breathing. Every spring and summer in the northern hemisphere where most of the earth's landmass is. The oxygen levels rise. And in the winter they boxing levels fall and the opposite happens for carbon dioxide levels. So i found this to be a fascinating and surprisingly moving part of the film. As we learn more about our environment our world our universe. If we find out that it's more like us than we realized. I didn't rate algor does have plenty to think about like all of us. But he also finds that being quiet and listening to the sounds of nature can help our heart to slow down our minds the quiet and our breath to deepen. Asgore notes nature is a catalyst for this physiological response. But in reality we can become connected with our breath at any time and feel more connected to our own nature and to nature itself. And we can do this weather weather in and i deal with pastoral setting or in its darrell windowless cubicle. I first became interested in breeding years ago while going to school in eugene oregon i was a bit of a mess at the time i was nervous anxious. I worried about various life situations. I hate to think what i've been like had a been taking calculus in pre-med instead of arden theater classes and meditation class. I took the class with my painter buddy tom who was looking for an easy pe credit and was one person who didn't need any help relaxing.. I had an aversion to wrestling ever since high school when i had a bad case of callus shoulder blades and i was able to use in that room. During the first session the teacher marjorie woollacott gave a lecture about the breath in our lungs and then she played a tape of a sitar to help us as we tried to meditate. I was at a loss. I heard that meditation could help you calm down why was she sitting here talking about our lungs. And as we left my friend tom said. Well let that might have been kind of relaxing that there wouldn't have been that construction going on in the other room keep mistaking the sound of the sitar for a construction site. They're a couple of tadpoles swimming along and they come across this old geezer of a frog up on a lily pad he has these big long white whiskers. And he looks down in the mini says. Little tadpoles look up and go out. Fine great. Let me swim away. And while later one tadpole looks over at the other one it says. What the heck is water. Oxygen with all around us but we had no idea what it was. But despite initial misgivings on living well and on keeping good company. Which helps us to more easily live in the present moment. We practiced a few simple yoga postures which i immediately like. Yoga i come to realize it's almost all about. Moving your body in ways that help us to breathe more efficiently. It does this by making him pot making it impossible not to take a deep breath like when you do a chest opener. Or by putting yourself in some sort of constricting. Position and breathing deeply anyway into areas of your lungs that don't usually get fresh air. So we also chanted hindu mantras to the sound for harmonium. Training wants to sing long sustained notes in our minds to focus. We sat and listened to our breathing she quoted thick not han and other religion religious scholars that length. And she told one story in particular there's always stuck with me i've even though i've never found out where she got it or been able to find it in friend. Yorgos. Bhutan elephant herder maywood. At first it's kind of an ordeal to get through this bustling market because it's full of all kinds of shots and stands and the elephant has this great appetite and a very curious trunk. He wants to reach out and grab everything he sees so you eating fruit like crazy like a bad combination of a bowl in a china shop in a kid in the candy store. Was very disruptive to the vendors in the market and they were very angry with the mood after having a few of his day's wages devoured and after being threatened with a severe beating he decided he had to do something. So he trained the elephant to hold a feather in its trunk. Up in front of his face right between his eyes. Difference. The allison. Still notices things in the periphery of his vision but it's the man who continues to train him he finds that it's easier and easier to focus on the feather right in front of him. Iguanas marching by a stand of mangoes fresh off the tree. This is always struck me as a great metaphor for how we live we have a very powerful entity our mind at our disposal. But if we don't focus on mind it can do more harm than good. Even something very powerful can be harnessed by something as light as feather our breath. Attic not han said quite a lot of our thinking is useless i allowed that little elephant of my mind to grab any yummy oriki-ibeji i had and run amok with it. Mostly he was hanging his trunk and shamed thinks that it already happened or trumpeting nervously about something that might happen later. The past is gone the future is not yet here. If we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment we cannot be in touch with life. And our breath is a great way of returning to the present moment. So it's easy to say that we should return regular to arbor. Uncomfortable or difficult. What about people whose metaphorically had the wind knocked out of them. It's not such a different sensation than the real thing. Many people are not using the full capacity of their lungs and inefficient breather maybe drawing in only 20 to 50% of their lung capacity. They'll probably breathe through their mouth. They may hold their breath periodically without realizing it causing their cousin empty gas or side when they do realize they need to breathe again. They may hyperventilate breathing short shallow breaths. Only into their upper chest. And it's kind of shallow fast breathing reduces. Carbon dioxide in our bloodstream. Which causes blood vessels to constrict which slows down the flow of blood and oxygen to your brain and body. Like our planets these blood gas levels need to be in balance. If this is not just an occasional state they can have serious physiological and psychological facts. If a person stays deprived of oxygen for an extended time they become fearful confused anxious tense and irritable. Severe cases of chronic tacos foxygen deprivation headlights and anxiety road rage and voting republican. Activate the bodies fight or flight response and emotionally draining way to live. And efficient breather on the other hand raised through their nose which slows down the regulations and allows their lawns to extract more oxygen from each breath. They breathe into their entire rib cage and their belly and their full course only fact which makes their whole body more at ease and relax. Complete exhalations activate the body's relaxation response. Calling all inefficient breathers, more clear-headed and probably healthier and happier than one who is inefficient. So now that i've talked about how efficient breathing can help us. Let's try a little exercise in it. Put your feet on the floor breathe. You find yourself slumped over. And you. Have a flexible arm and place it behind your back. I just press it. Against your back and move your chest forward or just lift your sternum up toward the ceiling presser sit bones down towards the chair you're sitting on. Wk2 slowly inhale and exhale focusing on your brat. Try to breathe in and out. Through your nose. And slightly constrict the back of your throat. Absolutely making soft whispering sound on both the inhalation. And the exhalation. If you have trouble creating that sound. Whisper the word to yourself. And then close your lips around that sound. You wanted to be audible at least to yourself. Now to make sure that you're breathing deeply. And exhaling completely. As you take that breath in. First take that breath deep into your belly. And let your belly expand for away from your spine. Let your belly move forward. But that inhalation and move up into your lower rib cage pain in your rib cage expand from side-to-side. From back to front. From bottom to top. And then. Let your upper chest finally lift. And move forward is he complete that inhalation. Then if you exhale let your belly move back towards your spine. But your rib cage contract. Around the brat. And let your upper chest move back and down. Selective process continue to repeat itself. As naturally as possible but with gentle encouragement from you to both deep in the inhalations. And lengthen the exhalations. And as you focus on the side of your breathing and the sensation of your breathing. Imagine that you're on a cliff overlooking the ocean. You just observing those waves rolling in against the shore. And rolling back out to rejoin the ocean. And breathing this way always reminds me of. Another story. About. This wise man is walking along the beach and he comes across this little boy who's sitting there with a cup. And crying. Antioch little boy why he's crying and the little boy says. Because i'll never be able. To fill. My. Phil put the whole ocean into my cup i'll never be able to do it. In the wise man says why not just throw your cup. Into the ocean. This little boy has his moment of enlightenment. Can it be just coincidence that our breath sounds so much like the ocean. 4 is our breath reflection and atco. Of the sounds of the natural world around us. I would say that when we return to our true nature we really are returning to the earth itself. To the cellular memory. The cellular cellular memory i believe i tried to say of our origins in the earth. Michael dowd in his book thank god for evolution talks about every constituent part in the universe being complete in itself but also a reflection of the whole. He also describes various parts of the earth comparing them to the vital functions of a living organism. Earth's physical structure its core mantle and crust and continents is the skeleton or frame for life at the largest scale that we know. Disloyal is a massive digestive system on which land-based ecologies depend the oceans waterways and rain function as the circulatory system. They transport the blood that nourishes the body of lie. Photosynthetic bacteria algae and lance lance service the planets lungs. Ever regenerating the life-giving properties of earth atmosphere. I would say that when we come back to our breath our true nature we are literally coming back to the one nature we all share. I believe our breath is as good a way of any is learning about the many mysteries of the universe and the ties that bind us to it. As any. Has mary oliver says. Someday perhaps we will learn all there is to learn. What the world is for example and what it means. Well whether or not we ever do discover all there is to know about the universe. I believe that we will find its both expanding. And contracting.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20081026.mp3

Swastika. A stained glass window. America the beautiful. The american flag. All symbol. Things that stand for something else that remind us of actions or people or ideas or a combination of all those. They evoke. Feelings. I asked you to take a moment to reflect on something deeply symbolic. In your life. Something about which you feel. A family bible. The cross-country skis that have carried you into wonder for many years. The rings worn by you and your partner. Do the life-changing joys and trials of relationship. A little pair of shoes. Outgrown by a child. Religion is full of symbol. For all the millennia of human existence we have created practices systems and symbols. To help express our relationship to the great unknown. Religion is meant to nurture our souls and to help heal the world. It is connected to that which is most. Unknowable. Religion at its best evokes reverence and awe which then takes us out. Into service in the world. It moves our souls. It is essentially. Unspeakable. Although i must know that some of us devote our lives to speaking about it. Symbols. Look at the judy holcomb created windows above our east sanctuary doors and the artist. Six major face are represented there on the side. Now if you look at those symbol. Some of us will have no emotional response to any of them because perhaps we were reared and no faith that also doesn't evoking. Those of us who do have gut-level reaction either way we'll probably be responding to the cross. For that symbolizes the religious shared by the majority of its own at all. From our early days. And some people not reared in christianity will still have a strong emotional response to the cross. I invite you to check out your feelings about any symbol up there. That evokes emotion in you. We had a union speaker all day yesterday. Emotionless. Charged up. Complex. So see if any of these fake. Unitarians. And. Unitarian universalist. Have been famously. About allowing. To creep into a reasonable freedom-loving non-dogmatic religion. Joel miller story. The joe read to us about his church. Of the mood of the faith. This very safe. When i arrived in it in 1967. We do the dangerous symbols. And we were not about to go there thank you. Fortunately for us. We have gradually and without much pain. Move to a saner place. Knowing that we need nonverbal. Deeply evocative reminders of soul. And breath. Symbols are bad of course if they are used to coerce people. Positions that disrespect their intelligence there being or their question are there bad if the original vision is dead. And they're used to create the false impression of community. They are good. When they evoke when they are fresh. And when they evoke. The best. Unitarian universalist have one major symbol. No one ever told. We had to start lighting a flaming chalice at the beginning of our services. And we old-timers can easily remember. When it was seldom done. Somehow. Gradually. Over the past thirty or so years. We have gotten to a place. Where the flaming chalice is pretty much universal. The center of a ritual. We cherish. I don't know when it happened it just i should have woke up one day and every church was doing it. Let me tell you the story of our symbol. In the early 1400s. There was a czechoslovakian catholic priest named ian. It was a time when the pope and some priests in the catholic church were real and almost all the people were really really poor. Some priests told god forgive their sins. In some countries like czechoslovakia the church was trying to take over the government. Now in their church services at this time. Catholics. Only the priest got the one. Nhl. In ordinary people like you and me only god brad. In addition math with said with a priest back to the congregation. Just imagine how this would be if i was speaking another language. So the people didn't understand what was being said. And jonker's centuries ahead of its time. Disagreed with all of this and he said so. That was probably his ultimate mistake over and over and over. So the church conducted a trial of him they found him guilty. And they burn him at the stake. But the people who believed in his ideas of freedom and equality did not stop believing they couldn't exactly go around with t-shirts instead we support. So they had to come up with a symbol. And they adopted the flaming chalice as their symbol. The chalice. Symbolizing communion. For all. And the flame meaning the fire that killed him. Six centuries later during world war ii. The unitarian service committee which is part of our religion and is decay later became and he is now that unitarian universalist. Service committee. Was helping people who i'd had to escape from germany. Where hitler was killing millions of jews homosexuals gypsies artist and others. One of these men was an austrian artist named hans deutsch. Who had escaped to portugal lisbon was one of the few cities that the service committee could operate on it. And was helped by the service committee there. They needed a symbol. Put on their buildings and their trucks and their prices supply so that people of all languages would recognize. Hans-georg created the flaming chalice and the service committee adopted it as their symbol. The service committee in europe. It represents. A chalice with a flame. Show us which the greeks and the romans put on their altars. The holy oil burning in it is a symbol of helpfulness and sacrifice. In ancient and medieval art. And the design itself. Modern has stylized oh it is. Reminds one of the signs seen on old monastic manuscript. This was in the mind of the arts. The fifth however that it remotely suggests across. Was not in his mind but to me cuz the directors of service committee. It also has its merit. We do not limit our work to christians and dee at the moment our work is 9/10 for the jews. Get we do stem from the christian tradition. And the cross does symbolize christianity and its central theme. A sacrificial love. The classic chalice the we have come to know. Was first used as a symbol of the unitarian universalist association. 35 years later in the 1976 1977 uua directory. And that's a classic jealous. Is a lobster. Some people say it's. We surrounded it with two circles meeting unitarium unitarianism and universalism since we merged in 1961. It's good to know. The history indian tent. At the same time. Its meaning goes into our hearts. In a deeper. Each sunday. An adult. And one of our children. The promise of our future. Light. Theflamingshark. The late john harms was a patriarch of our church like to call it the scholars lamps. The flame speaks to us of the fire of love. The light of reason. The wharf. Of life and community. And the potential for transformation. For that brief. Shining moment. At the beginning of our service. With an earnest child. Holding the sometimes wavering flame. Unloving adult standing by. For that brief moment. That is precious. Seems possible. The chalice stand for our church. And for our larger face. For the past year or so in our fellowship we haven't having discussions about which flaming chalice. You will note in your order of service at all sorts of chalices have emerged since the original chalice was design who sprinkle them around in the announcement section. I did my personal favorite is the one by the children's and she's called alice. The flaming chalice back here on our floor is fairly classic but center in the 2in are stained glass windows. In colors of hope and reflection. When you go outside and look at the one on the sign outside that south parking lot symbolizing are bridge. That child is very modern. And was designed by mason morfit of our church. In order of service are chalices designed by both mike and melissa chambers. Artists who have a long history with our fellowship. The question seems to be. For ease of recognition. Brand labeling to soundcraft but not meaning it is cracked cuz it's a serious question. Should the boys euu fellowship adopt one flaming chalice logo and if so. You just asking people talk about a little bit making decisions done right. And remember that this is a discussion about a symbol. In fact almost anytime we get into a discussion that goes past. Just discussion. Actually the issue is about a symbol. This is about this symbol an hour symbol. Think about how strongly you feel. About those baby shoes. About that cross. About america the beautiful. So couple of ordinarily mild-mannered exercise about what had looked to them like the introduction of a new and modern symbol mason without sufficient discussion. The board commissioned a couple of people to do a survey in the majority of respondents indicated they like the classic. People starting to question the survey itself. We're looking around our checks have a mike chambers chalice on them. The fall stewardship campaign uses the classic one. I'm using mason's on my business cards. Congregational care uses the hard shift when that you might find in there. And i'm sure we could find many others. Elton hall created. An ohm. That is a flaming cheeto. Now the board has for the moment put the issue into a kind of suspended animation. Planning no official process or action until we have considered our common vision in a special weekend in january. This seems very safe to me. There is still potential for those pesky hurt feelings. That can be so serious in a religious community. I would say not only potential look probably fat. Reflect workshop. Main leaders closer to consensus. And knowing what this is a representation of. Such visioning often does lead to clarity. And so i'm hoping that everyone with an opinion will be generous hearted. Take some deep breaths and will redirect power strong feelings toward other avenues for the time being. Things like. Sharing our strength. Our vulnerabilities and our love. During these changing times. Symbols are precious to all communities that use them. A truth that applies to everyone in this room whether you're older new to this church whether you're a you you or not are you you. When they are powerful. They reach into our souls. They remind us of histories we honor. Like standing up against depression like safe. Torture and death love injustice. They bring to life. The deeply human longing. Parts of ourselves. Hearts that are actively discouraged. Why our secular consumerist. Gold ribbon. We are a non-productive people. Dedicated to the proposition that each of us knows. Words can never reach what we know what we feel and are. When we are taking to the edge of wonder that blesses us. Symbols. A h continue to grow.

boiseuu_org

BUUF-sermon-20101107.mp3

I'd experienced religion different levels. The fervor and fear of my childhood baptist days. The hip. Zen buddhism. Of my graduate school days. The morrison sears study. The teaching on. The decade of the 1990s. My new life. In the uu. Religion of community. To express my appreciation. We're fairly new over a year. And the fellowship that we found here has been exceptional. Some of the friendships we've made of my life so. Thank you all. I see religion having two primary roles. As a tool to structure groups of people living together. And second to satisfy the personal needs of individuals within those groups. Groups large or small. A system of control is needed for success. And religion. Usually with a deity or deities. As the ultimate source of authority. As the supernatural. Can explain anything. These religions usually have human spokespeople for those deities. And create the structure. The order. Religion serve dysfunction years. But in recent centuries humans. And the need for supernatural explanations has declined. Vsco. And these states. Religion. And science. Provided answers. Religion. Suppress religion. Former soviet union people's republic of china. As soon as that suppression was ended. Religion. Enjoyed a resurgence. This is due primarily to the second primary function of religion in my eyes. Personal needs. Religion creates a sense of belonging to a group. Religion creates community. In the modern world where attachment. Even family group. Are spread across thousands of miles as many of yours are as mine is. Secure group. Personal services for the individual and comfort support and guidance. Marriage. Education. Moderating the fear of death. It also is a primary tool in creating. Spirit that transcends death and continues. Interstate of reward or punishment dependent on how well. That individual. This concept with the eagle. In the individuals lives. There he go. They're so. Their spirit. Could perish. It must be immortal. This rather objective view of religion is from my perspective. I considered the soul. As part of the supernatural. I believe that when i die. Will be no more. The matter that makes. Countless forms endless time ahead. My jeans. Will continue in my students in my friends. My art. Will hang around for a while and then it will turn to dust just as i have. I am sure that maybe. I do not. I find being part of this remarkable natural process completely fulfilling. Could not be more natural. But i certainly do not. Society. And all of its weakness. Are usually bounce by strengths. I haven't. It consists of both meditation and prayer. It may seem natural. 4a natural. Pray. Let me clarify that for you.. Miss prayers based on buddhist tradition. In my mind and recite. The following. May you be joyful. May you be healthy. Freedom. May you live with mindfulness and he's. I do this for siri. Series of groups. And finally for all beans. But to make my self conscious of others. And to bring myself out of my ego. Find energy to another. Call energy. And i know. How much. I don't know. The second part of my practice. A consists of repeating and reciting other three following words. Resistance. Non-judgment. Non-attachment. I blame these three words from the teachings of eckhart tolle. From buddhist teachings. Define. Of what is happening inside of me. Most of us don't much know until it hurts. That's what i miss a day or two. My mind is focused. Recipes. Some of you have heard the story of the time i was walking across the university of california campus in berkeley. From my seminary. It was raining. And i was just rolling along. Go to my home. In oakland. Suddenly. Things were different. As i came out into the very large area by the life sciences building. It became crystal clear. Obviously were part of a pattern. The patter of rain on my umbrella created a rhythm and the switch of the wind in the trees. I kind of accompaniment. When i entered the bart car and sat down syndrome. Synchronized perfectly with the clips of the rails. With the gentle movements the rest of us passengers made as we started and stopped. Spaded & slow down. Was a part. I'm the same thing. I didn't usually see. Orefield. I'm a little reluctant to analyze such experiences unduly but it was a moment of grace consistent with my spirituality. Understand it with my head. Hartselle was comfortable. And comforting. And my head was fine. I didn't feel like i was going crazy or anything. Supernatural in the sense of something being separate from life as i know it. It was just. I do not understand with my regular tools. An experience. With humility and wonder at my glympse. N21. Thrift. The very normal avenues the campus. And public transportation. For me. Religion which is gathering with other people in the name of something greater than we are. Point toward mystery. Troydan. Great whatever that is sometimes nicknamed god. Show me a religion. The amazing huge awe-inspiring number of things that humans can't know. For me. A religion that encourages the all. Unknowingness. Encourages humility. Humility. Is a foundation for open. Hearts and spirits. Open hearts and spirits. Can save the world. Your terian universalist religion like most of buddhism allows practitioners to join in community. We do not use our faith to require. Which would be. Almost none of us are the same. Spiritual truth. But we do. Join together. Religious community when we give ourselves to us. Address for gift of hearing life mysterious triumph and tragedy. Allows us to polish off. Some of our rough edges. As we interact in loving or at least respect. With our fellow travelers. Many of us attended a memorial service here for someone we love. Or not it doesn't really matter. Wee sing. We share stories. Sometimes we mention god. Sometimes that name is completely absent. Mystery. In a gathered memorial service. Religion does not fear death. No anymore. There is a feeling we can't explain. Series the presence of other loving. Universal truth knowing that it will come to all and that the only immortality we know for sure. Comes from our deeds on earth. Large parts of their time talent and or treasure to religious community. Community members and friends. Inner warmth by such community. Consider what it is. Running to become better people. We all do become better people because of the spiritual fractious. Expense of all and honor our part. What brings us to church. At the same time just becoming better people. So happens just cuz we're here with others. Who will respect. Be honest with us. Embrace us. In all of our weirdness. Wickedness. And weakness. When we need. When they need it. And will be committed to having fun together. We will join in finding a church-wide passion for outreach leading to justice. And rejoice. When you people are born. I too have a spiritual practice. Only one of which is. First i face and i called each direction. Are. Fire. Water. As i do. I think it. And i asked blessings on many many people. And on the world. I pray. I also invite the sky lite. Into rj. Even if there's a clown. And then i do a moderately complex set of breathing exercises opening my chakras my body my spirit. And finally i live phone for 5 or 10 minutes. Simply breathing as i can manage. Like mark. Although some of our basic assumptions may differ. I am. A better person. When i practice. And seems to be fairly obvious since there's quite agree about. Difference. And that is in your understandings of the concept of spirit. Mystery. Is the word spirit. Was used in a sense of the sameness of the energy. Generates. And if spiritual meant one was in touch with that energy. I would be happy to use the. But the term carries far far more baggage than that. In the realm of the supernatural. In my acceptance. Of all as natural. I exclude spirit. And even mystery with a capital m. What may be called mystery. I would call it grits. Our ignorance. Has very limited creatures to understand. Mystery is a much more friendly. But i prefer to expressed as ignorance. And that it reflects my buddhist groups. Soap. To our weaknesses. In hopes of leading us to the lost humility of our species. Encountering. That we have created. Creating this experience with mark has been an exceptionally fruitful experience for me. Individual speaking directly to each other. Listening carefully. Reading each other's words carefully and making suggestions. And then scene. Agreement and disagreement. Marx analysis of our fundamental positions. Differences. Seem to result from being different kinds of people. Mark was skeptical turn of mine and. Nearest. Learning to be immersed in matters of spirit. A spirit as i use the term. Involving. This exercise has taught me that there are real differences. Among unitarian universalist. Differences can exist. Is certain. Seamus's are there. Humility. About how little we know. The pads of others. And reverence. For the beautiful. And. System we live in there marks words. A system whose mystery with a small am. Leatha's. Ignorance. Deep meaning. Being part of something. So much larger. Can we are.

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BUUF-sermon-20100214.mp3

My husband bob and i recently attended. During our time we saw a video. Most english. Expert player. Starting with the definition. If we can love hotdogs. Sexual partners. Gardening. Cats. Poetry. What in heck. Can they meet. I am confining our reflections. Various people have. And i will. Of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth. Which is selfless. And i like clog in frederick buechner take on. Finally i think same impulse of the human heart. Which is the impulse to be one with each other. Within ourselves. A recent yogi. The art of longing. Experience in life. Mighty bags kind of like taking. How we experience love. Let's look at our first reading reading. Elizabeth barrett browning sonnets. Redstone mods. Lectric shave in hemet. Show many ways. But much of the poem. Could apply to the interior trim. To the deep caves. For apparent. Stealing out of spite. Jae-hyun. Everyday quiet need. And candlelight. As people turn from praise. Calling on the selfless parts of ourselves. The lover from at least some of the. No wonder. No wonder the human heart longs for it. Soul food. Mutually cherishing. Pulling up. If you have time. Weed eating humans. Mostly. Imperfect. 2 souls. With unimaginable. Witness empty house. Of my broken heart. Terrible sentences. Human. Is. What a human. Heart-wrenching. My own lighthouse. Lowe's washers. Can score. Can we. Ever. No. No. Reverend forester. But not. Symbolizes the act of bringing us together. Suffering brings us together. Can loose our hearts from. Only love. Only a forgiving heart. One capable boat. Power. It's part of journey. Go alliance. From cell phone. Ford compassion for others. Remove from knowing the answers. Remove from exercising power wheels and he goes to bed. Can i do. Mystery. With a buddhist. Loving kindness. Moore parts. This is a practice intensify the loving kindness of our hearts. Mets blank feet. May all good purposes. Purposes. Oneself. The third one is a dear friend. The fourth person. Neutral person. You feel. We're going to exercise. I cannot. We are not. Doing this exercise. We are only. There are copies of the sermon as always. Where you can find in the. Give you a lot more detail. Is recommended. For genuine practice. I'm just a positive one. Now we start with ourselves. Because it's so hot. Have to have. Right. Most people. For ourselves. And for other people. It is. Repetition. And not listening to anyone else. You may find yourself. You might find yourself feeling emotional. You might find yourself a roadway. Vacuum. Crying. Sometimes. Mindful. If you're uncomfortable. Open your eyes and start looking. And what's going on here. When i ring the bell. Will start speaking. In the first one we will obviously. May all my good purposes. Simply say that to ourselves. Remembering. And to try to feel. Wormspore yourself. I'll ring the bell at the end of each section. Now we bring into our mind's eye. Deer face. A mentor. Set all their good purposes. Another deep breath. Of a dear one. The face of a friend. Relative. And we asked for their help. Read it again. To our whole body. Don't judge yourself. Next person. Someone you know. Feelings one way or another. Exercise. You lose track of the spirit of it. The other one. Asking for. Court only feel hostility. Enmity or antagonist. And we will. Restore their health. Hairpiece. Have they are undoubtedly. And so if that's where our hearts and minds go. Very important to go back to another person. Someday. Give it a try. Mind's eye of someone. And if we can. Were there health. And they're all they're good for. Deep breath. Deep breath. You may have another practice it works for you. All the time. Streams of love. On the left. Will my love. Heart to heart. After you have fun. We'll break our hearts. And love. Save our souls. Love will save our lives. And louisville say.

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BUUF-sermon-20100321.mp3

In 1992 the novel the bridges of madison county. The book was one of the best sellers. It chronicles. Of an iowa farm national geographic photographer. They never see each other again. But for the rest of her life she devotes. 1995. Another international bestseller rocketed to the top of the charts with passages design to match madison county. The horse whisperer. Passionate. Lean forward and found. He tasted the song. And i'll see how older he thought. Not that this was wrong. What if. I had forgotten how badly written that book. Both of these books swept the book buying public. Neither is written in deathless prose. But we are drawn to them. But if i carius experience of passion. We are fascinated by passion. In some part of our heart or so we long for the experience. In real life. The home-wrecking routine overturning love the lovers. Another novelist in a book called the passion notes how very unsettling passion is. In the words of a character who has just fallen in love. How is it that one day life is orderly and you are content a little cynical perhaps but on the whole just so. And then without warning you find the solid floor is a trapdoor and you are now in another place. We who were fluid find life is a foreign language. Somewhere between the sky. Between. Somewhere. Between god and the devil passion is. And the way there is seven and the way back is worse. Not to mention that such liaisons and body only one kind of passion the loving lust. There is more to passion. Involving us in that which is larger than we are. Is that a kind is more complicated perhaps deeper. Let's look at how wikipedia deals. With what passion means. It reminds us that the word is from the latin potty or meaning to suffer or to endure like the passion of jesus. It is related to the word compatible. Wikipedia tells us that passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling enthusiasm. It is also a lively or eager interest. Admiration love. My favorite part of this definition says. I look for something and a passion for something are very similar. In my experience. Long-term passion as opposed to the red-hot or fling. Involves commitment. Generosity. Given take. Flexibility. And resilient. Think about something for which you have a great passion. Perhaps you might feel it is a bliss. Gardening. Grandchildren music are reading. Friends. Your vocation. The community's do what you belong. Cleaning. Painting animals. I think about my horse council. A kind-hearted and independent-minded thoroughbred. I only met him a couple of years ago and i am a girl. But not. We bonded. Last year i spent july through september. And conceding against most rational considerations a genuine. Passion for him. I bought him in october and see him at least twice a week. This passion is to quote wikipedia. As a matter of fact. I'll bet yours is too. It's a lot different from a fling. Think about the subject of your passions flashlight. If it's anything like mine it involves so much more than the overwhelming. Are there are those other things. Commitment. Generosity. Given take. Flexibility. And resilience. In my case i pay good money. More importantly i give regularly of my time and attention driving a half hour each way to see the big old deer. I tromp around in the poop and the mud leaving this very big animal to a place where he can. My generosity of time in love. As he learns the give-and-take of a relationship. In january as a result of misguided and vice from my twenty-year-old teacher and very bad writing on my part. I fell off council on cracked my ribs pretty badly. Here's where the flexibility and resilience. I have a new teacher. Much closer to my age.. Learning new levels of give-and-take of generosity toward each other. Last friday after exercising a lot of over friskies out of him. And with profound and gentle attention for my teacher. I was back in the saddle again. A mile wide smile on my face. As he walked sedately around the ring. Helping me get my confidence back. Is enriched by everything. We have passion for. A lot of us have passion for this religious community. Not everyone of course. Friday night with my sad duty to listen to. Because the people who greeted him earnestly explained. But there are so many of us who are passionate about the unitarian universalist fellowship. To bring commitment generosity given take flexibility and resilience to our presence here. Last night's gala. Was the kickoff of our springs. Working toward a budget that will fund our visions hopes and plans. At the gala we all sing a chorus of the song the choir sang to us. Are the colors in the rainbow. We all have a purpose. And a special place to serve. For it takes a world of differences. To make a difference. In the world. Let me tell you why some of us are passionate about this place that's so differences. And why we hope you will welcome your visiting stewart and will pledge as generously as possible. In as many ways as possible. Knowing what a difficult task is. We in this fellowship hope to embody love. In the largest sense of that overworked word. At our best we souls. You and everyone who enters our doors. Is invited to open your heart and find your place here. How many of you have attended a memorial service here. Have you felt the shared law. Grief. Celebration. The sharing of hearts as we did farewell to yet another loved one. Of so many farewells. Love is always present in this room when we are honoring one who has leftist. And sometimes we feel it in committee meetings and. And our dear dear friendships and those energetic caring meetings of the stewardship committee. Last night. Mike lemieux played and sang bridge over troubled water. I'll take your part when darkness comes. And pain is all around. Like a bridge over troubled water. I will lay me down. Are nurture. Have you listened to the voices of our kids. I don't know. But my passion is kindled so deeply by. To a religious education that nurtures respect. Open minds curiosity courage compassion and yes even love. Last night. She is a teenager who has been in our church for 15 years. She has loved so many things. The boston trip. The people who have depended on her and supported her. Being able to do at the age of 6. 9 year 10j zimmer told us of his teachers and friends. How much he loves being in plays. And he said. I still believe in heaven and in the underworld. I'm glad i'm in a church where i can believe what i want. Spiritual experience is we always hope. Central to the experience of this church. Next tuesday will be the final meeting of my wonderful spiritual practice class. 30 some of us chanting breathing doing tai chi sharing sacred words. One night we went out in silence to the east of the courtyard lit by luminarias those little brown bags of sand and a candle in each. We chanted. Then slowly enter. Stepping a moment in the art stuff. Beginning our walk back and forth. Back and forth to the center. I was the last to enter the sacred circle. And as i stepped through the arch it felt like my hair stood on end. My body was lit by invisible emotional fire. Gratitude and ruthlessly. And tears flow. Hear it. We always hope everyone will. Hope that we are united by our reverence and holy center. We are strong supporters of the lesbian gay bisexual and transgender community. Sunday night at interfaith sanctuary is pretty much stacked by our congregation folks. We contribute $10,000 a year or more. By sending 25% of our plate offering to causes we believe in. We help children at whittier school one of whom wrote a terribly pointed. Thanking us for the backpack program because now. She doesn't have to be hungry on the weekend. And my heart is constantly touched by the dozens of people who have stepped. This year. The 2nd of fairly test from you and we are not. Theirs is the love & body in service. Is there anything more important. Then a community that does its level best to speak and act in everyday love. Open. Embracing to all. Helping heal hearts and souls and the world. We've heard a lot about love today from our fabulous musicians that characterizes us at our best. In a moment we will be reminded to tell each other the way we feel to shower the people you love with love. The song that carrie and susan saying after meditation speaks eloquently. I would swim out to save you and your city of broken dreams. When all your hopes are sinking let me show you what love means. I would whisper love so loudly every heart could understand that love and only love can join the tribes of man. Bridge between your heart and mine. Don't you think it's time. It's always time. To act out of our deeply held and long-term passion. It's always time to work toward making love more likely. It's always time. For each other. For our kids. For joyful church work for healing the world. It's always time. For generosity.

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BUUF-sermon-20090329.mp3

Maybe. You remember. The monty python skit about complaining. Four gentlemen are drinking fine wine together. Having a conversation. One man notes. But years ago he would have been lucky to have the price of a cup of tea. I would have been fortunate to have cold tea. So the complaining starts revving up. 1 moons about the poor condition of the house where he was raised in another rolls his eyes and says house you were lucky to live in the house we used to live in one-room all 26 of us no furniture half the floor was missing and we were huddled together in one car over fear of falling. Well the competition ramps up and up. In the final gentleman tops at all with classic over-the-top monty python. I had to get up in the morning at 10 at night half an hour before i went to bed drink a cup of sulfuric acid work 29 hours a day down in the milk and when we got home or dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our grave singing hallelujah. And usual mighty python fashion. He takes a human trait to realms of ridiculousness. Most mortals cannot even imagine. But in fact. We complain more than we think we do. And a unity minister named will bowen has written a book about it looks over here. One sunday morning he handed out. Purple bracelets. Ugly purple bracelets. Plastic to anyone in his congregation who wanted one. And he issued a challenge. You put the bracelet on one wrist. And every time you complain. You change riff. The point is to go 21. 21-count on consecutive days without changing your bracelet. The idea caught on very widely more than a year ago but just before summer before i went on sabbatical my husband bob and i decided to give it a try. Like most people it took us months. To go 21 days without complaining. We decided last week to give it another try. It's easy to fall back into bad habits. And i at this point have one day. I did get through yesterday. Without complaining. Why this morning i was yelling some upstairs toboggan i. Two words into the sentence undecided. That was fast enough and i didn't change. Can i almost. Complaining is defined in several ways. Boeing says it's a complaint if you want the person or situation chain. If you want it other than how it is it is a complaint and not just a statement. In other words. You have to change your bracelet if you say hiding why didn't you tell me you be late. You don't have to. If you acknowledge your feelings or say what would solve the problem. Honey i didn't know if i had time to go to the y or not. Would you mind letting me know when you're going to be late. We heard that soup example. The general. Expressing your feelings does not require changing a. It's okay to say. I am feeling embarrassed and mad because you picked up governor otter soup dish at the banquet in frank out of it. It is not okay to express your feelings by saying. I am feeling like you're a major quality living on a desert island by yourself. That's a complaint. Criticizing. Is always cause. For changing the bracelet. Our. Elderly but kind of frisky dog george many of you know. Occasionally has incredibly penetrating bouts of horrible. Horrible. Doggy gaseous. If i want my bracelet to stay on the same arm. I have to simply gas grab for the matches and light one. .. By the rules i can't say to bob your dog your dog is a totally depraved disgusting creature. That's a complaint. Gossip. Is also cause for changing the bracelet unless in bolens words 1. What you're saying about the absent person is complementary and to. You would repeat. Word for word what you are saying if the absent person we're prison. Which of course. Doesn't sound like gossip as most of us know and love it. At this point. I'm not complaining i'm fixing the problem. At this point i have a pretty good idea of what some of you are thinking. Sounds like an excuse not to work on solving social problems sounds like a way to keep from confronting problems in life that need to be solved. Sounds like more new age kumbaya stuff to me. Meaningless at worst. Let's take the solving problems issue. Are we. Furthering justice and right relationships when we complain gossip or criticize. I think of an old woman who used to be a member of our church she moved away to be with her family there to go. She's a fabulous person has spent much of her life doing things that work towards solutions. The other day i ran across your thank you note to me for her husband's memorial service many years ago and she said. I intend to give back to the church what she did. I just mike was doing this morning. And all that is most worthy non complaining activity. At the same time. Especially as she got older and less mobile. She would get so incredibly angry when she read the paper or watch the news that wasn't worried about her blood pressure. She will be so mad that the atmosphere around her would start feeling darker and you could not keep from feeling really. Really. Bummed. Nothing. And nobody was help. Well do it. The author of a complaint free world and i submit. That complaint including the kinds of critical allegedly funny cracks that we are so given to making. Contribute. 2 feelings that we actually are helpless to change things. Complaining makes us less likely to have the can-do energy we need. To come up with solutions. Not to mention that would you press the people around us. Refraining from griping about a given situation. Just might give us a little breathing room. And we just might be inspired. The new age criticism has some legitimacy. One can take this. Had a pretty surface-level after all does it really matter if i say. Pu george you are a horribly stinky dog. The process can seem shallow just another version of positive thinking ignoring shadow. Tragedy. Pain. And difficult. It may be possible. To do this bracelet practice going no further than a zippy little keep on the sunny side smile on your face. Busily repressing all negativity. It's also possible to do it otherwise. The most profound effect this annoying practice has on me. Is that it helps me reframe. How i look at things. I have to practice it on stinky old george and other trivial matters because it's a discipline. The little time. Of attending to a discipline. Make it easier to see and practice. The larger time. That's what disciplines are about. Last week. I heard about the troubles of a family i've known for years live living in another state. Their youngest kid in his late teens is in trouble with the law. On drug-related problems. I'm reasonably close to these people for various reasons and have always felt some ambivalence about how they led their lives pretty loosey-goosey. Casual about timeliness regardless of other people's schedules not super good at following through on commitments. I have particularly felt critical about their child-rearing practices. Not much in the way of limit setting sketchy supervision on the kids were young at umi regrettable casual conversation. So when i heard about john not his name. John serious drug charge my very first thought was something like what do you expect. Yeah the other two got through adolescence on a wing and a prayer but john was always a force unto himself and here he is reaping the consequences. My emotions are pretty strong. Fortunately i had just started the complaint free bracelet practice again and i'd already switched the darn thing at least once that day. So i kept these thoughts inside my head you don't have to switch wrists if you keep them in your head this is not control. I refrained from critical commentary of 1st. Because of the pratt. On the same level of not criticizing deer flatulent george. I could have stopped right there and gone about my business. Pious. In my positivity. Or maybe i might even self-consciously and self-righteous late said to bob. Well too bad. I hope it all turns out i'm always worried about them. Assuming she probably would have been. But the positiveness is not bad. It's just. Pretty shallow. What i did. Prompted by the paws. Required by my albatross bracelet. Was to take a look at my responses specially at the strength of it and reframe it completely. I do not approve of a lot of things about that family. What's that about. Well. If i have the spiritual courage and the strength to see it what it's about is me. And that's the reframing. It doesn't even matter if i'm right in my criticism what matters. Is it on speaking criticism and negativity out of my own faults and issues. And his shoes. That get in the way of my functioning as a generous. Humble productive member of the human race. If you ever choose to do this you'll find it ever so odd. How the places you want to complain or gossip. Tend to cluster around your own faults. I think it's called projection. Is it gave yes you a little more compassionate spin i remember that my son now into middle-aged and nurse happily married. Wasn't exactly. A model of clean and sober behavior in his teen years. My little complaining sound system was at well at least you didn't get in trouble with the law. But the slightly more generous voice reminded me of how hard it had been. Why did i jump first criticism and not compassion. What about my own child-rearing habits how about my own disregard for others needs. And how about my own alcoholism. Being in recovery for 25 plus years does not delete the fact. That i behaved like an addict and alcoholic would before i got into recovery. Is it possible. But some of my judgmentalism stems from nagging discomfort with that fact. I'm not answering those questions this morning as if i could. Good morning. Just letting them out as the kinds. Abdi character issues that can arise from this practice. These are examples of issues i. Absolutely must face in humility and exploration if i'm to integrate my shadow and light into a more loving hole. I don't guess. A free pass. To judge others. Much as i love it. When are bracelets make us. Stop as we are about to judge gossip or complain they are giving us a spiritual opportunity. If we choose. To take. Regal places. Undreamt-of in put on a happy face. Philosophies. If we go to those places will undoubtedly find hard things. And meditation and prayer can be of great help. We also make it more likely we'll become better people better able to deal with the very real issues of the world. That's. The deep. Possibility. Of this bracelet practice. Rising from the spiritual dance let me close by noting that practical benefits can result that can result from getting into the habit of they can. Let me close by noting the practical benefits that can result from getting into the habit. I've not complaining criticizing or judging. Everybody here. Has spoken or written. An unvarnished criticism of someone. At work. Church. Home party work. And it has never. Made anyone including ourselves happier noir. Has it made the situation better ever. Revolve. Also felt the miracle. I'm speaking out of our better selves. Perhaps naming something that needs changing. But moving toward a solution. In a genuinely positive and helpful way acknowledging our own stumbling blocks. It's the way the world changes for better. The people around us lose defensiveness and get enthusiastic about fixing. Whatever needs fixing. And things happen. I've seen it a hundred times in this church. I seen some examples of the other. A culture that values honest self insightful respectful afraid of change relationships has some very real practical advantages. This simple but not easy practice. Can make us a lot more likely to be in that constructive space. I haven't been able to get a large batch of bracelets from the complaint free world people even though we sent them a reasonable donation know that's not. I do have. Free. And it's first-come-first-serve if you want them that i got from christine hanzlik when her school was doing this friday. Call christina christina girl pictures rocky mountain sweatshirt. However. You can use rubber bands. I wear this bracelet all the time and i. If i didn't have one of these ideas this i use is because it's more. Ugly and annoying and makes me pay more attention than my nice silver bracelet. But you can use a rubber band. You can find a lance armstrong or what would jesus do or what would somebody else do and use that. You can change the coin back and forth. From your pocket. You can get the book and see what he has to say. You might want to try it. It will change a lot of the ways. That you look at things.